Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 395: The Abandoned Slytherin Common Room
"The Slytherin House common room is in the Black Lake?"
Jon pondered, he really hadn't thought about this.
"Yes." Draco spoke more and more fluently. "My father told me that the Slytherin common room was in the basement before, but after the headmaster took over Britain, he abolished the previous sorting standards. The standards for the three houses of Muggles, Half-bloods and Pure-bloods were already determined before students entered school. So when it was determined that the basement was the territory of the Muggles, of course there would be no students from other houses living there, and the Slytherin common room was naturally abandoned. No one has ever entered it in the past ten years."
Jon looked at Draco again, wanting him to tell him some more secrets.
"So? The common room was abandoned in the Black Lake, and because of that it became a rumor in the castle?"
Draco could indeed reveal more information.
"That's not the rumor. Someone did say that somewhere in the old Slytherin Common Room, some strange noises could be heard late at night, like something knocking on the foundation."
Jon frowned at this.
"I remember the castle's curfew policy was extremely strict. Who could have heard it so late at night?"
"No matter how strict the policy is, it's no big deal for purebloods to violate it. If a Muggle breaks curfew, they'll be dead. If a half-blood breaks curfew, they'll be expelled from Hogwarts Castle. A pureblood will just be asked to submit a self-review or spend a day in the detention room."
Even in front of John, Draco couldn't suppress his sense of pride when talking about the privileges that belong to pure-bloods .
"Pure-blood students cannot be expelled. This is a rule set by the principal. Even though there was a case of a half-blood student committing suicide a while ago, the main suspect was a pure-blood and her graduation was only delayed for a year. She was allowed to go home and reflect on her actions for a year."
Draco was right about this. Purebloods had obvious privileges not only in Hogwarts Castle, but also in the British wizarding world. No matter how serious the magic laws that purebloods violated were, they would not be imprisoned in Azkaban, where Dementors served as jailers, but in a special wizard "prison" located in the UK.
John didn't say anything about Draco's current complacency. He still had the mentality of a rich young master and didn't think about how many privileges the pure-bloods had now. When Voldemort was really defeated in the future, they would have to pay him back double and double.
"You've strayed off topic. In that case, do you know where the Slytherin common room used to be in the Black Lake?"
Hearing Jon's question, Draco pointed to the northeast.
"That lounge extends from Hogwarts Castle, so it must be in the direction of Hogwarts Castle. If we go northeast from here, we should be able to find something."
Jon did what he said, and after getting useful information from Draco, he returned the pearl to him as a reward.
"Why do you want to know this?" Although he knew it was better not to ask, Draco couldn't help but ask after getting the pearl.
"Do you believe me when I say I'm preparing to dig up the roots of your principal?" Jon said without turning his head.
His answer made Draco shudder all over, and an expression of fear appeared on his face involuntarily. He just watched John go away.
Only after his figure completely disappeared did Draco dare to swim out from the water plants carefully.
But at this time, he realized that he had been entangled by the water plants and could not even reach out to take out his wand!
"Come back! Green! Mr. Green! Come back soon! I'll pay you a pearl! Save me!"
However, sound cannot travel far underwater, and Jon had already gone far away, so no matter how he shouted, he got no response.
…
Jon soon arrived at the northeast corner of the entire Black Lake.
To be honest, he didn't have much hope for this trip, he just wanted to try his luck.
Seeing the miserable plight of the mermaids, the giant squid, which was of even greater significance to the entire Hogwarts Castle, was very likely to have met with an accident.
John continued to come here following the clues given by Draco, just to give Dumbledore more comfort when he returned.
Jon quickly patrolled along the edge of the northeast corner, and just when he swam to a deep concave rock wall, he actually made some discoveries!
It was a huge gap, and it was obvious that there should have been a wall before the gap, but now the wall was broken through, and the lake water poured into the lounge, turning the originally sealed lounge into a part of the Black Lake.
Jon swam through the gap into a space that was obviously the former Slytherin common room.
There were also some furniture inhabited by water plants and underwater creatures around, and green and silver strips of cloth on the walls were still fluttering with the flow of the lake. Some broken portraits could be vaguely seen on the surrounding walls, which were the portraits of outstanding house representatives that used to hang in the Slytherin common room.
Looking at the messy and dilapidated scene around him, Jon felt a sense of inexplicable irony.
He has not forgotten that this was the place where Voldemort himself lived for seven years. Now it has become like this. Obviously, he could not be unaware of it and it is very likely that he did it on purpose.
After a careful inspection of the surroundings, Jon could clearly see some marks all around, as if they had been whipped by some huge whip, leaving deep grooves on the ground and walls.
From these signs, it can be seen that, if nothing else, the giant squid must have been here before!
Jon's heart was cheered up a little. He went deeper. This public lounge was not the end. There was a gap in the wall opposite the lounge, but this gap was obviously facing upwards. He estimated that if he went up a little further, he would be able to leave the water level of the Black Lake. This area by the lake was not very deep.
As expected by Jon, he continued to swim up about three or four meters, and his head was blocked by a layer of equally thick ice.
Without hesitation, he raised the wand in his hand and used a blasting spell underwater to blast open the ice.
In fact, when Jon climbed out of the water, he had already seriously violated the rules of the event. Once the participating warriors come ashore, they cannot go into the water a second time. This was announced by Matthew in front of everyone before the competition started.
