Struggling to survive at Hogwarts

Thea gazed at the statue before her, lost in thought.

Was Salazar Slytherin really that ugly?

Or did he offend the person who made the statue?

It was an old, sparse statue with a long, thin beard that stretched almost to the hem of its robe.

It doesn't look like a human being; it looks more like an old monkey that's about to starve to death.

Thea recalled that line and, suppressing her embarrassment, said, "Speak to me, Slytherin, the greatest of the four great leaders!"

“Salazar Slytherin,” Thea hissed in a Parseltongue, “respond to your offspring.”

The basilisk awoke again from its slumber because of Thea's snake-like voice.

The basilisk was getting impatient. It had been obediently staying here, following its master's instructions, waiting for someone to wake it up one day.

But since its owner left the school, no one else has remembered it.

Later, Ravenclaw, who spent all his time engrossed in books and talking incoherently, disappeared...

The violent maniac, Gryffindor whose mind was consumed by nothing but duels, has also vanished...

The barbecue was delicious, and even the gentle Hufflepuff disappeared...

No one in the entire castle remembers him anymore...

Being forgotten is such a hard time...

Later, a boy opened the secret chamber. The basilisk thought it was free, but then the boy disappeared after it accidentally killed a girl…

I should have closed my eyes when I left...

If the owner were still here...

Before the basilisk could reminisce about the past, the basilisk voice rang out again.

The basilisk impatiently flicked its tail and swam along the pipe toward the source of the sound.

Thea remained alert to any sounds around her until she heard a rustling sound.

coming!

Thea instinctively closed her eyes, waiting for the enormous creature to arrive.

The basilisk stopped not far from Thea, its golden eyes gazing intently at the figure on the open ground.

"Hiss...hiss" (Who are you?)

The hissing of the basilisk made Thea's body tense involuntarily.

"Hiss..." (I am a descendant of Slytherin.)

Thea resisted the urge to open her eyes. To be honest, the feeling of knowing you're facing danger but not being able to open your eyes was awful.

"Hiss..." (I smell the familiar scent in your blood. You can open your eyes now. I'm closing mine.)

The basilisk wasn't surprised that Thea kept her eyes closed; it was used to people not daring to look directly at it, not even its master.

Thea cautiously opened her eyes. Even though she had prepared herself mentally, she was still somewhat surprised when such a large snake was not far from her.

When the nearly 50-foot-long basilisk lay before you, Thea once again felt admiration for Harry's courage.

"Have you been staying here the whole time? What do you usually eat?"

After recovering from her initial surprise, Thea began to ask questions with great interest.

I have stayed here as my master ordered.

I remain in a state of slumber unless summoned by the Parseltongue, though I sometimes venture into the Forbidden Forest or the Black Lake via the pipes in search of food.

The basilisk noticed that the little wizard in front of it was different, but it couldn't quite put its finger on what was different.

"Are you hungry now? I brought you some eggs, as well as some beef and mutton."

As she spoke, Thea pulled a large amount of food from the pocket at her waist. "I didn't know what you liked, so I just took some of everything."

Thea saw that the basilisk seemed interested, so she stepped aside to make it easier for the basilisk to eat.

With food as an opening, the atmosphere gradually eased.

While the basilisk was feasting, Thea began to wander around, observing the overall structure of the secret chamber.

Are you trying to get me to kill someone? Something happened at school?

Thea was intently looking at a mural on the wall when she heard the basilisk's question. She slipped and almost fell.

"No, no, no! I don't need you to kill people," Thea quickly denied, worried that the basilisk would misunderstand.

But Thea also realized another problem with the basilisk... could it be...?

"Nothing happened at the school, what did you mean by that just now?"

My master's orders, besides keeping me here, also included protecting the young wizards should Hogwarts be in danger.

The basilisk explained it casually.

"...Slytherin asked you to protect Hogwarts?!" Thea's suspicions were finally confirmed.

Sure enough, Slytherin would never leave behind the demand to "kill a Muggle wizard"!

This school is clearly the brainchild of the four leaders, and also the place that Slytherin cares about the most.

Instead of leaving an order to kill Muggles at the end, why didn't he just stipulate that only purebloods could attend the school when it was founded?

If others objected, he could have left Hogwarts much earlier; there was no reason for him to stay at Hogwarts for so many years before leaving in anger!

Why did you come to the secret room to find me? Don't you know you're disturbing my sleep?

Seeing that Thea remained silent, and remembering that Thea had just woken him up, the basilisk impatiently twitched the tip of its tail.

"Do you know how to get out of the secret room? I don't know how to get up there," Thea asked hurriedly.

See that second-to-last mural over there? Say "exit" to it in Parsley, and a secret passage will appear behind it. Follow it, and you can get out.

The explanation of the basilisk is very detailed.

"Can I stay here a little longer?" Thea pressed her advantage.

【Suit yourself, but be careful.】

The basilisk uttered a remark and turned to slither away in the direction it had come from.

Now that we've eaten and drunk our fill, it's time to sleep!

Seeing the basilisk leave, Thea immediately returned to the murals and took out her wand to make copies of all of them.

Somehow, Thea had a feeling that something was off about these murals.

The Four Giants left behind too many unsolved mysteries for posterity. Now that a genuine artifact from the era of the Four Giants has finally been found, Thea naturally doesn't want to let it go.

The first few murals mainly depict the four giants meeting in the wilderness, adventuring together, establishing schools, setting up colleges, and serving as professors.

It looked ordinary, but Thea discovered many interesting things.

It turns out that Ravenclaw is not a bookworm at all; when she puts down her books, she looks more like a slender noblewoman.

But when she picked up the wand, even the mural couldn't hide the sharp edge emanating from her.

Hufflepuff, on the other hand, looks like an ordinary girl with a flower crown on her head. When she smiles, she exudes a friendly and approachable charm.

Gryffindor was much as Thea had imagined: tall and robust, with a wand in one hand and a sword in the other, looking like he had off the charts in terms of combat power.

To Thea's dismay, none of the murals in the entire secret chamber depicted Salazar Slytherin.

Perhaps he really offended the mural maker?

Thea thought to herself, trying to find a bit of humor in her predicament.