Hogwarts starts with stealing power.

Chapter 284 The person who blocks the knife must stay and take someone with him
There was a puddle of water on the floor, and water kept flowing out of the abandoned bathroom, drawing circles of ripples.

And above these water marks, stood a person who had been petrified.

She still had the magic glasses in her hand and looked like she was about to put them on, but it was obvious that she was too late.

Before he put on his glasses, he made eye contact with the basilisk and was petrified.

And opposite Ginny, there was a big wall.

A few words were written on the wall in fresh blood:

[The secret room has been opened]

The little wizards who came from behind couldn't help but exclaim and looked at the scene in horror and fear.

When some people discovered it, they retreated and dared not approach it. It was as if they would be petrified if they approached it!
At this time, the little wizard understood one thing. Lin Xia and other little wizards had encountered a basilisk before and escaped from it successfully.

It's not because the basilisk is too weak.

Instead, they were well prepared and the basilisk was scared away before it even got close.

"Which college is this student from?"

The little wizards whispered.

"Ginny, first year in Gryffindor, from the Weasley family."

"That's not right. Isn't it said that the Chamber of Secrets is to purge people of impure blood? The Weasley family is pure-blooded. She shouldn't be in danger."

"Yes, yes. Didn't Professor Lockhart say before that the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets has been found? It's Hagrid. He was taken away by the Ministry of Magic this afternoon."

"Hagrid is gone, so how could he still release the basilisk in Hogwarts? So the heir of Slytherin is someone else, not Hagrid. Hagrid is innocent."

"What should we do? The basilisk keeps coming out, and we can't completely prevent it."

A burst of hurried footsteps was heard, and several professors walking behind could not help but frowning when they saw the little wizards gathered together.

Just as she was about to shout at them to disperse and return to their respective common rooms, Professor McGonagall suddenly saw Ginny who was petrified.

She couldn't help but take a deep breath and covered her mouth with her hand.

"How could this happen, how could..."

The expressions of professors from other colleges were not much better.

Dean Sprout couldn't help but sigh: "Another one appears."

Flitwick and Snape looked serious.

Sprout comforted the other young wizards: "Leave quickly and stop guessing. All those who have been petrified will be fine. Mandrake will be cultivated soon and they will recover soon. Don't worry."

Due to the professor's words, the other young wizards slowly left the area.

Instead, Lin Xia stared at Ginny for a long time, suddenly walked forward, bent down to look at Ginny's hand, and even reached out to touch it.

As she expected, Ginny had a scratch on her hand.

Lin Xia said: "Professor, Ginny may have been controlled by someone, so she cut her palm, wrote this sentence, and then was petrified by the basilisk."

Ron looked at Ginny in a trance, completely confused.

He didn't know what to do.

Ginny was petrified?

How is it possible, this is impossible!
Professor McGonagall came back to her senses and said seriously, "Come with me. I have something to ask you."

Lin Xia and others followed the professor and entered Mag's office with them.

Compared to the calm and composed professor, the young wizards were all a little distracted, especially Ron, who was as pale as paper and completely lost, muttering:

"This is impossible, it can't be her, it's impossible..."

Sprout spoke up: "Something happened again. The secret room is more dangerous than expected, and this time there was no abnormal warning at all."

Professor Flitwick looked extremely serious: "This is the most worrying thing. The warning is just a precursor. Once the precursor is over, it means that the basilisk is going to take real action!"

Professor McGonagall looked at Lin Xia, "You were the first to arrive there. What did you find when you got there?"

Harry glanced at Ron and whispered, "When I arrived, Ginny had been petrified and hadn't touched the scene."

He paused, closed his eyes, and said with determination: "The reason I went there is because I heard the voice of the basilisk. It said it was very hungry and wanted to eat people and kill people. It also wanted to follow that person's orders to clean up those with unclean bloodlines..."

After hearing this, Harry hurriedly chased after him, but he didn't expect that he was still a step too late.

I originally thought that Professor McGonagall would get to the bottom of the matter and ask him when he started to hear the basilisk's voice.

But she didn't.

She just nodded in understanding.

