Tom

Two seconds passed before words appeared again in the diary.

[You have my deepest thanks for not letting my diary be trampled on the floor.]

Both Cyberlina and Dumbledore's reactions made it clear that this Tom Riddle was Voldemort. The only mystery was why he had appeared inside a diary.

Harry naturally understood this, so he was deeply puzzled by the polite tone. In his mind, Voldemort was a mad villain. He couldn't imagine that ugly face, which had bared its teeth at the sight of him, saying something like this.

He hesitated for a few seconds, then politely followed up in writing: "You're welcome, sir." Seeing the other three letting him act freely, Harry continued, "Then how can I return the diary to you?"

[Oh... Actually, Harry, I'm only a memory. A memory existing inside the diary, so there's no possibility of you returning the diary to me.]

Harry was confused. It was the first time he had heard of such an existence.

Cyberlina pushed a cup toward him, and warm steam carrying a milky fragrance wafted into his face. Harry looked up and saw that Dumbledore across from him had already begun drinking. He nodded to Cyberlina in thanks, set down his quill, and lifted the cup with both hands for a few sips—then gave Cyberlina an amazed look and drank half the cup. Meanwhile, another line had automatically appeared in the diary before him.

[You needn't be afraid. I'm not some dangerous magical object. In fact, I'm quite similar to the portraits in the school.]

Harry lowered his cup. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dumbledore take out a jar of honey from who-knew-where and add spoonful after spoonful to his cup.

"But you're not a portrait—"

Fortunately, he wasn't a portrait.

Harry said the same thing silently. He didn't want to see that terrifying face from several months ago ever again.

The Cyberlina beside him suddenly tapped her cup with her small spoon. The crisp sound broke the silence of the room. Harry jumped, and his writing paused. He immediately looked up and saw Dumbledore raising his head at the same time, both of them looking toward Cyberlina. She had taken Dumbledore's jar of honey and casually tossed it into the air, where it vanished.

All the messy emotions concerning Voldemort instantly disappeared from Harry's mind. He quickly lowered his head and pretended to continue writing, completely unaware that his puffed-out cheeks had already told everyone he was trying not to laugh.

Dumbledore withdrew his gaze from Harry and turned to stare directly at Cyberlina. She pressed her lips together to hide her smile, waved her wand, and made a small dish appear before Dumbledore. It held colorful fruit candies, and his sky-blue eyes filled with amusement once more.

Snape, who had witnessed everything, silently savored the taste in his mouth and thought that the next batch of Tooth-strengthening Potion should be brewed by Dumbledore's personally appointed assistant.

"—You can't speak, either."

The emotion in the other party's writing suddenly vanished. When he began writing again, his tone had become calm. Riddle was somewhat puzzled, and his reply came a few seconds late.

[But aren't you talking to me right now? Writing is also a form of communication, isn't it?]

Harry noticed that an inkblot had stopped at the end of the sentence, as if there were more to come, so he didn't reply immediately.

[Is there someone else beside you? Is it your dormmate?]

Cyberlina saw this and confirmed that even with the window open, Riddle couldn't sense everything happening outside the room. She pointed at herself and smiled at Harry. "Tell him, an older student who went night wandering with you."

Harry obediently answered, "She isn't my dormmate. She's an older student who went night wandering with me."

[Wandering around on Halloween night? You must be bold Gryffindors.]

After seeing this, Cyberlina thought for a moment, stopped Harry from replying, took the quill from his hand, and pulled the diary toward herself, intending to write.

After writing the first letter in the diary, she paused. Then, as if she hadn't noticed anything, she continued writing: "Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Riddle. From your tone, it sounds as if something frightening must happen on Halloween."

[What beautiful handwriting. You must be Harry's older schoolmate. You're right, miss. Something doesn't have to happen on Halloween. Then tonight should be peaceful.]

"Yes, extremely peaceful, Mr. Riddle."

[Oh... That's truly fortunate. I haven't asked your name yet, miss.]

"Cyberlina Sekerei."

This time, it took quite a while for writing to appear in the diary.

[Ah, I know your name. Are you named after one of your elders?]

Cyberlina raised an eyebrow and wrote, "Yes, Mr. Riddle. Did you know her?"

