Five minutes later, Kate personally repaired the bathroom door that had nearly been broken down.
Those two really knew how to ram into things—if she hadn't added an Anti-Unlocking Charm, they might actually have managed to escape.
Turning back, she looked at the two boys already floating in midair. They hadn't suffered any inhuman treatment—they'd merely been immobilized and then made to drift upward.
Kate walked up to them, wearing an innocent expression. "You seniors promised—you did promise to let me play along with you. You can't go back on your word."
"You... what do you want?!" One of them, terrified witless by her expression, cried out in a panic.
The other spoke up as well. "Wait—you, you're that Shafiq?!"
So they'd finally recognized her.
Kate rubbed her chin. It seemed her Academy Reputation still wasn't high enough—even two weaklings like these hadn't known who she was.
She raised an eyebrow slightly and turned to look at Myrtle, who was hiding atop the toilet cistern. "Why are you hiding over there? Are you so afraid of me?"
"For no reason at all—what makes you think you can help me?!" Myrtle drifted unsteadily overhead, her emotions clearly volatile.
Kate thought for a moment. "Have you ever read chivalric novels? In them, the knight who's the protagonist places great importance on gallantry, and is more than happy to stand up for women and children."
"You mean the hero saving the damsel?" Myrtle laughed exaggeratedly. "Little squirt, what do you know about salvation? You think catching two boys counts as helping me? You have no idea how sad, how painful my life here has been!"
She let out a grief-stricken sob, rose into the air, spun around, and plunged headfirst into the toilet, nearly splashing water onto Kate before vanishing from sight.
"All right. It seems she doesn't want anything to do with you."
Kate shrugged, waved her wand, and lowered the two of them to the ground. "I'll let you off this time, but don't let me catch you doing this again."
The moment the two boys were freed from their bonds, they fled in a blind panic. By the looks of it, they'd never dare come to this bathroom again.
Honestly, the conditions here really were dreadful. With no one to clean it for years on end, and a neurotic ghost living in it, the place had fallen into such disrepair that you couldn't even tell it belonged to Hogwarts.
Myrtle still hid in the toilet, refusing to come out. Kate sighed, used a spell to tidy the place up a little, and then left of her own accord.
Although she could help Myrtle for the moment, she truly couldn't genuinely solve the root of her problem.
Rescuing her once in a while could indeed help, but it would also give her the illusion that there was still hope.
In her fifty years in the bathroom, Myrtle had probably received help from more than a few kind-hearted students.
But as they graduated and left, all that remained for her was the despair that followed the shattering of hope.
She wondered whether the wizarding world had any notion of laying ghosts to rest. She'd search her family's library another day.
After all that, she'd lost the mood even for a walk, so she simply headed straight back to the Common Room.
There were no classes that afternoon, so quite a few second-year students were fooling around and roughhousing in the Common Room.
Malfoy was there too.
After glancing at her casually a few times, Kate gave a light cough, then turned and walked out of the Common Room, heading deeper into the dungeon.
Before long, a set of footsteps followed her out.
This had almost become an unspoken understanding between her and Malfoy—whenever the two of them wanted to say something in private, they'd come here to talk.
Kate leaned against the wall and waited a while before she saw Malfoy come over and stand right beside her.
"What do you want with me?" The young lady lifted her head proudly. "If you're looking to make peace, well, I wouldn't be entirely opposed..."
"Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?" Kate cut her off directly.
Malfoy froze, and anger flared up in her at once. "You called me out here just to ask about something like that?"
Kate didn't answer directly, instead saying, "When I passed by the bathroom today, I saw the ghost inside. She's known as Moaning Myrtle.
"According to the rumors, she was killed by the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, so I wanted to ask whether you know anything about the Chamber."
"Moaning Myrtle? You went out of your way to call me over just for her sake?" The more Malfoy heard, the angrier she got.
One, two, three girls around her already weren't enough—now she wanted to go stirring things up with a female ghost too?
She sneered. "What makes you so sure I know the secret of the Chamber of Secrets? And why should I tell you anyway?"
With that, she turned to leave.
"Wait!" Kate immediately reached out to grab her, but the instant her fingers touched Malfoy's skin, a piercing pain shot through them.
Malfoy started and instinctively backed away, trying to break free, but her wrist remained firmly gripped in Kate's hand.
"Have you gone mad?!" she growled in a low voice. "Don't you want your hand anymore? Let go of me!"
Sweat had already broken out rapidly across Kate's forehead, but she tightened her grip a little more. "I won't let go—not unless you agree to tell me!"
She heard Malfoy curse a few more times, and a wry smile crossed her face as her voice suddenly weakened. "Just tell me first, all right?"
Malfoy ground her back teeth with all her might. She had no idea what Kate had been raised on—her strength was so great that Malfoy couldn't break free even putting in every last ounce of effort.
