Days at Hogwarts

Chapter 187 Night Battle with the Snake Monster

Seeing that Loren was still somewhat nervous, Flamel temporarily stopped observing Hogwarts Castle and tried to divert his attention: "Tell me, why did you deduce that the Basilisk was hiding on the third floor?"

Speaking of deducing the Basilisk's whereabouts, Loren smiled slightly, thanks to Harry and the others' investigation of Lockhart: "The castle's caretaker, Mr. Filch, has recently been checking whether any animals from the Forbidden Forest have sneaked into the castle, because every morning, there are always some rat remains and bloodstains on the third floor."

"Most importantly, it's the spiders' reaction inside the castle. On every floor, young wizards witnessed spiders moving away from the castle in droves, except for the third floor. I think this is because the spiders on the third floor were the first to flee that floor."

Almost all of the psychological pressure came from Loren's own imagination. As he gradually sorted out his thoughts, he calmed down.

Flamel sensed that Loren was getting into the zone, so he relaxed and continued to examine the castle walls.

The walls and floors of Hogwarts have unique defensive measures, combining alchemy and ancient magic, which can protect against most spells, but are not very resistant to physical damage.

He peered through the wall with great interest at the internal magic array: "You know what? Compared to defending against external enemies, the internal defenses are more like preventing mischievous little wizards from blowing up the castle."

"Haha, the castle really limited George and Fred's performance."

They had walked all over the third floor, leaving only one corner. They arrived at the end of the corridor, a place usually deserted by young wizards, except for a puddle on the floor. It could be rainwater blowing in from the window, or tap water from the adjacent washroom.

Loren shook off his jumbled thoughts and let out a long breath: "Let's see if Mr. Basilisk is home?"

He raised his right hand in front of his eyes, tapped his brow lightly with his index finger, and suddenly his eyes shone with a crystal-blue light.

Everything in sight lost its color, leaving only outlines of varying shades. Ignoring the light from the castle's defensive array, the stone walls became transparent, revealing buried pipes with their hollow interiors.

Inside the hollow pipe, a colossal creature seemed to sense the unusual gaze, slowly raising its terrifying snake head to meet its gaze through the numerous obstructions.

The basilisk's scales gleamed with a thick, dark green magical sheen, making them undoubtedly thicker, more defensive, and harder for spells to penetrate than the troll's stone skin.

Its yellow snake eyes radiated a chilling indifference, exuding a dangerous aura.

Filch has finished his final patrol, so there's no need to worry about anyone passing by.

Loren raised his wand toward the location of the basilisk, and invisible magic spread upwards from the tip of the wand, directing the wizard's will onto the tangible matter.

Under the influence of the transformation spell, the cast iron pipes began to soften and coil, like soft plant vines, starting to entwine the basilisk and try to bind it.

"Hiss!" The basilisk roared as it opened its huge mouth, its massive body struggling to squeeze out of the pipe, through the vent in the ceiling, and onto the corridor floor.

Driven by the muscles of its body, the hard green scales easily crushed the cast iron pipe into countless fragments. The huge body landed on the corridor with utmost gentleness, without making a sound.

Countless fragments fell onto the corridor, rust and slag forming small mounds. Inside the ancient and mysterious magic castle, a serpent monster as large as a mountain stood before the boy, its breath creating strong gusts of wind in the corridor.

Loren grasped the Philosopher's Stone in his left palm, drawing upon the surging magic power within it. The immense power instantly flowed throughout his body, and the crystalline blue light in his eyes shone even brighter.

Flamel gazed intently at the scene, his eyes deep and distant. For a moment, he seemed to see another person through Loren. The one who, amidst the blood and vomit of the plague, desperately sought the truth of death.

Even Loren himself didn't realize that, compared to during the summer vacation, he had gradually mastered the power of the Philosopher's Stone. This was his growth, and also the Philosopher's Stone's choice...

Although he felt that making eye contact with the basilisk wouldn't hurt him, Loren didn't try. He lowered his eyelids to avoid the basilisk's gaze, letting the foul stench blow through his black curly hair.

The basilisk's muscles writhed, the dust kicked up by falling rocks and stones became incredibly clear, and everything, no matter how small, became crystal clear. Most importantly, Loren felt calmer than ever before. The abundant magic brought him a sense of omnipotent control, and Loren felt that if he were to unleash the full power of the Divine Edge Shadowless Spell now, he could definitely pierce through the basilisk's hard scales and slice it in two.

