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Chapter 70: The Person Who Opened The Chamber

[I’m at Hogwarts, and something terrible is currently happening in this castle. Do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?]

Harry’s heart was beating very fast, and he felt that he would soon learn the truth about the Chamber of Secrets from this fifty-year-old book.

In the book, Riddle’s writing also became very scribbled, as if he couldn’t wait to tell Harry everything he knew. He told Harry about his experience when the Chamber of Secrets was opened once, and a student died because of it.

In the end, he caught the culprit, but the previous principal of Hogwarts did not allow him to tell the truth to protect the school’s reputation. The culprit was expelled, Riddle was asked to keep it a secret, and the school gave him a trophy. Everything came to an end.

Hearing him finish the story, Harry was so excited that he almost knocked over the ink on the side. He asked Riddle to tell him who the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets last time.

Riddle agreed and invited Harry to see his memory by himself. Harry hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

Riddle took Harry to see, from his own perspective, the event that the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago. Letting him personally see the whole process of how he reported Hagrid and how Hagrid let a “creature” escape and was finally caught.

Harry returned to reality after going through Riddle’s memory. He stared at the desk and breathed heavily.

The three of them had guessed that anyone could be the heir of Slytherin, but they never thought that the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets back then was Hagrid.

When Harry was confused, the door to the bedroom was pushed open. Harry nervously closed the book instantly. Ron was wearing pajamas with wet hair and looked at Harry strangely.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Of course, Harry doesn’t want to hide these things from Ron. He couldn’t wait to get up from his chair and tell Ron about everything he had gotten from the book and what he saw through his memory about Hagrid being fired fifty years ago.

Ron’s mouth opened wide, and when he heard Hagrid was the one who opened it, he was stunned.

“Wait, I’ve heard the name Tom Riddle before. Tom Riddle won the award for the most brilliant student ever to attend Hogwarts fifty years ago.”

Harry looked at him in surprise, “Where did you see it?”

Ron replied, “It was because of the punishment that Filch gave me before where I didn’t wipe the trophy room clean enough; he punished me to clean the trophy room again and saw it there.”

Harry further confirmed that Riddle was telling the truth from his words.

“Maybe because he was exposing Hagrid, the school awarded Riddle the award. Which means what Riddle said is true!” Just when Harry and Ron wanted to continue chatting, the door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

Neville and Seamus, whom Snape had punished for handling the potion materials, had returned. Harry and Ron both closed their mouths and secretly hid Riddle’s book in their drawer.

Neville and Seamus looked tired, and neither of them noticed anything unusual about Harry.

“Has Dean come back yet?” Seamus asked.

Ron shrugged and said, “I just saw him next door. He seems to be showing off his new quill.”

Harry looked at Neville, who was lying on the bed as if he had lost his soul as soon as he had entered the room. “What did Snape ask you to do?”

Neville said, “The professor asked us to dig out the brains of three whole buckets of frogs. We have been doing it from six o’clock until now, and our hands are covered with frog blood. Those dead frogs reminded me of…”

Harry and the others looked at each other, and they knew that Trevor was Neville’s pet.

“Come on now, don’t be like that. Trevor is a toad, not a frog.”

But Neville didn’t seem to hear him because, by this time, he was snoring on the bed. He was tired and fell asleep quickly. Harry and the others could only look at each other helplessly.

The next morning, while having breakfast in the Hall, Harry, Ron, and Hermione gathered together. Harry told Hermione everything he had learned from Riddle last night.

Harry constantly recounts everything he saw in Riddle’s memory to Hermione and Ron.

“Riddle may have gotten the wrong person,” Hermione said, defending Hagrid, “Maybe another creature hurt someone…”

“But there are so many creatures at Hogwarts.” Ron didn’t think Hermione’s reasoning was logical.

“We’ve known that Hagrid was fired before, and he has always liked to raise some interesting creatures, like Fluffy and Norbert.” Harry wanted to find a reason for Hagrid, but he was distressed to find that he couldn’t find any reason to defend him at all.

“After Hagrid was fired back then, the attack stopped. Riddle wouldn’t have won the trophy if he didn’t do anything.”

Hermione said, “How about we go to Hagrid and ask him what happened back then?”

“How are we going to ask him?” Ron said, spreading his hands, “Oh, hello, Hagrid. Have you released another furry, savage, terrifying friend recently?”

“What do you expect from him when he faced that question?”

Hermione and Harry were silent. In the end, they decided not to go to Hagrid, and they didn’t plan to tell anyone about it.

At the same time, Harry and the others also stop investigating Slytherin’s heir. Hagrid’s incident made them not want to face these problems without any further lead.

Under the attention of Professor Sprout, the mandrakes in the greenhouse are growing, and when they are fully matured, those who have been petrified will be saved.

The castle was calm the following week until something happened when Harry and the others were having the Defense Against the Dark Arts class.