The slacker professor at Hogwarts

Actually, there is a big difference between Snake talker and Snake voice.

Parseltongues understand the language of snakes, much like they understand a foreign language.

Parsleyan is someone who has a natural talent for giving commands to snakes.

You can't say that just because you know a foreign language, you can get foreigners to do anything for you—but Parsleyan can do that.

In terms of wizarding applications, this ability to "control snakes" is even more powerful than the "phoenix companionship" of the Dumbledore family bloodline.

Because phoenixes are rare, Dumbledore's nephew, Crescent Dumbledore, didn't get one until he was an adult, when Gellert Grindelwald finally found one for him.

Snakes are far too common, whether in the Muggle world or the Wizarding World.

The scope of these snakes is quite broad, ranging from magical creatures like the Basilisk, also known as the Snake King, to wizards like the Nagini, a blood-cursed orc, all of whom must obey their commands.

In fact, the difficulty of raising a basilisk is not particularly high. It is about the same as the difficulty of learning advanced shapeshifting techniques like Animagus. Many wizards who yearn to control powerful forces are willing to make such a dangerous attempt, but without exception, they all fail.

Because the basilisk only obeys the commands of the "Sabah" (a type of basilisk).

In Newt Scamander's book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," it is mentioned that there had been no record of witnessing the Basilisk in the wizarding world for over four hundred years.

In the original book, Harry Potter wrote next to this sentence in his textbook, "That's just your opinion!"

Yes, Harry has seen the Basilisk.

Lockhart has now met him as well.

Newt was right. No matter how experienced those dozen or so powerful wizards in his memory were, they couldn't possibly have seen a basilisk.

Lockhart had to do some research in order to write the book "Where Are the Dark Creatures?" and to show the young wizards about the basilisk and inspire them to find a way to deal with it.

—Following Ginny Weasley.

In the middle of the night, they followed him all the way to the women's restroom.

To be honest, Lockhart didn't quite understand why Mr. Slytherin would set the entrance to his Chamber of Secrets in the girls' restroom; it was just too lewd.

Even if some might argue that this could be a problem with the school's later renovations, the pool and faucet at the entrance to the secret room are standard toilet components.

Unless this was originally his private bathroom.

This leads to another explanation—after Mr. Slytherin left Hogwarts, who dared to convert the private bathroom of a school founder, or even a bathroom attached to an office judging by its size, into a public women's restroom?

Is it you, Mr. Gryffindor?

Hehe ~

When Lockhart found himself in a "ghost state," his thoughts seemed to have lost their restraint, and all sorts of random ideas would float around like bubbles in a kettle.

He slipped inside the walls of the school castle, only occasionally peeking out half his face to observe Ginny's condition.

Hogwarts, which was just a few days away from Halloween, one of the most important wizarding holidays, was once again plunged into a long rainy season. At night, the sky was as black as ink, and the heavy rain kept washing over the ancient castle complex.

The chill permeated every corner of the castle, dewdrops clung to the walls, and everything felt damp.

At night, the professors and teachers on duty patrolling the castle would cast spells to dry the corridors, but this had little effect, and they would return to normal after a while.

Ginny walked slowly down the corridor with one foot light and the other heavy, in a strange, wandering spirit-like state.

If someone unaware of the situation encountered her, they might think she was sleepwalking.

She quickly arrived at the abandoned women's restroom, which had been taken over by the ghost "The Weeping Myrtle." She stepped through the puddles to a large, cracked mirror and stared blankly at her blurry, distorted reflection.

After a long pause, he placed his hands on the edge of a row of stone pools below the mirror and made a strange hissing sound at one of the brass faucets.

Suddenly, the faucet emitted a dazzling white light and began to spin rapidly. The stone pool began to move slowly, revealing a large water pipe opening below.

Without hesitation, Ginny stiffly stepped forward and jumped in.

The pipes were a dark, sticky mess, and although they were full of filth, this also prevented the little witch from getting hurt.

She plummeted rapidly through the pipe, winding and twisting, before finally falling out of another opening and landing on a damp patch of ground.

It looks spacious enough for an adult to stand up easily.

She continued walking forward, and after a series of twists and turns, she saw a large number of small animal carcasses and bones on the road, emitting a terrible stench. After walking for a while, she saw a pile of green snake skins that looked like a small mountain.

Finally, she reached the end of the sewer, where a stone wall blocked her way, carved with two intertwined snakes, their eyes inlaid with large, sparkling emeralds.

sizzle~

Ginny spoke Parseltongue again, the door to the secret chamber opened, and she staggered in step by step.

