Hogwarts: This professor is too Muggle.

Chapter 158 The Basilisk Sleeps

Harry asked the basilisk in a low voice, feeling a little guilty, and kept an eye on the professor not far away, who was hissing like a student giving secret signals in class.

The whole questioning was stumbling.

Although the basilisk can communicate in Parseltongue, its thinking is slow due to years of sleep, and it has not communicated with other creatures for a long time. It will find it difficult to answer any slightly complex long sentences. Only simple and straightforward yes or no questions can get accurate answers.

The answers to these simple questions put together confirmed Hermione's previous guess.

Long before they began investigating Myrtle's murder, Professor Lewinter had already been in contact with the basilisk. In the past few months, the professor had been using the eight-eyed giant spider as feed and feeding it to the basilisk at regular times and locations.

The night Harry heard the basilisk murmur in the dormitory, it was the professor who put the spider in the pipe to lure the basilisk to wander around in search of something.

"Why didn't your gaze kill us?"

"That guy cast a spell on my eyes."

Harry looked up into the basilisk's eyes and saw that the pupils were covered with a nictitating membrane as thick as window glass.

Combining the basilisk's answer with the information Dobby revealed, Harry slowly pieced together the whole picture of what had happened:

Lucius Malfoy was an insider of the Chamber of Secrets incident. For some unknown reason, he attempted to use this incident to disrupt the school. His plan was overheard by his own elf, which led to Dobby finding him and causing a series of troubles.

On the other hand, Malfoy found Professor Lewynter. Through his contact at Borgin and Burke's, the professor also knew about the Chamber of Secrets. For some reasons, he could not reveal the truth directly, so he guided them to investigate.

Many things are arranged by the professor, but there are also unexpected situations that go beyond the script.

Professor Lewynter restrained the basilisk's deadly gaze, but he didn't expect that Lockhart, who was greedy for fame and fortune, tried to monopolize the credit. He tricked all the students in the drama club into a secret room, which led to the final group battle.

"Did the professor tell you not to hurt us?"

"I don't understand human language, and he can't understand me either."

"..."

So the basilisk almost got out of control and the professor almost caused a disaster?

Harry was suddenly frightened.

Not far ahead, Melvin wandered between the stone pillars, checking the easily overlooked corners, looking for traces of rats.

No results.

The flagstone floor and the stone pillars carved by Transfiguration had long been cleaned of dust and stone chips. The repairing and cleaning spells cast by Dumbledore and him were very effective. Not only were there no traces of mice, but even his own footprints were gone.

Yurm poked his head out of his fedora and spat at the man and the snake over there, seeming to be very interested in the Parseltongue conversation over there.

Why learn Parseltongue if you can't even speak human language?

Melvin silently pushed the baby snake's head back, glanced at Hermione who was staring at him, and continued searching inside.

No matter how complicated Parseltongue was, it wouldn't take that long to interrogate a mouse. He had noticed something was wrong with the conversation a few minutes ago, but he didn't interrupt because he wanted Harry and the others to discover the truth themselves.

A perceptive little wizard like Hermione has noticed many suspicious things. Such suspicions cannot be always delayed and perfunctorily addressed, so that they think that all adventures are arranged and lose the motivation to investigate the truth.

A proper peek into the truth behind the scenes can help stimulate students' interest.

In addition, as a living Horcrux, Harry should have gone through some cruel and difficult trials to cultivate the courage to face Voldemort and death. However, after his interference, the adventures of the past two years became dangerous and it was difficult to play the role of due tempering.

Melvin walked around the chamber, confirmed it was about time, and cleared his throat. "Are you ready? Does it take so long to ask a mouse?"

"Right away...right away!"

Harry, feeling guilty and flustered, tried to justify himself, "The basilisk has eaten too many mice. I was describing Scabbers' characteristics."

"..."

Melvin suddenly laughed.

He has been feeding the basilisk since it woke up. The food for the first few weeks was the prey he begged from Hagrid, and the food for the next two months was the giant eight-eyed spider. The basilisk became more and more picky and would not eat unless it was roasted. How could it eat a mouse?

He didn't expose it: "What did the basilisk say?"

It was then that Harry began to ask about Scabbers: "Have you ever seen Scabbers, the hairless mouse with a missing toe?"

"Who wants to eat a stinky rat when there's a roasted Acromantula..."

