Chapter 137: Return to Second Year

Harry suddenly remembered this scene—he and Ron had sneaked here to investigate the crime scene, only to accidentally make Moaning Myrtle cry—it wasn't this year's Halloween, but last year's Halloween, the one right after the first Chamber of Secrets attack.

Neville, upon seeing last year's Harry, only then realized he had gone too far; at the same moment, he understood exactly what had happened with last year's "someone impersonating Neville."

But since it had come to this, perhaps he could only grit his teeth and keep up the act.

On last year's Halloween, the third-year Neville knew the Chamber's entrance was in this bathroom—the killer was likely the Basilisk, or someone using the Basilisk's corpse—but whoever it was, he had definitely come out from here.

Harry, from the third year and also knowing the answer, listened to Neville's words tonight and realized Neville was deliberately aligning with second-year Harry's thoughts, trying to guide him toward the correct conclusion.

But back then, second-year Harry had found this "Neville" highly suspicious—he was deliberately steering Harry's thinking, and his tone was overly confident; Harry had even suspected it was some adult in disguise.

"I'm feeling tired—I'm going back to bed." After walking a while, Neville simply couldn't keep up the pretense anymore and found an excuse to leave.

Since all of them were under the Invisibility Cloak, it was hard for Harry to track Neville—but the Doctor seemed to have a solution; he pulled out a Revealer Mirror, said to be able to track those under disguise spells.

"Since we've come back to this time, Neville must want to investigate the Chamber Shunbian." The Doctor bent over, eyes fixed on the Kuijing, "Let's return to the crime scene."

For the Doctor, he might not know the true entrance to the Chamber, but he certainly knew about last year's uproar over the Chamber of Secrets. Now, the first attack had occurred right near the entrance—perhaps Neville intended to go down and take a look, so calling it "returning to the crime scene" made sense enough.

"Look, the Revealer Mirror keeps spinning—that means Neville is nearby." The Doctor said, "Third-year students have mastered the Disillusionment Charm, Harry—you really ought to learn from him."

Harry muttered a few dismissive replies; he figured Neville had just wanted to sneak around and didn't want to keep borrowing the Invisibility Cloak, so he'd practiced the charm. For Harry himself, he had no need to learn the Disillusionment Charm—better to spend the time practicing Expelliarmus.

Though his Expelliarmus was nothing special either.

Guided by the Revealer Mirror, Harry and the Doctor quietly returned to the entrance of the second-floor girls' bathroom—the crime scene.

Neville's Disillusionment Charm had worn off; Harry could see him standing at the bathroom door, looking troubled, unsure how to enter.

Hogwarts' protective magic wasn't particularly sophisticated; its founders seemed to have deliberately allowed students to try cracking them. After hesitating, Neville slowly pulled out his wand, touched the bathroom door handle, and whispered, "Confundus."

"Step back! What are you doing?!" A furious voice came from behind, startling all three of them.

It was Donald—last year's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Though now he was mired in false accusations due to his position's curse, back then on last year's Halloween, he was still one of the school's legitimate professors.

"I saw everything, Neville." He walked forward with a stern expression, "Using Confundus on the girls' bathroom handle isn't something a good boy should do."

Neville avoided eye contact, embarrassed—perhaps third-year Neville didn't know how to react to meeting his own former professor.

"I understand you're eager to catch the attacker, but that's the professors' job." Donald's expression was grim, but his tone was unexpectedly gentle, "Now go back to bed, or I'll deduct points."

Faced with the professor's advice, Neville couldn't oppose him—so Neville, who had just walked from his dorm to the crime scene, now had to walk back from the crime scene to his dorm.

The Doctor put the still-spinning Revealer Mirror back in his pocket, and the two quietly followed Neville. Neville, however, seemed dissatisfied with this moment; after passing a few corners, he slowly crouched down and returned to the third-year timeline.

Back in January 1994, Neville lay on the floor of an empty classroom, breathing deeply.

"I've returned to last year's Halloween—and this isn't even the limit of Hyper-Time." He muttered to himself, "But I still can't solve the consumption problem—the duration is too short."

