Chapter 175 It's over before it even begins
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had completely returned to their original appearances, and their clothes were now much too large, forcing them to hold them up as they walked.
Entering the entrance hall, the trio threw Draco and the others' shoes in front of the cupboard where they had been locked, then, still in their socks, headed to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
"That was a close call, we almost blew our cover," Ron said, out of breath.
"It's all your fault," Harry glared at him reproachfully, "Why did you have to make such a reckless promise? You were speaking like a Weasley while wearing Crabbe's face.
If we had just refused him directly, we might not have been in such a passive situation."
"At least it wasn't completely fruitless!
The Basilisk, the possible location of the Chamber of Secrets, and a list of suspects… except for Ginny, she definitely isn't the Heir of Slytherin."
"But how do you explain what Aaron said?"
Ron shrugged dismissively, "Coincidence, it's definitely a coincidence.
I certainly wouldn't have believed so many coincidences could happen to one person before, but the facts tell us it's possible.
Do you really think Ginny could be the Heir of Slytherin? My sister has lived with us for over ten years, and she's never shown the slightest talent for Parseltongue."
"Let's not talk about that for now, I think we need to consider other things," Hermione said, gently patting her chest, trying to calm her breathing, "Aaron might ask Dracoand the others about their investigation progress after the Christmas holiday, and he'll definitely notice something is off.
So we need to eliminate as many people from that list as possible before then, so we'll have a reason to respond when he questions us, otherwise…"
Hermione didn't finish her sentence, but Harry and Ronboth knew what she meant.
Last year, they had conspired to trick Abbie away from Aaron, but they were caught red-handed that very night.
That crisis of trust left them embarrassed for a long time; every time they saw Aaron and the dragonet beside him, they would involuntarily lower their heads, afraid to meet his gaze.
Even now, they still felt the guilt of a thief seeing a policeman when facing Aaron, even if the thief had fully acknowledged their mistake.
But the problem was they had made the same mistake again tonight, and this mistake might be even worse than last year's dragon theft incident; to make amends, they could only find the mastermind before he discovered the problem, or at least achieve some results.
"That's really hard!" Ron said with a bitter expression, "To be honest, out of those twenty-three names, I only remember Ginny and two next to her, one was Leanna, and the other was Newt.
But I don't know either of those students, I haven't even heard of them."
"I only remembered two as well, and I'm not even sure if I saw them correctly," Harry said gloomily, at the time he was only focused on listening to Aaron's explanation and didn't pay any attention to the names.
Harry and Ron exchanged glances, then instinctively looked at Hermione; among the three of them, only Hermione had a better memory, so she might have remembered that list.
"Don't have too many expectations of me; Ron's performance back then almost drove me mad, I didn't have time to remember those things.
After that, the Polyjuice Potion was about to expire, and all I could think about was running."
"So that means you didn't remember a single one?" Ron's face grew even more bitter, and he said exasperatedly, "If only the Polyjuice Potion could last longer.
It was supposed to be an hour, but it wore off in less than forty-five minutes."
"Are you blaming me?" Hermione glared at him angrily, "It was my first time brewing a Potion of that difficulty; it's a miracle it even worked.
And do I need to remind you why we're in such a predicament right now?"
"Let's not rush to shift blame; aren't there five names?"
"Correction, it's four," Ron said very confidently, "Ginny's suspicion can be completely ruled out."
"Alright, let's say it's four then!" Harry said helplessly, "One less is one less; maybe we'll be lucky enough to find the mastermind among these four people!
Besides that, we can also check the Gryffindor common room, which he can't check."
Hermione and Ron nodded silently; there was nothing else they could do but take it one step at a time.
However, the situation was slightly worse than they had imagined, and they had less time than they thought.
The next morning, Draco woke up to find himself locked in a dark space, but fortunately, his wand was still with him.
Though scared, he still cast a simple spell.
"Lumos."
A bright light appeared at the tip of his wand, and he cautiously looked around, then saw several magic brooms, and immediately knew where he was.
Draco wasn't stupid; connecting his current predicament with the chocolate cake he had eaten last night, he instantly felt his lungs explode with rage.
A prank, a pure prank.
Potter and Weasley were truly unusually insidious; they had deceived him with an attitude he couldn't refuse, and even locked him in a broom cupboard, it was utterly lawless.
