Important Side Quest

"How big was the eye?" Hermione continued questioning Hagrid. If they could get all the information from him, they wouldn't have to ask Moaning Myrtle.

"Very big." Hagrid gestured to show its size. "But that's not likely. There couldn't be a monster that big at school. I hatched Aragog in a cupboard."

Aya blinked. "The school is much bigger than a cupboard."

"But Dumbledore's here," Ron said. "Where did it happen back then?"

"The girls' bathroom, I think," Hermione said. "Before I knew Moaning Myrtle, I ran into her in the bathroom. She always said everyone looked down on her and bullied her, so she hid there and cried. And she seemed to refuse to leave the bathroom for long?"

"The bathroom on the third floor?" Aya asked.

"You know about it too?" Harry was surprised.

"Most girls do. There are quite a few classrooms on the third floor," Hermione said.

Hagrid was growing restless beside them, so he got up to make them tea, stealing glances at them from time to time.

"I think it was a Basilisk," Aya said bluntly, rubbing her chin.

"Isn't that the animal you've been looking for lately? Did you find one?" Ron asked.

"No, but Basilisks have yellow eyes too, and they're big—and they really can make people die for no apparent reason," Aya explained.

"But Basilisks... As I remember, they're illegal creatures. They're listed in the Ban on Experimental Breeding. Even dark wizards wouldn't want to breed them. Very few people can control them," Hermione said. "How could there be a Basilisk at school... Wait, only someone who speaks Parseltongue can control a Basilisk, and Slytherin could speak Parseltongue!"

"What's Parseltongue?" Harry asked curiously.

"It means you can understand snakes," Ron said offhandedly. "So could the monster in the Chamber of Secrets be a Basilisk?"

"Let me think, let me think—I remember reading about Basilisks in a book somewhere." Hermione's bushy hair looked ready to stand on end. "I think it was last term... I saw it when we were looking for information on the three-headed dog."

"You said it was in the Fantastic Beasts section-" Aya drew out her words, her eyes darting around. If it was a Basilisk, wasn't it dead, leaving no way to verify it?

What does that make me? Did I clear the instance too early and kill an important NPC?

Maybe I could ask Dumbledore if he can summon its soul? Bring the Basilisk's soul back for questioning?

No, that won't work. None of us speak Parseltongue!

Aya heaved a long sigh.

"Stop sighing. Hermione's much smarter than you. If she puts her mind to remembering, she'll recall the book in no time." Ron was a little tense. "But-there can't really be a Basilisk at Hogwarts, can there? It can make people die for no apparent reason, and that..."

With Hagrid feeling guilty and Hermione wanting to return to the library to find the book, they didn't stay long. On their way back to the castle, Harry asked about Parseltongue again.

"It's a special skill that lets you communicate with snakes," Ron explained to Harry. "Well... I suppose it means you can speak their language, but... but the ability is really rare. The most famous person everyone knows who could speak Parseltongue was You-Know-Who."

"...Was You-Know-Who the only one?" Harry asked.

"No," Hermione explained. "Strictly speaking, Parseltongue is a special language. It's hereditary, but some exceptional wizards can still learn it."

"But that's rare," Ron muttered.

"I can speak it."

"?" Aya dug a finger in her ear. Hermione and Ron also stared at him in shock. "You can speak what?"

"Parseltongue. Didn't I tell you before?" Harry rubbed his nose. "Before I knew about Hogwarts, I went to a Muggle zoo once. I happened to see a python there, and I remember talking to it."

"Are you sure you weren't-weren't hallucinating?" Ron looked stunned.

"After I found out I was a wizard, I thought it was a skill any wizard might have," Harry said.

"But, but you can't possibly have Slytherin blood-er, or maybe you don't?" Hermione stumbled over her words. "Your mum was a Muggle-born wizard, and your dad was from a Pure-blood family... Well, maybe it's possible?"

"That can't be right!" Ron said nervously. "You're a Gryffindor, aren't you?"

"It would be funny if Slytherin found out his descendant ended up in Gryffindor," Aya said, rubbing her chin. "If you announced who you were, would the people in Slytherin submit to you? As long as Slytherin joins Gryffindor, ruling Hogwarts won't be a dream! Oh, right, that would even make you related to Voldemort!"

"...Don't let your imagination run wild."

