There was no need to mention the Ravenclaw Diadem; it had already been purified by Soul Purification. As for the snake from the original story, Nagini, Voldemort's soul had been clinging to Quirrell's body last year, and Victor had burned it to ashes with Fiendfyre, so that Horcrux no longer existed.
The one that was being monitored was Harry Potter, and now with the diary and Hufflepuff's Cup, only Marvolo Gaunt's Ring and Salazar Slytherin's Locket remained unaccounted for.
When Lucius heard that Victor knew the exact number of Voldemort's Horcruxes, a glimmer of surprise appeared in his eyes, but he quickly reined it in. If what this boy said was true, and finding the remaining two Horcruxes would completely destroy Voldemort, then this risk was absolutely worth taking…
After leaving the information about the Horcruxes, Victor said no more and immediately disappeared from Malfoy Manor, returning to Hogwarts. He then went directly to Lockhart's office.
Bang!
Victor kicked the office door open.
Inside, Lockhart, wearing a ridiculously flamboyant silver frock coat and a forest-green satin cape over his shoulders, was preening in front of a mirror. At the same time, his desk was piled high with letters from fans all over the world. It was clear that his busiest job wasn't preparing for Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, but rather figuring out how to respond to these letters.
The sudden loud noise behind him startled Lockhart, and he stumbled, almost falling to the floor. But he quickly regained his balance and tried his best to maintain his image as a "glamorous gentleman."
When Lockhart turned around and saw Victor standing at the door, his flustered expression instantly turned into a flattering, fake smile, and he said with feigned surprise, "Oh, it's you! Mr. Dreyar!"
With that, he walked over from the mirror with a very awkward, and what he thought was a very handsome, posture.
Victor stared at him with dead eyes, and, suppressing his discomfort, he froze Lockhart in place, not giving him a chance to say a second word. Then, without a word, he walked up and used Legilimency.
Memories began to pour into his mind one after another.
Sure enough, the diary had been taken by this guy!
From Lockhart's memories, Victor learned that he had been influenced by Voldemort's soul at Flourish and Blotts that day. Out of curiosity, he picked up the diary from the floor and had been carrying it with him ever since.
Shortly after the start of the school year, Lockhart discovered the secret that the diary could talk to him. It goes without saying that Voldemort was very good at manipulating people, and Lockhart was naturally drawn in by all the flattery and false promises.
In Lockhart's conversations with the diary, Victor found that Voldemort was constantly using Lockhart's weakness for fame, guiding him to learn alchemy and help him collect the materials needed for his resurrection.
But what was strange was that these materials weren't what they were in the original Goblet of Fire, like the father's bone, the servant's flesh, and the enemy's blood. Instead, there were at least a hundred different scattered materials, including unicorn and vampire blood, Thestral bone dust, and the remains of Ashwinders.
When Victor saw this part of the memory, he suddenly thought of the infantile appearance of Voldemort on the eve of his resurrection in the movie. He guessed that for Voldemort to be completely resurrected through a Horcrux, the conditions required were not as simple as they seemed.
In the Chamber of Secrets arc, he remembered that in the final scene of the movie, the handsome young Voldemort had said that he was feeding off Ginny's life force and that the closer Ginny was to death, the more powerful he would become.
But now, judging from the details of Lockhart's communication with the diary, this method of siphoning life force didn't seem to be able to fully resurrect Voldemort. At most, it could only condense a more powerful soul.
For a complete resurrection, the primary condition was likely to have a body that was a good match for his original one or that met certain conditions, and then the resurrection ritual from Goblet of Fire could be performed.
No wonder Voldemort had always wanted the Philosopher's Stone before. As the ultimate work in the field of alchemy, the power of the Philosopher's Stone could undoubtedly provide Voldemort with great convenience in crafting a new body.
Of course, while this theory was highly plausible, it was still just a guess for now.
In fact, Voldemort's soul's plot to manipulate Lockhart into helping him with his resurrection never succeeded from the start. Lockhart was useless. Besides the Obliviate charm, he didn't know any other magic. Even the most basic Levitation Charm was beyond him. His magical ability was even worse than a first-year student, let alone learning the more advanced and complex art of alchemy.
