Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 407 Trap
Tierra took the lead and stepped into the Gaunt mansion, leisurely looking around—

"Tsk tsk tsk," Tiera chuckled, "This Tom Riddle is really rich. Just to conceal the exact location of his Horcruxes, he deliberately added so many powerful dark magic items here, like this—"

As Tierra spoke, she stomped her foot hard on a decaying floorboard in the main hall of the Gaunt mansion.

"Whoosh-"

Before Tierra could even step onto the floor, a grotesque chandelier directly above his head shot towards him with the speed of an arrow. At the same time, a chain suddenly emerged from beneath the decaying floor and wrapped itself around Tierra's legs.

"puff--"

Below the chandelier that had fallen from the ceiling were rows and rows of protruding, bony spikes that pierced right through Tiera, turning him into a sieve.

“This should be the simplest and cheapest black magic item here,” Tiera said with a smile. As she laughed, Tiera’s body seemed to melt and writhe like liquid, while the chandelier embedded in her body seemed to sink and compress into Tiera’s body like a ship sinking, making a teeth-grinding “creaking” sound.

“This is a chandelier made from the fangs of a basilisk,” Tiera glanced at Slytherin. “It’s a magical chandelier crafted from your fangs. Aside from its pitifully weak lighting function, it’s only imbued with the dark magic of ‘hunting.’ Once someone enters the chandelier’s range, it will pounce and tear its prey apart with the basilisk’s fangs at the bottom. Also, hidden beneath this floor is a chain imbued with the same dark magic, likely filled with the souls of serpents. Look—”

As she spoke, Tyra lifted her leg, and only then did Dumbledore and Slytherin notice the barbs on the chains. The barbs had already torn Tyra's skin, and the serpentine chains were still writhing, tightening their grip on Tyra.

“This serpentine chain is clearly more intricately made than the chandelier we just saw. Look, it’s still wriggling as if it were a real snake, while the chandelier only bit a few times before stopping,” Tiera said with a smile. “This serpentine chain should contain the spiritual dimension of a real snake. I suspect it was something Voldemort did while experimenting with Horcruxes, while the chandelier clearly only contained a virtual spiritual dimension.”

After Tiera finished speaking, his body turned into liquid again, instantly sucking the serpentine chains into it.

After doing all this, Tiera looked up and then glanced around—

“This is the only way to go up the stairs,” Tiera said with a smile. “According to normal human thinking, setting up such a trap at the top of the stairs means that something very important is hidden upstairs. So whether it is an enemy who is looking for Horcruxes or other wizards who are exploring and searching for treasure, even if they have avoided the trap just now, they will definitely go up the stairs first.”

“But according to Tom’s line of thinking,” Dumbledore also glanced around, “the Horcrux is very likely hidden in some corner on the first floor.”

The hall on the first floor was in complete disarray. Because it never saw sunlight, the hall was dark and damp. The plaster on the walls had long since peeled off, and the walls were uneven. All the furniture and decorations were in pieces, covered with black mold. The surroundings were so messy that Dumbledore had no idea where to start looking.

"Restored to its original state!" Dumbledore uttered, waving his wand.

But it was no use; the surroundings remained in their original chaotic state, unchanged by Dumbledore's spell.

However, Dumbledore was not discouraged. Instead, he waved his wand again and chanted, "Return to your place immediately!"

However, the entire hall remained unchanged.

“It seems there’s some kind of magic here that prevents tidying spells like ‘Restore to Newness’ and ‘Quick Return to Place’,” Slytherin said hoarsely.

Dumbledore nodded, but then raised his wand again—

"Burning fire!"

"Dumbledore read aloud."

A fierce flame erupted from the tip of Dumbledore's staff, landing on the ground, but—

The flames quickly went out upon contact with the ground.

“Even fire magic is forbidden,” Slytherin nodded and said. “I’ve thought things through quite thoroughly.”

“There’s only been one successor in over a thousand years,” Tiera said with a smile.

Slytherin's eyelids twitched, and he curled his lip in displeasure. "Tom certainly likes to play these little tricks." Dumbledore sighed, reluctantly putting away his wand, and then said, "This place is a mess, with debris and broken wood piled up on almost every inch of the ground. It's like hiding a tree in an entire forest."

“And I’m pretty sure there are plenty of extremely dangerous dark magic items and evil traps hidden in these piles of junk,” Tierra added. “So what do you mean? Should we split up? I’ll go upstairs first and see what Tom has hidden. Maybe this time Tom’s done the opposite and hid the Horcruxes upstairs. Or you two can search here first. I think with your magical skills, you shouldn’t run into trouble in a place like this, right?”

Dumbledore and Slytherin exchanged a glance, then nodded, acknowledging Tyella's suggestion.

“Then I’ll go up first.” Tiera smiled and turned around, stepping onto the old and rotten stairs.

This Voldemort was quite considerate; he didn't tamper with the stairs, allowing Tierra to get a little bored and eventually go up to the second floor.

The second floor of the Gunter House was more dilapidated than the first floor, but much cleaner. Apart from the peeling paint, broken wood, and shards of glass that had fallen off due to years of neglect, there was not much clutter on the floor.

Tierra didn't linger after going upstairs; instead, she reached out and grasped the doorknob of the first room on the left.

"puff--"

A cloud of green smoke billowed out instantly, but Tiera neither dodged nor flinched; instead, she took a deep breath—

I inhaled all the green smoke into my lungs.

“An aging poison.” Tierra smiled. “It tastes good.”

After inhaling the green smoke, Tierra pushed open the door and went straight to the drawer in the center of the room, pulling it open directly—

"Pfft-"

A glob of thick, dark brown liquid spurted out and shot towards Tiera's face.

Tierra transformed her entire face into a giant mouth, perfectly catching the dark brown liquid, and then swallowed it with a "gulp".

“Acidic Hell Potion,” Tierra said. “Delicious.”

Tierra looked around again, and seeing that there were no other traps in the room, she left to look for the next one.

After that, Tiera went to two more rooms and ate a black magic arrow, a magic mirror that could suck people in, a swarm of Hoover bees whose venom could kill, a Como desert scorpion, and several other strange curses.

Just as Tierra was about to push open the door to the fourth room—

“Ariana…”

Tyella, with her keen hearing, heard Dumbledore's soft murmurs downstairs.

What is supposed to come will come.

Tierra smiled, then composed herself, adopting a panicked expression, and rushed downstairs—

"Oh! Professor Dumbledore! What's wrong? Professor Dumbledore, oh my God, oh my poor Professor Dumbledore! What's wrong?"

Note: Because Voldemort cursed the name "Voldemort," in this chapter, Tyrell and her companions refer to Voldemort as "Tom Riddle" to avoid alerting him.

Thank you, Yawei Cat, for casting your January vote!
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(End of this chapter)