Professor McGonagall jumped to her feet.
"No, Professor Lockhart, Filius, I must go, I have my night rounds tonight."
Flitwick, faced with his impending victory, said quickly, "It's not too late, let's finish this game and then..."
"Duty calls" Said Professor McGonagall sternly, as if Hogwarts castle would be mortgaged to Gringotts if she didn't make her rounds in a few minutes.
"Trust the children," Flitwick tried to force out, but there was a knock on the office door and Filch poked his head in.
"Professor Lockhart, have you seen Professor McGonagall? Fred and George from Gryffindor are in again...ah, Professor McGonagall, there she is."
"What have they done again?" Professor McGonagall got up from her stool and stormed out of Lockhart's office angrily, not allowing Professor Flitwick a chance to react.
Professor Flitwick turned his attention to Tom, but Tom was so engrossed in his work with the runes that he was completely oblivious to what was going on outside his office, carving the cluster of runes.
I'm an alchemist, and I'm a good alchemist.
I want to make this little puppet the best.
I'll carve and carve, carve and carve, carve and carve.
Oops, my little head, it's lost a hair.
That's right, Tom.
Why was he so focused? It was because Professor Flitwick was so strong! Tom had just taken a quick look at the situation and Professor McGonagall was being beaten by Professor Flitwick!
Professor Flitwick's micromanagement was so fine, especially with the bishop, that it could be called excellent. Tom felt that if Professor Flitwick didn't use bishops, he could get along with him.
Better to concentrate on carving runes!
Not finding an opponent in the game, Professor Flitwick was a bit disappointed and, after a while, also left Professor Lockhart's office.
Tom's comment that he was going bald with the runes was a joke, but some people, they were really going bald. In the first-year Ravenclaw dormitory, a young woman was complaining, "Victoria, you're losing too much hair! Your hair is all over the dormitory! Victoria, can you hear me?"
"Looks like she's fallen asleep again..." one of the girls peeked out and saw that Victoria had fallen asleep again.
She fiddled with her hair a little, "I heard that Professor Lockhart had invented a shampoo to restore shine to hair, I'll buy a bottle for Victoria to use some day."
"Occamy's egg yolk shampoo? I've heard of it!" the other witches said, all at once, discussing this early invention of Professor Lockhart. Unfortunately, the shampoo was rare and very expensive when it went on sale. Now, with Professor Lockhart's fame, it has become a very valuable collector's item and is no longer affordable to a few first-year witches.
By the way, the shampoo at least does not compromise its effectiveness, it really "sets the shine", its only downside is that it is too expensive. But is the fact that something is expensive really a disadvantage? Maybe... Is it its weakness?
The surviving Lockhart shampoos, whose price has multiplied, are much preferred by middle-aged witches. They even sent letters to Lockhart, offering to buy more shampoo at a higher price, but Tom looked at Naughty, the Occamy, and flatly refused the requests. Even if he could have prepared the shampoo, he wouldn't: he still had to pick Occamy's feathers!
"Your problem, perhaps, is not something that can be solved with shampoo.", a quiet voice came from the corner of the dormitory. Some of the young witches unconsciously brought their hands to their foreheads.
It was Luna Lovegood, whom they called the crazy one, who spoke. She had also taken a bath, put on a pale yellow nightgown and removed her strange ornaments. So now Luna looked much more normal. Or not so normal, but more in keeping with popular aesthetics.
But her trance-like, dreamy tone remained the same.
"So what do you think is wrong with Victoria?" said a blank-eyed little witch, Isha Blanche, the one who had just mentioned Lockhart's shampoo, and the one who had the best relationship with Victoria.
"She's probably being bullied by torposoplos," Luna said sympathetically.
"What?"
"A torposoplos , a magical, invisible creature that floats in your ears and gets inside your head. I think one flew into the dorm a while back and has been hanging around here ever since," Luna said.
Isha Blanche thought it was ridiculous, "Do they have any natural predators? Like the Wrinkly Horned Snorkacks you mentioned earlier or something..." she said in a very sarcastic tone..." she said in a very sarcastic tone.
But Luna explained very carefully what a Wrinkled Horned Snorkacks was, what their habits were and where they were found, to prove that torposoplos were not in their repertoire.
Across from Victoria's bed was Peggy's bed. Peggy was now half lying on the bed, with the curtain drawn. She is propped up on a cushion behind her back and holding a book in her hand. She smiles as she listens to her roommates' conversation. When they spoke of the torposoplos harassment, a look of surprise appeared on Peggy's face.
However, the following content quickly made her lose interest in listening and she continued to look at the book.
Knowledge can change destiny.
In the Far East, there is a historical account....
Peggy may not have known this tale, but that did not stop her from learning its essence.
She knew that Professor Lockhart was searching for an enemy who has infiltrated the castle, the "heir to the Chamber of Secrets," and at the time she discovered that Victoria seemed to have a close relationship with the heir.
A normal schoolgirl would have denounced Victoria and let the teacher reprimand her, but Peggy is different.
Sue her to the teacher? Wouldn't that be helping her? Peggy was sure she wouldn't do such a foolish thing. She had observed that the diary was up to no good, and that it was responsible for all of Victoria's symptoms.
Peggy was also wary of the diary, but in her communication she discovered that the diary could give her more knowledge. Knowledge that teachers were reluctant to impart in class. For example, the Avada Kedavra, which can kill spiders without leaving a scratch. Of course, the Killing Curse was not Peggy's main interest, she was more fascinated by the subject of immortality and resurrection, something the other professors rarely wanted to talk about.
Peggy was playing with fire, and she knew it.