193- Amnesiac Riddle

    Rhys stood once again on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets.

    He glanced at Ginny, who was lying unconscious on the ground. She was still out cold, but her complexion had improved significantly; it was no longer deathly pale as before.

    A small, tattered notebook lay quietly on the floor beside her hand, as if it had slipped out of her sleeve.

    Rhys picked up the notebook and immediately sensed a well-hidden aura of malevolence emanating from it.

    Clearly, this was the vessel for Riddle''s fragment of soul.

    "Using a notebook you can find in any Muggle shop as a Horcrux—nice, quite creative," Rhys remarked, giving Riddle a rare compliment.

    The selection and concealment of Horcruxes were practically essential lessons for any dark wizard aspiring to immortality but lacking the necessary power.

    They could hide their Horcruxes in desolate wildernesses or use inconspicuous vessels—after all, a Horcrux was typically protected by sophisticated enchantments that could withstand ordinary wear and tear, weather, or even fire and flood, as long as the creator didn''t mind the aesthetic unpleasantness. The central principle was simple: make it impossible for enemies to locate your Horcrux.

    The diary Riddle had chosen as his Horcrux was indeed inconspicuous. Toss it into a secondhand bookshop, and unless it actively caused trouble, it might go unnoticed for decades, if not centuries.

    Rhys opened the diary and wrote a line on its pages: I am Adrian Greengrass.

    The ink lingered on the paper for a second before being absorbed completely, disappearing without a trace.

    Soon, the diary responded. A faint, scrawled line of text appeared on the page:

    Hello, Adrian. I am... ###@#@#@#...

    The writing abruptly stopped, followed by a string of meaningless gibberish, as though the writer had suddenly lost their mind.

    After a moment, the gibberish vanished, replaced by another sentence:

    Sorry, I''ve forgotten who I am. I need your help.

    Rhys smiled in satisfaction. The diary''s reaction indicated that Riddle''s soul had been severely damaged, to the point that even his memories were gone.

    This was exactly the state Rhys wanted.

    Ignoring Riddle''s pleas for help from within the diary, Rhys tucked it into his robes and cast a levitation spell on the unconscious Ginny. She floated behind him as he left the Chamber of Secrets.

    Once out of the chamber, Rhys glanced back at Ginny, who was still hovering behind him, and sighed in mild frustration. He wasn''t worried about being caught wandering the castle in the middle of the night with a young girl in tow.

    What bothered him was that the Chamber''s entrance was quite far from the Gryffindor common room.

    Counting the return trip, it meant climbing from the castle''s base to the top and back—a trek Rhys wasn''t keen on making.

    Maybe I should just leave her somewhere clean and warm?

    Rhys thought the idea was rather good—if Ginny were discovered by one of the patrolling professors, she might suffer a little and gain an opportunity for self-reflection.

    One Chocolate Frog down, and the two were even hungrier...

    "Do you have anything else to eat?"

    "I''ve got a small bag of Scabbers'' rat food."

    "..."

    "So why don''t you two just go to the kitchen?" Seamus'' voice came from behind the curtains of his bed.

    Harry, Ron: "??"

    "You know where the kitchen is?"

    "Fred told me," Seamus replied, surprised at their reaction. "You don''t know where the kitchen is? Ron, you''re Fred and George''s brother!"

    Ron: "..."

    "They only ever interact with me when they''re pranking me—so why would they tell you about it?"

    Seamus cleared his throat awkwardly and explained that he''d helped Fred with something before. As a reward, they''d shared this little secret with him. As for what the favor was, he refused to say.

    "This... so, where''s the kitchen?" Ron couldn''t be bothered to delve into what favor Seamus had done for Fred. All he wanted was to get to the kitchen quickly and have a feast.

    "I gave a lot for this information..." Seamus put on a troubled expression.

    "A full set of this year''s History of Magic notes—written by Hermione from Ravenclaw. Guaranteed quality."

    "And this week''s Potions essay on top of that."

    "I''m going to bed."

    "Fine, fine, just the notes will do." Seamus finally caved and wrote the location of the kitchen and the way to enter on a slip of paper, handing it to Harry.

    Harry and Ron quickly got dressed, grabbed the Invisibility Cloak, and left the common room.

    However, midway through their journey, Harry suddenly heard a faint, indistinct voice. It was cold and full of malice:

    "...feed... kill, kill—"

    "...calling... for a sacrifice..."

    Harry: What the...?

    _______

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