radicalducati Chapter 189 Empty Nest
Chapter 189 Empty Nest
Chapter 189 Empty Nest
The moment Cullen finished speaking, the biting wind of Black Lake seemed to freeze. Dumbledore's eyes, which seemed to pierce through the soul, were fixed on him. Feeling Dumbledore's gaze, Cullen suddenly felt a strong urge to learn Occlumency.
"The abandoned girls' washroom on the second floor," Dumbledore repeated slowly, his voice as deep as if rolling across ice. "Myrtle, yes, there—the starting point of the tragedy fifty years ago." His gaze swept over Quirrell's stiff body on the snow, then turned towards the castle. "Your talent—allowed you to see the magical traces of the entrance?"
Cullen hadn't actually seen it, since the area hadn't been touched for decades and there were no traces left. However, he skipped over the question, giving Dumbledore a sense of tacit agreement. "I've roughly determined the location of the activation mechanism, but I don't know how to activate it yet. However, we now have another entrance." Cullen remembered that the activation mechanism required Parsley to open it, but he couldn't explain how he knew. Besides, there was no need to enter from there at the moment. With his talent, he could directly trace the trail from this abandoned waterway to find the secret chamber.
Dumbledore understood Cullen's meaning: she wanted to investigate directly through the abandoned waterway. "Then, that abandoned waterway is its current 'door'." He pointed to the rock wall where Cullen had found the snake scales, his tone resolute. "Quirok's death, Voldemort's disappearance, both point to this passage. The traces are fresh, the magic still lingers. Now, Cullen, may I ask you to come with me?"
"Of course, Headmaster, I also think that acting immediately is the best course of action. The basilisk is far more dangerous than Quirrell before. It is best to control the danger as soon as possible. In addition, Mr. Nico has already sent me the first version of the Soul Restriction Container. I have tried it and it can be used." Karen immediately agreed and then patted his bag.
"Then, let's not delay," Dumbledore said decisively, and immediately took action. He drew his wand, and a dazzling silver-white light emanated from its tip. The phoenix, the guardian spirit, raised its head and cried out, carrying his will as it flapped its wings and flew towards the castle.
"Felius, Pomona," Dumbledore's voice came clearly through the Patronus, "Quirok is dead. The source of danger has been confirmed as the Basilisk. The target may still be hiding in the castle's underground pipes or secret chambers. Please proceed immediately to the fourth-floor forbidden corridor to reinforce the defenses of the room containing the Philosopher's Stone, and be alert for any unusual magical fluctuations!"
The silver phoenix vanished as a streak of light.
Without further delay, the two braved the biting wind and quickly ran towards the entrance. Snape stood silently before the abandoned waterway entrance, his face so grim it seemed to drip water.
"Severus, guard this place," Dumbledore said succinctly.
Snape's dark eyes swept over Cullen with undisguised scrutiny and a hint of doubt, finally settling on Dumbledore's face. "What's inside?" His voice was like the scraping of ice.
"A basilisk that has lived for a thousand years, and it's highly likely it will return to this exit." Dumbledore didn't answer directly. "Your task is to ensure nothing gets out of here. If things get out of control, protecting the castle is the top priority. As for everything else, we'll discuss it when I return!"
He didn't give Snape a chance to ask further. "Let's go, Cullen." Dumbledore didn't delay any longer, striding towards the waterway entrance beneath the rock wall. The snow seemed to automatically part beneath his feet, making his movement exceptionally swift. Cullen took a deep breath, suppressing her racing heart, and quickly followed, reactivating her True Sight to track the basilisk's trail.
Upon entering, the tip of Dumbledore's wand glowed with a soft white light, dispelling the darkness at the entrance.
Immediately, a strong, pungent stench, a mixture of silt, humus, water, and an indescribable foulness, assaulted the senses, almost suffocating. Underfoot lay frozen, uneven mud and withered leaves, crunching and cracking with each step. Dumbledore's Illumination Charm had limited light, illuminating only a dozen feet ahead. The massive stone pipe's walls were damp and frosty, tilting downwards.
Bottomless.
"Any clues?" Dumbledore's voice echoed through the empty, deathly silent tunnels.
Karen was completely focused, his grey-blue eyes seeming to shimmer with a galaxy of light. "Very clear, Headmaster," he said in a low voice, pointing to the ground and the side wall. "Residual magic and fresh mud marks left by scales scraping—wide and deep—pointing downwards." His gaze followed the trail captured by his Eye of Truth, which stretched deep into the pipes. "It must have passed through here, heading directly beneath the main castle."
The two fell silent, cautiously descending the massive pipe under the steady light of Dumbledore's lamp. The pipe was eerily silent, the only sounds amplified being the crunch of their footsteps on the icy mud and the scraping of their robes against the stone walls. The air grew increasingly damp and chilly, and the pipe began to branch off, but the tracks left by the basilisk's enormous body and the lingering traces of magic served as the clearest landmarks.
This guided them to always choose the widest main passage with the greatest downward angle to go deeper.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, the terrain seemed to begin to level out. They emerged from the sewer pipes and stepped into an unimaginably vast underground space.
This was a long, narrow room, incredibly grand yet filled with a chilling, deathly silence. Two rows of massive stone pillars supported the towering ceiling. Each pillar was carved with lifelike, coiled serpents, their scales shimmering in the magical glow, their cold, stone eyes seeming to watch over the intruder. The entire space was permeated with a greenish cloud, casting an eerie aura over everything.
