"Ani, come and take a look too."
Professor Sprout anxiously stretched out her beloved and capable junior and dragged him into the center of the crowd.
Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape, Barbling, Victor, Kettleburn...
Almost all the principals, deans, and professors of majors and elective courses were present. In the distortion of the torches, the shadows reflected on the wall seemed to be dancing with demons, which seemed to foreshadow something ominous.
Sure enough, the little badger, who looked like a new student, curled up and kept sobbing. Not far away, another student fell stiffly to the ground, his body so hard that he could no longer breathe.
It's bourbon.
Ani's heart sank. After all, something unexpected happened, but the question is that little Tom should be racking his brains to "rescue" the basilisk now. Why did he jump out and attack the students when he had no protection before that?
Or is it someone else who did it?
Peter?
Aini knelt down to check Bourbon's condition, various thoughts kept flowing in his mind.
Not Peter.
While coming to the conclusion, Aini was also relieved.
Because there were too many people at the scene, the smell in the air was very mixed, but when he got close to Bourbon's stiff body, he still caught the smell escaping from it.
After the inspection, Aini straightened up and happened to meet Snape's eyes. The latter nodded slightly, and the two potion masters reached a tacit consensus.
Petrifying potion, a potion with an ordinary name but very powerful effects. Its effect is similar to that of looking directly at a basilisk. It can turn the user to stone, which is consistent with Bourbon's current state.
This is also the reason why Peter is ruled out as a suspect. Maybe he can use some spells without the wand, but without the space and raw materials, it is simply impossible to brew the petrifying potion.
"Poor kid, it wasn't long before Moore stopped serving meals when he got here. I shouldn't have let Susan watch him lose weight. Bourbon must have gone to the kitchen to get food because he wasn't full."
Professor Sprout choked and said, and Aini saw two tears falling from her face. Obviously, Bourbon's experience made the fat dean very sad and kept blaming herself.
At this time, the boy who was also slumped on the ground, the boy who Pomona mentioned was the first to come to the scene, also stood up after seeing Aini.
Aini has been very popular among students, especially junior students, for more than a year. Compared with the sad and confused look of the dean, who is also close to him, the former looks much calmer.
Therefore, as if seeing a savior, Moore sobbed and said to Aini: "Today I slept in the dormitory a little late and didn't catch up with dinner, so I wanted to go to the kitchen to get something to eat, but when I got here, I saw Bourbon lying on the ground. .Professor, Bourbon is not dead, right?"
The boy looked at Aini with wide red and swollen eyes, afraid of getting a negative answer. Moore couldn't understand why Bourbon was such a good senior, how could anyone have the heart to kill him?
"Don't worry, it's just ordinary petrification and can be cured easily, but it may take some time."
Ani put his arm around the boy's shoulders, shook him, and handed him a pack of tissues.
"Minerva, Pomona, please send the two children to the school doctor's office first..."
After arranging the two victims of varying degrees, Dumbledore was about to invite Ernie and Snape to leave with him.
"Aha, are you guys gathering here? No one notified me. I'm so sad."
With a disgustingly pompous tone, Lockhart squeezed in, waving his wand.
"Oh~ Poor little fat man, he must have suffered a lot during his lifetime. It's a pity that I wasn't there at the time, otherwise..."
Lockhart walked around Bourbon, but there was no trace of regret in his tone.
"Shut your crow mouth, Bourbon is still alive, please get out of the way now, I'm going to take him to the school doctor's office."
Professor Sprout, who always showed a gentle image, angrily interrupted someone's trash talk. He stretched out his fat arm and pushed Lockhart staggeringly into the wall behind him.
Suddenly, a gap formed in the crowd, and a certain face that had been carefully groomed just now was "kissed" hard on the wall.
No one came to help him, and no one said a word of greeting.
Ani's pupils narrowed and he looked at Snape again, who was frowning and nostrils twitching, as if he was also distinguishing a certain smell.
Knowing that the student's life was not in danger, the professors left one after another. McGonagall and Sprout also took the two students to the school hospital.
When people left, Aini discovered the blood-red writing on the wall.
[The secret room has been opened. Those who are enemies of the heir, beware! 】
Taking out a large piece of parchment, Aini moved the red color on the wall onto the paper. Anyway, there is no shortage of storage space, so keep it for now, maybe it will come in handy sometime.
"Severus, Ani, follow me."
Dumbledore greeted and walked towards the stairs first.
"You can use my office. I have prepared some good black tea. You will like it."
When Lockhart stood up with his face covered, he realized that the last three people left behind were about to leave, and he hurriedly chased after them and shouted.
"Thank you, Lockhart. But we have business to do, so we won't go to your place to chat."
The smile on the other party's face made the old principal a little unhappy, so he responded hastily and continued walking upstairs.
Lockhart wanted to continue to pester, but suddenly the expressionless look on Dumbledore's face flashed through his mind, and he felt a slight chill in his heart, and he stopped angrily.
There was silence all the way until the three of them canceled the silent mode after entering the principal's office.
"It's Lockhart. He smells of petrifying potion."
Ani pondered and recounted his previous findings, "I thought Tom would give priority to rescuing the 'trapped' basilisk, but I didn't expect that he would directly poison the students." "
The "secret room" that the two people arranged was almost the same as the prototype, except that the statue and a subsequent section of the mountain were disguised as natural collapse, so as to consume Tom and Lockhart's time and prevent them from always causing trouble.
Who would have thought that the tunnel to release the basilisk had not yet been dug, but Lockhart did it first.
"Perhaps there was a deviation in our initial assumptions, or in other words, the life and soul of the host are not the only conditions for the resurrection of the Horcrux."
The other two people in the room naturally didn't know how the world would develop without Ani, but he himself knew it.
After gradually gaining the relevant permissions from Ginny, Tom did not choose to develop silently, but instead kept flying.
Regardless of praise or criticism, Voldemort can indeed be called the most dazzling magical seed in England since Dumbledore. After accumulating patience, Voldemort conquered the Slytherin classmates in one fell swoop.
For a half-blood wizard who was born in a Muggle orphanage, it is not easy to do this.
It is hard to imagine that when such a person is weak, he would take public revenge for the sake of anger, thus putting himself in danger and even losing the chance of resurrection.
There is only one truth. Obviously, Tom can gain some substantial benefits from those actions.
