Chapter 154 I like you more than that ugly thing Voldemort
Dylan shooed the Weasleys away.
He told Neville and Seamus that he would be staying in his trunk from now on.
While Neville and Seamus were out chatting with other students, Dylan shimmered, using Coal's shadow power, and slipped into the shadows under the cover of night.
"Oh! Harry, is there anything else you want me to do?" Moaning Myrtle floated in the air, looking bashful as she saw Harry and the two professors enter. She was short and plump, with a face full of pimples.
"No... Professor and I have some things to do, can you please go cry somewhere else?"
Myrtle sniffled: "Of course."
After Hermione's incident, Harry had contacted Myrtle, and he had vaguely guessed then that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be within the washbasin in this bathroom. This time, he verified his idea again.
Harry quickly found a snake-engraved symbol beneath a faucet. He whispered the opening spell in Parseltongue. With a teeth-grinding screech, the floor slowly split open, revealing a dark, deep passage.
The passage was filled with a damp, putrid stench, and slimy green moss climbed the walls.
"Hiss! This... this looks like the entrance to hell Dylan talked about," Ron gasped.
Looking at the seemingly deep passage, Harry paused, but his mind was made up: "I'm going down."
He couldn't not go. The sooner they found Ginny, the more likely they were to save her!
"Shouldn't we call Dylan over first?" Ron hesitated.
"No time! Ginny might be suffering right now!" Harry shook his head.
Ron was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly: "Alright, he hardly ever gets involved in these things with us anyway."
Lockhart looked at the two, then at the pipe that seemed like it could swallow him whole, swallowed, and forced a familiar smile onto his face.
"Alright, it seems you don't need me anymore, so I'll just..."
"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Now, you go first and scout ahead." Harry pointed his wand at Lockhart.
Lockhart's expression was extremely reluctant, but Ron unceremoniously pushed him down directly.
"I'm not even scared yet, where do you think you're going!" Ron roared.
"Ah—" Lockhart's figure tumbled to the bottom of the passage.
"Hey, it's really dirty down here! I shouldn't be in a place like this!"
Seeing that he was fine, Harry and Ron were about to descend.
Myrtle floated over again: "Harry, if you die, I'd be happy for you to share a toilet with me."
Harry's lips twitched, and Dylan's words to Malfoy immediately popped into his mind.
—This guy actually has good skin and bone structure, shaped like a big butt, and yet has such beautiful thoughts. It's just incredible.
—Those words once gave Malfoy an epileptic fit, and he didn't bother anyone for a whole week.
Taking a deep breath, Harry forced a smile. No matter what, Myrtle had helped him a lot. He certainly wouldn't say those words to Myrtle's face.
"Thank you." Harry's figure disappeared into the pipe, and Ron followed close behind.
Whoosh, whoosh.
The sound of wind.
The sensation of rapidly falling weightlessness made their hearts pound, and they couldn't help but let out cries.
Bang!
When they landed, they immediately stepped on a pile of skeletal remains.
"Ew!" Ron lifted his foot in disgust. "How much did that monster eat here?"
Harry looked left and right: "This pipe is very deep, deeper than the underground classrooms."
Ron nodded, aimed his wand at Lockhart, surveyed the slimy walls around them, then spoke: "I think we've probably reached under the lake."
"Lumos!" Harry's wand emitted light.
"Let's go, Ginny must still be inside."
The trio walked forward a little. The passage gradually widened. A huge cavern appeared before them.
A pungent, foul odor filled the cavern. Harry immediately saw a gigantic snakeskin ahead, glowing with a chilling, slippery sheen in the dim light. It was green and vibrant.
He frowned and walked closer.
"Good heavens, that snake must be at least twenty feet long, right?" Ron exclaimed from behind. "And it looks like a venomous snake!"
"A Basilisk is a venomous snake," Harry frowned.
Lockhart's gaze fixed on the two behind him. Suddenly, his eyes rolled back, his knees buckled, and he collapsed directly to the ground.
