Chapter 396: The Abandoned Slytherin Common Room (2 in 1)

Chapter 396: The Abandoned Slytherin Common Room (2 in 1)

"The Slytherin House common room is in the Black Lake?"

Jon mused, he hadn't really thought about that one.

"Yes." Draco spoke more fluidly with each passing second, "My father had told me that Slytherin's previous common room used to be underground, but when Mr Headmaster ruled Britain, he eliminated the old standards for the sorting of houses. The criteria for the three Houses; Mudblood, Half-blood and Pureblood, were set before there was even an admission. So once it was established that the basement was the domain of the mud- muggle-borns, there would, of course, be no other Houses left inhabited there, and naturally the Slytherin common room was left deserted, and no one has ever gone back in there for over a decade."

Jon looked at Draco with renewed interest, wanting him to say some more secret stuff.

"So what? That common room was deserted in the Black Lake and just because of that it became a rumour in the castle?"

Draco did manage to squeak out more.

"That's not what the rumour is about, someone has spoken about how, right where the Slytherin common room used to be, some odd sound of movement could be heard faintly late at night, like something pounding on the foundations."

Jon frowned at this.

"I remember there is an extremely strict curfew policy in the castle, so who is the person who was able to hear something like that late at night?"

"Stricter policies are no real problem for purebloods to break, if a muggle-born breaks the curfew it's a death sentence, if a half-blood breaks it they would be expelled from Hogwarts Castle, a pureblood would just be asked to hand in a statement or spend a day in the confinement room."

Draco, even in front of Jon, couldn't help but feel a sense of smugness when talking about the privileges that belonged to purebloods.

"Purebloods can't be expelled, it's a rule set by Mr. Headmaster, even when there was an incident a while back about a half-blood student committing suicide, the primary perpetrator who was also a pureblood was only given a year's delay in graduation and sent home for a year of reflection."

It was true and Draco was not wrong about this, the privileges that purebloods held not only at Hogwarts Castle but even in the British magical community were obvious. Purebloods who broke magical laws, no matter how serious, were not imprisoned in Azkaban, where Dementors acted as jailers, but in a special "prison" for wizards located on British soil. Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m

Jon said nothing about Draco's current self-satisfaction; he was still too young to think about how much privilege the purebloods had now, and how they would all have to pay it back double and triple if Voldemort should ever be defeated.

"You're getting off-topic, in that case, do you know exactly where the Slytherin common room used to be in the Black Lake?"

Hearing Jon's question, Draco reached out and pointed to the northeast.

"That common room extends from Hogwarts castle, so it must be in the direction where Hogwarts castle is located, keep going northeast from here and you should be able to find something."

Jon was true to his word and returned a pearl back to him as payment after getting useful information from Draco.

"What do you want to know this for?" Although it was clear that it was actually better not to ask, Draco couldn't resist asking after he got the pearl.

"Would you believe me if I said I am planning to dig up the roots of your gentleman, 'Mr Headmaster'?" Jon said without looking back.

His reply sent a shiver down Draco's spine, and he watched as Jon faded away with a look of horror on his face.

Only after his figure had completely disappeared did Draco dare to carefully swim out of the water plants.

But only then did he realise that he had become so entangled in the water plants that he couldn't even reach for his wand!

"Come back! Green! Mr Green! Please come back! I'll pay you with a pearl! Help me!"

However, the sound didn't travel far underwater, and with Jon long gone, he couldn't get any response to his cries.

Jon soon arrived at the northeast corner of the Black Lake.

To be honest, he didn't really have much hope for this trip, he just wanted to take the chance.

But it hadn't been in the Black Lake before, so the odds of it being here in captivity for the past decade or so are high.

Jon looked around again and saw some broken chains scattered on the floor, as well as signs of an obvious blow to the ceiling directly above where the giant squid had been before.

As Dumbledore had predicted, when he had first taken over Hogwarts Castle, Voldemort had discovered the unusual nature of the squid, and although he had made no precautions against the Black Lake itself, he had simply imprisoned the giant squid, the root of the problem, to be used when needed.

And now the various arrangements he had made in the castle were clearly laid out in front of Dumbledore and his men's faces.

The ancient runes used to sap the 'will' of the castle itself in the Chamber of Secrets, the runes in the Headmaster's Office which intended to imbue his own 'will' in the castle, and the runes in this room which had been transfused with the blood of a giant squid, the meaning of which was for the moment unknown.

Three places, all key to Voldemort's setup, and he seemed to have a lot of preparation for gaining absolute control of the castle, but now it was as if he didn't care about each one of them.

As Jon was examining the runes, he suddenly realised that as the giant squid was taken away, the runes themselves were not only not fading, they were becoming brighter and brighter!

Without any hesitation, he turned around and rushed towards the water of the black lake, using a new bubble spell on himself as he ran.

Then he leapt down from the blasted ice and dived back into the lake!

And just less than a minute after he entered the water, the ancient runes had become blindingly bright.

The curved symbols swam and spread across the ground as if they had come to life, and eventually, the dark green lines bulged from the ground, one by one, turning into living things and rushing straight into the water!

In less than three minutes, all the space in that area was crowded with these rune snakes, and they seemed to be able to spawn from those ancient runes endlessly, appearing and jumping into the lake over and over again.

After leaving the confines of the Slytherin common room, Jon kept swimming forward, sensing that something was wrong and even suspecting that the ancient runes under the lake itself were only a trap.

Yet even though he was swimming fast enough, he was still no match for the snakes that were like lightning in the water.

Jon knew he wouldn't be able to escape, he had to find out how much trouble they could cause him.

He kept moving forward, but turned with his wand in both hands and aimed at the swarm of snakes that looked like hornets!

"Sectumsempra!"

The cold water was instantly cut by invisible sharp slashes, the resistance of the lake water reduced the power of Invisible swords, but it was still better than using a blasting curse underwater.

In the blink of an eye, the snakes at the front of the pack were silently split in two, but the blade didn't stop there, splitting the whole pack along the middle, as if a chunk of chocolate had been neatly sliced up!

But none of the snakes that had been cut in half showed any signs of death, instead, they split in two, spewing dark green liquid from the breaks and growing back to their original size, making the whole group even more massive!

As Jon turned back to cast the curse, some of the snakes began to approach Jon, and when they were still a metre or so away, they exploded, creating a violent impact underwater.

Luckily, Jon had always maintained the shield charm on his body and did not suffer any damage as a result, but the bubble body charm, which was used to keep him breathing underwater, was destroyed as a result.

It took away Jon's ability to breathe underwater, and there was no way he could re-cast it here.

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