Professor McGonagall set down her pen and glared fiercely at Horatio, who was lounging carelessly in the chair opposite her.
"Just look at you. You docked 150 points from Gryffindor right at the start of term, and now you threatened a teacher in class and turned a classmate into a girl. I truly don't know what to do with you." Professor McGonagall wrapped the letter she had just written in an envelope on the desk. "Is there really no way to turn Ron back?"
Horatio picked at his ear. "How many times do I have to say it? The potion's effects are permanent. You already confirmed it with Snape. What you should be doing now is moving Miss Weasley into the girls' dormitory."
Professor McGonagall summoned an owl and handed it the letter, then said sternly to Horatio, "If the Weasley parents do not forgive you, you will find a way to turn Ron back, or you can wait to be expelled."
Horatio looked utterly unconcerned. He had been hoping to experience what it felt like to fight his way into Hogwarts anyway.
But things did not go as he wished. Horatio would not be getting that experience anytime soon, because Professor McGonagall received a reply from the Weasley parents the very next day. Not only did they not blame Horatio, they thought he had done a splendid job. They had long felt they had too many sons and wanted more daughters. They even said that, if possible, Fred and George could be turned into girls as well.
Professor McGonagall wore an expression like she was severely constipated. With no other choice, she arranged a single dormitory for Ron... no, Ronnie. Since she had previously been a boy, she could only live alone until the other little witches accepted her.
Thinking of Ronnie's huge pet rat, Horatio secretly implanted alchemical nanobots with a confusion effect into its body, so it would not run around the girls' dormitory and see anything it should not.
Inside the Room of Requirement, little Tom complained speechlessly in the diary after hearing what had happened in Horatio's class that day. "You really are ruthless. You actually turned a classmate into a girl in front of everyone."
"They provoked me first. I'm usually very well-behaved," Horatio protested unhappily.
"Uh... then what are you doing now?" little Tom asked in the diary.
"Making missiles. I've been sick of Gryffindor Tower for a long time."
"..." little Tom was speechless. What kind of naturally born dark child was this? Even he had not been this outrageous in his second year.
"Tonight, we can release Slytherin's pet."
"Really? Great! We can finally kill those Slytherin vermin. I've been sick of them for ages." Horatio was visibly delighted. The day had finally come.
Little Tom sneered in the diary. Once the Basilisk was released, it would kill you first.
After putting away the diary, Horatio sneered as well. Once he backstabbed little Tom, the look on his face would surely be magnificent.
Night fell quickly. By the time Horatio left Snape's office, it was already nine in the evening.
Following little Tom's guidance, Horatio arrived at the entrance to a bathroom. A ghost was sitting atop the tank of the innermost toilet.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Moaning Myrtle demanded loudly when she saw Horatio.
Horatio ignored her and patted his sack. The rope and ball gag he had used to capture Peeves last term shot out of the bag, binding Myrtle into a pose that would excite people from Japan.
Myrtle struggled wildly on the floor. She wanted to cry out for help, but a ball stuffed in her mouth meant she could only make muffled "mmph" sounds. She lay helplessly on the ground as crystalline tears slid from the corners of her eyes.
After dealing with Myrtle, Horatio entered the bathroom and found a faucet engraved with a tiny snake.
"Hiss... hiss..." Following the Parseltongue little Tom had taught him, he opened the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
The faucet flashed with dazzling white light and began spinning rapidly. Then the sink slowly vanished, revealing an enormous pipe.
Horatio passed through the pipe and arrived in a tunnel made of black stone.
"Lumos Solem!" Horatio drew Kei and lit up the entire tunnel with the Lumos Charm.
After turning a corner, he came before a stone wall carved with two intertwining snakes. Sparkling emeralds were set into their eyes.
"Hiss... hiss..."
The two snakes separated, and the stone wall split down the middle before slowly sliding apart and vanishing into either side.
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Horatio passed many stone pillars carved with huge coiling snakes and arrived before a statue nearly as tall as the chamber itself. At a glance, he recognized it as the founding ancestor of Slytherin House.
Just as Horatio was studying the Slytherin statue, Tom Riddle's soul emerged from the diary.
