The girls' bathroom where Myrtle resided. Harry and Ron faced off, neither giving way.
"I'm going too!"
"No," Harry shook his head, "It's too dangerous. Voldemort might very well be down there!"
"So what? If it's dangerous for me, it's the same for you!"
"We're different!"
"How are we different?"
"I can speak Parseltongue. There might be places down there that need me."
"Don't forget, it was Sherlock who initially said he needed backup!
Besides, he just told us to follow quickly when he went down—Harry, having come this far, how could I possibly leave?"
Harry looked at Ron. Ron stubbornly met Harry's gaze.
The two remained deadlocked for several minutes, with Ron still refusing to back down.
At this moment, Harry knew he had no way to stop him anymore.
"Alright, you're right. Since Sherlock said so..."
"That's right! Let's go down quickly. Sherlock has been waiting for us down there for a long time."
The two reached an agreement and were about to jump down when Myrtle called out to Harry.
"Is there anything else?"
"You just mentioned that Voldemort... so it's very dangerous down there?"
"That's right. The basilisk that once killed you might very well be down there."
"Oh, I see..."
For some reason, Myrtle's hands nervously twisted her clothes, her face turning silver-white with shyness.
"I was just thinking, if you die, you're welcome to share this toilet with me."
"..."
After a moment of silence, Harry simply said goodbye to Myrtle and dove headfirst into the pipe without looking back.
Ron suppressed his laughter and followed Harry into the pipe, sliding down.
Coincidentally, sliding down from the pipe felt somewhat similar to jumping down from the trapdoor last year.
The difference was that this time it was like rushing down a dark, slimy, endless slide at high speed.
Harry and Ron could even see many other pipes branching off in all directions, but none were as thick as the one they were in.
The pipe they were in twisted and turned, winding around with a steep slope leading downward.
As time passed, both knew they had slid to a very deep place under the school, even deeper than the room where the Philosopher's Stone was kept last year.
Just as they began to worry about what lay ahead, the pipe's incline suddenly became horizontal.
Harry emerged from the pipe opening and landed with a thud on the damp ground.
Thinking of something, he quickly stood up and moved aside.
Sure enough, Ron also emerged from the pipe.
If Harry hadn't dodged just then, Ron would have crashed heavily into him.
Before them appeared a dark stone tunnel, large enough for people to stand inside.
"We must be several miles deep under the school."
"Your judgment is correct, Harry."
Sherlock's voice came from ahead in the dark tunnel.
"Based on the pipe's incline and the time just now, we're now located beneath the Hogwarts castle dungeons. The legend of the Chamber really wasn't groundless.
When we return this time, Professor Binns might consider revising his curriculum—Lumos!"
As Sherlock cast the lighting charm, Harry and Ron also walked toward his direction.
"This is just a transit station. The real Chamber is ahead, and that's where your Parseltongue is needed."
Sherlock looked at Ron, "I'm afraid you'll have to stay here for a while."
"Why?" Ron asked, puzzled. "Didn't you just say upstairs that we should all..."
"Sorry, that statement is now yesterday's news," Sherlock turned his head. "Follow me."
Harry and Ron exchanged puzzled glances and quickly caught up with Sherlock's pace.
Soon, the light from Sherlock's wand illuminated a coiled, massive object.
Snake skin.
Giant snake skin.
"Basilisk..." Sherlock said softly, "Even larger than imagined."
Harry and Ron covered their mouths in shock.
The enormous snake skin before them was bright green and very vivid. It lay coiled on the tunnel floor, completely empty inside.
As Sherlock had said, judging by this skin, the creature that had shed it was at least twenty feet long.
"Good heavens."
Ron sighed weakly. Clearly, he too was frightened by this sight.
"Look here."
While Ron was expressing his amazement, Sherlock pointed his wand toward the lower section.
There was a line of writing there.
Exactly the same as the one on the corridor wall.
[If you don't want anything to happen to your friend, come in you alone]
"This writing was done after the one on the wall, and the handwriting is identical. Professor Lockhart has been completely controlled."
"Who does he mean by 'you alone,' Harry?"
"Obviously."
"Are we really going to watch Harry go to his death like this?"
"No, Ron," Sherlock looked at Ron, "you stay here and wait for our reinforcements."
"Reinforcements? We have reinforcements?"
"What else?"
