Chapter 98: The Truth He Believes

"Thank you for coming to see me, I feel okay." Hermione lay on the hospital bed, her face a bit weak. Tang Nade had already gone to find Deng Buliduo. At this moment, only Harry and the others were surrounding her.

"She was just attacked by an ordinary petrification spell." Madam Pomfrey said, "Maybe it's because she caught a cold or her spirit is unstable, which makes her feel uncomfortable. I think as long as she rests for a while, it will be fine."

Zhang Qiu looked quite happy, she said with a smile: "That's really great, I was really worried that Hermione you would suffer from some vicious magic."

"The most vicious thing is that the attacker turned into Na Wei." Hermione said unhappily, "No one wants to be attacked by their... good friend."

"If so, I suspect that the person who pretended to be Na Wei is the same person." Luo En counted on his fingers, counting his behaviors, "Stealing materials from Snape's medicine cabinet, configuring Polyjuice Potion to become Na Wei, coming to find Harry and me on Wan Shengjie night, and now attacking Hermione again. I have reason to suspect that the Death Eaters planned a conspiracy against Na Wei."

"No." Harry said calmly, "The Na Wei on Wan Shengjie night was just investigating the Chamber of Secrets case, and the clues he gave were very useful; but this time Na Wei attacked Hermione. I think these two impostors might not be the same person."

"Useful?" Na Wei was a bit dissatisfied.

"He said that the murderer was likely to have come out of the girls' bathroom, and in fact, it was indeed the case. We now know that the reason why there was water on the ground that night was because the murderer was splashed with water by Myrtle when he came out of the Chamber of Secrets." Harry said.

"Then from the perspective of water, the person who attacked the cat and the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets should be the same person, and it is also the same person who attacked Jia Siting and Penelope." Zhang Qiu frowned.

"Then there is the person who pretended to be Na Wei on Wan Shengjie and the person who pretended to be Na Wei today. One of them also went to steal Snape's materials." Harry continued, "And there is the person who killed the basilisk and the person who attacked Colin."

"From the perspective of killing the basilisk, at least two people can enter the Chamber of Secrets, not counting Tang Nade." Luo En felt that ten fingers were almost not enough, "Someone entered the Chamber of Secrets and killed the basilisk. Next, as long as it is someone who can enter the Chamber of Secrets, they can complete the attack. I think the person who attacked Jia Siting and the person who attacked Penelope might not be the same, because the former used the environment to create a terrifying atmosphere, while the latter simply completed the attack."

"Assuming that all these events are discrete, but the Chamber of Secrets always connects everything." Harry said, "How did they know the method of entering the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Diary." Zhang Qiu reminded.

"But the Eight-Person Group self-examination meeting has been held countless times. Either all eight people are innocent, or it is Ginny. Moreover, Tang Nade also said that the diary has no problems..." Harry himself felt that he had fallen into a dead end.

"I think we'd better not disturb Hermione's rest." Zhang Qiu pulled Harry's sleeve, "Madam Pomfrey will be unhappy."

After the children left the school hospital, Zhang Qiu said her new idea: "I think the diary is not completely without problems."

"What do you mean?"

"It is possible that the evil soul inside deceived Tang Nade, or he cooperated with that evil soul in order to study the relationship between student couples." Zhang Qiu said, "After all, he is an American, and he can do anything."

Luo En's face was very ugly.

"I think the diary has no problems, Tang Nade can still be trusted." Harry hurriedly smoothed things over, "The Death Eaters should have used other methods to bring the evil soul into the school."

"If every time a crime is committed, it is done after the evil soul possesses the body, then the students don't remember the situation at that time, and the evil soul doesn't necessarily have to possess the diary user." Zhang Qiu said.

"Then the first time he possessed a student who hated Filch, such a student is too easy to find." Harry analyzed, "The second time Colin might have nothing to do with him, the third time Jia Siting was attacked in a dark corridor, I suspect it was possessed by a student who likes pranks, no, not necessarily a student, Peeves is also possible."

"Then the third time was possessing a girl who was jealous of Penelope. I heard that many senior girls in Gryffindor are secretly in love with Percy." Harry felt that this made sense, "The evil soul has no ability to act on his own, he can only borrow students with loopholes in their hearts, so the interval of attacks is so long, and there is no logic at all, because the general environment of Hogwarts is harmonious and loving, and the evil soul doesn't have such an easy opportunity."

"I think this is still too far-fetched." Na Wei shook his head.

"This has nothing to do with you." Harry patted his shoulder, "Since we solved Quirrell, I think the Death Eaters planned two different conspiracies, planning to target us two respectively."

"The conspiracy against me started from the summer vacation. I believe this conspiracy was handed over to the Ma Erfu family by Voldemort, but they like to bet on both sides." Harry said, "On one hand, they tried to use Dobby to attack me, on the other hand, Draco tried his best to win me over. Anyway, I will continue to be vigilant."

