Hogwarts: Bourne Returns from Warhammer

Chapter 224 Acromantula
"So, this is Corvinus Gaunt's secret passage?" Bourne looked at the shrine in front of him and tapped the wall lightly with his hand.

Neville had just found him and taken him directly from the Potions classroom to this corridor in the basement, while Hermione had been studying ways to open the secret passage.

"I tried the unlocking spell, the left and right separation spell, and even the blasting spell, but I still couldn't reopen this secret passage." The little witch said with a frown.

"Malfoy, Harry and Ron have been inside for almost 15 minutes. I'm worried that something will happen to them because there is a warning sign at the entrance of this secret passage saying that there is a snake in it."

Bourne noticed that when Hermione said the word "snake", she used the Latin word "ophidia".

Unlike this little witch, he knew what "Gaunt" meant. It was the surname of a direct descendant of Slytherin.

Most Gunters are Parseltongues.

"Then the danger is quite controllable." Bourne thought to himself, "At least, the descendants of the Gaunt family should not mistake basilicus (basilisk) and ophidia (snake in general), just like they don't It’s like abusing the word snake.”

With Harry here, as long as there are no basilisks around, even the "Snake Cave" can be broken through with the talent of Parseltongue.

Of course, just because the matter was downgraded didn't mean it could be left alone, and Byrne was also interested in "Corvinus Gaunt," a name that didn't appear in the Harry Potter stories.

"Should we go find George and Fred?" Hermione was a little undecided. "Ron said that his two brothers know almost all the secret passages in Hogwarts, and they might be able to open it..."

While Hermione was speaking, Bourne fiddled with the little angel sculpture with his hand, and the door to the secret passage opened again.

"How could this happen? I just tried it. No matter how I broke or pushed it, it wouldn't move at all." The little witch said in surprise.

Bourne stared at the changing wall, his eyes emitting an imperceptible golden light, and he vaguely saw the problem.

The entrance to this secret passage is not only cast with an extremely clever transformation spell, but there are also some "access control" restrictions.

In Bourne's eyes, the cracks and cracks on the wall bricks that are constantly rotating and twisting faintly form some words.

Amber, Avery, Black...Slughorn, Travers, Weasley and Yaxley, the family names of the "Holy Twenty-Eight Purebloods".

In addition, this "door control" seems to be integrated with a kind of magic similar to the magic on the doors of the girls' dormitories in various colleges at Hogwarts - except that it is opposite to the magic in the girls' dormitories. It prohibits women from entering. If someone enters by force, Some magic mechanisms will be triggered.

Looking at the large pool of water on the ground, Bourne asked Hermione: "Did you just get washed out by the water?"

The little witch nodded sheepishly, admitting that such a thing had happened.

Well, Corvinus Gaunt, who designed this "door control", may have also studied the mechanism at the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. Just replace the old vinegar with water. After all, mature vinegar is quite expensive. He probably didn't have that many resources and spare money at that time.

"I'll go in by myself and see if I can bring Draco, Harry and Ron back. Just don't go in yet. Two people need to be left outside to take care of them."

After saying that, he turned around and got into the water pipe that appeared on the wall. Moreover, Bourne slid along the pipe not long after he walked in, and soon his figure disappeared in front of the two little wizards outside.
-
"Are you sure that entrance is here and I need to go in now?" Lockhart said nervously to himself.

In fact, he was holding a black leather diary in his hand, and Tom Riddle, who was staying in it, was having a text conversation with him.

Gilderoy Lockhart was a little nervous because the secret passage Tom pointed out to him was actually hidden in a girls' bathroom, although it should have been abandoned.

This bathroom is located between the second and third floors of the castle, in a semi-open half-floor corridor. From the side facing the inside of the castle, you can clearly see the "moving stairs" that change positions at any time.

It's not far from Lockhart's office, but Lockhart usually doesn't pay much attention to this place.

[The secret passage is right here. It allows you to walk directly to the center of the stage in the auditorium and grab the unparalleled C position. 】

Tom Riddle assured Lockhart.

This gave him great encouragement, and then the professor carefully glanced around - after all, he didn't want anyone to notice that he sneaked into the girls' bathroom. Even if someone happens to pass by, he feels that he has to give them a shot of "forget everything" to be safe.

"Fortunately, there is no one."

After confirming safety again, Lockhart walked into the bathroom.

Because of the incident where Peeves bombarded (literally) Quirrell last year, the corridor where the abandoned bathroom was located actually underwent a major repair.

