Ron felt extremely uncomfortable seeing Hermione's look of sudden understanding directed at him.
What made it worse was that Hermione said nothing at all. This left him unable to voice his thoughts, even if he had any.
Hermione had already turned her attention to Sherlock. "There's one more thing."
"You want to ask why these people didn't die but were merely petrified, right?"
Hermione nodded repeatedly. Harry and Ron also looked toward Sherlock, equally curious about this question.
"This question requires bold hypotheses and careful verification, any creature that looks directly at a basilisk will die instantly, but what if they don't look directly at it?
Colin saw it through his camera. The film in the camera was burned, but he himself escaped death.
Cho Chang and Penelope saw the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick's translucent ghostly body, so it wasn't direct eye contact either.
Nearly Headless Nick did indeed look directly at the basilisk, but the problem is that he's already a ghost.
A creature that's already dead naturally cannot die again, which is why he turned into that black, smoking state.
Eliminate all impossibilities, and we arrive at the answer. as long as you don't see the basilisk's eyes under completely unobstructed conditions, this dark magic that causes instant death will be weakened, manifesting externally as petrification."
Sherlock stopped there.
Ron, who had been listening with engrossed attention, quickly asked. "What about Mrs. Norris! Why was Mrs. Norris petrified?"
Sherlock looked at him with sympathy. Ron still looked completely bewildered.
Seeing this, Hermione sighed and offered a timely hint. "You might want to think about the situation at the scene on Halloween night."
"I understand, it was water!" Once again, Harry was the first to react. "Mrs. Norris must have seen the basilisk's eyes through the reflection in that puddle of water!"
"Correct!"
Sherlock snapped his fingers. "Mrs. Norris is just a cat. Her line of sight is much lower than a human's, so looking down and seeing the basilisk's reflection in the water would be perfectly normal."
"Now everything's clear!"
Harry said excitedly, "The monster in the Chamber is a basilisk! Sherlock, Hermione, you're both amazing!"
However, Hermione, who had been most excited at first, now threw cold water on Harry's enthusiasm.
"Even if we know the creature harming people is a basilisk, it's not really the true culprit."
Harry fell silent. Right—so what if they knew it was a basilisk?
It didn't just run out of the Chamber by itself. They still needed to find whoever opened the Chamber.
"Hermione, you're wrong."
"Wrong?"
"We can do at least three things now."
Sherlock held up three fingers.
"First, knowing the monster in the Chamber is a basilisk means there's someone else in the school besides Harry who understands Parseltongue—he's the true heir of Slytherin.
Moreover, we can make targeted arrangements based on the basilisk's weaknesses to prevent more people from being harmed.
Second, since we know Moaning Myrtle was the victim from fifty years ago, we can directly ask her what happened at that time.
If my deduction is correct, there's a high probability we can find the location of the Chamber through her.
Third..."
Sherlock stood up as he spoke. "I'm going to see Dumbledore."
"Again?"
Hearing Sherlock say this, all three were startled.
It hadn't been long since Sherlock's last meeting with Dumbledore, had it?
Why did he need to see him again?
Before they could ask, Sherlock had already turned to Harry. "Harry, come with me."
"Ah, just Harry?"
Hermione and Ron had initially assumed Sherlock would go solo to the headmaster's office again, as he had before, and they'd had no objections.
But seeing him now taking Harry alone, they suddenly felt left out.
"Hermione, if you could help me with something, I would be very grateful."
"What is it?"
Hearing this, Hermione immediately perked up and straightened her chest, suddenly energized.
"Lend me some money."
"Ah?"
Not just Hermione—Harry and Ron were all stunned.
Sherlock would be short on money?
Impossible!
Setting aside his good family financial situation, even if his family circumstances were average, just from working as a consulting detective at school, he'd already earned quite a few Galleons.
Even though business hadn't been as good this year due to the Chamber incidents compared to last year, surely, he hadn't fallen to the point of borrowing money?
"Did you run out of exchanged Galleons?" Hermione quickly said. "How much do you need? I can give you everything I have on me..."
Harry also said, "If that's not enough, I have some too."
Ron: (;¬д¬) →
In this situation, Ron said nothing, retreating to a corner to sulk.
Other things were fine, but this was truly beyond his means to help with.
"Dear Harry, I don't need Galleons. I need Muggle money."
