Archaeologists at Hogwarts

Chapter 175 The Secret Room and the Basilisk

There is no doubt that the Chamber of Secrets is behind this wall, and the two intertwined snakes carved on it are the symbol of Salazar Slytherin.

Especially the emeralds inlaid in the eyes are more in line with the symbol of Slytherin House.

Al sat on a flying carpet and floated in front of the wall. It fiddled with the patterns engraved on it for a while, but this simple method alone could not open the door to the secret room.

"Yeah." It turned back and looked at Toby with questioning eyes.

But Toby was looking into the tunnel behind him.

"Wait a minute." He said: "There is another road there. Let's go and take a look. Anyway, the secret room is here and we can't escape."

Of course, Al would not object to Toby's opinion. They carried the cage and walked towards another dark tunnel.

But Al still didn't understand why Toby did this.

"Because it's too simple." Toby said with a heavy voice: "The legend of the secret room has been circulating for so many years, but we found it easily. Of course, it may also be because those people only focused on the castle itself and gave up on the secret room.

The clue about lake is still too simple.”

"Don't forget, Al, caution is the reason why we can survive exploring so many ancient ruins."

They turned a corner and walked into a long tunnel, then stopped together and saw something in the darkness.

Al took out the magic ball, and Toby was ready to make the rooster crow at any time. At the same time, he raised his wand and said aloud: "Luminescent flash."

A ball of light condensed at the tip of the staff, and the light shone on a huge snake skin. It was green and very bright. At first glance, it looked like the skin of a venomous snake, lying coiled on the ground of the tunnel. It was empty inside.

Apparently the animal that had shed this skin was at least twenty feet long.

Al's eyes widened: "Yeah"

"Yeah." Toby walked up to the snake skin and looked at it carefully: "This should be the shed skin of the basilisk in the secret room. It does look scary. But at least it can let us know what we are going to face in a while.

Let’s go.”

He turned around and walked back, Al looking reluctant to leave.

"Don't worry." Toby comforted: "Sooner or later, this will become our collection. It is very suitable for use as a material for ritual magic and can be used for sacrifices. Well, this can be regarded as a course for the next semester. It can also be used for

A surprise for Headmaster Dumbledore."

Al nodded excitedly, he couldn't wait any longer.

But when they walked back to the wall again, Toby couldn't help but look at the other tunnel in confusion, which was also the passage they entered through the Black Lake.

"Will Slytherin leave two passages as a backup escape route? Who else can he be wary of?"

".I'm afraid there are only three other founders. I really hope that's not the case."

Forcibly breaking through the wall is a stupid decision. Toby would never do such a method in ancient ruins from the beginning. It is too reckless and will damage the few ancient magic items, or precious

knowledge.

Al expertly took out a large number of various instruments from his pocket, including complex-shaped silverware and some ancient items such as rag dolls and bones.

"let's start."

Toby said, waiting for the door to be successfully opened.

——

Compared with last year's Christmas, the atmosphere of this year's dinner was really not that good.

Headmaster Dumbledore still hasn't come back, which is unusual. According to Hagrid, the headmaster never misses the Christmas dinner every year.

During dinner, Harry even began to feel lucky to have Lockhart around, as he could liven up the atmosphere no matter what the occasion - of course, it wasn't always cheerful, and many times he was annoying.

Harry and Ron had just finished their third Christmas pudding when Hermione led them out of the Great Hall to implement their plans for the night.

"We're also going to need a few things from the people we're going to change," Hermione said lightly, as if she were sending them off to the supermarket to buy washing powder. "Needless to say, if you can get your hands on something from Crabbe and Goyle,

stuff, that's the best; they're Malfoy's best friends and he'll tell them everything. We also need to make sure that when we interrogate Malfoy, the real Crabbe and Go

You break in."

"I've planned everything." She continued in one breath, ignoring the stunned expressions on Harry and Ron's faces. She raised two pieces of chocolate cake. "I put ordinary sleeping pills in them.

Just make sure Crabbe and Goyle find them. You know how greedy their mouths are and they will eat them. As soon as they fall asleep, pluck out a few hairs from both of them and eat them.