As if noticing Harry's confusion, Professor McGonagall said, "You are not the first person to hear the sound of the basilisk, and running over as soon as you hear it is actually a very dangerous behavior.

Have you ever thought that if you run too fast and collide with the basilisk, you might be the first person to be petrified?"

Harry felt a surge of fear in his heart, he had never thought of this before, and he chased after him when he heard it.

The door to Professor McGonagall's office was pushed open again. Harry suddenly thought that it was Dumbledore who came back, but it turned out to be Lockhart.

He actually had a smile on his face.

“Sorry, sorry, I just took a nap. On the way here, I heard some information. I didn’t expect the secret room to be opened again.

It seems that my previous prediction was wrong. Hagrid is not the heir to the Chamber of Secrets. He has been taken away to the Ministry of Magic and it is impossible for him to return to Hogwarts.

Hey ladies and gentlemen, don't be so serious, I have another idea.

Perhaps Hagrid has friends in school who can also open the Chamber of Secrets. We should conduct a thorough search of Gryffindor House."

The professor looked at him speechlessly.

Lockhart was still feeling smug, thinking he had come up with a good solution.

There was silence, and Snape took a step forward.

"Here comes the solution," he said. "It's you - Lockhart. A student has been petrified, the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, and your time to shine has finally come."

Lockhart's face turned pale instantly.

He stammered, "I, I this, that--"

"Yes, Gilderoy," Sprout interrupted, "didn't you say before that if you wanted to look hard enough, you could find the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Yes, didn't you tell me that you were sure you could deal with the basilisk? You had encountered more than one in the forest before." Professor Flitwick also interjected.

"Did I? I don't remember..."

"Of course you did. We all remember what you said. It's a pity that you didn't fight the basilisk before Hagrid was caught."

Snape continued, "Didn't you also say that the whole thing was a mess and that you should have been allowed to handle it from the beginning?"

Lockhart gaped at his stern-faced colleagues.

"I... I really never... You may have misunderstood..." "Then, Gilderoy, we'll let you handle it." Mag said.

"Tonight is a great opportunity for you to show your skills. We promise that no one will get in your way. You can deal with the basilisk on your own. Now we finally let you do it."

Lockhart looked around desperately, but no one came to his rescue.

He doesn't look handsome at all now.

Lockhart's lips were trembling, and his face no longer had the usual smile showing his bright teeth. His chin was sunken, and he looked thin and haggard.

"Well, then." His tone was extremely forced. "I, I'm going to go to my office and make some preparations."

Lockhart finally left the office.

"That's it," Professor McGonagall said, breathing heavily with her nostrils flaring. "Finally we've gotten rid of him."

She turned serious, "Now the Heads of Houses go and inform the students what has happened. The Hogwarts Express will take them home early tomorrow morning. The other teachers are to make sure no student is left outside the dormitory."

The professors stood up and left one after another. Lin Xia and others also left, but did not go to the common room immediately. Instead, they gathered in the laboratory.

"What do we do now?" Harry asked.

Hermione glanced at Ron, who still looked distracted.

She thought for a while and said, "Harry, why don't we leave this matter to the professor? That's a basilisk. I've faced it before and I understand how powerful it is. It's not something an ordinary little wizard can handle.

Just as the professor said, we will take the express train home tomorrow."

"No!" Ron suddenly came to his senses and said excitedly, "I will never go back. Ginny has been petrified and is staying in school. I want to stay with her, unless you take her away with you!"

Lin Xia said seriously: "This is impossible, Ron, your family doesn't have such good conditions as the school. The professor will not watch the petrified students die without saving them. He will definitely send additional people to the infirmary to protect them.

Moreover, the basilisk wants fresh flesh and blood. Although it can petrify humans, it is not interested in petrifying humans. This is also the reason why every petrified student will not die. "

If the basilisk really wanted to kill the petrified man, it only needed to sweep its tail over him and break the stone into pieces.

However, it is also possible that in the eyes of the basilisk, petrification is equivalent to death, so it does not do this.

Petrified men are like stones, and basilisks eat meat and don’t like to eat stones. This may be why basilisks are not interested in petrified men.

