When Professor Lockhart handed the handkerchief to Hermione, she was visibly stunned and the tears in her eyes quickly stopped.
"Miss Granger, I understand how you feel, but it is too dangerous to rush and we cannot be sure what has happened to Mr. Yodel."
By this time, Professor Flitwick had also finished evacuating the students and followed Snape and Professor McGonagall upstairs, Professor Flitwick's eyes widened as he saw Tom's condition and Professor McGonagall sighed.
"Go to my office, it's the closest," Professor Flitwick said a little breathlessly.
Dumbledore stepped forward, examined him briefly and then lifted Tom off the floor, the young wizards were no longer blocking the entrance to the Astronomy Tower but they didn't leave either, they just watched silently from the corridor as Dumbledore carried Tom.
"By the time I get back here, I expect you to be seated in him classroom and in the common room," Snape said, looking at the small crowd of wizards that had gathered around him, "And if you don't want to sit in the classroom, you are always welcome in my office to experience the punishment."
At those words, the young wizards immediately dispersed. Only Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione remained, and Dumbledore told them to follow him into the office.
"How come every time something happens, you three are there?" Professor McGonagall was furious with the new trio of troublemakers she had introduced to her school: last term, the three of them had sneaked into the Forbidden Zone in the middle of the night and had been caught by Madam Pince; earlier in the term, two of them had crossed England in a flying car; and now they were involved in this incident.
Professor McGonagall felt her temples rise.
"Professor, let us explain..." tried to explain Ron, but Professor McGonagall shushed them. They could only stand with Hermione, who looked a little dazed, her handkerchief clenched in her hand, not saying a word and her eyes red.
Dumbledore walked over to Tom, muttered something, then pulled out his wand and tapped it, but there was no response.
"Tom is not dead," Dumbledore said.
At this conclusion, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.
"So, what happened to him?" asked Professor Flitwick sharply.
"He is petrified, for reasons too complex for me to conclude at this time."
The place fell silent.
"The heir of Slytherin is trying to open the Chamber of Secrets," Lockhart spat, standing on the sidelines, "We have to be on our guard, that person (You Know Who) may be back..."
The eyes of the four deans and Dumbledore, plus the four students, focused on Lockhart.
Lockhart shrugged, "I am also aware of what happened to the former Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and I'm not going to lie, the contract with Professor Dumbledore, I only plan to fulfill it for one year, so I can retire for a normal reason, and nothing strange happens to me."
Everyone in the office: "..."
Even Snape reconsidered his career intentions: he wanted to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but Dumbledore asked him to teach Potions.
Snape was quick to push the muddled thoughts from the back of his mind, "Well, let's put You-Know-Who aside for now, we have more realistic things to consider" He grimaced and said, "Shouldn't our Mr. Potter explain why he and his friend are in this place at this hour? If I recall correctly, Gryffindor's second year astronomy class is not at this hour."
Harry's heart was pounding.
Harry was here, and for good reason.
This afternoon, he had no classes, and out of embarrassment, he had gone alone to the library to read, to catch up and not look like a Muggle again on his next exam at Lockhart.
But as he read, he heard an eerie, cold, malicious voice, in comparison to which Snape's tone was as soft as a hospital nurse's. Just hearing that voice made Harry's breath catch.
"Come... here...let me tear you...kill you, I long..... Your... flesh and blood! I've been starving... for a long, long time... it's time.... to kill!"
He heard the voice and followed its direction, meeting Neville and Ron on the way, who had gone to the library together to fetch it for class. So the search for the source of the voice turned into three, and they ended up in the astronomy classroom with a petrified Tom.
Harry thought about it for a while, but didn't recount his whole experience.
"I misread the class schedule."
Snape gave a sly grin, "Potter, you're not being entirely honest, I think he should be reinstated as a normal student and I suggest he be removed from the quidditch team until he's willing to tell us the truth as it is."
Harry's makeshift excuse was lame: one person could misread the timetable, three people together would be barbaric, even with Neville's incredibly poor memory. It was no wonder Snape could see that Harry was lying, it didn't even take Legeremancy to see it.
