Hogwarts Study Panel

Chapter 310: Standoff

Harry felt as if something had ripped his soul away, leaving him momentarily disoriented.

Everything here felt unreal. The walls were blurry, and the pool seemed to be gurgling with water. In any case, he couldn't hear anything clearly.

"Will not……"

He placed the alchemical frog in his hand, then put the venomous fang on the diary:
"Tell me, how do I get in!"

The diary remained motionless.

"let me try."

Ron picked up the diary and started tearing at it, but there seemed to be some inexplicable force that prevented him from tearing the diary no matter how hard he tried.

Now they were even more certain that there was something wrong with the diary.

Ron, panting, placed the diary on the edge of the pool, where a tattered pen was still inside.

When the pen touched the diary, something magical happened: the ink was absorbed, and a line of text appeared:

[Use Snake language to say "open"]

……

Harry and his two friends couldn't care less about anything else anymore.

Hermione ran towards the headmaster's office, while Harry and Ron rushed into the Chamber of Secrets.

The tunnel in the secret chamber was as silent as a tomb. They heard an unexpected sound, a snap, and discovered that Ron had stepped on a rat's skull.

Harry lowered his wand and looked at the ground, finding small animal bones scattered everywhere.

Harry tried desperately to control himself and not imagine what was happening here.

The basilisk has appeared, and all of Sheen's alchemical creations have been petrified... What about him...?

Harry ran ahead with his head down, turning a dark bend in the tunnel.

“Harry, there’s something over there…”

Ron said in a hoarse voice.

The two of them froze, staring at each other.

Harry saw the outline of a huge, coiled creature lying motionless on the other side of the tunnel.

The light from their wands shone on a huge snakeskin, a vibrant green that clearly belonged to a venomous snake, coiled on the tunnel floor, hollow inside.

It was evident that the animal which had just shed its skin was at least twenty feet long.

This discovery weighed even heavier on their hearts.

After running for a while in the dim light, they finally stood on one side of a long, dimly lit room.

Before them were many stone pillars carved with coiled and intertwined snakes, but they looked around and saw nothing.

Harry dripped ink into the diary and then threatened it with his fangs:

Tell me, where is Sheen?

The diary shook for a moment:

I finally fell for it. It took me a lot of effort to influence... That guy you guys were talking about is really troublesome. Even I can't do anything about him for the time being.

But my target isn't him, it's you, Harry Potter.

"What do you mean? No—tell me, where is Sheen?!"

Harry brought the snake fangs even closer.

Snake Fang...where did you come from...but it doesn't matter, you've already arrived here, you found yourselves;

As for that guy, if he came here... well, he's probably dead by now.

But before you die, I have many questions for you, Harry Potter.

Ron was struck dumb; he collapsed to the ground, dazed.

He even forgot that he was in the basilisk's lair.

Harry couldn't see clearly, and he roared as he stabbed the snake's fang straight into the diary.

With a terrible, prolonged, ear-piercing scream, streams of ink gushed from the diary, flowing down Harry's hands and onto the floor.

Then, a dark shadow stood in front of him.

"You asked for this! You damned thing!"
"Speak to me, Slytherin—the greatest of the four great masters of Hogwarts!"

The shadow was that of a tall, dark-haired boy, summoning something. In the distance, the enormous stone face of Slytherin began to move. Harry and Ron watched in utter horror as its mouth opened, widening until it formed a massive black hole.

Harry and Ron both knew what he was doing, so Harry raised his snake fangs again:
"I'm waiting for you—Harry Potter!"

The shadow twisted and struggled, its arms flailing wildly, emitting screams of agony...

Harry and Ron both closed their eyes.

"run!"

Harry said.

Then it seemed like he bumped into something.

"Harry?"

He heard a voice that was all too familiar.

Sheen looked at him with a puzzled expression as he was about to crash into the stone pillar.

"Xi...Xien...I really did die...I'm sorry, I'm too late..."

Harry turned his head and saw Ron; he was speechless.

Ron... is dead too...

Ron's reaction was even more violent; his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

"You're not dead, Harry."

Sheehan came looking at the map and happened to see Tom summoning the Basilisk, and then Harry stabbed him half to death.

He looked at the notebook; ink was still dripping from the diary.

The basilisk's venom burned a hole through the diary, which was still hissing and emitting black smoke.

Inside that cave, it was pitch black, and the shadows were as thin as a wisp of smoke.

"Impossible, how could you possibly defeat the basilisk..."

Tom stared at Sheehan, somewhat dazed.

Sheen could sense that he could do nothing more. Two seconds later, he let out a low growl of resentment and anger, and disappeared.

After being freed from Tom's influence, the diary seemed to return to normal, and there were even some writings inside:
Sheen keenly noticed Hagrid's words, and with a wave of his wand, the diary opened:
Hagrid, a big, clumsy, and troublesome man, gets into trouble every week. He keeps werewolf cubs under his bed and sneaks into the Forbidden Forest to wrestle with trolls.

However, I must admit, even I didn't expect the plan to go so smoothly. I thought surely someone would realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be Slytherin's heir.

It looks like Hagrid's case might be overturned...

Sheen thought.

"Sheen?"

Harry seemed to realize it only then.
"You defeated the basilisk?"

He asked incredulously.

Sheen nodded.

Harry finally relaxed completely. His eyes reddened again, the joy of getting it back made his head spin.

"It seems you yourselves are doing very well?"

A kind and wise voice rang out at just the right time.

Ron also stirred; he got up from the ground and saw Hermione and Dumbledore.

In an instant, he felt that the entire magical world was doomed.

"Hermione, how come you're dead too?"