For Hermione, though Sherlock had now become her own personal hero, she didn't want Gemma to know this, and certainly couldn't let Sherlock know about it.
So, hearing Gemma's words, her ears instantly turned crimson, and she straightened her spine, trying to appear calm.
"I-I wasn't excited at all!
I just didn't expect him to arrive so quickly..."
She spoke while raising her glass to take another sip.
But she didn't realize that her expression behind the glass betrayed her—her eyelashes trembling slightly, the corners of her mouth unconsciously turning up.
This scene was clearly seen by both Sherlock and Gemma.
Sherlock paid no attention to Hermione's insincerity.
Gemma chuckled softly.
What an untruthful little thing!
Good thing she didn't have any particular feelings for Sherlock at the moment.
Otherwise, with Hermione's approach, she would only end up as the losing dog in romantic competition.
Thinking this, she shook her head slightly, then turned to Sherlock. "So, can you tell me what happened now?"
Hearing Gemma say this, Hermione instinctively wanted to say no.
Although Dumbledore hadn't asked them to keep this matter secret, Hermione believed that was because Dumbledore trusted them to know the proper boundaries.
However, glancing at Sherlock, she finally bit her lip and swallowed back the "no" that had almost escaped her lips.
This kind of thing should be left for Sherlock to decide himself.
However, to her surprise, before Sherlock could speak, another voice suddenly interrupted.
"Sherlock, I want to know what happened too!"
First-year student Luna Lovegood.
When they saw her, both Hermione and Gemma showed surprised expressions.
Especially Gemma.
As a prefect, she knew more about this first-year Ravenclaw than most people.
After all, "Loony" wasn't exactly a nice nickname.
But precisely because of this, she keenly sensed that Luna and Sherlock's relationship was unusual.
Setting aside other things, just from the way they addressed each other, you could tell.
You had to know that until now, many of Sherlock's classmates still called him Holmes.
Outside of Gryffindor House, including herself, only a handful of people would call him Sherlock.
Yet Luna, as a first-year student from a different house than Sherlock's, also called Sherlock by his first name?
Moreover, Luna was unsocial by nature. Even in Ravenclaw, where students were quite individualistic, she was the type who didn't fit in, yet she could cross house lines to come here looking for Sherlock.
There must be some unknown story behind this.
Like when he saw Gemma, Sherlock showed no surprise at Luna's appearance and directly asked.
"What do you want to know?"
"Who was the person who used dark magic to control Lockhart, whether he really is Slytherin's heir, how you found the Chamber, and how you defeated him and the basilisk."
'Good grief!'
Hermione looked at Luna in surprise, realizing she still didn't understand this girl well enough.
Gemma's carefully designed roundabout questioning seemed laughable and redundant in the face of her direct questions.
Luna's directness equally surprised Gemma, who then laughed lightly.
She had at least participated in Sherlock's solving of the Chamber mystery, yet still appeared quite reserved when asking about it.
Luna had just thrown straight balls?
And not just one straight ball!
Impressive!
But speaking of which, the questions Luna wanted to ask were exactly what she wanted to ask too.
Almost instantly, she realized this was an excellent opportunity.
So, she didn't hesitate and decisively provided an assist.
"Regarding Miss Lovegood's questions... Sherlock, I'd very much like to know these things too, so... can you tell us?"
Hermione, Gemma, and Luna all looked at Sherlock.
Under the gaze of three girls, Sherlock finally put down his glass.
"I can tell you everything. There's nothing that can't be said. The real question is... after I tell you, will you believe it?"
Hermione nodded gently upon hearing this.
Yes, given the current state of the wizarding world, even if they really said the mastermind was Voldemort, not many people would believe it, right?
However, both girls' responses exceeded her expectations.
Gemma smiled gracefully. "Truth is often in the hands of the few."
Luna was more direct. "As long as you say it, I'll believe it."
Hermione: (╬◣д◢)
'You're both so good with words!'
"The person who used dark magic to control Lockhart was Voldemort."
But the next moment, Sherlock surprised all three girls with one sentence.
The three were surprised for different reasons.
Hermione already knew the answer; she was surprised that Sherlock would actually tell Gemma and Luna the truth without reservation.
Telling Gemma was understandable—as Gemma herself said, she had contributed to this matter.
Not only that, Hermione vaguely suspected that with Gemma's intelligence and pure-blood family background, she should have already guessed some things.
But telling Luna was something she completely hadn't expected.
Since returning from Christmas break, she had already asked Sherlock how he and Luna got to know each other.
When she heard they had only met once at the school gates before starting to call each other by first names, she found it incredibly unbelievable.
After all, she was the earliest among all of Sherlock's current friends!
She had met Sherlock before school even started!
But even so, she had only changed her way of addressing him a month after school began.
Yet Gemma and Luna—these two were faster than each other!
