Chapter 34.

  In Professonagall's office, several people were already waiting for them, including Dumbledore, who had just returo Hogwarts, and the Weasley family.

  When they ehe office, the atmosphere was one of somber silence. Suddenly, a scream came from beside the firepce—"Ginny!"

  It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting by the fire g. She jumped up suddenly, followed by Mr. Weasley, and they both reached out their arms to embrace their precious daughter. Harry's gaze passed over them into the room. He saw Professor Dumbledore smiling, standing in front of the firepce.

  " someone expin what exactly happened?" Professonagall asked sternly.

  Soren smiled slightly and said calmly, "Professor, it's like this: I happeo run into Miss Weasley ohird floor as she was entering that long-abandoned girls' washroom. Her behaviour seemed quite odd, and my intuition told me something was wrong—Miss Weasley was likely being trolled by a dark magic I didn't uand. Out of for her, I quietly followed her into the washroom, and to my surprise, I witnessed something unbelievable—"

  "Miss Weasley spoke some words to the faucet that I couldn't uand; the voice sounded a bit like Parseltongue, but I couldn't be sure. Theire sink disappeared, revealing a pipe entrance rge enough for a person to crawl into. To be ho, I was a bit scared, and recklessness is not the Slytherin way. My first thought was to leave immediately a this to Professor Snape."

  "Mr. Malfoy, you really should have dohat! You are just a student and shouldn't recklessly enter a potentially dangerous unknown pce. But you tell me why you didn't do that ter?" Professonagall was indeed a bit puzzled by Soren's response; Soren had always been a mature, sensible, and rational student, and such reckless behaviour seemed like something only a Gryffindor would do.

  "Professor, that's because I was worried that if I left, the entrance would disappear, and I didn't know how to make it reappear. If I deyed, Miss Weasley might be in danger—Professor, you know that, because of my Malfoy identity, I don't get along well with the Weasley family. But when I thought about a cssmate even youhan me possibly perishing because of my ina, I felt I couldn't stand by and do nothing; that would haunt my sce forever. So I immediately decided to follow her and dive into that pipe."

  After hearing Soren's expnation, Professonagall seemed to rex her lips a bit, and her gaze appeared less severe. "Your response was reckless, but it is indeed uandable. Let's set aside your behaviour for now; what happened after you ehe pipe?"

  Dumbledore looked ily at Soren but chose to remain silent. Mr. Weasley showed a slightly awkward expression upnising Soren as Lucius's son.

  Ign the reas of others, Soren tinued, "Perhaps the great Slytherin was watg over me—after all, I am also a Slytherin. Ihere was a gigantit basilisk."

  He paused and said, "Fortunately, the basilisk was still asleep. I ks weakness was in its brain, so I transformed a sharp, ical boulder on the ceiling and trolled it to smash right between the basilisk's eyes, successfully killing it. At that moment, a ghostly figure emerged from Ginny; he called himself Tom Riddle and seemed to have ill iions, asking me many questions..."

  "I could tell that he actually emerged from a diary that Ginny had. For safety's sake, before he could react, I used a summoning charm to grab the diary and threw it into the basilisk's venom. Uedly, he suddenly disappeared. I carried Miss Weasley out of the chamber and then ran into Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley ihroom."

  , it was Harry's turn to ret his experience. He spoke for about ten minutes, and everyone listetentively; the room was silent. When they heard that Ron had suffered a backsh f to cast a spell on Soren, who was holding Ginny, Mr. Weasley's face turned pletely red, while Mrs. Weasley shot Soren an apologetice.

  "What I'm most ied in," Dumbledore suddenly interjected, "is how Voldemort mao trol Miss Weasley. Acc to my sources, he is currently hiding in the forests of Albania!"

  "What?" Mrs. Weasley excimed in shock, "The Dark Lord? trolled Ginny? But Ginny isn't... Ginny didn't... did she?"

  "Professor," Soren politely interjected, carefully using his wand to pull out a thhly soaked diary from a tainer in his robes, "I suspect this should be reted to this diary; it may tain some unknown dark magic."

  "Remarkable," Dumbledore said softly, "he could be sidered the most outstanding student in Hogwarts history." He turo face the Weasley couple, both of whom looked very fused.

  "Few people know that Voldemort was onamed Tom Riddle. Fifty years ago, at Hogwarts, I personally taught him. After he left school, he vanished... traveling far and wide, sinking deeper into the mire of dark magic, mingling with the most evil dark wizards, and after several dangerous magical transformations, he re-emerged as Voldemort—by then, people could hardly reise him. Almost no one linked Voldemort to that clever, handsome student cil president from back then."

  "But Ginny," Mrs. Weasley asked, "what does Ginny have to do with him?"

  "His diary!" Ginny sobbed, "I wrote in it all year, and he kept writing bae..."

  "Ginny!" Mr. Weasley excimed, dumbfounded, "Didn't I teach you anything? What have I always told you? rust anything that think for itself, unless you see where it keeps its brain. Why didn't you show that diary to me or your mother? Such a suspicious thing, obviously full of dark magic!"

