Strange Serpent Diagram

"I should have discovered the toilet was broken sooner, Moaning Myrtle wouldn't have had to live in such a damp place for so long," a gentle, aged voice said from the side.

Loren glanced at Dumbledore: "Headmaster, when did you arrive?"

"While you've fixed the toilet," Dumbledore with a gentle smile, addressing both Moaning Myrtle and Loren.

Dumbledore stroked Loren's hair, seemingly hoping to dispel the small resentment he himself was unaware of. "Hogwarts will keep a place for her forever, until a little wizard like you helps her accept death."

"Leave a toilet and a commode, huh?" Loren rolled his eyes and slapped a large hand off his head. "Also, don't give me any weird missions, I can't do them."

Dumbledore smiled and said, "It's not a mission, it's a beautiful vision."

"Let's get down to business. The two of us don't Parselmouth, so we probably won't even be able to get into the Chamber of Secrets."

Loren didn't want to argue with him about this; he might fall into a trap if he said too much. He turned around and began to examine the row of brass faucets on the sink.

"Don't worry, a kind person helped me find my way last week." Dumbledore waved his wand, and a small flower snake gradually took shape in the puddle, attracting the attention of the two.

Judging from this, it seemed Voldemort had personally led Dumbledore on a one-night trip into the Chamber of Secrets, where the password was completely stolen, leaving them utterly exposed. Loren silently mourned for Voldemort for three seconds.

The little snake twisted its slender body and snaked its way up from the edge of the pool, coiling around a copper faucet. A snake-shaped pattern was engraved on the side of the copper pipe.

Most of its tail hung from the dragon's head, while the little flower snake's head was propped up in the air, hissing at the snake pattern.

A dazzling white light emanated from the faucet, which began to spin rapidly. The small, flowery snake coiled around it transformed into flowing water, falling into the sink and merging with it. The entire sink slowly disappeared from sight, revealing a very thick water pipe underneath, its diameter large enough for a person to crawl inside.

"It seems I haven't reached the point of dementia yet. Although I don't understand the meaning of Serpentese, I can still reproduce the same sounds," Dumbledore look.

Loren craned his neck to examine the pipes. The smell of sewage wafted from them; they were filthy, pitch black, and bottomless. By the light of the bathroom light, he could see a wet, slimy substance near the entrance.

He took a few steps back and gestured for her to go first, saying, "Principal, you have experience, so please go first."

Dumbledore smiled and shook his head, then gently tapped Loren's clothes with his wand. Loren felt a gentle force lifting him up through his clothes, making him feel light and airy—a sensation similar to Professor Flitwick's modified Levitation Charm.

"Let's begin our adventure!" Dumbledore said childishly, pulling Loren into the pipe.

The two slid through the underground pipes, like riding a roller coaster, sometimes turning left and sometimes right, with ups and downs. They couldn't tell the distance or the time, and just kept sliding forward along the thick pipes.

Loren could see many smaller pipe branches extending in all directions, but only the main pipe they were in could accommodate a person's size, so there was no need to worry about slipping into the wrong path.

After a winding, meandering stretch of endless gliding.

The two slid out of the pipe with a whoosh, floated in mid-air, and then landed slowly. Loren estimated the direction and distance, and roughly guessed that they were now at the bottom of the Black Lake.

"Watch your step." Dumbledore flicked open the Deluminator, and three or four orbs of light flew out from the top of the Deluminator. The orbs of light could not find a place to land like torches or candlesticks in the tunnel, so they could only float in mid-air.

This is a circular stone tunnel, the ground covered with the bones of small animals. Some of the bones have weathered over time, turning into piles of ashes and irregularly shaped bone fragments.

The water flowing from the pipes seeped into the ashes, forming mounds of bones on the ground, some of which were even taller than a person.

The tunnel was as silent as a cemetery, and the skeletons were like graves.

Loren didn't speak. Dumbledore looked around seriously, then took Loren's hand and led him forward. The two of them, the old man and the young boy, trampled over piles of bones, large and small.

After turning a corner, you can see the enormous creature lying at the entrance in the distance—a 20-foot-long Snakeskin.

It's unclear how long ago this snakeskin was shed, but it hasn't shrunk or dried out due to the passage of time. It still shimmers with a vibrant, emerald-green light, and the diamond-shaped scales are clearly visible. Just by looking at it, you can feel the smoothness and hardness of the snakeskin.

"Principal, how should we divide it? How about half for each of us?" Loren pressed it with his hand; it was thick and hard, more like a snake's shell than snakeskin, and its defensive capabilities were definitely top-notch.

Dumbledore was carefully examining the Snakeskin, trying to deduce the year and the Basilisk's size. Hearing this, he chuckled. He thought that Loren always managed to say something unexpected, and he did so with such confidence.

"Loren— "

"Hmm? Principal, you want to take 60%? That's not impossible, after all, you're the principal."

"Have you ever thought that this is the great legacy that the Founders Slytherin left to Hogwarts?"

Loren frowned and thought for a moment, "What you said makes sense, so as the headmaster of Hogwarts, you get 70%, and as a student of Hogwarts, I get 30%."

His expression showed struggle, clearly indicating that making this decision was extremely difficult. "It can't be any less, it really can't be any less."

Dumbledore couldn't help but ruffle his hair and pull him forward, saying, "Let's talk about the Snakeskin later, at least until the end of this school year."

After winding through the tunnel for an unknown amount of time, the two finally arrived at the end of the tunnel.

The end of the circular tunnel was blocked by a solid stone wall, with a straight slit in the middle and a door that opened to the left and right on the surface.

On the wall, two lifelike Serpent Stone Carving with clearly defined scales intertwine their lower bodies, spiraling and locked together. The necks of the two snakes arch out in an arc, their eyes gazing at each other, and four large emeralds gleaming with an eerie light.

The emerald light in the snake's eyes on the wall shimmered and reflected in Loren's blue eyes. In his vision, the two snakes coiled on the door suddenly began to writhe, their bodies shedding the texture and color of the stone carving and turning into matte scales.

The two snakes swam their tails, untangling themselves and swinging back behind them, their necks arching slightly backward, still maintaining their attack posture.

"Hiss!"

One of the snakes twisted forward, opened its mouth, and bit the head of the other snake, about to swallow it whole.

A brilliant light burst forth from the emerald, and two snakes along the crack in the door formed an image that Loren was intimately familiar with—an illustration from the first seven pages of the Book of Abraham.

The scene is exactly the same as the illustration: one snake is devouring another, the crack in the door corresponds to the cane, and the scene before my eyes is exactly the same!