Volume 4: The Sea and the Ship Heading North Chapter 297 The Old Man in the Portrait
The Death Eaters were confused, and John was as confused as everyone else at this time.
He staggered and almost fell to the ground. He took several steps forward before he could barely stand.
By the time he stood firm, the bronze door behind him slammed shut!
The dull sound of the door closing woke Jon, who was still in a daze.
Gabrielle also felt the movement and poked her head out from Nick's horrified face with a confused look on her face.
"We...are entering?"
Jon didn't answer her because at this time, he was also observing his surroundings.
This place is different from the cold environment outside the door. It is surrounded by solid walls, not permafrost that never melts.
The space behind the door was not small, but it was not very wide either. It was obviously more like a hallway. Directly in front of Jon there was a winding path leading to the deepest part.
Jon looked around and found two ancient candlesticks embedded in the walls on both sides of the gate.
The candlestick was designed in the shape of a snake, with its tail embedded in the wall and its tongue sticking out of its mouth emitting a faint blue light.
The flame seemed eternal, and it had been burning before Jon entered the door.
Just by looking at the appearance of the flames, Jon could recognize what this fire was.
Gublai fairy fire, a kind of open flame that can burn forever, requires very advanced magic to create.
But no matter how precious the flame itself was, it would not attract Jon's attention so much. He stared at the candlestick on the right side of the bronze door, looking thoughtful as if he was recalling something, and asked Gabrielle with some uncertainty.
"Do you remember that when we were outside the door before, we found that the place where the gem stood seemed to be where the candlestick was?"
After hearing Jon's words, Gabrielle recalled it with an uncertain look on her face for a moment, and then the little girl nodded firmly.
"Yes! I remember that gem was very beautiful. It was on our left hand side facing the door at that time. Now that we have come in, it is on our right hand side!"
Gabrielle's affirmative words gave Jon more confidence. He walked to the candlestick on the right with an eager look on his face , and then tried to see if he could pull it out of the wall directly.
After the attempt failed, Jon raised his wand again and used a splitting spell on the area where the candlestick was embedded.
The wall behind the door was not as indestructible as the door itself. With a splitting spell, the stone wall with the candlestick embedded in it revealed dense spider-web-like cracks.
Afterwards, Jon held the snake-shaped candlestick tightly in both hands, and with a sudden force, he pulled the candlestick, which was enough to become a relic of the magical world, out of the stone wall!
The dark blue Gublei fairy fire on the snake's tongue jumped violently a few times before it stabilized in Jon's hand again.
And Jon's eyes, which were already excited enough to be called burning, did not look at the candlestick that could be sold for thousands of gold galleons in any magical area outside, but stared at the tail of the snake-shaped candlestick!
There was an unremarkable blue diamond-shaped gem there, reflecting the faint blue light of the flames!
The gem was taken out by Jon!
Now he finally understood why no one outside the door could take out the stone that seemed to be embedded in the ice.
That's simply an illusion!
The raw material used by Adrian to make the ring gem was a part of the candlestick. Somehow he found the tail of the candlestick on the ice outside the door. He completed the gem on the spot, but had no way to get it from the outside.
Because this gem belongs to the inside of the door, only after entering the bronze door will you be qualified to get it!
Jon looked at the snake-shaped candlestick with excitement on his face, and soon his gaze turned to the identical candlestick on the left side of the bronze door.
It’s hard to say what will happen next, but this trip cannot be in vain. If the snake tail of this candlestick can be made into a ring gem by Adrian, then the other candlestick must be extraordinary.
He continued to do the same with the candlestick on the left, and successfully took that lamp down from the wall.
Sure enough, Jon was not wrong. At the end of the candlestick was inlaid a gray, round bead that looked like a glass bead. This should be the raw material that Adrian found in this ice maze and made into a ring gem. However, this bead was not buried as deep as the one on the right, and was not discovered by Adrian who came here before.
Jon was in a very good mood as he had gained a lot as soon as he entered the door, but soon when he tried to put his hand on the bronze door again and tried to open it from the inside, the whole door did not move, as if it was just an illusion of Jon that it suddenly opened and let him in.
This made him worry about Fawkes' safety. There were so many Death Eaters outside. Even if the Phoenix was immortal, as long as he used the Killing Curse on it as it began to be reborn, he could still keep it in this alternative way.
But Jon lay down at the place where he took out the candlestick with the ring gem, trying to find the small hole through which he could see the scene outside the door, but after failing to find it, he could only put this worry aside for the time being.
This stone wall seemed to have the ability to repair itself. Previously, the candlestick embedded in it could connect the inside and outside of the door. Now that John had taken the candlestick, the originally hollowed-out part was slowly recovering. Soon he couldn't even see the small hole that he had just created with the splitting spell.
There was no way back for the time being, so Jon had to take the Gubler fairy fire off the two snake-shaped candlesticks first, and then try to put the candlesticks into the pocket that was cast with the Traceless Extension Spell. There was still enough space in the pocket, but the opening of the bag was too small for Jon to stuff it in.
He could only hold the candlestick in his arms and focus his eyes on the winding path in front of them.
" Come on , let's go in and take a look."
Jon whispered to Gabrielle, then he took out his invisibility cloak again and put it on.
Gabrielle also huddled obediently beside Jon, listening to his commands without saying a word.
Behind the door is an unknown space. No one knows what is here except Voldemort himself who has been to this place.
