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Chapter 100: Voldemort and the diary are suffering.

Dracula placed the Basilisk in the Albanian forest, hoping it would help him find Ravenclaw's diadem to fulfill his previous promise to Helena.

Given Dracula's formidable deterrent from a thousand years ago, the Basilisk acted swiftly upon arriving in the Albanian forest, diligently searching for the diadem and inspecting every hollow tree.

The Basilisk nearly scoured the entire forest but found no trace of Ravenclaw's diadem. Therefore, the most likely possibility was that Voldemort had taken it.

The current dilemma for the Basilisk was whether to inform Dracula that Voldemort had taken the diadem.

The Basilisk secretly compared Dracula and Voldemort in its mind—

One was an old friend of Salazar Slytherin from a thousand years ago, powerful, and always able to torment the Basilisk inadvertently; the other was a descendant of Slytherin, whose power seemed reasonable but had failed in the form of a baby...

As the saying goes, "distant relatives are not as helpful as close friends." Although Voldemort was a half-blood descendant of Slytherin from over a thousand years later, Dracula had genuinely lived for over a thousand years and had always been Slytherin's close friend!

So the Basilisk resolved to side with Count Dracula.

Of course, it wouldn't admit that it was merely obedient due to the torment it had endured from Dracula a thousand years ago; nor would it admit that Dracula's use of Legilimency to probe memories couldn't be concealed from him...

With this thought, the Basilisk felt a sense of relief and began to wander through the forest, exploring the environment where it would eventually settle down and live.

During its wandering in the Albanian forest, the Basilisk encountered another sizable viper named Nagini.

The two snakes hit it off immediately, recognizing each other as intelligent snakes capable of communication, and promptly formed a bond.

When their conversation became more profound, the Basilisk realized how small the world was; the intelligent snake it had casually met was another unfortunate serpent that had dealt with Voldemort.

The Basilisk, which had already aligned itself with Dracula, began to ponder, feeling it couldn't let this smart snake it had found fall into the hands of Voldemort, who seemed to have no future.

Thus, it earnestly spoke to Nagini about Voldemort's flaws—

"Nagini, you don't know, I was originally a very upright and noble snake!" it hissed with righteous indignation. "A thousand years ago, the great Salazar Slytherin left me in Hogwarts Castle, hoping that one day I could help Slytherin's descendants and protect the magical school in times of danger!"

"But the glorious deeds I imagined of bringing honor to the school and fighting for Slytherin never came to pass. You have no idea what I went through later!"

Nagini listened curiously to the nearly thousand-year-old Basilisk recounting its past.

"My master was mistaken; Hogwarts Castle, after admitting Muggle-born witches and wizards, did not get exposed as he had feared and attacked by Muggles." The Basilisk continued. "So, I had no chance to act for a long time and remained in the dark, gloomy dungeon, asleep."

"Because of the Chamber's secrecy, I would seldom see a living person for one or two hundred years. Even if a descendant of Slytherin found the Chamber, they would be so terrified to see me that they couldn't think of what I could bring them."

"Although my master was great, his descendants lacked his resolve. Almost no one dared to release me; even if they did, they intended to control me, a powerful magical creature of the 5X level, with Parseltongue, thinking it would let them misbehave in the magical world."

"Thus, I went from being a very righteous snake to becoming the monster in the Chamber of Secrets. I lived in a daze, sleeping for one or two hundred years, barely feeding on underground rats and insects when I woke up, leading a miserable existence."

"It wasn't until several hundred years later that a Slytherin descendant named Corvinus Gaunt could no longer bear my state and decided to use magic to improve my environment in the Chamber."

Nagini listened attentively for a long time and lightly tapped the Basilisk's stout body with her tail to offer comfort.

"But you haven't said anything about the Dark Lord yet!" she asked with interest. "Why do you think he is an unreliable dark wizard?"

The Basilisk nodded its large green head, its red feathers swaying lightly with the motion. "This story goes back sixty years—"

"I first met the Dark Lord when his name was Tom Riddle, and he was about fifteen or sixteen years old."

"At that time, I hadn't seen a person for over a hundred years. Seeing the young Tom Riddle's impressive appearance and polite demeanor, I thought Slytherin's descendants finally had an excellent heir. But I clearly misjudged..."

