Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 153: You guys were fighting? Why did you suddenly stop?
Both the man and the snake stopped as if they had encountered a movie cassette.

Dumbledore, who was watching, was also somewhat caught off guard.

what happened?

Weren't they about to launch the final, fatal attack? Why did they suddenly stop?
Dumbledore was not worried that Harry would die. With Fawkes' tears, the basilisk's poison would not pose any threat to Harry.

It would be understandable if Harry was scared, because it was a miracle that a twelve-year-old child dared to face such a terrifying monster.

What Dumbledore didn't understand was the basilisk's behavior.

He taught himself many languages, including Parseltongue - Dumbledore understood that the basilisk was talking about reconciliation.

The fact that the newly appeared basilisk did not bite Cohen can be explained by kinship, but why did the old basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets not obey Voldemort's orders, but chose to stop and reconcile?

"That guy is gone... Salazar's descendants are gone..." The old basilisk hissed at Harry, "I don't want to kill you, nor do I want to kill anyone else..."

"Really...really?"

Harry's first impression of the basilisk had always been one of horror and ferocity, but this one seemed to really... want to reconcile with him—

"No!" said Harry suddenly cleverly, "You're lying to me!"

Harry turned his head to look in the direction of the other basilisk.

Cohen was swallowed! This basilisk is probably trying to cover up—

When Harry turned around, he saw the "new basilisk" that had emerged from the water again.

It had swallowed Cohen whole, and Harry could clearly see a bulge in the middle of its body.

It wants to launch a sneak attack!

Harry's breathing quickened. He now had to deal with two basilisks - one in front and one behind, and he only had one sword.

The new basilisk opened its mouth from a distance. Did it feel it had already secured victory, and so couldn't wait to swallow itself?

Harry didn't know which snake to point his sword at, so he slowly backed away cautiously, nervously watching the two snakes' every move.

The new basilisk climbed onto the shore, its mouth still wide open, facing the ground. Was this a preparatory action for hunting?
Harry didn't know much about snakes - but this was definitely not normal, not even showing those two long fangs.

But Harry soon found out why.

"vomit--"

The bulge on the new basilisk's abdomen was slowly rising as its muscles contracted.

"What—" Harry's eyes widened.

A seemingly clean and unharmed Cohen was then spat out.

"I'm back--"

Ron exclaimed, emerging from the doorway.

He had just taken Hermione to the entrance - if someone came down they would have found her. Originally Ron wanted to take Hermione back to the bathroom, but... he didn't know how to crawl back through such a long pipe.

One can only hope that someone will find them, or...

No matter what, he decided to come back as soon as possible to help Harry and Cohen, so that at least they could die together with dignity.

"Two, two?!"

Ron didn't see Cohen being spit out. He only saw that there were two basilisks now, and Cohen was under the mouth of one of them - the basilisk had its mouth open and was about to swallow Cohen.

"Stay away from my friend!" Ron said angrily, raising his hand to cast a spell. However, there was a problem with his hardware. The wand, which had long been lingering on, was completely beyond repair. Its tip exploded, and spells flew in all directions in front of him, each with a different color. Ron completed an astonishing feat in the wizarding world, using a single spell to release dozens of different effects in dozens of directions.

Harry and Cohen also unfortunately became one of the targets of the curse.

Sissoko reacted the fastest, immediately lying down and blocking Cohen behind his head.

Next came the old basilisk. It used its tail to pull the unresponsive Harry over and used its scales to help Harry block the scattered spells.

Only Lockhart, lying on the ground unattended, was struck by the curse, but he remained motionless, and Cohen's petrification was very effective.

Now both basilisks looked at Ron.

Σ(°△°|||)︴

Ron still held up his wand, which was now fizzing and smoking.

"Are you okay?" Sissoko turned his head and asked Cohen with concern.

"My arm and wand are just wide enough to poke you in the eye," Cohen said.

"What?!" Harry asked Cohen and the new basilisk in disbelief after being released by the old basilisk, "What did it call you?!"

"My son!" Sissoko said proudly.

"..." Cohen had never expected himself to be as good at complaining as the Count.

"You—it—isn't—" Harry swallowed and looked at the old basilisk that had just protected him with its tail, "and you—"

"What are you hissing about?" Ron said in horror, "Can the basilisk assimilate humans? You seem to be on the side..."

"Ron, my head hurts so much, it feels like my brain is going to grow..." Harry had already thrown the sword aside, "This doesn't feel real at all."

"It's not real. I didn't want to accept it when I first heard about it," Cohen comforted Harry and Ron in English. "No one wants a giant, hissing snake that kills anyone it glares at to yell 'Damn!' at them..."

"Wait...you guys - is that a nickname?" Ron looked at the two basilisks, then at Harry and Cohen.

"I'm telling the truth," the old basilisk said to Harry. "I don't want to hurt you, but the heir of Salazar ordered me to do this - I can't resist the orders of a Parseltongue..."

"He left..." Harry looked at the Slytherin statue. Voldemort had disappeared at some point. "Is that why you stopped?"

"Yes..." said the old basilisk with satisfaction.

"Are you being controlled by the basilisk?" Ron said anxiously. "Blink if you feel threatened."

"We're in the process of negotiating," Cohen said to Ron. "Pick a stone block to sit on and explain everything one by one."

"What about Cohen..." Harry asked Cohen.

"I have to admit," Cohen said, "he is indeed... somewhat related to me."

"You knew that already?" Harry asked incredulously.

"No, I just suspected it before. After all, after being crawled into bed that night, I carefully studied many magical creatures with scales." Cohen said, "When it just swallowed me without even biting me, I almost understood it. But as for why I have a blood relative of the basilisk... Harry, do you really want to know?"

This was the first time Harry heard Cohen ask himself such a crucial question so seriously.

"..."

Harry wasn't sure he should know this.

(End of this chapter)