Rushing swiftly down the pipe, the slimy, sticky sensation all around made Kate quite uncomfortable,
so she simply closed her eyes.
Only when she felt the ground vanish beneath her feet did she give a great leap, and just as she was about to drop out of the pipe's mouth, she quickly adjusted her posture and landed successfully.
Beneath her feet were damp floor tiles, and before her stretched a dark stone tunnel, large enough for a person to stand inside.
She saw Dumbledore light up the surroundings, and the old butler came down right behind him—his aged frame somehow still able to stand perfectly steady.
"Let's go—stay close to me," Dumbledore said in a low voice.
Kate nodded, grabbed hold of his robe, and together with the old butler, followed closely on his heels, matching his every step.
They saw some small animal bones on the ground, and also a gigantic shed snakeskin, at least twenty feet long.
This cheered Kate considerably amid her nervousness, and grinning happily, she stuffed the shed snakeskin into her pouch under the protection of the two old Wizards.
With such a long piece of shed snakeskin, she wouldn't have to worry about running short of this precious ingredient for brewing Potion for the next four or five years.
As they walked, they listened to one another's breathing. Because Dumbledore was right in front of her, she scarcely felt any fear, and soon they reached the end of the tunnel.
At the end stood a solid, sturdy wall, carved with two intertwined serpents, their eyes set with great, glittering emeralds.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and then let out a low, hoarse hissing sound.
Soon, the two serpents parted, the stone wall split down the middle, and slowly slid apart to either side until it vanished.
The three of them walked in together, arriving at one side of a long, dimly lit chamber.
Many stone pillars, carved with coiling, entwined great serpents, towered up to support a ceiling that dissolved into the darkness high above.
Only now did the place finally take on a somewhat eerie atmosphere.
Kate drew out her wand, put on her sunglasses, and as she walked alongside them to draw level with the last pair of pillars, a statue as tall as the chamber itself suddenly loomed before her, pressed flat against the dark wall behind it.
It was a statue of Slytherin—honestly, not much to look at, perhaps because the man's own features weren't anything to write home about.
Kate ignored the statue and looked around, but after a long while she still found no trace of the Basilisk. She said helplessly, "Looks like only Slytherin's heir can awaken the Basilisk."
This Basilisk slept far too soundly—all that commotion just now hadn't even woken it.
Dumbledore took the diary from inside his robes and handed it to her. "I think that among the three of us, perhaps only you can make him awaken the Basilisk."
More like only by enraging the diary nearly to death could she goad it into awakening the Basilisk.
Kate gave an indifferent shrug, then looked at the two of them. "Then you two—"
Dumbledore promptly cast a Disillusionment Charm, hiding both himself and the old butler, then walked over to a pillar at the side and silently waited for her performance.
Well then—two old folks whose combined ages were more than ten times hers stood there waiting to watch the show.
Kate was speechless for a moment, then simply levitated the diary into the air, drew a quill from her pouch, and wrote a line directly onto the book.
"'Tom Marvolo Riddle' and 'I am Lord Voldemort'—would you call that a coincidence?"
As the ink gradually faded away, the diary suddenly began to tremble.
Without waiting for the diary to reveal any writing, Kate put on an impatient air, tapped the page with the tip of her quill, and threatened it outright:
"I'm already standing inside the Chamber of Secrets. If you're that Dark Lord, then come out quickly—otherwise, I've already killed one Dark Lord, and I wouldn't mind killing another."
A faint, shadowy form emerged from the diary; looking closely, she realized it was only a head.
Without absorbing Ginny's Vitality as in the original works, it couldn't even manifest a physical body?
A Horcrux of the great Voldemort himself, reduced to such a sorry state....
"Who are you?! You're not Katherine!" That face, in which one could barely make out any features, was hardly handsome; only its hoarse, roaring voice reminded Kate of a certain noseless someone from the films.
So this was what it looked like without having absorbed any Vitality.
A faint look of distaste crossed Kate's face. "Who says I'm not Katherine? Is your eyesight worse than that of a doddering old Grindelwald?"
The shadowy form quieted down a little; the two holes that could barely be called a face turned toward her, as if sizing her up.
But the unmistakable sensation of her mind being invaded told Kate that this fellow was using Legilimency.
She sneered and simply played out the scene from the film of Voldemort being rebounded by Lily's protective spell of love.
"Well? Now you should believe just whose soul is hidden inside this girl's shell, shouldn't you?"
The shadowy form was startled by the memory she displayed. It was merely a Horcrux created from Voldemort's diary, and the memories it possessed remained frozen on the day the Horcrux was made.
