Chapter 60: The riddles

Ivan struggled to sit up and his whole body ached.

He should now be inside the mouth of Salazar's statues, he was in a large space, just above him was a hole where the basilisk entered and exited.

"Strange, very strange, I went back a thousand years, was it a dream?" said Ivan as he shook his head and grabbed his wand.

As he grabbed his wand, he turned his attention to something in his hand.

"Lumos" whispered Ivan, in the dim light of his wand he saw that it was a small dark golden colored potion and said, "This.... is Salazar's potion."

Ivan paused for a moment, now he was sure that what had happened was not a dream but reality, he used the turn of time to go back a thousand years and meet the founders.

As Helga said, Salazar was not as bad as he seemed, and at the end of the day, Salazar gave him an amazing potion!

Ivan then remembered a potion that was described in a magical book, the potion he held matched its description, the recipe had been lost for centuries.

He carefully put the potion in his pocket, if others knew he had it, they would most likely try to take it themselves, even the Ministry of Magic could take it from him.

He was prepared to take the potion when no one was around, then Ivan thought of something as he was about to leave, the founders of the school said they were going to leave a secret treasure in the Chamber of Secrets to help him protect Hogwarts from Voldemort.

If he was right, the treasures should be somewhere in the statue.

He hurriedly looked around.

Like the Basilisk's lair, the inside of the statue was larger than the outside, it was filled with the bodies of small animals.

After some searching, he found a hidden door.

As he opened the dark door, dust flew everywhere.

When the dust settled, Ivan was standing in the doorway of a round room.

The room was exactly the same as the one he had visited a thousand years ago, beautifully decorated, containing statues of the four founders in the four corners.

Unlike the ancient statue of Salazar outside, the four statues here where the four founders: the sinister and cunning Salazar Slytherin, the kind and benevolent Helga Hufflepuff, the wise and prudent Rowena Ravenclaw, and the sturdy and handsome Godric Gryffindor.

They looked exactly like the people he had just met.

In front of the four stone statues, four stones with rounded grooves alternated.

This should be the real chamber of secrets of the founders with the secret treasures they left behind, but first I must pass the tests.

Ivan took a step forward and saw different words on the walls.

It was like a giant sorting hat, on the Gryffindor wall it was written in gold paint: The bold Gryffindor of the wild moor who gives the bravest the highest rewards, the key to unlock the treasure is the courage buried in everyone's heart, you need the recognition of your proud follower.

Hufflepuff was written in black: The benevolent Hufflepuff hails from Valley Broad. He treats everyone equally, everyone has a chance to get his treasure. The key to unlocking the treasure is integrity and loyalty, all you need is to trust your humblest friend.

Ravenclaw was written in blue paint: I knew Ravenclaw, from Glen. The brightest minds deserve a reward. The key to unlocking my treasure is an extraordinary intellect that you will forever inherit in your equally intelligent mind!

The last one was the Slytherin wall, it was written in silver: Slytherin, hungry for power. I only believe in the purest blooded wizards, the dirty bloods can get nothing from me. The key to unlock this treasure is an enormous power, it is guarded in the depths of the earth by his cunning servant.

Ivan finally finished reading, he didn't see any more words, these four guys had very bad taste, the whole room looked like a riddle.

He could not understand these clues.

Ivan had no idea where the keys to the secret treasures were, who are the followers, friends, allies and servants mentioned above?

He had to remember all these words, he had to find clues when he left the chamber.

The moment Ivan memorized everything, he heard a terrible scream from outside the statue.

He finally remembered Tom and the basilisk, so he ran out of the room.

Just as he was coming out of the mouth of the Chamber of Secrets, Ivan heard Harry shout his name, so he hurriedly responded, and Fawkes flew down to take him away.

Harry seemed to succeed in sorting it all out.

He stood up.

The scream he had just heard must have been from Tom. In the middle of the chamber was the lifeless body of the basilisk, pierced by Gryffindor's sword. Next to it was Tom's diary, which had been penetrated by the basilisk's fangs, the poison had burned a hole in the diary.

When Harry saw Fawkes go down to Ivan, he hurried to ask him with a look of concern, "How are you, are you alright? I saw you get hit by Tom's spell."

Ivan shook his head, saw Ron, who was still under the statue, and hurried to say, "I'm fine, it's a long story, I'll tell you later, let's check on Ron's condition first."

By the time Ivan and Harry reached Ron, he was already upright.

His dazed gaze fell first on the huge body of the snake monster, then on Harry with his bloodstained robe and Ivan, whose robe was similarly in tatters, and finally he saw the diary at his feet.

He winced and took a cold breath as tears welled uncontrollably in his eyes as he said, "Ivan, Harry, it was all my fault, I shouldn't have believed Tom, I wanted to tell everyone, but I was afraid. Riddle said if I did you would never think of me as a friend again."

"Yes, you're a real idiot. If I wasn't dead tired now, I'd beat you Ron, you believed in Voldemort, not your friends," Ivan said angrily

Ron said lost in thought, "After the first attack, I felt abnormal, I was naive enough to think everything would be okay if I got rid of the diary, but everything kept getting worse."

Harry comforted him as he said, "It's over now Ron, we all believe in you, you were just under Riddle's control, you didn't do it of your own free will."

Ron stammered and said, "But..."

"I forgive you because you saved Ginny. But in the future, you should be the first one to tell us, instead of trying to figure it out yourself," Ivan said as he reached over to help Ron put