Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 268 Dumbledore's Delusions

If Dumbledore hadn't thought of this method, he would have prepared to complete the Aether Invitation Ritual after some time, and after mastering the basics of alchemy, use his reputation points to improve his alchemy skills and restart the experiment.

Of course, his cold shoulder wasn't because Deng Xiaoping had gotten there first, but rather—

"What do you want to do, Albus?"

Vaughn suddenly asked, "Letting the notebook approach the entrance to the secret chamber and record the Parseltongue's voice—are you planning to kill the Basilisk, or do you have another purpose?"

Although he was asking, Vaughn's tone clearly indicated that he preferred the latter.

His gaze toward Dumbledore was full of doubt.

Vaughn knew Dumbledore well. If Dumbledore only wanted to kill the Basilisk, he wouldn't have specifically asked him to come along. The old man could have taken Fawkes with him and handled it by himself. After all, the Basilisk could kill with just a glance. Too many people might actually hinder him.

Unless, Dumbledore never intended to kill it in the first place!

Dumbledore did not answer Vaughn's question. He remained silent in the tube for a moment, then sighed, "Vaughn, come down with me. I want to see what's down there first, and then we can talk."

'

'

Vaughn stared into Old Deng's eyes for a long time before nodding: "Okay!"

The entrance pipe was wide enough to accommodate an adult. Dumbledore went in first, followed by Vaughn.

According to Vaughn's subjective assessment, the feeling after crawling in was terrible. He felt like he had crawled into a dark, sticky thing, the texture of which was like the throat of some huge creature, and then it just kept going on and on as he slid down the steep slope.

In the darkness, after sliding down for an unknown amount of time, Vaughn silently calculated that, based on his perceived speed, the underground passage leading to this pipe probably far exceeded the known depth of Hogwarts' buildings.

Even the dungeons where Slytherin lived, or the Black Lake which was as deep as the ocean, were not this deep.

The whole process was monotonous, consisting only of the sounds of his and Dumbledore's bodies rubbing against the pipes and the occasional collisions around corners.

At one point, Dumbledore, who was sliding ahead, suddenly disappeared, and a few seconds later, Vaughn also felt his body go empty.

He reacted with lightning speed, waving his wand to make his body as light as paper for a short time, so as not to fall and get hurt.

He quickly cast the Ironclad Spell and summoned a dimensional portal to block his way.

The swift defensive measures, taking into account all aspects and completed in a very short time, were the source of Vaughn's confidence to come down with Dumbledore.

As Vaughn floated to the ground, Dumbledore, who had emerged first, summoned a glowing light that illuminated the area around the pipe exit.

This is a stone tunnel, which appears to have been converted from a natural cave. Only near the exit is a platform built with stone bricks.

Above the platform, besides the extra pipe that Vaughn and Dumbledore had, there were several other pipes nearby.

It was probably used when other entrances were still available.

Black, unidentified water droplets trickled from the pipe outlets, while the ground was already covered in sludge, emitting an indescribable stench.

Vaughn frowned, but didn't use any magic like the Bubble Head Charm to block his breathing. He simply tried to ignore the stench that rushed into his nostrils and the soft, muddy feeling under his feet.

He looked out of the platform, where a natural cave stretched out, winding and twisting. The light from Dumbledore's glowing spell couldn't reach very far before being blocked by the cave's rugged and smooth rock walls.

"It seems we still have a long way to go. The good news is that the tunnel is high enough that I, an old man, don't have to bend over and crawl through."

Dumbledore tiptoed and peered into the cave a few times, then jokingly teased Vaughn.

Vaughn glanced at him, his response unusually sarcastic: "Are you mocking my short stature?"

Dumbledore: "————"

The two stepped off the platform. The cave was just as damp as the other side of the tunnel. The light from the glowing spell shone on the rock walls and the ground, and then reflected back. The interplay of light and shadow gave people the illusion that the tunnel had come to life. Everything was shiny and sticky.

"How deep do you think this is, approximately beneath the castle?"

"I don't know, my dear, but it's definitely deeper than the Black Lake. It might have been an underground river that led to the Black Lake a long time ago."

The tunnel was as silent as a tomb; the only human voices were the brief conversation between Vaughn and Dumbledore.

Besides that, there was the pattering sound of their shoes on the wet ground.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, and turning a sharp bend, their view suddenly opened up, and a tall corridor made of stone bricks, just like the one at the pipe exit before, appeared before them.

Vaughn and Dumbledore stopped, not because they were surprised by the corridor before them, but because they saw a huge wall standing at the end of it.

Two intertwined snakes were carved on the wall, their eyes seemingly made of gemstones, gleaming with a greenish light.

