Hogwarts: Oh no, I've become Voldemort!

"Haha, I bet you're talking about the next Quidditch match, aren't you?" Lockhart gave a smug look and started bragging, ignoring Cyrus's feelings.

"You really shone yesterday, well done! I have to say, you did almost half as well as me. Didn't I mention that I was also a Seeker on my school team back in my college days? Ravenclaw! Honestly, if you were playing against me, you probably wouldn't have won so easily!"

"And your hand, it's healing quite well. You know, I could have healed you immediately—"

"Professor, is there something you need?" Cyrus interrupted Lockhart's pointless remarks; he had no interest in listening to this guy's self-praise.

"I think I can offer some help, in Quidditch. If you're planning to join a world-renowned team someday, you'd better take my advice," Lockhart said smugly. "I received many offers from teams back in the day, but unfortunately, that wasn't my ambition. The Quidditch world lost a rising star!"

"No need, Professor. Actually, I'm not that interested in Quidditch. And I don't intend to become a show-off star."

He had pretty much figured out Lockhart's idea.

The other party clearly saw his Quidditch talent and intended to make him his "student," so that if he became famous in the future, the other party would naturally rise in rank and become famous as well.

Unfortunately, he wasn't interested. Not only was he uninterested, but Malfoy himself wasn't interested either.

"Don't like Quidditch? You're wasting your talent, Malfoy. After all, not everyone is as good as me. Even without Quidditch, there are many other things I can excel in. Besides, I'm a third-class Merlin—"

"Excuse me, Professor, those things are plentiful; you can have as much as you want by donating some money to the Ministry of Magic," Cyrus said bluntly. "And Professor, perhaps your memory isn't the best, but my name is Draco Malfoy. Putting aside my Quidditch talent, I have a huge fortune to inherit!"

After saying that, he ignored Lockhart's expression, turned sideways, and walked away from him. Once he was out of Lockhart's way, Ginny and the other three chased after him.

"Why are you here?"

“We saw you receive a letter and then came out, so we followed you.”

"It's just a letter for Malfoy; I plan to put it away for him."

"What's wrong? I just saw Lockhart talking to you?" Ron glanced at Hermione before asking, "I bet he was bragging again. Was he planning to teach you how to play Quidditch?"

“You really know Ron,” Cyrus said with a hint of admiration. “He even said he was Ravenclaw’s Seeker back in the day.”

“I saw right about him a long time ago!” Ron was pleased that he had guessed correctly, which made Hermione a little unhappy.

"In fact, Professor Lockhart is indeed Ravenclaw's Seeker."

“Maybe so, but you know I worked in the medal room, and during the time he was in school, Ravenclaw never won the Quidditch trophy. Admit it, Hermione, he played terribly! Billy, much worse than Malfoy!” Ron said provocatively.

Surprisingly, Hermione only hummed and didn't respond.

"By the way, do you have any good suggestions about course selection for the third year?" Hermione asked, turning her head as if she remembered something after a while.

After the Easter break, the heads of the houses couldn't handle course selection, and Hermione took it very seriously, while Harry and Ron were much more casual about it. However, it would be beneficial for them to hear Riddle's opinion, at least saving them the trouble of thinking about it themselves.

"Overall, the Magical Creatures Protection class is very important, but I heard that Professor Kettleburn is retiring next year, and I wonder who will take over the class. Of the two divination classes, I only recommend Arithmetic Divination; the other one, well, it does require some talent. Ancient Runes are quite useful, and I also recommend Alchemy. Or you can choose all of them if you don't want to miss out."

Cyrus said.

“I just want to give up Potions,” Harry said dejectedly.

"Potionology is very important, Harry. Even if you don't plan to become an Auror in the future, having more knowledge of potions can prevent you from being poisoned by others."

"But besides Snape, I can't think of anyone else who would poison me."

"Of course there are, for example, Voldemort's minions, those Death Eaters."

Cyrus saw Ron shiver.

"Please, don't say that name, especially since he's still alive..."

"Okay, in short, the only course I don't recommend you take is Muggle Studies. It's not that the course isn't important, it's just that the content is practically complete nonsense. But that's understandable, since wizards sometimes have trouble understanding Muggle technology. As for the other courses, you can ask the older students. So many years have passed, so the teaching content might have changed a bit since I was a student."

In the end, Cyrus chose Alchemy, Ancient Runes, and Protection of Magical Creatures for Malfoy. As for Hermione, she only heard Cyrus say that she could choose all of them, and immediately checked off all the subjects.

"Aren't I taking too many subjects? Can you tutor me right now?" Hermione pestered Cyrus.

"Tutoring? You haven't even finished second grade and you're already planning to tutor third grade material?" Ron looked at him like he was crazy, considering he hadn't even started reviewing for the final exams!

“Why not? I advise you two to start preparing early, after all, it will affect our entire future.” Hermione glared at him and dragged Cyrus to the library.

Ron and Harry exchanged glances, both feeling that Hermione's words were a bit of an exaggeration.

