As soon as Harry finished speaking, a gust of what could only be described as awkwardness swept through the area, making the grass on the ground sway gently.
The Fairy Tail members all stared at their Guild Master with accusatory looks. The Basilisk was minding its own business, sleeping at the bottom of the lake, only to come ashore once to look for some Acromantula to eat, and it was blamed for a crime.
While Hagrid's accident couldn't be said to be completely unrelated to it, it wasn't intentional! But Victor, without any reason, had dragged the Basilisk out of the lake, gouged out its eyes, and beat it up. It truly was a great injustice!
Victor looked at the expressions of his guild members and awkwardly pursed his lips. He knew he was in the wrong, but he still stood his ground, and to maintain his Guild Master's dignity, he argued, "What?! What are you looking at?! I just caught it to set it up on a blind date with our guild's pet!"
"Think about it, if they can have a few baby Basilisks, we can have more venom to sell for money, and the guild can have more sources of income. Then Fred and George can make better alchemical items, and Neville won't have to be so frugal with his herb seedlings!"
"That makes sense!" The Weasley twins looked at each other and said in unison.
But when the others heard Victor's shameless words, they all cursed in their hearts, Shameless! He could even come up with an excuse like that! The Guild Master has truly thrown all his dignity out the window! It was at this moment that a voice from the side made Victor's face fall to the ground.
"Mr. Dreyar, I should point out that even though Basilisks have different genders, they don't have reproductive organs, so they…"
"No one would have thought you were a mute if you hadn't said anything, Professor Scamander…"
And so, the matter of capturing the Basilisk named Hogni finally came to an end.
Regarding the numerous doubts about Salazar Slytherin's history that arose from Hogni's appearance, Victor decided to launch an investigation into the possible Slytherin inheritance.
He unbound Hogni from the tree vines, and then he cast a contract spell between it and Luna. However, he didn't immediately send it back to the Black Lake. Instead, he took out the ring from the dark pool and asked for clues about its purpose.
"Hogni, do you know this ring?" Hogni slowly approached, its vertical pupils wide, and stared at the serpentine ring for a while.
Then, it hissed, "dor… lyn…"
Victor didn't understand what this meant. He asked several times, but Hogni didn't seem to have any other new clues to offer besides those two words. So, Victor waved his hand and released it back into the Black Lake.
That evening, after dinner, Victor went straight to Dumbledore's office. The old wizard wasn't there, but Victor didn't mind. He took the Sorting Hat and the Sword of Gryffindor from their respective places, and then he woke up Godric Gryffindor, who was slumbering in the Sorting Hat.
"Oh, Rowena's heir, it's you!" Gryffindor wiggled his pointy hat, looked around, and asked, "Where's Helena? Why isn't she here?"
"If you want to see your daughter, I can call her over later. I have something I want to ask you about today," Victor explained.
"That's a shame. I thought Helena had called me out because she missed me, her father!" Although Gryffindor's words expressed both hope and disappointment, his emotionless tone made Victor feel no corresponding emotion, which was very unsettling.
"Tell me, what do you want to ask me about?" Gryffindor asked blankly.
"I want to ask you, what was the real reason Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts?" Victor asked the most crucial question directly. He felt that Gryffindor, as the Hat containing most of his original self's memories, must know the secrets that were buried in the river of history. But he was quickly disappointed…
Gryffindor slowly said, "If that's what you're asking, I'm sorry, I don't know."
"You don't know?! How is that possible!" Victor said in disbelief. "Legend says that you even resorted to force to try and keep Slytherin from leaving Hogwarts."
"I have no reason to lie to you. I specifically deleted all memories of Salazar leaving Hogwarts before I died."
"Huh?! Why?"
"I don't know the exact reason. All I know is that the reason I did it was because I was afraid that some ill-intentioned people might discover my consciousness in the future, and then use some methods to confuse the Sorting Hat to find out where Salazar went."
"If that's the case… did Slytherin have a special identity?" Victor asked, narrowing his eyes. If there wasn't a special reason, Gryffindor wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to hide Slytherin's information while he was alive.
"I don't know. Many of my memories about Salazar have been deleted. You won't be able to get much useful information from me," Gryffindor shook his head.
"Then do you know this ring?" Victor took out the serpentine ring from the dark pool.
"This ring was carried by Salazar. I once saw Slytherin's child use this ring to communicate with Hogni."
"You know Hogni?!" Victor's eyes widened. He had thought that the Basilisk's existence was a complete secret!
"Of course I know. Hogni was Salazar's pet. Salazar spent a lot of effort to cultivate that Basilisk from a sea raven egg," Gryffindor replied with certainty. "It was just too big. Salazar would only bring it out when he was teaching in that underground classroom."
"Sea raven?!" Hearing this unfamiliar name, a question mark immediately popped up in Victor's head. "What kind of animal is that? And aren't Basilisks hatched from a rooster's egg?"
"Hmm… how to put it. Sea ravens are a type of bird that lives on the sea for a long time. But their wings are very short, and they can't fly very well. They can only glide for a short distance over the sea. The reason they are called sea ravens is because their heads and beaks look a lot like ravens, and their feathers are black and white." Gryffindor briefly described the image of the sea raven from his memory, and then began to answer the other question. "As for the rooster's egg, according to Salazar, Herpo the Foul only said that Basilisks could be hatched from eggs, but he didn't specify what kind of chicken's rooster egg. So, in the end, Salazar accidentally succeeded after searching for dozens of different types of poultry eggs to hatch Hogni."
"Oh my gosh, that actually worked?!" Victor exclaimed, and quickly took out his animal encyclopedia from his pocket dimension. After a careful look, he quickly found out what the so-called sea raven was. A sea raven was actually a type of bird that was somewhere between a sea crow and a penguin. According to its modern official name, its real name should be the Great Auk, and it had become completely extinct nearly two hundred years ago.
The Great Auk was once widely distributed along the North Atlantic coast near North America, Iceland, England, the Scandinavian Peninsula, and Spain. It inhabited coasts and islands. It preferred to live in groups and rarely spent time on land, except during the breeding season. It couldn't fly very well but could glide at low altitudes over the water. It had excellent vision and fed on fish, shrimp, and other marine invertebrates.
At the same time, the Great Auk had a very low reproductive rate, laying only one egg at a time. The young bird could go into the water as soon as it hatched. The main reason for its extinction was human hunting.
From the 18th century to the mid-19th century, due to the rapid development of world maritime trade, the Great Auk was widely hunted for its fur and eggs, which had high commercial value. Coupled with natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, the Great Auk was officially declared extinct in 1844.
Victor put down the animal encyclopedia in his hand. No wonder Hogni was so different from a normal Basilisk. It was cultivated by unconventional means!
But that was strange. How did the others find the modern, common way of cultivating Basilisks?
Victor's mind was filled with questions, but he decided to set these trivial matters aside for now. Since he couldn't find any clues from Gryffindor, he could only start with the two words Hogni had said.
At the very least, he needed to figure out what those two words meant before he could take the next step. With that thought, Victor put the Sorting Hat and the Sword of Gryffindor back in their places, and then left Dumbledore's office.
He never expected that he wouldn't be able to find the specific meaning of those two simple, unfamiliar words for the next half a month.
On Christmas Eve, after Victor had finished arranging the final exams for the Ravenclaw students, he took a walk around the library and then came to the Black Lake. Not far away, the huge head of the Basilisk poked out of the water, and the sunlight shining on its black scales gave off a faint, colorful halo.
Luna was gently stroking Hogni's head, her hands covered in algae and some unknown wet and slippery mucus, but she didn't seem to care at all.
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