Chapter 70: The Third Roundtable Meeting

December 6th, Sunday night at seven o'clock, the third meeting started on time under Harry's invisible listening.

"Since everyone is here, I think we should start," Malfoy presided over the meeting skillfully. "First, everyone will talk about the investigation results in turn; you can ask questions when speaking, and then we will express our opinions in turn. Then let's start with Pan Xi."

"Let me talk about the investigation results of Malfoy and me," Pan Xi stated. "We discovered that in 1943, that is, fifty years ago, the Chamber of Secrets was opened once, and the Headmaster at that time, Armando Dippet, thought this was a scandal, so he tried to cover it up. Although no information can be found in the official records, some students from that year still remember this matter. The saying left at that time was that Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets, and the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was a huge spider."

"Question," Trig asked. "As a half-giant, Hagrid doesn't look like a descendant of Slytherin at all; do you really think he has the ability to open the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Good question," Pan Xi answered. "In fact, we think Hagrid didn't really open the Chamber of Secrets, but because the Chamber of Secrets was in disrepair for a long time, the monster inside ran out. And Hagrid had a pathological love for magical creatures; he might have tried to raise that spider, and the spider attacked students without Hagrid's control; perhaps this is the truth of fifty years ago."

Perhaps Hagrid just got the spider from somewhere else, Harry thought, just like Norbert. Then he used the convenience of his job as a field manager to raise the grown spider in the Forbidden Forest, and then there were those terrible giant beasts.

"Question," Gao Er asked. "Do you think the current attack is also done by Hagrid's spider?"

"It is very likely not," Pan Xi said. "These two attacks don't look like they were done by spiders, because as everyone knows, spiders don't have the ability to petrify. Of course, it doesn't exclude the possibility that the venom of that spider can petrify victims. So comprehensively speaking, for this question, we don't have a definite conclusion yet; we can only say that we tend to think that this attack has nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets and is a conspiracy of wizards from outside the school against Deng Buliduo."

"No more questions?" After a brief silence, Pan Xi ended her speech. "Then please let Trig talk about your investigation results."

"Let me talk about the investigation results of Lu Na and me," Trig stated. "We think the monster in the Chamber of Secrets might be real; from the perspective of petrification, we think it is very likely to be a Gorgon. The lifespan of a Gorgon is very long, and it has a certain wisdom. From the perspective of the attacker, she will be a good helper, and from the perspective of the victim, their abilities also perfectly fit the situation of the victims."

"Question," Pan Xi asked. "Is there really such a magical creature as a Gorgon? Why haven't I heard of it?"

"Because this is a monster specially left by Slytherin; perhaps it was created by him," Trig answered. "Gorgon legends have been circulating in the Muggle world; even if the Wizarding World doesn't exist, this concept exists. Perhaps it is a new type of magical creature cultivated by Slytherin using a Basilisk plus a female ghost, a monster specially serving the Chamber of Secrets."

"Question," Jin Ni asked. "Since you mentioned the Basilisk, why don't you think the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk?"

"Because looking at a Basilisk will die," Trig answered. "And the two victims were only petrified. We believe that Slytherin still left a trace of kindness to Muggle-borns and didn't want to deprive them of their lives at Hogwarts, so he specially created a Gorgon."

"And," Trig blinked, "are you more willing to believe that there is a fifty-meter-long big monster in the Chamber of Secrets, or are you more willing to believe that there is a snake-haired, flat-chested, tsundere loli in it?"

"No more questions?" In the strange eyes of the crowd, Trig ended his speech. "Then please let Jin Ni talk about your investigation results."

"Let me talk about the investigation results of Ivy and me," Jin Ni stated. "We think the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is more likely to be a Basilisk, because the Basilisk is a magical creature that has definite records and truly exists, and the snake is also the symbol of Slytherin, which is more in line with his identity. And, this can explain why the attacker can avoid our sight, because the Basilisk can use the drainage pipes of Hogwarts to wander, appear from unexpected places, attack the victims with its gaze, and then leave without leaving any traces. Starting from this angle to reason, we suspect that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in the sewer; we haven't had time to find the entrance to the sewer."

"Question," Trig asked. "In this case, how to explain that the victims were only petrified?"

"The two victims didn't look directly at the Basilisk," Jin Ni answered. "Mrs. Norris saw the Basilisk from the reflection of the water on the ground, and Colin's camera was burned; we think he saw the Basilisk through the viewfinder of the camera."

