"I mean, what is the monster in the Chamber of Secrets?"
"I know it was Voldemort who was controlling it."
Ron said irritably.
Hagrid's face contorted with fear and rage upon hearing Voldemort's name, and his curiosity was reignited upon hearing about the monsters of Slytherin.
"I see," Harry said, lost in thought. "It was a Basilisk."
"The skin that was shed was at least twenty feet long."
"That little guy—" Hagrid exclaimed excitedly, "I mean, that terrible monster?"
"It's still alive, isn't it?"
Harry and Ron were both speechless.
Hagrid had no idea that the little cutie he called mermaid had killed Moaning Myrtle, leading to his expulsion.
Although Harry believed the Basilisk was likely innocent and being controlled, Hagrid's attitude also—
"It is still alive. As a legacy of Slytherin, it never caused any harm to young wizards before Voldemort appeared."
"If they collide, Dumbledore might intervene."
"But all we saw was its shed skin."
Hagrid breathed a sigh of relief. "Can I go take a look at it?"
He forced out his grief and resentment, "Besides the mysterious man, that monster was also an indirect culprit in my imprisonment. I need to get in touch with it and find out if it really poses a threat to the school."
Harry was speechless. "That's Basilisk! Its gaze can kill. Anyone who gets stared at by its eyes will die instantly."
"You still want to go see it! I really do—"
"Eye contact can kill!" Ron exclaimed. "That dangerous? No wonder that old madman from Slytherin chose it as a killing tool."
"Why didn't Dumbledore kill it! Such a dangerous monster is in the castle, what if—"
"Kill it?" Hagrid said angrily. "It's extremely rare and valuable!"
"It is a rare beast that can only be hatched from an egg by a toad at a specific time and under specific celestial conditions."
"Moreover, its weakness is very obvious; it will flee in panic at the sound of a rooster crowing."
"In the Forbidden Forest and beside my cabin, there is no shortage of roosters."
Harry shook his head. "Killing it isn't necessary. Its only entrance to the castle is in the girls' bathroom where Moaning Myrtle is, and it can't open it itself."
"Although it can move in the pipes, the fact that I've never heard it speak suggests that it was likely designed to live and hunt deep underground. It makes me think that Hogwarts' pipes also need the help of an heir."
Ron muttered, "Well, it must be very deep, otherwise the ghosts would definitely have found it."
"What are we here for?"
Harry paused for a moment, then looked at Hagrid.
Hagrid lowered his head, his thick index fingers poking at each other, like a little boy caught doing something wrong.
"My exoneration."
Harry was speechless. "Then can you tell me how you got expelled?"
"There must be a reason why Dumbledore hasn't dealt with it yet."
"By the way, what does this have to do with Aragog?"
"I remember you once said that it was also the 'monster' mentioned in your dismissal notice."
"It's him," Hagrid corrected. "I'm a typical Gryffindor."
"From the start of school, I would get into trouble every other week, just like Fred and George."
"Keeping Werewolf cubs under the bed and sneaking into the Forbidden Forest to fight Troll caused the then-headmaster, Armando Dippet, a great headache."
At this point, Hagrid let out a cheerful chuckle.
Harry and Ron exchanged glances, thinking that this was enough to get them expelled.
Hagrid hadn't even gotten to the main point yet.
"When I was in third grade, my footsteps were no longer confined to the Forbidden Forest."
"Hogsmeade also unveiled its mysteries to me."
"Back then, I frequented bars. My large size made people think I was an adult and could drink more stimulating beverages than Butterbeer."
"Hogsmeade, as a pure wizarding village, attracts many wizards from abroad for tourism."
"Of course, it's not as lively as it is now."
"This also brought in many contraband items, including eggs of Magical Creature with a rating of 4x or higher."
"The Hog's Head Inn, where customers all wear masks, is the perfect place to trade these contraband items."
"At that time, I was short of money and could only watch longingly from the sidelines."
"But a generous traveler noticed the longing in my eyes and gave me the eggs of Aragog."
Harry and Ron exchanged a glance. No wonder Hagrid wasn't surprised about the dragon egg when they were in their first year; it turned out he had done it more than once.
