Chapter 54: The First Attack

After the new week passed, no one came to disturb Harry again, and he was finally able to finish an essay quietly on Monday night, which was something worth being happy about for Harry. Later, he heard that the notebook had returned to Cui Ge and Lu Na's hands, starting a new rotation.

In other words, they eventually found four groups of eight people, changing once a week, equivalent to each group using it for one week a month. In this way, even if the notebook was really some kind of Dark Magic item, it would surely minimize its harm. Harry felt their approach was quite wise, but he still kept an eye on this matter.

The subsequent life basically returned to plainness. Harry was initially interested in combat and such, but when he felt he was hitting a bottleneck, he turned back to study Potions. It must be said that although Snape's attitude was never very good, he indeed had real talent and gave Harry a lot of help. Coupled with the characteristic that the jumping pot would never explode no matter what, he could now try to configure some high-difficulty potions.

Quidditch training was still proceeding in an orderly manner. After several practice matches, Harry vaguely felt that he was the strongest Seeker among the four teams. Only Gryffindor dared to bet their treasure on him; Seekers of other teams often had to cooperate with the team to do things, rarely having someone like Harry who could focus on finding the Snitch.

Until a Sunday evening a few days before Wan Shengjie, Harry was fiddling with the jumping pot in the dormitory, trying to configure a powerful potion he saw in a book, but eventually only got a pot of paste, which made him very unhappy.

Luo En returned, his head was wet, and there was some fragrance on his body; it looked like he had just taken a shower. He saw Harry's expression wasn't very good, so he said excitedly: "Hi Harry, you definitely can't guess what I just saw!"

"What is it?" Harry waved his wand and cleared the garbage in the pot.

"I wasn't practicing combat with Neville, Hannah and Hermione were there too. To be honest, Hermione is really awkward; she clearly said those things last time, but now she still occasionally crowds in among them." Luo En said. "Of course that's not the point; Tang Tang Nade came later too. He suggested we find a place with no one to try a sword duel. Tang Tang Nade is really thoughtful; he might be worried I'm uncomfortable, so he took the two girls away."

"So you guys just had a sword duel?" Harry's eyes lit up instantly.

"Yeah, of course, it was wooden swords so no one was hurt, but that's not the point either!" Luo En sold a suspense. "We saw Cui Ge and Lu Na at the edge of the Forbidden Forest; they stole a chicken from Hagrid and were preparing to roast it to eat!"

"Poor Hagrid." Harry sympathized with Hagrid on his lips, but what he was thinking about in his heart was the taste of roast chicken.

"Of course, the most magical thing is that Cui Ge introduced generously in front of us that he and Lu Na were dating." Luo En continued. "Neville's expression wasn't very good; his own feelings were a mess, and then he saw others being sweet and sweet; he must have been stimulated."

"No wonder, you came back first, where is he?" Harry asked.

"He said he wanted to take a walk, with a disappointed face." Luo En took out an oil-paper bag from his robe. "I brought you a chicken wing; this was made by Cui Ge himself, authentic Texas roast chicken!"

"Luo En, Texans don't necessarily know how to make Texas food." Harry corrected while gnawing on the chicken wing. "Besides, Cui Ge said last time that he lived in San Francisco."

"That's about the same." Luo En laughed. "If you ask me, Neville had a really miserable day today. Logically speaking, only Hannah should have come today, but Hermione was there too, and he was distracted while practicing. It was hard for the professor to help him out, his sword skills were also suppressed by me, and then he was shown off by Cui Ge."

"Indeed." Harry recalled the personalities of Hannah and Hermione. "No matter who Neville chooses, I'm afraid he won't be as happy as Cui Ge and Lu Na. Hermione is an arrogant bookworm, and Hannah is soft and weak without a mind of her own..."

His voice gradually lowered because it seemed like footsteps came from the doorway.

Neville returned, his robe was still dirty and hadn't been washed. He was always in that expression, and Harry didn't know how he felt.

"Harry, Luo En." Neville spoke. "I just ran into Nearly Headless Nick and chatted with him for a few words. And I was caught by Filch, but Filch didn't punish me."

"Wow, that's magical." Harry knew he was actually in a good mood when he heard him say that.

"I discovered Filch's secret, we'll talk about this later. Nick invited us to his Deathday Party, on Wan Shengjie, are you interested?"

Luo En looked a bit excited, but Harry secretly pulled him, and then Harry declined the invitation: "I think I'd better not go; I'm a bit afraid of ghosts and such."

