Chapter 361 359. To blow up the castle
Hermione never closed the Marauder's Map.
Even when she was copying the runes on the ground, she spread the map by her side, checking the names of the people on the map every two seconds.
Voldemort's name is also impressively on it, but the name is "Tom Riddle".
Dumbledore had told her about Voldemort's real name when he got the Marauder's Map, and helped her do a test to make sure that even Voldemort himself could not avoid or detect the magic on this map.
He warned Hermione that as long as Voldemort's name appeared within the range of the Marauder's Map, no matter what she was doing, she must leave the castle immediately without any hesitation.
Hermione listened to Dumbledore's warning, and she knew very well that if she sneaked into the castle and what she did was exposed, the consequences would not only be as simple as her personal safety, but also to the current Wu Pingxian, Huo Pingxian, etc. Gwartz's carriage, Dumbledore, Jon himself causing big trouble.
Every time she saw the name "Tom Riddle" appearing on the Astronomy Tower, she planned to let Fox lead her away from the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets.
But in this secret room, perhaps because of the runes on the ground, it is engraved with anti-apparition magic that is completely different from that in the castle.
There is no difference in strength between the two, but the structure of the magic is very different, requiring Fox to re-decipher it again. They did not expect such a thing after entering the secret room.
Therefore, when Voldemort had solved the dragon plague, and Hermione watched him fly towards the Room of Requirement through the Marauder's Map, she decisively interrupted Fox's preparations for Apparation.
Time is definitely not enough.
Hermione needs to rely on human power to climb, so it takes at least half an hour to walk from the entrance of the secret room to the secret room, but this is not a problem for Voldemort at all. He has extremely profound magic, and even in the castle, there is no way to phantom Apparatus can cross this distance in the form of black mist, and it only takes less than three minutes.
In desperation, Hermione could only hide with Fox.
And there is almost no place to hide in this secret room, and even if she is wearing an invisibility cloak, for a wizard with keen senses and intuition, the invisibility cloak does not mean certain security.
Besides, Hermione didn't know whether it was because of her fear of Voldemort or other factors. She could feel that even with an invisibility cloak, she couldn't hide from the eyes of the Dark Lord.
Fortunately, the portrait of the creator of this secret room is hanging on the wall of Dumbledore's principal's office.
After confirming that Hermione was chosen to perform this task, Salazar gave Hermione all the layout of the secret room he created and some activation codes in detail.
So Hermione hid in the mouth of the Slytherin statue, which was the hiding place of the basilisk killed by Jon in the principal's office before.
Voldemort must also know this place, otherwise he would not be able to find the basilisk hidden here and let it guard the principal's office, so Hermione is actually making a bet, now she can only bet that Voldemort will not check so carefully, because Now was the time when the game was about to end, he finally returned to the castle, and had to find energy to deal with Dumbledore.
Facts were exactly as she thought, Voldemort did not check the chamber of secrets in detail, and immediately left from here to the edge of the Forbidden Forest after crushing the illusory dwarf.
Thus, Hermione watched his movements on the Marauder's Map, and crawled out of the statue's mouth again. While Fox continued to prepare for the apparition, she took advantage of this time to quickly remove the runes on the ground. Copy as much text as possible.
Hermione has also read some books about runes outside of class. Those knowledge are relatively simple. She doesn't even know any of these runes on the ground, let alone understand their functions. She can only record them and take them back. For Dumbledore to study.
But before she finished copying one-tenth of the runes on the ground, she suddenly saw the name "Tom Riddle" on the map, and returned to Hogwarts Castle again!
Immediately, she put away everything on her body, and a golden-red light was shining on Fox standing on her shoulder, and this light was getting stronger all the time.
"Quick! We have to be fast, Fox! He could be back at any moment!"
As if to fulfill Hermione's bad premonition, on the Marauder's Map, the name representing Voldemort suddenly moved from the entrance hall to the eighth floor at an extremely fast speed!
Hermione put an invisibility cloak on herself and Fawkes in a panic. She read the snake language to the Slytherin statue again, and then quickly climbed in!
She knows that no place is guaranteed to exist, and it is obvious that Voldemort is much more aggressive this time than last time, he must have discovered something, otherwise he would not have such a clear goal for the second time towards the House of Requirement The room rushed over.
The mouth of the Slytherin statue closed again, and in the dark and claustrophobic environment, only Fox's body was shining with golden-red light.
Hermione was far more mature and calm than normal peers, but at this moment her body was still trembling involuntarily. She held Fox, who was heating up, in her arms, and her eyes were fixed on the name that was moving fast.
"Come on, Fox, you can go on, we can't let Jon and the professor down"
Her voice was also trembling, but there was no way to help Fox at this time, she could only watch the name representing darkness and death getting closer and closer to her.
It was so close that he had already walked out of the passage of the secret room, flew over the winding road, and came to the two stone doors carved with poisonous snakes!
Hermione's body was feeling cold, even though Fox in her arms brought her full warmth, she still couldn't suppress the coldness.
"Hiss (open)."
Just as the stone door was slowly sliding towards the sides, Fox suddenly pecked at the back of Hermione's hand with his sharp beak, and then the light on his body completely enveloped Hermione!
Glaring light penetrated Slytherin's closed mouth, and then disappeared suddenly, but Voldemort, who walked in the next second, did not see this scene.
