Chapter 299 297 The Old Man in the Portrait

Chapter 299 297. The old man in the portrait

The Death Eaters were confused, and Jon was as confused as everyone else at this time.

He stumbled and almost fell to the ground. He walked forward for several steps before he could barely stand firm.

When he stood firm, the bronze door behind him slammed shut!

The dull sound of the door being closed woke up Jon who was still in a daze.

Gabrielle also felt the movement, and looked out from Nick's frightened face with a confused look.

"We. Entered the door?"

Jon did not answer her, because at this time, he was also observing the surrounding environment.

This place is different from the cold environment outside the door. It is surrounded by solid walls, not the permafrost that has not melted for thousands of years.

The space behind the door is not small, but it is not very wide, but it is obviously more like a hallway. There is a winding path in front of Jon, leading to the deepest part.

Jon looked around and found two ancient candlesticks embedded on the walls on both sides of the gate.

The candlesticks were designed in the shape of a snake, with the tail embedded in the wall and the snake tongue spitting out of the mouth lit with a faint blue light.

The flame seemed to be eternal, and it had been burning before Jon entered the door.

Just by looking at the appearance of the flame, Jon could recognize what this cluster of fire was.

Gublai fairy fire, a kind of open fire that can burn forever, requires very advanced magic to make it.

But no matter how precious the flame itself is, it will not attract Jon's attention so much. He stared at the candlestick on the right side of the bronze door, thinking as if he was recalling something, and asked Gabrielle with some uncertainty.

"Do you remember that when we were outside the door before, the place where we found the gem standing seemed to be the position of the candlestick?"

Hearing Jon's words, Gabrielle recalled for a moment with uncertainty, 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. Now that we have come in, it is on our right 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 part where the candlestick was embedded.

The wall behind the door was not as indestructible as the door itself. Under a splitting spell, the stone wall with the candlestick embedded in it revealed dense spider-web-like cracks.

After that, Jon held the snake-shaped candlestick tightly in his hands, and with a sudden force, he pulled this candlestick, which was enough to become a magical artifact, out of the stone wall!

The blue Gubler fairy fire on the snake letter jumped violently for a few times, and then stabilized in Jon's hand again.

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 magic area outside, but stared at the tail of the snake candlestick!

There was an unremarkable blue diamond gem there, reflecting the blue firelight!

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.

It was simply an illusion!

The raw material used by Adrian to make the ring gem was part of the candlestick. I don't know how he found the tail of the candlestick snake in the ice outside the door. He finished the gem on the spot, but he couldn't get it from the outside.

Because this gem belongs to the inside of the door, only after entering the bronze door can you be qualified to take it in your hands!

Jon looked at the snake candlestick, his face full of excitement, and soon, his eyes turned to the same candlestick on the left side of the bronze door.

It was hard to say what would happen next, but this trip was not in vain. If the tail of this candlestick could 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 this lamp off the wall.

Sure enough, Jon was not wrong. At the tail of this candlestick was inlaid a gray round bead 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 one was not buried as deep as the one on the right, and was not discovered by Adrian who came here before.

Jon was very happy 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 that Jon suddenly opened it and let him in.

This made him a little worried 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 while it was constantly 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 that could see the scene outside the door, but he couldn't find it, so he could only put this part of his worry aside for the time being.

This stone wall seemed to have the function of self-repair. Before, the candlestick was embedded in it and connected the inside and outside of the door. Now that Jon had taken the candlestick, the originally hollowed-out part was slowly recovering. Soon, he could not even see the small pit he had just smashed with the Splitting Spell.

There was no way back for the time being. Jon had to take down the Gubler fairy fire on the two snake-shaped candlesticks first, and then tried to put the candlesticks into the pocket with the Traceless Extension Spell. There was enough space in the pocket, but the opening of the bag was too small for Jon to put it in.

He could only hold the candlestick in his arms first and set his sights on the winding path in front of them.

"Let's go, let's go in and take a look."

Jon whispered to Gabrielle, then he took out the invisibility cloak again and put it on.

Gabrielle also shrank beside Jon obediently, listening to Jon's command without saying a word.

Behind the door was an unknown space. No one knew what was there except Voldemort himself who had been there.

It didn't take long to walk forward. Jon moved very carefully and his steps were not very big. But after only four or five minutes, they came to a space that suddenly opened up.