It didn't take long to walk forward. Jon moved very carefully and his steps were not big. But after only four or five minutes, they came to a suddenly open space.
This was a room that looked like a bedroom. After Jon and Gabrielle, wearing invisibility cloaks, walked into the room from the passage, a cluster of orange-yellow flames suddenly burned on the ceiling, illuminating the entire room.
The sudden burst of fire startled Jon, and also made Gabrielle, who had been holding Jon's arm, tremble nervously.
But as the fire lit up, they could clearly see the room that looked like a bedroom.
The space here was not big, just slightly more spacious than the place that could barely be called a hallway when they first entered, and not as spacious as the area outside the door where the Death Eaters were stationed.
But not only does it not feel cold here, it feels like being in a warm room with a burning fire.
There is a big bed on the left side of the room. The bed should be made of stone. Even though it seems that the bedding originally on it has been worn away by time and turned into a gray thing, the bed itself has not changed at all.
Directly below the flames on the ceiling, there was a table also made of stone. On the stone table was placed a teapot-like utensil. Originally, there should have been some sheepskin-like things on it, but now they had become broken pieces of leather and were scattered on the table.
In addition to this, there is a whole row of bookshelves leaning against the wall facing the path. These things are obviously made of wood, and are now rotten beyond recognition. Large pieces have collapsed to the ground, and only a small part can still be supported and stand on the ground.
Jon's eyes swept across the collapsed wooden bookshelves, moving all the way to the leftmost part of the bookshelf, and then he met a pair of eyes...
This is not a real person, but a portrait.
He was an old man who looked skinny and had a monkey-like face.
He had a thick goatee that hung from his chin in front of him, and his cloudy eyes stared at Jon without blinking.
When Jon met those eyes, his whole body froze.
He stared at the portrait through the invisibility cloak motionlessly, and was absolutely sure that the old man in the portrait could see through the invisibility cloak and see him.
Jon took a deep breath and tried to say hello.
"How do you do, sir?"
Hearing Jon's voice, Gabrielle was suddenly aware of the portrait of the old man. She stared with her eyes wide open, and lay on Jon like a koala sensing danger.
The old man in the portrait had a calm look, as if he had no intention of responding to Jon's greeting. His cloudy eyes just moved downwards and looked at the two snake-shaped candlesticks that Jon was holding in his arms.
Jon obviously noticed the direction his gaze was looking at, and immediately, like a thief who was caught red-handed stealing something late at night, he quickly pulled Gabrielle off him with an embarrassed look on his face, stuffed both candlesticks into her hands, and asked her to hide behind him so as not to make the atmosphere seem so weird.
The old man didn't seem to want to delve into why young people nowadays even steal candlesticks. Instead, he calmly shifted his gaze to Jon's face.
“Hiss, hiss, hiss…”
An unpleasant, piercing, snake-like language came out of the old man's mouth. Jon couldn't understand it at all.
Seeing that Jon was just staring at him with wide eyes, the old man was not disappointed at all. Instead, he seemed to have some doubts.
"You are not my blood?"
Jon had already taken off the invisibility cloak at this time. He had some shocking guesses in his mind, but on the surface he blinked his eyes as if he was a little confused.
"What's your name?"
The old man held up his hands and squinted his eyes as he introduced himself.
"Salazar Slytherin."
Although he had expected this name, he couldn't help but show a look of shock when he actually heard it.
He looked at the old man in the magic portrait, trying hard to retrieve the knowledge about the history of magic in his mind.
After the four founders of Hogwarts founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the four originally close friends had drastic disagreements over the conditions for admitting students.
Even though Gryffindor finally contributed its hat and could select the students they needed according to the needs of each founder, Slytherin, who had extraordinary requirements for bloodline, was still not satisfied with this result.
He even turned against his former best friend Gryffindor and had a conflict with the two witches Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. In the end, he chose to build a secret room in Hogwarts Castle and hid a basilisk in it. When his heirs found this place, he would release the basilisk to kill those students who studied in the castle but could not meet his requirements.
After completing these arrangements quietly, he left Hogwarts, which he had founded with others, and has been missing since.
So, he came here at some point afterwards?
Including this underground maze, was it all built by him?
And that snake monster was also raised by him before?
Many questions arose in Jon's mind, but his gaze towards Slytherin's old face did not shift at all.
As he looked at the Slytherin, the Slytherin continued to look at him.
"You're not a pureblood either?"
"You are not of my bloodline, nor of pure blood, but you can enter here..."
He looked at it, then suddenly sneered.
"According to what that idiot Godric said, you completely meet the qualities I require of a student and have won my approval. You are a proud, cautious, and ambitious person?"
Just as he finished speaking, a crisp "bang" sound suddenly rang out in the bedroom.
The two candlesticks were quite heavy, and it was very difficult for Gabrielle to hold them up. When Jon was talking to Slytherin, she accidentally dropped one of them on the ground.
Both Jon and Slytherin were attracted by the candlestick that shouldn't be here. Combined with what Slytherin had just said, the atmosphere fell into an eerie silence again.
Gabrielle obviously knew that her carelessness was a bit inappropriate. She looked like she was about to cry, and hurriedly dragged and pulled the candlestick that had fallen to the ground back and hid it behind John.
It was as if the incident of them stealing the candlesticks from their host's house had never happened.
