Hogwarts: From Luna's House to Godhood Through Intense Competition

He suddenly remembered Colin's Polaroid camera and immediately asked, "Colin, where's your Polaroid camera? Did you bring it with you... Did you take any pictures?"

“I brought it out!” Colin nodded quickly. “I even took pictures! Just before I was dragged here! I pressed the shutter!”

“Headmaster Dumbledore, there might be a clue. The giant snake has disappeared now…” Vizet closed his eyes and sensed the surroundings. “There have been no alarms at the places where the Parseltongue whistles were placed.”

Dumbledore looked at the house-elf who was waiting for orders, "Then I'll trouble you to make another trip and retrieve what Colin dropped."

The house-elf was very fast, and with another "snap," it returned to the principal's office with the Polaroid camera in its hand.

"You've worked hard, go back and rest!" Dumbledore took the Polaroid camera, raised his wand, and opened the back cover.

He was greeted by the acrid smell of burning plastic and a plume of black smoke...

Chapter 168 The Pipes of Hogwarts

Colin cried out in anguish, "My Polaroid camera!"

Dumbledore raised his wand and cast a restoration spell on the Polaroid, "Restored to its original state!"

The restoration spell didn't seem to work; the Polaroid was still emitting black smoke and a pungent smell.

Snape's lips curled into a sneer. "If you hadn't been discovered by Vizet, the thing smoking right now... would probably be you."

"I...I...he...he...Vizet saved me!" Colin's face turned red instantly, and his eyes widened as he looked at Vizet.

Harry blinked; he felt a sense of déjà vu in Colin's eyes.

“Prank over!” Vizette stared at the Marauder’s Map, focusing on the area of ​​the giant snake for a while, before putting the map away.

“Headmaster Dumbledore, the giant serpent probably isn’t just wandering around the castle… it’s moving inside the walls…”

"Otherwise, it's impossible to explain why it suddenly appeared and then suddenly disappeared... inside those walls..."

Dumbledore said, "That's the pipe..."

"Isn't this what they mean by 'blind spots'?" Vizet remarked. "There are pipes inside the walls... it's a perfectly normal thing."

“No… for wizards, this isn’t so normal.” Dumbledore blinked, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

“That makes sense.” Vizette realized. “According to ‘Hogwarts: A History,’ before the eighteenth century, Hogwarts students…did not need a sewage system.”

"What do you mean by not needing a sewage system?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"Heh...so you can use magic to solve problems." Snape looked at Harry and said with a hint of sarcasm, "or take the twig out of your head...and wipe it clean."

“Ahem…that’s the idea.” Vizet coughed twice and continued, “Hogwarts’ pipe system wasn’t truly established until after the eighteenth century.”

"Wizards copied Muggle practices to build plumbing systems and facilities such as washrooms. From then on, professors no longer needed to teach students the 'toilet charm' in the first class."

“Yes, all you need is some reeds.” Snape stared at Harry. “I think someone should go to the school hospital, otherwise he probably won’t be able to hold onto the reeds.”

"What exactly does 'pipeline' mean?" Colin was clearly not following the train of thought and kept asking questions as he left the principal's office.

Harry remained silent, a fleeting thought flashing through his mind when he heard the words "pipe" and "serpent."

He always felt he was about to grasp something, but he was always just one step away.

As they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Colin spotted a figure in the distance and asked, "Who's standing there?"

Hearing Colin's words, Harry looked up and said, "It's Professor McGonagall."

"Heh..." Draco let out a cold laugh.

"It's Professor McGonagall?" Colin's voice was filled with fear, tinged with a sob. "It's all over! It's all over!"

Seeing that Colin was unharmed, Professor McGonagall first breathed a sigh of relief, but then immediately put on a stern face.

"The fat lady told me that she saw a Gryffindor sneak out of the common room before curfew."

“Yes, but it’s not a big problem. I’ve already punished him.” Snape’s tone was tinged with pleasure. “He lost fifty points in Gryffindor.”

“I’ve already seen it,” Professor McGonagall said, her tone more serious. “If it were me, I would have done the same!”

……

After saying goodbye to a dejected Colin, Harry was taken to the school hospital, while Draco was taken back to his dormitory by Snape.

Harry watched Vizzet's retreating figure and suddenly felt an impulse.

He wanted to don the invisibility cloak, sneak into the forbidden section, find the book Dumbledore had recommended, and read it carefully to digest the magical knowledge within.

But before that, he needs to digest the steaming hot Bone Spirit in front of him.

But as soon as he took a sip, he felt his mouth burning and immediately spat out all the potion.

