There were already many people waiting for them in Professor McGonagall's office, including Dumbledore and the Weasley family who had just returned to Hogwarts.
When they entered the office, the atmosphere inside was filled with bleak silence. Suddenly, a scream came from the fireplace - "Ginny!"
It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting before the fire, crying. Now she jumped up, followed by Mr. Weasley, who both threw their arms around their precious daughter. Harry looked past them and into the room. He saw Professor Dumbledore, smiling, standing in front of the mantelpiece.
"Who can explain what happened?" Professor McGonagall asked sternly.
Xie Lin smiled slightly and said calmly: "Professor, it's like this. I happened to bump into Miss Weasley walking into the long-abandoned girls' bathroom on the third floor. At that time, her behavior was obviously weird and intuitive. Tell me something is wrong - Miss Weasley is probably controlled by a kind of black magic that I don't understand. Out of concern for her, I quietly followed Miss Weasley into the bathroom, but unexpectedly she let me see It’s an incredible scene—”
"Miss Weasley said something to the pipe that I didn't understand. It sounded a bit like snake language but I'm not sure. Then the entire pool disappeared, revealing a pipe entrance that could accommodate a person. To be honest. , I was a little scared at the time, and being reckless is not my Slytherin style. My first thought at the time was to leave immediately and report the matter to Professor Snape."
"Mr. Malfoy, you really should do this! You are just a student and you should not venture into an unknown place that may be dangerous. But can you tell me why you didn't do this later?" Professor McGonagall did. I'm a little confused about Xie Lin's response. Xie Lin has always been a mature, sensible, rational and stable student. This kind of reckless operation seems like something only Gryffindor would do.
"Professor, that's because I'm worried that if I leave, the entrance will disappear, and I don't know how to make the entrance reappear. If it delays, Miss Weasley may be in danger - Professor, you know , because of my Malfoy status, I have some differences with the Weasley family, but when I think about the possibility that a classmate who is younger than me may die because of my inaction, I feel that I cannot Doing nothing to save her would make me feel uneasy from now on. So I immediately decided to follow her and drill into the water pipe."
After listening to Xie Lin's explanation, Professor McGonagall's lips seemed to be less pursed, and his eyes seemed to be less severe. "Although your response was reckless, it was indeed excusable. Let's not talk about your behavior now. , what happened after you entered the water pipe channel?"
Dumbledore looked at Sherrin with sharp eyes, but chose to remain silent. Mr. Weasley also showed a slightly embarrassed expression after recognizing Sherrin as Lucius's son.
Xie Lin ignored everyone's reaction and continued: "Maybe the great Slytherin is blessing me - after all, I am also a Slytherin, and there is a huge but unbelievably old basilisk inside."
He paused and said: "Fortunately, the basilisk is still sleeping. I know that the basilisk's weakness lies in its brain. I used the transformation technique to create a sharp awl-shaped boulder on the ceiling. Then he controlled it and smashed it into the middle of the basilisk's eyes, successfully killing it. At this time, a ghost-like spirit emerged from Ginny. He called himself Tom Riddle. He had good intentions and asked me many questions..."
"I could see that he actually emerged from a diary in Ginny's arms. For safety reasons, I used a summoning spell to grab the diary before he could react and threw it into the basilisk. I didn't expect him to disappear so suddenly. I carried Miss Weasley out of the secret room, and then I met Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley in the bathroom."
Next it was Harry's turn to talk about his experience. He spoke for about ten minutes. Everyone listened very attentively and the room was completely silent. When he heard that Ron got backlash for trying to cast a spell on Sherrin who was holding Ginny in his arms, Mr. Weasley's whole face turned red, and Mrs. Weasley cast an apologetic look at Sherrin.
"What interests me most," Dumbledore said suddenly, "is how Voldemort controlled Miss Weasley. According to my sources, he is currently hiding in the Albanian forest!"
"What?" Mrs. Weasley said in shock, "Mysterious man? Controlling Ginny? But Ginny didn't... Ginny didn't... did she?"
"Professor," Schelling interrupted politely, carefully using his wand to take out a soaked diary from the container in his arms, "I guess this has something to do with this diary. There may be something hidden in it. Unknown evil magic."
"It's amazing," Dumbledore said softly. "He is probably the most outstanding student that Hogwarts has ever produced." He turned to face Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, both of whom looked very confused.
"Few people know that Voldemort's former name was Tom Riddle. I personally taught him fifty years ago at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving school...traveling around, sinking deeper and deeper into the mire of dark magic. The deeper he got, the most evil dark wizard in the wizarding world. After many dangerous magical transformations, he finally reappeared as Voldemort - it was difficult for people to recognize him at that time. Almost no one compared Voldemort to the clever man he used to be. , the handsome boy student council president."
"But Ginny," asked Mrs. Weasley, "what does Ginny have to do with him?"
"His diary!" Ginny sobbed. "I kept writing in it. He kept writing me replies for a whole year..."
"Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley, stunned. "Didn't I teach you? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself unless you see that it hides its mind. Where. Why didn't you show me or your mother the diary? A suspicious thing like that is obviously full of dark magic!"
"I-I don't know," Ginny was still crying sadly, "I found it in a book my mother gave me. I-I thought someone had put it in there and forgotten..."
