Chapter 11: Echoes from the Slytherin Crypt
The Slytherin dungeons were bathed in an eternal, deep blue, and Leonard Norton's Hydro Crest flowed across the surface of his amulet, like mercury under moonlight.
He lightly touched the serpentine carvings on the stone wall, and the water droplets seeping from between the scales condensed into miniature water mirrors in mid-air, reflecting Draco Malfoy's pale face—the latter stood three steps away in the shadows, a black obsidian glowing with the unique purple light of the abyss in his palm.
"Norton, you seem quite familiar with my family's dungeons," Draco's voice was like ice-tempered silver, and the tip of his wand grazed the wall.
The water mirrors suddenly shattered, and the droplets transformed into sharp blades, shooting towards Leonard.
"Father said that Gryffindor's claws should not reach into contracts that don't belong to them."
Leonard activated his Wings of Wind to disperse the water blades; a cyan-blue light band collided with Draco's purple light, burning a charred septagram onto the stone wall.
Hermione's voice came from around the corner; she was using a "Sonorous Location Spell" to map the dungeon's structure: "The Slytherin Hydro element node is in the northwest quadrant; the humidity there is 47% higher than outside, consistent with the records in 'Elemental Geography of the Four Houses'!"
Ron Weasley suddenly leaped out from behind a stone pillar, his Slingshot firing a water balloon imbued with a "Jinx of Giggles": "Taste the Weasley family's 'Ice and Fire Double Heaven'—oh, damn it, I think I grabbed the 'vomit-flavored' one!"
The water balloon accurately hit Draco's collar, but unexpectedly activated the abyss energy in his wand; the puddles on the ground instantly boiled, emitting a black mist with a sulfuric smell.
"Idiot!" Draco's wand tip glowed purple, and the black mist condensed into a serpent, lunging at Ron.
"Abyss Viper—"
"Harry!" Hermione shouted, "Use Parseltongue to cut off the abyss connection! Leonard, use the Hydro Crest to construct a mirrored barrier!"
Harry's Parseltongue exploded in the damp air; the serpentine black mist actually paused mid-flight, a flicker of confusion in its snake eyes.
Leonard seized the opportunity to inject the Hydro Crest into the ground puddles.
The mirrored water surface reflected Draco's figure, but upon contact with the abyss energy, it unexpectedly showed a memory from deep within him—a young Malfoy by The Great Lake, watching his father press a black obsidian into the contract mark on his chest.
"His wand core is an Abyss Viper's fangs," Hermione's scanner showed an anomalous frequency, "the same origin as the Basilisk's venom core! Leonard, the mirrored water can reflect abyss memories, just like it says in 'Potions: Theory of Mind Mirroring'—"
Draco's wand clattered to the ground.
He stared at his reflection in the water, the purple light deep within his pupils fading: "You... what you see is just a lie.
What the House of Malfoy protects is a freedom more ancient than the Seven Gods."
Leonard reached out to touch his black obsidian; the amulet's Hydro Crest resonated with the gem, and teyvat script suddenly appeared on the dungeon's flagstones: 「The Hydro God's contract, hidden in the Mirror Abyss; tears are not sorrow, but the mirror of the heart.」 Deeper still, a Hydro God statue entwined with seaweed was glowing, its starsilver fragment in its chest perfectly fitting the gap in his amulet.
"The 'tears' of Slytherin," Leonard whispered, "are the loneliness of the proud.
What your father injected into the black obsidian was not abyss energy, but Slytherin's 'pure ambition'—that is the key to the Hydro God's contract."
Draco took half a step back, his ear tips reddening: "Do you think mind-reading can see through everything?
Hidden in the Mirror Abyss of the dungeon is the Hydro God's authority that Grindelwald tried to steal five hundred years ago—" He suddenly pointed at the Hydro God statue, "And your amulet is awakening the sealed 'Mirror of Judgment'."
Hermione's shorthand quill scribbled furiously; she finally deciphered the runes on the wall: "The Hydro God's contract of the Mirror Abyss requires 'tears of absolute rationality,' which is Slytherin's unique 'resolve to sacrifice for protection.' Draco, your father chose to seal the authority back then precisely to prevent the abyss from using the water mirror to open a passage between the two worlds."
Harry picked up Draco's wand; Parseltongue resonated with the Hydro God statue: "The water mirror is saying that the House of Malfoy are 'inverted guardians' of the Hydro God's contract, using abyss energy as a disguise, but in reality preventing the authority from being corrupted.
Draco, your black obsidian is actually purifying the abyss substances it touches."
The water level in the dungeon suddenly dropped, revealing a septagram altar at the bottom of the Mirror Abyss.
Leonard's amulet resonated with the Hydro God statue; the Hydro Crest fully materialized for the first time, a pale blue light band outlining the Slytherin serpent emblem within the septagram.
Draco's black obsidian buzzed, actively flying towards the altar and merging with the starsilver fragment.
"Resonance frequency 155Hz," Hermione recorded the scanner data, "consistent with the 'Tears of Reason' parameters in the 'Four Houses Elemental Resonance Chart'.
Leonard, your amulet can now simultaneously invoke the Mirror Abyss's water mirror power and abyss purification ability—but the cost is that each use will consume the House of Malfoy's contract energy."
Draco suddenly sneered, gripping his wand again: "Don't think this is a reconciliation, Gryffindor.
I'm only allowing you to take the Hydro God fragment because I want to see what kind of funeral dirge the Hogwarts leylines will play when the septagram is complete." As he turned, a blue light, identical to the Mirror Abyss's water patterns, flashed on his cuff.
"Next time you dare to touch my dungeons, I'll show you a real 'Water Prison Vortex'."
As the quartet left, the Mirror Abyss's water mirror condensed again, reflecting the starry sky of Hogwarts.
Leonard noticed that the moment the Slytherin serpent emblem overlapped with the Hydro Crest, the septagram gap in the amulet shrunk by one-third, and the remaining gaps corresponded to Gryffindor's fire, Hufflepuff's earth, and Ravenclaw's wind.
"The elemental resonance of the Four Houses," Hermione murmured, "is like the four mirrored faces of the water mirror; none can be missing.
Draco's arrogance is actually the hardest shell of the Hydro God's contract—and we are peeling it away, layer by layer."
During Potion Class that evening, Leonard attempted to brew an "Elemental Resonator"; the Hydro Crest reacted with the Yuegui water in the cauldron, and the liquid surface reflected the totems of the Four Houses intertwining in the air.
Ron's "Joyful Powder" accidentally spilled in, causing the reflection to turn into dancing Chocolate Frogs, which infuriated Snape, who deducted ten points from Gryffindor, but made Hermione's eyes light up: "Disordered magic can break the absolute rationality of elemental mirroring; this is precisely the essence of Hufflepuff's 'inclusiveness'!"
And in the Slytherin dormitory, Draco stared at the black obsidian in his palm; it now had a faint blue Hydro Crest: "Father, I think I understand your choice back then.
The Seven Gods' contract may not be shackles, but rather... an anchor preventing the abyss from devouring us."
Deep within the Mirror Abyss, the Hydro God statue's stone eyes suddenly turned, looking in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower.
On the contract scroll in its palm, new text was emerging: 「When the elemental mirrors of the Four Houses converge on the amulet, The Great Lake will reflect Teyvat's Eye of Judgment—and true tears never fall to the ground, but flow deep within the soul of every contractor.」