Hogwarts: Undercover Death Eater Replaces the Dark Lord

Lockhart was completely bewildered. The old headmaster had always been so kind and affable in front of him, so why was he suddenly so stern? Had his memory manipulation been exposed?

However, even though he had many doubts in his heart, Lockhart did not dare to ask.

"Ahahaha... I saw Professor Bubbaji coming out, and I thought you guys were done talking!" Lockhart laughed dryly twice, then straightened his clothes, quickly retreated from the door, and considerately closed the door of his office.

With the sound of the door closing, only Lycos and Dumbledore were left in the office... and there were a lot of portraits of Lockhart hanging on the wall.

The "Lockharts" were looking curiously at the two wizards, one old and one young, sitting at the desk.

"Professor, are these portraits okay?" Lycos asked, glancing nervously at the curious portraits.

"Don't worry, I've checked them out. These portraits require no technical expertise." Dumbledore smiled and shook his head. "They can't remember anything. They're useless except for their beauty..."

"Of course, if you feel psychologically stressed by being looked at by these portraits, I can completely understand. After all, I've been under the gaze of a group of portraits for a long time... They're not low-level portraits who can't remember things!"

As Dumbledore said this, he laughed first, as if he thought he had told a very funny joke.

Lycos looked at the old principal who had a strange sense of humor, and forced a smile, not knowing what to say.

"Well, since you feel pressured, let them sleep for a while." Not long after, Dumbledore's smile faded, and he casually tapped his wand at the surrounding walls.

The next moment, it seemed as if an invisible force passed through the office.

All the portraits of Lockhart on the wall yawned simultaneously, then closed their eyes and let out gentle, soft breathing sounds.

"That's indeed much better." Dumbledore nodded with satisfaction, then turned his gaze to Lycos. "Well, Lycos, do you know why I left you alone?"

"Because of what I wrote on the wall before?" Lycos asked a little confusedly.

"It is indeed related to this matter." Dumbledore nodded slightly and pushed the parchment on the table in front of Lycos.

This is the paper that Professor Bubaji just took notes on. On it is written a string of English letters -

"oynotlyingchamberofsecretsop"

"Judging from your expression, I think you have some idea?" Dumbledore asked knowingly.

"Yes." Lycos nodded helplessly. "Perhaps the other letters are still hard to identify, but there is a group of words that are too obvious. If I can't figure it out, I'm going to jump off the building..."

He reached out and pointed at the phrase "chamber of secrets."

"The bitter Mithril mentioned the Chamber of Secrets," Lykos said. "I'm not sure about the other words, but there seem to be two words at the beginning—'not lying'?"

"It seems we're lucky." Dumbledore nodded with a smile. "In the clips recorded in the magic photograph, the sentences formed by these letters are not difficult to recognize."

"Let's take out 'not lying' and 'Chamber of Secrets' for now, and that leaves us with just four letters—"

Dumbledore gently wiped the paper with his dry palm, and two groups of words were automatically separated from the long string of letters and neatly arranged on one side of the paper.

The remaining four letters are arranged in pairs, namely 'oy' and 'op'.

"The two letters 'op' are actually pretty self-explanatory. It's likely to mean 'open'... Words like 'oponent' are also possible, but I'm more inclined to believe Miserbo meant 'the chamber is open.'"

Dumbledore picked up his quill and added the letters "en" after "op", then moved it after "secrets".

He glanced at the line, adjusted the capitalization again, and added "ed" after "open" to change it to the past tense.

Now, on one side of the parchment, a brand new sentence was formed:

...not lying, Chamber of secrets opened.

After putting the sentence together, Dumbledore nodded with satisfaction, placed the quill in the inkwell on the side, and then looked up at Lycos.

The efficiency of this entire process of guessing information was terrifying, leaving Lycos stunned. He felt that before he could react, Dumbledore had already thought of countless possibilities and eliminated them, leaving only the most likely option...

He felt that his IQ was crushed by this centenarian...

"Then we're left with the letters 'oy'." Dumbledore chuckled. "Lex, do you have any ideas?"

Lycos shook his head, getting rid of the unnecessary emotions, and then focused his attention on the string of sentences.

"According to normal grammar, as an adverb, "not" should be preceded by the verb "be" or an auxiliary verb..." Lycos subconsciously recalled the state he was in when he was learning grammar in his previous life and began to analyze it carefully.

"But I can't think of any words ending in 'oy' that would be verbs or auxiliary verbs."

He shook his head slightly and looked at Dumbledore.

Then Lecos found that the old principal was looking at him with a very strange expression.

"I certainly didn't expect to hear such a grammatical question at Hogwarts one day." Dumbledore laughed cheerfully. "I suddenly feel that the school should offer a grammar class to avoid encountering such questions in the future."

Lycos twitched the corners of his mouth awkwardly.

He suddenly realized that most of the young wizards in the magical world had never been to school before coming to Hogwarts. They learned to speak naturally through the influence of their family environment. Many young wizards had never learned grammar at all.

For example, young wizards from the Muggle world might be better off because they at least attended elementary school... but these people make up a very small proportion of the students in Hogwarts.

Not only that, the grammar taught in local primary schools is mostly different from what Lekos had learned in his previous life, with all kinds of usage being rigidly defined and requiring long periods of memorization and exams...

So it's no wonder Dumbledore was surprised when Lycos used this method of analyzing sentences. After all, it's not magical.

"Well, after all, I lived in the Muggle world before I went to school and learned some grammar..." This was the only explanation Lecos could give.

