My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 224, Section 221: Re-entering the Secret Chamber

The violent explosion only rang in Lynn's ears for a moment before he felt himself flying backward rapidly, with various blurry cloud shapes flashing past his eyes, and there was no sound around him.

He didn't have time to think about what the explosion sound was, because all his energy was focused on the time converter in his hand.

Lynn didn't spin the pointer very fast. His lips moved slightly, and he counted forward one number with each rotation. He was completely focused, because if he miscounted, he wouldn't have a chance to count again.

"241, 242, 243, 244"

He kept counting down at a rate of one revolution per second, the hands of the time converter in his hand kept going backward, and his body kept flying backward. It was as if there was a bottomless pit behind Lynn, making him keep falling, never able to touch the end.

He couldn't hear himself counting aloud. Although Lynn read each number aloud, he couldn't hear anything.

However, he was very focused and did not think about anything else. Instead, he was wholeheartedly reciting each number. Each number represented an hour of rewinding until Lynn recited the last number that Dumbledore had told him.

"478, 479, 480, 481, 482, 483!"

He counted 483 revolutions, then pushed the pointer back 90 degrees, which meant he had turned back time by 483 hours and 15 minutes.

The glowing clouds around him disappeared, and Lynn felt himself touching the ground again. He gently rubbed the floor with the soles of his shoes, and then the leaping firelight came into his view.

He is obviously no longer in the headmaster's office. Judging from the surroundings, this is the third-floor corridor of Hogwarts.

There was no one around. The time converter that he had been holding had somehow gotten wrapped around his neck. He untied the converter from his neck, then took a couple of deep breaths to relieve the dizziness and nausea he felt after the time travel.

There are no electrical appliances in Hogwarts, and the mechanical clocks only show the current time, not today's date. However, Lynn has a very simple way to verify whether he has returned to the correct time.

He drew his wand and cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself, then quietly and silently descended the stairs.

Lynn didn't encounter anyone on his way from the third floor to the first floor, which reassured him somewhat, because normally all the professors, junior wizards, and ghosts at Hogwarts would be in the Great Hall for the opening banquet at this time, and it would be normal for no one to be around.

He didn't dare to go to the auditorium to check the situation. Lynn's Disillusionment Charm wasn't very sophisticated; at most, it could only hide his figure in the shadows. If he went to the brightly lit auditorium, anyone with a little attention could spot him at a glance.

After he went down to the first floor, he waited quietly by the castle gate. He didn't keep Lynn waiting for long. A middle-aged man wearing a wide black robe, with greasy hair hanging down like seaweed, and a face as gloomy as the water in a black lake, walked out of the hall and pushed open the castle gate in front of Lynn.

It was Severus Snape, the dean of Lynn's school.

Lynn didn't move. He continued to wait patiently in the corner. Before long, Snape returned to the castle with a cold smile, carrying the two disheveled and unlucky men.

"Well done, Harry, well done! Instead of taking the Hogwarts Express, you drove back to Hogwarts in a flying car and even crashed a precious ancient tree. You really did live up to your idiotic surname."

Harry and Ron, heads bowed, followed Snape into the Great Hall, listening to his sarcastic remarks.

Lynn watched this scene expressionlessly from the shadows. Harry and Ron missed the Hogwarts Express because Dobby had blocked the magical wall at Station Nine and Three-Quarters. They had to return to school in a magical car that Ron's father had secretly modified, but the car broke down midway and crashed into the Willow Tree above the castle. Snape came out of the Great Hall to look for them because of this.

This happened on September 1st, the first day of school.

This confirms that Lynn did not miscount the number of laps and accurately returned to the day of the Hogwarts opening banquet.

After verifying today's date, he didn't linger. While the opening banquet was still ongoing and there was no one else in the castle, Lynn quickly walked to the girls' restroom located in the first-floor corridor.

Myrtle isn't there today either. It's not just the opening banquet for the young wizards and professors; the ghosts will also be celebrating in the Great Hall.

This was undoubtedly the perfect time for Lynn to verify whether the basilisk was in the secret chamber.

If the basilisk is still there, it proves that the secret room was opened between the start of the school year and the time he first entered the secret room and discovered the basilisk was missing. In that case, Lynn only needs to wait in the girls' restroom to catch the person who took the basilisk away from the secret room.

If he were to go in now and find the same situation as when he goes in three weeks later, things would be even worse. This would mean that the time when the secret room is opened would have to be brought forward again, possibly even back to when Lynn first entered the first year of high school. The longer the time span is, the more complicated the situation becomes.

Lynn prayed that things wouldn't get too complicated as she walked into the girls' restroom.

He found the brass faucet with a snake engraved on it and took Tom out of his pocket.

"What? Are we going back into this place again tonight?"

Tom had been in Lynn's pocket the whole time, unaware that they had traveled through time.

"I need to go back in and check on Tom. Maybe the Basilisk has suddenly returned?"

Because Tom was also a suspect, Lynn did not tell him the truth, but instead instructed him to reopen the passage to the secret room.

As Tom uttered the Parseltongue word "open," the water tank under the faucet split in the middle, revealing a huge pipe inside. Lynn put Tom back in his pocket and then climbed down the pipe.

He landed on the ground very quickly.

"Fluorescent glow (no amplification)"

A bright white light shone from the tip of Lynn's wand, illuminating the dark, secret room below.

The moment the light appeared, Lynn saw the enormous creature beside him and reacted with lightning speed, instantly retreating to a distance of ten meters.

The enormous creature remained motionless, seemingly dead, showing no reaction to his movements.

