The Bard of Hogwarts

Chapter 175 Speculations on the Slytherin Legacy

Some creatures seem to possess an innate fear-inducing effect, such as basilisks and giant eight-eyed spiders.

Ino crouched down, carefully examining the basilisk corpse before him.

Fifty feet in length isn't too long; it's about the same length as the Snow Serpent, but the basilisk seems far more terrifying.

This terror did not stem from physical imposingness, but rather from a strange intuition.

The most obvious example is the Dementor, which is not very large, but few wizards can face it with ease.

……

"Why do you think it can kill you just by looking at it?"

After studying it for a long time without making any progress, Ino turned to look aside.

Instead of asking me why I don't come and experience it for myself, why not?

Directly in front of the basilisk, Lina took long, thin steps and spoke with a hint of sarcasm.

Hearing Lina say this, Ino no longer hesitated. It wasn't that he was reckless; if he were afraid of a dead serpent monster while wearing glasses, he might as well have stayed in the sanctuary for the rest of his life.

As he spoke, he stood up and walked toward the basilisk.

When I met those orange-yellow eyes, as big as crystal balls, I felt a sudden stiffness and numbness for no reason.

But after a brief moment of disorientation, the basilisk's eyes were instantly covered by a thin layer of blue spider silk.

"How are you feeling?" Lina asked from the side.

"It's amazing. Even though it's dead, I feel the magic is still working. It's like a charger, you know, charging..."

Ino murmured, and once again removed the basilisk's spider silk eye mask, a feeling of numbness and stiffness immediately washing over her.

With this preparation, the stiffness was greatly reduced.

Then, he thought of another possibility.

Perhaps the breeding of basilisks is not as simple as the books explain. Otherwise, if 5x basilisks could be bred using only roosters and toads, the entire magical world would have been in chaos long ago.

Or rather, the magical world, and even the entire world, has long been controlled by Parseltongue. After all, seven years of studying magic is not as effective as someone else raising a snake, so who would bother studying magic? Everyone would just become a beast tamer.

"Lina, the basilisk's eyes are alchemical artifacts!"

This time, Ino's tone was very certain.

Before Lina could reply, he turned and picked up the oil lamp hanging on the red maple tree.

Although it was daytime, in the dim light, something seemed to be imprinted in the deepest part of the basilisk's pupils.

"Wait here for me a moment."

After saying that, Ino disappeared from the shelter.

……

Half an hour later.

On a small, frost-covered coffee table in the shelter, sat a thick, two-inch-thick book.

Next to the book was a parchment with strange symbols drawn on it.

Ino sat on the ground, flipping through the books while occasionally referring to the parchment.

In the silent shelter, only the rustling sound of turning pages could be heard.

Lina stayed quietly beside the ice flower, while the anaconda that had been there earlier was now chased to the other side.

Interestingly, even though the anaconda is just a metamorphosis, it still retains the nature of a snake, staying quietly to the side and perhaps not moving all day unless necessary.

……

Time always slips away quietly when you're focused.

Although the shelter's overall area has expanded several times over, it has become a small square.

But despite the increased size of the space, the furnishings inside remained the same, and there wasn't even a basic alarm clock.

Sitting at the small tea table, Ino had no idea how much time had passed.

The only change was that the pages of the ancient runic dictionary in his hand became thinner and thinner as he turned the pages.

Ancient runes!

Under the light of the oil lamp, the patterns deep within the basilisk's pupils gave him the feeling of an invisible book.

Therefore, he also speculated that it might be related to ancient runes.

But as the pages were turned thinner and thinner, until the very last page, no corresponding record was found.

This is very disappointing!

However, as Ino was immersed in a sense of loss and melancholy, Lina broke the silence once again from not far away.

"Why don't you ask them for help? I remember telling you this before! Since you're nominally their apprentice, you should ask them for help when you have questions!"

"But..." Ino hesitated, ultimately driven by selfish motives.

After all, if it really is ancient runes, it represents a new development, a treasure that has not been recorded.

"Your idea is good, but it's also unnecessary."

Perhaps sensing his concerns, Lina slowly walked over, her slender feet brushing against the books on the coffee table.

"The world you live in is very strange! Very strange! They are unwilling to study magic, or even learn magic! But this very world possesses countless precious knowledge, which I have thought about for a long time but still cannot understand..."

Lina's voice was tinged with emotion, but after hearing these words, Ino also asked with confusion:

"I also can't understand it. There are no pioneers of knowledge, yet we have so many treasures left by pioneers."

Although he shared the same doubts, he also understood the implication in Lina's words: hiding knowledge was probably useless in this world.

A thick volume of ancient runes, used as a textbook for an elective course at Hogwarts, can be purchased for a mere few gallons at Flourish and Blotts.

