Nearly Headless Nick had invited living people to attend the Halloween eve party originally to prepare a grand banquet for himself.
Although a 500th deathday celebration sounded somewhat odd, for ghosts it really was like that.
He had even specifically instructed Harry, who was attending the party, to say something to another ghost—that the living people all found Nick particularly frightening and impressive.
What he never expected was that this very ghost, Sir Patrick and his Headless Hunt, would disrupt this deathday party.
When Harry seriously said Nick was very frightening, Sir Patrick first saw through Harry's lie.
This couldn't really be blamed on Harry.
They were all old ghosts with hundreds of experience under their belt—what kind of third-person narrative could these children play with them?
After that, they played a game of head hockey—Sir Patrick and his headless horsemen's heads kept flying through the air.
While this game might seem rather chilling to the living, to the ghosts, it was much more interesting than Nick's dry speeches.
The result was that they stole the show, and Nick was defeated after trying unsuccessfully to compete.
What happened after that, the little lions didn't know.
Because by then they had already left, unable to stand it anymore.
Halfway there, Ginny suddenly said she needed to use the bathroom, so the three waited for her there.
Just then, Harry suddenly heard that mysterious voice—still only he could hear it.
So, he followed the voice, leading the three of them on a mad dash that finally brought them to the third-floor corridor.
Sherlock knew the rest.
After listening to Hermione's account, Sherlock pondered for a moment, then said.
"Hermione, if I were you, I would have left with Ginny at that time."
"Yes, I regret it now too."
Hermione sighed, "If I had gone with her then, perhaps only Harry and Neville would have been suspects today."
Harry: (¬_¬)
"Oh, Harry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way..."
"Hermione, what I mean is, if you could have left with Ginny, this incident might not have happened at all."
As soon as Sherlock finished speaking, all three companions were stunned.
Harry looked at Sherlock with disbelief. "Sherlock, you—you mean..."
"Yes, exactly what you're thinking. Regarding this incident, I believe Ginny is highly suspicious."
"Why?"
Hermione blurted out, "Professor Dumbledore already said this is very advanced dark magic—a second-year student couldn't possibly do it!"
Her meaning was clear: if second-year students couldn't do it, how much less could a first-year like Ginny who had just entered school.
"Hermione, naturally it wasn't Ginny who petrified Mrs. Norris. But hanging an already petrified cat on a torch bracket and leaving a few words wouldn't be difficult for her. I think you should remember the bloody writing Quirrell left on Halloween last year?"
"Of course I remember!"
It was that incident that made Hermione truly realize Sherlock's analytical reasoning abilities. Hearing Sherlock say this, Hermione couldn't help but feel stirred,
"Could you mean..."
"Exactly as you imagine. I've deduced some clues: the person who hung Mrs. Norris on the bracket and wrote those words was the same person. From the traces left at the scene, this should be a young girl, about five feet tall. Judging by her build and normal proportions, her feet were a bit small, wearing new boots.
When she did all this, she was nervous at first, but then became orderly. Of course, based on just these clues, I can't be certain it was Ginny who did this. But looking at the clues I've deduced, she is indeed quite suspicious."
By this point, Sherlock's three companions were already stunned.
Just then, the sound of a bell came from somewhere.
"Twelve o'clock."
Sherlock heard the sound and winked at his three companions. "I think we can go to bed now."
"But..."
"Don't worry, Hermione," Sherlock smiled. "After all, this is just my deduction. There are actually some doubts that haven't been cleared up. You can just ask Ginny directly tomorrow. Of course, if you could get something with her handwriting, like class notes, that would be even better."
"Ginny, where is she? I mean, is she okay?"
"She's fine. Didn't you notice just now?"
Sherlock suddenly showed a look of realization.
"Oh right, your attention was all focused on that cat, so you didn't notice her... But I happened to see Ginny right beside Ron, so whether or not she did this, at least it shows she's not in any danger recently."
Although there were still many doubts in their hearts, since Sherlock insisted on returning to the dormitory, the three companions could only agree.
In fact, they were now much more tired than Sherlock.
As Hermione had just said, attending the ghosts' deathday party was already a very tormenting experience.
Not to mention they had just experienced such a shocking incident.
They really should hurry back and rest.
