From Hogwarts to Sturhaven

They heard Lockhart's office door open and the sound of his shiny leather boots clicking in the hallway, but they didn't dare make a sound until the door closed again.

"Phew," Harry and Ron both breathed a sigh of relief, only to realize that they had stumbled into a restroom, and a girls' restroom at that.

This is a dark, gloomy, and dilapidated place. Under a large, stained, and cracked mirror is a row of stone pools with peeling surfaces.

The floor was damp, and a few candle stubs burned low on the holder, casting a dim light that made the floor look eerie.

The paint on the wooden doors of the toilet stalls was peeling and covered in scratches; one door hinge had come loose and was hanging there wobbly.

“No wonder there was a puddle of water at the feet of the armor that day,” Harry muttered, as he prepared to open the door and leave.

But his voice caught the attention of the fourth "living creature" in the washroom.

"A boy is here?"

Harry and Ron both saw a silver-white head stick out from the innermost compartment.

“Oh, hello, Myrtle.” Hermione greeted her calmly, showing no fear whatsoever that the other person was a ghost from the toilet.

Harry and Ron were even more hesitant, having already experienced Myrtle's difficult nature at the Death Anniversary Party.

"What are you doing here?" Myrtle looked at the three of them with suspicion.

“That’s right,” Hermione had already prepared her explanation in a short time, “Harry heard voices in the corridor that day, and it seemed to be coming from here.”

"I'm all alone here!" Myrtle's tears were about to fall.

“We all know this place belongs to you!” Hermione quickly tried to salvage the situation. “I mean, there are ghosts using your bathroom to play tricks on Harry.”

"What?" Myrtle raised her voice.

“Three people, two men and one woman. Right, Harry?” Hermione looked at Harry for his opinion.

"Shameless!" Myrtle, like a broken showerhead, sprayed silvery tears everywhere. "My life here was devoid of joy, only sorrow. Now that I'm dead, people still won't leave me alone! In this dark, dilapidated washroom, my last refuge... what are you playing... what are you doing..."

To the horror of all three, a suspicious halo appeared on Myrtle's face.

"What are you playing... two men and one woman!" With a splash, Myrtle jumped back into the toilet tank.

The trio looked at each other, shivered, and hurriedly left.

They all decided to put their encounter with Myrtle in the girls' restroom behind them.

"Back to the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione concluded, "Slytherin built it, and his successor will unleash the monsters within to purge those in the school who are unworthy to learn magic."

“Almost everyone,” Ron added, “because there are hardly any true purebloods left.”

Hermione glared at him and continued, "If the Chamber of Secrets has really been opened, it means there really is a Slytherin heir."

"Now, think about who in this house is most qualified to be Slytherin's successor."

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, then exclaimed in unison, "Ivy!"

“That’s it,” Hermione shrugged. “We all know him. Ivy doesn’t subscribe to pure-blood theory; we knew that back on the train in our first year. And there’s no one in Slytherin more deserving to inherit the Chamber of Secrets than him. Plus, I know Ivy’s been busy preparing for OWLs lately and hasn’t had time to pull off any plots to purge Muggle-borns.”

“The Chamber of Secrets might actually exist, but what’s been happening at the school lately doesn’t necessarily have to do with it,” Hermione concluded.

"Then why did the legend of the Chamber of Secrets spread throughout the castle so quickly?" Harry now understood the question Hermione had asked them earlier.

"I don't know, maybe someone did it on purpose." Hermione flipped through her Charms homework, seemingly not intending to waste any more time on this matter.

“Actually…” Harry hesitated for a moment before stating his deduction, “Ivy might actually be involved in these things. Remember? We ran into him in the underground classroom that day; it was Ivy who stopped the riot during the first-year flight class; and he was even waiting for Filch at the school hospital on the day Filch was attacked.”

"Come on, Harry," Hermione said impatiently. "You're just jealous that he doesn't have to go to class!"

"He doesn't have to go to class?" Ron only found out now.

