Chapter 453: Continuing Development

A few weeks passed, and the Harry Potter trio's relationship with their classmates quickly mended—largely because no new attacks occurred, the young wizards were enthusiastic and forgetful. The mandrakes grew increasingly brazen; they could even crawl out of their pots to hold a dance, which pleased the professors as it meant the mandrakes were thriving. Bai Lang was also pleased, as his violent actions seemed to have no effect on the mandrakes' growth.

How he treated the mandrakes was finally discovered by Professor Sprout—this Hufflepuff Head of House first saw Neville Longbottom, while repotting, pull a mandrake so its head was slightly exposed and then smash the mandrake hard with the handle of his wand; the limp mandrake obediently was pulled out by Neville Longbottom and shoved into a new pot, without a scream.

She was very surprised that anyone would treat such magical plants so roughly. She then found several other young wizards doing similar things; some succeeded like Neville Longbottom, others failed. Professor Sprout went to a successful case and examined the mandrake closely, finding it normal except for a slightly wilted spirit. She saw Bai Lang pull out a mandrake; his mandrake made no sound, cooperated by crawling into the pot and even patting the soil…

After questioning Neville Longbottom, Professor Sprout learned that Bai Lang had taught him; she did not approve of such a rough method, so she would not award Gryffindor any points— even if points were to be given, it would depend on whether the mandrakes' medicinal effect changed after maturity. The mandrakes are now close to maturing; once mature, gathering these little ones, setting them on fire and frying them will brew a medicine to cure petrification.

Valentine's Day turned into a farce thanks to Gilderoy Lockhart, a genius who knows everything; Bai Lang had no idea where he found such amusing dwarfs, whose gloomy faces were a perfect match for Valentine's Day. They appeared everywhere, delivering all sorts of deadly blessings—Harry Potter was one of the victims; under the dwarfs' message, a private and supposedly enthusiastic love note became a complete joke— at least Draco Malfoy laughed the loudest.

Two months passed quickly, and the weather grew hotter—when the weather was fine, two Quidditch matches were held. Bai Lang, as usual, was too lazy to watch; he took advantage of the good weather to sun himself by the Black Lake, while Dio spent the day hiding in the Forbidden Forest. The beast was still not suitable to appear in people's sight—before Bai Lang graduated and earned his own status. Harry Potter and his friends were mysterious all day; Bai Lang remembered this was because of the diary.

Actually it doesn't matter; the hidden basilisk has already been taken down by Bai Lang. He only hopes that if Harry ever enters the Chamber of Secrets again—Bai Lang recalls that in the book, after the basilisk attacked Hermione Granger, Harry figured out what was happening and was then tricked into the Chamber. If Harry were still tricked into the Chamber now—Bai Lang hopes he won't be suffocated by the rotting basilisk corpse. "It must be completely rotten…," Bai Lang thought, it's been almost half a year, the basilisk's body must be terribly decayed.

As for whether the diary's Tom Marvolo Riddle can completely fool Harry Potter—ah, that's almost certain; given Harry's head, his linear thinking and his obsessively clear sense of right and wrong, it would be a miracle if he weren't duped— and the trio are essentially the same person, so being fooled together is very normal. Hermione Granger is only a genius girl academically, and in intellectual battles between people, lacking information makes her equally easy to deceive.

Bai Lang thought carefully about what would happen if he encountered this notebook himself. "Probably the same; without enough information, one could be fooled as well," he shook his head.

Ministry officials came and took Hagrid away, which Bai Lang was completely unprepared for—"Hagrid is responsible for the previous petrification attacks? He's about to be taken for interrogation?" Bai Lang saw all this from outside, while Harry and Dumbledore faced the Minister of Magic Fudge inside. Bai Lang was perched on a branch not far from Hagrid's house, unnoticed—perhaps Dumbledore was an exception, but Bai Lang would not act to rescue Hagrid—because first, he would have no reason to, and second, Dumbledore would not consent to such an act.

Bai Lang stood on the branch, and his pet Dio also stood in the nearby shadow, a golden‑yellow, brown‑black maned, horned male lion as big as an Asian elephant, yet in the shadow it was equally invisible, at most a pair of eyes reflecting yellow light could be seen. Both were nocturnal, stealthy animals; Bai Lang's clothing was an assassin's outfit, not the flamboyant white but black, and his face wore a half‑crying, half‑laughing clown mask.

Hagrid was taken away, Dumbledore also left, and after Harry and the others argued for a while they also left. Bai Lang patted Dio's head, "Hmm… now it seems you're a mature cat, Dio, time for you to find your own food." Raising him would be impossible, but it seemed Dio hadn't been eating much lately, perhaps he'd finished growing? "You need to eat at least two deer or a cow each week, master, I can't possibly afford to keep you," Bai Lang pretended to wipe the "eyes" on his mask.

After a brief vent, Bai Lang planned to resume hunting those Eight‑Eyed Spiders from tomorrow— even if he couldn't strike in Diagon Alley, he could try the wizarding shopping streets of other countries. "England isn't the whole world!" Bai Lang said, "Tomorrow you'll come with me to hunt spiders, okay? I wonder if Dio eats spiders?" The big cat made a human‑like retching expression, "You want me to eat that? How heartless of you!"

Bai Lang let out a few chuckling laughs, and as he spun, he vanished.

At night, the moon was bright that day and the sky held no clouds. "Ah, what a perfect day to go borrow money! Come on! Get the money!" Bai Lang snapped his fingers, then signaled his seated Dio to hurry away into the deep forest—without Hagrid, Bai Lang and Dio could act with complete impunity. "Hmm, they're here too?" Bai Lang saw the Harry trio; the three were also trembling as they scrambled through the dense woods, seemingly searching for something.

"Probably just like in the book, they came looking for the Eight‑Eyed Spiders, huh? Didn't expect it to come to this." Unlike the book, Hermione Granger wasn't attacked, and Draco Malfoy wasn't as arrogant—he was actually quite afraid of Bai Lang striking him. And since Bai Lang hasn't struck him yet, Draco's father has no excuse to petition the school to expel Bai Lang.