He returned to this quiet, claustrophobic, secret room full of runes.
It is still the same here as before, no different from when he left twenty minutes ago. The shimmering runes greeted their owners happily, but the runes that had lost control of the target and fell to the ground At some point, the shackles floated up again, vaguely controlling some illusory existence.
Voldemort's eyes were full of coldness, he didn't stop this time, and walked directly to the Slytherin statue.
"Hiss hiss (Talk to me, Slytherin—the greatest of the Hogwarts Big Four.
The mouth of the statue is open, revealing a circular passage.
Looking inside from the outside, it was pitch black inside, and it didn't look like there were signs of Tibetans, but Voldemort didn't stop for a moment, and he continued to fly into the passage into a black mist.
This passage is very deep, and it connects the sewer pipes of the entire Hogwarts castle, so that the basilisk can find mice and other small animals in it for thousands of years to survive.
Voldemort used extremely fast speed to search the entire range along this pipeline.
Returning to the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets, he stared at the statue representing his ancestor, frowning.
"Why do you want to help them? No matter what my purpose is, the glory of pure blood is carried forward in my hands. Isn't this the ideal you established this school in the first place? So, why don't you agree with me?"
His voice echoed in this closed room, but there was no one who could answer him.
Voldemort raised his head, he looked at the old monkey-like face, the coldness in his eyes, as if he was looking at an enemy.
"It doesn't matter if you don't want to give it to me, it's the same if I come and get it myself!"
Dumbledore and Jon returned to the principal's office on the carriage, and he immediately went to ask someone if Hermione had returned. After receiving a negative answer, his face became extremely solemn.
"I made an agreement with Hermione that as long as Riddle's name appears within the range of the Marauder's Map, no matter what she is doing, Fox must bring her back immediately."
Jon also frowned.
"Hermione is not that kind of person. As long as she promises, she will definitely do it. Now that she hasn't come back, she can only be in trouble."
He looked at Dumbledore seriously.
"We're going to help her!"
"Of course we have to help her." Dumbledore didn't hesitate at Jon's request, he had already held his wand, "You can't leave any student behind, this is what I emphasized to everyone when you were enrolled Commitment, even now."
Jon was not surprised by Dumbledore's response. He knew very well that the old man was actually an idealist, but sometimes reality would force him to face it.
"But we also have to anticipate the Dark Lord's reaction in advance, and if he has captured Hermione now, what should we do?"
Dumbledore's face was calm, and he put on his robe again.
"He attaches great importance to this castle, in fact, I also attach great importance to it."
Jon didn't react for a while.
"What?"
"The dragons don't have the ability to destroy this castle. I'm still more useful than those dragons, aren't I?" Dumbledore actually laughed at this time, "Riddle doesn't care about his attributes. I don’t care about his students, but he definitely cares about this castle, although I haven’t found the reason why he cares so much about it, but it doesn’t prevent us from using this as a clue.”
Jon looked at Dumbledore blankly.
"But, don't you care about this castle? Professor."
"Of course I care about it, Jon." Dumbledore said softly, "I have lived here for more than 50 years and taught for more than 50 years. People have always called me the greatest Huo Headmaster Gwartz, even though this name has become a joke now, I still love this place very much, it is not only a school, but also the history of the entire British wizarding world."
"But the reason why Hogwarts is Hogwarts is not just relying on a castle. The purpose of the castle itself is to teach and educate people. Turned into a tool to oppress students, then even if it is destroyed, I don't think the four great wizards who created it would say anything, right? Salazar."
On the wall, the portrait of Slytherin spread out his hands.
"I don't know about the others, but I'm sure it doesn't matter. A thousand years ago, we decided to establish a school to protect wizards, not to establish schools to protect wizards."
Jon stared blankly at this scene, and Dumbledore actually said to him jokingly.
"Have you heard, I have already obtained the approval of the original owner of this castle."
After finishing speaking, he had already buttoned the buttons on the robe, and led Jon to the front.
"Let's go, let's get Hermione back."
Jon rubbed his nose to relieve the inexplicable sour feeling. He followed Dumbledore and suddenly laughed.
"That's right, what can that castle be called Hogwarts, Hogwarts is obviously our carriage!"
"Ha, I like that line."
Just as they were about to leave the principal's office, a burst of golden-red light suddenly lit up behind them!
Jon and Dumbledore both stopped at the same time, and they looked back to see that the light had already outlined the lines of a phoenix and a little girl.
Seeing this, Jon's already tense nerves finally completely let go, he let out a long sigh of relief, and Dumbledore still had such a gentle smile on his face, but Jon could also see the smile in his eyes. Rejoice, anyway, as long as Hermione was safe it was more important than anything else.
He said to Jon jokingly.
"We have done so much mental preparation for nothing."
Jon patted his face.
"I'm actually already thinking about how I'm going to scold the Dark Lord when Professor you blow up the castle."
"It doesn't matter, you can keep the words you think of first, and you will definitely be able to use them in the future."
"Shouldn't you teach me not to swear?"
“How can I teach students what I can’t do myself.”
While they were talking, Hermione had already appeared in the principal's office, and she looked at Dumbledore and Jon who were about to go out and dress up in surprise.
"What are you going to do?"
Jon and Dumbledore looked at each other, then shrugged.
"Go blow up Hogwarts Castle if you show up a few seconds later."
(end of this chapter)