"Huff... huff..."
Harry gasped for breath. The prolonged running had already pushed his body beyond its limits.
His legs felt like they'd been filled with lead, and his lungs burned with every ragged breath.
"Impedi—Impedimenta, meow—"
Alice on his head wasn't faring much better. The giant snake at full sprint was considerably faster than Harry. She could only do her best to cast spells to delay it, but this delaying method drained her magical reserves severely.
By now, she felt like her head was about to explode, throbbing with waves of pain. Under this suffering, even casting a proper Impediment Jinx was difficult for her.
After all, she'd only just learned this spell recently.
Fortunately, they'd already reached the second floor, and that bathroom was right ahead.
Seeing the bathroom door so close now, and the shadow looming on the wall behind him, Harry gritted his teeth, pushed himself even faster, rushed into the room, turned back to close the bathroom door, and threw the bolt to lock it.
Bang!
The next second, a deafening crash came from the door, as if someone had slammed a battering ram against it.
The bathroom door flashed with a gray-white arc of light, and some cracks appeared on its surface. Hogwarts bathroom doors usually had basic protective charms, but this kind of protection was still too weak to withstand a basilisk ramming it directly.
This door wouldn't hold much longer.
Realizing this instantly, Harry looked at the sink beside him and asked urgently, "Where's that faucet?"
"Um—that one!" Pointing to the innermost sink, Alice was about to say something more, but before she could speak, she was interrupted by a shriek.
"Ah!" A shrill scream came from the side. From the innermost stall, a ghost girl wearing glasses who looked quite young poked her head out from behind the door, looking at Harry, who had rushed in in panic. "This is the girls' bathroom!"
However, Harry obviously didn't have time to deal with that ghost. Following Alice's indication, he rushed to the innermost sink.
Seeing that boy not only not fleeing but actually approaching her, Myrtle shrank back, her voice panicked.
"It was like this before I died, and it's still like this after death. You all barge into the girls' bathroom without any shame..." Her voice became choked. "You all bully me. Even the Ministry of Magic won't let me have revenge..."
Then she lowered her head and let out a series of soft sobs.
"I'm really so miserable!"
Desperately trying to block out the crying behind him, Harry focused on the faucet before him.
The sound of the basilisk crashing against the door kept getting louder. Before long, it would break through this last line of defense. He didn't have much time left.
Determination flashing in his eyes, Harry took a deep breath and slowly opened his mouth.
Alice had said before that Lockhart had looked at this faucet, made a sound, and the faucet became a huge opening.
If so, then the Parseltongue he used should be very simple.
After pondering briefly, Harry's mouth emitted a series of cold hissing sounds.
"Open."
As the words fell, the originally ordinary-looking faucet suddenly emitted a brilliant white light, then began spinning rapidly. Next, the sink also began rotating, the spiral gradually expanding, forming a pipe that could easily accommodate a person crawling in.
The pipe was pitch black inside without any light. A slightly foul smell wafted out from within, and the pipe walls were still stained with some mucus that hadn't completely dried.
The crying behind him stopped. Perhaps because she'd never seen such a change, it made Myrtle temporarily forget about complaining about her tragic experiences. But Harry didn't have time to be stunned. Hearing the increasingly loud door-crashing sounds, he gathered his courage, leaped forward, and slid into the pipe.
"Huh?"
Watching that boy slide into the pipe, bewilderment flashed in Myrtle's eyes.
But the next second, an explosive sound came from the side. The bathroom door could no longer withstand those frequent impacts. The gray-white light dissipated, wood fragments instantly shattered and scattered across the ground, revealing that huge head behind it that was half a person's height.
Startled by this sudden explosion, Myrtle poked her head out again, looking toward the door.
Then she met a pair of frighteningly large yellow eyes.
Those were terrifying eyes, fully as large as a pillow, carrying madness and hunger in them, along with some indescribable magical properties.
The moment she met those eyes, Myrtle felt her consciousness beginning to blur at an extremely fast speed.
Thoughts no longer operated. Everything before her eyes continuously dissipated like bubbles. The ghost that already had no senses completely lost its last trace of perception, leaving only one thought echoing in her consciousness:
These eyes—so familiar—
Rumble...
Tumbling downward in the pipe, Harry felt like his insides were being scrambled. He could only do his best to protect Alice in his arms, praying this pipe wouldn't be too long.
After about ten seconds, the pipe suddenly became smooth, then his whole body flew out and crashed heavily onto the ground.
"Ugh..."
Struggling to get up from the ground, Harry checked his wand, then recited "Lumos" and looked around by the light.
This seemed to be directly below the Black Lake. A corridor extended into the distance. At the corridor's end was a large door with two lifelike snakes painted on it.
Clutching Alice**, Harry sprinted through** the corridor**, then opened** his mouth again, hissing in Parseltongue.
The two snake-like sculptures separated to both sides. A huge room with some illumination appeared before him.
"Looks like—this is it."
Looking at that huge snakeskin beside him, then at the wide room, Harry listened to sounds coming from overhead, confirming the giant snake hadn't caught up yet. He found a corner, placed Alice on the ground, pulled out the invisibility cloak from his pocket, and covered her.
"You—" Alice looked like she wanted to resist but Harry covered her mouth with his hand, gently pushed her down, and steadied her.
"Shh—I know you can't fight anymore. Just stay here, okay?"
After speaking, Harry completely covered Alice with the invisibility cloak, then turned around, looking at the pipe he'd fallen from, slowly closing his eyes.
Next, he would do his best to delay until the professors found this room.
At the very least, with Professor Kahn's artifact, if things got desperate, he'd open his eyes and be petrified by the basilisk's gaze.
The basilisk... shouldn't eat petrified targets, right?
But just as Harry was steeling himself, he suddenly felt his chest warm. Looking down and opening his eyes, he saw his Magical Creatures Club badge had somehow lit up, with a bright red triangle exclamation mark displayed on it. At the same time, a line of text was slowly forming.