Chapter 137: Return to Second Year

Harry suddenly recalled this scene; he and Ron had come quietly to investigate the crime scene, only to accidentally make Moaning Myrtle cry—this wasn't this year's Wan Shengjie, but last year's, the Wan Shengjie when the first Chamber of Secrets attack had just occurred.

Upon seeing the Harry of last year, Neville realized belatedly that he had run too far. At the same time, he instantly understood what the so-called "someone impersonating Neville" from last year was all about.

However, things had reached this point; perhaps he could only bite the bullet and keep up the act.

On Wan Shengjie of his second year, Neville, coming from his third year, actually knew that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was in this lavatory. The culprit might be the Basilisk, or perhaps someone utilizing the Basilisk's corpse; in any case, they must have come out from here.

Harry, also from his third year and knowing the answer, listened to what Neville said that night and could tell that, knowing the answer, he was trying his best to follow the train of thought of the second-year Harry, attempting to guide him in the right direction.

But at the time, the second-year Harry only felt that this "Neville" was very suspicious; he was deliberately trying to guide his thinking, and his tone was overly confident. He had once suspected that this was some adult in disguise.

"I feel a bit tired, I'm going back to sleep first." After the three of them walked for a while, Neville really didn't want to continue putting on an act here, so he directly found an excuse to leave.

With everyone in an invisible state, it was actually not easy for Harry to track Neville. However, the Professor seemed to have a way; he took out a Sneakoscope, which was said to be able to track people who had cast disguises.

"Since we've returned to this time, Neville must want to investigate the Chamber of Secrets while he's at it." Professor Doudou bent over, his two eyes fixed on the Sneakoscope in his hand. "Let's go back to the crime scene and take a look."

To the Professor, he might not know the true entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, but he certainly knew that a sensational Chamber of Secrets incident had occurred in the second year. Now, the first attack happened to take place near the entrance; Neville might intend to go down and take a look, so explaining it as "returning to the crime scene" didn't seem to be a problem.

"You see, this Sneakoscope keeps spinning; this shows that Neville is nearby." The Professor said. "Third-year students have mastered the Disillusionment Charm; Harry, you really should learn from him."

Harry responded dismissively; he felt that Neville must want to wander at night and didn't want to repeatedly borrow the Invisibility Cloak, so he went to practice this spell. For Harry himself, he had no need to practice the Disillusionment Charm; with that time, he might as well practice the Disarming Charm.

Although his Disarming Charm was also nothing more than ordinary.

Under the guidance of the Sneakoscope, Harry and the Professor quietly returned to the entrance of the second-floor girls' lavatory, that crime scene.

Neville's Disillusionment Charm had already worn off; Harry could see him standing at the entrance of the girls' restroom, seemingly a bit worried, not knowing how to get in.

Hogwarts' protective magic was actually not profound; the school's founders seemed to intentionally allow students to try to crack them. After hesitating for a while, Neville slowly took out his wand, pointed it at the lavatory door handle, and whispered, "Confundus."

"Back! What are you doing!" An angry voice came from behind, startling all three people present.

It was Tang Nade, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor from last year. Although he was currently mired in a false accusation scandal due to the curse of the position, at the time of last year's Wan Shengjie, he was still one of the legitimate professors in the school.

"I saw it all, Neville." He walked up with a solemn expression. "You casting a Confundus Charm on the girls' restroom door handle—this is not something a good child should do."

Neville dodged his eyes in embarrassment; perhaps the third-year Neville didn't know how to react when encountering the professor of that time during his second year.

"I can understand that you are anxious to catch the attacker, but this is, after all, the professor's task." Although Tang Nade's expression was not good, his words were unexpectedly gentle. "Now go back to sleep quickly, otherwise I will have to deduct points from you."

Facing the admonition of this professor, it was not convenient for Neville to go against him, so Neville, who had just walked from the dormitory to the crime scene, had to walk back from the crime scene to the dormitory.

The Professor put the Sneakoscope, which was still spinning non-stop, back into his pocket, and the two of them quietly followed Neville. And Neville seemed dissatisfied with this current node; after walking past a few corners, he slowly squatted down and returned to the third-year time point.

Returning to January 1994, Neville lay on the floor of the empty classroom, taking deep breaths.

"I returned to last year's Wan Shengjie, and this is not the limit of the Haipu Time-Ascension." He muttered to himself. "But I still can't solve the consumption problem; the time I stay is too short."

"Perhaps he needs to constantly consume magic power to maintain this spell, so once magic is used, it will lead to an early return." The Professor explained softly.