Only when even she could smell the scorched odor coming off Kate's hand did she reach out and grab Kate's arm through the wizard robes. "Fine, I'll talk! Just let go first!"
Drenched in sweat, Kate gave a radiant smile, then obediently released her hand and slid weakly to the ground.
"You... you idiot..." Malfoy cursed under her breath through gritted teeth, half-kneeling before her with her brows knitted tight. "Let me see your hand!"
"Even if I show you, you can't heal it." Kate stubbornly tucked her hand beneath her robes. Though the pain had clearly softened her voice considerably, she persisted in asking, "You'd better tell me first."
Malfoy shot to her feet in a fury and made as if to leave, but after only a few steps she suddenly rushed back. "My father only ever told me that the Chamber of Secrets was last opened fifty years ago.
"He also said that when the Chamber was opened, a Muggle-born Wizard died, so with these rumors about the Chamber surfacing again, maybe another Muggle-born Wizard is going to die!"
"My father warned me that if rumors about the Chamber appeared at school, I should stay out of it and let the Heir of Slytherin carry on with the work—clearing out... clearing out the filth of the Mudbloods."
Kate tilted her head weakly. "So then, the rumors were spread by you or your father?"
"How would I know?!" Malfoy clenched her fists indignantly. "My father is very busy—there are plenty of things he hasn't told me!"
That tone... it sounded as though Malfoy had some kind of grievance against her father.
Kate narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, braced one hand against the wall, and struggled to her feet.
"Your hand... you should go to the Hospital Wing and have it looked at." Malfoy hesitantly moved to step forward, but hurriedly retreated before she could touch her, saying it somewhat awkwardly.
"Oh, actually there's nothing wrong with my hand."
Smiling brightly, she held out her right hand—there wasn't so much as a scratch on it. "If I kept getting injured over and over, even Madam Pomfrey would start to wonder whether there was something wrong with my head."
Malfoy froze, her eyes widening in disbelief. "How is that possible? I clearly smelled it just now..."
Then she quickly caught on. "You tricked me! You deceived me, all just for the sake of some female ghost?"
"That's right," Kate admitted freely. "Because I suspected your father was the one spreading the rumors, I wanted to fish for information out of you. And as it turns out, the result was just as I expected."
With every word she spoke, Malfoy's little face twisted a bit more, and by the time she finished, Malfoy could no longer hold back. She whipped out her wand and aimed it straight at Kate. "Leg-Locker Curse!"
In an instant, Kate's legs were forced together. Had she not braced herself against the wall in time, she might well have toppled right over.
Malfoy gave a light snort and stormed off in a fury.
Once she was far away, Kate shook her head helplessly, drew her wand, and said, "Finite Incantatem."
She glanced at Malfoy's retreating figure, then furrowed her brow and raised her right hand.
In fact, she really had been burned just now by the dark magic on Malfoy—but after so many trips to the Hospital Wing, she'd long since learned the magic to dispel this kind of wound.
Even though the wound had vanished, the piercing pain still lingered.
But there was no need to let Malfoy know any of that.
Clenching her right hand tightly, she drew a deep breath, leaned halfway against the wall, and slowly exhaled.
As it stood now, the rumors really had been spread by Lucius—just as she'd thought. Lucius was getting anxious.
Only, the Basilisk had long since died, so no matter how much Lucius spread his rumors, not a single person at Hogwarts would come to any real harm.
Seen that way, it seemed she needn't bother with this matter. No matter how many rumors there were, without any actual incident, they'd amount to nothing more than a school legend at most.
But on closer thought, if he received no response from the owner of the diary, Lucius would probably grow even more fearful.
Fearful that once the diary was discovered and it came out that he'd circulated an old relic of Voldemort's, the reputation he'd worked so hard to whitewash would be blackened all over again.
In the grip of extreme fear, people often did things even they themselves never expected—especially since Lucius was one of the Board of Governors of Hogwarts.
Heaven only knew what he might do with what little power he held.
Now wasn't a good time to deal with Lucius either; for the moment, all she could do was keep him steady.
So she'd still need to make some small moves to subtly respond to Lucius, letting him know that the diary was still safely in someone's hands.
As for the Chamber of Secrets...
The Basilisk certainly wouldn't be coming out, but the Chamber of Secrets still existed. After all, it was something Slytherin had left behind, and couldn't just be destroyed carelessly.
That being the case, she could think of a way to let Lucius know there was no longer any Basilisk inside the Chamber, so that he'd give up on his designs to disrupt Hogwarts.
Kate coughed a few times, braced herself against the wall, and ambled back a short distance. She cast a pained glance at her right hand, which was still trembling slightly, and clenched it tight.
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