Sean was certain that Mrs. Norris had been petrified by the basilisk.
As for who released the monster—
he didn't dare jump to conclusions.
The diary had already been destroyed.
The diadem had remained hidden inside Merlin's chamber until just tonight, when Sean personally handed it to Dumbledore.
That left the primary suspect as Draco Malfoy.
It was entirely possible Voldemort had left additional contingencies inside him.
The second suspect was Gilderoy Lockhart.
According to Adam, only Salazar Slytherin had ever communicated with him directly.
Yet both Quirrell and Lockhart knew how to find Adam.
That meant the faction behind Herpo the Foul possessed information connected to Salazar.
Perhaps Salazar himself had somehow survived and allied with Herpo.
Or perhaps Herpo had discovered secret instructions left behind by Salazar.
Half a minute later, Argus Filch arrived.
The closer he got, the uglier his expression became.
He looked furious.
Heartbroken.
"Who did this?!" he roared.
"Calm yourself, Filch. She isn't dead," Severus Snape said steadily.
"Mature Mandrake Restorative Draught can reverse petrification," Sean added. "Professor Sprout's Mandrakes are almost fully grown."
"How vile…" Filch trembled with rage. "If I ever find the one responsible, I'll hang them from the ceiling and whip them bloody!"
"Corporal punishment was banned by Dumbledore years ago," Sean reminded him.
Then he added quietly,
"Besides… I doubt you could whip this culprit even if you tried."
Filch didn't understand what Sean meant.
But Snape already had.
He stood and said sharply,
"I'll inform Dumbledore. Return to the common room immediately and check on Draco."
Snape's thoughts had clearly reached the same conclusion Sean had.
Sean nodded and headed toward the stairs.
Before going downstairs, however, he detoured toward the hospital wing on the second floor.
He gently pushed the door open and peeked through the crack.
Moonlight spilled through the windows.
Inside, Lockhart lay asleep in bed.
Sean sprinted back to the Slytherin common room afterward.
He didn't care whether he woke anyone.
He pounded hard on Draco's dormitory door.
About a minute later, someone opened it.
Vincent Crabbe stood there groggily, blinking at Sean.
"Sean… what happened?"
Crabbe glanced at the wall clock.
It was already eleven.
"Crabbe, who is it?" Draco's voice came from inside.
Having only recently fallen asleep, Draco's light sleep had been interrupted immediately by Sean's knocking.
Sean peered past Crabbe into the room.
"You didn't leave tonight, right?"
"No," Crabbe replied honestly. "After dinner we came straight back and never went out."
"You're sure?"
Sean looked directly at Draco.
Draco, wearing silk pajamas and barefoot, climbed down from bed irritably.
He had been sleeping perfectly well before being woken for this nonsense.
"I'm very sure."
Sean studied him for a few seconds before nodding.
"Alright. Go back to sleep. Goodnight."
He waved and left the dormitory.
Meanwhile, after hearing Snape's report, Albus Dumbledore transformed into a hawk-like bird and flew alone through the underground water tunnels.
Following the route Pettigrew had revealed last year, he navigated the sewers until he reached the underground chamber beneath Hogwarts.
Dumbledore stared silently at the massive stone doors of the Chamber.
The doors themselves remained shut.
But the seal he had personally placed upon them—
had been broken.
The basilisk had definitely been released.
What Dumbledore could not determine was whether the creature still roamed the castle or had already returned to the Chamber.
What worried him most, however, was something else entirely.
The Golden Scepter.
The artifact Voldemort and Quirrell had hidden inside.
Had whoever opened the Chamber taken it as well?
Earlier that day, Dumbledore had learned Harry was a Parselmouth.
That meant they now possessed a way to open the Chamber directly.
Unfortunately, Dumbledore did not know the true entrance hidden within Myrtle's bathroom.
He only knew Pettigrew's sewer route.
And that route was extremely dangerous.
Some tunnel sections narrowed to barely fifty centimeters wide.
