Chapter 112 Oh my god, it's in my bed!
This phrase was of little use to Harry Potter—or rather, to most Gryffindor students.
"What happened?" Harry Potter asked Cohen and Hermione after Professor McGonagall left. "Why did Professor McGonagall say...'dangerous'?"
Hermione told Harry Potter what she and Cohen had seen.
"Filch is dead too?" Ron's eyes widened. "I was just saying…"
"Nobody suspects you, Ron," Hermione said, turning to Harry Potter. "Harry Potter, you've been with Lockhart the whole time, haven't you?"
"Yes—he's been going on and on about how 'fame is a fickle friend' and 'celebrities have to act like celebrities.'" Harry Potter also sensed something was off. "But… if he's the murderer, he shouldn't have been in his office, right?"
"That means the murderer is still at large, and the professors have no clue what's going on," Hermione said uneasily. "If he only attacked cats, it wouldn't be so serious, but he attacked people…"
"There's definitely a difference between a murderer and a cat-killer," Cohen nodded, because it was Lockhart who attacked the cats.
"But the person who was attacked was Filch, so it really could have been one of the students," Ron reasoned. "Think about it, the students all hate Filch. If someone happens to know a way to kill him, and he happens to put him in solitary confinement—"
"…"
Ron suddenly fell silent.
"We're the students he just put in detention," Hermione said, her face grim. "And we were the first to find him—after he was attacked."
"But…it can't be you!" Harry Potter said anxiously. "You don't even know what spell Filch is under—"
"The murderer could also say they don't know," Ron said, still uneasy. "How will you prove your innocence…"
"A flashback spell," Hermione replied, still unconvinced. "It can detect spells our wands have used recently—but the murder might not be a spell. Do you remember the words written on the wall when Mrs. Norris had her accident?"
"'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened'?" Harry Potter asked. "What's the Chamber of Secrets? Hogwarts has many secret rooms—but it certainly doesn't refer to an empty classroom. Perhaps it can be found in the library books?"
"I've looked through many books, and there's no mention of the Chamber of Secrets at all," Hermione shook her head. "Hogwarts: A History of the School is on loan—although everyone treated the Chamber of Secrets as a joke last time, quite a few people still wanted to find out what it was. I had bought a copy myself, but I just didn't bring it this term…"
"Why?" Ron asked.
"Because Lockhart has too many textbooks!" Hermione said irritably, her opinion of Lockhart already soured. "I simply can't fit another book of over a thousand pages in my suitcase—I should buy an owl so my parents can mail it to me…"
"I can lend you Hedwig," Harry Potter said, "but it might take several days for the book to arrive, and it's quite far from London."
Although Professor McGonagall had sternly warned them not to leave the Gryffindor common room, Harry Potter tossed and turned after getting into bed.
"Cohen… Cohen…"
Harry Potter quietly called out to Cohen twice.
"Trying to call me back?"
Cohen poked his head out from under the covers. The moon was dim outside, and it was almost pitch black in the dormitory.
"Hermione said you stopped her outside Filch's door today—did you hear anything?" Harry Potter asked uncertainly. "Remember, last time we heard a noise from inside the wall, and then two mice died—and there were words scribbled on the wall too, 'Where are you?'…"
"I did hear it," Cohen said. "There was a voice saying 'Kill you,' just like the one we heard inside the wall last time—but I don't really want to tell everyone, it's very unusual to hear things that others can't hear in the wizarding world—it would make us more suspicious, especially these days."
"Could it be a ghost?" Harry Potter guessed. "It can walk through walls, ghosts can walk through walls."
"Ghosts can't hurt humans." Cohen yawned. "Leave it to the professors, get some sleep."
Cohen knew Harry Potter wouldn't let it go.
But Voldemort had the same idea; he still seemed to think Cohen didn't know he was behind Lockhart, and he wouldn't stop until he successfully framed him.
At midnight, Cohen had another dream—he decided to award himself the title of Hogwarts Dream King, because this was the nth time he had dreamed about the same snake…
The basilisk crawled through the pipes—but Cohen felt something was off about his perspective.
If he was seeing it from the snake's point of view… why could he see the entire snake's body?
His view had been normal last time, but this time it suddenly switched from first-person to third-person.
Could the basilisk also pull its soul out of its body?
[Here…]
The voice was right beside him!!!
Cohen jolted awake, almost simultaneously with Harry Potter.
It was still pitch black outside—meaning they could only see large patches of shadow in the dormitory.
"Did you hear that?" Harry Potter said in terror, "I feel like it's under the bed!"
"Under the bed?"
Cohen's voice was surprisingly calm.
"I don't think so…"
because Cohen felt a large, cold mass near his legs—
[Soul Strength: 40]
Although their soul strengths were exactly the same, Cohen could clearly sense that this one was related to him by blood…
"It seems to be in my bed."
Even if they were close, it wouldn't just crawl into someone's bed without warning, right?!
Thump!
Something darted to the floor with a thud and rushed towards the dormitory door, pulling off Cohen's blanket in the process.
"Pulling off someone's blanket! In the middle of the night!"
Cohen roared.
No manners!
[The Chamber of Secrets...find me...]
The dormitory door was slammed open, waking everyone in the room.
"What happened?" Ron asked groggily.
"Where did it explode?!" Seamus jumped.
"A pervert came into the dormitory." Cohen lit the tip of his wand and checked his bed.
It hadn't left any dead rats or other small treats, so it was still relatively sane.
"What was that animal?" Harry Potter looked at the pitch-black doorway; it had been too dark to see clearly.
"Like a snake," Cohen said. "Disgusting! I've never had my bed touched before! I'm unclean..."
"Did it just say..." Harry Potter tried to recall, but stopped himself after remembering Cohen's earlier comment about being "easily suspected."
"Should we tell Professor McGonagall?" Seamus asked. "A snake has crawled into the dorm—what if it bites us?"
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(End of Chapter)