They were both hiding in the broom cupboard."

Harry and Ron looked at each other in disbelief.

"Hermione, I don't think—"

"That could lead to a big mistake—"

But Hermione's eyes shone with an iron-clad glare, which was quite similar to Professor McGonagall's gaze sometimes.

"Without Crabbe and Goyle's hair, the potion would be useless," she said unwaveringly. "You want to censor Malfoy, don't you?"

"Oh, okay, okay," said Harry, "but what are you going to do? Whose hair are you going to pull out?"

"I already have mine!" Hermione said happily, taking out a small bottle from her pocket and showing them a hair inside, "Remember when Millicent wrestled with me in the dueling club?

She left this on my dress while she was choking me! She's gone home for Christmas - all I have to say to the Slytherins is that I've decided to come back."

Hermione hurried to check the Polyjuice Potion again, and Ron turned to Harry with an expression of impending disaster.

"Have you ever heard of a plan that had so many things that could go wrong?"

However, to Harry and Ron's great surprise, the first stage of the operation, just as Hermione said, went very smoothly. After having Christmas tea, they sneaked into the empty hall and waited to be alone.

Crabbe and Goyle stayed at the Slytherin table and devoured the fourth trifle. Harry had placed the chocolate cake on the railing. When they saw Crabbe and Goyle walking out of the Great Hall, Harry and Ron

Hurry and hide behind a suit of armor next to the main entrance.

"You guys really are so stupid!" Ron said ecstatically. He saw Crabbe happily pointing the cake to Goyle, then grabbing it in his hands. They grinned and stuffed the whole cake into it.

For a moment, the two of them chewed greedily, their faces looking triumphant. Then, without any change in their expressions, they turned over backwards and fell to the floor.

The hardest thing to do was to hide them in the cupboard at the end of the hall. However, after a while, they finally stayed safely among the mop and bucket. Harry hurriedly pulled off the two thick penises on Goyle's forehead.

At the same time, Ron also pulled out some of Crabbe's hair. They also stole Crabbe and Goyle's shoes because their own shoes could not fit Crabbe and Goyle's big feet.

. Then they ran quickly to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, still shaken by what they had just done.

Hermione was still stirring the cauldron in the small room. Thick black smoke came out of the cauldron, making them almost invisible. Harry and Ron pulled up their robes to cover their faces and knocked gently on the door.

.

"Hermione?"

They heard the door lock jingle, and Hermione appeared, her face bright and anxious. Behind her, they heard the bubbling, syrupy-thick potion slurping away. Three

A tumbler was already placed on the toilet seat.

"Did you get it?" Hermione asked breathlessly.

Harry showed her Goyle's hair.

"Very good. I stole these changes of clothes from the laundry room," Hermione said, holding up a small bag. "You will need to wear larger-sized clothes when you become Crabbe and Goyle."

The three people stared into the crucible. As they got closer, the soup looked like dark, sticky mud, bubbling lazily.

"I believe everything I arranged is fine," Hermione said, nervously reading the stained page of "Power Potions" again. "It looks exactly like the book says. We

After drinking it, it can take a full hour to change back to ourselves."

"What now?" Ron asked in a low voice.

"Let's divide it into three cups, and then add the hair." Hermione said, picking up a long-handled spoon and planning to scoop out the polyjuice potion, but at this moment, she saw Harry's expression was a little...

abnormal?

"What's wrong, Harry?" she asked. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Shh!" Harry suddenly made a silencing gesture, and Ron and Hermione saw him walking out of the cubicle and walking to the sink.

Now the two of them couldn't care less about Polyjuice Potion, and they hurried after Harry.

"What happened?" Ron's tone was a little frightened. He was frightened by Harry's inexplicable behavior.

Hermione asked as if she had remembered something: "Is it a basilisk?"

Harry nodded slightly, then continued to listen carefully to the sudden cold voice.

"Don't want to kill. Stay away from me. No."

When the two saw Harry, they immediately became excited. He spoke in Parseltongue again, hissing: "What's wrong with you? Where are you?"

But the cold voice had no time to answer him, and the next words shocked Harry.

