The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 58 We are all Slytherin heirs!

When Marcus and the other students entered the secret room, they found it completely transformed.

The room, which was originally dimly lit, has now become bright because the ceiling above seems to have been enchanted, emitting a faint white light.

Marcus vaguely saw hundreds of emeralds embedded in the ceiling, forming a magic circle that drew away the stench and pungent smell from the secret room and brought in fresh air from the outside.

Needless to say, Moriarty and the professors must have modified the secret room, making it comfortable and pleasant. Marcus grinned and continued reading.

A shield emblem hangs atop a massive stone pillar entwined with a giant serpent; it is the Hogwarts crest that Moriarty mentioned earlier. The part symbolizing Slytherin stands out prominently.

The students were drawn to the decorations of the secret chamber and scattered to get a better look. Whenever someone walked under a stone pillar, the silver snake on the badge would wriggle its body and flick its tongue.

The crowd was a little crowded at first, but fortunately the secret room was large enough that as William and the other snakes walked deeper into the secret room, there was room to move.

The interior of the secret room was not much different from what Marcus had seen when he first entered it, except that it had become brighter and warmer.

The Salazar Slytherin statue, as tall as the room itself, still stood. Moriarty and the professors, led by Dumbledore, stood beneath it, but the little snakes all looked up at the statue, completely mesmerized!

Lilith suddenly looked at Moriarty, then at the statue—she turned her head three times in a second, just to confirm if there was anything in common between Moriarty and the statue, and the answer was no.

Then Lilith seemed to remember something, lowered her head and chuckled, her shoulders shaking with laughter.

Later, Gemma, Tonks, Penelope, and many other girls came in and laughed like that too.

As more and more students entered, Dumbledore's smile blossomed like a daisy: "Let's continue our conversation, Moriarty. Are you really planning to donate the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets to Hogwarts to be used as a classroom?"

The professors looked at Moriarty. The Chamber of Secrets was Slytherin's private property, and the school couldn't forcibly occupy it if Moriarty didn't agree.

Moriarty nodded. "After today, the Chamber of Secrets will be a symbol, a symbol that the British wizarding world will no longer be prejudiced against Slytherin! The qualities of Slytherin should be inherited. I remember that the school does not have an alchemy class. I think we can open an alchemy class in the Chamber of Secrets."

When alchemy was mentioned, Moriarty and Dumbledore both thought of one person—Nico Flamel.

"If you can truly dispel the wizards' misunderstanding of Slytherin, I will personally travel to France and hire an old friend of mine to teach alchemy."

After all these events, Dumbledore had placed Moriarty on an equal footing with him, and he had no doubt that Moriarty could eliminate the barriers between the four houses—something Moriarty was close to doing.

However, the prejudices in people's hearts are like an indestructible mountain, and even a great mage with the power to move mountains is powerless against them.

The idea that Slytherin House was a breeding ground for dark wizards was deeply ingrained in adult wizards. Dumbledore didn't believe Moriarty could change that perception, but if Moriarty did manage to do so, Dumbledore would be in for a treat.

So Dumbledore still made a bet with Moriarty, and Moriarty agreed.

Looking at the throng of people, he said meaningfully, "They are the spark of hope. Perhaps I cannot shake the mind of the British wizarding community, but I can change the mind of a generation."

The professors' expressions changed slightly. They subconsciously thought of Voldemort, and how the young Tom had once stood on a high place, looking down on his supporters and expounding his ideas, just like today.

Dumbledore didn't speak, but just looked intently at Moriarty. He had already made a mistake once in the process of educating Tom, and he didn't want to make it a second time.

"Please be quiet, everyone. I remember Professor Dumbledore asking me what Salazar's purpose was in leaving the Chamber of Secrets. I will tell you now."

Moriarty's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly reached the ears of every student. Everyone watched as Moriarty pointed his cedarwood wand at the statue.

The statue's mouth turned into a hole, from which the basilisk Shiva crawled out and coiled at the entrance.

The students panicked, but seeing only smiles in their principal and professors' eyes, they quickly calmed down. William exclaimed, "Look! The basilisk's eyes are closed!"

“I’m glad you found this out,” Moriarty said. “Shiva told me that the ancestor Salazar left her in the Chamber of Secrets to protect Hogwarts, not to purify it as rumored.”

For centuries, through the slander of those with ulterior motives, the Chamber of Secrets in Slytherin has been portrayed as a place of terror, and Tom, whom I mentioned before, has turned the rumors into reality.

Lilith stepped forward and asked, "Moriarty, will Shiva, the Basilisk, always protect Hogwarts?"

"Good question!" Moriarty walked up to the students, his tone delighted. "If I allowed it, Shiva would have continued to protect Hogwarts, but after seeing you all enter this Chamber of Secrets with cards and snake scales, I changed my mind. There are now people in this school more suitable to protect Hogwarts than Shiva—us!"

