A magical journey that begins at Hogwarts

The Basilisk, the Chamber of Secrets—there's a list of suspects somewhere...besides Ginny, she's definitely not the heir to Slytherin.

"How do you explain what Aaron said?"

Ron scoffed dismissively, "Coincidence, absolutely a coincidence."

I would never have believed before that so many coincidences could happen to one person, but the facts have shown us that it is possible.

Do you really think Ginny will be Slytherin's heir? My sister has lived with us brothers for over ten years, and she's never shown even a hint of Parsley's talent.

"Let's not talk about that now. I think we need to consider something else." Hermione patted her chest gently, trying to calm herself down. "Aaron will probably ask Draco and the others about the progress of the investigation after the Christmas holidays. He'll definitely find something amiss."

Therefore, we need to investigate the people on that list as thoroughly as possible before then, so that we have a reason to respond when he questions us, otherwise...”

Hermione didn't finish her sentence, but Harry and Ron both knew what she meant.

Last year, they conspired to trick Abe out of Aaron's hands, but they were caught red-handed that very night.

That crisis of trust left them embarrassed for a long time. Every time they saw Aaron and his dragon cub, they would involuntarily lower their heads and not dare to look him in the eye.

Even now, when they face Aaron, they still feel the same trepidation as a thief seeing a policeman, even though the thief has fully realized his mistake.

The problem is that they made the same mistake again tonight, and this mistake may be even worse than last year's dragon-stealing incident. The only way to make amends is to find the culprit before he discovers the problem, or at the very least, to achieve something.

“This is really difficult!” Ron said with a bitter face. “To be honest, of those twenty-three names, I only remembered Ginny and the two next to her, one is Leona, and the other is Newt.”

But I don't know either of these students; I've never even heard of them before.

"I only remembered two, and I'm not even sure if I read them correctly," Harry said dejectedly. He had been so focused on Aaron's explanation that he hadn't paid any attention to the names.

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, then looked at Hermione in tacit agreement. Of the three of them, only Hermione had a better memory, so perhaps she could remember the list.

"Don't have high expectations of me. Ron's performance almost drove me crazy back then. I didn't have time to remember those things."

The effects of the compound decoction were about to expire, and I had no other thought but to run away.

"So that means you didn't remember any of them?" Ron's expression became even more bitter, and he said speechlessly, "If only the compound decoction could last longer."

It was supposed to be an hour, but it broke down in less than forty-five minutes.

"Are you blaming me?" Hermione glared at him angrily. "This is my first time making a potion that difficult. It's good enough that I succeeded."

And the reason we're in such a predicament is because—does anyone need me to remind them?

"Don't rush to shirk responsibility. Aren't there five names?"

“To correct you, there are four,” Ron said confidently. “Ginny can be completely ruled out as a suspect.”

"Okay, let's say there are four!" Harry said helplessly. "We can eliminate one by one, and maybe we'll get lucky and find the real culprit among these four!"

Besides, we can also check Gryffindor's common room, which he can't access.

Hermione and Ron nodded silently. That was all they could do. They would just have to take it one step at a time.

However, the situation was slightly worse than they had anticipated, and they didn't have as much time as they had expected.

The next morning, Draco woke up to find himself locked in a dark space, but luckily he still had his wand.

Despite his fear, he still cast a simple spell.

"Fluorescence."

A bright light appeared at the tip of the wand. He looked around cautiously and saw several magical brooms. He immediately knew where he was.

Draco wasn't stupid either. Considering his current situation and the chocolate cake he ate last night, he was furious.

A prank, a pure prank.

Potter and Weasley are truly insidious; they deceived him with an attitude he couldn't refuse, and even locked him in the broom shed. They are utterly lawless.

"Open the Alaho hole!"

As he opened the cabinet door, sunlight streamed through the window and shone on Draco's face, but he felt no warmth whatsoever, and his expression turned particularly grim.

There were three pairs of shoes on the ground. Draco looked at his bare feet and suddenly realized something.

He walked to another cabinet and used a lock-picking spell to open it.

Two burly figures collapsed out, and several brooms hit their faces before Crabbe and Goyle woke up.

"Where is this?" Crabbe murmured in confusion. "How did we get here?"

"You two, get up right now!" Draco said angrily, then threw their shoes at them. "And put your shoes on while you're at it."

Crabbe and Gore did as instructed, but were still full of doubts.

After composing themselves, the two stood silently beside Draco, for it was the first time they had ever felt Malfoy's anger.

Do you know why you're in this place?

Both of them shook their heads, but they were certain they weren't sleepwalking.

“I bet you guys don’t know either.” Draco rolled his eyes speechlessly, then told them his guess.

"You mean we were drugged by Potter and his gang?" Crabbe asked incredulously. "How dare they?"

