127: The last message in Chapter 127

"Something happened! There's writing on the wall on the Second Floor Girls Lavatory again!"

When Pansy rushed into the Common Room, she hadn't even fastened her shawl properly. Behind her followed two younger girls; one still had tears on her face, while the other kept looking back at the corridor as if afraid a snake's head would emerge from the wall.

Draco stood up from his chair. "Who?"

"Ginny Weasley." Pansy forced herself to calm down, pressing her palms against the edge of the table. "She's gone. The wall says her skeleton will lie in the Chamber of Secrets forever."

Crabbe's pie dropped into his plate, and Goyle rushed to catch it, not even bothering to wipe the sauce that splattered onto his cuff.

Nott returned from the entrance, his face paler than usual. "The news has already spread to all four houses. Professor McGonagall is summoning all students back to their Common Room, and the Professors are gathering on the second floor. Harry and Ron were seen heading towards Gilderoy Lockhart's office."

Draco turned to look at Allen. "What now?"

Allen sat in the shadows against the wall, his fingers resting on the wand inside his sleeve. In that instant, the golden patterns on the north side of his Portable Space adhered completely to the direction of the Chamber of Secrets, as if pulled by a hand. Beside the ebony box, the blue light of the cracked pocket watch stopped flickering and pressed straight downwards toward the ground.

"Confirmed."

"Confirmed what?" Draco's voice rose. "Ginny has already been taken!"

"Confirmed that Tom has written the final message." Allen stood up, the hem of his robes brushing against the chair leg. "Confirmed that Ginny is still alive."

Pansy froze. "How can you be sure?"

"The word 'skeleton' is bait. If Tom wants Harry to go down there, he must make Harry believe she can still be saved. A dead person cannot lure The Chosen One; only a living one can."

Zabini pushed in from behind the crowd, clutching a note in his hand. "The Board of Governors has already received the news. Lucius has left the Three Broomsticks and is heading toward the school. Some say he intends to force the Professors to admit that more serious attacks only occurred after Dumbledore left the school."

Draco's face stiffened instantly. He took the note, and after one glance, his fingertips crumpled the paper.

"He's still coming?"

"Of course he's coming." Allen snatched the paper from his hand. "The evidence has arrived, and the show is about to begin."

At the entrance of the Common Room, students were constantly being herded in by prefects. Some were shouting about the Heir of Slytherin, some were saying Harry had been exposed, and others were whispering curses about the Weasley Family's bad luck. Flint stood by the fireplace with a few older students, his face showing an irrepressible excitement.

"I told you, the targets for the Chamber of Secrets' cleansing would get more and more precise." Seeing Draco, Flint immediately raised his voice. "Malfoy, your father should finally make the school change its rules this time, right?"

Draco turned to speak, but the tip of Allen's wand tapped inside his sleeve, and a Spatial Displacement gently bumped against his knee.

Draco swallowed his words, his expression darkening further.

Zabini took control of the situation, tapping his silver spoon gently against the rim of his cup. "Flint, if Ginny Weasley actually dies, the Ministry of Magic will first investigate the person who loves shouting about 'cleansing' in the Common Room the most. You'd better shout it a few more times tonight; the portraits will remember it very clearly."

Flint's face twitched. "Zabini, stop trying to scare me with that act you learned from your mother."

Pansy crossed her arms, her voice sharp. "He's not trying to scare you. Madam Norris, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Nick, Granger, Penelope Clearwater—now it's the turn of a first-year girl. If you still treat this as a house slogan, go and sign your name on the wall on the second floor."

The younger students fell silent immediately. Flint was choked up, cursed halfway through a sentence, and finally led his people away to a distance.

Draco looked down at Allen. "You stopped me just now."

"Your father is outside, there's writing in blood on the wall, and the Chamber of Secrets is consuming people. If you speak for either side right now, you'll leave behind evidence against yourself."

"So I just sit here?"

"Yes." Allen stuffed a piece of parchment into his palm. "Sit here, get angry, complain that the Professors are useless, complain that Gilderoy Lockhart is pretentious, complain that the Weasley Family is always causing trouble for the school. Don't mention your father, don't mention the diary, don't mention me."

Draco looked down at the paper; there were very few words, yet they felt like nails piercing his palm.

"Are you leaving?"

"Not yet." Allen looked toward the entrance. "Harry and Ron will go find Gilderoy Lockhart first. They need an adult as a shield, even if he is a useless one."

Nott added, "Gilderoy Lockhart said in the Great Hall just now that he has already mastered the monster's location and said he would handle it personally tonight."

Crabbe asked in a low voice: "Will he really go?"

Goyle shook his head. "He'll pack his bags."

Draco actually let out a laugh, but his face sank again afterward. "What if Harry doesn't find the entrance?"

"He will find it." Allen cast his gaze toward the Black Lake window. "Aragog gave the Girls Lavatory, Hermione gave the Basilisk, Myrtle will give the sink, and Harry will give the Parseltongue."

"Ginny gives her life." Pansy replied quickly, her voice tight.

Allen glanced at her. "That's why there's very little time."

Heavy footsteps suddenly came from above the Common Room. Snape appeared at the entrance, his black robes brushing against the doorframe, followed by two prefects.

"Everyone stay here. No student is allowed to leave without permission."

His gaze swept from Flint to Draco, and finally stopped on Allen. There was no nonsense in those eyes, only interrogation.

"Potter."

Allen stood straight. "Professor."

"You are not allowed to go anywhere tonight."

Draco immediately interjected, "He has been sleeping here the whole time, Professor. We all saw it."

Snape's gaze bore down on Draco. "Mr. Malfoy, I haven't asked you yet."

Draco braced himself. "I am just stating the facts."

Nott closed his small notebook. "Professor, at least twenty people in the Common Room saw Potter by the fireplace. Flint was there too."

Flint's face stiffened. Pushed by the gazes of the younger students, he could only say gruffly, "He was here, sleeping like the dead."

Snape stared at Allen, as if trying to peel that layer of drowsiness off his face.

"Very well. Continue sleeping."

Allen lowered his head. "Yes, Professor."

Snape turned and left, his footsteps fading into the corridor. The suppressed discussions in the Common Room emerged again, more chaotic than before.

Draco stepped closer, the words squeezed almost through his teeth. "He's watching you."

"He's always been watching." Allen sat back in his chair, lowering his eyelids. "It's even better now. Everyone will remember that I was specifically ordered by him to stay here."

Pansy noticed something was wrong. "You're going to leave right under his nose?"

The knuts in Allen's sleeve pressed against his palm one by one, and a spatial anchor extended from the Common Room to the vicinity of the Second Floor Girls Lavatory, like a narrow bridge that only he could walk upon.

"When the door opens, I will disappear."

Draco grabbed his sleeve, gripping it heavily. "Allen, this isn't the Philosopher's Stone. There's a Basilisk down there, and Tom."

Allen pulled his sleeve back, his voice very low. "It was never a game."