That's why I say we are all heirs of Slytherin!

Charlie stepped forward. "Did we only learn to protect from Slytherin?"

Moriarty replied, "It wasn't just Slytherins who left the Guardian; all four leaders intended to do so, but Salazar was the first to leave the message of the Guardian. I have a theory that Salazar was the first to discover some kind of threat, which is why he left the Chamber of Secrets."

The students started discussing it; they'd always been fascinated by the history of the four leaders. Charlie said to Percy, "I should search the castle more thoroughly; maybe I can find the secret chamber left by Gryffindor and become a Gryffindor heir again!"

"Use your brains, stop daydreaming about adventure stories!" Professor Snape suddenly said, his face grim ever since he entered the Chamber of Secrets. "Mr. Slytherin, while I agree with your theory of the Slytherin successor, that doesn't mean I'll agree to let my students attend classes with a basilisk!"

"In fact, I would have solved this problem without you saying so." Moriarty nodded slightly to Tonks and the others, and Tonks, Jericho, and Marcus walked to his side.

Tonks drew his wand and condensed runes, Jericho crawled on the ground beneath the statue to measure its dimensions, and Marcus took out magical materials and piled them into a small mountain.

Moriarty waved his wand, and water elemental magic surged forth, spreading through the air and creating ripples. People felt a chill, and soon, a blurry magic circle appeared on the ground.

"Snap!" Moriarty snapped his fingers and called out in Parseltongue, "In the name of the Four Great Leaders, summon Ingo, the goblin servant of Slytherin!"

With a crisp "pop," the fairy Ingo appeared out of thin air above the secret chamber. Moriarty ordered him to condense the runes of Tonks and engrave them on the spatial magic circle.

Everyone stared wide-eyed at the scene. Wasn't Hogwarts forbidden from teleporting? How did the goblin get in?

No one asked; they merely guessed it was related to Moriarty. They watched as Ingo opened his arms, his mouth opening and closing, silently chanting an unknown incantation.

The magic circle on the ground went from blurry to clear. Runes flew over, and the magic materials that Marcus had prepared also flew up, turning into powder in the air and scattering onto the magic circle.

Moriarty picked up his wand and pointed at the magic circle, casting a large memory spell and a permanent fixation spell.

When Dumbledore heard Moriarty's incantation, a sense of familiarity instantly rose in his heart. He looked at Moriarty in surprise and doubt: How could Moriarty know about the spell that GG and I developed together?

With Ingo's help, the process of engraving the magic circle did not last long. Ten minutes later, Ingo nodded to Moriarty. Judging from his expression, he seemed unwilling to stay at Hogwarts for even a moment longer, so Moriarty sent him away.

Following Moriarty's instructions, Shiva climbed into the magic circle and curled up. Moriarty patted her head, then stepped outside the magic circle and raised his wand.

"Speak to me—Slytherin!"

"Open your eyes to death, close your eyes to the future!"

"Every angel has a past, and every demon has a future!"

Three mysterious incantations were uttered by Moriarty in succession, as if a switch had been pressed on a magic circle. A dazzling silver light shot from the tip of the wand into the magic circle, and a hissing sound rang in everyone's ears. In the blink of an eye, the basilisk Shiva disappeared.

"Ding-dong~ The host has completed the 'Bring the Snake Home' mission. 5000 points awarded to the host!"

With 5000 points suddenly in his account, Moriarty saw the two spells, Legilimency and Occlumency, beckoning to him.

"Did it work?" Tonks asked. After receiving Moriarty's affirmative answer, she, Jericho, Marcus, and the others were as happy as if they had won a battle.

The students surrounded them, asking what had happened.

Si Jiao shook his head with some regret. He had no feelings for the basilisk and wanted to kill it. To a potions master, the thousand-year-old basilisk was a treasure from head to toe.

Dumbledore walked to the magic circle, glanced at it, and said, "The combination of ancient magic and goblin craftsmanship... seems... it can't be used a second time."

"Yes, but I think this is enough to impress Nicolas Flamel."

Moriarty sighed. The magic circle he hastily set up could not compare with the millennia-old magic circle built by his ancestor Salazar, but there was no doubt that in this era when alchemy was in a slumber, it was enough to attract the attention of alchemy masters.

Dumbledore blushed. The bet he made with Moriarty was actually a little scheme he had devised against Moriarty. However, Moriarty had already come up with the conditions for inviting Nicolas Flamel.

He clapped his hands to draw the students' attention and said with a smile, "I've discussed it with Moriarty, and he generously agreed to donate the Chamber of Secrets to us as a classroom. The school will also hire the alchemist master Nicolas Flamel as the alchemy professor at Hogwarts! Now, I can proudly say that I am the heir to Slytherin!"

"No, you haven't said everything," Moriarty laughed, then said in unison with the students, "We are all heirs of Slytherin!"

(End of this chapter)