"You don't seem surprised at all." Little Tom looked at the calm Horatio in surprise.
"Of course not. I already knew you could leave the diary and act independently. Did you think I had forgotten that bottle of soul-nourishing potion there?" Horatio indicated that little Tom Riddle's tricks were things he had stopped playing with centuries ago.
"Interesting. The arrogant Mr. Horatio believes he can control everything, yet he has no idea what terrifying monster lies hidden within Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets."
"Isn't it just a Basilisk? Hurry up and let it out. Whether it's a mule or a horse, bring it out for a run." Horatio looked forward to it.
"Hmph! Ignorant." Little Tom turned toward the statue and spoke in Parseltongue. "Speak to me, Slytherin—the greatest of Hogwarts' four founders."
The mouth of Slytherin's enormous statue opened wider and wider, eventually becoming a gigantic black hole. Accompanied by the sound of scales scraping against the pipe, a massive snake's head emerged from the darkness. Horatio quickly turned his back to it.
Little Tom mocked him. "Do you think turning your back on the Basilisk solves the problem? Don't forget that its fangs are just as deadly."
Then he commanded the Basilisk in Parseltongue, "Kill him!!"
Horatio snapped his fingers, and black sludge-like matter appeared on the ground. A terrifying giant black claw stretched out from it and seized the Basilisk as though grabbing a spicy strip.
The Basilisk struggled desperately in the giant claw's grasp, but no matter what it did, it could not break free.
"What is that?" little Tom asked in disbelief.
"Your Basilisk is indeed powerful. Many Wizards would be unable to deal with it. But compared to a Super Beast that has conquered countless worlds and destroyed countless universes, it is not even worthy of carrying its shoes." Horatio continued, "Guess what I did last night? I went into the Forbidden Forest and hunted countless Acromantulas, then used the energy of their flesh and blood to forge the Super Beast. It is still incomplete, but it is more than enough to handle a single Basilisk."
As the giant claw squeezed tighter and tighter, the Basilisk let out agonized howls. Horatio quickly ordered, "Don't kill it, Bellocan."
Bellocan's giant claw slowly loosened, though it still held the Basilisk under control.
With his back to Tom Riddle, Horatio said, "You've been showing off for long enough. It's my turn now."
Then Horatio spread his arms and spoke to the air. "Speak to me, Horatio Quibble—the most handsome of Hogwarts' four Houses."
A Portal gleaming with golden sparks opened before him, connecting directly to Horatio's greenhouse.
Rows of Gatling Pea Shooters stood ready for battle, with a line of Torchwoods before them. Biting Cabbages were eager to fly from the catapults of the Cabbage-pults, while several Doom-shrooms sat behind Whomping Willow branches, seemingly waiting for them to hurl them out.
"Little Tom, do you think the Basilisk can kill plants with its eyes? I'm very curious." Horatio could have ordered Bellocan to kill the Basilisk directly, but after playing along with little Tom for so long, he would feel uncomfortable all over if he did not put on a grand display before him.
"All troops, attack!" At Horatio's command, the plants began their assault in orderly fashion.
Under Bellocan's control, the Basilisk became a living target. The Gatling Pea Shooters fired burning bullets through the Torchwoods, blasting viciously into the Basilisk's body.
The Whomping Willow branches hurled the Doom-shrooms behind them onto the Basilisk. The instant the Doom-shrooms touched its body, they exploded violently, tearing away huge chunks of scales.
The Cabbage-pults threw Biting Cabbages onto the Basilisk, and the Biting Cabbages began frantically attacking its wounds and eyes.
The Basilisk struggled desperately. Its agonized howls made Horatio wonder who the real villain was.
Finally, a Biting Cabbage hopped over to Horatio and leaped into his arms, indicating that they had dealt with the Basilisk's eyes.
Only then did Horatio turn around and discover that the Basilisk was already at death's door. He hurried forward and injected it with a life-preserving potion. This was his experimental subject—if it died, the loss would be huge.
After preserving the Basilisk's life, Horatio turned to little Tom, who was frozen with fear.
"Let us begin this delightful torture."
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