Lynn cautiously pointed the light from his wand at the object, and only then did he realize that it was not a living creature, but a snakeskin that was over twenty feet long.

The snakeskin was very brightly colored, glowing green under the wand's illumination spell, as if it had just shed its skin not long ago. It lay coiled on the tunnel floor, and the inside was hollow.

Lynn was quite certain that when he returned to the secret room three weeks later, the snakeskin would be gone.

Seeing this, he was certain that someone had entered the secret room during the period after the start of the school term. He didn't know if the basilisk had been taken away, but he was sure that the snake skin had been taken!

Lynn had not studied the habits of magical creatures, so he could not determine exactly when the snake skin had been shed. However, judging from its bright green color, the snake skin had obviously been shed not long ago.

The Chamber of Secrets remained quiet. Lynn walked past the snakeskin and continued deeper into the chamber until he reached the Slytherin statue leaning against the wall.

Lynn stood quietly in front of the statue without moving, holding her breath.

His footsteps were the only sound source, and now that they had stopped, the secret room became unusually quiet. In this environment, some of the originally faint sounds gradually became amplified.

It was a faint hissing sound, very soft, but Lynn could tell that it was coming from the mouth of the Slytherin statue.

To make sure he hadn't misheard, he took Tom out of his pocket again.

"Should we continue with that 'Great Slytherin' thing?" Tom asked, yawning. He was getting sleepy; after all, according to the timeline they had traveled through, it was time for him to go to sleep.

Lynn shook her head and whispered to Tom.

"No, this time you don't need to speak, but listen carefully and tell me everything you hear."

He fell silent again after he finished speaking. Tom's senses weren't as developed as Lynn's, who could keenly detect even the faintest sounds. He needed to listen more attentively.

Lynn was not in a hurry and waited quietly instead of urging him.

After a long while, Tom suddenly spoke.

"It said it was very hungry, that it had had enough mice, and that it didn't want to eat any more mice."

Tom paused for a moment, then continued translating, "The flesh of human children is very delicious, and it likes it very much, but it cannot eat it without its owner's command. It is waiting for its owner to return, and it has been waiting for a very long time."

After translating this, Tom said definitively, "That evil creature! This must be the basilisk you were talking about. I can understand everything it says, but why is it back?"

Lynn breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the basilisk was still in the secret chamber at this time. He also couldn't detect any different emotions in Tom's words.

"Maybe it went for a walk next door before, but now it's back, which is a good thing."

Lynn put Tom away again. He stared at Slytherin's ugly, monkey-like face, paused for a few seconds, and then turned and walked out of the secret chamber.

To be honest, Lynn hesitated just now, and an idea inevitably arose in his mind.

Now, let's deal with the basilisk, then wait here and catch anyone who enters the secret chamber later. We'll decide whether to give them an Avada Kedavra or a complete annihilation. This way, Lynn and his companions' subjective history won't be altered, and the basilisk will eventually disappear. But the one who actually defeats it is their future selves.

However, if in objective history the real culprit who took the basilisk away was not a single person, but a group, then Lynn would be in great trouble if he did this. He would have to erase the memories of everyone who knew about the plan to bring the basilisk out of the secret chamber. Otherwise, if their memories did not match the original history, it would mean that Lynn had changed the subjective history of some people, and he dared not gamble on the consequences.

Lynn eventually left the secret chamber obediently, sealed the entrance, and waited for the person who would actually take the basilisk away.

He didn't wait in the secret room. Even if Lynn's physical strength was comparable to that of a troll, he wouldn't survive seven days without food and water.

However, there is only one entrance to the secret room. Lynn just needs to keep waiting at the door of the girls' restroom to find the person who released the basilisk.

Before the banquet ended, Lynn secretly went to the kitchen and stole some food. Although he had stored some food in his dimensional pocket, the space inside was limited. He had put a bunch of miscellaneous things in there, and the food and water could only last for two days at most.

Lynn couldn't stand not being able to eat, but a little less sleep quality didn't bother her.

He huddled in a corner of the washroom, where a short nap would restore his energy for the day. The only awkward thing was that it was a girls' restroom, and the older girls usually didn't come here because of Myrtle. But the freshmen didn't know that, so Lynn couldn't stay in the washroom all the time. He had to stay outside the washroom during the day.

As Lynn was huddled in the corner of the bathroom eating bread, he faintly heard a crying sound coming from afar.

"It's so good that they're alive. It's a pity I died so young. If I hadn't died, I could have attended as many opening banquets as they have."

Myrtle's voice was very distinctive. As the voice approached, Lynn had to put away the bread she hadn't finished eating so that she wouldn't hear it.

Even after returning to her permanent residence, she did not stop crying; on the contrary, it was as if she had returned to a familiar place and her emotions were released even more.

"Waaaaah, when those ghosts were chatting just now, I asked the fat monk why he didn't invite me to his anniversary celebration this year. He actually said that he didn't hold an anniversary celebration this year. He must be lying to me. He must be disgusted with me because he didn't want to invite me."

"And Peeves, he was laughing at my pimples again when we came out of the auditorium, but can I change that? I was like this when I died, and I've been like this ever since I became a ghost, just like Nick Fury, who almost lost his head but couldn't completely cut it off, boohoo."

Myrtle's low mutterings and sobs echoed in the bathroom. Lynn unfortunately discovered that he couldn't find peace even at night; whether this weeping ghost could quiet down depended entirely on his luck.

Lynn sighed silently, hoping that the person who opened the secret room would arrive soon so that he could be freed from his predicament.

(End of this chapter)