[HP] Comparative

During class time, the corridors of the castle were empty.Harry made it to the ladies' room very well, checking the Marauder's Map one last time before entering.After making sure that no one was inside and that Tom was still in place, he carefully avoided the debris on the ground and tiptoed in.

As the days passed, the floor of the women's bathroom was almost dry.Harry pulled on the invisibility cloak, taking care not to expose a certain part of his body, while carefully checking for possible clues.

Toilets, cubicles, glass windows, sinks...

He rummaged through them, but found nothing of note.The most suspicious thing in the entire bathroom is still the faucet with the little snake carved on its side.

However, standing in front of the blasted hole in the sink, Harry couldn't think of anything wrong with the wet, smelly sewer behind it.He murmured and turned aside, touched the faucet—the snake was still there, but there was no water—apparently, all the faucets in the bathroom were useless now—and then turned back to the gap.

Since there is no other way, he can only bite the bullet and try...

Harry knelt down very cautiously, tilted his head, and tried his best to stuff half of his body into the damp and cold windy hole.Under the dim light from the tip of his wand, he found that the center behind the octagonal sink was empty, and there was a whole circle of pipes covered with thick dust and copper rust on the upper part; but one of them glowed with cold silver light, corresponding to It is the direction of the faucet engraved with the little snake.

It seems that Hermione guessed right, Tom did help Filch change the water pipe...

Harry moved his wand down.Not far below the water inlet is the place where the water comes out of the sink. There are eight in total, but the water outlets are not connected to the pipes; in the pipes.

... In the absence of such a large amount of water, is such a thick downpipe too overkill?

Harry looked at the one-inch-thick water inlet pipe on the side of his face, and stared in bewilderment at the black hole-like opening near his knee.It was gloomy and black, and the light from the wand couldn't reach the bottom at all.

After thinking about it for a while, he tried to throw a small piece of broken porcelain into it—while staring nervously at the direction of the bathroom door, for fear of attracting others by the unusual movement—but the broken porcelain didn’t make any noise The sound of hitting the wall; in fact, it may be two or three minutes before there is a muffled echo coming from inside, which sounds distant and subtle.

How deep is the pipe?Shouldn't it lead to the ground?

And it is so thick, not to mention entering the water, it is not a problem for an adult to pass through...

Thinking of this, Harry's mind suddenly froze.

To the ground?

Plumbing enough to get people down?

He lowered his eyes slowly, staring at the hole that seemed to be able to swallow everything.

Indeed, if the Chamber of Secrets exists, it makes sense that it's underground, since the Slytherin common room is also underground...

The guess that the monster in the secret room is the basilisk becomes more reasonable; the basilisk can climb to any place in the castle through the intricate pipes...

It would also explain why Tom's dot stopped here after returning from the Forbidden Forest: since he was feeding the basilisk, he could just throw the acromantulas down the pipe and let them slide down to the basilisk...

Thinking of the rumor, Harry gripped his holly wand tightly, feeling a chill for no apparent reason.

Slytherin left the Chamber of Secrets, and his heir will one day open it and purge the school of those who are not qualified to learn magic...

But this is just a legend, he then forced himself to comfort himself.For thousands of years, there is no evidence that Salazar Slytherin actually built the Chamber of Secrets in the school.There might be nothing down there; or it might just be an ordinary tunnel, no different from those secret paths leading to Hogsmeade.

Anyway, if you want to verify it, just go down and have a look...

Harry thought the idea would work.To be precise, if he wanted to find out, he had to go down and look.But he wasn't sure how long it would take, and whether Tom would deny it.The best choice is of course to go down after Tom goes down; if there is anything in it, there are witnesses and evidence...

The question, then, becomes: when will Tom go down in person?

Harry stood up from the floor with his arms propped up, and while kneading his sore knee, he turned his head and looked at the entire messy bathroom.

Tom knew he knew the secrets in the women's bathroom, and Tom didn't trust him that much; which meant that if Tom came again, the other party would definitely choose a relatively safe time.Considering the timing of the previous two times when he spotted Tom in the women's bathroom, it was not difficult to draw a solid conclusion—

Before and after the final event of the Triwizard Tournament.

