Chapter 152

Chapter 152

Soft footsteps sounded inside the Room of Requirement as two figures emerged one behind the other from the depths of the rubbish mountains.

After their recent danger, Suer had no desire to continue exploring the absurdly vast room.

Even so, his expression remained solemn.

Hermione’s face was flushed, and she had seemed distracted ever since the incident. Suer assumed that the fright had unsettled her.

“I… I should return to the dormitory. Professor McGonagall has the prefects take attendance every day. If they discover I’m missing…”

“Oh… right. Of course.” Suer came to his senses and nodded.

“You…” Hermione hesitated. “You can only stay here?”

“For now. Once this affair is over, I can return,” Suer said. “But it’s all right.”

“Then why were you petrified, and why are you here?” With her reason restored after calming down, Hermione finally asked the question.

Excellent question! But Suer could not answer it.

“About that…” He scratched his head and apologetically said, “The petrification was false. I don’t know the rest either, but I can tell you that Dumbledore is involved.”

“Actually, Dumbledore asked me to do him a favour. I don’t know what he has planned. Perhaps something is about to happen in the castle.”

“Please keep my secret. You can’t tell anyone that I wasn’t petrified, including Harry and the others.”

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. “All right.”

After a silence, she abruptly asked, “So there really is a basilisk in the castle?”

Suer nodded instinctively, only to freeze halfway through the motion.

Hermione looked as though everything had happened precisely as she expected.

“Then Dumbledore wants to use your disappearance after being petrified to lure out the basilisk and catch it. I read that book. Snakes are territorial, and it would never tolerate a second monster like itself inside the castle.”

“I don’t know how Dumbledore made the basilisk believe it was no longer the only one, but Professor McGonagall’s order forbidding us from leaving the towers means he must have succeeded.”

“Heh, heh…” Suer could only laugh awkwardly. Dumbledore’s instructions prevented him from explaining that Snape had already skinned, gutted and drained the basilisk. It could not possibly be any deader.

He could only let Hermione speculate wildly.

There was no helping it. Hermione was in the same House as Harry and the others. If she learnt that the basilisk was dead and everything to come was actually a test Dumbledore had arranged for Harry, something might go wrong.

Suer trusted Hermione to keep secrets, but accidents were impossible to rule out.

Everything would become clear at the end of term. He could explain it to her then.

Suer’s reaction only made Hermione more certain that her theory was correct.

Her expression promised that she would absolutely guard his secret. Then, happily carrying the book, she said goodbye to Suer and left the Room of Requirement.

After she departed, Suer remained where he was, lost in thought. Only after a long while did he enter his Animagus form, touch the wall and summon a doorway.

Before leaving, he turned and gave the room’s depths one long look, his eyes gleaming.

He had not expected to find such an unexpected prize. What should he trade it for?

There was no hurry. Voldemort would not be returning to Hogwarts any time soon. Suer had plenty of time.

Given Dumbledore’s vast repertoire and collection, Suer saw no reason to practise Dark magic when he could instead learn a few powerful offensive spells for self-defence.

Little badgers were honest and dependable, after all.
Suer swallowed, almost drooling at the thought.

Putting the matter aside, he stood before the tapestry and cautiously checked his surroundings. Once he had his direction, he vanished with a black-and-white blur.

It was time to endure Snape’s venomous assault — but first, he would visit the kitchens for something to eat.

Even weeds knew that they had to eat and drink their fill — meaning sunlight and dew — before standing firm through the coming storm.

Harry and Ron spent the day making several excursions from the Gryffindor common room beneath the Invisibility Cloak, but every attempt ended at the oak doors.

The professors and ghosts enforced the restrictions perfectly. Harry and Ron could not find a single opportunity all day to slip out of the castle and visit Hagrid’s hut for the truth.

In the end, they decided to try again late at night.

“We’ll go back, have dinner and rest, then come out tonight to find Hagrid,” Harry whispered as he stepped over a stair that abruptly vanished.

Ron nodded. “That’s what we should do.”

Whoosh…

A black-and-white shape shot past them, and the wind of its passing lifted the Invisibility Cloak.

Harry jumped and hurriedly planted one foot on the fabric. “Something just went past. Did you see it, Ron?”

“No?” Ron looked baffled. His mind had been elsewhere. His younger sister Ginny had been acting strangely lately — or rather, she had seemed wrong for quite some time.

“You probably imagined it.”

“Y-yes… I suppose so.” Harry nodded uncertainly.

“We’d better hurry back to the dormitory. Percy will start taking attendance soon. If he discovers we’re missing…” Ron urged.

Harry stopped worrying about the sudden gust and quickened his pace.

Their luck held. They had only just returned to the Gryffindor common room and removed the Invisibility Cloak in a quiet corner when Percy, their prefect, climbed onto the highest point in the room with a roll of parchment.

He saw Harry and Ron enter through the portrait hole and gave them a suspicious glare, but said nothing.

“Attendance begins now,” he called loudly. “Everyone gather here. Once your name has been called, leave and return to your dormitory.”

…

Suer enjoyed a substantial meal in the kitchens while still in his Animagus form. The house-elves plainly found his requests for pudding and cooked food rather odd, but they remained delighted to serve him.

Strangely, food tasted different in his Animagus form. Roasted meat he would normally have considered tender and succulent now seemed merely ordinary to his tongue.

More disturbingly, the sight of bloody, uncooked meat on the table made him think it might be delicious.

Did his Animagus form even alter the way he regarded food?

Suer keenly sensed that the human part of his mind was being suppressed by bestial instinct.

If his magic were exhausted and he could not return to human form in time, it would mean spending the rest of his life as an animal.

That raised a question: how had Peter Pettigrew survived ten years with the Weasley family as a rat?

Peter Pettigrew plainly possessed more ability than Suer had credited him with.

While considering this, Suer arrived outside Snape’s office. He looked left and right, confirmed that no one was present, returned to human form and raised a hand to knock.

The door silently opened.

Suer drew a deep breath and stepped across the threshold.

Click…

The door closed by itself and locked.

Time to face the venom-laced storm.