"...Do not disturb the patient's rest!"
The sound of the diary hitting the wall caught the attention of the overseer… no, it caught Madam Pomfrey's attention. She pushed open the door and yelled softly at William.
"Oh, okay..."
...Really? Are you sure I can disturb them?
Picking up the diary from the floor, William gazed blankly at the two immobile statues on the bed. Madam Pomfrey seemed to realize her slip of the tongue and, after a brief silence, said, "Quickly, come out!" This time her voice was much softer.
William obediently walked out the door, where Professor McGonagall was waiting for him not far away.
"You should head back to the common room." Professor McGonagall led William downstairs with a tense face. "This is terrible; both the caretaker and a student have been attacked, and we don't even know who the culprit is… ah, I still have to think about how to explain this to Molly…"
The two parted ways at the entrance hall, and as he watched Professor McGonagall quickly disappear around the corner, William looked at the diary in his hand—
He now had a good idea of who the "culprit" was.
…
In the Hufflepuff common room, the warm flames danced in the fireplace. The time was nearing midnight, and most of the little wizards had returned to their dormitories. Only a few scattered figures remained in the common room.
"William, you're finally back—why is she with you?" Seeing William crawl in from the barrel entrance, Cedric stood up from the fireplace and, noticing Mrs. Loris perched on William's shoulder, curiously asked.
"Something happened to Filch, and there's no one to take care of her—Dumbledore asked me to bring her back."
William sat down on the couch by the fireplace, and Mrs. Loris, who had been listlessly following the entire way, silently lay down by the fire. Seeing the cat leave, Kabuda slowly climbed onto William's shoulder and stuck out its tongue in displeasure at Mrs. Loris's back.
"Oh—" Cedric nodded knowingly, then glanced around before leaning in closer to William to ask softly, "So, you went to the office with the professors? What exactly happened?" The boy's eyes were full of curiosity.
"...Not sure, Dumbledore couldn't find the reason either." William casually tossed logs into the fire. "Ron and Filch were sent to the hospital wing. They'll probably be there until Professor Sprout's Mandrake matures—"
"So… does that mean our night escapades won't be caught by Filch that old… ahem?"
Cedric was a little excited, but he clearly realized his reaction was a bit much, so he lowered his voice again—to avoid being overheard by Mrs. Loris.
"Yes." William nodded, then looked at the boy who was already planning nightly adventures with Cho Chang with a sympathetic look. "But now professors are taking turns on duty. If you don't want to end up in detention with Snape or Lockhart, you'd better abandon the idea."
"Uh…"
The boy's expression became stiff as he stared at William for a long time before finally falling back onto the couch in resignation. "Alright, forget it. I don't want to run into that greasy old bat at midnight—"
Cedric, full of sorrow, returned to his dormitory, leaving William alone in the common room.
Noticing he was alone, William finally began to examine the notebook in his hand—he didn't even need to open it like last time; he could feel the malevolent intent emanating from the black pages. It seemed he guessed right; this notebook indeed absorbed energy—
And the source of the energy could almost certainly be the protective mechanism he set in Ginny's mind.
Was it a case of kind intentions gone wrong?
Evidently, after William caught her, Ginny's attitude towards the diary changed, and this change was probably noticed by the consciousness within the diary, leading it to switch targets, taking advantage of Ginny leaving it in the common room to select a new "brainwashing" target.
It might even be that Ginny leaving the diary in the common room was manipulated by the diary itself.
After all, according to the girl herself, except for trips to the bathroom and bathing, she rarely let this thing out of her sight. How could she have left it in the common room for an entire night just because of a little accident?
"The Secret Chamber has been opened. Enemies of the heir…"
William silently recited the words painted on the wall. He initially thought the diary wasn't that important, but now it seemed the attack and the business about "heirs" and "secret chambers" were inextricably linked to it.
Sure enough, anything associated with Dark Arts is never simple.
"Secret Chamber…"
Repeating the term, William squinted—Hogwarts had a secret chamber he didn't know about?
This was simply astonishing.
However… finding the truth didn't seem that difficult. He still clearly remembered who handed this diary to Ginny; perhaps he could visit them sometime. But before that—
William pulled a pen from Kabuda's belly and opened the diary—
As soon as he opened the blank pages, a powerful mental force shot out from the diary, almost instantly rushing into William's mind. Feeling the "scanning" happening in his head, William's actions didn't falter. Acting as if he hadn't noticed, he began writing on the flyleaf—[Hello?]
In the next moment, the pen marks vanished as Ginny previously described.
And then…
And then…
"?"
Watching the diary, which stopped responding after swallowing the ink, William frowned in confusion—did he not act convincingly enough?
Upon realizing the mental force, he immediately used Occlumency to construct a memory vault of a novice magic user in his mind, but the force searched around and decisively withdrew, never to appear again.
[November 1st, sunny weather…]
William stubbornly wrote another line, but this time, the entity didn't even absorb the ink.
"Tsk…"
It seemed his ruse was seen through—so a visit to the dear Malfoy Clan would be inevitable.
Feeling a bit frustrated, William put away the diary and started planning his schedule—he still had a date with the werewolves on Christmas, so the visit to the Malfoy Family might have to wait until after the holidays…
However, looking closely, without class, this year's schedule wasn't all that tight…
Recalling his last year as a fifth-year—battling trolls, dueling goblins, completing Ancient Magic trials, combating crime, mediating classmates' family disputes, pretending to be headmaster to give professors a break…
Maybe… I should find something else to do? William thought eagerly.