Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 213 Unless another case occurs

At Hogwarts, young wizards who serve as student council president, prefects, or Quidditch captains enjoy certain privileges.

They have a dedicated carriage on the Hogwarts Express and also have their own private restrooms at the school.

In addition, compared to ordinary students, they have an advantage in communicating with the school's faculty and staff.

Gemma, as the prefect, knew this all too well.

An ordinary student would find it difficult to even see Dumbledore, let alone "talk" to him.

But looking at Sherlock now, it was as if he hadn't gone to the principal's office, but had returned to his own home.

This is really hard to believe.

Seeing the three people's surprised expressions, Sherlock suddenly realized something and sat down again.

"Not going again?" Hermione couldn't help but ask when she saw Sherlock, who had already stood up, sit down again.

"Let's go after dinner. Dumbledore won't be in his office then, so we can wait for Harry."

"You even know the principal's whereabouts?"

Gemma was even more surprised.

Sherlock Holmes, what exactly are you up to?
“Miss Gemma, you don’t need to look so surprised. It’s just a reasonable deduction.”

Just as Gemma was about to ask Sherlock how he deduced this, an owl suddenly flew through the crowd and headed straight for them.

Upon seeing this, Gemma couldn't help but show a surprised expression.

"It's Eileen, what's going on?"

The bird Gemma called Erin was a short-eared owl. It circled once in the air and then landed on Gemma's shoulder.

Eileen gave her a light peck on the ear, then jumped onto the table and stretched out a leg toward her.

There was a letter tied there.

Gemma took the letter and glanced at it twice before her brows furrowed.

After reading the entire text, a look of apology immediately appeared on her face:
"Uh, I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't stay with you any longer to wait for Mr. Potter and Mr. Crevy. Something has come up that I need to deal with."

"It's alright, please go ahead."

Gemma gave Sherlock a deep look, then nodded to the three of them and turned to leave.

Watching Gemma's hurried departure, Ron asked curiously:
"Sherlock, I'm sure you know what happened to Prefect Gemma, right?"

"Insufficient evidence; we can't see much."

Hearing Sherlock's words, Ron shook his head in disappointment.

In this short period of time, Gemma Farley has successfully changed his stereotype of Slytherin.

But the next moment, Sherlock slowly said:

"The inside of the owl's wings was covered with moss spores typical of the cellar, indicating it had just flown from the direction of the Slytherin common room."

The letter paper had scorch marks on the edges, a common practice in emergencies to use a fire spell to speed up the drying of the ink.

As a Slytherin prefect, Gemma was a very responsible person, which made her daily tasks increasingly numerous.

The fact that she could immediately abandon her meeting with us must mean that there was an emergency at the academy.

Looking back, Gemma had previously threatened Malfoy, warning him to behave himself with the threat of a "Flint-style end," but Malfoy was instead severely reprimanded by Flint himself...

Therefore, I believe it's highly likely that these two had a conflict.

"I knew you'd figure it out!"

Sherlock shook his head. "However, these are just my speculations. If we were investigating a case, we could naturally work in that direction, but there's no need for that now."

Ron clenched his fist tightly. "This time I'm on Flint's side. I hope he can give Malfoy a good beating."

“I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed,” Sherlock said lazily under Ron’s surprised gaze. “As long as Gemma intervenes, this matter will definitely be suppressed before it escalates—judging from her demeanor when she left, things clearly haven’t reached an overly urgent point yet.”

“Really? That’s such a shame,” Ron said sincerely.

Hermione sighed softly, "Miss Farley is really different from the other Slytherins."

After saying that, the three of them started chatting again.

Because Gemma brought new information, the conversation revolved around the Chamber of Secrets legend, and... Harry being taken away by Lockhart.

But to their surprise, Harry still hadn't returned by the time they finished dinner.

Not only did Harry not come back, but Colin didn't come back either.

"I'll go see what's going on?"

Hermione told Sherlock and Ron something, then stood up and ran away.

“She’s always so impulsive,” Ron said with a hint of complaint. “We haven’t even agreed yet.”

“Dear Ron, you should be happy. I originally wanted to ask you to help me find out what happened.”

"Uh... well then."

Hermione didn't keep Sherlock and Ron waiting long; she returned to the Great Hall in about ten minutes.

"I didn't see Harry at all. Others said Professor Lockhart sent him to help reply to fans' letters again!"

Hermione said with a displeased look, "You promised me last time..."

“I told you long ago, Lockhart doesn’t think much of you. After all, you’re not a savior.”

