Night Wandering

At curfew, Snape stood against the stone wall outside the Slytherin common room, arms folded and face grim.

When Filch passed by, the two of them even exchanged a nod. Filch's eyes were full of understanding and trust, while Snape's stomach was full of venom—for himself. How had he so foolishly and recklessly accepted that old fool's invitation?

After Filch and Mrs. Norris disappeared from sight, the door to the Slytherin common room opened. A black head with loose hair poked out, and a pair of light golden-brown eyes smiled at Snape. "Oh, you're right on time."

"How rare. Miss Sekerei, a Slytherin student, is actually in the Slytherin common room!" Snape silently ground his teeth. She had timed it perfectly, waiting for Filch to see him and then leave this place alone!

Cyberlina stepped out with a cheerful smile, closed the door, and craned her neck to look around. "Looks like our other night-wandering companion hasn't arrived yet."

"Another?" Snape paused as he left the wall and looked suspiciously at Cyberlina. "Don't tell me it's that Old Bee."

Cyberlina felt that Snape was becoming less and less restrained about his dissatisfaction with Dumbledore in front of her.

"Not—oh! He's here!"

Cyberlina suddenly ran toward a waist-high stone pillar with a brazier atop it. She reached behind the pillar, apparently trying to pull something out, but failed. She sighed helplessly, then beckoned Snape over.

Snape narrowed his eyes, rolling his wand between his fingers as he walked over suspiciously. He looked at—two feet behind the pillar, with nothing above the ankles visible.

Ha! An Invisibility Cloak! He already knew which idiot was hiding there!

"Sekerei!" Snape hissed, his eyes full of disbelief and suspicion.

"Can't be helped. After all—" Cyberlina looked at Snape, but directly yanked down the Invisibility Cloak, revealing Harry wedged between the pillar and the stone wall. "We need a Parseltongue."

Harry did not dare say a word. That afternoon, he had received a letter from a Ravenclaw senior—from Sekerei—telling him to come alone to the entrance of the Slytherin common room after curfew. Since the letter had a little snake drawn on it, he had guessed it was related to Parseltongue, but... he had not known Snape would be here!

And Snape knew he was a Parseltongue?

Looking at Snape's gloomy expression, Harry began to suspect that he wanted to deal with this "Parseltongue" on the spot.

"You need a Parseltongue?" You aren't planning to go to the Chamber of Secrets, are you?

Snape did not voice the rest, but Cyberlina had already guessed his thoughts from his expression.

"Don't worry. It's not that place." Cyberlina glanced at the Invisibility Cloak in her hand, slowly folded it, and returned it to Harry with a smile. "Why that expression, Harry? In theory, hasn't Snape taught you for more than a year? You should be quite familiar with each other."

Harry's apprehensive look became rather complicated. He wanted to say, Don't you know? But Sekerei had only arrived this year, and she seemed fairly familiar with Professor Snape, so he swallowed what sounded like an impolite remark and blurted, "We're not familiar."

Cyberlina froze, then burst out laughing. She raised a hand and patted Snape's shoulder. "Mr. Snape, you're doing a wonderful job as a professor."

"..." Snape pressed his lips together and glared viciously at Harry. "May I ask the organizer of tonight's activity whether you're planning to go night wandering with a professor and a second-year Mr. Savior outside the Slytherin common room?"

"Yes." Cyberlina nodded without hesitation.

Snape: "?"

Cyberlina said nothing more. Her wand slid into her hand from her sleeve. Smiling, she turned sideways and swung one arm backward—

With a bang, a cluster of flames lit up the dark corridor. The brazier a short distance behind Cyberlina had been ignited.

Her movement was sudden. Snape immediately drew his wand, while Harry hugged the Invisibility Cloak and stared wide-eyed at Cyberlina. Her hair fluttered lightly against the firelight as she smiled at him. Then she hooked an arm around his shoulders and forcefully pulled him out from behind the pillar, running toward the brazier she had just lit.

"Incendio!"