"Alohomora!"
Opening the cupboard door, the sunlight from outside shone through the window onto Draco's face, but he felt no warmth at all; his expression was particularly grim.
Three pairs of shoes were on the floor, and Draco looked at his bare feet, suddenly realizing something.
He walked to another cupboard, directly cast the Alohomora spell, and opened it.
Two sturdy figures tumbled out, and several brooms hit them in the face, waking Crabbe and Goyle.
"Where is this?" Crabbe mumbled in confusion, "How did we get here?"
"You two, get up now," Draco said, frustrated with their lack of spirit, then threw their shoes at them, "And put on your shoes."
Crabbe and Goyle immediately complied, but their hearts were still full of doubt.
After tidying themselves up, the two stood beside Draco, silent as mice; it was the first time they had felt such immense anger from Malfoy.
"Do you know why you're in this place?"
Both shook their heads, but they were sure it wasn't sleepwalking.
"I guess you don't know either," Draco rolled his eyes exasperatedly, then told them his guess.
"You mean we were knocked out by Potter and them?" Crabbe asked incredulously, "How dare they?"
"Can you think of any other possibility besides that?" Dracosneered in response, "For this prank, they're truly shameless.
Under the guise of an apology, they made us eat cake laced with sleeping Potion, then locked us in this wretched place.
Hmph! If my father knew, he would be furious."
Bang!
Goyle punched the cupboard hard, "This is outrageous, when have we ever suffered such a loss? I'm going to find them and settle the score right now."
"Stop," Draco snapped, "Haven't we been humiliated enough?
Go directly to settle the score? I want to teach them a lesson even more than you do, but what are you going to do? Beat them up in public?
That kind of revenge is the lowest form, and setting aside whether we can even win, making a big scene will only disgrace Slytherin."
"But we can't just put up with this!" Crabbe said angrily.
"How could we? I can't swallow this insult!" Draco said viciously, "Let's go back first, then we'll talk."
The trio returned to the Slytherin common room with grim faces; students who saw them on the way instinctively kept their distance, because they looked like debt collectors.
They sat on the sofa, silent, emanating an aura that warned people to stay away.
Aaron had just come out of his dormitory, preparing to take Abbie to the Great Hall for a meal, but seeing the three of them in this state, he was also a bit curious.
"What's wrong with you all? You were fine last night."
"Don't talk to me about last night," Draco said with a fierce expression, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, but upon seeing that it was Aaron, he reined in his anger.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have used that tone with you."
"It's only been one night! Even if it was a nightmare, you shouldn't be this angry."
"If only it were a nightmare, we were last night…"
"Shut up, Crabbe," Draco immediately interrupted him; he didn't want his good friend to know about his pathetic side.
The heir of the House of Malfoy being knocked out and locked in a broom cupboard by mere Weasley and Potter? If that got out, people would laugh their heads off.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's not that bad, is it?" Aaron's eye twitched, "I just asked you to help me investigate some things; if you didn't want to, you could have told me, there's no need to get so angry."
Draco froze for a moment, and Crabbe and Goyle also exchanged bewildered glances.
"Aaron, what are you talking about? We didn't even come back last night."
"What?" Aaron hadn't yet realized the problem, and said in a joking tone, "Come on, don't kid me, weren't you the ones who came to see me last night?
The prefect even brought you over!"
"But we…" Draco stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing something, and a sinister grin spread across his lips, "So that's it!
Saint Potter and his little friends truly know how to play dirty!"
"What are you talking about?"
Draco hesitated for a while, then looked at Aaron with a complex expression, "I didn't want you to know this, but now it seems I must tell you.
You'd better be prepared, otherwise I'm worried you won't be able to handle it."
"Just say it!" Aaron waved his hand indifferently, and calmly sat opposite Draco, "My mental fortitude is far beyond your imagination."
"Alright! Here's what happened.
Everything was fine, but the three of us ate chocolate cake given by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley last night, and when we woke up this morning, we found ourselves locked in a cupboard in the broom closet." Draco looked at Aaron meaningfully, "Do you understand what I'm saying?
We slept in the broom closet last night, we didn't come back at all, and when we woke up, we found that our shoes had been taken off."