Sharing secrets is the most direct way to get closer to each other. After listening to Professor Watson reveal his hidden past, Harry felt a surge of mixed emotions. He looked at Hermione hesitantly, wondering if he should confide in her as well. But Hermione, who sensed his inner turmoil, gave him an encouraging and curious look.
"Why, do you have something to share with me?"
Bryan got up from his cozy armchair and walked over to the fireplace, where a copper kettle was whistling on the shelf. He poured himself a cup of steaming tea and added a dash of milk and sugar. The aroma of the tea filled the air, creating a soothing atmosphere. When he returned to his seat, Hermione and Harry had clearly reached some kind of agreement. They exchanged a meaningful glance and nodded at each other.
"Professor Watson, do you think hearing voices that others can't hear is a good talent?" Harry asked tentatively, biting his lower lip.
Looking at Harry's nervous face, Bryan knew that he had successfully gained their trust and friendship during this period of time. He was about to reap the rewards of his efforts, but he hid his excitement behind a cloud of smoke from his pipe. He replied very gently, "It depends on the situation, Potter, I can't make an accurate judgment with just a simple sentence. You have to tell me more about these voices."
A suffocating silence fell suddenly, as if the air had frozen. Hermione kept her mouth shut, not wanting to interrupt Harry's thoughts. Harry had an uneasy expression, as if he was wrestling with a dilemma. He fidgeted with his glasses and ran his fingers through his messy black hair.
Professor Watson was a professor he liked very much, but he also knew that the other party's main purpose of entering Hogwarts was not to teach. It was Professor Watson's job to investigate the Chamber of Secrets incident. If possible, Harry hoped to give him some help. Of course, the premise was not to involve himself or Dobby and Hagrid.
In the best case scenario, he hoped that Professor Watson would find the secret chamber or the monster inside it, and then the whole thing would be resolved peacefully, without anyone being blamed or punished.
"—that's the case," Harry said carefully, choosing his words with caution, trying to convince Professor Watson that he knew only a little bit.
"When I entered your office for the first time, you asked me why we came to the third floor after attending the Nick's Death Day party on Halloween last year. In fact, it was because I heard a weird voice, this voice first appeared in Professor Lockhart's office."
In the next ten minutes, Harry explained the origin and nature of the strange voice, and how it seemed to be related to the attacks on the students. He omitted some details that might implicate himself or others, such as Dobby's warning or Hagrid's expulsion. After listening to all this, Bryan's face was expressionless. He leaned back in his chair, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
"What do you think made that voice?" he asked calmly.
"Are you sure that you are the only one who heard that voice, Mr. Potter?" Bryan did not rush to express his opinion, but reconfirmed with a serious tone.
"That's true, Professor Watson—" Hermione nodded cautiously, "Harry, Ron and I were always together at those times, but apart from Harry, neither Ron nor I noticed anything unusual."
Bryan nodded knowingly. He carefully recalled the distance from the basement to the third floor. Under the eager gaze of the two young wizards, he said slowly, "If I guess correctly, the creature that made that voice should be a snake–"
"A snake!" Harry exclaimed in disbelief, while Hermione showed a look of enlightenment, as if she had just solved a puzzle. Professor Watson's simple guess broke through the fog that had been clouding their minds for so long.
"Yes, it must be so, Harry!" Hermione jumped up from her chair with excitement, her face was flushed with blood, and her fingertips were trembling because of being too agitated,
"Everything makes sense now. Only you can hear that sound, of course, Harry, because you are a Parselmouth, and no one but you can understand what a snake hisses really means!"
"But!"
Harry retorted as Hermione's words sparked another question in his mind, "At that time, there were only a lot of ghosts in the basement and corridor besides the three of us. If there was a snake there, how could it hide itself in the wall without being seen by anyone?" He looked at the wall skeptically, trying to find any signs of a hidden passage or a secret door.
"Not necessarily," Hermione's words made Harry frown slightly, and she replied hesitantly, "If the snake is small enough or flexible enough, maybe it can squeeze itself through the cracks in the bricks or pipes, or it has some special abilities, like being able to pass through solid objects, after all, normal snakes don't have the power to petrify anyone, Harry!" She gestured with her hands to illustrate her point, but she was not very confident about her guess.