The uncertainty and the degree of danger in this matter were obvious, and Harry left the ladies' room with a heavy heart.He was going to meet up with his friends in the library, but in order to prevent Ron and Hermione from finding out, he turned around and headed towards the castle gate.

Just as Harry was walking down the hill, the bell rang for the end of class, and a group of third-year students who had finished their Care of Magical Creatures course walked past him, laughing.He calmed down a bit, making sure that he would not show any abnormalities when he greeted the half-blood giant. "Hello, Hagrid."

Hagrid was picking up the litter of animal livers outside the hut.Hearing Harry's voice, he straightened up and waved his hands wildly. "Oh, it's you."

Although he was full of troubles, Harry was still keenly aware that the half-blood giant's mood was also not very high.He ran across the remaining distance between the two in three steps at a time, raised his face, and tried to read the other's expression from the dense beard and hair. "What's the matter with you, Hagrid?"

Hagrid gave a gruff hum. "It's okay." Then he accelerated the speed of packing up, and said to Harry, "You go to the house and wait for me."

Harry obeyed.It wasn't long before the half-giant entered the door.He didn't say anything, and sat heavily on the chair.

Harry glanced at the few rock pies left on the plate on the table, determined to find something to talk about before Hagrid called him to eat something so dangerous to his teeth. "Is there something on your mind?" He tried to keep his voice as soft as possible. "I mean, is it related to the last time we went to the woods together?"

He was fine if he didn't talk; when the woods were mentioned, Hagrid covered his eyes with his big palm-like hands. "I guess..." he replied in a low voice, "I showed the green thing to Dumbledore and Slughorn."

Through the half-giant's fingers, Harry saw the muscles tangled together, and Hagrid seemed to be crying.His heart sank, thinking that his worst premonition might come true. "What did they say?"

"Slughorn said he wasn't sure, he had never seen a real basilisk after all..." Hagrid seemed to be struggling to maintain his usual tone, "but Dumbledore thought that was the slough of the basilisk. , or fell off recently."

Harry's heart sank suddenly, and then he felt a little bit confused again.Slughorn has been a potions professor for many years, so he should be familiar with such items; what's more, Dumbledore, who is very accomplished in alchemy, said that it was a basilisk snake slough, and Slughorn's reaction was unexpectedly so bland?Was he not interested in rare potion ingredients?

"Where is the slough now?" Harry continued, trying to test his suspicions.

"Dumbledore put it away. He said he would find a few more professionals to identify it." Hagrid's voice sounded more painful. "But I understand that he just wanted to comfort me, he didn't want to say that Aragog might have..."

He couldn't go on, and couldn't help but choked up.Harry instantly forgot his doubts about Slughorn's abnormal behavior, stood up quickly, and patted Slughorn on the back to comfort him. "It's my fault, Hagrid, for reminding you of this."

"...It's not your fault." Hagrid muttered in a low voice, still burying his face in his hands, "It's been so many years, who would have known that a basilisk would suddenly appear in the woods? Dumbledore also said, Fei Lenzer's advice was correct, and I shall never go into the woods again. But, Aragog..."

Then there was another loud sniff.While soothing Hagrid's slightly trembling shoulders, Harry realized with some despair that he had no other choice now—

The ghastly monster in the Chamber of Secrets is almost certainly the basilisk, and Slytherin's heir is almost certainly Tom; it was Tom who opened the Chamber and awakened the basilisk, causing all the acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest to suddenly disappear.

Tom, indeed, as he himself said, was wise to keep his distance.But it was too late: Harry had been attracted by danger and darkness, and jumped into this vortex named Tom Riddle without hesitation, unable to get out at all.

Not that he really wanted to get away: he wanted to know what Tom was going to do more than that.If the other party really plans to use the basilisk to "purify the school", then he must stop him!

Truth be told, Harry would have preferred all of the above to be guesswork, and he'd rather have gone down the pipe to find himself ending up in a foul, fetid cesspool.But the facts were piled up one by one, so bright that he couldn't ignore them, and couldn't be optimistic.

He had to prepare for the worst.

Since he's never mentioned the ladies' room to anyone else, and doesn't want to involve anyone else until the dust settles, he's left alone as he faces the unknown ahead.

