Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 124 The Core of the Cane, Changes in the Diary

Tom Riddle never dreamed that even after becoming a Horcrux, he could still be threatened.

He also couldn't understand what had happened in the past fifty years, how a second-year wizard could already use the Patronus Charm so skillfully.

Tom Riddle had no idea that the unicorn that kept attacking him was actually a being in a spirit state, just like him.

After seeing that the creature could fly and glow, Riddle believed it to be a guardian deity of a special kind.

But this only drove Riddle even more insane.

He couldn't accept that the magic he hadn't learned in fifth grade had been so easily mastered by a second-grade student.

He glared fiercely at Xiren. "What a pity, the basilisk didn't kill you!"

"So you also ordered the basilisk to attack?" Siron asked.

"Of course it's me! I am the rightful heir to Slytherin!" He suddenly became agitated. "You imposter, you can never open the Chamber of Secrets, nor can you control the Basilisk. Only I can!"

It seems he must have read the newspaper... or perhaps Malfoy told him what was in the newspaper.

Furthermore, he strongly objected to Shillen's public admission in the newspaper that he was the heir to Slytherin. This was also a major reason that prompted Malfoy to return to school early.

Normally, the arrogant Riddle would never have believed that Siren could open the secret chamber; after all, if he could, he wouldn't have waited until now to take action.

But Riddle couldn't accept that Siren declared himself Slytherin's heir in the newspapers; it was his proudest identity, and he would never let anyone steal it from him.

Ignoring Riddle's impotent rage, Siren recalled the situation again and asked in confusion, "But how did you know I would be in the eighth-floor corridor at that time? The basilisk is so big, it can't be exposed all the time."

“Oh, that’s quite interesting,” Riddle suddenly laughed. “In fact, the basilisk’s target wasn’t you at first, but someone else.”

"Who?"

“A boy named Weasley,” Riddle said, recalling what Malfoy had written in his diary. “That damned Weasley, he dared to make me eat slugs, making me the laughingstock of the whole school! I’m going to kill him, Tom, do you have any way to make me kill him?”

“He was furious, his vengeful rage had clouded his reason, and that’s exactly what I wanted to see,” Riddle continued. “That day was the first time I tried to control Malfoy, to have him go to the Chamber of Secrets in my place and awaken the Basilisk.”

"In return, I will have the basilisk petrify that boy and avenge him."

“Of course I won’t kill him, because if a student dies, Hogwarts will have to close, which is not what I want to see. At least until I achieve my goal, the school cannot be closed.”

"What is your purpose?" Xiren asked.

“Of course, it’s to use the basilisk to kill you.” Riddle looked at Siron with a sinister gaze. “Do you know how happy I was when I saw you come out of the underground classroom that day?”

“But I’m still alive,” Celen said calmly. “Aren’t you disappointed?”

“Yes, you’re very lucky. The basilisk can’t find anything it has cursed,” Riddle said regretfully.

“Perhaps it wasn’t just luck.” Xiren smiled. “Let’s talk about the entrance to the secret room. Did you leave that note?”

“Yes, it’s me too.” Riddle’s body seemed to have become fainter, and even his voice was much softer, sounding as if it were coming from the other side of the room.

“I guessed right, didn’t I?” Riddle said smugly. “You are a prophet with a gift for prophecy.”

“Completely wrong,” Celen said casually. “It’s as ridiculous as you mistaking me for Harry.”

But Riddell appeared very confident.

“You can’t fool me.” His body had turned a brownish-gray. “From the first time we met, I could sense that you desperately wanted the diary, yet you remained wary of me.”

"But that's impossible, I'm a Horcrux..."

Riddle's tone suddenly changed, as if something was stuck in his throat, and after a moment he continued:
"After being brought to Hogwarts, I've been pondering a question. Before this, the diary had never been opened, so what reason did you have to be wary of me?"

"Then I thought of another person, a born prophet who saw the future and thus prepared to unite with wizards to completely rule Muggles."

“So I was thinking, could you also see the future?” Riddle’s smug smile returned. “You saw me appear at Hogwarts, you saw everything I did, and I must have succeeded.”

"That's why you know me, are wary of me, and try to destroy me at the very beginning."

Xi Lun didn't say anything.

In a sense, Riddle was right; he did want to shut the other down right from the start.

