The next day, on the morning of the weekend.
Harry and Ron staggered out of the dormitory and saw Hermione already sitting on a couch in the common room.
The two had barely sat down next to her when they saw Hermione slap a newspaper on the table with a "pop".
"I knew it!" The little witch said angrily.
Harry and Ron snapped out of it. They looked at each other and Harry asked, "What happened, Hermione?"
"Remember the book that Professor showed us? The one about Headmaster Dippet, there was a copy of the Daily Prophet pressed on Professor Hap's desk at the time, and I just didn't feel right, and this morning I got the last few days' papers ... that woman, Rita Skeeter! How dare she slander Headmaster Dumbledore ..." Hermione is shaking with anger.
Harry quickly picked up the newspaper, Ron sat on his butt next to him and poked his head over.
It's yesterday's Daily Prophet, the most striking is the photo of Dumbledore with a head full of white hair looking upwards, solely from the photo effect, which he looked both old and dismal, and the name of the front-page headline is "Dumbledore's Big Blunder".
Harry had a bad feeling, and he quickly read it -
"Our special reporter Rita Skeeter reports that the eccentric Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, has always been a very controversial wizard."
"Recognized as the greatest wizard of our time, Dumbledore has been hiding in Hogwarts' castle and rarely appeared in the public's eye since he defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945."
"Everyone praised him, believing that he is guarding the hope of the British wizarding community and constantly delivering all kinds of talents for the wizarding community, but is that really the truth of the situation?"
"The author recently received some letters from the parents of students, claiming that there was a horrific attack in the school and the culprit has yet to be found. Mrs. Ferrien Topsham wrote: "My child is in fear of his life at school every day, and the professors are doing nothing about it! I had to bring my boy back for Christmas."
" With a great sense of urgency, the writer reached out to the concerned parent and interviewed her. It's far more serious than we expected - the attack was not something that had happened for the first time, it had happened more than a month prior. Only that time the victim was a cat, So the news was kept under tight lock & key!"
"In order to mitigate the impact and avoid being discovered and denounced by the public, this Headmaster went out of his way to concoct a sensationalist lie - he blamed it on the millennial legend of Hogwarts, the Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets."
"Hilariously, a similar thing happened fifty years prior to this, when the Headmaster was a professor of Transfiguration, during which a poor Ravenclaw witch tragically lost her life. Hogwarts caught the suspect as soon as possible, but Dumbledore had great influence over then Headmaster Armando Dippet, and with his good graces, the matter was eventually dropped, and the suspect was merely expelled from the school."
" As I write this, three days ago, two weeks have passed since the second assault on the Student, but nothing is reported about it and the perpetrator's still on the loose. We have to worry about this matter, the omnipotent Dumbledore, Is he really growing very old?"
"The writer will follow up on the matter and bring back the truth to everyone. In the next issue, we will start with the performance of This Headmaster to reveal a more realistic image of Dumbledore for everyone."
This is the end of the main article, but at the bottom of the page, there is a small line of text, a preview of the content of the next issue of the report, which reads.
Dumbledore has always been brave enough to hire controversial faculty members, such as this year's Gilderoy Lockhart and Felix Hap, but are these two really the right people? Let's wait and see ( we welcome information from those who know, contact: Rita Skeeter, the gold editor-in-chief of the Daily Prophet, author of twelve best-selling books, bestseller record-holder).
"How can she say that about Dumbledore!" Harry said, very angry. "And how can the Chamber of Secrets be a lie, when we saw about it with our own eyes!"
"Not a word from this woman, Rita Skeeter can be trusted, she often makes up gossip rumours about famous people." Ron said insightfully, "She and Lockhart made a particularly huge splash a few years ago when she and Lockhart were fighting in the newspapers, and Mom hated her."
"It seems we have a good idea about what this woman is like," Hermione said mockingly.
Ron picked up the paper, "Have you noticed that this woman is actually trying to do a series, and the next issue is about Professor Lockhart and Professor Hap. How will she script their story?"
Hermione said helplessly, " Headmaster Dumbledore is portrayed by her as a shady person, I guess the two professors will not be spared."
"I don't care about Lockhart, he's just an empty shell. What do you think, will Professor Hap storm into the Daily Prophet building and give that woman a vicious curse?"
"Ron! That's illegal, how would a professor will possibly do that!"
The three of them discussed the matter, and the final conclusion was rather pessimistic.
Harry pointed to a quote in the paper, "She said that the suspect was caught fifty years ago, who is she referring to?"
"Come on, Harry, you still believe that woman's bollocks?"
"Of course, I don't believe it, but-" Harry's eyes were fixed on Hermione.
Her face paled quickly, "Fifty years ago, the suspect who was expelled from ... was Hagrid?"
Ron licked his lips uneasily.
Harry said quickly, "I believe Dumbledore, Hagrid can't be the killer! But since he's listed as a suspect, he must know something!"
The trio prepared to brave the snow and wind to go to the forbidden forest warden's hut, just out of the castle, when they bumped into a stout figure, none other than Hagrid, his face full of snow & blizzard, his thick beard caked with ice, and he held a dead chicken in his hand.
"Hagrid, oh--" Harry crashed right into him.
"Watch out! Little ones." Hagrid said gruffly, still waving the limp chicken in his hand, a few of its feathers flying through the air with his movements ...
Later that evening.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just returned from the abandoned classroom underground, and everything is going well with the polyjuice potion.
Harry carried the magic scroll given by Professor Hap with him, translating a word by word in a parseltongue. In the empty, abandoned classroom, now and then echoes of the hoarse, eerie sound of terror can be heard.
This makes the dozing Ron kept awake - half-asleep, he always saw a witch brewing a potion like mud, a male wizard making a snake-like "hissing" sound.
And in the early afternoon, they heard a handful of secret room information from Hagrid.
At the moment, they are hiding in the corner of the common room.
"Almost everything is in order!" Hermione suddenly said.
"What?"
"The monster of the Chamber of Secrets! Wait for me--" Hermione obviously had perfected her thinking, she hurried back to the dormitory, not a few seconds later brought back a parchment.
The three of them came together and looked at the writing on it, which is about a terrible magical creature called " Basilisk ".
When Harry and Ron finished reading the information, Hermione said about the possible clues collected these days, "the basilisk can be dormant for a long time, the basilisk's eyes are lethal, the basilisk is the natural enemy of spiders, the basilisk is afraid of chickens ... what do you think of this?"
"So, the monster in the chamber is a basilisk?" Ron asked excitedly.
"Can't be wrong!" Harry slammed his fist on the table.
They got two main pieces of information from Hagrid: one was that the chickens he raised always died inexplicably; the second was that he had raised the eight-eyed giant spider fifty years ago, and the eight-eyed giant spider was so afraid of the monster in the chamber that it refused to reveal even a word.
It all fits together!
"But there is the biggest issue, is that the basilisk can not petrify someone, I initially ignored it because of this point, but now, the evidence on the side has been very sufficient." Hermione said very critically, "Maybe I should find some time to ask Professor Hap what I can do to make the basilisk's gaze less harmful ..."
She hammered her head with some resentment, "It's so strange, I feel like something is right in front of me, but I can never find it ..."
Harry swallowed hard, "Hermione, I think I know."