Chapter 91: Tom Riddle and Voldemort
Chapter 91: Tom Riddle and Voldemort
Although Sherlock was just as shocked as Harry and Ron, he managed to keep his composure on the surface.
He gripped his wand tightly while his left hand silently touched the third button from the bottom of his robe.
"Tom Riddle?" he asked softly.
The black-haired boy sitting in the chair looked surprised at Sherlock's address, but it was as if he had expected it.
"Sherlock Professor Forrest", he said with a smile, slowly standing up from the chair.
"I wonder if you've noticed, this isn't our first meeting."
Sherlock pulled Harry and Ron behind him, clutching their hands tightly as he stared intently at Tom.
"The first time was in that bookstore?"
Tom strolled around the Gryffindor common room as if he were walking in his own garden.
"Indeed, you sensed me from that very moment."
He moved to the fireplace, where the fire had long since died out, making it the darkest corner of the common room. However, his previously ethereal form seemed more tangible there.
"At first, I also noticed something different about you, sensing that you were not like others. When I encountered you a second time at Hogwarts, my suspicions were further confirmed, so I promptly concealed myself."
Sherlock recalled the first time he met Malfoy father and son in the bookstore, when the mark on his arm had burned. And then, when he arrived at Hogwarts, the second time the mark reacted when he met Neville in the castle.
His expression grew grave.
"Have you been with Neville from the beginning?"
Whether it was Sherlock's imagination or not, Tom's face darkened noticeably when he asked this question.
"This fool!" he said coldly.
"He only started interacting with me in the third week of the term. He was stupid and cowardly, and I was very weak at the time. I had to continually coax him, and he reluctantly agreed to open the Chamber of Secrets. But after the two attacks, he realized something was wrong."
"Before that, we were the best of friends, talking about everything. He told me how strict his grandmother was, how his Gryffindor classmates looked down on him, how he admired Harry Potter's greatness, and how he hated his own weakness. Only I, his best friend Riddle, would talk to him every day."
"But after dealing with that Muggle who liked to take pictures, he somehow sensed that I was controlling him."
"This cowardly fool even tried to burn me!"
Tom's voice was filled with anger, the kind of anger that comes from being betrayed by such a fool.
"One night, he threw me into this fireplace and used magic. He was so nervous that he didn't even check if I had been burned to ashes. He didn't know I was fireproof and waterproof. I lay in this fireplace for two days before another student picked me up."
At this, his voice took on a playful tone.
"That Weasley Prefect seemed clever, but he was actually much easier to control than this fool."
Harry and Ron, hiding behind Sherlock, gasped in alarm.
"Percy!"
"Ah, yes, his name is Percy Weasley, a boy obsessed with power and destined for great things."
"I made a simple deal with him."
Tom's gaze met Harry's coldly, who was peeking from behind Sherlock.
"He wanted revenge on someone, and I helped him. In return, he had to place me on another boy's desk. That's how we ended up meeting, right, Harry?"
Harry shuddered, recalling the attack on Malfoy and the diary mysteriously appearing on his desk.
"Afterward, Weasley didn't even retain any memory of me because I devoured Neville's fear and greed. I grew stronger, while they grew weaker. That's why I could open a part of my memories to you, hoping to regain your trust, Harry."
His voice grew colder as he continued.
"But I didn't expect that after our one exchange, you never came back. And this fool, upon discovering that I wasn't destroyed but had fallen into your hands, actually stole me again."
Tom approached Neville, looking down at his pale face with disdain.
"He tried to turn me over to the school, but with my power at that time, he couldn't resist. He struggled desperately to break free and leave some messages, but he didn't realize that everything he left was exactly what I wanted him to leave."
"Even more unexpected was that you, Harry Potter, the Chosen One revered by so many, would be so cowardly. After learning all the crucial clues and the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, you didn't come on your own. Instead, you told the teachers!"
Harry, far from feeling ashamed, glared at him with a smug look.
He knew that if he and Ron had recklessly run into Tom's trap, they would have been doomed.
Tom, unfazed by Harry's challenge, said casually.
"Fortunately, I adjusted my strategy and waited for you in this common room. You evacuated all the students, making it very quiet, with no one to disturb us."
Ron clutched the edge of Sherlock's robe, stammering.
"S-So what do you want to do?"
"Of course, it's to achieve the feat of defeating the greatest wizard in history, the Chosen One of the Wizarding World—Harry Potter—while still an infant!" He laughed coldly. "I'm very curious to see if you, who once escaped Voldemort unscathed and destroyed his power, can escape from me now!"
Harry swallowed hard.
"What does Voldemort have to do with you?"
Sherlock said calmly.
"Can't you see, Harry? Who else in this world could be so obsessed with you? Tom Riddle is Voldemort."
His wand, which had been subtly redirected, now pointed at the closed portrait hole behind him.
Tom seemed slightly surprised that Sherlock could identify him, but he wasn't overly shocked. His identity wasn't a well-kept secret; it was just that most who knew didn't want to mention it.
Harry and Ron, however, were stunned.
They never imagined that the boy before them was the Dark Lord himself, the one whose name could not be spoken!
(End of Chapter)
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