The students in the Great Hall were still noisy. Hermione and Ron exchanged glances when they heard Harry's words.
"Didn't we test it? Professor's jinx isn't 100% effective. If the probability of something happening is already very high, then..."
"No." Harry interrupted Hermione and then recounted what had happened on the road in France.
"...At that time, I really thought Professor Cavendish's jinx had disappeared. Then, on my birthday, Professor wished me a happy birthday. That night, on my way to the Ministry of Magic, I bumped my head twice, fainted the first time I saw a Dementor, and after I woke up, I saw a horse's face. Finally, an Auror accidentally spilled chocolate on my head."(TN: That was quite an experience.)
Harry shivered uncontrollably as he recalled that terrible day.
"Then, in the early hours of the next day, Professor made up for a birthday dinner and even wanted to sing me a happy birthday song! Luckily, I stopped him, otherwise, you might not have seen me today."
Ron and Hermione mourned for Harry while simultaneously pondering the problem he had just mentioned.
"You mean, on that road, you told Professor Cavendish the truth, and then you experimented with him to verify it, but it didn't work?"
Hermione repeated Harry's account, as though she suspected something.
Harry nodded and said, "Yes, I even did it twice! Not only did things not develop in the opposite direction of Professor Cavendish's predictions, but they turned out exactly as he said."
Even now, Harry still found it hard to believe when he recalled the scene at that time.
"At that time, the owl was still flying in the sky, so far away that you couldn't even tell it was an owl. Professor Cavendish just said, 'Why do I feel like it's looking for us?', and then that owl suddenly changed direction and flew towards us!"
Ron looked a little excited and said eagerly,
"Did you trigger some prerequisite that caused Professor Cavendish's jinx to undergo a complete reversal and turn into a wishing cup?"
Hermione was deep in thought.
"That's very possible. I think the problem might lie in Harry telling Professor Cavendish the truth, which caused the Professor's jinx to change."
Hermione looked up at Harry and Ron, who were also looking at each other.
They looked at each other for a long time before Hermione cautiously spoke.
"Or do you have any thoughts... that we do another test?"
...
Sherlock didn't know what the students in the Great Hall were reacting to, nor did he know what mischief Harry and his two friends were up to.
At that moment, he was walking side by side with Hilke out of the Hogwarts gates, heading towards Hogsmeade.
On the way, Hilke didn't seem to have any intention of explaining the situation, so Sherlock had to ask proactively.
"What did you see?"
Hilke's answer was still so brief that it couldn't even be called a sentence.
"Traces."
Sherlock's mind automatically expanded it to, "Traces of that killer."
Divination is a very peculiar ability. Wizards with this talent can not only see fragments of the future but also use it to discover some secrets that ordinary people cannot perceive.
So, the clues they see often have no logical explanation; they simply know, without any reason.
After this simple exchange, there was no further conversation between the two.
They walked all the way to the main road of Hogsmeade, where Aurors were still patrolling, though noticeably less densely than before.
The Wizarding World still had to maintain normal operations. Scrimgeour could not put all the manpower from the command centre into Hogsmeade; they had to allocate some personnel for regular case investigations.
Some pedestrians had already appeared in this Wizarding village. The free-spirited nature of Westerners prevented them from enduring long periods of restraint. After two days without further incidents, these people had already resumed their normal daily lives.
Hilke led Sherlock all the way to the very edge of Hogsmeade. Sherlock initially thought she would take him to the scene of the previous attack, but instead, they left Hogsmeade village and arrived at a small hill on the outskirts.
This location was not far from the Wizarding World's most famous haunted house, the Shrieking Shack. Looking down from the hill, one could clearly see the dilapidated roof of the shack.
The height of the hill was also sufficient to overlook the entire village, making it a place with an excellent view.
But the surroundings were empty, with no buildings or dense trees. Sherlock didn't understand why Hilke had come to this place.
Just as he was about to ask for the reason, Hilke suddenly crouched down silently, as though she had discovered something on the ground.
Sherlock looked in her direction and saw her reach out and pick up a withered straw from the ground.
"It was here."
Hilke said softly.
The straw she held in her hand looked very ordinary, just like something one could pick up anywhere by the roadside.
