Hogwarts School had always maintained a tight-lipped policy regarding the specific details of heinous incidents. In his previous life, Draco had no idea what kind of monster lurked in the Chamber of Secrets; he only knew that it attacked students and Petrified all living things.
At the end of the previous school year, thanks to the Grey Lady, Draco learned the identity of the monster in the Chamber of Secrets: the Basilisk. Therefore, during the holidays, he brewed a Mandrake Restorative Draught to prepare for any eventuality.
Unfortunately, the information was still too limited. He did not know the exact location of the Chamber of Secrets, let alone find the Basilisk and work out how to remove one of its venomous fangs.
"The most crucial question is, how does this enormous monster appear and disappear so freely at Hogwarts?" Draco stared at the fire, muttering to himself in a barely audible voice, completely baffled, amidst Blaise and Pansy's conversation.
For days, the students at Hogwarts were talking about Mrs Norris's Petrification. Even the portraits and ghosts in the castle were debating the matter.
"That cat was Petrified, that is right!" One evening at the dinner table, Draco overheard the Gryffindor ghost—Nearly Headless Nick—speaking loudly to the Fat Friar in the Great Hall. "But that is not a simple Petrification spell! Dumbledore said it requires very advanced Dark magic to do that! Second-years cannot do that!"
Dumbledore does not seem to suspect Harry and the others, Draco thought. They were only questioned and then "acquitted" by Dumbledore that same day.
Filch, however, could not get over it and often gave Harry suspicious looks when he passed by.
After Mrs Norris's incident, he became somewhat erratic. He often wandered the corridor where Mrs Norris was attacked, or tried to wipe off the writing on the walls with various cleaning agents, even though the words still stubbornly shone on the walls.
"Mr Filch is probably very sad." In the private space of the library, Hermione absentmindedly flipped through a thick book in her hands and said to Draco, "He probably loves his cat very much."
"Save your sympathy, Hermione. His being a victim does not mask the fact that he hates students," Draco said lazily. "He has gone mad. An hour ago he put Crabbe and Goyle in detention because they were 'breathing too loudly' as they passed by him."
"Speaking of which, yesterday he put the Weasley twins in detention, saying they should not be 'joking around' in the corridors," Hermione said with a bitter face, then picked up another thick book and quickly flipped through it. "Lately he has been staring at Harry with bloodshot eyes, yelling that it is all Harry's fault because Harry knows he is a Squib…"
"Oh, he is a Squib? That explains so many of my questions," he said with an "I see" tone.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I have always been curious why there are brooms in Hogwarts Castle that cannot be used for flying, and why there is a broom cupboard specifically for storing these kinds of brooms," Draco said. "It seems that all these strange occurrences are thanks to him."
"Come on, it is weirder to use a broom to fly." Hermione shook her head, looking completely bewildered.
"Hermione, you need to get rid of this Muggle-like way of thinking. You are a witch. You can fly on a broomstick; it is an innate ability." Draco, fiddling with his Ancient Greek translations and pondering her Muggle origins, could not help but offer a reminder. "By the way, you need to be more alert lately. Whether it is Filch or whatever, this cat might just be the beginning."
"What do you mean by that?" she asked, looking up at him with a hint of suspicion.
"It is nothing, it is just my reasonable concern." Draco glanced at her, feigning ignorance, and asked, "What exactly are you busy with?"
He had noticed it long ago; Hermione seemed to have been stimulated by something, spending several days in a row in the library researching something, and even Draco's Ancient Greek translations could not interest her.
"I want to look into the legend of the Chamber of Secrets. All of Hogwarts: A History are borrowed," Hermione sighed grumblingly. "The waiting list for borrowing them is two weeks long."
"That is normal. Everyone is curious about the Chamber of Secrets." Draco lazily twirled the quill in his hand. "Speaking of which, what exactly happened that day? Why did you not go to the feast in the Great Hall?"
