Became good friends with the Boy Who Lived

Salazar disappeared, and Aeris and Harry were speechless, as if they felt the atmosphere was a bit dull. Harry asked, "Aeris, what happened to your eyes just now?"

At this time, when Aesius looked at the basilisk, the heterochromatic pupils had long disappeared and turned back into black pearl-like pupils.

"It's just a magic to protect your eyes." Aeris waved his hand without further explanation.

Harry looked at Aris suspiciously for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "What is a Horcrux?"

"As the name suggests, it is a container of the soul," said Aeris. "Some extremely evil dark wizards, in order to escape the shackles of death, will kill others and then use a special spell to split a piece of their own soul and store it in an object. This object becomes a Horcrux, which is an extremely evil dark magic item."

After saying that, Aris walked towards where Ginny was lying. Harry quickly followed him with an extremely ugly expression. Harry asked in confusion, "What is the use of this Horcrux?"

"Combined with Tom Riddle, you still can't guess the function of the Horcrux, Harry," Aris replied, "Or do you want me to confirm your guess?"

"Horcruxes can preserve souls and revive them when he needs them?" Harry asked in a dry voice.

"That's about it," said Aris as he checked Ginny's condition. "But believe me, Harry, a damaged soul can make life worse than death, and he has created multiple Horcruxes. This Voldemort is simply a complete lunatic."

"It's obvious that he doesn't have much humanity left..." Harry said through gritted teeth.

Before Harry could finish his words, a light snort was heard and Ginny opened her eyes. She looked around blankly, and the moment she saw Harry, she seemed to remember something, and her tears began to fall like beads from a broken string.

Harry helped Ginny up and made her sit on the ground. Aris picked up Ginny's wand that had dropped on the ground.

"Sob, sob, sob..." Ginny buried her face in her hands, crying bitterly, tears dripping from her fingers. She said painfully and intermittently: "It's all...it's all...it's all my fault...I...I almost killed Mrs. Norris...I...I killed a lot of Hagrid's chickens...I...I almost killed several classmates...I almost killed Hermione..."

"It's all over, Ginny..." Harry comforted, "There's nothing you can do, right? You can't resist him."

"Yes, Miss Weasley," Aerys teased, "Even I, who has the dirty blood of the former Dark Lord, was almost killed by him. How can a weak little girl like you be his opponent?"

Harry glared at Aries, who glared back without hesitation, and Ginny cried even harder.

"Ah..." Aris sighed, "Okay, Ginny, I forgive you. In fact, you didn't cause any substantial harm. The mandrake is mature, and Madam Pomfrey, Professor Sprout, and Professor Snape have already started making powerful recovery potions. During the time you blame yourself, perhaps those petrified people have recovered. Instead of crying here, you might as well apologize to them when you get out. In fact, it doesn't matter if you don't apologize, because no one will know it was you who did it anyway..."

"Eris..." Harry hesitated, "Has anyone ever told you that you are really good at comforting people..."

"Yes..." Aris said proudly, "Miss Know-it-all often praises me like this."

"Is it possible?" Harry said, "Hermione and I are just mocking you..."

Ginny sat on the ground, laughing and wiping her tears, her little face as red as a ripe apple.

"Can you stand up?" Harry asked Ginny, trying to help Ginny stand up.

After returning the wand to Ginny, Aries said, "Let's get out of here quickly. Ron might be going crazy. But you have to wait for me..."

Aeris turned a piece of rubble on the ground into a handbag, cast an invisible extension spell on the handbag, and then used magic to put the basilisk skeleton into the handbag.

"What do you want these for?" Harry asked puzzled.

"Not that I want it," Aris put away his handbag and took down the diary nailed to the snake statue. "Professor Snape will like these materials very much."

After making sure nothing was left behind, they came to the door to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry was about to say something in Parseltongue when a low, hoarse "hiss, ha ha, huh" sound came out of Aris' mouth, and the door to the Chamber of Secrets slowly opened.

Harry looked at Aeris in surprise. Aeris chuckled and said as he walked out, "We all got Salazar's inheritance, but it's just snake language. Compared with Salazar's other inheritances, it's nothing."

Seeing Harry's ugly face, Aries comforted him, "Don't let your imagination run wild, buddy. Magic is neither good nor bad. What determines who we become is not the guesses of others, but our own decisions."

Harry smiled with relief, and walked out quickly with Ginny and Edwards. Edwards led the way, and Harry comforted Ginny from behind.

"Oh! Harry, will I be expelled?" Ginny choked up, "Ever since Bill enrolled, I have always dreamed of entering Hogwarts. I finally got in, and this happened. What will my brothers...my mom and dad think? How will I face them in the future..."

As he walked out, listening to Ginny's crying and Harry's consolation, Aris felt that the way back was not as long as the way here.

After a while they saw Ron. "Ginny!" Ron shouted in surprise and walked towards Aris and the others.

"Ron..." Ginny ran to Ron and threw herself into her brother's arms, crying again. Ron looked at Edwards and Harry helplessly, as if he didn't understand when his sister became so clingy.

Lockhart walked over, looking at all this with confused eyes, muttering to himself: "How touching... isn't it... but who am I... where am I... what do I want to do..."

