Sorry, everyone—I posted the wrong chapter again. Please refresh the page, thank you.!
[Main Quest 5: Assist Dumbledore in uncovering the secret of the diary—quest complete!]
[Main Extended Quest: Find and eliminate the Basilisk hidden in Hogwarts—quest complete!]
The System's voice rang out abruptly in her mind. Kate gave a start, and, unable to contain the excitement in her heart, took two steps forward: "Professor, is Grandpa..."
"Mm, it seems the ten minutes are up." Dumbledore nodded and stepped forward, reciting a string of Parseltongue.
The instant the Chamber of Secrets opened, a nauseating, foul stench of blood rushed at them.
Caught off guard, Kate took a big breath of it. Even though she covered her mouth and nose in time, the smell that kept drifting into her nostrils still churned her stomach.
Her face turned sour as she halted, and unable to suppress the roiling in her stomach, she ran to one side and retched.
Inside the Chamber, a slightly hunched figure stood in the center, and behind him lay the bloody, mangled corpse of the Basilisk.
Blood covered the ground everywhere, and the rank stench of flesh and gore filled the air.
Dumbledore walked up to him and used a Scouring Charm to give the blood splattered over him a quick cleaning: "Well done."
The old butler nodded calmly, surveyed the sea of blood around him, then looked toward Kate, who was still retching at the entrance—and only then did a slight crack appear in his cold, stern face.
He strode over and made to reach out, but then, recalling that these hands had only just killed the Basilisk, immediately drew them back.
"Miss, are you all right?" he asked with concern.
Kate lifted her ashen little face, forcing down the churning in her stomach: "I'm... I'm fine. I'm just not used to it yet. I'll get used to it."
She simply hadn't expected the old butler to make such a mess of the scene.
The floor of the Chamber was nearly soaked through with blood; she didn't dare go in, and could only stand at the entrance, biting her lip with an unpleasant look on her face.
When her gaze fell on the massive corpse in the distance, Kate knitted her brows and immediately looked away: "Grandpa, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," the old butler said with a faint smile. "Leave the rest to us. You've had a hard day, Miss—why not go back and rest first, then go enjoy your Christmas study tour? How does that sound?"
Kate glanced hesitantly at Dumbledore in the distance, and seeing that he too tacitly approved of the old butler's plan, finally nodded with her pale little face: "All right, then I'll... go back to the dormitory and change my clothes."
With that, she bowed to the two of them, then covered her nose and hurried back the way she had come.
Once her figure had disappeared into the tunnel, the old butler let the affectionate smile fade from his face and slowly walked into the Chamber of Secrets.
"Next time, wait until I've cleaned up before you come in—look what you've done, fouling the air for my young miss."
Dumbledore gave an innocent, wry smile: "I was thinking—a situation with a monster like the Basilisk for an enemy is probably unlikely to come up again."
He adjusted his glasses and went on: "Speaking of which, when do you plan to tell Kate who you really are? During those ten minutes just now, the child was on pins and needles, terribly worried about you."
The old butler's expression darkened: "In a few more years, once she's a little more seasoned."
"Rand," Dumbledore reminded him kindly, "that child is far stronger than you imagine."
"She's still a child all the same." The old butler shot him a glance and casually kicked aside a chunk of flesh at his feet. "Let's get this place cleaned up first. Keep any usable materials from the Basilisk—I want to give them to Miss."
Dumbledore shook his head helplessly. "All right, all right, you old codger."
She spent half an hour washing in the bathroom before she finally scrubbed away the bloody stench clinging to her.
In her past life she had been just an ordinary person too, and even if she'd been fortunate enough to have a bit more life experience than her peers, she'd never witnessed such a grand spectacle of corpse-mountains and seas of blood.
The whole way back, Kate had been trying hard to use Occlumency techniques to empty her mind, doing her best not to think about that gory scene.
She was, after all, an adult—though she'd been shaken, after some skillful self-management it didn't reach the point of leaving any lasting trauma.
But she'd never realized before that the old butler, who had always stayed at her side, actually had the power to kill a Basilisk.
On second thought, though, he was, after all, a Wizard whom Dumbledore counted as a friend, so he was bound to have some real skill.
The older generation of Wizards mostly had something to them—otherwise they wouldn't have endured through two successive reigns of the Dark Lord.
Though Kate was rather curious about the little secret the old butler carried, she had no intention of prying into the old man's privacy.
In the future, if the old butler wanted to tell her, he could; if he didn't, that was up to him.
