The Admiral of Hogwarts

“Can anyone tell me where this idea that Hagrid was the culprit originally came from?”

While studying various dueling techniques in the Room of Requirement over the weekend, Hermione, during a break, posed the question that had been swirling in her mind all week to the two ship girls and her brother.

“Although it might sound disrespectful, based on what I've read about Slytherin in my history books, I don't think Hagrid is qualified to be his heir.”

“This is a very long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?” After hearing Hermione's question, Firefly and Hugo exchanged a glance and then said to her.

“After that owl died, I specifically asked someone to check the Ministry of Magic's records, and it turned out that the records showed that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets had been released once nearly 50 years ago.”

Seeing everyone nod, Firefly began to tell the story of 50 years ago to the three people in the room.

“In that attack, a Ravenclaw girl named Myrtle Elizabeth Warren unfortunately died in the bathroom. Hagrid was identified as the culprit and expelled from Hogwarts.”

“You mean someone died?” Hermione exclaimed, her eyes widening. “But I checked the school records before, and there was never any mention of this.”

“Actually, I initially wanted to check these records at the school, but like you, I couldn't find any records of this incident.” Firefly shrugged. “Fortunately, Hood found someone to get some relevant information from the Ministry of Magic.”

“According to a file from the Ghost Office under the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Myrtle Elizabeth Warren became a ghost after her death and kept harassing Olive Hornby. This problem wasn't resolved until they intervened with a warning.”

“After matching the date of discovery and the name, Hood checked the public records of other departments of the Ministry of Magic and found the file about erasing the memories of the Muggle Warren couple regarding their daughter in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad's records from that year.”

“Through the scattered content recorded in those files, we can finally roughly reconstruct what happened during that monster attack back then.”

“As for why this news is circulating now, I can understand it. After all, given the lifespan of wizards, there should be quite a few people still alive who experienced that attack.”

“So, theoretically, when their grandchildren tell them what happened at school, these old people are likely to tell the children about what happened back then, and then the news will spread throughout the entire castle.”

“Erasing the Warrens' memories, is that really true?” After listening to Firefly's account, Hermione immediately seized on one of the issues she was concerned about and asked.

“Just like that, the Warrens forgot that they had a daughter who unfortunately died after going to a wizarding school, as if she had never existed?”

“That's exactly right. According to the records in the files, this is done to prevent those Muggles from blaming the magical world after the death of their relatives and exposing the existence of the magical world.” Firefly shook her head and said.

“At least I think that sometimes sacrificing the interests of a few people is unavoidable for the sake of the safety of the entire magical world. However, the practice of only giving 300 galleons in compensation, as recorded in the file, is really terrible.”

The purchasing power of currency in the wizarding world is much more stable than that of currency in the ordinary world, so the compensation given to them by the wizarding world after Myrtle's death back then is equivalent to about 1,500 pounds in today's purchasing power.

Obviously, this price is too low for a human life. However, according to the Ministry of Magic's standard that has not changed for centuries, this is the only compensation for the accidental death of a Muggle-born wizard at school.

Everyone gathered together and criticized the Ministry of Magic's impersonal approach for a long time, but this criticism was only based on their own sense of shared hatred as Muggle-born wizards.

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Because they all knew that they couldn't change anything with their current status. After venting their emotions for a while, Hermione, who had calmed down, suddenly seemed to think of something and said:

“By the way, since that Miss Warren has become a ghost, then we can ask her what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is. But where should we go to find her now?”

“Myrtle is not a common name, and ghosts tend to linger in the places that hold the deepest memories for them in life, so…”

“She is the ghost in the girls' bathroom on the first floor, Moaning Myrtle.” Before Firefly could finish selling the secret, Hermione guessed the ghost's identity.

Hermione couldn't sit still now, so she quickly persuaded Venetto and Firefly to go to the first floor together to find Moaning Myrtle, while Hugo, being a boy, was left in the Room of Requirement to wait for news.

More than twenty minutes later, the door of the Room of Requirement opened, and Hermione walked in from outside with a frustrated expression.

“Didn't you get any information?” Hugo, who was deducing a certain knowledge point of ancient runes on the parchment, asked without looking up. “Is Myrtle not there today?”

“No, Myrtle is there, and we also asked the question we wanted to ask.” Hermione walked to the cushion and sat down directly, then said. “But the conclusion we got is not very helpful to us.”

“According to that ghost, she only saw a pair of large yellow eyes like light bulbs back then, and then felt as if her whole body was grabbed, and then she just died like that.” Venetto added from behind.

“We checked the location where she said the eyes appeared, but we didn't find anything unusual. The entire bathroom, apart from being a bit old, is no different from other bathrooms.”

“Are you sure you didn't make a mistake? Theoretically, shouldn't there be a small snake carved on the side of a copper faucet?” Hugo, pretending to be listening carefully to his sister and the others, asked Venetto through the Admiral Network.

“Yes, theoretically, there should be such a carving on one of those faucets, but we turned around and didn't find that faucet at the time.”

“What's even more interesting is that those brass faucets all have traces of being polished just these few days, and there is also a layer of dust sprinkled on them specifically.” Firefly also interjected into the communication at this time and said what she had just seen.

“If we didn't know about that mechanism in advance, we would only think that this is a very ordinary pool, and we wouldn't realize that this place is the exit of the Chamber of Secrets.”

“Just been polished—it seems that the person who got that Horcrux this time is a bit smarter than we thought.” Hugo said after thinking for a few seconds.

“Obviously, whether it's polishing off the carvings on the faucet or spreading rumors, there is actually only one purpose, and that is to muddy the waters in the school and then hide oneself.”

This failure made Hermione a little frustrated, but soon, she thought of a backup plan. “I think we can ask Hagrid what the situation is when we have time.”