Chapter 61
Harry didn't know what he was thinking.
He saw Professor Aisen open the Chamber of Secrets and disappear into the entrance so he subconsciously followed.
*Whoosh——*
The entrance to the Chamber was dark and profoundly deep, continuously blowing out chilly, sinister wind.
This time, there was no Hermione, no Ron — just him alone.
The cold wind carrying a fishy stench brushed against his body. Harry suddenly shivered uncontrollably — his heart felt like fire, yet his body felt like ice.
But.
He couldn't run away.
Headmaster Dumbledore had already been driven out of the school. Professor Snape's dueling skill was clearly inferior to Professor Aisen's — the other professors probably weren't his match either — and even if he called them all, there wasn't enough time.
Right now, besides him, who else could do this?
He couldn't 'not' do it! He 'had' to do it!
Moreover, Harry didn't believe — he refused to believe — that everything before had been caused by Professor Aisen.
He was going to get to the bottom of it all and ask for answers.
How strange. Usually he would feel nervous just making eye contact with Professor Aisen, so why, at this moment, did he suddenly find the courage to face him?
Harry looked at the thick water pipe in front of him and gave a dry laugh.
Then he took a deep breath, summoned his courage, and slid down!
Darkness greeted him. The parts of his body touching the pipe gave a disgusting, slimy sensation — Harry rushed downward through the endless pipe. He could see many other pipes branching off in all directions, but he simply followed the thickest, steepest one all the way down.
Harry knew he had slid far, far below the school's ground level — even deeper than the dungeons used for classrooms.
Yet at this moment, he somehow still had the spare mental energy to think of other things — he could hear the faint thumps his body made when it hit the bends in the pipe. In his mind played scenes from the day before yesterday when he and the others were playing Quidditch together, and his own progress over these past few months — he should have been able to do better.
That story — 'The Wizard with the Hairy Heart' — if only he had taken it more seriously, if only he had been a little better — if only he had joined Professor Aisen's study group, perhaps he could have noticed something earlier?
Just as Harry began to worry about what was coming next, he suddenly landed with a wet *thump* on damp ground — he had reached the end.
It was a dark stone tunnel, large enough for a person to stand upright.
"Lumos."
Harry whispered to his wand and surveyed the black, slimy walls around him.
His feet made loud *squelch-squelch* sounds as they stepped on the wet floor — in the current environment, that noise felt unnaturally loud.
After thinking for a moment, he quickly pulled off his leather boots — stepping again in just his socks, the sound was much better.
'If Hermione were here, she'd definitely have a better solution… Too bad I still know far too few spells.' Thinking this, Harry pressed his lips together and moved forward in silence.
The tunnel was so dark he could only see a small area right in front of him.
The light from his wand cast his shadow onto the damp walls, making it look monstrous — the tunnel was as silent as a tomb. Harry continued walking quietly forward, trying hard not to imagine what lay at the end.
Another dark bend.
Harry's figure froze instinctively.
The outline of an enormous coiled creature lay motionless on the other side of the tunnel.
*Thump-thump—!*
He felt his heart racing painfully in his chest.
He narrowed his eyes as much as possible while still being able to see — the light fell on an enormous snakeskin, vividly green and obviously shed by a highly venomous serpent. It lay coiled and empty on the tunnel floor.
Clearly, the creature that had shed this skin was at least twenty feet long.
"Haa—"
Harry felt his breathing tremble, he walked past that gigantic snakeskin alone.
The tunnel twisted and turned again and again.
Every nerve in his body was shaking.
He wanted to reach the end quickly, yet was terrified of what he would find there.
But the tunnel did eventually come to an end.
A solid wall stood before Harry, carved with two intertwined snakes. Their eyes were set with large, glittering emeralds.
Harry stepped closer step by step, throat dry.
But he knew what he had to do.
*(Open)*
He forced the hissing sound from his low, hoarse throat.
The two snakes parted. The stone wall split down the middle and slowly slid aside, vanishing.
Harry could not control the trembling of his body, but he forced his shaking legs to carry him inside.
Stone pillars carved with great serpents coiled and intertwined, supporting a ceiling that melted into darkness high above, casting long, eerie shadows across the entire chamber filled with mysterious green mist.
Harry slowly advanced between the serpent-twined pillars. With every step, the socks sticky with green slime clung briefly to the floor, making tiny, grating sounds.
Under the intense tension, his stomach began to spasm and cramp painfully.
Yet he was also relieved — up to this point, he still hadn't heard the Basilisk's voice.
When he reached the last pair of pillars, a statue as tall as the chamber itself suddenly came into view, pressed against the dark wall behind it.
Harry had to tilt his head far back to see the enormous face — an aged, monkey-like visage with a sparse, long beard that nearly reached the hem of the stone-carved wizard robes.
Standing before this bizarre stone statue was a tall, upright figure.
Professor Aisen.
Looking at his back, Harry suddenly felt his nose sting.
What was Professor Aisen going to do?
Release the Basilisk? Kill them all?
Harry thought again of the Christmas day before last — all of them playing Quidditch in the snow, Professor Aisen watching from the side, his gaze so gentle.
But now… why?
Were all those moments, all that earnest effort in class, just a disguise to deceive them?
Wearing his Invisibility Cloak, Harry raised his trembling wand and slowly aimed it at Aisen's back.
Right now — just one Binding Spell that the professor himself had taught them — and it would all be over.
But… was that really right?
Harry's mind flashed to the story Ron had told him earlier.
Was Professor Aisen going mad because his heart had grown hair?
Could he… save him?
Save him?
Did he even deserve to try?
'Harry Potter, do you really think you're the Chosen One? That's something even the wizard's beloved couldn't accomplish in the story.'
Harry thought desperately, yet his mind felt completely blank.
The hand holding the wand shook harder and harder. His teeth were clenched so tightly he thought they might bleed.
He couldn't say the spell!
But just as Harry wavered, Professor Aisen's voice suddenly rang out, echoing through the entire underground chamber.
*Awaken*
Harry jerked his head down, not daring to look.
A wet, slithering sound reached his ears — like tentacles or worms writhing, yet far larger and more enduring. Harry's face twisted in pain. His wand hand dropped powerlessly.
He realized that because of his earlier hesitation, he had already missed the chance to stop Professor Aisen.
But immediately after, he heard something that filled him with wild joy!
***
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