Hogwarts: Oh no, I've become Voldemort!

"They will certainly be punished—Professor Snape will punish them himself."

After saying that, McGonagall turned and left.

“Did I hear that right?” Ron exclaimed dramatically. “Snape will punish them? Doesn’t she know that’s no different from letting them go?”

The four men looked grim; clearly, they believed Snape would definitely protect those guys.

However, they were actually wrong this time.

After Ginny unleashed that curse on Marcus, the two teams practically escalated into a chaotic brawl, which was only resolved by McGonagall and Snape personally intervening. Under these circumstances, Snape naturally knew what had happened and unhesitatingly took on the task of punishing Malfoy—now, all of Slytherin's toilets were occupied by Malfoy.

At eight o'clock in the evening, Ginny went to the eighth floor alone. The Ravenclaw Headmaster's office was near the west tower. Ginny counted thirteen windows to the right and then knocked on the door.

"Please come in."

Professor Flitwick's shrill voice came from inside the room.

"Professor, excuse me."

“Ah—Miss Weasley, you’ve finally arrived.” Flitwick’s face lit up with a happy smile the moment he saw Ginny. He was unremarkable in appearance, standing only about 1.2 meters tall, almost shorter than Ginny now. His features were also quite different from those of a normal person. However, in reality, of the four Headmasters, he was the most caring towards his students, “always punctual.”

“I’m sorry, perhaps I should have come a little earlier?” Ginny asked in a low voice.

It was her first time being put in solitary confinement, so she was a little nervous. Ron was polishing the trophies, and Harry was helping Lockhart reply to his fans' letters—both unpleasant tasks. And what about herself? Professor McGonagall hadn't said anything about Professor Flitwick expecting her to do anything.

Flitwick immediately noticed her worry and quickly said, "Don't worry, child. I don't have any of those nasty physical labors here."

“Compared to those, I actually prefer to continue teaching you spells. You’ve done very well in class, so perhaps my expectations for you are a little higher.” Flitwick waved his wand, and his drawer opened automatically, revealing a multitude of small cakes that were placed in front of Ginny. “Want some?”

"Thank you, Professor." Ginny felt relieved and happily picked up the cake.

This is much better than the toffee she had at Hagrid's this morning.

"I heard you cast a curse on a sixth-grade student?" Flitwick began to speak to Ginny as if they were having a heart-to-heart talk.

Ginny nodded.

“I already know what happened. Although it doesn’t quite fit the image of a professor, I still want to say that he completely deserved what he got.”

Flitwick himself was a wizard with goblin blood, so he was very sensitive about this. Sometimes, these half-bloods were considered to be of lower status than wizards who came from Muggle origins.

"Of course, casting spells on classmates is still discouraged." Flitwick casually brushed the matter aside. "Moreover, since you already know such a difficult curse, I'm afraid the other spells you'll be learning in the first year won't be too difficult for you, right?"

Flitwick looked at her expectantly.

Ginny immediately demonstrated her skills to Flitwick, first with a levitation charm, then a softening charm and a locking charm, and finally, she used a cutting charm to split a hole in the tabletop, then used a repair charm to restore it to its original state. This feat truly enraged Flitwick.

Keep in mind that it's not Halloween yet, and his lessons for the first-year wizards are still at the theoretical stage.

But judging from Ginny's appearance, she has probably already learned almost all the spells in "Standard Spells I".

"Fantastic, Ginny! Fantastic!" Flitwick almost jumped for joy. "I'm already considering whether to let you join my Spells Club. To be honest, you've done even better than Miss Granger!"

Such lavish praise made Ginny blush. She believed that it was all thanks to Mr. Riddle's teachings; without him, her spellcasting skills wouldn't be so high.

“I just have a good teacher,” she said timidly.

This clearly led Flitwick to misunderstand.

However, it was precisely because of this misunderstanding that Flitwick, in a great mood, immediately exempted Ginny from confinement.

"Alright, you can go back now. If you encounter any problems with spells, or if there are any books you'd like to read in the library, feel free to come find me. I hope you can maintain this level so that when you reach fifth grade, I'll definitely invite you to join the Spells Club. Of course, if you're interested in these things now, you're welcome to come and audit classes."

He reluctantly sent Ginny away after leaving the time and place for the Spell Club meeting.

Chapter 13 Green Tea Master Cyrus

Ginny was back in the Gryffindor common room in less than five minutes.

The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms are both in the tower, but not on the same side, and the tower is connected to the eighth floor of the castle.

Hogwarts has five towers. The tallest central tower is used as a classroom for astronomy classes. The other four towers are located in the four cardinal directions. The north tower is the divination classroom, while the west tower is the owlhouse.

The southeast sides were used as common rooms and dormitories for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, respectively.

Several students were somewhat surprised when Ginny crawled under the statue of the Fat Lady.

“Ginny, weren’t you put in solitary confinement with Ron and the others?” Percy asked, frowning. He wasn’t in a good mood because everyone in the Weasley family except himself had been put in solitary confinement.

In fact, the entire Gryffindor team was not spared.

“That’s right, but Professor Flitwick thinks my spell was very well executed, and he feels I shouldn’t waste my time in solitary confinement,” Ginny said immediately.

This pleased Percy greatly.

