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Crack!
A burst of dazzling sparks suddenly bloomed in the Chamber of Secrets, accompanied by a cry.
Fawkes appeared out of thin air, his talons firmly gripping Dumbledore, who was dressed in pajamas.
The sleeping old man had arrived on the scene in this somewhat hurried manner.
Dumbledore's eyes peered through his glasses, quickly scanning the entire Chamber of Secrets.
At a glance, he saw Lynn standing not far away, his school robes covered in dust and stone chips, with faint traces of smoke on his face.
His gaze then fell upon the lifeless body of Cassius Carrow on the ground.
Finally, his vision fixed on the Basilisk, coiled not far away like a pile of dung.
Even for the well-traveled Dumbledore, his pupils contracted slightly.
He immediately strode toward Carrow, knelt down, quickly checked Carrow's pulse and pupils, and used his wand to carefully sense above the body.
After a moment, Dumbledore let out a long sigh, shook his head, and stood up.
The flame of life had been completely extinguished; even he was powerless to reverse it.
Dumbledore turned to Lynn. "Child, can you tell me exactly what happened here? Every detail is very important to us."
Lynn began his "explanation." In any case, he wasn't at all worried about Legilimency—not to mention his own knowledge of Occlumency; he had the system to rely on.
It wasn't just about the mechanics; it was about the stats.
"Professor... I was originally fishing by the Black Lake. It's Christmas, and the Castle is empty, so I was a bit bored... Later, when I returned to the Castle and passed that abandoned girls' bathroom on the second floor, I thought I heard a strange noise inside... so I decided to go in and check..."
Lynn described the process of discovering the sink mechanism and jumping down to explore the tunnel.
"After coming down, I saw... Carrow lying on the ground, looking very bad.
Beside him was a Slytherin senior I'd never seen before... He said his name was Tom... he seemed to have a very long name, but I didn't hear it clearly. He looked very angry..."
Lynn skillfully tweaked the timeline, changing his eyewitness account of Carrow being drained of life into "Carrow was already dying when I came down, and that wizard named Tom was about to harm him."
He described using 'Silver Glow' to pacify the Basilisk as "Tom proposed a 'fair wizard's duel' and claimed he would make his 'pet' be quiet and not disturb us."
As for burning the diary with Fiendfyre, that was due to Lynn's own quick-wittedness.
Lynn's narrative was half-truth and half-lie.
Dumbledore listened quietly, his eyes fixed on Lynn without interrupting. He might have sensed some subtle inconsistencies, but the traces at the scene were very consistent with the description.
For a second-year young wizard, even one who was exceptionally gifted and had learned quite a bit of the Dark Arts, to survive such a situation—and to some extent prevent a worse outcome, such as the Basilisk rampaging out of the Chamber of Secrets—was already a miracle. One couldn't ask for more.
A thought even popped into Dumbledore's mind:
Perhaps this child's exposure to Dark Arts knowledge... was still a bit too little? Otherwise, he might have handled it more calmly.
Of course, this thought was immediately replaced by more important considerations.
Dumbledore blinked, his gaze becoming softer, filled with understanding and comfort:
"You have done exceptionally well, child. Staying calm and taking action in that situation saved you and prevented a greater crisis. This is not your fault; you need not carry any guilt for this."
Dumbledore was referring to Carrow's death, clearly believing Lynn felt uneasy about it.
Next, Dumbledore walked up to the Basilisk.
The Basilisk still had its eyes closed, but sensing the approach of a powerful wizard, its nostrils twitched slightly.
Dumbledore observed it carefully, his wand lightly touching the Basilisk's scales.
After a moment, he nodded slightly. "An ancient forced contract curse... very troublesome, full of binding. But strangely, it is now greatly suppressed, even tending toward dormancy..."
Dumbledore speculated that the curse had already loosened after a thousand years, and with the subsequent destruction of the heir's Horcrux, it lost its controlling reinforcement and was thus temporarily suppressed.
Indeed, through Lynn's description combined with his own years of investigation and suspicion, Dumbledore was almost certain:
Tom had indeed created "Horcruxes" to achieve immortality. This diary was one of them.
This realization made his heart heavy, but it also caused many mysteries to suddenly become clear.
Just as Dumbledore fell into deep thought, the originally quiet Basilisk suddenly lifted its head with its eyes closed and emitted a series of dissatisfied hisses toward Dumbledore:
"Hiss hiss~ (You want me to work overtime too? Is there no end to this? Retirement! I want to retire!)"
Dumbledore looked at the Basilisk with slight surprise, then turned back to Lynn. "Child, if it's convenient, could you tell me what it said? I am not proficient in this language."
Lynn: "..."
He translated dryly, "Professor, it says... it doesn't want to work overtime."
Dumbledore was visibly stunned, needing a moment to digest the answer. He repeated, "Overtime? Even a Basilisk... needs to 'work'?"
Lynn had no choice but to translate Dumbledore's question into Parseltongue for the Basilisk.
The Basilisk immediately perked up and let out a series of resentful hisses. "Hiss hiss? Hiss hiss hiss hiss... (Haven't you just seen it? I've been with Salazar since I hatched! Guarding the house, staying underground... I've been doing it for a thousand years!
No holidays! No subsidies! Not even a decent full meal! Later, the contract finally started to loosen, and then an even more annoying wizard came along, using the contract to force me to work overtime! I've had enough! I want to retire! Right now! Immediately!)"
At the height of its excitement, it paused. Its massive head turned toward Lynn, eyes tightly shut but nose sniffing hard. This movement startled Dumbledore, who almost fired off a powerful Stupefy, but fortunately, the Basilisk made no dangerous moves.
The Basilisk seemed to have caught a scent that interested it, and its hissing became somewhat curious.
"Hiss hiss hiss hiss... (By the way, do you still take in magical creatures? I smell several good scents... an Antipodean Opaleye? And a... hmm? A horse that smells of wine?)"
(Lumière, napping in the trunk, suddenly lifted his head. "Wine? Where is there wine?")
Dumbledore looked at Lynn curiously, waiting for the translation.
Lynn kept a straight face and summarized concisely, "It says it has worked too long and wants to retire, and then... it wants to come to my place for its retirement."
"Are you sure, child?" Dumbledore's tone carried doubt, especially regarding the latter part of Lynn's translation.
"I'm sure, Professor!" Lynn answered decisively. "I just deleted some redundant words about it complaining about hard work and the previous boss being bad. The core meaning is that it doesn't want to do it anymore and wants a change of environment."
Dumbledore looked at Lynn's serious expression, then at the Basilisk, which was clearly waiting for a response despite its closed eyes, and couldn't help but smile.
"I don't think there's any need for deletions. Perhaps a literal translation would be more helpful for us to understand this... er, 'employee's' thoughts."
Thus, with Lynn's "complete" translation, Dumbledore listened to the Basilisk's blood-and-tears "workplace complaint" and "intention to jump ship."
Lynn's translation omitted the description concerning Levi.
"Wait, child... you... are keeping a dragon? And an Abraxan?"
Lynn shrugged. "Yes, Professor. They're all legal, with complete paperwork."
He selectively ignored the fact that Lumière had been lured away by him "using wine."