Audrey, her mood ruined, walked out of the Hospital Wing, with Dumbledore following behind her.
"Don't worry too much, child. I will find a way," Dumbledore tried his best to comfort Audrey. "I have many elderly friends, perhaps they…"
"You are the most powerful light wizard, Professor Dumbledore," Audrey stated. "If you cannot find a way to wake Isaline, I don't believe anyone else has the ability."
"I am not as great as you imagine, child. I can't surpass Nicolas in alchemy, nor Newt in magical creatures, and my understanding of history is not even one percent of Bathilda's…"
"Enough, enough," Audrey shook her head expressionlessly. "You use your methods, I'll use mine. In any case, I will not let Isaline remain in this coma!"
Watching Audrey disappear down the corridor, a flicker of light crossed Dumbledore's wise eyes. Was it beginning?
…
…
Audrey did not rush back to the dormitory. She went to the corridor where Isaline had been attacked. Besides the suit of armor, there were no paintings here—such corridors without portraits were extremely rare in the castle, but this also made searching for secrets more difficult as there were no witnesses.
What curse was Isaline under?
Audrey meticulously searched every brick and stone slab around. Ancient magic echoes were everywhere, but these were the castle's intrinsic magic and unrelated to the curse.
Suddenly, a bone-chilling, cold, and malicious voice echoed in her ear.
"The Master calls upon you, Little Master! Go to the second floor, search there, the entrance is there… This is the Master's test for you!"
Audrey, who knew the plot well, naturally understood that this was the Basilisk. The Master it spoke of… Recalling Salazar Slytherin's dramatic appearance during the Sorting Ceremony, Audrey immediately had a suspicion. Was Isaline's curse the handiwork of her own body's ancestor?
A test? That was the thing she hated most!
But to save Isaline, she had to go—even if the plot device was so cliché. After all, Isaline was the only good friend she recognized in the school! She also remembered the scene that night of the girl in the armor, trembling but still trying hard to rush to her aid…
…
Of course, the first test Slytherin gave her was hardly a challenge. She already knew where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was.
"Momo!"
Momo, wearing a sparkling unicorn hair pillowcase, popped out of the void with a swoosh.
"Little Master!"
"Get me some bread!"
Audrey gnawed on the bread as she walked directly to the deserted girls' bathroom on the second floor. This washroom, perennially occupied by the ghost Moaning Myrtle, was the entrance to Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets!
"Oh, Audrey!"
Seeing the ghost's catnip arrive, Myrtle excitedly pressed against her. "Ah! This feeling is so comfortable!"
Audrey's face darkened. "Go away, Myrtle, I don't have time for you right now!"
"Just for a moment, just for a moment! I was never this comfortable when I was alive!"
Audrey immediately switched to her Unicorn form. With the surge of holy aura, Myrtle shrieked, frantically diving into the toilet bowl in one of the stalls, splashing high water before vanishing.
Audrey walked up to the sink, where there was a tap engraved with a little snake.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss!" [Open]
The tap emitted a dazzling white light, and then the sink began to spin rapidly. When the entire sink vanished, an extremely thick pipe was exposed.
Frowning at the layers of grime and sticky, unidentifiable substances that had accumulated on the pipe walls for who knew how many years, Audrey felt disgusted.
Chapter 109: The Chamber of Secrets Explodes
"Fiendfyre Shield!"
Wrapped in blue flames, Audrey jumped into the pipe. She switched to her Dementor form—in such a confined space, the Dementor's method of floating was clearly more suitable.
The filthy water dripping from the pipe walls evaporated completely before it could touch Audrey. With no worries, Audrey flew downward.
The pipe twisted and turned, with countless junctions and branches, but she kept following the thickest pipe in front of her. After an unknown period, she finally reached the bottom.
"Boom!"
The Fiendfyre Shield ignited the methane gas, and fierce flames rapidly spread up the pipeline! However, the blue flames completely blocked the massive blast impact. Audrey scratched her head; after spending so long in the Wizarding world, she had forgotten some Muggle common sense…
At the same time, hot steam shot out of several drains across Hogwarts, frightening a few students. However, this was Hogwarts, and nothing was too strange, so no one was surprised enough to report it to a professor.
A moment later, the methane burned out, but Audrey still smelled an unpleasant odor. The Basilisk's bodily waste, accumulated over centuries, could not be burned clean by a single massive fire; the smell was indeed strong.
Perhaps an old Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor would be overjoyed to be here, as there might be large quantities of high-quality Ren Zhong Huang (Human Central Yellow) and Ren Zhong Bai (Human Central White)… or perhaps She Zhong Huang (Snake Central Yellow) and She Zhong Bai (Snake Central White)?
Audrey knew nothing about TCM, but that didn't stop her associative thinking, because only by doing so could she momentarily forget that she had descended into a Basilisk's toilet pit.
The blue light of the Fiendfyre Shield illuminated the surroundings. Audrey proceeded along the tunnel. The ground was littered with the skeletons of small animals, causing Audrey to frown—the Basilisk was quite inconsiderate. She didn't think the creature meticulously scraped the meat off these small animals and then spat out the bones. Therefore, these skeletons were the product of the Basilisk consuming small animals whole and then excreting them.
Disgusting, they were everywhere! Her calling this place a toilet pit was indeed insightful!
The blue flames purified everything. The subjective high temperature vaporized anything Audrey found uncomfortable. The tunnel, which had just been cleared by the methane explosion, was now undergoing a second wave of purification. Audrey continued forward, leaving a clean tunnel behind her.
Turning a corner, Audrey saw the gigantic Basilisk skin that had given Ron a fright in the original universe. Now, the skin was charred black, with embers still glowing faintly.
Ignoring this massive, perhaps priceless, Basilisk skin (she wondered if burned skin had any value), Audrey continued. The tunnel snaked about, seemingly without end.
Finally, she arrived at a wall carved with two intertwining snakes, whose eyes were magnificent emeralds. Audrey carefully observed the magical echoes on the wall.
After confirming that no magical power was passing through those two snake eyes, she decisively pried off the four emeralds, which were the size of hen eggs. She didn't know where Salazar Slytherin had acquired such fine-quality gemstones, but she knew that these four precious treasures were now hers!
"Hiss, hiss, hiss!" [Open]
The intertwining blind snakes parted, and the stone wall split down the middle, sliding apart to reveal a gigantic chamber.
But the next moment…
"Boom!"
The Chamber of Secrets exploded. The chamber was completely sealed, and Rowling had described it as "suffused with a mysterious green glow"! With the concentration visible to the naked eye, why wouldn't it explode?
Audrey had no time for regret. Figuring the Fiendfyre Shield likely couldn't withstand the blast, she instantly Apparated away from the spot.
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