My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 226

The bathroom was dark, with no lights on.

Startled by the gentle evening breeze, Lynn squinted and did not make any rash moves.

During the day, it might be possible for a young wizard to come to the bathroom on the first floor because they couldn't hold it in, but now that it's so late, who would come here?

He had a premonition that he wouldn't have to wait much longer; he would be able to catch the person who opened the secret chamber and took the basilisk away today.

The dark figure that broke into the bathroom did not use a wand illumination charm. He moved slowly around the bathroom and gradually found the location of the sink.

It was too dark around him, so Lynn could only judge the direction of his movement by the noise he made, but he couldn't see his specific actions.

However, there was no need to see clearly, because the figure quickly showed Lynn what he was doing through his actions.

A hissing sound that Lynn knew all too well rang out, and the next moment the sink on one side of the bathroom started to make a rumbling sound!

The entrance to the secret room has been opened!

The figure still didn't use the wand illumination spell. After opening the entrance to the secret chamber, he climbed into the huge pipe without hesitation.

Lynn remained motionless, silently counting to 60 in his mind. Once he judged that this was enough time for the figure to crawl through the pipe into Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, he quietly slipped into the entrance.

To avoid making noise from the pipe, he climbed very slowly. When Lynn reached the end of the pipe and was close to the exit, he suddenly stopped.

Some faint sounds came from below; the person who infiltrated the secret room was down there!

Lynn's illusion spell hadn't been lifted yet, so he cautiously crawled through the pipe like an insect, inching closer to the exit until he could see the situation inside the secret chamber through a slightly tilted angle.

The environment inside the secret chamber was far less dark than the bathroom. Green flames that had never gone out for thousands of years flickered on the candles, and through the glowing green light, Lynn could see the figure who had sneaked into the secret chamber putting away the huge snakeskin.

The figure had its back to Lynn, wearing a dark robe. The color of its hair was not clearly visible, but it was thin and short. Judging from its back, it should be a man.

He held a small bag made of some kind of fur in his left hand, while his right hand kept stuffing a colorful snakeskin into the bag.

The bag didn't look very big. Judging from its appearance alone, it was impossible to fit even if the snakeskin was cut into tenths of its original size. The bag was clearly enchanted with magic similar to the Unseen Expansion Charm, just like the pockets of Lynn's clothes.

The unidentified man seemed very patient. He slowly and unhurriedly stuffed the snakeskin into the bag, taking about ten minutes, until Lynn's arms were numb from supporting his body, before he finally put the entire snakeskin into the bag.

The intruder then put away the small bag, without even taking out a wand, and slowly walked into the depths of the secret chamber.

Lynn didn't follow immediately. He rolled over, adjusted his position, and waited quietly for half a minute before climbing out of the pipe.

The figure wasn't moving very fast, and given that the secret room wasn't exactly cramped, Lynn waited for half a minute before he had moved forward less than a hundred meters.

Unable to see his face clearly, Lynn could only follow him quietly while trying to guess his identity.

He is short, thin, and has short hair; he is male.

None of the professors at Hogwarts fit all these characteristics, and the possibility of someone coming from outside the school is extremely low, so it's highly likely that this person is a student.

Lynn had been a professor for three weeks. There were no more than a thousand students in the entire Hogwarts, so it was unrealistic for him to recognize everyone after teaching all the classes for each year. However, he could still tell the general height of students in each year (Note).

If this intruder is a junior wizard, then he must be at least a third-grader. Even if a first or second-grader has been eating goldfish since childhood, he could not possibly grow that tall.

The intruder had reached the deepest part of the Chamber of Secrets, in front of the enormous Slytherin statue, while Lynn hid behind a pillar with a large serpent relief, cautiously peeking out to watch the figure's movements in front of the statue.

He stood quietly in front of the statue, motionless as if in a daze, as if recalling something. It wasn't until about three minutes later that he uttered a hissing sound in snake language.

Lynn immediately lowered his eyes from the Slytherin statue and stared intently at the lower half of the figure, lest the basilisk crawl out of the statue's mouth and meet his eyes, turning him to stone.

