Harry Potter: Who cares about belated motherly love?

Chapter 291: The Black Family's Precious Documents

"What's going on? What happened?"

As soon as I uttered a scream, Argus Filch (Mises Norris's master) squeezed through the gathered students and rushed over. When he saw Mrs. Norris hanging on the torch as if frozen, his face was immediately filled with fear and he stepped back in horror.

"My cat! What happened?!"

Filch screamed, his voice high and metallic.

"It's you, isn't it?!"

He pointed at Harry, who was standing there in a daze, for no reason.

"You killed my cat! You killed her! I'm going to kill you, I..."

Just as Filch was about to pounce on Harry in excitement, a majestic voice stopped him.

"Argus!"

It was Dumbledore's voice, followed by Professors McGonagall and Snape.

Dumbledore moved quickly to Mrs. Norris and carefully removed her from the torch.

"Argus, come with me. Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley, Miss Granger, come too, and tell me what happened."

At this time, Lockhart appeared out of nowhere and immediately stepped forward and said, "Principal, my office is upstairs, closest to you, and can be used at any time."

Dumbledore nodded: "Thank you, Gilderoy."

We followed Dumbledore, and although I felt a chill for some reason, I had no choice but to go to Lockhart's office. I struggled to stand up, and Harry and Hermione supported me in time.

"Ron, are you okay?"

"You look very bad."

"It's okay..." I managed to reply, and followed Dumbledore's steps with them.

When Dumbledore passed by, all the students made way and quietly opened a passage. Professor McGonagall and Snape had serious expressions, only Lockhart seemed at a loss, unable to hide his excitement.

We entered Lockhart's office. There were pictures of him everywhere on the wall. They were densely packed, almost all of them were portraits of him. Seeing this scene, I forgot my fear for a moment. This guy is really too narcissistic.

Harry had to hold me up almost all the time because my legs were shaking, and Hermione used the light from her wand to light the way for us.

Dumbledore began to examine Mrs. Norris, assisted by Professor McGonagall, while Lockhart spoke animatedly and without foundation, and Snape seemed to be trying to suppress a smile.

Filch's sobs echoed in the room. At this time, Dumbledore straightened up and said to Filch calmly: "Argus, the cat is not dead."

"Not dead?" Filch asked hopefully, looking up.

"She was just petrified."

Lockhart immediately echoed loudly: "I thought so too!" But no one paid attention to him. Everyone was listening attentively to Dumbledore's words.

"But I still don't know how she became like this..."

"Ask him!!!" Filch pointed at Harry with his tear-swollen eyes.

"A second-year student can't possibly do this. Only the most powerful dark magic can do it!"

"It's him! He did it!"

Filch interrupted Dumbledore and accused Harry with a pained look on his face.

"He saw the writing on the wall! He knew that I...I...was a 'Squib'!!!"

Filch's shout was full of despair. As we stood by, I could feel the pain in his heart. Although I didn't like Filch, he always had a bad attitude towards students, but at this moment, I also felt a little sympathy.

Harry denied it loudly: "I never touched Mrs. Norris! I don't know what 'Squib' means!"

Everyone's eyes were on Harry. Filch continued to blame Harry, but Snape suddenly interrupted: "Headmaster, I want to say a few words."

Snape slowly stepped out of the shadows and sneered, "Perhaps Potter and his friends just happened to be there, but we still have to figure out why they are not at the Halloween party, but in the third floor corridor."

We quickly explained what happened at the "ghost party" and tried to clarify that we had done nothing wrong.

In the end, although Snape was still full of doubt, he did not continue to ask.

"Although these people (except Lockhart and Filch) don't really suspect us, it would appear suspicious if we don't explain it here."

"So, why didn't you guys go to the party afterwards? Why were you in that hallway?"

Professor Snape's eyes flickered coldly in the candlelight.

"We were heading back to the Gryffindor dorm, but the stairs moved, so we had to take a detour."

I made up an excuse faster than Harry could.

In fact, it is very common to be tricked by the "moving stairs" at Hogwarts, especially since the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw dormitories are in the towers, where they are more likely to be tricked than the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins in the underground. (Especially since the Gryffindor dormitories are on the eighth floor.)

We were literally on our way back to the dorm, that wasn't a complete lie.

"You guys went back to the dormitory without even having dinner?"

"We knew we would be late for dinner, so Fred and George asked the house-elves in the kitchen to prepare dinner for us in advance and put it in the Gryffindor dormitory. We were hungry and tired, and just wanted to get back as soon as possible."

"That's true..."

"Ronnie's right, Professor! We can't wait for the stairs to be back in shape..."

Harry and Hermione immediately echoed what I said. Although Professor Snape snorted reluctantly, he had to give up for the time being.

"Miss Weasley's explanation does make sense...if there are so many ghosts present, we can go collect evidence."

Although he was dissatisfied, Professor Snape could no longer refute Dumbledore's words.

But Filch, who lost his cat, vented all his anger on Harry, and still couldn't calm down.

"My cat turned to stone! I must punish them to relieve my hatred!"

Dumbledore soothed, "Argus, your cat can be cured. Professor Sprout just happened to have recently acquired mandrakes. Once they grow, we can make a recovery potion and save your cat immediately."

"Let me make the medicine! I've done it hundreds of times. I can make something like Mandrake Healing Potion with my eyes closed."

Lockhart suddenly interrupted.

"Excuse me, I should be the Potions teacher of this school." Professor Snape said coldly.

In this awkward silence, Dumbledore coughed lightly and told the three of us: "You can go back."

Although we didn't run, we walked to the door as fast as we could, said goodbye hurriedly, and left Lockhart's office.

On the way back to the Gryffindor dorm, Harry whispered to us, "Do you think I should tell them I heard noises?"

"No, since we don't know what that sound is, it's better not to tell too many people. In the wizarding world, some people think that hearing sounds that others can't hear is a sign of madness."

"But Ronnie, you believe me, right?"

"Of course. But people who don't know you might not think so."

Seeing Harry looking at me with pleading eyes, I nodded immediately.

"Harry, I know this makes you unhappy, but you are a celebrity now, and many people will use you as a topic of conversation. Instead of letting others spread strange news casually, why not write a letter to ask Sirius? The Black family has many precious documents, and perhaps we can find some clues... about the 'Chamber of Secrets' as well."

"Okay, I'll write to Sirius as soon as I get back."

Harry nodded firmly, while Hermione frowned and whispered, "What on earth is that 'Chamber of Secrets'? Ronnie, do you know?"

"I've only heard that it's a hidden room somewhere in Hogwarts, and I don't know the details... but it seems to have something to do with Salazar Slytherin. Maybe Bill and Charlie don't know anything more."

As we were talking about these things, we had already returned safely to the Gryffindor dormitory.

Naturally, everyone fell silent - because the common room was packed with classmates who wanted to hear our story.