The young wizards' discussions were pointless, and how could they have given meaning to empty talk? But the faces of Victoria's companions had turned serious. They had been looking around the common room for quite some time, but there was no sign of Victoria, and in view of her recent behavior, they all had a bad feeling.
The room was as noisy as a late-night food market. Even the sound of questions and answers outside the common room door was muffled, causing the young wizards standing near the door to startle when it burst open.
Dumbledore entered the common room with the four deans and Professor Lockhart as if it were a student council check. The Ravenclaw wizards were as quiet and docile as the students they controlled. It was as if someone had hit the mute button in the common room and there was no longer any noise in the room.
Tom felt that such a high-profile search would cause more panic, but there was no better way to deal with it: it was really important to check Victoria's things and find Riddle's diary as soon as possible, or at least make sure he was the culprit. Looking at Dumbledore, who was the center of attention, Tom sighed inwardly.
Several people passed through the common room and up the stairs to the student dormitories.
Watching the backs of the professors disappear up the stairs, Peggy raised her eyebrows.
It was the first time Tom had ever been in a girls' dormitory.
[Mission: Wander the world]
[Goal: Explore the magical world]
[Stage 5]
[Progress: 3/16]
[Ravenclaw girls' dormitory unlocked].
Tom: "..."
He had no idea that the girls' dormitory could be used as a logging place. He had noticed that the Ravenclaw boys' dorm could add one to the quest when he collected progress, and had thought about sneaking into the girls' dorm to see if he could make progress, but had forced himself to stop.
He thought he might ask Hermione if he could....
But today he'd been able to go in openly. Only it was just as awkward as if he'd been caught sneaking in. As they walked in, they were surprised to see posters of Lockhart all over the room. With those big white teeth, they left everyone gaping.
"I see our Professor Lockhart is very popular with the little witches." sneered Snape.
"That's the smile that won Wizard's Weekly's most charming smile award five times!". Tom pointed desperately at a giant, meter-long sign, "Do you think I want to be put there?".
While Tom and Snape argued, Dumbledore patiently inspected Victoria's belongings, one by one, and found nothing unusual. When he found a pile of posters and a pink envelope with "Dear Professor Lockhart" written on it, Tom was eager to tell Dumbledore that the real killer was a diary.
After watching Dumbledore rummage through Victoria's personal belongings with no luck, Professor McGonagall made a suggestion: ask Victoria's roommates, maybe they would have a clue.
The simple questioning led to some really important information: that Victoria had been depressed for a long time and had been writing in a diary every night.
There was no diary among the things Dumbledore had just examined.
The professors present were well aware of the problem: a diary with a black cover.
They immediately returned to the dormitory and searched the entire room, but found nothing. The professors were certain that the diary was responsible for what had happened to Victoria.
When the professors returned to the common room, one of the young wizards finally gave in.
Someone stood up and asked loudly, "Professor Dumbledore, can you tell us what is going on in the Chamber of Secrets?"
Everyone looked at this brave man and discovered that it was the former Prefect, Robert Hilliard, who had plucked up the courage to ask Dumbledore directly the truth about the Chamber of Secrets.
Robert Hilliard asked the question that was on everyone's mind.
Dumbledore stopped dead in his tracks and turned his head to look at Robert, whose head was instantly covered in beads of sweat. But Dumbledore's gaze made him relax: he saw approval and admiration in them. Dumbledore did not try to hide the story, but smilingly pulled up an armchair by the fireplace and told the young wizards in the common room an old tale as he passed.
About a thousand years ago, four of the greatest wizards of their time, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin, had built Hogwarts Castle so that the young wizards of Britain would have a clean place to learn magic, away from the Muggles.
At first, the founders worked together in harmony, looking for talented young people to teach magic to. But then their philosophies on admissions diverged. After a heated argument, Slytherin left the school. It is said that he built a secret room in the castle that only his true heir could open, known as the Chamber of Secrets. On the day the Chamber was opened, Hogwarts would be purified and all those unworthy of learning magic would be eliminated.
When he finished the tale of the Chamber of Secrets, the common room fell into stony silence, everyone kept looking at Dumbledore, waiting for him to say something else, and there was an air of unease in the air.
"Professor Dumbledore, if even the other three founders don't know, how did the legend spread?" after careful thought, someone discovered a hole in the legend.
"Slytherin's descendants, the Gaunts, have been secretly promoting it, but none of them have ever dared to actually open it." Dumbledore answered their doubts.
Although Slytherin had hidden the Chamber from the other three founders, there was no need to hide it from their descendants and the students who followed their philosophy; otherwise, who would carry on Slytherin's will and legacy if no one really knew about the Chamber?
Those Slytherin descendants who did know sometimes shared the news with those who chose to share it. Obviously, members of the Gaunt family are not people who know how to keep secrets. These descendants were also aware of the basilisk's presence, could hear it and even communicate with it directly. But no one ever dared to let the creature out, until a half-blood orphan arrived at Hogwarts.
Surely Sly Slytherin's fundamental purpose in leaving the Chamber of Secrets was not to "purify the school," isn't it too nebulous to expect future generations to fix for him the things Slytherin failed to do in life? His Chamber of Secrets, is more of a legacy. As for the basilisk inside, it was a gift to his successor.
But as far as Slytherin was concerned, if an heir "cleansed" the school, it would be no loss to him.
