Chapter 139 — The Liar

Chapter 139: Chapter 139 — The Liar

Chapter 139 — The Liar

At noon, Harry and the others returned to the castle from Hagrid’s hut to get ready for lunch.

As soon as they entered the castle, they ran into Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall was holding two pieces of parchment. When she saw Harry and Ron, she immediately handed one to each of them.

"You haven’t forgotten that you still have detention, have you?"

Harry and Ron quickly shook their heads.

Because they had flown to school in a flying car, Professor McGonagall had given them each a detention.

Professor McGonagall looked at Ron with a stern expression.

"Tonight, you’re going to help Mr. Filch polish the silverware in the trophy room. No magic is allowed. Everything must be polished by hand!"

Ron gasped.

He knew that Filch hated students more than anything, so being sent to work with him was practically the worst punishment imaginable.

Filch’s favorite punishment was to hang students up and whip them until they were half-dead.

That was the sort of thing that made Mr. Filch happy.

So Ron being assigned to Filch for detention was practically like sending a sheep into a tiger’s den.

"Potter, you’re going to help Professor Lockhart write replies to his fans!"

Professor McGonagall looked at Harry again.

Harry was stunned.

He quickly said, "Professor, I can clean every toilet in the school. I’ll even scrub them by hand. Really!"

He would accept anything other than eating shit and drinking urine.

As long as he didn’t have to spend time with Lockhart, he was willing to do anything else.

But obviously, that wasn’t going to work.

Professor McGonagall rejected his request.

"This is detention, Mr. Potter. How can you bargain with me? Besides, Professor Lockhart specifically requested you. He must trust you very much!"

The corner of Harry’s mouth twitched.

Lockhart trusted him?

Lockhart just wanted to show off in front of him!

Harry really couldn’t understand why Dumbledore had hired Lockhart to teach at Hogwarts.

After spending a week around him, Harry felt that he had already seen through Lockhart’s true nature.

He was a complete idiot!

Although Harry didn’t know exactly what Lockhart’s books were about, judging from his experiences with the man, Lockhart was clearly incapable of doing the things described in those books.

Maybe he had made them all up?

The strange thing was that even one of his students could tell there was something wrong with Lockhart, yet Dumbledore had still hired him.

That was truly bizarre.

Of course, there was no point in Harry saying any of this.

Especially not in front of Professor McGonagall.

He would probably just lose points for insulting a professor.

"At eight o’clock tonight, both of you must report to your assigned detentions!"

Professor McGonagall said sternly.

Then her eyes turned toward Vesey.

She gently ruffled Vesey’s hair.

"Go on, good girl. You must be hungry. Make sure you eat plenty at lunch!"

Vesey obediently nodded and left with a smile on her face.

She didn’t pay the slightest attention to Harry and Ron’s misery.

But Harry and Ron weren’t jealous at all.

After all, neither of them was in a particularly good mood.

It was hard to say who was more desperate—Harry or Ron.

Ron complained about Filch’s cruelty, while Harry complained about Lockhart’s stupidity.

They both wanted to swap detentions with each other.

Unfortunately, when night came, they still had no choice but to leave the common room dejectedly and head for their respective detentions.

As for Vesey, she was comfortably staying in her private room, watching television and movies and enjoying some peaceful time alone.

What surprised her even more was that she discovered a new function of the system.

The system could actually connect to the internet from her previous world.

It could even exchange Energy Points for a game console.

The price was only one thousand Energy Points.

The problem was that maintaining the connection was expensive, costing one hundred Energy Points per hour.

Even so, Vesey was so excited that she could barely sleep that night.

As a result, she was extremely sleepy the next morning and kept yawning.

Naturally, Vesey blamed Harry for keeping her awake.

She said that she had spent the entire night having nightmares, constantly dreaming that something had happened to Harry.

Harry, who had indeed heard the strange sound that night, was deeply moved.

He told everyone what had happened.

Ron and Hermione looked at him in shock.

"Could it be that you’ve been under too much pressure lately?"

"Maybe you just didn’t sleep well?"

The two of them felt that since Lockhart hadn’t heard anything, perhaps it was nothing after all.

Maybe Harry had simply been hallucinating.

But Vesey firmly believed Harry.

Knowing the original plot, she naturally knew what was really going on.

She thought for a moment before saying:

"Could Professor Lockhart be lying to you? That voice sounded so frightened.

"Brother, you said it yourself. The voice was saying things like ’kill’ and ’tear apart’...

"Maybe Professor Lockhart was worried that you would be frightened, so he deliberately pretended not to hear anything. But perhaps he has actually gone off to investigate the truth?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all twitched their mouths.

When they first heard Vesey call Lockhart a liar, they had almost jumped for joy.

Vesey had actually realized that Lockhart was lying!

That was already a huge improvement.

But after hearing the rest of her theory, they helplessly shook their heads.

Well...

That really was something Vesey would come up with.

But...

Her idea was simply too outrageous.

How could Lockhart possibly investigate the truth?

Based on his behavior so far, Harry genuinely felt that everything Lockhart had accomplished was probably fake.

Would someone like that really go looking for the truth?

"Brother, you don’t believe me, do you? It’s true!

"Professor Lockhart is so powerful, and he’s written so many books. He must be incredibly capable. So it’s perfectly normal for him to keep this matter from us for the sake of protecting his students.

"But if I tell Headmaster Dumbledore now, that thing might start killing students inside the school. I’m really scared..."

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

After harvesting the Energy Points, Vesey finally closed her mouth in satisfaction.

Harry and the others didn’t find her behavior strange at all.

They knew that Vesey had always felt guilty about the vampire wizards attacking the school and injuring students and their parents.

Now that she knew something might harm the students, there was no way she wouldn’t be worried.

Harry knew that she wanted to tell Dumbledore about it.

But he wasn’t sure whether Dumbledore would believe him if he reported something like this.

Perhaps Dumbledore would think he was overreacting.

Maybe he was under too much pressure and had simply imagined the voice, just as Ron and Hermione had suggested.

In any case, Harry no longer completely trusted his own judgment.

He hesitated over whether to tell Vesey what he was thinking.

But Vesey had obviously already guessed.

Although there was a hint of disappointment on her face, she seemed more understanding than anything else.

She smiled and said:

"I understand, brother. If it were me, I might be too embarrassed to say it, either..."

Seeing the surprised expressions on Harry and the others’ faces, Vesey shyly continued:

"I guess I’m not a very good girl either. I’m always worried that saying something without evidence will cause trouble for the headmaster, and I’m also afraid that everyone will think I’m a liar...

"Brother, I don’t want people to scold me for lying or think badly of me..."

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

[Ding! Energy Points +10]

[Ding! Energy Points +10]