Sean could vaguely see that Harry was wearing his Invisibility Cloak. Clearly, Marcellus Bulstrode and the diary hadn't discovered Harry hiding nearby, precisely because of this Deathly Hallow.
Walking to the Chamber's entrance in the center of the bathroom, Sean looked at the dark pipe opening. Without any hesitation, he jumped directly into it, waving his wand to cast a spell to slow his descent.
The pipes extended in all directions, but inside the pipes, one could often see scaly snake skin and some viscous liquid. It could generally be determined that these were shed snake skin and secretions from the Basilisk.
The pipe became more level, and Sean jumped out of the exit. Just as he landed on the ground, his pupils contracted sharply, and the wand in his hand immediately rose to point at the huge coiled figure ahead. Soon Sean discovered that the huge figure ahead was just the Basilisk's enormous shed skin, not the actual Basilisk.
The Basilisk's shed skin was also a quite precious potion and alchemical material. Unfortunately, now wasn't the time to take it away—otherwise, taking it all would be enough to make many sets of wizard battle protective clothing.
The Basilisk's scales and skin naturally had considerable magical defensive capabilities. Although the defensive effect of shed skin was much lower than the Basilisk itself, it was still enough to give wizards quite good defensive power.
Making up his mind to take the shed skin here after dealing with the Basilisk, Sean continued forward.
Reaching the end of this underground space, there was a thick wall carved with two giant serpents whose eyes were made of emeralds. Harry was standing in front of this wall at this moment. He turned to look at Sean, who had suddenly appeared, and wasn't surprised at all that Sean would come at this time.
Showing a slight smile, Harry said to Sean, "Sean, you came."
Nodding to Harry, Sean walked to the wall and said, "I was following Marcellus here to begin with. I just didn't expect you to follow him even faster than me."
"Sean, how did you discover Marcellus?"
Unlike the original history, originally behind the wall was Ginny, so Harry was eager to save someone. Now behind the wall was Marcellus. Although Harry didn't want to see Marcellus come to harm either, he wasn't necessarily very anxious about it.
"Marcellus and I haven't gotten along well to begin with. I won't mention those dirty affairs of great families, so I've been paying attention to him all along to prevent any conspiracy against me from his side. Recently I discovered Marcellus's abnormalities—not only has his personality become more gloomy, but his behavior style has also changed greatly. Therefore, I observed him more closely and finally discovered his abnormalities."
Sean's explanation wasn't really perfect, but Harry didn't pay too much attention to these details. After hearing Sean's explanation, he looked at the wall in front of them and said, "Sean, should we go in now?"
Hearing Harry's words, Sean nodded, then shook his head, saying, "We do need to open this wall, but don't go in immediately after opening it. I have some preparations that can give us an advantage and deliver a head-on blow to that Basilisk first."
Speaking to this point, Sean handed Harry a pair of earmuffs used for handling Mandrakes in Herbology class, saying, "Harry, hold onto this. When I throw my prepared items inside, you should immediately put them on to protect yourself."
"Alright, I understand."
Taking the earmuffs, Harry looked at the wall in front of them and once again made hissing sounds.
"Open!"
Boom...
Accompanied by a rumbling sound, the two giant serpents on the wall immediately began to move, and the wall, following the movement of these two snakes, split open from the middle and quickly slid to both sides, disappearing into the left and right walls.
At this moment, a long, narrow room filled with serpent-carved stone pillars and surrounded by green mist appeared before Sean and Harry.
Taking a deep breath, Harry glanced sideways at the incredibly calm Sean. His originally somewhat anxious mood also became calm. Drawing his wand, Harry walked forward side by side with Sean.
At the end of the room was a huge statue, as tall as the room itself. Sean looked at the statue's monkey-like face, sparse beard, and aged appearance, feeling disappointed with Slytherin's image. The elderly Slytherin not only lacked the immortal, sage-like image Sean had imagined, but instead gave people a feeling of wretchedness and gloom. This instantly lowered Sean's loyalty to Slytherin by one percentage point.
"Sean, this statue is..."
"Salazar Slytherin!"
Just as Sean's words fell, another familiar yet strange voice suddenly rang out.
"If I were you, I would add the prefix 'great' to this person's name to show my respect for Salazar Slytherin."
Turning around, Sean looked toward where the voice came from. He immediately saw Marcellus slowly walking out from the shadows. However, at this moment, Marcellus's originally black pupils were swirling with dark green mist—clearly his body had been possessed.
This saved me the process of using the panel to activate the diary. The soul inside actually manifested itself and occupied Marcellus's body. It's probably because I previously said that Dumbledore already knew about this situation and was preparing to act, so the diary took the risk of possessing Marcellus's body.
Is it trying to escape with the Basilisk?
In a flash of thought, Sean looked at Marcellus and smiled, "Tom Riddle? Marcellus Bulstrode? Or... Voldemort?"
A look of surprise appeared on Marcellus's face. He looked at Sean, studying him carefully. After a long time, a hint of understanding appeared on his face as he said, "So it's you. No wonder you know my name."
At this moment, Tom had recognized Sean, but he didn't say much more, because in his view, no matter who Sean was, he couldn't escape death!
"Sean, the two people I most want are both here. As long as I kill you and then transfer my soul fragment to Harry Potter's body, I can be reborn and descend upon the world again. At that time, with the Basilisk's following, I can quickly rally my Death Eaters again. The wizarding world is destined to belong to me, and I am destined to become the greatest wizard in this world!"
Hearing Tom's words, Sean immediately knew that this guy had set his sights on the soul fragment inside Harry. Moreover, that soul fragment had coexisted with Harry for many years and had long become part of Harry. When the time came, Tom would only need to merge with that soul fragment to possess Harry's body, reverse the polarity, suppress Harry's original soul, and become the master of this body.
A centipede dies but never falls down—this Horcrux split off by Voldemort was more troublesome than Sean had imagined.