Dumbledore said nothing more about this little matter of language habit, and quickly returned his attention to the parchment in front of him.

"You're right. It's indeed rare to see auxiliary verbs and be verbs ending in 'oy'..." He picked up the quill from the inkwell and tapped it lightly on the parchment. "Do you think there's something wrong with Professor Bubbaji's deciphering? Or... is it that the Morse code that Miserbo typed was wrong from the beginning?"

Lycos stared at the parchment and fell silent.

If an error occurs during the transmission of information, it will cause great trouble to the decoder when deciphering it.

Because even if there is an error in a tiny letter, the remaining 23 English letters will have potential possibilities. Then, the words involved in these twenty-something letters will be more than hundreds or thousands.

Whenever there is an error, you must check each one and find the option that is closest to the correct answer...

Lycos was reluctant to take such trouble. He hoped that the message was conveyed correctly, but rather that they had not thought of a word ending in "oy" that could be used before an adverb.

"and many more!"

Just as the sky outside the window gradually changed color and the noise outside the door gradually subsided, Lycos's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Professor, do you think this might be a shorthand?" he said quickly to Dumbledore, who seemed lost in thought. "We all know that auxiliary verbs don't significantly impact the overall meaning of a sentence, and Morse Code values ​​simplicity..."

"Even if the goblins didn't learn the essence of Morse code and only borrowed some of its letters, typing them out one by one is still quite troublesome... Miserbo probably simplified the sentence he wanted to send, deleting the auxiliary verb before 'not'!"

Dumbledore came out of his contemplative state and looked at Lycos through his half-moon lenses.

"That guess does make sense." He nodded. "So what do you think... this 'oy' could be?"

"Based on the semantics of the following text, 'What didn't lie?' I think the 'oy' is likely the ending of a person's name," Lycos said. "If we can think of this name, we might find more clues."

"Name...oy..." Dumbledore frowned.

Whether you are reciting a poem, guessing an idiom, or guessing an English word, if you are given the beginning and guess the ending, it is often easy to guess what it is, because people's language habit is to speak from the beginning to the end.

But if you only give the second half of the sentence, it will be difficult to think of the first half.

Not to mention, only two letters were given this time, and there could be thousands of such names!

Lycos scratched his hair in distress and sat down heavily on the sofa beside him.

"How could I have imagined that... If only I had taken a few pictures and recorded the first few letters in the magic photo."

He leaned back on the sofa, looking at the fancy decoration in Lockhart's office and the various fan letters, his thoughts drifting away.

"Relax, Lycos." Dumbledore's gentle voice came to his ears. "We have gained a lot today. There is no need to rush to get this name."

Lycos nodded slightly.

Then he suddenly realized that he had been fooled by Dumbledore again without knowing when. Since arriving in this office, he had become a hard laborer, constantly helping Dumbledore think about various problems. He almost felt dizzy...

Lycos covered his face.

Fortunately, Dumbledore did not pursue the matter of him scribbling on the wall and causing panic among the young wizards at Hogwarts.

This is the reward for hard labor... Lycos comforted himself.

"You go back first, your friends are waiting for you outside." Dumbledore said, the quill in his hand still writing.

"Draco? What is he doing here?" Lycos shook his head, but he did not doubt what Dumbledore said. It was actually normal for him to know who was outside the classroom and office.

"In that case, Professor, shall I be leaving first?"

With Dumbledore's permission, Lycos turned and walked towards the office door.

However, just as he reached the door, he suddenly thought of something -

Outside the door was Draco Malfoy.

Malfoy is spelled as: Malfoy.

The last two letters of this name happen to be "oy"!

……

Chapter 145 Something Happened at Malfoy Manor

When it comes to the roommate's name, Lecos feels that he should be more cautious.

Malfoy is just one of many names ending with "oy", so you can't assume it is this name.

However, Draco has always been under the supervision of Lecos, so it is difficult for him to have the opportunity to collude with the mean-spirited Miserbo... If the person in Miserbo's Morse code is really Malfoy, it is most likely Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy.

Well, things suddenly made sense.

Lecos felt that given Lucius Malfoy's character, it wouldn't be a strange thing even if he really got involved with those goblins...

"Ah, Lycos, your friends have been waiting for you here for a while."

As soon as he went out, Lockhart, who was dressed like a colorful peacock, came to greet him, acting nonchalantly, as if the person who had just been scared away by Dumbledore's look was not him.

As he spoke, Lockhart put his hand on Lekos's shoulder and asked in a low voice: "Lekos, tell me quietly, what did you and the principal say in the office?"

After asking this question, he seemed to feel that this style of speaking did not fit his usual image, so he changed the subject and said, "Ah, you know, this is my office after all. I can't be unaware of what you do with it, right?"

"But... Professor Lockhart," Lycos glanced at him and said casually, "Didn't you lend it to Dumbledore?"

"It is true that I lent it to Dumbledore," Lockhart paused and continued, "mainly because my office is closer to the crime scene... I am being selfless, understand?"

"I understand, Professor, you're the best," Lycos rolled his eyes, "So great professor, can you please let me chat with my friend for a moment now?"

"Um... okay then." Lockhart really couldn't stand compliments at all. After being praised a little, he forgot what he wanted to ask, unconsciously straightened his chest, and let Draco behind him pass.

Draco looked a little uneasy, his face even paler than usual.

Lycos frowned slightly when he saw Draco's expression.