From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 591 Ominis
Despite being classified as a dangerous magical creature of the XXXXX level by the Department of Magical Creature Management and Control, the basilisk's breeding method is shockingly simple.

Simply place a male egg under a toad's belly to hatch it, and you will obtain a long-lived monster with tough scales, terrifying venom, and a murderous gaze.

The molted skin and venom of the basilisk are excellent materials, used as ingredients for potions and as casting materials for dark magic. Furthermore, they are easy to cultivate, which is why a large number of dark wizards flock to cultivate them.

However, the basilisk's murderous gaze is so ruthless that if you look directly into it without any cover, you will be killed instantly. Even seeing its eyes reflected in your own eyes will petrify you, and even ghosts will experience the same effect. If the dark wizard who raises the basilisk is not proficient in Parseltongue, then the newly born basilisk will have a high probability of killing its breeder.

Even dark wizards who understand parsnip have to be extremely vigilant when dealing with basilisks.

After raising this young basilisk, Harry Voldemort would ask it to close its eyes in Parseltongue every time they met. Apart from occasionally bringing some food, the young basilisk never even looked at its breeder.

The spacious map chamber was only illuminated by a faint candlelight, and the huge circular space was dark and difficult to discern, but this was no problem for Ivy, who possessed dark vision.

Besides being able to see the emaciated old man chained to the ground, he could even clearly see the bright red feather on the young basilisk's head.

This is a male basilisk, quite different from the female basilisk that Salazar Slytherin hid in the Chamber of Secrets and was later moved to Ivy's demiplane.

hiss--

The basilisk coiled atop the stone pillar flicked its tongue. As a serpentine creature, its sense of smell was the same as that of ordinary snakes, relying on its tongue to capture odor molecules in the air. However, the basilisk's eyes were exceptionally bright, and its vision was superb; its sense of smell was merely an auxiliary sensory aid for identification.

“I don’t smell my master’s scent on you…” The young basilisk did not attack rashly. Since its birth, it had only seen a few people, and even fewer who could speak snake language. “Are you really sent by my master?”

“I never said I was sent by Voldemort.” Ivy leaned closer, carefully examining the basilisk’s emerald green scales. The basilisk he kept in the demiplane was a lazybones. According to its keeper, Bobby, it only ate once every two weeks and spent the rest of its time sleeping in various places, mostly in caves and under the sun. It showed almost no desire to move around on its own.

Moreover, due to its excessively long lifespan, its scales had long since turned into a dark green that was almost black, making it less appealing than the snake monster before them.

"I'm just here to investigate the secrets he's hiding underground..." The basilisk's eyes were orange, reflecting a bright fluorescence in the dim environment, its vertical pupils almost slits as it stared unblinkingly at Ivy.

The young male basilisk with a single feather on its head suddenly raised its head, then quickly retreated behind the stone pillar, its hissing filled with terror: "Master didn't give the order! I can't make eye contact with anyone else... You'll die!"

“Of course not.” Ivy snapped her fingers, lighting up the long-dormant chandeliers and braziers in the map chamber. The bright, warm light made the young basilisk even more terrified.

"No! Impossible!" The basilisk's head was hidden behind a stone pillar, with only its scarlet tongue occasionally peeking out as it spoke. "Every creature that met my gaze is dead... from the rats in the sewers to the fish at the bottom of the lake... even humans..."

To immunize himself against the basilisk's murderous gaze, Ivy underwent special surgery to modify the basilisk he kept in the demiplane, enabling him to meet its gaze. However, after gaining solar divinity and becoming a divine being with godlike status, he became immune to ordinary instant-death effects.

Of course, a young basilisk that had only recently been born could not be allowed to kill him.

"You've already seen my eyes, haven't you?" Ivy shrugged and spun around in place to show that she was still alive and well.

The facts were undeniable, leaving the snake-like monster no choice but to believe them. It peeked out from behind the stone pillar once more, curiously scrutinizing the man before it: "I understand… you're blind, just like the old man. That's why you weren't killed by my gaze!"

Upon hearing the basilisk's words, Ivy noticed that the prisoner on the ground had grayish-white, unfocused eyes. Although his eyes were open, he did not move at all, and even when he avoided the surrounding light, he simply tilted his head instead of squinting.

“Tom locked you here on purpose… He never hesitates to kill useless guys…” Ivy stepped forward and looked the old man over. It had been a long time since the old man had taken care of his personal hygiene. His beard and hair were as messy as a clump of withered weeds, and his filthy robes could only be vaguely seen to retain their original color. Moreover, he exuded an unpleasant odor all over his body.

"So there must be something he wants to know. What is it?" Ivy cast a cleansing spell on the blind old man, cleaning his robes and turning his foul odor into a fresh lemon scent. "What questions did he ask?"

"Hmph... Ambitious people always come and go, but they leave very little for the world..." The blind old man had no intention of answering. He pulled his noble green robe tighter around himself and curled up on the floor. "Even if you kill me, I won't say a word."

“There’s no need to be so stubborn. I’m Tom Riddle’s enemy, just a little curious.” Ivy waved her hand again, and the chains binding the blind old man snapped. “You’ve been locked up for so long, don’t you want revenge?”

"You can't release him!" The basilisk coiled on the stone pillar suddenly bared its fangs at Ivy. "My master told me to keep an eye on the old man... I can't disobey his orders."

Ivy turned his head, a strange light flashing in his eyes, and hissed, "Go to sleep."

Upon hearing the command from the snake-like voice, the serpent monster, which had been threateningly raising its head, slumped to the ground, then dazedly coiled up into a heap, and soon fell silent.

Parseltongue has almost absolute control over all snakes, but this control also depends on the wizard's own strength.

When two snake spirits give commands to the same snake monster, the stronger one can easily override the weaker one's commands.

