Chapter 109: Polyjuice Potion and the Unfortunate Lockhart

They saw Cooper holding a silver Sickle, trying to stuff it into the small pocket on his belly.

Irina lifted Cooper up with one hand, her beautiful eyes glaring at him. 

Realizing he had been caught, Cooper quickly offered the Sickle with his paws, giving Irina an ingratiating look.

"Nifflers are naturally like this. Why don't you give him this instead?" Lynn said with a smile, handing Irina a golden transparent bead.

"A glass bead?!" Irina realized. Nifflers are naturally attracted to shiny golden objects, and the glass bead resembles a crystal, perfect for tricking Cooper.

Irina gladly took the glass bead and dangled it in front of Cooper. "Cooper, I'll give you one of these treasures every day, but only if you don't take others' things without permission!"

As soon as Cooper saw the glass bead, his eyes lit up. He dropped the Sickle and reached out with his paws, desperately trying to grab the golden bead from Irina.

Irina gave the bead to Cooper, who quickly stuffed it into his pocket and bowed gratefully to her.

After dealing with Cooper, Irina calmed down the angered Qinwee and put them in her pocket.

Since Irina had learned the Shield Charm, they no longer needed to stay in the Shrieking Shack. The two made their way back through the secret passage, emerging from under the Whomping Willow. They then used the Disillusionment Charm to leave the tree's attack range.

It was now noon. After Lynn and Irina returned to their dormitories to drop off their belongings, they hurried to the Great Hall for lunch.

After lunch, Lynn went back to the Slytherin dormitory to design the alchemical glasses, while Irina headed to the Gryffindor common room to meet Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"So, how was the date?" Hermione teased, giving Irina a suggestive look.

"What?! A date?! Irina, who did you go on a date with?!" Harry and Ron looked incredulous.

Irina glared at Hermione before changing the subject. "By the way, I think I have a lead on Mrs. Norris being Petrified last night!"

Irina's words caught the trio's attention, and they listened intently for her to continue.

Irina then vaguely revealed the Chamber of Secrets to them.

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. The monster inside was released by the Heir of Slytherin and attacked Mrs. Norris. The blood-writing on the wall must have been written by the Heir too!"

Hearing about the Chamber, the three seemed dumbfounded at first. But after calming down, they began analyzing who the Heir of Slytherin could be.

"So who could it be?" Hermione nibbled her quill, looking puzzled. "Who would want to drive all the Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think," said Ron, feigning a perplexed look. "Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum? Who was right there when the attack happened, and even yelled about Muggle-borns being next? And who got caught literally red-handed at the scene of the crime?"

Irina burst out laughing. "Ron, you might as well just say Malfoy's name outright!"

"Yeah, it has to be Malfoy! Don't you remember him saying, 'You'll be next, Mudbloods'? Just look at his foul, ferret-y face - you can just tell it's him..."

"Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?" Hermione sounded skeptical. "But why would he go and blatantly incriminate himself right after doing it?"

Harry closed his Quidditch book. "Maybe he is that stupid? Look at his whole family, they've all been in Slytherin for ages. He keeps going on about his Slytherin blood. Maybe the Malfoys really are descendants of Slytherin. His dad was definitely evil enough."

"Wait," Irina interjected. "If I remember correctly, I read in an ancient book that it's actually the Gaunt family that's descended from Slytherin, not the Malfoys. They're one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight."

"Maybe there was an intermarriage at some point?" Ron shrugged. "Either way, Malfoy's still the most likely suspect!"

Seeing that they were convinced Malfoy was the culprit, Irina shook her head and didn't argue further.

"There might be a way to find out, though," said Hermione, deep in thought. "It would be difficult, and we'd have to break about fifty school rules, but we could use Polyjuice Potion to disguise ourselves as Slytherin students and interrogate Malfoy in their common room. He's probably still strutting around in there, bragging about it to anyone who'll listen..."

"What's this Polyjuice Potion?" Harry and Ron asked in unison.

Hermione explained, "It's a potion that allows you to transform into someone else temporarily. Snape mentioned it once in class - it's supposed to be really complicated to make, and the recipe is probably in a book in the Restricted Section..."

Her voice trailed off dejectedly. To get a book from the Restricted Section, they'd need a signed note from a professor.

When Hermione told Harry and Ron about the Restricted Section issue, they looked deflated, realizing they had no reason to get a note.

"Maybe I can get a signed note," Irina spoke up.

Though she had frozen Lockhart into an ice sculpture and filled his test with insults during that first Defense class, the narcissistic Lockhart still saw Irina as one of his biggest fangirls. Not only had he not punished her, he had gifted her a full set of his books.

So Irina could easily get Lockhart to sign a blank parchment under the pretense of wanting an autograph. Then she could add the book request to the signed parchment herself.

Trusting Irina, Harry, Ron, and Hermione agreed to her plan without questioning further. After finalizing their scheme, Irina returned to her dormitory. She took out the two-way mirror Lynn had given her and channeled her magic into it.

Soon, Lynn's face appeared in the mirror. Irina briefly recounted her conversation with the trio and then said, "I'm planning to trick Lockhart into giving me some signed notes. Do you need one too? I heard you two didn't exactly get along in that first class, so he probably won't give you an autograph easily."

Hearing this, Lynn paused, then let out a wry laugh. This Lockhart had become quite the unfortunate soul in Irina's eyes!

(end of chapter)