He was, after all, the one who had watched her grow up—someone even dearer to her than her own grandfather.
Coming out of the bathroom, Kate flopped onto her bed and let her mind go blank for a while, before remembering that she'd completed this year's school-year quest ahead of schedule, and hurriedly called up the System.
"System, open the rewards."
[Congratulations, Host, on Main Quest 5. Rewards are now unlocking...]
[Reward 1: Obtain Legilimency (Level 5)]
[Reward 2: Obtain the dark magic for creating Horcruxes]
[Reward 3: Obtain Tom Riddle's memories from before his fifth year]
"...System, you really phoned it in this time."
Kate frowned and was silent for a long while before she finally voiced the complaint in her heart.
It was probably because this target—the diary itself—simply wasn't as rich a vein to mine as last year's Philosopher's Stone.
The System had likely racked its brains for ages just to dig up these three things to offer as rewards.
Without a second thought, Kate went straight for Reward 1.
The method for making Horcruxes and all that—no thanks, she wasn't about to turn into a psychopath!
As for Reward 3—thanks but no thanks. This wasn't some romance-novel website channel; she had no need to learn about Voldemort's tragic backstory.
Perhaps it was precisely because the main-quest rewards were a bit lackluster that the System had added an Extended Quest this time.
[Now unlocking Extended Quest rewards.]
[Reward 1: Obtain the Basilisk's death-on-eye-contact effect]
[Reward 2: Obtain half of the Basilisk's venom ability]
[Reward 3: Obtain half of one random base attribute of the Basilisk]
These rewards looked a bit more reliable, and combined with the earlier main-quest reward, it seemed her long scheming hadn't been for nothing after all.
Kate sat cross-legged on her bed and began to think it over seriously.
First, Reward 1 was absolutely out of the question—she had no wish to become a modern-day Medusa. If she couldn't even look at pretty girls, how dull would life be?
Rewards 2 and 3 both looked pretty good—venom ability versus a base attribute... it was a tough call.
"System, can you display the Basilisk's base attributes?"
[Race: Basilisk]
[Strength: 80]
[Agility: 80]
[Spirit: 20]
[Vitality: 90]
[Venom: 90]
What a thick health bar....
She really couldn't fathom how on earth the old butler had managed to kill this thing.
It had no Charisma, Luck, or Mana, but that made sense—a Basilisk hardly needed those; it could instantly kill plenty of people with nothing more than a single look.
But the reward the System offered was half of a single random attribute. If it landed on something else, fine, but if it landed on Spirit, wouldn't she be getting a raw deal?
In matters like this, she leaned toward playing it safe.
"System, how exactly does this venom ability work?"
[The Host may optionally infuse venom while casting a spell, increasing the spell's offensive power.]
Tsk—that was venom that could destroy even a Horcrux. Even halved, even if it couldn't deal instant-death damage, it should at least still be able to paralyze an enemy, right?
If she later used some non-lethal spells—like the Impediment Jinx or the Disarming Charm—and could tack on a bit of a paralyzing effect....
Hiss—that actually seemed pretty good?
Oh well—base attributes were tempting, but as long as she put in the effort she could grind those out anyway; venom, though, was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
"I choose Reward 2!"
[The Host has obtained half of the Basilisk's venom attribute. Please use it wisely.]
Kate let out a long breath. Now all that was left was to wait until the end of the school year and see what rewards the System's end-of-year gift package would hold.
[Host: Kate Shafiq]
[Profession: Wizard]
[Title: Lord of the Manor]
[Charisma: 40]
[Strength: 43]
[Agility: 43]
[Spirit: 50]
[Vitality: 72]
[Luck: 32+5]
[Mana: 66]
[Fear Point: 9]
[Academy Reputation: 47]
[Family Reputation: 18]
[Wand Output Power: 2.0]
[Wand Attribute Points: 8]
[Emotion Points: 2]
[Stacked Ability One: Gifted Student Talent: Level 7]
[Stacked Ability Two: Magic Resistance: Level 6]
[Stacked Ability Three: Legendary Magic: Level 6]
[Stacked Ability Four: Animal Affinity: Level 5 (buff currently disabled)]
[Stacked Ability Five: Draconic Protection: Level 4]
[Stacked Ability Six: Basilisk Venom: Level 5]
On the spell front, the Levitation Charm, the Unlocking Charm, and the Bluebell Flames were already at Level 9.
The Searing Flame Curse and Occlumency had reached Level 6, plus the newly obtained Level 5 Legilimency.
