In the staff room, Professor McGonagall was organizing the task of sending students away from school.
Albus Dumbledore had already left the school, and no one knew where he had gone.
Therefore, the work in the Castle now had to be coordinated by Professor McGonagall.
"Although the students have left, patrol work in the Castle must continue. Sprout, you and Filch will lead the students to the station later. Filius, Snape, and Sherlock will conduct the inspection in the Castle with me..."
Just as she said this, the door to the staff room was suddenly pushed open forcefully from the outside.
The Professors all looked at Harry, who was panting outside the door. Snape frowned deeply.
"You should be packing your things to leave the school right now. What are you doing running in here, Potter?"
Harry ignored Snape's reprimand, caught his breath, and said quickly,
"Neville has gone missing, Professor!"
Suddenly, the entire room fell into a dead silence!
Before they could speak, Harry continued, panting heavily.
"I also know where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is!"
Instantly, all the Professors in the room stood up!
They stared wide-eyed at Harry, and Professor McGonagall's body trembled slightly with excitement.
"You know?"
"It's in Myrtle's bathroom on the first floor! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk! It moves through the pipes in Hogwarts to travel around the Castle!"
Sherlock was also deeply shocked; Albus Dumbledore had actually bet correctly!
He was the first to react and said quickly,
"Organize the students to leave immediately and get them on the train. Once the students have left the Castle, we will go find the Chamber of Secrets!"
Professor McGonagall regained her composure, heard Sherlock's words, and made the arrangements.
"Sprout and Filch, you two find the prefects immediately and organize the students and other staff to go to the station. Remember to tell the train not to depart yet; wait for our news. Filius, Snape, and Sherlock, we will go to that bathroom first!"
After she finished speaking, the Professors immediately took action.
Harry and Ron followed Sherlock and the others, and the four most capable Professors at Hogwarts headed to the bathroom together.
At first, Professor McGonagall didn't intend to bring them along, but Harry explained that he had the talent of a Parselmouth and might be able to help, so she finally decided to bring them.
Upon arriving at Myrtle's bathroom, Sherlock and the others searched the entire room.
Soon, they made a discovery!
Flitwick pointed to the side of a copper tap on the sink and called the Professors over.
There was a small snake engraved on it.
"This tap never produces water," Myrtle, who was floating nearby, said sorrowfully, which confirmed the issue with the tap.
Sherlock stared at the small snake engraved on the tap and called Harry over.
"Use your Parselmouth ability and say something to this tap."
Harry stared fixedly at the small engraved snake, trying to imagine it as a real snake, and he fantasized that the flickering candlelight made the small snake move.
"Open."
A harsh hissing sound escaped from his mouth. The next moment, the tap emitted a dazzling white light and began to spin rapidly.
Then, the sink moved as well. They watched as the sink slowly disappeared from view, revealing a very large pipe that could accommodate a person crawling inside.
The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets had been opened!
Every Professor present was greatly encouraged, and Harry and Ron cheered excitedly.
But Sherlock and the others knew very well that opening the Chamber of Secrets was just the beginning.
They still had a tough battle to fight!
"We need to go get the roosters first. To deal with the Basilisk, the crowing of a rooster is the best weapon!" Professor McGonagall said calmly.
Afterwards, Flitwick and Sherlock went to the Hogwarts greenhouse to catch the roosters.
After Sherlock revealed that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was likely a Basilisk, even though the roosters Rubeus Hagrid raised had been strangled, Albus Dumbledore had specifically ordered him to buy more from outside and keep them separately.
In an abandoned greenhouse managed by Professor Sprout, several roosters were being kept.
Soon, Sherlock and Flitwick brought the roosters over. They waited until all the students at Hogwarts had been organized to evacuate before starting to enter the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry and Ron were ordered to wait outside, while Professor McGonagall was responsible for guarding them outside.
Professor Flitwick, as a former duelling champion and because of his short stature, climbed into the Chamber of Secrets first, holding a rooster.
Sherlock and Snape followed him into the Chamber of Secrets.
They crawled down for a long time, as if they had descended several miles underground, and finally crawled out of the tunnel into a spacious underground space.
"This should be under the Black Lake," Professor Flitwick said, looking at the dark, slimy walls around them.
"Lumos."
The sound of three spells rang out, and the three Professors used the Lumos Charm simultaneously, illuminating the underground Chamber of Secrets as though it were daytime.
Only then did they realize they were currently in an even wider tunnel and had to continue forward.
The three of them stepped on the wet ground with a "clatter, clatter" sound.
The rooster in Professor Flitwick's arms let out a "cluck, cluck" sound until they turned a corner and discovered a huge snakeskin!
"This is what the snake shed," Snape muttered. "A nearly thousand-year-old snakeskin. This is an extremely precious Potion material."
