"So you're the ones who stopped her bleeding?" Madam Pomfrey asked appreciatively as she examined the Ravenclaw girl's left hand.
"You did well! You saved her life!"
"No, Professor, we didn't do anything." The two boys shook their heads fearfully, indicating that they had been like this since they arrived.
"Who could that be?" Madam Pomfrey asked curiously, standing up.
"It can't be the same guy who attacked this girl, can it?" Lockhart joked, thinking he was being funny.
"It's possible!" Professor McGonagall interrupted.
The other professors nodded in agreement, believing that the attacker must have been a student who acted on impulse and then decided to save the girl's life.
Dumbledore was silent for a moment, then looked at the two Ravenclaw boys and asked.
"Did you notice anything unusual when you arrived? For example, did you hear a noise, or was there anyone else nearby?"
The two Ravenclaw boys, remembering the noise they had heard earlier, reported truthfully to Dumbledore.
"Is that so? It looks like someone is in a hurry to cover something up… Why don't we restore it with a Restoration Charm…" Professor McGonagall also noticed that there were signs of damage to the walls from a spell and raised her wand to cast a spell.
Ivan's heart was in his mouth. He couldn't imagine what everyone would think when they saw his name on the restored handwriting.
And how would he explain it?
He refused to admit it and insisted that he had never been there. The writing on the walls and the signs of damage were all done by the people who framed him…
Or should he just admit that he saved the girl the moment he arrived at the scene, and then found out that someone was trying to frame him, so he destroyed the wall and went into hiding?
Both explanations seem weak and empty…
Yvonne could see the sixteen-year-old Slytherin boy grinning at her.
He realised why Tom Riddle had placed the girl on the eighth floor.
This was because the Room of Requirement was behind this corridor, and he went there almost every day at this time. The other party had placed this girl there to deliberately let him find her.
A student who could not perform healing magic would have had to watch the Ravenclaw girl die, and would have immediately tried to erase the writing on the wall.
Tom Riddle, the Mastermind, needed only to have the student he controlled happen to show up with someone to see the perfect setup…
Yvonne knew that she had managed to avoid the worst-case scenario, but she was still trapped by Tom Riddle.
Unless he was able to remove all traces of the Ravenclaw girl lying in a pool of her own blood, there was nothing he could do to clear his name…
Ivan couldn't stop thinking about how to explain it later,
Lockhart's voice cut through the silence.
"Let me do it. I'm afraid there's no one here better at this sort of repair than me!" Lockhart waved his wand before Professor McGonagall could.
A scarlet magical beam slammed into the wall, followed by a loud explosion. A large hole appeared in the wall of the corridor, and dust began to fall…
"That's the restoration you were talking about? There's nothing there now…" Snape said sarcastically, punctiliously.
Everyone stared at the scene in shock. Several professors looked at Lockhart with strange expressions on their faces.
Dumbledore took a step forward, pulled the Elder Wand from his sleeve, and waved it, causing the ashes and debris on the floor to stick back together.
However, many of the rubble had already been stained with blood, and Ivan had used the Freshwater Curse to clean it, so the writing was completely illegible.
Ivan was relieved. He had never been so glad…
Dumbledore frowned when he saw this, and shot Lockhart an unhappy look before turning back to the Ravenclaw boys.
"Mr Abel, Mr Adrian, please come with me!"
Dumbledore led the pair away, and the professors ordered the young wizards to return to their dormitories, while Madam Pomfrey took the unconscious Ravenclaw girl to the hospital wing.
Ivan managed to get away, but he was not happy at all.
If Tom Riddle had managed to pull off a similar attack once, there was a good chance it would happen a second or third time!
Yvonne did not think she would be so lucky every time.
The only solution was to find the owner of the diary before the next attack!
"Hales, why don't you come and sit in my office for a while?" Lockhart asked as he caught up with him and patted him on the shoulder.
Ivan looked at him for a moment, then nodded.
…
Entering Lockhart's office again, Ivan looked around. There were books on the desk, all of them grimoires.
The last time Ivan saw these books on Lockhart's desk, he thought they were three minutes old.
"You can do magic normally now?" Ivan asked curiously. He remembered Lockhart going berserk when he did magic. Reading these books didn't seem to help much, did it?
Lockhart shook his head and said, "No, but if you only practice one spell at a time, you might be able to use it as well as my Memory Charm…"
Lockhart did not want to give up, so he asked again, "Hars, is there really nothing you can do to quickly improve your strength?"
"I think I told you before, no!" Ivan shook his head.
"What you're doing now is very good," Ivan added. "Straighten up your knowledge of magic and spend all your time answering letters to your fans practicing magic. In a few years, you should be able to return to your normal spell-casting abilities."
"Spending years trying to become an ordinary wizard? Not what I wanted!" Lockhart was disappointed.
Lockhart soon adjusted and got down to business, as they had agreed to swap identities at the Duelling Club tomorrow.
It occurred to Ivan that there was such a thing. If Lockhart hadn't mentioned it, he would have forgotten.
Ivan hesitated, but did not refuse, as it meant he could use his status as a professor to get in touch with most of the students and check them for suspicion…