Volume 1

Hiding myself to the maximum, closing myself with a transfigured stone and concealment charms, I looked at Slytherin's pet with surprise. The explosive spell was still able to wake up the snake, and the carcasses of the arkramantulas served as a good bait for him. He didn't even pay attention to me hiding, although he might have noticed something. Hiding from a magical animal of the highest class of danger is not as easy as it may seem from the outside.

Although at the moment I wasn't sure about the danger of the snake king. Even though outwardly he has hardly changed since our last meeting, well, except that he has become a little more over the past fifty years, but internally… Without proper scanning, I couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong with the basilisk, but the snake's magic felt somehow wrong.

If earlier I felt his magic as a wild stream of icy water that pours into the surrounding world like a raging waterfall. Now, the snake's magic was more like hundreds of thin streams of river water, still as cold, but not even close to as overwhelming and powerful. And, it seems, I even understand why there are such strong changes in my old meaning. As a mental magician, I felt the changes in the mental sphere of the snake just fine.

My basilisk was really subdued. At the same time, he was subdued very competently, he is now almost a familiar of another magician. Moreover, I used to think that such a thing was impossible at all. Previously, the basilisk was a familiar of Slazar, and therefore he simply could not obey someone else one hundred percent. But the unknown magician was able to establish a connection with the snake, similar to the connection between the owner and his familiar.

In general, yes, it is no longer necessary to count on the fact that the snake will be able to return to itself. But it's just necessary to find out who messed me up like that. And the method of subjugation of such a transcendent monster needs to be found out. I wouldn't mind subjugating some dragon, the legends say that these creatures, with proper training, can share their magic with the owner… True, the last dragon familiar was already at Merlin himself, but I am far from an ordinary wizard…

Actually, for this purpose, I sent a queue of two dozen scanning spells to the basilisk. It was hard for me, yet this body has not yet got used to serious magical loads, and I have not yet had time to work out some spells properly in this life. But in the end, everything kind of worked out. Let the first spells be absorbed by the aura of an ancient monster, but the subsequent ones have already reached their goal.

A flood of information hit my head. In a matter of seconds, I learned almost everything about this snake. However, I didn't manage to realize all this information right away. Not only is it contraindicated to use scanning spells one by one, it is dangerous for the mind, and there are obvious problems with sorting, so the basilisk also paid attention to me.

And dealing with the mess in my head and at the same time fleeing from the thousand–year-old king of snakes is too much even for me. And his look didn't work for me yet, although it would be more accurate to say that it didn't work at all. The invisibility spell did not allow the snake to focus his gaze on me, even though he knew my approximate location. I never managed to completely hide the thermal radiation of my body.

Fortunately, I am ready for battle. However, I'm not going to kill the snake. He may pose a serious threat to me, but the wizard who was able to subdue the basilisk was much more dangerous for me. And I wouldn't be able to kill the snake king so easily. Yes, I have a lot of strength. Charms that can break through the basilisk's defenses, I also know. In theory, I can put this monster to rest quite easily… In practice, everything is much more complicated. Not only that, too complex charms still require a lot of time for their caste, and I haven't used them before. Not in this life.

Add to this the danger of the basilisk itself, which is capable of drowning me in poison-acid, crushing me with the brute power of its magic, or simply crushing me, and the situation becomes generally sad. I don't have a really effective way to kill a snake right now. Preparation is needed here.

And I don't really want to kill the king of snakes. And it's not about some kind of attachment, although I'm still pounding with rage because my beast was stolen. Here, rather, a simple understanding plays its role that the magician who subdued the basilisk must be many times more dangerous than the snake itself. And I even suspect what kind of magician was able to bind the founder's pet to himself. The serpent was entangled with too powerful mental enchantments. Almost no one is capable of such things now. Nobody but Dumbledore…

- Die. The snake hissed, sending a jet of its venom into me and causing my body to be covered with goosebumps. Too much bloodlust accompanied this hissing. And the jet of poison-acid was very annoying. Fortunately, I managed to transfigure the bones lying on the floor into a fairly large steel shield, which took over the main part of the attack.

Let the transfiguration fly off after contact with the magical poison, but the shield withstood the first wave of the attack, stopping the jet. And let a few drops of this stuff still flew in my direction, but I just dodged them, moving even too fast… Most likely, my gift is making itself felt again. Draco's body was definitely not capable of moving with such flexibility and speed.

- You won't wait! I hissed back, creating a wave of blue flame and blowing it up with the wind. Tom may not have fought this snake before, but he knew how to resist it just fine. And this knowledge was given to me along with the horcrux of the future Dark Lord. The only problem was that I was pretty weak in fire and wind magic.

Elemental magic is rarely studied before the age of twenty. It is too energy-consuming and difficult to master, and it is not necessary, in fact, in the current realities of the magical world. Even aurors almost do not touch this part of magic, focusing on lethal, but not massive, beam charms. It is not at all surprising that Tom knew and was able to use only two dozen natural charms, most of which related to the element of wind, and they could not boast of special power.

- The speaker! - The snake screamed furiously, sending several more jets of poison in my direction, but I already easily left them, pushing my body away with a wave of wind. Well, at the same time creating even more fire around you and dispersing it with wind explosions. The Basilisk perfectly saw the thermal radiation, and therefore these flashes of fire were created by me more for camouflage than for a full-fledged attack.

Blurring the eyes of my opponent, I ensured that the snake would lose sight of me and I could not only attack that explosive spells that extremely infuriated the cold-blooded monster, but gradually move away to the exit from the secret room. I wasn't going to fight to the death, but to bring the snake to exhaustion… I doubt that this is even possible while he is in a place of power like Hogwarts. Here, the serpent's powers, both magical and physical, were restored even faster than he managed to spend them.

That's why I wasn't going to delay the fight, trying to leave the Secret Room as soon as possible. The basilisk still could not leave without an order, this is one of the most important prohibitions of its owner. I doubt that even someone of Dumbledore's level will be able to lift this ban from the snake. By the way, the basilisk did not need food, he is a completely magical animal. The magic produced by the source of Hogwarts was enough for him to grow and live. However, the snake still liked to eat…

- Vers AeyraF! I barked, creating my most powerful elemental spell. A powerful wind tornado immediately rushed towards the snake king, absorbing all the fire that I had caused before. Yes, such an attack will definitely be able to distract the basilisk from my escape. However, I have almost no strength left.

Despite all my talents and a reserve of magic that more corresponded to some forty-year-old aurora, I still began to get tired. Elemental magic drained my reserves very quickly, and constant witchcraft was already beginning to have a deplorable effect on my concentration. Mental muscles were no longer enough to throw bambards and elemental charms right and left.

It's time to get out. Anyway, I have already received all the necessary information about the snake. It remains only to realize them and decide what to do with all this. I don't like my suspicions about Dumbledore. Everything connected with this old man carries danger. I've already figured that out for sure.