bookbashuk Chapter 37 Tom Riddle
Chapter 37 Tom Riddle
Harry, who was gently comforting Hermione just a moment ago, suddenly seemed to be gripped by some kind of fear. Before he could explain what he had figured out, he took out all the potions he had prepared in advance and drank them all.
Vitality potions, blood tonics, and energy boosters flowed down Harry's throat and into his stomach as if they were free, even Professor Snape's Felix Felicis was no exception.
Before Hermione could even ask anything, Harry Apparate with her and the fangs scattered on the floor back to the Gryffindor boys' dormitory. (He's gained confidence after drinking Felix Felicis.)
Because of the distance, Hermione experienced a completely new sensation during this Apparition experience, being inserted into a "thin tube." Part of her body felt like it was hooked to her navel by an iron hook, unable to leave, while another part of her body had already been pulled away from its original position by Harry. She only managed to break free of the "iron hook" when her elongated body was almost about to break off.
"Ugh...cough cough cough!"
In that instant, Hermione had so many questions she wanted to ask. But when all the words were about to come out, they turned into coughing and gagging again due to Apparition.
“This is the Marauder’s Map. Point your wand at it and say, ‘I solemnly swear I have done nothing wrong. Help me pinpoint Lockhart’s location.’”
Harry moved with lightning speed, as if he had pressed the accelerator button. Before Hermione could fully recover from the side effects of Apparition, he had already stuffed the parchment map into her arms.
"Put on the invisibility cloak!"
He spoke anxiously, and with lightning speed, he slipped the shimmering silver robe over Hermione's head.
"When I go to Lockhart, wake up as many students as possible. Have them contact the school teachers or their parents by any means necessary. And remember, under no circumstances should they take off the Invisibility Cloak!"
Upon hearing this, Hermione, still catching her breath, immediately became extremely alert. Nodding and coughing, she pulled out her wand and chanted:
"Ahem... I solemnly swear that I did nothing wrong."
The ink lines that spread out like a spider web did not amaze Hermes. At this critical moment, even if Harry told her to eat the parchment, the little witch would not hesitate.
Soon, on the corridor diagram on the right side of the parchment, Hermione saw the name Harry had told her to pay attention to.
"On the eighth floor! Lockhart is in the corridor on the eighth floor, about to go down... Wait, why is he walking towards the end of the corridor?"
Hermione's voice intensified Harry's ominous premonition. Logically, he should immediately Apparate to the eighth floor. However, after drinking Felix Felicis, Harry inexplicably felt he had to fly outside the castle.
"The eighth floor! Quickly!"
Harry and Moran united their thoughts, and with a snap and a deafening roar like a hurricane, a darkness deeper than the night suddenly enveloped the area outside Hogwarts Castle.
Just as the black mist enveloped the upper floors of Hogwarts Castle like dark clouds, the sound of shattering glass suddenly came from a window on the eighth floor.
"Crack!"
Shards of glass reflected starlight in the air as a lithe figure leaped out of the window as if courting death. But before he could even cross the threshold, Mo Ran had already rushed ahead of him.
The high-speed movement of the silent creature possessed a power more terrifying than any extreme weather on Earth. The guy who was about to jump out of the window had just taken off when he was blown back more than ten meters by the terrifying black wind.
"Oculus Reparo!"
"Colloportus!" (Immediately imprison him!)
Harry, who had transformed back into human form in mid-air, loudly recited two spells.
He was also carried away by inertia for a distance, but thanks to his physical abilities and the boost from Felix Felicis, he managed to complete a highly difficult maneuver in mid-air.
By the time his feet were finally able to touch the ground, the broken window had been repaired and reinforced.
"You don't seem surprised to see me? Can you tell me how you found out?"
Having come this far, Lockhart has no intention of continuing the performance.
"In your pre-appointment speech, you referred to the basilisk as 'her.' I never told you how to tell the gender of a basilisk, but you guessed it correctly without a doubt. What a coincidence!"
Lockhart was taken aback for a moment, then he actually clapped for Harry.
"Wonderful!"
He said:
"I didn't expect you to notice such a detail! If you hadn't pointed it out, I wouldn't have even realized that there was something wrong with what this guy was saying!"
Harry and Mo Ran both felt a chill run down their spines.
Clearly, the worst has happened. Lockhart wasn't simply being manipulated or bewitched. The guy in front of him was very likely no longer Lockhart.
Is Lockhart still alive?
Harry gripped his wand tightly and asked in a low voice.
"This person isn't important; what's important is that you saw through my disguise."
The fake Lockhart was speaking, but his attention was quickly drawn to a silver glint on Harry's back.
"Huh? That's the Sword of Gryffindor on your back, isn't it? The only relic of the founder that I couldn't find back then. Heh, it's truly astonishing, Harry Potter. I thought that basilisk would cause you a lot of trouble, but I didn't expect you to take care of her so quickly."
"You are Voldemort, Tom Riddle is you."
"You missed 'Mavolo,' without which I can't spell 'I am lord voldemort'!" (The phrases "I am lord voldemort" and "Tom Marvolo Riddle" use different arrangements of the same letters.)