"What? Wait, Harry, he looks like..." Ron stopped and moved closer to Lockhart.
Unexpectedly, Lockhart flipped over and snatched the wand directly from Ron's hand.
"Hey!" Ron was startled.
"The adventure ends here, children!"
Lockhart, feigning unconsciousness, wrapped himself in his dirty but still brightly colored robes after grabbing Ron's wand, pointing it directly at the two.
"Now, I'm going to take this skin back to school and tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds upon seeing her mangled corpse."
"Now, say goodbye to your memories!"
Lockhart gripped Ron's wand.
—The tape on that wand had been re-wrapped by Dylan with invisible tape after Ron's last spell explosion.
Its stability had increased slightly, but not by much.
Lockhart raised the wand high above his head.
"Obliviate!"
Boom!
The spell instantly rebounded.
A bright flash.
An explosion occurred.
Lockhart screamed, falling straight backward.
At the same time, the wand's explosion triggered a chain reaction, and rocks began to fall continuously from the cave ceiling.
Ron quickly retreated, barely avoiding being hit by the rocks, but the passage was soon blocked by the debris.
"Ron! Ron! Are you alright?" Harry was startled, rushing forward and looking through the cracks in the stones.
"I'm fine—it's just this fool... he seems to have lost his memory." Ron stood there, somewhat at a loss.
He looked up, fearing the entire tunnel would collapse.
"Wait here—with Lockhart. I'm going to keep going to find Ginny!" Harry made an immediate decision.
If they continued to waste time here, moving rocks, Ginny would probably end up like those bones!
"Okay..." Ron tried to keep his voice steady. "Then I'll start moving these rocks, so you can... you can crawl back through here later."
"See you later!" Harry turned and left, stepping over the huge snakeskin.
Ron watched Harry leave, gritted his teeth, and turned his attention back to the pile of rocks blocking the passage.
He bent down, wrapped his arms around a rock, and tried to lift it with all his might.
However, the rock was heavier than he imagined. Every inch it moved was extremely arduous.
Ron's face flushed red, and he constantly gasped for breath.
Just as he was fully focused on the rocks, a blurred outline suddenly appeared in the void beside him.
Then, a questioning voice came.
"Why aren't you using your wand?"
"Where else would I have a wand to use? What? Wait, are you..."
The sudden question startled Ron. But after instinctively answering, he immediately realized something was wrong.
He turned his head, trying to make out who was there, but was ultimately blinded by a flash of light.
"Obliviate!"
A deep voice gently echoed in the cavern.
Ron's movements suddenly froze, his tense muscles instantly relaxed, and he collapsed to the ground like a disconnected puppet, just like Lockhart, temporarily losing consciousness.
"Effortlessly done." Dylan rubbed the Shadow Ring on his hand, a slight smile curving his lips.
He looked at Lockhart, who had been knocked out by Ron's rock, and gently tapped his wand again.
Lockhart, lying on the ground, disappeared in a flash, taken into Dylan's trunk.
—He had placed a trunk in his dorm, custom-made by his father to be identical to his own pet-space trunk.
Neville and the others couldn't possibly open the trunk to check. Even if they tried, Dylan had placed spells around it.
Unless they could call a professor. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to get in on their own.
After putting Lockhart into the trunk, Dylan's gaze returned to the pile of rocks in front of him.
He didn't bother moving the rocks like Ron, but his figure shimmered again, dissolving into the shadows, passing directly through the stones.
"The smell is really awful." Dylan's lips curled slightly, smelling the putrid stench filling the cavern.
But in any case, it smelled much better than when he encountered the troll last time.
It was just some stench, constantly fermenting in this dark, confined environment, which caused the smell.
Unlike the troll, which smelled like a mixture of rotten food, sour sweat, and spoiled organs. Inhaling that would churn one's internal organs and cause a wave of stomach acid.
—Dylan stood there, not even needing to cast a scent-blocking bubble around himself.
"That's a really long piece of skin, just cut." Dylan walked up to the Basilisk's shed skin.