It bothered Snape a little that Potter was so out of it, why was he hiding information here? he was as disgusting as his megalomaniac father!
Lockhart, who was standing next to him, sighed. Harry, of course, was guided by Tom after his transformation. He knew, at the time of the first lesson of the afternoon, that Harry had no class. So he left first period ten minutes early and arrived at the library where Harry was, a place he had deduced Harry would be.
During the morning exam, it appeared that he was behind Ron, but in fact he had gone through Harry's papers and, as expected, had gotten very few of them right.
What would a student who had failed an exam and had a little time to spare in the afternoon do? Any student with a modicum of self-esteem would go to the library to read a book, wouldn't they? So the chances of Harry going to the library are very high.
And if Harry got careless and slept in his dorm, it wouldn't matter. The best person to find the petrified "Tom" is Harry, but it's not impossible for someone else to find him.
Tom met Harry in the library, so he catches Harry's attention by imitating the basilisk's tone of voice, and then lures him to the Astronomy Tower, where the rest is a cakewalk and, of course, Tom is surprised to meet Ron and the others.
The students attending class stumbled upon Harry and the "crime scene," and from there the standard plot unfolds.
This was done in the hope that Harry would confess to Dumbledore what he had heard, and then Tom could hypothesize the basilisk monster so that Dumbledore would know the peculiarities of Harry's soul.
Unfortunately, Harry did not confess. It had little effect, but it was part of Tom's plan that was foiled.
Dumbledore ignored Snape's personal chastisement, he looked at Harry, his piercing blue eyes made Harry feel like he was seeing right through him.
"Well, if I remember correctly, Mrs. Sprout has been growing mandrakes recently. Once they have reached maturity, I will be able to formulate a magic potion that will bring Mr. Yodel back from the dead" Dumbledore used a levitation spell on Tom, floating him into the air, "Well, you two go to class while I take Tom to the school hospital."
As soon as these words came out, the three of them and Harry were relieved and the other teachers left as well.
But as Tom was walking out the door, Snape followed him.
"What can I do for you, Professor Snape?" said Tom, silently working his Occlumency.
"A few days ago, someone broke into my private potions materials storage room and stole a shipment of potions materials" Snape himself is still very upset about the theft of his potions materials. As for the supposed consensus that Fawkes the Phoenix had broken into his office and stolen the potions materials, Snape, as an adult wizard, didn't believe a word of it: all he had done was inform Dumbledore of the incident and try to recoup some of his losses.
Snape thought about who to suspect, and found no one to suspect, so he changed his mind: eliminate anyone who could not be the thief. First, Dumbledore, then the old professors like McGonagall, Snape felt that after all these years together, he knew his colleagues well enough to know that they would not steal his magic potions.
Because of the special nature of the multijuice potion, there weren't many students who could brew them, and anyone who could do it successfully while still a student had to be amazingly talented.
So Snape turned his attention to the new professor, Lockhart. At first he thought he was just a show-off, and the incident at the beginning of the term was a good example of his assumptions. But after being fined by the Ministry of Magic, he had become a different, more normal and trustworthy person.
If Lockhart had been the same, Snape would have believed that Fawkes was the real thief instead of suspecting Lockhart.
Lockhart's behavior was increasingly suspicious. Today's exam, for example, Snape thought was a "Lockhart Behavior and Hobbies Quiz," but it turned out to be an actual exam question.
This is outrageous.
Combined with the fact that the multijuice potion could make another person look like someone else, Snape felt that all the evidence pointed to Lockhart.
So there was a conversation.
Tom looked at Snape, "It's a pity, but I think it's best to take care of the valuable magic potion materials. If you don't know the anti-theft spell, Professor Snape, I'm sure Professor Flitwick would be happy to help you."
Snape's eyes went so deep, and his dead, vacant eyes seemed to read people's minds, but this time he failed.
He could not read Lockhart's mind.