#808 - The writing on the wall

If Slytherin's only trouble had been basic literacy among the students, he might not have chosen to leave Hogwarts in the end.

In his eyes, besides being hopelessly dull, what was even more unacceptable about those Muggle-born students was their attitude toward the Church.

Wizards today might find it hard to imagine just how much influence the Church held in Europe a thousand years ago; even students who had received several years of education at Hogwarts remained deeply loyal to the Church.

Slytherin found that even with all sorts of evidence from reality and history, it was difficult to correct the thinking of these Muggle-born students.

On the contrary, these Muggle-born students not only possessed unwavering faith but even tried to spread the glory of the Lord within the school.

Such behavior not only infuriated Slytherin but also aroused the resentment of many pure-blood wizards, ultimately leading to irreparable rifts and conflicts.

So, Slytherin at the time couldn't wait to simply get rid of those Muggle-born students whose minds were as stubborn as wood, and he repeatedly voiced his dissatisfaction to the other founders.

He proposed either banning the enrollment of foolish Muggle-born students or completely purifying the school's atmosphere; of course, by purification, he meant certain more drastic measures.

The other three founders naturally strongly opposed Slytherin's radical ideas, especially Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, who hoped he would be more patient and use time to influence those Muggles.

But Slytherin, who had been tormented by this situation for several years, had decided from the bottom of his heart that unless the Church's influence on European society changed, it would be impossible to educate these Muggle-born students.

Ultimately, Slytherin, due to disagreements with the other founders and frequent conflicts, decided to leave Hogwarts, hoping to find another way to help the wizarding world out of its predicament.

Before leaving the school, Slytherin specifically built this Chamber of Secrets and hatched a basilisk within it; this was actually an insurance policy he left for Hogwarts.

His initial idea was quite simple: if the future Hogwarts were ever contaminated by those foolish Muggle-born wizards who blindly worshiped the Church,

then his heir could use the basilisk to completely purify the school, preventing the wizarding ideals from being tainted by feudal thinking.

Seeing this, Anduin couldn't help but sigh; Slytherin back then could be considered an idealist with lofty ambitions, but the environment at that time was truly hard to describe.

Who would have thought that what gave Slytherin, such an academic giant in the wizarding world, the biggest headache was actually teaching basic literacy to Muggle-born students at Hogwarts.

If it were Anduin, he probably wouldn't want to waste time on this either; from this point of view, Slytherin's departure from the school at the time was somewhat understandable.

And you can't say he had no sense of responsibility; he even left behind a basilisk, but later generations seemed to have misinterpreted Slytherin's intentions.

Whether it was the rumors in the school or the records in the school's history, everyone thought that Slytherin built the Chamber of Secrets to purify bloodlines, but what he focused on more was actually ideals.

He wrote in his diary more than once that to better develop wizarding civilization, what was needed were resourceful, strong-willed, and daring talents.

These were the qualities he focused on when selecting students, but reality was disappointing, which made Slytherin once change his mind, believing that Muggle-born students were just a bunch of unteachable blockheads.

Perhaps the Slytherin House's rejection of Muggle-born ideas also started from that time.

But compared to the understandable Slytherin, Anduin actually admired the other founders of Hogwarts even more.

When faced with this situation, they were still able to show enough patience towards Muggle-born students, which was a truly admirable quality.

At the same time, perhaps it was because of their unremitting efforts that Hogwarts was able to develop to this day, becoming a magic school with a small number of students but an important position in the wizarding world.

As for the "Magic Mist," Slytherin didn't leave too many records; he only mentioned that this manuscript was something he accidentally obtained while traveling in northern Europe.

However, at the very end of the diary, Slytherin stated that after leaving the school, he also planned to follow the clues of the "Magic Mist" to find the origin of this special magic.

"Northern Europe?" Anduin frowned slightly. "Could Herpo's lair be in Northern Europe? I wonder if Slytherin ever found that old guy."

Then Anduin thought again, "This legendary wizard disappeared without a trace after leaving Hogwarts, could it be that he really encountered Herpo in Northern Europe? Wouldn't that mean he's in grave danger?"

"But historical records also state that Slytherin's descendants inherited his wand, so he shouldn't have met with misfortune."

"Northern Europe, Slytherin, two more clues related to Herpo, perhaps I can start by focusing on these two areas."

Anduin shook his head with some regret. He thought he had caught Herpo's tail, but in reality, there was no truly useful information, or rather, because it had been too long, this information had become outdated.

Currently, he could only follow these two clues and investigate further, but whether he could really find the results, no one could say for sure.

Overall, his gains today were indeed not small; just the "Magic Mist" manuscript alone was enough for him to digest for a while.

As for this Chamber of Secrets, he hasn't thought of any other uses for it yet, so he can only seal it up for the time being.

After returning to the office, he didn't immediately start the experimental work on the Deathly Hallows as usual; the two clues of Northern Europe and Slytherin were too general, and he certainly couldn't do it alone.

So Anduin contacted Karkaroff in Northern Europe, as well as the Silver Shimmering Bank branches in various regions, asking them to help pay attention to information about Herpo and Salazar Slytherin, but the main focus was still on the Slytherin line.

Slytherin's whereabouts after leaving school remain a mystery to this day; perhaps he could find or approach this potential threat of Herpo based on his life, such as the places he had been to.

……

But regardless of how much change Anduin's actions caused in the wizarding world, Hogwarts remained a peaceful scene.

Of course, the peace mentioned here contains a strong smell of gunpowder.

Since the launch of the two new dungeons, they immediately became popular among the students, and almost all the students in the school experienced them within a week.

