章 67: 067 The Secret of the Eyes
The Easter holiday was still a week away, but Professor McGonagall had already handed out the new course list for the third year to the second-year wizards. She told them they had to make their choices before the break, which threw Hermione into a frenzy of indecision. She spent the whole weekend poring over the pamphlet, fascinated by every subject and unwilling to give up any of them.
Even when she went to help Professor Lockhart with his fan mail on Sunday afternoon, which had become a regular chore, she brought the course list with her, hoping to get some guidance from Professor Watson. The young Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was always in his office, assisting Lockhart with his correspondence and offering his own insights on various topics.
"Interest is the best teacher, Granger–"
Bryan said with a smile, as he watched Hermione scribble down a polite reply to a witch who had sent Lockhart a love potion.
"But you can't do everything at once. You have to prioritize. If you want my advice, I think Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes are more practical than the others."
"She's already made up her mind to take all of them–"
Harry said cautiously, as he leaned against the wall. He had followed Hermione to Professor Watson's office, not because he enjoyed writing letters for Lockhart, but because he hoped to find some clues about how to deal with the inferi from Professor Watson. The young teacher had hinted that he knew something about them when he visited Harry in the hospital wing during their encounter.
"All of them?"
Bryan looked at Hermione with a mixture of admiration and concern. He saw the determination in her brown eyes and the slight frown on her forehead. He knew she was not easily swayed.
"That might be a problem, Granger. Some of these courses overlap in time. You can't be in two places at once."
"That's not a problem, Professor Watson. Professor McGonagall gave me a great suggestion–"
Hermione said confidently, as she finished writing the letter and sealed it with wax. She reached for another envelope, eager to get through the pile of mail as soon as possible.
"What about you, Potter?"
Bryan changed the subject and turned to Harry. He noticed that Harry looked restless and curious, as if he wanted to ask something else.
"Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, Professor. Ron and I both chose these two courses."
Harry answered quickly, trying to sound casual. He wondered how to steer the conversation to the topic of inferi without arousing suspicion. Bryan nodded approvingly and muttered under his breath,
"I heard that Professor Kettleburn of Care of Magical Creatures is going to retire at the end of the year. It seems that Headmaster Dumbledore will have a lot on his plate next year. He has to find two new professors to fill the gaps–"
Harry's eyes widened in surprise, and even Hermione stopped writing and looked up at Professor Watson in disbelief. They exchanged a glance and then Hermione asked tentatively, "Don't you want to stay at Hogwarts, Professor?"
"Hehe–"
Bryan chuckled softly. He picked up a framed photo from his desk and gently wiped off the dust on it. It was a picture of him when he was young.
"I'm afraid I have to disappoint you, Granger, Potter. Being a professor at Hogwarts may be a good job for some people. Maybe one day in the future, I will come back here as a teacher, but not anytime soon. I have other plans."
Professor Watson's answer made Hermione's face fall. Even Harry felt a pang of sadness. He stared at the young face in the photo, which looked too young. He noticed that Professor Watson's purple eyes were quite darker than when they first met him at the start of the term. He suddenly remembered what Hagrid had told them about Professor Watson's school days.
"Professor,"
Harry hesitated for a moment, but he couldn't suppress his curiosity any longer. He asked in a low voice, "We heard some things about your time at Hogwarts from Hagrid. The dark witch you met in the Forbidden Forest in your fifth year, did you ever find out who she was?"
Bryan's hand stopped moving. He looked at Harry and smiled mysteriously.
"That's a good question, Potter. To be honest, I've been wondering about that for years. I've always wanted to know what her motive was for breaking into Hogwarts and trying to kill me when I was just a kid. But it wasn't until recently that I figured it out."
"Who is she?!" Harry and Hermione gasped in unison, their eyes wide with curiosity and astonishment.
"I can't tell you yet–"
Bryan lowered his eyes and smiled as he put the photo frame back in place. Seeing that the two little wizards looked obviously disappointed, he pursed his lips and thought for a while before smiling again.
"Well then, as compensation, you can ask me something else. I'll try to answer you as best I can. Of course, Potter, if you want to find out from me how to pass the 'practical class', don't bother!"
Harry, who was seen through by Professor Watson, smiled sheepishly. He regretted his words and glanced at the photo that Professor Watson had put down. He noticed something else that intrigued him: Professor Watson's eyes were different in the photo.
The first time he walked into this office, Harry was very curious why Professor Watson's eyes had changed so much from when he was in school. It was a rare opportunity to figure this out, since Professor Watson was willing to answer his questions.
He blinked and chuckled softly. "Alright. If you're really curious,"
"Are you willing to tell us?"
Harry asked timidly, hoping not to offend him.
"There's nothing I can't say, Potter–" Bryan leaned back on his leather chair and smiled gently.
"Actually, this has something to do with what happened on the night of Christmas Eve in my fifth year."
Hermione dropped her quill and parchment on the desk and sat upright, her face serious and attentive. She loved hearing stories from the past, especially from someone who had witnessed so many important events in the wizarding world.