However, the hissing sound from the figure continued for a long time without stopping. It didn't seem like he was giving any secret orders; it was more like he was chatting with the serpent monster behind the statue.

Lynn couldn't help but feel a little regretful. He should have told Tom beforehand to keep him in his hand and listen to what this person was saying in Parseltongue. He wondered if Tom was asleep in his pocket and if he could hear the voice of this person.

Slytherin's mouth remained closed until the figure stopped speaking Parseltongue, but Lynn heard a commotion coming from behind the statue. The basilisk seemed to have received some command and began moving through the pipes connecting the statue to Hogwarts Castle.

At this moment, the figure finally turned around, and with the help of the green firelight in the secret room, Lynn saw his face!

"He's someone I know," was Lynn's first thought.

Hubert McKellen, a third-year Slytherin student and Lynn's former first-year roommate, is a pure-blood wizard who was tortured by Kira!

Perhaps because of the green light, Hubert's expression was somewhat numb. He didn't notice Lynn's gaze from the shadows and turned to leave straight towards the exit.

Why him?

Lynn frowned. He had guessed it was Harry, or even the little Tom in his pocket, but he had never considered that it might be any other student at Hogwarts.

Putting aside the fact that only a handful of minor wizards left their mark in the original works, the prerequisite of needing Parsleyan to open the Chamber of Secrets alone eliminates almost all of them.

A wizard born with Parsleyan speech is not necessarily a descendant of Slytherin, but this talent is not very common, and it is easy to reveal one's abilities without being careful.

Lynn and Hubert had been classmates for three years. Although they hadn't been in much contact since that unpleasant incident, Lynn would definitely know if Hubert's Parsleyan accent had been accidentally revealed.

Because in the eyes of most people, especially young wizards at Hogwarts, having the talent of Parsleyan is equated with being a descendant of Slytherin. Given Hubert's personality, he would never hide it, but rather proudly use it as something to boast about.

Or is it that Hubert actually deceived everyone? Was all his usual behavior just an act?

Lynn sensed something amiss behind this "truth".

After Hubert left the secret chamber and climbed out of the pipe, Lynn did not follow him out. Once Hubert left, he would surely use Parseltongue to close the entrance to the secret chamber again. Unless Lynn followed him closely, he would still be locked into the secret chamber first.

Following him too closely in the confined space of the pipes would inevitably lead to his discovery, so Lynn didn't need to take that risk. He only needed to wait in the secret room for Hubert to leave the washroom before having Tom open the entrance to the secret room from the pipes to get out.

Lynn emerged from behind the pillar and observed the secret chamber after Hubert's departure. Now it was exactly the same as when he entered three weeks later. The basilisk had shed its skin and been taken away, but whether the basilisk was still in the pipe connected to the back of the statue's mouth remained to be verified.

He first took Tom out of his pocket. Tom looked drowsy, as if he wanted to sleep, but he hadn't fallen asleep yet.

"Tom, did you just hear someone speaking Parseltongue?"

Tom was woken up by Lynn shaking him. He blinked his non-existent eyes and said lazily.

"I think I just heard someone speaking in Parseltongue about going to some treasure trove, but his Parseltongue was very broken, so I might have misheard him."

A treasure trove?

Lynn pinched his chin with his fingers, feeling that the word didn't quite fit the image of a locked room or a basilisk. However, Tom's next words provided Lynn with useful information.

"Why is it so fluent? It sounds like someone who knows absolutely no English is trying to imitate it."

"Yes, that's roughly the idea. He imitated the general syllables, but it sounded very awkward to me."

This information is important because it suggests that Hubert's ability to speak Parseltongue is not necessarily innate; it's highly likely he learned it from others. Unless Parseltongue has regional dialects, each Parseltongue speaker would have a different pronunciation.

Lynn didn't dwell on the matter any longer. He instructed Tom, "Say the password to this statue again before you open it."

"What was the password again?"

"Speak to me, Slytherin—the greatest of the four great masters of Hogwarts."

Tom repeated the instructions given by Lynn to the statue in Parseltongue.

