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"What should I do, John?"
Malfoy was a bit confused; this was different from what he was taught at home.
He was in the corridor, without Goyle and Crabbe by his side.
John said calmly, "Just as I told you, you know what to do."
Malfoy raised his head, seeing the badge on John's chest gleaming.
He asked, "Can I join you?"
"No," John shook his head, calmly saying, "You are not good enough now, Draco, try to become stronger, so that I can respect you."
Unexpectedly rejected right after speaking, the old Malfoy might have gotten angry.
But now, feeling both unwilling and determined, Malfoy resolved to become stronger.
"You saw how he dived with courage and caught the golden snitch. Foolish and uncaring for his safety indeed, but still won the game against you in your nimbus 2001.. You know, he is nothing special." John patted his shoulder and smiled, "What makes Harry stronger than you is only his unwavering heart."
"I understand. When I achieve it, I hope you'll personally pin it on me," Malfoy nodded firmly.
John smiled slightly, gently touching the badge on his chest, and bowed with a smile, "I call it the Constellation. You will become one of them."
The Constellation Society, similar to Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix.
Those who could enter it were all talents valued by John.
Malfoy couldn't join just yet, but it wouldn't be long before he could become one of them.
Malfoy felt his heart racing as he tried to bow with the same posture as John.
...
At the school hospital wing, John knew that the rogue Bludger wasn't normal.
He went to visit Harry, hoping to find some clues.
Harry was forced to drink a large glass of Skele-Gro, and although John had never tasted it, he knew it couldn't be pleasant.
"John!"
Hermione saw John coming over and walked up to him, saying, "Thanks to you, otherwise Harry might have been killed by that Bludger."
"Pfft! Killed is too serious; I was just helping a friend."
John waved his hand and walked to Harry's bedside, smiling as he asked, "Harry, how are you feeling?"
"Terrible, I mean the taste."
Harry's face was full of bitterness; the taste of Skele-Gro was really bad, and the pain of his bones growing back was even worse.
"Hang in there. By the way, Skele-Gro is a product of the Potter family."
John tried to suppress his laughter; one of Harry's ancestors was a potions master who developed Skele-Gro.
"Oh..!"
Harry was left questioning his life, realizing that this stuff was actually invented by his own family.
John stopped joking with Harry and asked in a low voice, "That Bludger attacking you might have been the heir's doing. I'm not sure why they would target you, but it's not good news."
The trio nodded in agreement, especially Ron, who cursed, "Damn Malfoy!"
"Malfoy?" John was puzzled, wondering how this involved Malfoy.
Hermione, looking a bit embarrassed, said, "He.. I mean.. We think the heir is Malfoy."
John looked at her as if she were joking and shook his head, denying it. "It's not him. That Bludger was cursed, and Draco doesn't have that kind of skill."
Ron stubbornly insisted it was Malfoy, muttering, "But he might have other ways in the Chamber of Secrets."
"Alright, that's a reason, but Draco is under my watch; he wouldn't do something like this."
John's firm denial left the trio looking at each other in confusion.
Before leaving, John secretly placed a badge under Harry's pillow. After he left, Ron complained, "See, I told you."
Hermione defended John, glaring at Ron, "John is just a good person; he might not realize Malfoy would do something like this."
"Anyway, let's finish the Polyjuice Potion first, then get the evidence," Harry said, knowing they needed proof.
He also took John's words to heart, wondering if the cursed Bludger was indeed the heir's attempt to kill him.
...
That evening, John returned to his dormitory from the Room of Requirement. Inside, Tom was not chasing Basil but staring at the Marauder's Map.
This was a task John had assigned to it: to alert him whenever someone went to the girls' bathroom.
Tom, focused as never before on the task, let out a call just as John was working out.
"Did someone show up?"
John sprang up and ran to the Marauder's Map, looking at the name heading to the girls' bathroom.
"What the..! Ginny?"
Seeing this name, John was stunned.
He never would have thought it would be someone from the Weasley family.
The heir of Slytherin coming from a staunchly Gryffindor family?
John felt a strange sense of irony, akin to a Gryffindor choosing a Slytherin student as an heir...
Uh... well, Gryffindor did indeed choose a Slytherin.
John frowned deeply; Ginny Weasley presented a tricky situation.
She was, after all, a Weasley, a family that had never backed down from Voldemort.
But the urgent matter was to catch her and find out how the Chamber of Secrets was opened.
