Uncovering the Basilisk's Origins
"... Dumbledore seems to have some connections with the American Magical Congress, and obtained the business license very easily..."
After Snape finished recounting the matters the professors had recently discussed, all the scales on the Basilisk's body were removed and packed into a pre-prepared leather suitcase.
After the scales were removed from the Basilisk's corpse, its rough, gravel-like skin was exposed, and the thick keratin and remaining fragments of scales made it resemble a rock.
He didn't notice it while processing the scales, but after finishing, standing a little further away, Loren surveyed the Basilisk's complete corpse. Watching this enormous creature, several tens of feet long, being "skinned," a sense of extraordinary accomplishment welled up within him.
"What should we do with the remaining flesh, organs, and bones?" Loren asked with great interest; he couldn't wait to dissect the Basilisk.
Snape was walking among the trunks, counting the number of scales, without looking up. "I can do the rest by myself, I don't need your help."
He had only asked Loren to assist him to test his Sectumsempra. If he was really in a hurry, he could have easily asked the other professors for help, which would have been much faster.
Loren looked a little down and mumbled an "Oh."
Loren had thought that processing the Basilisk's flesh and blood would be a huge project, keeping him busy until Christmas. Now that he suddenly learned that he wouldn't be needed, Loren was a little disappointed.
This was the first time he had ever handled such unique raw materials. Compared to child's play like extracting snake venom or picking flower stamens, the sense of accomplishment from handling the carcass of Basilisk that was dozens of feet long was completely different.
To draw an analogy, it's like not liking to study, but feeling quite happy to solve the most challenging problem.
Now that the equations have been set up according to the problem, and the most difficult part has been completed, just as we are about to solve the problem and receive the answer, the proctor suddenly says, "That's enough. I know you can do it."
I don't know how to describe it, but Loren felt a little uneasy.
Snape didn't look up and continued, "I'll pay you after the body disposal is finished."
This was agreed upon from the beginning; Loren could take some materials from the Basilisk corpse as "reward".
"Oh." Loren looked listless, turned around and walked towards the exit of the Chamber of Secrets, preparing to leave.
"Who said you could leave?" Snape's cold voice rang out, his tone flat and devoid of any emotion, as casual as asking what the weather was like today.
"Is there anything else, Professor?" Loren asked.
"Laugh!"
Snape's tone became more emotional, almost sarcastic, "If I were you, upon encountering the carcass of a rare, large Fantastic Beasts, I would observe how my Potions Professor handles it, rather than rushing off to dinner, you glutton!"
Loren remained silent, standing obediently to the side, ready to observe Snape's handling of the situation.
While Snape turned to walk towards the Basilisk, Loren pursed his lips and muttered under his breath, "Such a temper, always so sharp-tongued, his lunch will probably be a whole Hungarian Horntail..."
I don't know what's wrong with Snape. He was fine when he was processing the scales this morning, but after lunch, he came back and started acting strangely.
Snape approached the Basilisk, extended his wand and pressed it against the seam of the Basilisk's mouth. A bright, sword-like white light flashed and disappeared at the tip of the wand.
With his wand casually held, Snape quickly circled the Basilisk's torso, his wand never leaving the Basilisk. Snape moved swiftly, but the Basilisk's massive size meant it took him some time to complete the circle.
After a moment, the tip of Snape staff moved from one side of the Basilisk's mouth to the other. Snape paused, then turned to Loren, asking calmly, "Did you understand?"
The crystalline blue light in Loren's eyes gradually faded. Recalling the scene he had just witnessed and deciphering the spells used, he answered uncertainly, "It seems to be a combination of the Splitting Charm, the Separation Charm, the Shattering Curse, and the Sectumsempra?"
I knew it, he's talented...
In the dimly Chamber of Secrets, Snape's gaze softened slightly, and his tone became much calmer. "The Sectumsempra is the foundation; the other spells are for controlling the trajectory of the cut. Most importantly, you must have a clear route in your mind."
Loren suddenly realized.
This was the culmination of Snape's long career. Only by repeating basic work countless times could he creatively combine the spells he had mastered and achieve the desired effect.
This is something he can't do yet, but he can learn this comprehensive approach to using spells.
The spell combinations Loren had encountered before were all isolated from each other. For example, when Hermione used the Levitation Charm combined with the Fire Charm to repel a troll in her first year, although there was a synergy and linkage between the Levitation Charm and the Fire Charm, they were cast separately and had no direct connection.