So in Lin Xia's eyes, those petrified people were actually very safe and they would not be attacked a second time.

Professor McGonagall was so determined this time and insisted on sending all the students from Hogwarts back because the number of people who had been petrified had reached the maximum.

Students must leave as soon as possible!

Now that they're gone, the school can be closed for inspection, and then reopened after the basilisk is dealt with.

If it is not closed now, if another student is petrified, Hogwarts may face permanent closure!
The professor can clearly distinguish what is important and what is not.

But Ron was resolute.

Gryffindor's brave but foolish character was fully demonstrated at this moment.

He was like a stubborn old man, always emphasizing: "No, I want to stay in Hogwarts, Ginny needs me!"

He added: "I believe that if George and Fred knew what happened to Ginny, they would definitely choose to stay."

Draco said, "If we can find the basilisk tonight and kill it, then no one will have to leave and Hogwarts will not be closed."

Harry asked back: "How and where to find it? We don't even know the movement track of the basilisk."

Lin Xia's mind moved slightly.

At this time, and the place where Ginny was petrified happened to be next to the bathroom, it was a good time to throw out clues and do analytical reasoning!

"Did you notice Jinni's expression? She looked very surprised. That's actually not right. Who wouldn't be terrified and panicked after seeing a basilisk? But she was surprised."

Hermione's mind worked very quickly, and she understood immediately: "You mean, Ginny made eye contact with the basilisk without making any contact with it?"

Lin Xia nodded: "I think so."

Ron was puzzled: "How could I not notice it? Such a big snake monster should make a lot of noise, right? Just crawling would make a sound."

Lin Xia: "But if it didn't come out to crawl and just moved around in the pipes, we wouldn't be able to hear the basilisk's voice, otherwise it wouldn't have been able to survive for so long."

Hermione continued, "So, is there a possibility that the basilisk ran into Ginny when it just came out, and Ginny didn't react and they looked at each other?"

Harry suddenly had an idea: "Water!"

"There was water under Ginny's feet. Could it be that she collided with the basilisk through the reflection of the water and was petrified?"

Lin Xia immediately said: "It's very likely!"

Hermione and Draco also nodded: "Yes, that's possible, so her expression is surprise, not fear."

Lin Xia continued, "Ginny was manipulated by someone to cut herself and leave those words, which means that there is indeed a Slytherin heir in the school, but we don't know who it is.

The only thing we know is that the heir has a very strong ability to bewitch people and manipulate them unconsciously, thereby achieving what he wants to accomplish."

Ron said angrily, "Can we find this person?"

Lin Xia raised her eyebrows: "Of course, if we find the secret room, we will definitely meet him. This is obvious."

Draco couldn't wait to ask, "So where is the Chamber of Secrets?"

This time, there was no need for Lin Xia to give any hints, as the smart Hermione had already figured it out.

"If we really encountered the basilisk just as it came out, it is obvious that the basilisk came out from the bathroom! That bathroom should have an entrance to a secret room!"

Harry said anxiously: "We'll go over now."

"No!" Lin Xia and Hermione said in unison.

The others were also confused, "Why?"

Lin Xia said: "Professor McGonagall has handed this matter over to Lockhart. We have to call him up and let him take the lead."

Lockhart has been lying for so long, it's time for him to do something useful.

His reaction is so slow, the only effective thing he has is the Forgetfulness Spell, which he can use to block the knife at the critical moment.

Lin Xia thought so, but Hermione didn't.

She thought Professor Lockhart was very capable and that this matter would be better handled by the professor.

The two people have different ideas, but the same goal.

Harry no longer hesitated: "Let's go find Professor Lockhart now!"

But Lin Xia and others never expected it.

They came to Professor Lockhart's office and knocked on the door for a long time before getting a response.

Professor Lockhart quietly opened the door a crack, not wanting to let the students in.

But Harry and Ron were very anxious. There was only a crack in the door. How could they communicate with others?
They pushed the door open with all their might, and discovered the outrageous scene inside—

It's empty.

Lockhart emptied out the entire office!
(End of this chapter)