Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 124 The Four Great Academies Assemble

Ken, I'm here.

Two days had passed since the Halloween party. Avada was sitting in the corner of an empty classroom, his chin resting on his hand. His eyes were slightly closed, his brows furrowed, as he pondered something in the morning light.

After a while, the tightly closed wooden door was pushed open with a creaking sound from the old hinges. Baron, whose expression was equally serious, walked in, paused for a moment, and then looked around before spotting Avada hiding in the corner. He then raised his hand to greet him.

"Harry and the others haven't arrived yet?"

"Not yet. He's young and needs to sleep a lot."

"I see. I didn't realize there was such a big difference in sleep quality between twelve and thirteen years old." Baron nodded seriously, finally easing the almost frozen atmosphere a bit. He then found a seat by the window, pulled out a chair, and sat down, leaning against the wall and staring intently at the door that could be opened at any moment.

Ken, Baron.

A few minutes later, the wooden door opened again, and this time Cedric and Cho entered: "Harry isn't here yet?"

"Young people sleep a lot."

"oh."

Cedric nodded. "I really envy their energy. Back in my second year, I could sleep soundly without a care in the world, unlike now where my mind is filled with thoughts of next year's OWLS exams..."

"..."

Qiu felt like something was wrong, but she just couldn't put it into words.

"Speaking of which, why did you suddenly call us over today? Yesterday you were all mysteriously using a mental link to communicate?"

Cedric and Cho sat down at the same table, and sensing that Harry would be a while away, they started chatting.

"I have something I'd like to ask you."

Avada's expression turned serious again: "Let's talk after everyone's here. It's a very complicated matter to explain, and it might be a little scary... But don't worry, what I'm asking you to do isn't dangerous, otherwise I wouldn't have called you all here."

"To be honest, I didn't want to involve you, but I'm already beyond my capabilities. However, this matter is far too important; it concerns the safety of all Hogwarts students..."

"What?"

Everyone in the classroom gasped in shock, and Baron was the first to react: "You're planning to investigate the recent student petrification incident yourself?"

Indeed, ever since Filch and Mrs. Lorris were found petrified in the hallway on Halloween, students have been petrified by an invisible force every day for the next two days, bringing the total number of victims to four. At first, people thought it was just a prank, but panic began to spread after Professor McGonagall confirmed that she couldn't break the spell.

As for Headmaster Snape, aside from visiting the scene of Filch's attack on the day of the attack, he never showed up again and took no concrete action—unless he reminded students not to go out at night and to travel in groups as much as possible.

"Actually, there's no need for further investigation..."

Avada gave a wry smile, about to persuade the three to stop talking, when the door suddenly creaked open again—

"Ken, Baron, Cedric, and Cho? You're here early."

"Sorry to keep you waiting..."

"Ken, what happened? Is it still related to that voice?"

This time, Harry, Hermione, and Ron came in.

"Great, now everyone's here."

Avada then stood up, walked from the corner to the center of the classroom, and casually took out her wand to cast a soundproofing spell on each of the classroom doors and windows: "Luckily, I have a decent network of connections, which is why I was able to pull people from all four houses, otherwise this would have been really difficult..."

He put away his wand, subconsciously cleared his throat, and glanced around at the faces staring at him. His voice suddenly lowered: "Gentlemen, I may know the root cause of the recent petrification incidents."

"What? You know...?"

"Let me finish."

Avada quickly made a downward gesture to quiet Harry and Ron before continuing, "If I'm not mistaken, the culprit behind the recent petrification incidents is a basilisk."

"It's an extremely dangerous magical creature with a danger level of XXXXX. It looks roughly like a python about fifty feet long, but it has two deadly characteristics: first, its venom is basically fatal to anyone who is poisoned..."

"The second is its eyes; anyone who makes eye contact with it will die instantly. However, if there is a medium between you and it, such as a piece of glass, or if you see its eyes through a mirror or the reflection of water, you can avoid death, but you will still be attacked—and the symptoms of that attack are the petrification that is now appearing on the students and Filch."

"But,"

Hermione frowned and raised her hand, asking, "If it was a fifty-foot snake, how did it manage to go unnoticed? Good heavens, fifty feet, that's terrifying to think about, it could almost fill a whole hallway..."

"It wanders in that abandoned pipe."

At the mention of this, Avada couldn't help but grit her teeth in hatred: "That's right, it's that abandoned pipe that was supposedly invaded by the Evil Bird and then 'dealt with' by the investigation team. It was actually a cover for the Basilisk, to ensure it wouldn't be suspected again..."

"You mean, the Board of Trustees orchestrated the attack?! And not just this time, but also the previous coma incident?!" Cedric exclaimed, and the others were also horrified, not expecting Avada to reveal such bombshell information.

"The coma incident is almost certainly the work of the school board, but I'm not so sure about the basilisk incident yet. It could be the work of someone on the school board, or it could be that some more mysterious entity is manipulating the school board..."

How did you determine that?

Qiu asked with a worried look, "It's not that I want to doubt you, Ken, but what you're saying is really shocking, and it's also a bit... uh, it doesn't make sense?"

"There are many kinds of magic that can turn people to stone. What made you so sure that the culprit was a basilisk?"

"Two sources, one is Harry, and the other is the ghost 'The Weeping Myrtle'."

"I?"

Harry pointed blankly at himself.

Avada temporarily ignored Harry's questions and continued, "Morington was a student who died at Hogwarts more than fifty years ago, an event that directly led to Hagrid's expulsion... and the cause of her death was that she saw a pair of enormous eyes in the last moment before she died."

"Moreover, her memory of this matter was altered, so when Harry and I investigated it together, we didn't get the truth. It took me a lot of effort to figure it out later."

"And as for Harry... oh, even he doesn't seem to know about it. Harry, you're a Parseltongue. Those cold voices you heard earlier were from the Basilisk."

"Parsleyan?"

"Parsleyan voice?!"

Hermione, Baron, Cedric, and Cho were all startled, while Ron nearly fell off his chair: "You can talk to snakes?"

"That works. Is the talent for talking to snakes just parsnip? I thought that was pretty common..."

"That's not very common, Harry."

Hermione lowered her voice and explained, "Very few wizards can talk to snakes, and the most famous of them is Salazar Slytherin himself..."

"That's right."

Avada nodded: "Harry heard strange voices just before Filch was petrified, and followed the voices directly to the scene of Filch's attack."

(End of this chapter)