Hermione had forgotten how she got out of Sherlock’s office. She even forgot whether she had said goodbye to Sherlock when she left the office. It wasn’t until Harry and Ron stopped her at the corner of the corridor that Hermione came back to her senses.
Harry saw that her look was wrong and asked worriedly, “Did Professor Forrest find out that we were testing him?”
Ron also said, “If Professor finds out about it, I think it should be fine. We didn’t do anything bad. At most, he just punished us to clean the toilet or something.”
Hermione took a deep breath, regained her senses, and said loudly, “No, we were not discovered by Professor Forrest. The third test was successful, and Professor Forrest’s jinx doesn’t always work.”
“There should be a limit to how it works. The professor’s jinx will make things that have a probability to happen, increasing that probability to happen.”
“And there’s a very small chance that the test we did now happens.”
“I wrote the homework in advance until there were only two lines left, and the success rate of completing the homework is close to 100%.”
“Even if the professor said he believed that I could finish the homework, his jinx wouldn’t work on me because I have an almost 100% certainty to finish it.”
“Just like the sun has always risen from the east every day, the professor’s jinx has no way to affect an event with such a high probability of success.”
“We don’t need to worry that the world will be destroyed because of Professor Forrest’s mouth.”
Harry and Ron listened for a long time. They didn’t understand the probability part, but they understood the last sentence. They looked puzzled but still didn’t understand why Hermione was in this state.
Harry couldn’t help asking, “Since there will be no problems later, why do you still look like the end of the world is going to happen?”
Hearing him ask this, Hermione’s face suddenly became bitter.
Like she was about to cry, she said, “Because, at the end of our conversation, Professor Forrest said that he wished me a happy Christmas holiday!”
As soon as Hermione’s words came out, the atmosphere suddenly tense. Ron’s showed a terrified expression. He opened his mouth and looked at Hermione as if Hermione would be dead tomorrow.
He said, “It’s over! This is more terrible than all the curses in the legends, and there’s no way to cleanse it!”
Harry also froze in place, but as one of the former victims, his reaction was calm, and he immediately comforted Hermione, “It’s okay, Hermione. You don’t have to worry about it too much. I was also jinxed by Professor Forrest once, and I’m still alive, you know?”
Harry’s comfort didn’t help. Hermione was smart and knew that her situation was different from Harry’s. Her eyes were red, and she tried so hard not to cry.
“We’re not the same Harry. My parents are Muggles, and I’m the target of the monster in that Chamber of Secrets. The professor cursed Justin and Colin ahead of me, and they were all petrified. There’s no way I could escape this situation now.”
Hermione was right. They had already tested Sherlock’s jinx three times, so they naturally knew what the bad omen would look like. Coupled with the incident that happened to Justin and Colin, Harry realized something. After thinking about it for a long time, he could only come up with a solution.
“Why don’t we tell the professors everything? Let the professors protect you at Christmas so that maybe we can take the opportunity to catch the real culprit?”
There was no other better way for them, and they definitely couldn’t wait for Hermione to be attacked. Although the lives of the two students who were attacked were not in grave danger, no one could guarantee that when it was Hermione’s turn, she would be fine later.
However, the three disagreed on which professor to ask to confess.
“Maybe we should go to Professor Forrest and tell him everything clearly, including the fact that he’s a jinx that we had tried it before. He would probably understand and help us later.”
Harry trusts Sherlock greatly, even if he had been unlucky for a whole day because of his words, and now that Hermione is in such danger. Harry knew that it was something that Sherlock didn’t mean to.
Ron also trusted Sherlock but questioned whether he could protect Hermione.
“I think we’re still going to find Professor Dumbledore. Only he can ensure Hermione’s safety.”
Hermione sniffed, denying Harry’s proposal to tell Sherlock about it, “We can’t tell Professor Forrest about all of this right now because all of his jinxes took effect without his knowledge. If he had known all of this, no one would have known what would happen later. If the result is bad, then I’m done for.”
Hermione words sound logical. They finally decided not to go to Sherlock but to find a way to go to Dumbledore. But Dumbledore spent very little time in Hogwarts. As a well-known wizard in the entire wizarding world, he would be away from school most of the time.
To find Dumbledore, they had to go through Professor McGonagall for it. So, Harry and others rushed to Professor McGonagall’s office in a panic and told her everything.
After hearing them talk for nearly half an hour, Professor McGonagall barely managed to sort things out and frowned at the three of them.
“You said that Miss Granger was put on a curse, Sherlock, just like what happened to Justin and Colin before, and you said that she would be attacked by the monster in the Chamber of Secret later?”
They nodded nervously together, indicating that this was the case.
Professor McGonagall’s frown deepened, “But how did Sherlock curse Miss Granger?”
Ron said without hesitation, “He wished Hermione a happy Christmas holiday!”
Harry explained quickly, “Yes, Professor. Because Professor Forrest wished him a happy Halloween, Justin was attacked. The professor wished Colin good luck tomorrow, and he was attacked the next day. Now it’s Hermione’s turn, and she is in danger!”
Professor McGonagall’s face darkened, “That is nonsense. Don’t all of you have anything else to do? Three of you come to me just to say this? It would be best for you all to forget all of this, or I will punish you all and deduct Gryffindor’s point.”