Chapter 74

It took about twenty minutes for the diary to tell the story of a “young boy who had a chance encounter”.

While he was at school, he mistakenly entered a room on the seventh floor of the castle. It’s a huge storage room filled with the treasures of Hogwarts’ young wizards over the centuries.

“I inquired about it later, and rumour has it that they call this mysterious Fleeting Room, or the Room of Requirement.” The diary wrote, “This is where I got that part of the information – probably hidden away by one of the little wizards before me.”

Felix curled the corners of his mouth as he wrote in his diary, “So, you didn’t find the Slytherin Chamber, but another hidden room? You found Slytherin’s research materials from the hidden room – the Room of Requirement?”

A few words quickly surfaced in the diary, “That’s it.”

Felix tapped his fingers on the table and thought for a moment as he wrote in his diary, “Those research materials are still in the Room of Requirement? You didn’t take them with you?”

“I thought – it’s a property that belongs to Hogwarts. Before I graduated, I put them in the back of a large cabinet with a blistered surface that looked like it had been splashed with a strong acid. It is easy to find, and I remember there is a foul-smelling five-legged monster inside the cabinet. Next to it, there was also an ugly-looking statue of a male wizard.” The diary wrote.

Felix pursed his lips and did his best not to laugh out loud.

Interesting, just too interesting.

The conversation between the two of them is like a complex game, full of lies and misdirection, all depending on who is more clever.

Before that, Felix did not even hope to get the secret of Slytherin from the mouth of the diary, which is too unrealistic, completely equivalent to the identity of the “heir to the Chamber”.

His purpose today, in fact, is to try and get one or two off-campus research data stashes, which is one of the possibilities he speculated, but the greater possibility is that Tom Riddle has destroyed all the materials – which is the last thing he wants to see.

Luckily, the diary told him directly about the room on the seventh floor.

It isn’t in vain that he put so much effort into it.

But Felix also had a hunch that since the diary chose to tell him, it meant that it isn’t any important information – at least not to the Dark Lord.

But he still happily replied on the diary saying, “Thanks, Tom, I’ll verify it. If I misunderstood you, I’ll apologize.”

“I hope so.” The diary replied calmly.

Felix wrote with a bit of regret, “People didn’t know how brilliant Slytherin’s research would usher in his era, that’s why he’s always been the evil figure of the dark wizard, Tom, you did the right thing.”

The diary didn’t reply, the soul inside it that belonged to Tom Riddle is about to explode with anger.

And Felix added, “Slytherin and Gryffindor are simply two extremes, Godric Gryffindor himself has a much more positive assessment, fair, brave, and righteous …”

The diary poured down a line of text in a dismissive tone, “That’s just an illusion.” He asked a pointed question, “Felix Hap, guess, did Slytherin cause more killings, or did more lives fall under the Gryffindor’s wands and sword?”

Felix’s expression flinched.

The diary seemed to anticipate his reaction as a line of deliberately bolded sentences surfaced on the page, and just reading the words on it showed his mocking scowl, “Yeah, yeah, history has never been distorted – Gryffindor is a butcher, and more wizards have died at his hands than the other three founders combined.”

At the end of this conversation, the diary did not hide its malice towards Gryffindor, “Sword in one hand, wand in the other, stepping over corpses everywhere, achieving the name of the best dualist of that era – that’s Godric Gryffindor!”

…

Felix closed his diary, his expression became elusive.

“Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor.” He read the names of the once close friends softly.

Felix certainly did not think that the diary was telling the whole truth, but neither did he think that he would be full of lies, and from his tone and wording, there’s some credibility to it.

“I need a guide, preferably someone who witnessed that time.” A name suddenly came to Felix.

Ms. Grey.

The beautiful-looking, yet plainly seemingly very arrogant Ravenclaw House ghost had another name – Helena Ravenclaw.

She is the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the four founders of Hogwarts.

Despite being a generation younger, she counts as part of the same era as the four giants of Hogwarts, and she must have known many of the hidden secrets of the early days of Hogwarts’ establishment.

At the other end, Harry is tossing and turning in his dorm bed.

Whether it’s the news from Malfoy’s mouth, or Hermione mistakenly took the polyjuice with cat hair, he could not sleep.

The time passed zero o’clock and Harry drifted off to sleep, but he suddenly felt something pressing against his stomach, making him gasp a little.

He opened his eyes and his vision showed a house-elf with two large bat-like ears and its pair of protruding green eyes as large as tennis balls.

“Dobby!”

Harry screeched in a small voice as he glanced around, his other roommates still sleeping soundly and peacefully.

…

The next day, Harry and Ron arrived early to visit Hermione at the school clinic.

Just last night, they took a polyjuice potion to set Malfoy up – they always suspected that Draco Malfoy is the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets.

But something went wrong halfway through, Hermione’s metamorphosis object, Millicent has a cat, and she mistook the cat hair for Millicent’s hair and threw it into the potion, resulting in a serious consequence.

Her face is full of black hair, eyes turned yellow, two long pointed ears from her hair branched out.

When Harry and Ron walked into the wing, she is begging Madam Pomfrey to add a cloth curtain around her bed.

“Did you get any clues last night?” She asked, lowering her voice, so Madam Pomfrey couldn’t hear.

“No,” Harry said dejectedly.

“I would say it was Malfoy for sure.” Ron said, “He’s not telling the truth, he snapped at us when we asked him about the Chamber of Secrets, didn’t he, Harry?”

“What happened?” Hermione asked with interest.

Ron explained, “We acted like we admired him – it’s hard to realize that, Crabbe and Goyle are usually dull and silly. We asked him if he knew something. But he jumped up at once and warned us to keep our mouths shut, or he’d give us hell. I’m actually curious about that.”

Hermione sighed, the long ears on her head drooped down.

Harry glanced around and whispered, “I did get something on my end, last night about midnight, that house-elf named Dobby came to see me again …”

“Last night?” Ron asked.

“Yeah, you were asleep.” Harry shrugged.

“Harry,” Ron said with a frown of foresight, “I should remind you that house-elves are extremely loyal servants, and their obedience to their masters is almost engraved into their bones. I’ve never seen anything like what you’re talking about, this kind of-”

He could not think of an appropriate description.

Harry said: “He is indeed very odd, but I think he respects me, yes, respect. He told me that danger still looming over Hogwarts.”

“And?” Ron got a glimmer of interest.

“And then he banged his head against the bar … desperately,” Harry said rather breathlessly.