Late night.
On the third floor of Hogwarts castle, in a girls' bathroom near the staircase in the left corridor, sudden laughter and piercing screams erupted.
A bespectacled ghost rushed through the wall. Moments later, the wooden bathroom door swung open from inside.
Peeves floated out, clutching a water-filled balloon and cackling loudly. A new bag hung from his waist, bulging with colorful balloons — ample ammunition for his mischief.
As the two ghosts disappeared down the corridor, a seemingly empty corner suddenly distorted.
"Phew... they're finally gone." Kyle removed his Disillusionment Charm, approached the bathroom, and pushed the door open.
The long-abandoned wooden door released a teeth-grinding creak.
Though the small bathroom was thick with dust, Kyle paid it no mind. He went straight to the sink, scanning it carefully until he found the faucet with a small snake carved on its side.
"This should be it..." Kyle touched the snake, murmuring, "The entrance to Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets."
He had deliberated for a long time about whether to venture here.
With his current abilities, he stood no chance against the Basilisk. Unlike Harry, he wouldn't have a phoenix or the Sorting Hat to aid him.
Yet Kyle came anyway. If nothing else, he needed to retrieve the snake skin from the Chamber.
Like dragons, Basilisks were valuable from head to tail. Their shed skin was an extraordinarily rare potion ingredient that fetched ten Galleons for just a palm-sized piece on the black market — and even then, demand exceeded supply.
The specimen in the Chamber was roughly twenty feet long — worth a mountain of gold when converted to Galleons. That he had resisted coming until now was quite an achievement.
Kyle touched the small snake again and made a strange hissing sound.
"Open..."
Although he could communicate with serpentine magical creatures, this ability evidently didn't work on the faucet.
Earlier, at Newt's place, Kyle had found a Runespoor and learned several phrases of its dialect. While not authentic Parseltongue, it was standard enough for his purposes.
His effort worked. The faucet emitted a dazzling white light and began to spin rapidly. The sink started to move, slowly disappearing from view and revealing a pipe large enough for a person to slide down.
Kyle retrieved his broomstick from his trunk and resolutely entered the pipe.
Inside, the light was dim and the walls covered with slimy substances. Riding his broomstick, he descended through seven or eight turns before finally exiting the pipe.
Kyle dismounted.
He found himself in a dark stone tunnel, spacious enough for him to stand upright.
✭ Lumos ➜ Wand-Lighting Charm ✭
He lit his wand and cautiously moved forward.
The tunnel was so dark that he could only see a small area ahead. His shadow stretched long on the damp walls, looking like a monster. The wet floor was littered with rat bones — Scabbers would probably love it.
Kyle remained vigilant, keeping his eyes on his surroundings, ready to flee at any moment.
After a few minutes, he rounded a dark bend in the tunnel and finally discovered what he had been searching for — the silhouette of an enormous object coiled motionless on the other side.
Kyle quickened his pace and raised his wand. The light illuminated a huge snake skin, vibrantly glowing green with brilliant golden highlights.
He immediately opened his trunk and stuffed the entire skin inside. Searching the surrounding area, he found only scattered fragments — there was just one complete skin.
This discovery eased Kyle's anxiety. The presence of only one complete skin suggested the Basilisk hadn't been active here frequently.
If his guess was correct, this skin was probably shed fifty years ago... when Tom Riddle first opened the Chamber of Secrets.
Kyle continued forward but, as a precaution, maintained his guard and kept a firm grip on his broomstick.
Driven by frugality, he collected every fragment he spotted along the way. Walking and gathering, he soon reached the tunnel's end. After turning the final bend, a solid wall blocked his path.
Two intertwined snakes were carved on the wall, their eyes set with large, gleaming emeralds.
Kyle reached out and pressed one of the gems.
A thought suddenly struck him: if he could pry these emerald eyes out, would the wall lose its ability to open?
Acting on this impulse, Kyle attempted to remove them. Yet despite trying both physical force and various spells, the gems wouldn't budge. They seemed fused with the wall itself, as if they were a single entity.
After several futile attempts, Kyle finally gave up, his energy depleted.
"Enough of this." He sighed. Looking up at the snakes' gleaming eyes, he once again produced the low, hoarse hissing sound.
The twin serpents separated as the stone wall split down the middle, each half sliding away until they vanished from sight. Kyle reached into his trunk, drew a deep breath, and stepped forward.
Beyond the wall stretched a long, dimly lit chamber flanked by two rows of stone pillars adorned with coiling serpents. Unlike the tunnel, no trace of snake skin remained here.
Kyle proceeded cautiously, wand in one hand and a rooster clutched by the neck in the other, his broomstick tucked securely under his arm. His footsteps echoed hollowly against the eerie walls as he advanced between the serpentine columns.
He scanned his surroundings carefully, relaxing only after confirming that the entrance behind him was the chamber's sole access point. With this reassurance, he continued his journey across the chamber.
As he approached the final pair of pillars, Kyle beheld a statue that stretched to the chamber's ceiling, its back against the distant wall. The figure had an ancient, monkey-like face with a thin beard so long it nearly touched the floor.
"Salazar Slytherin..." Kyle muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing, "He doesn't look that impressive. Madam Hufflepuff looks more like a legendary witch..."
Tilting his head back, Kyle knew that one more phrase in Parseltongue would cause the statue's mouth to open, fully awakening the Basilisk within.
"Should I wake the Basilisk?" Kyle pondered hesitantly.
✭✭✭
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