Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 359 Blow Up the Castle
Hermione never closed the Marauder's Map.
Even when she was copying the runes on the ground, she spread out the map beside her and checked the names on the map every two seconds.
Voldemort's name was also clearly listed, but it was called "Tom Riddle".
When she got the Marauder's Map, Dumbledore had already told her Voldemort's real name and helped her do the test to make sure that even Voldemort himself could not avoid or detect the magic on the map.
He warned Hermione that as long as Voldemort's name appeared on the Marauder's Map, no matter what she was doing, she must leave the castle as soon as possible without any hesitation.
Hermione listened to Dumbledore's warning. She knew very well that if she sneaked into the castle and did something that was exposed, the consequences would not only be her personal safety, but would also bring great trouble to the current wizarding world, the Hogwarts carriage, Dumbledore, and John himself.
So the moment she saw the name "Tom Riddle" appear on the Astronomy Tower, she planned to ask Fawkes to take her away from Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets.
But perhaps because of the runes on the ground, this secret room was engraved with an anti-Apparition magic that was completely different from that in the castle.
There was no difference in strength between the two, but the structure of the magic was very different, requiring Fox to decrypt it all over again. They had not expected this after entering the secret room.
Therefore, when Voldemort had dealt with the dragon plague and Hermione saw him flying towards the Room of Requirement with a clear goal through the Marauder's Map, she decisively interrupted Fawkes' preparations for Apparition.
There is definitely not enough time.
Hermione needed to climb manually, so it would take at least half an hour to walk from the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. But this was not a problem for Voldemort at all. He mastered extremely profound magic, and even inside the castle he could not Apparate. He could cross the distance in the form of black fog, and it only took less than three minutes.
In desperation, Hermione had no choice but to hide with Fawkes.
There was almost no place to hide in this secret room, and even if she was wearing an invisibility cloak, it did not mean certain safety for a wizard with keen senses and intuition.
And Hermione herself didn't know whether it was due to her fear of Voldemort or other factors, but she could feel that even with the invisibility cloak she couldn't hide from the eyes of the dark devil.
Fortunately, the portrait of the creator of this chamber of secrets is hanging on the wall of Headmaster Dumbledore's office.
After deciding to choose Hermione to carry out this task, Salazar gave Hermione all the details of the layout of the secret room he created and some activation codes.
So Hermione hid in the mouth of the Slytherin statue, which was where the basilisk killed by Jon in the headmaster's office had hidden.
Voldemort must have known this place, otherwise he would not have been able to find the basilisk hiding here and let it guard the headmaster's office, so Hermione was actually making a bet. Now she could only bet that Voldemort would not check so carefully, because now was the time when the game was about to end, and he had finally returned to the castle, and he had to spare some energy to deal with Dumbledore.
The fact was exactly as she thought. Voldemort did not examine the Chamber of Secrets in detail. After crushing the illusory dwarf, he immediately left and went to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
So, Hermione watched his movements on the Marauder's Map and climbed out of the statue's mouth again. While Fawkes continued to prepare for Apparition, she took this time to copy down as many of the runes on the ground as possible.
Hermione also read some books about runes outside of class, but the knowledge there was relatively superficial. She didn't recognize any of the runes on the ground, let alone understand their functions. She could only record them and bring them back to Dumbledore for research.
But before she had copied one-tenth of the runes on the ground, she suddenly saw the name "Tom Riddle" on the map and found herself back in Hogwarts Castle!
She immediately put away all the things on her body. Fox, who was standing on her shoulder, was shining with a golden-red light, and the light was getting stronger and stronger.
"Hurry! We have to hurry, Fox! He could come back at any time!"
As if to fulfill Hermione's bad premonition, the name representing Voldemort on the Marauder's Map suddenly began to move from the entrance hall towards the eighth floor at an extremely fast speed!
Hermione hurriedly put on invisibility cloaks for herself and Fawkes. She recited the Serpentine code to the Slytherin statue again, and then quickly crawled in!
She knew that no place was completely safe, and it was obvious that Voldemort was coming with much more force this time than last time. He must have discovered something, otherwise he would not have rushed to the Room of Requirement with such a clear goal for the second time.
The Slytherin statue's mouth closed again, and in the dark and claustrophobic environment, only Fawkes' body was flashing with golden-red light.
Hermione was much more mature and calm than her normal peers, but at this moment her body was still shaking uncontrollably. She held Fawkes, who was getting feverish, in her arms, her eyes fixed on the name that was moving rapidly.
"Come on, Fox... You can do it... Come on, we can't let Jon and the professor down..."
Her voice was trembling, but she couldn't do anything to help Fox at this time. She could only watch with her own eyes the name that represented darkness and death getting closer and closer to her.
He was so close that he had walked out of the secret room, flew over the winding road, and came to two stone doors carved with poisonous snakes!
Hermione's body was chilled, and even with the warmth Fawkes in her arms could not suppress the chill.
"Hiss (open)."
Just as the stone door was slowly sliding towards both sides, Fawkes suddenly pecked the back of Hermione's hand with his sharp beak, and then the light from his body completely enveloped Hermione!
The dazzling light penetrated Slytherin's closed mouth, and then suddenly disappeared. Voldemort, who walked in the next second, did not see this scene.
He returned to this quiet, claustrophobic secret room full of magic runes.
