Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Water Margin

Chapter 109 Salazar Pays Off Debts and Obtains a Treasure

Chapter 110 Salazar Pays Off Debts and Obtains a Treasure

Picking up where we left off, no sooner had Salazar said that Tom was not dead than a loud bang came from the bottom of the pool.

Harry looked closely and saw Lockhart, soaked to the bone, emerge from the splashing water.

The man wiped the water from his face, spat several times, and exclaimed, "Phew! Is it completely over already?"

Suddenly noticing Harry's missing arm, she cried out in alarm, "Harry! What happened to your arm?!"

Harry, leaning on his sword, exclaimed in surprise, "I thought the professor was a drowned ghost, but he's still alive?"

Lockhart smiled shyly and said, "Actually, I can swim."

It turned out that although this fellow's martial arts skills were mediocre, he possessed a shrewd and calculating mind. Knowing that Tom was no good, he knew that if he continued to engage in conversation with him, he would inevitably reveal a weakness. Just then, the basilisk's giant tail swept across, so he seized the opportunity to feign weakness, falling into the icy pool to play dead and save his life. It was truly a case of taking advantage of the chaos and deceiving everyone.

"You know, I wrote a book called 'The Siren Princess Fell in Love with Me'—should I go call the school nurse?"

Harry asked doubtfully, "What does this book have to do with your ability to swim?"

His sly eyes darted around, glancing at Hagrid who was wielding a hammer and chiseling bricks, and he lowered his voice, "I was afraid it would be too embarrassing if I couldn't answer the fans' questions at the book signing, so I specially went to learn how to do it."

"Ha! Gilderoy, you little liar, I saw right through you when you first came to Hogwarts!"

Upon seeing the Sorting Hat on the ground, Lockhart's face showed panic. "Oh! No—what are you doing here?"

Harry had no interest in idle chatter with the two; his only thought was to slay Voldemort's soul. He flicked the Sorting Hat off the tip of his sword and tossed it to Lockhart, saying:

"Go and help my brother Hagrid free his feet."

Lockhart received the order and hurried away.

Harry picked up the notebook oozing black liquid and whispered to Salazar in his arms, "I think Voldemort was devoured by the Dementors long ago, so how can you say this guy is still alive?"

"Although I've never seen a Dementor, I can tell that it can suck away memories and emotions from the depths of a soul."

"Think about it, what would a ghost be if it lost its memories and emotions?"

Harry pondered, "When people die, they become ghosts; when ghosts die, they become spirits. Now that Voldemort has had all his memories and emotions drained, could he be stuck in that awkward state of being neither ghost nor spirit?"

Salazar paused for a moment, then said to himself, "When a ghost loses its memory and emotions, it transforms into an invisible mixture of chaotic magic."

"Wizards often say that certain places are haunted and many strange things have happened, but no one has seen any ghosts. It is highly likely that a powerful soul has had its consciousness eroded by time and has become a mixture of magic."

Harry's heart skipped a beat. "If what my brother said is true, is Voldemort possessing this notebook in some kind of magical hybrid form?"

"Yes and no. You should have heard what he said; this book is a Horcrux."

Listen, my lord: This Horcrux was a monstrous creation of the Greek sorcerer Herpo, who used the lives of others as fuel and the spirits of living beings as sacrifices. He split his own soul in two and sealed it within the artifact, hiding it in its hidden form.

Indeed: As long as the Horcrux is destroyed, the soul will never perish.

"This Tom guy played a little trick. He made you watch as he turned into a magical hybrid, as if his soul had dissipated. In reality, his true nature is still hidden inside the Horcrux."

"Give him enough time, or if some fool pours a lot of magic into it, his soul will be revived by the Horcrux."

"Tsk, actually I've always thought that people who use Horcruxes are idiots. Splitting your soul will affect your brain."

Upon hearing these words, Harry thought to himself: This Voldemort is truly cunning; even on the verge of death, he still devises this elaborate scheme to deceive everyone.

Calming himself, he asked, "Brother, how did you know this soul weapon was intact? Have you perhaps developed Fiery Eyes of Truth, capable of seeing through the Three Realms and Five Elements?"

"If it were the venom of a serpent monster that had lived for nine hundred years, it would be more than enough to destroy a Horcrux, but you used diluted venomous blood."

"And you can look at the basilisk's two eyeballs; they're searching for life."

As the saying goes, even a centipede with a hundred legs does not die, and a thousand-year-old monster does not perish.

But those two orange-yellow eyes, though cut off at the seven-inch mark from life, still opened and closed as if alive. Blood threads entwined like crimson patterns, and strips of flesh clung together like wax from a rotting corpse. They writhed and churned on the ground like headless crickets; they struggled and crawled toward the book like centipedes struck by arrows.

Harry sneered, "You damned bastard, I'll teach you both to die a horrible death today!"

After saying that, he was about to stomp those two eyeballs to pieces.

He had barely lifted his foot when Salazar said, "Wait a minute, Harry, wouldn't you like a magical artifact? Like your knife."

Harry stopped in his tracks. "What do you mean, brother?"

"Want my advice? Guiding you to create a magical artifact with unknown effects would be far more valuable than you taking me to see Lockhart."

"Brother, please speak frankly. If there are any discrepancies or deals, please put them under my name."

"Put these two eyeballs in the diary."

Upon hearing this, Harry picked up the two slippery eyes and tossed them onto the notebook.

When the notebook touched it, the blood vessels at the corners of his eyes twisted and wriggled on their own, like a red snake seeking its burrow, or like maggots crawling into a coffin, darting into the two holes Harry had just dug out.

Harry exclaimed in surprise, "Damn it! This basilisk even has the ability to parasitize!"

Then Salazar told him to gather up the basilisk's detached fangs and place them one by one on the side of the notebook.

"Alright, I've paid back what I owed you. Now it's your turn to owe me."

Harry said suspiciously, "Brother, you've made a good deal. You only said a few words and I'm already in debt."

"I'll charge you for helping you figure out he was faking his death. And you should know that these few words are based on my decades of life experience."

"Use the basilisk's remaining consciousness to take over the dominant position in the Horcrux, and then use its poison to corrode the soul to prevent its resurrection."

"If I don't tell you, you'll never realize this."

As they were talking, a plume of black smoke suddenly rose from the diary.

Those two orange-yellow eyes suddenly opened and scanned around, and the venomous fangs on their flipped-out outer skin all pierced into the roots.

Once the black smoke dissipated, the book leaped up with a thud, its two rows of sharp teeth snapping and cracking as it bit into the air.

Hagrid and Lockhart both peeked out.

Seeing this, Salazar added, "Use the Reverse Flow Charm to pour its venom into the book."

Harry was about to reach out and grab the demonic book when, unfortunately, the creature turned out to be a ruthless one. It opened its blood-red mouth and pounced to bite him.

Harry was furious and cursed, "You ungrateful wretch! I gave you a second chance at life, and you act like a wolf in sheep's clothing!"

Having said that, he thrust his sword forward, piercing through an orange-yellow lamp, splattering a spray of blood.

(End of this chapter)