Chapter 180: The basilisk is hibernating? (Edited)

"Hiss!"

The two intertwined snakes at the top of the stone wall parted, the wall split in half, slid sideways and disappeared, and Victoria possessed by Riddle entered the Chamber of Secrets.

Upon entering the Chamber of Secrets, she had an ominous premonition, and upon closer inspection, the floor was still slightly cracked and there were brown stains in some corners. For a place that had been abandoned for thousands of years, these signs were perfectly normal, but Riddle was still instinctively concerned.

The Chamber of Secrets had undoubtedly been cleaned by Tom. The basilisk was a treasure and he wasn't about to let it rot. After finishing the Scarborough Fair, he had disassembled the basilisk, keeping the scales, the skin and teeth, and the flesh and bones for his collection.

These were all treasures!

A magical creature like the basilisk is classified as five-star by the Ministry of Magic. As "an animal known to kill wizards that cannot be tamed or tamed," so creating a basilisk has been illegal since the Middle Ages, but it's easy to hide because all you have to do is hatch the basilisk before the Ministry finds out. However, no one can communicate with a basilisk except someone who speaks Parseltongue, so they are also dangerous to most dark wizards. There is a term in the genre for a "false look," and for basilisks it is a "dead look," which makes their flesh and blood extremely rare.

So, when Riddle entered the room, there was nothing unusual about it, except that it was a bit dilapidated, and that the giant basilisk that had been lying inside had been removed.

Soon, he discovered the problem: a somewhat clumsy anti-theft spell was cast here, and Riddle was relieved.

"A little trick." He grunted and turned to the Slytherin statue. He knew that by now the Heir of the House knew they had broken in, but so what? He was confident that the so-called Heir of the House would be buried here.

"Hiss (Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four)."

The statue's mouth opened. And then, nothing happened.

Riddle: "???"

Where's the basilisk? where's my basilisk? hibernating?

He shouted again, but nothing came out of the statue's blackened mouth.

He was confused, and for a moment he didn't know what to do in this situation. After all, all the information and clues Riddle had found were about the location of the Chamber of Secrets and how to open it, none of them about what to do if the basilisk didn't appear.

...

Tom looked solemnly at the broken crystal ball in his hand. The fact that the crystal ball was in that state meant only one thing: someone had broken into the Chamber of Secrets!

He had set an anti-theft spell on the Chamber of Secrets, and as soon as someone entered, the crystal ball on his side would break and warn him.

Seeing everyone around him looking at him, Tom squeezed out a smile, "There's been a little accident in my office, sorry!". With that, he bowed hurriedly to Nick, and without waiting for a reply, Tom exited the subway classroom, so quickly that Harry wondered if that was Professor Lockhart's way of getting out of this awkward death anniversary. Hermione followed him and disappeared through the door with him.

The three living people and the hundreds of ghosts in the room were confused, and Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore, the leader of the Headless Hunters Club, had even forgotten what he was going to say when he was interrupted. A bit confused, he settled his head back on his neck as Nick floated over to him.

"Welcome, Patrick," he shone a cool blue spotlight on him as he shouted to the surrounding guests, "Let's welcome with applause and music the last of today's distinguished guests, the members of the Headless Hunters Club, and their captain, Patrick Delaney-Podmorer!"

The phantom audience present responded with warm applause,

The music resumed and everyone returned to the dance floor, dancing to the music. Patrick Delaney-Podmorer scratched his head: did it seem to be a little different from his plan? With a glance behind him at the stunned club members, Sir Patrick's hand was too strong and smacked his head again. Luckily, he had been in many battles and was quick enough to keep his head in place and not drop it to the ground.

No matter, let's get on with the plan. On Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmorer's orders, he and the rest of the Headless Hunters played a game of field hockey with their heads.

...

"The Chamber of Secrets has been reopened." said Tom quickly to Hermione, who was coming up behind him, pulling a bottle of red liquid out of his robes pocket as he hurried.

"So, what do we do? call Professor Dumbledore?" asked Hermione hurriedly, a little panicked, a little fear bubbling in her, but with more anticipation: the heir to the Chamber of Secrets, lurking in Hogwarts, was finally about to reveal himself!

"Notifying him is necessary, but first I have a little preparation to do." Tom wrote in red paint on a corner of the staircase, out of sight of the portraits.

His flesh and blood, open the chamber,

All the enemies of the Heir will be buried.

Tom analyzed Riddle's psychological process, now that Riddle had managed to control a student, manipulating his body to open the Chamber of Secrets. The question was what he wanted to do next, attack a wizard of Muggle origin? Find Harry Potter and defeat him? O... Destroy what he saw as the second "heir to the Chamber of Secrets"?

Tom thought the last was the most likely.

Riddle had opened the Chamber of Secrets and killed Myrtle the Weeper, but he had been watched by Dumbledore, who had been watching Riddle so closely that he was afraid to open it again, so he had created a Horcrux: Riddle's Diary, so that one day he could guide someone in his footsteps to complete the "noble deed" of Salazar Slytherin.

Although it was created for the purpose of causing trouble, attacking Muggle-born wizards was not Riddle's main goal, or rather that goal could be changed. When Riddle learns that his future self, the immensely powerful Dark Lord Voldemort, will be defeated by a baby in infancy, he will be very curious and eager to meet the legendary savior.

Of course, both of these things have to be put on hold, and Riddle's most pressing need is to take down the new "Heir to the Chamber of Secrets." The conflict between the two heirs is too great to be reconciled - which is more important, finding Harry Potter or killing the school's "Dirty Bloods"?