Dumbledore could pass through easily in bird form.
Harry absolutely could not.
If they encountered the basilisk in those cramped passages, even Dumbledore could not guarantee Harry's safety.
Before leaving, Dumbledore reinforced the Chamber doors with another sealing spell.
Then, in the middle of the night, he summoned every professor in the castle.
"A highly serious attack has occurred within Hogwarts," Dumbledore announced gravely.
Filch nodded furiously.
His anger over Mrs. Norris bordered on hysteria.
"Classes are suspended tomorrow," Dumbledore continued. "Each Head of House will remain inside their common rooms. Students are not to wander the castle."
Filius Flitwick looked up sharply.
"What sort of attack warrants canceling lessons?"
"Filius," Dumbledore said quietly, "I believe you still remember Myrtle Elizabeth Warren from fifty years ago."
Flitwick's expression changed instantly.
"Her ghost still haunts the second-floor bathroom…" he whispered. "Are you saying this attack is the same as before? The basilisk?!"
Dumbledore did not answer directly.
He merely nodded once.
The professors exchanged uneasy looks.
Some of the younger staff had not lived through the incident fifty years ago.
But Flitwick and Minerva McGonagall had both been one year above Tom Riddle.
Rubeus Hagrid had been one year below him.
All three vividly remembered Myrtle's death.
They had seen her body carried from that bathroom with their own eyes.
"The Chamber of Secrets can only be opened by Slytherin's heir," Lockhart suddenly said.
He limped awkwardly into the office, clearly still suffering from his fractured leg.
"And Potter's display tonight…"
As he spoke, he deliberately glanced toward Snape.
"Harry's Parseltongue may be the only means of opening the Chamber," McGonagall cut in sharply. "But after returning to Gryffindor Tower tonight, he never left again."
"I'll speak with Harry tomorrow morning," Dumbledore said calmly.
At that moment, Sean suddenly remembered the Golden Scepter.
Whoever had entered the Chamber must have seen it.
There was a very real possibility it was gone now.
Sean quietly slipped away and went searching for Adam.
Inside the hidden stone pillar chamber, Adam was nowhere in sight.
Sean called softly several times.
"What are you yelling for?"
Adam suddenly emerged upward through the stone floor.
"Adam, I need your help."
Sean immediately produced a handful of nuts from his robes.
Adam's eyes lit up.
He happily grabbed the nuts and asked smugly,
"What does the great Sean require of me?"
"The Golden Scepter you mentioned before… is it still inside the Chamber?"
Adam froze briefly.
Clearly he was using his strange perception ability again.
Then he answered,
"No. And by the way—it's moving."
Sean frowned.
Then another thought hit him instantly.
"The basilisk inside the Chamber—you know about it?"
"Of course," Adam replied casually. "I knew about it back when it was still an egg."
He crunched loudly on a nut before adding,
"And by the way—it's moving too. Together with the scepter."
Sean's heartbeat quickened.
"Where are they?"
"You think I'm your personal tracking service?" Adam snapped impatiently. "How would I know? I said they're moving!"
"Then have they left the school?"
"One last question," Adam warned.
He paused once more.
This time Sean activated his Magic Eye, trying to secretly observe Adam's detection method.
But shockingly—
he saw no magical framework at all.
"What kind of ability is this?" Sean thought in confusion.
In reality, it wasn't a spell.
Adam was a spirit born from the enormous sealing array beneath Hogwarts.
The ancient magical formation stretched throughout the entire underground structure of the castle.
As its guardian spirit, Adam instinctively sensed everything occurring above it.
"No," Adam finally answered. "They were on the second floor earlier. Now they're on the third floor."
Then he yawned.
"Stop bothering me. I'm going to sleep."
Without another word, Adam sank straight back into the stone floor.
Sean remained standing there, deep in thought.
"The Golden Scepter carries Dumbledore's magic. It shouldn't be able to leave Hogwarts…"
He paused.
