The Last Slytherin - Chapter 36

On the following week, everyone found Neal’s behavior strange as he’s spacing out all the time. He was even scolded by Snape for making common mistakes while concocting a simple Sleeping Draught potion which was very rare as he had perfected the potion in his first year.

He kept on thinking about the Mysterious entrance without even having his dinner or lunch properly. After thinking for a long time, Neal decided to enter the hidden room inside the Restricted section as it was disturbing him daily.

At first, he thought of informing Prof. McGonagall but then realized that he doesn’t have an answer if they ask what is he doing in the restricted section after the closing hours are ended in the first place. Not to mention, it also might not be as dangerous as he thinks.

On Saturday night, he slowly walked towards the Restricted section while avoiding all ghosts and Filch with Isle’s help. After a while, with a suitcase in his hand, he stood before the entrance again and spoke out the spell upon which an entrance is once again revealed.

He walked towards the doorstep by step and opened it with slight nervousness while Isle coiled around his arm like usual. As he entered a normal dim-lit room, all of a sudden, several people appeared before him.

Except that these people look exactly just like him except that they were in dark robes and all have a lot of cruelty and evilness in their hazel eyes. They were like 10-15 in the number who surrounded him and started speaking in a parseltongue which made him shiver in fear without knowing why.

At that moment, Neal remembered the suitcase in his hand and opened it which suċkėd all of them inside of it. After all of them disappeared, he wiped his sweat, “what was that? Is some sort of spell? I don’t understand why am I feeling fear in my heart when I saw myself in that form. Isn’t it just a robe change?

Wait a second. Didn’t I just read about it last week? Boggarts are amortal shape-shifting, non-beings, that takes on the form of its observer’s worst fear. They are Boggarts, right? Who the hell put that many Boggarts in the room?. Thank goodness, I brought the suitcase with me”.

Then, as he looked around, he saw a vault in the corner of the room. Not big. Just the size of a trunk. Neal hesitated to open it with hands as he feared there might be traps. So, he used the wand to open it. Inside of it, there’s nothing but a huge parchment folded.

Neal picked it up and as he unfolded it, he was taken back in a surprise. He looked at it again carefully, “wow, this is a complete detailed map of the Forbidden forest. With this map around, it becomes very easy to collect various potion ingredients.

Neal smiled and switched the suitcase to muggle worthy. He put the folded map inside it and returned to his room without being spotted by anyone.

He laid on the bed feeling with ease, “well, I gained something after all”. Then suddenly he woke up as he remembered something important, “Oh, no, I forgot that they are sent to Zora’s habitat. I have to hurry and save her”.

He immediately opened his suitcase and stepped inside it. As he entered Zora’s forest habitat, he saw the basilisk was running away while several roosters are chasing it”.

He pulled out his Basilisk wand and spoke in parseltongue, “Awake my wand”. As he felt that his wand was activated, then he looked at the Basilisk and shouted in parseltongue, “Zora, come to your master”.

Hearing his voice, the basilisk started to rush towards him in a hurry, trying to escape from the Roosters, while hissing, “master, help me”. Just as some of them found him, they changed into himself wearing black robes.

He fired a spell, “Riddikulus” at them one by one turning them into clown toys temporarily. Then, he concentrated on all the Boggwarts which were transformed into clown toys and threw them into a different habitat which is the smallest habitat.

It is his first creation after working for so long. It was just a barren land around the size of a bedroom with nothing else added. He threw all 15 of them especially here and separated them because amortals like them can’t die and he also wants to research them in the future.

After returning to his room, he slept until morning in peace.

The next morning, his door was knocked hard continuously until he opened it. Neal looked at Malfoy and spoke lazily as he was still drowsy, “it’s still 9:00. We don’t have classes in the morning”. Malfoy replied, “you need to come and see it”.

After dressing himself up, Neal went with Malfoy to the first floor of the castle where a lot of students and teachers along with Dumbledore gathered around.

As soon as someone spotted him, “Hey, it’s Neal”, everyone tuned towards his directions. Filch, the caretaker pushed the kids out of the way and scurried towards him. Neal saw hate in his eyes. He howled, “you, Slytherin. How dare are you…”.

He was stopped by Dumbledore, “Argus, calm down”. Filch looked at Dumbledore and shouted in a wave of anger, “calm down? My poor Norris was killed by this Slytherin”. Neal was taken back, “what the hell are you talking about? When did I kill your cat?”.

A person from Gryffindor sneered, “oh, please stop acting, Slytherin. Everyone here knows you did it”. As he said that, he pointed his finger somewhere. The crowd stepped aside and Neal saw a dead cat hanging on a small lamppost. Above it, he saw a sentence written in blood.

“The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware”. Neal was taken back by the words and mumbled, “but that’s impossible”. As everyone’s looking at him suspiciously, he looked at Filch and said, “I’m sorry about her death but I’m not the culprit. Does it even make sense that I kill it first and then write on the wall I did it and now I’m denying it?”.

Ron commented, “I don’t know the meaning of those words you’ve written with Mrs. Norris’ blood but for the past week, you’ve been acting suspiciously in classes”. While few people nodded, Dumbledore said, “Mr. Lockhart. could I use your office for a moment?”

Lockhart smiled, “of course”. Then Dumbledore said, “Neal, Prof. McGonagall, Prof. Snape, come to Prof. Lockhart’s office for a moment. Students, everyone return to your dormitories”.

Neal then spoke out loudly as Dumbledore turned back and stepped forward, “wait. The writings on the wall aren’t true because I found no monster in the chamber of secrets”. Dumbledore, Prof. McGonagall, and Snape stopped and turned abruptly after hearing his words. Dumbledore asked ina

surprise, “What did you say?”.

While the students look at him curiously, Neal said, “I went into the chamber. The legend is false”. Then he turned towards Filch, “so, it can’t be me, Filch. Most likely, it might be someone that hates me because he, clearly mentioned the heir. I guess he also hates you very much to use Mrs. Norris to frame me”. Filch suddenly remembered that in previous detention, Harry saw the Kwickspell course in his room which is popular among Squib.

He suddenly turned to Harry, “you, Potter. You killed my Norris”. The room suddenly went into surprise, especially Gryffindors. Harry was stumped to see how he was getting involved in this troublesome business and defended himself, “It’s not me”. Filch dashed towards him in hate and tried to grab his collar.

Dumbledore shouted, “Argus, calm down. We’ll look into this, I promise”. Then he turned towards Neal and said, “you are coming with us”. After Filch, teachers, and Neal went away, Draco looked at them in disgust, “so much noise for a mere cat. Isn’t it good that it’s gone?”.

Ron for the first time agreed with him, “Now that you mentioned it, it’s true”. Hermoine nudged him, “Ron?”. He came to his senses and both of them realized that they were on the same page, both snorted and went their ways, “hmpf”.

While the trio was returning, Harry asked, “what is Neal talking about? What did he mean by the chamber and no monster? He even said the legend is false”. Hermoine replied, “I don’t know about it. I’ll check out the Library, later. However, I still think Neal is innocent. I wouldn’t think the one who never breaks rules and being a perfect student would kill a cat”.

Ron and Harry commented, “you are defending our enemy”. Hermoine replied, “oh, please. I’m just being objective. Just like he said if he, really kills it, why would he write on the wall that he did it and now denying it? Please use common sense for once”.

Meanwhile, Ginny woke up in her bed again to find blood marks here and there all over her clothes and hands which had dried up.