€€€€€€€€

"The Chamber of Secrets?" Ivy closed her book, frowning as she looked at Harry, who seemed rather flustered.

He didn't understand how Harry had gotten involved with the Chamber of Secrets.

This year, without Voldemort's interference, should have been a peaceful year. However, things have been going wrong all the time, and the new school year has repeatedly exceeded Ivy's schedule.

Dumbledore decided to secretly check the students' luggage when they returned home for Christmas, looking for anything similar to the bag.

Besides the Summoning Spell, Ivy also found a second-circle divination spell from the Grimoire of Destruction—Item Locator.

Its effect is similar to bio-location, except that it searches for items familiar to the caster or one of a certain category of items.

Ivy tried both methods, but received no feedback.

In truth, he had already given up all hope of finding the bag.

However, he believes that if someone is indeed manipulating the events that are happening at Hogwarts, then that person must have ulterior motives.

As long as he has a goal, it's only a matter of time before he slips up. And the maximum timeframe for that is one year.

Ivy's deduction is simple: all the stories in the original work take place within a year, or more precisely, from the beginning of summer vacation until the end of the school year.

Therefore, Ivy believes that what's happening in the castle right now will also unfold in a yearly timeframe. He just hopes that the person behind this won't affect OWLs; Ivy doesn't want to prepare for another year.

“Let me put it this way, Harry,” Ivy said, coming to her senses, “I can’t say the Chamber of Secrets doesn’t exist, but that’s not something you should be thinking about. Even if someone were to use the monster from the Chamber of Secrets to purify Hogwarts, it’s not something a second-year student like you could stop. I hope you can protect yourself and your friends. If you find anything, you can come and tell me, or you can tell Professor McGonagall, she’s your Headmistress, right?”

Looking at Harry's suspicious expression, Ivy really didn't know how to stop him.

This savior, who possesses an extraordinary spirit of adventure in the original story, is a huge problem.

Ivy wasn't interested in babysitting him, perhaps because she had regained her adult body. But Ivy couldn't just dismiss him; who knew what kind of trouble the reckless Gryffindor might cause unsupervised?

Especially since a piece of Voldemort's soul is hidden in the scar on Harry's forehead, Ivy needs Harry to live, or at least not die unexpectedly.

Therefore, all he could do was offer kind advice, urging Harry not to cause trouble, especially not anything related to the Chamber of Secrets. If Harry were to be killed by the Basilisk's gaze, who would he ask for another fragment of Voldemort's soul?

This stuff is a scarce resource; once it's used up, there are fewer and fewer left!

Chapter 181 Doubt

Temperatures in the Scottish Highlands always drop faster than elsewhere in the British Isles.

But Hagrid's cabin was always warm and cozy, and he had his fireplace burning brightly. Harry was warming himself by the fire and drinking tea with his big and little friends.

“Everyone in the castle is going crazy lately!” Ron told Hagrid vividly, “They say the recent bloodshed is somehow connected to the Chamber of Secrets.”

Hai Ge nervously rubbed his hands together, about to speak, but was interrupted by Ron's words.

“But we think it’s all just rumors.” Ron’s words undoubtedly relieved Hagrid. “There may be a secret room, but it’s definitely not the real reason for the recent events.”

"Why...why?" Hagrid chimed in.

“Because of the successor!” Ron said smugly. “There couldn’t be a more suitable successor to the Chamber of Secrets in the school than Ivy, but we all know he scorns the pure-blood theory.”

"And I suspect the Chamber of Secrets might just be a place Slytherin himself used to research magic, and there's no monster in it that could be used to purify the castle." Hermione casually pushed the rock cake in front of her a little further away.

Hagrid was finally completely relieved and gulped down a large cup of tea.

He stood up from the stool and called to his friends, "Stop talking about escape rooms, they're scary. I'll show you something more interesting!"

"Interesting?" Harry got a few goosebumps. The last interesting thing Hagrid mentioned was a fire dragon. What could it be this time?

