When Marcus entered the Chamber of Secrets with the other students, he found that it had been completely transformed.
The once dimly lit chamber was now bright, because the high ceiling seemed to have been enchanted and emitted a faint white glow.
Marcus could vaguely make out hundreds of emeralds embedded in the ceiling, forming a magic array that drew away the Chamber's foul, pungent stench and brought in fresh air from outside.
Needless to say, Moriarty and the professors must have renovated the Chamber, making it comfortable and pleasant. Marcus grinned and continued looking around.
A shield-shaped emblem hung from the enormous stone pillars entwined with serpents. It was the Hogwarts crest Moriarty had mentioned before. The part representing Slytherin House stood out particularly prominently.
The students were drawn to the Chamber's decorations and scattered to get a better look. Whenever someone walked beneath a stone pillar, the silver snake on the crest would wriggle its body and flick out its tongue.
The crowd was a little cramped at first, but fortunately, the Chamber was large enough. As William and the other little snakes headed deeper inside, more open space became available.
The depths of the Chamber looked much the same as when Marcus had first entered it, except that it had become bright and warm.
The statue of Salazar Slytherin, as tall as the Chamber itself, still stood there. Moriarty, Professor Dumbledore, and the other professors stood beneath it, but all the little snakes tilted their heads back to stare at the statue, completely dumbfounded!
Lilith suddenly looked at Moriarty, then at the statue—she turned her head three times in a single second, just to confirm whether Moriarty and the statue had anything in common. They did not.
Then, as though she had remembered something, Lilith lowered her