He's here today to test the basilisk's eyesight, not to kill. Loren recalled Dumbledore's Transfiguration in the Chamber of Secrets and waved his wand.

The magic of the Transfiguration enveloped all the rubble, slag, rust, and pipe fragments in front of them.

The gravel transformed into a viper with gray stripes; the slag and rust mixed together transformed into a python with red stripes; and the pipe fragments became the largest, giant python with flaky stripes.

All sorts of snakes charged fearlessly at the basilisk, climbing up its body along any surface they could reach and use for leverage, burrowing into its scales and hindering its movements. Then, they were forced back to their original forms by immense force, turning into rubble and debris. This debris, under the influence of a transformation spell, solidified into clumps, adhering to the basilisk's body and impeding its movements.

The basilisk, exhausted and entangled, became unable to move forward, its struggles growing increasingly slow. More and more rubble and debris piled up on its body, making it heavier and heavier. Just before being completely buried by the debris, it suddenly seemed enraged, twisting its body with all its might, shaking off a cloud of dust, almost managing to break free.

But in return, more snakes charged forward, becoming heavy obstacles on the basilisk's body.

As Flamel deduced, the basilisk was in the process of recovering from its awakening, lurking within the pipe system of Hogwarts Castle, accumulating strength by hunting rats. It would take at least several years for it to fully recover.

The basilisk struggled several times before finally falling silent. The rubble on its body had solidified into a single, solid mass, resembling from a distance a wild snake trapped in cement, unable to move after being poured.

Loren overturned the storage box, and the water that filled the storage space poured out instantly, turning into transparent little snakes that eagerly slithered into the basilisk's mouth and nose.

Hellfire Elixir – a sixth-grade potions course.

A powerful sleeping pill, also known as "water of life and death," that can make the user sleep like they're dead. However, it's just a practice project by a sixth-grade student; the quality varies, and it might have other surprising functions.

Normally Snape would have disposed of it as trash, but it would have been perfect for dealing with the Basilisk, so Loren asked for it.

A lazy drowsiness enveloped the basilisk, making it unwilling to exert any more effort, and it even stopped caring about the annoying little wizard in front of it.

Most of its memories are from its slumber; it has little combat experience and little violent bloodlust. A thousand years ago, its time with Slytherin was mostly spent conducting research, or rather, being researched, enjoying good food, drink, and sleep.

Then came a long sleep. When it woke up last time, its original master was nowhere to be found. A young wizard instead gave it commands in Parsleyan. The basilisk's mind didn't allow it to have any extra thoughts; it could only follow its instincts and obey the Parsleyan's commands.

Then, it fell into a deep sleep again.

After an unknown amount of time, another young wizard awakened it using a parsleyan voice. This young wizard had a familiar scent from fifty years ago. The basilisk didn't think much of it; it simply obeyed commands.

Its stomach was empty; it was so hungry. The rats and spiders in the pipes couldn't possibly get enough to eat. It couldn't go to the nearby forest to forage for food, so it could only slowly build up its strength by eating rats.

I'm so sleepy, I want to go to bed again.

The basilisk slowly fell into a deep sleep. Soon it stopped struggling, lay prone on the ground, its body covered by thick, hardened earth and stones, motionless. Its completely black membranes drooped down, covering half of its serpentine pupils.

Flamel hovered above the basilisk, circling its head: "I told you so. This basilisk, just awakened from its slumber and not fully recovered, doesn't have even half its strength at its peak. Any Hogwarts professor could easily handle it."

Despite saying that, Flamel also understood that the battle was not as simple as it seemed.

Mastering the Philosopher's Stone to repeatedly cast Polymorph spells, transforming between various snakes and slag, requires immense magical power and a strong soul. There's also the free-flowing Hellfire Elixir, and the basilisk itself is exhausted—all these factors contributed to victory in this battle.

"At least Lockhart is definitely out of the question, as is Professor Trelawney from the Divination class."

Loren teased the two professors, then tentatively took a few steps forward. Only after confirming that the basilisk did he step forward, using its scales and soil to reach the area of ​​its eyes.

The basilisk seemed to be under anesthesia, losing consciousness, its pupils half-open and half-closed. Loren skillfully took out the detonator, drew the basilisk's gaze, and gently shook it, distinguishing the gray, yellow, and pale green magic threads, separating out a pale green orb of light with lethal magic.

Flamel observed this scene closely, finding it quite novel.

