Thorn Oath

Alex froze, then glanced at Murphy.

Lucius Malfoy?

Murphy said, "Write it just like that."

Fine. Alex had no choice but to do as he was told.

At once, that line of ink was absorbed, and then another line appeared: "Hello, Lucius. I am Tom Riddle."

Alex stared at the diary in shock.

Sure enough, this thing was a Dark Magic object!

Murphy, however, was somewhat pleasantly surprised.

This diary seemed pretty easy to fool.

Murphy suddenly grew curious about the diary's form of existence. "Can this guy sense what's going on outside?"

Still, business came first for now. He instructed Alex, "Keep writing: 'Tom, I'm a student at Hogwarts. My grades aren't good. Could you answer a few questions for me?'"

The diary replied, "Of course, Lucius. I'll do my best to help you."

That reply was entirely within Murphy's expectations.

The young Tom Riddle had not yet become as simple and brutal in his methods as the later Voldemort. He was very good at using deception to achieve his ends.

In the original story, he had pretended to be a friendly, considerate friend, luring little Ginny into talking to him about her private worries, using that to drain Ginny Weasley's life force and nearly making her nourishment for his resurrection.

"May I ask, what is the formula for the Draught of Living Death?"

"Sopophorous beans, distilled water, African sea salt, wormwood infusion, valerian root, powdered asphodel root. If you need it, I can list the detailed steps."

"What about the formula for Felix Felicis?"

"Ashwinder eggs, squill bulb, murtlap tentacles, thyme, Occamy eggshell..."

"In what year did the goblin rebellion occur?"

"1612."

It seemed Voldemort really had been an excellent student when he was at school. He answered these coursework questions without the slightest hesitation.

Those swift and accurate answers even gave Murphy the feeling of chatting with the large language models from his previous life.

The groundwork was done. It was time to get to the point. "Tom, my Charms professor wants us to write an essay on secrecy spells. Do you have any ideas?"

"I know quite a few spells for secrecy. The Unbreakable Vow can be used to keep secrets, and so can the Fidelius Charm. If you mean preventing someone from speaking, then spells such as Throat-Sealing and Silencing can all make a person unable to make a sound. What specific type of secrecy spell do you want to know about?"

"Is there any kind of spell that can make someone unable to move when they are about to reveal a secret, or make them feel such intense pain that they lose consciousness and therefore cannot reveal it? Or perhaps one that can make a person feel an inner aversion to revealing secrets?"

Tom Riddle was worthy of being a master of Dark Magic. He quickly gave an answer. "For the first type of spell, I know quite a few. There are two I recommend most."

"The first is Natasha's Tongue-Tying Spell. It can make a person's tongue tie itself in knots when they are about to speak your secret, leaving them unable to talk. Its advantage is that it can prevent others from saying anything about you, but its flaw is that it can only stop the other party from speaking. If they use methods such as writing, it becomes useless."

"That won't really work."

In his future magic research institute, once the Muggle scientists produced research results, they would definitely be obsessed with publishing papers. Merely limiting their speech would certainly not be enough.

"The second is the Witch-Queen's 'Thorn Oath.' Long ago, in Brittany, there was a small country ruled by a witch. She used a terrible Dark Magic spell to control her Muggle subjects. That spell was the Thorn Oath."

"First, the Muggle subjects swore an oath to the Witch-Queen. At any moment, when they wished to violate their oath, their bodies would feel the stabbing pain of thorns wrapping around them. The more they wanted to betray her, the stronger the pain became, until it killed them."

"But this spell is very difficult to use on wizards who possess magic. In essence, it is a curse, and wizards have many ways to remove curses."

Murphy's eyes lit up. This was exactly what he needed!

He wanted this spell in the first place precisely to use it on Muggles!

"What is the spell?"

"This is Dark Magic. Are you certain you want to learn it?" the diary asked.

Although it was phrased as a question, it was clearly an incitement. Murphy, however, was happy to play along.

"Write this: 'I don't think there's anything frightening about Dark Magic. If we don't dare learn a spell just because it's dangerous, then we'd better not ride flying brooms either. Living like Muggles would be safest.'"

"But Professor said Dark Magic can twist a person's mind." This time, Alex did not write Murphy's words directly, but argued back instead. "I think learning Dark Magic is bad. And this spell looks extremely evil. Forcing a person to remain loyal is far too dangerous."

Murphy rolled his eyes at him. "Have you studied Dark Magic?"

"...No."

"Then you don't know shit! Stop whining and write."

"...I think this diary is affecting your mind," Alex advised again.

"Heh. Don't want the Galleons anymore?"

"..."

Alex wrote it.

And so the diary replied, "You put that wonderfully. We think alike. That spell is 'Spinas votum (Thorn Oath).'"

After the notebook finished speaking, it actually displayed a hand-drawn diagram, describing the key points of the spell's pronunciation and the gestures.

The words marked on the hand-drawn diagram were completely different from Tom Riddle's handwriting.

Murphy immediately realized that the diary had shown him the original text from some book Tom Riddle had once read.

He was a little stunned.

It could even do that!

Didn't that mean he could actually use the diary to read every book Tom Riddle had ever read?

Murphy had a fairly clear understanding of his own magical level. Relying on the logical advantages and perseverance of a transmigrator, he was much stronger than an ordinary Hogwarts student, but more or less only at Hermione Granger's level in the original story.

In terms of combat and spellcasting technique, he had some talent, but at most he would only reach the level of an ordinary Auror.

As for magical power and innate magical talent, he honestly could not hold a candle to Voldemort, whom even Dumbledore considered a genius.

After all, the man was a big shot who had created a top-tier Dark magic item like the diary at the age of sixteen.

In fact, since Hogwarts was founded, there had not been many students more brilliant than Voldemort.

Based on that basic self-awareness, Murphy had actually been rather well-behaved at school all along. He had barely dared to touch things like Dark magic, because he knew that without a teacher to guide him, if he tried to research that kind of Dark magic on his own, he might well come to a very miserable end.

But now, a master of Dark magic was right in front of him. Wouldn't it be too much of a waste not to make use of him?

As that thought turned over in his mind, Murphy copied down the spell, then practiced it a few times according to the key points indicated on the drawing, until he felt a surge of magic that confirmed the spell's authenticity.

"Thank you very much, diary. This spell should be enough to finish the paper."

"You're welcome. It's a very special spell, but it also has many flaws. In fact, the fact that it only works on Muggles makes it rather less useful."

"You mean you have better spells?"