Chp 35

　"Lumos!" Professor McGonagall whispered.

　A faint light emanated from the tip of her wand, illuminating the path ahead of them.

　"Ah..." Hermione took a breath of cold air after taking a look at the miserable scene in front of her.

　There were broken bones of small animals everywhere, which were obviously eaten by something, making people feel creepy.

　"If you hear any unusual noises, turn your heads away immediately and close your eyes!" Professor McGonagall turned around and warned the trio with a serious face.

　The trio nodded seriously.

　The tunnel was as quiet as a cemetery. The teachers and students carefully moved deeper into the tunnel... Professor McGonagall walked at the front of the team, and Professor Snape was the last.

　There was a slight "crunch..." sound, and Ron lowered his head and found that he had stepped on the skull of a bat.

　Just as he was about to mutter something, Professor Dumbledore suddenly shook his head at him, signaling him not to make any sound.

...

...

　"Fawkes told me...a giant snake is not far ahead of us, approaching us!" Professor Dumbledore said calmly.

　At the same time, music floated from somewhere, echoing throughout the empty tunnel… The sound became louder and louder, more ethereal and somewhat exciting to hear.

　A large fiery red bird appeared from behind them, singing, and flew rapidly into the tunnel ahead.

　Then, from the darkness ahead, one could hear the sounds of fierce fighting and screaming.

　"Fawkes is a phoenix." Dumbledore lowered his head, as if explaining to Harry, "As an extremely powerful magical creature, she is immune to many horrible dark magics... Moreover, the tears of the phoenix also have a strong healing effect!"

　Harry nodded, not quite understanding.

　"Let's follow it!" Dumbledore suggested. "It seems to be trying to escape."

　Harry and his companions quickly followed Professor Dumbledore's steps, passed through the tunnel, and turned a corner... Harry finally saw the Phoenix "Fawkes", exuding a strong breath of flame and danger, looking down at her target.

　Under the Phoenix, Harry saw a terrifying giant snake... It was a strange green color, with the bright light of a venomous snake. It was almost two feet thick and 40 feet long. However, its two huge yellow eyes, like light bulbs, looked extremely dim, and black blood kept gushing out.

　Its eyes are blind.

　"Well done, Fawkes...you've disarmed the basilisk's most powerful weapon!" Professor Dumbledore praised.

　"This... Slytherin... the monster in the Chamber of Secrets..." Harry stammered.

　"Yes, Harry." Dumbledore patted his shoulder. "It's a snake, so you can hear strange noises when it attacks... To be more precise, it's a basilisk, a terrible magical creature created by dark wizards. Its fangs are extremely poisonous, and the gaze of its big yellow eyes is deadly, so we have to be careful."

　Harry nodded dully, not really understanding why Professor Dumbledore had to explain so much to him.

　"Leave the rest to me, Albus!" screamed Professor Flitwick, drawing his wand and rushing forward.

　His thin body seemed a little funny compared to the huge basilisk.

　But a few seconds later, Harry suddenly understood why Flitwick was rumored to have been a champion duellist in his youth.

　Flitwick waved his wand gracefully, and countless huge rocks began to float around him, as if they were completely controlled by him... Then, these huge rocks smashed towards the giant snake one after another.

　The giant snake was smashed hard against the wall, letting out a terrible hissing sound.

　"Don't you ever think of hurting my students again, monster!" Professor Flitwick roared.

　The basilisk struggled desperately, but it seemed that it could no longer move. One vine after another grew out of the wall, binding the giant snake tightly to the wall; many of the vines had sharp thorns that pierced into the thick skin of the giant snake.

　"Devil's Snare and Devil's Ivy!" Professor Sprout muttered to himself, "Strong binding and paralysis effects. Even if you are a dragon, you must stay here and don't try to escape."

　The skeletons of the small animals on the ground suddenly floated into the air one by one, which scared Ron.

