#819 - Hunting Action

Lockhart felt a chill run down his spine under Ander's gaze, asking nervously, "What's wrong? Is there a problem? Do you know that witch?"

"It's nothing..." Ander smiled faintly. "I'm just suddenly impressed by you. Perhaps there's a place more suitable for you than the Ministry of Magic. →"

"Oh? Really?" Lockhart's heart leaped with joy upon hearing this. He thought Ander was letting him off the hook for being so cooperative.

"Yes, Stupefy!" Ander sneered, then stunned him without another word, before grabbing a communicator. "Hogg, come to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office."

After a moment, Hogg peeked his head in through the door, "Master, you called me?"

"Mm." Ander nodded, then gestured towards Lockhart on the ground. "Drag him back to the institute, lock him up!"

"Oh, it's this old fraud..." Hogg walked to Lockhart, playfully poking him with his paw, then raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Aren't you going to hand him over to Dumbledore?"

Hogg was well aware of Lockhart's situation, knowing Ander would eventually make a move on him. But according to the previous plan, they were going to hand him over to the Ministry of Magic. Why the change of plans?

"Lockhart knows some secrets I'm interested in," Ander murmured, tidying up the materials in his hand. "But this secret needs verification, and his verbal information is too vague. I need to thoroughly examine his memories."

"What about Dumbledore? Detaining a professor like this might be difficult to explain," Hogg worried.

"Dumbledore knows about Lockhart's situation. I'll just hand him over later," Ander chuckled dismissively. "Just do as I say. Also, keep an eye out these next few days. The Basilisk is a hot commodity in those kids' eyes. Be careful they don't find you."

"Haha... then I'll have to teach them a lesson!" Hogg wagged his tail excitedly, as if his fighting spirit had been ignited.

After dealing with Lockhart, Ander returned to his professorial life, becoming even busier than before.

After all, besides teaching students, he had a large number of affairs to handle.

The experiments with the Deathly Hallows were nearing completion, so now was not the time to stop. Although there were already many clues about Herpo the Foul's whereabouts, they required a lot of time to sort out.

Not to mention he still had Voldemort in his hands. Ander was counting on him to find Peter Pettigrew and the other Death Eaters lurking in Britain.

And while Ander was immersed in his busy life, a grand Chamber of Secrets adventure was unfolding within Hogwarts.

The events of the night Lockhart revealed himself had spread throughout the entire school through the hundred or so students who witnessed it, so even though Lockhart didn't reappear in the following days, no one seemed surprised.

As for the bounty on the Chamber monster, it became common knowledge, and the reward of hundreds of house points ignited the young wizards' strong desire.

Soon, the four houses of Hogwarts united, spontaneously organizing specialized groups to study the Chamber of Secrets and the monster, as the reward points concerned the honor of the entire house.

With high organization, each house further subdivided into various branches, such as a history group dedicated to researching school history records, attempting to find clues about the Chamber and the monster.

There was also an exploration group composed of senior students proficient in reconnaissance, who would use various tracking spells to try to pinpoint the monster's activity range and whereabouts.

In addition, to avoid further victims and discover the monster's tracks as soon as possible, each house strictly stipulated that everyone must go out in pairs and immediately send out a message upon encountering the monster. For this purpose, a security group was specially established to patrol.

At the same time, in order to figure out the information held by other houses, they even had wizards who were dating students from other houses help them gather intelligence.

That's right, they even had spies!

Therefore, within a short week, the atmosphere throughout Hogwarts became increasingly subtle.

One could often see students crouching in the corners of the castle, not knowing what they were doing. When someone came over to ask, they would immediately get up, pat their clothes, and leave as if nothing had happened.

But if one wasn't careful, these guys would start crouching on the walls and floors, touching and looking around randomly.

Obviously, these little wizards were conducting a carpet search of Hogwarts. Their all-penetrating spirit even astonished Ander.

He now wondered how long that Basilisk could hide. Thinking about it, as a ferocious beast that had lived for thousands of years, it was now being rummaged through like a rat. How ironic.

Faced with this situation, the professors in the school, especially the heads of the four houses, were happy to see it happen.

After all, this kind of behavior, where students united and worked together for the honor of the house, was still very gratifying.

Especially Professor McGonagall, who also hoped that Gryffindor could win the House Cup again. To this end, she even considered whether to give these little lions some hints.

But being an upright person, she finally abandoned the idea of cheating. At the same time, she specifically warned Snape about this, after all, this guy was really likely to give those little snakes special treatment.

However, when the potential of the little wizards was developed, it was really not to be underestimated.

After a whole week of exploration, although they didn't find the Chamber of Secrets and the monster, these little wizards found more than a dozen secret passages connecting the school!

Some of these secret passages allowed people to travel within the school, and some even led outside the school.

Moreover, due to the existence of spies, the locations of these secret passages were quickly discovered by each house. Soon, a three-dimensional map of Hogwarts' secret passages appeared in each house's common room.

Having obtained the clues to the secret passages, it was naturally impossible not to explore them, after all, these secret passages were likely to contain clues to that monster.

As a result, in addition to the original 'ground-crouching party', there was also a bunch of 'elusive party'. People would often be walking when suddenly a person would pop out from behind the surrounding walls, tapestries, and statues, scaring many professors.

And through the exploration of the secret passages, they did find many traces left by the monster, and even collected many samples such as scales and saliva.

It's just that because everyone had never seen a Basilisk, they still couldn't determine what kind of creature it was for a while.

Although these discoveries had nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets, they made the little wizards very excited, after all, exploring and treasure hunting was very attractive to most little wizards.

Therefore, the students' actions became more and more crazy, even forcing Hogg to avoid their edge for a while.

