Chapter 56: Hounds of Tindalos

Early the next morning, Neville heard about Harry's experience last night, and his expression was also not very good. He told Harry that after he returned from the Deathday Party last night, he was called to the Headmaster's office by Deng Buliduo to cooperate with the investigation, and after the investigation ended, he came back directly to sleep, and had never been to that so-called girls' restroom at all.

What made him care even more was that the person disguised as Neville said "Grandmother once said," which Neville's grandmother had indeed said, but Neville had never told anyone else. This matter was full of oddities, making him feel puzzled.

Luo En also noticed the abnormality of Neville last night, which was his height. Normally, Luo En and Neville were about the same height, and they were both taller than Harry. Last night, in order to hide in the Invisibility Cloak, he was hunched over, so he didn't realize the problem at first. But when he hunched over again to look at the current Neville, he discovered that the Neville last night was half a head taller than the current Neville.

Regarding the height problem, Harry knew some things. If a tall person takes Polyjuice Potion to become a short person, depending on the quality of the potion, the figure after transformation will vary somewhat. Therefore, they deduced that the person they met last night might be an adult who took Polyjuice Potion.

As they talked, Neville seemed to have thought of something. He was silent for a moment, and then under the questioning of Harry and Luo En, he said: "I thought of one of the best possibilities, that is, the person last night might be my tutor Li Ao. He learned that the school was in danger and came to help me investigate secretly; perhaps this is possible."

"He disguised himself as you and appeared near the crime scene, and even deliberately talked to your friends; it doesn't look like kindness no matter how you look at it." Harry frowned and said.

"However, I feel his approach is very reasonable." Neville said. "If it were me investigating and bumping into you guys making Myrtle cry, I would also do that. I can only say he disguised himself very well, and even I felt there were no flaws."

"An adult who knows Neville very well, and also knows the catchphrase of Neville's grandmother." Luo En counted on his fingers. "Too strange, the only one who meets both points is your tutor, right?"

"Not necessarily..." Neville's expression was suddenly very serious. "It could be Legilimency."

He looked at Luo En again, then frowned and didn't speak anymore.

Harry felt the atmosphere was a bit dull, so he smoothed things over: "Anyway, we can't analyze much of a clue right now, so we can only stay vigilant first."

"True." Luo En said. "Are you guys still training today? Let's go to the stadium."

Harry sighed: "In the eyes of the Ravenclaw team, this Sunday happens to be Wan Shengjie, so they aren't training; but in Wood's eyes, Wan Shengjie happens to be Sunday, so training must continue as usual, and the stadium is empty, so we have to train in the afternoon too."

"Then let's go quickly." Luo En picked up his jacket. "Let's practice sword skills again, Neville?"

"Good." Although Neville was still brooding over the things he just heard, he also knew that thinking too much was useless, so he could only stay vigilant and then take one step at a time.

The three came to the stadium. Harry saw that the Gryffindor players were all in place, listening to Wood talk about tactics. He was just about to join in when Neville suddenly patted him on the shoulder.

"Harry, look there." Neville said. "Did you see a black dog?"

Harry looked in the direction he pointed and saw nothing. He first thought that Neville might have seen it wrong, but given Neville's consistent personality, this possibility was not high.

"I didn't see it." He said. "Did you see it? Could it be that only you can see it?"

"Zhang Qiu also." Luo En said. "She also saw a black dog in about the same position last time."

"Is that so?" Neville's tone was a bit hesitant. "That's really a bit strange."

"She should be in the library at this moment." Harry said. "Do you guys want to go find her and ask? I'm going to train first."

In the evening, when Harry returned to the dormitory, Luo En and Neville were playing Wizard's Chess. Looking at their expressions, their mood should be quite good.

"What?" He asked. "About the black dog, did you guys go find Zhang Qiu later?"

"Found her." Neville's tone was very flat. "She said she would write a letter to ask her master, we don't need to worry for the time being."

"I've heard that her master is also a great wizard, on par with Deng Buliduo." Harry said.

At Hogwarts, the name Deng Buliduo had an inexplicable ability, and even Zhang Qiu's master benefited from it. Now, the three little wizards completely threw the ominous black dog to the back of their minds, and instead continued to discuss the attack on Mrs. Norris.

On Wednesday, when Harry was resting his spirit in Professor Binns' History of Magic class again, he was awakened by a crisp female voice.