Furthermore, Lockhart was an utterly talentless fraud with no real ambition. His greatest ambition in life was to get rid of the evil world and promote his full line of hair care products—a truly boring and pathetic dream.
So, while Lockhart was initially flattered by Voldemort's manipulative words, he eventually grew impatient with the relentless coaxing.
The soul of Voldemort, seeing how useless the guy was, began to turn up the heat, using all kinds of rhetoric about immortality, being the richest wizard in the world, and gaining great power. But this backfired.
Lockhart, annoyed by the endless stream of suggestions, threw the diary into his desk drawer and didn't touch it for a long time. It wasn't until the night that Filch and Mrs. Norris were attacked that he picked up the Horcrux again for amusement. But he was immediately hypnotized and controlled by the Horcrux, and the rest is history.
The Basilisk was naturally released from the Chamber of Secrets, and then it got a good beating and almost got killed.
After reading all of Lockhart's memories, Victor was speechless and amused at the same time. To be honest, he felt sorry for Voldemort. With so many people at Flourish and Blotts that day, he had to run into Lockhart. If any other student had picked up the diary, he could have at least accomplished something.
After reading Lockhart's memories, Victor immediately cast a spell on him, then took the diary and went to Dumbledore's office. He walked in and arrogantly slammed the diary onto the desk.
Dumbledore, seeing Victor suddenly appear, didn't immediately understand what he was doing there. But when he saw the name on the diary on the desk, he was instantly surprised.
"Oh, how did you find it?!" Dumbledore was very astonished. He had just finished talking about the Horcruxes that morning, and now one was found in the afternoon. This efficiency was truly mind-boggling!
"The diary has been with Lockhart this whole time!" Victor said with dead eyes. "Congratulations, Professor Dumbledore! It hasn't even been two months since the school year started, and Hogwarts is about to lose the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor you worked so hard to find!"
"What happened to Lockhart?!" Dumbledore frowned. He thought Lockhart had been negatively affected by the Horcrux.
"Don't worry, I didn't do anything to him! I just put him under the Imperius Curse and made him confess all the scams he pulled with the Obliviate charm."
"In any case, he'll probably be receiving a Dementor's Kiss in Azkaban for the next few years."
That's right, Victor intended to completely remove Lockhart, a key character in the Chamber of Secrets arc, from the stage of history. If he kept the guy around, he had no idea what kind of unexpected surprises the timeline's self-correcting nature would bring.
However, Dumbledore, upon hearing that Victor had directly "dealt with" the unlucky fool he had worked so hard to find, felt a headache coming on again.
"Victor, it's not even Halloween yet, and you've already gotten rid of our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. What am I supposed to do now? There are already rumors that make it very difficult to hire for this position, and now you've done this. We won't even be able to have a Defense Against the Dark Arts class for the rest of the term."
"Then why don't you just have Professor Snape fill in? He did it last term. With your ability, you should be able to find a Potions professor who's willing to teach pretty quickly!" Victor said with an expressionless face. "Don't tell me you're still afraid of that damn curse!"
"Better safe than sorry. There's nothing wrong with that!" Dumbledore admitted that he was indeed a coward. In all these years, he hadn't always been so cautious. But because something strange and unexpected happened to the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor every year, he eventually had to face the facts and take Voldemort's curse seriously.
"Fine, whatever you say!" Victor shrugged, looking completely nonchalant. "What can you possibly learn from Lockhart's Defense Against the Dark Arts class anyway? It makes no difference whether you take it or not." He said, giving Dumbledore a look of disdain.
Dumbledore could only sigh helplessly in the face of Victor's mockery, then turned his attention to the Horcrux in his hand. "I'm very curious. How did you find it so quickly?"
"Don't ask about the specifics, but I can tell you that this Horcrux was previously being kept by Lucius Malfoy, and it was only through a series of coincidences that Lockhart brought it into Hogwarts. Also, your scare tactic on Malfoy worked last time. He found the location of another Horcrux. Hufflepuff's Cup is most likely in the Lestrange family vault at Gringotts."
——————————
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!