Rumors began to spread around Hogwarts—dark, unpleasant ones. A certain teaching assistant was said to be playing with girls' feelings, having defiled countless young maidens in the prime of their youth.
Regulus Black's behavior on Valentine's Day had far surpassed even Gilderoy Lockhart. If Lockhart, the glittering adventurer and bestselling author, was a celebrity, then the cold, dark teaching assistant was a black hole. The former only dazzled the girls and made them swoon, while the latter devoured their souls and bodies entirely—leaving nothing behind.
What caused even greater outrage was his public, mass distribution of Valentine's chocolates laced with love potion. This act earned Regulus Black the collective hatred of the Hogwarts boys. It was as if he were trying to capture every girl in the school in one fell swoop!
As a result, the rumors spread even faster and grew more malicious. Wild fabrications were added, sometimes even naming specific girls. Whether the stories were true or not didn't seem to matter. "As long as it's not my girlfriend, I don't care." Then, some students, upon learning the truth, retaliated by making up stories about others' girlfriends in revenge.
In the end, the one who benefited from all these rumors was Regulus Black—because it was said he had already "defiled" all the girls. Meanwhile, the "losers" furiously condemned the shameless teaching assistant while simultaneously blaming each other for slandering their own girlfriends.
The professors didn't know how to resolve the situation. After all, love was supposed to be a private matter between two people, but now it seemed to involve all of Hogwarts. It was like discovering someone in the school had AIDS—once people started mapping out the relationships, it led to a long chain of names, male and female alike. And Regulus Black was the identified carrier.
Only the single students and most of the girls remained calm. Some girls had hesitated at first, unsure whether to eat the chocolates Regulus Black had given them. Now, they hesitated no more. Since they were already rumored to be involved with him, they figured—why not make it real?
Of course, there were a few unexpected twists. If someone gave the chocolate to the person they loved and that person ate it, it was fine. But there were also cases where a jealous boyfriend knocked the chocolate out of his girlfriend's hand, only for someone else—often a glutton—to pick it up and eat it. Several such incidents occurred.
Regulus Black had enchanted each chocolate box with a magical identity spell: whoever held the box was its owner. Once the holder put the box down and someone else picked it up, the identity of the "owner" changed. If the new holder then ate a piece of chocolate, the love potion would cause them to fall in love with the previous owner.
So, if a girl gave the chocolate to a boy, and he threw it away, and then another boy picked it up and ate it—well, that's how tragedy struck.
There were already several cases at Hogwarts of plump boys hopelessly pursuing handsome ones. Because those boys were handsome, their girlfriends hadn't broken up with them. However, the handsome ones were too proud to eat chocolates someone had given to their girlfriends. So, not only did they discard the chocolates, they effectively discarded their girlfriends too.
After this wave of breakups, fewer than five couples were still together at Hogwarts.
"Oh god! This is a nightmare!"
Cedric Diggory—the future boyfriend of Cho Chang and the unfortunate soul who would later die in the Triwizard Tournament—was now clutching his head in agony. He had rejected a girl's confession and tossed the chocolate she gave him. He never expected that Vincent Crabbe would be the one to pick it up and eat it.
From that moment on, the plump Slytherin snake became infatuated with the handsome Cedric Diggory. It was like being hunted by a giant anaconda.
Eventually, while walking down a deserted corridor, Cedric heard a faint whisper in his ear:"Take him down! Use 'Petrificus Totalus'! Hit him with all you've got! Finish him!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Cedric Diggory, his face twisted with frustration, drew his wand and struck down Vincent Crabbe, who had been tailing him relentlessly.
Seeing that no one was around, Cedric quickly fled the scene. He knew exactly how much magical power he had used—enough that Crabbe probably wouldn't bother him again until the end of term. For a moment, a surge of freedom and release flooded his heart.
Vincent Crabbe had been attacked—petrified entirely. The spell had been cast with such force that even the professors couldn't undo it right away. Professor Sprout suggested using a Mandrake-based potion to cure him, but they would have to wait until the Mandrakes matured.
The news that Crabbe could be cured with Mandrake potion brought a sense of relief to all of Hogwarts.
But soon, a new question arose—who had attacked him?
"Of course it was the monster from the Chamber of Secrets! Who else would target a Slytherin?" someone speculated. "If there's no heir of Slytherin among the Slytherins themselves, then they're the most likely targets. After all, who likes those annoying snakes anyway?"
During dinner in the Great Hall, Ron loudly explained his theory—after all, it was the Slytherins who had previously claimed that Harry Potter was the Heir of Slytherin. If that were true, then the target would obviously be someone from Slytherin!
"What did you say, you red-haired weasel?!"
Draco immediately leapt onto his chair, drew his wand, and pointed it toward the Gryffindor table.
"Isn't it true? If I were the Heir of Slytherin, you would be my next target."
Ron responded bluntly, completely ignoring Harry tugging on his sleeve several times in an attempt to stop him from provoking a fight.
"Damn you! It's blood traitors like you who deserve to die. Petrificus Totalus!"
Draco, seething with rage, slashed his wand through the air. A beam of magic shot across the tables, flying straight toward Ron.
"Bone Armor!"
A flash of white swept across the hall from the staff table, intercepting Draco's spell.
It was the skull of a bull, which, upon being hit by the Petrification Curse, began turning gray—its bone texture transforming into stone before crumbling into dust and scattering across the floor.
"Enough! Everyone calm down. Draco, unless you want Slytherin to lose points, stand down."
Regulus Black continued calmly cutting into his lamb chop, his wand lying casually at hand—proof that he had been the one to intervene.
Fighting in private was one thing, but doing it openly in the Great Hall during a meal shared by the entire school was practically suicidal. Even Snape wouldn't be able to cover for him. Not even Lucius Malfoy, a school governor, could stop his son from being expelled if it came to that.
The incident passed—for now. But soon, new rumors began to circulate.
"If you want to deal with someone, just use Petrificus Totalus! The Mandrakes are almost mature anyway; everyone will recover eventually."
"If someone pisses you off, just petrify them! The monster from the Chamber of Secrets will take the blame—just make sure no one sees you."
As a result, petrified students started turning up in hidden corners all around Hogwarts.
Still, all the students agreed: this was the work of the monster in the Chamber. Yet no one seemed particularly worried about safety.
Even Regulus Black was attacked a few times while walking around—but each time, the attacker ended up petrified themselves.
Just the attributes of the Titan Belt of the Horadrim were enough: +77 melee defense, +77 projectile defense, +77 spell defense, and 77% damage reflection. Most attackers were simply petrified by their own spells.
Regulus Black could honestly swear on someone else's girlfriend's conscience—it wasn't him who did it.
"As the term comes to an end, it seems Harry Potter still doesn't know how to open the Chamber of Secrets."
Even though people kept getting petrified, even though everyone said it was the monster from the Chamber, and even though Harry knew it was all lies, the rumors kept spreading. The label of "Heir of Slytherin" clung to Harry like filth that couldn't be washed away.
But lacking the key item—and Hermione's help—Harry had made no progress at all during this time.
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