From Hogwarts to Sturhaven

He kept his mouth tightly shut. Now he understood completely that the person who had secretly entered the secret chamber that night was the heir—Ivy Doom.

But they are friends...

“Who!?” Snape roared.

Harry had never seen him so angry. Undoubtedly, Snape hated Harry, but he always expressed it in a sarcastic, biting, and somewhat unpleasantly humorous tone.

After all, he's a professor, and he always comes out on top when he clashes with Harry, so why would he get angry?

The heir to Slytherin will kill everyone in Hogwarts who is unworthy to learn magic...

Hermione's voice flashed through Harry's mind.

Although Ivy is a Slytherin, he is different.

Ron was also speaking deep within Harry's mind.

Snape's gaze seemed to see right through Harry, and he tried hard to keep his mouth shut, afraid that he might accidentally utter Ivy's name.

Parseltongue. Ivy. The Locked Room. Hydra. Fire Dragon.

Various thoughts raced through Harry's mind, including Professor Lockhart's homework and the basilisk that Hermione had only mentioned to them once.

Could Snape be a basilisk in disguise?

Harry made that connection for no reason.

Otherwise, why would Harry feel like he's going to suffocate every time he's stared at?

Snape's eyes changed; he seemed to know something. He opened his thin lips, about to utter some vicious words.

But the sudden music interrupted him.

The two people in the bathroom looked at the pipe that Ha had opened using Parseltongue earlier; the music was coming from there.

No, it wasn't music, it was birdsong.

Harry had barely realized the truth behind the music when he saw a fiery red shadow burst out of the pipe.

“Fox?” Harry heard Snape mutter to himself, “So Dumbledore is already…”

That fiery red shadow was a beautiful large bird. It had golden-red feathers and flew around the washroom while crying loudly.

Phoenix.

Harry read out the only name he knew that could be associated with this creature.

"No! That's not right!" Harry suddenly shouted, "That three-headed snake wasn't the monster from the Chamber of Secrets!"

A phoenix flying in the air landed on a rickety toilet tank.

In Hogwarts, the toilets and water tanks are separate, connected by a pipe. This design allows the water used for flushing to have more gravitational potential energy, making it faster and cleaning the toilet more thoroughly. Muggle toilets, on the other hand, use a different design to increase the water flow rate, allowing the tank and toilet to be connected together.

The snake's tail sweep almost destroyed all the toilets, but some of the water tanks hanging on the wall were undamaged, although all the water inside had now spilled onto the floor.

Snape's eyes remained fixed on the phoenix high above, while the phoenix tilted its head, staring at the two humans, one tall and one short, in front of it.

"It told me before that the monsters underground were fighting!" Harry tugged at Snape's sleeve, trying to remind him that there might be a dragon down there. "It must be a phoenix and... some other creature..."

“You’re a Parseltongue…” Snape began glaring at Harry again, his eyes filled with a hatred that Harry couldn’t comprehend.

"What did the snake say to you?" Snape asked softly.

“It said the monster would kill everyone… and that we should leave…” Harry tried to remember, but how could anyone remember what three mouths said at the same time?

"That's it?" Snape asked, his eyes wide, as if trying to dredge the memory out of Harry's head with his gaze.

“It has three heads and three mouths…” Harry said, “I can’t remember…”

“Someone’s talking again…” Harry tilted his ear to listen carefully.

It was a barely perceptible whisper, but it grew closer and louder.

I'll kill you! I'll tear you apart!

The phoenix jumped up from the water tank and began to sing again.

Harry suddenly felt courage growing wildly in his chest like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. His heart pounded wildly, pumping out wave after wave of blood. He felt clear-headed, better than ever before.

"Another snake is coming out!" Harry shouted. "It's going to kill us!"

Although he didn't particularly like his Potions professor, he was at least the second person in the small bathroom, and Harry hoped to get his attention.

However, Snape always took everything that happened at Hogwarts very seriously, especially anything that might be related to Voldemort.

"Come here!" He pulled Harry behind him, facing the large hole in the wall, and stepped back, wand in hand.

Turning your back to the enemy is always a foolish act, and Snape would never make such a basic mistake.

The noise inside the pipes grew louder and louder, but Harry was completely obscured by Snape's black robes and couldn't see anything.

“I can walk by myself!” he protested.

However, he didn't get to hear Snape's mockery. The arm that was gripping his shoulder seemed to suddenly lose all its strength, and before he could react, Snape's body had pinned him down.

"Ouch!" Harry's head hit the floor, splashing a huge spray of water. Before the dirty water filled his ears, he heard the sound of a huge creature swimming across the water, and the angry cry of a phoenix.

Chapter 190 Part of the Truth

Snape always wore a black robe and had his hair slicked back, moving through the corridors and staircases of Hogwarts like a bat.