Cyberlina quickly ignited two more braziers, and then—

"Boom—"

Following the sound, the three of them saw a stone door open at the far end of the corridor.

"Ha! Silent, wandless, and then silent and wandless." Snape tightened his grip on his wand. "As expected of you, Miss Sekerei. You never forget to show off your abilities."

"You flatter me, Professor."

Cyberlina smiled and, without allowing Harry to refuse, hooked an arm around him and led him through the doorway, waving to Snape with her other hand.

Snape followed her with a dark look. Once he entered, the door slowly closed, plunging the three of them into darkness.

"W-what should we do now?" In the pitch-black surroundings, Harry realized the hand on his arm had withdrawn, and danger immediately flooded his entire body.

In the darkness, Cyberlina raised a hand and pressed down Snape's lifted wand. In a gentle voice, she said, "As a Gryffindor who often goes night wandering, I think you should know what to do."

Harry froze, then understood that Cyberlina was testing him—though he had no idea why.

"Lumos!"

Harry shouted excitedly. A cluster of light sprang from his wand tip, illuminating the area around the three of them.

"Very good, Harry." Cyberlina lowered her hand and pointed at the Invisibility Cloak in his arms, indicating that he should put it back in his pocket. Then she pointed ahead. "Now, walk forward."

The passage was not long. At its end stood a door carved with two intertwined snakes. Harry examined it carefully for several seconds, then turned to the other two. "There's a door."

"I don't believe I'm blind yet, Mr. Clever Savior."

Light now shone from the tip of Snape's wand. He did not even look at Harry, nor did he approach the door. Instead, he illuminated what appeared to be rubble along the corridor before it.

Harry pursed his lips unhappily. He truly hated Snape, especially that mouth of his.

Snape's wand slowly rose, and Harry's gaze followed the light upward—until an incomplete stone mural emerged from the darkness.

"Ah! I know!"

Harry suddenly shouted and excitedly ran to the stone mural. Before he could announce his conclusion, however, the startled Snape pointed his extinguished wand at him with a trembling hand.

"You—damned—impulsive Gryffindor!"

"There was no need to put it like that..." Harry muttered. Under Snape's stare, however, he stepped backward, thinking that if the light were gone, he would at least not have to see Snape's expression, which looked as if he had just watched an entire classroom of cauldrons explode.

Then his wand went dark.

Snape closed his eyes. This idiot was going to be the death of him!

"Whoosh!"

With the sound of flames igniting, half the passage lit up. Snape and Harry turned toward the way they had come and saw Cyberlina holding an oil lamp.

Without moving her shoulder much, she raised her arm and illuminated the damaged stone mural.

"Isn't this much more convenient?"

"Yes." Harry nodded frantically.

Snape snorted. "Why didn't you take it out earlier?"

Harry secretly glanced at Snape, then immediately turned back to Cyberlina with bright excitement in his eyes. "Senior, I understand now. Maybe we can repair this mural with a repairing spell!"

"Good guess, Harry. Can you do it?"

"Of course!" Encouraged by Cyberlina's smile and tone, Harry immediately raised his wand at the mural. "Reparo!"

The stones scattered across the floor rose one after another and obediently fused back into the mural, restoring it to its original form.

Snape looked expressionlessly at Cyberlina. "You dragged me here tonight just to practice basic charms with our Mr. Savior?"

"No." Cyberlina gave Snape a meaningful smile and said nothing more.

"Hmph. Putting on airs." Snape snorted and looked away.

The instant the stone mural was restored, a hissing sound entered Snape's ears—harsh and low, filling him with icy dread.

It appeared suddenly, and its exact location could not be found. It seemed to circle them, yet also seemed to echo beside their ears.

"What is she saying?" Harry asked in confusion. He was certain he had heard someone speaking, but he could understand only a few words. "It doesn't sound like English."

"It's it!" Snape pinched the bridge of his nose as the sound made his head throb. "Time for you to be useful, Parseltongue!"

