Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 356 Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets
On the blank wall, as Hermione expressed her wish, an old wooden door slowly emerged.
Hermione saw the door with an excitement that was hard to conceal on her face. She then walked quickly forward and put her hand on the door handle.
She pushed the door open from the outside easily.
There was a dark space inside. Only when the light from the candles on the wall outside the door shone into the room could one see that it was very empty. At first glance, it looked like there was nothing inside.
Hermione did not take off her invisibility cloak and walked in with Fawkes. After she entered, the surrounding walls lit up with fire, which then illuminated the entire room.
Only now could she see what kind of room it was.
There were blank walls all around, and the entire room was not big, but there was nothing inside, except for a round trap door placed in the middle of the ground!
When she arrived at the trapdoor, Hermione first tried to open it with her hands, but the door did not move at all. It was not until she opened her mouth to recite the ugly snake language that the door opened by itself the next moment!
Below the trapdoor was a deep secret passage that seemed to wind downward with no end in sight.
Although she had not stayed in the castle for a long time and had rarely had the opportunity to go to the upper floors, Hermione still remembered that there was a Charms classroom right below the Room of Requirement. However, the appearance of this secret passage seemed as if the floor under her feet was connected to the solid ground of the first floor, and it did not seem to be on the eighth floor of the castle at all.
Hermione carefully closed the door of the Room of Requirement from the inside, then let Fawkes get off her shoulders and jumped into the secret passage first.
Then Fawkes walked in front, with a faint golden light on his body illuminating the road ahead, while Hermione followed behind, and they went deeper into the secret passage little by little.
This secret passage was rugged and winding, and sometimes narrow and sometimes wide. Sometimes Hermione could only kneel on the ground to pass through, and sometimes she could stand up and walk upright.
She kept walking in it for more than half an hour, and finally jumped down from an exit and came to a secret room that seemed to be located underground!
The surroundings were damp and as quiet as a tomb, as if Hermione had left the confines of Hogwarts Castle. The sounds of the dragons attacking the castle and the Hogwarts professors fighting to defend the school had all disappeared.
Fawkes stood back on Hermione's shoulder, his light golden eyes moving in a serious manner as if he had noticed something.
In the darkness, Hermione used a wand-illuminating spell, and then she saw the huge creature in front of her.
In the emerald green reflection, she first thought it was a snake lying on the ground ambushing her, but before she felt frightened, she realized it was just a piece of snake skin.
The size of the snake skin was obviously unusually large. At a rough glance, it was probably more than twenty feet long, and it was shiny emerald green, so it would be easy to mistake it for a snake.
Over the past year or so, Hermione spent all her free time in the library on the carriage, and last year, she saw Jon kill a giant snake that was almost the same size as this snake skin.
She could easily tell that this was the shed skin of a basilisk, which made her more alert. Since there was a snake skin here, there must have been a basilisk in the secret room.
The portrait of Mr. Slytherin said that he had placed a basilisk that only obeyed Slytherin blood in the Chamber of Secrets a thousand years ago, but John had also killed one in the headmaster's office. According to Dumbledore's analysis, these two snakes are very likely to be the same one.
Voldemort released it from the Chamber of Secrets to serve as a guard for his headmaster's office, so it is likely that there is no Basilisk guarding the Chamber of Secrets now.
But probability is probability, and as long as Hermione encounters it, it is 100%, so Hermione is very careful. She holds the wand in her hand and deliberately dims the light of the illumination spell. Although this will make her vision blurry, it is also because of this that if she comes face to face with the basilisk, she can avoid looking directly into its eyes.
Continuing to walk deeper into the secret room, she turned many corners and went deeper for about ten minutes before finally arriving at a solid wall.
It was engraved with two snakes entwined with each other, and their eyes were set with large, sparkling emeralds.
Just by looking at the wall, Hermione knew what she had to do. She rolled her throat and continued to speak in Parseltongue, reciting an order.
As soon as she finished speaking, the two snakes separated, the stone wall cracked in the middle, and slowly slid to both sides and disappeared.
Hermione took a long, deep breath, then she grasped the dimly glowing wand in both hands and walked through the door.
She came to one side of a long, dimly lit room.
There were many stone pillars carved with coiled snakes in the room, supporting the ceiling that melted into the darkness above, casting long and eerie black shadows on the entire room which was filled with green and mysterious mist.
And the moment Hermione came in, countless silver-gray lights suddenly lit up on the ground!
The lights connected on the ground, forming lines of words and symbols that covered the entire room!
Hermione looked at everything under her feet in shock. A huge scroll was formed on the ground, and the lit words were all the oldest runes!
These runes are densely packed, and each character is only the size of a thumb nail, but they fill the entire space.
Similarly, under the illumination of these lit runes, Hermione also saw a statue of an old man on the wall facing her in the depths of the room.
It was an old, monkey-like face. Hermione was not unfamiliar with this face. He was none other than Salazar Slytherin, whose portrait was hung in the headmaster's office.
Even this statue is densely engraved with magic runes, so dense that it makes people feel inexplicably creepy.
Hermione's gaze continued downwards, and she saw a small figure right below the statue.
It looked like a dwarf with a broad face and a big mouth. He was wearing tattered brightly colored clothes, but his eyes were closed and his body was illusory, not like a normal person at all.
