In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 357: Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets (2 in 1)

On the blank wall, an old wooden door slowly emerged, as Hermione recited in her mind.

When Hermione saw the door, there was an undisguised excitement on her face, and then she quickly walked forward and placed her hand on the doorknob.

With ease, she pushed the door open from outside to inside.

There was a dark space inside, and it was only after the light from the candle on the wall outside the door shone in that room she could see it was quite empty, and at a glance, it looked like there was nothing there.

Without taking off the invisibility cloak she was wearing, Hermione walked in with Fawkes, and after she had entered, a fire lit up on the walls around her and then illuminated the whole room.

It was only now that she could see exactly what kind of room it was.

There were blank walls all around, and the room was small and empty, except for a round flap door in the middle of the floor!

Hermione tried to open it with her hand, but the door did not move until she uttered the unpleasant Parseltongue word, then the next moment the door opened itself!

Beneath the flap door was a deep, secret passage which appeared to wind downwards with no end in sight.

Although she hadn't spent much time in the castle and rarely had access to the upper floors, Hermione still remembered that there was a Charms Classroom directly below where the Room of Requirement was located, but this secret passage appeared as if the floor beneath her feet was connected to the solid floor of the ground floor, not at all like being on the seventh floor of the castle.

Hermione carefully closed the door to the Room of Requirement from the inside first, then motioned for Fawkes to get off her shoulder and swoop into the secret passage before her.

Fawkes took the lead, shining a faint golden light to illuminate the way ahead, while Hermione followed, and little by little they went deeper into the secret passage.

The passage was rugged and winding, and it was sometimes so narrow that Hermione could only pass through it by getting down on her knees, and at other times it was broad that she could stand up and walk upright.

She had been walking through it for over half an hour when she finally managed to make a short jump off to what looked like an underground chamber!

It was damp and quiet as a tomb as if Hermione was out of the confines of Hogwarts Castle by now, and all the sounds from the dragons outside that were attacking the castle and the Hogwarts professors that were fighting to defend the school had all disappeared.

Fawkes returned to Hermione's shoulders, his pale golden eyes flickering with some seriousness as if he had sensed something.

In the darkness, Hermione used her Wand-Lighting Charm, and then she saw an enormous behemoth in front of her.

Under the emerald green reflection, at first, she thought a serpent was lying on the ground ambushing her, but before she could even feel the fright, she had already reacted to the fact that it was just a piece of serpent skin.

The skin was clearly not of normal size, probably over twenty feet at a rough glance, and was so bright green that it could easily be mistaken for a serpent.

Hermione had spent the last year or so in the library on the wagon whenever she had the time to spare and had seen Jon kill a Basilisk about the size of this snakeskin back in the last year.

She could easily tell that it was a moulted skin of a Basilisk, which couldn't help but make her guard rise even higher; since there was a serpent skin present here, there must have been one Basilisk existing inside the Chamber of Secrets as well.

The portrait of Mr Slytherin had said that he had placed a Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets a thousand years ago that solely obeyed the Slytherin bloodline, but Jon had killed that one in the Headmaster's office last year, and it was quite unlikely that there would be another one inside the Chamber of Secrets according to Dumbledore's analysis.

Voldemort had released it from the Chamber of Secrets to act as a guard for his Headmaster's Office, so the chances that the Chamber of Secrets was now unguarded by Basilisk is quite high.

But chances are just chances, if Hermione encountered one, it would turn into 100%, so Hermione was careful, with her wand in her hand, she had dimmed the glow of the Wand-Lighting Charm a little, which obscured her vision, but because of this, if she came face to face with the Basilisk, she could avoid looking directly into its eyes.

As she continued to walk deeper into the chamber, she turned many corners and went on for about ten minutes or so before she finally came to a solid wall.

It was carved with two snakes entwined with each other, their eyes encrusted with large, glittering emeralds.

Just seeing the wall, Hermione knew what she had to do. With a throaty tone of voice, she proceeded to utter a single command in Parseltongue.

After her word sounded, the two snakes parted and the stone wall cracked open from the middle, slowly sliding to the sides and disappearing.

Hermione took a long, deep breath, and then she gripped the glowing wand in her hands and stepped inside the door.

She made her way to the side of a long, dimly lit room.

There were many stone pillars carved with coiled and intertwined serpents, which towered to support the ceiling that melted away into the darkness high above, casting a long, treacherous black shadow across the room that was filled with a greenish, mysterious haze.

And the moment Hermione entered, the floor suddenly lit up with a myriad of silvery-grey lights!

Those lights twisted and outlined on the floor, forming a trail of words and symbols that covered the entire room!

Hermione looked in shock at what was beneath her feet, a huge scroll was forming on the ground, and the words that lit up were all in the oldest format of Ancient Runes!

The characters were all about the size of a thumbnail, but they covered the entire chamber.

Likewise, in the light of these illuminated rune glows, Hermione saw what looked like a statue of an old man in the depths of the room, on the wall facing her.

A face that looked like a monkey in its old age, a face that was not unfamiliar to Hermione; it was none other than Salazar Slytherin who had the portrait being hung in the Headmaster's office.

Even this statue was densely inscribed with Ancient Runes, so dense that it looked somehow unnerving.

Hermione's eyes continued to look down, and then she saw a small figure directly beneath the statue.

It looked like a dwarf, with a broad face and a large mouth, dressed in ragged, brightly coloured clothes, but with his eyes squeezed shut and his body unreal not at all like a normal human being.