"You won't succeed Toby Highmore. Help open!"

Amidst the low, hoarse hissing sound, a faucet in the pool suddenly emitted a dazzling white light and began to rotate rapidly. Then, the pool also started to move. They watched as the pool slowly disappeared from sight, revealing a

It is a very thick water pipe that can allow one person to drill into it.

Ron gasped, and Hermione stared at this scene dumbfounded.

Harry said in shock: "It's Professor Hemmer, he's really trying to control the basilisk."

"What-no!"

Before Ron could finish speaking, he saw Harry suddenly cover his forehead and fall into the water pipe.

He and Hermione quickly stretched out their hands to pull Harry back, but they were thrown in together.

It felt like rushing down a dark, slimy, endless slide. They could see many more tubes branching out in all directions, but none were as thick as this tube. Their tube

The subway was twisting and turning, and the slope was very steep all the way down. Harry knew that he had slipped to a very, very deep place under the school, even deeper than those underground classrooms. He could hear Ron and

Hermione followed him, making a slight clatter around the corner.

Then, just as he began to worry about what was to come, he suddenly fell to the ground. The pipe became horizontal, and he emerged from the mouth of the pipe and fell to the wet ground with a thud. It was a dark path

The stone tunnel was big enough for a person to stand in it. Very close to him, Hermione was getting up from the ground. Harry rubbed his forehead and stood aside, and Ron also came out of the tube with a cry.

"Where are we?" Hermione said, "What happened to you just now?"

"I don't know." Harry was still covering his forehead: "Maybe the basilisk is asking me for help. After all, I am the heir."

"How is this possible?" Ron was surprised.

"Listen!" Harry suddenly pointed to the other end of the tunnel and said, "Do you hear it?"

Both Hermione and Ron heard a loud noise coming from nowhere, like dynamite exploding, or something huge rolling around.

"Maybe it's the secret room." Hermione observed the surrounding environment and said, "We must be several miles deep under the school, and the secret room may be hidden inside."

"We have to stop Professor Highmore!" Harry raised his wand and said, "Go quickly, it will be too late. At least. At least we can't let all the Slytherin guys turn into Snape."

He looked extremely excited, holding up the ball of light on the wand in his hand and running deeper into the tunnel.

Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, and then hurriedly chased after him.

Now they have no way out. They can't go back to the castle and can only move forward.

Ron muttered to himself in a pleading tone: "Merlin, please don't turn Professor Highmore into an enemy."

On the other side, in front of the wall of the secret room, all Al's methods failed. Toby could only make him retreat and cast an explosion spell to blast away the wall.

This is the last resort, and Toby cannot continue to delay time.

With the violent explosion, the wall turned into stones and flew down one after another, and the emeralds in the carved eyes turned into countless fragments. Al immediately poked the rooster with his paw, causing it to crow loudly.

The door to the secret room was forced open.

At a glance, Toby saw the half-dead basilisk lying in the middle of the hall, rolling feebly, obviously affected by the crowing of the rooster, which was the basilisk's fatal weakness.

Al took the time to extend his paw and pointed forward and shouted: "Yeah!"

Toby also saw it. There was a statue of equal height in the deepest part of the hall. Looking up, on that huge face was an old, monkey-like face with a long sparse beard.

It dragged almost to the hem of the wizard's robe carved from stone, and two large gray feet stood on the smooth floor of the room.

A weak basilisk.

With a statue of Slytherin himself.

Toby walked up to the basilisk and took out the black feather from the pocket of the wizard's robe.

"It's time to reveal the answer," he said.

Al watched this scene curiously - black feathers floated to the basilisk's head, turning into black mist and covering it, forming two transparent and blurry figures.

Then the figure became clearer little by little.

Al controlled the rooster and continued to crow. It suddenly looked at Toby with shocked eyes.

Despite being covered by a hood, Toby's figure still became cautious and serious.

One of these two figures is Salazar Slytherin himself, who is exactly the same as the statue in the Chamber of Secrets.

On the other hand, Toby and Al have also seen each other's statues.

The fifth founder of Hogwarts disappeared - House the centaur.