They are a bunch of moon-obsessed beasts.

Moonfoxes are classified as Class XX magical creatures, meaning the Ministry of Magic considers them harmless.

The Moon-obsessed Beast has very smooth fur, a light gray hue. Its head and neck have almost no transition, giving it an endearing, clumsy appearance. Most striking are its large, bright eyes, always fixed intently on the moon. Therefore, the Moon-obsessed Beast is a nocturnal creature, only emerging from its burrow at night.

They have four thin legs with four flat, large feet underneath, and they often make a "biu~biu~" sound when they move.

"They're so cute!" Hermione couldn't resist trying to get closer, but the little animals immediately scattered like startled ducks.

"Haha!" Hagrid chuckled twice. "Moonfolk are very shy creatures. They were one of the first magical creatures introduced to the 'Base', mainly used to provide fertilizer for Professor Sprout's greenhouse."

“Normally, Moonfoxes don’t appear during the day; they dance in the moonlight, which is really interesting.” Hagrid took out some food and stuffed it into the hands of the three children.

"Hey! Look at it!" Harry pointed to a creature that stood out from the crowd, its fur white with dark gray patches that looked like a cow's markings. "Why does it look different from its companions?"

“Those are wild.” Hagrid pulled a brush from his pocket, glanced at it, and replied, “I never knew there were so many Moonfoxes in the Forbidden Forest. About half of them originally lived in the Forbidden Forest, and one day when I came to collect their droppings, I suddenly noticed that their numbers had increased.”

"Are we going to start learning about them next semester?" Hermione fed all the food in her hand to a little one, then turned around and asked, "This facility is really well built."

“You’ll probably start in your third year,” Hagrid said. “Right now, there aren’t many magical creatures in the ‘Base,’ so Professor Celticburn and I can handle them. But next year, protecting magical creatures will become a compulsory course at Hogwarts! Dumbledore’s been busy recruiting new professors lately!”

€€€€€€€€

Ivy, who was under the illusion spell, went to Myrtle's bathroom.

He'd been coming here every now and then ever since Harry asked him about the Chamber of Secrets. He figured Harry was unlikely to listen to him, since in the original books, most of Harry's adventures were due to him concealing certain details from the professor and headmaster.

For example, the pain from the scars in first grade; the ability to hear the whispers of the basilisk as it slithered through the walls in second grade; and the concealment of his ability to see certain scenes through his connection with Voldemort in fifth grade...

Given these past actions, Ivy was skeptical that Harry would listen to her and stop investigating anything related to the Chamber of Secrets. So she took matters into her own hands to monitor their movements, and the Myrtle's bathroom, which served as the entrance to the Chamber, was a place that required special attention.

Ivy remembered that in the original story, Hermione brewed Polyjuice Potion here, but because she added cat hair to the potion, the transformation failed, and she turned into a human-shaped cat.

Based on the information we have so far, at least they haven't considered using Polyjuice Potion to become Slytherin students.

Ivy's spellbook includes a first-circle ritual spell, Alarm, which marks an area and triggers an alarm to alert the caster if any creature enters. This alarm can be either a sound or a mental alert, and the caster will continue to receive feedback from the Alarm spell as long as they do not leave the alarm point for more than a mile.

Compared to the wizard's alarm spell Ivy cast on the basilisk, this spell's advantage is that it's much harder to detect, since it doesn't leave any trace like wizard spells. However, its disadvantages are also obvious: the alarm's range is insufficient, and its duration is only 8 hours. Even using ascending ring casting cannot overcome its limited alarm range.

However, Ivy could indeed set up the Ring of Fire alarm at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets before Christmas. He had already arranged with Dumbledore to visit Little Hangleton during the Christmas holidays to see if they could find anything.

Before that, Ivy would not leave Hogwarts, thus avoiding the possibility of the alarm spell failing.

Since we're already here, let's check out the secret chamber. And while we're at it, we can gather some materials from the basilisk to use as raw materials for crafting strange items.