Seeing that Ginny had already entered the girls' bathroom, John cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and headed out.
In the second-floor corridor, John moved as quickly as he could.
He kept his eyes on the Marauder's Map along the way, watching Ginny disappear from it.
"She opened the Chamber of Secrets."
John quickened his pace and arrived at the bathroom, finding it empty.
"She went in?"
Unwilling to give up, John searched the bathroom, even checking the faucets.
"What is this?"
He found a faucet with a different marking.
It had a serpent symbol, the mark of Slytherin.
"Hmm.. Could it be here?"
John stepped back a few paces, drew his wand, and used the Unlocking Charm.
"Alohomora!"
The faucet remained unresponsive. John stubbornly tried a few more times.
"It seems this isn't working. It must be a higher-level spell."
Frowning, John was unsure when Ginny would come out or if she would even be here when she did.
There was also the issue of whether the basilisk would emerge from the Chamber. With all these concerns, John decided to wait on the second floor.
He wasn't in the girls' bathroom because he was afraid a sudden appearance of the basilisk might kill him.
Having researched some information, John quickly identified the basilisk upon learning its appearance.
The Basilisk.
A magically created creature.
Records mentioned that Slytherin had once bred one. If this was indeed the same creature, it would be nearly a thousand years old.
"Damn.. Now that's true immortality."
John smacked his lips in amazement. Nicolas Flamel had used the Philosopher's Stone to prolong his life, becoming physically aged but living for over six hundred years. Yet, this basilisk had lived for nearly a millennium.
While waiting, John didn't forget to keep an eye on Harry.
If Ginny was the Heir, why was Harry attacked?
The badge he left with Harry could alert John to any magical disturbances. At this moment, the badge lit up, indicating a magical disturbance around Harry.
Opening the Marauder's Map, John saw Dobby's name.
He paused, ready to use the badge to listen in. Just then, he noticed Ginny's name appearing on the map once again.
"She's coming out!"
John perked up and cast the Disillusionment Charm on himself.
Before he could approach the bathroom, he heard the familiar sound of something crawling.
"Is the Basilisk also coming out?"
John initially thought of using a Blasting Curse to probe the way, but he was afraid it might hit Ginny.
He didn't see Ginny come out of the entrance, so he closed his eyes and lightly tapped his wand on the ground.
"Magical Sense." (Learned from Gryffindor's Chamber of Secrets)
His magic spread out, allowing John to 'see' the situation in the girls' bathroom.
Ginny was standing by the faucet, and a strange sound came out of her mouth.
The position of the faucet was replaced by another passage, and John sensed that this passage was connected to a huge space.
"Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets."
Ginny had just come out of the Chamber.
And Ginny's state was not right. After Ginny turned around and came out, the passage was closing.
'Hmm, it's deep inside, maybe Ginny rode the snake to come out?—ehm* that sounded somewhat—Oh, it's going back!'
Sensing the basilisk leaving, John rushed in before the passageway could close, relying on his Disillusionment Charm.
As he fell freely, his night vision allowed him to see the situation below clearly.
He stabilized himself with his flying boots upon landing, then tapped the ground again.
A burst of magic power spread out, and a passage within a hundred meters appeared through Magical Sense.
"Is this connected to the sewer?"
John looked at the direction of the friction on the ground, and he knew that the basilisk had come out just now, dropped Ginny on the entrance above and then was going inside a different pipe.
"Where should I go now?"
One side might lead to the Chamber of Secrets, and the other to the basilisk. After much hesitation, he chose to follow the basilisk.
The appearance of the basilisk this time could pose a life-threatening danger.
He followed the direction the basilisk had gone. After walking some distance, John found the basilisk.
"It really doesn't consider me a threat, does it?"
John had openly challenged the heir to come after him. Could it be that Ginny was wary of his relationship with her brother and Harry?
The basilisk was crawling into a pipe. John chased after it.
Seeing the basilisk's back, John didn't hesitate and cast a powerful spell.
"Reducto!"
With level 4 magic power and a level 4 Blasting Curse, the damage was at Auror level.
The scales on the basilisk's body deflected part of the spell, causing it to hit the wall and create a large hole.
John closed his eyes, holding his wand in his left hand and a sword in his right. He noticed that something seemed off about the basilisk.
As the basilisk turned around, John, under the effects of his Magical Sense, 'saw' that the basilisk was missing an eye.
Seeing its enemy John again, the basilisk, filled with hatred, roared and rushed over!
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