Chapter 153

That night, Harry couldn’t sleep as he lay tossing and turning in bed, listening to the snoring of his roommates in his ears.

He is thinking about what happened during the day – whether it was the big victory over Slytherin or seeing his nemesis Draco Malfoy being scolded by his father, it made him happy.

But sudden loneliness welled up in him, and he wanted to experience being scolded by his parents.

Everyone is looking forward to the summer holidays, only he is resistant to it, he even has the intention to stay with Hagrid as a guest, at least it would be nice if he can live alone.

“Harry~Potter!”

An indistinct call sounded, a voice that is not unfamiliar to Harry, and he hurriedly put on his glasses and looked at the thin figure standing in the doorway –

He had huge brown eyes and a nose that resembled a large chilli and size.

“Dobby, Dobby, it’s that you!”

Harry looked quickly around, they were sleeping soundly, even Ron’s pet – the fat grey mouse Scabbers, also lying comfortably on its master’s pillow and sleeping peacefully.

He gently lifted the covers, climbed out of bed, looked at the wand at the foot of the bed, and with a slight hesitation, took it into his hand.

“Lumos.”

Harry led Dobby to the common room, which only had faint light, and he picked a chair with an upholstered cushion and sat down.

“Have a seat, Dobby, you have something to say to me, don’t you?”

Closer, he realized that Dobby had changed his clothes – no, not changed, still the same old pillowcase, but somehow the elf had found it somewhere and added two sleeves and what looked very much like pant legs for himself.

“You got new clothes–no! Dobby, you, you …” he pointed at Dobby, unable to speak. From Ron, he had learned that House elf could not wear normal human clothes, there is only one possibility –

“Yes, Mr. Potter, Dob… Dobby is free!” The elf’s big eyes filled with tears and shrilled with joy.

“How could – oh, I mean, congratulations, Dobby.” Harry said, “But you’re following Lucius Malfoy during the day?”

“Dobby isn’t sure, maybe the young master’s failure during the day put master in a bad mood, and when he went back at night, he reprimanded Dobby severely … Dobby got used to it, but to his surprise, he wanted to drive Dobby away!”

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Dobby spoke freely, “Never thought … this is something Dobby has dreamed of …”

Dobby loosened his fingers, and in his slender palm lay a magnificent button in silence.

“Master, no, Lucius Malfoy gave Dobby a button that he ripped from his body … he angrily told Dobby to leave Malfoy Manor forever.”

“So you’re free and don’t belong to anyone?” Harry said.

“Yes, Dobby is now a free elf.” Dobby blinked his big eyes, “All thanks to you, the great Harry Potter, for defeating Draco Malfoy on the pitch!”

Harry felt a sense of uncertainty, that his victory over Slytherin could have such a huge impact on Dobby.

“I didn’t expect it either, of course, I feel honored.” Harry said modestly: “By the way, Dobby, you should not be bound by your status now, right? I have many questions I would like to ask you.”

“You can ask, Dobby will do his best.”

“Here’s the thing, is the Chamber of Secrets incident a Lucius Malfoy conspiracy or not?” Harry asked the doubts that the three discussed during the day.

“That’s right, he brought the Dark Lord’s relic: a diary covered in curses to Hogwarts, with the help of Ginny Weasley.”

“Wait! Ginny?”

“… That’s right, in the Flourish and Blotts bookshop.”

A flash of light woke Harry up, and he said in a positive tone, “He and Mr. Weasley fought then, and I remember he ended up picking Ginny’s textbook and mocking her severely! Lucius must have sneaked the diary there, didn’t he?”

“That’s exactly right, Mr. Potter,” Dobby said, bending over.

“Then you stopped me from returning to school and attacked me on the field because of that same relic that opened the secret room?”

Dobby hung his head and whispered, “You’re right about everything, Dobby overheard Malfoy, Mr. Potter, you have no idea how dark the days of house-elf were during the reign of the Dark Lord, they are actually much better now than they used to be …”

Harry hardly predicted that time, the house-elf lived in what life.

He said comfortingly, “You are now kind of bitter-sweet, are not you?” But Harry suddenly thought of something, almost jumped up, he said in a shaky voice: “So now, now that diary, is it still in the hands of Ginny?”