The absence of a second heir to the Chamber of Secrets is more important to Riddle.

Tom was sure that Riddle hadn't written any Chamber of Secrets manifesto on the wall. Because, being the sensible fellow that he is, Riddle would have wanted to take his rival by surprise, and it would have been a shame to make a big show of it and put the mysterious heir on the defensive.

So Tom had to help Riddle finish the statement, otherwise it would be impossible to explain to Dumbledore how he knew that someone had broken into the Chamber of Secrets. Tom hurriedly wrote the two lines in red, then pulled out a note and scribbled in short handwriting the words "Chamber of Secrets Open, Myrtle's bathroom, second floor."

Once the note was written, Tom tapped the wand and it turned into a butterfly, which floated up into the Great Hall as Hermione looked on in amazement.

"That's a useful spell." It was obvious that Hermione was very interested in this spell, it was a very magical way to send a message!

"I'll teach you later if you want to learn." Tom sent the helpful message and quickly ran up to the second floor. Tom thought the odds of hitting the right bushing today were good.

Guess, here I come!

After a brief moment of disorientation, Riddle realized that his basilisk had been removed or eliminated. Today he would not be able to use the power of the Serpent King that Slytherin had left him. His eyes flickered for a moment, he picked up his wand, pointed it at himself and spat a spell from its tip into his wizarding robes.

As he finished the spell, two figures rushed into the Chamber of Secrets, one after the other.

Riddle raised his wand quickly, "Avada Kedavra!" the Curse was accompanied by a blinding green light and a confused, indistinct sound, as if an invisible giant had flown through the air.

"Protego!"

"Expelliarmus!"

Tom and Hermione tacitly cooperated, Tom blocking Riddle's Killing Curse with a Protego Charm, and Hermione deftly used the Disarm Charm to knock the wand out of his hand.

Second-year Hogwarts students knew some practical and useful spells, such as the disarming spell and the petrifying spell, while the first-year spells were hardly offensive, being levitating spells, fire spells, and door-opening Charms. Hermione had already studied all the second year spells, and a disarming spell was no problem for her.

The wand rolled across the floor, rolling so much that it seemed to fly straight across the room.

Tom didn't let his guard down just because Riddle had been disarmed, his wand was still pointed at Riddle, and if Riddle made a move, Tom didn't mind casting the Difffindo Charm on him.

"It's always the same these days" Victoria, who was possessed by Riddle, showed an expression of displeasure, and at the same time, she was even more dissatisfied with her body responding with weak magical power, "Excellent cooperation, but Professor Lockhart, today is just the beginning..."

A jet of black ink spurted from Victoria's seven orifices, as wisps of black air rose from her skin. Within seconds, the ink and blackness dissipated, and Victoria's face went pale as a sheet, her breath coming in gasps.

She collapsed as if the bones had been pulled from her body.

Tom stepped forward a few paces to check on Victoria.

"Don't touch her!" came a loud shout behind him. Tom looked back, and Dumbledore was striding in. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at Victoria, and her robe fell away and fell to the side.

"There is a very strong curse on the robe." explained Dumbledore, then hurried over to Victoria, half kneeling and carefully observing her pallor.

"The life force is almost depleted..." he said with a frown, as the wand tapped Victoria's arm, a bit of white light melted into it, a flash of red passed over Victoria's snow-white face, and she breathed weakly again.

Dumbledore lifted Victoria up, left hand outstretched, a song came from far away and Fawkes the Phoenix suddenly descended from the sky and landed on Dumbledore's shoulder, his talons gripping Dumbledore's shoulder. Fawkes turned his head and stared at Tom, then waved his long golden tail feathers.

Tom understood what he meant and reached out to take a surprisingly warm feather from Fawkes' tail, while Hermione wrapped her arms around Tom's waist from behind. With her hand on the feather, a strange, pleasant feeling of relief coursed through her body.

A normal bird would never have been able to support the weight of four people, but Fawkes was no normal bird, he seemed effortless, and the golden feathers of his tail were so strong that they showed no sign of drooping. Tom wondered if the rarity of a wand with a phoenix tail feather as its core was due to the rarity of phoenix tail feathers.

He had a vision of an old Fawkes on the brink of nirvana, when suddenly Dumbledore held out a hand and shouted, "Wait!" Then he picked up Fawkes' tail feathers one by one and held him in his arms. Dumbledore, holding a bunch of tail feathers, said to Fawkes, "Please, you may now realize Nirvana."

If this scene had been told, Fawkes would have left me to rot in the chamber, wouldn't he? Tom's instinct told him this was going to happen. As if by telepathy, Fawkes seemed to guess what Tom was thinking and turned his head to peck Tom, pecking him so hard that his face twisted.

Fawkes flapped his wings violently and suddenly flew skyward.

Tom: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

Due to Fawkes' sudden acceleration, Hermione hugged Tom much tighter and also scratched the itchy flesh under his ribs, which left him numb and itchy, and Tom almost burst out laughing.

The corridor outside the Chamber of Secrets was dimly lit, but a soft golden glow emanated from his broad, bright red wings, illuminating the gloom. Fawkes flew fast, the cold air hit Tom's hair, but it wasn't too uncomfortable due to the warmth of the feathers in his hands.

The fantastic ride ended quickly and, just as Tom was about to burst into tears, Fawkes flew out of the pipe and the four of them landed on the bathroom floor, splashing water quickly to wet their shoes and the hem of their robes.

When they emerged, the sink that had served to cover the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets automatically returned to its original form. It had been enchanted and the entrance would only be restored when the person who had entered it came out.

Dumbledore took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom with Victoria in his arms.