Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 143 Riddle's existential crisis

On the third day of Christmas, shocking news swept through the school—Giddro Lockhart, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who stayed on campus for Christmas, had been petrified!

This is the first professor to be attacked since the petrochemical incident!

Although Lockhart was generally disliked by some students for well-known reasons, and many were relieved when news of his petrification spread, the fact that a professor could be targeted by the Castle Will (or the Basilisk) still caused unease among many.

Moreover, Lockhart himself is a half-blood wizard, and shouldn't be within the range of the castle's will's attack, which makes people even more puzzled and tense...

Worse still, Lockhart's petrification was just the beginning.

On the morning of the fourth day of the Christmas holidays, Gryffindor half-blood wizards Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas were found petrified in a hallway. On the same day, several Muggle-born wizards who remained at the school had their warning devices activated.

The fact that even half-blood wizards could be attacked plunged the students remaining on campus into unprecedented chaos. Most students were now too afraid to leave their house's common room, with only a very few pure-bloods remaining arrogant and domineering… and this arrogance was ruthlessly shattered on the afternoon of the fourth day of the break—

Baron Shafik, a pure-blood wizard from the Shafik family, is petrified!

Severus Snape, the headmaster who had already left the school, rushed back on the fourth night after receiving the news. He went from room to room to comfort the students, telling them that he would soon go to communicate with the will of the castle to find the source of the problem...

Snape's promise had some calming effect, but Hogwarts remained deserted on the fifth day of the holidays. Students even rushed to take their breakfast from the dining hall back to their common rooms as quickly as possible, not daring to linger outside. However, this still couldn't stop another terrible piece of news from spreading rapidly throughout the school—

On the fifth day of the Christmas holiday, the famous savior Harry Potter was petrified at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room!

Harry Potter, who had twice defeated Voldemort and whose life was spared even by the Avada Kedavra Curse, was now petrified. This essentially meant that nothing could stop the castle's will from acting arbitrarily, and no one could predict whether they would be the next target. Under these circumstances, Snape had to personally go to the common room to provide the students with their meals, because now absolutely no one dared to leave the area around the common room…

……

"wrong."

Listening to his classmates around him, their faces pale, discussing the recent, erratic attacks, Tom Riddle was filled with doubt.

"It shouldn't be like this."

"My orders to the basilisk were to kill Ken, not to act recklessly like this."

"And I remember I should have removed the protective shield from the basilisk's eyes... Why is the attacked person still only petrified and not dead?"

Why did Harry Potter, who defeated the original form and inexplicably gained the talent of Parsley's speech, also fall victim to this?

Why isn't Ken on the list of those attacked?

"..."

To be honest, when Tom Riddle heard about the first two petrification incidents, he was quite dismissive—after all, he believed he had the Basilisk completely under his control and that nothing unexpected would happen. He had ordered the Basilisk to kill Ken, so the Basilisk wouldn't do anything else until Ken was killed…

Those two petrification incidents were probably imitations made by some fanatical pureblood cultists.

Initially, he wasn't the only one; many around him shared the same thought. But on the fourth day, they were all stunned—Mrs. Pomfrey from the university hospital and Snape jointly stated that the petrification curse on the attacked victim was exactly the same as that on previous victims, something no imitator could achieve. They warned everyone not to suspect those around them and to be extremely careful…

He then realized that something might be wrong with his basilisk.

After hearing that even Harry Potter hadn't escaped the fate, Tom Riddle couldn't sit still any longer.

"I need to go check on the basilisk's condition..."

"Since that strange creature could cause the main body to stumble, it's not impossible that it could have some means to influence the basilisk in return. And if this conjecture is true..."

He narrowed his eyes, a ruthless glint in them: "Then I'll have to kill him myself."

Thinking this, he began to control the damned student's body, picked up his original body's diary, wrapped himself in the expensive invisibility cloak, and left the lounge unnoticed, slowly beginning to sense the location of the basilisk...

"Damn it."

As he searched, he cursed inwardly the host who had brought him so much trouble.

According to his plan, he was supposed to be a ghost that could change hosts at any time, hovering over all the students. But unexpectedly, he went wrong at the very first step, resulting in a huge vulnerability that prevented him from observing that even more damned "Ken" too frequently or too closely...

"Um? 』

To his surprise, the basilisk was not near the Hufflepuff common room, but in the hallway outside an empty classroom...

"Ken didn't cower in the lounge like the others?"

"Or... has the basilisk completely disobeyed my orders?"

He manipulated his body, moving silently towards the location of the basilisk. Maintaining a high level of vigilance, he stopped several dozen meters away from the classroom, knocked the body unconscious, covered it with an invisibility cloak, and conjured his own illusory form. He picked up the diary, cast an illusion spell on himself, and cautiously approached…

Thirty meters.

Twenty meters.

Fifteen meters...

Suddenly, an inexplicable surge of excitement enveloped his soul, almost causing him to lose control of his body.

How can I describe that feeling...? It was like the first time I held that sandalwood wand in my student days, or the first time I saw Morfin Gaunt and old Tom Riddle—a feeling as if we were connected by blood.

That's ridiculous! He doesn't even have a body now, so how can there be any "blood connection"?!

And why did I suddenly have this feeling? What happened to the basilisk? What was in that empty classroom?!

Tom Riddle became inexplicably agitated. Just as he was hesitating whether to retreat temporarily to avoid the eerie feeling or continue investigating, something even more incredible happened.

"When do you think he'll come to see me?"

Even the faintest sounds, amplified by the doors and walls, were remarkably clear in the utterly silent corridor. What shocked Tom even more was how strangely familiar the voice sounded, and how familiar the language it was speaking was—

His target, Ken, was chatting with his basilisk in Parseltongue.

"You're really good at keeping your composure..."

The voice in the classroom continued, "I ordered you to cause such a huge mess, and he doesn't even plan to come see you? And he even gagged you so you can't talk to me... What a heartless piece of trash."

"Who could possibly be so patient... a ring? A crown? Or a diary?"

(End of this chapter)