They didn't know how long they had walked until they finally reached the bottom of the long stone staircase, where the view suddenly opened up.
Bright candlelight illuminated a passage, and at the end of the passage was a stone slide that stretched into who-knows-where.
"Thomas, let's go back," Severus sighed, a hint of disappointment in his voice.
The stone wall was smooth, with no footholds to climb; no one could get up there.
But as a person who believes in the principle of "since we're already here," how could Thomas give up so easily!
He pulled a handful of seeds from his pocket and rummaged through them in his hand; not having convenient storage tools was truly too troublesome.
If the apocalypse were like this, he would have died eight hundred times over.
Finally, Thomas picked out a few light brown, round seeds: "This is it."
Severus stared at Thomas curiously; he didn't even know when Thomas had collected so many plant seeds.
"What are these?"
"Ivy seeds, from those vines that climb on rooftops," Thomas explained.
"Siv, remember to hold on tight to me." At Thomas's prompting, Severus wrapped his arms around his waist.
He had already noticed Thomas's astonishing talent in natural magic, but he was still shocked by the scene before him.
When Thomas activated his ability, the vines grew wildly at an astonishing speed, quickly spreading towards the top.
They easily found stable rock crevices and firmly anchored themselves there.
Then, as if alive, they pulled Thomas and him upwards.
In just a few minutes, they reached the very top of the stone slide, which was a stone chamber.
The room had nothing but stone walls on all four sides.
Thomas had Severus help him tap on the surrounding stone walls; all Chambers of Secrets followed this pattern, and the mechanism had to be in the wall.
Sure enough, when he tapped on one spot, he felt the stone under his hand twist, and a door opened in one of the stone walls, revealing an extremely wide corridor before them.
As soon as they walked out, the stone door slammed shut with a bang.
A hunchbacked, one-eyed Witch statue seemed to be glaring fiercely at them.
She didn't speak, but a hoarse female voice, filled with anger, said: "You two abominable young wizards, it's been a hundred years since anyone dared to poke my waist!"
"Ah... sorry, Madam," Thomas chuckled dryly.
Good heavens, can statues talk too?
"Thomas, why are you apologizing?" Severus also found the statue a bit scary, but Thomas didn't need to apologize to a statue, did he?
"You can hear my voice." The hoarse voice was much calmer this time, with a hint of curiosity.
"I think so." Thomas looked at the bewildered Severus and pointed at the Witch statue: "She's talking."
Severus looked at the Witch statue in shock, feeling that the statue's expression had changed; it seemed to be smiling at them, but that smile was too terrifying!
He tugged on Thomas's robe sleeve and whispered, "Let's go quickly."
"Okay." Thomas also found the statue's smile a bit unsettling, but they still had to come back this way to go home, so he politely bowed to the statue: "Goodbye, Madam."
Although Severus couldn't hear the one-eyed Witch's voice, he also obediently bowed to the statue before following Thomas away.
As they left, Thomas still heard the Witch's somewhat sharp laughter behind him: "Hahahahaha, I finally waited for it!"
She whispered to the empty space in front of her: "Quickly, let them take that annoying fellow away!"
The candlelight on the wall flickered, as if responding to her words.
.....
They quickly left the corridor with the Witch statue.
Only when they got downstairs did they slow their pace and begin to carefully admire this mysterious ancient Castle.
Wide corridors, with towering walls on both sides.
The vaulted ceiling was adorned with exquisite frescoes, seemingly depicting legends of the Wizarding World.
Sunlight filtered through the stained-glass windows, casting mottled light and shadow on the smooth marble floor.
The most magical thing was that the air in this Castle was filled with a magical aura, as if it were alive...
"This is Hogwarts!" Thomas suddenly understood the admiration of British wizards for this Castle.
Severus's eyes glowed, finding everything interesting.
At this moment, he noticed the portraits hanging on the walls on both sides of the corridor: "Thomas, look, these portraits move."
He whispered in astonishment: "Are the people inside still alive?"
Thomas also leaned in to look, and at that moment, someone in a portrait noticed them.
Suddenly, a lady holding a teacup exclaimed: "Two children? You're not students!"
"Yes, we're just..." Thomas was trying to figure out how to explain.
A knight in splendid armor in a portrait across the corridor seemed to have only heard the latter part of the sentence.
He immediately drew the sword from his waist, brandished it, and ran across several portraits towards Thomas and him.
As he ran, he shouted: "Alert! Intruders have come to Hogwarts!"
This caused a commotion among the portraits.
"Intruders?"
"No..."
"Impossible, Hogwarts has protective magic, how could anyone just get in."
"Sir Cadogan never lies!"
"We are not intruders!" Severus shouted, somewhat angrily.
But the portraits just talked among themselves, paying him no mind.
Thomas carefully observed these portraits: they seemed not to care who the "intruders" outside really were, but were caught in a strange, panicked emotion.
"Severus, they seem to have forgotten our existence."
"It seems so."
Thomas discovered that the people in the paintings indeed exhibited a partial human consciousness, but this consciousness appeared unusually limited and fragmented.
They could perceive their own existence and even engage in simple communication to some extent, yet there seemed to be an invisible restraint, preventing them from processing more than one piece of information at a time, easily leading them into a singular mode of thought.
"Hey, sir." Thomas approached a gentleman's portrait with interest.
The man in the painting's top hat had fallen to the ground, revealing a bald, round head.
He was packing his gold, silver, and jewels into a suitcase.
Hearing Thomas's voice, he impatiently waved his hand: "Go away, young wizard, don't even think about coveting my treasures."
Sure enough, their thoughts were strictly confined to the scene depicted in the painting.
Except for... that knight, Sir Cadogan, brandishing his longsword, as if about to leap out of the painting, shouted in a dramatic pose: "Fight, intruders! Fight for glory and justice!"
But then, his gaze fell on Thomas and him, and the expression on his face instantly shifted from impassioned to bewildered: "...Hmm? Why are there two young wizards." He muttered to himself, his longsword slowly dropping, and that imminent fighting spirit instantly dissipated.
Thomas felt that this knight's consciousness seemed to be the most complete: "We just wanted to visit Hogwarts, Sir."
Amidst the rustling discussions of the other portraits, Thomas explained to him: "It wasn't intentional..."
Before he could finish, he heard heavy footsteps coming from the stairs at one end: Oh no, someone's coming.
It seems today is not a good day for a stroll!
He grabbed Severus: "Sev, hurry up."
Severus, somewhat scared, squeezed his brother's hand back and nodded.
Had they caused trouble?
They ran back the way they came, but when they climbed the steps, Thomas was stunned, because what appeared before them was not the corridor they had come through.
The one-eyed Witch statue wasn't there!
Damn it! They can't go back now?