days at Hogwarts

Chapter 204 Dumbledore’s help

After a while, the weather became darker, and the light was blocked by thick clouds, only sporadic wisps could be revealed.

The bitter wind blew, and snowflakes were blown on the body, making people ache from the cold. The little wizards who were breathing outside the castle quickly rushed into the hall.

At this moment, Neville stumbled against the flow of people and ran in front of Loren, with a terrified expression on his face, pointing at the third floor with trembling fingers, and crying in a trembling voice: "Third, third floor, Justin was killed. petrified, and Harry was there—"

Before the words fell, Ron had already rushed out, and Hermione also grabbed Loren's hand and ran into the castle.

Loren mourned for Harry while running, now it's all over, even if he fell into the black lake, he won't be able to wash away.

This is a corridor on the third floor. The light here is very dim, like the night, a window glass is loose, the howling wind blows in, and there are some sparks left on the extinguished torch.

Justin Fenriely lay on the floor, cold and stiff, with a frightened expression frozen on his face, his eyes fixed on the ceiling.

Beside him was Nick, who was almost headless. His ghostly body was no longer transparent white with a faint light, but became black and smoky.Lie flat, motionless, suspended six inches above the ground.His head hung in mid-air, connected by stiff skin and tendons, with the same terrified expression on his face as Justin.

Harry stood there bewildered, his mouth half open, as if about to say something.

Surrounded by little wizards, they looked at Harry with strange eyes, and avoided him in horror when Harry wanted to explain to them, not daring to meet his gaze.

Loren and the others squeezed their way through the crowd and got closer to Harry.

In stark contrast to the noisy discussions in the outer circle, there was silence in the inner circle. They looked at Justin with pity and Harry with strange eyes, and they were careful not to speak out, for fear of attracting Harry's attention. The next victim might be one of them.

"Harry," Ron called, trying to say something, but nothing came out.

Hearing his friend's call, Harry's eyes slowly focused in a daze.This time is different from the past, only he and the "corpse" were found, and no one can prove his innocence.

Harry seemed to have grabbed a savior, and explained to his friends with hope and pleading: "It's not me, it's not me. I want to make it clear to Justin that I heard some uncomfortable words in the library, and I want to be alone. Take a break and come here unknowingly, they were already like this at that time. Believe me..."

His breathing was rapid and his heart was beating wildly, like a snare drum was beating in his chest.The sound was so loud that several people nearby could hear it.

"Harry, calm down, don't worry, we trust you." Loren patted him on the shoulder, trying to ease his anxiety, "Dumbledore will trust you too."

"Yes Harry, we believe you..."

The statements of Hermione, Ron, Seamus, Neville and others made Harry calm down slowly, and the snare drum in his chest also calmed down.

"Quiet!"

Professor McGonagall's loud voice resounded everywhere in the corridor. She led several professors to separate the crowd and walked out from behind, looking at Justin who was lying on the ground with pity.

She turned her head and looked seriously at the growing crowd, and pursed her lips: "Go back to the classroom!"

Although Professor McGonagall didn't look at him, Harry felt a lot more at ease.

The little wizards were reluctant and did not dare to disobey Professor McGonagall's order openly. They moved slowly and looked at Justin and Harry eagerly.

Seeing their lukewarm footsteps, Professor McGonagall waved her wand and made a drum-like explosion in the air. She repeated again: "Go back to the classroom! Right now!"

This time the little wizards were much more agile. When the crowd had dispersed, Hufflepuff's Ernie McMillan rushed to the scene panting. He pointed at Harry and shouted: "The scene caught !"

Harry's breathing began to become short of breath, he felt his blood rushing upwards, and his brain congested intermittently.

Just now in the library, it was Ernie McMillan who was slandering him, and those angry words are still in my ears:

"No one knows how he narrowly escaped death when he was attacked by a mysterious man. When that happened, he was just a baby. He should have been blown to pieces. Only a black wizard with infinite mana can do that." Escaping a spell like that."

"Harry Potter is the same dark wizard as the mysterious man, so the mysterious man wants to kill him. He doesn't want another "devil" to compete with him."

"He's a Parseltongue. What decent wizard can talk to snakes?"

……

Sentence by sentence, those dirty speculations were all uttered by this Ernie MacMillan. At a certain moment, Harry hoped that it was this Ernie who was petrified by the basilisk.

Professor McGonagall roared sternly: "Enough, go back to the classroom!"

Ernie wanted to say a few more words, but when he met Harry's gaze, he held back all his words, and turned away despondently.

Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinista from the Department of Astronomy took Justin to the school infirmary. Except for Harry and Professor McGonagall, only Loren, Hermione, and Ron were left.

"Professor," said Harry with difficulty, "I swear I didn't—"

"I can't control this matter, Potter!" Professor McGonagall complained fiercely in his heart about the principal of an unknown magic school.

But when she looked down and saw Harry's pitiful appearance, she couldn't help softening her heart. She reached out and stroked Harry's hair, and said softly, "I know it's not you."

Harry's eyes turned red, and he nodded silently.

Professor McGonagall sighed, and turned to look at the three people who were unwilling to leave. Her wand twirled in her hand, creating a big fan out of thin air.

Professor McGonagall handed the fan to Loren: "I'll take Harry to the principal, and you fan Nick upstairs."

After speaking, she took Harry away, leaving Loren, Hermione and Ron looking at each other.

The three of them fanned their fans in turn and walked upstairs slowly.Nick has no physical body, even if he is petrified, there is no way to move him.But being able to fan him at the same time is too contradictory.

"Since there is no entity, why can the wind blow him?" Loren looked at Nico, who was almost headless after petrification, a little puzzled.

"There is no entity, why can't the wind blow him?" Ron asked with a puzzled face, as if it was a matter of course that the wind could blow ghosts.

Loren was aggrieved for a while, and finally could only accept this reality.After all, magic is so unreasonable.

Hermione didn't participate in the conversation all this time, she lowered her head and thought about what happened just now: "You said, does Professor McGonagall know something? I mean, she didn't panic or worry when she saw Justin, and she believed Haha unconditionally. profit."

Ron was also thoughtful: "Dumbledore's attitude is also very strange. When Rolf was talking to us, he was next to him and interrupted us to continue talking. He seems to know more or less about our actions. Some, but it didn't stop us."

Loren couldn't help clicking his tongue, no one is stupid.Dumbledore's behavior and attitude itself are information that can be interpreted. According to the current progress, the basilisk will be resolved soon.

Harry followed Professor McGonagall to the huge ugly stone monster, opened the passage with the password "lemon ice cream", went up the spiral staircase, and came to a gleaming oak door with a lion on it. Brass knocker in the shape of a harpy.

"You wait outside first, I have something to talk to Principal Dumbledore!" After Professor McGonagall finished speaking, he hurriedly pushed the door open and entered.

Harry blinked, wondering if it was an illusion. He felt that Professor McGonagall had a tough posture, as if he was going to question Principal Dumbledore.

Harry swore he didn't mean to eavesdrop, but the oak door was not closed securely, and some voices escaped through the crack.

Professor McGonagall's voice was very clear, and the anger in her words could be heard:

"Principal! Principal Dumbledore! What are you thinking!"

"It's been almost two months since Halloween, how long do you have to wait..."

In contrast, Dumbledore's response was very gentle, and Harry could only hear some subtle voices, but couldn't make out the content.

"Do you know how many parents of students have written letters! If this continues, the school will be closed!"

Hearing this, Harry's heart skipped a beat. He was really concerned about whether the school would be closed, so he couldn't help but sneak in the door and hid behind a shelf to eavesdrop.

Standing here, one can see that there is another compartment in the office. In the compartment, there is a shallow stone basin with mysterious runes carved on the edge of the basin.Harry had seen similar lines in the books that Loren was flipping through, and it seemed to be a kind of script called runes.

"Oh, Minerva, don't worry..."

Dumbledore's voice was still indistinct and indistinct.

Just as Harry pricked up his ears to get closer, he saw something.On one shelf of the shelf stood a tattered, crumpled wizard's hat - the Sorting Hat.

In an instant, many images flashed through Harry's mind.

On the Hogwarts Express, Malfoy and his followers wanted to get acquainted with him... At the sorting banquet, the Sorting Hat was chattering about sorting him into Slytherin... When the little wizards found out that he was a Parseltongue Surprised, Hermione said that this is a unique ability of Slytherin...

Harry thought of wearing the Sorting Hat again, and he wanted to talk to the Sorting Hat.

He hesitated for a moment, looked up vigilantly at the portraits of previous principals on the surrounding walls, and to his surprise, these portraits were all turned upside down on the wall, and no one would notice him.

Harry picked up the hat from the rack and slowly put it on his head, it was too big and slid down over his eyes.

A small voice sounded in his ear, no, in his mind: "Is there something you can't understand, Harry Potter?"

Before Harry could speak, the Sorting Hat's voice sounded again: "You want to know if I've put you in the right house? Yes... your place is not easy to place, but I'll stand by my original statement— —”

"You're a good fit, Slytherin."

