The weather brightened up on Tuesday morning, and the winter sun shone on Hogwarts, tinting the old castle with a golden glow.
Felix slept until eight o'clock, opening his eyes amidst the laughter of several young wizards having a snowball fight.
When he lifted the covers, his cotton pyjamas automatically detached and a delicate, soft, and silky jumper slid over his body. He moved his neck to make the clothes adjust more comfortably, and then put on a padded pant under the effect of magic.
"Magic makes people lazy," Felix couldn't remember when he had heard this in his class, but he deeply believed it.
After donning a dark wizard's robe, he pushed open the window and looked out at the snowy landscape from above.
The weather had warmed up considerably and Felix didn't feel cold. A thick layer of white snow was piled up in the clearing and yard in front of the castle, and many young wizards were hurrying to the hall for breakfast.
"Luckily I don't have a class this morning, it's true that happiness is all about comparison."
Back in his office, he sorted through the tasks he had at hand in the recent period -
Locating the Chamber of Secrets, as well as dealing with basilisk ( which he had agreed with Dumbledore to solve during Christmas break).
Finding the Dark Lord's relics suspected to be a Horcrux ( propaganda for three times without a clue, another evidence of the young wizard's unreliability).
Practicing instant killing techniques (recently slacked off a bit and stagnated at four jumps in progress)
Acquiring the rare skill Parseltongue ( pending feedback, responsible: Harry Potter)
Appointment with Kline (on hold indefinitely ...).
The next contact with Hagrid the Dirtbag (in elaborate preparation).
Scavenging the Hogwarts Millennium Collection (in progress).
Dealing with the public opinion threat posed by Rita Skeeter (√).
Completing the Vine of Binding, a runeic creation (√).
Guiding Hermione to complete her thesis (√).
Preparing Christmas presents (√).
Undertaking a dueling club program (√).
Proposal for reforming the teaching of the ancient runes course (√).
Befriending Lockhart ( brain-dead, this task is null and void).
Felix smacked his lips, there is no particularly urgent matter now. With less than a week before Christmas, he also got somewhat lazy.
" Might pay a visit to Professor Snape, to finalize the dueling club aide affair."
Felix went down the stairs of the castle, through the yard, there were a few strange-looking snowmen by the road - this is obviously a lower-year students' work, with limited magic attainments, they can only do this work by hand.
After breakfast, he made his way down to the castle's basement and found his way to the potion professor's office.
Knocking the Professor's office door, Snape expressionlessly refused his requests to enter.
"I don't think I invited you to visit my office, Felix."
However, Felix has long been familiar with the professor's character, unless you want to flirt with him, then have something to say, and say what he is most interested in.
So Felix said: "Professor Snape, I got permission from Headmaster Dumbledore to take charge of the subsequent dueling course. And as for the teaching faculty, I need to know your opinion ..." He stopped and looked Snape straight in the eye.
Snape pursed his lips tightly, his black eyes fixed on him for a brief moment, and then he moved out of the way, "Please come in, Felix."
This potion professor's office is located in the underground, dimly lit, the shelves by the wall are filled with a myriad of glass specimen jars, and then within, there is Professor Snape's private bedroom.
Felix walked to the specimen shelf, carefully examined one of the jars, "Is this the claw of the eight-eyed giant spider? Is it from the batch that lives in the Forbidden Forest?" He asked with interest.
Professor Snape came out of the inner room, with two cups of pumpkin juice behind him. "No." He said coldly, handing him a glass of pumpkin juice.
The conversation between the two then got down to business.
"Felix, when did you steal the dueling club from Lockhart?"
"Professor, I must remind you that it was rather Professor Lockhart who was too busy with his daily work and had to relent in making concessions."
"I don't think so," Snape scoffed at that, "what's so busy about one-man-acting class."
"Busy writing back to fans, of course. From what I understand, he spends at least one hour a day doing that." Felix let out a mischievous smile, "I can relate to Professor Lockhart, after all, we're both writers who have to deal with the harassment of fans, and he's more productive than I am."
"He wrote the book ..." Snape didn't say anything further, his expression said it all. "But you write back to fans as well? That's unexpected, I thought, you won't spend time on such trivialities."
