Scabbers, You Died Such a Miserable Death

Lockhart took Malfoy to the Hospital Wing, while Snape stayed behind and grabbed a terrified Ron.

"I didn't mean to," Ron said, his hands trembling as he mumbled explanations. "I didn't know what that spell did... I thought..."

What do you think?

Snape's dark eyes fixed on Ron. "You thought this was something to play with, something for you to show off?"

"I bet before you used it, you didn't use your brain, which is barely smarter than Troll, to think carefully about... the consequences of killing someone, did you?"

Weasley?

"I didn't intend to kill Malfoy!" Ron roared. "I didn't!"

But Snape ignored him, and scoffed, "I clearly underestimated you, Weasley."

He said calmly, "Who would have thought you knew this kind of Dark Magic? Who taught you that spell?"

"That's what I saw myself." Ron lowered his head.

Where?

"It's in... a book in the library," Ron swallowed hard. "I can't remember the title..."

"Lie? Look me in the eyes!" Snape said coldly.

"This kind of Dark Magic can only be seen in Restricted Section. How did you get into the Restricted Section? Who gave you permission?"

Ron's throat went dry. He took a half step back and lied, "Professor Lockhart."

"Lockhart? Ha~ I'll ask him if he gave you a note about the Restricted Section... Madam Pince has a record of that too, it'll be cleared up in a minute... Are you lying...?"

"I might be mistaken," Ron said, his legs trembling as he looked into those unfathomable black eyes. "I think maybe I saw it at home."

"At home?" Snape couldn't help but laugh, his tone malicious.

Mr. Weasley will be very happy to hear this news.

He kept books on Dark Magic in his house and taught them to his son, plus he illegally modified cars...

I believe that with your enthusiastic help, he not only lost his job, but he will likely also have to take a seven-day trip to Azkaban.

Ron's face turned grim, and he said in a tearful voice, "It's Diagon Alley... yes, it's a used bookstore in Diagon Alley!"

Snape stared coldly at Ron and said softly, "Weasley, you still don't understand the situation."

Attacking your classmates with Dark Magic is enough to get you expelled... Do you know the first Dark Lord?

He was expelled from Durmstrang Institute for attacking his classmates with Dark Magic, nearly killing them.

"Dumbledore must be very happy that his beloved Weasley family has produced a dark wizard," Snape said with a drawn-out "tsk-tsk."

"I am not a dark wizard!" Ron gripped his wand tightly, forcing the words out of his throat.

Ron messed things up suddenly, and everyone was looking at him strangely.

The way he looked at Harry was almost the same.

Fear mingled with disgust.

It wasn't the kind of spotlight he had imagined!

hateful,

That's not true!

He clearly stated that it was just a more powerful spell and wouldn't harm anyone!

"You know what I think, Weasley?" Snape said softly, "I think you're a liar, a cheat."

I'll tell Dumbledore, and I'll have him fire you.

Snape walked away.

Ron stood there, stunned, while the crowd around him whispered among themselves.

Just then, he felt someone tug at the back of his clothes.

"Let's go," Harry whispered in his ear, "Let's go—let's go..."

Harry led him out of the Great Hall, followed by the twin brothers and Percy. The group arrived at the empty Gryffindor Common Room.

Fred shoved Ron into an armchair, and George said, "Ron, where did you learn Dark Magic?"

Ron felt uncomfortable with the twins' probing questions and insisted, "I haven't learned it!"

"Was it me who just used your wand to cast Dark Magic?" Fred's voice was shrill.

Percy was even angrier, seemingly unable to believe what had just happened.

He paced back and forth, stamping his feet, and said, "I'm going to write a letter to my father; you'll affect his work!"

Most importantly, I'm already in sixth grade, the time to run for student council president. What will Professor Dumbledore think of our family?

Fred and George exchanged a glance and shouted in unison, "Shut up!"

The door opened again, and William walked in with Hermione and Anne.

"Have you asked clearly?" he asked the twins.

The two shook their heads.

"Ron, where did you learn Dark Magic?" William grabbed a stool and sat down.

