Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 127 The Worsening Situation

"Cough! Cough! Pfft—"

It felt as if a thousand ants were rushing out of his trachea at once; an unbearable itching sensation, along with a feeling of blockage and a foreign object in his throat, caused Avada to cough violently. He pulled out a tissue to cover his mouth, coughing up several mouthfuls of phlegm streaked with blood, and his face suddenly turned deathly pale.

Immediately afterwards, he felt a warm sensation on his lips. He instinctively raised his sleeve to wipe it, and a large, inconspicuous reddish-brown stain appeared on his once-black sleeve…

"Damn it, I've reached my limit..."

He forced his bloodshot eyes open, pulled out his wand, and tapped it against his nose to stop the gushing blood. Then he pointed the wand at his temple and whispered some incantation. After a while, some color gradually returned to his face.

"No, we can't continue taking the intelligence enhancers and stimulants, or it will leave extremely troublesome side effects..."

"But it's too late, it's really getting too late!"

More than half a month had passed since he asked Harry and his friends to spread the news of the Basilisk and distribute the rooster-crowing badges, but students continued to be attacked and petrified, and the number was showing a terrifyingly upward trend. This led many students to doubt their messages and stop wearing that absurd badge…

After Harry revealed his Parseltongue identity, he volunteered to join the prefects' patrol team, hoping to do his part to protect Hogwarts. However, in the nearly two weeks that followed, he only caught a handful of Basilisk sounds, and they were often fleeting, making them impossible to track.

Moreover, as the number of victims increased, people finally discovered an anomaly—the petrified students had one thing in common: they were all Muggle-born.

The only exception was the administrator, Argus Filch, but he was a Squib who was more like a Muggle than a Muggle-born.

This made the teachers and students of Hogwarts even more convinced that the attackers were definitely not monsters—how could a monster specifically target Muggle-born students?

Therefore, the most prevalent speculation became that the petrification incident was likely an act of revenge by an extreme pure-blood activist after Dumbledore's departure. The consequence of this popular speculation was that Slytherin students' popularity within the school plummeted—after all, everyone knew that Slytherin had the most extreme pure-blood activists among the four houses. Moreover, many of them were pure-blood nobles who could use Dark Magic tools to create a petrification curse that even Professor McGonagall couldn't break.

As a result, this viewpoint actually unleashed a considerable number of extremely pure-blooded Slytherins. Many of them, in the heat of the moment during arguments, openly declared their support for the perpetrator of the petrification incident; some even went so far as to imitate the Basilisk attack, only to have their clumsy petrification charm easily broken by the Professor. The imitator is now serving a six-month detention…

This atmosphere of mutual distrust has made the basilisk attacks increasingly rampant—in just half a month, nearly one-tenth of the school's Muggle-born students have already been affected!

At this rate, the entire Muggle-born population of the school could be wiped out in just six months! And the Basilisk's attacks are only increasing in frequency!

Therefore, Avada can no longer worry about prioritizing the capture of the Horcrux diary. His immediate priority is to do everything in his power to crack the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, and then immediately find a way to contact Dumbledore so he can bring Fawkes to kill that basilisk that's been harassing the students!

As for Horcruxes, when he has time to study the repentance effect, even if that diary runs to the moon, he can still pull back the soul fragments inside!

"But soul magic is so difficult..."

He staggered out of the bathroom, rubbing his temples, and only after going down the stairs to the second floor did he remove the illusion spell from his body. He leaned against the wall and took deep breaths—he dared not use the "Close to the Ends of the Earth" spell for the time being, fearing that he might freeze or suffocate to death in the spatial interlayer if he lost control.

"Ken? You're here? That's great!"

"...Harry?"

Avada struggled to lift his eyelids and looked up, and sure enough, he saw Harry's somewhat excited face, with Ron and Hermione following behind him. They didn't look like they were on patrol...

"We've been looking for you!"

He leaped down the third or fourth step with a thud, then paused, stunned, upon seeing Avada's expression: "You're still here..."

"Yes. But there haven't been any results yet, and I'm quite anxious."

Avada raised his head and slowly asked, "What do you want from me?"

"Well, it's not in a rush. I think you need rest more right now than to help us..."

Ron hesitated for a moment, then pointed at Avada: "You probably don't know how terrifying your face looks right now—God, your face is so white you're almost ghostly, and your skin is like the ghoul upstairs in my building..."

"That's a sign of long-term overdose of stimulants."

Hermione added with concern.

"I know, and in fact, I'm planning to take a break for a while; my energy is completely depleted..."

Avada rubbed his dry eyes, trying to straighten his posture and appear a little more energetic. "But I think I can still help with some less intense matters. So, what do you need me for?"

"..."

The three exchanged hesitant glances, and finally Harry reluctantly spoke up, asking, "We'd like to know if you know where we can get African tree snake skin and two-horned beast horns..."

"You need to make a compound..."

Avada Kedavra was about to ask in surprise when Hermione swiftly covered his mouth: "Keep your voice down! We went through so much trouble to get our hands on that forbidden book!"

"Um?"

You actually use legal means to obtain banned books?

"Okay... but what are you guys going to do with that thing?"

Avada asked疑惑地问道—In the original story, after the fact that he was the heir to Slytherin was exposed, they made Polyjuice Potion to get information from Malfoy. What's going on this time?

"We think there's something wrong with Malfoy and Parkinson, and we want to become Crabbe and Goyle to ask them about it."

"Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson?"

Avada raised an eyebrow in surprise: "What's wrong?"

Draco Malfoy's father was the previous owner of the Horcrux Diary. Could it be that Draco Malfoy really knew or was involved in something?

"Malfoy's condition changed drastically before and after."

Harry lowered his voice seriously: "Before the petrification incident, he almost became a coward, the complete opposite of his arrogant self last semester: taciturn, timid and hesitant around everyone, even when he encountered us, he wouldn't provoke us, he would just walk past as if he didn't see us..."

Avada nodded—he'd noticed Malfoy's unusual behavior at the dueling club too, but hadn't paid much attention: "And then?"

"Then, after the first petrification, which was Filch being petrified, he suddenly became extremely arrogant and domineering. He kept uttering those three words, and he would provoke anyone from other academies he met..."

"Pansy Parkinson, who was next to him, was basically in the same boat. Back then, it was far from the point where they discovered the petrified people were all Muggle-born; Malfoy and his crew definitely knew something!"

"……I see."

Avada also became serious—this matter was indeed very strange, and there was no way to ask Baron to inquire about it. Baron was currently being strongly ostracized by some people in Slytherin, and someone like Malfoy, who knew Baron's stance, obviously wouldn't let his guard down.

"Both of the items you want can be bought at the shops in Diagon Alley for around fifteen gallons. Here's the address..."

He pulled out a notepad and quickly scribbled a line of text before handing it to Harry: "However, these two materials are a bit rare, and it will probably take two or three days from sending the letter to receiving them."

(End of this chapter)