The Return to Hogwarts

Professor Blaine's reminder made Hermione, who had been unarmed the entire way, realize with a start that as a wizard, she hadn't even taken out her wand in such a dangerous situation.

“I’m sorry, Professor Blaine, I wasn’t paying attention—”

Hermione blushed, apologized softly, and hurriedly pulled her wand from the pocket of her wizard's robe.

Three months have passed since he re-entered Hogwarts after Christmas. Although there have been some twists and turns, Amostella has finally stood in the Chamber of Secrets of Slytherin, which has been legendary for thousands of years!

This is a long, dimly lit room. On the left and right sides of the room, there are many stone pillars carved with intertwined snakes, which stand tall and support the ceiling that melts into the darkness above, casting long, eerie shadows into the entire room, which is filled with a mysterious, green mist.

At the far end of the room stood a sculpture as tall as the room itself. It was Salazar Slytherin in his old age. Because he had conducted dangerous magical experiments on himself for many years, the once handsome Slytherin looked more like a frail, old monkey in his later years.

Ginny lay motionless at the foot of the sculpture, while Ron lay a few steps away, a stone pressing against his back, bite marks on his arms, and his tattered wizard robes stained with blood. Amostah, who had led Hermione in, also noticed that Ron's wand seemed to have broken in two again.

When the two of them entered the Chamber of Secrets, Harry was desperately dodging the rocks swept down by the tail of the basilisk, whose body seemed to be forged from steel. He held a goblin-style sword in his hand and the Sorting Hat, covered in pudding, was stuffed in his pocket.

"You still held back, Dumbledore—"

Amostella immediately recognized the colorful bird flying in mid-air, desperately pecking at the basilisk's ferocious and terrifying head, as Fawkes, the phoenix from Dumbledore's office. He glanced at the shadow behind a stone pillar, observing the basilisk, whose lantern-sized eyes had been pecked out, with great interest and a feeling of immense pleasure.

"Ron and Ginny, Professor, please help Harry!"

A colossal basilisk, its body gleaming with a vibrant, metallic green, stood blocking the way between Hermione and the Weasleys, preventing her from rushing over to check on Ron and Ginny. Meanwhile, Hermione's heart ached for Harry, and she pleaded with Professor Blaine, her voice trembling with tears, for him to intervene immediately.

Hermione's cries finally alerted Harry, who was still dazed from being hit by the stones, to the new visitor to the Chamber of Secrets. He nimbly dodged the Basilisk's massive tail strike with a swift roll and shouted anxiously.

"Professor Blaine, I'll hold off this basilisk. You need to get Ron and Ginny to the hospital right away! Ron's been bitten by the basilisk's fangs!"

"this kid"

Amosta was speechless, a look of exasperation on his face.

"Did someone hit your head with a rock and damage it?!"

Are you all on holiday? I'm still asking for money.

Chapter 84 Remarks on the launch

The editor informed me that the book will be available for purchase at 12 noon tomorrow. Before it goes on sale, I'd like to report on the book's performance. As I write this post, the book has 10734 favorites, 444 investments, over 1700 reads, 2474 recommendation votes, and around 540 monthly tickets. It is currently available in the light novel category, in the fourth round of intelligent recommendation slots.

For someone who has written a million words and only ever received 200 yuan in royalties, this is an unprecedented achievement. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you who have collected this book, followed it closely, voted for it, given it a reward, and provided rational feedback. Without you, this book might have been a completely different story.

There are indeed regrets, because fan fiction needs about 2200 reads to be published on the Sanjiang website, and my book probably won't have that chance. It has to be said that light novels are probably the most competitive genre on Qidian right now.

Before we go public, there are a few things I need to explain to everyone.

I read almost every comment from readers carefully. Some readers questioned whether the plot in the second grade was too simplistic. Well, I don't think that view is wrong. When I was in a hurry when I was thinking about the outline of this book, some plots were indeed not perfectly logically consistent.

On another note, I am indeed a novice writer with limited experience, and I am not the kind of gifted online novelist who can become a god with a single book. It is also limited by my own level. However, I have learned a lot from everyone's comments, and I believe that as the plot progresses, those glaring errors will gradually decrease.

Regarding the issue of combat power, the combat power and destructive force in the original work are somewhat painful for those accustomed to the Chinese online novel system. For example, why is Dumbledore still so powerful after abandoning the Elder Wand? Is it simply because he knows more spells? That can't be the case either. If Harry and Dumbledore use the Disarming Charm at the same time, whose power will be greater? It will definitely be Dumbledore's. So why? Is it because Dumbledore has a deeper understanding of the Disarming Charm? And how is this 'deeper understanding' demonstrated?

