My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 297, Section 294: Cowardly as a Mouse

Harry woke up the moment the castle began to shake.

Because of what happened during the day, he didn't sleep very soundly. Even though Professor McGonagall vouched for him and confirmed that he wasn't the murderer, the impact of Snape's words before he fell unconscious—that he should be caught—was still significant.

Especially among Slytherin students, many mocked him, calling him a madman who only wanted to kill.

Even in Gryffindor, not all the young wizards believed he wasn't the real culprit. Some expressed their disdain for him in the common room, criticizing him for doing such a thing, even if he didn't get along with Snape.

However, when Harry felt relieved, Ron and Hermione completely believed him.

They comforted him, saying that the professors would investigate the matter as soon as possible, and that once the real culprit was caught, everyone would know that he was innocent.

But the fact that he was wrongly accused during the day still kept Harry from falling asleep until very late. Before he had been asleep for long, Hogwarts began to tremble as if it were about to collapse!

Harry was the first to wake up in the dormitory, and he was initially a little dazed.

Great Britain is not located in an earthquake zone, so earthquakes rarely occur.

But when Harry was in Muggle primary school, his teachers had specifically taught him about earthquake situations and precautions, so after realizing what was happening, Harry's first thought was that an earthquake had occurred in the area where Hogwarts was located!

He yelled to wake Ron, Neville, and Seamus, who were still asleep.

Just as the four young wizards were about to listen to Harry's instructions and hide under the bed in a panic, their dormitory door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

"What are you doing hiding under the beds? Come out now! Assemble in the Great Hall right now, Professor McGonagall is over there."

Ron heard the familiar voice and crawled out from under the bed first. He called out to Percy, who was hurrying to leave outside the door.

"What's going on? What happened?! Why is the castle shaking?"

"Don't ask me, I don't know what happened either, but you'd better get to the auditorium as soon as possible. At least there are professors protecting you there. Something big might happen tonight."

After Percy finished speaking, he jogged off to the next dormitory room; he still had to inform the other Gryffindor students.

Just as they were suppressing their tension and preparing to head towards the auditorium, Neville suddenly jumped up in terror, pointing out the window and screaming.

"You, you all, look outside!"

Harry and his two companions looked out the window following his directions. The enormous shadow had already blocked out the moonlight, leaving them only a huge, dark, and cold silhouette.

Lynn did not look up to see the true face of this behemoth.

However, even just the half of the beast's body visible from the ground is enough to deduce that its size, even if not as large as the nearby Hogwarts Castle, is at least a third of its size.

The thick, long body still vaguely resembled the basilisk, but in terms of size, this behemoth was more than ten times the size of the one Lynn first saw.

Furthermore, the original dark green scales on its exterior were completely covered by dark silver steel armor, and the tail that Lynn had broken off was completely replaced by solid steel!

Compared to before, the basilisk was like an earthworm, but now it is a terrifying war behemoth.

"Why don't you dare look up at Bellocchio! Slytherin created this near-perfect work of art, it possessed almost limitless potential, and I have unleashed all of that potential. This is what it should have been!"

Fontana stood atop the giant serpent's head, her voice brimming with self-satisfaction, reveling in the perfection of the behemoth beneath her feet.

"How could such a perfect creation not have a name? So I gave it a beautiful name—Jormungand!"

Lynn calculated the time in her mind and responded to her words with a cold laugh.

"You're an American wizard, yet you name your pet after Norse mythology? Is it because the history of the Magical Congress of America is as thin as a British cookbook?"

Fontana was angered by his words. From the very beginning of their conversation, Lynn had firmly held the initiative, which made her very unhappy.

"After I let the basilisk try to kill you for the first time, your strength truly astonished me, especially your giant-like physique, which is why I've been preparing for so long."

Before Fontana could finish speaking, she suddenly felt a chill run through her body, as if a cold wind had passed through her, making her feel a shiver run down her spine.

"What is that?!"

The chilling sensation didn't last long; it was fleeting. Then, a ethereal, transparent soul resembling a little boy floated out of her body.

"Lynn! She's gone. There was only one soul in her body. The girl is dead!"

Tom cried out sadly as he slowly floated down from the basilisk's head, always remembering Lynn's words, and never looking back into the basilisk's eyes.

Upon hearing Tom's words, Lynn gripped his wand tightly, and the last shred of hope he had after seeing Fontana vanished completely.

The girl whose body was possessed by Fontana is dead.

"You've been dragging this out for so long, not to wait for Dumbledore, but to confirm whether this girl is still alive?"

After confirming that Tom had not caused her any harm, Fontana calmed down from her panic. She guessed Lynn's intentions and said coldly.

"She was indeed alive at first. I originally planned to keep her so that she could control her body and pretend to be a normal first-year student. But she was too noisy and cried for her mother every day, so I helped her a little and sent her to see her mother."

Tom floated over to Lynn's side and, having heard Fontana's words, angrily cursed, "Shameless!"

"I'm shameless? What I've done is nothing compared to what Grindelwald did in the US. Why don't you go and curse the great-uncle of this guy you're working for before you start cursing me?"

"Since you hate him so much for killing you, why don't you go to Austria yourself to seek revenge?" Lynn gripped his wand and walked towards the direction where the giant serpent coiled. "You went to so much trouble, causing chaos at Hogwarts and killing an innocent family, all just to kill a descendant of your enemy?"

"You think you're worthy of being an Auror? Or are all the Aurors in the Magical Congress of the United States as cowardly as you?"

(End of this chapter)