The sickly, iron-fisted beauty in Harry Potter

“You’re right, Hermione. It’s time to get back to normal school life, once we get the diary back from Lockhart.”

How exactly should we do it?

Dolly pondered this, and then the next morning while eating in the lobby.

Through chatting with Harry, I learned that Harry had gotten a good job: helping Lockhart reply to his fans' letters.

Harry naturally didn't want to get involved, especially after learning that Lockhart was a good-for-nothing; he didn't want to waste any more time in Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Unfortunately, Dolly convinced Harry to agree immediately, and once Dolly got the diary, she told Harry to find an excuse to run away.

Harry had no choice but to agree to his sister's request.

His long-awaited boxing lessons haven't started yet, and he was just about to ask his sister when they would begin.

So after school, Harry reluctantly dragged his feet down the third-floor corridor toward Lockhart's office.

He gritted his teeth and knocked on the door.

The door opened immediately, and Lockhart greeted him with a broad smile: "Ah, good afternoon, Harry. Come in, come in."

Countless framed photos of Lockhart hung on the walls, brightly lit by numerous candles. Some tables even bore his signature, and a large stack of photographs lay on them as well.

"Then let's get started. You can begin by writing an envelope."

"The first letter is to Ms. Gladys Gugion, God bless her—one of my ardent admirers."

Harry didn't waste any words and started working, and then he experienced the feeling of each day dragging on forever.

It would be one thing if he were just copying books, but Lockhart went on and on about his close relationship with his fans.

He could only respond to Lockhart with "uh-huh" and "ah," and sometimes Lockhart even forced him to give his opinion, leaving Harry's brain completely overwhelmed.

This made Harry vaguely think that Lockhart was very outrageous.

How can this person write a letter boasting about himself while talking about it, doing two things at the same time without neglecting either?

The candles burned shorter and shorter, their flames flickering on the many moving Lockhart faces that were watching them.

Ha wrote Veronica Smesley's address with his aching hands, feeling like this was the thousandth envelope.

Why isn't my sister here yet?

Harry thought painfully, "Please, please come quickly..."

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Lockhart looked in surprise toward the door and said, "No one has ever come to me at this time before. The professors at Hogwarts are too polite. They don't know to come to me, the master, to solve their problems."

"Let me see who it is..."

Lockhart straightened his appearance, opened the door, and was about to flash a bright smile when Luna spoke up from the doorway.

"Professor, come quick! My friend has fainted and urgently needs your help!"

After saying that, he pulled Lockhart's sleeve and stepped forward.

Lockhart was still a little confused, but when he heard Luna say that the girl who fainted admired him the most, he immediately made up his mind to transform into the best wizard to fight Voldemort.

However, he didn't forget to turn to Harry and say, "Harry, keep an eye on my office and don't let anyone touch my things."

Harry excitedly replied that he understood, but after Lockhart disappeared, he looked around.

Sure enough, Dolly and Hermione emerged from the darkness hand in hand, with Cho Chang by their side.

Harry was taken aback and instinctively asked, "Why are there so many people?"

"Of course, it's to find something."

Dolly answered matter-of-factly that she was the one who had helped call Luna.

Luna can be used to lure Lockhart away. Her age won't make Lockhart wary. Even if Luna later acts strangely, he can simply pretend to cry like a child to get away with it.

As for Dolly and Hermione, as the first pair to see through Lockhart's true colors and even extort several tens of points from him, Lockhart could not possibly underestimate them.

As for Qiu Zhang, he naturally came to help as well.

After all, Lockhart's office wasn't particularly big, but it wasn't small either.

If the spell doesn't work, having one more person really does give us more power.

Anyway, let's get started.

Cho Chang pushed Dolly and Hermione into the office; she already knew Lockhart's true colors.

In addition, she also wanted Dolly to stop worrying about this matter, otherwise, with her obsession with Quidditch, she and Dolly would hardly have any opportunities to spend time together in private.

Even now, Qiu Zhang dreams about the night before school starts almost every few days.

This made her eager to try copying it again, or perhaps to get Dolly to accept her.

Although when it comes to actually doing this, Qiu Zhang will most likely back down again, since it is a bit too shocking.

The four men entered Lockhart's office and began rummaging through his drawers without any hesitation.

Anyway, the positions of the items that are messed up can be restored with magic in a while, and there's no need to worry about Lockhart setting any traps in his office.

Dolly glanced at the Marauder's Map every now and then and saw that Lockhart was being controlled by Luna and Ginny in the distance, which reassured her that she could continue her search.

