Chapter 48 Chapter 48
Time flies, in the blink of an eye, it was already February.
After his brief conversation with Tom Riddle at Christmas, Evan did not attempt to contact Tom again; he thought it necessary to ignore him for a while.
The atmosphere at the school remained tense even though the attacks had stopped and the Mandrake had matured, but most of the students were still in a panic.
Lockhart seemed to believe that he needed to do something.
"You need not worry; the Chamber of Secrets will never be opened," that's what Lockhart said at the end of each Defense Against the Dark Arts class. "The culprit must have known that eventually I would catch them, so they cleverly stopped before I did."
"What is needed now is to erase the bad memories," said Lockhart. "I don't have much to say, but I believe I have the answers."
By the time they had breakfast on February 14th, everyone knew what Lockhart was doing to boost morale.
When Evan entered the Great Hall early that morning, he saw that all the walls were covered with large, bright pink flowers. Worse still, there was an abundance of heart-shaped confetti falling from the light blue ceiling.
Lockhart was seated at the teachers' table, donning a bright pink robe that matched the decorations, and the teachers sitting beside him had peculiar expressions. Professor McGonagall shuddered slightly, and Snape looked as though he might vomit.
Lockhart announced that he had arranged a small surprise.
Moments later, twelve dwarfs entered through the doors; unlike regular dwarfs, they all had golden wings and a harp on their backs.
Lockhart referred to them as charming little cupids.
He told the students they could use them to deliver Valentine's cards or seek advice from Snape on how to brew a love potion.
Evan was unsure if anyone dared to ask Snape about the potion, but the dwarfs continued to run around the school delivering Valentine's cards.
Among the teachers, Lockhart received the most cards, nearly 200 or more.
This made him the least popular among the faculty, and when a dwarf entered the classroom for the twelfth time, Professor McGonagall dismissed Evan with a displeased look.
A dwarf brought him a song as a Valentine's gift.
But Evan was quicker than the dwarf and cast 'Silencio.'
To prevent other dwarfs from finding him, Evan returned to the common room.
Evan decided to speak with Tom Riddle once more; it seemed that after over a month of ignoring him, the other party was becoming impatient.
When Evan opened the diary, an article appeared answering his last question for the Potions class.
"I have already done that task myself, and Professor Snape gave me a terrible grade, so my question now is..." said Evan with an ironic smile, jotting down his recent magical research inquiry.
After about a minute, a response was written on the page.
Riddle provided a flawless answer that gave him a profound sense of enlightenment; it appeared that Riddle's understanding was even deeper than that of the professors.
Thus, Evan began communicating with Tom Riddle for the second time.
Every night, after everyone had fallen asleep, he would quietly retrieve the diary and pen down his struggles in his magical studies; the problems grew increasingly challenging, posing many questions that young wizards would not typically ask.
But Riddle seemed not to notice; Riddle wanted to talk to Evan about the Chamber of Secrets and the man who opened it.
Yet every time Evan changed the subject, Riddle adapted to Evan's demeanor. A peculiar agreement formed between the two: first, Riddle would recount a tale about the Chamber of Secrets, and then, Evan.
As a young Voldemort, Tom Riddle possessed an extensive knowledge and could address nearly every question Evan posed if he so desired.
From the simplest classroom task to the most esoteric magical theory.
For instance, the sound recording method that had troubled Evan deeply was bestowed upon him by Riddle, who could embed a sound into any object.
Thanks to Riddle's assistance, the 'Academic Research' section of Magic at Hogwarts was thriving, no longer featuring dull articles like Luna's, but genuine scholarly investigations.
Following the Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall even expressed her astonishment to Evan at the depth of his research on Animagi.
Moreover, the editor of the Daily Prophet, who had been following his newspaper, offered to publish some of his research articles, and Evan even received manuscripts from various professional magical academic journals.
However, most of the articles were by Tom.
In just a month, Evan's progress had reached new heights.
He learned a great deal from Riddle, including theoretical knowledge not taught in class, encompassing dark magic. Indeed, the other part seemed to be intentionally or inadvertently teaching him the Dark Arts and encouraging his use of these spells.
At first, Evan did not notice anything unusual.
After consulting with Professor Flitwick, he discovered that Tom had been instructing him in dark magic.
Until then, Evan was unaware of how serious the issue was; he thought it would be beneficial to learn more about dark magic.
After a while, he finally realized what was amiss, and dark magic seemed to have influenced his thinking. He became more irritable and sensitive, and each time he practiced dark magic, cruel thoughts emerged in his mind.
In particular, when he recently confronted Malfoy, Evan was tempted to draw his wand and employ a new spell he had just learned.
It was akin to Snape's 'Sectumsempra' spell, but far more potent, and if Malfoy were harmed, he could perish.
Halting at the last moment prevented irreversible consequences.
This terrified him; it was a perilous sign.
He now understood why Riddle was unusually imparting magical knowledge to him.
Riddle aimed to weaken Evan's will, as Evan always distrusted him and showed no interest in the Chamber of Secrets, hence tempting him with magical knowledge, and when Evan was ensnared by power, that would give him the opportunity to control him.
Even if Riddle could not control him, Evan's ultimate fate might likely mirror Voldemort's—a malevolent dark wizard.
Since then, Evan never dared to touch the diary again. Tom Riddle was truly wicked; he could gradually seize control of someone's mind.
Even individuals like Evan, who had been vigilant from the start, could fall into his clutches.