The Admiral of Hogwarts

Deep beneath Hogwarts, in a cave of unknown depth, three ship girls stood silently, while dozens more in different locations pondered the same question.

Fortunately, with the connection of the Admiral Network, each ship girl could precisely sense the specific conditions of the cave and the stone door at its end.

"What kind of person is Slytherin?" Suddenly, Hugo inquired through the Admiral Network to all the ship girls. "I want everyone to describe him in a single word."

After hearing Hugo's question, the ship girls, who were deep in thought, quickly gave their respective answers. After statistical analysis, 'noble' was the most frequently used adjective.

"So, among the four founders of Hogwarts, Slytherin's first impression on everyone is nobility." Hugo, pretending to read in the Ravenclaw common room, slightly curled his lips and then said to the ship girls in front of the stone door.

"If that's the case, think about what you would do when visiting someone's home according to wizarding traditions. Then, perform those most ancient etiquette rituals in front of the stone door."

"Alright, let's give it a try." Although Hugo's plan sounded a bit unreliable, it didn't require too much effort after all.

So, Indomitable and the others quickly straightened their clothes in front of the door and began performing various actions according to ancient etiquette, as if visiting a wizard's home.

The wizarding world changes much less than the Muggle world in many aspects, especially these etiquette rituals, which have remained unchanged for thousands of years. Therefore, the three ship girls quickly performed a complete set of rituals according to the most ancient understanding.

Just as they finished the complete set of rituals in front of the stone door, a grating sound came from the stone door in front of them.

"Something really changed!" Indomitable's cheers immediately came from the Admiral Network. Through the Admiral Network, Hugo saw the serpentine stone carvings around the cave come to life and form a stone platform in front of the door.

As the stone platform took shape, a circular stone slab appeared at the top of the platform, with a recessed right-hand print on it.

Obviously, this should be Slytherin's method of verifying bloodlines. Fortunately, before this operation, the ship girls had considered Slytherin's obvious preference for pure-blood wizards and made corresponding preparations.

Soon, Indomitable took out a small bottle containing about 5ml of blood from her body and inserted a finger into it to absorb the blood into her body.

This blood was drawn by Veneto from her roommate Luna while everyone was asleep at night. Although the Lovegood family is not particularly famous, it is a pure-blood family that has been passed down from the era of the four founders to this day.

As expected, after pressing her right hand on the stone platform, Indomitable felt something pricking the side of her ring finger, so she quickly transferred the blood to her ring finger and made contact with the needle.

The needle disappeared after drawing about 1ml of blood, and then a roaring sound came from behind the heavy stone door. It's done.

After confirming that the magical ritual to verify the bloodline was over, Indomitable withdrew her hand and took a step back.

Just as her hand left the stone platform, the stone platform came to life again and transformed back into a large group of carved snakes, swimming towards the wall in front of everyone.

However, unlike before, these stone carvings did not return to the door to become the original decorations, but came to a place on the side of the stone door and formed a door frame.

When the door frame was completely formed, the part in the middle, which was not much different from the surrounding stone walls, disappeared, revealing a doorway. Inside seemed to be endless darkness.

"This should be it." Indomitable, with a magic wand in one hand and the ship's gun in the other, walked through the doorway. Then Repulse and Unicorn followed her in, both closing their eyes.

Although they had confirmed when Xiang Jiang was attacked before that ship girls with collective consciousness would not be killed by the basilisk's gaze.

But considering that such a stare would cause damage to the soul, and the fact that ship girls themselves can act without vision, they still did their best to take precautions.

What appeared in front of the three ship girls and everyone on the Admiral Network was a slightly eerie scene. They stood on a platform on the stone wall of another huge cave hall, and a moist, fishy smell assaulted their nostrils.

On the edge of the platform, which was about three stories high, a slope ran straight up from the bottom of the cave. At the same time, a giant snake, which looked fifteen or sixteen meters long, was coiled up in a pile, dozing at the bottom of the cave.

That was the basilisk that had launched multiple attacks in the school before. Its entire body was green, with the bright luster unique to venomous snakes, and its body was as thick as the trunk of an oak tree.

Perhaps the opening of the door caused some movement, so the basilisk slightly raised its flat head and flicked its tongue up and down to sense the surrounding odors.

Dozens of seconds later, it lowered its head again and fell into a deep sleep after discovering that there were no fleshy creatures around.

"Let's start!" After the basilisk fell asleep again, the three ship girls present immediately took out some reconnaissance equipment from the ship's equipment and carrier-based aircraft and stuffed them into various corners of the cave, then tiptoed out of the cave.

"Is today's operation considered over?" Looking at Indomitable and the others who were withdrawing from the cave and cleaning up the traces, Hugo asked subconsciously.

After all, the ship girls' battles along the way looked quite fierce, but he didn't expect that the movement was the smallest when they finally met the basilisk, feeling as if the climax of the movie was directly interrupted.

"Of course it's over, and the plan was perfectly completed." Through the Admiral Network, Indomitable probably knew why Hugo asked such a question.

"The core mission this time is to put surveillance equipment into the Chamber of Secrets while that diary Horcrux is unconscious, so that next time it manipulates the basilisk to attack again, we can get an early warning and then catch the opponent."

In fact, the ship girls' earliest plan was to install these monitoring devices in that girls' bathroom, but later they found that in that situation, there would only be a reaction after the basilisk came out, and the warning time was too short.

That's why the ship girls made such a big fuss and carried out such a dangerous operation. According to their estimates, with the distance between the Chamber of Secrets and the bathroom, these devices could give everyone a 7-8 minute warning time.

For the ship girls currently in Hogwarts Castle, such a long time is enough for them to prepare and rush to the exit of the Chamber of Secrets to block the opponent.

However, Hugo's happy mood did not last too long, because in the afternoon's Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall told them that the exams would be held on June 1st, only about two weeks away from today.

What made Professor McGonagall feel somewhat gratified was that, compared to the wailing among the Gryffindor students when she announced this matter in the morning, both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff seemed very calm.

"In the current state of emergency, the purpose of not closing the school is to allow you to receive education." After nodding in satisfaction, Professor McGonagall added.

"Therefore, the exams will still be conducted as usual, and I believe you will all study hard."