“Well done! I told you, a good student never makes a mistake! Look, Hermione wasn’t punished this time either. If you ask me, protecting the Weasley family is probably up to you and me!” Percy said as he walked out.

"Where are you going so late?"

“It’s nothing…” Percy explained vaguely.

Ginny didn't ask any more questions; she was in a hurry to find "Mr. Riddle".

Ginny hurried back to her dorm room, used a spell to unlock the drawer, and laid the black-covered diary open on the table. The ink-dipped quill pen hovered above the diary for a long time before finally taking a deep breath and slowly putting pen to paper.

“Mr. Riddle, there’s something I’d like to ask you…”

After writing one sentence, Ginny didn't wait for the diary to respond before quickly writing the next one. When she first started writing, she thought it was so difficult to ask this question, but now it seemed like she couldn't stop, and she wrote all the way to the bottom in one go.

"I'm missing a day's memory—I clearly remember going to bed on Thursday, but when I woke up the next day, it was Saturday. My classmates all said I took Friday off, but I don't actually remember it at all—what do you think is wrong with me?"

Her words were tactful, trying not to sound like she was suspecting Mr. Riddle, but perhaps this also reflected a small hope in Ginny's heart. She didn't want this matter to be related to Mr. Riddle.

At least, there is no clear evidence to prove it at present.

Then, she watched nervously as the ink disappeared on the yellowed paper. She felt as if a tiny person was pounding on her chest with a huge hammer, making it hard for her to breathe.

'Could it be you, Mr. Riddle?'

-

"Discovered?"

In his memory space, Cyrus looked at the long passage of sentences that appeared before him and began to think about how to answer it.

"Judging from her expression, she doesn't seem sure I did it. Should we go along with what she's saying?"

"Or should we find another reason?"

Judging from the current situation, Ginny Weasley still has a lot of faith in herself. If she were to claim ignorance or attribute the matter to other reasons, Ginny would likely be willing to believe her.

But after thinking about it, Cyrus decided to tell Ginny the truth.

Sometimes telling the truth is a more sophisticated form of deception than lying.

“You found out, huh? I was planning to keep it a secret. I’m sorry, Ginny…” Cyrus tried to make his tone sound more sincere and remorseful. “Actually, I was the one who controlled your body. An evil magical artifact like me… you should just destroy me.”

“It really is you…” Ginny said in disbelief.

Although she had suspected it beforehand, Ginny was still somewhat unwilling to believe it when Cyrus told her the truth himself.

"But—why?" Ginny asked urgently. However, rather than needing an explanation, she desperately needed to find an excuse for "Mr. Riddle" to prove that "Mr. Riddle" was not dangerous.

"What?" Cyrus immediately feigned a serious tone. "Ginny, no matter the reason, my actions are unforgivable. A magical artifact actually controlled a wizard's body. If this happened to me, I would destroy it immediately!"

"You should do the same. Destroy me, Ginny, it's just a diary."

“No!” Ginny scribbled. “I don’t think you’re an evil tool—I mean, I think if you really were evil, why don’t you do anything? Helping me finish my weekend homework isn’t evil. You have some unspeakable reason, don’t you?”

Seeing that Ginny had already prepared an excuse for him before he could even say anything, Cyrus couldn't help but sigh, realizing how easily children are deceived. Or rather, people are always willing to believe what they want to believe.

This time, he deliberately remained silent for a long time before answering.

“You’re right—” His words had a magical quality that made Ginny feel sad and downcast. “I should have told you, I’m just a tiny bit of Tom Riddle’s memory left in his diary.”

"Ah."

"Have you ever wondered where the real Tom Riddle is now?"

“The real Tom Riddle…” Ginny murmured, though she already had a guess in her heart. In the medal display room, Tom Riddle had won his medal fifty years ago.

"Could it be that, Mr. Riddle, you have already..."

“That’s right, I’ve actually been dead for many years.” Cyrus began to try and move Ginny with his “tragic” past. The Gryffindor lion cubs are always more driven by emotion than reason. “My death is actually related to the Mystic; he was very powerful back then.”

"So, you were killed by the mysterious man?" Ginny asked rhetorically, but she clearly believed the answer without a doubt.

“That’s all in the past—” Cyrus didn’t answer, but just said to himself, “I was made into a diary when I was a student. So many years have passed, and I really miss this world. To breathe fresh air again while still alive has always been my wish.”

“Mr. Riddle…” Ginny’s tears streamed down her face. Although she had thought that “Mr. Riddle” was probably dead, she never expected that he would be so cruelly killed by a mysterious person during his student days. It was really too pitiful.

She didn't notice the contradiction in Cyrus's words; during the summer vacation, Cyrus had said he had graduated from school.

"No matter what, my behavior is unforgivable." Cyrus kept berating himself like a manipulative woman, making Ginny even more upset. How could Ginny, only a first-year student, possibly recognize a manipulative woman? She was completely overwhelmed by Cyrus's scathing remarks, leaving even the karaoke room feeling utterly devastated.

“Ginny, you can destroy me, or hand me over to the professors at the school. But before that, I want to see you—thank you for talking to me all this time. Being trapped in a diary for decades has been a painful and agonizing experience.”

Chapter 14 A man's three parts drunkenness, enough to make you cry.

Meeting with Mr. Riddle?

Ginny was stunned.

A voice in her subconscious told her: Don't do that! Believing in a magical item is foolish and dangerous!