Hermione ignored Ron and continued speaking to Sherlock:
"But I did run into Colin. He was standing nearby, saying he had to take another picture of Harry before going to bed tonight."

“Then he’s going to be disappointed,” Ron said, mimicking Sherlock’s tone. “I remember the last time Harry replied to Lockhart’s fans, it was already past midnight when he got back, wasn’t it?”

Sherlock nodded: "We did get back to the dormitory after midnight."

Hermione looked at Sherlock: "Then...should we go rest too?"

“I’m going to see Professor Dumbledore.” “Now?”

"Now."

"Uh... well."

Hermione and Ron exchanged a glance, unable to think of any good words for a moment, and finally could only say:
"I hope you can get the real information about the Chamber of Secrets from Dumbledore."

He might not tell me.

Sherlock frowned, recalling Dumbledore and McGonagall's behavior during the last incident with Mrs. Norris:
“I could sense his and Professor McGonagall’s hesitation and evasiveness, or rather, he didn’t even believe that Mrs. Lorris’s attack was related to the Chamber of Secrets, unless…”

"Unless what?"

Hermione asked quickly.

"Unless another similar case occurs."

"hiss--"

Hermione and Ron both gasped.

He said something incredible in such a nonchalant tone!
But then I realized that it was Sherlock who said those words, and suddenly everything seemed normal again.

Watching Sherlock leave, Ron said with some emotion:

"With Sherlock's abilities, he should be able to find out what happened this time very quickly, right?"

"I can't say."

Hermione shook her head: "Up to now, we still don't know if the Chamber of Secrets really exists, or even if it does, what the monster inside is and why it attacked Mrs. Lorris."

There are just too many suspicious points in this matter, and the various clues are intertwined and complicated; I still have no clue what to do.

At this point, Hermione couldn't help but feel a deep sense of frustration.

Last semester, she was able to help Sherlock with everything, from the case of Hannah's father being falsely accused, to the theft of Cho Chang's eyeshadow, the case of the Greek interpreter, to the incident involving the Philosopher's Stone.

But this semester, she found herself seemingly rendered useless.

Her feeling was amplified, especially by Gemma Farley's presence today.

Although Gemma's account of the Chamber of Secrets incident from fifty years ago was merely a legend she'd heard from her elders, Hermione, who knew Sherlock well, knew that her good friend must have drawn some inspiration from it.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been in such a hurry to find Dumbledore.

"It's okay, we have Sherlock anyway, we can just dump all the difficulties on him."

"I can't believe it," Rontian said shamelessly.

Hermione didn't answer.

She clenched her fist secretly.

I have to do something.

Whether it was to help Sherlock solve the case or to help Harry clear his name.

Meanwhile, Sherlock had arrived at the small, detached tower where the headmaster's office was located.

The office was guarded by a huge stone beast, and behind the stone beast was an automatic spiral staircase, at the top of which was the door to the principal's office.

Just like the common rooms of the four houses of Hogwarts, you need to give the correct password to enter here.

Sherlock had been accompanied by others on his previous visits, but this time, coming alone, he was naturally stopped in his tracks.

"Password."

The moment they saw Sherlock, everyone took the initiative to ask him.

"Lemon Snowball Candy".

Sherlock answered without hesitation.

"Incorrect password".

The other party said without any mercy.

"Heh, so it really has been changed."

When he was denied entry after giving the password he used last time he was here, Sherlock chuckled and said:
"Dumbledore."

"Incorrect password".

"Tsk, it seems that this is the only one left."

After his second failed attempt, Sherlock shrugged and said, "A pile of cockroaches."

As soon as he finished speaking, the big guy came to life.

It nimbly leaped to the side, and the wall behind it split in two.

Behind the wall is a spiral staircase, slowly moving upwards, just like an escalator.

As soon as Sherlock stepped on it, he heard a loud rumble behind him, and the wall slammed shut again.

He spun higher and higher, until he reached the principal's office at the top of the stairs, a gleaming oak door.

Sherlock stepped forward, pulled up the griffin-shaped brass door knocker, and knocked on it.

The door opened silently.

Sherlock didn't consider himself an outsider; the door was already open, and he walked in without saying a word.

The light in the headmaster's office was dimmer than in the corridor. Dumbledore was twirling a gold and red candy wrapper between his fingers, his blue eyes behind his half-moon spectacles looking at Sherlock with a half-smile.

"Sherlock, should I compliment you for arriving early this time?"

Dumbledore, dressed in a star-patterned robe, was not surprised by Sherlock's uninvited arrival and even joked with him.

(End of this chapter)