Deep in the shadowy corridors of Hogwarts Castle, a faint, chilling hiss of Parseltongue seeped out from within the ancient, weathered walls.
The voice was low and rough, as if it had crawled through endless years, carrying an indescribable hunger and resentment.
"So hungry… so, so long…"
Then the tone abruptly shifted, icy killing intent spreading through every syllable:
"Kill… it's time…"
Harry's heart tightened. He chased the sound, sprinting through the castle's labyrinthine passageways, his robe snapping in the wind.
But he hadn't gone far when the voice inside the wall came again—this time making Harry's expression turn instantly heavier.
Now it was filled with pain and struggle, as if it were being tortured beyond endurance:
"No… it hurts… damn it… get out… all of you, get out…"
The hissed howl was laced with despair.
"Ah… I was wrong… leave…"
Then came something that sounded like regret and fear:
"No… I shouldn't have eaten it…"
As Harry closed in, the voice grew more and more unstable, each note like magic on the verge of breaking loose—ready to lash out at anyone nearby.
Just as Harry was about to reach the wall where the sound was coming from, the sinister voice suddenly sharpened into pure malice, choosing a target:
"A delicious lamb… you'll do…"
The next instant, from around a corner ahead, a sharp teenage scream rang out.
Harry's face changed at once.
That was Ginny's voice!
Almost simultaneously, a dense, glowing green array snapped into existence, wrapping around Harry's body.
In the next heartbeat, the flow of time shifted—and Harry's speed multiplied.
He whipped around, planted both feet hard against the wall for leverage, and launched himself toward Ginny's direction like an arrow.
Wind howled past his ears. In the blink of an eye he crossed dozens of meters, rounded the corner—and saw Ginny.
And there, a massive shape was crawling down from the ceiling along the wall, sliding toward her. Its huge head lowered, and its pale yellow serpent eyes were about to meet Ginny's gaze head-on.
Ginny was already terrified beyond thought, frozen in place, staring blankly at the basilisk.
If their eyes truly met, the basilisk's petrifying gaze would end Ginny instantly—so fast that even Harry wouldn't be able to undo it.
Harry's urgency spiked. The green array flared again around him, light flashing violently, runes jittering and leaping as if straining to answer his demand.
He bared his teeth and forced his time magic harder, brutally pushing past the limit of triple acceleration—dragging it up to a terrifying fivefold acceleration.
At last, in the hair-thin moment before the basilisk's gaze could lock onto Ginny, Harry reached her.
He stomped down.
A surge of magic erupted, and a thick, solid wall slammed into place between Ginny and the basilisk—blocking the line of sight and cutting off the lethal petrifying stare.
Ginny yelped at the sudden wall.
Then a blinding green flash swept across her vision.
When it faded, she realized she was now at the far corner behind them, out of immediate danger.
The next thing she noticed was a scent she'd been longing for. She jerked her head up—and there it was: the handsome face that had been appearing in her dreams again and again.
Ginny threw her arms around Harry, laughing and crying at the same time.
"W-w-w… Harry… was that you? Did you save me? I was so scared!"
Harry gently patted her head, soothing her.
"Don't be scared, Ginny. I'm here. It's still dangerous—get far away. And tell Professor Dumbledore what happened here, as fast as you can."
Ginny knew this wasn't the time to fall apart. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and nodded hard.
"Okay. Don't worry—I will!"
Once Ginny vanished around the corner, Harry took a deep breath, stepped forward, and slowly walked out to face the basilisk, which was scanning around in confusion.
The instant Harry appeared, the basilisk's enormous head snapped toward him. Its cold vertical pupils locked onto him like hooks.
A vicious gleam flashed in its eyes, and it lunged forward.
At the same time, it raised its head high, those huge pale yellow eyes staring straight at Harry, trying to kill him with that fatal gaze.
But the basilisk never expected this.
Harry didn't retreat even a fraction. He stared directly back into its eyes without hesitation, his deep gaze fixed on those pale yellow orbs.
What shocked it even more was that after Harry met its gaze, he didn't die.
He didn't even sway.
Its petrification had been completely ignored by the young wizard.
How was that possible?
Even Slytherin didn't have that kind of ability!
The basilisk was baffled. It couldn't understand why its deadliest weapon had failed.