"It's a pity it's not complete. It must have been crushed by the Basilisk after shedding, but in disconnected pieces, it can be used to make some things."
Dylan examined the snakeskin at his feet—in fact, the snakeskin was almost as tall as his chest.
"Basilisk skin seems useless, but in fact, these shed skins are not only tough but can also deflect most spells. Making small items, wearing them, or even turning them into a robe would be good choices."
Dylan walked along, collecting all the snakeskin.
Basilisks possess extremely powerful magical abilities, and their skin might also contain some special magic.
Dylan planned to experiment with some of the snakeskin.
He wanted to see if this material could become one of the main ingredients for his new potions.
—If it could, Dylan would cherish the Basilisk deep within the cave.
Meanwhile, Harry's figure walked through a dimly lit, empty room.
There were many stone pillars carved with large snakes, their serpentine patterns coiling and intertwining around the pillars, soaring high to support the ceiling that dissolved into the deep darkness, casting strange, enormous shadows on the ground.
Harry clutched his wand, his heart pounding.
The dim environment constantly pumped adrenaline through him—he felt like he could even kill an ox with a single spell right now!
Soon, at the very front of the room, he saw a small figure lying on the ground, her hair as red as flames.
"Ginny!" Harry's eyes widened. He immediately rushed over, his wand even falling to the ground.
"Ginny, don't die!" Harry gripped Ginny's shoulder, but seeing her cold, bloodless face, his heart sank further.
"Wake up, wake up!"
At that moment, a tall boy with black hair slowly emerged from the shadows next to a stone pillar.
Looking at Harry's anxious face, his expression cold, he opened his mouth, about to speak.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.
"She's pale, lying there so sweetly, but it's not good, she'll catch a cold."
"?!"
Riddle was startled. He literally jumped back.
"Who are you?!" Riddle stared warily at Dylan. His eyes flickered towards Harry. However, he was astonished to find that Harry was still weeping, trying to awaken the naive little girl, seemingly completely oblivious to the situation around him.
Dylan, clad in Kael'thas's black robes, slowly emerged from the shadows. "Don't be nervous, I won't hurt you."
Riddle's eyelid twitched. But quickly, he calmed down, his eyes narrowing. "What you just said was quite perverse."
Beneath the mask, Dylan's eyebrow subtly raised. "Oh? Is it as perverse as you possessing a little girl and controlling her?"
Riddle's recently relaxed expression suddenly froze again. "How do you know?"
"Heh heh heh, I've always known."
"Who exactly are you?"
"Time is short. Now, do as I say."
Riddle's gaze darted to the wand Harry had dropped on the ground.
"Oh, you still can't perform wandless magic?"
"..."
Riddle slowly backed away towards Harry. Dylan simply stood still.
"You were quite handsome when you were little."
"What?" Riddle was taken aback.
His brow furrowed, and he instantly lunged backward: "Harry Potter! Come here!"
However, his body was restricted in place, and his voice couldn't escape. Seeing this, Riddle grew irritated and raised his voice again: "Harry!"
"Stop screaming. Even if you shout yourself hoarse, no one will come to save you." Dylan observed Riddle, a look of satisfaction in his eyes.
"Heh heh, when you became Voldemort, your ugliness made me utterly lose interest. But you're different; you're still so young, so vibrant."
"I am Voldemort!"
A crack appeared in Riddle's expression. This sudden turn of events was completely unexpected. The other party's methods made him unable to perceive what had been done—this was the most terrifying thing to him.
"And what do you mean by that? I'm just a memory! And—I'm only sixteen!"
"Of course I know." Dylan's lips curled slightly into a sneer: "But precisely because you're young, your memories and soul hold even more experimental value."
"What?"
Dylan raised his wand: "Imperius Curse!"
"What? How could you..."
Before Riddle could even react, he felt a sharp pain in his head. The next moment, Dylan's wand waved again.
His form dissipated, but the spell binding Riddle also vanished.
Plop.
Riddle's body felt light, and he stumbled backward, landing on the ground.