[Unfortunately, I'm still too young to have met her, but I'd like to say...] The writing in the diary paused before continuing. [We may be related by blood, Miss Sekerei.]

Harry froze and turned to look at Cyberlina. He found that her eyes were already curved with laughter as she stared at the diary. They glittered beautifully in the lamplight.

"Why do you say that? I don't remember anyone among my relatives having your surname." Cyberlina paused deliberately. "To be precise, I don't have many relatives."

Her handwriting remained sharp, and a hint of excitement passed through the paper.

[I'd be delighted to answer that question for you, little Cyberlina, but I don't think now is the right time.]

Cyberlina set down her quill, took a sip of tea, and plucked a candy from Dumbledore's dish to put in her mouth. Only then did she slowly pick up the quill and write again:

"Never mind. Tell me now. I've already split up from Harry and taken the diary from him. Don't worry, he's easy enough to fool."

Harry stared wide-eyed at Cyberlina as she wrote this. "?"

[You're a clever child.] Riddle's handwriting became noticeably more animated. [You understood my meaning, made a judgment, and completed your actions in a short time. You're very impressive, little Cyberlina.]

"Thank you for the compliment. May I ask now what this blood relation is about?"

The girl wrote somewhat urgently. Her tone was polite, but the faint superiority hidden within it shattered the illusion of courtesy.

[Little Cyberlina, don't rush. Keep calm, or the other party will see through your weakness.]

The girl's quill impatiently stabbed the paper several times. Then she abruptly lifted it. After a few seconds, she slowly wrote in a calm tone, "Who is this 'other party' you mentioned?"

Riddle knew that this clever girl had realized her emotions had been exposed to him. Unfortunately, his conclusion relied on more than the movements of her writing.

[It could be anyone—your elder, your enemy, your—]

"And you."

The girl cut him off without mercy, writing directly after the unfinished sentence.

"Mr. Riddle, I don't care what game you're playing, but if you keep beating around the bush, I'll hand you over to Headmaster Dumbledore. I'm sure he'd be happy to dispose of an unidentified Dark magical object for one of his students."

[Well, it's hard to believe that someone who saw through my true nature and made such a threat is a Gryffindor.]

"Which house do you think I should belong to?"

[Slytherin, without a doubt. That remarkable elder who shares your name and her husband were both Slytherins.]

"You sound as if you know our family very well. I've never heard anything about her. But you've never met her, so my blood relation to you comes from her husband?"

Although the girl had been urgently questioning him about their blood relation, she became exceptionally calm when family was mentioned. In other words... what she cared about wasn't family affection.

[Yes, you're very clever. He was my maternal grandfather's brother, but he abandoned his surname—a surname carrying Salazar Slytherin's blood.]

"Why did he abandon that surname? Because of the elder in my family?"

[Perhaps. After all, it was... a grand love.]

When listening to Ginny's confession, Riddle could be a gentle, understanding friend. With the girl before him, he could become her guide—the guide who would lead someone sharing Gaunt blood onto the path left behind by Salazar Slytherin.

He deliberately hesitated before writing those words because he was certain that this clever girl—cold toward family, valuing friends for their usefulness, and aggressively inquisitive—would notice his hesitation and ask further questions. Then he could speak in a sorrowful, ineffable tone about how foolishly his great-granduncle had tried to abandon his surname. He could then reveal how proud the Gaunt Family had once been, though that might take several weeks. Finally, he would explain how that powerful but love-addled foolish woman had suppressed the Gaunt Family.

Wouldn't that be more useful than little Weasley, whose mind was filled with boring things and who was only fit to serve as a puppet?

And she was a Gryffindor—a Gryffindor who trusted Dumbledore! Ha! That Dumbledore would never see it coming.

But—why hadn't this girl replied yet?

Harry was engrossed in the show, waiting to see Cyberlina's reply. Then he heard a short, strange laugh beside him. He cautiously raised his eyes and found Cyberlina smiling happily. The quill in her hand was being squeezed and rocked between her fingers, while her other hand repeatedly rubbed and folded the corner of the diary's page. She still sat straight, but her head was tilted slightly, as if deep in thought. Faint red light shimmered in her light golden-brown eyes.