"Ron, what's wrong with the professor?" Aris asked.

Ron patted his sister's back and answered, "I'm not sure either. He's been like this since he woke up. He doesn't recognize me or himself..."

Aeris tried to talk to Lockhart, but his answers were completely irrelevant and he was talking to a deaf person.

"professor……"

"Oh? I'm a professor? I didn't know I was so successful. You look familiar..."

"do you remember me?"

"Should I remember? How about I teach you a little song..."

"Do you remember who you are?"

"It doesn't matter. Being happy is the most important thing. Let's sing together..."

Aris lost interest in continuing to communicate with Lockhart and began to look around. After Harry and Ron calmed Ginny down, Aris asked quietly, "How do you think we should get out?"

The atmosphere seemed to stagnate for a moment, and the four of them stared at each other, and no one spoke for a while.

At this moment, a loud bird cry suddenly sounded, and a large fiery red bird flew out of the cave and circled above everyone's heads. It chirped continuously, as if singing an inspiring song, dispelling the haze in everyone's hearts.

"Fox!" Aeris waved his hands at the phoenix. "Good evening!" Fox chirped happily and landed on Aeris' shoulder. Aeris looked into Fox's eyes, then nodded gently and said, "Then I'll leave it to you."

Facing the other three who were confused, Aris said, "Fox can take us out."

"Are you kidding me?" said Ron. "How is he going to get us all out? Can he handle all our weight?"

"Fox is a phoenix," said Aeris. "Fox can drag out even the basilisk, not to mention us."

Aeris used magic to conjure up several nooses, tied the ankles of the person in front and the arms of the person behind together, and finally fixed his own arm to one of Fox's claws. After Fox chirped, he flew outside cautiously.

The process of going back was something that Aries was reluctant to recall. He had to use a levitation spell to hold up the few people so that they would not slide all the way up along the wall of the pipe.

After returning to the bathroom, Aeris removed the noose. Everyone looked very tired. Moaning Myrtle floated over at an inopportune time and said in a disappointed tone: "What a pity, you all came back alive. I thought Harry would come down to accompany me."

"Shut up!" Ron said angrily.

Harry patted Ron's shoulder, and Fawkes chirped. Aeris understood what he meant and said to the others, "Come on, Professor Dumbledore is waiting for us in Professor McGonagall's office."

Several people followed Fawkes to Professor McGonagall's office. The door opened automatically and Mrs. Weasley was sitting by the fireplace crying. Mr. Weasley was comforting his wife. Professor McGonagall, who saw them, clutched the front of her robes tightly with both hands. Her knuckles were a little white. Her usually serious face was now extremely nervous and she was gasping for breath. Professor Dumbledore looked at the people who entered the office with a kind face.

"Ginny... Ronnie..." Mrs. Weasley exclaimed in surprise, ran over, hugged her son and daughter in her arms, and the three of them hugged each other and cried bitterly. Uh... Ron looked at his father at a loss.

Mr. Weasley walked over and comforted his wife and daughter. Aries walked up to Professor Dumbledore and said solemnly, "Professor, the situation is very bad. It can't be any worse..."

"What on earth are you talking about, Mr. Grindelwald..." Professor McGonagall said. Before she could finish, Professor Dumbledore interrupted, "Minerva, let Aeris finish."

"This... is hard to say. Do you have a crystal bottle? Professor McGonagall..." said Aris.

Professor McGonagall handed a small crystal bottle to Aries in confusion. Aries pulled a memory out of his temple, put it into the crystal bottle, and then handed the crystal bottle to Professor Dumbledore.

After Professor Dumbledore took over the memory, he sensed it a little and his expression became extremely solemn. He looked at Aeris, who nodded slightly.

The next moment, Aries was surrounded by a warm embrace, which made him a little dazed. He only heard Mrs. Weasley saying: "Thank you...child...thank you...you saved my son...saved my daughter...oh...how can our family thank you..."

Aries patted Mrs. Weasley's arm gently and said softly, "This is what I should do. If it were me, Ron would also risk his life for me..."

Everyone comforted each other for a while, and at the signal of Professor Dumbledore, Aris and Harry cooperated and narrated the whole story in detail, from the strange noises Harry heard in the castle, to Aris's guess, to the strange diary, and then with the help of Hermione, they knew that the monster was a basilisk, and finally they entered the Chamber of Secrets from the bathroom and rescued Ginny.

Hearing Professor McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley's exclamations, when Edwards took out the diary, Ginny also confessed hesitantly that she had confided her thoughts to the diary and had been comforted by it in the past year.

"Ginny!" Mr. Weasley said angrily, "What did I teach you? Never trust an object that can think independently unless you are sure where its head is. You are so careless..."

"Well, Arthur," said Professor Dumbledore, "As far as I know, even famous wizards have been deceived by Tom Riddle, let alone an underage wizard."

But Mr. Weasley still looked shocked. Professor Dumbledore said, "I think Ginny needs Madam Pomfrey's care, and Ron too. Minerva, can you take them to the hospital ward? And by the way, inform our chefs. We need to hold a banquet."

"I'll do it right away," said Professor McGonagall. "Arthur, Molly, bring Miss Weasley and Mr. Weasley with me." Professor McGonagall led the Weasleys out of the office.