"Huh?" Harry blinked and looked at Slytherin's statue.
"There should be something behind there," Dudley said.
Hearing this, Ron, who'd been slumped on the ground, immediately jumped up with an excited expression.
"See, I told you there was treasure."
Hermione ignored Ron and walked over somewhat incredulously. "Shouldn't the back of this statue be the basilisk's nest?"
"Go in and look, then we'll know," Dudley said.
"I'll try." Harry came before the statue.
Previously, he hadn't been able to open the statue—Dudley had used Voldemort's diary to open it. But this time, they obviously couldn't let Voldemort do this again.
After staring at the statue for a long time, Harry still couldn't find the feeling.
"Serpensortia!" Dudley raised his hand and released a spell, the very one Malfoy had used on Harry before.
Snap!
A snake was summoned and landed on Slytherin's statue.
Seeing this snake, Harry finally got the feeling.
"Open." A hoarse, low voice came, and Slytherin's statue was opened again.
This time, no basilisk crawled out from inside, and the Slytherin statue's mouth remained open.
Dudley slowly walked over, dispelled the summoning spell, and sent the snake away.
Seeing this, the others quickly followed.
"Such bad breath," Ron couldn't help waving his hand.
Where the basilisk lived, the smell certainly wasn't pleasant. As soon as they approached the Slytherin statue's mouth, they smelled a foul stench hitting them.
"I'm about to be fumigated to vomiting." Harry also couldn't stand the smell; feeling the odor coming from inside was eye-watering.
It felt just like crawling directly into the basilisk's mouth.
"Aer Purus." Hermione waved her wand and cast an air purification spell.
"It can only temporarily purify the air. The things causing the stench inside are still there—it'll return to normal soon," Hermione explained.
"At least it's acceptable now."
The smell in the air finally faded considerably. After Dudley finished speaking, he was the first to enter.
Inside Slytherin's mouth was a secret passage extending diagonally downward, like his throat.
The passage was damp, with slime-like substances emitting a rotten stench. Holding his breath, Dudley walked step by step diagonally downward.
Behind him, Harry and the others followed closely.
"I'll guard outside," Cole's voice came from the distance.
He was injured and didn't plan to come in. Besides, someone needed to guard outside to prevent accidents.
Before long, the surrounding space suddenly opened up. The narrow passage disappeared, replaced by a very large space.
"Lumos." Dudley cast the spell, and a glowing orb immediately flew out, floating in midair and illuminating the surrounding area.
This was a spacious cave. The ground was scattered with many white bones and rotting corpses. It was clear this was where the basilisk lived—it basically stayed here when sleeping.
"Is that a seal's corpse? This place really does connect to the ocean!" Harry pointed at a pile of rotting flesh not far away.
"You can tell quite a bit of the rotting meat here is from marine fish," Dudley said after scanning once.
"There's a passage over there!" Ron said, pointing at an opening nearby. Clearly more interested in treasure than corpses.
"Let's go check it out!" Dudley skirted around the rotting corpses and made his way to the passage on the opposite side.
"The basilisk doesn't look like it's entered here." Dudley stood at the entrance and studied it for a moment.
"Could there be protective spells?" Harry suggested.
If the basilisk hadn't entered, it meant this place might be sealed by magic or kept off-limits by Slytherin's orders.
"Let me check." Borgin volunteered.
His combat performance today hadn't been very good. To prevent Dudley from being dissatisfied with him, he needed to show his value.
Dudley didn't stop him, letting Borgin inspect the surroundings. At the same time, Dudley also activated spirit vision to check the situation around.
"There are traces of magic, and very concealed..." Dudley's gaze fell on the passage, vaguely seeing some strange light—traces left by magic that gave him a very dangerous feeling.
"There's a curse. Everyone be careful," Borgin said with a serious expression.
Harry's group immediately became alert.
After thinking for a moment, Borgin took out a withered claw from his bag. It was unclear what animal it was from—the surface was charred black, as if burned by something.
Borgin muttered something under his breath and slowly placed the claw at the cave entrance.
Time passed second by second. Suddenly, they discovered the black color on the claw was deepening, as if being eroded by some strange power.
Crack!
The next moment, a bone segment on the claw shattered and turned to powder.
"What's happening?" Ron asked with a pale face.
"It should be a very powerful curse. I'm trying to seal the curse's power in this magical item, but it can't quite withstand it," Borgin said somewhat heartbrokenly.
The curse's power continued eroding the claw. Its surface became pitch black, then the finger bones began bursting apart segment by segment. In just a moment, the entire claw exploded, turning into powder on the ground.
"Is the curse cleared?" Harry asked.
Borgin shook his head with an ugly expression. "This curse is very powerful. There's no way to completely seal it."
"So you sealed part of its power? What percentage?" Hermione couldn't help asking.
This was her first time seeing a curse's power like this—very different from the magic she usually saw.
"About... ten percent?" Borgin said uncertainly.
"What?" Harry's trio couldn't help but blurt out.
From the earlier appearance, they all thought Borgin had cleared seventy to eighty percent of the curse. It turned out to be only ten percent, and judging from Borgin's hesitant manner, it might not even be ten percent.
"Do you have more of that thing?" Dudley asked.
Borgin shook his head. That thing was very precious, specially used to clear curses, and it was directly scrapped here. Whilst heartbroken, Borgin also marveled at how terrifying this curse was.
"This is very likely a curse left by Slytherin himself. It's very difficult for us to remove. Perhaps only his true heir can enter here," Borgin stated his speculation.
Slytherin's treasure really wasn't so easy to obtain.
Even after killing the basilisk, there was still an extremely terrifying curse waiting for them.
Dudley slowly walked over, constantly thinking in his mind about ways to remove the curse. After much thought, he only came up with one solution.
With a turn of his hand, the Trunsoest Brass Book appeared in Dudley's hands.
"Perhaps I can only borrow the power of the rule book."