"...Qing, this is the situation..."
Hermione covered her face with a scarf - which Aaron had kindly lent her - and spluttered the whole story.
Fortunately, Hermione has always been methodical and can explain the ins and outs of things clearly even when she is in a highly agitated mood.
When Harry and Ron first left, Hermione was still immersed in the sadness and fear of turning into a cat lady. She desperately recalled the introduction of Polyjuice Potion in "Power Potion", thinking anxiously:
What if the change doesn’t come back...
She was uneasy like this for a long time, and finally she realized something was wrong.
Harry and Ron were gone for too long.
Logically speaking, the Polyjuice Potion only lasts for an hour. Within that hour, whether asked or not, the two of them should come back quickly.
But until now, almost two hours have passed.
Concern for her good friend overcame Hermione's embarrassment. She wrapped her head in her robe and hurried to the Slytherin common room.
However, when she arrived, Hermione was stunned.
I saw two lines of blood written on the wall leading to the lounge:
The pureblood offered his holy sacrifice,
Slytherin's glory will return.
…
Aaron, Snape and Dumbledore stood in the Slytherin dungeon, their ugly faces illuminated by a faint green light.
There were no traces of a fight in the lounge. It seemed that Malfoy had not summoned the basilisk.
Dumbledore quickly probed around with his wand, frowning:
"When building this dungeon, Slytherin left many secret passages. They extend in all directions and lead to every place under the castle. It is difficult for us to check them one by one..."
Hearing this, Aaron couldn't help but sigh:
"It's building the Chamber of Secrets and building the tunnels. It's really a waste for this Slytherin not to do civil engineering..."
Snape's lips twitched slightly, and he tried his best to pretend to be calm: "I'm going to call all the Slytherin students who are still here. They may have seen something..."
Dumbledore grabbed Snape and said, "Severus, calm down."
"The child is in danger!" Snape suddenly shook off Dumbledore's hand and shouted in an urgent voice that could never belong to him.
Aaron couldn't help but feel surprised - this was the first time he had seen Snape acting so rude.
He stood up and said: "You two, I may have a way to find them."
With that said, Runas flew in from outside.
"Your assistant? Does it have the ability to search the entire castle underground in a short time?" Snape asked suspiciously.
"Of course it won't work." Aaron tapped his hand three times on Runas' spherical body. The Golden Snitch slowly opened it, and Aaron took out a test tube from it.
Inside the test tube, there was a drop of mercury-like liquid.
Dumbledore seemed to have remembered something, with a look of surprise on his face, while Snape still had a look of doubt on his face - what use could such a little thing be used for?
Aaron didn't explain anything, he just tipped the test tube and poured the drop of liquid down.
The moment the liquid fell to the ground, Aaron raised his wand and chanted:
"Boil, my blood!"
This short spell produced a great effect: the drop of liquid expanded rapidly on the ground, and in the blink of an eye it turned into a semicircular sphere as big as a table.
Aaron waved his wand, and dozens of tentacles made of condensed mercury stretched out from the sphere, extending rapidly in all directions.
The tentacles burrowed into any cracks they saw, and they were extremely fast. In a short period of time, all the tentacles had penetrated into the pipes in the wall and floor, and extended all the way along the pipes.
"Oh!" Dumbledore had a very surprised and pleasant look on his face, while Snape was still frowning - he was not an alchemist and couldn't tell what this thing was doing.
Soon, the results of the Moon Spirit Marrow Liquid were found.
Its spherical body suddenly changed, the mercury deformed rapidly, and an irregular cave soon appeared in front of the three people.
"What does this mean?" Snape asked.
Aaron replied: "The Moon Spirit Marrow Liquid has found their location, but that place is covered with an extremely powerful magic seal, and it cannot extend in."
"so what should I do now?"
"Don't worry, Severus." Dumbledore said in an encouraging, slightly rising tone:
"As long as you find a place, everything will be easy. At Hogwarts, people can always get help when they need it!"
Aaron curled his lips:
This old guy, when did he stop here to play riddles...
…
Harry woke up from his coma.
He was just confused for a while, but soon woke up because he discovered a fatal fact——
The wand, his wand is no longer with him.
Harry raised his head and quickly recalled what happened before he fell into coma...
They were discovered by Malfoy... Harry subconsciously wanted to resist... A flash of silver light flashed before his eyes, and he was stunned...
When he woke up again, Harry was already here.
This seemed to be a naturally formed underground cave, with jagged rocks hanging from the dome. The ground was covered with fine white gravel-like powder, spreading out layer by layer like waves.
"Ron...where is Ron?"
Harry panicked, his eyes quickly roamed the empty cave, and soon he found a stone platform.
The stone platform was carved with blood-red lines, and Ron lay on it with his eyes closed, like a poor prey caught in a spider web.
Next to him, Malfoy, who looked pale, looked like he was unconscious.
Harry was confused. Wasn't Malfoy the real culprit behind bringing them here? Why was he unconscious too?
"Hello Harry, nice to meet you."
A voice came, and Harry turned to look, only to see a figure walking towards him.
It was a tall boy. He was young and handsome. He looked no older than sixteen. His body was shrouded in a hazy shimmer, like a character walking out of a photo.
Harry recognized the sound - it was the sound that came from Malfoy's mouth when something happened to him.
Behind him, a huge creature circled and slept. It had the skin of a green venomous snake, a pair of lantern-like yellow eyes that seemed to be covered with a layer of fog, and a ferocious wound on its head.
That was the basilisk injured by Aaron.
"Who are you?" Harry asked calmly.
"My name is Tom Riddle, and this is a memory from fifty years ago."
Riddle shrugged, holding Harry's wand in his hand.
"Oh, are you looking at my poor servant?" Riddle noticed his gaze. He touched the basilisk's injured head and said in a voice full of pity but extremely cold:
"Yes, it was injured. It was injured by that damn Mudblood - Craster. Its eyes were poisoned by that weird potion. Now it is very weak, very weak."
"But it will heal soon."
Riddle smiled, showing his white teeth.
"That boy——"
He pointed at Ron: "He has the blood of the Weasley family flowing in his body. The blood of wizards is precious. I don't want to waste it like this, but I have no choice but to do so."
"His sacrifice will completely repair the Basilisk's injuries, and not only that - it will also take it to the next level. By then, I will have a servant who can sweep through an army."
"sacrifice……"
This word cut through the fog in Harry's mind like a bolt of lightning, and he suddenly remembered something:
"You are-arranging a black magic ritual! You are going to use Ron's life to evolve the basilisk!"
"I thought you should be more perceptive, Harry." There was a look of disappointment on Riddle's face.
"This is impossible! Arranging such a ceremony at Hogwarts - who are you? How did you get the materials needed for the ceremony?"
Harry desperately recalled what Quirrell had taught them in the first grade - black magic rituals, an extremely complex area of magic that requires complicated and lengthy preparations and enough magic materials...
"Well, I think I can satisfy your curiosity..."
Riddle smiled: "This story will be long, but I think we still have a lot of time..."
