31 Chapter 31: Infinite loop

After hearing Ivan's words, the three of them couldn't wait to go back and talk to Myrtle. But from that day on, Filch took a chair and sat in front of the bathroom every night, seeming to think that Ivan would go into the bathroom when he wasn't there.

And, indeed, all four of them intended to do so.

But even Hermione couldn't go in because Filch decided that Ivan was to blame for Mrs. Norris's attack, even though Filch didn't know why Ivan wanted to go into the girls' bathroom, he prevented him from entering.

For a few days, Filch walked around where Mrs. Norris was petrified and hung before, he wanted to scrub her with Mrs. Shower's Multi-Purpose Magic Stain Remover, but to no avail, the words still glowed as brightly as they did before.

Her failure to clean the walls made Filch even more hysterical.

Filch secretly hid in the corner of the third floor and watched each student who approached with a pair of red eyes, then pounced on them and chastised them for anything possible, e.g., "they were breathing too much" or that "their clothes were too wrinkled."

After another failed attempt to get into the girls' bathroom , Ron said, "God, I must beat the madman who did this, but before he gets expelled I just hope he's able to petrify Filch."

But when he saw Ginny's face turn pale, he hastened to add that it was just a joke.

Ginny was in a bad mood these days, looking uncomfortable after what happened to Mrs. Norris. Ivan asked Colin if Ginny stayed at the Halloween Party and he said she went out for five minutes.

The time was short, but it was enough time to open the chamber and let the basilisk out.

In the current situation, Ginny was the one most likely to open the Chamber of Secrets, but no matter how much Ivan asked her, she denied that she knew anything about Tom Riddle and the diary.

In the last few days, Ginny even began to avoid Ivan.

Things became much more confusing when he forced himself into an infinite loop with the way he kept asking Ginny questions.

On the one hand, according to the original plot, Tom Riddle was controlling Ginny and opening the chamber. The questions Ivan asked Ginny were a bit subtle, but they would certainly alert Tom Riddle.

If so, Ivan would most likely be the next target.

On the other hand, due to the butterfly effect, Lucius may not have given the diary to Ginny, but the Chamber of Secrets has been opened, so Tom Riddle has control of someone in the school. Ivan tried to remember everything he knew about the Malfoy family, but he could only remember a few vague details and the more he thought, the more confused he became.

In the end, he had to abandon his plan to find Tom Riddle.

So he had to go back to his original plan, no matter where Tom Riddle was hiding, as long as he could defeat the basilisk, everything would be fine.

Ivan knew where the Chamber of Secrets was, so Harry could open it, but the problem is his strength.

It is easy to say, but for a young wizard, it is difficult to defeat a powerful magical creature, so Ivan had to accelerate his learning about spells, and he also had to learn the standard dueling spells in a short period of time.

On top of that, he planned to ask Hagrid for a rooster.

But when he discovered that he couldn't take it with him, he had to settle for second best and try to record the sound of the rooster crowing.

The basilisk was only afraid of the rooster crowing, but there was no spell to record the sound, so Ivan had to spend a lot of time researching in the library, which made him look very haggard.

In fact, the attacks had had an impact on almost all the students.

The young wizards were worried about what was in the Chamber of Secrets, so almost all copies of "Hogwarts: The History" were taken from the library.

There were rumors everywhere, people were panicking and gossiping.

When the last issue of The Magic of Hogwarts came out, it had already sold over 1,300 copies, because Ivan and Hermione did an analysis of the Chamber of Secrets.

The paper was based on reliable historical facts, and Ivan added some of his guesses, but not everyone was satisfied, they wanted to know who the heir was.

At some point, suspicion fell on Harry.

On Halloween, the four people who found Mrs. Norris petrified were Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ivan. Hermione and Ivan were out because their parents were Muggles, Ron's house was full of wizards, but they are all Gryffindors, and Ron is too weak, so the only one left is Harry who defeated Voldemort, in the minds of young wizards only a more powerful dark wizard can defeat the dark lord.

During dinner, Ivan saw Justin Finch-Fletchley hurriedly avoid Harry and mutter "Slytherin descendant" and so on.

It made some people feel bad, Harry secretly pulled Ivan away, and the four people left the Great Dining Hall and went to the third floor, where, luckily for them, Filch was not on duty this time.

As they were about to open the door, someone stepped out of it.

It was Penelope Clearwater, she looked into the eyes of the four people and turned and ran away in a hurry.

Ron embarrassed and red-faced, took the lead toward the girls' bathroom and said, "She must think we're going to do something bad!"

At that moment, a person's voice suddenly shouted behind them made all four of them jump.

Percy, with his prefect badge on his chest and an expression of utter shock on his face, stopped dead in his tracks on the stairs and shouted loudly, "Ron, what are you doing?"

Percy gasped and said, "That's the girls' bathroom! What are you doing...?"

Ron shrugged, saying, "Nothing, I just wanted to have a casual look around. We're going to look for clues, you know."

Percy raised his voice and said, "Looking for clues? I don't think there are any clues in the girls' bathroom, so get out of here."

Then Percy walked over to the four of them and opened his arms to nudge them, urging them to get going, saying, "Others are eating, but you come in here and try to get into the girls' room."

Ron stopped abruptly, looked at Percy angrily and said, "Why can't we come here? you don't know anything, don't think I don't know what you're thinking, listen, we didn't do anything to that cat."

Percy also looked angrily at Ron and said, "I said the same thing to Ginny, but she still thinks you're going to get expelled, I've never seen her so sad, she was crying. You should think about her, first years get so distracted by this!"

Ron's ears turned red from his anger and he shouted, "Ivan is a freshman too, but I haven't seen him distracted by it. But you don't care Ginny, you're only worried about him ruining your future as a prefect."

Percy froze for a moment, then pulled out the prefect badge as he fiddled with his fingers on it and said, "Gryffindor loses five points. I hope this teaches you a lesson, not to engage in any detective activity, or I'll write to mom."

Percy left with his neck as red as Ron's ears.

Ivan advised quietly, "Ron, you shouldn't fight with Percy, he's just worried about us."

Ron turned to look at Ivan and said angrily, "Do you think I'm being unreasonable?! First flying to school, then throwing up slugs for a week, apologizing to Myrtle, and even now trying to get into the girls' bathroom, it's okay, the bad guy is always me!"

Harry said hastily, "Ron, Ivan didn't mean that...."

Ron exclaimed interrupting Harry, "I've had enough! If that thing could only attack one cat, let it do it!"

After that, he ran down the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower.

Harry and Hermione froze momentarily before running hurriedly after Ron, leaving Ivan alone in front of the girls' bathroom.