From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 170 Snake

"Harry foresaw something bad?" Ivy raised an eyebrow. "Who told you that?"

That day he was in the library using Scholar's Touch to read the restricted collection of Hogwarts. Hermione found him mysteriously and described to him what Harry had seen and heard that day.

The first thought that came to Ivy's mind was that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban.

As we all know, his Animagus form is a big black dog. In the original book, when Harry was in the third grade, he was in the Animagus form and looked at his godson across the street.

But now the Weasleys did not win the Daily Prophet's gold Galleon jackpot, so they did not appear on the front page of the Daily Prophet. Not to mention that Sirius saw the photo of the Weasleys in Azkaban, which was a coincidence among coincidences. If Fudge had not gone to Azkaban on a whim, Sirius would not have received the newspaper from Fudge, nor would he have discovered the information that Peter Pettigrew was still alive.

This coincidence could very likely be broken by extremely small variables. If Fudge had arrived at Azkaban a day earlier or later due to work reasons, the headline of the newspaper in his hand would most likely no longer be the photo of the Weasley family winning the lottery.

Or maybe due to the butterfly effect brought about by Ivy, the Weasley family never won the prize at all.

Moreover, this butterfly effect has begun to affect the magical world. Since Lucius gave Tom's diary to Ivy, he himself did not plot to use it to open the Chamber of Secrets, and there was no situation where Dobby betrayed the Malfoy family.

Now Ivy has seen the butterfly effect caused by the loss of the diary. Harry was not disturbed by Dobby during the summer vacation and was able to receive letters from his friends. Ron even took him to the Weasley Burrow the day before Harry's birthday. Then when the school started, the two of them were able to go to school normally and did not hit the Whomping Willow in the flying car.

It seems that the main storyline of this year no longer exists.

Thinking of this, Ivy suddenly decided to go into the secret room and check on the basilisk immediately. If possible, try to keep it asleep.

"Fred and George told me." Hermione, who was sitting opposite him, whispered, "They both took the Divination class. According to the Divination professor, 'Unlucky' is a well-known sign. Anyone who sees it will die soon!"

"So you came to the library to..." Ivy wasn't sure what Hermione wanted.

"To find information about 'ominous'!" Ivy glanced at the books Hermione had stacked in front of her, including "Death Omens: What to Do When You Know Doom is Coming", "Seeing the Future Through the Mist" and "Tyco Dodonas's Predictions".

The cover image of "Death Omen" is a big black dog. It is the dog spirit seen by wizards, which means "bad luck".

"Maybe what Harry saw was really a black dog, and not something 'ominous'." Ivy shook her head. "Good luck, Hermione. I have other things to do."

Hermione watched in astonishment as Ivy got up and left the library. In her impression, Ivy had always been a wise and shrewd character. This time she came to him in the hope of getting some help.

But Hermione didn't expect Ivy to leave like this: "Well... now I know that dealing with OWLs is not an easy task."

----

The girls' bathroom on the second floor of Hogwarts is a dilapidated place because a bad-tempered ghost, Myrtle, lives here all year round.

Ever since Ivy made the soul fragments in Tom's diary into an evil magic prop, he has learned the secret of Parseltongue from it. Now he can also use Parseltongue to open the passage to Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets.

Parseltongue is a magical skill. It is equivalent to a spell-like ability with the target specified as a snake. The effect is equal to the 1st-level spell Speak with Animals and the 4th-level spell Dominate Beast combined. These two spells are not in the wizard's spell list, so it is a very useful supplementary ability for Ivy.

With a brief hissing sound, the faucet engraved with the Slytherin snake emblem emitted a white light, and the pool below it disappeared and turned into a passage leading to the bottom of the Black Lake.

Ivy glanced at the sludge that filled the pipes with disdain, and used his gaseous form to turn himself into a breeze.

After walking for several miles along the winding sewers, Ivy stood on the ground of Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets for the first time.