　It was Professor McGonagall. She was transforming the remaining bones of these small animals into small birds with sharp beaks... Countless birds began to fly and circle around them.

　"Oppugno!" Professor McGonagall bellowed her spell.

　All the birds, like heavy golden bullets, shot towards the giant snake at high speed.

　The sharp beaks of each bird pierced deeply into the body of the basilisk, and then quickly exploded on it, and the giant snake's screams never stopped.

　Throughout the whole process, it had almost no room to fight back.

　Snape couldn't bear to watch it anymore, so he took a few steps forward and raised his wand.

　A terrible spell struck the basilisk.

　Then, the basilisk's skin was split open as if by an invisible sword, black blood splattered everywhere; piece after piece of dark green snake skin was cut off by Snape's spell, revealing black and white pieces of flesh. The scene was somewhat horrible.

　At the same time, the Devil's Snare that originally bound the basilisk was cut off by Snape's spell.

　The basilisk was free again. Although it looked extremely painful, it still struggled and crawled towards the bottom of the secret room, leaving a deep bloodstain along the way.

　Professor Flitwick wanted to chase after him, but was stopped by Dumbledore.

　"Let me go, Filius." Professor Dumbledore said calmly, "Perhaps you can look around here and see if you can find the diary that Miss Weasley mentioned?"

　"Okay, Headmaster Dumbledore." Flitwick nodded, "Leave it to us."

　Then, Dumbledore waved to Harry: "Harry, come with me!"

　Harry was stunned for a moment, and it was only after Hermione pushed him from behind that he followed.

　"Professor, why do you want to take me with you?" Harry asked in a low voice, somewhat puzzled.

　"Perhaps you have experienced enough dangers; but it never hurts to accumulate more combat experience." Dumbledore explained with a smile.

　At the same time, the Phoenix Fawkes threw a tattered thing into Harry's hands.

　It was dirty, wrinkled and patched; it was the old sorting hat from school.

...

....

.....

　The next morning at breakfast, Jon was slathering jam on his sausages.

　On the podium, the current acting headmistress, Professor Minerva McGonagall, suddenly stood up.

　"I have some news to announce," she shouted, and then added: "Good news, of course!"

　The students who were eating breakfast looked at each other in confusion. Due to the panic brought by the monster in the secret room, no one could think of what good news would come.

　"Our headmaster, Professor Albus Dumbledore is back!" Professor McGonagall said with a smile, "He has destroyed the Slytherin monster!"

　After a brief reaction, the crowd quickly burst into enthusiastic cheers.

　"Long live Professor Dumbledore!" The Weasley brothers sang happily.

　"I knew that Slytherin's monster would be no match for Professor Dumbledore!" Ernie MacMillan had a confident look on his face.

　"Hannah, Susan and the others should be back soon..." Eloise Midgen whispered.

...

...

　"What about Quidditch?" Oliver Wood shouted excitedly, "Is Quidditch going to resume?"

　"That's right, Wood!" Professor McGonagall nodded. "So I think the Quidditch teams of each college need to hurry up and train. In a week, there will be Quidditch matches between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and between Ravenclaw and Slytherin!"

　"By the way, where's Harry? Where did he go?" asked Dean Thomas, a second-year Gryffindor student. "I haven't seen him return to the dormitory since last night..."

　"Mr. Potter played a crucial role in destroying the Slytherin monster!" Professor McGonagall said proudly, "He fully demonstrated the courage of Gryffindor, but he was slightly injured in the battle and is now receiving treatment from Madam Pomfrey."

　All the Gryffindor students began to cheer again.

　Except for Wood, who was frowning and looking worried... probably wondering if Harry would recover in time for the Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.

　…

　Jon Hart was listening to Professor McGonagall silently.

　The destruction of the basilisk and the return of Dumbledore did not surprise him.

　After being baited by him, Ginny Weasley would inevitably mistakenly believe that the notebook was in the Hufflepuff common room, and then sneak in to try to steal it and prevent her secret from being exposed.

