Hermione, let's start a revolution from Hogwarts!

This amount will be deducted from the five hundred Galleons.

Chapter 110 Hermione: I've Discovered the Key Point

Lucius Malfoy is overjoyed lately.

Good things keep happening!

His plan hadn't gone off track. Now he just needed to wait quietly for the Chamber of Secrets attack at Hogwarts to escalate, and he could successfully plunge Arthur Weasley into utter ruin.

Secondly, he has already brought Dumbledore down.

"Good, good, good! Who told Dumbledore to side with the Muggles? Who told him to back up those two little Mudbloods?" Lucius looked at the recent newspaper and paced back and forth in the living room with great joy.

This is truly gratifying!

On the sofa next to Lucius sat a woman with a thin face, but still exuding a certain charm. She wore a silk violet wizard's robe, and her eyes followed his every step.

“But what if our son…” she said worriedly.

“Narcissa, I didn’t let Xiaolong open the secret room. I just let him report it at the last minute. Don’t worry.” Lucius immediately threw down the newspaper and took his wife’s hand to comfort her.

"That's good."

Narcissa's first concern was not whether any students had died at Hogwarts, nor was she concerned about the power struggle between her husband and Dumbledore's faction; her only hope was that her son would not be harmed.

But seeing her husband's smug look, she still felt uneasy.

"Dobby...Dobby!" Lucius shouted several times at the air, "Is dinner ready yet?!"

With a loud cracking sound in the air, Dobby appeared before them with its head down. Its clothes were just a pillowcase with a hole cut in it, and the original color was no longer visible.

Seeing the house-elf's timid and submissive demeanor, Lucius's good mood immediately vanished by half.

"What about dinner?!" he asked with a stern face.

"Dobby... I accidentally burned it again." Dobby stood in front of him, holding his ears with both hands, swaying listlessly.

“Useless trash, come here.” Lucius kicked Dobby as soon as he walked over. “You can’t even do a small thing right. Look at the Black family elves, and look at you! You’ve completely disgraced us.”

He didn't yell or shout, but this calmness was all the more terrifying in the Malfoy Manor.

Dobby, who could freely enter and exit Hogwarts Castle, collided with the hard leather shoes with his thin body, and he did not resist, but just kept hitting the floor with his head.

"Punish yourself more, punish yourself more..."

"If there's a third time, your head won't deserve to be hung in the Malfoy family. Let's go, darling~"

Narcissa glanced at it expressionlessly, then took her husband out for dinner to celebrate a little.

Dobby could only kneel on the ground, staring wide-eyed as its owner and mistress walked away. It didn't get up until their figures suddenly disappeared, the numerous small wounds on its forehead not even making it blink.

Dobby crawled on the floor, picked up the newspaper Lucius had thrown on the sofa, and after seeing the second student who had been attacked, he finally started to sob.

“Harry must live…Dobby can’t die yet, the master needs Dobby to help Harry.” It sat on the cold floor, muttering to itself, “But why isn’t the master calling Dobby?”

Dobby doesn't understand any grand principles; he considers Nietzsche his teacher simply because Nietzsche had the Malfoys completely fooled.

Look! Harry Potter can't outwit the cunning Malfoy, but Nietzsche can, so he's willing to believe in Mr. Holmes's plan. After all, in terms of intelligence: Harry < Lucius < Nietzsche.

------

Meanwhile, Hermione Granger was helping her mother clear the snow from the garden.

While at home, she kept thinking about the basilisk. Unfortunately, there was very little information available about this XXXXX-level magical creature, and no significant weaknesses of the basilisk were mentioned.

Hermione looked at the footprints on the street in the neighborhood and was a little annoyed because none of them were Nietzsche's.

That bastard, he disappeared as soon as the Christmas holiday started...

“Get me a box!” Mr. Granger called to his daughter as he leaned over the wooden fence.

"Dinner's almost ready, and all you do is fool around all day!" Mrs. Granger yelled, lifting the window as she stood in the living room. "You're all covered in dust and dirt again. We have to go out and meet people later..."

Mr. Granger just chuckled sheepishly.

“I was just clearing a path next to my car when I found this!” He bent down and picked up a squirrel from the ground. Its fur was all matted together, and it was hibernating with its tail curled up. “It ran into my exhaust pipe.”

This is quite common; some stray animals like to seek out places where they won't get wet from the snow.

Mr. Granger would check it every winter before going out.

"These fluffy little things really know how to burrow..." Hermione's shoveling of snow gradually slowed down.

Wait... drilling a hole?

Hogwarts is an ancient castle, and some flexible animals can squeeze through hidden doors and openings, such as Mrs. Norris, who gave the Weasley twins the biggest headache.

Hermione couldn't help but think of the places where Myrtle and Penelope were murdered, which happened to be in the girls' washroom.

The main hall is guarded by patrolling armor, the second floor is where professors give classes, so the basilisk couldn't just run out openly. The third-floor corridor only has a few paths, and two of those paths are closest to the restrooms.

"Where could it have gone?" Hermione asked herself, puzzled. "The sewers..."

By the way, it always manages to escape immediately after an attack, which is of course because the entrance to the secret room is very close by.

They initially thought the girls' restroom was a closed room, but when the students were attacked, they forgot about the entrance to the secret room... The basilisk couldn't just appear and disappear out of thin air, could it?

Hermione dropped the shovel, and the crunching sound of her fluffy snow boots on the snow brought Mr. Granger back to his senses. He saw his daughter running away without looking back, her hands raised, shouting something.

Perhaps it's saying: I'm not coming home for dinner again today.

“She…this child…” Mr. Granger felt like he had aged a few years.