In the secret room deep underground, the light was dim, with only the green light of the clouds and the silver light of the illumination spell. The basilisk hung its head, and Harry saw obvious contempt in its bright yellow snake eyes.

“Judging from your expression, the answer isn’t very optimistic. Hermione, Ron, you two keep searching around here.” Melvin approached, holding his fedora. “Harry, you stay here and help me put the Basilisk back to sleep.” Ron could only walk away disappointedly, feeling a pang of sympathy as he thought of the missing Scabbers.

Hermione didn't walk too far, pacing absentmindedly nearby, unwilling to miss the scene of the basilisk sleeping.

"What should we do?" Harry's eyes turned serious.

"Don't worry for now. I also want to talk to the basilisk. You can be my interpreter."

Melvin was quite relaxed. "Ask the basilisk what were the instructions Slytherin left behind when he made it sleep in the Chamber of Secrets?"

Harry turned to look at the basilisk, and the man and the snake began to hiss together again.

Half a minute later, Harry scratched his head and translated, "There are no specific orders, just that it should sleep here until the heir wakes it up."

"Besides the basilisk, is there anything else in the Chamber of Secrets?"

"There are still some materials, but they were taken away by the person who opened the secret room last time."

"Is that so..." Melvin wasn't surprised. This was pretty much what he expected. "Ask it again, does it recognize this ring?"

Melvin took a ring from the ring finger of his left hand. Under the effect of the levitation spell, the ring floated into the air and floated in front of the basilisk.

It was made of grayish-black, unidentified metal, with a humble Ouroboros pattern on its surface. Otherwise, it was unremarkable, without any trace of magical energy. The pupils of the snake eyes reflected in it shrank slightly.

"It said it knew the master... the inlay on Slytherin's wand." Harry relayed the basilisk's words in a somewhat strange tone. "It said, Professor, you don't know Parseltongue. If it weren't for this ring and the scent of Slytherin magic in the snake egg, it would never help you hatch."

"I thought it was beaten into submission."

Melvin shook his head. "Tell it for me that the current principal is worried it might harm students and can't let it stay in the school without any restrictions. We have two options. The first is to let it continue to sleep in a new snake den with no expiration date, and we don't know when it will wake up next time.

“The second is to leave school. I will find an uninhabited wilderness suitable for the basilisk to inhabit and let it live out its life freely.

“Ask it which one to choose?”

Harry looked at the professor. "Didn't we say it should be put to sleep?"

"That's the rhetoric we use to deal with Dumbledore," Melvin said nonchalantly. "He's the president of the International Confederation of Wizards. He should take the lead in abiding by international wizarding law. I'm not an employee of the Confederation."

"But the Ministry of Magic also has the Magical Creatures Protection Act..." Harry said weakly.

"I am a foreign wizard, the laws of the Ministry of Magic do not apply to me."

"There are some in the Magical Congress, right?"

"I'm at Hogwarts, not in the Magical Congress area."

"..."

Not far away, Hermione heard the words of this outlaw and was so shocked that her mouth opened wide, and she was dumbfounded.

Harry accepted it quickly and even thought that what the professor said made some sense. He told the basilisk the two plans and relayed its choice: "The basilisk said it should choose to sleep. Slytherin's order is for it to wait in school. It doesn't want to leave."

"But Slytherin will never come back."

"It still chooses to sleep."

Melvin sighed, "Then let it sleep. Give it orders in Parseltongue."

The basilisk gradually began to move, coiling its body into a ball and burying its head in the gap in the middle. Suddenly, it remembered something, turned its head and came to Melvin, its pupils shining.

After spending some time together, Melvin had become familiar with that look, the look of a basilisk begging for food.

But today was not feeding time, and Melvin didn't have his pockets with him, so he shook his head and said, "Forget it, tomorrow. I'll let you have a good meal before you go to bed."

Harry relayed it truthfully.

The basilisk was a little disappointed when he heard this. He did not answer in Parseltongue, but shook his head at Melvin and buried his head in the gap formed by the snake's body, indicating his choice with his actions.

The bright yellow pupils dimmed, leaving only a faint glow within them. A wave of drowsiness enveloped the giant snake, as if buried by snow and wind. Starting from its neck, the basilisk's erect scales began to wriggle, its muscles relaxed, and gradually spread throughout its body.

A faint light flickered in the center of the snake's pupil, like a faint candlelight, extinguished in the wind and snow.

The giant snake fell into a deep sleep.

(End of this chapter)