Tap, Tap, Tap...
In what should have been a quiet castle at night, a series of hurried footsteps echoed through the corridors.
Clutching Alice in his arms, Harry wore the invisibility cloak and ran frantically toward the second floor.
Behind him, the sound of a massive creature sliding grew steadily louder. He didn't dare look back, nor did he dare use any method to check behind him, because he could hear that cold voice constantly in his ears.
"You smell so good... you smell so good too—let me taste you—kill you—eat you..."
Hearing that cold voice filled with endless killing intent, Harry held Alice even tighter.
He remembered Professor Kahn saying that snakes don't observe the world entirely through vision, which meant his invisibility cloak might be completely useless.
But he didn't need to shake off this snake completely—after all, he planned to lead it to the Chamber entrance and lock it back where it belonged.
As for what happened after, it would depend on whether Dobby could find a professor to help.
However—"you smell so good too." Was it talking about him? Or Alice in his arms?
His thoughts racing, Harry suddenly realized something and glanced at the back of his hand while running.
There, a silver-white mark was faintly glowing, pulsing with some kind of signal.
Something clicked in Harry's memory. When Professor Kahn gave them these marks, he'd said he added magic that would let his friends sense them and help with small tasks.
But if they encountered dark creatures, they absolutely couldn't activate this mark—it would make them smell irresistible, causing the creatures to attack the mark bearer like mad.
Was the basilisk a dark creature?
Realizing this, several earlier events suddenly made sense.
After he'd rushed out of the classroom and discovered the basilisk was chasing him, he'd tried using Parseltongue to control it, telling it to leave and stop pursuing him.
But the basilisk had completely ignored him, endlessly repeating words like "smells good" and "eat." Because of this, he'd abandoned Parseltongue and instead tried to send the basilisk back to its Chamber.
But what if Professor Kahn's mark was making the basilisk chase him relentlessly, overriding even Parseltongue commands?
Harry immediately checked the back of his hand. Moments later, the mark slowly faded, merging into his skin and disappearing.
At that same moment, the basilisk's excited voice turned confused. Its tone shifted to soft murmuring, and even the sliding sound behind him weakened slightly.
"The scent disappeared... it's like this again... every time it's like this..."
"The big scent I can't fight... it's at the heir's side—the small one disappeared again... can't eat enough—so hungry..."
Hearing the basilisk's soft murmuring, Harry even detected a trace of resentment in its tone.
He didn't know how long this basilisk had been in that Chamber. If it really was Slytherin's Chamber, preserved from the founding period until now... had it never eaten a full meal?
That would indeed be pitiful.
However, now was obviously not the time to feel sorry for the basilisk.
Slowly opening his mouth, Harry recalled what he'd learned at Professor Kahn's place and spoke softly.
"Stop."
His mouth emitted a series of strange hissing sounds. The next second, the already weak sliding sound behind him vanished completely. The basilisk seemed puzzled, its hoarse voice coming again.
"Comfortable feeling—heir? No, not the heir, but similar—stop—stopped."
"It—it really works, meow?" Alice with closed eyes, was still trembling. When she'd seen that giant snake earlier, she'd felt a bloodline suppression.
The basilisk's dominance over small magical creatures was too powerful. Forget fighting back with a wand—now it took enormous courage just to open her eyes.
"It should work."
Not daring to turn around, Harry looked at the shadow reflected on the wall ahead. The basilisk seemed to have indeed stopped, staying quietly in the corridor as commanded.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Harry tentatively spoke, his mouth again emitting hissing sounds.
"Do you still remember where your home is?"
The shadow reflected on the ground seemed to nod. Harry's ears again heard the basilisk's hoarse voice.
"Know... home is in the pipes... no food... can only sleep."
Hearing the resentment in that tone, Harry's expression grew increasingly strange.
Had it really not eaten for a thousand years?
"Can you go home now?"
If he could use Parseltongue to send this giant snake back to the Chamber, everything afterward would be simple.
"Should be able to..." Suddenly, the giant snake's tone changed, and its huge body in the shadow trembled. "No."
"The heir is summoning me... he needs me to fight... I can't go home—I must obey the heir."
As the words fell, the faint sliding sound suddenly increased. The giant snake seemed to be turning, planning to leave Harry and return to that classroom.
Needs it to fight? No wonder those two hadn't come out to chase him. Was it because the commotion earlier was too loud and alerted other professors?
Or had the mark he activated finally called Professor Kahn, and now Professor Kahn was fighting those two?
Anxiety flashing in his eyes, Harry quickly spoke, his mouth emitting hissing sounds.
"Come back, come back!"
But this time the giant snake didn't respond at all, continuing to slide its body back down the corridor.
The so-called heir's summons seemed far more effective than his Parseltongue.
Watching the giant snake's shadow disappear around the corner, determination flashed in Harry's eyes.
No matter who was fighting those two now, he couldn't let this basilisk return to that classroom—it would put whichever professor was battling in serious danger.
Since Parseltongue didn't work, the method to prevent it from going back... After a moment, only a tail section remained in view. Taking a final look at the about-to-disappear tail, Harry bit his lip and looked at the back of his hand.
Half a second later, silver-white light slowly brightened. At the same moment, the basilisk's voice sounded again, changing from soft murmuring to excited calling.
"The scent appeared again—smells so good—can't resist!"
"You're crazy, meow!" Seeing Harry's action and hearing the sliding sound resume at full speed, Alice's eyes widened in disbelief.
Since that snake wanted to leave, let it leave! What kind of operation was luring it back?!
And this way, the snake probably knew the scent came from Harry now—it would really chase them to the ends of the earth!
"I'm not crazy! Help stall it—it seems to be running even faster than last time!" Harry running frantically, clearly felt the sound behind getting louder.
Shaking her small head, Alice irritably glared at Harry.
But after the irritation, she still gathered her courage, closed her eyes again, tremblingly climbed onto Harry's shoulder, pulled out her wand from her pocket, and aimed behind based on feeling.
"Impedimenta, meow!"