"I mean, this diary records some terrifying past events... some covered-up past events, things that happened at Hogwarts School of Magic."
Watching these lines appear in the diary, Harry's body began to tremble slightly. He took a deep breath and quickly wrote in the diary.
"I am at Hogwarts, and terrible things are happening in this castle right now. Do you know... about the Chamber of Secrets?"
Harry's heart was beating very fast. He felt that he would soon learn the truth about the Chamber of Secrets from this fifty-year-old diary.
Riddle's handwriting in the diary also became very scrawled, as if he couldn't wait to tell Harry everything he knew.
He told Harry about his experience in his fifth year, when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened once, and a poor student had even died because of it.
In the end, he caught the culprit, but the then Hogwarts Headmaster, in order to protect the school's reputation, did not allow him to tell the truth.
The culprit was expelled, Riddle was required to keep it a secret, and the school gave him a medal. The matter was simply left at that.(TN: Wasn't it a trophy?)
Harry listened as he finished the story, so excited that he almost knocked over the ink nearby. He begged Riddle to tell him who the person was that opened the Chamber of Secrets last time.
Riddle readily agreed and invited Harry to see it with his own eyes within his memory.
Harry hesitated only for a moment before agreeing.
Then, Riddle took Harry to witness the event of the Chamber of Secrets being opened fifty years ago from his own perspective.
He was allowed to personally witness the entire process of how he reported Hagrid, how Hagrid let his "monster" friend escape, and how he was eventually caught.
Harry returned to reality from Riddle's memory. He stared blankly ahead, breathing heavily.
The three of them had guessed that anyone could be the Heir of Slytherin, but they never imagined that the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets back then was actually Hagrid!
While Harry was in a daze, the dormitory door was suddenly pushed open from the outside, startling Harry into nervously closing Riddle's diary.
Ron, wearing pyjamas and with wet hair, looked at Harry strangely.
"What's wrong with you?"
Harry, of course, would not hide these things from Ron.
He stood up from his chair impatiently and told Ron everything about his conversation with Riddle, as well as how he had seen Hagrid being expelled fifty years ago through his memory.
Ron's mouth opened wider and wider. By the time he heard about Hagrid being expelled, he was completely dumbfounded.
"Wait! I've heard the name Tom Riddle before... Riddle received a Special Award for Merit to the School fifty years ago."
He repeated the information, and Harry looked at him in surprise.
"Where did you see that?"
Ron's expression became pained.
"It was because of that trophy. Filch caught me because I hadn't polished it clean enough, and he punished me by making me clean the trophy room all over again."
Harry felt that Ron's words further confirmed that everything Riddle said was the truth.
"It's because he exposed Hagrid that the school gave Riddle the Special Award for Merit, so Riddle was telling the truth!"
Just as Harry and Ron wanted to continue chatting, the dormitory door was suddenly pushed open from the outside again.
Neville and Seamus, who had been punished by Snape to handle potion ingredients, had returned.
Harry and Ron both closed their mouths in silent agreement and then secretly hid Riddle's diary in their drawer.
Neville and Seamus looked very tired, and neither of them noticed anything unusual about Harry and Ron.
"Dean hasn't come back yet?" Seamus asked weakly about their other roommate's whereabouts.
Ron shrugged and said, "I just saw him next door. He seems to be showing off his newly bought sketching quill."
Harry blinked and asked Neville, who had flopped onto his bed like a lost soul as soon as he entered the room, with concern.
"What did Snape make you do?"
"Frog brains..." Neville said with a vacant look. "The professor made us scoop out three whole buckets of frog brains. We've been busy since six o'clock, and our hands are covered in frog blood. Those dead frogs made me think of Trevor..."
Harry and the others exchanged looks. They knew Trevor was Neville's pet, and Ron comforted him.
"Don't think like that, Neville. Trevor is a toad, not a frog."
But Neville didn't seem to hear him, as he was already snoring lightly on the bed, clearly exhausted and asleep.
Harry and the others could only look at each other helplessly.
The next morning, while eating breakfast in the Great Hall, Harry, Ron, and Hermione gathered together.
Harry told Hermione everything he had learned from Riddle the previous night.
Hermione and Ron made Harry repeat everything he had seen in Riddle's memory over and over again, like a broken record.
Harry was getting a bit tired of talking about it; he even slightly regretted knowing these things from the diary.
"Riddle might have the wrong person," Hermione argued weakly for Hagrid. "Maybe another monster was the one who hurt people..."
"How many monsters can there be in Hogwarts?" Ron clearly didn't think Hermione's explanation was very plausible.
"We already knew Hagrid was expelled, and he's always liked keeping big creatures, like Fluffy and Norbert."
Harry also wanted to find an excuse for Hagrid, but he distressedly found that he couldn't find one at all.
"And after Hagrid was expelled, the attacks stopped. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn't have won the award."
Hermione said tentatively,
"How about we go find Hagrid and ask him to his face about what happened back then?"
"How do you think we should bring it up?" Ron said, spreading his hands. "'Oh, hello, Hagrid, tell me, have you happened to let out that hairy, wild, and terrifying friend of yours lately?'"
"And how do you think Hagrid would answer us?"
Both Hermione and Harry fell silent.
In the end, they decided not to go to Hagrid, nor did they intend to tell anyone else about it, acting as if they didn't know.
At the same time, Harry and the others also stopped their investigation into the Heir of Slytherin. The matter with Hagrid made them subconsciously not want to face these things.
Moreover, under the care of Professor Sprout, the mandrakes in the greenhouse were gradually maturing. When they were fully grown, those who had been petrified would be saved.
The peace in the castle continued until the following week, when another accident occurred during the Defence Against the Dark Arts class.
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