“Where else could Hermione have gone? He must be looking for Nietzsche,” Mrs. Granger said with a strange expression. “Never mind, let’s go. We’ll just be sitting together again later…”

That's right! Apart from that brat from the Holmes family, Hermione hasn't looked for anyone else.

Chapter 111 The Locked Room Case Finally Settled

After about half an hour's journey, Hermione, wearing her newly bought gloves, arrived at Quirrell's house.

When Quirinas Quillo saw her arrive, he made an excuse to go out to "buy some materials" and thoughtfully hung a "Don't bother me" sign on the doorknob.

“The Chamber of Secrets… I know where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is.” Hermione grabbed a cup from the table, gulped down a mouthful of tea, and said haltingly, “I’m so stupid, I should have thought of the pipes connecting to the castle!”

Not counting the various towers, Hogwarts Castle has eight floors, and the most important part is naturally the drainage system.

Nietzsche raised his hand, wanting to stop her, because that was the cup he had just drunk from, but... seeing that Hermione had already finished drinking, Nietzsche ultimately swallowed the words in his throat, and simply changed to a different teacup.

Hermione ignored his embarrassment and stopped taking off her gloves: "I've come all this way, can't I even have a sip of water?"

"Thinking back, Myrtle was murdered in the bathroom back then... She heard someone talking to a snake! And Penelope this year was also encountered on her way back because the Basilisk couldn't find me."

It could be said that Penelope became Hermione's scapegoat.

Hermione then had a theory: "Is it possible that someone used Polyjuice Potion to transform into Harry and opened the Chamber of Secrets using Parseltongue..."

“Impossible,” Nietzsche said decisively. “Language is not something we are born with; it requires systematic learning. Compound decoctions can only achieve a perfect disguise, but they cannot change the soul.”

Clearly, some people want to pin the blame on Harry Potter.

Secondly, Nietzsche, knowing Lucius Malfoy's motives, could deduce Draco's intentions—in order to bring down Dumbledore's faction within the Ministry of Magic, he needed to pin the entire attack on Arthur.

“Think about it, Mien,” Nietzsche said, bowing his head and burying his slightly flushed face in the wool blanket. “Malfoy wants to take over Hogwarts and repeal the Muggle Protection Act, which means Draco is the snitch.”

Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic have always maintained a policy of non-interference.

The parents of the attacked child were both Muggles and had no knowledge of the wizarding world. They had no way of petitioning the Ministry of Magic to inquire about what had happened at the school.

“But to be sure that Weasley did this, then…” Hermione’s eyes widened, “Malfoy transformed into Ron Weasley!”

If you want to become someone else, then after the compound decoction is prepared, you need to add something of that person—anything, such as skin scraps, nail clippings, blood, or hair...

Draco is the kind of person who would never associate with Gryffindors, let alone Weasley, whom he calls a 'pure-blood traitor'.

Nietzsche's influence propelled Hermione's thoughts to race even faster:

He knew Ron's wand was broken and that an unfair duel could have been arranged, but he chose to use the most savage method, all for the sake of obtaining Ron Weasley's hair.

"So, does that mean Draco disguised himself as Weasley to open the Chamber of Secrets, and then betrayed himself?"

However, the truth will eventually come out when things are turned upside down, so the best approach is to make it a fact.

In other words, the Chamber of Secrets is indeed related to Weasley.

"That's possible, but based on the Malfoy family's history of wealth and Parseltongue, they might not necessarily have this tradition of speaking Parseltongue."

But Nietzsche didn't finish his sentence. After putting on his trench coat, he glanced at Hermione a few times, then turned and went downstairs to get a gift box.

Inside was a dark red women's hat, which was then placed on Hermione's head while she was still thinking. Hermione belatedly looked up and stared at the mirror in confusion.

The reddish-brown trench coat and hat go well together, and by slightly lowering the head, the upper face can be covered, giving off a mysterious and unpredictable vibe.

“Your Christmas present…I bought it from Madame Malkin’s boutique in Diagon Alley.” Nietzsche glanced at the complex and ever-changing expression on her face.

The other person blushed, sometimes smiling, sometimes frowning, and occasionally giving off a suspicious look.

“I’m leaving.” Nietzsche said disdainfully, arms crossed. “It’s alright, I won’t be like you, not having prepared a gift.”

"Where?"

"Dinner? Your parents invited us..." He feigned confusion. "No, didn't you come because it was time?"

Hermione seems to have forgotten about it.

But it must be Nietzsche's fault, since he didn't come over even once after his holiday started!

"Who said I didn't bring you a gift!" Hermione puffed out her cheeks, angrily took off her gloves, and threw them at his face. "I was planning to give them to you when you came, but I tried them on for you on my way out."

Well, no wonder she hadn't taken off her warm gloves; it turned out she was deliberately hiding them because she'd been interrupted.

"Are you sure it's not... your own?" Nietzsche put it on and found it fit quite well.

The gloves were filled with Hermione's body heat, but the problem was that Nietzsche was not used to it. He even sweated because of the warm gloves.

This was a good opportunity. Hermione put her hands in her pockets and walked over to him.

"Excuse me?" she said, suppressing a laugh. "Or...are you thinking the wrong thing? Don't worry...my parents are medical students, so I understand that students in their teens might have some inappropriate fantasies..."

“No, you misunderstand. I never allow even a grain of sand to get into my exquisite instruments.” Nietzsche turned his head away and walked straight out of the room.

Hermione ignored his stubbornness and simply followed him out with the joy of a victor.

Before leaving, she caught a glimpse of something wrapped in dustproof oil paper piled next to the sofa. She could sense that it was a magical item, but she didn't think much of it... after all, this was still Professor Quirrell's residence.