Harry: (;￣Д￣) →
Hearing that Sherlock didn't need wizarding money, Harry glanced at Ron still in the corner and tactfully went to join him in sulking.
He had even less Muggle currency than Ron had wizarding money.
Hermione asked in confusion. "Muggle money—what do you need it for?"
"To buy some things we'll need later."
"What things?"
"..."
After hearing Sherlock's explanation, Hermione was first startled, then nodded. "Alright, leave it to me. Is there anything else you need me to do?"
Obviously, in Hermione's view, this was just a trivial matter.
"Go find Myrtle."
Sherlock said calmly. "Ask her what really happened fifty years ago. If all goes well, by the time I return from Dumbledore's, we can begin searching for the Chamber."
"Good!"
Hermione nodded emphatically. She was the most suitable person for this task. After all, Moaning Myrtle spent all her time in the girls' bathroom.
Even for the sake of the investigation, it wouldn't be appropriate for Sherlock, Harry, and Ron, three boys to go there.
Surely the Chamber wasn't in the girls' bathroom?
Hearing that Sherlock had assigned Hermione two tasks, borrowing money and finding Myrtle, Ron felt completely deflated.
Was he really this useless?
If there was nothing else to do, couldn't he take one more person along to see Dumbledore?
"Ron, there's one more thing I need your help with."
"What is it?"
Hearing Sherlock say this, Ron perked up too.
"Go find Gemma and give her this letter. Be discreet, don't let anyone else know."
Ron was first startled, but upon hearing "be discreet," he immediately broke into a smile and patted his chest in assurance.
"No problem."
Hermione on the side opened her mouth to speak, but also fell silent upon hearing "be discreet."
The four then split up. Sherlock and Harry went to find Dumbledore, Hermione headed straight for the girls' bathroom, and Ron went to find Gemma Farley.
"Oh no!"
After walking for a while, Ron suddenly remembered something.
He didn't even know where Gemma was, how was he supposed to find her?
Ask Slytherin students for directions?
That would be a joke.
He wanted to ask Sherlock, but turning around, he and Harry had long since disappeared.
"This is terrible!"
Ron muttered to himself. Was he really less useful than an owl?
"Right, an owl!"
Thinking of this, Ron suddenly slapped his forehead, having an idea.
By now, Sherlock had already brought Harry to the gargoyle in front of the headmaster's office tower.
He stopped, preparing to give the password.
But the big fellow, upon seeing Sherlock, nimbly jumped aside, directly revealing the spiral staircase behind it.
"No password needed anymore?"
"The headmaster instructed that if Mr. Holmes comes to the headmaster's office, no password is required—just let him through directly."
"A wise decision."
For the first time, Sherlock expressed approval of one of Dumbledore's decisions.
In his view, deducing the headmaster's office password was originally a waste of time, even though it actually didn't take much time.
Harry, listening to the conversation between Sherlock and the gargoyle, looked on with nothing but admiration.
That's you for you!
Someone even the headmaster has to accommodate!
Just like that, the two successfully rode the spiral staircase up to the headmaster's office door.
Harry was about to lift the door knocker when Sherlock simply pushed with his hand.
The door opened.
Harry: "..."
Why did it feel like Sherlock returning to the headmaster's office was like coming home?
"I can only say you've arrived earlier than I expected, though fortunately not at night this time."
Dumbledore showed no surprise at Sherlock and Harry's arrival.
He waved his wand, and two glasses of lemonade appeared, sliding across the desk to Sherlock and Harry.
"Please, sit."
Harry seemed somewhat nervous, while Sherlock sat down boldly.
"Since you've come together, then... is it still about the Chamber?"
"Yes, sir."
Seeing Dumbledore's gaze turn toward him, Harry immediately replied excitedly, "Sherlock has already found the culprit behind the attacks!"
Dumbledore's expression immediately became serious. "Who is it?"
Harry quickly said. "A basilisk."
"Basilisk... petrification..."
Hearing Harry say this name, Dumbledore's eyes behind his half-moon spectacles flickered, as if many things had suddenly become clear.
"Sherlock, your deduction has resolved a doubt in my mind... But who exactly opened the Chamber and released it?"
This time, Harry looked toward Sherlock. Because he didn't know the answer to this question either.
But from the conversation between the three just now, it seemed Sherlock wasn't too sure either.
It was precisely because of this that he'd brought him to find Dumbledore, right?
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