Hogwarts Card System Chapter 147

Chapter 148: New Knowledge and the First Victim

“Mr. Longbottom! You cannot stay at school! It’s too dangerous, too dangerous!” A house-elf in a filthy pillowcase pulled hard on Neville’s robe hem, tears the size of peas falling like rain.

“I’m safe! Let go of me, I need to go back. Don’t attract Filch.” Neville was in a hurry.

He hadn’t seen this annoying house-elf in months and had forgotten about it.

How dare it chase him all the way to school!

“Not safe, not safe!” Dobby refused to let go, and its slender fingers were surprisingly strong, tearing off a piece of Neville’s robe with a rip.

Neville and Dobby were silent for a few seconds. Then Neville ran, but Dobby appeared in front of him in a blink, almost tripping Neville.

“Let go of me!”

“Mr. Longbottom, please leave the school. The monster, the monster has been released!”

“What monster?” Neville stopped struggling and asked curiously.

“Oh no, Dobby cannot expose his master’s plot, Dobby is a bad elf!” With that, Dobby began to bang his head against Hogwarts’ ancient stone wall, as if he might splatter his brains at any moment.

“You, you don’t do that, don’t do that.” Neville, soft-hearted after all, quickly tried to persuade him.

Dobby stopped banging his head, his face full of emotion: “Mr. Longbottom is indeed kind, Dobby, Dobby is so touched.”

Neville: “Then can you tell me about the monster…” Dobby started banging his head wildly again.

“Alright, alright, I won’t ask.”

Just then, a spell shot silently towards Dobby’s back.

But Dobby suddenly ducked, his entire body seeming to shrink, narrowly dodging the spell.

“Ah!” he shrieked, disappearing with a bang.

Then, from a nearby corridor, a clanging sound erupted, as if ten blacksmiths were hammering iron.

Not good! This little thing didn’t choose to flee immediately, but instead opted to cause a big commotion. Was it trying to force Neville to drop out this way? Too naive!

“Disillusionment Charm~” Ted had revealed himself during the sneak attack. Now he cast an invisibility spell on himself and Neville.

Sure enough, in less than a minute, Filch came storming over, cursing.

“Peeves! Let me catch you, you’ll be in a world of pain~” He leaned back dramatically.

The two, now in a safe place, finally had time to chat.

It turned out Neville had come out with Jerry. The good boy had finally been persuaded to be mischievous~

But on the way back, Jerry went to the kitchen for some cheese as a late-night snack, and Neville wanted to return to the dormitory first.

It was only two corridors away, but he didn’t expect to be caught by that house-elf!

“He said his name is Dobby!” Neville looked uneasily at Ted. “Do you think he might have been watching me since before school started, and kept watching me at school, and that’s how he found me alone and suddenly appeared?”

This was practically a stalking pervert!

“Oh, right!” Neville became serious. “He also said some monster was released!”

Ted nodded: “I know, now isn’t the time to talk about it. We’ll discuss it tomorrow. You go back first. Don’t worry about Jerry, that kid is clever, Filch won’t catch him.”

Ted hadn’t expected to fail to catch Dobby.

He didn’t realize house-elves were so sensitive to magic; it actually dodged the spell.

The way it ducked, it didn’t look like a flesh-and-blood creature could do that; its upper body seemed to disappear into its lower body!

But it didn’t matter. Catching him would only give them a slight advantage over Lucius Malfoy.

After this incident, he probably wouldn’t dare to appear again.

Ted went back to sleep, and when he opened his eyes the next morning, guess what? Hey, it was December!

“Ding~ Talent [Otherworldly Knowledge (Gold)] triggered, discovered [Soldier 76 Tactical Goggles Research Manual (Green)].”

[Soldier 76 Tactical Goggles Research Manual (Green)], contains research data for a new type of tactical equipment goggles developed by a technology company. Requires 260 experience to exchange.

Huh? How did this veer into technology?

Ted felt a little pained; it was a once-a-month opportunity!

He was initially inclined to ignore it, but then he thought, given the current situation, he might as well exchange it and see.

Although, judging by the path, this otherworldly knowledge seemed to have gone awry.

But what he was most worried about right now was the basilisk’s deadly gaze, and he had even made protective glasses with unknown effectiveness for it.

And this knowledge, although from the tech side, might be useful.

It didn’t cost much experience, just three or four days’ worth. He exchanged it!