Harry instinctively looked up at the gorgeous, bright lamp, whose light was clearly warm yellow, and decided that he was only tired and had seen things. When he lowered his head again, he noticed Dumbledore quietly stuffing the fruit candies before him into his sleeve.

Harry: "..." So Headmaster Dumbledore was really that addicted to sweets?

Noticing Harry's gaze, Dumbledore winked at him, raised a finger to his lips with a slight smile, and then pointed at the cup beside Harry. He followed that by making a drinking motion.

Harry understood what he meant. Though he didn't understand why, the Headmaster must have had his reasons, so he obeyed. After glancing at Cyberlina, who had raised her arm and was preparing to write again, he immediately lifted his cup and drank the rest of the still-warm milky beverage in one gulp.

Cyberlina wrote: "Perhaps you'd like to tell me their story?"

[I'd be more than happy to, but I don't know that much—] Perhaps because he had been waiting so long, Riddle wrote this sentence especially quickly. Unfortunately, Cyberlina interrupted him once more.

"But I still find it strange."

[What?]

"I think stories are better told face-to-face."

[But I'm sorry. I'm only a diary.]

"I can help you."

[Help me?] Riddle froze for a moment, then found it somewhat amusing. [You'll have your chance to help me, little Cyberlina.]

"But I'm already helping you." Cyberlina lowered her eyes and smiled as she pressed a finger against the corner she had folded. "Haven't you noticed, Mr. Riddle?"

Riddle was confused. Just as he was about to ask carefully what had happened, an immense force suddenly surged into his soul. The vitality he could only absorb in tiny amounts when someone wrote stroke by stroke now poured in like a tide, surging forward without end—until the phantom image of his soul gradually appeared above the diary.

Snape tightened his grip on his wand.

Harry shot to his feet, and the chair scraped across the floor with a sharp screech.

"Hmm... I think Mr. Riddle's current state should be sufficient for storytelling." As Cyberlina spoke, she pushed Harry's chair back into place, gently patted his shoulder to calm him, and coaxed him into sitting down. She then closed the diary on the table, folded both hands over her wand in her lap, and smiled at Riddle.

These movements were enough for Riddle to recover from his shock.

He stared at Cyberlina's face and understood that he had been played.

As someone who had deeply studied several forbidden forms of Dark magic, Riddle knew that anyone capable of sending him such a vast amount of vitality, along with some soul power, was no ordinary person. He was even certain that Dumbledore couldn't do it.

So this Sekerei whose identity was "unknown" according to Ginny was the very Sekerei he had heard so many miraculous rumors about! She had even admitted that she was his descendant!

Riddle was now very close to possessing a solid body. He looked clearer than the white ghosts floating around the castle. Harry stared at him wide-eyed. Why doesn't he look like the Voldemort I know? Why is he as handsome as Diggory, the popular Hufflepuff senior?

"Weren't you quite talkative, Mr. Riddle? Why have you become mute after coming out?"

Hearing Cyberlina's merciless laughter, Dumbledore paused. He took his teacup and leaned back with his chair. He wasn't worried about Riddle seeing him, because he had long sensed the Disillusionment Charm Cyberlina had placed on him. Besides... he suddenly realized that even if Riddle didn't want to come out, he had no choice.

It was a pity that he hadn't seen what Cyberlina and Riddle had exchanged, but he was already considering when it would be suitable to call Harry to his office after everything ended.

"First meeting, Miss Sekerei. I've admired you for a long time." Riddle raised a smile and bowed slightly, looking gentle and courteous. The fact that half his body was beneath the table made the sight somewhat awkward.

"You flatter me. I'm merely a foolish woman consumed by love." Cyberlina smiled as she tapped the handle of her wand again and again.

Dumbledore looked at Riddle in surprise at the obvious sarcasm. He remembered that Tom at this age was still very polite—at least on the surface.

Riddle: "..."

He understood. From the moment Cyberlina had written the first letter, this outcome had been inevitable. Cyberlina's control over souls and vitality far surpassed his own. Since he could use the diary to absorb another person's vitality and obtain their emotions, Cyberlina could do the same. As long as power belonging to her entered the diary, she could sense his soul.

