“All students must be in their college common room before 6pm, and no student may leave after this time.

You will be escorted by a professor to each class, and you are not allowed to wander around the castle alone before the professor arrives.

Quidditch training and matches are postponed, and no evening activities will take place..."

All the students sat at the long table in the hall, listening to Professor McGonagall's speech in silence.

Professor McGonagall was truly frightened.

Before the holiday, the Ministry of Magic paid close attention to the situation at Hogwarts.

After Professor Charity Burbage of Muggle Studies was attacked, some people even suggested temporarily closing Hogwarts and focusing all their efforts on finding the Chamber of Secrets.

Although the proposal was later rejected by more people, as the number of attacks increased, the idea was brought up again a few days before Christmas.

And that time, the number of people who voted against it was obviously much smaller.

The reason why the Ministry of Magic was so quiet, besides because of Dumbledore, was that the students were not harmed.

But this luck cannot last forever.

The current calm is only temporary. The previous attacks are like piled up barrels of explosives that may explode at any time.

In secret, some people have already been ready to make a move.

Professor McGonagall was certain that once a student was attacked, or the number of attacks increased to a certain level, they would take advantage of the situation and detonate all the barrels of explosives.

No one knows what will happen then.

Besides, Professor McGonagall didn't want to see any students get hurt.

Now is the most critical moment.

The mandrake is about to mature. When the petrified people or ghosts wake up, we will be able to learn about the secret room and the monsters from them.

I believe the heir to the secret chamber must also know this. In order to protect himself and hide those secrets, he will either stop here or become even more crazy.

The petrified dwarf proved that the man did not choose the former...

Professor McGonagall took a deep breath, her expression more serious than ever.

Although all the people attacked so far have been petrified, this does not mean that the monster in the secret room will only petrify others.

After all, fifty years ago, when the secret room was first opened, a student died inexplicably.

This kind of thing must never happen a second time.

She looked at everyone and said in a choked voice, "I hope that each of you will abide by the rules, even if it is for your own safety! Anyone who violates the rules will have all house points deducted, and the house will be disqualified from participating in Quidditch competitions."

"I also urge anyone who thinks they know something to come forward.

Every clue now, no matter how small, could lead us to the criminal who planned these attacks."

Professor McGonagall said, and left in a hurry.

As soon as she left, there was a burst of buzzing discussions in the auditorium.

Deducting all house points and canceling the qualification to participate in Quidditch, there has never been such a severe punishment before.

"Fortunately, Professor McGonagall only postponed the Quidditch match..." Harry said with some relief.

"You guys..." Ron looked at Fred and George hesitantly.

How could they not guess what he was thinking.

"We won't be discovered, not even for Quidditch," said Fred.

"That's right." George said with a smile, "Don't be like last year and think about catching bad guys and being a hero. That's not what you should do."

Next to them, Harry and Hermione were eating with their heads down, not saying a word.

At the Hufflepuff table, Kyle also remained silent.

Everyone around was discussing who would be the successor, and every time they said a name, Kyle would observe that person's expression.

But everyone looked normal, the only weird one was Lockhart.

He was very quiet, not showing off how many greeting cards he had received or bragging about his achievements that he had talked about countless times.

He, who attached great importance to his image, didn't even take care of his hair. With his messy blond hair, he drank one glass of wine after another. He was completely different from the energetic man he was at noon.

Half an hour later, dinner time was over.

Professor McGonagall re-entered the Great Hall, and with her were the other three Heads of House.

Professor Sprout came over and escorted the Hufflepuff students back to the common room.

"Unless you go to class, you must stay here and are not allowed to go anywhere else."

She counted the number of people and didn't leave until everyone was through the barrel door.

"Doesn't Professor Lockhart already know who the heir is?"

As soon as Professor Sprout left, someone couldn't wait to say, "Why can't the professors just arrest that guy!"

"Don't you understand yet?" Someone said disdainfully, "He's just bragging. In fact, he knows nothing and doesn't know anything, just like he did in the duel club."

“Nonsense!” someone retorted, “You’ve all read his books…think of all the amazing things he did.”

"He just said that he did it."

…

The people in the common room quickly split into two factions, arguing fiercely about Lockhart.

Kyle, Connor and Cedric did not participate in this meaningless argument. They walked around the crowd and sat on the sofas in the corner.

"Kyle, did you find anything?" Cedric asked.

"No." Kyle shook his head.

"That person hid it so well." Kanna sighed, "Every time an attack happened, no one saw it. It was as if it happened out of thin air... Could it be that the monster in the secret room is a ghost that can move freely in the castle?"

"Ghosts can't petrify others. They just look scary." Cedric looked at Kyle again, "Where did you find the golden chain you found earlier?"

"A...very hidden place." Kyle hesitated for a moment, but still didn't reveal the secret room.

It's not like he hadn't thought about telling Professor Dumbledore the location of the Chamber of Secrets and the news about Riddle.

In fact, he had this idea when the diary disappeared mysteriously and attacks occurred frequently, but he never made up his mind, or this idea just came up and then disappeared inexplicably.

This feeling is like walking into the range of a Muggle repelling spell, and you will always be suddenly interrupted by other things.

But Kyle himself didn't notice anything at all. He just felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it. In the end, he could only attribute it to the fact that he couldn't bear to part with the Basilisk... After all, the Basilisk was indeed valuable. If it were replaced with Galleons, it could be piled up into a small mountain. It was normal for him to be reluctant to part with it.

Kyle rubbed his forehead, feeling inexplicably irritated.

"Speaking of clues, Kyle, remember that thing you gave me for Christmas?" At this time, Cedric suddenly stood up and trotted to the dormitory.

"Wait for me."

About a minute later, he came back with a stack of parchment in his hand.

(End of this chapter)