Ted savored the fresh knowledge in his mind and found it very valuable for reference.

Especially the abilities like “super aim,” “outline calculation,” and “trace scanning.”

But the tech side was too far away; it would take more than a day or two to adapt it.

Was he supposed to use alchemy to refine chips and then use ancient runes to write code? Damn!

However, just as Ted was about to go for his morning exercise, he suddenly heard a scream.

Ted’s heart jumped. It was Hermione’s voice!

He cast a spell on himself and ran as fast as he could. His glasses, whose effectiveness was unknown, were already on.

“Hermione, is that you?” As he turned the corner of the corridor, Ted felt a sentient presence. He called out tentatively.

“Ted, it’s me, come quickly and see!” Hermione cried.

Ted rounded the corner and saw the reason for Hermione’s scream—a tiny girl, now lying on the ground, completely gray, her movements stiff, like a stone statue.

This was…

“It’s Clara!” Hermione cried. “W-what happened to her?”

This was Hermione’s roommate, Clara Sparkle, a female student of the gnome race in their year.

Due to the small number of students, each house generally had only one dormitory for boys and one for girls per year.

Ted wasn’t particularly familiar with the girls’ side, but he knew this little girl, who was just over a meter tall.

Clara was lively and mischievous, much loved by Professor Flitwick.

But now, in this state, had she encountered the basilisk?

Ted noticed Clara was wearing a pair of oddly shaped glasses, with many magical components he didn’t understand, but they were now damaged.

Perhaps this was why she avoided a tragic death?

Yesterday, he and Neville had met in the castle, and this morning someone had already been attacked?! And it was in the Ravenclaw Tower complex?!

“Hermione, when did you find her like this?” Ted asked.

Hermione’s face was pale. “Clara often wanders off and goes out at night. Last night she went out, but this morning when I woke up, I found she hadn’t come back at all, so I got worried and came out to look for her…”

In other words, it could have happened anytime from last night to this morning.

Doesn’t that mean that last night, he and Neville might have been wandering the castle at night at the same time as the basilisk! Damn!

Hermione’s scream not only brought Ted but also several diligent, early-rising Ravenclaws, who then saw the stiff, fallen gnome girl, Clara.

Soon, Professor Flitwick and other professors arrived.

Dumbledore concluded that Clara wasn’t dead, but petrified, just like Mrs. Norris on Halloween.

People immediately thought of that line—the Chamber of Secrets!

By breakfast, everyone knew about it. The atmosphere immediately became tense!

Before, it was just a cat that was hurt, and everyone treated it as dinner conversation.

But now it was serious! A student had been attacked!

The Chamber of Secrets! Purify the school! Many students began to feel uneasy.

“We can’t wait any longer! We must hurry and brew the Polyjuice Potion, and quickly get the truth out of Malfoy!” With her roommate petrified, Hermione decided to start brewing the Polyjuice Potion.

So, in the abandoned classroom where Ted did his research, a cauldron was added, burning endlessly.

The first day of December was so exciting; the young wizards couldn’t take it.

Now the students were completely distracted from classes, either asking about or fabricating stories about the Chamber of Secrets. Some young wizards had already started preparing protective amulets.

Ted remembered his promise to the twins and Ron about getting rich, so he came up with a plan for them to make and sell magical charms to the young wizards.

Although their craftsmanship was crude, the charms at least had some effect. They were certainly more useful than things like salamander tails or onion heads, right?

Under the professors’ strenuous reassurance, the first week passed without any more strange incidents.

As the second week began, Professor McGonagall and the others started collecting names of students staying for Christmas, just like every year.

This time, Harry, Neville, Ron, Jerry, and Hermione all signed the list, and Ted would naturally stay as well.

Harry had heard from somewhere that Malfoy also planned to stay for the holidays.

Everyone found this highly suspicious!

Hermione calculated the time; the Christmas holidays would be perfect for using the Polyjuice Potion to get the truth out of Malfoy.

The problem was, the two most important ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion hadn’t been acquired yet.

Bicorn horn and boomslang skin were both materials strictly controlled by the Ministry of Magic, either purchased through legitimate channels or on the black market.

Naturally, they set their sights on Snape’s private storeroom.

Stealing ingredients from Snape would, of course, have to be done by Harry and Jerry.

Jerry had good talent, and Harry could take the blame.

(End of chapter)