In conclusion, to have a clear understanding of one's strength, it is necessary to introduce another system of differentiation. This book introduces the concept of 'mana reserves' and uses 'standard spells' and 'non-standard spells' to demonstrate a wizard's depth of understanding of a spell.

One reader said that many things that can be done in the Harry Potter world are impossible even in higher magical worlds, as if a higher dimension has been reduced to a lower dimension. I think this makes sense and is quite interesting.

Later on, I'll probably gradually raise the combat power descriptions to the level of a mid-level magical world. Otherwise, when the protagonist and Voldemort finally fight, will it just be one throwing a Killing Curse and the other unleashing Fiendfyre? That would be a bit boring.

Because of the angle of entry, the current plot is still largely following the original book. The subsequent plot will basically maintain the 'major events' of each school year without major changes.

However, in terms of my ideas and writing style, the later the story goes, the more original the plot will likely be. For example, the third-grade storyline will probably have many changes. Of course, I believe my concept is quite brilliant and won't go off-topic. If any readers expect me to follow the plot exactly, then I can only apologize. My idea is that the original book has a main storyline, and I will create a subplot. Ultimately, the two storylines will merge together. Of course, it's definitely not that simple. In fact, whether I can seamlessly blend these two storylines without any logical flaws will determine the success or failure of this book.

The question of whether Hermione is the female lead is of great interest to many people, who have even stated that whether or not they will read the book depends on whether Hermione is the female lead. But to be honest, I haven't thought it through yet. Making Hermione the female lead would be easy, and the plot would be easy to write, but I just don't feel comfortable with it. I'll leave this question for now and perhaps as the story progresses, the book will tell me whether Hermione is suitable to be the female lead.

Regarding the secondary storyline, it will definitely involve some mythical figures and objects from British mythology. I looked up some information before, but to be honest, the information was very disorganized and made me dizzy.

In fact, many Harry Potter fanfictions have touched on this topic, including many highly professional writers. If I were to force myself to write according to the original settings, not only would I likely make numerous mistakes, but I would also lack originality. Therefore, after struggling for a while, I decided to only borrow the names and basic conceptual settings (and even deviate from them). The rest will be based on the settings of this book. I hope that when you see this part of the plot later, you can view those people and things from the perspective of this book.

When the book goes live tomorrow at noon, I will release more than 10,000 words at once. Although it is not much, please understand. I have been so busy at the end of the year. It is already 11 p.m. and I have just put the child to sleep and finished cleaning the house. I went to my room alone to write the book launch message. I have to go back to my hometown early tomorrow morning.

Sigh, let's not talk about that anymore. I'll update more after the Lantern Festival next year. At that time, I'll also consider the book's performance to formulate a rule for extra updates that I can achieve. I won't say anything now, sorry everyone.

I earnestly request everyone's support for the subscription data. I'm the kind of person who's quite sensitive, and I check the author's assistant at least dozens of times a day to see the data. A single recommendation vote can cheer me up for half a day.

Oh, and one more thing. Some readers have said that the protagonist's personality, as shown in the first three chapters, contrasts sharply with his later character after entering Hogwarts, making it feel like the story has turned into a babysitter trope.

Well, first of all, I won't write about the nanny genre or the issue of personality contrast. Actually, it's about different behaviors in different environments. Everyone shows different sides at home, at school, and at work. Maybe I'm not describing it very well, but that's the general idea.

Okay, that's about all I wanted to say. I'm exhausted and can't stay up any longer tonight. Happy Chinese New Year in advance!

Chapter 85 Confused

"What nonsense are you talking about, Harry!" Hermione shouted anxiously before Amostella could speak. "Get out of the way, Harry! Professor Blaine can handle this basilisk!"

Amosta touched his nose and glanced at Hermione with amusement. It seemed that the strength he had displayed in front of this little witch had given her a lot of confidence in herself.

Hermione's reminder startled Harry, who was making his dashing maneuvers, for a moment. Then, he immediately realized what was happening, grabbed the sword with the dazzling egg-sized ruby ​​inlaid on its hilt, and scrambled away from the attack range of the basilisk that had already fallen into a frenzy.

"Phew—Professor Blaine, save Ron and Ginny! They're still alive!"

When Harry realized that the most powerful professor in the house besides Headmaster Dumbledore was standing in front of him, he felt as if all his strength was being magically drained from his body. Just as he was about to stumble and fall, Hermione caught him with lightning speed.

"Don't worry, Potter, no one will die here tonight—"

Sensing a faint life force still lingering within Ginny's body, Amosta breathed a slight sigh of relief. Staring at the sword in Harry's hand, he suddenly remembered a legendary magical artifact belonging to Godric Gryffindor. He paused, then hesitantly asked…

"Potter, what is this sword?"

