My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 217, Section 214: Entering the Secret Chamber

Draco's nickname wasn't given for nothing.

He was the only son of the Malfoy family and had been pampered by his family since childhood, much like a wizarding version of Dudley.

Ultimately, Draco is just a spoiled thirteen-year-old.

Lynn had actually killed people before, and the aura he exuded, coupled with the fear of being choked and feeling like he was about to suffocate at any moment, truly terrified him.

Hearing Draco's tearful surrender, Lynn was speechless. He hadn't even really laid a hand on him yet, and he was already crying.

Around him, the Gryffindors laughed merrily, while the Slytherins looked at Draco with disdain.

In terms of relationships, everyone on the Slytherin team received a flying broomstick from Draco's father, so if Lynn were to actually lay a hand on him, they would all have to help him no matter what.

But before anyone has even made a move, he's already backed down, which makes the Slytherins feel ashamed to offer help.

Lynn grabbed Draco by the collar and dragged him in front of Hermione.

"It's no use telling me you know you were wrong. You need to tell her, apologize to her, and only when she forgives you will this matter be over."

Draco wiped away his tears, lowered his head, and whispered, choking back sobs, "I'm sorry, I was wrong."

"Speak louder! Didn't you eat?! Your voice is so soft, where's that swearing tone you were just now!"

Draco could only humiliatingly repeat himself loudly.

"I'm sorry! I was wrong!"

Hermione was feeling sweet inside. She didn't care about Draco's apology; she still didn't understand why everyone was so angry after he uttered that word. What made her happy was Lynn's current attitude of being angry for her.

"I forgive you," she said cheerfully, holding Lynn's hand.

Draco felt like he'd been granted a pardon. He looked up at Lynn with his red, tear-filled eyes. Lynn loosened his collar, not intending to make things difficult for him any further.

Ultimately, he was just a thirteen-year-old child. Judging from his behavior, Draco ultimately chose the red bean over the black bean, just like the fat translator. This proves that he was just lacking in education and not inherently bad.

After Lynn let him go, he slunk away from the court.

With the Seekers gone, the Slytherin team no longer needed to compete with Gryffindor for the field, and the snakes eventually dispersed.

"Lynn, Malfoy won't just let this go," Ron said worriedly to Lynn. "He'll definitely go to his father. His father used to be a Death Eater, and he's very rich. He's a Hogwarts school board member and has a lot of connections in the Ministry of Magic."

Lynn pulled his arm away from Hermione's embrace.

This little girl is hugging me too tightly; it's uncomfortable.

"I know, it's the traditional routine: beat up the younger one, then the older one comes along, I beat up the older one, and when he wants to retaliate, I reveal my powerful identity, and then he grovels and apologizes to me. It's a classic online novel trope of showing off and getting slapped in the face."

The Gryffindors around were all bewildered, not understanding what Lynn meant, but Hermione sensed that Lynn was in trouble and tried to persuade him.

"How about I go with you to find the professor? This wasn't our fault, the professor should be able to help us."

"Don't worry, Malfoy's father won't bother me. He'll even thank me for helping to discipline his son." Lynn prepared to say goodbye. "I have things to do. You guys keep having fun. Goodbye."

Lynn took Umaru directly to the owl's house instead of returning to the castle.

He found his owl, wrote a letter there, and then sent it to old John.

Lynn doesn't have time to play any fancy tricks with the Malfoys right now. He has to attend classes every day and prepare to deal with the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. Time is already tight enough for him.

Moreover, this might be an opportunity. Lucius Malfoy is indeed a doting father, but he is also a shrewd and opportunistic businessman.

The fact that he was able to quickly switch sides after Voldemort's downfall and still retain his status and reputation in the British wizarding world proves that he is a very capable opportunist.

Today's incident could be a perfect opportunity for Old John to connect with him. He could say that the child was being immature and that the two had a minor disagreement, and that he was generous enough to compensate him with more shares in the "new company." In this way, the two sides could establish contact, and perhaps the Malfoy family could share their connections with the British Ministry of Magic.

Lynn is very rich, but some things, especially political ones, can't be bought with money alone. You need to find someone you know to act as an intermediary to give gifts. The Malfoy family was undoubtedly Lynn's stepping stone to getting involved in British Ministry of Magic politics.