"Don't worry about what she's saying." Holding the lamp, Cyberlina pushed Harry toward the door. "Try talking to her and make her open it, Harry."

Harry understood. "She" was a snake, and he was the only one who could understand her.

He drew a deep breath and lowered his head slightly, concentrating on the tips of his shoes. He listened carefully to the chattering female voice in his mind, then spoke during a pause—

"Sss—" Open the door for me.

Snape watched Harry speak Parseltongue and inexplicably felt a strange sense of discord. He instinctively looked away.

The two intertwined snakes on the stone door suddenly began to glow. Then they twisted upward together, revealing the crack in the door that they had concealed.

"Well done, Harry." Cyberlina smiled and rubbed his messy hair, once again praising him without reserve.

Harry lowered his head bashfully.

Snape, meanwhile, looked thoughtfully at Cyberlina.

The three passed through the door. Cyberlina stretched out her arm and raised the oil lamp, seemingly checking something. Watching her movement, Snape tightened his grip on his wand—he was certain he had sensed the same wind he had felt at Cyberlina's former residence.

"Good. Nothing has changed. You can take the lead in solving this puzzle." Cyberlina handed the oil lamp to Harry.

"Me? Solve a puzzle?" Harry accepted the lamp, eager to try despite the uncertainty on his face. "Senior, since you said nothing has changed, does that mean you've been here before?"

"Yes." Cyberlina smiled gently. "But that was a long time ago."

"A long time?" Harry was puzzled, but another question quickly interrupted him. "Then how did you open that door just now?"

He remembered Sekerei saying that he was practically the only Parseltongue left.

Cyberlina paused, then her smile widened. "To be honest, my lover is also a Parseltongue."

"Your lover!?" Harry cried out. Half his little face flushed, and his eyes shone. To a child his age, the word "lover" sounded far too mature and formal.

"Yes." Seeing Harry's obvious eagerness to gossip, Cyberlina placed both hands on his shoulders and manually turned him around. "But right now, you need to move forward, Harry."

"Oh, okay." Harry agreed aloud and walked forward, but clearly still wanted to ask a few more questions.

"Typical Gryffindor curiosity." Snape sneered.

Harry turned and glared at him briefly, then continued forward—toward a large disk set into the wall that was clearly some kind of puzzle.

The disk had two rows. Several simple yet strange patterns were carved into it, and a finely carved stone snake coiled above it.

"The Slytherin Lock," Cyberlina explained. "I hope our little Gryffindor can open it."

As the current Head of Slytherin, Snape had never heard that name, but he quickly realized that this "Slytherin" referred not to the house, but to Salazar Slytherin.

Snape had already noticed the patterns resembling those on the turntable beside the iron gate and understood how to open the Slytherin Lock. The little Gryffindor studying the disk, however, had not. He simply reached out and turned it, and then—

"Hiss—"

The little snake on the disk suddenly moved, opening its mouth and lunging at Harry's face with exposed fangs.

"Incarcerous!"

Snape reacted extremely quickly. He grabbed Harry by the back of his collar and pulled him behind himself, pointing his wand at the snake. The spell struck it but seemed to have no effect—for it returned to the top of the disk and became a snake sculpture again.

"It was only a little trick, not a real snake." Cyberlina bent down and picked up the oil lamp Harry had dropped while retreating, then handed it back to him. "But being knocked down still hurts. Think before you act, little lion."

"Hmph. How could a Gryffindor possibly think? They're always reckless!"

Faced with Cyberlina's teasing and Snape's mockery, Harry unexpectedly did not argue or protest. After all, he had indeed been reckless, and Professor Snape had indeed saved him.

Seeing through Harry's thoughts, Cyberlina bent down beside his ear and whispered loudly enough for all three to hear, "A certain Keeper seems rather reliable."

"Sekerei!" Snape shouted furiously, embarrassed and enraged.

Harry had not yet fully recovered from the fright, and his mind clearly had not caught up. He looked at Cyberlina in confusion. "I'm a Seeker, not a Keeper."

