Chapter 69: The Monster in the Chamber of Secrets

On the way back, they discovered a fire from afar. Driven by curiosity, Harry walked to the side of the campfire.

Lu Na and Trig were sitting by the fire, slowly turning a chicken on the grill.

"Hey, Luo En," Lu Na waved at them enthusiastically. "Hey, Harry, hey, Neville."

"It's you guys; do you want to come and sit?" Trig invited. "It just so happens that this chicken is a bit too big."

"What is this?" Harry remembered that they had a criminal record. "Stealing chickens again?"

"Look at what you said," Trig scratched his head embarrassedly. "How can it be called stealing? It was clearly given to us by Hagrid because he cares about students."

"Yes, Hagrid gave us some chickens without knowing it at all," Lu Na added.

After experiencing the stimulating adventure just now, Harry also felt a bit hungry. He glanced at Neville, who had already sat down by the fire.

"Alright, what flavor is this time?" Harry also sat down and asked casually.

"It's French style," Trig said triumphantly. "Tang Mu told us that the house-elves in the kitchen can do anything. Just take the stunned chicken to them, and it will be marinated and flavorful in a day."

"Oh, I thought the chicken last time was made by yourself," Luo En stared straight at the grill. "I was thinking Trig's craftsmanship was really good."

"Actually, Tang Mu suggested that we let the house-elves roast it before eating, but Trig felt that roasting it himself was more interesting, right?" Lu Na said this, her eyes also on the grill and the campfire.

"Yes, Crabbe and Gao Er have always let the house-elves help roast," Trig nodded. "To be honest, the house-elves' craftsmanship is indeed better than mine."

"How many chickens have you stolen?" Neville asked.

"Almost one a week," Trig answered.

"Crabbe and Gao Er steal two chickens a week," Lu Na added.

"This is too bad; who invented it first?" Harry felt a bit sorry for Hagrid.

"Don't blame us," Trig argued glibly. "It was Tang Mu who instigated it."

"Yes, it's all Tang Mu's fault," Lu Na's eyes never moved away from the chicken.

Harry nodded and didn't say anything more. He felt that Hagrid might have known long ago that there were young wizards stealing chickens to eat, but Hagrid was originally a very loving person; he might have turned a blind eye and let them go.

After returning to the bedroom, the three sat around the bed, chatting from the French roast chicken just now back to the spiders in the Forbidden Forest.

Once talking about spiders, Luo En couldn't stop getting angry: "I really didn't expect that there are such terrifying dark creatures in the Forbidden Forest, and Deng Buliduo does nothing."

"He did; he reminds us every year not to go to the Forbidden Forest," Harry said helplessly.

"I am thinking, if these spiders are really the monsters in the Chamber of Secrets," Neville said, "the attackers of the two times were petrified; do spiders have the ability to petrify?"

"What you said makes sense; perhaps the spiders in the Forbidden Forest have nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," Harry thought about the information given by Tang Mu; he himself also said that it was told to him by students, not necessarily accurate.

Perhaps it was which student in the past discovered this batch of spiders in the Forbidden Forest, and at that time the Chamber of Secrets was not opened, which caused this misunderstanding.

"Hey, does this mean," Luo En's face showed an unkind expression, "these spiders neither belong to Slytherin nor does Deng Buliduo care."

"What are you thinking?"

"I want to clean them all up," Luo En said. "I hate spiders, and they will actively attack students, which is very dangerous."

"What gave you, a second-year student, such great courage?" Harry patted him on the shoulder. "We were already struggling to deal with two; what if that valley is full of spiders?"

"It's just not possible now, not forever; perhaps I can do it after learning powerful spells in the seventh year," Luo En said. "Set a small goal first, clean up the annoying spiders in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts."

"You'd better find a way to pass the OWL exam in the fifth year first," Neville said. "Otherwise, you don't even have the qualification to go to the seventh year."

"Oh, I hate exams," Luo En covered his face with a book. "Exams are as annoying as spiders."

"Must you pass OWL to go to the sixth year?" Harry asked curiously. "The abbreviation of the exam in the Wizarding World happens to mean owl; it's really interesting."

"Yes, but this will be understood in the future," Neville yawned. "The sequelae of the Ascendio spell haven't subsided yet; I have to sleep first."

Early the next morning, Harry and Luo En woke up early, while Neville seemed to want to sleep a while longer. They discussed and decided to go watch the Quidditch match. This round was Slytherin against Hufflepuff; as long as Slytherin didn't get more than three hundred points, Gryffindor would still retain the possibility of winning the Quidditch House Cup. And if Hufflepuff upset and defeated Slytherin, they could even celebrate winning the cup in advance.