Hermione's guess was plausible, but it was only a speculation. They needed more evidence to prove it.
"As long as anything has existed in this world, no matter how careful or secretive it is, it will definitely leave some traces behind—"
Bryan smiled and stood up from his chair. He felt a surge of excitement when he finally had something to investigate. He waved his wand and swiftly gathered all the scattered letters on the ground and the table into a neat pile. He looked at Harry and Hermione with a gleam in his eyes, "Let's go to the scene of the crime again, maybe we can find some interesting clues that others have missed!"
The castle was not very crowded at this time of the day. Most of the wizards were either busy with their homework in the common room or enjoying a game of Wizard Chess or Gobstone with their friends. The corridors were quiet and empty, except for the occasional portraits that whispered or snored on the walls.
When they passed the second floor, they saw Filch yelling and threatening two little first-year wizards who had spilled some muddy water on the floor. He warned them that they would be chained up and hung in his office if they didn't clean it up properly. His face was twisted with anger and his eyes were bulging out of their sockets. The two young wizards were trembling with fear and holding their mops nervously.
Bryan kindly intervened and helped the two terrified wizards. He waved his wand and cleaned up the mess in an instant. He smiled gently at them and said, "There's no need to be so harsh on the young ones, Filch—"
Facing Filch, who looked resentful but didn't dare to resist a professor's order, Bryan continued, "It won't be long before Professor Sprout's mandrakes are ready to be harvested, and your beloved Mrs. Norris will be back to health soon—" He patted Filch's shoulder sympathetically and led Harry and Hermione away from him.
The three of them came to a dark and empty corridor leading to the basement near the hall. There was only a faint light coming from the crack between the wall and the floor, where some candle wax remained from a row of black candles that Nick had placed there when he held his deathday party. The air was cold and damp, and they could smell a faint odor of decay.
"I was standing right here at that time—"
Harry still remembered vividly what had happened that night more than four months ago. He quickly brought Hermione and Professor Watson to the middle of the corridor, pointing to the wall, he said, "That voice came out of the wall, then moved up along the ceiling, and finally led us to the third floor!" His voice echoed in the empty space, making him shiver slightly.
Bryan lit up his wand, and his eyes followed Harry's guidance on the surface of the wall. After examining it for a while, he nodded and said, "It seems that we need to open up this wall to have a closer look." He sounded curious and eager.
"Open up the wall?!"
Hermione gasped with disbelief. She looked at Bryan with astonishment and concern. She wondered if he was serious or joking. She knew that opening up a wall in Hogwarts was not an easy task. It might trigger some magical defenses or alarms.
"Of course, Miss Granger, otherwise how would we find out how the snake was able to swim inside the wall—" Bryan said in a casual tone, and he raised his wand effortlessly. After making a few gestures in the air, accompanied by a few flashes of light, the hard wall was easily cut open like soft cheese.
And when the things behind the wall were exposed to the air, all their doubts were answered.
It was a pipe! Behind the rock wall, moldy pipes emitted a disgusting stench. If they listened carefully, they could hear the sound of running water. The pipe was thick enough for a person to crawl inside. It was covered with slime and dirt, and there were some scratches and dents on its surface.
"I always thought the wall was solid." Harry muttered, stunned. He felt a wave of nausea as he looked at the pipe. He wondered how a snake could live in such a filthy place.
"The problem is now clear!"
Hermione turned pale, "I can't imagine how thick and long a snake can be to fit in such a large pipe!" She clutched her chest, feeling a surge of fear. She remembered the petrified students and the message on the wall. She realized that they were dealing with a very dangerous creature.
"There are still many problems to be solved, Miss Granger," Bryan squinted his eyes. He jumped onto the broken wall and carefully examined the thick pipe. After a while, he placed his wand in his palm and said, "Homenum Lumispedio!" A bright beam of light shot out from his wand and entered the pipe. It moved along the pipe, illuminating its interior.
Bryan smiled and said, "This is a spell that can detect any traces of human or animal activity in a certain area. It can show us where the snake came from and where it went." He gestured for Harry and Hermione to join him.
Author's Note: 'Homenum Lumispedio!' is a combination of a fan-made spell and the canon's 'homenum revelio' spell that allows the caster to track the movement and location of both people and animals.
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