Even so, it remained shelved and ignored. On the contrary, Lockhart's novels were still displayed in prominent places, and even though he was imprisoned in Azkaban, the books were not removed from the shelves.

"I was overthinking it..." Ino sighed softly.

It's somewhat laughable that he keeps his new discoveries hidden away when there's an entire book of ancient runes lying around unstudied.

"You're not overthinking it, there's just something strange about this place," Lina said, her voice offering a hint of comfort.

Although she understood the comforting tone, Ino didn't continue the conversation.

To put it bluntly, he, like Lina, was an outsider, and his understanding of the magical world was limited to the storybooks he had read before.

But trying to understand a world through a storybook is clearly nonsense.

……

After the conversation ended, Ino inadvertently noticed the anaconda crawling quietly to the side.

It seemed that after seeing Lina leave, this guy wanted to run over and circle around the ice flower again.

I don't know what's wrong with it. It's clearly just a product of transformation, but it's always persistent in its pursuit of that flower and will climb over it whenever it gets the chance.

"Lina, what do you think about me putting this thing in its eyes?"

Ino pointed at the basilisk and then looked at the Frost Serpent coiled to the side.

The anaconda, over sixty feet long, is even larger than the basilisk in terms of size, and could easily fit two eyes.

If he didn't have other uses for it, he would have liked to peel off the basilisk's skin and stick it directly onto the anaconda.

Such a high-quality replica of a snake monster that is not afraid of the crowing of a rooster would be absolutely foolproof if used to scare people.

He may have thought about it, but he doesn't actually have the ability to do it right now. He'll have to finish the elective course first.

Although the steps are simple, replacing eyes isn't like building a snowman where you can just dig a snow pit and bury it and call it a day. For this rare basilisk monster, you need to be well-prepared.

Moreover, this basilisk was bred by Salazar Slytherin.

He always had a feeling that this basilisk might be the legacy of Slytherin, or at least part of it.

This feeling became even stronger after discovering patterns resembling ancient runes in the basilisk's pupils.

Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

……

In the Slytherin dormitory.

After finding nothing from her research, Ino asked Fied to take her back to her dorm.

Lying lazily in bed, I glanced at the alarm clock on the shelf; it was 3:30 PM.

He had been at the shelter for six or seven hours since he got up early to kill the snake monster.

Just as he was about to take a late afternoon nap, he remembered something else: he needed to tell Dumbledore about the Basilisk.

"Fid! Go and take the leather on the ground to that white-bearded old man upstairs!"

Ino gave the order to the air.

He didn't mention his name because this silly phoenix couldn't remember names yet. He could only barely manage to deliver the package by describing its location and appearance.

Faced with such a serious injury, he had no way to fix it.

After all, even with a precise entrance, it can still take a week to find a basilisk, so how much intelligence can you expect from it?

If it were Fox, once the entrance was identified, it would probably take less than fifteen minutes to accurately locate the basilisk.

But as the saying goes, no matter how good someone else's is, it's still someone else's.

Although Fied isn't very bright right now, he's still enjoying training his pet.

Upon closer examination, there are both gains and losses.

After assigning tasks to Phoenix, Ino finally felt at ease and lowered the bed curtains.

Enjoy a leisurely afternoon on the weekend.

……

at the same time.

In contrast to the quiet of the castle, Hogsmeade is bustling with activity.

Hogsmeade usually experiences a real commotion on the first weekend of the school year.

Especially among the young wizards who have just entered the third year, almost none of them will miss the first week of play.

As one of the most famous shops on the street, Ms. Rosmerta's three brooms appeared somewhat deserted at this moment.

However, Ms. Rosmerta was already used to this quietness.

After all, compared to places like Joko Widodo's joke shop and Honeydukes, bars that only serve food seem rather boring, so it's normal that no one goes there.

But since she could run a bar, she didn't intend to make money off students. After delivering five cans of butterbeer to the red-haired student, she quietly returned to the bar.

In the corner of the bar.

Ron casually opened a can of ice-cold butterbeer, took a few gulps, and let out a long sigh of satisfaction. Next to him sat three other people: Harry, Ginny, and Hermione.

"Harry! It's okay, my dad has already contacted Professor Dumbledore, we should know soon."

As Ron spoke, his eyes kept glancing at the fireplace beside him.

"Thank you, Ron," Harry replied absentmindedly.

Although his tone seemed indifferent, he was gripping the invisibility cloak on his legs tightly with both hands.

Ginny witnessed this scene and, unusually, did not offer any words of comfort.

She knew very well that there was no point in saying anything now, and all she could do was stay with Harry and wait quietly.

(End of this chapter)