Chapter 132: Who are you?

Chris was quite excited to find out if he'll get anything from the chamber. He was at least positive that Tom Riddle had found something in there. That would explain much of the riddles behind Tom Riddle becoming Lord Voldemort.

Before opening the Chamber, Chris checked if the notifications spell Dumbledore had left the last was there or not. Indeed, there was one.

That's the reason why he had brought Harry with him. So that Chris himself coming alone here wouldn't seem suspicious. It's just two curious boys exploring the chamber.

He had also brought Harry because he supposed that since the Chamber of easily openable with his Parseltongue, he might be able to successfully open the secret location where the treasure is hidden.

Chris had theorized that Parseltongue that Riddle and Harry speak is different from other Parselmouths because it's been inherited from Slytherins. Any random Parselmouth wouldn't be able to open the chamber at all, let alone grant others permission to open and enter as Harry had given to Dumbledore, Professors, and Chris.

"You ready?"

"Yeah!"

Chris and Harry didn't know fear as they opened the Chamber and looked into the endless darkness below. They had brought their brooms with them this time.

"Lumos Sphēra," muttered Chris, and a ball of light came out of his wand and started to float down the hole.

Harry looked at the spell that was quite similar to the one Dumbledore had used the other day, "That's quite handy," he commented, noting how better it was from a simple Lumos. "Why don't you teach me these things instead of occlumency?"

"You'll be able to learn them on your own once you master occlumency," replied Chris, but he still added in to-do list to teach Harry some utility spells along with the combat ones.

After coming from his family, he had a reasonable excuse to teach Harry Occlumency along with other things, saying he learned it from his family and also started teaching Harry. He's just checking out if Dumbledore has any problems with it or not. If he does, well, Chris would think about it at that time. These things would take for him to learn.

They dived down at high speeds, and Chris noticed that Harry's flying skills had improved a lot.

"Woods is really bulldozing you these days, huh?" He called out loudly to be heard over the sound of rushing wind.

Harry laughed, "It's all because of you, you monster!" He shouted back. After all, if Chris wasn't this good, there wouldn't be the need for so much practice.

They raced down the dark tunnel, while Chris was also trying to keep the glowing orb in front of them floating. It was something that the reckless idiots like these two would do, maybe that's why they're such good friends.

When they reached below, the area seemed quite different this time.

"Wasn't there a Basilisk skin here?" Asked Harry, looking at the empty-looking expanse in front of us.

Chris shrugged, "Maybe the teachers entered and took it away after we left."

Thought inwardly his thoughts were different, 'So, the old geezer already visited, huh? It's good that I made my move much faster.'

They ventured into the dimly lit chamber once again and Chris increased the intensity of his Lumos Sphēra. And the statues of stone snakes entwined pillars came into view, along with Slytherin's massive statue at the end.

They both started to look around the Chamber. Harry was just curious and couldn't look properly at the last since they were attacked by a Basilisk as soon as they had come in.

"Harry, start spouting random Parseltongue in all directions. Who knows, something might work out," he suggested.

While Harry was doing this, Chris quickly found his vanishing cabinet and quickly put it in his after checking it making sure there weren't any spells placed on it.

At least one mission is complete!

"Where do we even start?" Muttered Harry, looking a bit hopeless as he suddenly realized just how big this Chamber was.

Chris shook his head. He'd already thought about this issue and he indeed didn't fancy searching the whole place like some idiot.

He thought of it like this: If I built a secret base, and post a monster to guard it, where would I hide the treasure?

Of course behind the monster!

Chris looked at the giant statue. It was still deformed from the last blowjob it had suffered from, where Dumbledore forcefully made it choked on Salazar's looonnng and thicckk Basilisk.

The entrance was open, so Chris supposed that he might as well see if his hunch was correct or not. He activated the trigger for just in case scenarios( like maybe, an additional Monster popping up) and flew up with his broom, entering the mouth. But—

'What the—'

As soon as tried entering the mouth he felt the presence of wards there.

It was at this moment that he knew he f*cked up.

He felt the wards scanning his body.

'Blood Wards!' He realized in dismay.

Blood wards are bad news. If there are blood wards involved, even Harry, with his unique Parseltongue, can't enter this. Because he might have Salazar's unique Parseltongue Parseltongue through Riddle's soul shard, but he doesn't have the blood relation required!

But Chris didn't have the time to think about these things. Because as soon as the wards would confirm that he wasn't Salazar's descendant, they'll react however they were programmed to react!

The first thing Chris do was to try to get away, but he found that wards had blocked his movements. And the next thing he did was to activate Corpomency!

He was already inside, so at least Harry wouldn't see it.

Even with the trigger active the Corpomency still couldn't activate instantly!

Just before the Corpomency layer formed, Chris could feel a bit of magic slipping in. And it instantly started taking effect before his pure magic could dispel it.

"It's going towards the head?"

The magic, as it turned out, was powerful ancient magic which targeted the brain.

'Then, bring it on!'

Chris wasn't afraid. His mental defense consisted of several layers. So, he isn't afraid of mental spells.

"..!!??"

But what happened next did surprise him a lot.

His occlumency is had three layers.

First was a layer made up of his mental energy. This was the so-called Occlumency shield that all the other wizards had.

The second layer was a shield made up of defensive magic along with mental energy. This was the shield that powerful wizards and master occlumens had. According to the books, this was the strongest form an occlumency shield could take, and in order to improve your defense, now you just keep solidifying and reinforcing this shield over the years.

To improve further and go even beyond this level, you can only improve on the aspect of damage control — what you would do after someone is able to break even those strong defenses.

