[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-wizard-war-at-hogwarts":3,"chapter-wizard-war-at-hogwarts-wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-96":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Wizard War at Hogwarts",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2358069,4612,"Chapter 96: Chaotic Confrontation","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-96",96,"\u003Cp>The three exchanged glances; Harry gently set aside the chicken, long frozen in terror, pulled out his invisibility cloak, and crept forward to get a clearer view of the Chamber’s interior.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Around a corner, they found a vast stone chamber dimly lit; Harry noticed a massive statue looming at the far end, and beneath it, a dark human-shaped shadow—he couldn’t help stepping closer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hermione was curled in Donald’s arms, weeping, while Donald gently patted her back, murmuring soothing words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ron moved to approach, but Harry held him back; though all this unfolded beneath the invisibility cloak, his armor clanged loudly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So you’ve finally shown yourself? The mastermind behind all this?” Donald rose, his robe draped over Hermione, wand raised, eyes sharp in the dim chamber.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Harry hesitated whether to explain, another voice spoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t try to twist this around here,” Zhang Qiu removed her Disillusionment Charm; Harry noticed she carried a sword.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ve completely disrupted Harry’s fate—someone who never appeared in the divination. What’s your motive? Is this connected to the CIA?” Zhang Qiu pointed her sword at Donald.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s you? I said your character arc collapsed spectacularly.” Donald leveled his wand at Zhang Qiu. “I seriously doubt you’re really Zhang Qiu.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why was Ginny innocent? Why did Justin’s attack happen at night? Why was Colin’s condition different from everyone else’s?” Donald fired off a string of questions; Harry vaguely felt he might have known something all along.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’d like to ask you the same: Why were Cornish pixies absent from your first lesson? Why wasn’t Snape knocked flying during the Dueling Club? Why didn’t you flee at the last moment but instead descended into the Chamber yourself? Why was Hermione the victim?” Zhang Qiu countered. “What did you do to the Great Storyteller?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I gave him his due punishment,” Donald said coldly. “But I’m more curious—where did you get these strange ideas?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You owe me an explanation. I demand it in the name of Xuan Jun!” Zhang Qiu raised her notebook filled with divination results.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I teach whatever I want in my class. Snape and I get along fine—no need to duel until someone gets blasted across the room. I came to the Chamber because Hermione was attacked. But you—why are you here?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Divination told me Harry would slay the Basilisk here today. I was waiting for him,” Zhang Qiu snapped. “And you came to ruin it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You need to explain how you got in,” Donald fixed his gaze on Zhang Qiu. “As a professor, I demand you, a Ravenclaw student, explain how you entered the Slytherin Chamber!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ve been waiting here since morning, planning to follow Harry when he entered,” Zhang Qiu said. “But I never expected—I saw you before him!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Stop arguing,” Hermione said weakly. “The one who attacked me was Neville—or rather, the one pretending to be Neville. Someone stole the ingredients for Polyjuice Potion from Snape’s storeroom. Who was it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry felt confused: in his view, both Zhang Qiu and Donald seemed good—but they were investigating each other out of suspicion, deepening their misunderstandings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I suggest you stop arguing,” Harry removed his invisibility cloak; suddenly, the Chamber grew even more chaotic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hermione screamed upon seeing Neville; after a long moment, she calmed and whispered, “You’re the real Neville, aren’t you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I guarantee he is—look, he’s holding the Sword of Gryffindor,” Harry said gently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Neville’s been with us all day,” Ron lifted his helmet. “Professor Fontroy—do you know something?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I only learned today that the Chamber existed here,” Donald’s tone softened now that Harry’s trio had entered as third parties. “I saw someone carrying Hermione away in a rush, so I cast a Disillusionment Charm and followed him all the way here. Oddly, when I finally opened this room’s door, he vanished.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This room’s door?” Harry frowned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Correct. It was sealed shut—only Parseltongue could open it,” Donald said. “Fortunately, I’ve learned a bit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Impossible. I didn’t see anyone resembling Neville carrying Hermione down here—I only saw you,” Zhang Qiu challenged. “You opened the Chamber like you’d done it a hundred times—slid right in!