From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

-

"Professor Snape asked me to bring this."

In William's office, Dumbledore placed a piece of parchment on William's desk. "Haven't you ever seen a curse like this before?"

"Never seen it before, Professor."

William ignored the parchment and answered earnestly, "The school conducted a search and found no problems."

This is not good news. It is unsettling that a powerful, almost inhuman dark wizard is hiding somewhere.

“It wasn’t a student,” William said hesitantly to Dumbledore, “but it’s unlikely the professor could have done it either—”

"Oh?" Dumbledore's face showed curiosity.

"I don't know if this is a bit too boastful, but based on my current feeling, there are only a handful of people in school whose dark magic level surpasses mine..."

William cautiously voiced his speculation, after all, he suspected a professor from their own school.

“Tell me your thoughts, it’s just a guess, Professor William,” Dumbledore encouraged William.

"Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Snape, and Professor Lockhart, and..."

"besides?"

"Nothing."

William promptly forgot Dumbledore's name.

"If it was the professors who did it, then it's clear that only they could cause such magical damage."

William was very confident, like Professor Adams, who wished to remain anonymous, who thought that if he were to unleash dark magic, he probably wouldn't even leave any aftereffects…

“An interesting observation…” Dumbledore nodded, hesitated for a moment, “but it shouldn’t be them. In fact, it’s very likely related to the Chamber of Secrets.”

"A secret room?"

William felt the word looked familiar, and then he remembered the sentence he had seen.

"So the secret room was opened?"

"It was opened; the situation was even worse back then, and one student even died because of it..."

"Where is the murderer? Has he been caught yet?"

“No,” Dumbledore shook his head. “If it were the same back then, I wasn’t the headmaster yet. Hagrid was made a scapegoat and arrested. The information about the Chamber of Secrets was never confirmed in the end.”

Hagrid?

William was a little surprised—how did he get involved with Hagrid again?

“Yes, Hagrid was expelled from school for that back then,” Dumbledore nodded. “So, Professor William, I hope you won’t have to go through the trouble of exploring this time, and certainly won’t have to ask students to search for the Chamber of Secrets as you have done before.”

Dumbledore's expression was serious. "Every child who comes to Hogwarts should be protected. The Chamber of Secrets is not like that rooster. I hope you can restrain those students and prevent them from trying to find the Chamber of Secrets in the castle."

William suddenly understood why Dumbledore had appeared in his office—not to casually deliver the three potion recipes that Professor Snape had bet on, but to tell him not to use the student survey.

Clearly, Dumbledore remembered the death of a student during the last appearance of the Chamber of Secrets and did not want any more students to get involved.

“Yes, Principal, I assure you, those kids will not get any information from me, nor will they hear anything,” William replied earnestly. He also did not want students to get involved in such a dangerous activity.

“I will lock up those students who try to investigate properly; I have enough confinement programs for them to do.”

-

Dumbledore left quickly, satisfied.

William remained where he was, his expression turning serious.

'A locked room?'

'The Chamber of Secrets that was opened during Dumbledore's previous terms.'

He was conflicted. The problem that Dumbledore couldn't solve back then—could he really solve it?

'But there's always something to do if you don't do anything,' William chewed on a straw. 'A black magic spell that could take out both of you in one shot—if it landed on me, I definitely wouldn't be able to dodge it, would I?'

'But we can't just let the students die like this. Last time someone died, and Hagrid was arrested… This time, are they going to arrest me?'

'Probably not, but petrification seems to mean losing control of the body—could my curse be affecting that?'

and many more!

William realized the blind spot; he remembered that before Dumbledore became headmaster, the Dark Lord Tom Riddle was a student at the school!

'I haven't figured out the escape room concept, but I think you're definitely the one with the skills related to escape rooms!'

Chapter 200 Another Attack

William became pleased to have successfully found the name he was looking for.

"The Chamber of Secrets, opened a long time ago, has been reopened. According to Dumbledore, its last opening resulted in the death of a student."

He took out a parchment and began to write on it.

1. What is a locked room?

Second: What kind of power is hidden in the secret room?

Third; why didn't the Dark Lord take this power with him?

Fourth; How did the person who opened the secret room control this power?

……

“One at a time,” William said, looking at the stacks of parchment. “Regarding the first question, I think no one in the entire school knows better than the Ghost, and Professor Binns certainly won’t mind answering it.”

Although the investigation might curse those who already knew the information, William didn't think Professor Binns would worry about that—could the Dark Lord really curse ghosts to death?