"Of course, this is also related to my extensive knowledge of those beautiful little cuties."
"Back then, I was just a little kid."
"The only thing we could do was hide him in a cupboard in the castle and feed him breadcrumbs that were scattered on the table."
"He was very sensible and controlled his appetite for humans very well, which is rare for their race."
"He had never attacked anyone before the disaster last year."
"I can guarantee that, apart from the cupboard where he grew up, Aragog has never seen any part of the castle."
At this point, Hagrid's voice began to choke.
"These happy days only lasted for a very short time."
"The body of the girl, Moaning Myrtle, was found in the washroom."
"But this definitely wasn't done by Aragog; the body doesn't have a single wound."
"This incident has caused a huge uproar, and the school is going to have to close."
"Then Tom— " Hagrid took a deep breath, as if he had seen something dirty, "The mysterious man from my youth, the one I once thought was a friend, approached me, intending to use Aragog as a scapegoat."
"The box was opened with a spell, and Aragog fled in a panic—towards the Forbidden Forest."
"But even so, Tom still wanted to make a move."
"What could I do but take his wand and knock him to the ground?"
Harry and Ron already had a picture in their minds.
The strong Hagrid pinned the frail Voldemort to the ground, Voldemort could only struggle helplessly as he watched Aragog escape.
For a moment, they forgot to call a halt, unaware that they had already figured out the whole story, and simply listened quietly.
Hagrid continued, "Unfortunately, Principal Armando was also summoned, and I was caught red-handed."
"You all know the rest of the story. Tom received Special Award for Services to the School."
"I was fired, and my wand was broken."
"Fortunately, my poor father had already passed away a year earlier. If he had known I was fired, he would have fainted from anger."
"Later on, the great Dumbledore believed I was innocent."
"I persuaded Principal Armando to let me stay at the school and work with Ogg, the gamekeeper at the time."
"After I came of age, they helped me take over the position of guarding the hunting grounds."
"And they fixed my wand."
"And all these years, Aragog has been living in the woods."
"I often went to see him, and I got him a female Acromantula — Mosag."
"He and his children are thriving in the Forbidden Forest, and I always receive a warm welcome whenever I visit."
Tears welled in Hagrid's black beetle-like eyes as memories of the past resurfaced.
Aragog's children licked his mouthparts, and Aragog angrily scolded them, his children squeaking and clicking as they scattered in dissatisfaction, rubbing their massive mandibles together.
While Hagrid silently reminisced about the past, Harry and Ron also came to their senses.
For the first time, they felt that Hagrid's dismissal was actually the right thing to do.
It's likely that more than one person who witnessed the events knew Hagrid was innocent.
But Hagrid was just qualified to be fired, and should have been fired long ago.
Expelling Hagrid now would allow them to take the blame and keep the school running, so why not?
The fact that Hagrid was able to stay at Hogwarts without any problems and smoothly inherit the lucrative position of Gamekeeper also shows that the then-headmaster Armando knew that Hagrid was innocent in this matter.
Therefore, Hagrid does not need to be exonerated.
In fact, no one bothered him by saying he couldn't use a wand.
The two of them started to back out.
"Harry," Ron said curtly, "We've got everything sorted out, it's time to go."
Harry nodded quickly. "Yes, we should go."
Before Hagrid could answer.
The next second, two beams of light enveloped the two of them, and they disappeared from the spot.
Within his own world, the large-scale manipulation of light channels naturally did not escape Basil's notice.
However, Basil had already added Harry to his whitelist.
What happened between Harry and Ron today also reminded him of the neglected Basilisk.
In fact, he had once considered making cards featuring the Basilisk, but he was hampered by a lack of gems.
But now, for him, the Basilisk is outdated.
With a murderous gaze and Venom capable of destroying Horcrux, Basil possesses a hundred seemingly simulated and recreated forms.
Simply put, for Basil, firing the Killing Curse hidden in his eyes is as easy as breathing.
However, for Masaru Kobayashi, who is now too afraid to leave the castle gates and spends his days hiding in the shadows to avoid the light of the World Tree and running into Harry, this is a different story.
