Early the next morning, before Kate had even had a bite to eat, Harry forcibly dragged her away right at the entrance of the Great Hall.
"I can't believe it," he grumbled in a low voice, "Lockhart kept me talking the whole evening yesterday!"
Kate yawned. "Isn't that a good thing? It means he really cares about this matter."
"He kept going on and on about how to turn the Chamber of Secrets business into a new book!" Harry's face was practically green with fury. "He even said he wanted to call it something like Lockhart and the Chamber of Secrets!"
The air fell silent for a moment before Kate finally couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.
Say what you would, this Lockhart really did have a bit of the comedic bug in him — he actually wanted to usurp the male lead's spot!
Truly a talent.
After laughing for a good while, she barely managed to rein it in and patted Harry's shoulder earnestly. "It's fine. You can just look into this privately on your own. I never really expected him to be any help anyway."
Harry was taken aback. "Then why did you have me go ask him for help?"
Well, of course it was to rely on that loudspeaker of a voice of his to let the whole school know that someone was genuinely searching for the Chamber of Secrets.
The one thing the world was never short of was people eager to stir the pot and egg others on.
By now the rumors about the Chamber of Secrets were known throughout the entire school. At a time like this, if anyone stood up and declared they wanted to find the Chamber, nine times out of ten they'd be laughed at.
But this time, the one stepping forward was a professor.
Though Lockhart's abilities were limited, he was, after all, a bona fide professor — an entirely different concept from an ordinary student.
So when even a professor announced he wanted to find the Chamber, others at least wouldn't mock him to his face, and some might even quietly begin hunting for traces of the Chamber themselves.
As long as one benchmark was set up, one would draw in two, two would draw in four, and soon the whole school would be swept up in a craze of searching for the Chamber.
As the saying goes, the power of the masses is limitless. In the original works, the Golden Trio alone was enough to find the Chamber; now, with hundreds of times more people, how could it possibly go undiscovered?
They might even dig out Voldemort's underpants, hidden away in who-knows-what nook or cranny.
By then, could a Chamber of Secrets that the entire student body had rummaged out really still count as the Chamber of Secrets at all?
To eliminate one's fear of a thing, you must first tear down its veil of mystery and expose it fully before everyone.
When that day came, even if Lucius couldn't find the diary, watching the Chamber of Secrets turn into a check-in shrine for Hogwarts students would probably leave him so furious he'd rupture a blood vessel in his brain — and yet utterly helpless.
"Of course it's because I trust you more."
After running through that entire lengthy internal monologue, Kate solemnly patted Harry's shoulder and cast him a look of trust.
A flicker of delight crossed Harry's eyes. "Really?"
Whether in age or in knowledge, Kate had always been someone he looked up to. Being encouraged by her like this now, even he found it a little hard to believe.
So in Kate's eyes, he too was worthy of trust.
"Of course!" Kate went on bluffing shamelessly.
Just as Harry was on the verge of spouting some grand, heroic declarations, a hesitant voice came from behind them. "What... are you two doing?"
The two of them turned around at the same time, only to find Hermione standing not far off with a dubious expression, watching them both with a conflicted look on her face.
"He- Hermione?" Harry startled and immediately took several steps back.
He most certainly did not want to be misunderstood.
But Kate simply stepped forward, quite naturally, and said cheerfully, "Harry was pouring out his troubles to me. He said Professor Lockhart cornered him and kept him talking all last night — he nearly even dreamed about him!"
If nothing else, her knack for lying with a perfectly straight face was getting better and better.
Even Harry was momentarily stunned by her half-true, half-false storytelling technique. When Hermione's gaze swung toward him, he nodded frantically. "Right! She's right!"
Only then did Hermione draw her gaze back, reaching out to straighten Kate's collar. "Remember to check yourself in the mirror before you go out — your collar's a mess again."
"I know! Oh, right, I haven't had breakfast yet." Kate rubbed her little belly, practically plastering herself against Hermione. "Come on, let's go eat first."
Half-exasperated and half-pleased, Hermione supported her. "Yes, yes, yes. Harry, let's all go together."
"...You two go on ahead. I still have something to take care of." Harry's face twitched, and he deliberately kept a bit of distance from them.
As enjoyable as it would be to watch these two, he still had serious business to attend to.
Kate trusted him so much; he absolutely could not betray that trust — he had to have something to show for it!
With that in mind, he lost all appetite for breakfast and ran off to the library, where the books ought to contain some information about the Basilisk.
Only, he was a step too late.
Even though it was breakfast time, well over half the seats were already occupied, and everyone had a book in hand.
Rather dumbfounded, Harry made his way further in. After finally locating the shelf for magical creatures, he discovered that the books on it had already been almost entirely borrowed — there was practically nothing left.
"Excuse me," he had no choice but to find a somewhat familiar-looking student and ask, "why are there so many fewer books on this shelf?"
The other student glanced at him. "Because everyone's racing to be the first to find the Basilisk, obviously!"
?
Harry was completely thrown.
According to rumor, the Basilisk feared roosters — which was why Kate planned to be a little ruthless today toward the chicks Hagrid was raising.
