Chapter 111 Dumbledore's Response

"What's wrong? What happened?" Mr. Filch was always so elusive. He came out from nowhere and squeezed to the front of the crowd with great effort.

When he saw Mrs. Norris, he was frightened by the scene in front of him and stepped back repeatedly, his face full of horror.

"My cat! My cat! What happened to Mrs. Norris?" He screamed, like a beast that had been injured.

Then he widened his eyes and cast his gaze on Vanlin who was holding a wand in his hand?

"You!" He screamed, "It's you! You killed my cat! You killed her! I'm going to kill you! I'm going to-"

"No, not Vanlin..."

"No..."

Hermione and others waved their hands in panic, but it didn't work. Mr. Filch couldn't listen to anything now. Even though Vanlin usually respected him very much, everything seemed less important in front of his Mrs. Norris.

"I'm just trying to contact the spell..."

"I'm going to kill you..." Filch's face became extremely hideous. Vanlin swore that this was definitely the ugliest face he had ever seen.

"Albers!"

A majestic voice came from outside the crowd, which also made Mr. Fei Qi stop his crazy behavior.

Dumbledore had arrived at the scene at this time, followed by a group of teachers. He quickly untied Mrs. Norris.

"Go back to your respective lounges!" Dumbledore said seriously. From Dumbledore's expression, it can be judged that this matter is very serious.

After the voice fell, the crowd around gradually dispersed. Fan Lin and others also wanted to go back with everyone, but unfortunately, this was just a beautiful idea.

"Come with me, Filch," he said to Fei Qi. "You come too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Fan Lin and Miss Hermione."

Gilderoy Lockhart stepped forward and seemed particularly enthusiastic.

"My office is the nearest, Principal Dumbledore. - It's upstairs - Please feel free to use it -"

The silent crowd soon dispersed automatically to let them go up. Gilderoy Lockhart followed Dumbledore excitedly and self-righteously, and Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape also hurriedly followed behind.

When they walked into Gilderoy Lockhart's dark office, Vanlin saw some curly-haired Gilderoy Lockhart in the painting scrambling to avoid the crowd. The real Gilderoy Lockhart lit the candle on the table and then stepped aside. Dumbledore put Mrs. Norris on the smooth table and began to examine her. Harry, Ron, Vanlin and Hermione sat heavily in the chairs next to the candlestick, looking at Dumbledore, and exchanging nervous looks from time to time.

"You will definitely pay the price for this..." Mr. Filch said viciously, and he had obviously identified the murderer.

Mr. Filch's reaction made Vanlin very angry. "We didn't do anything to your cat, and your cat didn't die. It was petrified. I was just trying to help it get rid of the curse..."

"You're lying..." Mr. Filch's body looked even more hunched, his eyes bulged out, staring at Vanlin and the other three. It seemed that if Dumbledore hadn't been there, Filch would have pounced on Vanlin and torn him to pieces.

"Enough, Ebers!" Dumbledore waved his hand and stopped Fei Qi's stupid behavior. "Mr. Vanlin didn't lie. Your cat was indeed petrified, and Vanlin was just exposed to the spell."

"Aha, exactly what I thought." Gilderoy pretended to be very regretful. "It's a pity that I wasn't there at the time, otherwise I would have been able to save it. I just knew a very useful spell to remove petrification, but it could only be used at the time."

But no one paid attention to this man who was crazy and boasted about how magical his spells were, except for himself in the photo on the wall.

"It's just cursed, but the way it appears is just petrification. In fact, no spell can touch it. Mr. Van Lin's spell is naturally useless." Dumbledore retracted his hand, straightened up, and made a conclusion about the whole thing.

In an instant, Gilderoy Lockhart stopped talking and his expression became serious, but no one cared about him.

"But what kind of curse it is, I'm sorry, I don't know much, so I can't say..."

"Ask him..." Filch pointed his finger at Van Lin, "It was he who turned my cat into this..."

"A second-year student can't do this." Dumbledore said affirmatively. "This requires the most advanced black magic-"

"He did it, he did it!" Fergie was so excited that his saliva splashed, and his chubby face turned purple.

"Calm down..." Dumbledore said seriously, and the sound was like a big bell being struck.

"No..." Filch hugged his head in pain, and the sound of sobbing came out, but this did not make Van Lin feel pity.

"If you would like to allow me to speak a few words, Headmaster," Snape said from the shadows.

Harry felt a strong sense of uneasiness at this moment; he did not think Snape would say anything in their favor.

"Al and its friends may just be in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said with a hint of contempt, as if he didn't believe it himself, "but there are indeed some things that deserve our suspicion. Why were they in the corridor upstairs at that time? Why weren't they at the Halloween party?"

"Sorry, teacher..." Vanlin bowed respectfully, "We just accepted the invitation to attend Sir Nicholas's death anniversary dinner, and then..."

"Then I was hungry, I wanted to go back to the dinner for the living," Harry quickly took over, "In fact, there was nothing for us to eat at the ghost's banquet."

At this time, there was a sudden knock on the door. A slender figure walked in from the door.

"I'm sorry to bother you," Laura bowed deeply, "I was also at the ghost's dinner at that time, and I can prove that the four of them were there."

"Laura Chris?" Snape raised his eyebrows. He knew the people of the Chris family. They were genetically gifted and were very popular with ghosts.

"It seems that our little wizard has been cleared of suspicion, right?" Dumbledore laughed. No one knew what he was thinking.

"Headmaster..." Mr. Filch was still crying, "My cat died, I want to see someone punished."

"We can't wrongly accuse an innocent person, Ebers!" Dumbledore said seriously, his eyes scanning the five people from time to time.

Snape seemed to have something else to say, but Fanlin saw that the corners of his mouth twitched and he didn't speak, which made Fanlin feel relieved.

Although Laura proved it for them, this explanation was still full of loopholes.

"We can treat her, Ebers," Dumbledore said patiently. "Professor Sprottlaw has cultivated a new batch of mandrakes. As soon as she is cultivated, I will take a portion to revive Mrs. Norris."

"I will do it," Gilderoy Lockhart interrupted. "I must have done it a hundred times. I can make a Mandrake potion in my sleep."

"Excuse me," Snape said coldly, "but I believe I am the master of potion making in this school. I am better at making the Restoration Potion. Isn't it, Professor Lockhart!"

Another awkward silence followed. (To be continued)