Since then, "Moaning Myrtle" who originally used this place as her base rarely came back here because Peeves kept his word and told Myrtle the secret of how the male prefects of Hogwarts can take a bath. Where is the washroom located.

Therefore, Lockhart sneaked into the bathroom this time without encountering the slightly hysterical female ghost.

Under Tom's guidance, he found a sink located in the center of the bathroom. They checked it inside and out, up and down, even the water pipes below, and finally saw a small snake-shaped relief on the side of a brass faucet with spots of green marks.

[This faucet never comes out of water, because it is the entrance to the secret room, and if you want to open it, you need to say a secret word. 】

【Si-si-! Siss! SSS……]

Looking at the string of "S", "I" and the universal phonetic symbol "!" (annotation for inhalation) displayed on the notebook, Lockhart's brain suddenly went into a shutdown.

What the hell is this?

If you want to open the entrance to the secret passage, do you have to get used to letting out air when talking?
After several attempts, Lockhart never mastered the correct pronunciation of the simple Parseltongue word "open the door."

Of course, this is not entirely his fault.

Parseltongue is actually quite difficult.

In the original Harry Potter books, apart from those who were born with the gift of Parseltongue, only Ron and Dumbledore have spoken this pronunciation of Parseltongue.

Even Hermione, the smartest of the trio, couldn't imitate Harry's accent.

[Don’t be anxious, let alone be discouraged. Just empty your mind and leave the rest to me. 】

[Very good, that’s it, let me in, count three, two, one...]

In this way, Gilderoy Lockhart's macadamia nut-like brain was finally pried open by this Horcrux.

Enter Tom Riddle.

Then Lockhart smoothly said "Open the door" in Parseltongue.

And then, well, there will be no more.

"How could this happen?" Tom Riddle fell into a daze for a moment, because the faucet engraved with a snake-shaped relief did not change in any way.

He was sure that the Parselmouth that came out of Lockhart's mouth had actual meaning and was by no means a meaningless "hissing" sound.

However, even if he tried two more times, the result was still the same - the entrance to the secret room could not be opened, it just couldn't be opened.

"Why hasn't it changed?" Lockhart asked strangely, looking at the diary in his hand with some suspicion.

But at this moment, without any precautions, his own arm holding the wand suddenly lifted up.

"Obliviate!"

It was not like the remnant soul from last year who was furious and even forced Chilo to take risks in the end. The Horcrux sealed in the diary belonged to the younger version of Tom Riddle. At that time, because his sanity had not been completely eroded by black magic, he could still make some decisions that a normal person should make.

Such a large secret room, plus such a big basilisk that has lived for nearly a thousand years, cannot be moved to other places at will.

There are only two most reasonable reasons why the entrance to the secret room cannot be opened: the magic at the entrance has failed, or someone has moved the passage to the secret room.

But no matter what the reason was, Tom felt that this was not a good time to use Lockhart to explore the reason. After all, having just pried open Lockhart's brain, it would be more appropriate for him to wait for an opportunity to act with a steady hand and wait until the life force of this empty-headed guy condenses into a body.

So, Tom controlled Lockhart, whose eyes were dull, to step out of the abandoned bathroom and back to his office.

However, it was precisely because he was distracted from controlling Lockhart's body that he didn't notice that there was a head wearing a gentleman's hat at the end of the corridor, poking around the corner of the corridor. He looked curiously at the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's every move.

"It's really strange. Although this guy used to be very pushy when he was in school, he doesn't seem to have a history of entering the girls' bathroom, right?"

Peeves muttered softly, his big eyes darting around.

Recently, Peeves has been having a boring time these days because he cannot harass other ghosts and the little wizards in the castle due to his own promises.

After finally encountering such a fun thing, he didn't want to let it go so easily.
-
Bourne felt that there must be some magic trick in the construction of the water pipe, and being in it was like rushing down a dark, slimy and - most importantly - endless sewer. He could see that there were many more pipes branching out in all directions, and the pipe he was on was just one of them. It went around seven times and eight times, and the slope was very steep all the way down. By sensing the slight change in pressure in his ears and the time of his descent, he knew that he should have fallen very deep underground in the school, much deeper than the underground classrooms and the Slytherin common room.

But soon, the water pipe became horizontal and then sharply upward. Until he emerged from the mouth of the pipe, and then stepped into the wet soil with a pop of his feet, the whole process took less than 3 minutes.