The Basilisk remains a trump card he needs to master.
But now, what's most important to him is figuring out how to get around the Devil's Snare that's spread throughout the entire hall.
He had been hiding at the entrance for a while, but he only recently noticed the changes in the hall.
Those Devil's Snare absorbed the Basilisk's Venom and were impervious to sunlight and fire.
Unless you use destructive Dark Magic like Fiendfyre, or find a way to teleport, there's no way to get around it.
The familiar remnants of the Magic Field from the other Splinching prevented him from using these noisy methods.
Therefore, it's also acceptable to have Lyle, the House-elf from Slytherin, Apparition with him.
He could not guarantee whether Lyle recognized him as one of her masters.
But the Basilisk is different. Even if he recognizes another master, he still has a way to regain control using the Parseltongue.
This knowledge comes from Ravenclaw's Diadem, and only he, whose soul is one with the Diadem, knows it.
Even the subject himself doesn't understand.
It contains countless forbidden dark magic secrets.
No wonder Ravenclaw was unwilling to hand over the Diadem to his daughter.
Is he afraid of affecting his image in his daughter's eyes?
It's ridiculous; it's not even completely bad.
However much he looked down on Ravenclaw.
But the knowledge inside is indeed very useful, especially the method of sacrificing powerful and Magical Creature to forge a new body and live again.
And this thousand-year-old Basilisk is the perfect target.
"I must have you," Masaru Kobayashi murmured, gazing at the Slytherin's Statue. "You are my only chance to surpass the main body."
"Hatch!" Deep in the Kalimantan, a curled-up baby sneezed.
It only resembles the animal in appearance; it has no hair, its body appears to be covered in scales, and its skin is dark red, like tender, injured flesh.
Its arms and legs were thin and soft, and its face—no living child had such a face—was a flat snake face with a pair of Winky red eyes.
And this sticky, ugly thing was in the arms of a quiet young girl.
The contrast between the ugly and the beautiful is like heaven and hell.
One can't help but wonder what kind of compassionate heart the girl must have to not strangle this demonic infant.
She gently patted the 'baby's' back. "Do you need some more clothes?"
A sharp, cold voice came from the 'baby's' mouth, "It's that damned traitor, he's looking for me!"
Thinking about this, the 'baby' wanted to kill someone.
He had assumed that Dumbledore, or someone from the Ministry of Magic, would be the one chasing him.
However, the sense of closeness that stemmed from the soul made him realize that the one chasing him was none other than the Diary he had met last year.
That Soul Fragment at age 17.
He kindly gave the little boy a place to stay and a way to escape Hogwarts.
The result was that they were hunted down.
The Malfoy family, which Lucius had originally intended to seize, was also taken over by the young man.
He had to abandon Nagini, whom he had just found, and create a temporary body for her.
He was forced to flee the Albanian Forest and come to the tropical rainforest of Kalimantan, which is full of Acromantula.
"Avada Kedavra!" The serene girl extended her index finger, and a deathly green light flashed.
A large, hairy, short body froze, its dark, tangled legs and two sharp, knife-like pincers stopped moving, and its eight Winky eyes lost their luster.
"You wretched spider," the baby hissed. "You wretched Rubeus!"
This reminded him of the humiliating experience of being pinned down and violated by Rubeus.
If Armando hadn't been there—
"Listen carefully, I want to drink meat soup later."
"Foolish spider, your only value besides your Venom is your leg flesh."
At this point, he suddenly looked up at the girl's face.
"Albus Dumbledore, even after your student dies, he will be at my mercy."
"Dokas Meadows, as powerful as you are, you are now nothing more than a puppet dancing in my palm."
His small, red-scaled hands opened, and the black hairs on his palms, resembling those of Acromantula, made him grim.
"Tom Riddle!"
"If it weren't for you, Nagini wouldn't have been separated from me."
"Why would I choose spider Venom to maintain my body's stability?"
"One day—I will kill you!"
In the Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, Masaru Kobayashi also said at the same time, "One day—I will kill you!"