Chapter 460 - 11: The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 460: Chapter 11: The Chamber of Secrets

"Bzzzz—"

"Dear Miss Yimi, could you ask your pet to stop biting my foot?" Dumbledore asked helplessly, though he made no attempt to move his foot away from Xiaobai.

This robot vacuum had originally been sealed away by Tomohisa precisely because it could not tell the difference between trash and shoes.

Once Yimi learned why Xiaobai had not been moving, she had The World touch Xiaobai, making Hogwarts’s strange restriction stop applying to it.

After hearing what Harry said, McGonagall understood what was going on. But when she saw the little thing smile again, there was no need to correct anything, was there?

As for why they had come back to Dumbledore, naturally it was because of Ravenclaw’s Diadem. No one had seen the thing since Ravenclaw herself died.

"Come here, Xiaobai." Yimi picked up the robot vacuum.

Dumbledore’s office looked the same as ever, though this time the former headmasters in the portraits were rather unhappy that Xiaobai’s noise was disturbing their sleep.

Fawkes’s feathers had completely fallen out. He looked no different from a rooster about to be tossed into a cooking pot, and Yimi stared at him without blinking.

"In a little while, he’ll be reborn from the ashes. Then he’ll start over as a young bird and grow beautiful again. There’s no need to worry." Dumbledore picked up Ravenclaw’s Diadem from his desk and asked, "I assume you didn’t bring this in from outside, did you?"

"Got it, from a room." Yimi gestured with her little hands and showed Dumbledore where the room was.

"Oh, I remember that place. I once used it as a toilet." Dumbledore nodded.

He did not particularly want to make that the focus of his investigation, however. Instead, he pointed to the crack in the gemstone. "Tell me, child, what possessed you to bite it and break it?"

Dumbledore’s tone was not sharp. In fact, it was so calm that McGonagall was surprised. She had assumed that even Dumbledore would be upset at seeing such a treasure damaged.

"It had that, Riddle smell on it. The notebook had it too, so I bit it." Yimi patted Xiaobai to soothe it. The motion triggered the robot vacuum’s smart switch, and Xiaobai finally stopped moving for the moment.

"Galloping Gorgons! Your first reaction was to put it in your mouth?" McGonagall gently pinched one of Yimi’s cat ears, though she did not actually twist it.

And McGonagall clearly saw something almost like delight flash through Dumbledore’s eyes after Yimi said that.

"Then after you bit it, I suppose it no longer had that smell you mentioned?" Dumbledore asked.

Yimi shook her head. "It’s gone. But there also wasn’t, any knowledge."

"Knowledge?"

"When I bit the notebook, I learned magic." Yimi shared the fruits of her arduous efforts with the two elderly professors.

"Merlin’s beard, you must never do that again! Albus, I don’t know what you’re guessing at. I only want to know whether this could have any side effects." McGonagall gently hugged Yimi’s head.

"I’m afraid I truly can’t promise you that it won’t, Minerva. But I imagine Riddle certainly would not want anyone destroying these things. A diary... If it were merely a piece of Riddle’s memory, how could it have the ability to manipulate another person’s thoughts and actions? If he placed some malicious magic on it, I believe it would already have revealed itself."

Dumbledore walked over to the Pensieve without any intention of hiding the object from Yimi. He touched his wand to his temple. A silver strand was drawn out and floated into the liquid in the basin, threading itself among the other silver strands.

That strand of silver was a thought and a memory. By touching such material, one could enter the memory. Dumbledore always had far too many thoughts in his head, and this method helped him think more effectively and sort out the connections among various matters.

"He likely hid the diadem on the day he came to apply for the Defence Against the Dark Arts post," Dumbledore continued. "Riddle has always been that arrogant. He seems to have believed that he alone would ever know about that place, so he did not place any protective magic on it."

Few people knew about the Room of Requirement to begin with. The odds that someone who did know about it would also happen to need it to become a "room for hiding things" were even smaller. In a sense, the Room of Requirement’s own nature already served as a natural protection.

"There seems to be a rather interesting rumor going around among the students lately. I’d like to know why you think there is a giant snake in the school." Dumbledore took out a jar of Liquorice Wands and placed it in Yimi’s hands. They were sweets shaped like magic wands.

"Bit that notebook, then knew," Yimi answered.

"Hmm..." Dumbledore sank into thought. In truth, that one sentence was already enough for him to more or less understand what sort of scheme Riddle’s "memory" had been planning.

McGonagall did not interrupt his thoughts. Only when Dumbledore looked back at them and raised a hand to indicate that the remaining questioning time belonged to McGonagall did she finally put on a stern face and glare at the little troublemaker before her.

"Now you can explain yourself. How did you take out that broom?"

McGonagall was starting to regret things. She felt she had not paid enough attention to this little creature. Somehow, she had never even noticed that so many snacks could be "eaten" in the blink of an eye.

