121: Chapter 121 No Hermione

"Hermione is lying in the Hospital Wing, and you still want to study that broken diary?"

Ron's voice was hushed in the Gryffindor Common Room, the fire in the hearth turning his face red. "Harry, what exactly are you trying to prove?"

Harry pressed the black diary onto his lap, his palm covering the cover, as if holding down a snake that might slither into his sleeve.

He looked up at Ron, then at Percy standing nearby. "Hermione found out about the Basilisk, and the diary showed me fifty years ago. It's lying, but it also hides the answer."

"Leave the answers to the Professor."

Percy reached out, his prefect badge gleaming in the firelight.

"Penelope Clearwater is lying in the Hospital Wing, and Granger is lying there too. You're holding a suspicious object, and you still want to handle it yourself? Potter, stop mixing courage and stupidity into a pot of pumpkin soup."

"What right do you have to tell me what to do?"

Harry stood up, the diary sliding into his inner robe pocket. "You were only focused on Penelope just now; you didn't listen to a word Hermione said."

Ron grabbed Harry's shoulder.

"Stop arguing. Harry, Hermione said not to write in it, not to touch it alone. She's smarter than us, and even she ended up in trouble."

All the students in the Common Room were watching them.

Fred and George were uncharacteristically quiet, not cracking any jokes. Ginny sat behind an armchair, her fingertips gripping her skirt, her face lowered, not even her hair able to hide the pallor on her face.

When she heard the word "diary," her throat moved slightly, as if swallowing a mouthful of prickly water.

Harry saw Ginny too.

Just as he was about to speak, Professor McGonagall's voice came from outside the portrait of The Fat Lady, "Potter, Mr. Weasley, Percy, come out."

The three of them stopped at the same time.

Percy stepped forward first, and Harry touched his inner pocket before following him out of the portrait hole.

Professor McGonagall stood in the corridor, her robes buttoned to the very top, holding a copy of the data pages Hermione had been clutching.

"From now on, all students must be escorted by a Professor or a prefect when moving about.

No leaving the Common Room after six o'clock. No student may approach the second-floor girls' bathroom; violators will be in detention until the end of the term."

Professor McGonagall spoke quickly, every word sounding as if it had been pressed by a ruler. "Potter, hand over the diary you are holding."

Harry's hand froze by his pocket.

Ron turned his head, anxious. "Hand it over."

Harry gritted his teeth, took out the black diary, and handed it to Professor McGonagall.

When the diary left his palm, the cover warmed slightly, as if it were clinging to him unwillingly. Professor McGonagall didn't open it; she wrapped it in a handkerchief and turned to hand it to Snape behind her.

Snape took the diary, his black eyes fixed on Harry's face. "How much have you written?"

"A few times," Harry said in a low voice.

"A few times is enough for an old object to figure out your habits, weaknesses, and stupidity."

Snape tucked the diary into the inside of his robes. "If Miss Granger were awake, she would have said that even more harshly."

Ron opened his mouth but didn't retort.

Harry's face flushed stiffly. "It showed me Hagrid."

"It showed you what it wanted you to see." Snape turned and walked away.

"Follow Professor McGonagall closely. If I see you on the second floor again, Potter, I will suggest to the Principal that you be sent back to the Dursley family for a week to calm down."

Harry looked up sharply, but Professor McGonagall's hand was already pressing on his shoulder. "Go back."

At the same time, in the Slytherin Common Room, Nott wrote down the latest regulations in a notebook, with three pieces of information from different sources piled beside it.

Pansy came down from the girls' dormitory, bringing back rumors from the Gryffindor girls' side;

Zabini received a short note from his mother; Draco sat opposite Allen, a polished silver buckle placed on the table.

"The diary was taken by Snape," Nott said.

"Percy forced Harry, Professor McGonagall stepped in, and Snape took over. Gryffindor is now divided into three groups: one cursing Harry, one afraid of Harry, and one crying over Granger."

Draco leaned back in his chair, his expression still grim. "The old bat has the diary; things should be over now, right?"

Allen tapped his quill on the parchment. "Tom won't let a piece of soul be locked in Snape's cupboard."

"Can he escape from Snape?" Pansy frowned. "That's the Dean."

"Old objects have their own ways." Allen wrote down the four words "transfer risk." "It might have Ginny steal it, or induce Harry to snatch it, or it might seal itself before being detected."

"Snape is good at Potion and Legilimency, but he might not be fast enough against a Horcrux."

Hearing the word "Horcrux," Draco dropped the silver buckle on the table. "Did you name it that?"

"There are similar records in the Dark Arts."

Allen didn't explain further.

"The focus is on Ginny. After she loses the diary, the control chain will pull on her. Tonight she will lose control, cry, shake, and look for a chance to leave the tower."

Zabini pushed his mother's note to the center of the table. "The Board of Governors is moving too. Mother says Uncle Lucius has gathered several school governors on the grounds that 'the school has failed to guarantee the basic safety of its students.' They were waiting exactly for Granger and Clearwater to be petrified."

