A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Malfoy couldn't help but shudder.

“It seems you’ve had some extraordinary experiences. Would you like to talk about it?” Felix said encouragingly.

“The diary… Professor,” Malfoy began, his voice hoarse, “I must ask for your forgiveness… I think I made a mistake unintentionally.”

Felix looked at him with his light blue eyes. "Continue."

“It’s…it’s Potter and his gang!” Malfoy’s breathing quickened. “A few weeks ago, I discovered they were breaking the rules, and not just once! So I secretly followed them and found them hiding in Myrtle’s territory, which is the girls’ restroom!”

“Myrtle’s territory…” Felix repeated his words.

“That’s right, Professor.” Felix’s reaction gave Malfoy confidence; his nose flushed slightly. “They must be plotting something! Potter and his gang always do this, repeatedly violating school rules and never getting punished…”

It's clear he harbors deep resentment about this, constantly criticizing Potter.

“Everyone is responsible for their own actions,” Felix echoed.

“Yes, Professor Hyp, you are so fair… If you ask me, very few people see through his true colors. Potter is reckless and arrogant, and that Weasley is always with him, like a—”

“Mr. Malfoy,” Felix interrupted him, “let’s continue our previous conversation.”

“Yes, yes, Professor. Potter found me, and I ran away in a panic. When I went back later, they had cleaned up all the traces, but I found this…” His gaze fell on the black notebook.

"This is?"

“A diary is also a very terrible dark magic item!” Malfoy said quickly, his expression a mixture of disgust and fear.

“I initially thought it was left by Potter and his friends, perhaps someone’s diary. But I discovered it belonged to a man named Tom Riddle, a former Slytherin senior. I can still talk to him; he taught me a lot…”

Tom Riddle, that name… Felix’s eyes deepened.

"So you kept its existence a secret? I think the professors have emphasized more than once not to believe in things that hide your mind."

Malfoy lowered his head, and Felix could easily see his platinum blonde hair.

"And then, Malfoy? According to you, he's a mentor and friend. What caused your attitude to change?"

Malfoy's face lit up with reminiscence: "For the first few days, everything was normal. But then things changed. I found myself sometimes appearing in inexplicable places, and when I tried to think, I would subconsciously forget about it... Also, my robes, bag, and lapels were somehow covered in chicken feathers, things I never touched!"

Later that day, I don’t know why I ended up in a secluded corridor on the fourth floor of the castle, and when I realized it, I saw Harry running away from me.

“I believe,” Malfoy lowered his voice, as if all his previous words had been preparing for this moment, “that this is a trap set for me…”

A quiet atmosphere fell over the office.

Felix fiddled with his wand, seemingly deep in thought. After a while, he bent down and picked up the diary with his free hand.

He flipped through it quickly; apart from the first page which had the name "Tom Riddle" written in ink, all the other pages were blank.

Turning to the back cover, one finds the name of a newspaper distributor on Vauxhall Road in London.

“Mr. Malfoy,” Felix said, “you mean, Potter and his gang did all of this?”

“That’s possible, Professor—” he said slowly.

"So what was their purpose in doing this? Have you considered another possibility, such as that this diary is related to the recent locked-room attack?"

Malfoy's pale face grew even paler, and he stammered. Professor Hyp's light blue eyes were looking at him, which made Malfoy feel that his little thoughts had been seen through.

Subconsciously, he believed that the diary was related to the secret room.

He wanted to entrust the item to a reliable person, but he didn't want to cause trouble—heaven knows what he did unconsciously, and he absolutely couldn't let his father know about it, so he deliberately avoided Professor Snape, whom he trusted more but who was closer to his family.

As for whether it was related to Potter, he couldn't be sure, but isn't it normal to cause Potter some trouble?

“Professor…I don’t know, I have no memory of it,” he said slyly.

“Anyway—” Felix glanced at him, “you made a wise choice. Slytherin gets fifty points, that’s the best I can do. Perhaps we can go see Headmaster Dumbledore together…”

“No, no need, Professor,” Malfoy said hastily, standing up. “I have only one request: could you please keep this a secret?”

"Keep it a secret?"

"What I mean is, it's best not to mention my existence or tell my family until the truth is found out, as this could damage the Malfoy family's reputation."

Felix looked at him. "Okay," he said.

"Thank you, Professor. If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."

After receiving Felix's permission, he left quickly.

In the office, Felix quietly looked at his diary, his fingers tapping on the armrest of his chair.

"Da, da."

His perspective changed. In the black and white world, he was confronted with a dark aura that was even thicker and deeper than ink. He examined it carefully, but apart from the darkness itself, he gained nothing.

Felix went to the workbench, thought for a moment, then took out a quill and dripped a drop of ink onto the diary.

A stain appeared on the page.

