Chapter 109: Dyslexia Syndrome (Edited)

Late in the evening, after a walk around the grounds, Comey escorted Fish back to the Gryffindor Common Room, where he saw Harry and Ron each holding a book, flipping through it by the light of the fireplace.

"Meow?" ?ω?

Fish cocked his head to the side, the scene looked familiar.

He remembered that the two of them had been flipping through books in the Common Room before the vacations, but had stopped after the vacations, and now they were doing it again.

"Why have they started flipping through books again? is it because school is starting?". (●ΦωΦ●)? Fish greeted the two who looked at him and asked curiously.

"Er... actually we're looking for someone," remembering his and Ron's slacking off during the vacations, and Hermione's reprimand two days ago, Harry scratched his cheek in embarrassment and replied, "Didn't I tell you before? I used my invisibility cloak to wander around the Forbidden Zone, to look for information about a person."

"Who are you looking for?" Fish cocked his head to the side in confusion, "Why don't you ask Minerva or the mean old man?"

Harry remembered that Fish had covered for him in front of Snape and Filch at Christmas, and with that as a basis of trust, he decided to tell Fish the truth after hesitating for a while, "The man we're looking for is called Nicolas Flamel, and since he's involved in what's behind the trapdoor, we can't warn the professors."

When Harry mentioned the trapdoor, an expression of disgust immediately appeared on Fish's face.

"What, what's wrong?"

Harry looked puzzled at Fish, who was suddenly in a bad mood, not knowing what he had said wrong.

"That thing behind the trap door is super stinky, meow!"

Fish was still looking disgusted, shaking his head frantically.

"Huh? Super stinky?"

Harry had thought that whatever was behind the trap door might be some kind of terrible weapon, or some powerful spell book, but never that it would be something "super stinky".

"What's going on? have you been there yet, Fish?" Ron, who had put down his book and had been listening for quite a while, finally asked.

"Yeah" Fish nodded his head, as if he regretted what he'd done.

"Christmas night, I tried to borrow Scarhead's invisibility cloak to see if I could trick Fluffy, but he wasn't in bed when I got up" Fish said.

"Yes! I remember!"

Harry patted his head regretfully, Fish had mentioned to him the day after Christmas that he had wanted to borrow the invisibility cloak but no longer needed it, only he had been so focused on the Mirror of Erised at the time that he had completely ignored the information.

"I remember it too." Ron recalled the scene, "I was about to beat you in a game of magic chess."

Harry: "..."

"...I'm sorry, it just occurred to me..."

Ron thought it was a bit out of place to bring up magical chess in such a serious conversation, and was quick to change the subject, "So you found a way to get past the big dog without the invisibility cloak, Fish?"

"Yes!" Fish nodded proudly, "I was going to play with Fluffy and share the food I got for Christmas with him, but Fluffy eats more than I do, so I usually find something to do while he eats."

Harry and Ron nodded, Fish's ability to entertain himself was well known to all.

"The other day I had one more little thing in my pocket besides food, meow," Fish recalled, tilting his head, "And then I pulled out this thing called a music box and played music, not realizing that Fluffy fell asleep as soon as he heard the music, meow, and he couldn't wake up no matter how much he screamed, and then I walked in quite easily..."

At this point, Fish instantly became angry, "And wasn't it fun down there, meow!" ?(●`Д′●)?

Fish lowered his head and thought for a moment, then added, "It's actually really fun up ahead, with waving plants, flying winged keys, and super-sized chess pieces."

Fish spread his arms wide and gestured.

"But the back is no fun at all! It sucks to death, meow! The mean old man hid a Troll in there! That's really too much!"(●｀Д′●)ツ┏━┓

Fish got angrier and angrier as he kept banging his hands on the bed, making a thumping thudding noise.

"Can you tell us anything more about it? The oversized pieces and all that."

Harry swallowed saliva, suppressing his excitement, and asked Fish for information about the trapdoor.

Ron's ears pricked up as well, like a good magical chess player, he was interested in the oversized pieces Fish was talking about.

"Meow? aren't you afraid of the stink?" ?ω?

Fish expressed his admiration for Scar Head, not only can he read books with so many words, but he is not afraid of bad smell!

"No, no, no, no, I wasn't planning to go, I was just curious what's in there."

Harry waved his hand, he wasn't lying, they were mainly trying to figure out what Snape was trying to steal, and then see what they could do to stop him.

As for how to stop him...

The brave Gryffindor didn't give it much thought.

Fish didn't care if Harry really wanted to go in or not, he cooperated by telling Harry and Ron what he'd seen and heard down there, but he wasn't going back anyway.

...

As soon as class was over the next morning, Harry and Ron were eager to tell Hermione everything they had learned from Fish.

"At the end of the day, we still don't know what's hiding behind the trapdoor."

This information didn't seem to do Hermione much good, however, and the smart young woman cut to the chase, reminding the two excited boys.

"So we'll just have to keep turning the pages of our book until we find out who Nicolas Flamel is" Hermione said.

Harry and Ron's faces instantly fell.

Ignoring their emotions, Hermione closed the book in her hands and tapped her fingers on the cover.

"But the good news is that we don't have to worry about Professor Snape for now, Professor Dumbledore has obviously prepared more than one level, and Snape hasn't even managed to get past that big dog yet..."

He suddenly gave Harry and Ron a stern look, giving them both the illusion of seeing Professor McGonagall.

"The point is, we can't let Snape know the way past the big dog, nor can we let him know that Fish knows the way past the big dog."

"That's for sure, we let Fish know." Harry nodded hurriedly, "Fish isn't the same as before, he's very reliable now, he covered for me in front of Snape and Filch when I used my invisibility cloak to go out on Christmas night."

"That's good."

Hermione didn't even care that Harry had broken school rules, since, because of Fish, Gryffindor students were now very are very disinterested when it came to House points.

He nodded, then frowned looking at Harry and Ron.

"So, what are they waiting for? why don't they go back to their rooms and continue reading the books? I told them they'd better fill them with you...or go to the library to check out materials, anyway, we've got half an hour before lunchtime, we've got to make the most of it!"

With that, she reopened the book in her hand and continued reading it, leading by example.

Harry and Ron, meanwhile, walked at a very slow pace, with heavy faces, towards the library, trying to spend as much time as possible on the way.

Although they knew they should do what Hermione had said and race against time, knowing and doing were two different things....

"I'm repulsed by Ratteeth's words now..." said Ron to Harry on the way to the library, with a wistful look on his face.

Harry believed it, because he was pretty much the same way.

His dyslexia had gone from a headache at seeing people's names, to a bad reaction to the mere sight of numbers and letters.