To live or to die, that is the question

Back at the feast.

Although the Slytherin table was lively too, the little snakes' temperaments meant it was nowhere near as cheerful as Gryffindor's.

Bored out of his mind, Malfoy ate while wondering whether to use Halloween as an excuse to give Harry Potter and those little lions who had gotten him punished by Snape, his Head of House, a proper fright.

However, when he cast a furtive glance toward the Gryffindor table, he saw no sign of those nuisances.

Of course, Malfoy suspected nothing at this point. After all, Gryffindor was unlike Slytherin, where even the seating order at meals mattered. Those ill-mannered fools always squeezed into whatever gaps they could find. Besides, he did not dare stare openly at Gryffindor. If the other little snakes noticed, they might think he was planning to defect to another house!

Once an idea took root in someone's mind, it soon turned into action.

Before the feast was over, Malfoy had made up his mind to show them what he was capable of that night. Even if he was caught, he could claim it was a Halloween Eve tradition, and he probably would not be punished.

So when the feast ended, he simply slipped away from the Slytherin group and secretly joined the Ravenclaws.

Then the earlier scene unfolded.

Although he did not know whose prank it was, Malfoy thought whoever had done it was a genius!

That was right-Malfoy still thought this was a prank. Slytherin had suffered badly on the pitch last time, so of course someone would want revenge! Especially Marcus Flint, who had taken a Pimple Jinx and lost practically all his dignity.

Naturally, he had heard the legend of the Chamber of Secrets, but would a chamber left behind by Slytherin, one of the illustrious Four Founders, allow a half-blood, a disgrace to pure-bloods, and a Mudblood to open it?

Thus, Malfoy took it for granted that this was a prank. Of course, that did not stop him from adding fuel to the fire!

To that end, he immediately read the words on the wall aloud, stirring up a commotion. Ideally, everyone would think Harry Potter and his little lackeys were the culprits.

With hundreds of eyes fixed on them, Harry and his two friends could hardly conceal their panic. He already regretted not listening to Ron and getting out of this awful place at once, but it was clearly too late now. Malfoy's voice had first drawn Filch over, and the pitiful yet hateful old man was now clutching his cat as though he had gone mad.

Harry had no doubt that, given the chance, Filch would gladly make him pay for his cat's life with his own!

"You! You killed my cat! You killed her! I'll kill you! I'll-"

"Argus!"

Dumbledore arrived, followed by several other teachers. In the blink of an eye, he walked past Harry, Ron, and Hermione and took Mrs. Norris down from the torch bracket.

"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "And you, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger."

Lockhart hurried forward eagerly.

"My office is the closest, Headmaster-just upstairs-you could-"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," Dumbledore said.

The silent crowd parted to let them through. Looking excited and immensely pleased with himself, Lockhart hurried after Dumbledore; Professor McGonagall and Snape followed as well.

That left hundreds of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students exchanging helpless looks.

"Brilliant. Why didn't we think of getting rid of that cat?" Fred said.

"Probably because we have a secret weapon?"

"What secret weapon?" Lee Jordan leaned in.

"Dungbombs, of course!" the twins answered in unison.

"Those really do interfere with Mrs. Norris's sense of smell." Lee nodded in firm agreement, then added, "I wonder what'll happen to Harry and Ron. They shouldn't have stayed at the scene after doing it!"

"What do you think, Ginny? That Ron is your brother, right?" Amid the crowd, Colin turned to ask Ginny. "I don't think Harry could possibly be the culprit. He'd never do something like this. It would be awful if Harry Potter got expelled. I wrote to my brother, and he wants to meet Harry Potter too."

He rattled on.

Ginny, meanwhile, was rather distracted, worried about the situation Ron, Harry, and Hermione were in.

"Do you think the Chamber of Secrets is real? I've never heard of it. That blood doesn't look completely dry yet, so the cat probably only died a little while ago. You arrived a bit late today. Did you notice any traces of the culprit?"

"What?" Ginny's eyes widened.

What did he mean, she had arrived a bit late?

She wanted to ask more, but Percy and the Ravenclaw Prefect had already recovered from the commotion and begun restoring order. Ginny had no choice but to keep her questions to herself.

"All right, quiet! Get in line!" Percy shouted. "And you, you should go back to Slytherin, or I'll take points from you!"

After Malfoy had been sent away, hundreds of feet resumed moving, but no matter how hard Percy shouted, he could not stop the discussions in the crowd.

"Enough, Percy. Just let them talk," Penelope Clearwater could not help saying.

When they returned to the common room, Ginny was still thinking about what Colin had said. But the room was packed, and everyone was discussing what had just happened. Rumors about the Chamber of Secrets immediately began to spread.

Mr. Riddle seemed to say he knew where quite a few secret chambers were. Could the Chamber of Secrets be one of them?

She did not yet suspect that Cyrus was behind all of this.

Ginny merely wanted desperately to know whether Cyrus had seen the real culprit or found any clues while controlling her body. It would be even better if he knew where the Chamber of Secrets was!

So she returned to the dormitory alone, laid the Diary open on her bed, and drew the curtains.

"Mr. Riddle, do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"The Chamber of Secrets? Why are you suddenly asking about that?" Cyrus asked in return.

Ginny slowly wrote down what had happened after the feast.

"I want to know whether you noticed any clues, Mr. Riddle, or whether you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets."

"The Chamber of Secrets..."

Tell her the truth, or conceal it?

Cyrus now found himself caught in this dilemma. He did not know whether Tom had told Ginny about this in the original story, and revealing it clearly carried risks.

But at least after meeting Harry, Riddle had immediately been eager to show him his memories.

To tell, or not to tell, that was the question.