The Riddle

Evening, Ginny thought about Hagrid's words.

"How did you know about Aragog?"

"Impossible... He never attacked any human, his favourite food is chicken!"

"They wanna do him wrong as they did fifty years ago..."

"Ginny, don't believe anything you hear. Aragog will never be the monster in the Chamber of Secret!"

The Chamber of Secrets was first opened fifty years ago when Hagrid was there. There was a giant spider, who was supposed to be the Chamber monster, but perhaps the spider is a scapegoat, as there wouldn't have been an attack fifty years later if he is the monster. Hold on, fifty years ago? Myrtle had died fifty years ago, not many students at Hogwarts have died so tragically bizarre like her, she must be the last victim. She said she died when saw a pair of big eyes in the bathroom... That bathroom was strange, the first attack was right in front of its door, other two were also not far away.

Thinking about that night, Harry had rushed there like mad... Yeah, Harry has said that there was a voice only he can hear. Only Harry can hear... Harry had been the first who arrive in two of the attacks, both times he heard a voice, which seemed like drawing him there on purpose, to make him be suspected? Is there any sound that Harry is sensitive to but we are not? Dog whistle... No, parseltongue! Harry understands parseltongue. Snake noises were hissing and easy to miss for humans, unlike Harry, who said that the noise firstly had been nearby. But there was nothing up and down the corridor except it was inside the walls. Hogwarts is a magical place, it is possible to have a crack in the middle of the wall for the snake to wander through. Yes, the symbol of Slytherin is a snake as well, a snake would be a nice pet... Myrtle said she saw large yellow eyes, which meant that the snake was used to petrify people by sight. Medusa, Maniac Anaconda, or Basilisk?

Wait a minute, Myrtle has dead, not petrified, but Colin and the others are still alive. So, the snake's sight among these three monsters should be able to either kill or petrify. That egg-hatched monster... Recently, most of the roosters in Hogwarts died, does this fact suggests that someone is killing the roosters for the monster? Maybe people won't die for indirect eye contact with the monster? Colin's pose tells that he was taking pictures that time, so he saw the eye through his camera; Justin looked through Nick... Nick has dead for a long time... Mrs. Norris... er... she owns a great vitality because she lived with Filch for a long time! Merlin! Students with glasses are saved! Myrtle cried and took off her glasses then looked straight into that eyes, so she died. She said someone had been speaking a foreign language that day, presumably parseltongue, and that if it was a summons, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets owns a high probability in the bathroom.

"I got it!"

Cried Ginny excitedly, and found herself standing at the door of the third-floor bathroom, in the deadly silence of the whole school. She told herself not to touch the handle of the door, but her hand involuntarily stretched to it.

The door opened, something came out of it. Ginny didn't dare to look, she turned and ran away, screaming wildly for help, but no one answered her. She ran upstairs, up to the tower, there was no way back. As the noise came closer and closer behind her, she jumped over the tower rail, not daring to look back...

Ginny awoke from her dream again, wiped the sweat from her forehead, grateful that it was just a dream.

She stood up and looked out of the window. The night sky was flaming red with snow. On the edge of the forest, a huge dark shape was moving slowly.

Ginny was surprised: it that the Slytherin's monster?

But the shape did not look like a snake.

Whatever it is, it might have something to do with the Chamber of Secrets, she thought. So she got dressed and went out.

Ginny walked down the dark corridor, telling herself: I'll just take a peek, I'll be fine.

The drowsy Fat Lady gave her permission at the password. Ginny slipped outside, the sky as red as a bloodshot eye. The whole world eerily quiet, only can hear the howling of the cold wind and the drizzle of snow.

Ginny trembled terribly, wondering whether she should blame her insomnia or her officiousness.

She came to the pumpkin patch, where only the whithered vine remained. She squatted down and looked in the direction of the dark shape-nothing huge, nothing. She ventured closer. There were scattered tracks, blood, and bits of bone on the floor.

Ginny's shins twitched, praying it wasn't a cannibal.

"Swish", a noise in the shed to the east, something was moving.

Ginny's hair stood on end.

"Ouch..."

A human voice, and very familiar.,

Emboldened, Ginny went into the shack and saw a person lying on the ground.

"Luna!"

"Ginny?"

Luna's leg was caught by the trap. Behind her, there were several chickens whose necks had been broken.

"Don't move, let me help you out." Ginny raised her wand in haste.

"No spells, please." Luna fought the pain, thought back to Harry's rubber glove arm.

Luckily, it is a flat trap that Hagrid set up. Ginny took off her overcoat, shoved it around Luna's ankles. ran outside the enclosure, found a branch with just the right size, slipped it into the gap, and they pulled Luna's leg out together.

Ginny, supporting Luna, stumbled back to the Ravenclaw common room and hid in front of the fireplace.

Luna's ankles were swollen and her ears were frostbitten. She gasped for breath and told Ginny what had happened incoherently when she had recovered a bit.

"I remember now! The diary! That bastard!" Luna's ungentle-self made Ginny flinch, "He used me!"

Luna talked to Riddle a lot after getting the diary. Time grew, Luna found Riddle knew many things she had never mentioned, and always grasp her idea firstly while chatting with her, which seemed to cater to her. That alarmed Luna, she tried to stay away from the diary, but she uncontrollably wanted to talk to Riddle already, and often drowsiness sleepiness, always can't remember what she has been doing.