In fact, Ivy had been thinking about visiting here more than a hundred years ago. Although the Gaunt family had begun to decline at that time, it seemed that they had not lost the inheritance of the Chamber of Secrets. It was not a wise move to rashly tell his friend Omines that he wanted to visit Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets. Ivy originally planned to learn a few words of snake language from Omines after dealing with the goblin Lanlock, and then go to the Chamber of Secrets alone.

Now more than a hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye, and Ivy has finally got what he wished for.

Ivy took out his wand and tapped it in the air a few times, creating several fluorescent spheres that illuminated the entire underground space.

The first thing that was illuminated by the fluorescent light was the huge snake slough of the basilisk. After a thousand years of growth, the basilisk cultivated by Slytherin himself has grown to a terrifying size. You should know that the average length of an adult basilisk is 50 feet. As a weapon prepared by Slytherin to eliminate Muggles, the basilisk hidden in the Chamber of Secrets is even more terrifying.

Passing through the gravel and scattered animal bones on the ground, Ivy put all the giant snake sloughs of the basilisk into the Grimoire of Destruction, which is a very good potion material and can also be used for alchemy. As a member of the Scoia'tael who even collects the wands of the dark wizards he killed, Ivy had no reason to let go of the giant basilisk's snake slough.

Continuing along the passage, Ivy came to a well-preserved wall. Needless to say, Slytherin must have cast a spell on it a thousand years ago, because the passage Ivy had just passed was not as bright and beautiful as this one.

The wall was decorated with two giant snakes coiled together, as if they were hissing, and the snakes' eyes were huge emeralds, which was in line with Slytherin's traditional aesthetic.

"Open." Ivy commanded the wall in front of him in a deep Parseltongue voice.

The two giant stone-carved snakes slowly separated, and the stone walls gradually sank into the two sides of the passage, revealing a hall.

There were many stone pillars with giant snakes coiled around them, supporting the dark ceiling. Standing at the end of the darkness was a huge stone statue, a statue of Slytherin himself.

He was a thin, wrinkled wizard with a long beard that almost reached the ground. The floor in the hall seemed to be paved with some kind of magic. The fluorescent ball that Ivy cast could not illuminate the entire hall at all. Ten steps away, it was dark again.

"Speak to me, Slytherin - the greatest of the four great men at Hogwarts." Ivy looked into the eyes of the Slytherin statue and spoke the secret words in a low Parseltongue.

Slytherin's mouth suddenly opened wide, revealing a cave that led to nowhere.

Ivy gave himself a 3-ring flying spell and followed the new cave to the deepest part of the secret room.

The furnishings here are very similar to Slytherin's study, and it can be seen that there is a consistent architectural concept. Ivy once explored Slytherin's study with Omnis Gaunt more than a hundred years ago. Together they experienced many tests set by Slytherin himself, such as using the Cruciatus Curse to torture your friends.

Ivy saw a lot of interesting black magic in that study, but in terms of lethality, it was still not as effective as the Killing Curse carefully developed by the wizards.

The deepest part of the chamber of secrets is undoubtedly a single space. There is a stone bed covered with green sheets, and all the bedding on it has been destroyed by time; there is a stone table decorated with stone snakes like the stone pillars in the hall. On the stone table, there are some rotten parchment and candlesticks that have long been dried; there are also several large boxes that have long been empty. Perhaps Slytherin left some of his collections to future generations, but considering the poor situation of the Gaunt family, Slytherin's relics may have been dealt with by them long ago.

The single-person space in the Chamber of Secrets was unremarkable. Perhaps Slytherin left Hogwarts shortly after the construction of the Chamber of Secrets was completed. Wasn't the hall that Ivy had passed by before not much different from this one? Although it was well preserved by magic, it was indeed empty.

There was a stone porch on the side near the entrance, and several steps guided Ivy down.

Under the illumination of the fluorescent ball, Ivy saw the green scales of the basilisk at a glance. Its huge body almost filled the entire sunken cellar, and the air was filled with a fishy and sweet smell. Ivy guessed that it came from the basilisk's highly poisonous saliva and venom.