Someone continued, "So, Professor Dumbledore, is it true that the Chamber of Secrets has been reopened?"
Dumbledore nodded, "But don't worry, Professor Lockhart found the Chamber of Secrets and rescued Victoria, and now Miss Brown is in good hands."
All eyes turned in unison to Tom.
"You..."
Tom answered their question directly.
"There were some files in the library from previous generations, I found traces of them there, and I finally found the Chamber of Secrets."
Many of the young Ravenclaw wizards were excited: the answer was actually hidden in the book!
"Miss Brown is fine and will return to class in a few days, when she regains her energy. But I must warn you that the evil presence that seeks to destroy the 'unworthy of magic' still lurks in the school, and you must be careful, all wizards are in danger, and the attacks are indiscriminate. Remember, never trust anything that can think for itself, unless you see where it hides its mind!".
Tom paused, "What compelled Victoria was a black-covered diary, which could communicate with people."
"If anyone has any clues, have them contact the professors." Tom was hopeless, Riddle was not an easy man to unmask, his ability to convince people always managed to charm the little witches. Come to think of it, hadn't he himself desired their knowledge and not gotten rid of him in the first place?
Burying Riddle was his mission.
After telling the young wizard most of the truth. Tom followed Dumbledore and the others out of the common room, leaving the young wizards staring at each other. Everyone's emotions had been on fire from the series of shocking news.
"So the Chamber of Secrets really does exist!" Lisa Turpin prodded her best friend Padma Patil, who until then had thought the so-called "Chamber of Secrets" was nothing more than a cover for the killer, but never thought it actually existed. Padma nodded with her friend and decided to tell her sister tomorrow. Next to them, a schoolgirl named Penelope was already writing a letter on the table.
"And where is Hermione? She doesn't seem to be in the common room..." Sue Li was more concerned about Hermione's whereabouts, she had just noticed that Hermione wasn't in the common room. This made her think that something had happened to Hermione as well.
Where was Hermione at that moment? She was having dinner in Tom's office. Tom had asked her to come back to the common room later so she wouldn't go in with the professors and be the center of attention for the next few days of peace.
"Professor Lockhart is amazing!"
"I didn't think Professor Lockhart would be able to find the legendary Chamber of Secrets."
With the two questions of the chamber and the victim answered, the young wizards focused more on the man who had saved the day.
They talked animatedly about the Ravenclaw master, his adventures and his mastery of all kinds of magic.
Now, however, the "Professor" was blocked by a "person".
"What can I do for you, Lady Grey?" Tom returned to his office, after parting from Dumbledore and the others, when he encountered the ghost of Ravenclaw: Helena Ravenclaw.
"Can I take a look at the ring she's wearing on her hand? I mean what it really looks like." Her voice was cold, but Tom could hear the emotion behind it.
After a moment's thought, Tom removed his ring costume and held out his hand in front of Helena so she could see it more clearly.
"Indeed..." Helena made a reminiscent face, as if remembering something from the past, "I'm afraid you're not the real Lockhart... May I know your real name?"
"You can call me Tom."
Hearing this name, the cold and repulsive expression on Helena's face disappeared, "It's another Tom..." She looked a little embarrassed.
Tom thought she wanted to talk to him some more, but she turned and walked away. She walked a few steps away, but then stopped and gave Tom a complicated look, "The Ravenclaw crown, I hid it in a hollow tree in a forest in Albania, if you want it, you can look for it, if it's still there, it's yours."
With these words, he slipped into a nearby wall and disappeared, leaving a confused Tom standing in the same spot. He didn't understand why Helena was suddenly willing to tell him the whereabouts of the Ravenclaw crown.
But it was useless to know, for Riddle had already taken the crown and turned it into a Horcrux. Such an act was as disgusting as making a urinal out of the Holy Grail. Riddle's eccentricity, indeed, is quite disgusting: going to the trouble of collecting the relics of the four founders and turning them into Horcruxes ...
Phew!
All but the sword of Gryffindor, the relics of the other three and one of the Three Deathly Hallows, the Resurrection Stone, have become Horcruxes.
It's blasphemy, as disgusting as putting shit on an antique or writing a little essay about a painting.
"Wait, the crown..." Tom suddenly thought of something. If the diary is missing, the crown has been hidden in the Room of Requirement. I can find the crown first to avoid trouble before it happens.
But after three hours, looking at the endless hills of clutter, Tom gave up on this idea: there were tens of thousands of contraband items hidden in the Room of Requirement, and finding the crown would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It was fate that caused Harry to find the crown in such a jumble.
Of course, the fragments of Voldemort's soul that were embedded in his soul also played a vital role. Perhaps it was through the mutual attraction of the soul fragments that Harry had come across the crown.
"Maybe I should tell Harry to come along, or maybe I'll do a bit of Divination myself..." muttered Tom, leaving the Room of Requirement.
The second attack on the Chamber of Secrets was like a stone thrown into a pond, splashing and rippling, but quickly returning to calm. The initial panic subsided with Dumbledore's explanation, and everyone knew that the Chamber of Secrets had indeed been opened, but that all problems had been solved.
The fear came from the unknown, and when the veil of mystery was removed from the Chamber of Secrets, the young wizards were not so afraid of it.
The supposed heir to the Chamber of Secrets was not a real person, but a journal of black magic. This was a relief to the young wizards, who instinctively felt that they would never be fooled by the diary. It was a false confidence, just as most people felt they could not be fooled.