During dinner, Kyle found Harry specifically to find out what happened in Lockhart's office yesterday.

"You must not tell anyone else. Professor Dumbledore doesn't want too many people to know about this."

Harry looked around and lowered his voice and said, "Filch became like stone because of a profound dark magic."

"Madam Pomfrey can't cure him either?" Kell asked.

"No." Harry shook his head. "Madam Pomfrey poured several bottles of potion on him and even soaked him in a barrel full of potions, but that didn't help at all. However..."

Harry hesitated, then went on: "But Lockhart said he had a way, and he said he was in a place called Wagga...what was it, no, I can't remember the name.

Anyway, he encountered similar things in one place and used various amulets to help those people solve the problem. "

"But I think he's bragging."

Ron next to him swore, "Remember? He said the same thing on the third floor, but the place names were completely different."

"It's just a different name, you can't say that." Hermione retorted: "What if he has met it twice."

"Hermione, do you still believe what he said?" Ron frowned in dissatisfaction, "He can't even deal with elves."

"By the way, Ron..." Seeing that the two seemed to be about to quarrel, Kyle quickly changed the subject.

"Have you found your pet?"

"Oh, you mean Scabbers? We've found it." Ron took the fat rat out of his pocket.

"Guess what? It didn't run outside at all. It was under the cupboard in the common room. But it might be because it hasn't eaten for a long time. It looks a little listless."

"It's okay. I have rat tonic here."

Kyle pulled out a small bottle filled with red potion and handed it to Ron.

"Thanks, Kyle."

Ron took it happily.

Kyle had given him a bottle of this rat tonic last year, which was very useful. Every time Banban drank it, he felt very energetic...but the quantity was a little small. Last year's bottle had been used up a long time ago, and he had never had the courage to ask Kyle for it again.

"You're welcome. I also want to thank you for satisfying my curiosity."

Kyle waved his hand. "It's just a bottle of rat tonic. It's no big deal. Just come to me when you run out of it."

Then he looked back at Harry.

"Potter..."

"Just call me Harry."

"Well, Harry," Kyle asked, "Have you heard any strange noises lately?"

"Strange sound? What does it mean..."

Kyle explained: "It's that whisper that only you can hear but no one else can hear."

Harry scratched his hair and thought carefully for a while...

"No."

"I only heard the letters talking when I was answering Lockhart's letters.

But Lockhart heard it at the time, and said it was a special way of replying letters, which saved time for reading, and many of his admirers were using it. "

"This is obviously not some special whispering sound...right."

Kyle nodded. It seemed that Harry didn't hear the basilisk's voice.

However, the petrification problem that even Dumbledore couldn't solve was most likely related to the basilisk.

Add to that the inexplicable loss of the diary... Kyle felt overwhelmed with all these problems piled up together.

Kyle thought about Ron's rat, Scabbers, also known as Peter Pettigrew...but this was unlikely.

Peter is now just a mouse disguised as a pet. Even Ron doesn't know that he has a Horcrux, the diary, so he naturally doesn't know either.

To take a step back, even if Peter really knew... Kyle always carried the deformed lizard skin bag containing the box with him, and it was almost never out of his sight. Even when he slept at night, Rodan was guarding him.

A rat, sneaking in without anyone noticing and stealing things, without leaving any traces? It's not that Kyle looked down on Peter. If he really had this ability, he wouldn't have pretended to be a pet rat and hid in the Weasley family for more than ten years.

He also thought of a possibility, which was the time-turner... but the Department of Mysteries had rejected the application twice in a row. Even Dumbledore couldn't borrow it, let alone himself.

And why did he go back to the past to steal his things... And who released the basilisk that petrified Filch? Was it him? Or Riddle? Kyle was full of questions.

On the other side, in the eyes of Harry and others, Kyle suddenly became silent, sitting there motionless, not knowing what he was thinking.

If it weren't for his constantly changing expression and the fact that the hand holding the cutlery would occasionally unconsciously cut the steak, Harry would have thought that Kyle was also petrified.

Ron wanted to reach out and push Kyle, but was stopped by Hermione.

"Ron, Kyle is thinking about something, don't disturb him." Hermione said.

"All right."

Ron didn't care and turned his hand to the dining table and picked up two more chicken legs.

About ten minutes later, Kyle came back to his senses, took a long breath, and rubbed his forehead.

He decided to give up.

"What were you thinking about?" Harry asked curiously.

"What kind of dark magic could have done that to Filch?" Kyle said casually.

Harry became interested. "Have you thought of that?"

"I don't know much about the Dark Arts." Kyle shrugged. "I can do the Petrification Charm, but that obviously wouldn't be a problem for Dumbledore."

"I see..." Harry looked disappointed.

"By the way, why did you go to the third floor at that time?"

Kyle took a bite of the steak that he had almost cut into dumpling stuffing, and suddenly asked, "Are you going to go straight back to Gryffindor Tower? I thought you would go to the Great Hall first, get some food, and then go back."

"We got there because we were chasing Moaning Myrtle," Harry sighed. "We accidentally said something in the dungeon and she heard it. She wanted to chase us and explain."

"And then we ran into Filch who was petrified, and that damn cat."

Ron touched a faint wound on his face and said angrily, "The cat has been following us since we left the dungeon. When we got to the third floor, it mistook us for the murderer who petrified Filch. It scratched my face.

I should have used my wand..."

"Ron, we can't do that." Harry said seriously, "It's troublesome enough to run into a petrified Filch, but if we hurt Mrs. Norris, we won't be able to explain it."

"I know..." Ron muttered quietly, "But why do we have to encounter these things? That cat's scratch really hurts!"

"You're right." Harry touched his arm, where there were also a few faint bloodstains.

But he and Hermione were luckier and only had their arms scratched.

While in Lockhart's office, Madam Pomfrey applied some potion to them, which stopped the bleeding immediately.

When I woke up this morning, the wounds were almost healed. I think they will be completely healed by tomorrow.

…

(End of this chapter)