The interior of the secret chamber is extremely large, with many stone pillars carved with coiled and intertwined snakes supporting the ceiling. Continuing forward from under the stone pillars, you can eventually see a stone statue carved on the wall at the end, which is as tall as the secret chamber itself.

That was the image of a barefoot, bald, long-bearded old wizard—Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts.

With a series of Parseltongue words, the Slytherin statue opened its mouth, revealing a huge, coiled monster stretching its body inside.

Basilisk!

It quickly snaked down the stone statue's body and climbed up to Ginny.

I don't know what it was hissing about, but it seemed a bit irritable.

Ginny tilted her head back, reached out her hand, and gently touched its cheek to soothe it, then leaned her little head in and murmured softly.

Neither she nor the basilisk noticed that a pale, translucent eyeball suddenly blinked in the eye socket of a serpentine relief on a stone pillar not far away.

It was Lockhart.

He was observing everything around him with great interest.

The basilisk in front of them was clearly a female snake, because male snakes have a very distinctive feature—a tuft of scarlet crest hair on their heads, which it did not have.

Its crest of feathers is what makes it known as the King of Snakes, as if it were wearing a crown.

In addition, its skin looks very good, as if it has just shed its skin. Hmm, we've already encountered it on the road.

To be honest, the basilisk is not that powerful.

Its attack capabilities are limited to three things: its massive size. However, even the largest body is not as threatening as a troll or giant, something that the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Quirrell, could easily handle.

Another ability is the deadly gaze. In the original story, when Harry Potter arrived at the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore's phoenix easily pecked the basilisk blind.

Another ability is venomous fangs; the highly toxic venom can kill a person quickly, but it was healed by the tears of the phoenix.

In fact, in the original story, the basilisk's clumsy body was unable to harm the phoenix at all, but it was pecked by the phoenix's golden beak and suffered wound after wound.

If Harry Potter hadn't been there, the Phoenix would have dealt with this guy much faster.

Tsk, Gryffindor always seems to have some treasures that can counter Slytherin's Basilisk.

For example, the wand that Harry Potter used to pair with Voldemort.

I don't know if this can be considered a curse.

Ginny released the basilisk to move around in the sewers of Hogwarts Castle, seemingly to revitalize it. After about an hour, she put it back into the mouth of the Slytherin statue and left the Chamber of Secrets.

This time she didn't go too far. Using a flight spell, she left the pipe and staggered to an abandoned classroom near the washroom, where she fell asleep.

Young Tom wasn't worried about Ginny's situation at all; he used her and then discarded her.

They are incredibly cold-blooded and callous.

Lockhart muttered to himself, but did not wake Ginny. He quietly floated out from the wall behind her, landed on top of the messy desks and chairs behind him, and gently waved his wand at her.

Streaks of silver threads floated out and drifted rapidly toward him.

Lockhart had been observing Ginny's condition recently, and after teaching her a great deal about how to resist dark magic, Tom Riddle indeed began to feel unwell.

Tom's plan went very wrong.

He had to spend a lot of energy and take advantage of the rare opportunity for Ginny to open up to consolidate the previous influence and adjust the confusion in Ginny's behavior and thinking caused by the instinctive imprint.

Oh no, Ginny has met a professor who's really good at everything!

Tom realized this, but he couldn't persuade Ginny to leave the dueling club where she could be with Harry Potter.

He had to use more sophisticated methods to influence Ginny, and to deal with the fact that Ginny was increasingly able to resist his influence and maintain her already precarious state.

very good!

very good!

Lockhart smiled broadly as he looked at these memories. This time, he learned many interesting techniques for manipulating memories and souls, some of which even began to involve bloodlines.

So, why is Tom researching magic in this field?

Is he planning to shed his Muggle heritage?

Lockhart laughed maliciously and waved his magic at Ginny again.

It's time. This situation is just right. Tom will definitely be able to accept that Ginny has changed a bit and will never suspect that someone is tampering with her.

after all……

He used Tom's method.

Even more Tom-like than Tom himself, the authentic version.

Little Tom, get ready for this unexpected surprise!

I'm really looking forward to your reaction.

Do not!

Lockhart was even more looking forward to Voldemort's reaction, who was watching coldly from outside the school; that would be incredibly interesting.

Then he took a deep look at Ginny, transformed back into a ghost, and disappeared into the wall, vanishing completely.