Unlike arriving in an underground secret room as he imagined, Bourne found that he could see the sky above him - although it was separated by the lush shade of trees - and a nest of martens standing in the distance, building on the magic tree. Some Bowtruckles guarding the nest, and a dwarf pig monster flashing past in the bushes... These all indicate that he has come outdoors, and there is a high probability that this place is located deep in the Forbidden Forest.

When Byrne looked back at the drainpipe, the outlet had disappeared.

"This should also be a secret passage in Hogwarts," Bourne said, paying attention to the terrain under his feet and the faint traces of ditches washed out by the water around him. "However, this secret passage should be connected to part of the castle's drainage system. If the heavy rain is too heavy and the castle cannot drain water to the Black Lake, then this channel will be used to drain the water deep into the Forbidden Forest."

Avoiding a family of Bowtruckles, Bourne climbed up to the top of the tree in twos and twos and looked at Hogwarts Castle from a distance.

"Sure enough, this is the Forbidden Forest, but we haven't gone so deep into it during previous patrols."

After confirming the location (especially the actual distance from the castle), Bourne couldn't help but sigh, Hogwarts is indeed full of magical wonders.

In the past, when patrolling, it would take seven or eight minutes just to walk from the castle gate to Hagrid's hut. And if you want to patrol the Forbidden Forest along the outline of the castle, this circle will take at least one to two hours. If you patrol a little deeper, the Bourne and Weasley brothers will have to be visited by Filch when they return to the castle. cross-examination.

However, through the secret passage of Corvinus Gaunt, he only slid through it for 3 minutes before reaching the depths of the Forbidden Forest. There must be magic at play in this.

"Let's go, now we have to take the three of them back as soon as possible, otherwise, there will be some chaos in the Forbidden Forest."

Bourne did not dare to underestimate the ability of the little wizards to cause trouble in the slightest.

"What's more, this place is already deep in the Forbidden Forest, and the Acromantula tribe has not been living well recently."

Thinking of this, Bourne jumped down from the tree and stepped into the soft soil with his feet.

He carefully identified the footprints on the ground - in addition to his, there were indeed three marks belonging to the shoes of other little wizards - but because this place was full of raised tree roots and piles of rotten leaves that were stacked up to an unknown thickness, it was difficult to follow the pattern. The search is indeed a bit laborious.

Fortunately, not long after walking, he noticed something unusual: some large and small spiders were crawling on the path.

They are all Acromantulas.

However, due to the "cannibalistic" behavior among each other and in order to avoid becoming snacks in the mouths of larger individuals, they rarely gather together.

Unless they want to engage in some collective activities, such as watching the leader of the group accept an open challenge, or collectively hunting some larger and more dangerous prey.

Bourne will not be the target of the Acromantula attack.

This is because he served as the "Forbidden Forest Coordinator" and signed a magical agreement with Hogwarts. Within the protection of the Magic Castle, as long as he does not take the initiative to attack the magical animals in the Forbidden Forest, the latter will also subjectively ignore him under the influence of an extremely powerful confusion spell.

The same cannot be said for Harry, Ron and Draco.

It's better outside the Forbidden Forest, where there are magical animals that are basically harmless to wizards, but deep in the Forbidden Forest, there are indeed some magical animals and plants that can be incorporated into the diet of wizards.

And this is the fundamental reason why: Principals and professors of all generations have emphasized that the Forbidden Forest is a restricted area for young wizards and that it is a very dangerous place.

Bourne quickened his pace.

He walked for about ten minutes, following the footsteps with concentration the whole time, only occasionally listening carefully to see if there were any other sounds besides the snapping of branches and the rustling of leaves.

The trees in the depths of the Forbidden Forest are getting denser and denser, and the sunlight above the head is also blocked by the layers of leaves, making it seem a little dark even during the day. The roads on the ground are gradually becoming less clear. The further you go deeper into the Forbidden Forest, the fewer the animal trails in this place become. He had never been this far into the middle of the woods before.

However, the good news is that he hasn't smelled blood or other strange smells yet.

Thanks to the valuable experience gained from surviving in the harsh environment of Catachan for half a year in the wilderness - at that time, he was trying to avoid a few weapons. I don't know if he was crazy, so he regarded him as a strategic-level Waaagh target. A large greenskin warband - he knew that in such a dense forest environment, the information that smell can convey is generally more real and effective than sound.

For example, the smell of blood means that there is food or predators nearby; the evil sweet smell means that there are drowned corpses nearby, that is, there is not a very clean water source; the smell of bitter almonds means that he may have been poisoned...

Of course, there are exceptions.

