In Gryffindor Tower, everyone had long since surrendered to sleep, the common room silent except for the occasional crackle from dying embers in the fireplace.
Dudley moved through the darkness with practised ease, shaking Harry and Ron awake roughly.
"What... did the basilisk come?" Ron sat bolt upright, his voice thick with sleep and alarm.
"No. Get dressed and come with me," Dudley said quietly. "Harry, bring the Invisibility Cloak."
Neither Harry nor Ron had any idea what was happening, but Dudley's tone left no room for questions. They hurriedly dressed in the darkness, fumbling with robes and shoes, then followed him out of the dormitory on careful tiptoes.
"I need to wake Hermione too," Dudley announced once they reached the common room.
"We cannot get into the girls' dormitory," Harry reminded him, stating the obvious magical barrier.
"Easy enough," Dudley replied with a slight smile. He folded a paper crane with swift, practised movements, breathed softly upon it, and the origami bird took flight, gliding silently up the stairs toward the girls' dormitories.
Before long, Hermione emerged with a thoroughly confused expression, still wearing her pyjamas, her bushy hair even more untamed than usual.
"It is so late. What is going on?" she asked, stifling a yawn.
"Come with me. You will know soon," Dudley said mysteriously, clearly enjoying their bewilderment.
"Put on the Invisibility Cloak."
After giving this instruction, Dudley took the lead in leaving Gryffindor Tower. School rules meant nothing to him at this point—he had stopped caring about such rules long ago. He did not even need the Invisibility Cloak for himself.
"Did something happen?" The trio huddled together beneath the shimmering cloak, following Dudley's confident stride through the darkened corridors.
They all felt certain that Dudley waking them at this ungodly hour could not possibly be for anything good. Midnight summons rarely brought pleasant news.
Soon, they followed him to an abandoned classroom on the third floor, one that had clearly been unused for years based on the thick dust coating every surface.
"Get ready," Dudley said with a slight smile, his hand on the door handle.
He pushed the door open with deliberate slowness.
The three peered through the Invisibility Cloak into the classroom beyond, and their eyes went wide with shock.
Brilliant golden light nearly blinded them. Mountains of Galleons gleamed under floating candles, appearing exceptionally dazzling, radiating an almost hypnotic allure. The sheer quantity was staggering—piles upon piles of wizarding gold coins reflecting warm light across the dusty walls.
"My God!" they cried out simultaneously, their voices echoing in the empty space.
"Dudley, did you rob Gringotts?" Ron blurted out, his voice strangled with disbelief.
He'd never seen this much gold in his entire life—not even close.
Hermione stood with her mouth agape, completely unable to form words. Her logical mind was struggling to process the impossible wealth before her.
Even Harry, who had already been shocked once upon first discovering the gold in his family vault, found himself stunned anew by the visual impact of seeing so much wealth piled together in one place.
"These are all the Galleons we got from selling the giant spider corpses," Dudley explained simply, savouring their reactions. "A total of four thousand eight hundred. That is exactly twelve hundred for each of us."
"So many!" Ron was completely thunderstruck, his freckled face pale with shock.
When Dudley had mentioned there would be several hundred Galleons before, Ron had been too excited to sleep for days. He had never imagined it would be even more than initially estimated—exponentially more.
Moreover, seeing so many Galleons gathered together created tremendous visual impact, far more powerful than simply being told a number. Wealth like this felt real in a way numbers on paper never could.
"Come on, let us divide the spoils," Dudley said with a laugh, gesturing expansively at their fortune.
The three were thoroughly, completely awake. Sleep was the furthest thing from their minds.
To truly understand their shock, one had to know that the average adult wizard's monthly salary hovered around sixty Galleons, meaning about seven hundred or so annually. Selling those giant spider corpses had netted them nearly two years' total income for an adult wizard in one transaction—an absolute fortune for young students at their stage of life.
Although Harry had inherited money from his parents, he still needed to spend it carefully, making it last through seven years of Hogwarts and beyond. This windfall would make his life considerably more comfortable.
Hermione could use this money to dramatically reduce her parents' financial burden, no longer forcing them to exchange pounds for Galleons at unfavourable rates.
And for Ron, this solved an urgent, pressing need that had weighed on him for months. He finally had money for a proper new wand and new robes that actually fit, rather than hand-me-downs from his older brothers.
Dudley divided the Galleons methodically into four equal shares, each person receiving their well-deserved portion. That night, counting the coins in their hands with trembling fingers, they felt impossibly, unbelievably wealthy.
As morning sunlight eventually crept through the classroom windows, despite not sleeping at all, none of them felt tired. Adrenaline and excitement sustained them completely.