Cyberlina and Snape froze at the same time, then laughed together. Snape's laughter was mocking, while Cyberlina's carried a barely perceptible trace of nostalgia.

"Of course. He's a brainless Gryffindor."

"I wasn't talking about a Keeper on the Quidditch pitch, Harry. I meant the person protecting you outside Quidditch." Cyberlina smiled and put an arm around Harry's shoulders. "But I believe that whether on the Quidditch pitch or off it, you'll always be an excellent Seeker, Harry. Go on. Keep solving the puzzle. We don't have much time left for our night wandering."

Cyberlina's logic between the two remarks was subtle, and Snape felt she was implying something.

The Slytherin Lock was not actually difficult. Once Harry found the key clue on the iron gate, he solved it quickly. The maze-like passages and darkness made him dizzy, though, and he nearly failed to find the final lock.

"You changed that lock." While standing before the last iron gate and waiting for Harry to open it, Snape stated this confidently to Cyberlina. "That snake should originally have been a real snake—and a venomous one."

"Your powers of observation are impressive." Cyberlina praised him without hesitation.

"Click."

The snake pattern on the iron gate slithered, and the gate opened, revealing a passage filled with mysterious stone pillars entwined by snakes.

Snape turned toward the passage, his expression sinking. This passage was different from the others. It was saturated with the aura of dark magic.

"Don't worry. We changed this part too."

Hearing Cyberlina's voice, Snape turned back to her. Yet she had not changed her stance or gaze; she was merely watching Harry run over from the distance, as if she had never spoken to Snape.

"Well done, Harry! I'll take over from here."

Cyberlina took the oil lamp from Harry and turned toward the door at the end of the passage. Snape and Harry followed behind her. Snape stayed two paces ahead of Harry, positioned at a distance and angle from which he could turn around and protect Harry at any moment. He still feared the increasingly dense aura of dark magic.

Just as they approached the large door, Snape's pupils suddenly contracted. He hurried two steps to walk beside Cyberlina. When she stopped before the door, he stopped on its right side as well, glanced grimly at the ground, then raised his eyes and stared at Cyberlina with wary, sullen eyes.

Cyberlina gave him a reassuring smile, then waved her wand before her chest. In an instant, that strange wind passed around Snape again and swept into the room beyond the door.

A painful, twisted face appeared on the door, fused with its surface. It looked disgusting and horrifying. As the wind passed, the distorted face began to writhe. Blue and red lightning-like magical light flashed down the door from top to bottom, brighter than the oil lamp in Cyberlina's hand, as if it might pierce through the entire passage.

Harry raised his wand and instinctively retreated several steps. Snape also raised his wand at the door, and at Cyberlina, but did not move his feet. He pressed them firmly against a stone tile that seemed to glow with red light.

Cyberlina abruptly pressed her arm downward, her wand angled toward the ground. The lightning-like magical light shot straight into her wand like meteors chasing the moon—and vanished.

Once all the light faded, Cyberlina naturally lowered her arm. The horrifying door silently melted downward, flowed away, and disappeared.

Cyberlina rose onto her toes and spun around. Her school robes billowed as she raised her right arm, her wand lifting the edge of her robes. Then—with the oil lamp in her left hand held at the same height, her left foot retreating half a step, her toe touching the ground, her waist slightly bent, her back gently arched, and her head lowered—she gave an elegant bow.

"Congratulations, everyone, on finding—"

A few strands of Cyberlina's curly black hair fell over her shoulders. The oil lamp before her suddenly began to flicker. At the exact instant it went out, a flame abruptly ignited in the darkness behind her. A statue of an old man with long hair and a long beard, surrounded by snakes, appeared before Harry and Snape—and stood behind Cyberlina as well.

The black-haired girl raised her eyes. Her light golden-brown irises gleamed faintly in the backlight, filled with deep amusement yet also carrying a few traces of the sinister air of the stone elder behind her.

"—Salazar Slytherin's study."