บท 247: Looks Like We Misunderstood You
บรรณาธิการ: Atlas Studios
There was a brief silence as Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout ran out of the room.
There was naturally no need for the duel to continue, and Ivan turned to instruct Snape to restrain and protect the students in the hall before eagerly following suit.
Snape resented Ivan's command of him, but he did his duty as a professor and ordered the students to stay put and not go anywhere!
Ivan, on the other hand, got to the third floor as fast as he could,
With the exception of Snape, all of the Hogwarts professors had arrived, and Madam Pomfrey was crouched on the floor examining the victims.
Dumbledore, on the other hand, was standing to one side with a frown on his face.
Ivan took a few steps closer to the injured girl, who appeared to be a Hufflepuff girl in her second or third year. She was extremely pale, and her breathing was shallow.
Unlike the last time, the girl was not injured or bleeding, and there was no writing on the walls.
Ivan was not surprised. He had been at the Duelling Club tonight, and Tom might have known that there was no possibility of framing him.
"Poor child, her life force is severely damaged, as was the case with the Ravenclaw girl." Madam Pomfrey sighed sadly, but there was nothing she could do.
Professor McGonagall was furious, her hand shaking as she held her wand, and she looked to Dumbledore for an answer.
"It is not how that is important, but who did it!" Dumbledore growled, instead of answering.
"Perhaps we could find out which students didn't show up for my duelling class tonight. I doubt there will be many of them," Ivan suggested.
He suddenly realised that this was a good opportunity to catch Tom Riddle. The corridor on the third floor was not isolated, so the girl must have been killed very recently, at least since the Duelling Club started!
This meant that the vast majority of people were cleared of suspicion!
As for the remaining young wizards who did not attend class, they only needed to investigate them one by one and they would immediately know who had the Soul Artifacts!
"Very good advice! We'd better get moving!" Professor McGonagall soon figured this out and exclaimed.
"Where's Severus, by the way?" Professor McGonagall asked when Snape did not return.
"I told him to stay in the Great Hall and protect the children, so that the attackers would not attack them while we were gone, and it would be easier for us to count who was not present!" Ivan said confidently, thinking that Tom would not be able to escape this time!
"Professor Lockhart, it seems that we misunderstood you earlier. I didn't expect you to be so reliable at a crucial time." McGonagall was amazed at Ivan's careful arrangements.
The other professors also looked at Lockhart strangely. They found it hard to believe that Lockhart had just said those words.
Seeing the looks of confusion on the faces of the crowd, Yvonne realised that she had over-acted, and that she did not fit in with Lockhart.
However, because the opportunity to find the Horcrux was so rare, he was so excited that he forgot about his role.
Ivan quickly coughed and tried to salvage the situation.
"Ahem… that's for sure. I've been involved in this sort of emergency so many times in my legendary career that I dare say no one in the wizarding world knows how to deal with a crisis better than I do!"
Yvonne managed to regain her composure, but the professors did not try to find out what had happened. Their minds were focused on capturing the attacker.
Yvonne volunteered to catch the young witches and wizards who were not in class.
He thought it best if he found the Horcrux before anyone else and made up a reason to destroy it before reporting it, lest Dumbledore learn something against him.
Though unlikely, it must be guarded against.
Unfortunately, Ivan's participation in the search was denied by Dumbledore.
"No! I need you to inform Severus to protect the children in the hall with him, and to compile a list of all students who did not attend duelling!" Dumbledore said.
Can't someone else be sent for such a trivial matter? Yvonne opens her mouth to retort, but then catches sight of Dumbledore's eyes staring at her from beneath his half-moon spectacles and shuts it.
"Well, I'll go and tell Snape…" Ivan looked away, avoiding eye contact with Dumbledore, and left.
Ivan had been running Occlumency, but when he got out of the corridor, there were no signs of brain intrusion.
Even so, Ivan sensed that Dumbledore was suspicious of his identity, or he would not have rejected Ivan's offer to join the search.
"Damn it, I should have kept the Marauder's Map with me at all times!" Yvonne exclaimed on the way to the Great Hall.
As he had to swap identities with Lockhart today, he kept all the items that did not match his status so that they would not fall out during the fight and be suspected.
Yvonne had not expected Tom Riddle to be so bold as to choose this moment for a second attack!
… .
Back in the Great Hall, Ivan found that Snape had cast a spell to remove the Duelling Platform and replace it with a long table in the Four Great Houses, where all the young wizards were sitting.
Snape saw Ivan entering the room and approached him with a scowl. "What the hell happened, did someone get attacked?"
Ivan nodded and told them about the attack on a third year Hufflepuff girl.
"At any rate, we need to do a headcount, and we believe that the attacker is among those who did not attend! I will take Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and you will take Slytherin and Hufflepuff."
After explaining, Ivan was anxious to get to the long tables of the two Houses to tally the staff.
Snape was very uncomfortable with this. He was reluctant to follow Ivan's orders, but he had to admit that Ivan's arrangements were reasonable, so he had no choice but to do so with a dark expression.
It took Ivan the best part of an hour to check the list with Snape, and he was overjoyed. There were fewer young witches and wizards than he had expected, just two girls in their junior year!
One of them must have the Horcrux!
Ivan felt that Tom would not be able to jump around much longer, but things were going too well, and Ivan had a feeling that something was wrong…
(PS: Happy New Year's Day! Also, 2020 is just around the corner, so let's celebrate with a monthly vote!)
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