"That sounds like a ghost story." Harry pulled a face.

For the first time, Aya entered the library a second time on a weekend-all for information on Basilisks.

Hermione was much faster than her. Before, seeing that Aya wasn't in a hurry, she hadn't told her because she wanted Aya to work on her own dizziness from reading. Now things were different. Once Hermione focused, she soon found the book about Basilisks among the books on a shelf, and was still flipping through it as she carried it back to her friends.

"...Here!" Hermione placed the book in the middle of the table and pointed to a page. "Look: 'The first recorded Basilisk was bred by a Greek dark wizard who spoke Parseltongue... Hatch a chicken egg beneath a toad, and it will produce a dangerous giant serpent with extraordinary powers... Its most dangerous form of attack is to fix its great yellow eyes upon its target. Anyone whose gaze meets its own will die instantly...' That's it!"

"Eye contact?" Aya leaned in and studied the description of the Basilisk. No wonder she'd died instantly that time. It was her fault for being too polite: she'd thought she should at least look someone in the eye when confronting them. Who'd have thought the Basilisk had no manners, killing anyone who met its gaze?

Oh, spiders are all afraid of Basilisks, and their natural enemy is the rooster...

Huh? The rooster!?

So it wasn't me and Xiaohua who were strong last time. It was the rooster!

Aya's eyes widened. After she quickly finished reading the description of the Basilisk, her quest list refreshed.

[Please capture a live rooster 1/1]

[Please find information related to the BOSS: completed]

[Please find the instance entrance 1/1]

[Defeat the BOSS: completed]

[Level increased to 35]

[New quest: complete your second year of study, pass your final exams, and successfully advance to your third year]

[Side quest: clear your poor friend Hagrid's name]

[Side quest: Harry's Parseltongue]

Aya glanced at the newly refreshed quests, her eyes shining. Apart from the main quest—which Aya thought was the main quest—that she had to complete herself, couldn't she ride someone else's coattails for the other two?

Round that up, and I'm getting them for free!

"Eye contact makes sense! Wasn't the last thing Moaning Myrtle saw before she died an eye?" Ron trembled. "Merlin's lace skirt, there's a Basilisk at our school! We have to tell Headmaster Dumbledore!"

"What about the Chamber of Secrets?" Aya asked hesitantly. Although she'd killed the Basilisk, the Chamber of Secrets—she didn't think it was the sewer room where she'd encountered the Basilisk. Otherwise, wouldn't it be far too shabby...? Shouldn't a secret chamber left by a Founder be something grand and impressive?

"Forget the Chamber of Secrets! If it really gets opened again, the school will be shut down!" Ron was getting anxious. He felt uncomfortable all over now, as though danger lurked everywhere around him. "No, I have to ask Hagrid for a rooster. I remember he keeps several!"

"Wasn't the Basilisk supposed to be controlled by someone with Slytherin blood?" Harry accepted the possibility about himself faster than anyone. First, he had never learned Parseltongue; second, the Sorting Hat had said he would do well in Slytherin when he was sorted. So he thought he might really have the tiniest, tiniest, tiniest bit of Slytherin blood.

"What if your blood's too diluted?" Aya asked. "But the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago must have been Slytherin's descendant, right? Their blood must have been at least four times purer than yours, right?"

"Could your grandfather have opened it?" Ron guessed.

"Impossible," Harry said. "I asked Hagrid. My dad was born when his parents were already old, so my grandfather would have been much older. Fifty years ago..."

"...It's not impossible," Hermione said, her expression grave. "When was your grandfather born?"

"I don't know..." Harry froze. Remembering his Invisibility Cloak, which never lost its effectiveness, he felt their earlier guess that his family had some special status seemed more plausible.

"Don't forget us when you get rich," Aya said, patting Harry on the shoulder. "A character setup stacked with buffs like yours used to be mine."

"Huh?" Ron yelped. "Do you Spirit Clan members have some other special identity too?"

"Back then. That was all in the past. A hero doesn't boast about past glories." Aya lifted her chin and waved a hand.

There was no doubt that she had been a chosen one before. It was just that there had been rather a lot of chosen ones where she came from.

"All right, let's tell the professors about this. It's a Basilisk, after all. We can't deal with it. Anyone it looks at dies!" Hermione said, closing the book.