The coiled snake body reflects a brilliant light. Like other poisonous animals in nature, the basilisk uses its dazzling scales to convey danger signals to all creatures that see it.

Ivy discovered that the scales were trembling in a regular pattern. Although it was very slow, it was proof that the basilisk was still alive.

Ivy flew over the basilisk and found its triangular head along its coiled body. Compared with its huge body, the head was very flat. The basilisk in front of him was a female, because Ivy did not find the iconic bright red feathers on the head of the male basilisk. It has existed in the basement of Hogwarts Castle for more than a thousand years. It is impossible that it has not yet begun to develop secondary sexual characteristics, right?
Under the fluorescent light, the basilisk's eyelids trembled, as if it was about to wake up in the next moment.

"Go to sleep—" Ivy soothed in Parseltongue.

As the only magical power that wizards can use to control the basilisk, the orders of Parseltongue are absolute to it. Even if Ivy is not its real master, there is no other wizard here who has Parseltongue.

The Tome of Order and Monsters, written with fragments of Tom Riddle's soul, gave Ivy the power to tame the basilisk. If she wanted the basilisk to completely submit to Ivy, she must first eliminate the connection between it and the Slytherin bloodline.

As the creator of the basilisk, Slytherin's magic ensures that the basilisk is always loyal to his offspring. This is why Harry, who is also a parselmouth in the original book, cannot command the basilisk.

Ivy needs some research to ensure that Slytherin's magic is ineffective, but even if he succeeds, there is not enough space to carry the basilisk with him. So Ivy is not in a hurry. He still has a lot to do this year. Now he just needs to ensure that the basilisk will not suddenly run away.

The silver lime tree wand sprayed out a burst of silvery-white mist, which soon completely enveloped the basilisk below, making it look like it was covered with a layer of silver gauze.

This is not a magic that works on the basilisk.

As a magical creature classified at the XXXXX level by the Ministry of Magic, the basilisk's scales, like those of a dragon, have a very strong anti-magic effect, and any spell cast on their scales may be deflected.

Ivy was unwilling to waste his energy on doing something stupid. Anyway, the diary had disappeared. Without external intervention, Harry, the second Parseltongue in Hogwarts, would not take the initiative to enter the girls' bathroom. The basilisk was safe in the chamber of secrets, and no one would disturb it.

So Ivy didn't need to go to great lengths to trap it with magic. He only needed to add a layer of safety measures. When the basilisk woke up and broke the spell that enveloped it, Ivy would know immediately. Such a precautionary measure was enough. Without Voldemort's interference, the school would be very peaceful this year.

Ivy cast a spell to remove a piece of green scale from the basilisk, turned and left the secret room. He was going to do his next task.

After completely dealing with the Phantom of the Opera in the basement of the Paris Opera House, Ivy gained enough experience to push his career level of Scribe Mage/Ancient Fighter to level 12.

But the melody spellcasting expertise and preparations for the start of school still took him some time, so he only had time to complete the upgrade now.

Reaching level 12 means that Ivy gets another chance to choose a specialty and gains a professional feature from the Ancient Warrior profession - replacing the Ancient Ability.

As a master in discovering ancient artifacts, the ancient fighter can gradually gain control over the ancient artifacts after deeply synchronizing with them.

This means that the Ravenclaw crown will completely serve Ivy and become his Doom crown. Ivy can rely on this professional feature to completely change a secondary ancient ability of the Ravenclaw crown.

But before that, Ivy must first complete an ancient ritual to further activate the power of the Ravenclaw Crown.

"Adorned with the evening star" is the second step of the ancient ritual of Ravenclaw's crown. Ivy already has some clues.

He would use a magic to seal the starlight in the sky into gems, making them shine forever, and then inlay them into the crown as decoration.

For the largest gem on the crown, Ivy decided to use the light of Venus.

(End of this chapter)