"That really is amazing..." Harry was actually very curious about this spell, but he didn't even know the prerequisite Time-Ascension Charm. Without Neville taking the initiative to offer to share, Harry wouldn't directly run over to ask for someone else's unique spell.

"If the first person to impersonate me was myself, then who was the second person to injure Hermione?" Neville muttered. "This shows that there is still someone at large; perhaps I can go and take a look at the Colin case."

"Hah—" Neville let out a long sigh. "Next month then."

He patted the dust off his body, barely stood steady, and then staggered toward the dormitory.

"Chamber of Secrets, Colin case." Harry patted his head in annoyance. "I originally had so many unsolved mysteries, and I could have used the time machine to learn the truth, but I chose to relive the moment of winning the Quidditch championship."

"It's not too late now; this is the first thing." The Professor comforted him. "The second thing is, you shouldn't have too much pressure."

"Harry, for a child of your age, it is very normal to like to play; there is no need to always make yourself look bitter and deep, always thinking about solving some problems, being a hero... uh. Sorry, I'm not implying anything, in short, it's just." Professor Doudou wrung his hands, making faces; it seemed he couldn't find the right vocabulary for a moment.

"In short, it's just, it's just, ah, we should hurry to the next stop, get on the car quickly." He walked quickly to the console and greeted Harry. "Let me see, the next step is February 11th, the scheduled Colin case; Neville found the location accurately this time, let's go!"

Amidst a rhythmic braking sound, Harry noticed that the date in the TARDIS was fixed on November 7th. Too many things happened on this day; when the second-year Harry saw Colin, his mind was still roaring with the victory of Quidditch, and he still had plaster bandages on his body.

The third-year Harry gently opened the door of the TARDIS; he was draped in the Invisibility Cloak and gently walked out of a dilapidated cabinet.

What came into view was a huge storage room; Harry highly doubted whether he was still at Hogwarts, but in the end, he could still determine that this might be some corner of the school castle.

Because in this room, almost all the contraband he could imagine was hidden, and of course, more of it was all kinds of trash. The dilapidated cabinets and desks were covered in dust, several unwanted school uniforms were piled in the corner, all kinds of parchment with or without writing, paper bags could be seen everywhere, and there were many miscellaneous items of unknown meaning, such as wigs scattered on the ground, dirty quilts, plaster statues, and Harry also saw a pair of rusty shackles in an open broken box.

"Where... is this?" Harry groped gently, walking through the pile of old things. "I never knew there was such a place in the school."

"No!!!" A voice attracted Harry's attention; he looked in the direction of the sound, and it was Tang Nade again.

In fact, Tang Nade appeared in a completely different place seven days later, but for Harry, who was traveling through time, he had just seen this professor five minutes ago.

"Obliviate!" Tang Nade shot out a Memory Charm without mercy.

Not far away, Lu Na had just turned her head in surprise when she was immediately hit in the face by a Memory Charm. She fainted all of a sudden, fell softly to the ground, and the things in her hand also rolled under an old, blistered cabinet.

"What did you do?!" Neville rushed out from somewhere, pointing his wand at Tang Nade.

"Lu Na came into contact with things that were not suitable for her to touch too early." Tang Nade said with a gloomy face. "Now I need you to send her back to the dormitory to rest."

"Things that shouldn't be touched, but what exactly is this place." Neville glanced around. "Stuffing everything in here, is this the Chamber of Secrets left by Hufflepuff?"

"Perhaps you can understand it that way, because this is where generations of students hide things." Tang Nade, facing Neville's wand, walked step by step to Lu Na's side and picked her up.

Neville was just overreacting; he didn't really want to confront this professor who was actually quite good, and the wand he had originally raised slowly lowered.

"Among these things hidden by students, there is no lack of some very dangerous contraband, such as the things Lu Na just touched." Tang Nade said. "In fact, I intended to come to deal with another annoying threat—a broken Vanishing Cabinet."

"Can you say again what place this is?" Neville seemed to still not quite understand.

"You should have intended to come to hide something." Tang Nade smiled; he felt he had given Neville face. "When you think about wanting to hide something, the door to this room will appear in the corridor on the eighth floor."

Indeed, Harry thought to himself, perhaps Neville intended to hide himself, hiding in some corner of the eighth floor, so as to monitor when and by whom Colin was attacked.

The Haipu Time-Ascension and the secret room of Hogwarts resonated wonderfully, and also brought the TARDIS that had been following him. This room should have been the deepest secret buried in Hogwarts, but at this time, it was as lively as a party. ===== CHAPTER 138 =====