Hogwarts Study Panel

Chapter 332, Section 331: Sin

Under intense pressure, Ha used his snake talk, a fact that everyone in Hope Hut knew.

The snake stopped moving at his hissing sound.

Snape stepped forward, waved his wand, and the snake vanished in a wisp of black smoke.

Snape looked at him with a strange expression, as if confirming something.

He vaguely sensed that the people around him were whispering ominously.

Just then, he felt someone tug at the back of his robe.

Sheen pulled him behind him, and the sounds subsided considerably.

"Let's go, Harry."

Justin and Neville appeared at some point, following Sheehan's gaze.
The two seemed somewhat worried.

"Have you forgotten? I told you not to reveal it. Even in the magical world, speaking in ways that others can't understand is not good news."

Ron was getting a little anxious.

"What did I say?"

Harry saw Sheen watching him leave, and noticed the less-than-pleasant expressions on his friends' faces.

"You used parsleyan language again!"

Ron continued until they arrived at the deserted Hope Hut, and then he spoke.

"But I'm not the heir to Slytherin, so what!"

Harry said.

“Harry, other people won’t think that way.”

Hermione sighed.

"Okay, now, everyone in the school will think you're his great-great-great-great-grandson or something..."

Ron said.

Harry was stunned for a moment.

"I know Parsleyan, but the heir of Slytherin?"

Justin frowned at this point; neither he nor Neville had participated in the secret room operation.

"I knew Sheen hadn't said anything again."

Hermione felt somewhat helpless. She even suspected that even if Sheen went to confront the Mystic alone one day, no one would know anything about it.

The basilisk was something they encountered by chance.

“I should have explained this sooner. It’s like this: on Halloween, Harry heard a strange sound…”

Hermione recounted the story in detail, recalling that harrowing night.

Behind the daytime hustle and bustle of Hogwarts, someone with a sword blocked the Basilisk in the dead of night.

Even now, she felt a chill run down her spine. The mysterious man had been trying to get the basilisk to attack them, but he had clearly overlooked a young wizard with terrifyingly high combat power.

ten minutes later.

Harry wasn't the only one who looked pale; Justin and Neville sat with him, all three of them with their heads bowed, seemingly lost in thought.

……

The Duel Club has been dismissed, and a rumor has resurfaced in the auditorium.

—The Chamber of Secrets, and the Heirs of Slytherin.

As Sheen walked down the corridor, he could still hear what the Hufflepuffs were talking about.

They huddled together, discussing a topic that was quite interesting.

"So, Ernie, are you sure it's Potter?"

A girl with a golden ponytail asked eagerly.

Hannah,

The big boy said seriously,
"He speaks Parsley. Everyone knows that's the mark of a dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a righteous wizard who can talk to snakes? They call Slytherin himself Parsley."

“But Harry always seems so friendly.”

Hannah hesitated before saying, "And, right, he was the one who made the mysterious man disappear back then. He couldn't be that bad, could he?"

Ernie lowered his voice mysteriously, and the Hufflepuffs huddled even closer together.

"Nobody knows how he survived the attack by the mysterious man. I mean, he was just a baby when it happened. He should have been blown to pieces. Only a truly powerful dark wizard could escape such a spell."

His voice lowered, almost a whisper, and he said:

"That's probably why the mysterious man wanted to kill him; he didn't want another 'demon' to challenge him. I don't know what other magic Potter is hiding from everyone."

Reasonable and well-founded.

Sheehan believed that wizards had a certain talent for spreading rumors.

However, the rumors will stop after the reports are published, so there's nothing to worry about.

Harry's Parseltongue reminded him of the Basilisk, so he headed toward the headmaster's office.

Just as he left, a dejected figure walked past – Harry, in a daze, had no idea how he got back to the Gryffindor common room.

A short while later, in the principal's office.

Sheehan finally saw Headmaster Dumbledore sitting in his seat.

"Perhaps we'll need a new teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts again. Good heavens, this subject goes through a teacher really fast, doesn't it?"

Headmaster Dumbledore smiled and winked.

"Professor Lockhart..."

Sheen hadn't expected it to be this serious.

"Oh, not that, but the next one. Scams always get exposed, and falsehoods don't stand up to scrutiny."

Headmaster Dumbledore smiled calmly and said.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the room and land on a little witch flipping through Lockhart's books.

“Sincerity, Mr. Green, is something that is always easy to lose. I’m glad to see that you understand this.”

Dumbledore seemed to be referring to something.

Sheen stared into his eyes, and Dumbledore's smile faltered slightly.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, you're here..."

Before Sheen could even ask, Headmaster Dumbledore changed the subject:
"We have to wait before we discuss anything..."

His fingers trembled, and Sheen realized that he and the principal had become invisible.

He looked up and saw a figure peering curiously from the doorway.

He seemed to realize that the place was empty, so he quietly walked around the table, picked up the hat from the shelf, and slowly put it on his head.

Sheen turned around and saw Headmaster Dumbledore looking at him kindly, putting a finger to his lips.

The hat slipped down onto the edge of the table, covering Harry's eyes, because it was too big.

"Oh, yes, it's me."

Sheehan heard Harry mumbling something indistinctly.
"Oh—sorry to bother you—I wanted to ask you something—"

Sheehan knew he was talking to the Sorting Hat. The next moment, Harry grabbed the top of the hat and angrily ripped it off.

The hat hung limply in his hand, dirty and faded.

Harry put it back on the shelf and said loudly:

"You're wrong! I'm not suited for Slytherin! I could never be!"

The hat didn't move. Harry stared at it, stepped back, and walked away worriedly.

His muttering echoed in the quiet office:
"Sophistry...resourceful...strong-willed...and a certain contempt for the law—don't talk nonsense!"

Only after he left did Headmaster Dumbledore call Sheehan to his side and ask with a smile:

Do you have an answer now?

"In any case, it did not make a choice, so even though the souls in the darkness are guilty, the real sinner is the one who created the darkness."

Sheen said.

On a winter night, snow fell again at Hogwarts.

　Restore daily usage to 10,000 (︶`)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)