Sharing secrets is the most direct way to bring people closer together. After listening to Professor Brian's secret and calming down, Harry clearly felt a bit embarrassed. He hesitated and looked at Hermione, while Hermione, who received his gaze, also seemed to be hesitant.
"How about you, do you have something to share with me as well?"
Amos ta stood up and went to the fireplace, took a steaming teapot from the shelf and poured himself a cup of tea, and by the time he returned to his seat, it was obvious that Hermione and Harry had reached some sort of consensus.
"Professor Brian, do you think being able to hear sounds that others cannot be a good talent?"
Looking at Harry's hesitation, Amos ta knew that for a long time, his unintentional efforts to build a relationship with them were about to pay off. He hid his expression behind the swirling smoke and answered in a very mild manner.
"This depends on the situation, Potter. One simple statement isn't enough for me to make an accurate judgment."
The suffocating silence suddenly descended, Hermione remained silent, and Harry was visibly uneasy.
Professor Brian is his favorite professor, but his purpose for entering Hogwarts was not to teach. Investigating the secret chamber was his primary job. If possible, Harry hopes to offer some help, of course, on the condition that he or Dobby and Hagrid are not involved.
The best scenario would be for Professor Brian to find the secret chamber or the creature within it, and then the matter would end there, with no one being held accountable.
"--The situation is like this,"
Harry spoke carefully, weighing his words to make sure Professor Brian believed he knew very little about what he was saying.
"When I first came to your office, you asked me why we ended up on the third floor after the Nickles' Halloween party last year... In fact, it was because I heard a strange noise, and that sound first appeared in Professor Loht's office."
In the next ten minutes, Harry explained the cause and effect of the strange sound, and after listening to all this, Amos ta leaned back in his chair, expressionless, and fell into a long silence.
"Do you think that sound was made by what kind of creature?"
"Are you sure that you were the only one who heard that sound, Mr. Potter?"
Amos ta did not rush to give his opinion but confirmed again.
"That's correct, Professor Brian--"
Hermione nodded cautiously, "At that time, Harry and I were with Ron, but apart from Harry, neither I nor Ron noticed anything unusual."
Amos ta nodded knowingly, carefully recalling the route from the basement to the third floor. With the two young wizards watching him expectantly, he spoke slowly, "As I recall..."
"If I'm not mistaken, the sound was made by a snake..."
"A snake!"
Harry exclaimed, and Hermione looked as though she had been struck by lightning. Professor Brian's simple guess pierced the long-standing mist that had been lingering in Hermione's mind.
"That's right, Harry! Definitely!"
Hermione stood up from her chair with a snap, her face flushed because of her excitement. Her fingers were trembling.
"Everything can be explained... You're the only one who can hear that sound, of course, Harry, because you're a Muggle-born. Besides you, nobody else can understand what a snake's hissing means!"
"But!"
Harry argued, following Hermione's train of thought, "However!"
"At that time, besides us three, there were only a bunch of ghosts in the basement and passageway. If there was indeed a snake, it couldn't have hidden itself in the walls, could it, Hermione?"
"It's not necessarily..."
Harry's words made Hermione furrow her brow. She hesitated before answering,
"If the snake is small enough in size, perhaps it can move through the cracks in the bricks... Or maybe it has some special ability to move freely through walls. After all, normal snakes don't have the ability to petrify anyone, Harry!"
Hermione's guess does have a possibility, but it's only a possibility.
"Anything that has ever existed, no matter how careful, will leave some trace--"
Amos ta stood up smiling, feeling quite cheerful now that he had something to do. He waved his wand, gathering all the scattered letters on the ground and tables. Then he looked at Harry and Hermione.
"Let's go back to the scene and take another look. Perhaps we can find something interesting to lead us further!"
"..."
The night was deep, on Sunday evening, few wizards were wandering around the castle. Most of them stayed in the common room, doing homework or playing a game like wizard chess or goblet stones with their friends.
As they passed the second floor, they saw Filch threatening to chain two first-year wizards and hang them in his office if they didn't clean up the mud and water on the floor. The kind-hearted Amos ta lent a hand to the two young wizards.
"There's no need to be so harsh on the young wizards, Filch--"
Facing a displeased but not overly defiant Filch, Amos ta smiled mildly,
"Not long now, Professor Sprout's mandrake will be ripe, and Mrs. Weasley will soon be back to health--"
The three of them arrived at a passage leading to the basement near the hallway. It was pitch dark, without a single light, and the seams between the walls and floors still had candle wax from the black candles that were placed here during Nick's All Souls' Night party.
"I was standing right here--"
Four months had passed since that night, and Harry still remembered everything clearly. He walked quickly with Hermione and Professor Brian, pointing at the wall as he said,
"That sound appeared in the wall, then it went up through the ceiling, and finally brought us up to the third floor!"
Amos ta lit his wand and moved his gaze along the wall, following Harry's pointer. Finally, he nodded and said,
"It seems we need to open this wall and take a look."
"Open the wall?!" Hermione exclaimed, with an incredulous look.
"Of course, Miss Granger. Otherwise, how are we to figure out how that snake is moving around inside the wall?"
Amos ta said with a light tone, waving his wand casually in the air and making a few random gestures. With several flashes of light, the hard wall was easily cut open as if it were made of tofu.
And when what was behind the wall was exposed to the air, all the mysteries were solved.
It's a pipe!
Behind the stone wall, the moldy pipes emit a repulsive odor. Carefully listening, one can hear the sound of flowing water.
"I always thought this wall was solid..." Harry muttered in awe, his eyes wide with surprise.
"Now the problem has been solved!" Hermione's face had a bit of a pale color, "I can't even imagine how big a snake could be hidden in such a large pipe!"
"There are many more problems to solve, Miss Granger..."
Amos ta squinted his eyes, jumping onto the broken wall and examining the large pipe carefully. After a while, he placed his wand in the palm of his hand,
"Show me the way!"
"Show me the way!"
"Follow me!"
"Show me the way!"
"Show me the way!"
"Show me the way!"
"Show me the way!"
"Show me the way!"
"Show me the way!"