The Slytherin statue's mouth slowly opened, revealing a dark tube inside, from which a foul stench wafted out.

The basilisk was gone, but it had clearly only been gone a short time, right after Hubert had spoken that long string of Parseltongue to it.

The secret chamber is now of no value to Lynn, but even though he has seen the face of the person who took the basilisk away, the mystery is not completely solved.

Lynn's next goal was no longer to guard the secret room, but to find out what exactly happened to Hubert.

About thirty minutes after Hubert left the secret room, Lynn also carried Tom out of the pipe, left the secret room, and closed the entrance.

It's about 1 a.m. on September 6th. Mommy has returned from the ghost meeting, and Lynn no longer needs to guard this bathroom.

He put Tom back in his pocket so he could rest peacefully, but after leaving the washroom, he went to the entrance of the Slytherin common room.

"Honor above all else." Lynn recited the password for the Slytherin common room this week, then crouched down and slipped inside. He didn't remove the Disillusionment Charm from his body, but lay down on a secluded sofa chair in the common room, waiting quietly.

Lynn wasn't sure if Hubert went straight back to his dormitory or went somewhere else to meet someone after leaving the Chamber of Secrets. Hogwarts was so big that he didn't need to bother looking for him. He just needed to make sure that Hubert had returned immediately after leaving the Chamber of Secrets.

So he waited in the common room of Slytherin, hoping to find out by tomorrow morning whether Hubert had returned.

Although Lynn squinted her eyes, seemingly as if she were asleep, she was actually keeping an eye on the main entrance of the lounge, because she couldn't rule out the possibility that Hubert might have met someone outside and then come back in the middle of the night.

A whole night passed, and the young Slytherin wizards were all well-behaved. No one came in from outside, nor did anyone sneak out to prepare for any nighttime outings. It wasn't until morning that the young wizards began to get up one after another to go to the Great Hall for breakfast. During this time, Lynn saw Hubert.

He left the Slytherin dormitory as if he hadn't done anything the night before, chatting excitedly with his two roommates. From his appearance, there was no trace of his behavior in the Chamber of Secrets the night before; he acted no differently than any other third-year wizards.

Upon seeing Hubert, Lynn stood up from the sofa and followed him out of the Slytherin common room.

For the rest of the day, Lynn followed Hubert. But he acted perfectly normal, eating, attending classes, chatting with his friends in the common room, and finally going back to his dorm to sleep, without coming into contact with anyone suspicious.

Lynn even sneaked into Hubert's bedroom in the middle of the night and rummaged through his things, but he couldn't find the small bag that Hubert had brought out from the secret room to store the molted snake skin.

Either Hubert deliberately hid the bag, or he gave it to someone else at some point.

Now it seems like there are no clues left. Hubert's behavior is perfectly normal, completely different from how he was in the secret room, but Lynn obviously won't let him off so easily.

After the Transfiguration class on September 8th, Hubert did not go to the Great Hall for dinner with his two roommates. His previous Transfiguration assignment had been found to be plagiarized, and Professor McGonagall punished him by making him go to her office and rewrite the assignment in front of her.

Hubert dawdled on his writing until after seven o'clock before Professor McGonagall finally let him go.

"What bad luck," he grumbled, shaking his aching arms as he walked toward the Slytherin common room. "Dinner's definitely gone by now. I wonder if those two bastards, Michelle and Mark, brought me any."

He sighed and staggered down the deserted corridor. The next moment, without warning, a bright red spell shot out from the corner and struck him!

Hubert was affected by the Stunning Charm and collapsed to the ground with his eyes closed. Lynn slowly emerged from the shadows expressionlessly, cast the Disillusionment Charm on both of them again, and then grabbed Hubert's leg and walked toward the House of Requirement.

There are obvious inconsistencies in the British wizarding population depicted in Harry Potter. Not only do the data in the books conflict with each other, but the scenes in the movies also differ greatly from the descriptions in the novels.

Therefore, the exact number of wizards here is based on my settings.

Yes, that's it.

(End of this chapter)