“I know it’s painful!” Madam Pomfrey poured another glass of Bone Regenerating Elixir. “But if you want your bones to have healed by the time you see the sunrise… I suggest you drink it anyway.”

Harry could only endure the burning sensation in his esophagus and struggle to swallow a large cup of Bone Spirit.

After his bones healed, he planned to go back and find Hermione and Ron to share what had happened that night.

I don't know where they are... Will they wait for him in the common room, or will they stay in that abandoned restroom?

He vaguely remembered that the preparation of that compound decoction seemed to be about to enter the next stage...

……

Vizet followed Dumbledore and Snape, first searching the place where Colin had been attacked.

No trace was left at the scene, and even when Dumbledore waved his wand and tried to find evidence in the surrounding pipes, he found nothing.

Vizette did notice something unusual in the corner: swarms of spiders crawling out of the window.

Even the biting wind outside the window couldn't stop the spiders from leaving the castle.

He thought of some topics related to earthquakes, such as how some creatures instinctively migrate before an earthquake occurs.

Perhaps the spider sensed some kind of terrifying snake, which is why it fled the castle?

With that thought in mind, he wrote "The Spider Escapes the Castle" in his notebook and left with Dumbledore.

Dumbledore asked gently, "Vizet, where do you think we should go?"

“Now that we have this pipeline as a clue…” Vizet murmured, “Since we haven’t found the location where Colin was attacked, we should go and check out the place where Lady Lorris was attacked.”

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Too bad you don't have any sedge in your head."

……

The writing on the wall where Mrs. Lorris was attacked has not faded at all.

Not only are the writings still there, but even the water in the corner of the wall is still there.

This is because the rainy season this year was unusually heavy, which caused problems with the abandoned washroom across the street, causing water to overflow from the washroom and spread here.

Professor McGonagall has already applied for a professional wizard to carry out the repairs once the rainy season is completely over.

When Vizet looked toward the abandoned washroom, Dumbledore and Snape did the same, looking toward the slowly flowing water in the abandoned washroom.

Dumbledore was still leading the way, casting a spell of illumination, moving with the light and composure of a hunter patrolling the night with a lantern.

The abandoned washroom was naturally dilapidated over the years, with thick yellow limescale covering the damp floor and mottled gray-black mold crawling on the walls.

The damp, musty smell was mixed with hints of fire and herbs.

"Is someone here... brewing a magic potion?"

Wizette, Dumbledore, and Snape all spoke at the same time.

"Brewing potions in a place like this?" Snape looked around. "Are they planning to blow up the bathroom...so that potions will fill every corner of Hogwarts?"

Dumbledore smiled without saying a word, walked to the door of a private room, raised his wand as if testing something, and then pushed open the door...

Chapter 169 The Cauldron on the Toilet, Hermione and Ron's Night Stroll

Inside the private room was a crucible, a crucible placed on top of the toilet, with crackling sounds coming from underneath it.

The crucible contained clear water, with only a few small bubbles rising to the bottom, indicating that it had just been heated and was still being heated.

"Heh!" Snape seemed relieved, letting out a cold laugh. "A brilliant idea, using a toilet to prop up the cauldron..."

"It seems the user has some peculiar preferences. Vizet, take a look at what materials are used in the water tank."

Dumbledore and Snape made way for Vizette, who entered the private room, drew her wand, and cast a luminous spell, "Fluorescence!"

He picked up the transparent jars on the water tank. “Laceyceps, live leeches, sapwort, and two-ear grass… it’s almost certain that these materials are intended to be used to make a compound decoction.”

Snape seemed to be waiting for something, and asked somewhat casually, "Tell me why you came to this conclusion."

Although his expression was somewhat languid, he gripped his wand tightly in his hand and his body was in a vigilant posture.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, paced around, as if observing something.

With two incredibly powerful wizards present, Vizzet felt less burdened and followed Snape's questions, explaining her thought process.

"Leech has the property of 'shrinking,' so it has a wide range of applications, but it is usually crushed into juice or a portion is extracted for use..."

"It's like a shrinking potion; without leech juice that has been left to stand for more than a week, it can't achieve the effect of 'making the drinker smaller.'"

"But it requires the use of living organisms, which means utilizing the property of 'absorption,' which aligns well with the principles of compound decoctions..."

"If we compare a person taking the compound decoction to a leech, he can transform into the appearance of the other person by 'absorbing' their hair."

“To make good use of the properties of ‘absorption’ and ‘change’…” Vizet pointed to two transparent jars, “the compound decoction needs to be supplemented with sapwort and two-ear grass to be stable enough.”