Split Actions

Grindelwald used Apparition to bring several people to a meadow outside the neighboring area.

"Old Grindelwald, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be accompanying Old Dumbledore?"

"Didn't I rush over as soon as I finished rescuing you?" After saying that, Grindelwald Apparated again to catch up with Dumbledore.

"Right!" Harry suddenly shouted.

"What is it, Potter?"

"Do you think the girl who was killed by the Basilisk might have become a ghost?"

"If it happened at Hogwarts, then there's a good chance. Why do you ask?" Ron looked at Harry in confusion.

"Then do you think she might never have left the bathroom?"

"You mean Moaning Myrtle?"

Harry took a slip of paper from his pocket. It was the one Hermione had clutched in her hand after being petrified. "This is what Hermione and I both thought. It has something to do with Myrtle. The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might even be there."

The three of them immediately prepared to set out and investigate. Bing Huan stopped where he was, as though he wanted to say something. Harry turned around first and said, "Go on. Bring Hermione along to help us in a while."

Bing Huan froze. The three of them were smiling at him. "If I don't make it in time, you might die."

Draco said, "The five of us aren't even afraid of Voldemort. Why would we be afraid of a Basilisk?"

Ron said, "We're a five-person team. Bringing our friend back is the most important thing."

"You reckless bunch." Bing Huan smiled as well. "Wait for me."

Bing Huan slipped into the Headmaster's Office while Harry and the others went to find Myrtle. The two old men who had originally been in the office were gone, and even Fawkes was no longer on his perch. There was only a large bag of Mandrake seeds sitting on the coffee table.

Bing Huan did not hesitate. He opened his mouth and stuffed in a large handful.

"Ugh!" The taste of Mandrake seeds was not at all suitable for eating straight. They triggered an instinctive physical reaction of disgust. Bing Huan forced himself to endure it, fighting against his body's instincts.

"RELASHION."

A spell struck Bing Huan. His body, which had been violently rejecting the seeds, suddenly went limp, allowing them to enter his body as their medicinal properties were absorbed into his bloodstream.

"I didn't expect you to come help me." Bing Huan gasped for breath as he looked at the long-haired man in the black robe behind him.

"I was merely curious about your claim that extracting the medicine into the bloodstream would be more effective." Snape looked at Bing Huan coldly as he spoke.

"Whatever the case, I owe you a favor."

Snape raised an eyebrow but did not answer. With the two of them working together, Bing Huan's blood soon absorbed enough of the medicinal properties.

After Snape confirmed it, Bing Huan went to the Hospital Wing and looked at Hermione, who was still petrified on the bed. "Although she could be saved after a few more days, I can't endure another day like this. Come back."

Bing Huan purified and concentrated the medicinal properties in his blood as much as possible. The bulging veins on his left hand showed that his blood had already changed from red to a strange bluish green.

He pierced his palm with a finger. His medicine-infused blood dripped onto the petrified body one drop at a time and was slowly absorbed. Although his own blood served as the carrier, there was ultimately a limit to how much it could be purified.

Even though Bing Huan's face had already turned pale, there were only faint signs of an effect. Thinking that Harry and the others might already have encountered the Basilisk, he steeled his heart and used the spiritual energy in his body to force the blood out faster.

He had already lost more than a third of his blood. Bing Huan had to support himself with his other hand to keep from collapsing. Fortunately, it worked. Hermione's petrification had been lifted. She frowned and slowly opened her eyes. "Huan?"

"You troublesome girl." His heart finally relaxed, and Bing Huan collapsed helplessly into Hermione's arms.

As Hermione looked at the boy who had fallen, that especially familiar sentence echoed in her ears once more. "I'm sure I've heard you say that somewhere before." She was muttering to herself when she suddenly noticed that Bing Huan's palm was still bleeding. She quickly took some medicine from the nearby first-aid kit and bandaged him.

Having apparently recovered somewhat, Bing Huan raised his head and said weakly, "Take me to the bathroom where Myrtle is." Hermione frowned. "But you're in this state!"

"There's no choice. There are three idiots there waiting for us to go support them."

When they reached the bathroom, the sink had already opened, revealing a passage leading below. Hermione used a spell to lower the two of them slowly to the ground. Bing Huan rested one hand on Hermione's shoulder and supported himself with Crimson Trail in the other.

The three who had split up from Bing Huan arrived at the abandoned bathroom. Myrtle was gazing at the moon in thought. She looked at Harry. "What do you want this time?"

"We wanted to ask how you died."

It seemed no one had ever asked her that before, and Harry's question made her perk up. "I died right here. Olive Hornby made fun of me for wearing glasses and called me a four-eyes. So I hid here. Then I heard another language. It was a boy's voice. I was just about to tell him to go away when I opened the stall door. Then I died."

"How did you die?" Draco felt that the explanation was rather rushed.

"I don't know. I only remember seeing a pair of enormous, terrifying yellow eyes. I couldn't even move, and then I died."

"That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't wearing glasses only result in petrification?"

"At the time, I was wiping away my tears, so I wasn't wearing my glasses."

The three of them went to the sink Myrtle had mentioned. After examining it, they found a tiny snake engraved on one of the faucets. Harry said "Open" in Parseltongue, and the sink immediately reacted. After a flash of white light, a passage leading downward appeared.

The three exchanged glances and jumped down together. After reaching the bottom, they quickly put in another round of eye drops to prevent any accidents.

"At least this way, the worst that can happen is petrification." Ron blinked. The eye drops were unpleasant.

"But if we hear any strange noises later, close your eyes first. Once we're petrified, we won't be able to do anything." Harry spoke as he walked forward.

They reached a tunnel illuminated by light. A massive snake skin lay on the ground, glowing green and incredibly vivid. Its former owner had clearly been a venomous snake, at least twenty feet long.

They used Parseltongue to open another door. Behind it was a huge chamber. Across from them stood a sculpture of a snake with its jaws open wide.

There was also a humanoid sculpture beside it, with the face of an old man resembling a monkey, along with a sparse, long beard. If nothing unexpected had happened, it was the founder of Slytherin—Salazar Slytherin.

A human figure lay beneath the sculpture. When the three approached, they saw that it was Lockhart. "So that's why he hasn't popped out to show off today." Ron relaxed when he saw that the victim was someone he disliked.

Draco frowned as he looked at Lockhart. "Is he still alive?"

"He won't wake up." A voice spoke softly. The three turned and saw a tall, black-haired boy leaning against the nearest stone pillar, watching them.

"Tom Riddle?" Although the backlight made his features indistinct, Harry somehow knew that he was Tom Riddle.

Tom Riddle did not yet know that they had already learned the truth about him. He approached Harry with interest and picked up Harry's wand from the ground. "Harry Potter, I've waited a very long time. I've always hoped I'd have the chance to see you and talk to you."

When Harry saw his wand being taken, he cursed himself for his carelessness. "Why don't we go outside and talk?"

"No. Right here. Right now."

Seeing this, the three could only pray that Bing Huan and Hermione would hurry over.