“Is he dead?”
Weilan stood on his tiptoes, watching where the shadow had vanished, and asked Dumbledore.
“Dead, but not completely.”
Dumbledore told Weilan the conclusion:
“He still has Horcruxes, which allow him to cling to life until he finds an opportunity for resurrection.”
The memory did not end there.
The magic circle on the ground dimmed, and the patches of red light contracted into strands of red thread, drilling into Ailiudaila’s fair skin.
Ailiudaila broke free from her restraints and ran frantically out of the Chamber of Secrets.
As the red light was absorbed, her body began to undergo strange changes.
These changes, in Weilan’s eyes, manifested as—
Stiff joints, expressionless face.
Weilan leaned in closer to observe Ailiudaila and found that in addition to the two aforementioned changes, her pupils had also dilated.
“Death is eroding her.”
Dumbledore said this as he watched Ailiudaila flee the Chamber of Secrets.
The scene disappeared.
Below his feet, the sensation of weightlessness returned.
Weilan floated higher and higher. He quickly returned to the Principal’s office with Dumbledore.
Everything before his eyes felt unreal.
Weilan lowered his head, recalling the magic circle in the Chamber of Secrets he had seen in the memory.
“That magic circle seemed to be one used for creating a Blood Horcrux.”
He spoke, “I just saw the magic circle for creating a Blood Horcrux in the notes, so I still have some impression of it.”
Upon hearing this, Dumbledore immediately took out the notebook again and turned to the page about the magic circle.
“They are the same.”
This was Dumbledore’s comparison result.
Weilan looked at the notes again and found that Dumbledore was indeed telling the truth.
“Then I think I should be able to piece together the general events that occurred in this memory.”
Weilan’s hand traced the uneven rim of the Pensieve.
Looking down from there, he could vaguely see the constantly shifting memory scenes through the ethereal silver-white mist in the basin.
“First, let’s clarify the identities of the three people who appeared in the memory.”
“The Veela who drank the Polyjuice Potion—Ailyudia Serceirin—is the owner of this memory. I believe you can see that, Professor.”
“Then there’s the girl who only appeared once; she gave Ailiudaila a snake, as well as her own hair, clothes, and hair accessories.”
“She should be a female with a blood relation to Salazar Slytherin…”
Dumbledore suddenly interrupted Weilan:
“Her name is Lilith Slytherin, Salazar’s daughter.”
Weilan raised his eyebrows, very curious as to why Dumbledore would know Lilith.
Dumbledore pushed up the glasses on his crooked nose and explained to Weilan:
“Do you remember? You told me a rumor—that Slytherin’s daughter drowned in North Ford Marsh.”
“I even went to North Ford Marsh myself to investigate and discovered a tomb.”
Weilan remembered.
He hadn’t taken that rumor seriously at the time, thinking the information was likely false.
After all, even if Dumbledore had found the tomb, he hadn’t discovered anything useful inside.
Dumbledore continued to tell Weilan what he had seen inside the tomb:
“Aside from some dark creatures, there was almost nothing of value inside.”
“But I found a weeping female stone statue inside.”
“The base of the statue recorded the woman’s name and the cause of her Death.”
“Lilith Slytherin, died for disobeying her father’s wishes and secretly fleeing Hogwarts.”
“Her father built her a tomb here.”
“This is consistent with the rumor you told me, but I didn’t find anything more inside. So, at the time, my trip to North Ford Marsh was, shall we say, fruitless.”
“I just never expected…”
Dumbledore used the tip of his wand to collect the memories from the Pensieve and return them to the original small glass vial.
“I actually saw that weeping female stone statue again in this memory.”
“She is Lilith Slytherin.”
The new information provided by Dumbledore did not affect Weilan’s deductions.
Weilan continued:
“Alright, then, we can also confirm the identity of this unknown woman—Lilith Slytherin, the daughter of one of Hogwarts’ founders.”
“The last person to appear in the memory is her father, Salazar Slytherin.”
“Based on the magic circle used to create a Blood Horcrux in the Chamber of Secrets at the end, we can infer that—”
“The person originally intended to be used for the Blood Horcrux was Lilith.”
“But Lilith, at the last moment, persuaded Ailiudaila to impersonate her and complete her father’s Blood Horcrux ritual.”
“This should have been a transaction; Lilith must have promised Ailiudaila some kind of benefit.”
“Because Ailiudaila was neither a Horcrux nor related by blood to Slytherin. Therefore, Slytherin’s ritual undoubtedly failed.”
“Slytherin suffered a backlash and was directly dismembered in the Chamber of Secrets. But he still had a Horcrux, which was his daughter Lilith, so Slytherin did not completely die.”
“As for Ailiudaila, although she didn’t suffer a tragic fate like direct decapitation, she must have been affected by the ritual in some way.”
Weilan recalled Ailiudaila’s zombie-like appearance when he encountered her underground.
Perhaps it was this failed ritual that turned her into that ghostly state.
【Peering through the mists of time, discerning past truths. Eye of Time Traces experience +2】
【Experience Level: 2 (32/40)】
It seemed Weilan’s deductions about this memory were correct.
“As for whether Slytherin was resurrected later… that question remains to be discussed.”
As soon as he thought of Slytherin’s unclosed eyes in Death, a hint of amusement appeared in Weilan’s gaze.
“According to the official history taught in our History of Magic Class—”
“Salazar Slytherin’s ultimate fate should have been to leave Hogwarts due to ideological conflicts with the other three founders.”
“His final whereabouts are unknown, and the cause of his Death is unknown.”
“However, Professor Binns also told us some… legends of untraceable origin.”
Weilan looked at the tattered hat on the bookshelf and the birdcage next to the hat, where Fawkes the Phoenix was kept.
“He said that the Chamber of Secrets was a room secretly built by Slytherin before he left Hogwarts.”
“Only his true heir could open it. The Chamber of Secrets contained a monster that the heir could release to purge the school of all Muggle-born students deemed unworthy of learning magic.”
“But, this contradicts what we saw in the memory.”
“Not only that, the fact that Slytherin built a tomb for his deceased daughter, Lilith, also conflicts with this memory.”
“If Slytherin was deceived by his own daughter and died in the Chamber of Secrets, then who built Lilith’s tomb? And who left Hogwarts due to ideological conflicts?”