Chapter 94: The Return

Not long after June had passed, Professor McGonagall announced a notice at breakfast, smiling.

“Good news,” she said, and the entire hall broke its silence into cheers.

“Dumbledore is back!” several shouted joyfully.

“Exams are canceled!” Ron whispered a prayer.

“Be realistic,” Neville shook his head. “The mandrakes must have matured.”

When the commotion died down, Professor McGonagall said nothing, only smiled and turned her head slightly.

Harry then realized that the familiar white-bearded old man had quietly taken his seat again at the head table.

“Children, I’m sorry I left the school for personal reasons, but I’m back now,” Dumbledore rose from his seat and said loudly, amid the children’s joyful gazes, “I have an announcement: to celebrate the resolution of the Chamber of Secrets incident, I declare this term’s exams canceled!”

Ron howled with delight, like a monkey that had just plucked a banana.

“Of course, there’s another cause for celebration,” Professor McGonagall said. “The mandrakes have matured—we can revive the stunned victims tonight.”

“Thank goodness the exams are canceled,” Ron said excitedly. “If they woke up and heard about exams, they might faint again.”

“If Justin and Penelope are revived,” Harry said, “we might learn the truth about the Chamber attacks from their accounts.”

“They might not give us any more useful information,” Neville spoke again, dampening spirits. “It’s just a basilisk attack—what we still don’t know is where the Chamber is hidden in the castle, or who orchestrated these attacks.”

Harry nodded, somewhat sadly. “Regardless, it’s still good that the victims are recovering.”

That evening, unable to suppress his curiosity, Harry slipped into the hospital wing with his two friends, cloaked in the Invisibility Cloak, seeking firsthand information.

When they entered the hospital wing, they found Justin and Penelope awake, sitting on the edge of their beds. Dumbledore and the heads of all four houses stood around them; the professors clearly intended to take their statements.

“I was terrified,” Justin began, at Dumbledore’s prompting. “That night, as I was returning to my dorm, the corridor was dark—already eerie enough—then I saw myself.”

He trembled. “I saw another version of myself, slowly walking toward me through the dark. I froze in fear. Then, in an instant, he changed—became two huge yellow half-circles—and I lost consciousness.”

As Harry puzzled over this testimony, Penelope spoke.

“Mr. Finch-Fletchley, you needn’t fear,” she said. “I saw this during the day—the other ‘me’ was just a mirror. I was even wondering who had moved a mirror into the corridor, it was so boring.” She added, “But then it was just like your experience: the mirror suddenly reflected a yellow object, and I lost consciousness. Now that I think about it, it might have been an eye.”

“Don’t worry, children,” Dumbledore said. “Leave the rest to the professors—we’ll handle it.”

The unease that had lingered in Harry’s mind now reached its peak: the monster in the Chamber was confirmed not to be a spider, meaning their cleverness had solved only half the problem.

“Well, but I want to know what happens about the exams—I’d like to request a deferral…” Penelope, as a top Ravenclaw student, naturally cared first about exams upon waking.

“Exams are canceled,” Flitwick said.

“Why?” She looked almost reluctant.

“To celebrate the resolution of the Chamber case,” Dumbledore’s gaze was clear—he chose to speak the truth. “I’m sorry—I mistakenly believed the creature attacking students was a dark spider from the Forbidden Forest. So now many students think the Chamber case is resolved.”

“But it didn’t look like a spider,” Justin said, still shaken.

“Yes, circumstances have changed,” Dumbledore said. “I’ll continue investigating. I ask you not to speak of this—don’t want the children to fall back into fear and panic.”

“I understand, Professor,” Penelope said, troubled. “But I hope we catch the real culprit soon.”

“I promise you,” Dumbledore smiled, patting her hand, then turned to the professors. “Until the real culprit is caught, I ask you all to maintain patrols—no more students must be attacked.”

Harry slunk back to his dormitory. Neville said nothing, but Harry still felt guilty.