The owl carried Lynn's letter to Old John away from Hogwarts Castle, and Lynn officially put his plan to open the Chamber of Secrets on the agenda.

After two weeks, he had basically prepared everything he could. If Hogwarts hadn't banned all kinds of technological products, Lynn would have even planned to buy an infrared night vision device from a Muggle.

Late Friday night, Lynn, fully armed, sneaked out of the professor's office.

He was carrying a rooster he had borrowed from Hagrid. To make sure it didn't crow when it shouldn't, Lynn had taped its beak shut and even added a tongue-locking and throat-locking effect.

According to Hagrid, this rooster was the most vocal of all the chickens he raised, crowing an average of more than ten times a day, sometimes even keeping him awake at night. When Lynn asked to borrow the chicken under the guise of Lockhart, Hagrid readily gave it to him.

In addition, he also scavenged some lime powder-like potions from Snape that would harm the eyes if sprinkled without needing to be taken, as well as a knight's longsword, a cold weapon that Old John had specifically bought from the goblins.

He bought this sword in case the basilisk's magic resistance was much higher than he had imagined, rendering magic ineffective and leaving him with only close-quarters combat, so he would have a handy weapon.

Lynn originally planned to borrow Gryffindor's greatsword from Dumbledore, but unfortunately Dumbledore was away from school these days as usual, running errands.

He tried to pull the sword from the Sorting Hat in the Headmaster's office, but whether it was because he wasn't a Gryffindor student or because his actions at that moment lacked the quality of courage, the tattered hat simply wouldn't give him the sword.

There was no other way; just to be on the safe side, he had to ask Old John to buy one for him from outside and send it over.

Lynn now roams the castle under the cover of night, sword in his left hand, staff in his right, and a large rooster tucked under his arm.

Because it's difficult to use the Disillusionment Charm, he's currently still disguised as Lockhart to avoid being spotted by Filch on patrol. (Actually, even if he were the professor in his current form, Filch would still be wary and ask him why he chose to kill a chicken in the middle of the night.)

Lynn had long forgotten the exact location of the secret room's entrance, but he remembered that it was a girls' restroom, and that it was inhabited by a ghost who had died because of the basilisk—Monnery.

Myrtle was quite famous among the girls at Hogwarts. She usually stayed in the girls' washroom on the first floor and often made loud, resentful cries, which made the girls prefer to walk a few more steps to other places rather than use the toilet in the washroom on the first floor.

Professor Lockhart is very popular among young wizards at Hogwarts. His classes are interesting and teach students real knowledge. If it weren't for the excessive amount of homework he assigns, his popularity would be even higher.

When Lynn casually expressed interest in the ghost Myrtle during break, several older girls with ulterior motives immediately blurted out all the information about Myrtle.

At night, the staircases that used to play pranks on the little wizards who were almost late during the day would quiet down, as if they wanted to rest too.

Lynn went down the castle stairs to the first-floor corridor. The process went smoothly; he didn't run into Filch or any of the Gryffindors who were out exploring in the middle of the night.

He found the girls' restroom on the first floor, and after making sure no one else was around, he carried a lot of things inside.

As soon as Lynn entered the restroom, she heard faint sobbing echoing through the toilet.

In the dead of night, in a women's restroom, the sound of crying always evokes negative associations.

However, ghosts are not uncommon at Hogwarts, a magic school. Apart from their different physical form, they do not have any other special abilities, and they cannot even use magic.

The grieving woman, who was hiding alone in a toilet stall, heard footsteps. She drifted through the partition and floated to Lynn's side.

"Are you a professor at Hogwarts? Why are you here in the middle of the night instead of sleeping? And with a chicken and a sword?"

"I'm here to find the entrance to a place, it has nothing to do with you, so please don't bother me if it's convenient." Lynn put down the longsword and rooster on the ground and went to check each of the faucets in the washroom, looking for the one with the snake carved on it.

"Waaaaah, are you saying you're disgusted with me?" Myrtle cried, feeling wronged. "I know everyone dislikes me because I'm short and fat, and I have acne, so I rarely leave this place. And you come here and then you criticize me too, waaaaah!"

