The Lonely Dragon of Hogwarts

"Filch!"

Dumbledore stopped Filch.

Professor McGonagall untied Mrs. Norris from the torch holder.

"Who discovered this place first?"

Harry and the others quickly raised their hands.

"Come with me, Filch," said Dumbledore, "and you, Mr. Shafik, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Shafik, and Miss Granger."

Lockhart hurried forward.

"My office is closest to here, the principal...it's upstairs...you can..."

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.

The silent crowd parted to let them pass.

Lockhart was very excited and looked very high-spirited. He hurriedly followed Dumbledore, followed by Professor McGonagall and Snape.

As they entered Lockhart's darkened office, there was a sudden commotion on the walls.

Only then did everyone realize that this office was filled with magical photos of Lockhart himself, and in every photo, 'Lockhart' was smiling at them with that 'shining' smile.

Dumbledore placed Mrs. Norris on the smooth table and began to examine her.

He looked at the cat carefully through the half-moon spectacle lenses, and gently poked it here and there with his slender fingers. The tip of his long aquiline nose almost touched the fur on Mrs. Norris's body.

"It must have been killed by a spell... most likely the Transformation Torture Curse. I've seen others use this spell many times. It's a pity that I wasn't there at the time. I happened to know the undoing method and could have saved it. of……"

Lockhart was still boasting.

And these words made Filch collapse immediately. He sat on a chair next to the table, covered his face with his hands, and cried sadly.

Seeing this, Lockhart became more enthusiastic and continued to explain similar incidents he had encountered in the past.

As he spoke, the pictures of Lockhart on the wall all nodded in agreement.

Dumbledore finally couldn't stand it anymore.

"It's not dead, Filch."

Lockhart's boastful voice stopped abruptly.

When Filch heard this, he looked at Mrs. Norris through the gaps between his fingers and choked with sobs:

"Then why is its whole body... stiff, as if it's frozen?"

"It's petrified," said Dumbledore, "but how exactly, I don't know..."

"ask him!"

Filch screamed, turning his mottled, tear-stained face to John, "He must have done it to Mrs. Norris!"

"Mr. Filch, why do you say that?" John said calmly, "I spent almost the entire day today refining the potion in Professor Snape's office, and I didn't take it until the Halloween dinner. I came out with the magic potion and bumped into Draco and the others in the hall. Then, I was attracted by the sound upstairs and went to check.

There are witnesses to all of what I said. "

"No! It was you who did it!" Filch spat, "You must have killed Mrs. Lorris in revenge for the last time I caught you wandering at night."

As soon as these words came out, the faces of several professors showed surprise.

In their impression, John did not look like a student who traveled at night.

John frowned impatiently and said:

"Filch! Yes, you did catch me wandering around that night. But you didn't punish me. Instead, you let me go. It's too late for me to thank you, so why should I take revenge on you?"

Michelle also came over and said:

"Yes, Mr. Filch, John doesn't seem to have any motive."

Filch's expression was dull.

He looked from John to Michelle.

After a while, he said:

"Okay...it seems that is indeed the case. I'm sorry, John, I was...too impatient."

"Understandably, if a pet that I consider family was treated in this way, I would lose my mind."

John's words made Filch burst into tears again.

He cried and said:

"But who did this? My poor Mrs. Norris."

The atmosphere in the office was a bit sad, and everyone was affected by Filch's pitiful look.

At this time, Snape asked in a bad tone:

"Pote! You were the first one to arrive at the scene, right?"

"Yes."

Harry whispered, he had an ominous premonition.

"Mr. Headmaster, maybe Potter and his friends were just not supposed to be in that place at that time," Snape's lips twisted into a sneer, as if he deeply doubted it, "but we did encounter someone. Series of doubts. Why on earth did they go to the corridor above? Why didn’t they attend the Halloween party?”

"Because we went to the death anniversary party," Michelle replied. "This year is the [-]th anniversary of the death of Nearly Headless Nick. He invited us to attend the ghost party. There were hundreds of ghosts at the time. They All can be proven..."

Snape's face turned dark when he heard this, and he had no choice but to stop talking.

There is no other way. If you continue to attack Harry, Michelle will definitely be affected.

And he shut up, but Filch didn't want to give up.

It seemed that Snape's words gave him a clue. He grabbed Harry's robe and screamed:

"That must have been him!"

Harry was hemming and hawing speechless.

Seeing this, Filch became even more angry. He grabbed Harry's robe and cursed him, as if he wanted to eat Harry.

"We can cure it, Filch," said Dumbledore patiently. "Mrs. Sprout has got some mandrakes recently. Once they're big enough, I have a cure that will make Lori Mrs. Si is back from the dead."

"I'll make it," Lockhart interrupted. "I must have made it a hundred times. I can make the mandrake resurrection potion while dreaming..."

"Forgive me," said Snape coldly, "I thought I was the Potions teacher at this school."

Lockhart shut his mouth obediently.

There was an awkward silence in the office.

After a long time, Dumbledore said to John, Harry and others:

"You can go."

Harry and the others couldn't wait to rush out, but they heard Snape say sadly:

"Your suspicions have not been completely cleared yet! I will keep an eye on you!"

Harry and others' expressions froze, while Professor McGonagall said dissatisfied:

"Professor Snape!"

"I understand! I understand, McGonagall." Snape interrupted, "The matter of John's night outing has not been dealt with yet, but don't worry, I will definitely punish him when I go back. Oh! And Malfoy. gentlemen……"

At this point, Snape pulled out his wand and waved it fiercely.

The originally closed door of the office was opened instantly, and Draco, who was lying at the door eavesdropping, fell into the office because he had no support.

"I heard - you said the word mud... Bazhong earlier?"

Snapra said in a long tone.

Draco was obviously frightened, his face was blue and white, and he was trembling and unable to speak.

"I think it would be a good punishment to have him clean up those signs."

John said expressionlessly.

Upon hearing this, Snape glanced at him, nodded and said:

"Then let's deal with it this way. You go back to the college lounge first, and tomorrow Malfoy will clean the walls for me!"

John walked out of the office first.

After walking with Harry and others for a while, he led Draco to the Slytherin common room alone.

Draco didn't speak a word all the way, looking a little unconvinced.

Of course John didn't care about him.

However, just after entering the dungeon maze, waves of small voices sounded in John's ears.

"Draco, did you hear anything?"

"No...no..." Draco said aggrievedly.

But upon hearing this, John moved closer to the wall.

The voices came from the wall.

John had never heard of that kind of language before, and he couldn't discern its meaning, but it also gave off a violent and murderous flavor.

Under the influence of that voice, John felt that he was extremely upset.

It was as if there was an evil fire burning in his chest!