Chp 34

　Basilisk, that is its name.

　This is the name given to it by its creator, Salazar Slytherin, almost a thousand years ago.

　"Bassilisk", "Snake King" or "Crazy Python", wizards call it with these titles; Basilisk knows that wizards are afraid of it and dread it, but it does not care about these, because it has its mission.

　Before Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts Castle, he left behind a Chamber of Secrets... One of its duties is to guard the secrets within until the return of Slytherin's heir.

　For a thousand years, Basilisk roamed under the castle, living on hunting mice, bats, and a small number of birds... There was very little food, and it often went hungry. Sometimes it was so hungry that it would hibernate on its own.

　It never intended to appear in the castle, because it knew very well that the castle would not welcome it...and would only cause panic because of its appearance.

　Also, Salazar Slytherin had once imbued it with a mission.

　Some said that Salazar Slytherin wished to expel from the school all young wizards who were Muggle-born or who did not have sufficient magical ability... Basilisk knew that this was not the case.

　No one loved this castle more than Salazar; not even his three former best friends... Even if he died on the other side of the ocean, Basilisk could still feel his master's undying longing for Hogwarts.

...

...

　Salazar Slytherin was against Hogwarts accepting Muggle-born wizards for the simple reason that he believed they could not be trusted.

　In the age when witch hunts were rampant, when Muggles and wizards were completely hostile to each other, when any wizard could be reported at any time and then burned at the stake...even an excellent duelist like Godric Gryffindor had been seriously injured in battles with Muggles.

　Therefore, Slytherin felt that accepting young wizards born in Muggles was a very risky thing, because you could not be sure whether they would reveal the existence of Hogwarts to the Muggles; once the secrecy of Hogwarts was broken, a new war between wizards and Muggles was about to come!

　Undoubtedly, Slytherin's point of view was not recognized. In the view of his three friends, Muggle-born wizards were a symbol of outstanding talent; and if they could not absorb more fresh blood, wizards would only become complacent and destroy themselves... They had a fierce argument.

　In the end, Slytherin failed; he eventually left Hogwarts castle and left the school.

　However, even after leaving school, Salazar Slytherin never thought of hurting those young wizards of Muggle origin... because he always believed that he was still the headmaster of Hogwarts, and even those young wizards of Muggle origin were still his students.

　A principal would never hurt his students, even those he hates!

　This is also the mission that Basilisk was instilled into.

　It has been hiding under Hogwarts for thousands of years. In addition to protecting Slytherin's chamber of secrets, it also guards the castle and the people in it.

　…

　But fifty years ago, the secret chamber was opened.

　Basilisk was delighted because he felt that his mission would soon be accomplished.

　But to its surprise, the new master was completely different from the former Slytherin; the "Slytherin Heir" named Tom Riddle, his ideas were much more radical and cruel than Salazar Slytherin...

　He believes that all the "Mudbloods" and "Squibs" in Hogwarts should be killed!

　Basilisk tried to communicate with the new master, hoping to convince him... but it failed!

　Tom Riddle ignored its opinion... In his eyes, Basrix was just a rude beast.

　What's worse is that Tom Riddle is a Parseltongue... For a giant snake, Parseltongue is its nemesis; no snake can refuse the orders of a Parseltongue, not even the king of snakes.

　Basilisk was forced to accept the orders of his new master, left the Chamber of Secrets, roamed the castle, and attacked lone Muggle-born wizards.

　But it has been working hard. It knows very well that the direct eye contact and the venom in its fangs are enough to be fatal to wizards...so it has been making some small changes under the orders of its new master.

　During the attack, it avoided hitting those poor students with its eyes; it always tried its best to appear in front of the students without being able to look them in the eye directly (indirectly); although this would still cause great harm to them, at least their lives could be saved.

　A total of nearly ten students were attacked, and it did his best to keep them alive... until an accident occurred...

　Tom Riddle had it attack a new target, a girl wearing high myopia glasses... Basilisk knew very well that with the glasses as a barrier, his gaze was not fatal. But when he attacked, the girl took off her glasses while crying...

　She died...

　Basilisk fell into deep self-blame and began to rebel against the orders of his new master.

　However, Parseltongue is too deadly to snakes, and their resistance is almost futile.

　Fortunately, Tom Riddle never opened the Chamber of Secrets again since the girl died... Basilisk thought he was free.

　Until, the secret room was opened again by the same person.

　…

　Basilisk curled up in a small nest in the secret room, licking his wounds.

　For half a year, just as it had fifty years before, it had been forced to attack the students of Hogwarts at the behest of the Parseltongue.

　But it was injured in an attack three days ago.

　A big wizard hit it with a strange wand... There seemed to be something left in the wound, and even with the basilisk's powerful recovery ability, it was difficult to heal.

　Basilisk felt that his body had become much weaker.

　Several noises were heard above the secret room.

　Could it be that Tom Riddle is here again... Even though he is injured, he is going to commit a new attack at Hogwarts?

　Basilisk slowly climbed out of the nest.

　But it was not Tom Riddle's extremely cold voice; this time the voice that opened the Chamber of Secrets was that of a young boy, and it was much gentler.

　In addition to the boy's voice, there were many footsteps.

　The footsteps of several adult wizards.

....

....

.....

...

　Harry Potter followed Professor McGonagall to the area between the first floor and the basement.

