"Don't mention that name to me!" the boy said grimly. "That damn Mudblood! He dared to harm the King of Serpents left to me by the great Salazar Slytherin! And twice!"
"Marcel? Harmed the basilisk?" Harry said in surprise.
"The first time, I was there too... and Miss Granger," said Lockhart. "Unfortunately, I couldn't save her in time."
"Oh—Professor, so you knew all along—" Harry's eyes widened.
"Hmph! So what?" the boy said with a cold snort. "A stinking Mudblood trying to save another Mudblood? Ridiculous!"
He paused, then said with a cold smile, "What's even more ridiculous is that this Mudblood failed to save one, and then actually wanted to save the next... Harry Potter, it's a pity you didn't see it—Miss Weasley struggled desperately, crying and screaming, while that Mudblood could only lean against the wall, clutching his injured arm, and watch helplessly as she was taken away by the King of Serpents—"
"Oh, right, he couldn't see—because from beginning to end, he didn't have the guts to open his eyes and take even one look—isn't that a good joke?"
Harry clenched his fists, staring at him with hatred.
Ron, who was holding Ginny on the side, had been looking down at Ginny's face since just now, lost in thought.
"We really did misunderstand Marcel..." Harry said angrily. "And all of this is your fault!"
"Don't say that... I've been waiting for you ever since Ginny and I arrived here. I knew you would come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."
"What questions?" Harry asked sharply, his fists still clenched.
"For instance," the boy said, a delighted smile on his face, "how a baby with no extraordinary magical talent was able to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How you were able to escape unscathed, with only a scar, while Voldemort's power was destroyed?"
Now, a strange red light flickered in his wolfish eyes.
"Why do you care how I escaped?" Harry said loudly. "What's it to you!"
"Of course! Of course it has something to do with me! Because my name is Tom Riddle."
Harry immediately thought of the name in the diary, but he had no clue as to its significance.
But before Harry could be confused for long, Riddle directly gave the explanation.
"Voldemort," Riddle said softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter... Just rearrange the letters, and you will understand. In fact—"
"In fact, he is Voldemort. The sixteen-year-old Voldemort," said Lockhart.
"He is... Voldemort?" Harry was greatly surprised upon hearing this.
"Do you think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"
Riddle's tone grew more and more intense, his voice becoming louder.
At this moment, Lockhart suddenly took a large step forward.
"The greatest sorcerer?" he said, looking at Riddle with a strange expression. "Do you really think that someone who does this kind of thing would be a great sorcerer?"
Lockhart pointed to the diary at the foot of the Slytherin statue and asked meaningfully.
"You know what that is!"
Hearing the deep meaning in Lockhart's words, he immediately showed a look of surprise.
Riddle immediately abandoned his original plan. He was no longer in the mood to talk nonsense with Harry. Instead, he decisively turned to the Slytherin statue, opened his mouth, and made a hissing sound—only Harry understood what he was saying.
"Speak to me, Slytherin—greatest of the Hogwarts Four!"
Slytherin's huge stone face moved. Its mouth opened wider and wider, finally forming a huge black hole.
Something seemed to be moving inside the statue's mouth. It was slithering up from the depths of the statue.
"Close your eyes! Get back!" Lockhart shouted.
Harry and Ron dragged Ginny and retreated hastily, almost simultaneously hitting the dark wall of the Chamber. Their eyes were tightly shut.
A huge object fell heavily onto the stone floor. Everyone felt the Chamber tremble.
They all knew what was happening. They could feel the giant snake uncoiling its body from Slytherin's mouth.
Then, Harry heard Riddle's hissing voice.
"Kill him!"
But what Riddle didn't expect was that the man in front of him, who looked like a weakling, reacted extremely quickly.
Although Lockhart's eyes were also closed at this time, it was as if he could see his surroundings. He pointed his wand at the stone pillar beside him.
"Diffindo!"
Under the effect of the Severing Charm, a part of the stone pillar fell to the ground with a crash, breaking into several pieces.
Then, Lockhart waved his wand again, and one of the stone pieces quickly transformed into a large rooster.
"Damn it!"
Riddle immediately sensed something was wrong, but without a wand in his hand, he couldn't do anything effective to interfere.
He suddenly waved his hand at Lockhart. A push of magical force suddenly rushed towards the rooster, but it was easily neutralized by Lockhart with a wave of his wand.
The rooster suddenly crowed. The crowing was remarkably effective. The basilisk immediately began to slither around in a panic. For a time, several stone pillars were knocked down, dust flew everywhere, and the scene was extremely chaotic.
Lockhart took this opportunity and, under the cover of the dust, quickly ran towards the foot of the statue.
On the other side, Riddle clearly had the same plan. Perhaps due to the different form of existence, the blurry figure of Riddle was faster than Lockhart!
But just as Riddle suddenly surpassed Lockhart, he didn't notice that Lockhart had immediately stopped running.
He waved his wand swiftly and decisively. A black mist skull the size of a human head suddenly shot out from the tip of his wand. Like a fierce ghost, it flew forward at extreme speed and landed squarely on the back of Riddle's blurry figure.
"Ah—"
After being hit by the black mist skull, Riddle's figure became even blurrier. As if unable to control its form, it began to twist continuously.
Before long, the figure suddenly split into two blurry masses, one large and one small. The large one went straight for the diary, while the small one drew an arc in the air and landed accurately on Ginny.
After the large blurry mass gradually merged into the diary, Lockhart waved his wand and summoned the diary into his hand.
In fact, he could have done this just now. The act of suddenly running over was just for Riddle to see.
This series of actions was completed in just a few seconds. Caught off guard, Riddle was left with almost no chance to react.
After dealing with Riddle, Lockhart closed his eyes again and once more rushed headlong into the unsettled dust.
A moment later, a loud hiss was heard from a corner of the Chamber, followed by a heavy thud.
In the corner obscured by dust, Lockhart was standing by the basilisk's huge head. His gaze was not on the basilisk's scales or fangs. What he cared about more was the not-so-conspicuous horn on its head.
That was actually the most precious part of the basilisk!
It was said that Salazar Slytherin had once used it as the core of his own wand, and its power was quite astonishing.
"Come out! You should know what to do next," said Lockhart—or rather, Marcel, who had taken on Lockhart's appearance.
"Of course! Nothing could be easier!"
As the voice spoke, a figure suddenly appeared not far away—that was the real Lockhart. He handed over a suitcase he was carrying.
"Take them and leave. I'll handle things here."
"Of course. A pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Maclean."
…
When the real Lockhart hurried to Harry's side, a soft groan happened to sound—Ginny had woken up.
Her dazed eyes first looked to the left and right, then at Ron, who had been holding her all along, and finally landed on the somewhat disheveled Harry.
Then, her tears began to fall.
"Oh—Harry, I tried to tell you at breakfast, but I c-couldn't in front of Percy. It was me, Harry—but I—I s-swear I d-didn't mean to—R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over—and—where's Riddle? The last I remember, he was coming out of the diary—"
"Don't worry, it's alright! I've already taken care of them! See—" Lockhart said cheerfully, pointing to the huge corpse in the depths of the Chamber.
But Ginny didn't seem to feel much relief from this.
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny said, crying, as Ron silently helped her to her feet. "I've been looking forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came, and now I'll have to leave, and what will Mum and Dad say?"
At Lockhart's urging, they passed through the dim, empty, echoing chamber and returned to the tunnel. But they didn't notice that the stone door behind them did not close after they left.
Of course, even if they had noticed, they would never have thought that at this moment, there was another person dismembering the basilisk's corpse!
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