HP: Fantastic Beasts And The Right Way To Use Them - 198

Chapter 198: Information About the Chamber

"My God! This is it! My friend!"

In the Hogwarts dungeons, within a small cell, a spectre with crimson eyes hugged a notebook with delight, repeatedly thanking Evans.

"I never thought I'd have the day to get it back! Thank you, you'll be Sir Podmore's friend forever!"

Seeing the Sir's joyful expression, Evans slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he'd spent an afternoon searching with over a hundred Nifflers and paid considerable rewards, the result was good. At least now, he could finally accept the intelligence this Sir provided with peace of mind.

Thinking this, Evans immediately asked: "Have you obtained any new intelligence these past few days?"

Although Sir Podmore basically synchronised progress with him every few days, it'd been four days since the last time. Time for the next update.

Hearing Evans's words, the Sir set aside the notebook in his hands, pondered for a moment, and slowly spoke:

"I've basically questioned all the spectres in the dungeons. Although I obtained quite a bit of intelligence about chambers, you've seen all that intelligence, and none were the chamber you wanted to find."

Evans nodded. Hogwarts had existed for thousands of years. Naturally there couldn't be only Slytherin's one chamber. Large and small chambers throughout the school totalled dozens, but he'd basically seen all the intelligence obtained, and none were related to the basilisk.

However, those chambers did contain some very interesting things, just nothing helpful for finding the basilisk.

"So, there's no intelligence related to that chamber?"

Though somewhat disappointed, it wasn't completely unacceptable.

Even if they couldn't find chamber-related clues, at least Sir Podmore had already provided him with a pile of valuable intelligence. The gains from some chambers were enough to offset the diary's value.

But if the ghosts couldn't find chamber information either, matters regarding the chamber would be somewhat troublesome.

Having a roaming basilisk in school was quite urgent. If no information could be found here either, he could only try asking one of his friends to help solve it.

But asking that friend was troublesome. If possible, he didn't really want to seek it out.

Moreover, it might be very busy recently. Finding it wouldn't be easy.

However, what the Sir said next gave him a glimmer of hope:

"Can't say there's been no harvest at all." Sir Podmore's tone was somewhat hesitant. "I indeed found no clues among the spectres, but among the castle's ghosts, there's a child who might know something."

"A child?" Eyes showing some interested gleam, Evans pressed: "Who?"

Sir Podmore shook his head. "I only heard from a friend. Didn't ask her name. But according to my friend, she's only been dead fifty-some years, quite young for us."

"I plan to contact her these next few days to see if I can obtain any valuable intelligence." Sir Podmore removed his head and tossed it once in his hands, his face showing some amusement. "After all, you've already helped me find the notebook. Naturally I must see this matter through to the end."

"Then I'll trouble you," Evans said softly, trying not to watch as Sir Podmore continued tossing his head.

After chatting with this spectre a bit more, he left the cell and walked toward the dungeon's exit.

While walking, he recalled in his mind the contents of that manuscript Nana had found.

The information recorded on that manuscript wasn't long. Rather than research, it was more like a preview.

The preview briefly mentioned a hypothesis: combining curses with viruses to create a disease that magical potions couldn't cure, using this as a killing weapon to become the world's most terrifying dark wizard.

The manuscript's language was extremely arrogant, making Evans frown involuntarily. It felt like some delusional teenager's notebook.

But the formulas and theories recorded weren't problematic. Though his understanding of curses and diseases wasn't deep, as a magical creatures expert, he could still handle common curses and viruses.

With his learnt knowledge, he could clearly see that researching along those lines could indeed produce viruses with extremely high mortality rates for wizards.

However, researching an entirely new subject wasn't easy. One person might spend their entire life without necessarily developing such a thing.

But since it was a manuscript left in the Room of Requirement, the creator should've been a Hogwarts student at the time. A young student conceiving such things proved their talent.

Such youth plus such talent. If they spent their entire life researching this virus, they might truly succeed.

A disease that could spread among wizards with extremely high mortality rates, incurable by potions or magic...

Shuddering, Evans pushed those terrifying thoughts from his mind.

Anyway, it was something from hundreds of years ago. Since wizards still existed, there probably wasn't much to worry about.

Surely that person didn't research the virus but leave it unused, secretly hiding it to give the world a big surprise after their death?

That couldn't be, right?

However, a virus from hundreds of years ago capable of large-scale killing reminded him of the Black Death that swept the entire Muggle world.

But this manuscript described a virus effective only against wizards, while according to that Potions master's manuscript description, the Black Death was a disease effective only against Muggles.

Had something gone wrong during transmission, or was he simply overthinking? Were these two things unrelated?

Not considering the virus matter further, Evans focused on finding his way out of the dungeons.

Though he wasn't directionally challenged, Hogwarts' dungeons were too maze-like. Without careful attention, one could easily get lost.

When he found the notebook, it was already approaching evening. After spending a long time with Sir Podmore finding it, then chatting extensively, by the time he left the dungeons, darkness had completely occupied the windows outside.

The moon hung high in the sky; the castle was quiet. Though it wasn't yet curfew time, the young wizards had basically returned to their common rooms. Except for some still studying in the library, few people remained outside.

At this time, the Great Hall definitely had no food left. Though he had plenty of frozen ingredients in his pockets, after rummaging through notebooks all afternoon, he felt too lazy to cook.

However, whether he ate didn't matter, but he'd brought so many Nifflers to help. At least he should provide them dinner.

What to do? After pondering for a moment, Evans suddenly brightened.

Why not just go to the kitchens for some food?