Ever since Cyrus had told Ginny not long ago that Dumbledore might already have discovered what he was doing, she had been deeply uneasy.
Percy or Ron might have misunderstood, thinking she was worried that Ron and Harry might be expelled. Ron, meanwhile, thought she was worried about the cat.
"But you don't really know Mrs. Norris. Honestly, we're better off without her. Things like this don't happen often at Hogwarts," Ron reassured her. "They'll soon catch the lunatic who did it and throw him out. I just hope he has time to petrify Filch too before he gets expelled."
But the moment he mentioned the culprit, Ginny remembered what had happened that night. Her face turned white, and she ducked her head and ran off.
"I was only joking-" Ron floundered helplessly.
Still, as the professors failed to catch the culprit and Filch's cat remained petrified, the claim that it had been a prank gradually lost credibility. More and more people began to believe that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened and that Harry Potter was the attacker.
Ginny passed these rumors on to Cyrus.
"Hogwarts students are always jumping at shadows. Even if the Chamber of Secrets really has been opened, I doubt Harry Potter is responsible," Cyrus reassured her.
"I know. I'm not worried about Harry. I'm just a little worried about... you."
There had been no further attacks since Halloween. The older students had almost stopped discussing the incident, though the younger ones still never tired of it.
After that night, since Dumbledore seemed to have taken no action, Ginny's anxiety gradually eased.
However, she had completely lost the desire to investigate Malfoy, as she had originally planned. Harry and his two friends, on the other hand, seemed convinced that Malfoy was the true heir. They kept huddling together at all hours for no apparent reason, plotting who knew what.
Ginny vaguely overheard words like "Potions," "Lockhart," and "a month."
Cyrus, by contrast, knew exactly what they were doing.
Hermione had tricked the foolish Lockhart into giving her his signature, then obtained Powerful Potions from the Restricted Section, intending to brew Polyjuice Potion. Because of this, the three of them had taken over Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom, making his movements considerably more troublesome.
Fortunately, Cyrus rarely visited the Chamber of Secrets anyway. He spent more of his time hiding in the Room of Requirement to practice spells, or finding opportunities to strangle the roosters Hagrid kept.
Because of Dumbledore, Cyrus often felt that time was running out. He refused to waste a single second, desperately eager to strengthen himself so that even in the worst possible situation-coming face-to-face with Dumbledore-he would have the ability to escape.
The basilisk was an asset, but it could never hold Dumbledore off on its own.
In fact, even if he thoroughly mastered all of Tom Riddle's magical memories from his school days, he still would not be able to escape Dumbledore.
I need greater power!
He turned his attention to the Restricted Section.
Hogwarts's collection of books had been accumulating since the school's founding a thousand years earlier. As a result, it was vast and varied, containing originals or copies of a great many magical texts from around the world.
Most of the books deemed restricted possessed powerful magic or were extremely evil.
There were so many that even Dumbledore, who had spent nearly a century at the school, could not claim to have read them all. Besides, merely opening many of these books could inflict a curse, let alone reading them.
The key to breaking this deadlock lies there!
That night, after Ginny placed the Diary beside her pillow and fell into a deep sleep, Cyrus transferred his consciousness into her body.
Her eyes abruptly opened, and her body sat bolt upright like a puppet.
Then Cyrus got out of bed and quietly left the tower.
Hogwarts had been much quieter since Mrs. Norris was petrified. Far fewer people dared to wander around late at night. Fred and George were certainly bold, but without Mrs. Norris around, they no longer relied so heavily on the Marauder's Map.
Without Mrs. Norris, Filch was like a man who had lost his eyes. He had no chance of catching the pair.
This made things immensely easier for Cyrus. Now, no one could possibly know his whereabouts.
Of course, entering the Restricted Section still would not be easy. It was impossible for a first-year wizard to open it with a single Unlocking Charm, as happened in the film version. If it were that simple, the mischievous Gryffindors would have emptied the Restricted Section long ago.
Cyrus arrived at the library entrance on the fourth floor and gently opened the door with an Unlocking Charm.
So far, everything had gone smoothly.
He slowly entered the library, closed the door behind him, and passed row after row of shelves until he reached a staircase in the corner. A rope stretched across the middle of the stairs, separating the books upstairs from those below. It looked so crude that he seemingly needed only to duck beneath it.
But Cyrus did not dare to be so reckless.
That unremarkable-looking rope was actually the magical barrier separating the Restricted Section from the ordinary books. Without sufficient caution, he would quickly trigger an alarm.
He took Ginny's yew wand and began dismantling the magic on the rope step by step. After only about ten minutes, the knot in the middle untied itself. The once-taut rope now sagged limply to one side, as though it had gone seven rounds in a single night.
"Easier than I expected. To think that after all these years, the protective magic on Hogwarts's Restricted Section hasn't changed at all."
Cyrus had expected at least a few complications, but the result surprised him.
With the memories of Riddle, who had been a regular visitor to the Restricted Section fifty years ago, Cyrus now felt as comfortable here as if he had come home.
"The Book of One Hundred and Twelve, The Secret Art of Darkness, Hermetic Writings, Natural Magic... The Book of the Jew Abraham?"
Cyrus walked past one restricted book after another. Almost all bore titles never mentioned in the original story, but one book in particular caught his interest.
"The Book of the Jew Abraham... I remember that it was a mysterious book Nicolas Flamel obtained from a dream. Its revelations were what enabled him to create the Philosopher's Stone. I never expected to find a copy here." Cyrus picked up the book, opened it, and skimmed through it. His surprise immediately deepened.
"It's actually the original?"
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