"Miss Weasley should go to the school hospital immediately," Dumbledore interjected without hesitation. "This is a painful ordeal for her, and the school will not punish her. Many people are older and better than her. Resourceful wizards have been deceived by Voldemort." He strode to the door, opened it, lowered his head and winked kindly at Ginny, "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is not sleeping yet. She was handing out Mandela just now. Grass Resurrection Potion - I bet the basilisk's victim could wake up at any moment."
Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, followed by Mr. Weasley, still looking very shaken. After Professor McGonagall also left, Dumbledore smiled and gave Harry some points, and specifically praised Harry's decisiveness and bravery.
Just as Harry was about to walk out of the office, the door was suddenly slammed open and bounced against the wall behind. Lucius Malfoy stood there, looking furious. Under his arm was a house elf with bandages all over his body. It was Dobby. Lucius rushed into the room, nearly knocking Harry over. Dobby followed in panic, hunched over and staring at the seams at the back of his master's robes with a look of hopeless fear on his face.
"Okay!" Lucius stared at Dumbledore with cold eyes, "You are back. The board of directors suspended you, but you still returned to Hogwarts on your own initiative."
"Oh, that's right, Lucius," Dumbledore said with a calm smile, "Today, the other eleven directors have contacted me. They heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter had an accident. , all wanted me to get here immediately. They seemed to think, after a long time, that I was the best fit for the job. They also told me some strange stories. Some of them seemed to think that you had threatened to do it if they didn't. By agreeing to suspend me, you curse their families.”
Lucius's face was paler than usual, but his eyes still burned with rage. "So - did you prevent those attacks?" he asked sarcastically. "Did you catch the murderer?"
"We caught it," Dumbledore answered him with a smile.
"Oh?" Lucius asked sharply, "Who is it?"
"It's the same person as last time, Lucius," said Dumbledore, "but this time Voldemort is acting through another person. Through his diary." He watched Mr. Malfoy's reaction closely. Harry, on the other hand, was looking at Dobby. The house elf was acting very strangely. His eyes as big as tennis balls were staring at Harry thoughtfully, while he kept pointing at the diary, then at Mr. Malfoy, and then hit his head hard with his fist.
An idea flashed in Harry's mind, and he suddenly understood. "Mr. Malfoy, don't you want to know how Ginny got this diary?"
"Hmph!" Lucius looked at Harry with disgust, "My time is very precious, and I have no interest in paying attention to how a stupid girl got a ridiculous diary."
"Because you gave it to her," Harry said. "At Flourish and Blotts, you picked up her Transfiguration textbook and secretly stuffed the diary inside it, right?"
Lucius' pale hands clenched into fists and then relaxed. He croaked, "Is there any evidence?"
"Oh, no one can provide evidence," Dumbledore looked at Harry with a smile and said, "Now Riddle has disappeared from the book. In addition, Lucius, I want to give you a piece of advice, don't Distributing old things from Voldemort's school days. If these things fall into the hands of innocent people again, at least Arthur Weasley will definitely be able to find out that they came from you..."
Lucius stood stunned for a moment, veins popping out of the corners of his eyes. He suddenly turned his head and glared at Xie Lin angrily, "What about you? Why are you here?"
Xie Lin shrugged and said with an indifferent expression: "Dear father, I happened to meet Harry and the others when I was practicing magic alone. I helped them with a little help and then followed them over."
Lucius' face was gloomy, and when he was about to scold him severely, he glanced at Dumbledore, snorted coldly to express his dissatisfaction, turned around and called Dobby to leave. He opened the door and Dobby hurried over. Mr. Malfoy kicked him out. They could hear Dobby's screams of pain receding down the corridor. Harry stood there staring at the diary, frowning and thinking hard for a moment.
"Professor Dumbledore!" he said hurriedly, "Excuse me, can I return this diary to Mr. Malfoy?"
"Of course, Harry!" Dumbledore said calmly, picked up the wand and tapped it lightly on the diary. The snake venom on the diary disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye. Harry grabbed the diary and rushed out of the office.
In a blink of an eye, only Sherrin and Dumbledore were left in the office, and the atmosphere became awkwardly quiet for a while. "Um...Professor, if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave. You know, I still have to review for the final exam!"
"Don't be too busy leaving. In fact, I also have something to say to you. First of all, I must thank you for rescuing Miss Weasley in the secret room." Dumbledore's eyes flashed, "Except for Riddle , I haven’t seen an outstanding little wizard like you for a long time. Seeing you seems to remind me of an old friend.”
Although the other party made it easy, Xie Lin was secretly wary. He knew Dumbledore's dark history, and the old friend he mentioned probably meant Grindelwald. This was not a happy evaluation. And the last meeting between the two could not be called friendly.
"Thank you, Professor!" Xie Lin said modestly, "I just worked harder and had a little luck. I am really lucky to be able to come out of the secret room alive this time."
"No, this is not that simple. Before today, I have been paying attention to you for a long time. Whether it is your performance in the duel club or the duel between the Slytherin factions, you have shown that you are far beyond the second grade. Students should have the strength. I heard the declaration you made in the Slytherin lounge from Severus, and I found it very thought-provoking. Like my old friend, you have things that ordinary people don't have. Vision, and…ambition.”
