"Cough! Cough! Hrk—"
It felt as if ten thousand ants were charging out of his windpipe all at once. An intense, unbearable itch—mixed with a choking sensation and the feeling of a foreign object—sent Avada into a violent coughing fit. He hurriedly pulled out a tissue to cover his mouth, hacking up several mouthfuls of phlegm streaked with blood. His face instantly turned deathly pale.
Then he suddenly felt a warm sensation at his lips. He reflexively raised his sleeve to wipe it away, and the originally jet-black fabric was immediately stained with a large patch of dull reddish-brown.
"Damn it… I've hit my limit…"
Forcing his bloodshot eyes open, he drew his wand and tapped it against his nose, stopping the steady trickle of blood. Then he pressed the wand to his temple and murmured a spell under his breath. Only after a while did a faint hint of color return to his face.
"No… I can't keep taking Brain Elixirs and Invigoration Draughts anymore. If I do, I'll be left with extremely troublesome aftereffects…"
"But there's no time. There really isn't any time left!"
More than half a month had passed since he'd asked Harry and the others to spread the news about the basilisk and distribute the rooster-call badges. Yet students were still being attacked and petrified—and the number was rising at a terrifying rate. As a result, many students had begun to doubt their warnings and stopped wearing those ridiculous-looking badges altogether.
After openly revealing his identity as a Parselmouth, Harry had volunteered to Professor McGonagall to join the prefects' patrols, hoping to do his part to protect Hogwarts. But in nearly half a month, the number of times he'd actually caught the basilisk's voice could be counted on one hand—and even then, it vanished almost instantly, making it impossible to track.
Worse still, as the number of victims grew, people finally noticed a disturbing pattern—
Every petrified student shared one trait: they were all Muggle-born.
The sole exception was the caretaker, Argus Filch—but he was a Squib, even closer to a Muggle than Muggle-borns themselves.
This discovery only strengthened the belief among Hogwarts' staff and students that the attacks couldn't possibly be the work of a monster. After all, how could a beast selectively target only Muggle-born students?
Thus, the most widely accepted theory became that the petrifications were the retaliatory actions of some extremist pure-blood supremacist, venting their rage after Dumbledore's departure. And the popularity of this theory had an immediate consequence—
Slytherin students' reputation across the school plummeted overnight.
Everyone knew that Slytherin housed the largest number of radical pure-bloods among the four houses. Many of them were also pure-blood nobles, perfectly capable of producing Dark magical artifacts to cast a petrification curse that even Professor McGonagall couldn't undo.
Once this idea took hold, it actually flushed out quite a few extremist Slytherins. Some of them, heated from arguments, openly declared their support for the attacker behind the petrifications. A few went even further and tried to imitate the attacks themselves—only for their crude petrification spells to be easily undone by professors. Those copycats were now serving six months' worth of detention.
This atmosphere of mutual suspicion only made the basilisk's attacks more rampant.
In just half a month, nearly one-tenth of all Muggle-born students in the school had already been struck down.
At this rate, half a year would be enough to wipe out every Muggle-born student entirely—especially since the frequency of attacks was still accelerating.
Because of this, Avada no longer had the luxury of prioritizing the capture of the Horcrux diary.
What he needed to do now was to break the Chamber of Secrets' entrance with everything he had, then immediately find a way to contact Dumbledore—so Dumbledore could bring Fawkes and slaughter that student-hunting basilisk once and for all!
As for the Horcrux… once he had time to study the mechanics of the repentance effect, even if that diary fled to the moon, he'd still be able to drag the soul fragment back.
"But soul magic… it's so damn hard…"
Rubbing his temples, he staggered out of the bathroom, unsteadily descended the stairs, and only dispelled the Disillusionment Charm once he reached the second floor. He leaned against the wall and took deep breaths—he didn't dare use Apparition-like spatial spells right now. One mistake, and he could freeze or suffocate to death in a spatial rift.
"Ken? You're here? That's great!"
"…Harry?"
Avada struggled to lift his eyelids. Sure enough, Harry's excited face came into view, with Ron and Hermione following behind him. They didn't look like they were on patrol.
"We were just looking for you!"
Harry jumped down three or four steps in one go, landing with a dull thump. Then he froze when he saw Avada's complexion.
"You're still—"
"Yeah. But I haven't made any progress. I'm anxious too."
Avada raised his head slowly. "What did you want to see me about?"
"Uh… it's not exactly urgent," Ron hesitated, pointing at Avada. "You probably don't realize how scary you look right now. Merlin, you're paler than a ghost—your skin looks like the ghoul that lives above my attic…"
"That's a sign of long-term overuse of Invigoration Draughts," Hermione added worriedly.
"I know. And honestly, I do plan to slow down soon. My stamina's basically in tatters already…"
Avada rubbed his dry eyes, forcing himself to straighten up and look a little more presentable. "But I can still help with things that aren't too intense. Go on—what did you need?"
"..."
The three exchanged hesitant glances. Finally, Harry asked cautiously, "We wanted to ask… do you know where we can get African Tree Snake skin and a bicorn horn?"
"You're making Poly—"
Avada started to exclaim in surprise, but Hermione reacted instantly, clapping a hand over his mouth.
"Quiet! We went through a lot of trouble to get that restricted book!"
"…?"
You actually went through proper channels to get a restricted book?
"Alright… but what are you making that stuff for?"
Avada asked, genuinely puzzled. In the original story, they brewed Polyjuice Potion to spy on Malfoy after suspecting him as Slytherin's Heir. But this time, what was the trigger?
"We think Malfoy and Parkinson are suspicious," Harry said. "We want to turn into Crabbe and Goyle and question him."
"Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson?"
Avada raised an eyebrow. "Suspicious how?"
Malfoy's father had been the previous owner of the Horcrux diary—could Draco actually know something, or even be involved?
"Malfoy's behavior changed too drastically," Harry said seriously, lowering his voice. "Before the petrifications started, he was practically a turtle—nothing like his arrogant self from last term. He barely spoke, flinched around everyone, and even when he ran into us, he wouldn't provoke us. He'd just pretend not to see us and hurry past…"
Avada nodded. He'd noticed Malfoy's odd behavior during the Dueling Club as well, but hadn't thought much of it. "And then?"
"And then, after the first petrification—when Filch got hit—he suddenly became unbearably arrogant again. Mud—well, you know, those words never stopped coming out of his mouth. He'd provoke students from other houses every chance he got."
"Pansy Parkinson was the same. And that was before anyone realized the victims were all Muggle-borns. Malfoy and his lot must know something!"
"…I understand."
Avada's expression turned serious as well. The situation really was strange—and it wasn't something he could ask Baron to investigate. Baron was already facing heavy exclusion within Slytherin, and Malfoy would obviously be on guard against someone whose stance he knew so well.
"The two items you want can both be purchased from shops in Diagon Alley. It'll cost around fifteen Galleons. Here's the address…"
He pulled out a slip of parchment and scribbled down a line, handing it to Harry.
"But those ingredients are a bit rare. From sending the order to receiving it, it'll probably take two or three days."
(End of Chapter)