The room fell silent again, and both Harry and Ron looked at Hermione, who was still groaning.

"Okay, let's work together." After a moment's thought, Hermione replied.

"Hermione?!" Ron clutched his head in disbelief and exclaimed, "Didn't you hear what he said earlier?" Why work with him? ”

Stopping Ron, Hermione forced herself to say in a calm tone, "In fact, Ning An does have more information, and it is advantageous to cooperate with him. ”

"But—"

"I agree." Harry looked at Ning An quietly, and although there was no smile on his face, he was willing to cooperate with Ning An.

"Now everyone thinks I'm the heir because I know Parseltongue, Ron." Harry looked at Ron quietly and said:

"I want to find the real heir quickly."

"Oh, God......" Ron covered his eyes helplessly, he could only shake his hand and say, "Don't ask my opinion, since you two agree, then don't ask me-"

Ning An saw that the three of them agreed, so he smiled and said, "Very good, then I think we can go our separate ways, I will keep an eye on the students on the Slytherin side, and you will be responsible for watching the other houses - I don't think the heir will definitely be in Slytherin." ”

"Yes, but I'm going to do it with you." Hermione suddenly raised her hand and said something amazing.

"Hermione?" Harry and Ron looked at her with incomprehensible eyes.

"In any case, your suspicion is still not completely ruled out, so I want to act with you, which can also be seen as a kind of surveillance." Hermione looked at Ning An and said coldly.

Ning An had never seen Hermione show such an expression, but he didn't say anything, just nodded.

With that, Harry and the three of them left the Slytherin common room, led by Ning'an, and the three turned around and left the gloomy basement.

On the way back to the Gryffindor common room, Hermione looked a little distracted and slightly dazed, and Harry and Ron looked at her worriedly.

Ron diverted the topic and said, "Is there really such a thing as a basilisk in the school?" But why was everyone petrified and not dead? ”

"Lady Loris, I think she saw the basilisk in her reflection in the water." Hermione said suddenly, "Colin? Creevey is from the camera. ”

After listening to Hermione's explanation, the two of them showed expressions of sudden realization.

"So, what Ning An said is true?" Harry muttered to himself.

"But I always find it a little strange." Hermione was still frowning

"What's so strange?" Ron was puzzled by Hermione's state today, indecisive and not at all like the resolute Hermione.

"I think Ning An may be hiding something." Saying something she didn't want to say added to Hermione's sadness.

"Of course he will hide it, I said a long time ago, no one in Slytherin can be trusted, and you still treat him as a friend." Ron seemed to have been played by Ning An, and he said indignantly:

"He's just using us, telling a few little pieces of information, and we'll let us help with the investigation, and God knows why Hermione would agree to his request."

"This is our chance to get close to Ning'an, to get close to Slytherin!" Hermione retorted, she didn't feel that she was sentimental in agreeing to Ning An's request

"There is a high probability that the person who opened the secret room is from Slytherin, but Slytherin is very closed, and Ning'an is the bridge between us and Slytherin."

Ron stopped talking, he had to admit that Hermione had a point, the three of them returned to the lounge and collapsed on the sofa, today was also a twist and turn for them, and finally inexplicably reached a cooperation with Ning An.

But fortunately, the mystery of the secret room seems to have finally been revealed to them, at least they already know what kind of monster it is, and it was released from the secret room.

———————————————————————————————

On the other side, on the eighth floor of Hogwarts, behind the gate guarded by two majestic stone statues, in the headmaster's office, Dumbledore and Snape were talking to each other.

"What are you waiting for? Dumbledore? Snape shouted

"You've never been so hesitant! What exactly are you thinking about? ”

"I'm worried about the child's soul, Snape." Unaffected by Snape's yelling, Dumbledore still calmly replied.

"Whatever his soul is, I don't think you can change it, Dumbledore, and we have to admit that Nyan is different." Snape's tone deepened, too, as he stood at his desk, his face gloomy as water.

"The Ministry of Magic is ready to intervene in the petrification incident, Lucius is always ready to kick you off the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts, the missing girl has not been found, the root of everything comes from Ning'an, what are you waiting for?"

Dumbledore pushed the half-moon glasses on the bridge of his nose, and instead of looking at Snape, he looked at his phoenix Fawkes, the once dazzling phoenix, now living like a bald chicken, it became skinny, and it looked like it had not been alive for a few days.

"I've never been afraid to leave the headmaster's position, Severus." Retracting his gaze and making eye contact with Snape, Dumbledore still said calmly, "I only really left this school when everyone here betrayed me. ”

"And what do you want to do?" A frown, Snape's face looked disgruntled.

"I agree with your suggestion, Severus, to give Ning An a truth potion—"

"yes, I finally agreed, I thought you were going to continue to guide his soul." Snape said mockingly.

Dumbledore didn't care about Snape's sarcasm, his brow seemed to linger with unquenchable sorrow, and Snape put away his sarcastic smile, he hadn't seen Dumbledore show such a look for a long time.

"Aberforth wrote to me a while ago that he had seen Mondongues." Dumbledore's voice was deeper than ever, and it made Snape feel uneasy.

"But until now I haven't heard from Montongues, it's as if he's missing."

"Maybe it's another mess up with his shady business." Snape didn't like the wizard with three hands, and privately everyone admitted him to be a thief.

"No, you don't understand, Severus." Shaking his head tiredly, Dumbledore no longer dwelled on the subject, he got up from his seat, walked over to Snape, looked at him seriously and said:

"Severus, I confess, maybe I made a mistake on the issue of Ning'an." Snape's eyes widened, and he looked at Dumbledore with a strange expression, as if the old headmaster was giving his last words.

"Be careful, Severus, this kid has so many secrets we don't know, he's your favorite student, I think you know him better than I do—"

"It was—"

Snape's eyes were as quiet as a bottomless pool, and he coldly reminded, "He used to be my favorite student." ”