“Well, looks like this is the worst-case scenario,” Ron shrugged. “We didn’t just have to deal with spiders—we’ve got to face the basilisk now.”

“Dealing with spiders still helped—Dumbledore’s back,” Harry said. “If we find the basilisk, we just report it to him.”

“By the way, what does the basilisk fear?” Ron asked. “And how do we survive its killing gaze?”

“Have you even considered Dumbledore?” Harry sighed. “We just close our eyes and shout his name.”

“The books say the basilisk fears roosters,” Harry pointed out its weakness. “And the basilisk doesn’t kill by mere gaze—it requires mutual eye contact. Both you and the basilisk must see each other’s eyes for its magic to work.”

“Roosters?” Neville frowned. “Hagrid used to keep plenty of chickens, but now none remain—some little rascals steal them every week to eat.”

“I don’t know if they’re doing it on purpose,” Harry’s heart chilled slightly, but he brushed it off. “Cui Ge said Tom might have incited them. But roosters aren’t rare magical creatures—you can buy them anywhere.”

“Just tell us how to avoid the death gaze,” Ron pressed.

“It’s simple,” Harry said, explaining Muggle knowledge Ron wouldn’t understand. “There’s something called a two-way mirror—also known as one-way glass. It’s made by coating ordinary glass with a thin aluminum film via vacuum deposition. It reflects most incoming light.”

“In short, you can see the basilisk through the glass’s back side, but the basilisk only sees its own reflection from the front—it can’t see you behind the glass.” Harry gestured to illustrate light reflection. “My idea: install this glass inside your knight’s helmet, then you can fight the basilisk face-to-face.”

“A knight challenging the basilisk—so cool! You know who this reminds me of?” Ron excitedly flexed his muscles. “A Lannister always pays his debts!”

“Who’s that?” Harry had never heard the story.

“Oh, Donald mentioned an American knight who single-handedly challenged a dragon—”

“Two-way mirror!” Neville exclaimed, cutting Ron off. “The attacker used a two-way mirror!”

In Harry’s confused gaze, Neville explained: “There are two-way mirrors in the magical world too—I mean, two identical mirrors. You can see through one what’s reflected in the other.”

Harry understood—it was like live television.

“The attacker placed one mirror inside the Chamber, facing the basilisk’s eyes,” Neville said. “And placed the other in the corridor, waiting for victims to appear.”

“Is that how it worked?” Harry was surprised.

“Two-way mirrors require a spell to activate,” Neville continued. “Otherwise, they’re just ordinary mirrors. So when Justin and Penelope focused on their own reflections, the attacker cast the spell—suddenly linking the mirrors—causing them to make direct eye contact with the basilisk without warning.”

“So that’s it,” Harry mused. “But why go to such lengths?”

“Perhaps to conceal the basilisk’s existence,” Neville said. “And the basilisk might be enormous—hard to move through the castle unnoticed. But mirrors? Easy to disguise as small, portable objects with magic.”

“And unless we’d already suspected the monster was a basilisk, these fragments of testimony might never have led us to it,” he added.

But if so, Ginny was the first to suggest the basilisk. Harry felt uneasy—he didn’t mention this, fearing Ron would worry.

“Then if it’s truly the basilisk, we should prepare,” Harry said. “I’ll write to Carson to buy several pieces of one-way glass. And I’ll ask Hagrid to help with the roosters.”

“I believe this is necessary,” Neville declared with determination. Ron looked eager too. Harry smiled helplessly—he could only make sure their preparations were thorough.

The next day, during breakfast, Harry found Ginny.

“I want to know, Ginny—how did you know about the basilisk?” Harry asked.

“The Chamber was left by Slytherin—wouldn’t a snake inside be normal?” Ginny blinked. “We looked up snake-related monsters and thought the basilisk was most likely.”

Indeed, Harry saw no flaw in that logic. Though Malfoy had firmly suspected Ginny, Harry now believed she was innocent—or perhaps the diary was innocent too.