Lynn ignored her; that's just how this ghost is—insecure and prone to crying.

Having a target makes finding things much easier, and Lynn quickly found the bronze faucet he was looking for, with a snake carved on the side.

Myrtle was still crying on the side. After Lynn identified his target, he took Tom out of his pocket and pointed to the faucet.

"Say to this thing, in the language you are born with: Open."

Lynn doesn't speak Parsley; that skill, like the ability to disguise himself, is innate. You either know it or you don't, and you can't learn it. However, while he doesn't, Tom does.

Following Lynn's instructions, Tom paused for a moment, then made a hissing sound towards the tap.

The next moment, the pool under the faucet split open, revealing a huge water pipe.

"Will you be in danger once you go in?" Tom asked worriedly.

Lynn carefully held the chicken, tucked his longsword into his waistband, and put his wand into his sleeve. "Don't worry, I'm all prepared. Even if we can't beat you in the end, we can still escape. You should rest for a while; we'll need your help again later."

He put Tom back in his pocket, crouched down, and crawled into the huge water pipe.

The woman who was crying was now stunned. She was killed by the basilisk in an instant and had no idea how she died. Of course, she could not have known that the place where she had lived for decades contained such a secret room.

Lynn climbed down the pipe and soon landed back on the ground.

He stood on one side of a long, dimly lit room. Many stone pillars, carved with coiled and intertwined serpents, towered high, supporting the ceiling that seemed to melt into the darkness above, casting long, eerie shadows into the room, which was filled with a mysterious, greenish haze.

Lynn pulled his wand from his sleeve and released the tongue-locking and throat-locking spell from the rooster he had been holding. Before the basilisk could appear, he tore off the tape from the rooster's beak.

"Ooh ooh ooh!"

A loud crowing sound immediately echoed in the underground chamber; the rooster seemed to be bursting with pent-up energy and kept crowing incessantly.

"Yes, keep calling like that. If your cries work, I'll release you when we get back. If they don't, you'll be eaten." Lynn whispered as he held the rooster and carefully walked deeper into the area.

The large snakes coiled around the pillars gave Lynn the feeling that they were alive, staring at him with their empty eyes.

He became extremely vigilant, observing his surroundings with every step he took to ensure he wouldn't be ambushed. Before long, he reached the end of the secret room.

There stood a statue as tall as the room itself, pressed against the dark wall behind it. It was an old, monkey-like face with a sparse, long beard that stretched almost to the hem of a stone-carved wizard's robe, and two large, gray feet standing on the smooth floor of the room.

Lynn recognized him: Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts and an early proponent of pure-blood theory.

Lynn took Tom out of his pocket again, held him up, and made him face the Slytherin statue.

"Say it the way I taught you before, Tom."

Tom made that hissing sound again.

"Speak to me, Slytherin—the greatest of the four great masters of Hogwarts!" (Parnassus)

Slytherin's enormous face suddenly moved, its mouth growing larger and larger until it formed a huge black hole!

Lynn's muscles were tense as he gripped his wand tightly. He put Tom back in his pocket, his eyes avoiding the dark entrance, instead listening intently to the sounds coming from ahead through the constant crowing of roosters.

However, a long time passed, and after the Slytherin statue's mouth opened, nothing crawled out.

After waiting for a long time, Lynn finally couldn't resist looking up at the Slytherin statue.

He still had his dark, gaping mouth open, staring blankly ahead.

The secret room was perfectly normal: a dark environment, eerie stone pillars, and a statue of the room's owner—it had everything a normal secret room should have. But it was missing one crucial element.

The basilisk is gone!

The entire secret room contained everything, but the basilisk was nowhere to be found.

He thought the snake might have gone into the pipes to find mice for a midnight snack, and waited in the sealed room for most of the night, but in the end he didn't see a single snake.

Lynn sat next to the Slytherin statue, with the rooster beside him crowing tiredly and clucking away.

He tried hard to recall the plot of the original story, confirming that it was mentioned in the story that the basilisk would not run away unless someone gave it an order, but the basilisk was indeed not in the secret room now.

That means someone took the basilisk away before Lynn entered the secret chamber!

(End of this chapter)