"Parseltongue!"
Draco looked at Tom in horror, then at the opened Chamber of Secrets.
"This is the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets? Legend says that Slytherin's descendant will return to the school to open the Chamber of Secrets and eliminate Muggle-born Wizards. Could it be that you, Tom, are..."
"Dark Lord!" Draco was interrupted by Cassandra before he could finish his sentence.
"What?" Draco felt as if he was hallucinating.
Cassandra elegantly bowed to Tom: "Your Majesty, Dark Lord!"
Draco gasped in surprise: "You said Tom is the Dark Lord?"
Cassandra rolled her eyes at him, then leaned in and whispered: "Rearrange the letters of Tom's name."
Draco was a smart person. With the hint, he quickly figured out Lord Voldemort's word puzzle after a quick mental rearrangement.
Draco's pupils dilated rapidly, fear made his teeth chatter, and he trembled, unable to speak.
Tom watched Cassandra's 'show' speechlessly, his eye twitching uncontrollably, but what he wanted to say turned into: "Times have changed. The rumor about eliminating Muggle-born Wizards is false; don't believe it."
His words neither acknowledged nor denied being the Dark Lord, playing on a "you guess" strategy.
"Alright, we need to hurry. Let's go."
Tom was about to lift his foot when he noticed Draco still standing rooted to the spot, looking dazed.
"Aguamenti!"
Drenched in water, Draco jolted, instantly clearing his head.
"Scourgify!"
"Are you awake? If you are, let's go. Draco, your mental fortitude isn't up to par. Look, Cassandra is much calmer."
After speaking, Tom led the way into the pipe.
Cassandra gave Draco a slight smile before following closely behind.
Draco hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and followed.
The pipe was sticky and slippery, with a disgusting smell. Compared to a long slide at an amusement park, it offered no enjoyment whatsoever.
The trio, enduring the nausea, continued downwards. After an unknown amount of time, they felt they had reached a very deep part of the Castle's underground, possibly even the bottom of the Black Lake, before finally emerging from the winding pipe onto a damp, flat surface. Ahead was a dark stone tunnel.
"Ugh~"
The three, who had a slight aversion to dirt, immediately started retching as they emerged from the pipe covered in grime.
"Scourgify!"
Only after Tom had cast a cleaning spell on each of them did they feel a little better.
"Crunch!"
Draco, having recovered, unconsciously took a step back. He seemed to have stepped on something, which startled him. Cassandra, meanwhile, tightly clutched Tom's robes.
"Lumos!"
Light emanated from Tom's wand, illuminating the surroundings.
Cassandra and Draco looked closely at the ground and saw a rat skull, with many other small animal remains scattered around.
Their faces instantly turned very pale, and Tom took the opportunity to remind them again: "If you hear any sound, close your eyes immediately."
Cassandra and Draco quickly nodded in agreement, cast Lumos, and followed Tom into the tunnel.
The tunnel was long, dark, and silent. The light from Lumos could only illuminate a short distance, and their footsteps on the damp ground made loud sounds in the quiet environment.
After walking for some time, Cassandra suddenly shrieked "Ah!" and quickly closed her eyes. Seeing this, Draco also followed suit and closed his eyes.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Tom felt a little confused; he hadn't heard anything.
"Th-there..." Cassandra said, her eyes closed, as she tremblingly pointed to her front right.
Tom looked in the direction Cassandra indicated and saw a huge dark shadow.
When he shone his wand on it, a gigantic, emerald-green Basilisk skin lay coiled on the tunnel floor, completely empty.
"You can open your eyes. It's a snakeskin, don't be afraid."
Cassandra and Draco cautiously opened their eyes and carefully examined the shed skin left by the Basilisk. This was the first time they had a direct visual understanding of the kind of monster they were about to face.
Draco couldn't help but complain: "I regret it, truly. I really shouldn't have come today."
Cassandra added: "We're acting like reckless Gryffindors right now, not Slytherins at all."
Tom didn't give them much time to complain and quickly led them onward. After an unknown number of turns, he finally stopped in front of a wall at the end of the tunnel.
Looking at the two intertwined stone snakes with emerald eyes embedded in the wall, Tom said to Cassandra and Draco: "We're here, this is Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets."
Hearing that they were at the legendary Chamber of Secrets, both of them unconsciously tensed up.
With Tom's hissing sound of "Open," the two stone snakes separated from their entanglement, and the stone wall split down the middle, sliding to both sides and disappearing.
Entering the room, they walked through rows of stone pillars entwined with gigantic snake sculptures, until they reached the last row.
"Is this Salazar Slytherin? No way, he's just too ugly!"
Looking at the gigantic statue before them, with its aged, sparse long beard and monkey-like face, Cassandra simply couldn't believe it.
Draco felt the same way; they felt they would never be able to look at the name Slytherin the same way again.
"Slytherin might have been disfigured to look like this," Tom said, calmly defending Slytherin, then instructed the two, "Alright, stop studying the statue. You two should retreat as far as possible, close your eyes, and if anything happens, run away quickly. Oh, and Draco, release the rooster in your hand when I shout."
Cassandra and Draco knew this was not the time for stubbornness. They obediently retreated to the entrance, their eyes tightly shut, ready to flee at any moment.
Tom stood alone before the statue, his wand gripped tightly, tiny beads of sweat even seeping into his palm.
The thousand-year-old Basilisk kept by Slytherin would only obey him and his descendants. Tom was truly uncertain about his own existence. And once he lost control, facing the attack of a thousand-year-old Basilisk, without Harry's protagonist's halo, he wasn't entirely confident he could escape unscathed.
Taking a deep breath, Tom closed his eyes and shouted at the statue: "Speak to me, Slytherin—greatest of Hogwarts' four founders!"
As Tom's words fell, the face of Slytherin's statue began to change. Its mouth became a black abyss, from which a hissing sound emerged, and the Basilisk's enormous body slowly slithered out of the black hole with a rustling sound.
Its large, lamp-like eyes fixed on Tom, but it didn't attack immediately. Tom, hearing the sound, was also ready to counterattack at any moment.
In the silent great hall, one person and one snake stood in a standoff.