Everyday Players at Hogwarts.

Chapter 353: Average-looking Slytherin Descendant
One of the most fascinating things about Hogwarts Castle is the many secrets it holds.

Even Dumbledore himself could not know all these secrets.

However, there is only one secret that Dumbledore can guarantee, and among the living wizards, only he and Tom (Diary Tom) know it.

That is the vast underground world.

And now, here, in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, he saw the skeleton of a Scottish ox.

Scottish cattle, also known as Scottish Highland cattle, are a type of cattle known for having the longest hair in the animal kingdom. They live in the cold and bleak Scottish Highlands. They are an ancient breed with a strong body that can digest plants that many other cattle avoid, and their long hair helps them withstand the test of severe cold and heavy rain.

Scotland is home to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the magical village of Hogsmeade. The remote location and mountainous terrain make Scotland a great place to hide magical places that are not meant to be seen by Muggles. The exact location of Hogwarts is unknown to the rest of the wizarding world. But Dumbledore, as the headmaster, knew that it was located in the northwest Highlands of Scotland (Sutherland County) because it was sparsely populated.

Logically, Dumbledore should not have been surprised to see the skeleton of a local native cattle in the Chamber of Secrets.

However, Dumbledore knew one thing: the Basilisk had never left Hogwarts, let alone the Forbidden Forest.

Otherwise, it would have been discovered long ago, and the eight-eyed giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest would have been unable to resist and migrated long ago.

Therefore, even though Dumbledore was reluctant to admit it, the owner of this skeleton came from the underground world that only the headmaster knew.

And the basilisk is also among them. It probably lives in some place in the underground world that even the principal has no authority to know.

"What are you looking at, is that the guy?"

"So, the basilisk is also in that mysterious place." Riddle was confused at first, but when he saw the skeleton, he understood it instantly.

"What I am worried about now is whether the wizard came here for the basilisk or the underground world." Dumbledore raised his eyes.

"Don't think too much. Maybe that person just came to see the secret chamber. Maybe the basilisk is fine." Riddle rolled his eyes and began to walk deeper into the tunnel.

"Well, this is its skin. I think it's about twenty feet long." Dumbledore quickly adjusted his mood and looked at the huge snake skin.

It lay coiled on the floor of the tunnel, bright green and empty inside.

"Well, Christmas is coming soon." Riddle suddenly stopped.

"You want it?" Dumbledore looked at the snake skin again.

Riddle nodded, waved his wand, and with a blue beam of light, the snake skin began to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In less than a minute, a mere 3 inches of snake skin appeared in Riddle's hands.

"As a colleague and his former leader, I thought I should prepare a valuable Christmas gift for Severus - a thousand-year-old basilisk skin." Riddle stuffed the snakeskin into his pocket.

"I think it's better for you not to give him anything and just treat him as air - Severus will feel more comfortable then." Dumbledore followed Riddle who continued to move forward.

Da da da.

Clear and long footsteps sounded from the tunnel. After turning countless corners, it seemed like a hundred years had passed before the end of the tunnel was reached. It was a solid wall with two snakes entwined with each other carved on it. Their eyes were inlaid with large, sparkling emeralds.

Dumbledore said nothing. Riddle stepped forward and hissed, deep, hoarsely, "Open it."

The two snakes separated, and the stone wall cracked in the middle, slowly sliding to both sides and disappearing, and the two men walked in.

It was a long, dimly lit room with stone pillars carved with coiled snakes, supporting a ceiling that disappeared into the darkness above, casting long, eerie black shadows on the room, which was filled with a green, mysterious haze.

The setting is perfect for a haunted house - the kind used in the Muggle world to scare people.

Even though Dumbledore and the others took small steps and used very little strength, each step still produced a hollow, loud echo between the ghostly walls.

When they were parallel to the last pair of pillars, a statue as tall as the room itself suddenly appeared before them, clinging to the dark wall behind.

Riddle couldn't help but cover his forehead. He already knew what would appear in front of them.

Dumbledore looked up with curiosity. He understood that the only person who could have a statue left in this place was the mysterious great wizard who never left any portrait - Slytherin, one of the four giants of Hogwarts!
Dumbledore lost his temper!

His pupils couldn't help but shrink, all because of this statue.

It was an old, monkey-like face, with a long sparse beard that almost reached the hem of the wizard's robe carved out of stone, and two large gray feet standing on the smooth floor of the room.

"This is - Slytherin?" Dumbledore couldn't help rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, that's Slytherin."

"It's understandable, actually. In the history of magic, all the descendants of Slytherin who left portraits - Gormlaith Gaunt, Isolt Sayer, and even my mother as mentioned by the orphanage - were not famous for their looks. They all looked ordinary."

"So our Slytherin ancestors were naturally not handsome men. As for me, I am an exception. My handsomeness comes from my Muggle father."

"This is my mother's blessing. It makes me exactly like my Muggle father." Riddle couldn't help but laugh at himself.

It was at this time that Riddle began to doubt the origin of his Slytherin blood.

The summer after killing Myrtle, he found the Gaunt household and killed his father, Tom Riddle Sr., and his grandparents, Thomas and Mary Riddle, for abandoning his mother, Merope Gaunt.

His uncle, Morfin Gaunt, was framed by Riddle for murder and sent to Azkaban.

"Hmm, what about the basilisk? There are no signs of it sliding around here. I guess this room isn't where the basilisk usually stays."

"It's probably in the space behind this statue. That space may be connected to the underground world through some pipes." Dumbledore saw Riddle losing his composure and began to mention the real purpose of their coming here in order to divert Riddle's attention.

"You guessed right, but you can also summon the basilisk in this room. Maybe this is Slytherin's sense of ritual?" Riddle smiled strangely.

He is indeed not a pure Slytherin heir, at least not in terms of aesthetics.

(End of this chapter)