Sherlock smiled, "If I weren't worried about that fellow jumping the gun and harming Hermione and Lockhart, I would have charged in with Hogwarts' full force by now. Who would have the patience to play lone hero after finding the Chamber?"
"But but he said to let Harry go alone. If you go too..."
"Ron, I'm very confident in my stealth abilities."
"I, I understand."
Ron was finally convinced. Ron didn't care about Lockhart's safety, but Hermione was their good friend.
Sherlock had made it very clear, he and Harry were going to buy time and wait for backup, so the danger wasn't great.
He didn't have Sherlock's stealth abilities, and going along would only be a hindrance.
After convincing Ron, Sherlock and Harry continued forward.
The tunnel turned bend after bend, and Ron's sounds soon became inaudible.
"Sherlock, if there's any movement, shouldn't we immediately close our eyes?"
"That's not necessary," Sherlock shook his head. "Up to now, we still don't know what dark magical object Voldemort left behind.
But from current appearances, he has completely controlled Lockhart.
The writing in the corridor and the writing just now were both left by him—this also indicates one thing. he desperately wants to meet you.
Before that happens, he won't hurt you."
Harry nodded, and the two turned bend after bend, finally discovering a solid wall ahead.
On that wall were carved two intertwined snakes, their eyes set with large, glittering green gems.
This time, Harry felt he didn't need to imagine these two stone snakes as real ones, because their eyes looked exactly like living ones.
"Wait a moment," Sherlock stopped Harry from speaking. "Put on the Invisibility Cloak first."
"Me? But didn't he tell me to go alone?"
"Why should we listen to him?"
"Huh?"
"I already said, if not for Hermione and Lockhart's safety, we wouldn't compromise with him at all. He said to go alone, so let me go alone.
Even Voldemort himself didn't detect you wearing the Invisibility Cloak. I don't think a Lockhart controlled by a dark magical object could manage that."
"But..."
"Harry, I think I'm better than you at dealing with men."
"..."
Finally, Harry, like Ron earlier, was unsurprisingly convinced by Sherlock.
He put on the Invisibility Cloak again and spoke to the wall in low, hoarse Parseltongue. "Open."
The two snakes separated, the stone wall split down the middle, slowly sliding to either side and disappearing.
Sherlock smiled slightly and strode inside.
Harry, wearing the Invisibility Cloak, followed closely behind.
Behind this wall was a long room.
Sherlock now stood on one side of the room, his gaze sweeping across the entire space, discovering many towering stone pillars carved with coiled, intertwining serpents supporting a ceiling that dissolved into darkness high above.
"In terms of architectural style alone, it's passable."
Sherlock made this comment, then walked toward the other end of the room.
When he reached the position parallel to the last pair of stone pillars, a statue as tall as the room itself suddenly appeared before him, pressed against the dark wall behind.
Sherlock looked up and saw clearly that enormous face.
An aged, monkey-like face, a sparse long beard that almost dragged to the hem of the stone-carved wizard's robes, two great gray feet standing on the room's smooth floor.
The statue of Salazar Slytherin.
Sherlock glanced at it once and looked away.
His gaze fell between the enormous feet of Salazar Slytherin's statue.
There lay a figure in black robes, face down.
But the fluffy brown hair and familiar body structure allowed Sherlock to recognize her immediately.
Hermione Granger.
Sherlock didn't rush forward but drew his wand and aimed it in Hermione's direction.
"Aguamenti!"
When visiting Knockturn Alley last year, Sherlock had carried a water bottle while searching for the room where Baskerville was imprisoned.
At that time, he had already thought about learning the water-making charm so he wouldn't need to carry a water bottle when it became useful later.
Now, with time having passed, it indeed came in handy.
Sherlock's reason for doing this was simple.
Bravery doesn't equal recklessness.
Although he had just told Harry that Tom Riddle wouldn't hurt them upon meeting.
But if he actually did so, Sherlock himself, who appeared openly in the Chamber, would bear the brunt.
The spell worked, and conjured water splashed directly onto Hermione's face.
Hermione, who had been unconscious, was awakened by the water and sat up in confusion, turning her head to look around.
Soon, she spotted the person holding a wand aimed at her.
"Sherlock!"
Hermione jumped up excitedly and immediately ran toward Sherlock.
When she was almost in front of Sherlock, she pounced like a cat, diving tightly into Sherlock's embrace.
"I knew you would definitely come to rescue me!"
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