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Anthony opened the door. This time there wasn't even a buffer platform—behind the door was a pitch-black passage twisted downward toward beneath the castle. He held the door and peeked in, then gripped the rat's tail and swung it several times and tossed it into this passage. Sincerely wished it would rest in peace in the unknown large rat cemetery and reunite with other dead rats in rat heaven.
But the passage the Room of Requirement prepared for him wasn't a straight-down garbage chute.
He could feel that small corpse stuck at some turn, lying motionless halfway. He tried controlling the dead rat to walk down itself, however the passage was much longer than he thought and the rat quickly left his control range.
Anthony, who never littered, resignedly looked at the opening in the floor, sat at the edge and felt it out. His cat cautiously walked over and also looked down.
"You go back first," Anthony stroked it.
The cat raised its head and looked at him pitifully.
Anthony said, "Think it through, cat. I guess down there probably won't smell too good. At least three thousand rats are buried here and nine out of ten probably include this one's grandfather and great-grandfather. If lucky, maybe even its wife and children."
The cat looked at him with amber eyes, tail swayed gently, then brushed past his arm and back and left.
Anthony watched it walk out of the Room of Requirement and waved his wand to close the door. Then he held his breath, sat forward a bit, and slid down the passage.
He hadn't played on slides in many years and somewhat forgot how to control speed. After grabbing twice at the slippery walls, he gave up and let himself slide rapidly. The Room of Requirement's light couldn't shine in at all anymore. He couldn't see anything, just felt in the darkness he was getting closer and closer to the rat's corpse—
He crashed hard into the wall at a relatively flat turn, scooped up the dead rat lying aside, and casually pushed against the wall to borrow force and continue sliding down.
This was actually quite fun.
At first he'd still estimate in his mind roughly which floor he was at: Fifth floor... Fourth floor... Probably second floor, he sensed his cat... Then the passage made several large turns and he didn't know where he was anymore.
The further down, the damper the passage became and gradually became sticky too. Anthony still slid rapidly and started wondering in his mind which genius decided to throw those small animal remains so deep.
He could feel himself passing underground classrooms. Snape's potion ingredients in necromantic perception were like a bright star cluster rapidly distancing from him... And his destination, Hogwarts Small Vertebrate Cemetery, as he approached appeared increasingly massive. The most brilliant center like a river with unknown beginning or end, beside it some crisscrossing small paths... Like he was falling into the Milky Way...
SPLAT. Anthony crashed heavily onto the ground. The ground was full of mud, damp and sticky.
He left the rat corpse in his hand to its companions and stood up himself. This was quite a large dark stone tunnel built quite carefully. Anthony knocked on the walls—they were solid as if dwarves built this bomb shelter for themselves. Everywhere were various small animal remains—mainly rats and ferrets—extending beyond Anthony's necromantic perception.
Curiosity drove Anthony to continue forward and try finding this large burial site's end. His footsteps echoed in the damp tunnel.
Following the corpses' guidance, he started a late-night hiking trip beneath Hogwarts castle.
Then something huge blocked his path ahead.
Anthony felt it. This cold thing felt completely different from the walls, like some lifeless creature but not a corpse either... He couldn't sense any possibility of controlling it.
His hands were now full of slime and mud and he really didn't want to touch his wand. Anthony simply controlled the nearby small animal skeleton army, crossed his fingers, and made the Soul Fire beside him burn wildly. The entire tunnel immediately became bright... Abnormally bright and ghostly.
The dead small animals burned with Soul Fire and illuminated what was before them. A massive snakeskin.
"All right, I know," Anthony said to the small rodents before him. "Basilisk. Can it even get full eating you?"
Under Soul Fire's illumination he walked through the gap between snakeskin and wall and continued exploring this tunnel. Out of caution, he now completely closed his eyes and only relied on corpse distribution guidance to move forward. Since crawling from the grave, this was his first time actively using so much Necromancy while conscious.
Rats crowded around him and accompanied him swaying forward. Damaged skeletons that couldn't hold up constantly collapsed in the damp tunnel.
Until not a single controlled rat remained beside him, Anthony finally reached a wall. Because he'd kept eyes closed the whole way, he could only feel there was still a path behind it and thus crashed solidly into it.
Anthony opened his eyes, sighed, and again raised a group of Basilisk food remains. By their Soul Fire he observed the wall before him. Under ghostly firelight, he saw two intertwined snakes carved on the stone wall with emeralds embedded in the snake eyes reflecting a row of glowing burning dead rats staring at them.
He guessed he must find a way through this wall.
A team of Wraith ferrets charged over and competed to attack the stone wall—Anthony always preferred using non-wearing Wraiths for such civil engineering—then returned without success. The emeralds in the snake eyes flashed with eerie light, as if sharply mocking Anthony.
Anthony tried Wraith Mice. These fellows also couldn't leave any marks on the wall.
He knew he had one method that would very likely work unused... himself. He could feel if he gave himself to magic and let Necromancy's instinct completely occupy this body, the entire tunnel wouldn't matter. Even if this door was protected by some advanced magic, he could completely rely on violent magical power to dig another tunnel, bypass this door and directly break through behind.
But he didn't need to. Even if opposite was a Basilisk, above his head were hundreds of sleeping students—hopefully—and he didn't need to create an earthquake.
Humans were social animals. Anthony decided to seek help from someone who might have a solution—for example, Headmaster Dumbledore.
Then he stood in the tunnel and started thinking about another very important problem.
How should he return.
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