But Jon obviously didn't care about these things. Not to mention that in this broken place, no one would know even if he went ashore a hundred times. Even if he was discovered, his ranking would only be calculated on the spot. If the scores were calculated, he might not even be the last or second to last.
After coming out of the water, Jon could see that this should be the area of the former Slytherin dormitory.
The reason why it is not said to be a certain room is that the walls around here have been broken through, and the ground is littered with rubble and broken fragments of beds, tables and chairs. The space is extremely large, and only the ceiling exists above.
However, the ceiling of the dormitory originally belonging to Slytherin students was not very low, it was about four or five meters high, so even though the space was large, people would not feel oppressive.
Jon removed the bubbling spell on his body and breathed in the cold and humid air here. He climbed over the pile of ruins in front of him and then saw a shocking scene.
The giant squid was lying on the hard and cold ground, with a circle of light green magic runes emitting a faint silver light underneath it.
But only by walking closer to these magic runes and observing them carefully will you discover that the light green color is not the magic runes themselves, but the blood slowly flowing from the squid!
Jon looked at the giant squid and couldn't help but hold his breath. He found that its tentacles still showed some signs of movement, which meant that even though it was in a dying state, it was not dead yet.
Without any hesitation, he took out a feather from his body and began to summon Fox.
Soon golden light appeared beside him. Fox was always reliable. After it appeared, it did not stay and left directly with the giant squid.
But Jon did not leave immediately. He stared at the magic runes on the ground and studied them carefully for a while.
Before, when he pretended to be very interested in runes in front of Sir Stoke at sea, he had specially studied the basics of runes. Later, every time Hermione copied some runes out of the castle this year, he could see and listen to Dumbledore explain some of the principles to him.
Therefore, even though he is still a dabbler in magic rune, he is a dabbler who has been involved in high-end games. When he looks at those things that look like scribbles in the eyes of ordinary people, he is no longer completely in the dark.
After a careful study, he could at least determine that these magic runes had not been engraved here for a long time, probably just last year, which means that the giant squid had its blood drawn for about half a year.
But it had never appeared in the Black Lake before, and it was most likely imprisoned here for the past decade .
Jon patrolled the surroundings again and saw some scattered broken chains on the ground. There were also obvious signs of a strong impact on the ceiling just above the location of the giant squid.
Just as Dumbledore had expected, when Voldemort had just taken over Hogwarts Castle, he had already discovered the unusualness of this squid. Although he did not take any precautions against the Black Lake itself, he directly imprisoned the giant squid that was the root of the problem and used it when needed.
And now all the arrangements he had made in the castle were clearly laid out in front of Dumbledore and the others.
The magic runes in the secret room are used to wear down the castle's own will, the magic runes in the principal's office are used to replenish one's own will, and the magic runes in this room use blood transfusions from giant squids, the meaning of which is currently unknown.
These three places are all key locations arranged by Voldemort. He seems to have made a lot of preparations to gain absolute control over the castle, but now he seems to be not paying attention to any of them.
Just as Jon was looking at these magic runes, he suddenly discovered that as the giant squid was taken away, the magic runes themselves not only did not dim, but gradually became brighter and brighter!
Jon suddenly had a very bad premonition in his heart. Without any hesitation, he turned around and rushed towards the direction of the Black Lake, casting the Soaking Spell on himself again as he ran.
Then he jumped off the exploded ice and dived back into the lake!
Less than a minute after he entered the water, the magic runes began to become dazzlingly bright.
The curved symbols seemed to come alive as they swam and spread on the ground. Finally, dark green lines bulged out from the ground, and one by one they turned into living things and rushed into the water!
In less than three minutes, all the space was filled with these magic snakes. They seemed to be able to be produced endlessly from the magic words, constantly appearing and jumping into the lake.
After leaving the Slytherin lounge, John kept swimming forward. He had a feeling that something was wrong and even suspected that the magic runes under the lake were a trap.
However, even though he swam fast enough, he still could not compare with those snakes that were as fast as lightning in the water.
Jon knew he couldn't escape. He had to first verify how much trouble these snakes could bring him.
His forward movements remained unchanged, but he turned around with the wand in both hands and aimed it at the swarm of snakes that looked like hornets at first glance!
"God's sword has no shadow!"
The cold water flow was instantly cut through by the invisible blade. The resistance of the lake water reduced the power of the Shadowless Divine Blade a lot, but it was still better than the blasting spell used underwater.
Almost in the blink of an eye, the poisonous snakes in the front were silently split into two, but the sharp blade did not stop there, and the entire group of snakes was split in the middle, just like a piece of black chocolate was now neatly cut!
However, none of the poisonous snakes that were cut in half showed any signs of death. Instead, they were split into two, and dark green liquid continued to spurt out from the broken ends. Then they grew back to their original size, making the entire group of snakes even larger!
And at the moment when Jon turned around to cast the spell, poisonous snakes began to approach Jon. When they were about one meter away from Jon, they suddenly exploded, causing a violent impact underwater.
Fortunately, John was always protected by the Shield Charm, so he didn't suffer any harm, but the Bubble Charm that was used to keep him breathing was destroyed.
This caused Jon to lose the ability to breathe underwater, and he had no way to regain it.