But Sherlock was not fooled by the appearance of the straw, and Hilke didn't seem like someone who would joke around.
"Is this something from it?"
"It's something from its vessel."
The two different phrases, "from it" and "from its vessel", made him understand one thing.
That thing probably didn't have its own physical body; it could possess and control any object.
Hilke stood up from the ground. She looked down at Hogsmeade below, as though retracing the killer's every move here.
"It's looking for something," she muttered to herself.
"But it's not in the village."
She looked up, gazing further into the distance, where a majestic castle stood nestled among the mountains.
"It saw Hogwarts and confirmed that what it's looking for is here."
"The seven people it consumed were merely sustenance."
"It didn't spread fear to make itself stronger."
"It came here just to find that thing."
Sherlock listened to her entire deduction with a frown, as though he too had been transported back to that night.
Under a sky covered by a black shroud, after having its fill in Hogsmeade, it came to this hill and silently gazed at the village below. After failing to find what it wanted, its gaze turned to Hogwarts Castle, and a rare hint of longing appeared in its hollow eyes.
He squinted at Hogwarts Castle in the distance.
"Will it consume souls again?"
"I can't see it." Hilke gently shook her head.
Sherlock turned his gaze to her, his expression solemn.
"We absolutely cannot let it commit crimes in Hogwarts. If something like that happens, even once, the Ministry of Magic will seal off the entire school, and things will become even more troublesome."
Upon hearing his words, Hilke turned to look behind her.
As a Wizarding village, Hogsmeade naturally had no habit of planting large-scale crops. Behind the hill stretched a barren expanse of land.
"We can look elsewhere."
Sherlock understood her meaning.
"Since it left straw here, it might have left some traces elsewhere."
As he spoke, he looked up with some relief at the sky, which had been gloomy ever since the first day of school.
"Fortunately, it only rained once, so we might still find something."
As he spoke, Hilke was walking down into the wasteland below the hill. However, as soon as Sherlock's words fell, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.
"What did you say?"
This was the first time she had spoken to Sherlock in such a tone; her voice was no longer calm and cool, but tinged with a hint of disbelief.
Sherlock was a little surprised by her reaction. He shrugged and said,
"I said we might find something."
"The previous sentence!"
Sherlock replied with a slightly confused expression.
"Fortunately, it only rained once? Haven't you left your room these past few days? It only rained on the first day of school."
Hilke stood still, her eyes hidden beneath her hood and ribbon, staring at Sherlock with an extremely strange gaze that made him feel uncomfortable all over.
"Why are you looking at me like that? What's wrong?"
"No need to search."
She took a deep breath and turned to walk towards Hogsmeade.
Sherlock followed her with a bewildered expression.
"Why aren't we searching? Maybe we can find some clues?"
Hilke stopped again. The future she could see had once again changed. Although it was initially obscured by mist, by gradually unravelling it, she could still see some predetermined scenes.
But every time Sherlock made a prediction, those previously determined things suddenly turned into waste paper in a rubbish bin, becoming a tangled mess that could only be crumpled up and thrown away.
She realised the problem lay with Sherlock's mouth and once again stared at him silently, making him feel goosebumps all over.
"Don't speak anymore."
Sherlock didn't understand what she meant, but he inexplicably felt that he had been personally insulted.
"What do you mean?"
"It's going to rain, and we won't find any clues. Let's go back to town."
"You saw it again?" he asked in surprise. Before his words had even finished, a few drops of rain began to fall from the sky, indicating that a heavy downpour was about to begin.
Hilke didn't answer his question again. Instead, she pulled out her wand and used an Umbrella Charm to shield herself.
Sherlock also cast the spell in amazement, raising his umbrella.
The rain quickly intensified, making a dull drumming sound against the umbrella's surface.
They returned the way they had come, and Sherlock exclaimed,
"Your divination is really accurate; it rained just as you said it would."
Hilke didn't say anything, but the knuckles of the hand gripping the umbrella handle had turned slightly white from holding it too tightly.
It wasn't that she wanted to remain silent, but she was accustomed to expressing herself in concise language, leaving her at a loss for words to convey, "Why don't you have any self-awareness?"