My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 227, Section 224: The Secret Hidden in the Language of Serpents

The house is always ready to grant requests.

Lynn asked for a quiet room, which was empty except for a chair.

He pulled Hubert into a chair and made him sit down. Then he took out a truth serum from his pocket, pried open Hubert's mouth, and dripped three drops into his mouth before magically waking him up.

Hubert slowly awoke from his coma, staring blankly at Lynn standing in front of him, without saying a word.

Lynn did not begin the interrogation immediately, but instead tested the effects of the truth serum first.

Who is your father?

Hubert mechanically answered, "Tels McKlain."

"What does he do for a living?"

"He is the head of the Division for Reversing Accidental Magical Events in the Ministry of Magic."

"Is he an honest and upright Ministry of Magic official?"

"No, he's not. He's very greedy. Half of the wealth in our family's coffers came from him through various bribes."

"Then do you know how to bring down your father?"

"I secretly saw him hide an account book in a secret compartment in the cellar, which could have a significant impact on his position."

Hubert then revealed all the details about his father without reservation, and Lynn praised him with satisfaction.

"Very good, Mr. McLean."

Then he went straight to the point of the interrogation, "Can you tell me where you were at 11 o'clock on September 5th?"

Hubert responded without hesitation, just as he had when answering the question earlier.

"I'm sleeping in my dorm room."

Lynn frowned; this was very different from the answer he wanted.

"You didn't go out that night?"

"Because I had a nightmare experience in first grade, I never go out when curfew starts."

Lynn's thoughts shifted, and she changed the question.

"Are you carrying a small black bag? About the size of two palms, made of animal leather. Where is it?"

"No, I've never seen this bag before."

That's completely wrong!

Things were getting more and more complicated. Lynn paced back and forth, thinking and unconsciously rubbing his chin.

The truth serum was definitely reliable; Lynn was certain he hadn't misjudged the person in the secret room that night. The hair color, build, and face—it was undoubtedly Hubert.

But now we can't get anything out of him. Hubert seems to have no idea that he opened the secret room. Considering the situation in the magical world, there are three possibilities.

The first possibility is that this matter really had nothing to do with Hubert. The person who actually opened the Chamber of Secrets and took the Basilisk away used Polyjuice Potion. He randomly found a young wizard in Hogwarts and had his hair transformed to hide his identity. As a result, Hubert just happened to be the unlucky one.

If that's the case, then Lynn has completely lost his trail. No matter what, there are always over a thousand people living in Hogwarts. Without any clues, he simply can't find out who the real culprit is.

The second possibility is that Hubert was subjected to an Imperius Curse at some point and had no idea that he was being controlled.

Upon entering the secret chamber and releasing the basilisk, he was merely playing the role of a puppet; the one who truly controlled everything remotely was someone else.

This is also difficult to investigate further, but at least it can rule out most people in Hogwarts. The Imperius Curse is one of the three unforgivable curses in dark magic, and it is not easy to learn. Even Lynn, who is a powerhouse, has only just mastered it and has not yet practiced it, so he has no experience in using it. If someone can control Hubert for so long without any accidents and without Hubert noticing, then the person who used the Imperius Curse, even if he is not a master of dark magic, is definitely one of the best among dark wizards.

The third possibility is that Hubert did indeed do it on his own initiative, but he had an accomplice. After moving the basilisk from the chamber, to be on the safe side, he had his accomplice use an Oblivion Charm on himself to erase all memories of the chamber and the basilisk from his mind. As for what happened afterward, it had nothing to do with him.

If that's the case, then Hubert's accomplices are most likely wizards from outside Hogwarts. How they learned about the Chamber of Secrets is unknown, and their purpose in opening the Chamber and taking away the Basilisk is also unknown. Basically, there's no possibility of them investigating and eliminating it.

However, this possibility is also the lowest, because judging from Hubert's usual behavior, he doesn't seem like a person with such deep scheming. Moreover, a person's memory can be modified, but their personality cannot. Lynn only needs to ask him a few more questions to clearly see what kind of person he really is.

The effects of the truth serum wouldn't wear off for a while, Lynn pondered these three possibilities and continued to ask Hubert.

"Have you been in contact with anyone recently? Someone suspicious, or someone you weren't very familiar with before but who has suddenly become very friendly with you?"

Hubert pondered the question for a moment, then quickly shook his head.

"No, I never deal with strangers."

"So, have you encountered any strange things since the start of the semester?"

