"Don't mention that name to me!" the boy said gloomily, "That damn Mudblood! He dared to hurt the Snake King left to me by the great Salazar Slytherin! And twice in a row!"
"Maka? Did you hurt the basilisk?" Harry asked in surprise.
"I was also present the first time... and Miss Granger," Lockhart said. "It's a pity that I didn't have time to save her."
"Oh - Professor, it turns out you already knew -" Harry's eyes widened.
"Hmph! So what?" The boy snorted coldly, "A smelly Mudblood wants to save another Mudblood? Ridiculous!"
He paused and then sneered: "What's even more ridiculous is that after failing to save this Mudblood, he actually wanted to save the next one... Harry Potter, it's a pity that you didn't see it - Miss Weasley Struggling desperately, crying and fussing, the mudblood could only lean against the wall, cover his injured arm, and watch helplessly as she was taken away by the Snake King—"
"Oh, by the way, he can't see - because he didn't have the guts to open his eyes and take a look from beginning to end - this is a good joke, right?"
Harry clenched his fists and stared at him angrily.
Ron, who was standing aside holding Ginny, had his head lowered since just now, looking at Ginny's face and not knowing what he was thinking.
"We did blame Maka wrongly..." Harry said angrily, "And all this is your fault!"
"Don't say that... I've been waiting for you ever since Ginny and I got here. I knew you would come. I have so many questions for you! Harry Potter."
"What's the problem?" Harry asked sharply, his fists still clenched tightly.
"For example," the boy said, a pleased smile on his face, "how on earth did a baby, without any particularly magical spells, defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How could you escape unscathed, leaving only The next scar, and Voldemort's power was destroyed?"
Now, there was a strange red light shining in his hungry wolf eyes.
"Why do you care how I escaped?" Harry shouted, "What does this have to do with you!"
"Of course! Of course it matters! Just because my name is Tom Riddle."
Harry immediately thought of the name in the diary, but he had no clue about the key to it.
But before Harry could wonder for a long time, Riddle immediately gave an explanation.
"Voldemort," Riddle said softly, "is my past, present and future, Harry Potter... Just move the letters and you'll see, actually -"
"In fact, he is Voldemort, Voldemort when he was sixteen." Lockhart said.
"He is... Voldemort?" Harry couldn't help being shocked when he heard this.
"Do you think I have to bear the name of my filthy Muggle father for the rest of my life? You know, I have the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself flowing in my veins, passed down to me through his daughter. !Am I still going to keep that disgusting common Muggle name?"
"He abandoned me when I wasn't even born, because he found out his wife was a witch! No, Harry. I came up with a new name for myself, knowing that one day, when I become the greatest in the world When I was a magician, wizards everywhere did not dare to say this name easily!"
Riddle's tone became more and more intense and his voice became louder.
At this moment, Lockhart suddenly took a big step forward.
"The greatest magician?" He looked at Riddle with a strange look, "Do you really think that the person who did such a thing would be a great magician?"
Lockhart asked meaningfully, pointing to the diary at the foot of the Slytherin statue.
"You know what that is!"
Hearing the profound meaning of Lockhart's words, he immediately showed a look of shock.
Riddle immediately gave up his original plan, no longer in the mood to continue talking nonsense with Harry, but decisively turned around and opened his mouth to the Slytherin statue, making a hissing sound - only Harry heard it. Understand what he said.
"Speak to me, Slytherin, the greatest of the Hogwarts Four!"
Slytherin's huge stone face moved, and its mouth opened wider and wider, eventually forming a huge black hole.
There seemed to be something moving in the mouth of the statue, and it was sliding upwards from the depths of the statue.
"Close your eyes! Stand back!" Lockhart shouted.
Harry and Ron dragged Ginny back quickly, hitting the dark wall of the secret room almost at the same time. Their eyes were closed tightly.
A huge object suddenly fell to the stone ground, and everyone felt that the secret room was shaken.
They all knew what was going on and could feel the giant snake uncoiling its coiled body from Slytherin's mouth.
Then Harry heard Riddle's hissing voice.
"Kill him!"
