A Plain-Looking Descendant of Slytherin
One of the most fascinating things about Hogwarts Castle is the many secrets it holds.
These secrets are not all known even to Dumbledore himself.
However, there is one secret that Dumbledore can assure you is known only to him and Tom (the Tom in the diary) among the living wizards.
That is the vast and boundless underground world.
And now, here, in Chamber of Secrets, he saw the skeleton of a Scotland ox.
Scotland cattle, also known as Highland Cattle, are a breed of cattle with the longest hair in the animal kingdom, living in the cold and desolate Scottish Highlands. They are an ancient breed, robust in build, capable of digesting plants that many other cattle avoid, and their long hair helps them withstand the harsh cold and heavy rain.
Scotland is home to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Wizardry and the magical village of Hogsmeade. Its remote location and mountainous terrain make Scotland ideal for concealing magical sites that Muggle shouldn't see. The exact location of Hogwarts is unknown to the rest of the Wizarding World. But Headmaster Dumbledore well that it lies in the Scotland Highlands (specifically, Sutherland), a sparsely populated area.
Logically speaking, Dumbledore shouldn't have been surprised to find the skeleton of a local native cow in the Chamber of Secrets.
However, Dumbledore understood one thing: the Basilisk had never left Hogwarts, let alone the Forbidden Forest.
Otherwise, it would have been discovered long ago, and the giant Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest would have migrated long ago.
Therefore, even though Dumbledore was very reluctant to admit it, the owner of this skeleton came from the underground world that only the headmaster knew.
And the Basilisk was among them; it probably lived somewhere in the underworld that even the principal didn't have the authority to know about.
"What are you looking at? Is it that person?"
"So, the Basilisk was also in that strange place." Riddle was puzzled at first, but when he saw the skeleton, he instantly understood.
"What I'm worried about now is whether that wizard came here for the Basilisk or for the Underworld," Dumbledore, adjusting his glasses.
"Don't overthink it. Maybe that person just came to check out the Chamber of Secrets. Maybe even the Basilisk will be alright." Riddle rolled his eyes and started walking deeper into the tunnel.
"Well, this is its skin. I think it's about twenty feet long." Dumbledore quickly composed himself and looked at the enormous snakeskin.
It lay coiled on the tunnel floor, lush and vibrant green, and hollow inside.
"Hmm, Christmas is almost here." Riddle suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"What do you want?" Dumbledore looked at the snakeskin again.
Riddle nodded, waved his wand, and with a beam of blue light, the snakeskin began to shrink rapidly at a visible speed.
In less than a minute, a mere 3-inch piece of snakeskin appeared in Riddle's hand.
"As a colleague and his former boss, I think I should prepare a valuable Christmas gift for Severus —the skin of the thousand-year-old Basilisk." Riddle stuffed the snakeskin into his pocket.
"I think it's better if you don't give him anything and just ignore him— Severus will be more comfortable that way." Dumbledore followed Riddle, who continued walking forward.
Da da da.
The crisp, long footsteps echoed from the tunnel. After countless turns, it felt as if a hundred years had passed, until the tunnel finally came to an end.
It was a solid wall with two intertwined snakes carved on it, their eyes inlaid with large, Winky emeralds.
Dumbledore didn't speak, but Riddle stepped forward and hissed in a low, hoarse voice, "Open."
The two snakes separated, the stone wall split in the middle and slowly slid to both sides and disappeared, and the two people went inside.
This is a long, dimly lit room with many stone pillars carved with coiled and intertwined snakes. These pillars tower above the ceiling, which melts into the darkness above, casting long, eerie shadows into the room, which is filled with a mysterious, verdant atmosphere.
The environment here is perfect for a haunted house—the kind of place in the Muggle world used to scare people.
Even though Dumbledore took small, light steps, each step still produced a hollow, loud echo in the ghostly walls.
When they reached a point parallel to the last pair of stone pillars, a statue as tall as the room itself suddenly appeared before them, pressed against the dark wall behind it.
Riddle couldn't help but cover his forehead; he already knew what was about to appear before them.
Dumbledore looked up with curiosity. He understood that in this place, the only one who could leave a statue was the mysterious, great wizard who had never left any portrait— Slytherin, one of the Four Founders of Hogwarts!
Dumbledore lost his composure!
His pupils involuntarily contracted, all because of the statue.
It was an old, monkey-like face with a sparse, long beard that stretched almost to the hem of a wizard's robe carved from stone, and two Padfoot standing on the smooth floor of the room.
"This is... Slytherin?" Dumbledore couldn't help but rub his eyes.
"Yes, this is Slytherin."
"It's understandable, really. In the A History of Magic, all the Slytherin descendants who left behind portraits— Gormlaith Gaunt, Isolt Sayre, and even my mother, as the orphanage described them—were not known for their looks; they were all of average appearance."
"So our ancestor Slytherin was certainly not a handsome man. As for me—I'm an exception. My handsomeness comes from my Muggle father."
"It's my mother's blessing that makes me exactly like my Muggle father," Riddle couldn't help but laugh at himself.
It was at this time that Riddle began to doubt the origins of his Slytherin bloodline.
The summer after killing Myrtle, he found the House of Gaunt and killed his father, Tom Riddle, along with his grandparents Thomas and Mary Riddle, on the grounds that they had abandoned their mother Merope Gaunt.
His uncle, Morfin Gaunt, was framed for murder by Riddle and sent to Azkaban.
"Hmm, where is the Basilisk? There are no signs of it moving around here. I don't think this room is where the Basilisk usually stays."
"It's probably in the space behind this statue, a space that might be connected to the Underworld by some pipes." Dumbledore, seeing Riddle's discomfiture, began to mention their real purpose for coming here, trying to divert Riddle's attention.
"You guessed right, but you can summon the Basilisk in this room too. Perhaps this is part of Slytherin's ritualistic tradition?" Riddle gave a strange smile.
He was indeed not a pure Slytherin successor, at least not in terms of aesthetics.