"This seems to be the place," said Dumbledore.

Vaughn nodded.

In reality, his brain, protected by a fully-level brain-sealing technique, was rapidly recovering his previous life's understanding of the secret chamber. According to the descriptions in novels and movies, the area between the pipe exit and the secret chamber door should be filled with the ulna bones of small animals, as well as a snake's shed skin.

But it's not here now.

However, this actually relieved Vaughn a little – it meant that the laptop hadn't had time to awaken the basilisk yet!

Reality isn't a novel or a movie. In the real magical world, basilisks are quite troublesome. Not only are they thick-skinned, but their eyes, which can kill anyone they glare at, are truly impossible to guard against.

Not to mention that they were now at an unknown depth underground, and Vaughn had no intention of fighting a monster that was at least 20 feet long underground.

What if we accidentally break some load-bearing structure, causing the rocks and soil above to fall down?

Dumbledore, of course, was unaware of Vaughn's inner thoughts. Holding the music box, he slowly walked through the corridor and stood before the massive stone wall.

With the infusion of magic, the music box once again emitted that somber, muffled hissing sound.

The two snakes entwined on the wall seemed to come alive, each swimming to one side. Then, the stone wall split open in the middle, sliding into the thick rocks on both sides.

Behind the vanished wall was an extremely magnificent room.

The vanished high wall was merely its gateway; from the outside, even though Dumbledore's glowing spell had done its best to emit light, it was still visible.

But the area that can be illuminated is still only a corner of the room; its long, deep, and blurry outline melts into the darkness into the deepest part.

Within the glowing area, Vaughn saw that the room was not empty. Perhaps for support, there were many stone pillars, each about the size of two people's arms, with their surfaces carved with intertwined giant snakes. They stood tall, like giant towers piercing the clouds, extending into the darkness beyond the light, supporting the magnificent, palace-like ceiling.

"Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets—it really does exist!"

Even Dumbledore, who was always fond of joking, couldn't find the words to tease him when he looked at the room in front of him.

The two went inside.

This room, which has existed for at least a thousand years and was personally built by one of the four giants, still seems to retain a certain mystique, even though it has been neglected for a long time.

As the two stepped inside, the darkness in the distance remained, but closer by, a faint green mist gradually rose from the wide gaps between the towering stone pillars.

It resembled a thin mist, yet also light.

It looks mysterious and eerie.

"What is this?" Vaughn frowned slightly, his wand already between his fingers.

Dumbledore glanced at it and reassured, "It's some kind of ritual. Just like how Muggles decorate their houses now, ancient wizards also liked to set up rituals in their houses to create an atmosphere that suited their aesthetic."

So—are those pale green hazes considered ambient lighting?

Vaughn's expression was strange. After all, he was a student of Slytherin House. Even if he wasn't like some pure-blood fools who blindly worshipped the past and belittled the present, he actually had a lot of respect for Slytherin.

While it is certainly unacceptable to idolize the past and belittle the present, it is also extremely arrogant to constantly denigrate the ancients from a modern perspective.

After all, everything we have today is built upon the accumulated knowledge and skills passed down from generation to generation by our ancestors.

Vaughn held the same attitude towards the giants of other houses, not just Slytherin. In his mind, they were worthy of respect, but distant, like symbols.

But at this moment, Vaughn walked in the room built by one of the giants himself, looking at his terrible taste—and inexplicably recalled the collection of poems by Rowena Ravenclaw that he had discovered last year in the Ravenclaw Tower, the romanticism and petit-bourgeois sentiment between the lines.

Despite the many flaws, the symbolic image of the four giants suddenly came to life.

Of course, this was just a minor incident.

Accompanied by ambient lighting, the two slowly walked among the stone pillars. Apart from the pillars, the magnificent building was quite empty, with no furnishings whatsoever.

Dumbledore sighed, "Slytherin couldn't have built the Chamber of Secrets without leaving anything behind; the Gaunt family probably emptied it all out."

"That's normal." Compared to the regret in his tone, Vaughn had never had any expectations. "When you investigated Morfin Gaunt before summer vacation, didn't you see his memories? The Gaunt family didn't know anything about business. By the time of Marvolo Gaunt, they were so poor that all they had left was a shack. They knew the secret of the Chamber of Secrets. If there was anything left here, Marvolo would definitely have sent Morfin and Merop to Hogwarts back then."

As he spoke, he looked at Dumbledore with a strange gaze: "You didn't come in here just to try and get your hands on Slytherin's inheritance, did you?"

Dumbledore blinked, pondered for a second, and said, "I have thought about it."