"Once I woke up and found myself pinching a chicken in the hen shed," Luna recalled, "You have no idea what it was like."

The night Luna returned from the Dueling Club, Riddle let her go into his memory.

Fifty years ago, the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts was opened for the first time, and a girl became a victim. Riddle, a fifth-year prefect, found out that one of the students was keeping a dangerous creature. He found the place the student hiding the monster, and he threatened the student to report it. Just then, the monster bursts out of the door, smashes into Riddle, and runs off toward the Forbidden Forest. Riddle reported the incident to the school, and the student was expelled.

"Impossible. If Hagrid is the heir of Slytherin, then I am Voldemort's ancestor!"

"He showed me this memory because he wanted me to believe Hagrid was the murderer, so as to make things more and more complicated. But when I saw that, I decided it was definitely not Hagrid. Do you know what he raised? Giant Spiders. The first chapter of my book is Arthropods, and it is the first one, Acromantula. That kind of monster eats meat, hunts by brute force and spider silk, and loves to eat fresh meat. What does he evolve to kill or petrify people? Really? The Slytherin monster has always been in the Chamber! And it definitely has something to do with Riddle. That kind of spider is quite fierce, but that one is underage. Since the twelve-year-old Hagrid can bring it back and raise it, I don't believe that a fifth-grade student council chairman can't deal with it, Riddle deliberately let him go. I was thinking about these things in Riddle's memory, and he suddenly turned his face and said to me, even if I didn't want to give him thoughts, he can get it too. When I returned to reality, I suddenly became too sleepy. I guess I was possessed, but my repelling reaction seemed to be greater than Riddle estimated, and my physical strength was weaker than he thought. I took a breath in my vitality. I can't hold it anymore, so I slept most of the time, and occasionally recovered my strength... "

"Occasionally you recover some physical strength, he will instruct you to kill the school rooster, because the monster in the secret room is the basilisk, and the rooster is their nemesis!" Ginny went on to say.

"Fortunately, he asked me to kill chickens. When I got out of the chicken coop, I stepped on a beast clip and made a bang. I felt that my ankle was about to break and it hurt to death! But after the pain, I found myself awake, like a drama Pain can relieve her from controlling me." Luna took a breath. "So when people are semi-conscious, someone really should hit them hard in the head. I was lying on the snow in pain and felt like I was freezing to death there. Fortunately, you came."

"I came here after seeing a strange dark figure. I thought it was a Slytherin monster."

"If it really is the monster, do you think you're gonna come back alive? I was close to it and I saw it. It was a big spider. Someone put some raw meat and dead chickens on the edge of the Forbidden Forest to feed it."

"It must be the one that Hagrid keeps, Aragog. I went to see Hagrid today."

Ginny told Luna what she knew.

The clues of the two people were put together, and things became clearer, but there were still many questions that could not be explained. For example, who opened the Chamber of Secrets.

"Riddle is the heir, but he has to control someone if he wants to open the Chamber... Luna... except telling you to kill the chicken when he controls you... Were there any further orders? For example, opening the Chamber... "

"That was not me!" Luna jumped up with her limp leg. "You were with me during the first attack! The second time... "

She suddenly realized no one can prove her innocence for the second and the thrid attack.

"Let's just assume it was me for the last two times, I mean just assume, I swear Riddle didn't have time at all to make me do it! The thing is, how do you explain the first time?"

"Are there two heirs?"

"Or maybe there are two diaries?"

They thought about it for a long time. The diary was given to Ginny by Aquamarine, but it probably came from the Malfoys because Dobby is their servant. He might have heard some rumors about the Chamber of Secrets in the manor.

The diary may have been given to Aquamarine by Lucius Malfoy, and Harry once said that the Malfoys collected a lot of objects of Dark Arts. Common people wouldn't own this kind of thing, but Aquamarine has a lot of friends who have enough power and influence in the wizarding world, and she can probably get anything from her friends. Among these friends, she is very close to the Malfoy family, and the Malfoy family has admired Slytherin for generations, and it is possible that they want to achieve Slytherin's goal. In terms of Aquamarine's omnipotent trait, it is not a big deal to speak Parseltongue. Did she open the Chamber of Secrets? Then what did she mean to give Ginny the diary? Did she want to make Ginny the scapegoat? Why did she take it back again?

"Let's just leave it for now, we're getting nowhere." Luna proposed to stop the motion. "It's almost dawn, let's go back to rest. Tomorrow we will find Professor Dumbledore and give him the diary. He won't let me be wronged."

Luna's proposal made Ginny very nervous.

"Don't be angry... Luna, that diary... "

The diary has probably returned to Aquamarine.

After listening to Ginny's account, Luna was very calm. She said calmly:

It's okay, I don't blame you. In the worst case, there is no evidence to prove that I am innocent, I will be expelled. Without a degree, I won't have a job; without a job, I won't have medical insurance; without medical insurance, I won't be able to have a retirement plan; without a retirement plan, I will lie in bed and fend for myself... and die... Anyway, I don't blame you... "

Ginny felt that she was obligated to provide a pension for Luna, and her shoulders suddenly felt heavy.

"Forget it, go back to sleep, and later we'll find Harry and the others to talk it out..." Luna walked forward with difficulty on one leg, "I didn't want to say anything that is inconsistent with reality, but Merry Christmas."

At that time, it was already early Christmas morning.