……
The brief silence intensified the tense and eerie atmosphere. The two, who should have started fighting the moment they met, found themselves, for some strange reason, simultaneously inclined to continue talking.
"Then why did you know to wait for me outside the castle? Was it Dumbledore who arranged it that way?"
Tom Riddle, who asked the first question, revealed two very important pieces of information. First, by using the word "run" as an adjective, he seemed unaware that Harry could Apparate inside the castle. Second, he was quite familiar with Harry's Obscurus.
A battle could break out at any moment, and Harry certainly didn't intend to exchange valuable intelligence, he replied:
"Of course, Professor Dumbledore is the greatest wizard in the world. Even if he weren't at Hogwarts, he could see through your little tricks!"
"Hahaha! Are they trying to boost their own morale?"
Instead of being angry, Tom Riddle laughed, pulling out his diary from his pocket as he sneered:
"If he really had that much power, he should have brought me to justice in the first place, instead of expelling me from school based on a memory and then dumping all the problems on a second-year student."
“He’s old, Harry, old and stubborn, incapable of bringing new life to the world. To be honest, you and your castle-detecting magic have caused me far more trouble in the last few months than that old geezer Dumbledore.”
Harry's eyes were fixed on the diary in Tom's hand, calculating the probability of successfully using his snake fangs to ambush Tom. Then, he imitated Tom's irrelevant conversational style, saying:
"I'm not as boastful as you. After all, I was indeed used by you to help me become the interim headmaster. But I'm someone who dares to admit defeat, unlike you, who, even if you couldn't escape directly through the headmaster's office window, still had to slander Dumbledore, saying he was incompetent. Are you that afraid of him? You don't even have the courage to admit you were tricked?"
Tom Riddle, now sporting Lockhart's face, grew increasingly sinister. Even Lockhart's most loyal fans would never recognize the man before them as their beloved idol.
……
As a time traveler, Mo Ran had to think about far more things than Harry during this period.
Thinking back, Lockhart has been full of suspicious points ever since Professor Sprout's mandrake was neglected and malnourished. He arrived late during the first attack. He repeatedly displayed clumsiness in class, trying to get closer to Harry by offering favors. Later, at the Dueling Club, he "accidentally" angered the giant snake summoned by Malfoy, causing it to grow larger...
All of Lockhart's seemingly incompetent and ridiculous behavior was a means for Tom Riddle to cover up his own shortcomings and divert attention.
During this semester, he discovered that Harry had some means of monitoring the school and sensed the location of the Horcrux. Then, taking advantage of Lucius Malfoy's dismissal of Dumbledore, he successfully became the interim headmaster of Hogwarts by leveraging Harry's influence on Fudge.
But that wasn't all. Voldemort, having somehow regained his sanity, didn't rush to retrieve the crown. He quietly lay low in Hogwarts Castle, continuing to gather intelligence, until Harry ventured into the Chamber of Secrets to fight the Basilisk, at which point he finally made his move.
"So Professor Snape didn't want to tutor Harry because he sensed the Dark Lord's return? No wonder he was clutching his arm the last time I saw him; he sensed the Dark Mark stirring! Yes! That must be it! As a double agent, he absolutely cannot let Voldemort discover that he and Harry are so close!"
Thinking of this, Mo Ran felt a chill run down her spine for the first time after transmigrating, experiencing the power of Voldemort.
He would rather face a cunning enemy than a powerful, noseless, bald man.
If Dumbledore hadn't made preparations in the Headmaster's office beforehand, and if he and Harry hadn't drunk Felix Felicis beforehand, Tom Riddle would probably have Apparated and escaped with the two Horcruxes the moment he jumped out of the window.
……
"Very well... Since things have come to this, let's test our strength."
Tom Riddle said as he drew his wand:
"Let's see if that boy who survived so many calamities can live again and again from Voldemort's clutches!"
"Pestis Incendium!"
The spell imbued with the purest bloodlust wasn't Avada Kedavra, and the magic illuminating the eighth-floor corridor wasn't green light. Looking at the fiery serpent before them, its crimson tongue flicking, even though Harry and Moran hadn't heard Voldemort's spell, they could guess what the flames were.
"Gubraithian!" (Gubraithian Fire)
As the blue light flashed, the initial heat was neutralized by the warmth of the Grub's Flame. But before Harry could come up with a way to retaliate, Tom Riddle's next spell was already hurtling towards him.
A streak of blue lightning flashed across the walls like a spiderweb, crackling and scattering pebbles everywhere. However, just a second before Mo Ran was about to transform Harry and silently dodge the attack, the strange feeling that had appeared in the dormitory earlier returned.
"Protego Horribillis!" (Super armor protects you)
The solid, transparent magical shield hissed the moment it touched the electric grid. Unlike when defending against other types of magic, this time the armor felt more like it was being corrupted or eroded than shattered.
It's easy to imagine that if Harry and Moran had been lazy and used Obscurus to avoid the attack, they would probably have been caught by the electric fence by now.
"Ah!"
Tom Riddle's disdainful voice rang out again.