"So after all that, you still haven't explained why you threw the diary away at Flourish and Blotts!" Victor, having listened to Lucius's brief explanation of the prelude, rolled his eyes in annoyance. All that talk had only yielded the clue about the cup, but it had nothing to do with the diary being lost!
"Bella mentioned a cup, which means he must have made more than one Horcrux!" Lucius said with a stiff face. "So after Narcissa returned from Azkaban, to be safe, I temporarily gave up on the idea of getting rid of the diary and hid it back in the basement, with no intention of touching it again! But what I didn't expect was that an event that happened a while ago forced me to take the diary out of the basement again."
"The Ministry of Magic suddenly launched a large-scale search for dark magic items, and for some reason, Fudge wasn't just putting on a show this time, he was serious!"
Lucius's mind was suddenly filled with the scene from a little over a month ago, when people from the Ministry of Magic suddenly came to his house to search for dark magic items.
At that time, the Aurors from the Ministry of Magic were not polite at all. They came into Malfoy Manor with a search warrant and searched it extensively, without any consideration for the Malfoy family's influence in the wizarding world. Similar things also happened at the homes of other pure-blood families.
However, after hearing this, Victor roughly guessed why the Ministry of Magic would suddenly act so out of character. This was because ever since he took control of the little beetle Rita Skeeter, in order to weaken the Ministry of Magic's influence on the official media outlet, the Daily Prophet, he would send her letters every now and then, instructing the beetle to constantly expose the Ministry of Magic or Fudge's scandals.
The main content of these scandals was actually focused on the Ministry of Magic's long-standing neglect of the supervision of dark magic items.
In fact, the collection and circulation of dark magic items in the wizarding world could be considered an open secret. However, these items were usually expensive and were only found in the hands of powerful pure-blood families and in shady shops in Knockturn Alley. Their impact on the general public was not as great as one might imagine.
Therefore, the Ministry of Magic had been lax in its supervision of dark magic items because it was a thankless task that could easily offend the deeply entrenched pure-blood families and could also cause the Ministry of Magic to lose further control over Knockturn Alley.
After all, where there is light, there is also darkness. The Ministry of Magic also had some shady business that needed to be handled or resolved through Knockturn Alley, and the most representative department was the Department of Mysteries.
So, during the summer, under Victor's deliberate or unintentional guidance, Rita Skeeter had continuously turned some well-documented incidents of the Ministry of Magic's lax supervision of dark magic items into news stories and published them in the Daily Prophet.
As a result, this caused public criticism of the Ministry of Magic in the British wizarding world. At the peak of public outrage, even Borgin and Burkes had to temporarily close its doors to avoid the scrutiny.
To salvage his reputation, Fudge, the Minister of Magic who was greedy for power and fame, had to risk offending many wizarding families by launching a large-scale search for dark magic items to quell the public anger.
Naturally, during that time, Lucius also carried the diary with him every day to prevent the Ministry of Magic from finding Voldemort's relic in his home. It wasn't until a week before the start of the Hogwarts school year that something unexpected happened…
"That day at Flourish and Blotts, I had a confrontation with Arthur Weasley over something. The diary must have accidentally fallen out of my pocket during our fight. I didn't notice it at the time. I may have even unintentionally used the diary as a weapon and thrown it at Weasley." Lucius then began to talk about what happened at Flourish and Blotts that day.
"And you didn't go back to get it afterward?" Victor asked in confusion, a look of speechlessness on his face.
"After I left Flourish and Blotts that day, I went to Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley. I wanted to get rid of some illegal items there. It was then that I discovered the diary was missing! When I went back to look for it later, the diary was already gone!"
After listening to Lucius describe the consequences, Victor felt his head spinning. Why did the process feel so sloppy? He had lost a Horcrux during a fight, and what's more, someone had picked it up without his knowledge and brought it to Hogwarts.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this whole thing was a bit anticlimactic! But after thinking it over, the facts were right in front of him, so there was nothing wrong with it.
So Victor thought for a moment, then asked again, "Besides you and Weasley, were there any other notable people present at Flourish and Blotts that day?"
"I don't remember!" Lucius answered directly. "That day was Gilderoy Lockhart's book signing, and the entire store was packed with that idiot's fans. So besides Weasley and Harry Potter, who were a bit special, I don't remember anyone else notable being there that day!"
"No! There was someone else!" Victor said with certainty, a look of sudden realization on his face. "What you just said really reminded me. I actually completely forgot about that guy! No wonder the old bee spent so much time looking for the diary and couldn't find it. His incompetence that he showed at Hogwarts is the perfect cover for a Horcrux, isn't it?!"
That's right, what Lucius had just said made Victor suddenly remember the person he had always overlooked: Gilderoy Lockhart, that swindler who was an expert in the Obliviate charm.
His vanity was extremely high, and this obvious character flaw would have made him susceptible to the unseen influence of Voldemort's Horcrux at Flourish and Blotts, causing him to pick up the diary and bring it to Hogwarts.
After all this, it still comes back to the main characters of the original 'Chamber of Secrets' arc! Victor couldn't help but lament the self-correcting nature of the timeline. He had thought that with him as the butterfly, Lockhart's part in the story would have been gone. He didn't expect the guy to suddenly pop up again at this time!
"Are you saying that Gilderoy Lockhart took the diary?" Lucius immediately realized who might have taken the diary after hearing Victor's words.
"We can't be completely sure, but it's highly likely!" Victor replied, but then he changed the subject and began to talk about something else. "Let's not worry about Lockhart for now. What about that cup you mentioned? Where is it most likely to be?"
"If nothing goes wrong, it's most likely at Gringotts, in the Lestrange family's vault!" At this moment, Narcissa, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up. "After I came back from Azkaban, I went to my sister's old house and didn't find any item that looked like a cup. So, I think with her personality, she most likely put the cup at Gringotts, because it is guarded by dragons and is safer than anywhere else."
"Alright then, it looks like I'll have to make a trip to Gringotts!" Victor scratched his head. "To be honest, I really don't like dealing with those goblins!"
With that, he finished the red tea in front of him and stood up.
"Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, thank you for your cooperation and hospitality! Before I leave, I have one more thing I want to tell you!"
"There are a total of seven Horcruxes created by Voldemort, and two of them have already been destroyed by me, with one also being monitored! If nothing goes wrong, the diary at Hogwarts right now and Hufflepuff's cup at Gringotts will also be destroyed soon!"
"So, in theory, there are only two Horcruxes left that Voldemort can use to be resurrected, but I haven't figured out the location of those two yet!"
"So, if you really want to get rid of this nightmare once and for all, I think you should know what to do!"
Victor was clearly hinting to Lucius Malfoy to help him find the location of the remaining Horcruxes. Although he hadn't watched the last three movies of the Harry Potter series, he at least knew which ones the Horcruxes were.
——————————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my Patreon ——— patreon(.)com/PrimalDemon [remove the parentheses ( )]
There are 50+ advance chapters available for you to read!