Harry's heart began to beat violently, and he felt sick, and he grabbed the top of the hat and yanked it off.

Vigorous movements hit the golden perch at the door, and the old Fox suffered an indiscriminate disaster. The phoenix with all its feathers fell from the perch, looked at Harry with a sad look, and said that he was about to die. , a choked moan.

Putting the Sorting Hat back on the shelf, Harry frantically tried to pick up Fox.But before he got close, the bird had already turned into a ball of fire. It screamed, and the flame rose and quickly extinguished, leaving only a pile of ashes on the floor that had not been completely extinguished.

Harry's mind went blank, it's over, it's really over, the matter of manipulating the basilisk to attack his classmates has not been clarified, and he has to add another debt for killing Fox.

Turning his head, Dumbledore had already appeared behind the shelf, looking at the pile of ashes with a strange look.

Harry couldn't bear the pressure in his heart anymore, and cried out, "Principal Dumbledore, I, I didn't do it on purpose... I can't help it, Fox fell to the ground and suddenly caught fire..."

Seeing Harry's miserable appearance, Dumbledore pursed his lips, but he didn't hold back after all, and smiled softly.

The Headmaster's laughter grew louder and Harry's cries grew quieter, until finally Harry stopped crying and looked at Dumbledore in amazement.

Dumbledore shook his head and said gently, "Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. When the phoenix is ​​about to die, it will set itself on fire, and then regenerate from the ashes. You look at it..."

Harry looked down just in time to see a small, wrinkled, featherless chick poking its head out of the ashes.

It's really, really ugly.

Noticing the impolite look in Harry's eyes, the reborn Fox screamed and cursed.Although I don't understand, but from the tone of voice analysis, it should be very ugly.

"It also knows that this appearance is not good-looking, and it has been delaying its rebirth. Last time I asked Scamander to bring a letter to his grandfather, Mr. Newt, just to ask for some potions to help Fox Nirvana." Dumbledore quoted Harry sat down at the table.

The figure of Professor McGonagall has disappeared, she probably left when Harry put on the sorting hat.

Harry withdrew his gaze from looking at Fox, remembering his purpose of coming here: "Professor, I...do you believe it's not me?"

The Sorting Hat's voice came out of his head again, "You are very suitable, Slytherin!"

There were times when Harry himself wondered if he was really the heir of Slytherin.

"Yes, Harry, I don't think so." Dumbledore looked at him, and the fingertips of ten slender fingers touched together. "More importantly, Harry, I need your help."

"help?"

"Yes, some people on the school board are dissatisfied with what Minerva has achieved, and they want to use this to put pressure on me to make Hogwarts what they want." Dumbledore paused , "Minerva and I both want to find out the truth about the basilisk as soon as possible, but we are too conspicuous. The heir hidden in the castle guards against every professor, and we can't find any useful clues."

Harry reacted belatedly, pointing to himself in disbelief: "So, me?"

Dumbledore nodded, then shook his head again: "It's not you, it's you. I want to ask you to find out the heir as soon as possible, or find out the location of the secret room, and leave the rest to the professors."

"Professor, we've been working on this, but..." Harry was dejected.

Hagrid, Malfoy, himself... a mess of things and people entangled, and he couldn't make sense out of it.Relying on Compound Potion to get Malfoy's information, he was not sure that he would be able to find out the truth of the matter.

"I think I might be able to provide some trivial help." Dumbledore got up and entered the compartment, picked up the stone basin, walked to the table, and placed it on the smooth tabletop. "Here are some clues about the secret room last time." of the opening."

Harry saw the contents of the Pensieve, wondering whether it was a liquid or a gas, like a bright piece of silver, but flowing, rippling like the surface of water in a breeze, drifting away like clouds, Rotate gently.It is light that turns into liquid, and it is like wind that turns into solid.

"What's this?" Harry asked.

"It's called the Pensieve. You know, I'm too old and I have so many thoughts and memories stuffed in my head that I can't put them in as quickly as I did when I was younger. They all come out."

Dumbledore pointed to the stone basin and said, "At this time, I will use the Pensieve, suck out the excess content from my brain, pour it into this basin, and take a good look at it when I have time. You know, in this state It’s easier to see their shape and how they’re connected to each other.”

"This is, your thoughts and memories!?" Harry exclaimed, eyes widening.

"Yes," Dumbledore drew out his wand, inserted the tip of the wand into his silver hair, near his temple, and pulled out a wisp of silver-white substance.

"Let's look at what happened back then."