"What is this?"
Harry couldn't help but squeak, sounding like a frightened little girl, but he couldn't stop himself.
"Basilisk."
Professor Kettleburn gazed, fascinated, at the lifelike painting on the wall, his fingers slowly sliding over the seemingly moving, emerald green scales.
"If a rooster's egg is hatched by a toad, it will produce this extraordinary creature called a Basilisk. It can grow to be fifty feet long. Its fangs are extremely venomous, but the most dangerous thing is its eyes."
"Eyes?" Harry repeated, glancing again at those perilous yellow eyes.
"A single glance is enough to kill anyone instantly."
Professor Kettleburn uttered the dreadful words nonchalantly: "This Basilisk has survived at Hogwarts for over a thousand years... which means it lives with us every day..."
Harry imagined for a moment...
Eating with his classmates, reading, attending classes... with a murderous creature lurking nearby...
He couldn't help but shiver, then questioned uneasily, "If that's the case, why hasn't anyone seen it?"
"It moves through the pipes—Dumbledore has confirmed this."
Professor Kettleburn smiled, pulling a huge scale from his pocket.
He stroked the scale slowly, showing an obsessed smile:
"See this? I found it sneaking into the pipes... Thanks to my missing arm and a half leg, I could easily enter places others cannot..."
Harry looked at his missing limbs, feeling both sympathetic and oddly afraid.
However, he then saw this strange professor eyeing him appraisingly.
"Speaking of which, you're small and nimble, getting into the pipes should be convenient for you? Perhaps that's why Dumbledore is having you students tackle the Basilisk..."
Harry shivered uncontrollably, but then calmed himself thinking of Dumbledore.
Impossible... Dumbledore wouldn't do such a thing...
And he had Parseltongue... Everyone said it was the language to control snakes.
The Basilisk was terrifying. But Harry thought, if he didn't go, other students might be at risk; but if he did, maybe Parseltongue could help a little...
With such thoughts, when Professor Kettleburn asked him again if he wanted to withdraw, Harry gritted his teeth and vehemently shook his head.
"Alright then... Good luck, kid." Professor Kettleburn gazed at him sympathetically, saying, "Come back alive."
That sentence immediately made Harry's heart leap into his throat.
But the words had left his mouth, and he couldn't back down. Harry could only grit his teeth, passing through the room.
Then unexpectedly saw Michael.
"... Michael?" Harry exclaimed.
"Yes, surprised?" Michael asked with a smile.
"I thought it was a professor..." Harry spoke truthfully.
"Everyone else saw professors, I specifically waited for you." Michael said, gesturing for Harry to follow, "Vid needs your help."
Harry quickly followed, and after passing the door, he found themselves in a spacious corridor.
He hesitated for a moment, reminding Michael, "Michael, I still have to participate in the challenge..."
"It's related to the challenge." Michael said, "Without you, the competition can't go on."
"Why?" Harry queried.
"The entrance is blocked." Michael repeated Vid's words to him.
Harry recalled what Professor Kettleburn had said earlier, and asked:
"Isn't the entrance in the pipes?"
"That magically opened spot is too narrow, if there's danger, it's over, so we need a sufficiently wide passage."
—What door couldn't Vid open and needed his help?
Harry was confused, not understanding what's going on. But Michael pulled him along quickly, seeming very urgent, so he could only keep up.
Soon, he found the surrounding corridor increasingly familiar, and the place ahead... was clearly the girls' bathroom where boys are forbidden!
"Wait, wait, Michael!" Harry turned green as he grabbed the person in front, "Are we going in?"
He emphatically said, "This is the girls' bathroom!"
Michael laughed, "Don't worry, there's no one inside except Moaning Myrtle."
"Who?" Harry asked.
As a boy, he never approached the girls' bathroom, naturally unaware of some Moaning Myrtle.
"The ghost who always haunts that toilet." Michael briefly introduced, "Because she's often causing trouble, no one comes to this bathroom. Vid is waiting for you here."
"... Vid?"
Harry was shocked again.
Today he had been shocked too many times, his reactions becoming numb, but the news that Vid was in the girls' bathroom jolted him again.
In speaking, Michael had already pushed open the restroom door, and Harry immediately saw Vid, surprising him, beside him was also Dumbledore.
These were two people who would never be associated with peeping into the girls' bathroom, seeing both of them there dispelled Harry's awkwardness and tension.
Dumbledore and Vid stood side by side, bending down to examine a faucet. That gold-and-red Phoenix perched on the headmaster's head, like a unique hat.
Beside them was a short, chubby female ghost, who seemed to be still a student, wearing thick glasses, with a plain appearance and a gloomy expression.
Harry guessed that must be "Moaning Myrtle."
Beside the headmaster, she seemed somewhat nervous, yet a bit excited. She hid her body in a toilet cubicle, watching them secretly.
—This is quite a strange combination.
Harry thought.
He tried hard to ignore the eerie, bluish eyes above the cubicle, and greeted, "Good evening, Professor Dumbledore, Vid."
"You're here, Harry." Vid sidestepped, saying, "Come and have a look."
Harry immediately walked over, with Michael curiously following.
Then they discovered the two were examining a copper faucet, with the side engraved with a small snake.
"Uh..." Harry asked, "What's so special about it?"
Vid said, "Look at it and say 'open' in Parseltongue."
"Parseltongue?" Harry instinctively glanced at Dumbledore, then asked curiously, "You didn't learn it too?"
After knowing he could speak parseltongue, the people at SSC learned a few phrases, but most quickly gave up in the almost indistinguishable "hissing," only Hermione and Vid learned the most.
"Open" was such a simple phrase, Vid had learned it long ago.
"I did learn it." Vid said helplessly, "But this entrance doesn't seem to recognize the knockoff version of Parseltongue."
He remembered in the original, Ron also opened the Chamber with Parseltongue, but the same method was hindered at this faucet.
Vid could only assume that the magic left by Slytherin himself was more exquisite than Voldemort's, when the Basilisk was alive, it not only needed snake language, but also had to be genuine Parseltongue.
In Harry's mind, the image of that professor showing him a picture earlier flashed, recalling those cold and deadly eyes.
[Open.]
He hissed the words, and the faucet emitted a dazzling white light.