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Yeah! Here's the new chapter!
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"Well... Here was a disappointing place to start my exploration," I said, looking around at what was probably the Basilisk's hibernation site.
I had used Salazar's incredibly narcissistic little magic words to open the passage that was in the mouth of the statue, and after entering it I saw that the place was big, like…very big.
But apart from a large space with a few snakeskins strewn about and a lot of bones of other animals crushed, the place was completely empty.
Clearly this was just the place where the snake slept and hibernated, and this became more obvious when I activated my Magic Vision, where I could see the wards and spells that were in the 'nest'.
I couldn't quite understand what some of the wards and spells were for, probably because they were very old, but with a cursory analysis I realized that one of the wards should be the one that put the snake into a deep sleep, almost like a suspended animation.
But this ward seemed strange, and it was only after a while that I realized why.
This particular ward and a few others looked like they could only be activated using Parseltongue.
"Smart..." I said, scratching my chin in appreciation, "With that, only a Parselmouth could release the snake and bring it out of its deep sleep. If it were an ordinary ward anyone who managed to get in here could do that, and that would likely cause the snake to age faster and die"
"But well, as there's nothing important to look at here, I guess I'll continue with the exploration" I shrugged, a little disappointed.
I then left the Basilisk's nest and continued the exploration, looking at every part of the chamber, passing through many tunnels and corridors.
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-Some time later... Or a long time later...-
After going through a few hundred tunnels, and no, I'm not exaggerating, I finally finished my exploration.
Many of these tunnels led to various pipes that passed through various places within the castle's walls, floors and ceilings, as most of the pipes were part of the school's plumbing, and because of that I spent a lot of time just walking around, as these passages were just this, common pipes and tunnels.
But in some of these tunnels there were some hidden rooms, but only one of them had something that was really worth looking at.
This room in question, was in a passage that was behind the big statue of Salazar, obviously.
And unlike the other rooms that were mostly empty or had been destroyed by time, this one was mostly intact.
"Well, of all the things I expected to find in the chamber, I can't say a ritual chamber wasn't on the list," I muttered, looking around the room.
The walls of the room were dark stone, with a few stone snakes on them, just like the ones that guarded the main entrance to the Basilisk chamber.
In the center of the room was a large, circular altar with many inscriptions carved into the floor, and around this altar were some pillars with more inscriptions.
In addition to the altar there were also some tables, cabinets and shelves in the room, and there were some items on them.
I was able to recognize some of these items and what they were for from the time I spent looking at Marcel's memories.
"This is probably where Salazar studied and did his Dark Arts experiments" I said to myself, walking around the room as I watched and analyzed the whole place, "Huh?"
As I walked around the room, I saw a small green glow coming from behind one of the cabinets.
Going over there and crouching on the floor, I picked up the item that was giving off that little green glow, and seeing what item it was I raised my eyebrow in interest.
"Hmm, that must have been the egg the Basilisk came from," I said, looking at the remains of a dark green eggshell with some glowing green veins in my hand.
"Strange..." I muttered, looking at the eggshell with my Magic Vision, "Even though a thousand years have passed, the magic that is leaking out of this eggshell is still strong, and even weirder is that some of the remnants of magic in it show that it was part of an experiment"
Still looking at the eggshell in my hand, I turned around and with my Magic Vision I looked around the room.
"I see... So that's why the Basilisk didn't die with the crowing of a rooster, and it's also why he showed resistance to my potion... Salazar didn't create a common Basilisk, he created a Basilisk enhanced with rituals " I said in realization.
"Bloody Slytherin" I huffed.
I then got up, placing the Basilisk eggshell on top of one of the tables, and headed towards one of the shelves, where there were some books.
"Hmm, this book I already read, this is a regular spell book, this one the Flamels already gave me a copy" I said, picking up the books and throwing those that didn't interest me on the floor, "This is a book about magical creatures and it's very out of date, this is a book about... Oh, this is a book about runes" I said with interest.
Opening the book in my hands to a random page I realized that I couldn't understand the meaning of the runes that were noted on this page, but to my confusion it wasn't just the runes that I didn't understand or could read, in fact I couldn't understand anything that was written in the whole book!
"The book... It's written in Parseltongue," I said, a little surprised. I then looked back at the runes carved on the altar, "That's why I couldn't understand most of the wards in the Basilisk's nest, they are all written with runes in Parseltongue! And probably even the spells were cast using Parseltongue!"
Returning my gaze to the book in my hands I grimaced.
"Damn, my ability allows me to speak in other languages, not to read them" I said, "Right now I wish I had Marcel's ability"
I then continued flipping through and looking at the pages of the book, but even then I still couldn't understand what was written.
"Well... So this book is useless to me" I said disappointed.
Just as I was about to toss the book down onto the pile of useless books, a thought came to my mind.
"Wait... I may not be able to read Parseltongue, but I can speak it, so it shouldn't be that hard to learn and read this language, right?" I asked myself, looking back at the book, "Well, it doesn't hurt to try" I shrugged.
I then put the book on a table and started looking at the other books on the shelf.
After a while I had finished looking through all the books, and unfortunately only a few caught my attention, and most of them were in Parseltongue, but still I decided to pick them up.
I then grabbed my suitcase and opened it, putting away all these books that I had picked up, and after some thought I decided to grab the other books that I had discarded as well, as having a few extra books wasn't a problem for me.
I also started picking up all the items and materials that were in the room, and when I finished putting everything in a compartment in my suitcase I looked around the room, seeing that the tables, cabinets and shelves were now empty, and in the room there was now only the altar.
"Well... I think that was quite a profitable exploration," I told myself, satisfied with my work.
"Maybe I'll come back here some other time to clean out the chamber and turn it into my secret base of operations," I muttered with a finger on my chin lost in thought.
"This would basically be my own Bat-Cave... Or should I call it the Raven-Cave?" I asked myself with a confused look, "Aha! I'm going to call it Beast-Cave!" I said with a satisfied look on my face.
'Yes, I have a great sense of nomenclature' I thought, mentally patting myself on the back with pride.
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-Ravenclaw common room-
"Hey Ethan! Where have you been? We've been waiting for you to start celebrating our Quidditch Cup victory" Anthony asked me as I walked through the entrance to the common room.
"Oh, I was taking care of some urgent matters that came up at the last minute... Sorry for the delay," I said, waving my hand carelessly.
"Were you hiding a body from one of your murders?" Michael asked me.
"Can you stop saying I'm a murderer?!" I asked in exasperation.
"Is this a threat?" Michael asked me with a suspicious look and a little…hopeful?
"You know that's probably one of the reasons no one likes you, right?" I said, and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm sure that's one of the reasons YOU don't like me. Others don't like me for very different reasons," he replied, waving his hand dismissively, not even trying to defend himself.
'He's already accepted that nobody likes him' I realized, looking at him strangely.
...
...
...
...
"You're weird," I said.
"The pot calling the kettle black," Michael snorted, rolling his eyes, and I felt my right eye twitch.
'And this should be the house of the smart and the scholars, but I'm surrounded by weirdos' I thought, staring into space with a faraway gaze, contemplating my choices in life.
'Maybe if I had let the Basilisk kill me it would have been better'
End.
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(End AN: And since in the last chapter I recommended a detective series for you, this time I will recommend a comedy anime.
Watch Grand Blue, it's really funny.)