"There's no way out," Felix said emotionally, "they're mostly officials from the ministries of magic in various countries, and we discuss muggle legislation and how to deal with muggles."
Snape choked.
He said, "Felix, don't beat around the bush with me, say what you came for."
"Professor, I want to know if you still have the desire to participate in my dueling course."
"Your... dueling course?" Snape trailed off on the word "your" for a long moment.
"Yes, my dueling course." Felix looked at him frankly.
It's a distinction of dominance.
Snape fell silent.
Felix looked relaxed, he did not know if Snape would agree, but from the information obtained from Lockhart, at that time Snape volunteered to act as an assistant for this course.
This indicated that he is interested in the dueling course.
As for the reason, Felix did not know, and he did not care much.
However, he heard that Snape had been seeking a position to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts course, but unfortunately, Dumbledore never agreed. Between these two, is there a connection?
For example, Snape used the dueling course as a substitution for the Defense Against the Dark Arts course? Felix speculated in his mind.
"I need to be involved in the selection of the course content." Snape made a condition.
Felix showed a smile, "Of course, your experience is worth valuing." He said so.
Felix put the cup filled with pumpkin juice back on the table, he stood up, "Professor, the next dueling class will be conducted after the Christmas holidays, I will communicate with you about the content of the class by then, have a good day."
"No, thanks," Snape said with a stern face.
Felix, who was just about to walk out the door, suddenly stopped: "By the way, Professor Snape, I prepared your Christmas present in advance, I'm sure you will be satisfied."
Snape's mouth is tugged with a smile, he said, "I will prepare a gift for you too, Felix."
...
In the evening, Felix and Professor Flitwick swapped their shifts for the routine patrol through the castle. There were always some little wizards, with all kinds of justified and unjustified reasons, who were out of the sight of the professors, the head boys & girls and acted alone.
But to his surprise, he ran into a hurried and panting Miss Hermione Granger.
"Professor Hap! Oh my, I finally ran into you, professor!" The young witch said excitedly.
"Miss Granger, what happened?"
"The monster in the chamber ... chamber ..." Hermione tried to speak, but she was running a short distance the whole way, and at the moment she is out of breath.
"There is a new attack?" Felix's expression got serious, seriously now? There is another attack a few days before Christmas?
His assistant first nodded, then shook her head.
"The attack did happen, but no one hurt. However, Harry, he, he went after basilisk!"
"Calm down, Miss Granger!" Felix enquired, "You need to tell me how much time has passed since you and Harry last saw each other? Can you determine his location now? And in what way is he trailing the basilisk?"
Hermione quickly said: "No more than five minutes, Professor. We presumed that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in Myrtle's lavatory, so we agreed to meet there. Harry was able to locate the basilisk through the Parseltongue ..."
"Very well," Felix interrupted as he waved his wand and from the tip flew a silvery glow that condensed in the air into a tiny bird that hovered in midair with a pair of narrow, scythe-shaped wings.
Felix said aloud: "Headmaster Dumbledore, Harry Potter pursuing the Chamber of Secrets basilisk alone, please come quickly to the abandoned lavatory of Myrtle, where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is most likely located."
After saying that, the tiny bird waved its wings and turned into a stream of light, and instantly disappeared.
"Professor, what kind of magic is this?" Even though the situation is an emergency, the little witch still can't help but ask.
"Patronus charm, it can help you defend against dementors, or on some occasions, you can use it to deliver a message or something."
" That's a kind of rain swallow?"
"Well, it's fast."
"Let's go to the lavatory first." Felix said to Hermione, "You can tell me all the details of what happened on the way."
By the time both arrived pretty close to Myrtle's lavatory, Felix had figured out the situation.
An hour ago.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the Great Hall finishing a quick supper when they looked at each other and slipped out in silence.
"It's six-twenty," Hermione told the two before moving on, "We have about forty minutes, so as long as we make it back and return to the common room with the rest of the group before seven, no one will notice we've been out."
They were going to meet with Professor Hap, gain his trust, and then report the secret room information to Headmaster Dumbledore.
But something went wrong in the halfway -
"Rip you ... to pieces ... have to kill ... hunger for blood ..."
As they passed through a dimly lit corridor, Harry suddenly heard the voice, and he shouted, "It's the basilisk! It's out!"
