I'm the King of Curry at Hogwarts

Chapter 140 Hesitation to Throw a Blow at a Rat

Louis opened his mouth, unsure whether he should tell Dumbledore the truth.

He glanced discreetly at Iblis, who was still watching Luna with overwhelming grief. Dumbledore understood, made an excuse, and left the medical wing with Louis.

"Speak," Dumbledore asked softly after leaving the room, knowing that Louis must know something.

Louis hesitated for a moment before saying, "Professor, do you remember when the secret chamber was opened fifty years ago?"

"Of course I remember." Dumbledore's eyes flickered, as if he were reminiscing about the past. "Oh, back then, the headmaster was Mr. Dippet, and I was just a professor of Transfiguration."

Louis paused for a moment, then continued, "I heard that fifty years ago, the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and a Muggle-born girl died?"

"Yes, that's true. The deceased was a Ravenclaw student, and I remember her name—Miss Warren." Dumbledore shook his head and sighed, "The Ministry of Magic still hasn't reached a conclusion about who opened the Chamber of Secrets and caused that girl's death..."

"And they even broke Hagrid's wand?" Louis said with a look of disgust.

"Who told you?" Dumbledore asked, somewhat surprised. "Logically speaking, only Professor McGonagall and I, still within Hogwarts, should know the secrets of that time. How did you find out?"

"Is it possible... that the real culprit who opened the secret room told me?" Louis chuckled, looking quite like a villain.

Catherine wrinkled her nose behind him, seemingly displeased with Louis's strange behavior.

Dumbledore scratched the back of his head with a puzzled look on his face, his white beard twitching with the movement.

"The Riddler, get out of Hogwarts," Catherine said coldly.

Louis shrugged and grinned, "Well, Professor, it's like this, I found a diary—guess who owns it?"

To everyone's surprise, Dumbledore seemed relieved after hearing about the diary entry. He pulled a candy from his sleeve, popped it into his mouth, and asked with an air of nonchalance, "Is it Tom?"

"Yes... wait? How did you know?" Louis was surprised.

Dumbledore sipped his honey candy mysteriously, remaining silent for a while. After what seemed like an eternity, he said leisurely, "Fifty years ago, Tom reported to the school authorities that Hagrid kept a dangerous pet that resulted in someone's death. But we all know that the way giant spiders kill is usually quite brutal—the way Miss Warren died with her body intact is clearly not the work of a giant spider."

"Since it wasn't the work of the eight-eyed giant spider, it's obvious that I've placed my suspicions on Tom—of course, it's also because I'm somewhat biased towards Hagrid; he's not the kind of person who would do something but not admit it."

"So... the cunning frog has been touching your belly?" Louis pretended to adjust his glasses, pointing forward with one hand, looking just like a certain elementary school student who is the Grim Reaper.

Dumbledore looked interested: "I didn't know you could speak Japanese?"

"I speak eight foreign languages, Professor," Louis chuckled. "After all, one should always strive to improve one's manners; one can't appear too pretentious."

"You're absolutely right, Lewis." Dumbledore laughed heartily, talking with Lewis as they walked: "Yes, there's only one truth, and that is that Tom framed Hagrid—as for his motive, I think it's very likely that he was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets, and that monster was one he kept."

"But I had no evidence, and the Ministry of Magic ultimately released Hagrid because of the lack of evidence... However, you know the special circumstances of that era, Hagrid's broken wand was never found... Sigh..."

"That's where you went wrong, Professor," Louis began to defend Hagrid. "You said you knew Hagrid was innocent, and that the Ministry of Magic's evidence was insufficient, so why didn't you vouch for him? With your power and status, I doubt anyone would question you, would they?"

Dumbledore looked at Louis with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot, and after a long while said leisurely, "Louis, I never thought you could say such a thing... Well, I can only say that my identity is very sensitive. After I defeated Grindelwald, I was not greeted with the praise or anything else I had imagined, but with suspicion from the Ministry of Magic. Every word and action I take could become a handle for them to attack me."

"To be honest, being too powerful is also a problem. They're afraid that another person like Grindelwald will emerge in this world, so..."

"Well, I think differently," Louis clicked his tongue twice and said with a smile, "I think they just don't want another emperor emeritus above them."

"Some things are better left unsaid; there's no point in saying them." Dumbledore seemed quite philosophical about it, shrugging indifferently. "I have no ambition, nor do I want to become some kind of emperor emeritus. My last hobby in this life is simply to run Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry well and watch you all grow up happily. That's enough for me."

Louis's words struck a nerve with Deng Xiaoping.

"It seems someone has been letting Defense Against the Dark Arts class go to waste... I see the students are quite happy at school, but the happier they are at school, the more heartbroken they are when they encounter a dark wizard." Louis pouted forcefully, expressing his dissatisfaction with Dumbledore's spoiling of the children.

"Oh, that was my fault, but you're still here, aren't you?" Dumbledore smiled kindly and asked about the diary again.

Lewis briefly explained how to control Tom's split soul. Dumbledore neither supported nor opposed it, simply saying to do as he saw fit.

"What do you plan to do with the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets?" Dumbledore asked.

"There's no good solution for now, since we can't just kill him directly," Louis said with some worry. "If we try to resolve the problem directly, we might alert the real mastermind, and we'll lose a useful lead if he turns back into hiding."

"But if we let this snake cause trouble in the school, and a student were to die like Miss Warren, could you bear the consequences?" Dumbledore asked intently.

"Ah, this..." Louis chuckled, brandishing his claws, "But we still have you, Principal. Don't tell me the first two students were just petrified; you weren't involved."