"Storage Space. The System gave me a ring, for holding things. I ate it, then I got, my own space." Yimi briefly explained the cause and process.

"..."

Why do you eat everything?

McGonagall crouched down solemnly and placed both hands on Yimi’s shoulders. "I think it would be best if you took out everything you’re hiding and let us inspect it, dear. I’m worried something else may threaten your safety. And don’t eat random things in the future. What if they’re poisonous? No, I think I should have Poppy give you a proper examination."

"Oh." Yimi had wanted to reorganize her chaotic Storage Space for a long time anyway, so she simply dumped everything out in one go. The Spear of Longinus could not be taken out. Aside from that, she also left the Teleport Crystals inside; because of their shape, they were the one thing stacked neatly in a corner.

"The Headmaster’s office is not a junk room!" Headmaster Phineas made sure to remind everyone of his existence from inside his portrait.

...

Perhaps because he trusted his own judgment—and probably Fawkes’s judgment as well—Dumbledore had a great deal of trust in Yimi herself. He had always been fond of trusting people that way.

Nothing Yimi carried looked particularly suspicious either. Most of it consisted of Muggle objects. The most dangerous thing, the Doom-shroom card, was mistaken for the sort of collectible card one might find in a Chocolate Frog. To be honest, with the Storage Space in such a mess, Yimi herself had not found where that card was buried for more than a month.

There was nothing worth inspecting about pots and bowls. When Professor McGonagall saw the clothes all wadded into balls, she knew she would have to teach Yimi how to fold them properly once they got back.

The strangest things were the books Yimi had packed away, but aside from proving that she had lived in the Muggle world before, they did not reveal much. Besides, if the little thing truly wanted to hide something, they would not be able to tell, would they?

Thinking about Yimi’s future, McGonagall also intended to find time to take her to the Ministry of Magic and register her as an Animagus. Whether such an incomplete form could pass the requirements was something even she did not know, and she had not had time to take Yimi there over the past few days.

The next day, Hogwarts’s house-elves were busy preparing for the Halloween feast. Yimi looked up curiously at the Great Hall, whose decorations were completely different from usual.

The Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, seemed to have something on his mind. He was called that because he had died by beheading, except a small piece of his neck had remained attached and his head had never been completely severed.

Harry, who normally got along well with him, was not worrying about Nick this time. Harry was too excited about his upgraded equipment.

"Have you seen that broom? The workmanship makes it look just like a real one, and it can actually fly! I feel like its speed is no worse than a Nimbus 2000! The cat-girl doesn’t seem to have said what it’s called. What do you think we should call it?"

Professor McGonagall had confiscated the broom for two days as well, taking it apart for inspection before finally handing it over to Harry.

"Harry!"

Hermione sharply cut off his showing off. "You ought to use your head too. Do you really believe there could be that many coincidences? Ron’s wand broke, and then he got a strange wand. Your broom was destroyed by an out-of-control Bludger, and then you got a strange broom from her?"

Harry shook his head. "Oh, come on, Hermione. Ron’s wand was snapped by the Whomping Willow. I could clearly tell that Bludger was trying to kill me. Are you saying Professor McGonagall’s granddaughter controlled a Bludger to murder me? Why would she do that?"

Hermione grew angry at his attitude. "You weren’t acting like this when we were talking about Ron’s rebar the other day!"

"Maybe you should ask whether she prepared something for you too." Ron leaned his head in. "Like a book made of metal. Even if you can’t read it, you could still use it to hit people, right?"

Hermione glared at Ron and turned away, walking off quickly.

"Harry Po—tter!" An obnoxious voice rang out. Naturally, it belonged to Malfoy, fresh out of the hospital.

In a mocking sing-song tone, he said, "I heard somebody broke the flying broom he only got last year just for a practice session. I didn’t think anyone could be that stupid."

Malfoy’s two followers and his pug-faced girlfriend burst out laughing right on cue.

Ron immediately fired back for his friend. "Oh, you’re out of the hospital. Took you long enough! Honestly, if you’re that frail, maybe don’t play. Wouldn’t want the Slytherin team captain to discover you’re so delicate that another Bludger can send you straight back to Madam Pomfrey for another two-year stay."

Several Gryffindors in the Great Hall laughed on cue as well. The grudge between the two Houses had existed for who knew how many years. More accurately, none of the other three Houses wanted to see Slytherin finish the school year with the highest score either.

"I’m sure your father must be very proud of you, Weasley." Malfoy did not go red with anger, because he had a retort ready for Ron as well. "Looks like the fines from that car didn’t quite bankrupt the penniless Weasley family. You’ll have to try harder next time."

"Ignore him, Ron. He’s only got another day or two to enjoy himself." Harry pushed Ron away.