“Could she be in danger?”

Dobby whispered, “No, the diary passed through the hands of three people, initially Miss Weasley, then somehow it got to Draco Malfoy, and then finally, it fell into the hands of the equally great Mr. Felix Hap.”

“Professor Hap?” Potter dumbstruck.

“Yes, but Mr. Hap realized the evil of the diary, and he destroyed it, completely and utterly! Right in front of Dobby’s eyes …”

Harry felt his head spinning, overwhelmed by an explosive piece of news tonight, he had a bewildered look on his face.

…

Early the next morning.

“You mean the source of all this is Lucius Malfoy? He hid the diary in Ginny’s textbook, and Ginny was controlled to open the chamber and release the basilisk, causing the petrification of Mrs Norris and Creevey! And then the diary came to Malfoy, oh my God, he really had it coming! But the most outrageous thing is that the diary is now destroyed by Professor Hap!”

Ron had never said so much in one breath before, and then he took a few big gulps of pumpkin juice.

“That’s it.” Harry nodded, his mind moving to tell his experience of accidentally bumping into Draco while saving Justine, “He looked muddled, but I couldn’t think about it in time, and so much happened afterward that I completely put the suspicion behind me.”

“My God, Professor Hap didn’t miss a beat!” Ron couldn’t decide whether to complain or say in admiration.

Hermione fell into memory as she added, “I was in the hospital during that time, remember? Professor Hap warned me that the danger was over and told us not to pursue it any further, and I think that’s when he got the diary and, perhaps, destroyed it.”

“And,” the little witch broke her fingers: “Professor Hap must have told Dumbledore, and Dumbledore probably told your parents, Ron.” Speaking of which, she said with some frustration, “Although, he didn’t tell us.”

“Cool~ So the adults have done all this behind our backs,” Ron said.

“So, what are Dobby’s plans now?” Hermione asked.

“Don’t know yet, I guess, he might be visiting friends?” Harry said uncertainly.

Ron hurriedly finished his breakfast and left in a hurry.

“Where are you going, Ron?”

“I’m going to ask Ginny, and it occurred to me that in case the diary had any effect on her-”

“You’re right!”

…

In Ginny’s stammering description, they learned more.

“You left the diary in the abandoned lavatory?” Harry asked, staring into Ginny’s eyes in amazement.

Ginny ducked her head sheepishly, a bright blush on her face, “Yes, when Fred and George told so many scary examples that I realized something was wrong.”

“Exactly right! Malfoy followed us, but we were urgently relocating the potion away from there. He swooped in and found the diary instead.” Harry said.

He couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat, the blurred shadow he saw at the time should be Ginny dropping the diary, but because of the discovery of Malfoy, he couldn’t take a closer look.

In case the diary was picked up by him and took control of him so that he was seized in opening the chamber on the way, it would really result in a thousand questions, you know, he was at that time also misunderstood by everyone because of the Parseltongue.

“Ginny, do you have any sickness?” Ron asked.

Ginny shook her head, “I took Luna’s advice and went to the hospital wing, apart from some weakness, there was nothing amiss. Madam Pomfrey gave me two bottles of potion and I recovered quickly.”

“By the way, she also said one boy had similar symptoms …”

The trio looked at each other and said in unison, “Draco Malfoy!”

It took them a little over half a Sunday to barely piece together the complete truth –

From Lucius’ attack to Ginny being controlled to open the Chamber of Secrets causing two attacks, throwing away the diary after discovering the anomaly, but then being picked up by Draco Malfoy, Draco being bumped into by Harry while opening the Chamber of Secrets and saving Justine, followed by their feat of going deeper into the Chamber to kill the basilisk. The diary then fell into the hands of Professor Hap and was completely destroyed, bringing the Chamber of Secrets incident to a complete close.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“It’s so strange, Professor Hap is being present too much on the whole thing.”

“It means he really got to the bottom of the entire truth.”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat lazily at the edge of the Black Lake, with a kind of refreshing feeling of solving the mystery that had been haunting them for a long time.

They also let go of a huge stone in their hearts, fully ready for the exam.

January passed quickly, and the rainy season came along with the exam season.

———-

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