Harry finally noticed Riddle. Seeing him appear seemingly out of thin air, he was somewhat stunned. "You... you're Tom?"
Riddle heard the voice and snapped back to reality. Looking at the scene before him, he instinctively felt he was doing something important, but he couldn't recall what had happened earlier. However, an inexplicable urge was driving him.
His hand slowly reached for the diary in his pocket.
"Speak to me, Slytherin—greatest of the Hogwarts Four." Riddle muttered under his breath.
As his words fell, a massive commotion came from deep within the Chamber, and the ground began to tremble slightly.
On the walls beside them, the colossal stone face of Slytherin stirred, its mouth gaping wide, finally forming a terrifying black hole. Something moved within the statue's mouth, making a rustling, slithering sound.
Harry quickly retreated, but he soon noticed his wand. However, just as he reached for it, Riddle kicked it away. "Don't count on that useless thing. Your spells can't threaten the Basilisk."
Hiss, hiss.
A flicking tongue sound.
A gigantic Basilisk slowly slithered out. Its scales shimmered with cold light, and its blood-red vertical pupils held a cruel intensity.
Seeing this, Harry's face changed drastically. He was unarmed now; how could he fight this thing?
"It's surprising that a wizard would discard his wand."
At that moment, Kael'thas appeared from the shadows.
Riddle's head began to throb again when he saw him. The Basilisk and Harry both turned to look at him.
"You are..."
"Little one, a wizard as foolish as you isn't worthy of knowing my name."
Dylan looked at the enormous Basilisk, his eyes almost glowing. What a strong and powerful body! It would surely withstand his experiments!
"Erebus Nexus!" Dylan's wand subtly rotated.
The Basilisk, sensing no command from its master, instinctively felt danger from this uninvited guest, and let out a hissing snarl.
The tip of Dylan's wand bloomed with a strange, inky black light. The next moment, a faint sizzling sound echoed in the air. Wisps of swirling black mist emanated from his feet, gradually encircling him.
Simultaneously, glowing, eerily red eyes appeared out of thin air. These eyes varied in size, had no whites, only scarlet pupils, and as soon as they appeared, they spun around Dylan's body. In the mist, the dark red glow of these eyes pulsed more intensely.
The Basilisk sensed a threat. Its previously arrogant head recoiled slightly, and its thick body twitched uneasily. It cast a glance at Riddle.
However, the latter just stood there dumbly, giving it no reaction whatsoever.
Basilisk: ?
—He hadn't petrified him!
Receiving no command, the Basilisk couldn't simply abandon Riddle and leave. It could only twist its body in place, its hard scales rubbing against each other with a rustling sound.
It opened its mouth, a low hiss rumbling in its throat, its eyes fixed on the figure before it, attempting to kill this person with its magic.
However, when its gaze fell upon the blood-red eyeballs floating around the human wizard, it felt its remaining meager wisdom rapidly dissipating under this bizarre pressure. Its movements became frantic and uncoordinated, its head instantly darting away, no longer meeting Dylan's gaze, instead shrinking behind Riddle.
Its former ferocious aura vanished completely with its squirming movements.
Harry's eyes widened, his face filled with shock and fear. Just a brief glance at the mysterious figure made him feel as if countless needles were simultaneously piercing his brain.
Instantly closing his eyes, Harry retreated continuously.
Dylan stood amidst the black mist, combined with the gloomy surroundings, making him appear even more eerie and terrifying.
Then, a special, low voice echoed through the Chamber of Secrets.
"Tom, come into my embrace, Kael'thas's embrace. You will become my most excellent test subject—along with this Basilisk."
"Avada Kedavra!"
A dazzling white holy light burst from the tip of Dylan's wand. With a high-pitched whoosh, it struck Riddle.
"What the f***???"
Riddle's body jolted, and the dark aura around him was instantly shattered by the Unforgivable Curse. However, he was not a true living entity. Riddle did not die, but his form became more ethereal.
As his power waned, Ginny, lying unconscious on the ground, also changed. Her paper-pale face gradually regained its color, her tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and the breath of life returned to her body.