-

"A secret room?"

Professor Binns, who was poring over the documents, looked up at William and asked, "Why did you decide to ask about such a fairytale-like legend?"

"fairy tale?"

William was stunned; he never expected to receive such information from Professor Binns.

“Yes, or rather, it’s a rumor,” Professor Binns stopped his work and looked William up and down—for some reason, William felt like a relative had seen him watching anime in college.

However, Professor Binns ultimately did not say anything impolite.

“But there might be some truth to it, after all, we really did find a tiara left behind by Ravenclaw…” Professor Binns muttered, “The legend of the Chamber of Secrets is similar to that of the tiara, but the person who left it behind was not Ravenclaw, but another founder of the school, Slytherin.”

“Of course, in my opinion, the Chamber of Secrets is a bit too abstract,” Professor Binns shook his head. “Legend has it that it is the curse of Slytherin. When his true successor comes to Hogwarts, that successor will open the Chamber of Secrets and release the terrifying things inside to purify the school and eliminate those who are not worthy of learning magic.”

“That’s roughly it,” Professor Binns said, spreading his hands. “So this legend has always been treated as a horror story, unlike the more storied tales, and even finding the secret room doesn’t really help…”

He rambled on and on, then pointed to his pile of documents, "So, Professor William, there's been a lot less data lately. Please don't waste your energy on those unimportant secret rooms. Our school history needs more data!"

'Don't you realize that you can't be locked up during the Christmas holidays?'

William inwardly scoffed, but this wasn't a big deal. If Dumbledore was right, he was about to have quite a few overly curious children copying down the information...

“No problem. We’ve just finished our holiday, and I’m sure we’ll have enough data soon.”

William assured Professor Binns.

-

'A secret room left over from when the school was founded—' William rolled his eyes. How come Hogwarts has everything?

Although Professor Binns said it was just a legend, William was certain it was true—if it was something left behind by Slytherin, it would be perfectly normal for it to unleash such terrifying dark magic.

'Now a new question arises: Is there really a monster in the Chamber of Secrets? Or is there some kind of artifact inside? What exactly did Slytherin leave behind in the Chamber of Secrets?'

But the sound of running in the distance startled William from his thoughts.

"Someone's been attacked! Someone's been attacked!"

The shouts and footsteps reached William's ears. Almost instantly, he drew his wand and rushed to the corner. The wall on the other side of the corner quickly turned into a mirror, reflecting the person who had come.

"It's a student," William deduced, hiding his wand and stopping the student from a distance.

"What happened? It's still early before class, why are you running so fast in the hallway?"

"Professor, Professor! Another attack!"

What a joke!

There was an attack just yesterday, and now another one?

-

"So there's no need to worry at all. I, Professor Lockhart, will handle this attack properly. I've already discussed with Professor Snape how to brew the potion to lift the curse. Trust me, although it's difficult, it's a piece of cake for me."

Inside Lockhart's office, worried students were receiving comfort from Professor Lockhart—after yesterday's attack had spread throughout the night, the number of students coming to Professor Lockhart's office today to seek advice far exceeded the usual number.

After happily seeing off the last group of students, Lockhart cheerfully opened the book that Dumbledore had abandoned.

"Haha, see? With so many students here, who would doubt the enthusiastic Professor Lockhart?"

However, this time the book didn't react at all, which made Lockhart's desire to show off swell to an extreme. "Professor Lockhart is a genius. Spreading terror to exhaust that basilisk is all it takes. Why do it slowly, one by one?"

"Didn't the great Professor Lockhart consider that the death of a student could lead to the closure of the school?"

Lockhart couldn't help but laugh at the sudden appearance of such handwriting in the diary—ever since he learned of the Slytherin treasure there, he hadn't touched the diary; today, his plan had finally succeeded.

Today, he has a better understanding of how to use this diary.

Those messages are worth listening to, but those suggestions are nothing compared to the plan he came up with.

He picked up the quill pen with amusement. "How could that be? It's impossible for anyone to die. Could the great Lockhart not have thought of that?"

Lockhart laughed happily as he wrote, and the diary fell silent once more.

"What are you doing, you stupid Lockhart!"

“Of course, it’s a plan to make Professor Lockhart even greater,” Lockhart said, not angry at all. “Attack more than ten students at once, even a basilisk would be exhausted.”

"If that damn glasses fall down, you're done for!"

Lockhart laughed when his plan was discovered.

Looking directly into the basilisk's eyes would kill, but looking through something would weaken the curse and prevent death—that's what the diary told him.