It Was You!

The stone doors carved with twin serpents slowly moved forward.

The Chamber of Secrets opened fully before Cyril.

He crossed the final stone step. The cold light of Lumos spread from his wand tip, illuminating a space beyond anything he had imagined.

A Slytherin Temple forgotten for centuries, buried deep beneath the Black Lake and built for one man alone.

The vaulted ceiling rose so high he could barely see it. The light from Lumos climbed at least fifty feet before the darkness swallowed it.

Enormous stone pillars soared along both sides, each so thick it would take at least three adults joining hands to encircle it.

Carved serpents wound around the pillars from base to crown. Every scale was raised with exquisite precision, casting layer upon layer of shadow in the cold light.

Emeralds set into the serpents' eyes glimmered dimly in the dark, watching Cyril from every direction as he stood at the center of the Main Hall.

The floor was paved with dark green stone, polished enough to reflect his face.

Silver metal lines ran between the slabs and converged at the hall's center into a vast circular design—a serpent swallowing its own tail.

Cyril knew the symbol: Ouroboros, the emblem of eternity and cycles.

He had seen it on the title page of an alchemical manuscript in Grindelwald's old collection.

At the far end of the Main Hall stood a colossal face carved from stone.

The face was ancient, its surface riddled with fine cracks, but its features remained distinct—

High cheekbones, deep-set eyes, thin lips pressed tightly together, and a beard reaching its chest, formed from countless intertwined stone serpents.

Slytherin's face.

It gazed down from the height of the vaulted ceiling. Its empty eye sockets held nothing, yet Cyril felt watched as he stood