He had originally wanted to bring Luna along; Luna's Legilimency was much easier to use than his, and it didn't even require eye contact, unlike his own, which was only at the beginner level... But after thinking about it, he decided against it.

Ron was clearly scared; he was afraid that if he spoke out, he would be fired, and Mr. Weasley would lose his job as well.

William thought he could try the legendary ultimate magic— the Talk no Jutsu Spell.

"If you don't speak up, Dumbledore won't know the situation, and you'll definitely be expelled. The Malfoy family is one of the School Governor," William analyzed the stakes.

"If you tell him, Dumbledore knows it wasn't your fault, he'll forgive you. And don't worry about Mr. Weasley's job; the headmaster will take care of it."

Have you forgotten about you and Harry taking unlicensed taxis at school?

Dumbledore didn't fire you either!

William's voice seemed to have a magical power, and Ron gradually calmed down from his panic.

He remained silent for a long time before covering his face and choking back tears, saying, "It's a diary."

What diary?

"Tom Riddle's Diary, I don't know how it ended up in my book, but I've been writing in it and communicating with it for the past few months."

William seemed lost in thought.

--A magical item with self-awareness.

This isn't exactly a rare item... the Sorting Hat, portraits, and even the Marauder's Map all serve similar functions.

The twins spent a Marauder's Map, even Dialogue to it.

"Who is Tom Riddle?" William asked a crucial question.

Ron's voice was hollow as he softly said, "A student from fifty years ago. He was very good, excellent, just like you."

How did you know?

Tom... received Award for Special Services to the School fifty years ago.

I saw that name when Filch made me clean the medals in the display case; I also found it on an old medal for good conduct and a list of former Head Boy.

William nodded slightly. From this perspective, the owner of the diary certainly deserved to be described as an excellent student in both character and academics.

Ron clearly thought so too; he figured that since the owner of the diary had received Award for Special Services to the School, he couldn't be a bad person.

If it were William, a first-year student, he would most likely do the same, perhaps even treating the diary as a cheat code, a system, Fawley of transmigration, or even Yao Lao!

Absolutely! Any time traveler who stumbles upon such a diary would undoubtedly believe it's a cheat code for them, right?

Ron said in a hoarse voice, "At first, I just chatted with him and told him about the interesting things happening around me."

Later, I gave him all my homework to do, all the homework for each subject... and he gave me the correct answers every time.

William: "..."

Ron got such a powerful diary and is actually using it as a "homework helper"... What a bizarre way of thinking!

What's the difference between this and Sun Wukong freezing the seven fairies in place so they could steal peaches?

"... No wonder you've been able to finish your homework so quickly lately." Harry suddenly realized, even feeling a little jealous.

"That's not right, not all of your submitted assignments were correct either," Hermione said, puzzled.

"I'm not stupid!" Ron rolled his eyes. "I certainly wouldn't copy everything; I just changed some of the answers to be wrong."

"..." Ron is quite the clever little devil.

"Later, I asked the diary if it could teach me Animagus, and it said it could..." Ron hesitated for a moment, "It also said there was even more powerful magic that it could teach me... I didn't know it was Dark Magic."

Where is that diary?

"I locked it under the box!" Ron said quickly.

A group of people walked towards the dormitory.

When I opened the dormitory door, it was very messy, not in the usual sense of mess, as if someone had been rummaging through things inside.

Ron's bedside was even more of a mess; the lock on a box had been smashed open, and its contents were scattered all over the floor.

Ron rushed over, his face pale, and said, "The diary is gone! I put it at the very bottom of the box! Someone went through my box."

"What?!"

"My old wand is lost too; it's been sitting in a box."

Ron has been using the new wand made by Cedric ever since, keeping the old one in a box.

"What else is missing?" William asked.

Ron surveyed the area.

"Scabbers... he was sleeping soundly in my bed when I left!"

Ron lifted his tattered bedsheet and exclaimed in horror, "It's blood! There was definitely no blood before!"

Ron collapsed onto the bed, heartbroken.

"Someone must have broken in to steal the diary, so Scabbers bit the person to stop him, and then... got beaten to death!"

"My dearest... Scabbers... you didn't even get to enjoy your retirement with me before you left me like this... what a tragic death!"

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