Maybe that's exactly what Tom wanted: with a pair of twin wands, he wanted Harry to fight him; otherwise there's no reason why he hasn't come to the door until now...

Harry managed to comfort Hagrid before he set off back to the castle.As he strode under the high archway, his mind was full of what Tom might think and how he should react.Because of this, he suddenly ran into someone's arms around the corner——

That's right, it was Tom himself who he had missed for a long time.

"Why don't you always look at the road, Harry?" Tom looked at him with a slight frown, but there was a half-smile at the corner of his mouth. "Or, did you do it on purpose?"

As soon as Harry figured out the meaning behind the words, his face turned red. "I didn't... I'm sorry." He twisted his body and wanted to back up, but his waist was grabbed and pressed tightly against the other person's hip bone.

"Isn't it a bit late to be shy again at this time?" A familiar voice whispered next to his ear, and his hot and humid breath fluttered in Harry's ear with the words, "But to be honest, I have no objection." .”

Well now, Harry could feel his earlobes starting to heat up too.Although there were still a lot of unresolved issues between the two of them, he really couldn't control the instinctive physical reaction when he got too close to Tom.And, by saying that, Tom was almost admitting that he liked Harry jumping on top of him...

"You haven't shown up for so long, is it just to make fun of me now?" Harry retorted angrily, but couldn't help wrapping his arms around the tall boy, looking at the thin but firm back.The other person was full of the smell he liked, so he simply buried his face in the tall boy's chest and took a deep breath silently.

Tom sensed what Harry was doing by the rise and fall of his chest. "What, miss me?"

Harry nodded, keeping his head resting on his chest.He had nothing to deny, he was just obsessed with him.At the same time, he couldn't believe that Tom didn't know what he was doing lately.But until now, Tom still didn't seem to be going to question him about the bombing in the ladies' room.

What does this mean?

Could it be that since returning the Marauder's Map, Tom has deliberately indulged Harry to find out what happened?

Before Harry could figure out why, Tom's voice sounded as if he was amused. "In that case, then I'll be blunt - of course I'm not here to make fun of you, I'm here to congratulate you."

……ah?Congratulate me?What are you congratulating?

Harry was suddenly confused. "What?" He managed to raise his head, trying to distinguish one part from the tall boy's expression.

Tom also lowered his head to look at him, actually smiling. "Remember that deal I wanted to make with you?"

The tall boy never had any superfluous expressions on his face, and he was so indifferent every day that he could be said to be a thousand miles away from others.With a big smile now, and the deal that broke them up, Harry always felt bad. "No, I won't agree." He said warily.

The instant spiked reaction seemed to make Tom a little happier. "Oh, I'm not repeating the old story," he replied cheerfully, even rubbing Harry's tense neck soothingly with his fingertips, "it's just—congratulations on taking my chip away."

The words went on and on, and Harry became more and more confused.

Chips, what chips?At that time, Tom wanted to use the secret that Skeeter was an illegal Animagus in exchange for Harry not paying attention to him, but Harry didn't let go, but he did guess it later...

and many more.

He suddenly remembered Hermione's vow to hold Skeeter and the brunette girl's recent strange whereabouts. "You mean..." he opened his mouth slowly, feeling the long-lost joy rushing through his heart, "that woman was caught?"

The author has something to say:

Achievement of this chapter: A world where only Miss Beetle is injured

感谢在2022-03-0119:09:54~2022-03-2019:28:42期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~

Thanks to the little angel who cast the rocket launcher: Tang Chenxin, Fusheng Wuyu 1;

Thanks to the little angel who threw the grenade: Su An 1;

Thanks to the little angels who threw the landmines: I don’t understand Qu Heyi, Renyu, Duansheli, Momo, Amber, Gao Tian Guyue, Fat House Happy, Xie Yuan 1;

感谢灌溉营养液的小天使：唐宸崭111瓶；5246136160瓶；莫还真50瓶；君心明月、18577625、磨磨唧唧20瓶；南宫镜水15瓶；淼和、夜刀神社10瓶；灵昕、April9瓶；肥宅快乐、榭鸢4瓶；我是夜生动物喵2瓶；清补不凉、小山凉、椋禾1瓶；

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!