"Fox brought me the Sorting Hat—"

Harry said, panting.

"I found this sword in the Sorting Hat. Phew, it must have been put there by Headmaster Dumbledore. It suddenly fell out and hit me on the head!"

Amosta nodded knowingly, having roughly pieced together the truth from Harry's inverted words. Although he was very curious about this renowned weapon, he also knew that now was not a good time to study it.

"Get out of there, Fox, don't let my spell affect you—"

While the three of them were exchanging words, Dumbledore's phoenix was still fighting a desperate battle with the basilisk in mid-air. However, after hearing Amostella's instructions, Fawkes, with great intelligence, raised its head and cried out. After a nimble drift in mid-air, leaving behind a colorful light and shadow, it flew straight to Ron, who was lying on the ground, and lowered its head to stare at the torn wound on Ron's arm.

Clang!

A piercing shriek, like an arrow released from a bow, rang out. Harry and Hermione saw Professor Blaine casually wave his wand, and then, several large pebbles on the ground silently transformed into several metal spears as thick as oak trees. The dark spears sliced ​​through the eerie air, and in a flash, they formed an indestructible, enormous cage, trapping the massive basilisk within!

Boom! Clang!

The basilisk slammed into the metal cage walls, and its desperate struggle shook the earth like an earthquake, with rocks raining down. However, all of this was blocked by the shimmering white magical barrier surrounding Amosta, and not a single speck of dust landed on them.

Staring at the basilisk that seemed defiant and was causing a great commotion, Amosta's brow twitched. He twirled his wrist again, and a glimmer of light flashed across the metal cage frame.

Pong!

This time, the basilisk dared not smash into the barrier so recklessly!

Because whenever its hard scales touched the cage, golden flames would suddenly burst forth from the seemingly cold and dark spear. This demonic fire, which was born from Fiery Blaze, had unimaginable high temperature and the ability to break down magic resistance. The serpent monster, which had infinite strength, only took a few hits before it was lying on the ground, barely breathing, curling its huge body into a circle, and no longer daring to move!

Is this the strength of someone who could fight Dumbledore back in fifth grade?!

Harry stared in disbelief at the scene before him, unable to believe that, with Dumbledore's phoenix's help, the basilisk, which he had almost risked his life to subdue, had been so easily imprisoned by Professor Blaine.

"Ron!"

Having already anticipated this, Hermione emerged from her shock before Harry. Seeing the basilisk trapped, she could no longer contain her anxiety and ran to Ron's side with tears streaming down her face.

“Professor Blaine, this bird is crying!” Hermione sobbed. “Has Ron already…?”

Harry swayed, his face turning deathly pale. He stared at Ron, who had just been crawling on the ground, moaning softly. His lips trembled uncontrollably. No matter what, he refused to believe that Ron was dead!

"You two don't need to worry--"

Amostah strode over, turned the bloodless Ron over, and carefully examined the charred flesh on Ron's arm, which was emitting wisps of smoke under the nourishment of the Phoenix Tears.

"Fox is a phoenix, and phoenix tears have a very powerful healing effect, however..."

Amosta then turned his gaze to Ginny, whose only movement was the slight rise and fall of her chest.

“Miss Weasley’s condition is probably worse. She urgently needs professional and effective treatment. You two would be better off escorting her to the school hospital to see Mrs. Pomfrey right now.”

Upon hearing that Ron and Ginny were still alive, Harry gasped for breath as if he had been pulled from the water. In those few seconds, he broke out in more cold sweat than he had during his fight with the Basilisk.

Amostra conjured two stretchers and used them to float Ron and Ginny's bodies onto them. Then, he looked at Hermione, whose eyes were still filled with tears.

“I’ll stay here and watch over the basilisk. After you two take Ginny and Ron to the school hospital, you can go and inform Professor McGonagall about what happened here. I think she’ll faint from worry when she finds out that four young wizards have suddenly disappeared from the school.”

"But--"

Hermione had no objection to Professor Blaine's arrangements; she was simply reminded of the pipe that had likely stretched for miles to get there.

"How are we going to get back, Professor? We can't get through that pipe!"

Fox perched on Ron's chest and whimpered, but Amostah shook his head at it.

"No need for you, Fawkes. If possible, I would like you to inform Headmaster Dumbledore that, unfortunately, I believe his 'vacation' must be cancelled!"

Fox tilted its head, scrutinizing Amosta with its jewel-like, crystal-clear eyes. After a moment, it nodded with remarkable humanity and disappeared into the secret chamber amidst a burst of fire.

"Well then, it's your turn—"

Amosta waved his wand at Harry and the others, and in a sudden gust of wind, Harry found himself transformed into a phantom, drifting uncontrollably toward the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Professor Blaine—"