When Snape dealt with the Basilisk, the spells were linked together as one.
"In the process of processing the scales, I figured out the structure of the Basilisk's corpse and formulated the details of the dissection."
As Snape spoke, he raised his wand and tapped it lightly on the Basilisk's corpse. The colossal creature, dozens of feet long, instantly crumbled apart, chunks of flesh detaching from the bones, black, viscous blood splattering across the ground. Large organs remained intact, lying quietly amidst the skeleton.
A look of amazement flashed in Loren's eyes. He had to admit that although this kind of magic was difficult to use in combat, the disintegration of the Basilisk's corpse was like an art form.
The rest of the work was simple: use the Levitation Charm to pack the Basilisk muscles, which had been broken down into chunks, into a suitcase, and disassemble the skeleton into bone parts, also packing them into the suitcase.
The venom glands and fangs were kept separately and securely.
Even the black blood spilled on the ground was not spared; Snape packed several boxes of it and sealed them away.
Loren got his wish and obtained the Basilisk's two shriveled, broken eyeballs.
Snape took charge and gave him all the flawed scales that Loren had produced in the early stages of his work—several full boxes of them.
Loren didn't mind, went back to his dorm room, brought out his personal suitcase, and packed everything inside.
Nighttime, the Alchemy Laboratory of the Fantasy Book.
A red brick wall encloses a hemispherical space, in the center of which a black boiler gleams with a crimson light.
The illusory images of two eyeballs were projected into the air, golden and crystal clear, their terrifying vertical pupils constantly expanding and contracting according to Loren's will.
Loren brought one of the eyeballs close to his face, constantly zooming in and out of the image, analyzing the generation and flow of Magic Power from the texture of the cornea, the shape of the lens, and the flow of the aqueous and glassy fluid.
In bright light, a snake's pupils constrict to limit the amount of light entering the eye, preventing excessive light stimulation of the retina. In dim light, the pupils dilate to increase the amount of light entering the eye, providing sufficient light stimulation to the retina for clear vision.
He attempted to find the generation pattern of the Basilisk's strange Magic Power from these physiological structures and dynamic changes, and tried to construct the same system using Alchemy Array and Runes to artificially produce the two kinds of Magic Power.
While observing the pupils of the snake's eyes, he also recorded the flow of Magic Power during the process. More than half an hour later, Loren still couldn't figure it out. He did observe that the three colors of Magic Power did indeed appear from nothing, but this process did not conform to any Magic Power principles or theories he knew.
Desperate, Loren looked at the virtual figure floating and swaying above the boiler and asked, "Flamel, can't you help me?"
"I painstakingly restored the Basilisk's eyes to their original state, how can you say I didn't help you?" Flamel said casually, seemingly unconcerned about the Basilisk's Magic Power.
"But after your eyeballs were restored, you've been lying there ever since—"
Loren's eyes darted around, and he vaguely realized what was going on; Flamel's attitude was rather strange.
He tossed aside the Basilisk's eyeballs and went to Flamel's side, asking, "You believed from the beginning that the Basilisk's Magic Power couldn't be replicated through Alchemy, didn't you?"
Flamel slowly rose, floated to Loren's side, beckoned to grab one of the Basilisk's eyes, magnified the light and shadow, and displayed it before him. "Loren, you will see many Fantastic Beasts in the future: Demiguise that can become invisible naturally, Occamy that can Magic Power at will, Thunderbird that control lightning... Their Magic Power does not only come from within, but also from the transformation of energy in nature. Thunderbird can draw power from dark clouds, and Demiguise are even more lively under the moonlight..."
"Unlike their innate talents, the Magic Power of wizards works in the form of magic, and we are fundamentally different from them. Alchemy cannot create something from nothing until wizards touch the essence of magic."
Within the slightly transparent eyeballs of the Basilisk, crystalline liquid swayed and flowed, and the Basilisk's Magic Power was strangely marked, generating from nothing.
Loren was somewhat discouraged, but still unwilling to give up, he gritted his teeth and retorted, "I still want to try! Basilisk aren't magical creatures that exist in nature; they're cultivated by humans. Hعلbo could cultivate Basilisk from nothing, so why can't Alchemy?"
