The noisy hallway fell silent in the next moment.
...Then came louder whispers, even the portraits that had already gone to sleep sat up, most of them gathered into one painting, glancing at the few people standing in the hallway.
"?"
Ginny peered out from behind the armor, her gaze toward Harry with an unusual glint.
"..."
Harry felt somewhat powerless, he sensed that the moment he blurted out, countless eyes were focused on his face, this weird sensation made his cheeks visibly blush, he opened his mouth but didn't know what to say—
"Uh, good evening, Mr. Richard—"
Finally, it was Hermione who had already witnessed such a scene once and wasn't the subject involved, who reacted first.
"Meow."
The gray cat emerged from William's feet, Kabuda was laying listlessly on its back, its belly appeared much emptier than half an hour ago.
"Good evening... so, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?"
William nodded, once again ignoring the fact that he was called "mom" by the "Savior"—he really didn't want to delve into this matter, although he had no clue why Harry would address him as mom the moment they met, but being a new mother (not
Ahem, but when he thought of the boy's eye contact just now, goosebumps started crawling up his arms.
"Aren't you here in the middle of the night too?"
Ginny retorted without being weak, but the girl who had just spoken seemed to realize something, subconsciously glancing at the still dazed Harry, and then silently retreated.
At the same time, her gaze toward William carried a hint of suspicion.
Obviously, the doubts pressed deeply by various unexpected incidents in her mind resurfaced at this moment.
"Ah, we were just..."
Harry finally recovered from his frozen state, then stumbled again, his brain started to run rapidly, seemingly trying to find a good excuse for this nighttime outing, "We were just out to... unwind."
Good, a clumsy excuse.
"...Is it because of the attack?"
William's eyes moved slightly, probing with his question.
"Actually it's..."
"How did you know?"
Hermione slapped her forehead again, looking at Harry who suddenly interrupted once again, she really felt like she wanted to hit someone now.
After speaking, Harry also realized the problem in his words, but it was too late to mend fences now, he could only stare at William, hoping his spirit wouldn't seem too defeated.
Nonsense, aren't you guys the main character group configuration...
William smirked, naturally having heard the rumors spreading wildly since this afternoon—even heard four or five different versions, including a Harry Potter love-hate version, a Harry Potter jaded version, and even a Harry Potter possessed by the Dark Lord version...
He couldn't help but admire the imagination of those little wizards, even starting to suspect if there was a dedicated organization behind the scenes crafting different story versions.
"I heard they say this attack is related to you?" William reflected on his wording, not wanting to provoke the youngsters who had just entered puberty.
"Of course not!"
Good, the threshold for a teenage boy is low.
"You should know better than we do who did this?"
Harry's response was muffled by Ginny's retort, noticing everyone's eyes (especially Harry's) turning towards her, Ginny retreated again, suddenly regretting her abrupt and straightforward words.
"..."
Indeed blunt, William instantly understood—the little girl suspected him.
Seems to have some logic, he had once assured them that the attack was strongly related to the soul within the diary. And now the diary was in his possession... Tsk, from this perspective, his suspicion was indeed considerable.
But he wasn't sure why the attacks were still happening, after all, he had already confirmed that the diary was related to the attacks in the castle.
Ron Weasley should have been manipulated by the soul in the diary, his original target likely was only Filch, who had confined him for two weeks despite only starting school a month—something must have gone wrong afterwards.
So when hearing another attack, it was impossible not to be surprised.
However, when he asked Dobby about it, the puzzled expression wasn't pretended.
Thus, he planned to change his approach, to "accidentally" lose the diary soon, and then let Cedric "accidentally" find it—this would allow Cedric to communicate with the diary, if the diary fell for it, then matters would be much simpler...
To be honest, if he wasn't curious about what the Secret Chamber really was, he would just burn the diary with Fiendfyre.
...But before he could think about how to bring this up to Cedric, Mrs. Loris found him carrying Kabuda.
"It's not me." William shook his head.
"Oh... alright." Ginny nodded gloomily.
"..."
Hermione and Harry's actions were very synchronized, they looked at Ginny in confusion, then turned to William, with an obvious meaning in their gaze—what kind of riddle are these two playing?
Soon, a suspicion appeared in Hermione's mind—"Before every attack, we perceive a precursor—" she glanced at Harry whose eyes were still somewhat blank, sighed and continued.
"What precursor?" William raised an eyebrow, so does the main character group have special abilities?
"...A voice, a very evil voice, constantly chanting about tearing and killing something, then the attack happens."
At this moment Harry finally reacted, although he wasn't sure why Hermione said he could also hear it, he didn't refute, directly explained.
"So, tonight?"
"Yes, I... we heard that voice." Harry nodded.
"Tear, kill... but in the end, it's just Petrification?"
William frowned, seemingly pondering something—but before he could clarify, the change at his feet caught his attention.
Unknowingly, a stream of water had reached his feet, Mrs. Loris also carried Kabuda and perched on his shoulder, trembling as they softly meowed in his ear.
"Is this... Moaning Myrtle's doing?" Hermione blinked oddly, "But she rarely does this, even angry only floods that restroom..."
"Let's go check it out."
Calming the two unsettled little guys on his shoulder, William led the way towards where the water was coming from.
Soon, they arrived at a hallway flooded like a river, that half-abandoned restroom's door was open, William almost immediately spotted the collapsed shadow on the ground.
"...Who is the professor on duty tonight?"
"Snape..."
"I'll go get him... never mind, who will go and fetch him here?"