Chapter 145: Passing Through

Silven had originally planned to go back with Professor McGonagall, but he had only taken two steps out before being sent back.

Although he insisted again and again that he wasn't injured, Professor McGonagall still firmly refused to let him return to the common room and insisted he stay here.

"Professor Flitwick said you almost got splashed by the basilisk — that's no joke!" Professor McGonagall said with a stern face. "And until we've thoroughly investigated, this matter shouldn't be known by too many people, to prevent some folks from treating the Chamber as a new adventure spot."

After Professor McGonagall finished speaking, she left, also instructing Lady Pomfrey that under no circumstances should Silven be allowed to leave.

Silven was somewhat surprised; he knew that the "some folks" Professor McGonagall mentioned were actually Fred and George — when they first enrolled, they ran to the Forbidden Forest plenty of times, and they certainly wouldn't pass up a place like the Chamber.

What puzzled Silven was something else: Professor Flitwick had been over at the Quidditch pitch — how did he get the message to Professor McGonagall?

A two-way mirror, an owl, or did the professors have some other Method of the room to contact each other?

But no matter which it was, Professor McGonagall knew, and after she said that, Lady Pomfrey wouldn't let Silven leave either.

Silven could only walk over to the empty bed beside Ron and sit down.

But this wasn't bad either.

While Lady Pomfrey went off to prepare potions, Silven hurriedly asked, "What on earth happened? How did you end up looking like this?"

"Don't even ask." Ron stared blankly at the ceiling. "At noon today, we found the entrance to the Chamber…"

"Wait a moment." Silven quickly cut him off. "You're sure it's the entrance to the Chamber?"

"A second-floor washroom." Ron said. "Moaning Myrtle lives inside."

It really was the Chamber's entrance…

"How did you find it?" Silven asked curiously.

"You were the one who reminded us." Ron glanced at Silven. "You said Dumbledore sealed the entrance with magic. Later we heard Nearly Headless Nick chatting with the Fat Friar, and they mentioned Peeves couldn't get into Myrtle's washroom anymore.

"Right then we immediately thought — maybe that was the entrance to the Chamber."

Silven frowned. Wasn't that a bit too much of a coincidence? Still, he didn't interrupt Ron and continued, "Then what?"

"First tell me how the basilisk is." Ron asked anxiously, "I heard from Professor McGonagall that you rode a three-headed dog to attack the basilisk — is it true?"

"Fake," Silven said. "How could I possibly be a match for the basilisk? It was Hagrid and Fluffy — together they chopped the basilisk into three pieces."

Indeed three pieces — the leftmost head had been bitten by the basilisk and had no strength left, only playing a participatory role.

"That's good then, that's good." Ron let out a long breath of relief.

"Now can you tell me? What happened after you found the Chamber?"

"It was Hermione — she discovered Lockhart had been talking to a letter, and that letter could actually answer him, in a completely unfamiliar voice." Ron said. "She also heard that Lockhart and that person were planning to open the Chamber while Dumbledore was away from the school, to release the monster inside."

"Makes sense — that sort of thing can only be done when Dumbledore isn't around." Silven nodded. "But how did you get into the washroom?"

"Still Lockhart." As if he'd said too much in one breath, Ron's voice grew a little quieter. "We followed him to the second-floor washroom and saw him slice open his hand with a knife and smear the blood on the door."

"Smearing blood on the door… what does that mean?"

"Seems to be some kind of ancient ritual. The voice in the letter said it uses a wizard's blood to break the magic sustaining the spell. Then a bunch of colored lines appeared on the washroom door, and soon a crack opened, just wide enough for Lockhart to slip inside."

"But I don't think it's that simple." Ron suddenly said with great seriousness. "After that Lockhart became extremely weak — he even needed both hands just to hold a rooster…"

"Wait, what did you say?" Silven was stunned. "Lockhart was holding a rooster?"

"Yeah, Lockhart had been holding a rooster ever since he came out of his office." Ron blinked. "What, didn't I mention that just now?"

"Not at all."

"Doesn't matter — once Lockhart got into the Chamber he fell over and crushed the rooster." Ron waved his hand and muttered softly, "Really don't know why he had to do that."

As for why Lockhart brought a rooster into the Chamber, Silven felt he might know the truth.

