The Hogwarts Emerald

Chapter 231 The Heir of Slytherin
In the Gryffindor common room, the members of Dawn did not return to the dormitory to rest, but sat in front of the fireplace which had not yet been extinguished, waiting for Ada to come back.

The attack happened too suddenly. Although everyone disliked Filch, they were still uneasy about what happened to Mrs. Norris. Moreover, the attack took place very close to the classroom where they were doing the activity.

It was past eleven at night when Ada returned to the common room.

As she entered the lounge, she saw the members in front of the fireplace. She walked over and sat next to Fred and George.

"Well?" asked Fred. "Did Dumbledore find anything?"

Fred's question represented everyone's thoughts. Everyone wanted to know the truth about the attack and who the murderer was.

Ida shook her head and said, "Mrs. Norris was petrified. When the mandrake matures, it will be able to jump up and down in the castle and stare at the students again. However, Dumbledore doesn't know how Mrs. Norris was petrified."

"Is the Chamber of Secrets really opened?" George thought for a moment and continued, "I remember hearing Bill say that there is such a Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts."

"Does anyone know what this so-called 'Secret Room' is?" Angelina asked, "And who is the heir?"

Everyone was shaking their heads. No one knew what the secret room was, or even whether it really existed.

Records of the Chamber of Secrets have never appeared in any books on the history of magic. They are only mentioned in some unofficial histories and legends. These fragmentary mentions only say "there is a Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts", and that's all. They are of no use in finding the Chamber of Secrets.

The secret room is like a campus legend or campus myth, passed down by word of mouth, but no one has ever found it, let alone made it public.

"Regardless of the secret room, I think if we want to continue our activities, we probably need a new place," said Ada.

The classroom for the Dawn activity was on the third floor, very close to where Mrs. Norris was attacked. No one knew whether the murderer had any special hobbies, whether he liked to review his crime process or relive his crime scene.

In order to ensure everyone's safety, it is better not to use the classroom on the third floor for the time being.

"Well, leave this matter to us." Fred said, "We will find a more secluded place as soon as possible, where we will not be threatened by the heir or disturbed by Filch."

"Let's suspend our activities until we find a new place." George also said, "Everyone is very tired during this period, so it's a good time to take a break."

The attack was not forgotten by the students with the arrival of dawn. In the following days, all the students were talking about Mrs. Norris and looking for clues about the secret room.

Filch always lingered around the place where Mrs. Norris had the accident, trying to catch the murderer who dared to hurt Mrs. Norris. His temper also became much more irritable, and many innocent students suffered from his "vicious hands".

If there was anything that Ada found strange, it was probably that Ginny overreacted to Mrs. Norris's experience. Ada knew that Ginny always loved small animals, but she had only been at school for two months and had rarely seen Filch's cat. How could she have such a deep affection for this cat?
Since August, Ginny has been acting strangely, and Ada finds that she can't understand her more and more.

There are more students in the library recently. Books about Hogwarts, such as "Hogwarts, A History", have all been borrowed by students. Those who have registered to borrow the books have to wait until half a month later.

Ada also plunged into the library, but she went to the restricted books area.

But even in the restricted book section, there were not many records about the secret room. After spending several days in the library, Ada finally figured out the origin of the secret room.

Hogwarts School was founded more than a thousand years ago by four of the greatest wizards of the time. The four schools were named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin.

They built the castle together, away from the prying eyes of Muggles, because in that era, ordinary people were afraid of magic and wizards suffered a lot of persecution.

However, slowly, there were differences between them, and the rift between Slytherin and the others became larger and larger. Slytherin wanted Hogwarts to be more selective when recruiting students. He believed that magical education should only be limited to pure wizard families. He was unwilling to accept children born to Muggles, thinking that they were unreliable. After some time, Slytherin and Gryffindor had a fierce quarrel over this issue, and then Slytherin left the school.

Before leaving school, Slytherin secretly built a Chamber of Secrets. After leaving school, he sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that no one could open it until his true heir arrived at the school.

Only that heir can open the Chamber of Secrets and release the horrors within, allowing it to purify the school and purge all those unworthy of studying magic.

This is all Ida found. It is not very useful, but it is better than nothing. All the legends about the secret room do not mention where the entrance to the secret room is, nor what the monster in the secret room is.

The investigation into the secret room seemed to have reached a bottleneck, and Ada could not find any more detailed information.

For centuries, the school has been investigating the existence of the Chamber of Secrets, but to no avail. A group of top wizards have spent hundreds of years trying to find it, and it is even more impossible for Ada to find it in a few days.

Since the clue of the "secret room" was broken and further investigation was impossible, Ada could only shift her focus to another clue: who is the "heir".

Slytherin's admission standards and educational philosophy set a range for Ada, and Ada felt that the heir should be of pure blood.

So Ada began to look up books such as "Born Nobly, Genealogy of Wizards", hoping to find the heir hiding in the dark through the wizard family genealogy.

Although these genealogy books were not as detailed as those compiled by the pure-blood families themselves, there were still a lot of names waiting for Ada, and these names made Ada feel overwhelmed.

Ida wanted to ask: Why are there so many people with the same name? Why do people like to use the names of their ancestors to name their descendants? Can't we find another way to commemorate them?

Looking at those first and second lives of someone, or even several lives of someone, Ada wanted to curse. She always had questions in her mind: Wasn’t this person dead? How did he appear again?

In addition, Ada also discovered the intricate relationship between the pure-blood families. She found that the Weasley family and the Malfoy family, the Potter family and the Malfoy family, were actually related.

Although she knew that pure-blood families would practice inbreeding to maintain their so-called purity in order to ensure the purity of their bloodline, Ada really did not expect that the relationship between relatives could be so complicated.

As expected, I am still too young and have too little experience.

Everyone knows the dangers of consanguineous marriage. It will greatly increase the probability of recessive genetic diseases and the probability of fetal deformities.

But even so, the pure-blood families still ignored this danger (or they never knew it?), and demonstrated to everyone through their own actions the dangers of inbreeding.

But we have to admit that the fact that close-kin marriages can be passed down for so many years shows that there is really something about pure-blood families.

Hard work pays off. Just when Ada's mind was full of "incest" and "some generations", she finally found some clues. She found what she thought was the "heir of Slytherin".

Morfin Gaunt, the last member of the Gaunt family to appear at Hogwarts, a man who was imprisoned in Azkaban after killing Muggles, and the last clearly recorded descendant of Slytherin.

With the death of Marvolo Gaunt at home and Morfin Gaunt in Azkaban, the Gaunt family disappeared, and there was no student with the last name Gaunt in Hogwarts again.

Slytherin's descendants are gone, who is Slytherin's heir now?
Wait, Ada suddenly remembered a name, a name that had long been forgotten - Tom Marvolo Riddle.

(End of this chapter)