"How—?"
When Lockhart saw yet another Avada Kendavia suddenly appear beside Baron, he shuddered violently and turned his head in terror—only to see that behind him still stood an Avada Kendavia as well. That Avada had just set the unconscious student down, retrieved his fallen wand, and was holding the black box tightly in his arms.
He was half-kneeling beside the unconscious student, gently waving his wand to rouse her. Then he turned his head and, upon seeing the other version of himself beside Baron, asked in mild surprise, "The effect hasn't worn off yet?"
"It should be soon. Probably a few more minutes…"
The other Avada scratched his head awkwardly and smiled shyly.
"That works."
He nodded, maintaining the spell as he nervously watched the student slowly open her eyes. "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"
"I can…"
The student's lips moved weakly, her hoarse voice sounding as though she hadn't had water for days. But in the next moment, she still managed a faint smile. "This time, there are finally no black wrackspurts bothering me. I remember everything that's happened these past few days… Thank you."
"Welcome back to Hogwarts,"
Avada smiled at her. "Luna Lovegood—you were a crucial part of this entire plan."
He gave Luna a firm pat on the shoulder, then stood up again. Looking at the diary firmly sealed inside the anti-curse box and at Lockhart lying on the ground, unable to move, Avada couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from lifting. His voice even trembled slightly.
"All right, everyone. It's finally over!"
"Baron, could you ask Professor Snape—and everyone in the Room of Requirement—to come out? Next comes the truth-revealing segment."
"Gladly."
Baron was grinning just as widely. He pulled out a broomstick from his pocket and shot out through the window. Moments later, hurried footsteps echoed down the stairs, and a group of people emerged—Snape, the Weasley twins, Hermione, Ron, Madam Pomfrey…
"You caught him?"
The moment Snape saw Avada, he asked urgently. Avada raised the box in his hand.
"Mission accomplished, Professor."
As he spoke, he tapped the box with his wand. It immediately turned transparent, clearly revealing the black diary trembling inside, along with a faintly visible, furious human face. For ease of inspection—and to prevent anything strange from suddenly teleporting away—this type of box was designed to allow its contents to be viewed.
"Have a listen too, Tom."
Avada smiled at the diary. "If the person involved doesn't get to hear my entire plan, I'd be very disappointed."
"You're smiling like a villain right now,"
George muttered from the side.
"Ahem."
Avada straightened his expression, rubbed his face hard, then pulled a folded piece of parchment from his pocket and handed it over. "This can go back to you now. Prank's over."
"Prank's over," Fred echoed cheerfully, tapping it with his wand.
Avada glanced around at the surrounding faces—some astonished, some delighted, some filled with hatred—then smiled again and spoke loudly:
"Now then, everyone, allow me to reconstruct the entire sequence of events. If I get anything wrong, Tom, you'd better correct me in time."
The box shook violently—Tom was currently unable to speak.
"Decades ago, while still a student, Voldemort discovered the Chamber of Secrets and opened it as Slytherin's heir, releasing the basilisk in an attempt to eliminate all Muggle-born students, ultimately causing Myrtle's death. To prevent the situation from spiraling out of control, he was forced to halt his actions and split his soul, storing part of it—along with a set of memories—inside a diary, so that one day he could reopen the Chamber and complete his unfinished plan."
"And that diary,"
Avada lifted the box slightly, "was later entrusted to one of his most trusted Death Eaters—Lucius Malfoy."
"So it really was him!"
Another Avada said angrily. "I knew Malfoy had to be suspicious!"
"All right, Harry, calm down."
Avada smiled and raised a hand, continuing his explanation. "Last summer, when Lucius heard that Voldemort had been completely defeated, he panicked. Afraid that others would discover he still possessed Voldemort's belongings, he began selling off Dark artifacts from his home and looking for a way to discard the diary."
"What he didn't know… was that the diary could think."
"In this way, the diary overheard the Malfoy family discussing how its original self had been defeated by three students. Shocked, it immediately revealed its own sentience and questioned Lucius about the details—I'm not wrong, am I?"
The box didn't move at all.
"From Lucius, it learned the identities of those three students—one who was famous for defeating Voldemort as a newborn, yet appeared utterly ordinary at school; one outstanding pure-blood student; and…"
Avada smiled mysteriously.
"A descendant of Gellert Grindelwald."
"What?!"
Everyone present was stunned, staring at Avada in utter disbelief.
"Fake."
Avada rolled his eyes. "I spoke with Lucius once during the summer after my first year. Some verbal misunderstandings led him to mistakenly believe I was Grindelwald's descendant. In reality, I'm just an ordinary Muggle-born."
Many people visibly relaxed, though a few still looked thoughtful…
"All right, back to it."
He paused, then continued. "So the diary began to think: 'How could my original self be defeated by three students? Did Dumbledore intervene?'"
"'No—if Dumbledore had done it, he'd have no reason to give up the credit, nor would he let his students become targets of Voldemort's remnants. So it must have been their own doing… but how?'"
"'Voldemort's current state makes him impossible to kill outright—this the diary knows well. To capture him would require extremely harsh conditions: extensive knowledge of soul magic, long and complex preparation, and remaining unsuspected until the very last moment, among many other things.'"
"'This is no longer a matter of sheer power, but of knowledge, intelligence, temperament, and acting ability.'"
"In such circumstances, for three students to accomplish such a demanding feat, only one explanation remained…"
"That the supposed descendant of Grindelwald had inherited his predecessor's talent—and awakened the power of prophecy."
Avada paused deliberately, only continuing once he saw shock spread across Tom Riddle's translucent face.
"Grindelwald was a renowned seer. His descendant possessing the same gift wouldn't be strange. And prophecy—mysterious, unreasonable, and unknowable—was the only explanation for where such knowledge and intelligence could have come from."
"Having reached this conclusion, the diary grew anxious—had that student foreseen the Chamber, the basilisk, or even its own existence, posing a fatal threat to it?"
"And so, it made its decision: it had to find a way to kill that troublesome prophet completely, in order to safeguard its secrets forever."
"That is why the basilisk targeted only me, ignoring everyone else."
"That is the answer I arrived at when I realized the basilisk wanted only me dead."
"Am I right, Tom?"
He turned to look at Tom Riddle—whose transparent face had already grown visibly pale.
(End of Chapter)