"But, we haven't found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets yet?"
"We can go find Moaning Myrtle! She must know."
The group hurriedly set off, and Damon followed them slowly, quietly putting on a pair of black-framed glasses.
Although the Chamber of Secrets wasn't open yet, it was better to be safe.
They found Myrtle in the second-floor abandoned bathroom, but surprisingly, someone else was there too.
"Malfoy? Why are you here?"
The golden figure looked slightly embarrassed at the sound of footsteps.
"What's it to you?"
Draco Malfoy retorted coldly, but his arrogant expression immediately faded when he saw Damon behind Harry.
He lowered his head, making it difficult to see his face, and quickly left the bathroom.
Damon thought he saw tear marks and red spots in the corners of his eyes, but he didn't care and didn't intend to expose him.
"Why did you come to me?"
Myrtle seemed to feel disturbed and responded with a stern attitude.
"Was that Malfoy just now? He didn't do anything bad to you, did he?"
"
"What could he do? He was just passing by. What are you doing here?"
Myrtle's attitude worsened. If she hadn't noticed the Dueling Prince was there, she would have already slid into the toilet and refused to communicate.
Harry and the others clearly noticed her attitude and turned their gazes to Damon.
"Hello, Myrtle."
"Hello, could you please stop staring at me like that?"
Myrtle covered her face, chuckling with delight. Being looked at like that overwhelmed her.
"Of course,"
Myrtle said, feeling somewhat deflated.
"But I suppose it's polite to look someone in the eye when communicating?"
Myrtle perked up.
But she still didn't dare put her hands down. She just stared at Damon through the cracks between her fingers. "Do you have any requests for me? Please tell me."
"This matter involves your death. If you don't want to answer..."
"Of course I do!"
Myrtle's demeanor changed instantly. She seemed honored, as if no one had asked her such a question before.
But since it was Damon who asked, she tried to be brief.
"That's where it all happened. Olive Hornby teased me about looking like a four-eyed dog with my glasses, so I hid here.
I locked the door and was crying inside when I heard someone come in. A boy's voice said—this is the girls' room!
So I opened the door, yelled at him to go away and go to the boys' room, and then—" Myrtle puffed out her chest with self-importance, her face beaming, "and then I died."
"How did I die?"
Myrtle lowered her voice, saying mysteriously, "I just remember seeing terrifyingly large yellow eyes. I felt like my whole body was being grabbed, then I floated away."
"Could those eyes be spiders?"
"No. They shouldn't be. Spiders don't have eyes that big and bright."
"Oh my God! My little baby!"
Hagrid suddenly cried out in pain.
Everyone realized Myrtle's death was unrelated to Aragog or Hagrid. He was innocent.
"Where did you see those eyes?" Harry asked.
"It's almost there," Myrtle said, vaguely pointing to the pool in front of her.
Harry and the others searched for a while and found a small snake-like ball on the side of a copper faucet
.
Harry was about to say open it when a hand grabbed him.
It was Damon.
His expression now took on a seriousness none of them had seen before. He said calmly,
"Harry, it's not time yet. The monsters in here are more than we can handle."
"Even you?"
Ron's eyes widened in disbelief.
"I'm not sure which is faster, it or I,"
Damon said slowly, deciding to call in help.
"Fawkes, could you please tell Professor Dumbledore about what's happening here?"
The Phoenix Ring burst into a dazzling flame, and a phoenix cried in the abandoned bathroom.
Damon didn't see Dumbledore. Dumbledore spoke through Fawkes, conveying a message: "Don't deal with this now. We'll explain later."
Damon raised his brows, looked at Harry and the others, and said,
"We've pretty much figured it out. Let's go back and discuss this."
"But this place..."
"Don't worry. Without Parseltongue, there's no way to open this Chamber of Secrets."
"Goodbye, Myrtle," Damon waved.
"Are you leaving now? I mean, goodbye,"
Myrtle said goodbye to everyone and returned to the inner bathroom, where she sat on the toilet, feeling sad.
"Goodbye. They said they'd come back to see me later, but no one came. No one will come."
In Hagrid's hut, Harry and the others erupted in an argument.
"Since you've been wrongly accused, Hagrid, we should clear this up! With everyone!"
"Of course I want to, but how can we, Harry? It happened so long ago. I was expelled from school back then, and it's too difficult to overturn the case now, and there's no point."
Upon realizing he was truly misunderstood, Hagrid's spirits soared, but then plummeted just as quickly.
By the time he returned to his hut, he had become dejected, a sense of powerlessness only felt in old age.
"How could that be? Since you've been wrongly accused, we should clear this up!"
Hermione and Ron disagreed with Hagrid's sentiments. Only Damon maintained a silence that frightened them.
"Damon, you gotta say something too?"
"Well, I need to clarify something." He seemed a little absent-minded - what exactly was Dumbledore planning? Did he know about the Chamber of Secrets?
His vague attitude made Harry and the others a little confused. Hermione took the initiative to say:
"Where is Headmaster Dumbledore? What did he say? He is such a righteous man, he will definitely get justice for Hagrid!"
"That's enough. Thank you for your kindness, but in fact, as long as I know that I was wronged, that's enough - and besides, we don't know who the real murderer of Myrtle is."
"We can analyze it! According to Damon, someone opened the Chamber of Secrets and released the basilisk, right? We just need to find out who that person is!"
"That was almost 50 years ago. How can we find him? How can we find him?"
"Thank you for your kindness, but... that's enough, really."
Hagrid forced everyone out of the hut, needing to be alone.
"What should we do now?"
"Don't worry, we can't decide this, only Dumbledore can."
Damon stroked the ring on his right middle finger. He realized he had little influence over major events.
There was still a lot to do.
"He's looking for me. We'll discuss the details later."
Damon waved his hand and said goodbye to the three of them.
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(End of Chapter)