Looking down from the window at the school grounds outside, everything bathed in golden morning light appeared vibrant and full of possibility, as if the entire world lay at their feet waiting to be conquered.
At this moment, they felt genuinely invincible.
During breakfast in the Great Hall, Ron immediately announced his decision to purchase a proper wand first—he had been fantasising about this moment for what felt like forever.
"Ollivander's wands are best tried in the shop before purchasing," Harry explained, drawing from his own experience. "His original words were that the wand chooses the wizard, not the other way around. It is a very particular process."
Ron used a hand-me-down wand and was not very familiar with the proper procedure for acquiring a new one. Everything he knew came secondhand from his brothers' stories.
"Does that mean I cannot get a new wand this semester?" Ron said with obvious dejection, his momentary joy deflating.
Not having money before was one thing, but now having substantial wealth yet being unable to actually purchase what he desperately needed felt particularly torturous.
"Wait until the weekend. I will find a way to take you," Dudley promised quietly.
"I have already learnt Apparition!" he added in a whisper meant only for their ears.
"My God! You are amazing," Hermione breathed, her eyes wide with admiration.
She had not expected Dudley to have already mastered Apparition—this was an advanced spell only taught to students in their sixth and seventh years, requiring both skill and a licence.
"Can you teach us?" Harry immediately asked, leaning forward eagerly.
"No!" Dudley shook his head firmly, leaving no room for argument.
"This spell is extremely dangerous. If something goes wrong, you could die horribly from splinching. You would be better off waiting for the school's official curriculum and proper instruction," he explained seriously.
Apparition could cause catastrophic splinching if performed incorrectly—one mistake meant leaving body parts behind or worse. It was not something to be learnt casually.
The three did not press the issue further, recognising the genuine concern in Dudley's voice.
Bang!
While the group continued talking in hushed tones, a massive package landed heavily on the Slytherin table across the hall with a resounding thud.
Many students heard the noise and looked over curiously, discovering that the recipient was none other than Malfoy.
"His complexion has recovered again. Really strange," Ron observed, studying Malfoy's face from across the hall.
Yesterday's Malfoy had looked half-dead, a walking corpse with deathly pallor. Yet today, you could not tell anything had been wrong at all. His face had regained its usual color.
"Looks like going to the hospital wing really helped," Hermione said reasonably.
Dudley watched as Malfoy unwrapped the oversized package with eager hands, extracting several carefully wrapped items. The corners of Dudley's mouth immediately curved into a knowing smile.
They were ritual supplies needed for the sacrifice ceremony. Malfoy had not disappointed him—the boy had clearly taken his instructions to heart and acquired everything necessary.
Dudley would probably obtain the diary sometime today, once Malfoy completed the sacrifice.
After hastily finishing their breakfast, Dudley and his friends went to their morning classes together, though Dudley's mind remained partially elsewhere.
By evening, wave after wave of prayer sounds reached Dudley's consciousness like distant church bells, echoing through his mind.
He knew immediately—Malfoy's sacrifice was beginning.
Dudley found an empty washroom and locked himself in a stall, then responded to Malfoy's prayer, his spirit ascending to that mysterious palace.
In the abandoned classroom, Malfoy followed the sacrifice ritual's requirements with meticulous care, completing each preparatory step precisely as instructed. His hands trembled slightly with nervous energy.
Finally, a door of shimmering light manifested before him, its edges crackling with otherworldly energy. He carefully placed the black diary upon its luminous surface, as if offering something sacred to an altar.
Hum!
The light door closed with a sound like distant thunder, and the black diary was swallowed whole, vanishing completely and leaving only empty space where it had rested moments before.
Whoosh~
Malfoy let out a long, shuddering breath of profound relief. Sending away that cursed diary made him feel immediately lighter, as if an invisible weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The oppressive darkness that had been slowly consuming him finally released its grip.
Meanwhile, in the mysterious palace suspended above grey fog, Dudley examined the diary Malfoy had sacrificed with intense scrutiny, his brow furrowing deeply.
Through his spirit vision, thick black mist swirled around the diary like living shadows, manifesting various terrifying visions in the air—screaming faces, writhing serpents, scenes of violence and death. However, these malevolent auras were bound tightly by a sophisticated spell, unable to spread outward or be perceived through ordinary means.
Dudley could only discover this diary's dangerous peculiarities through close spiritual examination and his enhanced senses.
The level of dark magic woven into this seemingly innocent journal was extraordinary—far beyond what any student should possess.
Dudley slowly raised his hand with deliberate caution and placed it directly upon the diary's worn leather cover, preparing to delve deeper into its secrets.