Putting the basilisk into a state of suspended animation is one of the methods the Parseltongue uses to control this dangerous magical creature. However, when a basilisk is in a state of suspended animation, even its development stops. While this is safe for its breeders, it offers little benefit. After all, if the basilisk doesn't grow, it won't molt, so where does the dark wizard profit?

“Tom Riddle…” The blind old man turned his head toward Ivy, but because he was blind, he didn’t face Ivy directly, but kept his face turned to the side. “You know the truth about him?”

“Perhaps not all, but enough to depict his ugly desires.” Ivy wandered around the map chamber, where the circular hall once housed four enormous portraits, each depicting the face of an ancient magic guardian. They had offered Ivy, then a fifth-year student, various suggestions, guiding him to master the power of ancient magic. But just like the map chamber on another timeline, the people in the portraits had long since vanished, and even the stone slabs themselves were covered with spiderweb-like cracks.

"He was a pathetic wretch born from a love potion, trapped in the ridiculous barriers between purebloods and half-bloods his whole life, trembling in the shadow of death." Ivy commented briefly, then turned to look at the blind old man on the ground. "And you? Who are you? Apart from the Gaunt family, all the Parseltongues I know have their own peculiar reasons."

“Heh…” The blind old man chuckled hoarsely, whether because of Ivy’s comments about Tom or because of the Gaunt family destroyed by his nephew, “I am the Gaunt you’re talking about… Ominus Gaunt.”

“Ominis?” Ivy’s expression changed drastically.

This name belongs to Ivy's classmate. When Ivy was a fifth-year student at Hogwarts a hundred years ago, Ormenes Gaunt was his friend from Slytherin.

Ivy stopped and leaned closer to examine the blind old man's features hidden between his beard and hair. The more he looked, the more certain he became that the blind old man before him was indeed the clever yet pessimistic, witty yet sharp-tongued blind boy from over a hundred years ago.

Ominnis, born into the Gaunt family, was highly regarded by his family, as evidenced by his name, a variant of "omen" in Latin, perhaps because the Gaunt family considered him a sign of the family's revival.

As the family that once oversaw the construction of Hogwarts' drainage system, the Gaunt family built the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in the girls' lavatory on the second floor, and even added a mechanism that only Parsley speakers could open.

The family had always known what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was, but as a basilisk that had lived for nearly a thousand years, even the rightful heir of Slytherin was not confident in completely controlling the basilisk that Slytherin himself had raised.

The basilisk's gaze is its most lethal weapon, and the wizards of the Gaunt family could not possibly command it to kill those who defiled Hogwarts with its gaze while protecting themselves. The castle is filled with all sorts of reflective objects, gleaming armor, and water stains spilled by Peeves on the ground, all of which could potentially petrify the wizard controlling the basilisk.

For the Gaunt family, Orminus, born blind, was a child born as if by divine intervention. He didn't have to worry about dying from making eye contact with the Basilisk; he could simply be Slytherin's heir, purging the Muggles from the castle and thus proclaiming the status of pure-blood families in the wizarding world.

However, while the Gaunt family had grand plans (their intellectually impaired minds, due to inbreeding, never considered whether the Gaunt family could truly become the leading wizarding family by purging Muggles), they never took Orminus's wishes into account.

As a born blind man, Orminus received his wand at a young age, and the wand provided him with a way to experience the world.

Ivy remembered the first time she saw him in the Slytherin common room. The boy displayed a noble demeanor that everyone recognized, and he would use his wand to emit a red detection wave, using the feedback of magical fluctuations to bypass obstacles.

At that time, Orminus was in the Slytherin common room, a place separated from the bottom of the Black Lake by only a window, talking about mermaids. He seemed enthusiastic, confident, and charming, and without much hesitation, he mentioned his family background as a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin, as if he were quite proud of it.

However, Ivy soon discovered that Orminis's enthusiasm and cheerfulness were just a disguise, a protective layer he wore for himself.

Although he received a wand to experience the world at a young age, the Gaunt family's demands on him were not ordinary, childish magic, but rather an Unforgivable Curse.

Can you imagine a group of adults forcing a child who hasn't even officially started school to perform the Cruciatus Curse on a Muggle?
Can you imagine that after the child refused, the Gaunt family, including Ominnis’s biological parents and siblings, took turns using the Crucible to force him to submit?
After being forced to torture Muggles with the Cruciatus Curse under extreme pain, Orminis completely changed. He would use every means at his disposal to achieve his goal and break free from the control of the Gaunt family.

Fortunately, Hogwarts was a warm place for all the young wizards. After Ivy enrolled and befriended Orminus, he never returned to the place he once called home.

While not all students sorted into Slytherin are bad, it's also difficult to find a truly good one.

Ominnis Gunter was no exception.

Out of his aversion to the Gaunt bloodline, Orminus possessed a strong sense of morality, refusing to use or learn any dark magic. Whenever Ivy and their mutual friends discussed the topic, Orminus would either sternly stop them or stand aside with his wand, pretending to be deaf and blind.

The clever and perceptive boy had long seen through Ivy's use of dark magic to seduce him, but he couldn't extricate himself from the situation. His lofty moral principles, which stemmed from his resistance to his family's bloodline, were completely forgotten in less than a year.

But this doesn't mean he's going to "go along with" Ivy; he's just turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the scene of Ivy using the Unforgivable Curse.

Back to the present, Ivy never imagined she would see her best friend from another timeline. That awkward Slytherin boy was now Voldemort's prisoner.

“So…” Ivy’s voice was soft, but it contained a burning rage, “Voldemort kept you alive to spy on the ancient magic of a ‘fifth-year student’?”

"It's a pity I'm blind..." the thin, blind old man laughed. "He can't see anything in my memory."

(End of this chapter)