Noticing the change in Siren's expression, Riddle became even more smug. He was very good at reading people's minds through their expressions and eyes, and the fleeting glint in Siren's eyes at that moment undoubtedly confirmed that he had guessed correctly.

Riddle laughed for the first time, a cold, grating, and mocking laugh. "You can't succeed, you know why? Because that person failed too."

"You believe in prophecy too much, but you never think that the future is a predetermined fact. When you try to do something, you are actually pushing the process forward toward the predetermined outcome."

"Grindelwald's plan was ultimately ruined by a group of self-proclaimed righteous wizards, which is why Hogwarts had so many Mudbloods afterward."

"So you will fail too, and everything I want to do will eventually come true!" Riddle suddenly went berserk, his body flickering like a malfunctioning television screen.

Xiren frowned, preparing to make Riddle of the Unicorn Gang realize the reality of the situation. He was already in his hands, so how dare he be so arrogant?

But this time, the unicorn passed right through his body.

The diary on the ground changed rapidly; wisps of gray mist emerged from it, and the remaining parts began to wrinkle and dry out.

As the gray mist peeled away, Riddle let out a series of shrill screams, as if he were enduring some kind of extreme pain.

Siren didn't know if the soul fragments that had become Horcruxes could still detach from the Horcruxes, but Riddle demonstrated this possibility on the spot.

However, judging from his screams and the madness in his eyes, it is not hard to see that the price of this action must be very high, perhaps the remaining half of his soul, or even more.

Xiren instinctively wanted to stop him, but at that moment Riddle was in a very special state, and even the unicorn's soul could not attack him.

Since Siron didn't know any other magic targeting the soul, in desperation, he instinctively thought of another Voldemort and grabbed the diary on the ground... Immediately, the golden runes on his wrist began to emit faint light.

In that instant, Riddle's screams grew even louder.

If before it was a saw tearing at his soul, now there is also a blazing furnace.

It worked!
Xilun's eyes lit up.

He couldn't directly create the wand core from Riddle's soul, since Riddle at this point hadn't yet undergone the various dangerous black magic experiments and was still a true soul. Siron's magic and instincts strongly resisted this idea.

However, the separated part remains completely unaffected.

So Xilun quickly made a decision: he used the diary as the staff and made a core on the spot to increase its power.

Although the diary is not the staff body, has no runes, and cannot be fused with the staff core, it is still possible to borrow the power of the staff core for a short time.

In an instant, the gray fog thickened.

If Riddle previously needed to sacrifice half of his soul to break free from the Horcrux's shackles, then with Siron's help, he now needs to retain at least two-thirds.

In mid-air, an ugly monster roared and struggled, while below, a diary, shrouded in a gray mist, resembled a greedy beast, relentlessly devouring everything in its path.

Sometime later, Malfoy, who had been unconscious, groggily woke up, but upon seeing this scene, he was so frightened that his eyes rolled back and he fell back to the ground.

A faint tearing sound could be heard in the air.

It was a diary. After Riddle decided to extract his soul, it was no longer a proper Horcrux. Under these circumstances, its cardboard box began to become fragile, and cracks appeared on the cover.

But then, a gray, rope-like thing appeared on the crack and repaired it completely.

If Harry and Ron were there, they would definitely recognize that it was the same thing that had been made into a wand core.

They had seen it before, except that the heart nerves in the red cap that Xiren used back then were red, while this one was gray.

The cracks multiplied, and the gray core of the staff kept drilling into every crevice.

Finally, Riddle completely pulled himself out of his diary.

He looked so ugly that he was completely unrecognizable. He looked more like a snowman that had been randomly piled up, without facial features and with a strangely twisted body.

He ran away, filled with resentment and bitterness, and rushed out of the house.

This time, Xiren didn't chase after them. Instead, he focused on controlling the core of the staff in the diary, letting it flow into every gap.

With his other hand, Xilun held a magic wand and used magic to draw intricate runes on it.

Golden symbols appeared on the paper and then quickly disappeared, but the previously wrinkled areas were smoothed out again.

At the same time, the feeling that the entire diary gave Xiren also changed. He had a premonition, the premonition of a wand maker... that he might have unintentionally created something extraordinary.

This thought was so strong that Xiren completely ignored Riddle's escape and focused all her attention on the diary in front of her.

(End of this chapter)