Harry Potter: Dudley From LOTM - 219 (Patreon)

Chapter 219: The Second Attack

After Dudley rushed out of the Gryffindor common room, he immediately followed his instincts and ran downstairs while putting on the Solar Ring.

Spiritual power flowed into it, activating the Solar Halo.

Warmth enveloped Dudley, making him feel as if he were standing in summer sunlight, dispelling the cold atmosphere and filling him with courage to face whatever challenges lay ahead.

After racing for about five minutes, Dudley arrived at the second floor.

The corridor here was almost flooded with water, and Dudley could only splash through it quickly.

"Where did all this water come from?" Dudley wondered while searching for the source of the flooding.

Soon he saw the girls' bathroom on the second floor with water streaming out.

"Is Moaning Myrtle having another breakdown?" Dudley's expression darkened. He had heard from Hermione that Moaning Myrtle often went into hysterics, causing havoc in the girls' washroom, which kept the second-floor girls' bathroom in an almost abandoned state.

Shaking his head, Dudley didn't pay attention to it and turned into an adjacent corridor.

The dangerous aura had disappeared again.

Dudley was still a step too late.

Now he could only hope that this incident hadn't resulted in any deaths.

"What is..." Suddenly, Dudley's gaze focused on a frozen figure in the middle of the corridor.

It was a male student, his body completely petrified, standing rigidly in place, looking down at something.

Water slowly flowed past his feet. His fists were clenched tight, and his face bore an expression of fear and disbelief, as if he had witnessed something absolutely horrifying.

"How could this be..." Dudley recognised the figure with growing alarm.

That was one of Malfoy's lackeys, Vincent Crabbe!

But the problem was, Crabbe was a pure-blood wizard. How could he have been attacked?

Dudley slowly walked to Crabbe's side and confirmed that Crabbe had been petrified, not directly killed.

"Oh! My goodness!" Professor McGonagall was brought over by Ron. Seeing this scene, her face also became very pale.

"Professor, didn't the legend say that Slytherin built the Chamber to purify the school and kill Muggle-born wizards? Why was even a pure-blood wizard like Crabbe attacked this time?" Dudley asked with obvious gravity.

"I don't know," McGonagall shook her head with an ugly expression.

She truly didn't know the answer.

Who could be certain about legendary matters from so long ago?

"This won't do. I must get Professor Dumbledore back to Hogwarts as soon as possible," Professor McGonagall said with determination.

"Professor Dumbledore, he..." Dudley frowned with concern.

He hadn't seen Professor Dumbledore for quite a while. Even with such serious attacks happening at school, he still hadn't appeared.

What matter could make him temporarily ignore the attacks happening at his own school?

Professor McGonagall used magic to contact other professors to handle this matter.

Dudley's gaze swept around, searching for possible clues.

"Hmm?" Suddenly, Dudley's attention focused on numerous spiders lined up in formation, racing orderly toward the outside of the castle, as if fleeing from something terrifying.

"Spiders? Are they running away?" Dudley frowned, leaning closer to examine these spiders carefully.

"So scary!" Ron shuddered at the sight of these spiders and took several steps back.

"It feels like things are getting more and more complicated. Even pure-blood wizards are starting to get attacked," Hermione said from the side.

Although they felt somewhat pleased that someone like Crabbe was attacked, they didn't want to see the school in such a dangerous state.

"Yes, things are getting more and more complicated," Dudley said with obvious weight.

The legends were no longer accurate, which meant the crisis they faced might be spiralling completely out of control.

Just as he thought this, Dudley's expression suddenly changed as he turned to look at Hermione and Ron.

"Where's Harry?" he asked with sharp urgency.

"What?" Ron and Hermione were startled by Dudley's question.

"He... didn't he run out with you?" Ron said with obvious disbelief.

When he had brought Professor McGonagall over, he hadn't seen Harry and had assumed Dudley had sent Harry to do something else.

"After I ran out, I went toward Professor McGonagall's office and didn't notice Harry," Ron finished speaking and looked at Hermione.

"Hermione, you were following behind me. Did you see Harry?"

Hermione's face paled somewhat. "I... I collided with Ginny, and after coming out, I didn't see Harry anymore. I thought Dudley had sent Harry to find other professors."

All three of their expressions became rather grim.

Dudley recalled what had happened after rushing out of Gryffindor Tower. His attention had been entirely focused on tracking that monster, and he had completely failed to notice what had happened to Harry.

"Damn it!" Dudley cursed under his breath and immediately ran back toward Gryffindor Tower.

At the same time, he used his mystical connections to search for Harry's aura.

"Dudley, Harry won't be in trouble, will he? What should we do..." Ron and Hermione were both panicking.

"I can sense Harry's aura is still in Hogwarts castle. There shouldn't be any major problems..." Dudley said with a grim expression.

Although he said this, if Harry had been petrified or suffered other attacks, Dudley couldn't determine that now.

He could only confirm that Harry was still alive.

After running up several floors, Dudley suddenly stopped and looked toward a broom closet beside the corridor.

"Harry?" Dudley called out.

"I'm here," Harry's voice came from inside after a moment.

All three breathed sighs of relief while hurrying over.

Dishevelled, Harry stumbled out of the broom closet, catching everyone off guard.

"Harry, you..." Originally, the three were worried about Harry's condition, but seeing him like this, their expressions immediately became strange.

The three simultaneously looked toward the depths of the broom closet, as if waiting for another person to emerge.

"It's a long story..." Harry said with obvious shock and confusion.

His face showed genuine bewilderment.

"Did you... get a girlfriend?" Ron's gaze looked toward the depths of the broom closet with obvious suspicion.

"That's really..." He wanted to say it was too inappropriate.

An attack had just occurred, yet Harry still had the mood to date someone?

But he didn't say it in the end.

"What girlfriend?" Harry didn't react for a moment.

Then, as if realising something, his face reddened as he quickly said, "Ron! What are you thinking?"

"I just rushed out from Gryffindor Tower and got pulled into this broom closet by a house-elf who shredded my clothes!"

"So where's this girlfriend you mentioned?"

Harry was exasperated by Ron's wild assumption.