  "I—I don't know," Ginny cried sorrowfully, "I found it in a book my mom gave me. I—I thought someone had left it there and fotten about it..."

  "Miss Weasley should go to the hospital wing immediately," Dumbledore interjected firmly, "This is a painful ordeal for her, and the school will not punish her. Many wizards older and more ing than she has been deceived by Voldemort." He strode to the door, ope, and kindly wi Ginny, "You will find Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She was just distributing the Mandrake restorative potion—I daresay, the victims of the basilisk could wake up at any moment."

  Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, with Mr. Weasley following behind, still looking greatly affected. After Professonagall left as well, Dumbledore smiled and awarded some points to Harry, specifically praising his decisiveness and bravery.

  Just as Harry was about to leave the office, the door was suddenly smmed open, hitting the wall behind it.

  Lucius Malfoy stood there, seething with anger, clutg a house-elf ed in bandages under his arm—it was Dobby. Lucius stormed into the room, nearly knog Harry over. Dobby hurried in behind him, hunched over, staring at the seam of his master's robes with a face full of desperate fear.

  "Ah!" Lucius's cold eyes fixed on Dumbledore, "You're back. The board has suspended your positio you still take it upon yourself to return to Hogwarts."

  "Oh, is that so, Lucius," Dumbledore said with a calm smile, "Today, the other eleven board members tacted me. They heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter was in an act and all wished for me to e here immediately. They seem to think that after all this, I am still the most suitable person for the job. They also told me some straories. Some of them seem to believe that you threateo curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend my position."

  Lucius's face aler than usual, but his eyes still bzed with fury. "So—did you stop those attacks?" he sneered, "Did you catch the culprit?"

  "We did," Dumbledore replied with a smile.

  "Oh?" Lucius asked sharply, "Who?"

  "It was the same person as st time, Lucius," Dumbledore said, "However, Voldemort erating through another person this time. With his diary." He watched Mr. Malfoy's rea closely. Meanwhile, Harry looked at Dobby. The house-elf was ag very strangely. His rge, tennis ball-sized eyes were meaningfully fixed on Harry, pointing at the diary, then at Mr. Malfoy, and then he pounded his own head with his fist.

  A light bulb went off in Harry's mind, and he suddenly uood. "Mr. Malfoy, don't you want to know how Ginny got that diary?"

  "Hmph!" Lucius s Harry, "My time is very valuable; I have no i in how a silly girl got a ridiculous diary."

  "Because you gave it to her," Harry said, "At Bin and Burkes, you picked up her Transfiguratiobook aly stuffed the diary inside, didn't you?"

  Lucius's pale hands ched into fists and then rexed. He rasped, "Do you have any evidence?"

  "Oh, no one provide evidenow," Dumbledore said, smiling at Harry, "Now that Riddle has vanished from the diary. Besides, Lucius, I have a piece of advice for you: don't distribute Voldemort's old school things anymore. If such things fall into the hands of the i again, at least Arthur Weasley will surely be able to trace them back to you..."

  Lucius stood frozen for a moment, veins bulging at his temples, then suddenly turned his head and gred angrily at Soren, "What about you? Why are you here?"

  Soren shrugged and said nontly, "Dear father, I happeo run into Harry and the others while practig magic alone, helped them a bit, and then came along."

  Lucius's expression darkened, and just as he was about to scold harshly, he g Dumbledore, snorted in dissatisfa, and turo call for Dobby to leave. He opehe door, and Dobby hurried over, only to be kicked out by Mr. Malfoy. They could hear Dobby's painful screams gradually fading down the corridor. Harry, however, stood there, staring ily at the diary, frowning ihought for a moment.

  "Professor Dumbledore!" he said hurriedly, "May I return this diary to Mr. Malfoy?"

  "Of course, Harry!" Dumbledore said calmly, lightly tapping the diary with his wand. The snake venom on the diary disappeared at a visible speed, and Harry grabbed the diary and rushed out of the office.

  In the blink of an eye, only Soren and Dumbledore remained in the office, and for a moment, the atmosphere became a bit awkwardly quiet. "Um... Professor, if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave. You know, I still o study for my final exams!"

  "Don't be in such a hurry to leave. In fact, I have something to say to you as well. First, I must thank you for resg Miss Weasley in the Chamber of Secrets." Dumbledore's eyes sparkled, "Aside from Riddle, I haven't seen a young wizard as talented as you in a long time. Seeing you reminds me of an old friend."

  Though the other party spoke lightly, Soren remained secretly vigint. He knew Dumbledore's dark history, and the old friend he mentioned robably Grindelwald, which was not a pleasant assessment. Moreover, their st meeting could hardly be called friendly.

  "You ftter me, Professor!" Soren said modestly, "I just work a bit harder and have some luck. It was truly a stroke of lue out alive from the Chamber."

  "No, it's not that simple. Before today, I had been paying attention to you for a long time. Whether it was your performan the dueling club or during the duels between the Slytherin fas, you dispyed a strength far beyond what a sed-year student should possess. I heard from Severus about the decration you made in the Slytherin on room, and I found it very thought-provoking. You, like my old friend, possess a vision that is unon and... ambition."

  *****

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