After that, at most it had passed through several hands and learned of current events from the mouths of its various owners.
So it knew that its main body had been defeated at the hands of the famous Harry Potter, but it didn't know exactly how that defeat had come about.
"You—you were there at the scene too? How is that possible?!" it roared in a frenzy, evidently lumping Katherine together with the Potter family as accomplices.
Kate calmly crossed her arms. "Fool, use that incomplete brain of yours and think—who else among those at the scene survived? And whose body would I most likely have been in?"
"Harry Potter? He survived my Life-Locking Curse back then—so it was because of you!" The shadowy form let out another impotent, furious roar.
But Kate wasn't about to take the bait; she merely paced leisurely. "It seems your brain wasn't sliced up along with the soul that was cut into pieces. Still, that the famous Dark Lord would choose this method to achieve immortality is truly laughable."
Without waiting for the shadowy form to reply, she spun around as though admiring herself. "See for yourself—this body of mine now is far more perfect than Harry Potter's body.
This is the true method of achieving immortality. And you—painstakingly made into a Horcrux, confined to nothing more than this ordinary diary—don't you find that pathetic?"
The shadowy form, along with the whole diary, shuddered a few times. "Immortality? You've achieved immortality too?"
Kate stopped, raised her index finger with a contemptuous look, and wagged it. "Wrong! A soul cut apart, an unstable mind, forever forced to hide your Horcruxes here and there—such immortality is nothing but a self-torturing punishment.
To freely choose other people's bodies as I do, to stay forever young whenever I wish, to enjoy others' wealth and power at any time—that is the true delight of immortality."
She parted her lips in a smile and crooked a finger at the diary. "Do you know why you found it so easy to reach into my mind just now?
That's because at the time I was still selecting my new body. Now you can help me appraise it—using this little girl as my new vessel, what do you think?"
Her acting was so convincingly real that the diary, which had been provoked, finally began to calm its anger and grow rational.
"So you're saying you've already lived for many years?" it asked, half believing, half doubting. "Then tell me—when were you born?"
"In the year 1330," Kate answered without hesitation. "I was born into a noble family in France. My parents hired private tutors to teach me literature, and later, by sheer chance, I came into possession of a manuscript on alchemy."
This backstory was lifted straight from Nicolas Flamel's life. In any case, she now possessed half of Nicolas Flamel's knowledge, so even if Voldemort tried to test her, she could answer in flawless detail.
As expected, after answering a string of tricky and bizarre questions, the diary's attitude finally softened.
"Do you mean that the alchemy book recorded a method for achieving immortality?" There was a trace of resentment mixed into the tone of this question.
If the Katherine before it really was an old monster who had lived for centuries and was still living so comfortably, then why had it and its main body gone to such great lengths to split their soul?
Kate raised an eyebrow. "I worked it out myself, of course. In truth, at first I had no idea what you actually were—not until I looked into that murder case from fifty years ago.
Later, after I dug up your name on the list of students from that year, I understood it all.
Tom, it must have been fifty years now since you were made into a Horcrux, hasn't it?
You've been guarding the secret of the Chamber of Secrets all this time, cowering inside this diary for the sake of your main body's dream of immortality?"
The diary's voice grew a little impatient. "What are you trying to say?"
"It's simple. According to our earlier deal, you help me awaken the Basilisk and drive Dumbledore from his post, and I might consider helping you restore your soul, granting you true everlasting life."
Her voice was like a whisper from hell—dangerous, yet utterly seductive.
Everlasting life—this was Voldemort's lifelong pursuit, the goal for which he had not hesitated to split his soul into seven pieces!
And as a Horcrux that existed as one fragment of that soul, it naturally could not escape this same desire.
What was more, Kate had struck right at the worry that had long weighed on its mind.
As a Horcrux, it had been passed around as nothing but an ordinary diary, and in the end had failed to absorb so much as a single mouthful of a living person's Vitality.
And now, this old monster before it was not only willing to help it use the Basilisk to destroy Dumbledore, but could also help it fulfill a deeper wish.
How could the diary not be tempted?
"Very well!" After a moment, the shadowy form agreed to her terms. "I will release the Basilisk—and I hope you will keep your promise once the deed is done."
Kate tilted her head. "Why wouldn't I?"
With her promise given, the shadowy form immediately turned away, laughing hideously, and then let out a string of hissing sounds.
Kate couldn't understand this language, but Dumbledore, hidden all the while behind the pillar, understood it perfectly.
It was saying: "Speak to me, Slytherin! Greatest of the Four Founders of Hogwarts!"
The words had scarcely fallen when the statue before them gave a shudder.
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