Malfoy was still shouting after them. "Can’t wait to see you ride a Cleansweep One, Po—tter! Surely our Boy Who Lived can take his sweet time and beat me with pure skill, right?"

The Cleansweep One had been the first flying broom designed specifically for sport, but that had been more than sixty years ago. The Cleansweep series had released plenty of newer models since then.

Ignoring Malfoy’s mockery, Harry and Ron sat down at Gryffindor’s long table beside Hermione.

Naturally, all four Houses attended the Halloween feast together. They had heard that Dumbledore had even booked a skeleton dance troupe for the occasion. They had no intention of letting Malfoy spoil their mood, and Malfoy would not be laughing for much longer anyway.

Hermione did not drive away the two boys she had just had a small disagreement with, but her expression showed that she was still sulking.

She did not plan to keep arguing about the subject either, because Yimi was sitting opposite them now, curiously trying to work out how many people could fit at such a long table.

"Do you think Malfoy could be the person chosen by the Chamber of Secrets?" Ron suddenly brought up the subject.

"The Chamber of Secrets?" Yimi suddenly popped up from underneath the table.

"Hey! Don’t sit with us later. Wherever you sit, Professor McGonagall is definitely going to follow, and eating next to a professor makes us uncomfortable," Hermione complained.

It was not that Hermione would truly feel uncomfortable. After all, she was the sort of top student who appeared only once in a century. The main problem was that Hermione had originally been rather fond of this adorable little girl, but now she felt the two idiots beside her were being completely won over by Yimi.

Yimi nodded. "I’ll tell Grandma Cat, not to sit with you."

"Don’t tell her! Fine, sit wherever you want." Hermione surrendered.

"What’s the Chamber of Secrets?" Yimi sat down beside Hermione and continued asking.

"A legend. In class yesterday, I asked Professor Binns what he thought about the recent rumor that the school was keeping a giant snake. He told us about it." Hermione did not hide anything. Everyone in the class had heard it at the time, and the story had already spread around the school.

Professor Binns taught History of Magic and was the school’s only ghost professor. There was even a rumor that he had never realized he was dead because he could never remember his students’ names.

His lessons were also extraordinarily effective at putting people to sleep. He could lecture about something as exciting as goblin wars and still make students doze off. Hermione happened to be the only person immune to the effect. Perhaps because of that—or perhaps because Hermione asking a question woke everyone up—Professor Binns had said a little more than usual.

"Slytherin House’s symbol is the snake. Slytherin believed that only pure-blood wizards deserved a magical education. His disagreements with the other three founders grew worse and worse until he eventually left Hogwarts." Hermione explained it to Yimi while watching her expression.

"But one legend says Slytherin left a secret chamber somewhere in the castle without the other three founders ever knowing. Only Slytherin’s true heir can open the Chamber of Secrets, release the monster inside, and purge the school of everyone unworthy of learning magic."

"That all makes sense," Harry cut in. "Volde—I mean, You-Know-Who had pretty much the same ideas as Slytherin, didn’t he? Maybe he opened the Chamber back then, released the monster, killed that girl, and framed Hagrid because he was afraid he’d be exposed."

"We still can’t be sure about that, Harry." Hermione looked back at Yimi and questioned her seriously. "What I want to know is why you’re so interested in that giant snake."

"I want to stew it." Yimi was always honest.

But all that honesty earned her was an eye roll from Hermione. "All right. I shouldn’t have suspected a little kid of being Slytherin’s heir."

"Professor McGonagall still isn’t here?" Harry noticed that almost everyone had arrived.

"I’ll go find her." Yimi still wanted to ask Grandma Cat what Halloween actually was. The woman in front of her was speaking in a bad tone, so Yimi was not going to ask her.

As Yimi passed Ron, she gave him a puzzled look.

She had noticed it earlier. This red-haired boy seemed to carry a rat smell. Yimi had thought it was her imagination before, since her human-form sense of smell was not nearly as sharp as in cat form, but the rat scent on Ron was especially strong today.

She decided not to worry about that for now. Yimi ran off to fetch Grandma Cat, transforming into a cat halfway there so she could sniff around and find out just how much rat smell there was in the school.

She ran all the way to the study, lifted a paw to touch the hidden door, and entered McGonagall’s room.

The first thing she saw was a tabby cat sprawled on the desk, lowering its head to take a bite of the catnip confiscated from Yimi a few days ago.

Yimi: ( ? ω ? *)

Feeling Yimi’s stare, the tabby cat that was McGonagall froze.

Cats gradually became desensitized to catnip if they bit too much of it. She had gone through that stage long ago. But after transforming into a cat by chance, she had discovered that this catnip smelled more than ten times as fragrant as anything she had chewed before, and for a moment she simply had not been able to resist.

McGonagall raised her head and met Yimi’s eyes.

"..."

The tabby cat used every bit of her strength to carry the round little cow-patterned cat out of the room by the scruff.