Five black chains extended from the ground , connecting the dwarf's limbs and neck respectively, as if binding him tightly here and making him unable to move.
The air around her was cold and humid, causing Hermione's body to tremble slightly involuntarily.
She stepped carefully on the glowing runes and came to the dwarf.
"Hello."
…
After seeing Hogwarts Castle being attacked by a dragon, Snape left the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest without any hesitation.
His face looked very ugly, and he took away all the Aurors present. At the same time, he stared at John gloomily and ordered one of the Aurors to inform Voldemort immediately about this matter.
This approach is undoubtedly the most sensible one, because judging from all the useful manpower currently in Hogwarts Castle, they have no confidence at all that they can defend the castle against the attacks of these fire dragons.
The reporters were extremely excited. Some of the brave ones even wanted to follow Snape and his companions closer to Hogwarts Castle, but were ruthlessly kicked back by the Aurors behind them.
Some smart newspaper reporters, after quickly taking pictures of the castle being attacked, asked people to leave and take the existing photos out immediately, in case the man got the news and came back, all their efforts tonight would be in vain.
Although Snape left with the Aurors, the final outcome of the game could no longer be changed.
Emile had not yet walked out of the forbidden forest. He looked at the golden-red sky in the direction of the castle, which was covered by dragon's breath, and seemed so distraught.
Matthew came back to his senses from the shock of the current situation, straightened his face and looked at Emile.
"Mr. Lestrange, so, do you want to choose to complete the game now?"
Emile was also brought back to his senses by his question, but he did not look at Matthew. Instead, he looked at Jon with hatred.
"It must be him! It must be him! Those fire dragons were originally chasing him! But now they are all attacking the castle! He must have done something!"
His words made the whole scene silent. Boster stared at Emile, as if he wanted to put the words he had just said back into his mouth!
At this time, the excited Emile also realized that he had said the wrong thing. His face turned pale and he hurriedly corrected what he had just said.
"We all saw it in the Forbidden Forest. It was Green who angered the fire dragons, so they went crazy and attacked him!"
But Jon didn't even bother to look at him. He stood in front of Dumbledore and Rosier, took out a golden snitch from his bag, looked at Matthew, and asked calmly.
"Continuing with our previous topic, Mr. Graves, can I know who purchased and provided the Golden Snitch used in this project?"
Matthew did not ignore Jon's question. Regardless of the boy's reputation in the wizarding world or the fact that he was most likely the one who did it tonight, he could not be treated as a simple student.
Similarly, Matthew had no intention of shielding anyone. His purpose as a referee was to be impartial and not let anyone have any reason to blame him.
He turned and looked at the Middle Eastern wizard named Abdul Rahman.
"Rahman, this is your responsibility, right?"
The thin Middle Eastern wizard with a short beard and a white turban on his head remained calm in the face of Matthew's question.
" All the supplies provided by Palmer Sports Magic Items Supply Company are excellent. They have been responsible for the ball supplies for the Quidditch World Cup for three consecutive years. There won't be any problems with the quality."
Jon also looked at him and said lightly.
"Of course I believe in the standards of this company, and there won't be any problems with the quality, but some people want to add some unknown means to this game, and what they need is sufficient quality assurance. I think, Mr. Rahman, are all these golden snitches in the Forbidden Forest handled by you personally?"
Rahman had an arrogant look on his face. He didn't even meet Jon's eyes, as if he simply didn't bother to answer questions from a student like him.
However, an old and gentle voice forced him to lower his head again.
"Can you tell us about it Abdul? I think we need an answer."
No one present would ignore Dumbledore's words, including Rahman. Even though Dumbledore no longer has the title and position of chairman in the International Magical Confederation, he still has great prestige.
Especially after the Wizarding World seized most of France from Voldemort with its own strength.
"Of course, I am in full control of these Snitches." His expression remained unchanged. "If you suspect that I am behind this, you can use Legilimency on me, Albus. I know you are a master in this area, and I have no knowledge of Occlumency and cannot resist at all."
He stared into Dumbledore's blue eyes, with no intention of avoiding them at all.
Dumbledore looked at him and simply shook his head.
"Of course I have enough trust in you. The Federation also let you serve as a referee because they know your character. Since you are not aware of this matter, it means that it was not done by you."
At this time, Berst, who was still being supported by others, suddenly said something sarcastic.
"The matter hasn't even been investigated thoroughly yet, but someone has already begun to confirm that what this boy said is true? Our competition is really fair."
Rozier looked at him coldly, and it was this look that made Bulstrode's body tremble subconsciously, and fear appeared in his eyes.
Jon didn't care about his doubts at all. He turned and looked at the three federation referees including Bourdon and Matthew and all the reporters.
"Since I dare to say it, I certainly have solid evidence."
As he spoke, he raised his wand and pointed the tip at his temple. Then he slowly turned the wand and drew a bright silver thread from his mind!
The silver light representing memory surrounded the tip of his staff, as if it had life.
As long as you have some knowledge of telepathy, it is not difficult to extract part of your memory. After all, you will definitely not resist your own decision.
Looking at this memory, even though no one knew what the picture it represented was, everyone present had basically believed what Jon said.
Long Qun went crazy. Someone must have deliberately done this to frame him!
