A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts

After class, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked out of the classroom, discussing the information they had just received from Professor Binns.

"I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a mad old loony," Ron said with a strong sense of disgust.

Hermione was sorting through the current information. "Professor Binns mentioned the monster in the Chamber of Secrets. Nobody knows what it is exactly, but Harry, we have a direction now."

She looked deeply at Harry.

Magically, Harry understood what she meant. He quickly glanced around and whispered, "You mean, my Parseltongue..."

Ron also looked at them with a fearful expression.

"Exactly!"

The three of them squeezed through the crowded corridor and soon arrived at the scene of the attack.

The scene before them had changed significantly from that night. The water was drained, the petrified cat was no longer hanging on the torch sconce, and the words "The Chamber has been opened" were cleaned away.

However, there was an empty chair leaning against the wall.

"Filtch has been standing guard here," Ron whispered, "He's been especially irritable lately, finding all sorts of reasons to deduct points, like talking too loud or goofing around."

"But that's not our concern. We just need to inspect the scene and see if there are any overlooked clues," Hermione said.

The trio quickly got to work. Harry was crouched on the ground, his glasses almost touching it. Soon, he discovered burnt marks, and Hermione noticed a spectacular sight of spiders queuing to flee the castle.

"What does this mean?" Harry was puzzled.

Ron, staying far away from the spiders, looked terrified. "This could mean a lot of things—like the spiders are afraid of the monster."

Hermione continued to piece together the clues. "So, the attacker is a snake, one that can petrify, and spiders are its natural enemies. This clue is getting us closer to the truth!"

The young witch exclaimed with excitement, "Give me a week, maybe two at most, and I'll have its information. Ron, seriously, why have you been trembling all this while?"

And so, Ron went on to tell the story of his childhood experience of being turned into a teddy bear with many legs by the twins' botched magic, making her burst into giggles.

Ron grumbled, "You wouldn't find it funny if you'd been through that. Imagine hugging a teddy bear and calling its name, and suddenly it sprouts multiple legs..."

"The water on the ground is gone," Harry suddenly said.

"Perhaps someone cleaned the floor, like Filch, that's his job," Ron replied without thinking.

"But where did the water come from in the first place?" Harry felt it might be a clue.

"Ah! I've got it," Hermione screamed.

"What is it?"

"I've thought of something—a possible witness. She's right next door to us, possibly witnessed the entire attack."

Following her gaze, the two boys looked at the sign for the girls' restroom and nervously swallowed.

...

After dinner, they left the castle and followed the path to Hagrid's hut.

Along the way, they continued to debate about the events of the day.

"I'm telling you, we shouldn't have gone into the girls' restroom, that Moaning Myrtle, and that place... it's a nightmare! And we got caught by Percy," Ron complained incessantly.

"But we also found out that she died fifty years ago, saw a pair of large, scary yellow eyes before she died. What does that tell us? It's the snake's eyes," Hermione ignored Ron's grumbling, saying, "And your information is valuable too. We learned about the name Tom Riddle, who received the Special Services to the School Award fifty years ago. Perhaps this isn't a coincidence!"

Harry's eyes widened. "Are you saying Tom ended the last heir of the Chamber?"

"Exactly."

The three of them knocked on Hagrid's door, and he warmly welcomed the young wizards inside.

Ron looked surprised. "Hagrid, your house is clean."

Indeed, the three saw Hagrid's hut was remarkably tidier. The dark floor had turned into a rich brown wooden one, visibly cleaner.

"Oh, that," Hagrid casually mentioned. "Professor Harp dropped by last time he visited, and before he left, he just waved his wand, and it got sorted."

"Professor Harp?" Hermione asked, astonished.

"Indeed, Professor Harp. Dumbledore recommended him to me. He needed some advice on magical creatures, and I happen to be an expert in that area. But honestly, he's not bad either. He has some insightful perspectives, especially in more obscure areas. Yes, quite insightful."

