" Tom Riddle!" A wizard slammed his book on the table, his voice filled with an uncontrollable tremor.
"His name is Tom Riddle! The You-Know-Who used to be called Tom Riddle!"
"That diary! That diary contains the consciousness of the You-Know-Who!"
"His soul at sixteen! Split apart!"
At Diagon Alley, a young witch held a supplement to the Daily Prophet above her head, her voice trembling slightly:
"Did you see that? Chapter 17! That diary—it's a part of the You-Know-Who's soul!"
" Merlin's beard..." An old wizard next to her took a step back, his face drained of all color.
"That diary was split off from the You-Know-Who... which means he's not completely dead yet?"
"Even more terrifying than that." Another middle-aged wizard wearing round-framed glasses turned to Chapter 13 and tapped his finger on the page.
"That diary... it bewitched Ginny Weasley."
"An eleven-year-old girl, holding that diary, had her life force slowly drained by it, without even knowing what she was doing."
"She opened the Chamber of Secrets; it was that diary that made her do it."
Several people around gasped simultaneously.
"So... that monster in the Chamber of Secrets, that Basilisk... all those Muggle-born students it attacked were instigated by a diary?"
"It wasn't done by a living person," someone whispered. "It wasn't done by a living person."
At the Leaky Cauldron, Tom finally emerged from behind the bar.
He was also holding a book with slightly curled edges, standing in the middle of the bar, scanning the surrounding customers.
"You've all read up to Chapter 17?"
No one spoke, but dozens of eyes all looked up at him.
" The You-Know-Who really isn't dead," Tom's voice sounded like it was being squeezed from his throat. "He cut himself into pieces. That diary was just one piece."
The bar was quiet for a few seconds, then erupted in chaos.
How many pieces are left?
Who knows? One? Two? Ten?
"If he cut himself into many pieces, how would we know where all the pieces are?"
" Lucius Malfoy gave that diary to Ginny! It's written in the book! Chapter 18!"
" Malfoy?"
"Yes! Lucius Malfoy! He secretly slipped that diary into Ginny's textbook!"
"Does he even know what that diary is?"
The book says he knew the diary was Dark Magic item, but he didn't know exactly what was inside.
"He didn't know? He knew it was Dark Magic item and still gave it to an eleven-year-old girl?"
"He just wanted to sabotage Arthur Weasley's Muggle Protection Act! He was using that diary as a tool to attack his political enemies!"
"That bastard..."
At the other end of Diagon Alley, on a bench in front of Honeydukes, several young witches huddled together, flipping through the same book.
"Look at Chapter 11," one of them said, opening the book and pointing to the section on the Duelling Club.
" Harry speaks Parseltongue, and everyone in the school thinks he's the Heir of Slytherin."
"But the book reveals at the end that Harry was only possessed by a fragment of Voldemort's soul, which is why he had the Parseltongue ability."
Another said, "He himself had absolutely no ill intentions toward Slytherin."
"Is Parseltongue really an evil talent?" the third witch asked. "My father always said that Parseltongue is an ominous sign, and that people who Parseltongue will eventually become dark wizards."
"The book says that Dumbledore later told Harry that Parseltongue itself is neither good nor evil; the key lies in the user."
"But that's what Dumbledore said. We've always heard Parseltongue since we were little; it's the mark of Slytherin, the symbol of dark wizards."
"It's been a thousand years. This saying has been passed down for a thousand years."
"But Harry proves in the book that Parseltongue isn't necessarily bad."
"But Harry is the Chosen One. The Chosen One are different, of course."
The group remained silent for a while, none of them able to convince the others.
In Diagon Alley Flourish and Blotts, Blotts and Flourish stood behind the counter, dozens of copies of " Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets " (Part 2) piled up in front of them, but they weren't selling a single one.
They were engrossed in reading two books themselves.
"... The Ministry of Magic actually imprisoned Hagrid in Azkaban based solely on a fifty-year-old case?" Blotts flipped to Chapter 14, his finger pressing on the paper. "Where's the evidence? There's absolutely no solid evidence."
" Fudge was probably terrified at that moment," Flourish, turning the same page.
"The whole school is buzzing with rumors that the Heir of Slytherin has returned, students have been petrified, and the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. He needs to give the public an explanation."
"So he used Hagrid as a proxy?"
"It's clearly written in the book, and the Board of Governors also exerted pressure. Malfoy won over all the other School Governor, Dumbledore was suspended."
" Dumbledore was driven away?" Blotts looked up, his face showing an expression as if he had been punched in the face.
"Did Hogwarts expel Dumbledore at the height of the Chamber of Secrets incident?"
"It was Malfoy who did it. He used the power of the Board of Governors to suspend Dumbledore."
That bastard.
"The book also mentions what happened to Malfoy afterward? Did the Ministry of Magic prosecute him?"
Flourish flipped to Chapter 18, glanced at a few lines, then shook his head. "No."
"So Malfoy didn't pay any price?"
" The Ministry of Magic can't prosecute him; there's no evidence that he intentionally slipped the diary to Ginny. He was simply stripped of his position School Governor."
Blotts was silent for a moment, then closed the book in his hand and placed it on the counter.
"The law can't do anything to him," he said in a low voice.
"The patriarch of a Pure-blood families did something that almost killed the entire school, but because his methods were so covert, the law couldn't touch him..."
Diagon Alley, wizards gathered in small groups, their discussions extending far beyond "what the monster in the Chamber of Secrets is."
"The Dobby in the book is House-elf who was freed after being fired by his owner."
A middle-aged witch in an old robe said to the person next to her, "A single garment can set House-elf free."
"So what? Most House-elf don't want freedom. They see it as a disgrace."
"But Dobby different. It wants freedom. It was abused by its owner for so many years to save Harry, and finally it got its freedom."
"That's true. The book says Dobby found a job in the Hogwarts Kitchens, with pay and holidays."
"Payment and vacation?" A young wizard nearby raised an eyebrow. " House-elf want payment?"
" Dumbledore gave it to him, though Dobby only asked for one Galleon a week as payment. The other House-elf wouldn't speak to him."
"Why?"
"Because they think he's a traitor. House-elf shouldn't receive payment, shouldn't wear clothes."
The group remained silent for a moment.
" Merlin's beard," said the young wizard, "We never considered House-elf themselves thought."
"It wasn't elaborated on much in the book. Just that one short paragraph."
The discussion in Diagon Alley lasted all afternoon, ranging from the books themselves to the Ministry of Magic's failures, from Lucius Malfoy's escape to the nature of Parseltongue, from the horrors of Horcrux to Ginny's predicament.
No one noticed that it had gotten dark, and no one noticed that the lights in the Flourish and Blotts window had automatically turned on.
Countless owls flew from all over to Hogwarts, and an even greater upheaval was about to erupt Hogwarts.