At the location of the lamp extinguisher's wick, the newly acquired pale green light cluster merged seamlessly with the original cluster, forming an even larger cluster of light.

Watching this scene, Loren turned to Flamel and suddenly asked, "Can the magical orbs inside the Deluminator be used against enemies?"

Flamel didn't answer immediately, but pondered for a moment: "That probably won't work. As you can see, there are three colors of magical threads in the basilisk's eyes: gray representing petrification, yellow representing the carrier, and green representing death. The carrier is indispensable; it represents the most essential function of the basilisk's eyes, carrying both magic and vision. The magic in the Deluminator also needs a carrier to function."

"Can alchemy create it?" Loren persisted.

If this magic could truly be utilized, it would be like Gryffindor's sword, capable of absorbing other powers and traits, becoming a weapon that can continuously grow.

Flamel was very interested in this new alchemy subject. He leaned close to the snake's eye and pressed his entire head against it to observe.

After a while, Flamel said, "There's no way to use magic runes or magic circles for now; the best vessel is these eyes."

His fingers rubbed together incessantly, as if eager to try: "We won't even need the Deluminator. Just take the basilisk's eyeballs, modify them with alchemy, and we can transform your magic into magic with basilisk characteristics."

"Not yet, Headmaster Dumbledore has a use for it." Loren rejected the offer that had tempted him so much.

Flamel said with regret, "The basilisk is made of materials from head to toe. It's not just the eyes; each of these scales is stronger than the protective pendant you mentioned before."

Loren was even more tempted, but he couldn't use either the basilisk in front of him or the snake molt in the secret room, otherwise he would alert Voldemort.

He sighed. "Let's talk about the magic vessel. Is there any other way to do it without gouging out the basilisk's eyes?"

"Other magical pupils will also work, but the effect might be less pronounced," Flamel said.

Other magical eyes… Loren nodded thoughtfully.

Dealing with the battlefield took some effort, but fortunately there was no dark magic like the Divine Edge Spell throughout the battle, and all damage caused by physical collisions and polymorphs could be repaired.

Loren waved his wand, and the soil and stones covering the basilisk's body loosened and fell away, releasing the basilisk from its restraints. A levitation charm propelled the basilisk's body, swaying and drifting back into the pipe.

"【Restored to its original state】" Loren grasped the magic stone and manipulated the restoration spell to envelop the area.

Unlike the trivial changes of repairing tables, chairs, glasses, or coins, when Loren finished chanting the spell, in the third-floor corridor of Hogwarts Castle, pieces of cast iron detached from the dust and flew up to reassemble into pipes, and rubble was transformed back into neat stone walls.

An invisible whirlwind whipped up a vortex, and powdery dust and rust spiraled upwards along the vortex, melting into the walls and pipes and disappearing.

The corridor has been restored to its original state, even the puddles on the ground are the same as they were not long ago.

Loren packed up the box, turned to Flamel and smiled: "Let's go, tonight I want to learn about pupils and carriers."

Footsteps pounded in the puddles, the sound of water splashing echoing the torrential rain outside the castle, carrying all the legendary stories of the night into the wind, scattering them into the thick night fog.

Not long after Loren left, the door to the nearby washroom, which had been tightly closed, was pushed open, and an old man with a white beard, wearing pajamas embroidered with cartoon stars and moons, came out carrying a cup.

Dumbledore grumbled in the direction Loren had walked, "That's the downside of having such sharp eyes. I'm over a hundred years old, and I still have to hide. I wonder if the hot cocoa coming out of the bathroom will taste bad."

As he spoke, he sipped his hot cocoa. It had no strange taste, was slightly hot, but the temperature was just right. The old man then showed a comfortable and happy smile.

He waved his wand at the basilisk, then turned and left, muttering to himself.

"What if we pour in so much water of life and death, and the basilisk falls into a deep slumber again?"

"Haha, because the Water of Life and Death has fallen into a deep sleep and needs someone to wake it up, that sounds like the story of Leticia Somnoren. Luckily, the basilisk isn't a princess, so I don't have to kiss her lightly..."

Leticia Somnoren was a shrew living in the Middle Ages. Jealous of the beauty of the local king's daughter, she coated a spindle with a potion of hell. She lured the young princess to touch the spindle, causing her to fall into a deep sleep. However, Somnoren's plan failed, as a wizard applied an invigorating potion to his lips and kissed the princess, waking her.

(End of this chapter)