"So is it possible that he carried the diary with him, assuming that the diary is as important as you say?"

Harry asked tentatively, and Dolly nodded, saying, "It's not impossible, but there aren't many places to hide a big diary on someone's person."

"Oh, he's back. It's your turn now, Harry."

Harry stared wide-eyed, his face blank.

But a short while later, he rushed out, head down, and sped toward Lockhart, colliding head-on with him.

He knocked Lockhart down, slamming his chin against the wall, and then reached out and groped Lockhart's sleeves and chest several times.

Naturally, they didn't find the diary. Harry could only grit his teeth and say, "I'm sorry, Professor, I was going back to my dorm, but I was startled by something in the dark..."

Lockhart was dazed and confused after the fall. He was furious but had no way to vent his anger, so he could only struggle to get up and stare at Harry.

Meanwhile, Dolly and the others had quietly restored everything in Lockhart's office, with Dolly holding a diary in her hand.

It was Tom Riddle's diary!

Dolly eventually found her, deep inside the cupboard, under a large stack of envelopes.

Clearly, Lockhart did not discover its secret after finding it.

Because the way to start this diary is to write in it, not to communicate with it simply by having it.

In the original story, it took Harry a long time after he got his hands on the diary before he accidentally discovered its secret.

If Harry hadn't discovered the secret in the diary, the Chamber of Secrets might never have been opened, and this year's Hogwarts crisis would have ended without a trace.

Not long after, the three of them arrived at Dolly's dormitory.

As for Harry, Dolly's task for him was to knock Lockhart over and then find a chance to slip away.

With Harry's intelligence—and he certainly had the right to boast about it in front of Lockhart—doing this would have been a piece of cake.

"So, this is what we're looking for?"

Hermione picked up the diary, flipped through it, and found it was empty.

Cho Chang frowned and said, "Hermione, be careful. Many dark magic items can be very dangerous once activated."

“I wasn’t that careless, and it really doesn’t seem like a powerful magical item.”

Hermione retorted with dissatisfaction. Lately, she had been feeling somewhat anxious around Cho Chang, but she didn't know the specific reason.

Seeing that the two seemed to be raising their voices, Dolly said, "Don't worry, it's safe in its normal state."

As Voldemort's first Horcrux, although it housed the largest fragment of Voldemort's soul that he had separated, Voldemort was still just a young man at that time.

Neither magical means nor magical power are very strong, so this diary can only slowly absorb the holder's life force and read the holder's thoughts using a not-so-advanced mind-reading technique.

Finally, the goal of the fragments of Voldemort's soul inside is to open the Chamber of Secrets, release the Basilisk, and destroy Hogwarts.

This requires the diary to have extensive contact with the holder before it can control the holder to do this.

Otherwise, even if Dolly relaxed and let the diary control her, she wouldn't be able to do this.

Dolly took back the diary but did not demonstrate how to use it.

Instead, he tied it up, intending to try teasing Tom by himself later.

Once she confirmed that it was a Horcrux, Dolly decided to use it to practice and try to destroy it.

As for when to tell Dumbledore, there's no rush.

Anyway, Dolly having the Horcrux gives me the advantage. It's not too late to present evidence after she's confirmed to be deeply involved in Voldemort's affairs.

So, Dolly, Hermione, and Cho Chang spent a pleasant evening together in their dorm room, something they hadn't done in a long time.

Even Luna eventually showed up, and Dolly introduced Luna to Cho Chang. The four of them sat around the television and watched a complete comedy movie.

Incidentally, the problem of playing recorded videos on the TV has been resolved.

It's actually quite simple: just make a box out of dragon skin and wrap all the equipment, including Dolly and the other audience members, inside.

In this way, the so-called magic wave would have no effect on the few people inside, and all Dolly needed to do was cast a transformation spell.

Of course, the feeling of four people crammed into a small private room was not very pleasant, which made Dolly start to miss Newt's suitcase.

The small suitcase contained a space comparable to a small playground.

If Dolly could make a similar prop out of dragon skin, then all the problems would truly be solved.

Chapter 161, First Update: Principal's Office

Dolly had a rare good night's sleep today.

Dolly could have slept more soundly if she hadn't had a herbalism class the next morning.

Dolly was having some trouble figuring out where to store the diary for the time being.

After all, if Dolly carried this diary with her, although she was confident she wouldn't be bewitched by the young Voldemort inside using Legilimency.

But it drains Dolly's life force, and Dolly doesn't know if she can withstand it.

However, if you don't carry it with you, there's a possibility it might be stolen or replaced.