He waited quietly, but—nothing happened.

Felix: "..." Was it my mistake, or did Malfoy not explain it clearly?

He pulled out his wand and pointed at the open pages of the diary—

"Reveal the secret!"

"Reveal yourselves immediately!"

"Magic Tracking!"

"Status feedback!"

After a series of attempts, the diary remained unresponsive, lying there quietly.

This thing in front of me was definitely made using extremely secretive methods.

Even he couldn't find the problem right away.

Could a sixteen or seventeen-year-old Voldemort possess such abilities? He wouldn't dare make a judgment on the realm of dark magic, but magical creations…

What makes him think he can surpass me?

Felix fell into deep thought, his fingers tapping incessantly on the surface of his workbench, the quiet office emitting a "tap, tap" sound.

After an unknown amount of time, he finally stopped.

Felix's light blue eyes brightened as he considered a possibility, a possibility that sent chills down his spine—

Voldemort was the heir to the Chamber of Secrets left by Slytherin, most likely one of his descendants. That's why Voldemort was able to open the Chamber of Secrets using Parseltongue when he was studying at Hogwarts.

What could be inside that secret room?

Is it merely a serpent monster that has lived for a thousand years?

This is such a waste, but if we look at it from another perspective, perhaps it's protecting something.

For example, Slytherin's top-secret research materials?

Chapter 67 Bewitchment

Felix attempted to reconstruct a scene from fifty years ago—

A clever, cautious, and ambitious young wizard, after entering Hogwarts, overhears the legend of Slytherin. He is so intelligent that he must have discovered that the two share the same magical talent—Parsleyan, which almost means that the two are actually related by blood.

He must be very excited; the same blood as the noble Slytherins flows in his veins.

Undoubtedly, he would try to find the secret chamber left by his ancestors, which might take several years, but with his wisdom, and perhaps with the help of some snakes... in any case, he succeeded.

As a descendant of Slytherin, he became the new master of the Basilisk.

He naturally inherited everything from there. For example, a hidden room filled with all sorts of forbidden Slytherin documents.

Slytherin were particularly adept at bloodline research and possessed considerable knowledge of powerful ancient magic. Most importantly, in that era, dark magic was rampant, and Slytherin never shied away from researching and using it…

The young wizard received the gifts of his ancestors, secretly absorbing them and delving deeper into the realm of magic, his ambition growing ever larger. Until he was rejected by Dumbledore, he assembled the army of Death Eaters, becoming the infamous Dark Lord.

……

'Could all of this be true? Or is it just my conjecture?' Felix's gaze seemed to pierce through time, witnessing the rise of the second Dark Lord.

He stared motionless at his diary, like a quiet oil painting in the still night.

Who wouldn't want the research materials of a legendary master wizard who bridged the gap between the past and the future?

'The mere possibility is enough to make me want to try.'

'I'm afraid Voldemort might take or destroy these documents; that would be troublesome.'

Felix already had a plan in mind.

'The first step was to initiate communication, but the Horcrux is feigning death...'

After thinking for a moment, Felix quickly constructed a small fragment of memory and emotion in his mind.

In his new memories, he remains a young, brilliant wizard who has achieved remarkable success, but the difference is that he possesses extreme arrogance and self-confidence, and has no doubt that he can control this mysterious diary...

'The art of lying is nine parts truth and one part falsehood. I just need to make him misjudge my character and think that I can be used by him,' Felix thought.

He opened his diary, picked up a quill pen, dipped it in ink, and wrote a line of text on it with great passion.

"Evil being, reveal your secrets, or I will have no choice but to destroy you completely!"

After a moment's thought, he felt the emotion was right, but the information he conveyed wasn't compelling enough, so he added a paragraph in Lockhart's tone—

“I, Felix Heap, the most outstanding graduate of Hogwarts in a century, have published three magical works and maintained correspondence with hundreds of famous wizards—but I don’t talk about that. I didn’t get Dumbledore’s offer of a position through powerful connections.”

He stopped writing, for a second, then two seconds...

An extremely subtle mind-capturing thought swept over, but this consciousness did not forcefully break through his memories or recklessly read the false information within. Instead, it merely circled the periphery, capturing his emotions.

This impressed Felix.

This is also the practice of many masters of mind control. They rarely forcefully enter other people's minds to search through their memories. Instead, they perceive the other person's current emotions and, with the help of their own rich experience, obtain the information they want without anyone noticing.

Under Felix's gaze, the ink on the diary was absorbed.

He waited patiently, and sure enough, a line of text appeared in the diary.

"Hello, Felix Heap."

The text lingered for a few seconds, then quickly disappeared, and a new line of text appeared—

“I am not some kind of dark magic item. That little wizard misunderstood me. The one who actually opened the secret chamber is someone else.”