Everything was still the same as it was when he left twenty minutes ago. The faintly glowing runes were joyfully welcoming their owner, but the shackles that had lost control of their target and fallen to the ground had somehow become suspended again, vaguely controlling some illusory existence.
Voldemort's eyes were full of coldness. This time he did not stop and walked directly to the statue of Slytherin.
"Shhhhhh (Speak to me, Slytherin - the greatest of the Hogwarts Four.)"
The statue's mouth opened, revealing a circular passage.
Looking inside from the outside, it was pitch black inside and there didn't seem to be any signs of people hiding there, but Voldemort didn't stop at all. He continued to turn into a black mist and flew into the passage.
This passage is very deep and connects to the sewer pipes of the entire Hogwarts Castle, allowing the basilisk to survive by looking for mice and other small animals in it for thousands of years.
Voldemort searched the entire area along the pipe at an extremely fast speed.
However, he got nothing.
Back in the Slytherin's chamber, he stared at the statue representing his ancestor and frowned.
"Why would you want to help them? Regardless of my purpose, the glory of pure-bloods has been promoted in my hands. Isn't this the ideal when you established this school? So, why don't you agree with me?"
His voice echoed in the closed room, but no one could answer him.
Voldemort raised his head and looked at the old, monkey-like face. There was a coldness in his eyes, as if he was looking at an enemy.
"It doesn't matter if you don't want to give it to me. It's the same if I take it myself!"
…
Dumbledore and John returned to the headmaster's office on the carriage. He immediately went to ask someone if Hermione had returned. After receiving a negative answer, the expression on his face became extremely solemn.
"Hermione and I have an agreement that as long as Riddle's name appears on the Marauder's Map, no matter what she is doing, Fawkes must bring her back immediately."
Jon also frowned.
"Hermione is not such a confident person. She will definitely do what she promised. Now that she hasn't come back, she must be in trouble."
He looked at Dumbledore, his eyes serious.
"We have to help her!"
"Of course we have to help her." Dumbledore did not hesitate at all to Jon's request. He had already grasped the wand. "No student can be left behind. This is the promise I emphasized to everyone when you entered school, and it is still the same now."
John was not at all surprised by Dumbledore's response. He knew that the old man was actually an idealist, but sometimes reality forced him to face it.
"But we also have to anticipate the Dark Lord's reaction in advance, and if he has captured Hermione now, what should we do?"
Dumbledore's face remained calm as he put his robes back on.
"He takes this castle very seriously. Actually, I take it very seriously, too."
Jon was a little unresponsive for a moment.
"What?"
"The dragons don't have the ability to destroy this castle. An old man like me is still more useful than those dragons, right?" Dumbledore could actually laugh at this time. "Riddle doesn't care about his subordinates or his students, but he definitely cares about this castle. Although I haven't found out why he cares so much about it, it doesn't prevent us from using this as a handle."
Jon stared at Dumbledore in amazement.
"But, you don't care about this castle anymore, Professor?"
"Of course I care about it, Jon," Dumbledore said softly. "I have lived here for more than fifty years and taught here for more than fifty years. People have always called me the greatest Hogwarts headmaster. Even though this title has become a joke now, I still love this place. It is not just a school, but also the history of the entire British wizarding world."
"But the reason why Hogwarts is Hogwarts is not just because of a castle. The castle itself was built for the purpose of teaching and educating people. But if it can no longer carry out this mission and even becomes a tool to oppress students, then even if it is destroyed, I think the four great wizards who created it will not say anything, right? Salazar."
On the wall, the portrait of Slytherin spread his hands.
"I don't know about the others, but I'm sure it doesn't matter to me. A thousand years ago, we decided to build a school to protect wizards, not to protect wizards in order to build a school."
Jon stared at the scene in a daze, and Dumbledore actually spoke to him jokingly.
"Did you hear me? I have obtained the approval of the original owner of this castle."
As he finished speaking, he had already buttoned up his robes and walked to the front with Jon.
"Come on, let's go get Hermione back."
Jon rubbed his nose to relieve the inexplicable sour feeling. He followed Dumbledore and suddenly laughed.
"That's right, how can that castle be called Hogwarts? Hogwarts is obviously our carriage!"
“Ha, I like that.”
Just as they were about to walk out of the principal's office, a golden-red light suddenly lit up behind them!
Jon and Dumbledore both stopped in their tracks. They looked back and saw that the light had outlined the shapes of a phoenix and a little girl.
Seeing this, Jon's already tense nerves finally relaxed completely, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Dumbledore still had that gentle smile on his face, but Jon could also see the joy in his eyes. No matter what, as long as Hermione was safe, it was more important than anything else.
He said to Jon jokingly.
"We made so much mental preparation for nothing."
Jon slapped his face.
"I've actually been thinking about how I'm going to curse the Dark Lord when you, Professor, blow up the castle."
"It doesn't matter. You can keep the words you have thought of. You will definitely need them in the future."
"Shouldn't you teach me not to swear?"
“How can I teach students something that I can’t do myself?”
While they were talking, Hermione appeared in the headmaster's office. She looked at Dumbledore and John, who were getting ready to go out, with a look of surprise.
"What are you going to do?"
Jon and Dumbledore looked at each other and then shrugged.
"To blow up Hogwarts Castle if you showed up a few seconds later."