When Ginny saw Hermione start learning from Cyrus, she didn't want to fall behind, so she borrowed a second-year textbook and bombarded Cyrus with questions.

Cyrus also gave them an extra head-bubbling spell.

In the end, they were kicked out by an angry Mrs. Pince.

Chapter 63 Make Voldemort Great Once Again

That night, Cyrus left his dorm room again, avoiding all eyes, and went to the Room of Requirement.

The crimson potion churned and simmered, emanating a powerful life force. But soon, the potion turned into poison, displaying an unhealthy red color resembling rusted iron.

Cyrus immediately knew that this potion was ruined again.

The potion ingredients stolen from Snape are almost gone.

"If we fail again, we'll have to give up."

Cyrus once again opened those alchemical books. The seemingly simple diagrams and words contained the most profound and difficult-to-understand wisdom.

“Wisdom—if only Ravenclaw’s crown hadn’t been made into a Horcrux.” Cyrus sighed, cursing Voldemort for wasting such a precious thing!

Such a powerful treasure was destroyed by it!

If the crown is usable, perhaps I can use its wisdom to refine the magic stone.

"and many more--"

"Who said you can't kill someone without a gun barrel?" Cyrus suddenly realized.

No one has ever said that the crown becomes unusable after it is made into a Horcrux, right?

Perhaps others couldn't use it because fragments of Voldemort's soul were attached to it, but he was different. He didn't need to worry about Voldemort's soul residing in the Horcrux at all; rather—

"I am Riddle!"

Cyrus's dark eyes gleamed brightly. He always had a flexible standard when it came to whether he was Riddle or not.

He quickly walked out of the room of fulfillment, then walked back and forth three times, silently repeating in his mind:

"I want a room to hide things, I want a room to hide things, I want a room to hide things."

Then, the original door slowly disappeared, and a new door appeared on the wall.

Cyrus pushed open the black, ornate door and entered a huge, but very crowded and cluttered room.

All sorts of odds and ends were piled up together, making it look like a junkyard. It's hard to imagine how, in Hogwarts' thousand-year history, the very few people who knew about this room managed to turn it into this state.

Cyrus knew where the Horcruxes were located.

He had been to this room before, back when he was just looking for some alchemical tools for Draco to practice with; finding the crown was just a side thing.

He passed the troll specimen and the broken vanishing cabinet, and came to a crate. Above the crate was a half-body of a wizard covered in pockmarks, wearing a dusty old wig and an old, faded crown-like object.

The crown is inlaid with jewels and engraved with the words: "Exceptional wisdom is the greatest wealth."

It was supposed to sparkle, but now the crown looks somewhat dull.

Then, Cyrus put it on his head without hesitation.

In an instant, he felt as if he were in a quiet morning forest, the cool mountain breeze making his mind exceptionally clear. It was like a rusty machine suddenly being lubricated and starting to run rapidly.

Cyrus felt as if he were enveloped by "wisdom" itself.

However, if someone were to look at him from a third-person perspective, they would find that what shrouded Cyrus was not wisdom, but a cloud of evil black mist.

—Voldemort!

Show me your soul!

The black mist emitted a hoarse and terrifying sound that echoed in Cyrus's mind.

"I will show you all the secrets contained within magic!"

Stop howling, it's me!

Cyrus interrupted him, opening half of his mind to draw upon Malfoy's life force, conjuring a phantom image. At the same time, he also took the diary into his hand.

"you?"

Cyrus believed that no one would ever see the legendary Dark Lord make a more comical expression than he did at this moment.

“It’s me, and of course it’s you too.” Cyrus stared at the ugly snake face that emerged from the black mist, and his mood inexplicably improved. Although he had to think about how to be resurrected as soon as he transmigrated, at least he hadn’t become as ugly as the guy inside the crown.

"I entrusted the diary to Lucius Malfoy for safekeeping..."

“Yes, but we didn’t tell him what was in the diary, otherwise he would have been more respectful to me.” Cyrus’s face showed anger. “But it’s better this way, at least I learned some unexpected information. I bet you’d never guess—”

"what?"

"That invincible Dark Lord was defeated by a baby! Then he was turned into a lowly creature, less than a ghost, who spends his days possessing rats in the sewers and barely surviving!"

The dark figure seemed enraged by Cyrus's words, baring its fangs and hissing like a venomous snake.

"you are lying!"

"Lying? Why would I deceive myself?" Sellers calmly revealed his eyes. He was prepared with the altered, false memories, but he overestimated the remnant soul trapped in the Horcrux. The other party couldn't cast any magic at all.

“You really should go out and see what the world has become. We’ve lost!” he said angrily, seemingly annoyed and ashamed of his defeat. Now that he saw another “self,” he could finally release his suppressed emotions.

"People chanted 'the boy who survived,' celebrating our failure! And last year, that same boy thwarted our plans once again..."

Cyrus recounted everything that had happened that year, including Voldemort possessing Quirrell in an attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone and resurrect himself, but being defeated by Harry Potter, and Lucius Malfoy sending out his diary to evade the Ministry of Magic's investigation, hoping to cause chaos at Hogwarts...