"That night, there were two things that made me uneasy. The first one was the black witch who suddenly broke into Hogwarts, and the second one was Headmaster Dumbledore–"
Bryan raised his hand to stop Harry, who opened his mouth to defend Dumbledore. He looked up at the cold stone ceiling and smiled wistfully, his eyes distant and nostalgic.
"That night, Headmaster Dumbledore showed me what it was like to stand at the top of the contemporary wizarding world with a simple disarming spell. A truly powerful wizard. For a while after that night, I kept thinking about this question: if in the future, for some reason, I had to fight a wizard as powerful as Headmaster Dumbledore, how would I ensure that I could survive or even win against such a wizard?"
Harry and Hermione exchanged uneasy glances. They felt a chill run down their spines as they imagined such a scenario.
After a while, Harry said softly, "That was just a misunderstanding, Professor. Under normal circumstances, Headmaster Dumbledore would never hurt you."
"Headmaster Dumbledore is the greatest white wizard of our time. I think that losing to such a wizard-"
Hermione couldn't finish her sentence under Professor Watson's brilliant eyes, but she still expressed her admiration. In the contemporary wizarding world, no one would think that losing to Dumbledore was a shameful thing.
"My opinion is different from yours, Miss Granger."
Bryan rubbed his fingers together and said calmly, "The first step to surpass someone is that you have to believe in your heart that you can do it. There is no one in this world who is invincible. No matter how powerful a wizard is, he is destined to be surpassed by later generations. So I never think that Headmaster Dumbledore or the Dark Lord are absolutely unbeatable–"
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章 68: 068 Clues
Sharing secrets is the most direct way to get closer to each other. After listening to Professor Watson reveal his hidden past, Harry felt a surge of mixed emotions. He looked at Hermione hesitantly, wondering if he should confide in her as well. But Hermione, who sensed his inner turmoil, gave him an encouraging and curious look.
"Why, do you have something to share with me?"
Bryan got up from his cozy armchair and walked over to the fireplace, where a copper kettle was whistling on the shelf. He poured himself a cup of steaming tea and added a dash of milk and sugar. The aroma of the tea filled the air, creating a soothing atmosphere. When he returned to his seat, Hermione and Harry had clearly reached some kind of agreement. They exchanged a meaningful glance and nodded at each other.
"Professor Watson, do you think hearing voices that others can't hear is a good talent?" Harry asked tentatively, biting his lower lip.
Looking at Harry's nervous face, Bryan knew that he had successfully gained their trust and friendship during this period of time. He was about to reap the rewards of his efforts, but he hid his excitement behind a cloud of smoke from his pipe. He replied very gently, "It depends on the situation, Potter, I can't make an accurate judgment with just a simple sentence. You have to tell me more about these voices."
A suffocating silence fell suddenly, as if the air had frozen. Hermione kept her mouth shut, not wanting to interrupt Harry's thoughts. Harry had an uneasy expression, as if he was wrestling with a dilemma. He fidgeted with his glasses and ran his fingers through his messy black hair.
Professor Watson was a professor he liked very much, but he also knew that the other party's main purpose of entering Hogwarts was not to teach. It was Professor Watson's job to investigate the Chamber of Secrets incident. If possible, Harry hoped to give him some help. Of course, the premise was not to involve himself or Dobby and Hagrid.
In the best case scenario, he hoped that Professor Watson would find the secret chamber or the monster inside it, and then the whole thing would be resolved peacefully, without anyone being blamed or punished.
"—that's the case," Harry said carefully, choosing his words with caution, trying to convince Professor Watson that he knew only a little bit.
"When I entered your office for the first time, you asked me why we came to the third floor after attending the Nick's Death Day party on Halloween last year. In fact, it was because I heard a weird voice, this voice first appeared in Professor Lockhart's office."
In the next ten minutes, Harry explained the origin and nature of the strange voice, and how it seemed to be related to the attacks on the students. He omitted some details that might implicate himself or others, such as Dobby's warning or Hagrid's expulsion. After listening to all this, Bryan's face was expressionless. He leaned back in his chair, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
"What do you think made that voice?" he asked calmly.
"Are you sure that you are the only one who heard that voice, Mr. Potter?" Bryan did not rush to express his opinion, but reconfirmed with a serious tone.
"That's true, Professor Watson—" Hermione nodded cautiously, "Harry, Ron and I were always together at those times, but apart from Harry, neither Ron nor I noticed anything unusual."
Bryan nodded knowingly. He carefully recalled the distance from the basement to the third floor. Under the eager gaze of the two young wizards, he said slowly, "If I guess correctly, the creature that made that voice should be a snake–"
"A snake!" Harry exclaimed in disbelief, while Hermione showed a look of enlightenment, as if she had just solved a puzzle. Professor Watson's simple guess broke through the fog that had been clouding their minds for so long.
"Yes, it must be so, Harry!" Hermione jumped up from her chair with excitement, her face was flushed with blood, and her fingertips were trembling because of being too agitated,
"Everything makes sense now. Only you can hear that sound, of course, Harry, because you are a Parselmouth, and no one but you can understand what a snake hisses really means!"