"Once we kill that snake, you can get a better one. Don't think about this one; let's keep going," Sherlock said.
They continued forward until they reached the end of the tunnel, where a solid wall stood, engraved with two intertwined snakes, their eyes inlaid with large, sparkling emeralds.
Sherlock looked at the two snakes on the wall and frowned deeply.
"We still need to find Harry."
Snape shook his head indifferently and said,
"No need. I remember Potter's pronunciation."
Subsequently, he faced the wall, his throat moved, and he made the same hissing sound that Harry had just made at the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets.
The two snakes separated, the stone wall split down the middle, and slowly slid to both sides before disappearing.
Professor Flitwick praised excitedly,
"Well done, Severus!"
Sherlock also looked at Snape in surprise; he hadn't expected his talent for foreign languages to be so high.
After this door was opened, the three of them became even more cautious.
This time, they had truly entered Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets.
In this Chamber of Secrets, which was about half the size of the Great Hall, there were many stone pillars engraved with coiling giant snakes, towering to support the ceiling that dissolved into the darkness above, casting long, eerie shadows over the entire room filled with a greenish, mysterious mist.
Sherlock, Flitwick, and Snape stood in front of the huge statue.
It was an ancient looking face with a sparse, long beard that dragged almost all the way to the hem of the stone-carved Wizard's robes, and two large, grey, flat feet stood on the smooth floor of the room.
"Salazar Slytherin."
Snape softly said the name of the statue.
But apart from the stone pillars and the statue, there was nothing else in the Chamber of Secrets.
Sherlock and the others searched carefully through the Chamber of Secrets for a long time before they found a line of text on the foot of Slytherin's statue.
"The glory of Slytherin will last forever with this Castle! Even if his Chamber of Secrets is no longer a secret."
Flitwick's face was gloomy.
"He ran away, taking Neville Longbottom with him!"
Snape's face also looked terrible. Although Sherlock's expression was equally grim, he was deep in thought about something.
The three of them searched the Chamber once more, and after confirming that there was nothing else to be found, they returned to the bathroom.
Professor McGonagall had been waiting there with Harry and Ron.
Upon learning that the Heir of Slytherin and the Basilisk were not in the Chamber of Secrets, and that they had taken Neville and disappeared, she looked dazed and almost fell to the ground.
"How will I explain this to the Longbottom family... how will I explain it to his parents..."
Sherlock and the others were also silent, and Harry and Ron were even more unable to accept it.
They had thought that finding the Chamber of Secrets would completely solve the problem, that Hogwarts would no longer be closed, and that Neville could be rescued.
But they hadn't expected the result to turn out like this.
Professor McGonagall soon recovered from the shock. She took a deep breath and said,
"Sherlock, take Harry and the others to the Common Room to get their luggage, and send them to the train first."
After Sherlock came out of the Chamber of Secrets, he had been frowning.
From the current point of view, Albus Dumbledore's plan had failed. Tom Riddle was more cunning than he had imagined, but Sherlock still felt that something was wrong.
However, no matter what, the safest course of action now was to send the students away and then conduct a comprehensive search of the Castle.
Harry and Ron followed Sherlock towards the Gryffindor Common Room.
Their moods were very low, and no one wanted to speak.
Until Harry looked at Sherlock, and a bolt of lightning suddenly flashed through his mind!
He suddenly grabbed Sherlock's arm and asked with a trembling voice,
"Professor! Do you think we can still find Neville and that diary before we leave on the train?"
Sherlock and Ron were both stunned, but Ron quickly reacted and guessed what Harry was planning to do.
His eyes were shining, and he also looked at Sherlock with extreme nervousness, waiting for his answer.
Sherlock sighed and shook his head.
"The hope is slim. But leave the matters in the Castle to the Professors. You two should just honestly take the train home today and wait for news. Once things are resolved, Albus Dumbledore will notify you to return to school."
Looks of surprise appeared in Harry and Ron's eyes!
They almost jumped up on the spot. Sherlock looked at their reactions strangely, not understanding why those words would make them excited.
Harry and Ron looked at each other, seeing hope in each other's eyes!
They followed Sherlock and came to the tower where the Gryffindor Common Room was located.
At this time, the Common Room no longer had the Fat Lady guarding it, because all the students had boarded the train, and only Harry and Ron had not gone over yet.
The three of them climbed into the portrait passage. The moment they entered the Gryffindor Common Room, they found a pale-faced boy lying on the sofa!
"Neville!" Harry and Ron exclaimed.
At the same time, Sherlock frowned, pursed his lips, and slowly drew his wand.
Because he saw, sitting on a chair by the fireplace in the Common Room, a tall boy with black hair whose body was blurry, looking like a ghost.
The portrait passage of the Gryffindor Common Room suddenly slammed shut!
The boy named Tom Riddle looked at them with a triumphant smile on his face.