Five dark chains stretched out from the ground, and they were attached to the dwarf's limbs and neck as if to bind him firmly in place and keep him immobile.

The surrounding air was cold and damp, causing Hermione's body to shiver slightly involuntarily.

She stepped carefully over the glowing Ancient Runes and made her way to the dwarf's side.

"Hello."

***

After seeing the dragons that had attacked Hogwarts Castle, Snape left the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest without a moment's hesitation.

His face turned grim, and he also took all the Aurors present with him, while giving Jon a gloomy stare and instructing one of them to go and inform Voldemort of the incident at once.

This was undoubtedly the most rational thing to do because judging by all the useful men currently at Hogwarts Castle, there was little certainty that they would be able to hold the castle against these charges of dragons.

The journalists were so excited that some bold ones even tried to follow Snape and the others closer to Hogwarts Castle, only to be kicked back mercilessly by Aurors at the rear.

Some smart newspaper reporters, after quickly filming the current state of the castle attack, had a few men leave the area and immediately take the available photos outside, in case that man came back afterwards after getting the news, and all their results this evening would turn into a blank canvas.

Although Snape had left with Aurors, there was no longer any room to change the final outcome of this first tournament task.

Emil had not yet emerged from the forbidden forest, and he looked at the golden-red sky in the direction of the castle, covered in dragon's breath, looking so lost in thought.

Matthew snapped out of the shock of the situation at hand, and he straightened his expression and looked over at Emil.

"Mr Lestrange, so, are you going to choose to finish the tournament now?"

Emil was pulled back to his senses by this question as well, but instead of looking at Matthew, his gaze was filled with hatred for Jon.

"It must have been done by him! He must have done it! Those dragons were originally after him! Now they've all gone to attack the castle! He must have done something!"

His words brought silence to the place, and Bonnesante glared at Emil as if he wanted to shove the words he had just said back into his mouth!

At that moment, the inwardly agitated Emil also realised that he had said the wrong thing, and with a pale face, he scrambled to patch up what he had just said.

"We all saw it in the Forbidden Forest, it was Green who pissed off those dragons, and they went berserk and attacked him!"

Jon, however, wasn't even going to look towards him as he stood in front of Dumbledore and Rosier, pulling a golden snitch out of his cloth pouch while looking at Matthew and asking calmly.

"To continue where we left off, Mr Graves, may I know who sourced and supplied all the golden snitches used for this task?"

Matthew didn't ignore Jon's question, whether it was the boy's reputation that had already spread through the magical community before or the fact that there was a very good chance that he had done what was happening tonight, he couldn't be dismissed as some simple student.

Equally, Matthew had no intention of covering up for anyone, he had been appointed to be a judge to ensure impartiality so that no one could possibly do as they wished.

He turned his head to the Middle Eastern wizard named Abdul Rahman.

"Rahman, this is your responsibility, right?"

The lean, Middle Eastern wizard with a short beard and a white turban on his head faced Matthew's question without changing his face.

"Palmer's Sports Magical Item Supplies has an excellent variety of supplies, they've been responsible for the ball supplies at the Quidditch World Cup for three years in a row and there won't be any problems with the quality."

Jon looked over at him as well and said lightly.

"And I certainly trust the standards of this company to not have any problems in terms of quality, but some people want to add some unknown touch to this tournament and all that is needed is for it to have adequate quality assurance. I assume, Mr Rahman, that all these golden snitches in the Forbidden Forest have been fully handled by you personally?"

Rahman's countenance turned arrogant, and he didn't even bother to meet Jon's gaze, as if he simply disdained to answer a question from a student like him.

Yet an old and gentle voice forced him to bow his head again.

"Can you give us your account Abdul? I think we need an answer."

No one in the place could ignore Dumbledore's words, and neither could Rahman; even though today Dumbledore no longer held the title and position of Supreme Mugwump at the International Confederation of Wizards, he still had a great deal of influence.

Especially after the Witching Horizon had used their strength to take over most of France from Voldemort's hands.

"All these golden snitches are, of course, handled solely by me." His face remained as unchanged as ever, "If you suspect that I have done something wrong in it, then you can use the Legilimency on me and take a look at my memory of this tournament, Albus. I know you're a master at that, and I can't resist it at all since I don't know Occlumency at all."

He locked eyes with Dumbledore's blue ones, not trying to avoid them at all.

Dumbledore looked at him and simply shook his head.

"I certainly have enough trust in you, and it is precisely because the Confederation knows your character that they have asked you to be the judge, and since you do not know about this incident, that means it was not you who did it."

Bonnesante, who was still being supported, suddenly said grimly from the sidelines at this time.

"Things haven't even been investigated and already people are starting to make sure that everything that comes out of this boy's mouth is true? We've certainly been playing a fair game."

Rosier gave him the same cold look, and it was that look that caused Bonnesante's body to subconsciously tremble a little, and fear spread through his eyes.

Jon didn't care about his questioning as he turned his head to look at all three confederation judges, alongside Bonnesante, and all the journalists.

"Since I dare to say the words out loud, then of course I have tangible evidence."

As he spoke, he raised his wand and pointed the tip at his temple, then he slowly twirled it and pulled a bright silver thread from his mind!

The silver that represented the memory was encircling the tip of his wand as if it had life.

With a little skill in the Legilimency spell, it would not be difficult to extract parts of one's own memory; after all, one would certainly not resist one's decision.

And looking at the memory, even if no one yet knew what the scene actually contained within, everyone present there had largely believed what Jon had said.

The Dragons had gone berserk, someone had really done it deliberately to trap him!

----

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