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"Do you have any leads?"
In the Hogwarts library, George, having just returned to school, smiled as he asked Harry and his friends.
Before leaving school, he had shared the password for the Slytherin common room with the trio.
"None," Harry replied, looking somewhat dejected, while Ron confidently asserted,
"Even without any clues, I'm certain it's Malfoy. Who else at this school could be the heir of Slytherin?"
"But Malfoy didn't seem like he was lying at the time," Hermione countered, shaking her head and expressing her disagreement with Ron.
On Christmas night, the three had successfully transformed into Malfoy's lackeys using Polyjuice Potion and gained entry to the Slytherin common room with the password George provided.
However, they didn't get the answers they were hoping for, as Malfoy did not admit to opening the Chamber of Secrets.
So, this operation had ultimately failed.
"Don't worry; take your time. The professors haven't found any clues either, which means that heir is hiding very well," George reassured them before returning to his magical book.
Recently, he had begun studying the Ironclad Charm, a powerful defensive spell. During a magical duel before Christmas, he discovered just how effective this charm was in combat.
When seventh-year wizards cast this spell, they resembled a tortoise shell, making it nearly impossible to break through without flanking them.
What impressed him most was that, after gaining some understanding of the Ironclad Charm, he realized it could defend against not only magical attacks but also physical ones.
Even Muggle firearms couldn't penetrate the Ironclad Charm.
However, this charm had its drawbacks: it could only defend one side and required a continuous flow of magic from the wand to maintain, meaning he couldn't cast other spells simultaneously to counterattack.
To strike back, he would first have to stop the Ironclad Charm's defense.
This limitation wasn't much of an issue for George, as he had superpowers in addition to his magical abilities.
He could easily use the Ironclad Charm for defense while employing his powers to control blades and needles for offense, or simply use a gun to perform curved tracking shots.
The only challenge was that this spell was taught in fifth year and was relatively difficult. Even with three minds learning it simultaneously, it would likely take some time to master.
"By the way, we found this, which might be related to the Chamber's opening fifty years ago."
At that moment, Harry pulled out a small, thin, and worn black-covered notebook from his bag and placed it on the table in the library.
"This is a diary, and it has the name T.M. Riddle written on it. Ron mentioned he saw it in the trophy room; Riddle received an award for special contributions fifty years ago."
"And Hermione speculated that it was likely because he caught the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets back then that he received this award," he continued.
"Voldemort's Horcrux diary!"
George looked at the diary on the table, sensing the evil and powerful aura emanating from the soul within, along with its tempting mental suggestions. He couldn't help but stiffen momentarily before quickly forcing himself to regain composure.
"So, what did you find written in the diary?"
"Nothing at all; it's completely blank. I tried using both the Revealing Charm and Revealing Eraser, but they had no effect. I wanted to ask if you had any ideas," Hermione replied, somewhat helplessly.
She believed that the diary must contain something important, hidden by some special magic, and since George had read more books than she had, perhaps he would know how to break the enchantment.
George reached for the notebook but quickly restrained that impulse with rationality.
If he told the trio to hand over the diary for him to study, they would undoubtedly agree, given their trust in him.
Perhaps he could then tap into the soul of young Voldemort within the diary to acquire a wealth of dark magic knowledge.
However, rationality warned him against such an action.
On one hand, Dumbledore might already be keeping a close eye on Voldemort's diary; if he took it from Harry, he would certainly be monitored by Dumbledore, and any misstep would come to the old wizard's attention.
On the other hand, even with his mental abilities, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be tempted by Voldemort's dark magic, which posed a significant risk.
For safety's sake, it would be better not to engage with it for now.
Once Dumbledore left Hogwarts Castle, he could safely study dark magic in the Restricted Section.
He had tried looking for Snape's notes on the Half-Blood Prince to see if he could learn the Disarming Charm in advance, but he hadn't had any luck finding them.
However, before the Christmas break, Snape hinted that he might teach George a few original spells by the end of the term, though he wasn't sure if the Disarming Charm would be among them.
"I read in a book about alchemy that many magical items, because they are imbued with a Sentience Charm, have developed their own consciousness. If you can't gain their approval, you won't be able to use their powers.
This diary might not be an ordinary diary; it could have a Sentience Charm attached. You should try to communicate with it."
"How do you communicate with it?"
Harry looked perplexed.
"Do you just talk to it?"
"I'm not sure. You could try talking to it or writing on it. You can take your time to experiment," George suggested with a smile.
The trio found this advice reasonable, waved goodbye to George, and hurried out of the library, eager to return to the common room and try it out.
"Thanks, George!"
"Not at all," he replied.
George took a deep breath and returned his attention to his magical book.
Some risks were worth taking, but others weren't.
For a while, the school remained calm since Ginny had lost the diary and Harry had picked it up, which meant the Chamber of Secrets had not been opened again.
Half a month later, at the School for Mutants.
George stared at the pile of wood in front of him, unable to hide his frown.
"None of these are suitable."
This was all the wood he had requested Leon's subordinates to gather from this world, and not a single piece was large enough for wand-making.
Now that he had learned how to craft wands, he was eager to possess one in the Marvel universe so he could maximize his magical abilities.
However, this place was not like Harry Potter or Fairy Tail, and he couldn't find the appropriate materials in a short time.
The wand core was more manageable; after some experimentation, he found that he could temporarily use hair from Professor X, the most powerful telepath. If the Phoenix were still alive, using its feathers would be even better.
But he still hadn't found a suitable substitute for the wand shaft.
In his mind, using the trunk of the World Tree would produce the best wand possible, but that was not something he could access right now.
Perhaps branches from Groot would work, considering they could be used to make Stormbreaker's handle.
But Groot was currently in the cosmos, and George couldn't reach him.
In fact, George believed that using something other than wood for the wand shaft wouldn't be out of the question. For instance, Uru, the best magical metal from Asgard, would definitely yield excellent results.
Unfortunately, he couldn't acquire that either.
"What else could I possibly use as a substitute?"
(End of chapter)