Draco looked sharply at the note, his hand pressing onto the table. "Is my father really going to remove Dumbledore?"

"They are discussing it," Zabini said, emphasizing "discussing" very lightly. "The wording is cleaner, but the meaning is uglier. If anything else happens, the Principal will be pushed out the door."

Pansy whispered, "If Dumbledore leaves, the Basilisk will still be in the school."

"So Lucius is removing the umbrella, and the students will be the first to get rained on."

Allen folded up the note. "He is betting that Tom only attacks Muggle-borns, betting on the safety of pure-bloods, and betting that the Board of Governors can harvest the panic. But the Basilisk listens to the diary, not Malfoy."

Draco's face tightened. He wanted to retort, but couldn't find the words. Lucius had always taught him to look at the family, at interests, at dignity, but the water stains and petrified students in the Hogwarts corridors had soaked the word "dignity" into dirty paper.

Nott tapped the notebook. "The Professor escort system was just announced. Common Room closed after six. Second floor sealed. The problem is, after Gryffindor loses Granger, Potter and Weasley are very likely to act recklessly."

"They have already lost their brains," Draco blurted out, then glanced at Allen. "I mean, Granger can't clean up their logic for them."

Allen crossed out Hermione's name to the side.

"Without Hermione, Harry will go by impulse, and Ron will pull by fear. They might find the Basilisk, but they won't necessarily understand the situation. We need to fill in some of the signposts for them, but we cannot stand in front of them."

Pansy frowned, "Still helping them?"

"Let them get close to the entrance alive." Allen circled "Harry." "Parseltongue is the key. Without Harry, the door won't open. If the door doesn't open, the diary will hide among the students and continue to suck blood."

Draco grabbed the silver buckle, then put it down. "So we still have to protect Potter?"

"Protect the key to the door," Allen corrected.

Footsteps came from the Common Room entrance, and Snape's black robes appeared from behind the stone door.

All the Slytherins went silent instantly, even Flint put down his cup. Snape walked up to Allen, holding a roll of parchment in his hand.

"Potter, extra essay, due tomorrow morning. Topic changed." Snape threw the parchment onto the table. "The erosion path of Dark Arts objects on the will of underage Wizards."

Draco's throat moved.

Allen picked up the parchment. "How much does the Professor want me to write?"

"Three feet." Snape looked down at him. "Since you can always wake up on the edge of danger, you must be able to write something."

"I will hand it in on time."

Snape didn't leave. His gaze lingered on the silver buckle, lenses, and the edges of the pipe sketches on the table. "The new school regulations have been announced. Any unauthorized investigation will be considered as obstructing the Professors from dealing with the Chamber of Secrets incident."

Allen closed the pipe sketches. "Understood."

"I hope you really understand." Snape turned to Draco. "Malfoy, if your father writes to ask about the school's situation, the answer is only one sentence: The Professors are dealing with it."

Draco said in a low voice, "Yes, Professor."

After Snape left, no one in the Common Room spoke. After a long while, Zabini turned his silver spoon around. "The Dean smelled something."

Nott noted down, "Snape got the diary, the Board of Governors is activated, Granger is out of the game, Potter has lost his strategist. Four lines are converging."

Allen looked at the topic on the table and suddenly said, "The diary cannot stay in Snape's hands for long."

Draco was stunned. "You just said not to snatch it from Harry, now you want to snatch it from the Dean?"

"I said it cannot stay long, I didn't say we should snatch it." Allen pressed his quill onto the paper. "Tom will take action himself. He wants Ginny, he wants the entrance, he wants Harry. We just need to watch where he reaches out from."

Night pressed against the Black Lake, the ripples outside the Slytherin windows looking like rows of fine door bolts.

Inside the Portable Space, the void hovered in front of the golden patterns on the north side, its silver eyes staring at the blue line swinging back and forth between the Gryffindor Tower and the underground pipes.

Peter was released from the silence spell, his voice squeezing out. "Dumbledore cannot leave. While the old man is here, the Master will go around him. If the old man leaves, the school will become a hunting ground."

Allen sat in the center of the space, his fingers pressing on the parchment next to the cracked pocket watch. "Lucius doesn't know who he is opening the door for."

"Malfoy has always been like this," Peter curled up in the cage. "They think they can use the Dark Lord's things as tools, but in the end, the tool will bite the master first."

Allen looked at the golden pattern map. "Then let Draco see clearly. The Malfoy Family's debts must be settled starting with the son."

The tip of the void's tail suddenly tapped the ground.

On the golden pattern map, a thin blue line appeared at the Gryffindor Tower, extending downwards, but was blocked back by some powerful restriction. Ginny hadn't left the tower, but she was already trying.

Allen opened his eyes and wrote down the last entry for Chapter 121.

Without Hermione, there was one less lamp on the chessboard.

Tom would move faster in the dark.