My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 218, Section 215: The Missing Basilisk

Who else but him would open the secret chamber and release the basilisk?

Even if we follow the original story's progression, at this point in the story, Tom in the diary is still trying to seduce Ginny and drain her life force to restore his own power. He hasn't had time to guide her to open the secret room, let alone now that the diary is in his hands.

Lynn was certain that the diary had never left his side for even a second after it fell into his hands, except for the one time they took it out to talk in the professor's office; it had been kept in his pocket ever since.

The secret room can only be opened by Parsleyan, and the only person who knows the entrance to the secret room and is also a Parsleyan is Tom, who is mentioned in the diary.

However, we cannot rule out the possibility of other unexpected events. Lynn has a few guesses in mind now.

There are currently three known Parseltongue characters in Hogwarts: Tom in the diary, Tom sealed in the orb, and Tom hidden inside Harry's body!

These three people can actually be seen as one person; they are all fragments of Tom Riddle's soul.

It seems that Tom's main soul in the ball has been successfully brainwashed by Lynn. But if Lynn can brainwash him with the help of the system, then Tom, who is familiar with his childhood personality in his diary, might be able to bring him back.

He deliberately kept Little Ball Tom and Diary Tom together every day, just to test whether Little Ball Tom's personality had really changed and whether he would not be tempted by anything else to turn back into the original evil Tom.

Is it possible that Little Ball Tom has been bewitched by Diary Tom again, and the two of them have conspired to release the basilisk from the secret room through some means, and the previous play was just a show for him?

If that's really the case, then there's an unavoidable problem.

Neither Diary Tom nor Little Ball Tom had the ability to leave the things that housed their souls, so how did they open the secret room?

Another possibility is that there is a problem with the soul fragment hidden inside Harry's body.

In the original story, the fragment of the soul hidden within Harry's body never appeared until the very end. Apart from allowing Harry to share some visions, thoughts, and abilities with Voldemort, it never revealed that he possessed independent consciousness.

Now that he has captured Voldemort's main soul, will something happen to the fragment of soul in Harry's body?

Did he control Harry's body, open the Chamber of Secrets, and release the Basilisk?

If that's the case, what was Tom's purpose in doing this inside Harry's body?

Lynn sat beneath the Slytherin statue, utterly bewildered by the Basilisk's disappearance. He had acted swiftly enough, already preparing to deal with the Basilisk in only the third week of school. Yet, who could possibly open the Chamber of Secrets before him?

He searched the Chamber of Secrets several more times, but couldn't find even a single snakeskin, as if there was no basilisk in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets at all.

It was almost dawn outside. It was the weekend, and who knows, maybe some little wizards would need to pee and wander into the first-floor bathroom to find the entrance to the secret room.

With no other option, Lynn had to reseal the rooster's beak and leave the secret chamber.

After he climbed out of the pipe, he had Tom say "close" in Parseltongue to the entrance, thus sealing the secret room shut again.

Myrtle was still sobbing softly in the bathroom, as if she had been crying all night and hadn't had enough. When she saw Lynn crawl out of the pipe, she asked in a choked voice.

"What did you find inside? Treasure?"

Lynn shook his head, staring at Myrtle: "No, the treasure has been taken. Do you know who did it?"

"What kind of question is that? Are you doubting me? I am a ghost, what use are gold and silver treasures to me?"

"That's not what I meant. I meant to ask, since you're in this restroom every day, did you notice any other suspicious people coming here in the past few days?"

Myrtle stopped crying and recalled, "No, a few new girls did come here to use the restroom, but they only came once and never came back. Besides, who said I stayed here every day? It's just that I'm attached to this place because I died here, but that doesn't mean I live here every day."

Lynn didn't get any useful clues from Myrtle, so he could only leave the girls' restroom with the rooster in his arms, while Myrtle started sobbing behind him again.

"You must be saying I'm useless, right? But what can I do? I'm just a ghost."

It's around 5 a.m. now, and since it's the weekend, most of the little wizards are still asleep.

Lynn put the rooster and longsword back in the professor's office first, and didn't go back to bed to catch up on sleep. He couldn't sleep even if he wanted to now.

He picked up his wand and began wandering around the castle, still clinging to a sliver of hope.

Maybe the basilisk went into one of the castle's pipes in the middle of the night to eat rats, and fell asleep while eating?

He wandered around from four in the morning until nine in the morning, and many young wizards who had gotten up saw him and greeted him, but he didn't notice anything.

After a night and half a morning of fruitless effort, Lynn was forced to accept this reality.

The basilisk in the secret chamber has truly disappeared!

He returned to his office, sat down in his chair, and looked up in deep thought.

This is troublesome. Lynn's original plan for his third year was mainly about the basilisk.

He not only had to resolve the danger ahead of time, but also use the feat of killing the Basilisk to enhance his reputation at Hogwarts and lay the foundation for his future leadership of educational reforms.

Now the basilisk is gone!

If someone had taken care of it beforehand, that would be one thing. There are many ways to gain reputation, and this one is not an exception. The problem is that it disappeared out of nowhere. What if it suddenly reappears later?

In the original story, the basilisk monster failed to kill anyone due to various coincidences, but what about now?

Lynn unconsciously drew messy lines on the blank parchment, thinking for a long time but unable to come up with a good solution.

He now faces two main problems: first, the Basilisk could appear at any time and attack him or the young wizards at Hogwarts; second, the person who took the Basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets could be Tom in his body, or Tom in Harry's body, or someone else. What is his purpose?

"Hey, when did you get back?" Just as Lynn was thinking, Umaru, wearing pajamas and holding a plush toy, walked out of the bedroom inside the office, rubbing her eyes.

