Still trying to trick people.
Leonard watched the words slowly fade from the diary, utterly unmoved.
Although he had ancient magic protecting him, that did not mean he could resist Tom Riddle's abilities with absolute certainty. If something went wrong, it would be a very ugly mess.
He wrote neither a refusal nor an agreement. He simply stood there quietly, watching Tom Riddle put on an act inside the diary.
The diary went silent for a while, then a line of writing appeared.
"What do you think?"
Leonard still did not respond.
"Hey! Are you still there?"
"Don't just stay silent. I know you're right beside me."
"Don't think I can't tell what you're doing. Trying to play hard to get? I'm telling you right now, that won't work."
...
Messy lines of handwriting kept appearing and disappearing across the page. Leonard simply watched as Tom Riddle's tone grew more and more irritable, while his own expression never changed.
He was getting anxious. Really anxious.
Tom Riddle truly was getting anxious. It was not that he lacked patience or could not keep his composure. Anyone forced to remain conscious inside an empty diary for more than a month would have ended up just as miserable as he was.
The space inside the diary was far more terrifying than any Muggle solitary confinement cell. There was not the slightest sound, not even a trace of light. Sleeping inside it was one thing, since sleep spared him from noticing it, but once awake, the empty void inside the diary became a nightmare.
As time passed, Tom Riddle grew more and more agitated. Line after line of chaotic handwriting appeared in the diary, reflecting a mind that was becoming increasingly unstable.
"Sorry, I just went to the bathroom. Go on."
Seeing this, Leonard wrote a line with a mocking smile on his lips.
Tom Riddle: ???
The Tom Riddle inside the diary could feel the malice in it, the kind of malice that made him feel like an insect sealed inside a clay jar, being toyed with for someone else's amusement.
The feeling was so awful that Tom Riddle wanted to explode and curse Leonard out on the spot, but for the sake of escaping this situation, he could only swallow the insult.
"Put your hand on it," Tom Riddle wrote again. "Take off the dragon-hide gloves and touch the diary. You will gain whatever knowledge you want."
Tom Riddle was not lying. If Leonard did that, he really could pass some knowledge to him, and Leonard understood perfectly well that this part was true.
But doing that would be like throwing meat to a dog, except the meat would be his own life. Leonard would have to be insane to try it.
"Dream on. I'm not going to have any contact with you at all," Leonard wrote. "Don't forget, I'm the one who provided the soul that woke you up. I know perfectly well you're nothing good."
"How can you judge whether I'm good or evil? Devouring souls is simply how I survive," Tom Riddle wrote in rebuttal.
"Oh, stop the nonsense. What kind of good thing devours souls? The moment I touch you, you'll probably eat me alive," Leonard wrote.
The diary fell silent for a moment, then more words slowly surfaced.
"I promise..."
"Forget swearing oaths and making promises. I'm never going to believe that." After writing this, Leonard paused for a moment as an interesting idea came to him. "But it's not impossible for me to provide you with a little soul power."
Tom Riddle paused for two seconds as well, then quickly wrote back, "What do you mean?"
"I'll give you a bit of soul power, but in exchange you have to tell me something about the Chamber of Secrets, like the incantation used to open it." Leonard narrowed his eyes as he wrote.
Leonard intended to take advantage of the information gap. To enter the Chamber of Secrets, both the entrance location and the opening command were essential. Tom Riddle did not know that Leonard already knew where the entrance was, so tricking the opening command out of him should have been fairly easy.
"Deal."
The word appeared almost instantly in the diary.
"So now you can put your hand on it, right?"
"I never said I'd give you my soul power. Are you stupid?" Leonard wrote with a cold laugh. "Wait."
Leonard left the diary in the Room of Requirement, ignored the question marks and sentences that kept appearing across its pages, then turned and left.
Ten minutes later, Leonard returned with a fat rat in his hand.
The rat hung obediently from Leonard's grip without resisting at all.
Leonard casually tossed it onto the floor and said, "Turn back into human form."
As soon as the words fell, the fat rat twisted and warped, finally turning into a ragged, heavyset man sprawled on the ground.
It was none other than Peter Pettigrew.
"Master," said Peter Pettigrew respectfully, under the control of the Imperius Curse.
"Go put your hand on the diary," Leonard said.
Fear immediately appeared on Peter Pettigrew's face. He had no idea what that diary was, but instinct told him it was nothing good.
But under the Imperius Curse, no matter what Peter Pettigrew thought, he could not disobey Leonard's command. All he could do was pull a miserable face and say, "Yes, Master."
Shaking all over, he walked to the table. Looking at the words and symbols constantly appearing on the diary's pages, his body trembled again. He felt like a sacrifice waiting to be offered, now being made to present his own life with his own hands.
"Hurry up," Leonard urged.
"...Yes!"
Peter Pettigrew gritted his teeth and placed his hand on the diary. Almost instantly, Tom Riddle inside it caught the sweet scent of a soul.
And not just any soul, but the soul of an intelligent being. A human soul.
Starving as he was, Tom Riddle wanted nothing more than to tear that soul apart and devour it on the spot. But he quickly realized that the person voluntarily touching the diary was definitely not the troublesome one who had just been speaking with him.
He did not know who this person was, but since someone had deliberately sent him to touch the diary, that meant he was certainly not the real target.
If he completely devoured this person, what awaited him would probably be a very, very bad outcome.
An outcome he absolutely could not accept.
Thinking that through, Tom Riddle forcibly suppressed his hunger. He carefully fed on the soul of the person touching the diary, slowly strengthening his own soul form, and stopped on his own once he reached a certain point.
He could not keep going. This person was already on the verge of showing adverse effects.
Tom Riddle stopped with reluctance, and more words appeared on the page.
"Next, I will pass on to you the memory of the Chamber of Secrets opening command."
Peter Pettigrew stared at the writing in the diary, his mind going completely blank.
This diary was alive.
It really was dangerous.