"You noticed quite quickly," Headmaster Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, all I can do is create various coincidences to protect Lovegood and Crevy as much as possible, lest the person behind it all become wary." He thought for a moment, then continued, "I think your time may be running out. The Board of Governors is already starting to stir. When more students are petrified, they will definitely join forces with the Ministry of Magic to pressure me and forcibly remove me from my position as headmaster. Before that happens, I hope you can find out who is behind this."

"I understand, Professor," Louis said in a deep voice.

"Alright, enough said. I hope your investigation goes well, my dear Louis." Dumbledore said, then shook his hand slightly, humming a little tune as he walked away.

Looking at his back, he really looked like an old bee, especially with him humming a tune while buzzing around. The visual resemblance was just too strong.

Louis shrugged, not really saying anything. He looked at Catherine behind him and suddenly asked, "Little Moon, do you have any thoughts on this?"

"What could I possibly think?" Catherine scoffed softly. "If you hadn't stopped me, I would have already gone to the secret chamber and burned that snake to ashes..."

"I'm sorry, Little Moon, I had no choice but to do this." Louis sighed, a sense of powerlessness welling up inside him as he hesitated to act.

We absolutely must make that snake soup!

A horned snake sneezed.

"I know you have your reasons," Catherine said, opening her arms to embrace Louis and whispering in his ear, "Whatever you do, I'll support you..."

"Little Moon..." Louis hugged his girlfriend's soft, fragrant body tightly, inhaling the sweet scent of Catherine's hair and savoring this rare moment of tranquility.

It should be said that moving into the new office made things much more convenient for Louis; at least the class representatives from those three colleges no longer felt awkward when they needed to contact him.

After all, they weren't Slytherin students. Even though the Slytherin students didn't dare say much under Louis's imposing presence, their attitude was still somewhat cold.

Prejudice is difficult to eradicate, especially the deep-rooted academic biases that have been ingrained for centuries; they cannot be eliminated overnight.

Louis didn't expect to be able to eliminate this prejudice either.

His goal was simply to cultivate some capable people for himself; having too many united subordinates wasn't necessarily a good thing.

No leader likes having a monolithic group of subordinates. Of course, this shouldn't be said openly. If someone actually believes in the nonsense about "a harmonious atmosphere," then something is definitely wrong.

Wherever there are people, there will inevitably be conflict.

Louis, sitting in his office, quite enjoyed this feeling. He went to great lengths to have Amoris buy a lot of philosophy books from the Muggle world, partly to fill his bookshelves and supplement his knowledge from time to time, and partly to show them to the Sorting Hat.

The old man has been sitting on the bookshelf in the principal's office covered in dust; it's time to find him some amusement.

If people don't think, their brains become rigid, and the same applies to hats—who said this nonsense? Have you ever seen a hat that can think?

Having no clue about the attack, Louise, carrying her books, was heading to the headmaster's office to check on the Sorting Hat when she bumped into Draco, who was coming straight at her.

"Draco? What's wrong?" Louis dodged the clumsy Draco, who stumbled and did a split on the ground.

Ignoring the pain, he handed Louis last week's copy of "Sing the Quibbler".

"Look, Louis, what have I found..." Draco said to Louis with a grin, clearly excited.

Louis took the magazine and found that, as always, it was a counterpoint—this issue's protagonist was clearly our official Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart, and our very own Louis.

The article, unusually, did not contradict the Daily Prophet, but instead focused on criticizing Lockhart, saying he was all show and no substance, a mere pretty face with no substance, practically calling him a cute little devil.

As for Louis, he lavished praise on him, which Louis found a bit unbearable—I didn't give Mr. Lovegood any money...

"So?" Louis shook the magazine, frowning as he asked, "You're holding this magazine... wait, when is this magazine from?"

His tone was a little hurried.

"It's from last week, just a few days before Luna's accident." Draco pointed to the date on the back of the magazine, and Louis flipped it over to take a look. Sure enough, it was just as Draco had said.

Louis tapped his hands, paced back and forth a couple of times, and said to Draco, "Go... um, go and fetch Potter and the other two for me."

"Okay!" Draco turned and ran.

A short while later, he brought the Porter trio to Lewis's office.

After the door was closed, Louis lowered his voice and said, "Listen, now I have a glorious but arduous task for you."

The three men's interest was clearly piqued—it was glorious and arduous, and since it was Louis who said so, it must be very exciting.

Young people, especially the trio, are all at an age where they love to play and have fun. When faced with an exciting mission, how can they control themselves? Look at Harry, the light in his eyes is almost as bright as Conan's when he sees a crime scene.

"Speak up, Louis! We're definitely not here for the thrill of the mission! Just announce the mission objective already!" Ron was clearly enjoying the drama and had no idea that he was part of the fun.

But Ron is actually quite reckless; aside from the "following the spider" incident, he rarely backs down.

"Alright, alright," Louis calmed the three of them down and whispered about the mission plan.

"Listen, I have some leads regarding the Slytherin successor," Louis said in a low voice to the trio. "However, it's not convenient for me to get involved, so... I'll need your help."

Upon hearing "the heir of Slytherin," even Hermione couldn't sit still. She glanced around excitedly, then stared intently at Louis: "Louis, just tell me, who is your suspect?"

"Have you ever heard of compound decoctions?" Louis asked a seemingly unrelated question.

Hermione, a top student, didn't even hesitate before blurting out, "Potion of Polyjuice Potion is a potion that can transform the drinker into someone else's appearance. Making this complex and challenging potion is a challenge even for adult wizards... This potion is very advanced, and generally, its production is divided into two stages, with the entire process taking about a month."

"That's right, Gryffindor gets a point." Louis winked and secretly added a point to Gryffindor's score.

"However, Professor, you mentioned Polyjuice Potion... do you want us to use it to gather intelligence?" The clever Hermione immediately realized what Louis meant.

(End of this chapter)