Harry had always thought his Potions professor was a thin, frail man, but when he was pinned down by him, he felt incredibly heavy.

Harry struggled to tear open Snape's black robes, making room for his own breath, while trying to wake him: "Professor?"

Snape didn't react at all.

"Stupid bird! Bad bird! Stinky bird!" The giant snake that slithered out of the Chamber roared angrily. Harry knew this was his and Snape's chance. They had to take advantage of the phoenix's entanglement with the snake to quickly leave the bathroom and evacuate everyone in the castle.

A three-headed snake escaped earlier, and now there's another giant snake whose appearance is unknown. It seems Hogwarts is not far from closing down.

Just as he finally managed to push Snape's body aside and let his brain get some fresh air, a calm voice rang out.

It was still hissing Parseltongue, which Harry could understand: "Go back to the Chamber of Secrets! You are not to leave again without my permission!"

The giant serpent, which was fighting the phoenix, stopped and hissed in confusion: "Who are you? I've never seen you before..."

"As the heir to Slytherin, I command you to return to the Chamber of Secrets!"

Harry looked in the direction of the sound, only to see a magnificent magic book floating in mid-air.

The spellbook floating in the air was Ivy's Grimoire of Destruction.

As a Scribe mage, Ivy gained the class trait of Awareness Manifestation at level 6, which allows her to summon the consciousness within spellbooks.

The summoned grimoire consciousness is treated as a miniature spiritual object that can hover above the ground. Its summoning range is 60 feet, its movement speed is 30 feet, and its maximum distance from Ivy is 300 feet.

The summoned grimoire spirits can hear and see, and can share what they see and hear with the caster through telepathy.

Because the Grimoire's consciousness is considered an object, and the Basilisk's murderous gaze is obviously only effective on living beings, Ivy is able to observe the entire bathroom environment and command the Basilisk through the Basilisk language.

The basilisk, who had only heard Ivy's voice in his dreams, was clearly unfamiliar with his commands and therefore appeared quite hesitant and confused.

During this time, Ivy also noticed Harry and Snape lying at the door and immediately cast a level 2 Evocation spell, Darkness, without hesitation.

The effect of the Dark Magic is very simple: it envelops a spherical space with a radius of 15 feet in magical darkness, making it impenetrable even to creatures with darkvision. Ivy believed this method could effectively shield the basilisk from its murderous gaze, or at least render it petrifying.

Harry was suddenly plunged into complete darkness, with no light able to penetrate. This caused Harry to let out a scream.

“Don’t panic, Harry,” Ivy said. “The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a basilisk, and the darkness will keep you from making eye contact with it.”

"Professor Snape!" Harry called out, regaining his composure. "Look at him! He's not doing well..."

Perhaps because Slytherin's reputation remained in the basilisk's mind, after much deliberation, it still returned along the same path it took in the washroom.

Ivy breathed a sigh of relief after seeing everything through the magic book's divine sense; he had thought he would have to kill the basilisk today.

He then used the magic book's divine sense to fly downwards with the serpent monster until the connection was severed, only then was he completely at ease.

"Alright, Headmaster, the basilisk has left." Ivy withdrew the darkness spell and then appeared in the corridor.

Dumbledore quickly turned the corner of the corridor, first glancing at the wall that had been smashed by the rune snake, before entering the flooded washroom.

Harry, now helped up by Ivy, felt much more at ease when he saw Dumbledore: "Headmaster..."

“Merlin’s beard…” Dumbledore’s face showed barely concealed surprise, but his tone remained as calm as ever. “Harry… what on earth happened here?”

“You should check on Professor Snape first…” Harry said, pointing to Snape on the ground, “He was blocking my way when the snake appeared, and then…”

Dumbledore then noticed another person on the ground. He crouched down to examine him and saw that his two long white eyebrows were tied in a tight knot.

“Severus, he…” Dumbledore hesitated before speaking, then looked up at Ivy.

“I’m afraid he made eye contact with the basilisk,” Ivy said softly, “and it was direct eye contact.”

Dumbledore sighed and patted Harry on the shoulder: "He's dead, Harry."

"Impossible!" Harry exclaimed, finally having a chance to examine Snape's face closely.

His sallow face was etched with deep nasolabial folds. He usually had a bitter and resentful expression, but now it was different. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed, his eyes were glaring, and his lips were tightly pursed, as if he were ready to fight at any moment.

However, Harry saw no color in his face, only a pale, ashen one.

Harry couldn't understand any of this; he just stared blankly at Snape's face, and even the phoenix's cry couldn't attract his attention.

“Fox?” Dumbledore exclaimed in surprise. “Didn’t you just finish your studies? When I saw you this morning, you were just a fledgling bird with no feathers yet!”