In the end, Slytherin defeated Hufflepuff with a score of 190:60, which was still within Gryffindor's tolerance. Cedric had already tried very hard to find the Snitch, but Slytherin's broom advantage was too great; they only needed one Chaser to cooperate with the Keeper to complete the defense, and almost everyone else was helping the Seeker.

"This four-protect-one made me look stupid, really," Luo En looked puzzled. "Completely don't understand how they thought of this tactic."

"After all, the brooms were donated by the Malfoy family," Harry looked at their uniform Nimbus 2001s with some envy. "So we have to let Malfoy play happily."

"But facing a weak team, instead of thinking about widening the score gap, they are thinking about increasing the game experience for the young master in the team," Luo En said indignantly. "I suspect do they really want to win?"

"This is also understandable; if Malfoy plays happily in the team, perhaps he will continue to sponsor brooms next year; this is also one of the off-field means to obtain an advantage," Harry said. "And, thinking on the bright side, the more stupid the Slytherin team is, the greater our chance of winning the House Cup."

Just when the two were whispering about the Slytherin team, Malfoy, who came down from the pitch, walked toward them with a broom. Harry didn't react at first, but soon he noticed that Malfoy seemed to be looking for him. He adjusted the topic and started talking about Hufflepuff's operational style, pretending that he was objectively studying the future opponent.

"Hey, Harry," Malfoy greeted.

"Oh, Malfoy," Harry exchanged pleasantries with him. "It was a wonderful game; congratulations."

Malfoy's face was full of uncontrollable pride. He smiled and said: "Also thank you for coming to see me, Harry. Oh right, don't forget tomorrow night's self-inspection meeting."

"Speaking of this, I think I have some things to chat with you about," Harry thought for a moment and decided to tell Malfoy the information about the spiders in the Forbidden Forest.

"You guys talk; I'll go back first," Luo En didn't want to stay by Malfoy's side for a moment. He said more than once that Harry "actually has the ability to talk to Malfoy and not vomit."

"Let's go to a place a bit to the side to talk," Malfoy glanced at the noisy crowd and took Harry to a corner of the pitch.

"I am thinking about what Tang Mu once said, that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets might be a spider," Harry said. "I went to the Forbidden Forest last night to take a look; there are indeed many spiders there."

"Thank you for your sharing," Malfoy said. "The results of my investigation also show that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a spider, but let's talk about the detailed content tomorrow night."

"But spiders don't have the ability to petrify," Harry pointed out a major doubt he noticed.

"That's right; this precisely proves that the murderer didn't open the Chamber of Secrets; he completed the attack himself," Malfoy said.

"Then the question comes, if there is no help from the monster, everyone was eating in the Great Hall on Halloween night, how did he carry out the attack?" Harry asked sharply.

"Perhaps this means that the murderer is not any student or teacher," Malfoy said calmly. "But some wizard from outside the school with ulterior motives, or a house-elf from outside the school."

"Even Deng Buliduo cannot lift the petrification effect; can a wizard from outside the school do it?" Harry raised an objection. "Unless you think it was done by a house-elf."

"To tell you the truth," Malfoy glanced at the surroundings nervously and lowered his voice quietly. "I suspect that the Dark Lord has infiltrated the school; he wants to use the Chamber of Secrets to drive away Deng Buliduo and replace him with Snape as Headmaster."

Harry was a bit surprised; he didn't expect Malfoy to sell Voldemort like this.

"Snape was also his person before, and I heard that the Dark Lord just wanted to come to Hogwarts to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at the beginning," Malfoy whispered in Harry's ear. "Deng Buliduo refused him three times, and he launched the war in anger."

Failing to apply for a professor and then launching a great war, Harry only felt a bit dumbfounded; it turned out that as long as the school's entry standards were relaxed a bit, the war in the Wizarding World could have been avoided.

"Perhaps after the Dark Lord achieves victory and realizes his rule," Malfoy's tone relaxed again, "everything will return to normal, and he will come over to serve as our professor."

"I think what you said makes a lot of sense," Harry nodded in deep agreement. "Perhaps your guess is the closest to the truth."

"But I dare not tell others about this," Malfoy said in a low voice. "At tomorrow's self-inspection meeting, I will say some unimportant information. You know it in advance."

Harry shook hands with him again, then returned to the castle with a heavy heart. He sat in the library and pondered Malfoy's hypothesis repeatedly.

Perhaps Malfoy didn't know Voldemort's true strategy, so he mistakenly thought Voldemort himself came. In fact, he could completely teach some complex petrification spell to his subordinates, and then continue to be active outside himself, winning over the pure-blood aristocrats who supported him.

A tolerant Headmaster cannot always avoid war; these aristocrats have been longing for power for a long time.

After figuring this out, Harry started to do his homework with peace of mind, so as to leave time for listening in on the meeting the next day. ===== CHAPTER 70 =====