Hoare, Hoare had no idea why this was happening!!!
Harry also looked terrified.
Hoare thought of a possibility and leaned over to Ron, casting a few spells on him.
No reaction at all, it was indeed Ron Weasley himself.
Why!?
Could twins have different bloodlines!?
"Ron! Didn't you say all the Weasleys are in Gryffindor?" Harry asked curiously.
"I don't know either, let's go in quickly! I'm too curious!" Ron was unusually excited, as if he were a different person.
"Oh, my lovely Helena~" Ron snatched the dizzy Helena from Hoare's hands and hugged her tightly.
Harry looked at Ron in horror.
Hoare was too shocked to show any expression. "Side effects of the healing potion," he explained to Harry.
Then Hoare also walked through the stone door, with Harry following last.
Once all three and the snake were inside the room, the stone door creaked shut automatically.
The only source of light in the room disappeared as the stone door closed.
"Lumos."
Hoare lit up the room.
He was surprised to find that the room was actually deep beneath the Great Lake, even deeper than the dungeons.
The room had windows, and looking out, it was pitch black, with the occasional glowing fish swimming by, revealing the lakebed of the Great Lake.
Hoare glanced around. The room was very large, about four times the size of his dormitory.
One entire wall was a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, while the other wall had small compartments, resembling the cabinets used for storing herbs in traditional Chinese medicine.
A large desk and a wide armchair were placed by the window.
A simple double bed was against the wall.
To be honest, this room didn't look like a Slytherin's room at all; it seemed more like a Ravenclaw's.
Finally, Hoare's gaze fell on the center of the room, where there was a large pattern on the floor that looked like a magic circle.
Behind him, the sound of hissing conversation could be heard again.
Helena said something and then crawled onto the simple single bed, curling up tightly.
Soon, the sound of sobbing could be heard.
To be honest, a snake crying sounded really eerie.
Harry looked at Hoare and said, "Helena says her master isn't here."
"A thousand years, even if he were here, he'd have turned to dust by now," Ron quipped.
"Not necessarily," Hoare said, staring at the large magic circle in front of him. "Perhaps Helena's master is still alive."
Although the three of them were talking about Helena's master, anyone with a bit of sense could guess who it was.
Someone who could build such a large underground space at Hogwarts, with silver-green decorations, and a Basilisk that had loyally waited for a thousand years.
"Who is Helena's master?" Hoare and Harry looked at Ron, who had asked the question, with their hands on their foreheads.
"The founder of Slytherin," Harry said.
"Salazar Slytherin," Hoare said.
"!!! Wait!!!" Ron finally reacted. "Henry, are you saying Salazar Slytherin is still alive!?"
Hoare nodded, crouching down and tracing the air above the large magic circle with his hand. "I saw a similar magic circle in the restricted section before, just a concept, a concept for time travel."
"That magic circle experiment failed, but later generations created the Time-Turner based on it."
Ron and Harry, along with Helena, looked at Hoare with curiosity.
"A magical device that allows you to travel within 36 hours, but it has certain usage conditions and rules," Hoare explained to them with a sigh.
The magic circle in front of them was clearly more exquisite than the one he'd seen in the book.
The room was spotless, not a speck of dust, likely due to some spell or perhaps the house-elves of Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, the magic circle couldn't be taken away, so Hoare could only imprint it in his mind to study it thoroughly later.
A time machine like Doraemon's isn't just a dream!
With the Invisibility Cloak, they could develop all kinds of time-travel tourism services!
Hoare's mind was already planning which tourist spots to visit.
"Henry? Henry? Henry!" Harry called loudly in Hoare's ear.
Hoare snapped back to reality. "What is it?" he asked.
"Helena says the exit is behind the bookshelf," Harry pointed to the bookshelf.
"I want to help Helena find her master," Hoare knew Helena could understand human speech.
Hoare was very interested in the entire wall of bookshelves and materials, but he knew he couldn't take everything with him, as he couldn't risk harming Harry and Ron.
He might as well let Helena hand over the most important things directly.
Helena listened to Hoare, lifted her body, and two large tears hung under her emerald eyes as she stared blankly at Hoare.
"As a condition of exchange—" Hoare extended his right hand.
"Do you have any humanity!? You're even making money off a snake!?" Ron exclaimed excitedly. To be honest, he found his emotions very strange right now; he should be angry, but he couldn't help feeling happy inside.
It's all Henry William's fault!!!
Helena didn't understand at first, but after hearing Ron's words, she got it.
She circled the bed a few times, and then her body seemed to grow larger.
At first, Hoare thought he was seeing things.
"Oh my!!!"
"!!!"
Hoare looked at Harry and Ron's horrified expressions and confirmed that he wasn't mistaken; Helena had indeed grown thicker.
She was now definitely thicker than both of Hoare's thighs combined.
"William! You've angered Helena! She's not going to eat us, is she!? William made you mad, Helena, eat William!!!"
Ron hugged Harry in terror, babbling nonsense.
Although Helena had grown thicker, she remained on the bed.
Even with protection, the quality of the thousand-year-old bed was somewhat questionable.
As long as Helena moved slightly, the bed creaked, and eventually, Helena didn't dare to move at all, coiling herself tightly to barely fit on the ancient single bed.
Helena poked her head out above the floor.
At this point, Helena was already quite large, and Hoare couldn't help but take two steps back.
Then he saw Helena roll her eyes at him...
Hoare...
Hoare held back!
After all, with Helena's current size, swallowing Hoare whole wouldn't be difficult.
Then Hoare saw Helena start to move slightly, as if her body was expelling something.
Hoare approached curiously to see what was happening.
He heard Helena make a retching sound.
He looked at his robe, now a mess from Helena's vomit, and then looked up at Helena.
Helena showed a guilty expression, which was quite amazing; a snake's expression was so human-like.
Hoare thought that maybe in another thousand years, it would be normal for Helena to speak human language.
With a guilty look, Helena found something in her vomit, picked it up, and handed it to Hoare.
Her expression had now turned to one of righteous indignation.
Hoare didn't want to take it at all, but if he didn't, Helena would probably shove it into his clothes.
Reluctantly, Hoare took it, suppressing his disgust.
Ron and Harry, covering their noses, curiously leaned in.
Hoare thought the shape of the object—looked like something familiar.
He suddenly thought of a possibility and, suppressing his nausea, examined it closely.
He was stunned.
It was effortlessly obtained.
"This is—the Philosopher's Stone."