Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 56 Whispers

Learning is an addictive activity, especially when you actually enjoy it.

That's what snake language is like.

It's simple in some ways, with only five sounds: ha, si, ci, he, and ka. But it's also difficult in others, as the duration and stress of each sound have different meanings.

For example, "ha~he~si~si~" means to move forward, while "ha~he~si~si~" means to stop. The only difference is that the ending sound is a little shorter.

To learn Parseltongue, Ike specially caught a small snake, about the length of two palms, from the Forbidden Forest. After being trained with a Stunning Charm several times, it became very obedient. When not being called, it would coil around Ike's arm without moving, feeling cool and comfortable. Ike named it Little Black.

With a new pet, the most vocal dissatisfaction came from Jimmy, the bow-legged tree protector who had been hiding in his clothes. Jimmy caused quite a commotion for several days, but eventually succumbed to Ike's naive charm and got along fairly well with Jimmy, keeping to himself.

Of course, Ike was keeping his Parseltongue lessons a secret. Because of his cheap teacher Voldemort, Parseltongue was practically synonymous with evil in the wizarding world, and for the time being, Ike had no intention of going to Azkaban to study.

The Guardian Spell has never reached Level 1.

And so, in addition to his regular classes, Ike secretly studied Parseltongue and Mermaid Language, even skipping the classic lion-snake battle for it.

The progress has been remarkable; he's already able to have some simple conversations with Little Black. As for mermaid language, since he hasn't been to Black Lake to find mermaids recently, it's unclear how well he's learned it.

Ike felt pretty good about himself.

October was drawing to a close. With Halloween approaching, Ike became more vigilant and no longer wandered the castle alone. He was either with Stuart and the others or followed behind other Ravenclaw wizards.

Because the secret room has been opened!

And the basilisk may already have its eyes on him.

It was mid-October. Ike had just left the restricted book section. As he walked down the corridor, Little Black suddenly wrapped tightly around Ike's arm, trembling as if it were frightened. Jimmy also used its little paws to scratch his neck.

He took out a viewing mirror, which was flashing red light.

Ike instinctively lowered his head, tapped his ear with his wand, and listened carefully to the sounds around him.

After a while, he heard a series of soft whispers coming from inside the wall. The whispers were drawn out and getting closer and closer.

"This is... killing!"

Ike took off running, and the sound moved with him through the wall, maintaining a parallel distance until Ike reached the eighth floor of the castle.

After casting the Disillusionment Charm, Ike stood outside the Ravenclaw common room for a while before slipping inside.

From that day on, he stopped all nighttime outings.

Ike wasn't entirely confident in dealing with the basilisk right now, nor did it fit his plan.

At least for now, it's not time for the basilisk to die.

On Halloween, the castle was adorned with all sorts of decorations, just like every year. As a distinguished student of Ravenclaw, Ike, with his exceptional levitation charm, was recruited by Professor Flitwick to help decorate the castle. Numerous pumpkins, created by Hagrid using the Inflate Charm, were carved into lanterns and hung from the Great Hall's ceiling, each containing a magical candle, creating a very effective spooky atmosphere. Thousands of bats hovered around the pumpkin lanterns, occasionally dropping bombs at the young wizards below.

Of course, these bombs wouldn't actually fall on the food or the little wizards. Professor McGonagall's magic effectively stopped them in mid-air, where they were then disposed of by house-elves somewhere.

Dumbledore hired a skeleton dance troupe to perform a dance for the students and teachers at the dinner party, which Ike found extremely stiff. This was the first time Ike had ever seen moving skeletons; they were just skeletal frames, with only two blue flames burning in their eye sockets. They were conscious and could hear people speaking, but could only communicate by writing on special parchment.

As for the dance, to be honest, it was very similar to the robotic dance that Ike had seen before, but a very poorly performed one, accompanied by creaking sounds. Ike didn't think it was very good, but Terry watched it with great interest.

Having finally gotten to eat a pile of cockroaches after so long, Ike temporarily put the threat of the basilisk out of his mind. As things stand, at least he's safe for tonight.

During the dinner, Ike glanced at the Gryffindor table; Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Ginny were not there. The trio must have gone to the anniversary feast in the underground classroom, and Ginny must have gone to open the Chamber of Secrets to release the Basilisk.

If everything goes well, it should be Mrs. Lorris who is petrified tonight.

As long as it's not human, Ike feels his conscience won't hurt.

The banquet was very lively, and the young wizards were still discussing the skeleton dance troupe even after it ended. Ike mingled behind Stuart, following the crowd out.

They had only walked a short distance down the corridor and hadn't even reached the stairs when a gasp suddenly rang out from the front of the crowd, causing the young wizards to quicken their pace. Ike, caught in the throng, quickly arrived at the scene.

When Ekden saw what was in front of him, he broke out in a cold sweat.

"Good heavens! What's going on!" Terry exclaimed. "Is that Ser Nicholas of Gryffindor?"

At the corner of the corridor, Sir Nicholas floated motionless in the air, a look of terror on his face. Lady Lorris lay stiffly on the ground, her tail held high and her fur standing on end.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron stood bewildered beside Mrs. Lorris, their faces filled with confusion.

The flickering torchlight on the wall illuminated the two lines of blood-stained words:

The secret room has been opened.

Beware of becoming an enemy of the successor!

"Something's not right, something's not right. How could Nick, who was almost headless, be petrified at this moment?" Ike was shocked, muttering to himself, and goosebumps rose all over his body.

"Are they... dead?" Stuart asked in a low voice, startled by the bizarre scene.

"I don't know, maybe," Terry replied blankly.

As more and more people gathered, Harry, his two companions, Sir Nicholas, and Mrs. Lorris were surrounded. After seeing the two lines of text on the wall, almost everyone cast wary glances at the trio.

"No...we didn't do it! They were already like this when we arrived!" Ron shouted, causing the crowd to take a step back.

"Beware of making enemies of the successor!" A young wizard with light blond hair stepped forward, pointing at the three people in the arena and shouting sharply, "You're next, you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Malfoy was covered in the mouth by Clark and Goyle, and Marcus even pulled his arm. Following the direction Goyle was pointing, Malfoy saw Ike frowning and looking at him coldly, and felt a chill run down his spine.

Just as Ike was about to lash out, he suddenly heard a very soft sound coming from inside the wall.

Ha~ hiss~ hiss~ crack~ crack~ hiss~ hiss~

Snake language: You're next!

It's Friday, I'll start catching up on updates tomorrow~

(End of this chapter)