Because now all the little wizards would no longer appear alone. When moving around the campus, they would at least be in pairs.

And the secret passages that used to be used to divert the Basilisk were now almost always being wandered around in.

This made Hogg very unhappy, and at the same time aroused his desire to win.

Then, in the following two weeks, he planned two more attacks. The first time, because it was unexpected, he directly knocked down two little wizards.

But this quickly led to a backlash from the students, and the search team organized by the little wizards almost caught up with the fleeing Basilisk.

Hogg was almost driven to death by this. He was clearly driving a Basilisk, who would have thought he would be led around by a bunch of students.

But this was really no way, the little wizards in Hogwarts now, in terms of combat effectiveness alone, whether it was skill, experience, or will, all performed exceptionally well, and each one was very brave. Not to mention a Basilisk, even if a fire dragon came, they might not be able to do anything to them.

And because of the tactical training course, the tactical literacy of these students in the school was also very high. Not only were their reconnaissance and tracking skills first-class, but they even combined a set of capture formations when chasing.

Naturally, Hogg was unwilling to show weakness after suffering this humiliation, and in order to retaliate, he soon planned another attack.

But this time the effect was even worse than last time. Those students had become more and more refined, and even learned to lure the enemy.

They would arrange a wizard volunteer to wander alone in a remote part of the school at night, and then the rest would hide around using the Disillusionment Charm, waiting for the monster's attack.

Fortunately, before preparing to attack, Hogg discovered several students who had failed to maintain the Disillusionment Charm in time due to mistakes, otherwise he would have plunged into the trap.

Therefore, the second attack had to be terminated halfway, and a large number of Basilisk traces were left behind.

Also because of the discovery of these traces, the little wizards determined that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets had almost stepped into the trap they had set.

And this made the little wizards more determined to catch the Basilisk, because they found that this monster in the Chamber of Secrets was actually afraid!

The Chamber of Secrets monster that had once made everyone fearful was actually afraid, which made the little wizards feel extremely excited, and their mentality towards this monster had undergone earth-shattering changes.

After being defeated, Hogg also became much more cautious, and in the following period of time, he let the Basilisk hide in the Chamber of Secrets.

However, although the Basilisk did not move, the little wizards were getting closer and closer to it, until these little wizards discovered the location of the Chamber of Secrets.

The beginning of the matter still happened to the four-person group of Harry.

Because Hermione knew that the monster was reacting to his Parseltongue, Hermione used only a very short time to lock the monster on the Basilisk.

But in the beginning, Hermione and others were still a little hesitant about this guess, because in the records, the Basilisk's gaze would cause death, but now all the people who were attacked were only petrified.

But the various performances of the monster made the four-person group more and more certain that this was a Basilisk.

And the reason why the lethality of the Basilisk would decline so seriously, Hermione naturally suspected Ander.

That's right, not long after the bounty for the Basilisk was issued, Hermione and others realized that this Basilisk might be related to Ander.

After all, this professor had previously specifically asked Harry to learn Parseltongue, and as a result, the Basilisk appeared not long after learning it. How could there be such a coincidence?

However, they did not expose it, because the reward for capturing the Basilisk was also something that several people longed for.

But the trouble was that although their intelligence was ahead of many houses, they were completely inferior to the power of the group when they really started searching.

And the reason why Hermione and others did not share intelligence with the house, but chose to investigate separately, was mainly because they were numbed by the spy activities that the house had experienced during this period.

No matter what intelligence the house collected, no matter how strictly it was kept secret, the other three houses could always get it in less than two days.

Of course, Gryffindor could also receive the intelligence obtained by other houses as soon as possible.

It can only be said that in today's wizarding society, information circulation is really too fast, everyone has communicators in their hands, and it is impossible to figure out who is the snitch.

Therefore, Hermione and others did not dare to act with the house at all, for fear that the intelligence they had would be obtained by other houses.

However, there was soon a turning point. Due to that failed attack, the Lion House led by Percy harvested a Basilisk scale left behind.

In the end, it can only be said that it is worthy of being a large number of people. The students of the Lion House actually determined that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was the intelligence of the Basilisk based on this scale alone.

At the same time, also because of this key clue, those neurotic 'ground-crouching party' and 'elusive party' discovered the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets located in the second floor bathroom.

There was no way, although the snake-shaped pattern on the sink was very obscure, it was not completely invisible.

But what made everyone sure that this was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was Moaning Myrtle's confession in the bathroom.

Due to Ander's previous threat, Moaning Myrtle directly revealed that she had died from the Basilisk when she heard the little wizards asking.

When the students heard this information, everyone was shocked. They did not expect that this Chamber of Secrets not only really existed, but the Basilisk inside was also the real murderer of the life case 50 years ago.

This news even alarmed the professors in the school, because this life case involved another party besides the Chamber of Secrets, that is, Hagrid.

For this reason, Professor McGonagall, together with Dumbledore, specially went to the Ministry of Magic with Hagrid to apply for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to open a re-investigation, intending to rehabilitate Hagrid.

And while the two headmasters left Hogwarts, the little wizards in the school were thinking about how to open the Chamber of Secrets and catch the Basilisk inside.

Their initial plan was actually quite rough, that is, to directly blast open the entrance with spells and break in.

Of course, this proposal was quickly rejected. Actively destroying school property would result in points being deducted and detention being punished. They were looking for the Chamber of Secrets to get points in the first place, so this would be completely counterproductive.

It was at this time that the four-person group of Harry found Percy, the person in charge of organizing this hunting operation in Gryffindor House.

"What? You said you know how to open the Chamber of Secrets?" Percy looked at the four people with some suspicion.

First release the latest.