"Albus Dumbledore, the greatest white wizard, the pride of Gryffindor, actually coveting Slytherin's legacy? Ha!"

Vaughn mocked him mercilessly.

Upon hearing this, Dumbledore stopped joking and sighed, "What I want is not wealth, but knowledge, knowledge about Horcruxes—I think you should have noticed earlier than I did that more than 40 years ago, Tom opened the Chamber of Secrets, murdered Myrtle, and used her death to create the first Horcrux."

"His initial knowledge of Horcrux crafting undoubtedly came from 'Deciphering the Dark Magic' in the library's restricted section. But how could a fifth-year student who had never been exposed to dark magic make such rapid progress in his dark magic skills without any instruction or guidance?"

"Horregularities are not potions, nor are they like building blocks that can be mastered step by step. They require tearing apart the caster's soul, making them extremely complex and dangerous!"

Vaughn chimed in, "That's right. I considered this last year. The only reasonable explanation is that Tom inherited Slytherin's knowledge in the Chamber of Secrets—probably because knowledge can't be directly converted into Galleons, so it was abandoned here by the Gaunt family members who came in before. However, I don't think Tom would leave it behind after inheriting it."

"—I was just clinging to a tiny bit of wishful thinking, sigh!"

Looking at the sighing old Dumbledore, Vaughn paused for a moment, then asked, "For Harry?"

"Yes----"

Dumbledore smiled bitterly: "I've tried every possible method, searched every person, but I haven't found an answer that might even have the slightest possibility of a solution, or even a clue on how to begin—an unexpected soul connection, an unexpected Horcrux, a coincidence shaped by fate, it's truly despairing—"

"So you went to the Balkans to find Herpo's trail not just for Parsleyan, but also for Horcruxes."

"Yes." Dumbledore nodded. "After all, many ancient wizards' notes believe that he invented the spells and methods for making Horcruxes. Although I, like another group of wizards, have doubts about this—that cannot obscure the fact that Helbo has extraordinary expertise in Horcrux research."

The result, of course, was nothing.

That's why he set his sights on the Slytherin legacy that might exist in the Chamber of Secrets.

Unfortunately, as expected, there was no result here.

As they spoke, the two finally reached the end of the enormous room. In the emerald green mist, a wall even larger than the stone wall with the twin snakes entwined before, like the cross-section of a small mountain, blocked their path.

The statue, which I estimate to be at least 30 feet tall, is pressed against the wall.

The humid air in the room condensed into large, fine dewdrops on the walls and statues, which reflected the light of the glowing spell, making the statues appear luminous white.

Using the shimmering white light, Vaughn raised his head and, through the thick mist, clearly pictured the statue at least 30 feet away—a very ugly human figure with a gaunt face that resembled a monkey, aged and frail, with a sparse, long beard that almost reached the hem of a stone-carved robe.

The statue's design is almost identical to a huge mural in the Slytherin dungeon common room, except the statue is a bit uglier.

Vaughn didn't care about this. In the blink of an eye, a glint appeared in his eyes. In his magically enhanced vision, the space shrouded in a hazy white and pale green mist suddenly appeared with large patches of colorful light and shadow. In some places, the colors were so intense that they even formed "color blocks".

For example, statues.

Vaughn looked there: "The basilisk might be hiding in the statue—Albus, now you should tell me what you're really planning, shouldn't you?"

Dumbledore, also staring at the statue, his eyes gleaming with a deep blue light, didn't answer immediately. Instead, he asked Vaughn, "This statue must have been carved by Slytherin himself. Do you think it's ugly?"

"Ugly!" Vaughn replied casually, "But for a wizard like him, appearance is meaningless, so even he doesn't care."

"Yes—" Dumbledore sighed, smoothly shifting from physical beauty to another level of interpretation: "Although Gryffindor and Slytherin have always been like enemies, in my heart, the four great masters are neither good nor evil, just like your long-held view—dialectical materialism of history? Is that it?"

Vaughn nodded.

"When we chatted before, I thought the dialectical materialism of history that you mentioned was very good. It doesn't take the historical context into account when looking at problems. In the end, the conflict between Gryffindor and Slytherin stemmed from the conflict between the two founders. From our current perspective, Godric Gryffindor, who supported Muggle admissions and opposed pure-blood rule over Hogwarts, was undoubtedly right."

"But if we go back to history, back to the 10th century when Hogwarts was founded and the four masters turned against each other, Vaughn, you should understand what kind of era that was."

Vaughn certainly understood: the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages.