Young man, trying new things is never a bad thing... Flamel smiled gently, not discouraging him, but instead telling him some information about the Basilisk.
He floated into the air and materialized into the form of Basilisk, only not as exaggerated in size.
"Loren, have you ever thought about this? If the Basilisk's gaze is fatal, then who was the first to spread information about the Basilisk, and how did they know Basilisk purpose?"
The virtual Basilisk emitted a yellow light from its eyes, which shone on the simulated human figure. The figure instantly froze, lost all signs of life, and dissipated into specks of light and shadow.
"Perhaps someone observed the Basilisk's rampage?" Loren guessed.
Flamel did not judge whether this view was right or wrong, but asked another question, "Do you think that the Herpo the Foul deliberately bred the Basilisk, or that such a monster was hatched by chance?"
The plan... coincidence... Loren hesitated.
Recalling what Snape had said not long ago—choosing the right celestial bodies, selecting a special breed of rooster and toad, feeding them two kinds of animal Potions to induce the rooster to lay eggs and the toad to hatch...
Such a complex process could be considered a coincidence, but the conditions were far too stringent.
It seems unlikely that it was pre-planned. After all, designing creatures according to one's own ideas is a power reserved for creators. If the dark wizard Hعلbo had that ability, he would have ruled the world long ago.
Seeing Loren deep in thought, Flamel paused for a moment before guiding his train of thought, "Have you noticed that in Muggle mythology, there is a character named Medusa, associated with snakes and petrification..."
Muggle myths and legends... Loren recalled a conversation he had with Flamel long ago about the Immortal: "Could this be information left behind by the Immortal during their travels?"
"Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't, who knows?" Flamel said mysteriously.
"Although historical records state that the first person to cultivate the Basilisk was the evil black wizard, the Herpo the Foul, the earliest mention of the Basilisk concept in orthodox magic books is in the book ' Naturalis Historia,' written by the Rome wizard Pliny the Elder in 77 AD."
"In Volume 8, Chapter 33 of * Naturalis Historia *, it is mentioned that in Cyrene Province there is a snake no more than 12 fingers long (about 20 centimeters), with white spots on its head. It can destroy bushes, scorch grasslands, and shatter rocks with its breath. And its gaze is equally deadly..."
It is no more than 12 fingers wide in length, which is much smaller than the Basilisk that are often tens of feet long.
Destroying bushes and scorching grass might be the effects of the Basilisk Venom, but smashing rocks... Loren recalled his several encounters with the Basilisk Basilisk was certain that its breath was not that powerful.
Putting all the information together, Loren speculated uncertainly, "Was there ever a small Basilisk? Was it Fantastic Beasts native to nature? Was it the prototype for the Basilisk bred by Hعلbo?"
Flamel nodded. "Although I don't know the specific methods of breeding Basilisk, my conclusion is that Hعلbo designed a ritual for artificially breeding Basilisk based on the breeding methods of naturally existing Basilisk. In this process, he made some trade-offs with the original Basilisk ' abilities, strengthening the Magic Power of their eyes and increasing Basilisk size, but removing the power of their aura."
He paused for a moment, then added, "Perhaps it's a mutation!"
"What about the smaller Basilisk? Why did Basilisk disappear?" Loren asked.
"The extinction of Fantastic Beasts is nothing unusual. In fact, before Newt Scamander pushed for the enactment of the Magical Creatures Protection Act, Fantastic Beasts went extinct every year. Since the 14th century, Nicol has witnessed the extinction of several Fantastic Beasts firsthand." Flamel swayed back down into the boiler room.
The plan to mass-produce Basilisk Magic Power failed, which also meant that Loren's first alchemical invention project had failed.
Before leaving the Fantasy Book, Loren recalled the events at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Regarding the theory that Bloody Mary's Mirror had been used to treat the Lumbard couple, Loren sought Flamel's opinion.
Flamel said, "I don't recommend you enter the deep consciousness of a mentally confused patient. Nobody knows what that is like. If the owner of that consciousness is hostile to you, it might harm you."
"What if we let the patient's relatives enter the consciousness space? The patient certainly wouldn't be hostile towards their relatives."
The book "Naturalis Historia" does exist, and it was indeed written in 77 AD.
Coincidentally, the description of the Basilisk above has some similarities with the content of "The On Snakes": "In the wilds of Yongzhou, there is a strange snake, black with white markings, which kills all grass and trees it touches."