The Phantom Clone and the Grand Summoning Spell were both at Level 3, Dragon Flame at Level 2, and Chongli Divine Fire at Level 1.
These were her current attributes and the main spells she'd mastered—they looked fairly impressive, all things considered.
It had taken a year and a half to go from single-digit attributes when the System first awakened to her current numbers; and while the System's rewards had certainly played their part, she herself had also poured in countless efforts and sweat.
But one comparison with the Basilisk's numbers made it clear that she was still a very long way from truly surpassing Voldemort, let alone Dumbledore.
To graduate from Hogwarts alive and from then on live a brand-new life of leisure—that was her ultimate ideal!
So the first thing she had to do was become stronger than all of them—only by growing stronger could she survive!
After staying in the dormitory for over an hour, it was already nearly noon.
She'd been burning through Mana and physical energy all morning, and by the time Kate noticed, she was already famished.
But at this hour there were no house-elves left anywhere in Hogwarts Castle to help cook, so she could only rummage through her things in the dormitory, dig out a few snacks to tide herself over, and then head out of the Common Room.
She'd originally intended to find Dumbledore to send her to the hotel, as if nothing had happened, but after a circuit around the Headmaster's office, she saw no sign of them.
Only Fawkes, still in his bald, featherless state, sat there all alone.
In the original works, by the time Harry fought the Basilisk, the Phoenix had already been reborn and grown back into his original majestic form, and was even able to help fight the Basilisk.
But right now... he was still a bald Phoenix—forget fighting, he couldn't even get off the ground.
After playing with him for a while, Kate went straight downstairs and came to the Great Hall, where she found that a steaming hot meal had already been laid out on the Slytherin table.
Just from the smell, she knew it had come from the old butler's hand.
But where were they?
After looking around with a puzzled expression and seeing no one, Kate pressed her lips together, then simply sat down and started eating in big mouthfuls.
"It seems she's recovering quite well." Dumbledore stood outside the Great Hall, secretly observing Kate's movements together with the old butler. "Now you can set your mind at ease, can't you?"
The old butler's perpetually taut face finally relaxed at the sight of Kate eating with such relish.
Ever since leaving the Chamber of Secrets, he'd been worried that his earlier appearance would leave his young miss traumatized, which was why he'd begged Dumbledore to come along and observe Kate's reaction.
"I told you, Kate is far stronger than you imagine." Dumbledore gave his shoulder a light pat. "Once she's finished eating, you can take her back."
The old butler turned his head aside: "And you?"
"Hogwarts is due for a repair inspection—I have to at least keep up appearances." He gave a slight smile and then vanished on the spot.
Glancing at the spot where he'd disappeared, the old butler was silent for a moment, then turned his head back to keep watching the girl still busily eating.
Once she'd polished off most of the food on the table, he slowly walked out and waved to her: "Miss."
"Grandpa!" Kate turned her head, and the moment she saw it was him, she trotted over with a face full of delight. "Have you and the Professor already finished cleaning up the Chamber of Secrets?"
The old butler tugged faintly at the corner of his mouth: "Mm. From now on, there'll be no more Basilisk roaming about to harm anyone."
"Mm!" Kate nodded excitedly. "Grandpa, you're the hero who slew the Basilisk! What a pity this can't be made public—we can't let anyone else know the Basilisk really existed..."
She knitted her brows in slight distress, but quickly smoothed them out again: "Oh, right—I can write this into the family chronicle, so that future generations will remember you forever!"
The old butler gave a start, his withered lips trembling: "Miss... aren't you afraid?"
Kate tilted her head, not understanding: "With you and Professor Dumbledore here, what is there for me to be afraid of?"
"...Right. Nothing to be afraid of."
The stiff smile on the old butler's face finally returned to normal. He took a pouch from his pocket: "These are some precious materials from the Basilisk—it took some doing to wrest them from that old fellow Albus's hands. Hold on to them."
"This much?" She opened it for a look and found the pouch—enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm—stuffed completely full of all sorts of materials, and couldn't help clicking her tongue in amazement.
"If it's not enough, next time I'll go find another Basilisk to kill for you!" The old butler laughed heartily, his face full of contentment, his rough, big hand vigorously ruffling her little head.
Though her head wobbled this way and that from the ruffling, Kate just wore a silly grin, without a single word of complaint.
As long as it made Grandpa Rand happy, that was what mattered most.
"Come, I'll take you back to the hotel!"
"Okay!"
____
________________________________________
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