'I was first, I was clearly first!'
Gemma's surprise was due to two reasons.
First was the answer of Voldemort itself.
Although not from the Sacred Twenty-Eight pure-blood families, Gemma was still from a pure-blood wizard family. She had grown up hearing Voldemort's fearsome reputation, so naturally it was booming to her ears.
It's just that her upbringing didn't support her being able to speak the name like Sherlock, so when she heard Voldemort's name, she still couldn't help but shiver.
Fortunately, before Sherlock gave his answer, she had quietly cast a Muffliato charm.
This was a spell to prevent eavesdropping. Once cast, it would fill everyone's ears around with an indecipherable buzzing sound.
As for the second reason.
Despite appearing completely at ease throughout, she really hadn't dared guarantee that Sherlock would tell her the truth.
She hadn't expected Sherlock to open with a bombshell.
Was this something that could be said?
Sherlock, you really trust us!
Compared to Hermione and Gemma, Luna was purely surprised.
"So, the mastermind was actually You-Know-Who. This means he's really still alive, right?"
"Obviously."
"What about the other questions?"
Luna asked urgently.
Watching Luna like this, Hermione and Gemma exchanged glances.
Both understood the meaning in the other's eyes. "This little girl is a bit mad."
However, Sherlock turned a blind eye to this and answered in a straightforward tone.
"Voldemort is indeed Slytherin's heir. This time he also controlled Lockhart to open the Chamber and release the basilisk to attack everywhere.
The process of finding the Chamber is very complicated and can't be explained briefly. The main contributor was Harry. I'll tell you when there's a chance later.
Actually, compared to searching for and opening the Chamber, the process of defeating Voldemort and the basilisk was simpler.
A rooster's crow was sufficient."
Although Sherlock's answer sounded somewhat simple, Gemma and Luna were already very satisfied.
The answers were brief but full of substance!
Moreover, Sherlock had already promised them that when there was a chance later, he would tell them the details.
"Sherlock, this matter... should be kept secret, right?"
After thinking for a moment, Gemma asked. "Professor Dumbledore didn't mention this, probably for this consideration too."
"It doesn't matter."
"What?"
"Even if you tell others about this, not many people will believe it."
Sherlock held up two fingers.
"First, the same words have different effects when spoken by different people.
Second, people always believe what they want to believe."
Hearing Sherlock's words, Gemma pondered briefly and then slowly nodded.
If Dumbledore said Voldemort had returned, everyone would certainly take it seriously.
But if it were just a student, most people would think he was talking nonsense.
Hermione had even deeper feelings about this.
Last year, Sherlock had clearly said that Quirrell couldn't teach because he had stabbed him with a sword, yet not a single person believed it.
Ron had even lost his right to choose a spouse before age twenty because of this...
Just then, Luna suddenly interjected seemingly out of nowhere.
"If we publicized this widely, the Ministry would arrest us."
Hearing her words, both Hermione and Gemma laughed.
Hermione: "Lovegood, you're really overthinking this. Why would the Ministry have time to bother with such things?"
Gemma: "They would probably just treat it as children talking nonsense and laugh it off at most."
Sherlock didn't speak.
Although he had only been in the wizarding world for less than two years, he had already indirectly dealt with the Ministry several times.
Especially with this Chamber incident, judging from the Ministry's treatment of Hagrid fifty years ago, these guys were really worse than Scotland Yard.
In his view, if the Ministry didn't know Voldemort had returned, then they might indeed handle it as Gemma suggested.
But once they knew Voldemort had returned, based on their attitude toward previous cases, they would likely handle it as Luna suggested.
Cover up, play ostrich—if they can't solve the problem, they solve the person who raises the problem.
This was the Ministry of Magic.
The celebration lasted the entire night, until four or five in the morning when people finally couldn't resist drowsiness and began returning in groups.
By daybreak, everyone had returned to their common rooms to daydream.
There wasn't much to say about the remaining days of the summer term.
Since both exams and Quidditch matches had been cancelled, Harry finally had time to resume morning training with Sherlock.
This way, the morning training group became Sherlock, Harry, and Neville.
Sherlock taught according to Harry's and Neville's aptitudes.
Originally, Harry quite liked fencing, but ever since he gave Malfoy a punch last time and earned the title of Gryffindor's boxing champion, he suddenly fell in love with that fist-to-flesh feeling.
His daily morning training was primarily boxing with fencing as supplementary.
Neville was exactly the opposite, putting all his attention into sword practice.
The tenacity he displayed surprised everyone in the dormitory except Sherlock.
Ron and Dean had both tried to follow Sherlock for boxing and fencing.
Sherlock didn't mind taking two more people along, but they only persisted for two or three days before giving up.
Compared to early morning training, Ron preferred eating and sleeping.
Dean's interests were singing, jumping, rap, and basketball.
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