Everyone bypassed the snake skin and continued to move deeper into the tunnel.
After turning several corners, we finally arrived at the end of the tunnel. It was a solid wall with two snakes entwined with each other carved on it.
Albert took a step forward, looked at the emerald in the snake's eye, and muttered softly: "It's an emerald. It's really rich."
Although it is only a preliminary polished product, such gems are also valuable.
"Is it valuable?" someone asked.
Everyone turned their heads to look at the owner of the voice. Ron, feeling a little embarrassed by everyone's stares, shrank back, trying to reduce his presence.
"It's still valuable, but you can't take it away, otherwise the door won't be able to be opened." Albert took a step back and gave his seat to Harry.
"Open."
Harry looked the snake in the eyes and cleared his throat, speaking in a low, husky hiss.
As soon as the words fell, the two snakes separated on the wall, the stone wall cracked in the middle, slowly slid to both sides and disappeared.
“This is good technology.”
Albert felt that if there was a chance, it would be best to master this skill, as it would definitely come in handy in the future. He never complained about having many skills.
"Come in!"
Harry was the first to step into the Chamber of Secrets, and everyone immediately followed.
Once inside, they found themselves standing at the side of a long, dimly lit room.
There were many stone pillars with coiled snakes carved on them around it. The towering stone pillars disappeared into the darkness above, casting eerie black shadows in the room filled with green and mysterious mist.
Albert waved his wand lightly, and several balls of light flew out from the tip of the wand, hovering above everyone's heads, instantly dispelling the darkness around them.
After the darkness disappeared, the outline of the secret room appeared, and everyone's attention was quickly attracted by the corpse of the basilisk not far away.
"You've ruined the atmosphere of the adventure." Fred muttered to himself and began to look around the Slytherin-style Chamber of Secrets.
"Would someone really build a place like this just to raise a basilisk?" Hermione was shocked by Slytherin's generosity. The area of this place was in no way inferior to the school's auditorium.
"I always feel that Slytherin has a monkey face." Lee Jordan took a photo of the statue in front of him and joked in a low voice.
At the end of the pillar was a statue as tall as the room itself. It was a Slytherin face with a long, wispy beard that almost reached the hem of a wizard's robe carved from stone.
As Lee Jordan said, the old Slytherin has a monkey face.
The corners of Albert's mouth slightly raised, trying not to laugh out loud. Fred and George beside him couldn't help but burst into laughter, not caring at all that the person they were teasing was a Slytherin.
"But this basilisk is really big." Ron swallowed and said with emotion, "Harry, you are amazing."
"No, I was able to kill it more because of luck." Harry felt a lingering fear whenever he thought back to the battle.
It was really luck that I was able to kill the basilisk.
"The eyes must have been pecked out by Fawkes!" Albert glanced at the basilisk's broken eyes and his gaze fell on the fangs that fell on the ground. He took out dragon-skin gloves from his pocket and put them on himself, then bent down and picked up the fangs that Harry used to pierce Riddle's diary from the ground.
"Is this thing valuable?" Ron's voice sounded again.
"It should be very valuable!" Albert put the fangs of the basilisk into a wooden box and put them away again. He said to Ron who was about to extract the teeth from the basilisk's mouth, "But you have to be careful. The fangs of the basilisk are highly poisonous. If you are poisoned..."
"We need the tears of the Phoenix to detoxify!" Harry said first.
"Phoenix tears are extremely precious. If you are poisoned, you will die immediately in 99% of the cases." Albert ignored Ron and began to look around the secret room. His eyes fell on the statue of Slytherin. He took a few steps forward, walked to the mouth of the statue, raised his hand and tapped it gently, then turned to Harry and said, "There should be another secret room here. Open it!"
"Open!"
Harry opened his mouth and tried to hiss, but this time it failed.
Failed
Harry was a little surprised.
"The password is wrong." Albert was considering whether to blow up the entrance.
"I remember Voldemort said something and the basilisk came out of Slytherin's mouth," Harry recalled.
"What did Tom say?" Albert demanded.
"At that time... At that time, the situation was urgent, I forgot." Harry stuttered. He really forgot. In a life-and-death situation, who would remember these things
"If you had heard it, I could have used some special methods to find a way to open the Chamber of Secrets." Albert said to Harry, "Of course, the method may not be to your liking."
