The Extraordinary Apothecary at Hogwarts

"Bathroom! Next to the toilet both times." Harry pulled out his wand and rushed in, opening several toilet stalls in succession to find Myrtle who was causing the toilet to flood.

When Harry asked Myrtle about the cause of her death, the floodgate finally closed. Myrtle told him with relish that she died suddenly after seeing a pair of large and shocking yellow eyes, which were about the same size at the time. Appeared near the sink.

At this time, Ron also discovered the parchment in the gap. There was still a glimmer of luck in the misfortune. The parchment was sandwiched at a slightly higher position and was not soaked by the water in the toilet.

It looked like Hermione's handwriting.

"Harry!" He pushed the paper in front of Harry's eyes, so close that Harry almost had to take off his glasses to see the words and patterns on it.

He read it quickly.

"Basilisks - can live for hundreds of years - fear of roosters' crows - deadly fangs and glare - spiders will run away from basilisks," said Harry. "All right, Ron, Hermione She circled the spider and figured out how to move it.”

tube.

"The paper was found here, there must be some way to open it," Ron patted the sink anxiously, "Snake - is there a snake-shaped symbol? Slytherin will definitely use this pattern - here!"

There is an inconspicuous snake-shaped mark on the side of the copper faucet.

Hermione was captured and her life or death was uncertain. In desperation, Ron's head was a hundred times clearer than usual, just like when he was playing chess.

Harry immediately looked in the direction of his finger, but Ron was still nervous and shouted, "Harry! Here! Use your Parseltongue! This must be the way to open it! The true heir and You can also use Parseltongue!"

Harry shook his head back and forth, trying to imagine the snake shape on the faucet as a real snake. After all, he only had a part of Voldemort's magic power, and he could only speak the language of snakes naturally when he saw a living snake.

Eugenie stood not far behind them, watching Harry shake his head and try several times, wanting to turn him into a black snake directly.

But since Dumbledore used the Disillusionment Curse on them, her wrists had been tightly clasped, even though it was impossible for her to run around or rush in to fight the basilisk.

Harry finally hissed, and the pool shifted in the light, revealing the pipes beneath the cover.

Harry and Ron got in without hesitation, and the sound of collisions around the corner was transmitted to the bathroom through the long pipe.

Myrtle got into the elbow of the toilet again and let out intermittent gurgling sounds muffled in the water as usual.

"I'm taking the first step." Dumbledore's voice came from the front.

In the dim light, it was difficult for Eugenie to make out the shape of Dumbledore.

She was also pulled towards the pipe, but the professor never wanted to let go. No matter how thick the pipe was, it was not a double-track slide after all. "Professor, do you want-" she asked quietly.

no respond.

Then her feet left the ground, without her needing to control her body, and then they got into the pipe like two kangaroos, one big and one small.

She did not touch the slimy and slippery inner wall of the pipe. The winding pipe extended for a long time, and waves of fishy-smelling moisture rushed into her nostrils at an accelerating rate.

The slope of the water pipe gradually eased, and with a slight bump, she knew she had left the pipe and reached the bottom.

Just as she stood up, her arm was grabbed again.

There was no sound as they walked. There were two bright lights in front of the dark tunnel, and the footsteps of Harry and Ron vibrated in the tunnel.

The sound of cracking and breaking sounded from time to time in front, and they stepped on the bones of small animals, just like Eugenie did when she led to the underwater cave where Wormtail was kept.

But there are obviously more bones here, and the smell is very bad - this is an old monster that has lived alone in the pipe for thousands of years, without a wizard to help it clean its place.

The feet were slippery, and there was probably old excrement soaked into strange shapes.

Harry and Ron walked cautiously. They didn't know that the basilisk's eyes had been pecked out, and it was doing an effort that was ineffective in the first place and fortunately was not needed now - narrowing its eyes to a slit.

They held their wands high and tried to make their footsteps as soft as possible as they approached a mass of shed snake skin.

Harry squinted his eyes and couldn't see clearly. He mustered up the courage to step forward and poke it with his wand. It was hollow. "It's just skin."

Ron also opened his eyes again like him, squinting his eyes and matching the weak light. He could only see rough colors and shapes in front of his eyes.

"Merlin's beard is so long!" Ron sighed as he touched the snake skin. His palm was also stained with a fishy smell when he touched it, and he couldn't get it off the magic robe no matter how hard he rubbed it.

Harry walked around to the other side, "Look into its eyes here, Ron."

"It's broken. It's really seriously injured, and there are other parts of the body as well. No wonder there haven't been attacks for so long."

Harry thought for a moment, "But Hermione said that some snakes will heal after they shed their skin."

"Its glare and fangs are still deadly weapons." Ron narrowed his eyes again after speaking.

Harry said with certainty, "Yes, it must have waited until it recovered before deciding to attack again. Be careful of its glare."

Snape had just heard that they had inferred from the snake skin that the child might not be as hopeless as they thought, and he was so angry at this sentence.

The recovery is limited to the body, but the eyes can also be healed through molting? ?

Who taught it?

You can't inherit good genes at all, right?

I was so angry that my hair was about to split.

They followed and continued to watch Harry and Ron squinting as they walked to the end of the tunnel. Here was another door. The snake on the door opened the passage after hearing Harry's instructions.

There are symmetrical snake stone pillars standing on both sides of the long and tall room. There are long water tanks next to the two rows of stone pillars, reflecting the stone pillars in the dim green mist.

A huge statue that is old but not at all amiable is engraved on the wall stone at the top of the farthest column.

There was a strong feeling that this was the innermost secret room, and they no longer had the time to close their eyes.

Two small figures lie far away and lifeless under the statue.

"Hermione!" Ron grabbed his broken wand and ran over. He accidentally slipped and the magic tape used to wrap it came off again. He got up and continued running while hastily re-taping the wand, roughly. Pinch it and it's fixed.

They rushed over and knelt down next to Hermione. Ron lifted Hermione's upper body and let her rest on his lap. Hermione's lips were still bloody. Ron put his finger in front of her nose and felt the weak breathing. , he couldn't help but feel a sore nose, "Great! We'll get you out right away! Get out of this hellish place!"