Once the snake wanted to consume its prey, it grew in size appropriately to swallow its prey and then continued hunting.
As soon as the vision ended, Loki felt a sigh of relief escape his lips.
'I could've died rather easily if I'd stepped into the chamber today.'
'Is that the 'weapon' Tom uses to petrify the students?'
'Given the snake can change its size, I see how Tom can carry the snake around the castle with him but it seems a little ridiculous.'
'How can the snake kill its prey just by looking at them?'
'Is it a creature that has emerged from the death pathway?'
'And why is it in Salazar Slytherin's chamber?'
'Was Salazar Slytherin a Beyonder of the Death Pathway? If so is he still alive today? What happened to the founders anyway? How did all of them die if they were such great wizards?'
'If they were great enough to start a school that has 'Purebloods' attending it, they were likely Beyonders too. So how did they die? Did they never become demigods?'
Getting no more information about the Snake in the Chamber of Secrets from divination, Loki dove into the library to find himself a book that would help him answer the questions he had about the creature and the founders.
From the next day, there were no more reports of any rooms in the castle being turned over after Ginny Weasley had gotten the diary she so needed.
'Huh…Ginny has started to get worse.' Loki noticed as his spirit vision picked up just how sick she was.
'Did Tom transfer other sequence Beyonder Characteristic into her?'
'Then is he getting close to his end goal?'
'He'll probably do something drastic once again so that he can carry out his final ritual in peace.'
'Will he finally kill a student?'
That evening in classroom 2-21 Loki was cornered by the two girls, Hermione and Daphne.
"Loki we think we should reopen our investigation."
"Huh?" Loki looked at them confused. 'What's got them so riled up?'
"*sigh* Loki have you been paying attention to the rumours?"
"Rumors? What rumours? That Harry Potter is the Heir of Slytherin? I don't believe them."
"No not that Loki." Hermione disagreed and continued, "About how Hogwarts will shut down if there is another attack."
"Seriously? Where did you hear that!?" Loki asked a little shocked.
"The ghosts, I heard from them that the teachers have been discussing the attacks and that if there is another attack in the school Headmaster Dumbledore will be sent away. The school is on the brink of being shut down by the governors.", Hermione explained patiently.
"I see…so how do you think you can help?" Loki asked a little frustrated.
Hermione and Daphne shared a glance and then looked at Loki with a fierce expression.
"We know you're hiding something from us Loki! You've been scouring the library for something lately and they're all in the ancient creatures section and the section on the founders. We don't have Care of the Magical creatures until third year so what were you doing there?"
"Erm….I was just looking at them to learn more about the history and evolution of magical creatures?"
"Come on Loki. Stop lying to us."
"Ehh…"
Hermione and Daphne glared at Loki and urged him to reveal his secrets with their eyes.
"Uff…you girls are bullying me!"
"We wouldn't need to do this if you wouldn't have started acting suspiciously."
"Well, you remember the Snake we predicted was the monster in the Chamber of Secrets?" Loki asked with a soft frown.
"Yes?" Hermione and Daphne nodded.
"Well, I was just trying to find out which monster was inside the Chamber of Secrets so that I could be prepared in case it attacked me. Remember? I'm a muggle orphan? That's why."
Hermione and Daphne's eyes widened as they looked at Loki in a new light and then Daphne immediately said, "I can help you." and then Hermione agreed by saying, "I will help you too! I need to protect myself too!"
"*sigh* At least promise me, as soon as you come across You-Know-Who in any of your research you'll ignore it and stop searching about it."
"....I promise." Hermione said and Daphne nodded in agreement.
With Hermione and Daphne helping him, Loki's search picked up pace as they searched through the library to learn about the special snake that was attacking the students of Hogwarts.
"Found anything yet?" Loki asked Hermione in a whisper as they were in the library.
"Not yet Loki, you go and have dinner, you even missed lunch today."
"*Sigh* fine. I am a little hungry." Loki nodded and left the library before Hermione and Daphne as he walked toward the Great Hall to eat a little dinner.
But mid-way through dinner, Loki saw Professor McGonagall rush towards Professor Dumbledore and whisper something to him. It gave him a bad feeling, so he immediately began to take whatever food he could by stuffing it into his pockets.
Headmaster Dumbledore then stood up and announced calmly, "I request all the students to follow their prefects back to their common rooms. Their Heads of Houses will come back to them later as well."
Loki was surprised just as anybody and everyone began to conspire in whispers.
'Was there another victim?'
A bad feeling welled up in Loki's gut as he spotted Daphne rushing into the Great Hall.
Daphne looked around and finally rushed towards Loki.
"What happened Daph?" Loki asked holding her shoulder trying to calm her down since she was hyperventilating.
"It's Mione! Mione was petrified!"
"What!? How did you escape!?"
"Mione warned me before I could get caught in its gaze!"
"Gaze? You figured out what the animal is!?"
"Yes! We figured out the name! It is called a Basilisk. It has a deadly gaze and kills everyone it makes direct eye contact with! Mione and the others escaped sure death because they looked at it indirectly!" Daphne said in a single breath.
But before Loki could do anything else, Daphne took a deep breath before explaining again, "A creature came out of her shadow to fight it off, but it froze almost immediately too. It was made up of shadows and eyes…I don't know how else to describe it."
Loki nodded and spoke calmly, "Go to the Dorm's Daphne, I'll be with you soon."
All the students began to fall in line with prefects who were escorting them but Loki held back and in all the chaos, he slipped and started moving towards Snape's office.
'I should inform Professor Snape about all that I know, it's probably for the best that I wash my hands off-'
As Loki began to move to Snape's office he suddenly stopped, a scowl made its way onto his face as he felt Tom trying to compel him to come toward the Second-floor Girls' lavatory.
'*sigh* I can't even make more preparations for the Basilisk now.'
'Well can't do much now, but at least I am wearing the Ring of Harvest.'
Before leaving though Loki moved up to a broom closet and blew on the whistle to summon Sunny calling him and explaining what needed to be done.
"Help me will ya?"
*Squeak* *Squeak*
"No, I'm not paying you upfront. And it'll be a good opportunity to digest your potion anyway. So get yourself up and put in some work."
'Having a partner who knows nothing about the Quill of Alzuhood but still does exactly what you say is quite amazing.'
'I wonder if 'Adam' will be able to figure out the trick I'm about to use.'
'Poor guy will be introduced to the best pirate the world will ever see, Gehrman Sparrow.'
'Hehehehehehe~'
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