Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 204 So here's the question.
Upon hearing Sherlock's words, all the students in the corridor followed his gaze.

Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Professor Snape, and others appeared in the crowd at some unknown time.

This surprised the vast majority of people. When did these teachers arrive here?

A bright glint flashed across Dumbledore's crescent-shaped spectacles.

He and his faculty and staff have been here for a while now.

However, everyone's attention was focused on Sherlock, who was examining the scene, so not many people noticed them.

Even if a few students did discover them, he instructed them to remain silent.

Unexpectedly, it was Sherlock, who was focused on examining the crime scene, who discovered them much earlier.

Upon hearing Sherlock speak, Dumbledore practically flew to the wall with the writing on it.

His gaze swept over the words on the wall, and then he took Mrs. Lorris off the torch stand.

“Sherlock, well done, you…you did very well.”

Dumbledore said softly, then looked at Filch, "Come with me, Argus."

Having received news from Sherlock that Lady Lorris was not dead, Filch's mental state was much more stable than before.

So when he heard Dumbledore say that, he nodded slightly.

Dumbledore then looked at several other key figures:
"And you, Mr. Potter, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Longbottom, and Miss Granger."

Dumbledore's words did not surprise anyone.

As the parties involved at the scene of the crime, Harry, Hermione, and Neville naturally had to go with Dumbledore to explain the situation.

As for Sherlock, needless to say.

In that short period of time, he had already taken complete control of the entire arena.

He even suggested changing the location to continue the questioning.

"So……"

Dumbledore's gaze swept over the teachers, finally settling on Professor McGonagall, "Minerva..."

Since Professor McGonagall became Head of Gryffindor, she has been working in a small study on the second floor of Hogwarts Castle, which is one of the closest offices to here.

In addition, since these students were all Gryffindors, Dumbledore instinctively wanted to go to her.

However, before he could finish speaking, Professor Lockhart hurriedly stepped forward:
"My office is closest to here, the principal - it's upstairs - you can -"

Dumbledore paused for a moment, then remembered that the Defense Against the Dark Arts office was indeed on the third floor.

He then nodded slightly: "Thank you, Gilderoy."

Upon hearing Dumbledore's words, the silent crowd immediately parted to let them pass.

Professor Lockhart was very excited, looking quite smug, and hurriedly followed behind Dumbledore.

Professor McGonagall exchanged a few words with the other professors, and then she and Professor Snape followed.

"It was like this last Halloween, I didn't expect it to happen again this year..."

Professor Sprout frowned as he watched the prefects organize the students to return to their dormitories.

She was referring, of course, to the troll incident that occurred on Halloween Eve last semester.

Professor Flitwick shook his head as well: "Hogwarts has finally had so many years of peace since that person left, could it be..."

At this point, both of them looked at the words on the wall at the same time, then looked away and exchanged a glance.

"A secret room..."

This was Harry and Hermione's second visit to Lockhart's office.

Harry, in particular, was deeply impressed by the office, as his reply took nearly four hours.

However, this time when everyone entered Lockhart's dimly lit office, a commotion suddenly arose on the wall.

Sherlock's gaze swept across the office, and he saw Lockhart in several photos, frantically hiding, with curlers still in their hair.

At that moment, the real Lockhart waved his wand and lit the candles on the table.

Harry, Hermione, and Neville exchanged nervous glances and quickly sat down in the chairs where the candlelight couldn't reach, their eyes fixed intently on the bigwigs present.

Throughout this time, the three of them kept glancing at Sherlock.

Unfortunately, Sherlock seemed to be looking around the office as well, and didn't notice them.

This made the three of them look away with some regret.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore placed Mrs. Lorris on the polished table and began to examine her carefully.

His crooked, long nose almost touched the fur on Mrs. Lorris's body.

His bright eyes carefully examined it through the crescent-shaped lenses of his glasses, while his slender fingers gently poked and prodded it here and there.

He examined it very carefully, no less so than Sherlock had just done.

Professor McGonagall bent over, squinting as she looked closely, her face almost touching the cat's.

Professor Snape did not come forward.

He stood behind Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, half of his body hidden in the shadows, looking rather sinister.

Sherlock noticed that the expression on the professor's face was very strange.

It gives the impression that they are desperately trying to restrain themselves.