Lockhart must have looked up information on the basilisk and knew perfectly well that a rooster's crow was lethal to it, which was why he'd specifically brought along this secret weapon.

No wonder he thought he had the ability to deal with the basilisk — not because of magic, but because of the rooster.

Lockhart didn't need to do anything; as long as he got the rooster to crow, he could immediately solve the basilisk problem.

Most likely the rooster Hagrid lost wasn't carried off by a blood-sucker either — it was stolen by Lockhart.

That idiot!

Silven thought through gritted teeth.

It was precisely because he stole a rooster that Hagrid felt the place wasn't safe anymore and moved the other roosters and the mole-skins somewhere else.

And Silven didn't even know where that place was, so he wandered around the hut for ages — even after Fluffy came running out, he still hadn't found where the roosters were.

But then again, after Tom Riddle's soul took over the body, would the basilisk really still fear a rooster's crow?

If it was afraid, why would Riddle let Lockhart bring a rooster into the Chamber… oh right, the rooster ended up being crushed to death by Lockhart himself.

Thinking it over carefully, this whole thing was rather suspicious — no matter how stupid Lockhart was, he shouldn't have been unable to keep hold of a single rooster.

At this point Lady Pomfrey came over too, giving Silven and Ron each a bottle of orange-red potion.

This one Silven recognized — it was the Vigorous Revival Potion, used to replenish stamina and nutrition; he'd drunk it before when he had a Mandrake leaf in his mouth.

Besides the Vigorous Revival Potion, there was also a bottle of bright blue potion that Silven didn't recognize; Lady Pomfrey handed it over, so he drank it.

The taste wasn't bad — there was a faint raspberry flavor.

But the next bottle, a brown potion, didn't look quite so friendly.

Fortunately, that one was for Ron — none of Silven's business.

Their conversation paused for a while, until Ron, frowning, forced that bottle of brown potion down, and only then did Lady Pomfrey take the empty cup and leave again.

The two of them picked up where they'd left off.

After Ron recovered for a while, waiting for the potion taste in his mouth to fade a bit, he began telling Silven about what happened on the second floor in a show-off sort of way.

"You'll never guess how the Chamber's entrance opens," he said. "The moment we touched that faucet, four animals appeared before us — a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake. Hermione said it was Headmaster Dumbledore's method, because those four animals correspond exactly to Hogwarts's four houses.

"Harry faced the snake; he made a kind of hissing sound in his mouth, and then a pipe suddenly opened.

"Later Harry said that at the time he'd wanted us to open the washroom door and escape, but somehow the moment he opened his mouth, that hissing sound came out.

"Later Professor McGonagall told us that Harry turned out to be a Parselmouth — that hissing sound just happens to be the Method of the room to open the Chamber."

Ron grew more and more animated as he spoke, saying it was because he decided to stay behind as rearguard, letting Harry and Hermione go for reinforcements, that he got caught.

But based on Silven's understanding of him, there was probably quite a bit of exaggeration in that, or rather, it was actually Ron accidentally exposing himself, and Harry and Hermione had no choice but to flee.

At that time Riddle should have already merged with the Basilisk, and the process was certainly not pleasant, so it was perfectly normal for them to make sounds.

Later the Basilisk began chasing them, but because the magic on the bathroom door had not been completely dispelled, the Basilisk couldn't get out, and so had no choice but to choose the pipes.

No wonder the Basilisk broke through the wall of the entrance hall and ran into him and Hagrid... once connected like this, it suddenly all made sense.

Silven had originally wanted to ask more, but when he turned his head, he saw that Ron had already fallen asleep, his head tilted to one side, striking a pose as if he wanted to keep chatting.

He was sleeping deeply, a faint smile still hanging at the corner of his mouth, and even his crooked head didn't cause him the slightest discomfort.

At the same time, a wave of drowsiness welled up in him as well; his mind grew heavy and muddled, as though he were lying on a soft sofa.

This feeling... Silven realized what that bottle of bright blue potion they had just drunk was — it was Dreamless Sleep Draught. A potion milder than the Draught of Living Death, yet one that could also swiftly plunge the drinker into a peaceful sleep...

No sooner had this thought formed than Silven had already fallen fast asleep.

……

(End of Chapter)