At the far end of the room stood an enormous statue. It clung to the rock wall behind it, almost reaching the ceiling. The statue's face was none other than Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts! The statue's open mouth resembled the entrance to a deep, dark tunnel, its edges smooth and glistening, clearly the result of long-term friction from massive objects—the very passage the basilisk used to enter and exit!
Karen's True Eye was instantly captivated by the scene in the center of the hall.
Not far in front of the Slytherin statue, a huge, unsettling, grayish-white, translucent substance lay coiled on the ground, gleaming with an oily and eerie sheen under Dumbledore's light.
Snake molt!
A complete, freshly shed basilisk skin! The empty shell alone was more than the height of an adult man in diameter and as long as a pea's web—a colossal creature.
"The Chamber of Salazar," Dumbledore's voice, heavy and penetrating, shattered the suffocating silence. His gaze, sharp as an eagle's, swept across the room, finally settling on the massive Slytherin statue and its open mouth. "It has just molted—its power may be in an unstable, or perhaps more dangerous, state. Be careful, Cullen, search for its presence, but never let your guard down."
Karen nodded vigorously, held her breath, and her gaze, like an invisible probe, swept over the enormous hall inch by inch.
But there was absolutely no sign of life from that serpent monster; not even a mouse or a bat could be seen!
"It's not here," Karen's voice was dry and worried. "It's not here, Headmaster! The molted snake was only recently shed; the residual magic and life force are still fresh, but it itself is gone! The entire chamber—except for us, there's no living thing!"
Dumbledore frowned deeply. He strode over to the enormous snake skin, extended his wand, and instead of touching it, gently brushed the surface of the skin from a distance.
"It faded just a few hours ago, probably around the time of Quirrell's death," Dumbledore whispered.
"It's gone, but where did it go?" Karen looked around the magnificent yet oppressive space, a hint of anxiety rising within him. Undoubtedly, the plot had deviated from the original story. Karen wasn't afraid of Voldemort possessing Quirrell, but the Basilisk was different; its danger and lethality far surpassed Quirrell's. "It couldn't have vanished into thin air! There must be another exit!" He focused his mind again, beginning to scan every inch of the enormous hall's floor, every pillar, especially the colossal statue and its open mouth, searching for any unusual magical flow.
Hidden spatial nodes or energy gaps.
Time ticked by, with only the emerald green mist flowing silently. Dumbledore moved on in silence, using his vast experience to probe the surroundings.
Suddenly, Karen's gaze stopped on the rock wall on the side of the hall, near the base of a huge serpentine pillar. There was something wrong with the magical traces on the rock wall there; it wasn't just a simple mark left by being entangled.
"Headmaster! There!" Karen pointed to the base of the stone pillar, "Behind the rock wall - magic is being continuously and weakly drawn in!"
It's like—like a hidden ventilation opening or passage!
Dumbledore appeared beside him instantly, the light from his wand focusing on the spot. The base of the pillar, where it met the rock wall, was covered with thick, slippery, dark green moss and clinging vines, looking no different from its surroundings.
"Cleaned up!" Dumbledore waved his wand. The thick moss and vines clinging to the base of the stone pillars and the rock walls fell away as if peeled off by an invisible hand, revealing what was hidden behind them.
A hole!
A hole, much smaller in diameter than the sewer entrance they had come from, but large enough for the basilisk to enter, was pitch black and bottomless. A faint stream of air, carrying the scent of decaying leaves and earth, was slowly blowing out of the hole.
At the smooth edge of the hole, Karen could clearly "see" several extremely fresh, sticky scratches imbued with cold magic!
It's exactly the same as the residual magic power found in the snake scales at the sewer entrance!
"It left from here!" Karen's voice was urgent. "Very fresh tracks! Upwards, leading to the surface!"
Dumbledore's expression instantly turned extremely grave. Almost without hesitation, he pointed his wand at the cave entrance: "Follow the trail, Cullen!"
The two crawled into the cave and walked for an unknown amount of time before finally a faint light and some flowing air appeared ahead!
As Dumbledore gently parted the last clump of withered vines at the cave entrance with his wand, blinding sunlight flooded in. Cullen squinted and crawled out of the cave, immediately stunned by the sight before her.
They found themselves in a forest clearing. In the center of the clearing was a mess, with charred ground and some newly grown shrubs. This seemed to be the place where the dark wizard, suspected to be Voldemort's accomplice, had committed suicide by self-immolation on Halloween night!
"The Forbidden Forest—" Karen murmured, looking around at the unfamiliar, ravaged clearing. "It's come into the Forbidden Forest—"
Dumbledore stood beside him, his aged face shrouded in frost. His sharp gaze swept over the most chaotic area in the center of the clearing—the fallen bushes, the churned earth and snow, and several large, frozen, blackened patches of blood.
"Halloween Dark Wizard Fiendfyre," Dumbledore's voice was deep and cold. "Now it seems more like a clumsy cover-up, or perhaps the entrance was only discovered then?" He turned to Cullen and asked, "Cullen, can we still track it down?"
Karen focused his gaze again, his Eye of Truth scanning the entire clearing. The residual magic here was extremely chaotic, with various different magical traces, seemingly deliberately stirred up. The basilisk alone shouldn't have been able to do that. Could it be that Voldemort had already sensed someone tracking him using magical traces?
Karen slowly shook her head, her voice filled with frustration and heaviness: "The traces—are completely corrupted and covered up. It's too chaotic to find. It disappeared deep in the Forbidden Forest, and Headmaster, the traces here have been clearly disturbed. It's obvious that Voldemort should be with the Basilisk right now."
A cold wind swept through the forest clearing, ruffling Dumbledore's silver beard and hair. He stood silently, gazing at the devastated landscape.