"What?" Harry asked.
"Legitimate, we will soon be able to find out what happened in the past two days." Albert looked into Harry's eyes, raised his wand, and said without waiting for Harry's consent: "Then I will begin: Legilimency!"
Before Harry could protest, his surroundings swam and disappeared before his eyes.
The image of himself confronting Voldemort a few days ago appeared in his mind, and his vision returned to normal when he heard the password Tom had used.
Harry still stood there in a daze.
"What's the password?" Albert asked.
Most people were confused and had no idea what had happened in those few seconds.
"What did you do?" Hermione couldn't help but ask.
"Legitimate Memory can read the memories of other people." Albert explained casually, "Since it happened in the past few days, it will be found quickly."
"Looking through memories?" Hermione repeated.
"You can think of it as mind reading." Albert said without hesitation.
"I hate this feeling!" Harry muttered.
"No one will like it." Albert urged: "Open it!"
"Speak to me, Slytherin - the greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
Slytherin's huge stone face moved, its mouth opened, widening wider and wider, and finally forming a huge black hole.
Albert thought he might have guessed where the inspiration for the Dark Mark came from. He waved his wand and let the ball of light fly into the cave first, illuminating the inside.
"I really don't know why Slytherin would have such a weird idea." Ron looked at the door that opened in the mouth area and quickly followed the team into the passage.
Behind the stone sculpture is an open space, which is not very large. It was probably dug out specifically for the basilisk to live and hibernate.
"What are you looking for?"
Hermione looked at Albert who was looking around and couldn't help asking.
"Find the real secret of Slytherin." Albert signaled everyone to leave first. He made sure there were no other secret doors around.
In fact, Albert didn't think that Slytherin would hide the secret door here. If he came out and ran into the basilisk's eyes, he would be killed first.
"The real Chamber of Secrets, are you saying this isn't Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets?" Harry was very interested in what Albert said.
"Probably - there's nothing here."
Fred and George both thought they had guessed the reason. Just as Hermione said, no one would set up a place like this to raise snakes.
"Originally, this place was probably used for refuge." Albert gave his analysis.
"Take refuge?"
“At that time, the relationship between Muggles and wizards was not good.” After coming out of Slytherin’s mouth, Albert began to look around again, looking for places with traces of magic.
"Is there really a secret room here?"
Albert turned his attention to the solid cave wall again, staring at it intently for a moment, and said softly, "Yes, I found it."
"How do you know there is a secret room here?"
Everyone looked at the stone wall on one side of the statue, but could not see anything.
"Magic always leaves traces. It's not hard to find if you look carefully." Albert pointed to a certain spot on the wall, turned around and said to the people behind him: "I need blood."
"Blood?"
"Yes, a little bit of blood is enough. Smear it here. It must be the blood of a pure-blood wizard!" Albert pointed to a relatively smooth stone and said to the three Weasleys behind him, "Whoever comes, just a little bit will be enough."
The three men hesitated for a moment, and finally decided through rock-paper-scissors that George would be the one to do the bleeding. He took the silver needle handed to him by Albert, pricked it between his index fingers, and then smeared the blood on the location designated by Albert.
The outline of a dazzling white arch appeared on the cave wall, and the blood-stained rock in the arch suddenly disappeared, revealing a doorway.
“Wow, this is possible!”
Everyone felt incredible.
"Why do we need pure blood?" Harry couldn't help asking.
"Slytherin is a pure-blood sect." Albert walked in first. Inside the doorway was a row of stone stairs leading upwards.
"Where does this lead to?" Hermione's voice was trembling. Perhaps she was too excited. This adventure was beyond her imagination.
"We'll find out soon enough!"
As they spoke, they walked down the stairs and entered a room.
However, this place seemed a little beyond their imagination. There were a large number of rotten bookshelves and parchments around, and densely carved texts on the marble walls.
"This is… "
"Probably Slytherin's magical studies!"
Previously, Albert thought that Slytherin left the knowledge on the basilisk, but after thinking about it, he denied this possibility, "This is the real Slytherin's chamber of secrets."