Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures - H.P.S.T Chapter 1446: The plan continues

Harry knew what an Inferius looked like, and he also knew what a ghost looked like, but he didn’t know how to express the difference between the two in technical terms.

“Er — well — ghosts are transparent —” he said. “Inferi…”

“Oh, very good,” interrupted Snape, his lip curling. “Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. ‘Ghosts are transparent.’ I guess what you are going to say next is that Inferi are dead bodies, so they are solid.”

The classroom burst into laughter, especially the Slytherins, who were giggling uncontrollably. Snape sometimes had a bit of dry humor.

“Sit down, Potter. A five-year-old could have told us as much,” sneered Snape. “The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark wizard’s spells. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet to do the wizard’s bidding. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth … and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us, transparent.”

Amidst the mocking laughter, Harry sat down. He had become accustomed to Snape’s sarcasm over the years, although it was still very unpleasant!

There was no need to analyze it too much. Inferi and ghosts were completely different things.

One look and you’d know. Only someone like Seamus, who had never seen an Inferius, would ask such a question.

Harry’s mind was not on Snape and his class at all now, but on Malfoy. After class, he would go to meet up with Ron.

Ron had found out the names of the two girls Malfoy had been frequently taking up to, two third-year Slytherin girls.

“Strange, why is he taking two third-year girls to the Room of Requirement?”

“He’s definitely up to something bad in there!” said Harry through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, but probably not that kind of bad thing, right?” said Evan, joining the conversation and feeling he should caution Harry a bit. “If Malfoy really is working for Voldemort, he wouldn’t be dragging two girls around with him. I thought about it — maybe those two girls are actually Goyle and Crabbe in disguise. They might have gotten hold of some Polyjuice Potion. He needs them to stand guard for him. Otherwise, Goyle and Crabbe being seen often on the seventh floor would be too suspicious.”

“You mean, those two third-year girls are actually Goyle and Crabbe?”

Ron stared at Evan with wide eyes, and Harry was also surprised, thinking about the whole thing again. He was too eager to figure out Malfoy’s secret before, and focused his main energy on the plan and overlooked those illogical details.

Now that he thought about it, that really did seem possible.

“If that’s the case, then that’s actually good news. We don’t have to worry about blowing our cover, and it should be much easier to deal with Goyle and Crabbe — way easier than handling two third-year girls,” said Harry.

“You still plan to go through with this?” Evan looked at him, surprised.

“There’s no better way,” said Harry noncommittally. “No matter who they are, Ron and I will follow Malfoy to the seventh floor, and when he opens the door to the Room of Requirement, we’ll break in.”

Well, since he was set on it, Evan didn’t argue further. He still said that this was really… a bold plan.

The last help he could give was to suggest to Harry that they didn’t need to collect girls’ hair or girls’ school uniforms. It wasn’t necessary.

Since Goyle and Crabbe had already transformed many times, they surely had some Polyjuice Potion prepared and girls’ accessories with them.

What they needed to do now was to follow Goyle and Crabbe until they separated from Malfoy, and then they could seize the opportunity…

They finally got that chance on Sunday at 10:47 a.m. Evan, Harry, and Ron were standing in the boys’ bathroom on the first-floor, and Goyle and Crabbe were lying unconscious at their feet.

“Look at this — those two girls really were them in disguise,” said Harry, having found two small bottles of Polyjuice Potion and two sets of girls’ clothing on Goyle and Crabbe…  

Ron couldn’t help laughing when he imagined Goyle and Crabbe turning into two petite girls.

However, as he laughed, his laughter quickly faded, because it was their turn soon.

“It seems so!” said Evan. “What are you two going to do? Still going through with it?”

“Let’s do it,” said Harry, handing Goyle’s bottle of Polyjuice Potion to Ron, and looking at the Marauder’s Map again. “We’d better hurry, Malfoy is still waiting at the stairs, we can’t… Hey, Myrtle, this is the boys’ bathroom!”

The ghost of a girl had risen out of the toilet in a cubicle behind them and was now floating in midair, staring at the three of them through thick, white, round glasses. She quickly glanced at Goyle and Crabbe lying on the floor, then fixed her gaze on the girls’ robes in Harry’s hand.

“I know it’s the boys’ bathroom, but no one ever said I can’t come in. I heard noises down below and didn’t expect it to be you three,” she said gloomily. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing!”

“Unconscious boys… girls’ robes…” said Myrtle. “Not exactly something you see every day.”

“This has nothing to do with you!”

“No, I suppose it doesn’t,” said Myrtle morosely, picking at a small spot on her chin. “Want me to go get someone it does have to do with?”

“Wait, don’t!”

Malfoy was still waiting outside, and they had to solve this trouble of Myrtle immediately.

If she kept pestering them or actually went to fetch someone, things would go very, very badly.

Before Evan, Harry, or Ron could say anything, Moaning Myrtle said, “Relax, I’m not one of those annoying ghosts who meddle in everything. I’m not interested in your little schemes. Those two have been changing clothes in here every day for the past two months, turning into girls in all sorts of weird ways, and I haven’t told anyone.”

Well, it seemed that Myrtle had witnessed the whole process of Goyle and Crabbe’s transformation.

To a ghost, especially one like Moaning Myrtle who lurked in the plumbing, there really weren’t any secrets in the castle.

“Thanks, Myrtle. Please don’t tell anyone about this.”

“What brought you here?” Ron asked casually. “Who were you expecting?”

“Nobody. Just wandering around. He said he’d come back and see me,” said Myrtle, giving Ron a slightly reproachful look. “But then you said you’d pop in and visit me too — and I haven’t seen you for months and months. I’ve learned not to expect too much from boys.”

By now, the three of them had long since given up trying to make sense of Myrtle’s odd tangents.

She had once had a strange little “thing” with Ron, years ago — mostly due to Peeves stirring up trouble — which ended with Ron making her cry and then apologizing. That was the extent of it. Oh, and of course, Myrtle’s habit of sneaking into the boys’ bathrooms to spy on them while they showered. Pretty much every boy in the school had been seen by her at some point.

If that counted, well… maybe that was a kind of connection, too!

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