In any case, Hagrid still hadn't repaid the favor of her helping care for the little dragon, Dark Cloud, last year.
Killing a couple of his chickens should be no problem... right?
So after class, she slipped out of the classroom alone. But before she'd even reached the hut near the Forbidden Forest, she spotted Hagrid coming toward her, carrying a dead chicken.
"Hagrid?" She stopped in her tracks at once. "This chicken... what happened to it?"
"Since the day before yesterday, this is already the third one to die. Most likely a fox or a blood beast got them."
Hagrid bent his towering frame down and spread the rooster out in his hands for her to see. "I need the Headmaster's permission to cast a spell around the coop."
Kate studied the wounds on the dead chicken thoughtfully.
Such sharp, clean gashes — no matter how she looked at them, they resembled the marks left by a Sectumsempra strike...
Snape using potions to drive off the spiders was one thing — there was at least some way to explain that away.
But why would he go and kill chickens?
Surely he wasn't slaughtering them to ward off evil spirits?
An Eastern fantasy setting suddenly barging into a Western magical worldview — how jarring.
This sort of thing was surely something Dumbledore had him do in secret, but why would Old Man Dumbledore do it?
Kate knitted her brow and thought the whole matter over from start to finish, but still couldn't figure out what was going on.
"Hold on, Hagrid," she hurriedly called out to him. "I've got something to see the Headmaster about too — perfect, I'll come with you!"
Hagrid looked her over carefully. "You've got something too? Don't tell me it's your Fluffball..."
As expected, his mind was full of nothing but magical creatures.
Kate scratched her cheek. "No, no. It's the Headmaster's Phoenix! It's been shedding feathers a lot lately, and the Headmaster suspects it's going bald. So he asked me to take a look."
Far away up in the tower, Fawkes, still nibbling on his birdseed, sneezed for no apparent reason.
By the time she stepped into the Headmaster's office with Hagrid, Dumbledore had already brewed a pot of black tea.
Kate suspected that, holed up in his office all day, he had nothing to do besides feeding the bird and brewing tea.
"Headmaster," Hagrid stepped up first, carrying his chicken, "this is the third one to die in the past week."
Dumbledore raised his eyes to glance at the gruesomely dead rooster, then looked toward Kate, who was almost completely hidden behind Hagrid.
Needless to say, the little one was probably still snickering back there.
He said slowly, "In that case, you may use magic. I trust no more monsters will come out to harm them."
"Thank you, Headmaster!" Overjoyed, Hagrid hurried off to go home and repair the coop, sparing a glance for Fawkes on his perch on the way out.
Hmm — it did seem to be shedding a little.
He nodded in firm agreement and said quietly to Kate, "Then I'll leave it to you to cure its shedding."
"Mm." Kate tugged at the corner of her mouth. "I won't let it go bald."
Once Hagrid had left, she stood on tiptoe to peer at the pot of black tea. "Professor, you didn't put anything strange in the tea this time, did you?"
"You came all the way up here just to drink tea?" Dumbledore casually picked up a cup, poured her a serving, and handed it over.
She gave a little chuckle. "The way you put it! Can't I come by to see you and Fawkes when there's nothing going on?"
Fawkes cried out a few times in response, then swiftly flew over to perch atop her head, standing there remarkably steadily.
Kate's face twitched. She had no choice but to set the black tea down and gingerly lift him off. Then Fawkes pecked at her hand, gave a haughty little wiggle of his rump, and flew back.
"He's angry," Dumbledore said, wearing the expression of someone watching a show, "because you called him bald."
Kate: ...
What a grudge-holding bird!
She'd spoken so softly just now, and yet he'd still managed to hear!
She gave a dry cough. "I'll explain that to him personally later. Actually, you probably already know why I came today."
Lifting her head to gaze straight into those deep blue eyes, she steadied herself and asked, "The spiders fleeing frantically through the school corridors, and the roosters being killed at Hagrid's place..."
Dumbledore raised a hand, signaling that she needn't go on.
Kate caught on in an instant and, feigning composure, cupped her teacup and took several more sips.
Good grief — so it really was all Old Man Dumbledore's doing.
Could it be that he'd landed on the very same idea as her, both of them planning to con Harry into finding the Chamber of Secrets?
In that case, had her little act of dosing Harry also long since been seen through by Old Man Dumbledore?
Surely he wasn't waiting today for her to walk right into the net, so he could then take her to task!
The more Kate thought about it, the more her heart raced. After finally draining the entire cup of tea, she hastily said, "Professor, I've got things to do — I'll be off now, goodbye!"
And with that, she made to bolt straight out.
Unfortunately, Dumbledore refused to give her the chance. With a wave of his hand, the office door swung completely shut.
Kate, who'd taken all of two steps, slammed on the brakes at once and turned back to smile at him awkwardly. "Professor, is there something else you need me to do?"
Dumbledore blinked lightly. "Since you've come all the way up here, let's speak plainly, Kate. I need you to help me with something."
"...It would be my great honor." Kate replied with a pained look on her face.
Had she known, she never would have come up — now she was being press-ganged into laboring for someone.
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