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And what of it? Are you asking me to explain why you saw wrong?” Donald shot back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What if you’re both trapped by divination?” Harry intervened. “When things diverge from the prophecy, it simply means change has occurred—change that can be good or bad, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But that means you learned about all the attacks from divination,” Neville said. “Why didn’t you stop them?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I didn’t make it in time...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Come on, Professor,” Harry cut him off. “You didn’t discover a suspicious figure—you already knew from divination someone would attack Hermione today, so you came to rescue her. You only care about your favorite students and ignore everyone else. That’s classic American thinking.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Not so,” Zhang Qiu said. “According to true divination, the final victim should’ve been Ginny or Ivy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then if you knew the true divination, why didn’t you stop the earlier attacks?” Donald sneered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because it wasn’t my duty,” Zhang Qiu shrugged. “Besides, they wouldn’t truly die—we all know that.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Enough,” Harry sighed. “Let’s stop fixating on divination. It only shows one possible direction—not what must happen.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Look at reality: all Chamber victims have recovered. In investigating the Chamber, we found the real one—and cleared out the terrifying spiders in the Forbidden Forest. And Dumbledore shattered the Death Eaters’ plot and returned safely.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry suddenly noticed a contradiction: during summer, their initial theory had been that the Death Eaters wanted to keep Dumbledore trapped at Hogwarts so he couldn’t monitor Voldemort’s activities outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But when did the Chamber become a plot to drive Dumbledore out of Hogwarts? Even when Lucius arrived to announce the Board’s decision, he looked smug—as if that had been his original goal all along.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that instant, a sentence from last year flashed into Harry’s mind—a note Dumbledore had scribbled in his copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This exchange marked Mr. Malfoy’s long-term effort to remove me from the headmaster’s position—and my own effort to remove him from his place as Voldemort’s most trusted Death Eater.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps the Death Eaters’ plan had always centered on the diary—but when Lucius heard the Chamber had opened, he couldn’t resist seizing the perfect chance to have Dumbledore removed as headmaster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the diary, as Donald had analyzed, likely wasn’t a Dark Artifact at all. The Chamber’s true opening wasn’t part of the Death Eaters’ plan—they wouldn’t want Dumbledore gone from Hogwarts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Chamber’s opening gave Lucius an opportunity—he rushed to expel Dumbledore, and Dumbledore, in turn, used that very opportunity to disrupt Voldemort’s plans. Voldemort must have been furious with Lucius—perfectly aligning with Dumbledore’s strategy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From opening to closure, who benefited most from the Chamber? Without question—it was Dumbledore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry realized: Donald, as someone Dumbledore trusted, might truly be the one who opened the Chamber—and this final attack was meant to show Harry the real Chamber and resolve its threat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine, call me a selfish American,” Donald grumbled. “But someone attacked my Hermione—I’ll find them, no matter what.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Harry guessed his next words would be about slaying the Basilisk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Since we’re here, let’s deal with this wicked Basilisk first,” Donald declared loudly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, then next we find the one pretending to be Neville and capture the real attacker,” Harry already believed seventy percent that Donald was the mastermind—but everything he’d done served Harry and Dumbledore’s interests, perhaps even under Dumbledore’s orders; so he chose not to expose him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t worry, children—we have time,” Donald said confidently. “Next year, the year after—I’ll catch him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ve given you face, Donald!” Zhang Qiu shouted. “Next year or the year after—you won’t be allowed to keep causing trouble here!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A child’s tantrum,” Donald scoffed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But the problem is,” Ron, who had been silent throughout, spoke up, pointing to a large shadow in the chamber’s corner. “The Basilisk seems already dead.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1309,"2026-06-21T04:54:27.874Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","cbf4b1a158743c65da7e0185d909387c8cc30ee037e33a83a5361e8867568641","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-97","wizard-war-at-hogwarts-chapter-95",528,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fwizard-war-at-hogwarts-cover.jpg"]