章節 90: Chapter 90: Secure Now!

"Harry Potter, understand this..." Tom Riddle hissed intently, "...Voldemort is my past, my present, and my future."

"Regrettably, Riddle, I feel obliged to correct your proclamation," Sherlock Forester interjected, his tone piercing and icy. Tom's eerie glare froze upon Forester, and the Professor confidently continued.

"You, the most formidable wizard of all? Odd, I've never heard anyone in our community bestow that honor upon you," he scoffed. "It is a title that's been reserved for Dumbledore for the better part of a century, while you are simply known as the Dark Lord. Even then you're only the second one, now that I think of it."

The abrupt sting of Sherlock's words sucked the joy out of Riddle's smile, twisting his features into something beastly as he bellowed, "What use is Dumbledore! Using a mere sliver of my memory, I managed to lock down Hogwarts, reduced him to a coward fleeing like a dog in distress, and stripped him of his respect!"

Sherlock heightened a reign of emotions in Tom Riddle before he finally took action. With an incantation of a chilling spell— "Alohomora!"—the concealed entrance of a portrait sprung open with the aid of magic. A cold breeze rushed through the hidden passage, driving Sherlock to push Harry and Ron hurriedly towards its entrance.

"Go, you two! You must find the other professors and guide them here!"

But before either Harry or Ron could scramble through the passage, a long, venomous green figure crawled in from the entrance. Startled, the boys were pushed back, prompting Sherlock to yank them further from the entrance, urging them, "Close your eyes immediately! Do not, under any circumstance, look into the eyes of the basilisk!"

Tom's sinister laughter sprawled across the room. "What's this, Professor Forester? Is escape your only strategy in my presence? Shall we wait for the supposed supreme wizard to return to your aid?"

Once Harry and Ron found their footing, Sherlock reached fearlessly into his robe, unlocking the third button. He held it up to declare, "Do you really believe that I stand before you unprepared, that your whimsical plan has me cornered?"

With a shard of mocking amusement in his laughter, he tossed the button, drawing in sharp breaths from both Harry and Ron. "Professor! Don't say anything rash, we beg you!" Harry's plea was breathless with fear, but Sherlock paid no heed to him. The discarded button had transformed, taking the form of a rooster on the stone floor.

"Helpful now, isn't it?" Sherlock commented, recalling how they had collected the creature from the school's greenhouse for precaution, using magic to disguise it as a button. The rooster immediately let out a proud cry, instilling a glimmer of hope in Harry and Ron, a sigh of relief escaping them.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo..."

However, their hope was short-lived—the basilisk didn't clench in response to the crow but instead fiercely lunged and swallowed the rooster whole. Tom's voice thrummed smugly around the room, "Did you think I was oblivious to your little schemes in the castle? True, a rooster's crow is detrimental to a basilisk, but I ensured its incapacity to hear beforehand. It no longer possesses that weakness."

Observing the remnant feathers of the rooster, Sherlock's face grew stormy. "This complicates things." Harry and Ron's faces brightened in response. "Yes! Exactly, Professor! That's the spirit!"

Sherlock growled in annoyance, thwacking the heads of the two boys. "What gibberish are you both blabbering about? This is serious." he grumbled. Yet, his focus didn't waver from the basilisk. Now sprawled across the room, the beast slithered, its stupendous size pushing aside furniture and bookshelves in its wake.

"Fawkes!" The name of Dumbledore's phoenix rang through the room as Sherlock called out. In no time, a golden light bathed the space as an ethereal song filled the room, forcing the basilisk to wince. In a lofty perched landing on Sherlock's shoulder was a fiery phoenix carrying a battered old hat.

"Oh, what an honor!" Tom Riddle called out, his face contorted into a vile, malicious smile. "Dumbledore's support animal arrives. But tell me, how shall a mere phoenix withstand the king of serpents?" As his words reached the massive serpent, it began to flutter restlessly, preparing to lunge. But Fawkes remained indifferent to the threat, grace unfaltered.

Phoenixes are immortal creatures. Neither the deadly stare nor the most fatal of curses could leave a dent.

Following Dumbledore's advice , Sherlock retrieved the old sorting hat from Fawkes, and with a swift flick of his wrist, threw it over to Harry.

"There's something ensnared within the fabric of the hat. Quickly pull it out, Potter!"

Having delivered the hat, Fawkes leaped away from Sherlock's shoulder, launching itself towards the basilisk. Sherlock, too, stepped into combat, raising his wand and casting a petrification spell on the solidifying figure of Tom— "Petrificus Totalus!" But to his dismay, the spell seemed to pass right through the apparition.

"Your magic is useless, Forester," he laughed triumphantly

The room grew tenser as the battle between the phoenix and the basilisk unfolded, the agile flight of Fawkes providing superiority in the confined space. Soon, the room echoed with a piercing screech—the basilisk had been blinded! Black venom gushed out of the pierced eyes and spilled across the floor.

"Well done, Fawkes! We've got this!" The utter excitement of this victory made Sherlock wave his wand purposefully towards the wounded basilisk, no longer distracted by Tom. Harry and Ron, too, shared this initial burst of excitement but recoiled when they caught onto Sherlock's words.

"Professor, we beg you... silence, please!" Harry cried out, distressingly, while Ron went pallid. Sherlock, however, was too engrossed to pay attention. His focus was rudely disrupted when the basilisk, severely provoked by its injury, threw its massive tail in his direction, flinging him ruthlessly into the adjacent wall.