"Who the person targeting you is, I don't know, but now it seems that he wants you to lose the trust of all your friends." In Na Wei's puzzled eyes, Harry continued, "That Na Wei that day wanted to make Luo En and me mistakenly think you were the opener of the Chamber of Secrets, but he didn't count on you going to Deng Buliduo's place, which was enough to prove your innocence."

"And today's attack on Hermione is him," Harry recalled that statement, "The truth is revealed."

"What do you mean?" Except for Zhang Qiu smiling at him, everyone else was confused.

"It means that he found that the behavior of covering up the conspiracy didn't work at all, and finally decided to harm people directly." Harry explained the subtle meaning of this idiom. In fact, he himself was still half-understood.

"Well, it seems I have to be vigilant too." Na Wei also sighed.

"But this also means that the Death Eaters expected the opening of the Chamber of Secrets." Zhang Qiu said, "Perhaps it was three conspiracies, three-pronged."

"What do you mean?"

"First, in order to target Deng Buliduo, the Death Eaters managed to bring a paranoid ghost into the school. This ghost should be the direct heir of Slytherin. It is looking for every opportunity to reopen the Chamber of Secrets and attack Muggle-borns, but because a ghost can only do limited things, the frequency of attacks is not high, and the degree of victimization is still acceptable."

"Second, in order to retaliate against Harry, the Death Eaters arranged for the Ma Erfu family to plan a series of conspiracies against him. But the Ma Erfu family likes to bet on both sides. The Dobby sent to attack Harry had to pretend to explain that he was 'for Harry's good,' and Draco should have tried his best to spread rumors that Harry was the opener of the Chamber of Secrets, but he found that Deng Buliduo trusted Harry very much, so he chose to cooperate with Harry instead."

"Third, in order to retaliate against Na Wei, they arranged for another person to plan a conspiracy against him. That person chose to pretend to be Na Wei, destroying his friendship with friends, but the effect was not good, and Na Wei easily solved these misunderstandings."

After Zhang Qiu finished her inference, Luo En's originally raised fingers still had two left that hadn't been retracted.

"Then who attacked Colin, and how did the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets die?" Luo En raised those two fingers and said.

"Colin might have photographed something he shouldn't have photographed. This still needs to be investigated slowly. In short, his attack should be another case." Zhang Qiu said, "As for the basilisk, perhaps after the first attack, Tang Nade went to kill it. There are not many people in this school who use swords."

Luo En nodded, and said with some doubt: "But why didn't he tell Deng Buliduo, or why didn't he tell everyone?"

"This involves politics. In

"Following that, they must have engaged in a thrilling game of wits during the Christmas period," Harry continued. "After Jia Siting was attacked, Ma Erfu wanted to stop the subsequent attacks, so he requested his father to write to the Ministry of Magic. And the Ministry had originally planned to send someone to monitor the school; Dumbledore must have reached an agreement with Humphrey at that time."

Harry was basing his new reasoning on the premise that "Dumbledore did not tacitly approve of the attacks on innocent students," so his tone was very high-spirited, confident, and persuasive.

"Dumbledore authorized Tang Nade to kill the basilisk. He demonstrated this to the Ministry of Magic, telling them that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets had been eliminated; it was precisely because of this that the Ministry abandoned the monitoring plan. But they still did not want Hogwarts to slip out of their control, so Dumbledore reached an agreement with them to weaken the prestige of the Board of Governors."

"On the surface, Dumbledore still pretended to be at a loss regarding the Chamber of Secrets, which made Lu Xiusi, who had long wanted to drive Dumbledore away, ecstatic, thinking he had found an opportunity. He brewed his plan for a long time and made his move when Penelope was attacked to drive Dumbledore away, little knowing that this was entirely within Dumbledore's expectations. This not only gave Dumbledore the opportunity to leave the school to handle matters, but also drove a wedge between Ma Erfu and the Dark Lord."

"Next came the contingency Dumbledore left for his return to the school. Because the basilisk was already dead, he used the conclusion of the previous headmaster, Dippet, claiming that the spiders in the Forbidden Forest were the Chamber of Secrets monster. When I found the centaurs, they said, 'Dumbledore promised to clear out the spiders,' which shows he had arrangements made early on."

"Using the centaurs to clear out the spiders and participate in providing testimony, combined with Dippet's precedent, made the entire Wizarding World believe that the Chamber of Secrets monster had been eliminated. Dumbledore could then return to the school while severely cutting down the prestige of the Board of Governors; this move was extremely brilliant."

"As for Penelope, I think that might not have been in Dumbledore's plan. Even if she hadn't been attacked, the Jia Siting case alone would have been enough for Lu Xiusi to make his move. I think that was a terrible accident that caught everyone off guard."

"Perhaps this is the truth," Luo Nade said after a long silence.