"Perhaps he needs to constantly drain magic to maintain the spell, so any use of magic triggers premature return." The Doctor whispered in explanation.

"That's truly remarkable…" Harry was deeply curious about the spell, but he didn't even know the prerequisite Hyper-Time Charm. Without Neville offering to share, Harry wouldn't directly ask to learn someone else's private spell.

"If the first person who impersonated me was myself, then who attacked Hermione the second time?" Neville murmured, "That means someone's still at large—maybe I should check the Colin case."

"Ha—" Neville exhaled slowly, "Next month."

He brushed the dust off his clothes, barely steadied himself, then staggered toward the dorm.

"Chamber of Secrets. Colin case." Harry slapped his own head in frustration, "I had so many unsolved mysteries I could've used the time machine to uncover the truth—but I chose to relive the Quidditch championship moment."

"It's not too late yet—that's one thing." The Doctor comforted him, "And second, don't put too much pressure on yourself."

"Harry, at your age, enjoying yourself is perfectly normal. You don't need to always look like you're carrying the weight of the world, constantly trying to solve problems and be a hero… uh. Sorry, I'm not implying anything—just that." The Doctor squinted and twisted his hands, clearly struggling to find the right words.

"Anyway, let's hurry to the next stop—get in the car." He hurried to the control panel, calling to Harry, "Let's see… next stop is February 11th—the scheduled Colin case. Neville found the location precisely this time—let's go!"

Amid a rhythmic braking sound, Harry noticed the TARDIS's date had frozen on November 7th. So much had happened that day—second-year Harry had seen Colin, his mind still echoing with Quidditch victory, his body still wrapped in plaster casts.

Third-year Harry gently opened the TARDIS door, slipped out wearing the Invisibility Cloak, stepping from a worn-out cabinet.

Before him was a vast storage room; Harry seriously doubted whether he was still in Hogwarts—but he eventually confirmed this must be some hidden corner of the castle.

For inside this room lay nearly every forbidden item he could imagine, though mostly just junk: dusty old cabinets and desks, piles of discarded school robes in the corner, scrolls of parchment—some written on, some blank—paper bags scattered everywhere, and countless baffling clutter: wigs lying on the floor, filthy bedding, plaster statues. Harry even spotted a pair of rusted manacles inside an open, broken crate.

"Where… is this?" Harry whispered, moving carefully through the clutter, "I never knew the school had a place like this."

"No!!!" A voice caught Harry's attention—he turned to see Donald again.

In truth, Donald would appear in a completely different location seven days later, but for Harry, who was time-traveling, he had seen this professor only five minutes ago.

"Obliviate!" Donald fired an Obliviation spell without hesitation.

A short distance away, Luna had just turned around in surprise when the spell struck her face. She collapsed instantly, limp on the floor, her belongings rolling beneath a dusty, bubbled cabinet.

"What did you do?!" Neville burst out from somewhere, pointing his wand at Donald.

"Luna came into contact with something unsuitable for her." Donald's face was grim. "Now I need you to take her back to her dorm and put her to rest."

"Unsuitable for her? But what exactly is this place?" Neville glanced around, "It's like a dumping ground for everything—could this be a secret Chamber left by Hufflepuff?"

"You could think of it that way—it's where generations of students have hidden things." Donald, undeterred by Neville's wand, stepped slowly to Luna's side and lifted her up.

Neville had overreacted slightly—he didn't really want to confront this rather decent professor, and slowly lowered his wand.

"Among the things students have hidden here are many dangerously forbidden items—like what Luna just touched." Donald said, "Actually, I came here to deal with another nuisance—a broken Vanishing Cabinet."

"Could you say again what this place is?" Neville still seemed confused.

"You probably came here to hide something." Donald smiled, feeling he'd given Neville some dignity, "When you think of hiding something, the door to this room appears on the eighth-floor corridor."

Indeed, Harry thought silently—perhaps Neville had planned to hide himself somewhere on the eighth floor, to watch when and by whom Colin would be attacked.

Hyper-Time resonated strangely with Hogwarts' secret room, bringing along the TARDIS that had been trailing him. This room should have been Hogwarts' deepest secret—but now, it was bustling like a party.