That includes learning to control your thoughts and emotions and creating false memories to deceive and mislead the intruder. This is the level that Severus Snape has achieved, and this is the reason why he's a very important chess piece for both sides.

This was the so-called Occlumency in a nutshell. There are other things, but much can be improved after this in the 'defense' aspect as far as almost all the wizards in this world believe.

But! After this, Chris has a third layer of defense as well! This layer is formed when you mix pure magic with mental energy. And the layer formed is... on a whole different level!

And It was this exact same layer that became very useful to him this time.

Because as the magic of Slytherin's ward made its way into his brain, it directly bypassed the first two layers of occlumency!

That means, if this was any other wizard in his place, they wouldn't have been able to defend themselves.

This spell is like a Fidelius. Even people with occlumency would be affected. Just like how even Voldemort was affected despite his excellent occlumency when Fidelius was cast on the Potter Cottage.

Fortunately, the spell couldn't bypass the third layer at all.

But! After bypassing the first two layers, the ward has still affected his surface thoughts. His surface thoughts changed completely according to the ward.

Chris blinked his eyes and looked disappointed, "Oh, there's nothing here. Well, too bad."

And he began returning the way he came. But! He stopped right before he exited.

"What the heck?!" He asked himself. Since only his surface thoughts, he suddenly realized that he hadn't even explored this place yet!

Currently, he had a shining multicolored armor covering his body and even these surface thoughts couldn't be reached due to the presence of his Corpomency helmet.

"Well, I'll be damned..." He almost wanted to laugh at the sudden close call he had just now. Indeed, the founder is several levels higher than what he'd expect from Dumbledore or Voldemort.

But the exit of this spell here also explained many things which he was confused about.

"So, this is the reason." He murmured. Now everything was beginning to make sense to him.

Why Dumbledore never asked for Harry's help in exploring in Chamber of Secrets in the Canon. Chris had thought Dumbledore might have just asked for Harry's assistance and then obliviated him afterward. And the items found might have just been too insignificant to be mentioned in the story.

But now he knew the real reason! The old geezer in canon probably first came here and got done in by this ward! He probably even forgot that he had harvested a Basilisk corpse and that's why it was never even used in the wars. Its skin could have saved the skin of a lot of order members.

Those poor people weren't even equipped with dragonhide armor. Imagine how much better it would have been if they were equipped with a Basilisk skin armor.

(A normal Dragonhide has a very weak magic defense in comparison to a Basilisk hide since even though the Dragons hide has high resistance to magic, they don't have complete magic resistance like the Basilisk.)

With all the mysteries solved, Chris began making his way into the tunnel with caution. After that incredibly overpowered and brilliant spell, there was no other defensive measure taken by Slytherin. It seems that he was very confident in his spell. And why wouldn't he be? If you remove the thing about the secret keeper, the Fidelius is so OP that there won't be a need for any other defensive measures after casting it.

Chris wanted to go and explore right away, but he remembered that Harry was still outside. Sighing he decided to come again later. Harry would be useless here since he wouldn't even be able to enter, let alone use his Parseltongue.

So, Chris decided that he should first go back with Harry and then come back alone. Harry's work was done. The notification ward was already broken and now the old man would think that they came to explore and found nothing.

The wards locking him had been released as soon as the Fidelius-like spell had been cast on him. Chris exited and told Harry that he found nothing.

In the end, they both returned empty-handed and went to their respective Dormitories.

***

MC POV:

"Alright! I'm back Muthefucker!" I shouted as I stepped into the Chamber of Secrets alone for the first time.

I had dropped Harry off and this time, since there was no notification charm on it, I had entered and closed the exit behind me. Now, no one knows I'm here. I will have the spoils for myself if I do find them.

This time, I can use my magic to my heart's content as well.

"Let's suit up," I muttered.

Pure magic started to ooze out from my skin and shining armor began to slowly cover my body.

'Tony Stark, huh?'

A burst of Magic escaped my hands and feet and I was propelled upwards at an astonishing speed.

"Woohoo!" After flying around for some time, I got used to it. I'm not doing this for fun, alright? There could be more dangers inside the mouth tunnel so I have to be prepared this time. That's why I'm practicing the use of this Armor.

The Armor has turned out Brilliant. Both literally and figuratively. Since it's made of pure magic, I can use it any way I want. I have about a hundred more ways to use it, like making wings grow out of my back, etc, but I have important things to do.

Focusing my attention back to the mission, I entered Salazar's mouth, all serious. The powerful ward which was supposed to 100% block all intruders didn't work on me at all due to the pure magic armor.

As soon as I took a few more steps forward, the mouth of Slytherin, which was supposed to be malfunctioning, suddenly closed.

!!!!

I could have exited it in time, but this time, I decided not to.

'Screw it, man!' I've had enough of it. I'll don't believe I can't break through that. And if really can't, I always have my Vanishing Cabinet.

After walking forward for some time, the cave opened into a giant open space. And I realized that I couldn't step into the cave. This area had wards so densely woven that I could tell it would be very troublesome to go in.

The wall was hidden with shelves, most of which were filled with books.

"Who are you?" Asked an old but authoritative voice.

"!!!!"

My attention instantly shifted towards the source of the voice.

It was coming from a portrait of a bald old man with a white beard and long mustache wearing a monocle on one eye. He was dressed in resplendent green robes and on his chest hung a locket of heavy gold with a serpentine S in glittering green stone inlay on the front.

"Oops," I muttered as I realized that things were going to be a bit more complicated than I'd thought.

***

A.N.: MC is still wearing his conspicuous Corpomency armor. And the founder asks him: Who are you?

This indeed justifies an 'Oops.' What's he supposed to do now?

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