Hogwarts: I, Tom, am really not Voldemort!

Having eaten and drunk their fill, and after cleaning up the remnants, Tom and his companions contentedly let out satisfied burps.

“What’s next? Do we go back the way we came?” Cassandra asked Tom.

“No, we’re not going back the way we came.” Tom replied to Cassandra while looking at the Slytherin statue.

Cassandra followed Tom’s gaze to the Slytherin statue and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong with the Slytherin statue?”

Tom organized his thoughts and told Cassandra and Draco his guess: “The Basilisk came out of the statue’s mouth, which means there’s probably more space behind the statue. Perhaps there are even more hidden rooms in Slytherin’s Chamber of Secrets.”

Intrigued by Tom’s words, Cassandra and Draco joined him in exploring the area around the statue.

“Tom, Cassandra, over here, come quickly.”

Draco suddenly seemed to have discovered something and shouted to Tom and Cassandra, who were still searching.

The two approached Draco and saw two stone snakes intertwined on the wall next to the statue, just like the ones they had seen at the entrance to the Chamber.

“Open!” Tom commanded the stone snakes on the wall in Parseltongue.

As Tom spoke, the two stone snakes moved to the sides, the wall changed and disappeared, revealing a normal-sized door.

“Sure enough, I knew there was a secret chamber within the Chamber of Secrets.”

Tom said to Cassandra and Draco before pushing the door open and entering.

After entering the door, they were met with another long corridor. As if sensing Tom’s arrival, the dim, ghostly green lights on the wall lamps on both sides of the corridor automatically lit up, illuminating the corridor in an eerie and terrifying glow.

Using the faint candlelight, the three slowly advanced and soon arrived at a four-way intersection.

Cassandra pointed to the wide passage next to them: “The Basilisk probably went that way.”

Tom glanced at the obvious crawling marks on the ground of that passage, gave an “Mm” sound, turned to another corridor of normal human passage size, and said to the two, “We’ll go this way.”

A black stone door appeared at the end of the corridor after a while.

Draco stepped forward and tried to push the stone door with all his might, but it didn’t budge.

He immediately turned to look at Tom: “It’s no good, I can’t push it. Tom, we still have to rely on you.”

Tom nodded upon hearing this, stepped forward, and said to the stone door in Parseltongue, “Open!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the seal on the stone door seemed to be released, and it slowly opened automatically.

“Cough, cough…”

As soon as they entered the dark room, the three of them were choked by the thick dust inside and quickly cast Scouring Charms and Lumos.

“Ah~~~”

As soon as the room was illuminated, Cassandra and Draco let out frightened screams.

Tom looked around and immediately understood them.

The room was filled with specimens of various magical creatures. The bodies of various strangely shaped creatures that had been fused, dissected, mutated, etc., filled the entire room with a terrifying and bizarre atmosphere, which was enough to scare unprepared wizards to the point of collapse upon first sight.

Tom took out two small bottles of tranquilizer and handed them to Cassandra and Draco respectively, comforting them softly: “Here, don’t be afraid, drink this and you’ll feel much better.”

The two took the potions and drank them in one gulp, and after sitting down and resting for a while, they felt much better.

Cassandra, still with a frightened expression, asked Tom in a trembling voice: “What… what are all these?”

“Obviously, this is Slytherin’s laboratory. Judging from these specimens, Slytherin was deeply involved in magical transfiguration. You guys continue to rest here for a while, I’ll take a look around the room.”

After speaking, Tom got up and went to check the room.

The room wasn’t very big, and Tom had roughly scanned it after a little walk around.

There was nothing in the room except for the magical creature specimens. The bookshelf in the corner was empty, obviously having been emptied by someone. There was nothing on the desk except for a bottle of dried ink and a quill, so the information that might have been there had obviously been taken away.

Tom searched the room again, unwilling to give up, not even letting go of any dead corners.

And it turned out that Tom really did gain something this time. In the gap between the desk and the wall, there was a piece of parchment that might have been accidentally dropped, quietly staying there. Obviously, that person was in a hurry to search for Slytherin’s legacy at the time and didn’t carefully search the room, resulting in some escapees.

Tom picked up the parchment and read it carefully, his expression becoming very solemn.

“Sure enough, this is one of the secrets to that person’s ugliness.”

Cassandra, who was resting at the entrance of the room, quietly watched Tom walk around the room, repeatedly exploring. When she saw Tom coming back with something in his hand with a solemn expression, she quickly got up and asked, “What’s wrong? Did you find something?”

Tom casually handed the parchment to Cassandra and said, “All the books and information in the room have been taken away, leaving only this?”

Cassandra took the parchment and looked at it together with Draco, who had come closer.

The densely packed symbols and annotations on the parchment made people feel dizzy. For Cassandra and Draco, it was like a heavenly book that they couldn’t understand at all.

After returning the parchment to Tom, Cassandra asked with a slightly curious tone, “What is this thing?”

Facing the silent two, Draco said softly, “Should we leave?”

“Mm.” Tom agreed with Draco’s opinion.

Just as Cassandra and Draco were preparing to return the way they came, Tom grabbed them both: “When I was searching the room just now, I found a hidden door over there, which should allow us to leave directly, come with me.”

After speaking, he led the two to a corner on the other side of the room and pushed open a door that was integrated with the wall and not easily noticeable.

Walking a few steps forward, the three were greeted by a stone staircase that stretched upwards, with no end in sight.

“I’m so tired, aren’t we there yet? This is too high.”

After climbing for a long time, Draco, who was almost exhausted, couldn’t help but start complaining.

Cassandra was too tired to speak.

“Don’t talk, we’re almost there.” Tom replied breathlessly.

Just as the three were about to run out of energy, they finally arrived at the platform at the end of the stone steps.

Tom slumped down on the platform and took out three bottles of invigorating potion. After giving two of them to Cassandra and Draco, he drank his in one gulp.

Feeling his strength recovering, and after resting for a while, Tom led the two to push open the stone door on the other side of the platform.

The three walked out of the stone door and found themselves in a small cave. The stone door also closed again, merging back into the mountain wall. Tom tried many methods but couldn’t open it.

“It seems that this path is one-way, let’s go, let’s leave here first.”

When Tom led Cassandra and Draco out of the cave, they suddenly discovered that they had appeared in an unexpected place.

“This is… the Forbidden Forest!”