Hubert remained silent for a long time, as if he was seriously recalling something and wanted to tell Lynn everything he knew.

Seeing Hubert's reaction, Lynn's eyes lit up. He knew he had asked the right question, and Hubert was likely to give him a valuable answer.

"There's something very strange," Hubert said, sounding quite confused. "These past few days, a strange voice keeps popping into my head. I don't understand it, and I don't remember where I've heard it before, but it just keeps playing in my head."

"What was that sound? Can you tell me?" Lynn stared intently at him, her voice slightly hurried.

"Yes," Hubert said calmly.

He then opened his mouth and made "ah ah" sounds, as if trying to repeat the sound in his mind.

Hubert started barking randomly and erratically, but he quickly found his rhythm, and his voice gradually became softer and higher-pitched.

It eventually turned into a hissing sound that Lynn knew all too well!

Parseltongue!

The voice that appeared in Hubert's head was Parseltongue!

The first possibility can be ruled out: the person who infiltrated the secret room was Hubert himself!

Without hesitation, Lynn immediately took Tom out of his pocket after realizing that Hubert was speaking Parseltongue.

"Could you at least give me a heads-up before you take me out? You always startle me when you suddenly reach out like this," Tom complained as soon as he came out.

Lynn pinched him without saying anything, signaling him to concentrate on listening.

Hubert spoke in Parseltongue for a long time, which Lynn couldn't understand, but he was certain that this was the same Parseltongue that Hubert had spoken to the Slytherin statue in the Chamber of Secrets!

After Hubert finished speaking in Parseltongue, Tom translated it automatically without Lynn's instruction.

"Servant of Salazar Slytherin, one of the great Four Lords. The covenant made a thousand years ago will continue. As a descendant of the noble Slytherin bloodline, I will become your new master a thousand years from now. I will not disobey the will of our ancestor Slytherin. Those tainted blood are unworthy of the divinely bestowed power of magic. However, the strength of our enemies is not to be underestimated. The ancestral chamber is no longer suitable as your dwelling place. We need to find a new place to hide, a place that will be more suitable for you: the former treasure trove of Hogsmeade."

Lynn was listening intently when Tom's voice abruptly stopped, causing him to frown.

"What happens next? Where is that place?"

Tom said helplessly, "That's all. That's all he said."

Lynn twitched his cheeks in discomfort. It just so happened to stop at the most crucial moment. It was like a lousy author of an online novel who cut off a chapter, making you want to go to his house, hang him from the roof beam, and whip him until he immediately wrote the next chapter!

But now even Hubert himself doesn't know, and Lynn couldn't force him to reveal the truth even if he wanted to whip him.

Lynn put the tool ball back into his pocket and began to ponder the meaning of the parseltongue.

So far, this is the only useful clue he has found, and it is crucial: the basilisk is very likely hidden in a treasure trove in Hogsmeade.

According to the earlier part of Parseltongue's narrative, the real culprit who instructed Hubert to open the Chamber of Secrets claimed to be a descendant of Slytherin. Currently, there is only one known descendant of Slytherin, and that is Tom.

But Tom had opened the Chamber of Secrets before and even ordered the Basilisk to kill people. If he were to meet the Basilisk again, he would be unlikely to say, "As a descendant of the noble Slytherin bloodline, I will become your new master a thousand years from now."

So, is this person who claims to be a descendant of Slytherin one of Voldemort's Horcruxes or someone else entirely?

As Lynn was pondering, the effects of the truth serum wore off, and Hubert regained consciousness.

"Professor Lockhart? What, what are you going to do?"

He realized his current situation, and combined with the fact that he had been inexplicably knocked unconscious with a stun spell earlier, although he didn't know that he had been given a truth serum and asked questions, Hubert could clearly sense Lynn's ill intentions.

Lynn looked at Hubert, gently rubbing his wand in his hand, his face serious, his brows furrowed, radiating an unprecedented pressure, his gaze fixed on him.

"Mr. McLean, because you are suspected of serious violations of school rules, Professor Dumbledore has specifically asked me to ask you some questions."

Lynn put a lot of pressure on Hubert. He swallowed hard, and even though Lynn's words were full of holes, he had no doubts and said in a trembling voice.

"Professor, even if I want to ask a question, you don't need to act like this. You could just have someone call me to your office."

Lynn shook her head expressionlessly and held out her wand to him.

"There are some things you'd rather not remember; forget them and they're gone."

(End of this chapter)