Whether it was the thrilling racing or the intense battlefield, they all left a deep impression on everyone.

Especially the battlefield dungeon, which could accommodate hundreds of people at once, allowed them to truly feel the cruelty of war and the joy of fighting with all their might.

At the same time, the opening of the reward exchange system in the Silver Shimmering Amulet also aroused the interest of many young wizards.

Of course, most students' exchange lists only have three items: spells, props, and others, and they cannot exchange for potions that can increase attributes like club members.

These attribute potions can be regarded as the only benefits that Tactical Club members can enjoy.

The new round of dungeon fever has also caused some side effects; it's fine if those students are always discussing topics within the dungeon.

But new dungeons like the battlefield consume a lot of students' physical strength and energy, despite the restriction of only being able to challenge once a week.

But after each entry into the battlefield, they were all as tired as dogs, although this could comprehensively exercise the students' qualities, the high-intensity battles also left everyone in a state of mental exhaustion for the next few days.

At the same time, the emergence of the exchange system has also made students focus more on practicing new spells.

Faced with this situation, all the teachers except Professor Flitwick expressed strong dissatisfaction, and even Dumbledore, under the protests of many professors, euphemistically expressed to Anduin that he should find a way to control it.

After all, Hogwarts is not a military school, and it is indeed a bit outrageous to have students thinking about fighting and killing all day long.

This made Anduin a little embarrassed; he didn't actually expect these kids to play so hard in the dungeon, the intensity of the battle even exceeded the Despair Town dungeon.

In the end, he could only modify the conditions for entering the battlefield dungeon, adjusting it to be consistent with [Despair Town], to avoid those low-grade students with poor physical fitness from overspending in the dungeon.

But at this moment, a sudden event immediately focused the attention of all teachers and students at Hogwarts elsewhere.

One evening before the Christmas holidays, a group of teachers and students who had just finished dinner gathered in the third-floor corridor. A large pool of water had accumulated on the ground in front of them, and Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, had been petrified, with her tail hanging on the torch bracket.

A line of words was written on the wall on one side: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir, beware."

"Merlin's beard, what on earth is going on?" Harry, who had just arrived, squeezed into the crowd and asked the surrounding students.

"After dinner, someone discovered all this while passing through the corridor. Filch, who arrived first, was almost driven mad. Wood is notifying the other professors." The Weasley twins, who were always present wherever there was excitement, came over.

"Oh my goodness, this is really terrible. Did anyone find the culprit?" Hermione looked at the pitiful Mrs. Norris, with an expression of pain and regret.

"No one knows how all this happened." Fred shook his head. "George thinks this might be someone's prank, but if this is a prank, it's a bit too much."

"Do you think it's possible that someone didn't have enough fun in the dungeon and did something like this?" Ron suddenly widened his eyes in horror. "If this matter blows up, the school won't close the battlefield dungeon, will it?"

Harry, Neville, and others were also suddenly conflicted when they heard this. Ron's guess was not impossible. Recently, many professors have complained that the new dungeon takes up too much of the students' energy.

As a result, such a malicious incident has occurred again. If it is really related to the dungeon, it may cause a lot of trouble.

"No, Mrs. Norris wasn't hit by a normal petrification charm!" Hermione, who had sharp eyes, carefully observed and determined, "The petrification charm we learned cannot completely change the target's body structure, so the general counter-curse can clear the effect, but Mrs. Norris is now truly petrified all over."

"Ah?" Harry was taken aback. "Could it be that Mrs. Norris is dead?"

"Not necessarily dead, but if you want to undo this petrification effect, ordinary counter-curses are probably useless, and you can only use a special potion prepared from mandrake."

Hermione didn't reduce her reading time because she was addicted to the dungeon, so this kind of obscure knowledge couldn't stump her.

"Then does anyone know this magic?" Ron didn't expect a petrification to have so much knowledge, and quickly asked.

"As far as I know, no." Hermione shook her head. "This is already a very profound dark magic. Not to mention the existing textbooks, even the rare spell list in the Silver Shimmering Amulet doesn't have a similar effect."

"Then it's not a prank!" Harry also realized the seriousness of the problem at this time, and then focused his attention on the words on the wall, "Chamber of Secrets? Heir? What is this?"

"Who knows?" Ron suddenly had a whim, "Do you think this might be something made by the professor? Isn't he the one who likes to play tricks like this the most? Like in Despair Town, there was also some King of Hell, Lord of Fear, and stuff."

"Oh?" Harry's eyes also lit up. "Are you saying... this is a test similar to a surprise inspection?"

It's no wonder that several young wizards would think this way. Since Anduin entered Hogwarts, most of the strange things in the school have been related to him, and it's normal for everyone to have similar associations.

"No, there is indeed a legend about the Chamber of Secrets in Hogwarts!"

Just as a few people were guessing wildly, Draco's voice suddenly came from his ear. He didn't know when he also appeared beside the few people.

"Really?" Ron looked at Draco with a suspicious expression, "Then do you know where the Chamber of Secrets is? What's inside? Who is the so-called heir?"

"If you ask me, who am I supposed to ask?" Draco rolled his eyes. "I only know that there is indeed a rumor about the Chamber of Secrets circulating in the school. It is said that it was left by the founder Slytherin, and only the heir of Slytherin can open it."

"Doesn't the opening of the Chamber of Secrets mentioned above mean that the heir of Slytherin has appeared? Who is the enemy of the heir referring to?" Harry was also a little skeptical about this.

"Enemies of the heir..." Draco glanced at Hermione beside him with a tangled expression, "If I'm not mistaken, it should be the Muggle-born students in the school."