Dylan gently tapped his wand, and Riddle, along with the diary, vanished from the spot.
He then walked towards the Basilisk.
The Basilisk felt Dylan's approach, its enormous body trembling constantly, forced to retreat.
Dylan's gaze fell upon it.
However, the Basilisk was so terrified that it tightly shut its eyes, completely daring not to look directly at this terrifying human.
Standing before the Basilisk, Dylan wasn't worried that the creature would suddenly open its mouth and swallow him whole.
Dylan's wand gently rotated above the Basilisk's head.
"Reducio... Reducio..."
The Basilisk's body, which should have been difficult to affect with spells, continuously shrank under Dylan's incantation. It shrunk from a majestic Basilisk into a miniature snake, then was easily taken into Dylan's hand.
Dylan held the black snake, tilted his head slightly, then directly wrapped it around his wrist.
Having done all this, Dylan turned to look at Harry. At that moment, Harry's eyes were tightly shut, his body trembling.
Now would be a good time to test if his spells would rebound off Harry.
—However, Dylan wasn't particularly keen on trying. What difference would it make whether it rebounded or not? He couldn't just grab Harry and take him to his trunk for research.
Watching Harry's Sanity Points plummet, Dylan's lips curled into a meaningful smile. Then, with a shimmer, his figure vanished from the Chamber of Secrets.
After a moment, Harry received no feedback. Everything was eerily quiet.
Harry kept his eyes tightly shut, not daring to even breathe. Every second after Dylan disappeared felt infinitely stretched. The silence around him was terrifying, with only the violent thumping of Harry's own heart in his ears.
Harry tried his best not to recall the appearance of that mysterious person. However, the more he tried not to remember, the more the horrifying images kept surfacing in his mind. Harry was terrified that if he opened his eyes, he would see a terrifying face, or those bizarre eyes, right in front of him, silently staring at him.
But he waited and waited. Apart from his own ragged breathing, there was no other sound.
Suddenly, Ginny's soft hum broke the deadly silence.
Harry's heart tightened. After much hesitation, he couldn't resist. He gritted his teeth and opened his eyes.
However, the sight before him left him completely stunned.
The entire Chamber of Secrets was utterly empty. The pervasive mist, the gigantic Basilisk, Tom, and that mysterious black-robed figure who called himself Kael'thas.
It was as if they had never appeared, vanished completely.
Dim light spilled onto the floor. Harry stood there blankly, his mind a complete void.
"Mm..."
At that moment, another soft hum from Ginny brought him back to reality.
"Ginny!"
Harry disregarded the confusion in his heart and stumbled towards Ginny. Just as he was about to reach her, a whooshing sound of wings came from the other side of the Chamber's passage.
Harry subconsciously turned to look. He saw a phoenix, glowing with a soft golden light, flying at high speed. The phoenix's talons tightly clutched a tattered hat.
Harry immediately recognized it; it was the Sorting Hat.
The phoenix flew to the center of the Chamber, let out a clear cry, then charged straight towards Harry.
—It had originally been entrusted by Dumbledore to deliver something crucial to Harry.
But when it reached Harry, it suddenly fluttered its wings and paused, its body momentarily still.
"Chirp?"
The Chamber was empty. Besides a bewildered Harry and a gradually waking, still bewildered Ginny, there was no one else.
Fawkes slowly circled in the air, finally flying to Harry's side.
"Oh! A surprised little boy, and a bewildered little girl. You both look like you've eaten half-cooked deadly nightshade."
"Hey, put me down! It's uncomfortable being held by you. Dumbledore should really trim your nails!"
"Chirp!"
Fawkes raised its claw and dropped the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms.
"You're so clumsy!"
The Sorting Hat, held by Harry, swayed its tip.
"So, what's going on now? Dumbledore sent it rushing here with me, but nothing seems to have happened to you. I finally got a chance to pull that sword out of my body."
"—Do you know? Being stuck like that is really uncomfortable! I'm just a hat! Not a scabbard!"
.....
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