"But!"
Harry retorted as Hermione's words sparked another question in his mind, "At that time, there were only a lot of ghosts in the basement and corridor besides the three of us. If there was a snake there, how could it hide itself in the wall without being seen by anyone?" He looked at the wall skeptically, trying to find any signs of a hidden passage or a secret door.
"Not necessarily," Hermione's words made Harry frown slightly, and she replied hesitantly, "If the snake is small enough or flexible enough, maybe it can squeeze itself through the cracks in the bricks or pipes, or it has some special abilities, like being able to pass through solid objects, after all, normal snakes don't have the power to petrify anyone, Harry!" She gestured with her hands to illustrate her point, but she was not very confident about her guess.
Hermione's guess was plausible, but it was only a speculation. They needed more evidence to prove it.
"As long as anything has existed in this world, no matter how careful or secretive it is, it will definitely leave some traces behind—"
Bryan smiled and stood up from his chair. He felt a surge of excitement when he finally had something to investigate. He waved his wand and swiftly gathered all the scattered letters on the ground and the table into a neat pile. He looked at Harry and Hermione with a gleam in his eyes, "Let's go to the scene of the crime again, maybe we can find some interesting clues that others have missed!"
The castle was not very crowded at this time of the day. Most of the wizards were either busy with their homework in the common room or enjoying a game of Wizard Chess or Gobstone with their friends. The corridors were quiet and empty, except for the occasional portraits that whispered or snored on the walls.
When they passed the second floor, they saw Filch yelling and threatening two little first-year wizards who had spilled some muddy water on the floor. He warned them that they would be chained up and hung in his office if they didn't clean it up properly. His face was twisted with anger and his eyes were bulging out of their sockets. The two young wizards were trembling with fear and holding their mops nervously.
Bryan kindly intervened and helped the two terrified wizards. He waved his wand and cleaned up the mess in an instant. He smiled gently at them and said, "There's no need to be so harsh on the young ones, Filch—"
Facing Filch, who looked resentful but didn't dare to resist a professor's order, Bryan continued, "It won't be long before Professor Sprout's mandrakes are ready to be harvested, and your beloved Mrs. Norris will be back to health soon—" He patted Filch's shoulder sympathetically and led Harry and Hermione away from him.
The three of them came to a dark and empty corridor leading to the basement near the hall. There was only a faint light coming from the crack between the wall and the floor, where some candle wax remained from a row of black candles that Nick had placed there when he held his deathday party. The air was cold and damp, and they could smell a faint odor of decay.
"I was standing right here at that time—"
Harry still remembered vividly what had happened that night more than four months ago. He quickly brought Hermione and Professor Watson to the middle of the corridor, pointing to the wall, he said, "That voice came out of the wall, then moved up along the ceiling, and finally led us to the third floor!" His voice echoed in the empty space, making him shiver slightly.
Bryan lit up his wand, and his eyes followed Harry's guidance on the surface of the wall. After examining it for a while, he nodded and said, "It seems that we need to open up this wall to have a closer look." He sounded curious and eager.
"Open up the wall?!"
Hermione gasped with disbelief. She looked at Bryan with astonishment and concern. She wondered if he was serious or joking. She knew that opening up a wall in Hogwarts was not an easy task. It might trigger some magical defenses or alarms.
"Of course, Miss Granger, otherwise how would we find out how the snake was able to swim inside the wall—" Bryan said in a casual tone, and he raised his wand effortlessly. After making a few gestures in the air, accompanied by a few flashes of light, the hard wall was easily cut open like soft cheese.
And when the things behind the wall were exposed to the air, all their doubts were answered.
It was a pipe! Behind the rock wall, moldy pipes emitted a disgusting stench. If they listened carefully, they could hear the sound of running water. The pipe was thick enough for a person to crawl inside. It was covered with slime and dirt, and there were some scratches and dents on its surface.
"I always thought the wall was solid." Harry muttered, stunned. He felt a wave of nausea as he looked at the pipe. He wondered how a snake could live in such a filthy place.
"The problem is now clear!"
Hermione turned pale, "I can't imagine how thick and long a snake can be to fit in such a large pipe!" She clutched her chest, feeling a surge of fear. She remembered the petrified students and the message on the wall. She realized that they were dealing with a very dangerous creature.
"There are still many problems to be solved, Miss Granger," Bryan squinted his eyes. He jumped onto the broken wall and carefully examined the thick pipe. After a while, he placed his wand in his palm and said, "Homenum Lumispedio!" A bright beam of light shot out from his wand and entered the pipe. It moved along the pipe, illuminating its interior.
Bryan smiled and said, "This is a spell that can detect any traces of human or animal activity in a certain area. It can show us where the snake came from and where it went." He gestured for Harry and Hermione to join him.
Author's Note: 'Homenum Lumispedio!' is a combination of a fan-made spell and the canon's 'homenum revelio' spell that allows the caster to track the movement and location of both people and animals.
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