Dumbledore then turned to Harry and spoke to him in a calm tone since he could sense Harry had a question for him.
"Harry, talk to me, I can sense that you've got a question for me. I can feel you're worried about something."
Suddenly Harry's eyes widened but looking at Dumbledore's serene expression whose eyes had the depth of the black lake he immediately blurted out, "There was someone else. His name was Gehrman Sparrow! Tom said he had the last of his Beyonder Characteristics and stabbed his hand into his chest to pull it out!"
Dumbledore's eyes slightly widened but he spoke with an even deeper frown, "And what happened to this Gehrman Sparrow?"
"I don't know!" Harry said and then promptly explained, "I couldn't find him anywhere after I woke up, Fawkes carried me and Ginny, but Gehrman Sparrow was nowhere to be found. Do you think that was just Voldemort playing tricks on me?"
"Hmm…it is hard to say." Dumbledore confessed but no one knew if he was talking to himself or replying to Harry or perhaps both.
"Did I do something wrong Professor?" Harry asked with worry.
Dumbledore's expression changed instantly and turned from solemn into one that oozed out happiness and pride as he said, "You need not worry about such things, I've never heard about a student named Gehrman Sparrow at Hogwarts. Two hundred Points to Gryffindor for figuring out the matter behind the Chamber of Secrets."
Harry smiled and curiously forgot about his other question about Beyonder Characteristics and nodded at Professor Dumbledore in thanks.
"You may leave now Harry, I'm sure Madam Pomfrey would like a visit from you just to see if there might be anything wrong with you.", Dumbledore said calmly as Harry nodded and left the office.
Finishing reminiscing the events, Dumbledore in his office looked at a rather obscure corner and walked towards it.
Controlling his spirituality with finesse he swiped his fingers over a marked part of the wall, causing it to split open and retract within itself to reveal a book and a quill that lay dormant in front of him.
'Gehrman Sparrow.' Dumbledore thought about the name that came to him.
He then walked over to the book in front of him and began to turn its pages one by one.
Surprisingly there was a record of everything that had happened at Hogwarts in the last two years, as if someone had diligently and patiently recorded everything that had happened within its bounds.
Stopping at the final page where the pages had recorded everything about the conversation between him and Harry, Dumbledore frowned.
'Is this an alias?'
Dumbledore's fingers traced over the name Gehrman Sparrow that had been written down into the book for the first time when Harry mentioned it as his frown deepened.
He pulled out his wand and tapped the book to find any other mentions of the name Gehrman Sparrow but found nothing.
He then flipped the pages to directly read about what had happened in the Chamber of Secrets, a place where the Quill's influence still spread, but he found nothing new.
Nothing happened differently than the way Harry had narrated the incidents, yet he felt confused.
Carefully going over the events in the book Dumbledore finally spotted a discrepancy.
It lay hidden in between the sentence, '...leaving behind the dead husk of the Basilisk, Harry left the Chamber of Secrets along with Ginny Weasley with the help of Fawkes….'
It was subtle but noticeable.
'Basilisk Husk?'
'Is this a figure of speech or is it the truth?'
Dumbledore calmly placed back the Quill and the Book in their place and sealed them before turning towards Fawkes the phoenix.
"Fawkes, can you take me to the Chamber of Secrets?"
*chirp* *chirp*
"Thank you, Fawkes, I don't know what I'd have done without you." Dumbledore smiled and then held the phoenix that looked to be in the prime of its health.
With the Phoenix perched on his shoulder, Dumbledore prepared for himself as he was engulfed by a burst of fire that distorted his vision for a second before calming down and vanishing.
A low exhale escaped Dumbledore's lips as he looked around himself.
'The Chamber of Secrets…hmm…'
Walking around the grand chamber Dumbledore examined the battle ruins that were left after the fight with the Basilisk and Harry and tried to piece them together with what Harry had explained to him.
Unravelling threads to his mystery, Dumbledore soon pieced together everything about the fight and finally arrived at an innocent spot.
'Is this where Gehrman Sparrow died?'
Dumbledore looked down at the spot but he held a frown on his face.
There wasn't much he could reveal from the spot. Although some blood might've fallen and created a puddle at the spot, it was all covered up.
Covered up because the diary had been destroyed at the same spot.
The ink had oozed out along with a mix of the Basilisk's venom that had completely destroyed the spot and charred it beyond hope.
Nothing could be recovered.
Dumbledore finally turned around and turned his attention to the elephant in the room, or in this case something even bigger.
It was the obvious fake-out that had gone unnoticed by young Harry.
It was the Basilisk that appeared to have only shed its skin and escaped from the chamber.
Dumbledore used his wand to manipulate the shed skin and observe it from all directions for any clues but nothing about it helped him, in fact, it only put him into an even deeper quagmire of questions.
Following the Basilisk's body, Dumbledore finally arrived at its nest in the chamber which was a large hollowed-out dome cave whose walls were damp with moisture, allowing Dumbledore to guess they were somewhere under the Black Lake.
But that was it.
There was nothing else in the cave that would allow Dumbledore to conclude anything other than the fact that the Basilisk had seemingly vanished.
Dumbledore returned to the Chamber of Secrets and began to wonder about it all, his face carrying a deep frown conjoined with an expression that clearly showed how troubled he was.
His thoughts a mystery to everyone else remained inside his head while his hands moved to pull out a mirror that existed in his pockets that were artificially expanded using an undetectable extension charm.
The mirror was grand and elaborate with two eye-like symbols carved on its sides.
Dumbledore lightly tapped the mirror's surface thrice before he asked it a question without pause.
"Respected Arrodes, my question is who were the participants in the event that occurred here?"
The surface of the mirror immediately changed from showing a clear reflection of Dumbledore to becoming a hazy reflection that soon stabilized and portrayed a different view.
It showed the image of four people all present in the chamber of secrets, three of which Dumbledore immediately recognised while the fourth gave Dumbledore trouble.
The view continued shifting and moving as if it were a video and without pause, Dumbledore heard the words, "Gehrman Sparrow." leave Tom's mouth.
A fit of confusion assaulted Dumbledore as the view in the mirror slowly faded away.
'Who is this Gehrman Sparrow?'
'Will Minerva or any other heads of houses know him?'
'Is it him?'
'But if it was 'him' his name would've been recorded by the quill…'
With the mirror returning to its natural state once again words made of an ethereal grey fog began to appear on it.
"Based on the principle of reciprocity, I ask, what do you choose, question or punishment?"
"Punishment.", Dumbledore spoke calmly.
'It is my turn to give you a task then. If you do not follow up with the corresponding action you will be punished.'
Dumbledore calmly nodded and Arrodes sent back a new message.
"In the Great Hall, in front of all the students, award ten points to Slytherin for having a great sense of fashion."
Dumbledore's lips twitched as he stared at the Mirror only to find his tired reflection staring back at him.
He *sighed* and after a nod found himself leaving the Chamber of Secrets with a dull look on his face. He did not enjoy dealing with this 'stupid' mirror.
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A/N : We crossed a hundred power stones today! Expect an extra chapter tomorrow!
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