In particular, in the 10th century, Europe had just experienced the turmoil caused by the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which affected the whole of Europe. The Normans invaded from the north, the Arabs in the south launched the Holy War for Jerusalem, and the nomadic Magyars in the east rose up, conquering cities and territories, eventually establishing Hungary.

Living on the same land, the magical world and the Muggle world are not so clearly separated, and years of war have brought death, hunger, poverty and plague.

Unable to resist invaders and tyranny, the Muggles, guided by religion, turned their swords against magic they did not understand.

That was a very tragic era, even more terrible than the later witch hunts. After all, when the witch hunts began, European wizards already had the Wizarding Council (the predecessor of the Ministry of Magic), and had enough organizational capacity to fight against Muggle regimes.

In the 10th century, the concept of the magical world had not yet been formed. Wizards lived in family units and mixed with Muggles. Many wizarding families were caught off guard and were arrested and executed by Muggles.

Moreover, this practice of arresting and resisting magic was not only prevalent in Europe; Norman, Arab, and Magyar invaders, due to their beliefs, did even more so.

"In the wizarding world, the concept of the Middle Ages is the same as that of Muggle history, known as the Dark Ages. The darkness that Muggles perceive is for religious reasons; they say that the Middle Ages occurred in the Sixth Age, the end times prophesied in the Bible. But in the wizarding world, darkness describes the vast ocean where wizards are deeply mired in hostility and attacks from all levels of Muggles, with no future in sight."

"Back then, the exposure of a wizard usually represented a disaster for a family, and after Hogwarts was established, this trend became even more terrifying—a disaster could affect thousands of teachers and students throughout the school."

"Given this historical context, Vaughn, do you think Salazar Slytherin's opposition to Muggle-born children attending Hogwarts stemmed from his pursuit of pure bloodlines, his hatred of Muggles, and his contempt for Muggles? Or was it that he feared too many Muggle-born children would increase the risk of Hogwarts being exposed?"

Ok?

This was a direction Vaughn hadn't considered, since he always believed that history was set in stone and there was no need to deliberately try to whitewash the past.

He paused for a moment, then quickly replied, "Emotionally, I lean towards the latter view, but rationally, and considering where we are standing right now, Salazar Slytherin might indeed be quite hostile towards Muggle people—"

Dumbledore gave him a surprised look: "I thought you would firmly believe in the Slytherin's vision."

"Have you forgotten? I've never believed that humanity is linked to a person's achievements." Vaughn shrugged. "Even if Slytherin's hatred of Muggle-borns seems narrow-minded, it doesn't stop him from being one of the four great leaders of Hogwarts and one of the greatest wizards."

""

"Hahahaha—"

Dumbledore laughed heartily, only stopping after a while, panting, "You know, my dear, I really enjoy talking to you. Your thoughts and appearance are so contrasting, it always surprises and delights me."

Vaughn's expression remained indifferent to the old man's praise: "Thank you for the compliment, but I don't understand why you're talking to me about this. What does this history have to do with the secret room?"

"Oh—my dear, forgive a hundred-year-old wizard for digressing occasionally. You know, when you get old and life is coming to an end, you can't help but have the urge to confide and express yourself. After all, if you don't say it now, you may never be able to say it again."

"----whispering sound!"

Vaughn scoffed; only a madman would believe Deng's sob story.

Dumbledore wasn't bothered that he hadn't fooled Vaughn. In fact, he hadn't gone off-topic. He continued, "I was just trying to understand Salazar Slytherin's true intention in building the Chamber of Secrets by applying what you call dialectical materialism to the historical context."

Vaughn's expression was strange: "You believe that Slytherin built the Chamber of Secrets not to eliminate the Malignant Seeds, but for some other purpose?"

An old Gryffindor actually tried to understand Slytherin —

Yeah, no matter how I think about it, it just seems really strange.

But Dumbledore was clearly serious: "Let's not draw conclusions yet. From a historical perspective, which of the four leaders do you think best fits the historical context of the Dark Ages?"

There's no need to think about it at all.

"Of course it's Slytherin. Whatever his real reason for opposing Empty Seeds, it's certainly recorded in the history of magic that Slytherin was worried that a large number of Empty Seeds might expose Hogwarts—this was said by Godric Gryffindor himself, and the recorder was his descendant."

"That's right." Dumbledore nodded. "Judging from this point alone, among the four leaders, Slytherin is probably the one who best fits the historical pattern. He has only one focus, and his way of looking at problems is absolute and extremely simplified. You call this kind of person..."

"Realist."

"Ah, yes, in comparison, Godric Gryffindor was like a humanist, and Rowena Ravenclaw was a romantic. Their views, which seem reasonable to us today—fraternity, equality, liberty—were not just ahead of their time, but transcended it!"