"Can you think of any other possibility besides this?" Draco retorted with a sneer. "They've really gone to shameless lengths for this prank."

Under the guise of an apology, they made us eat a cake laced with sleeping pills, and then locked us in this wretched place.

"Hmph! If my dad knew, he'd be furious."

boom!

Gore slammed his fist on the cabinet. "This is outrageous! When have we ever suffered such a loss? I'm going to settle the score with them right now."

"Stop right there!" Draco snapped. "Haven't you embarrassed yourself enough already?!"

Going straight over to settle scores? I want to teach them a lesson even more than you do, but what are you going to do? Beat them up in public?

This kind of revenge is the most rudimentary. Even setting aside the question of whether they could win, escalating the situation would only bring shame to Slytherin.

“We can’t just sit here and let this go!” Crabbe said angrily.

"How could that be? I can't swallow this!" Draco said fiercely. "Let's go back first."

The three returned to the Slytherin common room with grim faces. On the way, students who saw them instinctively gave them a wide berth, because they looked like debt collectors.

They sat on the sofa in silence, exuding an aura that kept strangers at bay.

Aaron had just come out of the dormitory, intending to take Abe to the auditorium for dinner, but he was also a little curious when he saw the three of them like this.

"What's wrong with you guys? You were fine last night."

"Don't talk to me about last night." Draco said through gritted teeth, his face hardening, but he calmed down when he saw that it was Aaron who had come over.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have treated you that way."

"It's only been one night! Even if you had a nightmare, you shouldn't be this angry."

"I hope it was just a nightmare, we had one last night..."

“Shut up, Crabbe,” Draco interrupted him immediately. He didn’t want his best friend to know about his embarrassing state.

The fact that the heir to the prestigious Malfoy family was drugged and locked in the broomstick room by the mere Weasleys and Potters is a laughing stock.

"Hey, hey, hey! It can't be that serious!" Aaron's eye twitched. "I just asked you guys to help me investigate some things. If you don't want to, you can tell me. There's no need to get so angry."

Draco was taken aback, and Crabbe and Goyle exchanged bewildered glances.

"Aaron, are you kidding me? We didn't even come back last night."

"What?" Aaron hadn't realized the problem yet, and said in a joking tone, "Don't be silly, didn't you guys come looking for me last night?"

"It was the prefect who brought you here!"

“But we…” Draco began, then suddenly realized something, a sinister smile spreading across his face. “So that’s how it is!”

"Saint Potter and his friends really know how to have fun!"

"what are you saying?"

Draco hesitated for a while, then looked at Aaron with a complicated expression. "I didn't want you to know this, but now it seems I have to."

You'd better be mentally prepared, otherwise I'm worried you won't be able to accept it.

"Just say it!" Aaron waved his hand dismissively and calmly sat down opposite Draco. "My mental fortitude far exceeds your imagination."

"Okay! Here's the thing."

Everything was fine until the three of us ate the chocolate cake Harry Potter and Ron Weasley gave us last night, and when we woke up this morning, we found ourselves locked in the closet in the broomhouse.” Draco looked at Aaron meaningfully. “Do you understand what I mean?”

We slept in the broom shed last night and didn't come back at all. When we woke up, we found our shoes had been taken off.

Chapter 176 The Boat of Friendship Capsized

After hearing Draco's words, Aaron blinked blankly. Although he seemed calm, there was a hint of sadness in his eyes.

After a long silence, he sighed and murmured with a hint of disappointment, "I see!"

"Hey! Isn't your reaction a bit too calm?" Draco looked at Aaron in surprise. "If I were you, I would have already started cursing."

"This only proves that I can control my emotions better than you. You don't need to get involved in this matter; I will handle it myself."

“I won’t interfere in your business, but I’m not done with those guys.” Draco pointed at Goyle and Crabbe, “The same goes for the two of them.”

Do you know how we got through last night? It was an utter disgrace!

"We won't let this go unpunished until we get our revenge."

"Suit yourself!" Aaron shrugged and then left the common room.

"Should we go and see?" Gore asked, while Crabbe hesitated as well.

They could all guess what Aaron was going to do, but he was alone after all and was easily taken advantage of.

But with them added, it becomes four against three, so at least in terms of scale, we won't lose.

"No need, one thing at a time." Draco waved his hand dismissively. "He's Gaius, after all. He doesn't need our help with such a small matter."

Realizing he had been deceived, Aaron lost his appetite and took Abe directly to the Gryffindor common room.

After questioning the fat lady guarding the door and confirming that Harry and his companions hadn't left, he decided to wait for them outside.

However, since many students chose to spend Christmas at home, it took more than twenty minutes before anyone came out.

It was none other than the Weasley twins, Fred and George.