For example, if he unfortunately hears the sound of croaking: if it is far away, then he will run as far as he can; if it is close, he will try to stay still while offering his most sincere heart to the great emperor over and over again. of prayer.

"Compared to Catachan, the Forbidden Forest is as safe as a children's paradise." Thinking about it in this comparison, Bourne felt that he was in a much better mood today. He probably could have eaten three more plates of rock biscuits during dinner. .

Perhaps it is true to the old saying: people feel refreshed when happy events happen, and when refreshed, good things will happen one after another... Ah, no, one thing will happen one after another.

Turning around the downward-growing aerial roots of a huge wild Abyssinian shriveled fig tree (you would never get so close to a tree in Catachanbourne), he saw those little wizards' palm-sized The Acromantula quickly turned sideways from the vaguely visible animal path and jumped into the bushes.

Bourne noticed that the leaves of those shrubs were unnaturally skewed, as if they had been pressed down by something. Moreover, some fabric fibers from wizard robes are also hung on the invisible plush spikes on their branches.

"Found it." He thought to himself, "Let's continue to follow the spider..."
-
"...It's a spider again. Is it still possible? Is it over?" Ron collapsed a little. They seemed to have stabbed the spider's home.

He, Draco and Harry rushed out of the bare water pipe and were all stunned as soon as their feet touched the ground.

Draco originally thought that Corvinus Gaunt's secret passage should be connected to the Slytherin common room. This was a secret passage left by one of their seniors in the school.

Harry and Ron were also confused. They originally just wanted to catch Draco, but they never thought of coming to the wilderness deep in the Forbidden Forest to survive.

After an intense and unfriendly "physics + magic" exchange, they also realized that this place didn't seem to be where the little Malfoy wanted to come.

This was an accident, not a conspiracy.

It's not like they didn't think about returning to the castle through the secret passage, but when they turned around, they discovered that the exit of the secret passage had long since disappeared without a trace.

What Ron found most unacceptable was that the guy named Corvinus Gaunt had lied - the warning sign clearly said "Snake inside", but there was not even a trace of a snake in this place. Unable to see, they only saw terrifyingly large spiders.

Some individual spiders are even as big as the bag spider that Lee Jordan raised last year.

Ron was almost driven crazy.

The three little wizards could only temporarily put aside their prejudices and search around in the woods, trying to find a way back to the castle.

However, none of them realized that they obviously wanted to find the castle, but in fact they were getting further and further away from the castle.

Finally, when Ron complained again, there was only a loud "click-click" sound, and the three little wizards felt that there was something extra around their waists at the same time. Almost at the same time, they felt themselves being picked up by a long, furry thing and hanging face down in the air.

Harry's head was hanging upside down, and he saw that the guy who caught him had six ridiculously long, hairy legs, and two legs in front of him were tightly clamping him, with a pair of big shiny black legs on top. chela.

Behind him, he could hear another such creature, apparently holding Ron.

At this time, Ron was so frightened that he almost fainted and couldn't even scream.

Draco Malfoy was also frightened. He screamed and made random gestures with his wand to release spells.

This actually knocked over or directly killed many smaller spiders, and little Malfoy even revealed his secret of using some dark magic.

"Serpensortia!" he screamed a spell.

As a stream of black smoke erupted from the tip of the wand, the smoke quickly condensed and formed on the leaves on the ground, turning into a winding king cobra.

In the past, although little Malfoy could use the "Oolong out of the hole" spell, he actually could not summon such a big or long poisonous snake.

This is an extraordinary performance under extremely frightening circumstances.

The appearance of the poisonous snake made the spiders retreat involuntarily, but soon the spiders realized that they were Acromantulas, magical animals, much smarter than ordinary spiders. The poisonous snake was not what they were afraid of. of natural enemies.

Immediately afterwards, with a goosebump-inducing "click-click" sound, driven by the larger spiders, the smaller Acromantulas simply swarmed up and killed the one summoned by Draco. The king cobra emerged and bit it alive, turning it into the most primitive magical element again.

I don’t know if it was because he was too frightened, but at this time Ron actually recovered from the state of extreme fear. He shouted to his good brother Harry Potter: "Harry, we have to do the same." Click something! Use a wand, use a charm, damn, any charm will do!"

Then, he suddenly shouted to the big spider that was holding him: "Yingardion~Leosa——!"

He swore that this was the most determined spell he had ever cast in his life, so much so that he didn't even notice that he had made a serious mistake in pronunciation.

(End of this chapter)