Chapter 45
Inside the Gryffindor common room; Harry and Ron successfully rendezvoused with Hermione.
"You guys came just in time—look what I found." Seeing the two of them, Hermione proudly held up a thick, rather moldy-looking book.
"You went to the library? What's this?" The two moved closer to Hermione and saw the title of the hefty volume.
[Moste Potente Potions]
"It's our next objective—thanks to Cedric! He got a signature from his Head of House, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to check out something this good!"
Although Percy had already confirmed from Professor Binns that the legend of the Chamber was false, Hermione and Cedric still firmly believed that a Chamber did, in fact, exist.
For now, though, they truly needed to prepare for both possibilities.
Earlier, they had discussed it and concluded that the person most likely to be Slytherin's Heir was Draco Malfoy—after all, he was the first student outside their group to know about the Chamber legend.
Getting any information out of Malfoy himself was impossible, but they could target his two cronies. As long as Malfoy wasn't around, they could turn into him and easily extract information from Crabbe and Goyle.
Additionally, Cedric planned to take a risk: while Professor Lucian was teaching class, he would transform into the professor's likeness and question his two assistants. Though he felt a little guilty about it, he was quite familiar with the personalities of the assistants and was confident he could imitate Lucian convincingly in conversation.
Hermione carefully opened Moste Potente Potions, and all three leaned in to look at the water-stained pages. Say whatever one wanted, but it was definitely a book from the Restricted Section—the style was wild.
Some of the potions described had terrifying effects that were hard to even imagine, and the book contained illustrations that made one deeply uncomfortable: one showed a person seemingly turned inside out, and another depicted a witch with dozens of extra arms sprouting from her head.
"Here it is." Hermione said excitedly—she had found the page marked "Polyjuice Potion." The illustrations showed several people transforming into others. Harry sincerely hoped that the expressions of extreme agony on their faces were purely the artist's imagination.
"Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass," Hermione murmured, running her finger down the list of ingredients "These are easy to get—they're in the student supply cupboard. We can take them ourselves. But there's also powdered horn of bicorn that needs complicated processing, shredded Boomslang skin, and… something from the person we want to turn into." Hermione nodded, memorising everything, then carefully closed the book.
"There's absolutely no Boomslang skin in the student cupboard—what are we going to do? Are we really going to steal from Snape's private stores?" At this, Ron looked a little timid.
"You don't need to worry about that. If it were just the three of us, we'd probably have to take the risk—but we have Cedric! He's an older student, and this weekend he'll go straight to Hogsmeade to trade for what we need. He'll handle the complicated ingredients."
"Reliable, isn't he?" Ron let out a whistle, though his words carried a slightly sour tone.
"How long will this potion actually take to brew?" Harry asked.
"If we can get all the ingredients… Cedric said he'll handle more than half the preparation himself, so it should be ready in about twenty days—that's already the maximum processing time for some of the trickier materials."
"Twenty days?" Ron said. "By then, Malfoy might have petrified half the Muggle-borns in the school!"
Hermione's eyes narrowed unhappily at that "Oh really? And what did you two accomplish today? Tell me about it." Though she said this, Hermione didn't actually expect much from them. Clutching the book, she stood up and said to the pair "I'm going to return this to the library now, then head to the Great Hall for dinner—you two haven't eaten yet either, right? We can talk while we eat."
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, and suddenly their tones became hesitant and evasive.
Nighttime, half an hour before lights-out.
Taking advantage of the fact that his dorm mates hadn't returned yet, Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak once more.
"Harry, are you really going again?" Ron looked at him with concern.
"You saw it today too—the caretaker Filch is terrified of him. If he wants to do something at night, that's the perfect time." Determination filled Harry's eyes.
"But… are we just going to keep staking out forever? You have a Quidditch match tomorrow—you need to be well-rested! Have you forgotten? Tomorrow we're playing against that git Malfoy!"
Much of Harry's resolve faded instantly. "Then… we'll just stake out for a little while. If there's nothing, we'll head back—how's that?" Seeing Ron still hesitating, he shook his head. "Forget it—I'll go alone."
"What are you talking about, mate? Of course I'm coming with you!" After thinking it over, Ron followed Harry.
Harry took the Invisibility Cloak, left the common room, and together with Ron found an empty corner. They draped the cloak over themselves and slowly made their way to Lucian's office, where they quietly settled in to watch.
Time passed little by little. At first, the corridor still echoed frequently with laughter and horseplay, and dense footsteps sounded now and then; but as time went on, those noises gradually diminished until they vanished completely.
Lights-out.
All sounds in the castle were swallowed by silence. A black curtain covered the sky, engulfing the suits of armor and statues, submerging the spot where Harry and Ron hid, and spreading into the depths of their vision.
This gave them a slight sense of security, yet also filled them with a touch of fear.
*Thud!*
The sound of a door closing came from afar, followed by heavy footsteps. Filch had begun his patrol of the castle; Harry and Ron held their breath and waited.
Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long before Lucian's figure appeared at the door.
He was alone.
The two exchanged a glance and quietly followed, but what Lucian did next soon left them utterly baffled, as he simply strolled slowly through the halls of Hogwarts, wandering aimlessly, pausing here and there to look around.
He didn't look at all like a professor, nor like a student who had lived here for seven years—instead, he resembled a ghost visiting the place for the very first time.
Harry and Ron trailed behind him, watching as he stopped outside an empty classroom and peered through the glass in the door for a while.
They watched him enter the Great Hall, where he changed the enchanted ceiling's theme four times all by himself. Then he turned toward the second floor, the third… slowly ascending the moving staircases.
In corridors that by day were filled with the clamour of students, now only his extremely light footsteps echoed. Moonlight streamed through the tall stained-glass windows, casting mottled, cold patches of light that illuminated the side of his face.
At that moment, Harry suddenly felt that Professor Lucian was actually a very lonely person.
But before he could dwell on it, Ron's breathing beside him suddenly grew heavier—he was about to cry out. Ron hurriedly clapped both hands over his mouth, barely managing to stifle the terrified sound that had risen in his throat.
*Whimper*
Amid Ron's small, puppy-like whine, Harry's eyes widened in shock. They saw a disheveled female ghost quietly floating in a corner of the castle, staring straight at Lucian with wary eyes.
But upon closer look—this was no ordinary ghost. It was clearly one of the castle's own, "the Grey Lady."
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