"…probably."
After the other professors departed, Dumbledore kept McGonagall, Snape, and Hagrid behind.
"The person who opened the Chamber absolutely was not Harry," Dumbledore said firmly. "I trust him. Besides, my seal was not something he could break."
"Professor," Hagrid asked uneasily, "could it be Voldemort inside Draco?"
Dumbledore slowly shook his head.
He could not rule it out.
Voldemort possessed too many unknown methods.
Some suspected Harry.
Some suspected Draco.
Yet not one of them suspected Lockhart.
The man's image was simply too pathetic.
A useless showpiece who only knew how to boast.
Sean, however, had already confirmed Lockhart's identity as an infiltrator.
He simply lacked proof that Lockhart had opened the Chamber.
The next morning, students gathered in the Great Hall as usual for breakfast.
Dumbledore stood and announced the suspension of all classes for the day.
Excited cheers immediately erupted across the hall.
Most students still had no idea what was happening.
"After breakfast, all students are to return directly to their common rooms," Dumbledore instructed. "Heads of House will escort their students personally."
McGonagall and Snape had already been tasked with bringing Harry and Draco to the Headmaster's office after breakfast.
"Harry, what did you do this time?" Hermione Granger asked nervously.
"Nothing!" Harry protested. "I've been with you two the entire time!"
Ron suddenly realized something.
"It's because of last night."
"The Parseltongue," Hermione said immediately. "Dumbledore must take that seriously."
Meanwhile, at the Slytherin table, Draco faced similar questions.
"Draco, did you bully Colin again?" Pansy Parkinson asked suspiciously.
Colin Creevey, a Muggle-born first-year Gryffindor, constantly wandered around with his camera.
Draco found him incredibly annoying and had already pranked him several times since term began.
"I got bored of that ages ago," Draco scoffed. "And besides, bullying Creevey wouldn't get me summoned to the Headmaster's office."
"I bet it's good news," Gregory Goyle said confidently. "Your mother came to the school a few days ago. She probably discussed something with Dumbledore."
Breakfast had not yet ended.
Some students who finished eating early were already leaving the hall and returning toward their dormitories.
Then suddenly—
A scream tore through the castle.
Sharp.
Terrified.
Piercing enough to freeze everyone in place.
It came from the bathroom corridor near the Great Hall entrance.
Curious students rushed toward the sound.
And the moment they saw what was there—
more screams erupted.
Sean's expression changed instantly.
Something was very wrong.
He sprinted forward at full speed.
Within seconds he reached the scene.
The professors followed immediately behind him.
"This is bad," Sean said grimly.
Through his Magic Eye, he could already see it.
The Hufflepuff girl lying outside the bathroom—
had no magical glow remaining at all.
The professors forced students back and cleared the corridor.
Pomona Sprout saw one of her own students collapsed on the floor and hurried forward in panic.
But the moment she touched the girl—
she realized the body was stiff.
Like someone struck by a Petrification Curse.
"Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Snape," Dumbledore ordered loudly, "escort all students back to their dormitories immediately!"
Then Dumbledore knelt beside the girl.
The instant his hand touched her—
he understood.
The situation had become far worse than he had imagined.
He looked up at Sprout.
And with visible difficulty, he said the words:
"It was the basilisk."
"She's dead."
"No… no, Ada!" Sprout cried out in anguish.
Sean recognized the girl immediately.
Ada Killeen.
Fourth-year Hufflepuff.
Same year as him.
Sprout's grief-stricken cry drew the attention of Cedric Diggory, who had just exited the Great Hall.
He and several classmates hurried toward the commotion.
Although McGonagall, Flitwick, and Snape were already trying to block students from approaching—
the moment Cedric saw his classmate lying motionless on the floor…
and saw the devastation on Professor Sprout's face…
he understood immediately.
Ada was dead.
To Read 60+ ahead advanced Chapters, head over to P@treon
patreon.com/DarkVerse146