"Then I'll go tell them!" Aya raised her hand. She could also ask Dumbledore whether he knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets.

"Do you know what to say?" Hermione gave her a doubtful look.

"Why wouldn't I?" Aya puffed out her chest. "Hagrid and his spider were falsely accused fifty years ago, and the suspected culprits are Harry's grandfather and a Basilisk, right?"

"...Like hell it's right!" Hermione swore. "You can't say that! We don't know for sure!"

"If we don't know, let Dumbledore investigate. We don't have the enrollment lists for those people, and Harry barely knows anything about his mum and dad, let alone his grandparents' generation." Aya shrugged.

"I'll go too," Harry said. "At least, at least my Parseltongue might provide some clues. I don't think my relatives would do something like that! Maybe it was an accident!"

"Huh?" Aya was reluctant. If Harry went along, how could she secretly keep the Chamber of Secrets' treasure for herself later?

"All right," Hermione and Ron agreed. "Either way, we have to find out the truth."

Aya was forced to go to the Headmaster's Office with Harry. Just as they were nearly there, Xiaohua, who hadn't gone into the library earlier, caught up with them.

After all the running around that day, she felt she'd nearly gotten as much exercise as she did on her weekly sweep of the castle's glowing spots.

"Hmm... I understand the situation." Dumbledore pushed up his glasses and gave Aya an odd look. Aya turned her head, looking at the sky and the ground, anywhere but at him. "I have always believed Hagrid. Last time-oh, the information you discovered this time has given me another direction for my investigation. So... Miss Hawthorne, hmm, may I borrow the Basilisk?"

"?" Harry whipped his head around to look at Aya, his expression one of shock, as if to say, "So you're the Heir of Slytherin!"

"Don't look at me like that! What I have is a dead snake!" Aya bristled. "I don't speak Parseltongue. It even killed me once!"

"How could it have killed you?" Harry glared at her, thinking she was exaggerating again. "We were just worrying about there being a Basilisk in the castle. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't know at first that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was a Basilisk, and I don't think that place was the Chamber of Secrets! I just wanted to go see the Chamber of Secrets myself." Aya muttered, feeling a little guilty.

"That was the Chamber of Secrets," Dumbledore added.

"Impossible! How could Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets be a sewer?" Aya refused to believe her treasure chest was gone again.

"What sewer?" Harry continued to glare.

"The castle sewer," Aya said aggrievedly. "It was dark and damp, and there were even little animal corpses. Is that the sort of place Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets should be?" Aya thought for a moment, then added, "And there was a really ugly statue in there. One look and you could tell it wasn't Slytherin himself."

"...It was," Dumbledore added.

"He was that ugly!" Aya turned to Harry. "Your ancestors must have forcibly taken beautiful women, or their genes could never have improved enough to produce someone like you."

"..." Harry was speechless and didn't want to make improper remarks about his ancestors. "So you already dealt with the Basilisk, right? Then, Headmaster Dumbledore, what about Hagrid?"

"As a matter of fact, I have already been making preparations regarding Hagrid," Dumbledore said. "But there is something else I would like to ask." He turned to Aya. "Why were you so certain there was an entrance there that day?"

"Xiaohua found it-oh, no, Xiaohua found it while being controlled. After that, I dug at the tap." Aya held Xiaohua up, thinking back. "I was being controlled at the time. After I swapped places with Xiaohua, Xiaohua went straight to that bathroom and found it."

"How did you come to be controlled?" Dumbledore asked.

"It was a red item I got, but I can't give it to you." Aya was wary.

Dumbledore really couldn't understand how stopping Aya from taking things just those two times had made her wary of him even now.

He sighed before continuing. "When have I ever taken anything of yours?"

Hearing that, Aya thought for a long time... He really hadn't!

She slowly rummaged through her bag for the diary, muttering as she did, "Headmaster Dumbledore, you really need to pay attention to Harry's Parseltongue. He..." Before she could finish, she found herself under control again.

In a flash, Xiaohua was the one being controlled, and the black diary fell to the floor.

Harry froze for a moment, unable to understand how Aya had turned into Xiaohua. He reached instinctively to pick up the diary, and when he touched it, Aya's system sounded a notification-

[Important side quest: you have discovered special item number two 2/6]