"Tom Riddle was not only not a good student but had become deeply calculating and dark inside, even when he just started his fifth year. As soon as we met, he spoke only a few words in Parseltongue and immediately began to eagerly plan his grand scheme."

"He completely misunderstood my great master's intentions, thinking that Slytherin despised Muggle-born witches and wizards and wanted to purge these unworthy Muggle-borns from Hogwarts."

"Moreover, Tom Riddle's temper is quite violent. He used Parseltongue to orchestrate numerous terrifying attacks at Hogwarts—I only managed to keep them under control by secretly holding back, only turning students into stone through reflections in mirrors or puddles. Otherwise, Hogwarts would have been closed a long time ago."

"But you know what they say, if you walk by the river often enough, you're bound to get your shoes wet. One time, just after I had emerged from the Chamber of Secrets, I unintentionally locked eyes with a chubby little witch and accidentally killed her... So, Hogwarts was really on the brink of closing."

"And then?" Nagini asked nervously, "Did the school really close?"

"No, it didn't close." The serpent's yellow eyes displayed a hint of disdain. "Tom Riddle is not worthy of being a descendant of Slytherin. He even cast the blame for his own crimes onto an innocent third-year student!"

"That third-year student happened to have a giant spider, Aragog, so he was expelled from Hogwarts."

"If what you say is true... then the Dark Lord indeed seems quite despicable," Nagini hesitated, hissing quietly. "But during the years he spent in this forest, I was often with him, and he didn't seem like this kind of person..."

"Well... He was very gentle, eloquent, and told many interesting stories," Nagini recalled. "The Dark Lord said... he said he was betrayed by others and had to exert all his strength to retain a fragment of his soul to come to this forest."

"What nonsense is he spouting?" the serpent sneered. "Lord Dracula has informed me that Voldemort clearly just wanted to kill a baby who might pose a threat to him in the future. He failed and ended up being rebounded by his own Killing Curse."

"With such a lack of capability, I don't even want to acknowledge that he carries the great bloodline of Slytherin!"

Nagini was puzzled by the serpent's words. "He... failed with a baby? Are you not joking, Grandpa?"

"I'm not joking," the serpent hissed. "You wouldn't believe it, but recently he returned to Hogwarts, trying to steal a stone used to regain power."

"I almost became fed up with him. How dare he come to ask me for help! If not for our inability to resist Parseltongue, I wouldn't have bothered with him at all!"

"So did he manage to steal the stone?" Nagini asked curiously.

"No," the serpent's hiss carried a touch of schadenfreude. "Voldemort certainly didn't expect to encounter an old friend of his ancestor's at Hogwarts. The difference in their generations is not trivial!"

Seeing that Nagini still looked doubtful, the serpent glanced at her and continued, "Nagini, if you still think Voldemort is a gentle, understanding wizard, perhaps we should test it..."

And so, the scene of Voldemort coming to find the two snakes hiding in the cave appeared—

During the time living in the Albanian forest, the serpent had collected many snake followers, and its network extended throughout the forest.

Thanks to the information provided by its followers, the serpent had anticipated Voldemort's arrival and immediately decided to hide with Nagini in a well-concealed cave.

After wandering the forest for a while, Voldemort lost patience. Having recently recruited many high-ranking Death Eaters, his mindset shifted from his previous cautious state to one of arrogance.

So he dropped the pretense, revealed his true nature, and was no longer using a gentle, understanding tone to call out to Nagini.

Voldemort used the harshest Parseltongue, trying to command Nagini to come out of hiding and then to make her into a Horcrux!

But Voldemort didn't expect that the serpent, using its size advantage, would tightly restrain Nagini, preventing her from exposing herself to him.

Seeing no response to his Parseltongue, Voldemort cursed under his breath, guessed that Nagini might have left the forest temporarily, and then Disapparated away.

After Voldemort left, Nagini's uncontrolled state finally returned to normal, but she still appeared somewhat disoriented.

"I was right, wasn't I, Nagini?" the serpent hissed to Nagini. "Just a little while of not meeting him, and he uses such a fierce tone to yell at you. I told you, Voldemort is definitely not a good person!"

Nagini's snake head nodded slightly, looking at the serpent with a sense of lingering fear.