"Now that you mention it, I'm a bit afraid too, you and Hannah go." Luo En vaguely understood Harry's meaning; such a precious opportunity should be used to invite a girl on a date, and if it were this kind of date, Hermione might not be able to crowd in.

"Alright." Neville smiled. "Want to know Filch's secret?"

"Of course, don't keep us in suspense." Harry urged curiously.

"He is taking a correspondence course for Kwikspell; in other words, he is likely a Squib." Neville said.

"Wow, you mean, he can't do magic?" Harry was stunned for a moment, then reacted; he indeed had almost never seen Filch cast even one formal spell.

"Of course, this is also the reason why I was spared his punishment." Neville said. "He is worried that I will tell this matter out. Don't you guys sell me out!"

"Of course, if I threaten him with this next time, I'll say Malfoy told me." Luo En smirked.

After the three chatted for a few more words, they went to sleep separately. The next day, Harry noticed that Hermione was still awkwardly crowding beside Neville, and he began to doubt whether his and Luo En's plan could work.

In the evening, Zhang Qiu suddenly asked Harry: "Do you want to go to Nick's Deathday Party?"

"Why did you also receive an invitation?" Harry was a bit puzzled. "I don't really want to go, really, because Neville will go with Hannah."

"Alright, Helena invited me. If you don't want to go, I won't go either." Zhang Qiu said casually, and buried her head to start doing homework again.

Harry recalled that Lady Helena was the ghost of Ravenclaw. He suddenly thought that if the ghosts of the four houses were all going to that party and were all willing to invite students, then Neville's world of two might be ruined.

Of course, this "only two people" and the real "only two people" were obviously not quite the same.

On Wan Shengjie night, Harry saw Hermione sitting obediently at the table, while Neville and Hannah were nowhere to be found. Harry's heart was instantly put down. He and Luo En were both very happy to see such a situation. This time they could finally finish the whole banquet happily. Just when he and Luo En were chatting and laughing preparing to go upstairs, they found that the crowd in front was a bit noisy.

Harry squeezed to the front of the crowd with difficulty. He saw Filch's cat hanging upside down on the torch bracket, its body stiff, and a large pool of water on the ground reflecting a faint light. And what really made the students stop and discuss was the two lines of blood on the wall.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware."

Zhang Qiu also squeezed to his side. She sighed and said: "What should come will come."

"Is it the Dark Lord's conspiracy?" Harry whispered.

"The Dark Lord!" A Hufflepuff student on the side screamed in horror: "My family has been pure-blood wizards for nine generations, please don't attack me!"

"Don't be afraid." Harry said loudly. "The Dark Lord's target is obviously me. No matter what conspiracy he has, I will fight him to the end!"

"Enough, children." Tang Tang Nade arrived at the scene at some point. He noticed that the time, place, and victim of the first attack hadn't changed, and his tone was even a bit relaxed. "Let's not scare ourselves. Perhaps this is just a prank aimed at Filch? In short, everyone go back and rest; the professors will investigate this matter. Let me see... this cat is just petrified, not dead."

The professors who arrived later also confirmed this point. They comforted the students and let everyone go to sleep early.

Harry's mood was much more relaxed. For now, the Chamber of Secrets was just a shocking term, and the victim was just a skinny bad cat. Although the blood words were indeed very scary, it didn't necessarily mean there was any death threat. If the Dark Lord really wanted to do some terrible conspiracy, even if there were no student victims today, he couldn't have left the cat alive.

He quickly figured out some things and whispered to Zhang Qiu: "I guessed it, this is probably what the Dark Lord planned to do at Hogwarts. Undoubtedly, perhaps he can make some noise, but it definitely won't be too big; at least the students shouldn't be in danger of their lives."

"Hmm?" Zhang Qiu turned her head to look at him and asked curiously: "What do you think?"

"Just like we analyzed during the summer vacation, he needs Hogwarts to have some trouble to attract Dumbledore's attention, but what he can use at Hogwarts is probably only the student from which Death Eater family. What shocking thing can a student do? So, he needs to render this kind of small trouble to make us mistakenly think this is a terrible conspiracy. Using Dobby to make me think first that something would happen at school, plus the current blood words, if I hadn't figured it out, I would definitely be scared to death now."

Zhang Qiu frowned and thought for a while, then showed an expression of sudden realization. She said: "But you have to be vigilant. If he only intends to scare you and you are very vigilant, there will be no loss; but if he really intends to murder someone and you don't take it seriously, then it will be serious." ===== CHAPTER 55 =====