But what Riddle didn't expect was that the man in front of him, who looked like a weakling, would react extremely quickly.
Although Lockhart had his eyes closed at this time, he seemed to be able to see the situation around him and pointed his wand at the stone pillar next to him.
"Split into pieces!"
Under the influence of the cutting spell, part of the stone pillar crashed to the ground and broke into several pieces.
Then, Lockhart waved his wand again, and one of the stones quickly turned into a big rooster.
"damn it!"
Riddle immediately sensed something was wrong, but without a wand in his hand, he was unable to make any effective interference.
He waved his hand suddenly towards Lockhart, and a thrust caused by magic suddenly hit the rooster, but it was easily resolved by Lockhart waving his wand.
The rooster suddenly crowed, and the rooster's crow had a remarkable effect. The basilisk immediately started running around in a panic. For a time, several stone pillars were cracked, dust was flying everywhere, and the scene was quite chaotic.
Lockhart took advantage of this opportunity and quickly ran towards the foot of the stone statue under the cover of the dust.
On the other side, Riddle obviously had the same plan. Perhaps because of the different forms, the fuzzy Riddle was faster than Lockhart!
But when Riddle suddenly surpassed Lockhart, he did not notice that Lockhart stopped running immediately.
He waved his wand quickly and decisively, and a black fog skull the size of a human head suddenly rushed out from the tip of the wand, flew forward at high speed like a ghost, and landed behind Riddle's blurry figure without any tricks. .
"ah-"
After withstanding the sudden impact of the black mist skull, Riddle's figure became even more blurred, twisting as if he couldn't control his body.
Not long after, the figure quickly split into two small and large shadows. The big one headed straight for the diary, while the small one drew an arc in the air and landed on Ginny accurately.
After the large shadow gradually merged into the diary, Lockhart waved his wand and recalled the diary back into his hands.
In fact, he could have done this just now, and the behavior of suddenly running over was just for Riddle to see.
This series of actions was almost completed within a few seconds, caught off guard, leaving almost no chance for Riddle to react.
After dealing with Riddle, Lockhart closed his eyes again, covered his head again and rushed into the dust that had not yet settled.
After a while, a huge roar was heard from a corner of the secret room, followed immediately by a heavy landing.
In the opposite corner, obscured by dust, Lockhart stood beside the basilisk's huge head. His eyes were not on the basilisk's scales or fangs, but what he was more concerned about was the not-so-conspicuous horn on its head.
That is actually the most precious part of the basilisk!
According to legend, Salazar Slytherin once used it as the core of his wand, which was extremely powerful.
"Come out! I think you should understand what to do next." Lockhart—or, in other words, Maka who looked like Lockhart, said.
"Of course! It doesn't get any easier!"
Following the voice, a figure suddenly appeared not far away—that was the real Lockhart himself. He handed over a suitcase he was holding.
"Take them away and leave it to me."
"Of course, nice to work with, Mr. MacLean."
…
When the real Lockhart hurried to Harry and the others, a soft moan just sounded out - Ginny had already woken up.
Her blank gaze first looked left and right, then at Ron, who had been holding her, and finally fell on the somewhat embarrassed Harry.
Immediately, her tears flowed down.
"Oh - Harry, I wanted to tell you during breakfast, but in front of Percy, I didn't... You can't say it was me, Harry, but I... I swear, it wasn't intentional, it was Riddle forced me, he controlled me! Oh—where was Riddle? The last thing I remember was him coming out of the diary—"
"Don't worry, it's okay! I've killed them! Look -" Lockhart looked cheerful, pointing to the huge corpse deep in the secret room.
But Ginny didn't seem to feel much comfort.
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny cried as Ron helped her stagger to her feet without saying a word. "I've been looking forward to going to Hogg ever since Bill... Woz came to study, and now I have to leave, what will my parents do... what should I say?"
At Lockhart's urging, they passed through the dark, empty, echoing chamber and returned to the tunnel. But they did not notice that the stone door behind them did not close because of their departure.
Of course, even if they noticed it, they would never think that there was actually a person cutting the basilisk's body into pieces at this moment!