Chapter 136: The Chamber Under Surveillance

"Hermione, how long is the Potions essay supposed to be? Two feet? Or three?"

"Five feet," Hermione said without looking up.

Silven held his quill and felt his wrist ache even more.

The most impossible-to-ignore thing about the Easter holiday was the pile of assignments that could stack up into a small mountain.

Over two weeks, Silven spent at least eight hours a day in the library, snapping three quills and using up two bottles of ink… yet even so, on the day before school resumed, he still had one eight-foot-long essay left unwritten.

Compared to him, Harry and Ron seemed far more relaxed; with Hermione's half-hearted help, they only needed to sit in the library for five hours a day to finish their daily quota.

Afterward, they would mysteriously leave the library, off to do something unknown.

"I can't finish it, I just can't finish it…" Neville, after knocking over another ink bottle, stared despairingly at the soaked parchment.

He spent more time in the library each day than Silven, yet had even more assignments left… roughly a third remaining, almost certainly impossible to complete before school reopened the next day.

"I suggest you start with the Potions essay—just copy content straight from a few books. Either way, first fool Snape, since he probably won't even read your work," Silven advised him.

Since Neville's cauldron and potion had vanished together under the Scourgify last time, Snape's attitude toward him had changed.

Previously, he had mocked and sneered; now he simply ignored him, as if Neville merely surviving his classes was a success.

So Snape would likely waste no time reading Neville's Potions essay—so long as he turned it in, there was at least a fifty percent chance he could slip through undetected.

"Then copy your Potions essay, change the name, and call it History of Magic," Silven continued. "Solves two subjects at once."

"No, I can't…" Neville said with a miserable face.

"It's fine, everyone does it," Silven said. "Do you expect a ghost to grade your assignments?"

Only Peeves could touch things in Hogwarts; all other ghosts couldn't even lift parchment, let alone grade assignments.

"No," Neville looked even more distressed. "I… I wrote the History of Magic essay first. I finished it all."

Silven didn't know what to say now, so he just patted his shoulder and gave him an encouraging smile.

…

At noon, sunlight streamed through the library windows, and Silven couldn't help glancing outside.

Hogwarts in summer seemed more lively than ever: the Whomping Willow had regrown fresh green leaves, and the sky and lake alike had turned a pale blue tinged with violet.

Silven saw Hagrid striding across the grounds with Fang, accompanied by two others—Silven immediately recognized the unmistakable red hair.

There were many Weasleys with red hair at Hogwarts, but paired with a black-haired boy, it could only be Harry and Ron.

They seemed to be talking to Hagrid; Silven couldn't tell what they said, but suddenly Hagrid quickened his pace.

Fang couldn't keep up—he had to break into a trot.

That was strange—why would Hagrid want to shake them off?

After a brief distraction, Silven returned to his essay and finally reached five feet by evening.

He spread out the parchment, measured it again with a ruler, confirmed the length was correct, then nodded and rolled it back up.

It was terrifying—a single essay used up an entire roll of parchment; if this continued daily, he'd have no time left for anything else.

After dinner, back in the common room, Silven saw Harry and the other two huddled together, whispering urgently.

This instantly reminded him of what he'd seen at noon.

But when Silven walked over, the three instantly fell silent, pretending everything was normal, as if nothing had happened.

They didn't want to talk—he didn't press. Besides, the last sliver of sunset had faded; the sun had vanished entirely beyond the horizon, leaving only the moon hanging high in the sky.

"Oh, no…" Something suddenly occurred to Silven, and without another word to Harry and the others, he immediately ran back to the dormitory.

"Oh, damn…" Silven suddenly remembered something. He didn't speak to Harry again, but sprinted straight back to his dorm.

"Silven, you—" Harry tried to say something, but Silven was already upstairs, out of earshot.

"Did Silven get angry?" Harry glanced nervously upstairs.

"Maybe we shouldn't have kept this from him," Hermione said. "Silven definitely knows a lot about the Chamber—don't forget that article in the Daily Prophet."

"Forget that," Ron said. "Fred and George already said that Daily Prophet article was a joke—they have no idea where the Chamber is."

"He knows," Harry said. "Silven told me—he knows the Chamber's location. The professors know too, but none of them can get in."

"Really?" Hermione sat up straight.

Harry nodded. "That's what he said."

"Maybe we should just ask him directly."

"Don't bother," Ron sighed. "He's just like the professors—he won't tell us. His mouth is tighter than Hagrid's."

"But this is different," Harry said. "Luohate wants to open the Chamber, stage a big event to get front-page news—we have to stop him."

"Are you sure you didn't mishear?" Hermione frowned. "Professor Luohate… how could he possibly do something like that?"

"Absolutely certain, Hermione," Harry said seriously. "I swear—I heard it with my own ears, right in his office."

"If you still don't want to believe it, we can investigate on our own," Ron said bluntly.

"If you still won't believe it, we can investigate ourselves," Ron said bluntly.

She very much wanted to believe Professor Luohate, but honestly speaking, since he'd returned to the school this time, he really did seem to have become a little different from before.

She wanted to believe in Professor Luohate, but now that she thought about it, he had seemed different since returning to school.

All three fell silent. As tension thickened, Harry quickly changed the subject: "Maybe we should just tell Silven."

"Do you think he'll believe you—that you overheard Luohate planning something big?" Ron asked. "Remember when we went to Professor McGonagall yesterday? She didn't believe us—said the Headmaster's Placed magic was unbreakable."

"Right, Silven said something similar," Harry struggled to recall their last conversation. "He said only Salazar Slytherin's special abilities could open the Chamber's entrance."

"So he thinks the Chamber is safe, just like McGonagall," Ron muttered. "Last year they said the protections on the Philosopher's Stone were foolproof—and look what happened with Quirrell."

Hermione ignored him, staring at Harry. "Why didn't you tell us this sooner?"

"I just remembered," Harry sheepishly scratched his head. "Besides, we still don't even know where the Chamber entrance is—knowing this won't help."

"Better to prepare early," Hermione stood up and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

【61】 "The library," Hermione said. "We have two hours before curfew—I need to find out what Salazar Slytherin's special abilities are."

She was now torn — unwilling to believe that Lockhart would do anything that might harm a student, yet feeling that Harry wasn't lying.

So she urgently needed to find something else to do, and looking into the deeds of Salazar Slytherin was a perfect way to take her mind off things.

Besides, even if what she found turned out to be useless later, learning more about the deeds of famous wizards was always a good thing.

When Hermione reached the door, she suddenly turned back and said to Harry, "If you're free these few days, you could go to Professor Lockhart's office a few more times."

"How can you still believe him?"

"Because Professor Lockhart was attacked too," Hermione said, a touch impatiently. "We have to get to the bottom of it, instead of suspecting a professor for no good reason!"

Ron's mouth moved, but he said nothing more.

Harry actually didn't want to go to Lockhart's office — last time it was because he'd forgotten to take his things, and he had no choice but to go back.

It was that very trip that let him happen to learn Lockhart's next plan… to open the Chamber, release the monster inside and create some chaos, then step forward to deal with the monster himself.

Based on Lockhart's performance at the last Dueling Club, Harry didn't think he had that kind of ability, but Lockhart himself seemed very confident, believing he could definitely deal with whatever was in the Chamber.

……

(End of this chapter)