　When he saw that their destination was actually the bathroom where the three of them had secretly prepared the Polyjuice Potion, Harry's face turned pale... At that moment, he thought that their theft of Snape's herbs and their preparation of banned drugs had been exposed.

　"Professor...McGonagall..." he said stutteringly.

　"Why did you stop?" Professor McGonagall said anxiously, "Principal Dumbledore is still waiting for you!"

　Professor McGonagall's impatient tone was interpreted by Harry as harsh.

　He even staggered when he heard Dumbledore's name.

　Could it be that Professor Dumbledore was furious about this and was going to fire him? It was over... He would probably pack up and leave in ten minutes; what would the Dursleys say when they saw him at the door?

　When he walked into the bathroom, he was surprised to find that, in addition to Professor Dumbledore, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout and even Professor Snape were all there.

　The door of the compartment containing the crucible and residual materials was still tightly closed, with no signs of opening.

...

...

　"Good afternoon, Harry!" Professor Dumbledore said gently, "There is one thing I might need your help with!"

　"Help?" Harry couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Looking at Professor Dumbledore's expression, it seemed that it was not because of the Polyjuice Potion and he would not reprimand him.

　"Come here for a moment!" Professor Dumbledore patted Harry on the shoulder, signaling him not to be nervous.

　Harry nodded and bent down as Dumbledore had instructed.

　With a "bang", the bathroom door was pushed open!

　Two second graders burst in.

　"Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley!" Professor McGonagall couldn't help but frowned.

　Harry's face suddenly changed and he tried his best to wink at Hermione.

　Unfortunately, Hermione's attention has been on Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore since entering the bathroom.

　"Professor McGonagall, it wasn't Harry who did it, it was me!" Hermione's tone was like a machine gun: "The idea of ​​borrowing books from the restricted area to prepare Polyjuice Potion was my idea, and I was the one who threw the dung balls in the Potions class two months ago. I also stole the bicorn powder and African boomslang skin from Professor Snape... If you want to punish them, just punish me; it has nothing to do with Harry and Ron!"

　Hermione's idea was simple. Harry and Ron had already been given a serious warning since the beginning of the school year. If they made any more mistakes, they might be expelled. She had to take all the blame. At least Professor McGonagall still liked her very much and would not expel her for a big mistake.

　Ron was breathing heavily beside her, but he was too late to stop her.

　Inside the bathroom, the situation became somewhat awkward.

　Professor McGonagall's face turned livid with anger.

　Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout looked at each other in bewilderment.

　Professor Snape stood there in a daze, and it took him several seconds to react.

　"Very good...Granger..." Snape sneered, "Now I know!"

　Looking at Harry's expression of despair and the reactions of several professors, Hermione suddenly realized that she was in trouble.

　"What happened?" An unaware Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher walked in, breaking the awkward atmosphere. He glanced at the crowded bathroom and said, "I remember this was an abandoned girls' bathroom...

　"Oh, Headmaster Dumbledore... Merlin, you're back!" Gilderoy Lockhart shouted excitedly.

　"Good afternoon, Gilderoy!" Dumbledore said to Professor Lockhart with a smile, "We have just discovered Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. Do you want to join us in exploring it?"

　"Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets..." Professor Lockhart's face suddenly changed, but he immediately changed his expression: "I'm honored... No, what I mean is, I knew a long time ago that this bathroom is Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, and I have always planned to get rid of it, but I haven't had much time recently..."

　Dumbledore ignored him and turned his gaze to Professor Snape: "Severus, at this time, perhaps we shouldn't pay attention to those trivial matters!"

　"Minor matters?" Professor Snape sneered, "Well, if you insist, Professor!"

　"Of course, only relatively speaking!" Dumbledore's expression returned to seriousness. "Miss Granger, I hope you can come to my office tonight and we can have a cup of the finest Prince of Wales tea together. Near the spiral staircase on the top floor, in front of a gargoyle, the password is 'lemon tongue'."

　"Okay, Professor!" Hermione nodded nervously.

　"Then let's get back to the topic!" Snape snorted coldly: "Potter, come here... see the little snake carved on the side of this copper dragon head... say a few words to it. Say a few words in Parseltongue!"

　…

　The faucet emitted a dazzling white light and then began to spin rapidly.

　Then the pool began to move; they watched it slowly disappear from sight, revealing a large pipe large enough for a man to fit through.

　"Amazing!" Gilderoy Lockhart couldn't help but exclaimed, but after taking a look at the unfriendly looks of several colleagues, he quickly put on a deep expression.

　"It seems that only one person can go down at a time!" Dumbledore smiled and said, "Gilderoy, you go first; as our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, haven't you always been looking forward to destroying Slytherin's monster? Now is the time for you to fulfill your duties!"

　Professor Lockhart opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

　Snape kicked him lightly from behind, and Lockhart fell with a scream.

　The other teachers looked away, pretending not to notice anything.

　Harry was about to follow Lockhart into the pipe, but was stopped by Snape; Snape just glared at him coldly and jumped into the pipe second.

　One after another, teachers and students crawled into the pipe... Professor McGonagall was going to let Ron and Hermione go back to the Gryffindor common room, but Professor Dumbledore stopped her. He agreed to let two second-year students join this "hunt".

　It felt like hurtling down a dark, slimy, endless slide; their tube twisted and turned and sloped very steeply all the way down.

　After several minutes, they emerged from the pipe one by one and fell to the wet ground with a plop.

　It was a dark stone tunnel, large enough for several people to stand inside.

　They might have reached several miles below the castle.