Since Sherlock, Harry, and Neville returned to the dormitory so late, Ron had already fallen asleep.
The next morning, after Ron woke up, he couldn't wait to ask about yesterday's events.
Harry told him what happened, omitting Sherlock's speculation about Ginny.
Ron listened with fascination and also told Sherlock and Harry that after Sherlock left with Gemma for a while, Ginny had returned to the Halloween feast.
When the feast ended, she had witnessed the entire process of Harry, Hermione, and Neville being caught red-handed.
She and Ron had even arrived at the scene earlier than Sherlock and Gemma.
"I knew it!"
Ron laughed and patted Harry's shoulder. "You must have encountered something, otherwise how could you have let Ginny come back alone?"
Harry forced a smile.
Neville said nothing at all.
"Hey, why do you look so serious?"
The abnormal state of the two naturally aroused Ron's suspicion.
"Neville being timid is one thing, but why are you like this too, Harry? Such a small scene scared you? You faced You-Know-Who last year! Hahaha!"
Hearing Ron's words, Harry almost couldn't resist telling Ron the truth for a moment.
But he still held back.
Instead, Neville performed better than him—he was usually this slow to react anyway.
On the way to class, students talked of nothing else but the attack on Mrs. Norris.
This was mainly because Filch's behavior made it impossible for them to forget about it.
He stood pacing back and forth at the spot where Mrs. Norris was attacked, as if thinking the attacker would return.
Not only that, he was also holding something, trying to scrub the writing off the wall.
"Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover."
Sherlock had the best eyesight and directly read out the tool Filch was using.
Unfortunately, this mess remover was not living up to its name and couldn't successfully remove the mess—those words still glowed as brightly as ever on the stone wall.
"Maybe the mess remover doesn't think that stuff counts as a mess."
Ron said with a grin, "So the mess remover can't do anything about it."
Looking at Ron's carefree manner, Harry felt for the first time that ignorance was also a kind of happiness.
But Ron's attitude did strengthen his resolve not to tell him about this for now.
Let him continue being happy like this.
At noon, Hermione gave Sherlock and Harry a meaningful look, then walked over to Ron.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Hermione's aggressive manner, Ron couldn't help feeling guilty.
"You have the nerve to ask! Ginny has been gloomy all morning. If it wasn't because you ran away last night, how could she have been so frightened!"
"Hah?"
Ron pointed at himself in surprise. "You're blaming me?"
"Who else?"
Hermione said fiercely: "If you had been there yesterday, at least there would have been one more person to keep her company, and when she went to the bathroom, someone could have stayed there to wait for her."
"But..."
Ron felt something was wrong but couldn't find a reason to refute it for the moment.
But before he could sort out the logic, Hermione had already used her ultimate move. "You're her brother!"
Ron: (;-＿-)=3 → (´;ω;`)
After his expression changed several times, Ron weakly said: "It's... it's my fault..."
"You'd better comfort her. You know she's always been very fond of cats."
"All... all right..."
Watching Ron leave dejectedly, Hermione turned to Sherlock and said somewhat embarrassedly. "This is the first time I've been so unreasonable."
Sherlock didn't mind. "In terms of effectiveness, it was quite good."
Harry also nodded. He couldn't do this kind of thing anyway, so it was better to leave it to someone more capable.
The three of them left the others behind and hurried to yesterday evening's empty classroom on the fourth floor.
This was already Sherlock's third time coming to this classroom.
The first time was when Gemma brought him here.
Because Gemma had said this classroom was usually empty, he naturally thought of this place last night.
Today was the same.
"I already asked Ginny. She said after she finished using the bathroom and came out, she didn't see us, so she went straight to the feast. Later she and Ron watched the whole process of us getting caught."
As soon as the door closed, Hermione said eagerly.
Harry sighed. "Ron said the same thing today."
Hermione also took out a notebook from her pocket. "This is Ginny's class notes. I told her I wanted to know what Professor Lockhart taught in the first-year Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and she didn't suspect anything and gave me the notebook."
Harry glanced at Hermione but said nothing.
He wasn't like Ron, who would have to say something like "Actually you really do want to know what Lockhart teaches" at a time like this.
Sherlock took Ginny's notebook, opened it, and scanned it briefly. His brow immediately furrowed.
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