Hagrid brought a plate of biscuits, a pot of pumpkin juice, and three cups. He said with pride, "Professor Harp is an outstanding wizard. We didn't interact much during school, but..." He pointed to a book on the chair, "Look, that's a gift from him to me!"

The three couldn't wait and opened the book. Hermione noticed that it was somewhat similar to Muggle comic books, mostly consisting of photographs, each with brief captions.

"These are magical creatures?" Ron asked curiously. It was nothing like what he had seen in his childhood.

"No, these are creatures from the Muggle world," Harry said excitedly, "Look, this is a lion, this is a giraffe—its neck is really long, I've seen one in the zoo. This one is a badger, somewhat similar to Hufflepuff's emblem, but they're definitely not the same."

Hermione was not unfamiliar with these creatures; she had read the entire set of the "Encyclopedia Britannica," which included sections about animals. But Muggle books' pictures didn't move.

So Hermione asked, "Did Professor Harp create this book himself?"

Hagrid took a big gulp of butterbeer and let out a burp, "Yes, he did. Quite dedicated, isn't he? I feel like I owe him a favor..."

After a while, they remembered their reason for coming.

"The Chamber? The heir? The monster?" Hagrid's face turned pale.

"Yes, we found some clues, from fifty years ago..." Harry started to introduce their findings but was quickly interrupted by Hagrid.

"Listen, there's no Chamber, no monster, it was all an accident!" Hagrid got a bit worked up, waving his massive hands, and then his voice lowered, muttering, "Truly an accident, no one could have foreseen something like that happening, no one..."

Afterward, the three were swiftly escorted out of the hut.

"He's definitely hiding something!" Ron protested in frustration.

"We can all see that."

Back in the warm common room, they had to face reality and get back to their assignments.

After a while, Hermione suddenly closed her book, startling the other two.

"You guys, who do you think the heir might be?" Hermione asked in a hushed voice, almost as if she were talking to herself.

"Definitely a Slytherin, my guess is Malfoy," Ron quickly answered.

Harry immediately accepted this viewpoint, "Could very well be him. Think about it, his family has been pure-blood for generations, he'd have a reason to do it, and most importantly, he's been through a lot lately—being punished by Professor Harp for insulting Hermione, he got detention!"

Hermione's breath caught for a moment.

Ron seemed to have found some theoretical basis too. "Harry's right. It's likely him. Maybe the Malfoy family is somehow connected to Slytherin, passing down this secret for generations... right, Hermione?"

At that moment, the twins walked over from a distance, "We overheard you talking about Professor Harp. Has he done something interesting again?"

One on each side, they sat down next to Harry and Ron.

"Nothing much," Ron quickly said.

Fred put his arm around Ron's shoulder and winked at the three, "Come on, we can exchange information. We're big fans of Professor Harp too."

George, sitting next to Harry, chimed in, "Oh yeah, huge fans. We'd love to dissect his brain and study it."

Fred sighed, "George, you're making it sound like we have some ulterior motive towards Professor Harp."

"Do we?"

"Definitely not."

"At most—"

"Trying to replicate his magical puppets." The twins finished each other's sentences, speaking in unison.

Harry pondered for a moment, "Alright, we went to Hagrid's hut this evening and saw a magic book Professor Harp gave him."

"What's it about?"

"Muggle animals, you know, Hagrid's really into them."

"Cool!" The twins exchanged a glance and said together.

Ron said, "Your turn, we agreed to exchange information."

Fred winked, "Our little Ronnie's growing up—"

"——Not so easily fooled." George followed up.

"But... who made you our little brother?" Fred playfully teased and then muttered, "We can provide information, you know, we're fans of Professor Harp. If any of you want to know his whereabouts, for example, arranging a coincidental encounter..."

Ron exclaimed in surprise, "You've been following the professor?"

"Let's not put it that way. We just got a bit of help, you know, Professor Harp's been frequenting the Forbidden Forest lately." Fred shrugged and casually dropped a bombshell.

"The Forbidden Forest?" Hermione exclaimed.

The three exchanged glances.

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