Chapter 268: This is the Girls' Bathroom!
"What is that?"
Harry couldn't help but shriek, his voice high-pitched. He knew he sounded like a frightened little girl at that moment, but he couldn't help it.
"A Basilisk."
Professor Kettleburn gazed at the lifelike painting on the wall with fascination, his fingers slowly gliding over the vibrant green scales that seemed to ripple.
"If a cockatrice egg is hatched by a toad, it will give birth to this extraordinary Basilisk. It's enormous, capable of growing up to fifty feet long. Its fangs contain extremely potent venom, but its eyes are the most dangerous part."
"Its eyes?" Harry repeated, looking again at those dangerous yellow eyes.
"Anyone who meets its gaze will die instantly."
Professor Kettleburn spoke these terrifying words lightly: "This Basilisk has lived at Hogwarts for over a thousand years... meaning it's been living with us every day..."
Harry imagined it...
While he and his classmates were eating, reading, attending classes... a murderous monster was lurking nearby...
He couldn't help but shiver, then he couldn't resist asking, "If that's the case, how come no one has seen it?"
"It moves through the pipes – Dumbledore has confirmed that."
Professor Kettleburn smiled, pulling a large scale from his pocket.
He slowly stroked the scale, a captivated smile on his face:
"See? I secretly snuck into the pipes and found this... Thanks to my missing arm and one and a half legs, I can easily get into places others can't..."
Harry looked at his missing limbs, feeling both pity and a strange fear.
However, he then saw the strange professor eyeing him with a calculating look.
"Speaking of which, you're slender and agile, so maybe it would be easier for you to get into the pipes? Perhaps that's why Dumbledore is asking you students to challenge the Basilisk..."
Harry couldn't stop himself from trembling. But the thought of Dumbledore calmed him down.
No way... Dumbledore isn't like that...
And he also had Parseltongue... Everyone said it was a language that could control snakes.
The Basilisk was terrifying. But Harry thought that if he didn't go, other students facing the Basilisk might be in danger; but if he participated, Parseltongue might be able to help...
With this thought, when Professor Kettleburn asked him again if he wanted to back out, Harry gritted his teeth and shook his head forcefully.
"Alright then... Good luck, kid." Professor Kettleburn looked at him sympathetically and said, "Come back alive."
That sentence immediately made Harry's heart leap into his throat.
But the words were already out, and he couldn't back down. Harry could only grit his teeth and walk through the room.
Then, unexpectedly, he saw Michael.
"...Michael?" Harry said loudly.
"Hmm, surprised?" Michael asked with a smile.
"I thought it was one of the professors..." Harry said honestly.
"Everyone else saw professors; I was specifically waiting for you," Michael said, motioning for Harry to follow him: "Wade needs your help with something."
Harry quickly followed, and after they passed through the door, he found they were in an empty corridor.
He hesitated, reminding Michael, "Michael, I still have to participate in the challenge..."
"It's related to the challenge," Michael said. "Without you, the competition can't proceed."
"Why?" Harry pressed.
"The entrance is blocked," Michael repeated what Wade had told him.
Harry remembered what Professor Kettleburn had said earlier and asked:
"Isn't the entrance in the pipes?"
"The place we blasted open with magic is too narrow. If we encounter danger, we'd be done for, so we need a wide enough passage."
What kind of door couldn't Wade open, that he needed my help?
Harry was puzzled, not understanding what was going on. But Michael was pulling him along quickly, seemingly in a hurry, so he just had to follow for now.
Then, he realized the surrounding corridors were becoming more and more familiar, and the place ahead... was clearly the girls' bathroom, which was off-limits to boys!
"Wait, wait, Michael!" Harry, his face turning green, pulled on the person in front of him and asked, "Are we going in there?"
He emphasized heavily, "That's the girls' bathroom!"
Michael chuckled, "Don't worry, there's no one inside, only Moaning Myrtle."
"Who?" Harry asked.
As a boy, he never went near the girls' bathroom, so he naturally knew nothing about any Myrtle.
"The ghost who always stays in that bathroom," Michael explained simply. "Because she's always making a fuss, no one ever comes to this bathroom. Wade is waiting for you here."
"...Wade?"
Harry was shocked again.
He'd been shocked so many times today that his reactions were starting to go numb, but the news about Wade being in the girls' bathroom still jarred him.
As Michael spoke, he pushed open the restroom door. Harry immediately spotted Wade, and to his surprise, Dumbledore was there too.
These were two people he would never associate with peeping into a girls' bathroom, and seeing them both there made Harry's embarrassment and nervousness vanish.
Dumbledore and Wade stood side by side, bending over to examine a faucet. The golden-red Phoenix perched on the headmaster's head, like a unique hat.
Next to them was a squat, chubby female ghost. She looked like she was still a student, wearing thick glasses, with an ordinary face and a gloomy expression.
Harry guessed it was Moaning Myrtle.
Near the headmaster, she seemed a bit flustered, yet also excited. She hid herself in a toilet stall, secretly observing them.
—That's quite a strange combination.
Harry thought.
He tried to ignore the eerie, bluish eyes peeking over the stall and greeted them, "Good evening, Professor Dumbledore, Wade."
"You're here, Harry." Wade stepped aside a little and said, "Come take a look."
Harry quickly walked over, with Michael following curiously.
They then discovered that what the two had been examining was a bronze faucet with a small snake carved into its side.
"Uh..." Harry asked, "What's special about it?"
Wade said, "Look at it. Try saying 'open' in Parseltongue."
"Parseltongue?" Harry instinctively looked at Dumbledore, then asked strangely, "Didn't you learn it too?"
After they found out he could speak Parseltongue, several people from SSC had learned a few phrases, but most quickly gave up on the almost indistinguishable "hiss hiss hiss." Only Hermione and Wade learned the most.
Wade had long since learned a simple word like "open."
"I do, indeed," Wade said helplessly. "But this entrance doesn't seem to recognize the knock-off version of Parseltongue."
He remembered that in the original story, Ron had also opened the Chamber of Secrets with Parseltongue, but the same method didn't work on this faucet.
Wade could only conclude that the magic left by Slytherin himself was more sophisticated than Voldemort's. When the Basilisk was alive, it didn't just require Parseltongue; it needed to be true Parseltongue.
The image of the painting Professor Kettleburn had shown him earlier flashed through Harry's mind, recalling those cold, deadly eyes.
Open.
He hissed, and the faucet glowed with dazzling white light.
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