"We went to the dungeon that day for Nick's Deathday Party," Hermione said. "It was Harry who invited him."
"No wonder he was so eager to clear Harry's name," Draco said, suddenly realising. He then asked, "If that is the case, why were the three of you upstairs instead of in the dungeon?"
"There is practically nothing for a living person to eat there. We were planning to go back up to the Great Hall. But, Harry said—" Hermione choked up. She could not decide whether to bring it up.
Ultimately, this was Harry's business. The fact that he could hear things others could not was incredibly strange. Hermione thought she did not seem to have the right to speak out of turn.
"What did he say?" Draco asked sharply.
"Oh, it is nothing. I think he might be hallucinating from hunger…" Hermione said dismissively.
Hermione definitely knows something, but she does not want to talk about it. Draco frowned.
This feeling was a little uncomfortable. When did she start to distrust him? Were all girls this fickle?
Hermione clearly did not want to talk about that night any more; she was more interested in learning about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets. She looked at Draco hopefully. "Draco, since you come from a wizarding family, perhaps you know something about the Chamber of Secrets?"
"Why do you not ask Professor Binns in the next History of Magic class? Since he is so old he is practically a ghost, what at Hogwarts does he not know?" Draco said tactfully, deliberately ignoring her expectant look.
He was a little bothered by her keeping it a secret.
How could she let him be the only one to experience the feeling of being kept in suspense? She also needed to experience this anxious, uncertain feeling.
"Oh, come on, why would he talk about this in class? Draco, I wager you know something," Hermione said irritably. She caught a glint of cunning in Draco's eyes and concluded he was hiding something from her. "Why can you not just tell me?"
"I am not the only one hiding things from others at this table," Draco said pointedly.
He was still bothered by Hermione's pause just now.
"Why will you not tell me the truth? I do not believe it is a coincidence." He stared at her, observing her expression, trying to catch any subtle change.
"Not a coincidence? So, you also think that the three of us killed the cat? That is not surprising; I have heard quite a few people talking about it privately!" she retorted sensitively to his question.
The way he stared at her was so intense it made her blush.
His gaze was direct and somewhat blatant, making her uncomfortable. He might be suspecting her!
"Of course I did not think that," Draco said impatiently. What was Hermione thinking?
"But I think it was no coincidence that you were there! To be honest, I thought we could be more honest with each other!" he said dejectedly.
"Because I do not need to report anything to you, as if you have a lot of little secrets about Dark magic!" Hermione said irritably.
Why did he speak in such an aggressive manner?
He was too cunning!
She had told him about Herpo that day, but he turned around and burned his bridges, refusing to share anything about the Chamber of Secrets with her!
All right, then she could find it herself.
She did not believe that she could not do her own research without Draco Malfoy, she thought angrily.
Moreover, his fervent passion for Dark magic made her feel that he was not as simple as she had thought.
There was definitely something fishy about the "Herpo's Notebook" he studied; it mentioned a great deal of advanced Dark magic terms and dangerous species.
Where did he find this book? Was it in the Restricted Section? Was that a place a second-year student should frequent? Madam Pince had always been very cautious about borrowing books from the Restricted Section. How did he get it?
He was clearly very interested in the book, no matter where he found it; his eyes lit up.
There was no doubt that he was hiding something from her. He certainly knew more than he said, especially about Dark magic. The things Ron had told her suddenly came back to her mind—"The Malfoys all revere Dark magic."
She had no desire to have anything to do with Dark magic!
And he, a secretive boy obsessed with Dark magic, interrogated her like a criminal, as if she had done something shady—he was certainly meddling in her affairs.
"Why we were there has nothing to do with you!" she said stubbornly and arrogantly, picking up the thick books she had already read and preparing to raid another bookshelf.
"Very good." Draco resumed his indifferent expression, and Hermione could sense his bad mood.
"Yes, very well." Hermione retorted sharply, feeling somewhat hurt by his cold attitude. "I do not think there is any need to discuss this with you any further."