Lynn snapped out of her daze and glared at her: "Why are you sleeping here? And you've been sleeping until now?"

Umaru said matter-of-factly, "Ian and Cedric invited you to the library to do your homework today. To avoid giving myself away, I stayed up until midnight yesterday reviewing third-year Transfiguration techniques!"

"I'm sorry, I misunderstood you." Lynn didn't reveal her true feelings, behaving as usual.

"It's okay, I forgive you." Little Mai, with her bare, white feet, happily plopped down in front of Lynn and reached out to pick up the breakfast she had brought for her.

Lynn slapped her hand away.

"Go wash up first, then change your clothes. I'll go with you this afternoon to see Ian and the others."

Umaru, clutching her bright red little hands, looked at him in confusion: "If you're going to see them, why are you taking me with you? I want to lie in bed and sleep this afternoon."

Lynn pinched her chubby cheeks with exasperation.

"If you just sleep and eat all day, you'll turn into a chubby girl sooner or later."

Umaru broke free from his clutches and argued, "I weighed myself, and I'm only 31 kilograms now, which is two kilograms heavier than before! It's natural weight gain!"

Lynn ignored her excuses and explained, "This afternoon, change back to your original form in front of them, and I'll introduce you to them."

"Why? If you introduce me to them, won't all my previous efforts be wasted?"

"Your terrible acting won't fool them at all. You'll be exposed sooner or later. It's better to just tell them the truth and ask them to cover for you. I don't have time to deal with any other troubles right now."

Umaru astutely noticed other meanings in Lynn's words.

"Did things not go well for you last night?"

"If it were just a simple setback, that would be fine." Lynn rubbed his forehead, looking annoyed. "This has nothing to do with you. After I explain your identity to them, you can ask them any questions you have about learning magic."

"So, are you still going to tell them that you are Professor Lockhart?" Umaru asked.

Lynn shook his head: "We still have to keep this from them. I made an agreement with Dumbledore that I couldn't tell anyone else about becoming a professor."

"The key to Transfiguration, which turns inanimate objects into living ones, is to endow them with a spirituality that the inanimate objects did not originally possess. This so-called spirituality is what the transfiguration artist believes to be the characteristics of the living object he has transformed into."

For example, most of us believe monkeys like to eat bananas, so a monkey created from an inanimate object would naturally like to eat bananas. However, if a wizard has a flawed understanding of monkeys and believes they should like to eat steak, then a monkey created through transmigration would naturally like to eat steak instead of bananas.

In the library, Lynn offered an example of an explanation of the transfiguration assignment that Professor McGonagall had given them.

Ian nodded, and then incorporated Lynn's example verbatim into his paper.

"You've been acting strangely lately. Sometimes you make very basic mistakes when using magic, and other times you're as knowledgeable as a professor."

"I do have something to tell you about this," Lynn said, standing up and raising an eyebrow. "You've probably finished most of your homework, right? How about we go sit by Black Lake? I'll introduce you to someone."

Ian and Cedric exchanged a glance, tidied up their desks, and followed Lynn out of the library.

"So Ian guessed right, the slightly dazed Lynn from before wasn't you." Cedric couldn't help but ask on the way to Black Lake.

Lynn shrugged and said, "Yes, most of the time since the start of the semester, it hasn't been me in front of you, but someone else."

Ian complained, "The imposter you found was such a terrible actor. I noticed something was off from the start. Then one time during lunch, I tested him with a tomato, and he gave himself away."

Cedric looked at him in surprise: "You even tested him?"

"Lynn hates tomatoes, and he would subconsciously avoid using tomatoes when cooking for us. But last time I handed that fake Lynn a sandwich with tomato slices, he took it and ate it right away."

"You're observing too closely," Lynn said, squinting at him. "It's not that I hate tomatoes, it's just that I'm not used to eating them as a vegetable. In my mind, I've always considered them a fruit."

"Since you've already discovered it, why don't you just say so?"

Ian said, "Because you sometimes become normal, I guessed that you specifically hired that fake Lynn for some purpose. I didn't know what you were planning, so I didn't expose you and waited for you to tell us the truth."

Cedric shrugged. "Looks like this day isn't too late."

Lynn smiled apologetically at them: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hide this from you. It's just that I have an agreement with an elder to do some other things this year, so I can't stay at school for long periods of time."

Cedric patted him on the shoulder: "It's okay, brother. We know you didn't mean to deceive us, but if you run into any difficulties and need our help, be sure to let us know. Don't forget about us."

"My current status as a duke still gives me some standing in normal society. If you need anything, you can come to me," Ian said calmly.

Although Lynn suspected that he was retaliating against her for making him call her "Dad" last year, she was still very touched.

"Don't worry, I certainly won't hesitate to trouble you if I need anything."

They arrived at the Black Lake. Since it was the weekend, there were still couples cuddling by the lake, but their attention was focused on their partners, and they didn't notice Lynn and his group.

Umaru transformed back into human form right before Ian and Cedric's eyes.

"Hello, brothers. I am Lynn's cousin. My name is Sophia Basak, but you can call me Xiaomai. This is the nickname Lynn gave me." She introduced herself in a generous manner as soon as she appeared. Lynn was very pleased that she had performed well for once and had not embarrassed him.

Ian and Cedric both looked very surprised when they saw Umaru.

"I remember Lynn, didn't you say you were an orphan from a Muggle orphanage?" Cedric asked, puzzled.

Lynn briefly explained his background to them.

"Do you remember the house-elf who attacked Ian when I was in first grade? My parents are both wizards, but due to some accidents, I was sent to a Muggle orphanage shortly after I was born. That house-elf and Umaru are my family. The various attacks he carried out at Hogwarts were all to protect me."

(End of this chapter)