　The Hufflepuff common room seems defenseless on the surface, but in fact it is guarded by house-elves. The magic of house-elves is very powerful and it is definitely not something that a first-year girl can deal with. Jon also "accidentally" told Klein that the school was in trouble when he went to the kitchen to get snacks, and indirectly "reminded" him to be careful of the strange people in the castle.

　After Ginny Weasley was captured alive, the teachers were able to easily follow the clues she had secretly left behind to find the truth about the Chamber of Secrets.

　Moreover, although the basilisk is quite scary for students, it is not a very difficult opponent for adult wizards who are well prepared... What's more, most of the teachers at Hogwarts are not ordinary adult wizards.

　However, through Professor McGonagall's words, he got an important message... Professor McGonagall always mentioned the elimination of "Slytherin's monster" but never mentioned "Slytherin's heir".

　In other words, "Tom Riddle's Diary" should not have been destroyed.

　So the question is, who should have the diary?

　First, let's eliminate the wrong option. It's definitely not in Ginny Weasley's hands.

　Could it be the same as in the original plot, in Harry Potter's hands?

　So who was responsible for the attack on Percy and Penelope?

　In Harry Potter's hands the possibility doesn't seem very likely!

　He didn't think that Voldemort could control the Savior to open the Chamber of Secrets and launch an attack in broad daylight.

　However, now that the basilisk has been destroyed and Dumbledore has returned... no matter who has the diary, Tom Riddle will not be able to run rampant easily; and Dumbledore, who is proficient in "Legitimate Memory", must have known about the existence of the diary, and it should only be a matter of time before he finds it.

　Professor McGonagall was still talking about the changes to the school rules.

　For example, the curfew and social ban laws were abolished.

　Also, please write to those students who have left school as soon as possible, asking them to return to school and continue their studies.

　The requirement that students must be accompanied by teachers during classes and meals has also been deleted.

　…

　Two wizards arrived at the gate of Hogwarts.

　One of them was a tall and burly giant, and the other was a thin old man.

　"Dumbledore... Professor..." Rubeus Hagrid wiped his tears and cried like an 800-pound child: "So, Slytherin's monster is..."

　"It's a basilisk. Its gaze is enough to cause fatal damage." Dumbledore smiled faintly and explained, "It is the natural enemy of spiders. You should know that spiders have eyes all over their bodies in all directions, and they cannot close their eyes...so your friend doesn't even dare to say its name."

　"So... the heir... is actually Tom... I always thought he was my best friend during my school days..." Hagrid continued to cry, "Harry... How is Harry?"

　"It's just a minor injury..." Dumbledore continued with a smile, "You know, my old bones are getting less and less useful. I can't even hold my wand firmly during the battle..."

　"Fortunately, Harry was there. At the most dangerous moment, he pulled out a sword from the Sorting Hat and dealt a fatal blow to the monster!"

　The principal paused, a blue light flashed quickly on his half-moon glasses, and he glanced at the uninvited guest who suddenly appeared in front of him: "Good morning, Lucius!"

　"Morning!" Lucius Malfoy stared at Dumbledore with cold eyes and said, "You are back, Dumbledore... The board of directors suspended you, but you still returned to Hogwarts on your own initiative."

　"Oh, it's like this, Lucius," Dumbledore said with a calm smile, "Yesterday afternoon, the other eleven directors contacted me... Owls flew over one after another, which was really troublesome... They told me a strange thing: some of them seemed to think that you had threatened that if they did not agree to suspend my position, they would be completely enemies of the Malfoy family."

　"What about the attack?" Lucius Malfoy said viciously, "Did you solve it?"

　"Of course!" Dumbledore waved his hand. "It's the same person from last time, Lucius... Voldemort used his diary to summon a basilisk, and we have destroyed it."

　"Hmph!" Lucius Malfoy frowned, snorted coldly, and walked away.