Closing the diary, Dudley drummed his fingers on the table, contemplating what came next.
A short while later, Dudley felt his head throbbing slightly, realising he'd stayed there too long, so he had his spirit body return to his physical body.
Half an hour later, Dudley prayed to himself, then responded to his own prayer, sending the diary from that mysterious palace back to Hogwarts.
The diary still appeared completely ordinary. Without careful examination, it would be difficult to discover its secrets.
Dudley returned to the Gryffindor common room, opened the diary, and wrote: "I have time now. Can you tell me about those suspicious locations for the Chamber's entrance?"
"Yes."
Soon, text appeared on the diary's pages.
"In the corridor on the left side of the sixth floor, there's a painting depicting elves. You can go and check it out."
Seeing this, Dudley closed the diary and prepared to leave.
He suspected Voldemort wouldn't tell him the true Chamber entrance so easily, but he had to pretend to investigate.
The moment he stood up, Dudley felt someone watching him, their gaze intense and unmistakable.
Looking up, Dudley saw pale Ginny, her eyes fixed intently on him.
"Hmm?"
Something about Ginny's expression seemed off.
Then he noticed that Ginny wasn't looking at him—more accurately, she was looking at the diary in Dudley's hands.
Ginny has seen this diary before?
It clicked into place.
He remembered Malfoy had previously said he'd picked up this diary.
That meant someone else had possessed this diary before, and that person was the one who'd opened the Chamber.
With this realisation, Dudley changed his plan to check the sixth-floor corridor and walked straight towards Ginny.
Seeing Dudley approaching, Ginny immediately panicked. Without time to say goodbye to her friends, she quickly stood up, grabbed her homework, and bolted towards the girls' dormitory.
"Ginny, stop. Won't you talk to me?"
Dudley's eyes narrowed as his extraordinary ability activated.
Ginny's footsteps slowed. She looked back at Dudley in panic, stepping backwards but unable to escape.
"Catch!"
Suddenly, Dudley tossed the diary, throwing it directly at Ginny.
He also casually cast a small spell on the diary to isolate it from surrounding influences and detection.
"Oh!"
Ginny cried out and instinctively caught the diary.
A feeling of goodwill arose from deep in Ginny's heart, making her view Dudley less fearfully and somewhat affectionately instead.
"Come on, let's talk," Dudley said with a smile.
"Do you like sweets? Here, have this."
As Dudley spoke, he smoothly took back the diary and handed Ginny a piece of candy.
Taking the sweet, Ginny unwrapped it and put it in her mouth.
Her face finally regained some colour.
"Dudley, I'm sorry! It was me, all me," Ginny lowered her head, wringing her hands together as she spoke softly.
"I don't know what happened. Several times I didn't know what I was doing, and when I came to, my hands were covered in paint."
"Dudley, I really don't know how all this happened, but I think... I opened the Chamber."
Ginny spoke somewhat incoherently.
But Dudley had already obtained the answer he wanted.
The diary's first victim was Ginny!
Ron's sister, who he'd known all year.
Right under my nose...
He'd suspected many people and even specifically investigated those in Slytherin, but he never thought it would be Ginny.
This was unavoidable—everyone had previously speculated that Slytherin's heir had opened the Chamber, and Ginny Weasley, no matter how you looked at it, couldn't possibly be Slytherin's heir.
Another reason was that Dudley had relied on his ability to sense evil auras too much.
This diary was, so far, the item that concealed evil auras best. Without close contact and careful examination, even if Dudley saw it, he wouldn't notice its peculiarity.
"Ginny, it's all right. Everything has passed," Dudley consoled her.
Under Dudley's extraordinary ability, Ginny quickly stabilised her emotions and recounted what had happened.
"Placed in your textbooks..."
Dudley's eyes narrowed.
How had this diary ended up in Ginny's textbooks?
"Yes, I found this diary after returning from Flourish and Blotts," Ginny said.
"Flourish and Blotts..."
Dudley suddenly remembered something. At that time, he'd gone to find Borgin, whilst the others went to Flourish and Blotts to buy books. During that time, Mr Weasley and Lucius had a conflict and nearly came to blows.
It really was the Malfoy family!
By now, he'd confirmed that Dobby was the Malfoy family's house-elf.
Lucius probably never imagined this diary would end up in his son's hands.
If I hadn't intervened, this diary would still be in Malfoy's possession. Given his previous condition, it wouldn't have been long before Voldemort consumed him completely!
A wave of regret washed over him.
If things had continued like this, would Lucius have paid for the trouble he created? Would he have regretted placing this diary in Ginny's textbooks?
But there was no point dwelling on what-ifs. Still, Dudley really wanted to see what expression Lucius would have had after causing his own son's death.
"All right, Ginny, don't tell anyone else about this, understand?"
Dudley said to Ginny.
"But..."
"No buts. Just do as I say! You don't need to worry about anything else."
Dudley patted Ginny's head as his extraordinary ability activated again.
"Right, go and rest now. Forget what happened."
Under Dudley's somewhat commanding tone, Ginny stood up and walked towards the dormitory.
Once she was gone, Dudley took the diary and left Gryffindor Tower.
He'd just cast an isolation spell on the diary, so their conversation wouldn't be overheard. Now, opening the diary, Dudley found that Voldemort was becoming somewhat impatient and had begun asking questions.
"Have you arrived?"
Dudley smiled to himself and wrote with the quill: "Almost there."
Soon, Dudley arrived at the sixth floor, in front of the painting depicting elves that Voldemort had mentioned.