"While Voldemort was still alive, he couldn't get around the restrictions Slytherin had placed on the Basilisk, so he set his sights on Mehen."
"The final layer of magical runes on this diary can help Voldemort's soul fragment directly control Mehen, whose intelligence he erased."
"And it was precisely because Voldemort modified the Basilisk to adapt it into a Horcrux that it came to carry the aura of hell."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "That is the most likely explanation. Fortunately, you stopped it all."
If Kano had truly left the Basilisk unchecked, then if anything had gone wrong on Harry's end, Voldemort's soul fragment would have emerged with the Basilisk and begun a slaughter.
When that happened, aside from extraordinarily powerful wizards like Dumbledore, even the professors might not have escaped death in the chaos.
"Whatever the case, the matter of the Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk is finally settled." Kano relaxed against the back of his chair. "The next step is to make the person behind all this pay!"
"I'll soon begin searching for Tom Riddle's other Horcruxes, so I'll be quite busy." Dumbledore smiled and took a sip of tea.
Kano had already spoken with Dumbledore and let him know that Lucius Malfoy was the one pulling the strings behind this incident.
Dumbledore had no intention of asking how Kano planned to deal with the Malfoys. He trusted Kano to know where to draw the line.
With his tacit approval, rumors about the Basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets suddenly began spreading among the younger wizards.
Within days, the bored students had embellished the story so vividly that it seemed as though the Chamber of Secrets would open tomorrow.
Draco had received his father's warning long ago. He had waited for nearly half a term, yet the