Peter Pettigrew was trembling so badly that his legs shook, and his pants were already starting to get damp with fear. But without Leonard's order, he did not dare take his hand away at all.
A faint glow lit up on the diary. The light swept across Peter Pettigrew's eyes, and at once his gaze lost focus.
Leonard stood to one side and watched Peter Pettigrew's condition. Before long, he returned to normal, though a trace of fear flashed through his eyes.
Leonard shoved him aside, snapped the diary shut, wrapped it in dragon-hide, and stuffed it into the storage space of the miniature man-eating flower. Only after dealing with all that did he lift his head and look at Peter Pettigrew, who had fallen to the floor.
"What did you see or hear?" Leonard asked.
Peter Pettigrew's lips trembled, and a puddle was already spreading beneath him.
"I... I..." His voice shook badly.
"Speak," Leonard repeated coldly.
Under the control of the Imperius Curse, Peter Pettigrew shuddered and forced himself to answer, "I... I saw the great Dark Lord... he released a terrifying monster inside the Chamber of Secrets."
No wonder he was so frightened. He had realized who the owner of the diary was.
Leonard shook his head.
Without the Imperius Curse, Peter Pettigrew probably would have switched sides the instant he found out.
He really could not understand what there was to fear so much about when it came to Voldemort.
"So, did you learn how to open the Chamber of Secrets?" Leonard asked.
Peter Pettigrew froze for a moment, then nodded. "Th that... that needs Parseltongue to open."
"Nonsense. I'm asking for the exact command used to open the Chamber door." Leonard frowned.
"I... I don't know..." Peter Pettigrew said blankly.
"You don't know?" Leonard's gaze turned cold. "Are you too scared to say it, or did he never tell you?"
"He never told me. He only showed me the process of releasing the monster. He didn't even let me see what the monster actually was," Peter Pettigrew replied in a rush.
Hah. Still playing games even now.
The moment Leonard heard that, he took out the diary again. He opened it and wrote, "Do you know what happens to people who deceive me?"
The diary paused for a moment before words slowly appeared.
"Same to you. Didn't you deceive me too? You said you were a Slytherin student, but it turns out you're just a Hufflepuff."
Now that he had absorbed part of Peter Pettigrew's soul power, Tom Riddle could finally glimpse the world outside the diary.
Once he saw the age of the young wizard standing before him, a natural contempt rose inside him.
Just a brat. No, not just a brat, but a brat chasing after power and knowledge. Wasn't he looking for the Chamber of Secrets precisely for the knowledge hidden inside? Tom Riddle had been through all this himself. He understood that kind of mentality far too well.
No matter how cunning Leonard might be, the moment he showed greed for the Chamber of Secrets, it meant he had a weakness. And Tom Riddle, the one who knew where the Chamber was and how to open it, held the leverage. That meant he held the initiative.
As long as that leverage remained in his hands, he could not lose. If he handed over what he knew to this Hufflepuff for some petty benefit, he would be surrendering the initiative completely.
He would never do something so stupid. He was Voldemort, the greatest Dark Wizard.
In his view, the Horcruxes he had created could not be affected by any magic, so he was not worried about threats. As for being left hidden in some dark corner, cut off from the world?
Impossible. This Hufflepuff was clearly interested in Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, and Tom Riddle understood that wizards who craved power and knowledge would never let an opportunity like this slip by.
As long as he guarded his leverage, he was certain he would eventually find a chance to enslave Leonard completely.
Thinking of that, he felt even more contempt for Leonard.
Tom Riddle was thoroughly pleased with his own cleverness and cunning, utterly unaware that his actions had already placed him on the edge of a crumbling cliff, only one step away from destruction.
He had never imagined that this absurdly young-looking Hufflepuff student standing before him not only knew how to destroy a Horcrux, but had already mastered the method.
"Same to me? Who the hell is 'same to me'? You really don't understand the position you're in, do you?" Leonard let out a cold laugh and raised his arm.
The room's temperature soared in an instant. A line of fire burst from Leonard's sleeve, expanding in the air until it turned into a swirling vortex of flame.
Within the vortex, a silver thread continuously stretched upward. Once it reached the top, the flames suddenly contracted and formed three vicious serpent heads.
The heads opened their jaws in a silent roar. The chaotic fire gradually condensed, shaping itself into the body of a three-headed serpent.
In the blink of an eye, a gigantic three-headed snake made of Fiendfyre appeared inside the Room of Requirement, silver-white threads growing along its back.
It stood at least five meters tall, its whole body covered in lifelike scales made of flame. A cruel glint flickered in its cold eyes as, under Leonard's command, it stared fixedly at the diary.
"Ah... ah...!"
At the sight of it, Peter Pettigrew, who had been collapsed on the floor, desperately scrambled backward, terrified that even a touch of that horrific cursed flame would mean death.
Inside the diary, Tom Riddle's soul was struck with horror.
Fiendfyre. One of the very few things capable of destroying a Horcrux. How did this Hufflepuff brat know about that?
No, that was not even the main point. The main point was that this was a Hogwarts student. How could a student be so insane as to summon Fiendfyre? Was he not afraid of being burned to death by his own flames?
"Damn it, stop! Do you want to destroy Hogwarts completely?" Tom Riddle frantically scrawled across the diary, trying to persuade Leonard not to do something so mad.
At the same time, he desperately pushed the little bit of soul power he had just recovered, trying to control Leonard and save himself from danger. But it was useless. Leonard had prepared too thoroughly to leave him any opening.
Leonard did not even spare the diary a glance. He simply commanded the three-headed Fiendfyre serpent to bite down on it.
I'm finished.
Tom Riddle's soul trembled inside the diary, then gave up resisting as if resigning himself to fate.
Damn it. Of all things, he had to run into a lunatic like this. Was he really going to die together with a madman?
Filled with grief and fury, Tom Riddle shut off his awareness of the outside world and waited for death to come.
Three seconds passed.
Then a minute.
Inside the diary, Tom Riddle slowly opened his eyes.
He was not dead?
How was that possible?
Fiendfyre was supposed to be able to devour a Horcrux. Had that mad Hufflepuff somehow failed?
Surely not. Was it actually possible to botch Fiendfyre of all things?
What kind of useless idiot was this?