"The sink?"
Dudley tensed and immediately turned to look at the sinks behind him.
They were in the center of the bathroom—a circle of sinks built around the central pillar.
Dudley walked over and turned on several taps. He discovered that one tap didn't produce water. He bent down to examine it and saw a snake-shaped mark engraved on the side of the tap.
"This is it," Dudley said, touching the mark.
After taking him to two irrelevant places, Voldemort had finally brought him to the true Chamber entrance.
"How do I open the Chamber?" Dudley wrote in the diary.
"I can attach my memories to your body to try, but I'm not certain it will actually open," Voldemort responded.
Reading this, Dudley didn't immediately respond.
If facing Voldemort now was a real twelve-year-old boy, he would probably have already fallen under Voldemort's manipulation.
Especially before, when Voldemort had led Dudley to find the Room of Requirement—this could be seen as bait thrown out by Voldemort to gain Dudley's trust.
Just as Dudley was contemplating, he felt a cold, evil aura emanating from the notebook in his hand, attempting to invade his body.
Hum!
A circle of golden light spread from the Solar Ring on Dudley's hand, dispersing that evil aura almost instantly.
At the same time, Dudley seemed to faintly hear a scream.
Looking at the diary in his hand, Dudley smiled coldly.
Is the current Voldemort considered a wraith?
The Solar Ring had strong restraining effects on things like wraiths and the undead. Just now, Voldemort had merely released a trace of aura, and it was directly purified by the Solar Ring, having no effect on Dudley whatsoever.
After a moment's thought, Dudley wrote in the diary: "I don't want to enter the Chamber for now. It's too dangerous there."
This time, the diary took a long while before responding to Dudley.
"With me helping you, the dangers in the Chamber won't threaten you."
Dudley continued writing: "I need to tell my friends about this. We should go in together."
After a while, Voldemort said, "There may be treasures Slytherin left behind in the Chamber. Are you sure you want to tell your friends about all this?"
"I think I still need to discuss it with them."
"All right, it seems you haven't completely trusted me yet. I can wait, but I hope you won't make me wait too long."
Their conversation ended.
Dudley put away the diary and walked out of the bathroom.
Voldemort had been trying to lure him into the Chamber, so Dudley simply wouldn't go in.
At least, not now.
Knowing where the Chamber entrance was, Dudley had completely grasped the initiative and could even choose how to resolve this matter.
The safest method would be for Dudley to tell Professor McGonagall about this and let the school solve the Chamber problem.
Dudley believed that as long as they knew how to enter the Chamber, Hogwarts could definitely resolve this issue.
But equally, Dudley would lose the basilisk's corpse.
This thing could not only be sold for money but also had great research value.
Those eyes that could petrify or even kill creatures—as long as they were in Dudley's hands, they could be made into very powerful magical items. Reaching the strength of a Grade 2 Sealed Artifact would be more than sufficient, and if its attack was on the rule level, even a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact was possible.
This was very attractive to Dudley.
Therefore, a second option was born—Dudley going alone to kill that basilisk.
This would have been very dangerous for Dudley before, but after advancing to Judge, Dudley had considerable resources, and he'd also accumulated some dark magical items that could play good roles in battle.
Of course, this also carried risks. After all, Dudley wasn't certain about the basilisk's exact situation. If he miscalculated, things could go very wrong.
So Dudley had a third plan.
That was to bring people into the Chamber together to deal with the basilisk.
The candidates were easy to think of—Cole, or add Gins's group of three.
What Dudley needed to consider was whether to bring Harry's trio along.
These three might be burdens, but at this stage, Dudley was already preparing to start developing believers, and Harry's trio were naturally his first choice.
Before telling them the truth, what Dudley needed to do was display his true strength before them and let them know his power so they could justifiably join him.
Among these three, Harry should be easiest to convince.
After all, the threat of Voldemort was always present. As long as he didn't die, Harry wouldn't be safe. Even with Dudley's and Dumbledore's protection, it ultimately wasn't as reliable as being powerful himself.
Therefore, as long as Dudley told Harry that believing in the Night Emperor could make him powerful, he believed Harry would unhesitatingly choose to become a believer of the Night Emperor.
Ron's likelihood of following was also very high. He'd always admired Dudley—given the opportunity to improve his own strength, he probably wouldn't miss it either.
Hermione was somewhat harder to predict. She was too smart and might have her own thoughts.
However, Dudley believed that even if Hermione knew about their matters, as long as she didn't speak out, it would be fine.
After thinking for a while, Dudley first ruled out telling Professor McGonagall. A Grade 1 Sealed Artifact was still very attractive to him.
Then, after hesitating between going solo or bringing Harry and the others, he finally chose to bring Harry's trio along with Cole's group into the Chamber.
Having finalized his plan, Dudley immediately headed toward Gryffindor's common room.
It was already late at night. The common room had long been empty, and Harry's group had already gone to sleep.
Dudley didn't wake them. This matter wasn't urgent.
In any case, Voldemort's diary was already in his hands, and no one else could possibly open the Chamber. He could do this after making full preparations.
Returning to his dormitory, Dudley placed Voldemort's diary in the Mirror of Erised. After a moment's thought, he picked up the Trunsoest Brass Book nearby and pressed it on top of the diary.
"This should prevent any problems," Dudley said with a light laugh.
After speaking, Dudley left the Mirror of Erised and went back to sleep in his dormitory.
The space within the Mirror of Erised returned to tranquility. However, the soul in Voldemort's diary was currently trembling.
He felt unprecedented terror, as if an extremely horrifying thing was pressing on him, whispering strangely in his ear, making his soul feel suffocated and maddened.
But he didn't dare resist—he could only hide in the diary's deepest depths, enduring that maddening whisper, slowly sinking...