Filch slumped into a chair next to the desk as soon as he entered the office.

Although Sherlock had just said that Lady Norris was not dead, Dumbledore's current appearance made him tense again.

He covered his face with his hands, not daring to look at Mrs. Norris, fearing that Dumbledore might utter a single sentence at any moment:
"It's hopeless, give up on treatment!" Lockhart, the owner of the office, hovered around Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, constantly offering advice.

“I remember something very similar happened in Ouagadougou.”

Lockhart went on and on, saying, "A series of attacks occurred at the time, which I document in detail in my autobiography."

Fortunately, I provided the residents there with all sorts of amulets, which solved the problem immediately.

As he spoke, the photos of Lockhart on the wall all nodded in agreement.

One of them even forgot to remove his hairnet.

Noticing his behavior, Sherlock raised an eyebrow slightly.

Just then, Dumbledore suddenly looked up at Filch, who was covering his eyes:

“Argus, Lady Lorice is not dead.”

"Really? Headmaster!"

Filch stood up abruptly, looking at Dumbledore with a look of surprise and delight.

"Just as Sherlock said, its vital signs are still present. As for its current appearance, it is because it has been petrified."

As Dumbledore spoke, his gaze swept over Harry and the others, "But I don't know the specifics of what happened right now."

"ask him!"

Filch screamed, turning his mottled, tear-stained face toward Harry.

Dumbledore frowned, not immediately asking Harry, but turning to another person instead:

"Sherlock, what do you think?"

As Dumbledore spoke, everyone turned to look at Sherlock.

Gilderoy Lockhart looked on with surprise.

It seemed that no one expected Dumbledore to seek advice from a second-year student.

Sherlock said calmly and firmly:

"They didn't do this—or rather, they weren't capable of doing it."

Hearing Sherlock's words, Harry, Hermione, and Neville all breathed a sigh of relief.

Well, although they were all second-year students, the moment Sherlock opened his mouth, the three of them felt that the outcome was already decided.

Dumbledore nodded in agreement: “Indeed, it’s impossible for a second-year student to do that; it would require a very high level of dark magic.”

Even so, this matter must be related to them!

Filch spat as he spoke, his fat, sagging face turning purplish-red.

Hearing this, Sherlock looked over at him.

Stared at by his grey eyes, Filch suddenly shrank back:

"What I mean is...it might be related to them, otherwise why would they be there?"

While everyone else was wondering why Sherlock had such a great influence over Filch, a sinister voice spoke:

"Hehe, is the great detective about to put on another show?"

It must be said that Professor Snape's talent for being sarcastic and unpredictable was outstanding, on par with his potion-making skills.

However, Sherlock remained completely unaffected. He glanced at Professor Snape and calmly said:
"It's not a performance, just a reasonable inference."

"It's just speculation again. Why don't we ask the great detective to explain to us why your 'three little friends' would be there at that time?"
Everyone else is at the Halloween party, why are they the only ones going down the hallway?

He deliberately emphasized the phrase "three little friends," as if implying that Sherlock wanted to exonerate Harry and his friends.

Sherlock remained unmoved:
"Professor Snape, I can indeed explain this about myself."

A week ago, my friends were invited by the ghostly Sir Gryffindor to his death anniversary celebration.

He not only did not shy away from Professor Snape's talk about the "three friends," but also openly admitted it.

Harry and Hermione also began to vie with each other to explain that they had attended a death anniversary party:
"Yes, that's it!"

"Hundreds of ghosts have arrived; they can prove we were there—"

"Then here's the problem."

However, they were interrupted by Professor Snape before they could finish speaking.

"But what happened after that? Why didn't you come to the banquet?"

Professor Snape's dark eyes gleamed in the candlelight:

"Why did you go up to the corridor after the so-called anniversary banquet?"

Hermione and Neville both looked at Harry.

Upon seeing this, Sherlock's eyes flashed, and he immediately had a guess in his mind.

"because……"

Ha cautiously glanced at Sherlock out of the corner of his eye.

There's a reason I came to the third-floor corridor.

The problem is that he feels even if he gives this reason, it certainly won't hold water.

So he could only come up with another reason.

"Because we were tired and wanted to go to bed early."

(End of this chapter)