The Black Bloodline of Hogwarts

The corridor was quiet. The four of them walked through the dappled sunlight, their footsteps echoing haphazardly on the stone floor.

Lockhart walked in the middle, with Harry and Ron on either side, and Hermione in front, like he was escorting a flashy prisoner.

"Why are we here again?" Ron asked, puzzled, as he saw the women's restroom he had visited before.

"Why did you say 'again'? Do you come to the women's restroom all the time?" Lockhart asked.

"I see," Harry said, as if suddenly enlightened. "Myrtle was murdered here 50 years ago, so she's stayed here ever since. Penelope was also petrified here last time. The entrance should be nearby."

"But where exactly is it?" Hermione asked, looking around as she walked.

"Oh, three more annoying brats, oh no, and one big brat too." Mommy's voice suddenly came from one of the toilets, startling them.

"Do you think ghosts can be disturbed again and again without sleeping? Waaah..." Myrtle cried again.

"Why did you say 'again'? Did someone just come by?" Hermione caught on to the point.

"Just now, three little devils came by, and they're the ones who woke me up. Waaah..."

"Who are they?" Harry asked.

"I don't know them. There was one man and two women. That handsome guy is even more handsome than you, hehe." Harry thought that Moaning Myrtle probably wasn't mentally unstable when she was alive.

"It must be Julien and his group. Where did they come from?" Hermione asked.

"Julien?" Ron felt like he was falling behind.

"It's right there." Myrtle pointed casually to the second one in the circle of washbasins.

Harry leaned closer to examine it and saw a small snake carved on the faucet. He fiddled with it for a bit, but couldn't find any mechanism.

"Use Parseltongue! Julien said he wants to learn Parseltongue from you," Hermione suggested.

"But he hasn't even started learning yet!"

"Give it a try!"

"Hiss... Sigh... (Open it)" Harry's face contorted in Parseltongue.

"Hey, hey." Lockhart jumped in fright.

"Behave yourself and don't move!" Ron was now showing Lockhart no mercy.

Several pools of water slid outwards in a circle, revealing a dark hole in the center.

"So this is where the entrance to the secret room was."

"Come on, you go down first!" Ron used his wand to force Lockhart to the edge of the cave entrance.

"Oh, this is really high, my friend." Lockhart didn't dare to jump down.

"Hurry up, time is money, my friend." Harry stepped forward and kicked Lockhart to the ground.

Then the three young wizards exchanged a glance and jumped down as well.

-----------------

The air in the underground pipes was as thick as solidified magic potion, carrying the dampness accumulated over thousands of years and some indescribable stench.

Julien's wand tip glowed faintly, illuminating the winding stone path ahead. The walls were covered with a slippery layer of moss, and occasionally, huge, translucent snake skins could be seen hanging from protruding stones, reflecting an eerie mother-of-pearl-like luster under the wand's light.

"Turn left," Liria's voice came from ahead, her long silver hair seemingly glowing in this underground world. "The resonance of the Tears of Eternal Night is growing stronger... It's just ahead, very close."

Julien nodded. The eagle-headed dog totem on the inside of his right wrist was throbbing violently under his skin, and the burning sensation spread along his blood vessels to his heart.

He could feel once again that some ancient power was calling to him.

"Put on your glasses," Rozier suddenly stopped, took out a pair of protective glasses made from Hungarian bee-dragon lenses from the inner pocket of his robe, and said:

"I can smell that... The basilisk just passed by here, no more than ten minutes ago."

Her icy gray eyes appeared even colder behind her glasses. The three of them silently put on their glasses, and the world was instantly veiled in a pale yellow filter.

Rozier then pulled out three hair-thin black threads and quickly tied a knot around the wrists of the three people: "Using my hair to cast the Rozier family bloodline protection, if we are separated..."

"Then we can find each other by following the darkness." Liria continued, her fingers lightly touching the cool silk thread, feeling its great elasticity, which could be stretched very long.

Julien noticed that Rosier's fingertips were trembling slightly—not from fear, but from some kind of suppressed excitement.

"As expected of a thousand-year-old family, they have a rich heritage," Julien praised.

"If your grandfather hadn't been kicked out, your Black family would probably have had quite a few good things," Rozier said with a smile.

"Sigh, let's see next semester, see if there's a chance..." Julien sighed.

Rozier and Liria exchanged a glance, both feeling that this guy was hiding something.

The pipes were like a maze, but fortunately, the silk threads on their wrists guided them and prevented them from getting separated.

"We're going deeper and deeper here, we should be almost there." The road suddenly sloped down steeply, and Julien's boots slipped on the stone steps, forcing him to hold onto the wet wall for support.

Just then, a loud "boom" came from above, which sounded like rocks falling.

"Could it be Harry and the others coming down?"

Indeed, the sound coming from the pipe above could be faintly discerned:

Harry called out, "Ron, are you alright?"

"I'm fine! Lockhart's spell rebounded, and he's now an idiot," Ron's voice was faint. "But the passage is blocked, and I can't get through."

"You stay outside and watch Lockhart, we're going to rescue Ginny!" Harry shouted.

"What do we do?" Liria asked Julien.

"Let's go first, and speed things up," Julien said in a low voice. "We must get the meteorite before the basilisk is fully awakened."

The three hurried down the spiraling passage, the air growing hotter and hotter, as if a giant furnace was operating ahead of them.

Finally, the stone steps came to an end, leading to a large stone hall.

At the far end of the hall, a stone door carved with a pattern of a giant, coiled serpent came into view. The door had been opened by someone, and a ghostly green mist was constantly billowing out from within.

The statue of Slytherin stood tall, his aged face barely visible in the darkness, his stone beard cascading into the deep pool below.

In a crescent-shaped recess on the base of the Slytherin statue, a black crystal the size of a fist was embedded. The black crystal was covered in dust and was almost invisible if one was not paying attention.

But Julien and Liria both sensed that it was this stone that emanated an ancient power.

In the deep pool, Ginny Weasley lay on her back on a protruding rock, her face as pale as paper, as if all her life force had been drained away.

Her fingers were still tightly gripping the black diary, which was open, the ink on the pages writhing as if alive.

"Ginny!" Julien instinctively tried to rush forward, but Rozier grabbed him.

"Wait," she said, pointing to the surface of the deep pool, "look there."

Ripples began to appear on the water's surface, not from a gentle breeze, but from some enormous creature moving underwater.

A huge silhouette covered in yellowish-green scales slowly rose from the deep pool, the sound of the scales rubbing against the stone wall making one's teeth ache.

Basilisk.