He even suspected that Cyberlina could influence people's emotions through this.

He had, in a way, invited a wolf into his home.

And clearly, what she could obtain from his soul was more than emotions. She could even read his thoughts precisely.

So all those sincere but insulting thoughts about Cyberlina had been heard by her without missing a word. Even now—

Riddle abruptly raised his head and, just as expected, saw amusement and mockery in Cyberlina's eyes.

"Mr. Riddle, did you know that Albus has been giving me the silent treatment lately?"

Riddle didn't understand why Cyberlina had suddenly changed the subject and brought up Dumbledore. But after remembering that she could read his thoughts, he immediately suppressed his dissatisfaction.

"I didn't, ma'am."

"The reason is simple, and easy to guess." Cyberlina shrugged. "Because he discovered that I'd hidden some notes and research at Hogwarts."

Harry: ...That reason was simple and easy to guess?

Dumbledore gave a soft snort. He had only thought of that possibility, but he hadn't found them at all!

"Many of those notes concerned souls, so I placed them near the few books related to souls. I believe your original self couldn't have created you without noticing those things." Cyberlina raised her head slightly and looked down at the incomplete soul before her with faint contempt. "But clearly, you and your original self were both as stupid as trolls whose heads were filled with snot. You never noticed who they belonged to or what they truly did..."

Riddle's face showed realization at the first half of her words, but the latter half left him utterly bewildered.

Harry and Snape had already drifted outside the conversation. When Harry heard the somewhat familiar words, he couldn't help turning to look at Snape, only to find that the man seemed to have zoned out. At some point, his eyes had become completely vacant, and he clearly wasn't listening at all.

Only Dumbledore understood everything perfectly. He glanced at the distance between himself and the table, then chose to stand and move away.

—Those notes existed because of Mr. Ominis. Tom must have said something bad about Mr. Ominis. Cyberlina was about to blow up.

"Whenever I think that you looked at them..." Cyberlina smiled gently, her eyes curving as she watched Riddle. Her hand slowly caressed the handle of her wand. "I feel that they've become a little dirty. Do you know what one should do with dirty things?"

Before Riddle could answer, Cyberlina answered her own question with action. She gave her wand a small wave.

In the next instant, white flames wrapped around Riddle's entire body. A dry, searing sensation spread through every part of his soul. The pain was mild enough that it didn't make him cry out, and he even had enough strength to ask Cyberlina, "Why... can it hurt me?"

After all, he was only an incomplete soul, not even a ghost. How could magic possibly hurt him?!

Cyberlina said nothing. She merely kept smiling at Riddle.

In those light golden-brown eyes, Riddle saw only amusement. Every other emotion was blank. A chill inexplicably rose within him. He tried to return to the diary, only to discover that he couldn't go back! He reached for the diary, but his hand passed through it, then through the table.

"No... Tsk—"

Only then did Riddle realize that the pain of the flames was gradually increasing!

Harry was somewhat dumbfounded. He was already becoming hazy with drowsiness and felt that he understood nothing about what was happening.

"Good boy, move farther away."

Dumbledore had somehow arrived behind Harry. He pulled Harry and his chair backward, cast a Silencing Charm on him, then patted Snape's shoulder to signal that he should move away from the table.

The white flames continued growing, and Riddle's anguished howls grew louder. Even more despairing was the fact that he had no physical body and floated in the air. He couldn't touch anything, not even himself. He couldn't grab anything to ease the pain and could only endure it with his weak soul power.

"It's disinfection, Mr. Riddle. The Muggle world often uses high temperatures for disinfection."

Cyberlina suddenly moved. Riddle looked over with difficulty and saw that she had merely picked up the diary from the table. Then, in the next instant, the white flames suddenly surged—

"Boom!"

The table couldn't withstand the sudden burst of white fire. It began to shatter outward from the spot where Riddle was.

Cyberlina raised her wand and waved it with ease. The table's remains, along with the teacups and dishes, vanished, leaving only the incomplete soul curled up in midair and wailing within the white flames.

Harry heard nothing, but that didn't stop him from staring at the scene in shock. He immediately understood why Headmaster Dumbledore had taken away those candies.