But it did understand one thing: once its strongest method didn't work, the wizard in front of it was one of the most troublesome enemies it had ever faced.
In the past, with those petrifying eyes, it could contend with top-tier wizards.
Now, stripped of that advantage, it felt like those clumsy fire dragons—reduced to nothing but a huge, stupid lizard with muscle and teeth.
So instead of attacking again, it became cautious, waiting for an opening—deciding whether to flee or find a way to kill this wizard.
And then, the basilisk heard something that made its mind go blank.
The young wizard in front of it opened his mouth and spoke clear Parseltongue, slowly and precisely:
"Who are you? Was your former master Slytherin? And who is the one commanding you to murder people now?"
The basilisk—never particularly clever—froze.
Huh?
This wizard could speak Parseltongue too?
Was he Slytherin's true heir?
But then who was the blond wizard who had been ordering it to sow chaos and attack students?
Still, by the ancient contract, if this wizard could speak Parseltongue, then he could also command it.
The basilisk's cold eyes softened a little. It flicked its tongue, hissing steadily.
"My former master was Slytherin. And the one who made me kill was a…"
It was about to reveal the name of the mastermind—
When its body suddenly went rigid.
Terror flooded its face as it screamed:
"Ahhh—so painful! I was wrong, I was wrong! I shouldn't say your name!"
The basilisk felt a scorching surge of magic explode inside its body, like a blazing fire trying to burn it from the inside out.
And clearly, no matter how it begged and screamed, whoever had activated that magic had no intention of holding back.
In the next instant, Harry sensed a force burst out from within the basilisk—stronger than ordinary chaos magic, and far more disordered.
It was violently unstable, so savage it shredded the basilisk's sanity, driving it into total madness as it started attacking everything around it.
"Ahhh—so painful! Kill… kill everyone!"
A crimson magic spread across the basilisk's surface. Under its influence, its already massive body expanded again—swelling several times larger in just a few seconds.
Harry even saw two wings pushing out from its back.
It looked like it was trying to become a dragon.
Suddenly, the basilisk opened its jaws and spat a blazing fireball that screamed toward Harry.
Harry's brows knitted tightly. The basilisk wasn't supposed to have any ability to breathe fire.
This had clearly been forced into existence by that power inside it—power that looked suspiciously like ancient magic, twisted into something else.
That made Harry wonder: did ancient magic have some special connection to dragons?
To avoid causing catastrophic destruction inside Hogwarts, Harry snapped out his wand and struck the air in front of him.
Cracks splintered across empty space, spreading like a web.
In moments, the surrounding area was dragged into the Mirror Dimension.
Inside the Mirror Dimension, the basilisk's transformation continued. Its body grew more powerful, more like a true fire dragon that could cast magic.
It even became clear after a few exchanges that it had gained tremendous resistance to spell attacks.
Reducto, which should've blasted a massive crater into it, now couldn't even break through.
And Incendio, which should've easily scorched its flesh, only left faint black burn marks on its scales.
For an ordinary wizard, facing a basilisk that had turned into a magical fire dragon would be a nightmare.
But this was the Mirror Dimension.
And to a true master of the Mirror Dimension, it was his world.
The entire Hogwarts Castle warped around them. The environment twisted into cage after cage, trapping the basilisk inside.
Then countless rocks compressed, forming denser, sturdier needle-like spears that launched toward the basilisk in a lethal storm.
One by one, the sharp stone lances pierced its body, ripping open horrific wounds.
Under that dense, brutal assault, the basilisk lost the ability to resist in short order.
Harry stopped attacking and drifted toward it, preparing to read its memories and uncover the whole truth behind the mastermind.
But just as he reached the basilisk's side, his expression shifted.
In a blank stretch of the Mirror Dimension, a purple crack suddenly appeared.
An eerie energy lingered within it—powerful enough to annihilate everything. It felt similar to the higher-dimensional energy of the Dark Dimension… but also different, as if it came from the same source as the twisted ancient-magic-like power inside the basilisk.
Then the crack expanded.
The Mirror Dimension—something that had never been forcibly pierced within the wizarding world—was torn open.
Under Harry's gaze, a blond-haired, handsome man stepped out of the purple rift. His face was dark as he stared at Harry and spoke coldly:
"Very good, Harry Potter. The so-called Boy Who Lived—the one who could defeat Voldemort—really does have some skill."
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