No, Harry thought, Colin didn't look at the camera when he was attacked; the attacker was not a Basilisk; at least the one who attacked Colin was not a Basilisk.

"Question," Gao Er asked. "Then how does the opener of the Chamber of Secrets avoid being petrified?"

"We speculate that Slytherin's descendant has the ability to talk to snakes," Jin Ni answered. "The Basilisk will deliberately look at the eyes of the attacked, and will also deliberately avoid the eyes of the opener of the Chamber of Secrets; this is because the opener of the Chamber of Secrets has talked to it."

"No more questions?" After a brief silence, Jin Ni ended his speech. "Then please let Crabbe talk about your investigation results."

"Let me talk about the investigation results of Gao Er and me," Crabbe stated. "We are investigating the possible descendants of Slytherin. Fortunately, we found a note clipped in 'Hogwarts: A History' in the library."

Harry paused; he discovered that a piece of paper was missing after finishing the history books last year. It wouldn't be such a coincidence, right?

"The note mentioned the Peverell family, and Slytherin's daughter married Cadmus Peverell of the Peverell family. We continued to flip through history books based on this clue and found that Cadmus only had one granddaughter who married into the Gaunt family, and the Gaunt family broke off at Marvolo Gaunt. Theoretically, Slytherin should be extinct, but we considered that some families would expel family members who intermarried with Muggles from the genealogy, so it is very likely that some of Slytherin's blood flowed into the Muggle world; Slytherin's descendant should be a Muggle-born."

"Question," Lu Na asked. "If Slytherin's descendant is a Muggle-born, then why does he still want to open the Chamber of Secrets to try to clear the Muggle-borns in the school?"

"When Muggle-borns enter the wizarding society, in order to prove that they are noble wizards, they have to draw a line with other Muggle-borns impatiently," Crabbe explained. "It is precisely for this reason that he wants to open the Chamber of Secrets to prove that he is not an ignorant Muggle-born."

"Question," Jin Ni asked. "Why are you sure it is a Muggle-born, not a half-blood wizard?"

"This is psychology," Crabbe explained. "Tom told us that if it is a half-blood wizard, he will feel that he is a wizard with Muggle blood, so he will not hysterically target Muggle-borns, but will sympathize with them instead. Only those who are deeply inferior because of their Muggle birth will madly hate Muggle-borns in order to prove that wizards are nobler than Muggles."

"No more questions?" After a brief silence, Crabbe ended his speech. "Then, uh, then Malfoy, you speak."

"Alright, then let me summarize," Malfoy said. "Now there are two ideas: one is that the Chamber of Secrets has not been opened, then the person who launched the attack is a wizard from outside the school; one is that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, then the person who launched the attack is a Basilisk or Gorgon controlled by a non-pure-blood wizard."

"I want to talk about our analysis of wizards from outside the school first," Pan Xi continued. "First of all, it can be determined that assuming the Chamber of Secrets has not been opened, the goal of the wizard from outside the school launching the attack should be only one, and that is aimed at Headmaster Deng Buliduo. Then we have to pay attention, Hogwarts has powerful protective magic; graduates once tried to sneak into Hogwarts, and the conclusion they reached was that unless they can reach Deng Buliduo's level, at most they can only turn around in the Forbidden Forest."

"From this angle, if we consider that the Chamber of Secrets has not been opened, or the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is just a spider that Hagrid cannot control. Then the wizard from outside the school should not have the ability to launch this attack. Under this premise, we can only suspect house-elves or Snape," Pan Xi continued. "Currently, the only house-elf worth suspecting is Dobby of the Malfoy family, but we wrote to ask some insiders, and Dobby had an alibi when the two attacks occurred. And Snape's problem is that this year is not a suitable time point, so it can also be basically excluded."

Indeed, if Snape really had this plan, it would be easier to implement with Quirrell's help last year. Harry thought, I am clear about this truth, but these students attending the meeting might not understand it very well.

"In short, after listening to everyone's investigation results and re-examining my own guesses," Malfoy summarized, "we can basically determine that the Chamber of Secrets was opened by a non-pure-blood Slytherin descendant, and then he used the monster inside to launch an attack. After finalizing this tone, I think we can brainstorm and see if there are more ideas and thoughts." ===== CHAPTER 71 =====