"Professor, may I ask if you have heard of the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry looked carefully, and it was Hermione who spoke.

"In my class, I only talk about real events, not these folk legends..." The ghost Binns said in his cold, slow tone, but the interested eyes of the students made him feel a bit surprised. This dead-looking professor rarely encountered such a situation in class, so he changed his words: "However, you all seem to really want to hear it, so I'll talk about it."

"Everyone should know that our school was founded by four people, and their names have been passed down to become the current four houses. When the school was first founded, their relationship was very close, but as time passed, Slytherin began to gradually become dissatisfied with the other three founders because of differences in teaching philosophy.

After a quarrel, Slytherin decided to leave the school. But before leaving, he set up a Chamber of Secrets in the school. According to legend, this Chamber of Secrets will be opened again when it encounters Slytherin's heir, and the terrifying thing inside will clear out everyone in the school who is not worthy of learning magic."

After he finished saying these things, the classroom fell into a short silence, and then they heard Hermione ask persistently: "Then, what is called 'people not worthy of learning magic'?"

"I didn't want to say it, child." Binns looked at her with pity. "Slytherin believed that only children from wizarding families are qualified to learn magic; he had long wanted to clear out all Muggle-borns."

Hermione bit her lip, said a difficult "Thank you," and sat down without saying a word.

Harry felt some sympathy for Hermione. Although he knew that the bloodline theory of the Wizarding World was nonsense and had always treated Muggle-borns equally, it was hard for Mr. Potter to empathize with Hermione based on what he had seen and heard in this world. Even, when he and Luo En expressed support for Hannah in Neville's feelings, if Hermione were sensitive, she would think it was because of bloodline, although they might not have had this intention.

Through Hermione's bold question this time, the story of the Chamber of Secrets spread instantly. In fact, even without asking in public in the classroom, the curious little wizards would have found out the truth sooner or later. Muggle-borns in the school began to feel insecure, while mixed-blood and pure-blood wizards felt much more relieved, only some people worried about their Muggle-born friends.

A point that caught Harry's attention was that the significance of the Chamber of Secrets being opened was to clear out Muggle-borns, and that day at the crime scene, when a boy heard about the Dark Lord, he shouted that his ancestors had been pure-blood wizards for nine generations. Harry went to verify it again, and indeed, Voldemort was also extremely hostile to Muggle-borns. In other words, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, whether true or false, had an inseparable connection with Voldemort's conspiracy.

Just when the whole school was discussing the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets, Zhang Qiu's master replied. Harry also saw the original copy of that letter; there were only a dozen square characters on it, which were quite beautiful, but he really couldn't understand them.

Zhang Qiu said the general meaning of the letter was that her master called that kind of black dog that others couldn't see the Hounds of Tindalos, and they indeed represented ominousness; if one wasn't careful, one might lose one's life because of it. More situations were not suitable to tell her now, but as long as she lived normally and didn't make trouble, there wouldn't be too much danger.

Harry listened to these words in a daze, stared at the letter written in Chinese for a long time again, and then asked suspiciously: "Is that how you Heavenly Dynasty people talk? I feel like he said it and didn't say it at all?"

"Those who understand will understand, those who don't I can't explain in detail; this matter involves too much, the information you can find is the part you can find, and I can't tell you the things I can't tell you." Zhang Qiu said. "In short, it's to be law-abiding, follow school rules and study hard, don't do things you shouldn't do, and if there are no accidents, there won't be any accidents."

Harry felt he understood, but it seemed he didn't understand. He relayed the original words to Neville, and Neville also showed that kind of confused expression.

"I probably understand a little, perhaps it means that this black dog is warning us." Neville summarized. "Don't intervene in the investigation anymore?"

As soon as this conclusion came out, the Gryffindor part of Harry's personality was instantly activated, and he said angrily: "It seems the black dog must be part of the Dark Lord's conspiracy. We must not be afraid of him, we must continue to investigate to the end and expose his conspiracy!"

"Right." Neville said. "Perhaps Zhang Qiu will be a bit afraid, but as the Child of Prophecy, we will not be afraid. No matter what kind of terror the so-called Hounds of Tindalos represent, I will face it uprightly!"

"No matter what warning we encounter." Harry swore. "Our pace of pursuing the truth will not retreat!"

And the next day he was seriously injured by a crazy Bludger and had to be admitted to the school hospital. ===== CHAPTER 57 =====