After bursting into the girls bathroom, Harry's trio finally saw there were two other men here.
Looking the two over, Ron's eyes widened.
"You... you're that wanted Auror! My dad mentioned you."
Ron recognized Cole because Mr. Weasley had once brought Cole's wanted poster home.
Cole's expression remained unchanged as he glanced at Dudley, offering no explanation.
"He works for me now," Dudley said simply.
"But he's dangerous!" Ron said with a shocked expression.
Harry and Hermione also looked incredulous.
The helper Dudley mentioned was actually a wanted Auror—it was quite a shock.
"I'm not dangerous at all now," Cole said.
In front of Dudley? How dare he be dangerous?
"All right, just trust me! Also, don't tell anyone about Cole," Dudley said calmly.
"O... okay, I understand," Ron said reluctantly.
Although he still didn't trust Cole, he trusted Dudley.
"Where's the entrance?" Borgin asked.
"This tap," Dudley pointed out the snake-shaped marking on the side of the tap.
"Who would've thought Slytherin would set the Chamber entrance in a girls' bathroom?" Harry complained.
They'd suspected many places, even considered checking the Slytherin common room, but never imagined it would be in a girls' bathroom.
"How do we open it?" Cole asked after examining it.
He couldn't find the mechanism to open it, and all the spells he tried were useless.
"It requires Parseltongue," Dudley said, then looked at Harry. "You try."
If Harry couldn't do it, he'd have to bring out Voldemort's diary.
"I'll try..." Harry looked at the tap. After a long moment—
"Open!"
"No, you're speaking English," Ron said quickly.
Harry looked embarrassed. Staring at a sink, he just couldn't manage Parseltongue.
His Parseltongue wasn't something he'd learned—it wasn't something he could use at will, but rather something that required the right trigger.
With so many people watching him, he felt even more nervous.
"Forget it, let me do it," Dudley said after a moment's thought, taking out Voldemort's diary from the Mirror of Erised.
"What the..." The moment he pulled out the diary, Dudley's expression changed. He discovered that black stains had appeared all over the diary, as if ink had seeped through.
What's going on? Dudley immediately became alert.
If Voldemort's soul suddenly burst out, everyone here would be in trouble.
"Harry! Didn't you say you wouldn't put me with that book anymore?"
"Too terrifying! I can't take it!"
"I'm going crazy!"
Dudley watched as the diary pages flipped open rapidly, lines of text appearing at incredible speed, presenting themselves before everyone.
At this sight, Dudley was stunned.
He'd already placed the diary and the Trunsoest Brass Book separately. How could there still be a problem?
"That book is too terrifying! Too terrifying!" More text appeared.
Dudley sensed that Voldemort's soul must have been through hell. Otherwise, he couldn't possibly be in this state.
"Who's speaking?" Cole frowned.
"Voldemort!" The moment Dudley said the name, Cole's and Borgin's eyes went wide with shock.
The next moment, both simultaneously drew their wands.
"Don't worry, he can't cause any trouble for now," Dudley reassured them.
"What's wrong with him?" Harry looked at the text in the diary in surprise.
He knew Dudley had assumed a false identity, but judging from Voldemort's words, he seemed extremely afraid of some book.
This was the Dark Lord—even the young Dark Lord shouldn't be in this state.
Right now, their fear and dread of Voldemort was completely shattered—like discovering your idol also uses the bathroom. The mystique was gone.
"All right, I understand. Next time I won't put you next to that book," Dudley wrote with the quill.
"Now, please tell me how to open the Chamber entrance."
"I... my memory needs to possess your body, then..." The words formed slowly.
"I don't like other people's memories possessing my body. Do you have another way to open the Chamber entrance?" Dudley refused directly.
"The Chamber entrance is very difficult to open. Besides my method..." The diary began to write.
"If it's that troublesome, forget it. You can stay with that book a bit longer."
After writing, Dudley closed the diary, preparing to put it back together with the Trunsoest Brass Book.
Rustle, rustle...
The diary struggled to flip open, a line of text rapidly appearing.
"I suddenly thought of a method that doesn't require my memory to possess your body—it can still open the Chamber."
Seeing the appearing text, Dudley smiled slightly.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, as well as Cole and Borgin, were now completely stunned.
Was this really Voldemort's soul?
"Place the diary near that entrance tap," text appeared in the diary.
Dudley immediately complied, placing the diary beside the tap.
The next moment, light shone from the diary, shining onto the tap.
Rumble!
The bathroom shook slightly. Then the central sink began to separate, and everyone quickly stepped back to give it space.
Soon, the sink had completely separated, revealing a dark passage hidden in the middle.
"The Chamber is down there?" Cole walked over to look, his expression tense.
"Should be," Borgin said.
Dudley also walked over.
Using his enhanced vision, Dudley looked deep into the drain but found many forks and turns inside that quickly blocked his view.
"Gulp..." Harry swallowed.
"Who goes down first?" Cole asked, then answered his own question. "I'll go first."
He had the lowest status among everyone here. If he didn't go down, who would?
"It should be safe down there. Go down and check the situation first," Dudley said.
Cole didn't hesitate and jumped straight down.
"I'll go," Borgin glanced at Harry's group, also stepped forward, and followed Cole down.
"Follow me," Dudley said to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Then he jumped into the tunnel.
However, Dudley cast a Levitation Charm on himself. Though rapidly descending, he didn't collide with the walls but floated in the center.
Behind him came the trio's cries of alarm—they'd followed down as well.
Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets—they'd finally arrived.