"Thank you this time, Grandpa," she hissed in response. "If not for you, I might not have seen the true nature of that man even after twelve more years!"

"Ah, no need to thank me!" the serpent said proudly. "It's rare to meet a fellow with wisdom like mine, so of course, we should support each other... oh no, I mean, work together!"

...

Voldemort, unable to find Nagini and thus unable to create his sixth Horcrux, was quite distressed.

And equally distressed was Voldemort's Horcrux diary.

Tom Riddle had been lurking beside Harry Potter for quite some time, but his main goal—to obtain Harry's blood—remained unfulfilled.

Actually, when Voldemort returned Riddle's soul to him, he also sent a considerable amount of soul power, which allowed Riddle to successfully set up complex spells like the Undetectable Extension Charm and the Protection Charm at Number Four, Privet Drive, preventing many owls from delivering letters to Harry.

At first, Riddle thought the task would be simple.

He believed that if he could stay close to Harry Potter, wait for a quiet night, use a powerful Stupify spell on Harry, and then cut open Harry's wrist while he was asleep, he could easily collect the savior's blood.

However, Riddle faced a setback on his first attempt.

After cutting Harry's wrist, he tried to use the diary's ink-conserving feature to collect Harry's blood.

Unfortunately, the blood, upon touching the Horcrux diary, acted like highly concentrated sulfuric acid, corroding a large hole in a blank page.

Riddle had to spend a lot of soul power to repair the hole and, while repairing it, he also had to use a healing spell on the boy he loathed to prevent him from noticing anything unusual.

On his second attempt, Riddle learned from the mistake and was more cautious.

He used a glass container and a Cutting Charm to make an incision on Harry's wrist, hoping to collect the blood in the container.

Riddle was correct in his assumption that as long as he didn't use the diary itself to touch Harry's blood, it wouldn't be corroded.

However, he didn't have much time to be pleased.

As the blood accumulated in the glass container, it seemed to emit a magical force that Riddle had never encountered before, even causing Harry's entire body to passively resist.

Riddle felt an enemy-defeating power coming from Harry.

He exerted immense effort to return the spilled blood to Harry's veins, stopping the magical attack from the blood, but this also drained more of his soul power.

From then on, Riddle realized that an unknown power was protecting Harry Potter, so cutting his wrist for blood collection was not feasible.

But Riddle did not get discouraged. Instead, he thought of a better plan.

He decided to stay close to Harry, subtly gaining his trust, and eventually have him bring his blood to Voldemort, helping him achieve true resurrection!

Thus, Harry gained a patient, friendly, and highly skilled magical tutor, who helped him achieve the top score in the Defense Against the Dark Arts final exam!

When Harry returned to his aunt and uncle's home, all his magical supplies were locked up, including Riddle's Horcrux diary.

However, Riddle was not disappointed; instead, he was overjoyed—

Based on his own experiences in the orphanage, Riddle thought that Harry, being ostracized by his relatives, would long for a friend who could empathize with him and share his hardships.

So he cast the Repelling Charm and Undetectable Extension Charm to prevent Harry from receiving letters from friends, making him feel extremely lonely.

Riddle waited in the cupboard until Harry had been neglected by his aunt, uncle, and cousin for a significant period, and as Harry's birthday approached with no one celebrating, he decided the time was right.

He emerged from the cupboard and approached Harry just before his birthday.

"Don't worry, Harry," Riddle wrote in the diary. "Although I don't have the power to take you away from here, I can give you a good idea."

"First, we must get revenge for all the suffering you've endured!"

Riddle recalled his childhood experiences in the orphanage.

At that time, he had only wanted someone to give him power to exact revenge on those who had bullied him.

Riddle thought Harry would also want to take revenge on the Dursleys, believing this would gain Harry's complete trust.

But he was wrong, terribly wrong!

Harry Potter was fundamentally a kind, caring child who found happiness even in unfortunate circumstances. He had a deep-seated fear and aversion to the dark, evil spells like the Killing Curse.

Thus, Harry did not use the Killing Curse as Voldemort imagined and did not fully reverse his original nature.

Moreover, Harry even began to suspect the diary, no longer sharing his concerns with Riddle as he had before.

After Ron, Fred, and George picked up Harry in the flying car, Riddle felt that things were slipping out of control.