Harry looked back at the castle nervously. He wondered if the professors in the castle had noticed anything unusual here.

Ron's mind was full of worry. The fire in the sky dimmed the stars, and the darkness on the other side of the horizon seemed to be dispersed by water and turned orange-red. Mr. Riddle had not returned yet.

After going through so many things, Ron's legs seemed to float up and turned into a wisp of smoke, but his head was very heavy. But at this moment he seemed to have forgotten the horror of the Forbidden Forest and his fear of spiders.

"No, Harry, I've got to go find her!" said Ron resolutely.

He didn't care about Mr. Riddle, but Ginny - that was his sister! "Let's go!" Harry didn't care about his physical fatigue, nor did he think about the fact that he had just escaped death less than a few hours ago. He stood up with Ron without hesitation, took a deep breath, and walked towards the Forbidden Forest again with a determined look on his face.

However, before they reached the edge of the forbidden forest, they saw a small shadow emerging from the jungle.

"Ginny!" Ron's heart skipped a beat, as if he had suddenly regained his energy. Only at this moment did he truly feel as if he was standing on the ground, with solid ground under his feet.

He rushed towards the shadow, tripped himself in a hurry, and rolled in the mud. But this did not stop him from moving forward, and he fell to the feet of Cyrus while rolling and crawling.

"What... are you doing?" Cyrus had not expected Ron to show such courtesy upon meeting him, and looked at him in surprise.

"Are you okay Ginny?"

"Not even a hair was hurt." Cyrus didn't correct Ron's address, but just shook his hair to show that he was safe and sound. "Those spiders refused to let me go, thinking that their large numbers would kill me, so I had to spend some time killing them all."

He said something so casually that both Harry and Ron felt a little terrified, so much so that the two silly kids suddenly realized that they were more worried about the spiders than each other.

"Killed them all?"

"I bet Hagrid will be very sad when he gets out of prison."

"Sad? Maybe he won't be sad if those spiders eat us." Ron complained, "It's almost dawn, we should go back quickly. Otherwise, it will be bad if we are caught by the professors."

Harry put an invisibility cloak on Ron and Cyrus cast a spell.

After returning to the Gryffindor tower, they did not go back to their rooms, but simply rested on the sofa in the common room. Cyrus gave Harry and Ron a large bottle of vitality potion to make them more energetic. Harry also told Cyrus his guess while others were still asleep.

"It was indeed Myrtle who was killed fifty years ago, but I'm afraid she doesn't have any clues, otherwise Hagrid's injustice would have been cleared long ago." Cyrus said apologetically.

"Don't feel guilty, it's not your fault. Keeping an eight-eyed giant spider in school is no better than keeping any other monster." Ron still had a lot of resentment towards Hagrid, but no one would be more tolerant than him if they encountered this situation.

"No matter what, we should give it a try." Harry didn't want to miss any chance.

"We were in that bathroom, only three toilets away from her, and we didn't even have the chance to ask her," Ron said distressedly. "Now..."

Looking for spiders was enough for them these days. Want to avoid the teacher for long enough to sneak into the girls' bathroom?

It's impossible!

"We can use the Invisibility Cloak at night, like today," said Harry.

"It's different inside the castle than outside it. And you can't communicate with Myrtle wearing the Invisibility Cloak, she won't like it." Cyrus said, "She's too sensitive, she'll cry and make a fuss over the slightest thing, and that'll definitely attract the professors. You know what they say, Harry - the murderer always returns to the scene of the crime - and then we'll have no way to defend ourselves."

Harry and Ron groaned simultaneously.

Cyrus certainly had a way to let them communicate with Myrtle away from the professors' sight, but it was not possible now, as he still had one final preparation to complete.

After sacrificing so many lives of the Acromanthus, the Philosopher's Stone seemed to have taken shape, but it would take some time for it to solidify completely. He also had to find a chance to hide the unformed "life" in the crucible into the Room of Requirement, waiting for the moment of true transformation.

And it won’t be long. — “I’m afraid it won’t be long before Tom takes action.”

Dumbledore stood on the edge of the Black Lake, looking from afar at the ancient and huge castle shrouded in darkness. On the other side of the Forbidden Forest, the faint light of dawn had slowly begun to drive away the darkness, and a light mist filled the woods, but it would take some time for the sky to become completely bright.

Dumbledore waited.

More than a month has passed since he left Hogwarts, so he certainly hasn't done nothing.

These days, he first visited the school directors and tried to persuade them to cancel their previous proposal. This was much easier than he thought, because several school directors agreed to Malfoy's proposal not because they really wanted to drive him away, but because they were threatened by Malfoy and had no choice but to sign.

Now, Dumbledore had already obtained the document in advance from the school directors agreeing that he would continue to serve as the headmaster, but he did not reveal this matter to anyone, nor did he return to Hogwarts.

He was waiting for an opportunity to avoid alerting the enemy.

And he believed that this time would come soon.

Even if he was not at Hogwarts, Dumbledore still had various ways to obtain information on campus. Not to mention that three of the four deans, led by Professor McGonagall, were loyal to him, and even Snape had no reason to betray him and return to the Dark Lord's arms.

Not to mention, the decision of the board of directors actually has no impact on the fact that he is the true "headmaster" recognized by the castle of Hogwarts.

It seemed like he was driven away, but in fact, the mechanisms, portraits, and sculptures in the castle were all loyal to him. At that time, he said to Harry: "Only when everyone here betrays me, I will truly leave this school." He was not referring to just Harry.

Now, Dumbledore was waiting for a signal. He believed that given Tom Riddle's character, he would not give up. In the next attack, the other party would definitely reveal his true face.

But before that, he had one final preparation to make.

He turned around, and the dawn light rose behind him, as if he was wearing a cloak of morning light.

(End of this chapter)