My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 286, Section 283: Professor Raven

But later, when she was at the Duel Club, Hermione began to doubt her own guess.

Professor Lockhart's strength was too great, and Lynn, no matter how powerful he was, was only a third-year student at Hogwarts, meaning he had only studied magic for less than three years. How could he possibly be stronger than the headmaster of Slytherin?

Therefore, Hermione had no choice but to find a way to conduct further verification.

Umaru wants to impersonate Lynn at school, so if Professor Lockhart is Lynn, then she must be in regular contact with Lynn.

Hermione thought she could use Polyjuice Potion to transform into Umaru and test Professor Lockhart's reaction. Tonight's test would give Hermione 100% certainty that Professor Lockhart was Lynn in disguise!

Having discovered Lynn's disguise through her own step-by-step deduction and verification, Hermione now feels a great sense of accomplishment.

She didn't expose Lynn's identity directly in the office just now because she was afraid of affecting what he was doing. Hermione knew that Lynn was currently looking for the Slytherin successor hidden in Hogwarts, and she wouldn't expose him until he actively revealed his identity or gave up his identity as Professor Lockhart.

However, Hermione hadn't forgotten the promise Lynn made to her in the Room of Requirement: she would be rewarded if she discovered Lynn's secret on her own.

With that thought in mind, Hermione's steps became even lighter, and she even hummed a song as she went downstairs.

Not long after they returned to the bathroom where Myrtle was, the effects of Polyjuice Potion had worn off, and Harry and Ron ran back from Malfoy's place.

"Thank goodness, it wasn't a complete waste of time," Ron said, panting, turning to close the bathroom door. "I know we still don't know who launched these attacks, but I'm going to write to my dad tomorrow and ask him to search under the Malfoys' living room."

"Hermione, we have an important discovery to tell you," Harry said, panting.

They searched for Hermione in the bathroom and finally found her on a step, resting her chin on her hand and grinning foolishly.

"We've made a great discovery." Harry and Ron walked up to Hermione.

Hermione snapped out of her daze and looked at them, her eyes wide.

"Did Malfoy tell you he's Slytherin's successor?"

"No, he didn't say, but he and his father know something about the Chamber of Secrets. He told us that it had been opened once!" Harry said.

"I'm sure even if Malfoy didn't do it, it's definitely related to their family," Ron said through gritted teeth. During their conversation with Malfoy, the latter had made a lot of jokes about the Weasleys. If Harry hadn't stopped him, Ron would have almost given Malfoy a good beating.

"When you came out of the Slytherin common room, were you discovered by anyone?" Hermione asked, somewhat worried that they might have given themselves away when they left.

Harry and Ron said somewhat uncertainly, "It doesn't seem so. We were already preparing to run away when we realized the effects of the drug were wearing off."

Hermione put away the cauldron and the remaining potion ingredients in the bathroom.

"Just to be on the safe side, let's leave here first and talk about this when we get back to the Gryffindor common room."

After the Christmas holidays, the young wizards returned to Hogwarts.

Three months passed quickly. In those nearly one hundred days, there were no more attacks in the castle. The Slytherin successor who opened the Chamber of Secrets seemed to have fallen silent. If Fenrir hadn't been lying in the hospital, everyone might have forgotten about it long ago.

However, to those in the know, this is more like the calm before the storm.

Late at night, on the fifth floor of Hogwarts Castle.

"Hey George, look what I found!" Fred waved excitedly at George, holding a mouse in his hand, in the darkness of the night.

Without turning his head, George said, "Did you find Filch's diary that he left in the hallway?"

"That thing is hard to find," Fred muttered. "Maybe we can sneak into Filch's place to look for it later, but this rat is also very useful to us."

"Should we tie a dung bomb to it and use it as a rat bomb? That won't work much; any little wizard could handle a rat."

"A little wizard might work, but a cat might not. We can use this mouse as bait to teach Filch's cat a lesson."

"That's a good idea. Let's start by figuring out what kind of punishment we should give that cat."

The Weasley twins chatted as they carried the poor mouse up the stairs. Just as they reached the top of a tower, they suddenly felt as if someone was watching them from behind.

Fred and George had very keen senses; they paused in their forward motion, then suddenly turned around to look behind them!

There was indeed a pair of scarlet eyes silently watching them from behind, but the Weasley brothers breathed a sigh of relief when they saw those eyes clearly.

"So it's still the same crow."

"It seems like we've seen it many times during our nighttime walks; it's like it lives right there at Hogwarts."

"They must be crows from the Forbidden Forest, right? You forgot? Last time when we sneaked into the Forbidden Forest, we saw a whole flock of crows there."

"Alright, it's fate that we've met so many times. We'll say goodbye and be leaving now."

The Weasley brothers waved to the crow standing on the windowsill, whispered "See you next time," and continued their search for Filch's cat.

As Lynn watched them walk away, she began to plan what excuse she should come up with to give them extra homework next time.

Although there haven't been any attacks for a long time, Hogwarts remains in danger until the problem of the Chamber of Secrets is completely resolved, and the Weasley brothers are truly audacious.

However, after Christmas, Lynn would come out to keep watch almost every night, and with him there, nothing serious would happen to the two of them.

According to Lynn's guess, he had been keeping an eye on the "suspect" for three months, but had not found any outrageous behavior from the other party. However, this did not mean that his or her suspicion had decreased. On the contrary, because Hogwarts had been peaceful for three months, the suspicions about him or her had grown.

Especially in the last few days, he has been staying up almost every night to keep an eye on things.

Three days ago, Dumbledore told him that the Hogwarts Board of Governors was preparing to hold a board meeting the following day.

(End of this chapter)