"You heard it?" Ron said nervously.
Harry rushed out, he climbed the stairs, straining his ears to keep searching, he seemed to hear a subtle friction noise, so he rushed ahead, Ron and Hermione followed closely behind.
But the sound, if any, Harry would occasionally be lost, he had to climb up and down to confirm the location.
The trio ran for most of the time, tired and panting.
"It went back? Maybe it just came out for a walk?" Ron asked expectantly.
"Absolutely not!" Harry said, "It wanted to kill, it said it craved for blood!"
"Tear you ... apart... target ."
Harry jerked his head up, the voice overhead.
"It's upstairs!"
Harry quickly ran upstairs, leaving Ron and Hermione far behind.
Turning around to a corner, he saw Justin alone from the other side of the corridor.
" Coming ... out to kill someone ... to rip them to shreds ..."
Harry's expression turned horrified, it is going to be too late. He shouted toward Justin, "Close your eyes, Justin! Close your eyes, the basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets is out!"
Justin, who had been avoiding Harry for the past few days, sniffed in shock and asked, "What?"
Harry had no time to explain, he had already heard the " clattering" sound clearly, that must be a basilisk, it's coming out, it's going to kill!
" Flipendo!" Harry pulled out his wand, a Knockback Jinx knocked Justin away, his face still wearing surprise and panic at the time.
Harry lunged at Justin to drag him away, which wasn't easy - Justin struggled for dear life as he broke free of the spell's effects, and the two tangled.
"What are you going to do? Harry, what are you going to do!"
"Shut up! I'm saving your life!" Harry gave him a hard punch to silence him, "Listen! The Chamber of Secrets monster is out, and its eyes can kill anyone, so close your eyes now."
There's a rustling sound that came through the hallway that is distinctly clear.
Justin closed his eyes tightly, and his body couldn't stop shaking. Harry also closed his eyes, while one hand fumbled for his wand - which had fallen on the ground during the brief fight between the two.
"Are we going to die, Harry? I don't want to die, Harry, and I'm sorry I misunderstood you." Justin said incoherently.
"Shut up!" Harry yelled, a clear echo echoing down the hallway.
He touched a small wooden stick which was his wand, but he had absolutely no way to fight the basilisk, his eyes were still closed!
Harry judged that the snake monster is less than two meters away from them, and perhaps its head is dangling in front of him?
He even smelled a pungent fishy odour.
"Get out of here!" He shouted.
"What?" Justin asked, shivering.
"Not you, get out of here!"
Justin only understood the first half of the sentence, and the second half, which came out of Harry's mouth, is a creepy sound, like the "hiss" of a snake, but much more terrifying.
It is Parseltongue, he realized immediately.
Harry kept speaking Parseltongue, telling the basilisk to " leave here " and " go back ", and it worked, the sound of the basilisk movement stopped.
But it also did not move away, but instead responded, "kill ... master's orders ... rip ... clean muggles ..."
"Get out of here!" Harry said in a Parseltongue, "I order you, get out of here!" Thanks to the magic scrolls he had been working on for the past two days, it had made him a lot more proficient in Parseltongue.
"Master's orders ..."
"Your master and I are best friends, we're on the same team, listen! You are in danger, there is a powerful wizard coming! Just leave here quickly!" Harry kept urging, he didn't know if it would work, but Hermione had learned from Professor Hap that Parseltongue could be used to control snakes.
He did not know whether it is true or not, but could only pray in his heart it is true.
Finally, the basilisk went into action, and Harry held his breath, waiting for his fate - and hooray, the slithering sound of the basilisk got further and further away, and eventually disappeared.
"Can't stop killing ... the next attack ... soon ... held back a little longer... ..." were the words Harry heard from the ceiling, and it appeared that the basilisk had returned to the pipeline.
Justin shivered and slumped on the floor, aghast.
"It's over." Harry opened his eyes.
A few dozen second later, Hermione and Ron came panting from behind, "Harry, what happened?" They lost him and took a bit of a detour.
Harry said very fearfully afterward, "The basilisk tried to attack Justin and I stopped it."
"What- oh my God!" Hermione pointed to the scrape marks on the ground, "That's ..."
"Yeah, I had a head-on encounter with it."
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