This was a room like a bedroom. After Jon and Gabrielle, who were 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 fire startled Jon and made Gabrielle, who had been holding Jon's arm, tremble nervously.

But as the fire lit up, they also saw this bedroom-like room clearly.

The space here is not big, that is, it is a little more spacious than the place that can barely be called a hallway when they first entered the door, and it is not as spacious as the place where the Death Eaters are stationed outside the door.

But here, not only does it not feel cold, but it also feels like being in a warm room with a burning fire.

On the left side of the room was a large bed, which was probably made of stone. Even though the bedding on it seemed to have been worn away by time and turned into a gray thing, the bed itself had not changed at all.

Right below the flames on the ceiling, there was a table also made of stone. On the stone table was a teapot-like utensil. There should have been some sheepskin-like things on it, but now they were broken into pieces and scattered on the table.

In addition, there was a whole row of bookshelves against the wall facing the path. These things were obviously made of wood, and now they were rotten beyond recognition. Large pieces collapsed on the ground, and only a small part could be supported and stood on the ground.

Jon's eyes swept over the collapsed wooden bookshelves, shifting to the leftmost position of the bookshelf, and then he looked into a pair of eyes.

This was not a real person, but a portrait.

It was an old man with a skinny face and a monkey-like face.

He had a thick goatee hanging down from his chin in front of him, and his cloudy eyes just stared at Jon without blinking.

When he met those eyes, Jon's whole body froze.

He looked at the portrait through the invisibility cloak motionlessly, and was very 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.

"Hello, sir?"

Hearing Jon's voice, Gabrielle only noticed the portrait of the old man at this time, and she stared with big eyes, lying on Jon like a koala that sensed danger.

The old man in the portrait looked calm, as if he had no intention of answering Jon's greeting, but his cloudy eyes moved downwards and looked at the two snake-shaped candlesticks that Jon was holding in his arms.

Jon obviously noticed the direction of his gaze, and immediately, like a thief who was caught stealing things late at night, he hurriedly pulled Gabriel off him with an embarrassed look, 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 the fact that young people nowadays even stole candlesticks, but turned his eyes to Jon's face again.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss."

An unpleasant, piercing, snake-like language that Jon couldn't understand at all came out of the old man's mouth.

Seeing Jon just staring at him with big eyes, the old man was not disappointed, but seemed to have some doubts.

"Are you not my blood?"

Jon had taken off the invisibility cloak from his body at this time. He had some amazing guesses in his mind, but on the surface he still blinked his eyes in confusion.

"What's your name?"

The old man held his hand and squinted his eyes to introduce himself.

"Salazar Slytherin."

Although he had expected this name, he couldn't help but show a look of shock when he heard it.

He looked at the old man in the magic portrait and tried 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 people who were originally close to each other had a drastic disagreement on the conditions for recruiting students.

Even though Gryffindor finally contributed his 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 such a result.

He even turned against his former best friend Gryffindor for this, and had conflicts 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, they could release the basilisk and kill those students who studied in the castle but could not meet his requirements.

After completing these arrangements quietly, he left the Hogwarts that he founded with others and disappeared from then on.

So, he came here at some point?

Including this ice maze, was it all built by him?

And the basilisk was also raised by him before?

Many questions came to Jon's mind, but his eyes looking at Slytherin's old face did not deviate at all.

While he was looking at Slytherin, Slytherin was also examining him.

"You are not pure-blooded either?"

"You are not of my blood, nor of pure blood, but you can enter here."

He looked at it carefully, and then suddenly sneered.

"According to that idiot Godric, you completely meet the student qualities I require, and you have been recognized by me. You are a proud, cautious and ambitious person?"

Just as he finished speaking, a crisp "bang" sound suddenly rang in the bedroom.

The two candlesticks were really heavy, and it was not easy for Gabrielle to hold them up. When Jon and Slytherin were talking, she accidentally dropped one of them on the ground.

Whether it was Jon or Slytherin, they were attracted by the candlestick that should not have appeared here. Combined with what Slytherin had just said, the atmosphere once again fell into a strange silence.

Gabrielle obviously knew that her carelessness was too inappropriate. She looked like she was about to cry, and hurriedly dragged the candlestick that had fallen to the ground and hid it behind Jon.

It was as if they had never stolen the candlestick from the host's house.

Damn it, I'm going to update this climax!

At least two chapters of 4,000 words tomorrow, and 8,000 words. I can go to bed when I finish writing!