Chapter 60: The Keys
Chapter 60: The Keys
Evan struggled to sit up, his body ached all over.
He should be inside the Slytherin’s statues mouth now, he was in a large space, just above him was a hole where the basilisk comes in and out.
“Strange, very strange, I went back a thousand years, was it a dream?” Evan shook his head and gripped his wand.
While he gripped his wand, he turned his attention to something in his hand.
“Lumos” whispered Evan, with the faint light from his wand he saw that it is a small potion with a darkish gold colour.
“This….is Salazar’s potion.”
Evan paused for a moment, he was now certain that what had transpired was not a dream but reality, he used the time turner to go back a thousand years and meet the founders.
As Hufflepuff said, Slytherins wasn’t as mean as he looked, and at the end of the day, Salazar gave him a potion which is unbelievable!
Evan then remembered a potion that was introduced in a magic book, the potion that he held matched its description, the recipe has been lost for ages.
He carefully put the potion in his pocket, if others knew he had it they will most likely try to take it for themselves, even the Ministry of Magic might take it from him.
He was prepared to take the potion when no was around, then Evan thought of something when he was about to leave, the school’s founders said they were going to leave a few secret treasures in the Chamber of Secrets to help him protect Hogwarts from Voldemort.
If he is right the treasures should be somewhere in this statue.
He hurriedly looked around.
As the lair of the Basilisk, the inner part of the statue was larger than the outside, it was filled with bodes of small animals.
After searching a little he found a hidden door.
He opened the dark door, dust flew everywhere.
When the dust settled, Evan was standing in the doorway of a round room.
The room was exactly the same as the room he had visited a thousand years ago, it was beautifully decorated, it contained statues of the four founders in the four corners.
Unlike the old Slytherin statue outside, the four statues here where the four giants of the Age: Power hungry Salazar Slytherin, Benevolent Helga Hufflepuff, Fair Rowena Ravenclaw, and Bold Godric Gryffindor.
They looked exactly the same as the people he had just met.
In front of the four stone statues where four stone alters with rounded grooves.
This should be the real chamber of secrets of the founders with the secret treasures they left behind but I must pass the tests first.
Evan took a step forward and saw different words on the walls.
It was like a gigantic sorting hat, on Gryffindor’s wall in golden paint was: Bold Gryffindor from wild moor he gives the most courageous people the highest reward, the key to open the treasure is the courage buried in one’s heart, you need your proud follower’s recognition.
Hufflepuff was written in black: The benevolent Hufflepuff comes from valley broad. She treats everyone equally; everyone has a chance to get her treasure. The key to open the treasure is integrity and loyalty, all you need is to trust in your most humble friend.
Ravenclaw was written in blue paint: Fair Ravenclaw, from glen. The brightest of minds deserves a reward. The key to unlocking my treasure is an extraordinary intellect which you will inherit forever from your equally intelligent alley!
The last one was Slytherin’s wall, it was written in silver: Power hungry Slytherin, from fen. He only believed in the most pureblood wizards; mudblood’s can’t get anything from me. The key to unlocking this treasure is a mighty power, it is kept in the depths of the earth by his cunning servant.
Evan finally finished reading, he didn’t see any more words, these four guys had really bad taste, the whole room seemed to be a riddle.
He couldn’t understand these hints.
Evan didn’t have the slightest clue where the keys to the secret treasures were, who are the followers, friends, allies, and servants mentioned above?
He had to remember all these words, he had to find clues when he gets out of the chamber.
By the time Evan remember everything he heard a terrible scream from outside the statue.
He finally remembered about Tom and the basilisk, he hurried out of the room.
Just as he came out of Slytherin’s mouth, Evan heard Harry shout his name, he hurriedly responded, Fawkes flew down to carry him away.
Harry seemed to be successful in settling everything.
The scream must have been Tom, in the middle of the chamber was the basilisk’s lifeless body, it was pierced by the sword of Gryffindor. Beside it was Tom’s diary, which was penetrated by the fangs of the basilisk, the venom had burnt a hole in the diary.
“Evan, we won, I defeated Tom, I destroyed the diary like you told me to!” said Harry when he saw Fawkes bring Evan down, Harry hurriedly asked with a concerned look, “How are you, are you okay? I saw you get hit by Tom’s spell.”
“I’m all right, it’s a long story, I’ll tell you later.”
Evan shook his head, he saw Ron, who was still beneath the statue, he hurriedly said, “Let’s check on Ron’s condition.”
By the time Evan and Harry made it to Ron he was already upright.
He had a vacant gaze when he saw the basilisk corpse, he fell on the bloodstained robes of Harry and the equally tattered robe of Evan’s, when he saw the diary at his feet.
He shivered and gasped, tears streamed out.
“Evan, Harry, it was all me, I shouldn’t have believed in Tom, I wanted to tell everyone, but I was afraid. Riddle said if I do it you would never think of me as a friend again.”
“Yeah, you are a real jerk. If I wasn’t dead tired now, I would beat you up Ron!” said Evan angrily, “you believed in Voldemort, not in your friends.”
“It’s all my fault, I should be expelled!” said Ron, “After the first attack, I felt abnormal, I was naive enough to think everything would be fine if I got rid of the diary but everything just kept getting worse and worse.”
“It��s over now Ron,” Harry comforted him and said, “We all believe in you, you were just under Riddle’s control, you didn’t do it with your own free will.”
“But…”
“I forgive you since you saved Ginny in the common Ron,” said Evan, he dragged Ron to his feet, “But in the future, tell us the first time and don’t try to solve it yourself.”