Chapter 161 - Return to the Chamber of Secrets Ⅱ (1/2)

Turning on her heels, Rowan returned to the chest and pointed her wand at the books to shrink them down. Carefully pocketing them, she turned to walk out, before pausing to hiss, ”Whether this was your original intention or not, nevertheless thank you.” About to apparate away, she pauses at hearing a loud booming echoing noise in the far-off distance.

Someone was inside of the Chamber of Secrets with her.

Hurrying forward, Rowan quickly left the hidden chamber and made her way back out. Sliding down the nest of bones, she hurried across not caring if she slipped and fell. Scrambling forward she kept going before emerging at the top of the opening of the stairs. Glancing into the far distance, she quickly douses her light and begins to creep down the stairs in the strange green light. By the time she made it down, she heard footsteps rapidly approaching through the tunnel.

Hiding behind a column she waited for what seemed ages as the steps only grew louder with time. At long last, someone appeared at the edge of the carved serpent columns. ”I always knew that Salazar had exquisite taste,” Professor Adric mused in approval causing Rowan's face to grimace at the remark as she fell further back into the shadows as Professor Adric raised his wand that was glowing with light at the tip of his wand.

Glancing around, Professor Adric lets out a gasp of awe at seeing the majestic stone statue of Salazar Slytherin. ”Incredible,” Professor Adric said before his eyes became fixated on the stone steps leading to a path on high to entrance up high. Curiosity and greed getting the better of him, Professor Adric began to climb to see where the path led.

”It's a shame, he didn't get to meet the Basilisk,” Rowan thought to herself as she watched Professor Adric climb higher and higher. He was more than halfway up when it occurred to her that it might not be a good thing for Professor Adric to have found the Chamber of Secrets.

Even if there was no longer a terrifying monster below this was a place where Salazar Slytherin taught forbidden dark arts to his students. It was a place that must stay forgotten to protect the current Slytherins. But the reason that finally tipped the scales was the fact that Professor Adric either spoke parseltongue or knew of someone else who did. How else did he get the entrance in Myrtle's bathroom to open and the great serpents carved door?

With hesitation and dread, Rowan pointed her wand at Professor Adric. Her hand trembled as she found that she couldn't speak all of a sudden. It was one thing to kill a creature that had yet to even live, but another to kill another with their unprotected back exposed. And yet she found that she could not lower her wand either.

The seconds turned into minutes as she wrestled with her inner turbulent feelings. Finally, Rowan could no longer stand it and raised her wand to cast the tripping jinx. With painful slowness, the wand fell out of Professor Adric's grasp as it plummeted first down below like a falling star. Professor Adric followed next as his arms and legs desperately churned as he fell backward. He must have cried out, but Rowan wasn't able to hear anything over the sickening pounding of her heart.

The wand hit the stone ground first bouncing twice, before rolling to a stop. Seconds after, the body of Professor Adric hit the ground with a sickening thud. Like an egg that had been broken open, red fluids poured out of the still, mangled corpse of Professor Adric.

Trying to not hurl, Rowan tries to breathe only to find that the air smells of a metallic wet smell. Feeling bile climb up her throat, she instantly teleported away to the dorm's bathroom. Stumbling into a stall, she proceeded to hurl everything she had for dinner and before. Large gasps were squeezed out of her as begged for clemency from the porcelain god before her.