Voldemort would never have imagined that one day he would get beaten by his own signature magic.
The rebounding spell showed him no mercy just because he was the caster.
One serpent-shadow after another tore into Voldemort... or rather, into Ron Weasley's body, as if they had found their father's killer.
But Voldemort was in a soul state, and the magic he used targeted a wizard's soul. So Ron Weasley suffered no outward injuries. Instead, it was the flames inside the jack-o'-lantern that let out a cry of pain.
"Damn it, what are you?" Voldemort dispelled the magic hurting him, shock and uncertainty all over his face as he stared at Harry like he was looking at a monster.
This was terrifying. His magic could be reflected without any warning at all. Was this Merlin reborn or something?
He was Voldemort. Even in a weakened state, he should not have been this helpless.
The problem had to be with that brat called Harry Potter.
At that moment, Voldemort finally understood how his original body had fallen. After all, he knew himself best. When facing weak enemies, the spell Voldemort most liked to use was the Killing Curse.
So that had to be it. It had bounced straight back and sent the original body to its death.
Harry looked completely confused. First, he had no idea why Ron Weasley had suddenly gone mad. No matter how hard he thought, he could never have imagined something like Voldemort.
And second, he had no idea why "Ron Weasley" was attacking him with magic.
"Harry, run!" Harry and Voldemort froze for a moment staring at each other, but Hermione, standing behind Harry, was not stupid. She grabbed Harry and tried to flee.
Of course Voldemort was not about to let the two slip away right in front of him. The shadows boiled again, and countless serpent-shadows shot out. This time, though, they were not meant to attack, but to trap them.
"Ah!" Hermione let out a scream as the serpent-shadows wrapped around her, scattering her potion ingredients all over the floor.
Harry, who was right behind her, was still unaffected by Voldemort's magic. Every serpent-shadow that tried to coil around him was knocked away without exception.
"Hermione!" Harry reached out, trying to grab her, but the shadows were too fast. In an instant, Hermione was dragged to Voldemort's side.
Holding Hermione fast, Voldemort looked coldly at the panicked Harry Potter.
Can't even bind him?
Voldemort clenched his teeth, then looked at Hermione in his grasp and said with a cold smile, "If you don't want her to die, then come with me."
Since he could not kill Harry Potter himself, then the Basilisk could do it. All he had to do was lure him there.
A flicker of hesitation crossed Harry's face, but Voldemort had no intention of giving him time to weigh his options. With a cold smile, he retreated into the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets and jumped down.
"Wait!" Harry rushed after him and stopped at the edge of the black pit, hesitating for only a moment.
But the entrance to the Chamber would not wait for him. The shifting sink was already sliding back into place, ready to seal it shut.
Seeing that, Harry did not dare hesitate any longer. He gritted his teeth and jumped into the dark hole.
Boom...
With a thunderous crash, the sink closed again, and the bathroom returned to silence. If someone who knew nothing came here, they would never guess that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was hidden in this place.
At that moment, another set of footsteps sounded outside the bathroom. This time they were hurried, and before long they rushed inside.
"No one's here? Already gone down?" Leonard frowned at the sight of the empty bathroom.
Failing to stop Voldemort before he entered the Chamber of Secrets was going to make things troublesome. That meant Leonard would have to deal with both Voldemort and the Basilisk at the same time.
The one upside was that it saved time. He would not need to trick a second release password for the Basilisk out of Tom Riddle's diary.
"I need to hurry. The Chamber connects to the pipes. Once Voldemort finds the Basilisk, he'll probably escape through them immediately." As Leonard muttered to himself and moved to open the entrance, his foot kicked something.
A crumpled strip of leathery material caught his attention.
"This is... Boomslang skin?" Leonard had brewed Polyjuice Potion before, and recognized the rare ingredient immediately.
Boomslang skin was one of the key ingredients in Polyjuice Potion. Because the snake was highly venomous and came from far away in Africa, it was expensive and rarely seen on the market.
"How did this get here?" Leonard frowned. "Was Voldemort planning to brew Polyjuice Potion? There wouldn't have been enough time."
As he spoke, he noticed the cauldron sitting in the corner, and instantly realized it had not been Voldemort brewing the potion at all.
"Someone was brewing Polyjuice Potion here and ran into Voldemort... Could it have been Hermione?"
Leonard remembered that in the original plot, the one who often used this bathroom was Hermione. In the original first-year storyline, she had even brewed Polyjuice Potion here.
"What a pain..."
Shaking his head, Leonard walked to the sink, found the special faucet, and spoke in Parseltongue.
The bathroom echoed with the sound once again, and the sink split apart, revealing the deep shaft leading down into the Chamber of Secrets.
Leonard drew his wand, cast a Cushioning Charm on himself, and jumped.
...
In the pitch-black space, visibility extended only a few meters. Harry moved nervously forward along the stone path. In the darkness around him, it looked as though countless figures were standing there.
Harry felt a chill and edged closer, only to realize they were humanoid statues with serpent heads.
Every one of those statues looked vicious, making Harry shiver.
There were many of them, lined up evenly on both sides of the stone road. Beyond them stretched a vast expanse of underground water, with waves occasionally surging against the stone path.
Harry had never imagined that such a place existed beneath Hogwarts. If he had not followed "Ron Weasley," he would never have come here.
But now he could not find either "Ron Weasley" or Hermione. They seemed to have melted into the darkness like shadows. Only Hermione's occasional cries for help, echoing through the blackness, proved they were still somewhere ahead.
Harry fumbled his way forward when suddenly he heard a strange sound coming from somewhere.
It sounded like the hiss of a snake, and the moment Harry heard it, his head felt as though it might split apart. The lightning scar on his forehead burned like a branding iron.
It was clearly an unfamiliar sound, yet somehow Harry felt as though he understood it. There was an urgent summons in it, as though something was asking someone to speak to it.
Asking someone to speak? What exactly was Ron Weasley trying to do?
While Harry was still confused, he suddenly heard the sound of scales scraping across the floor. Just hearing it filled him with dread.
Something was coming out.
The next moment, the darkness broke apart, and the entire underground cavern spread out before Harry.