Chapter 126: The Origin of Voldemort (Patreon)

Harry and Ron noticed a red-haired girl in black wizarding robes lying beneath the statue of Salazar Slytherin. They immediately panicked and rushed over.

Lockhart had intended to use the opportunity to escape, but the moment he turned around, he saw Vader’s faintly amused expression.

“Put those little schemes of yours away. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee what might happen.”

Lockhart forced out a smile that looked even worse than crying and reluctantly dragged himself forward.

Harry and Ron knelt beside Ginny, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her repeatedly.

“Ginny, wake up!”

“Please, don’t be dead!”

But no matter how many times they called her name, Ginny showed no sign of waking.

She lay there like a corpse, clutching Tom Riddle’s diary. Her entire body was cold and completely devoid of color.

“If Ginny hasn’t been Petrified, then does that mean…”

Despair appeared on Ron’s face, his voice thick with emotion.

“No. She has to be alive.”

Vader quietly activated his Spirit Vision and examined Ginny’s condition.

The aura surrounding her body was far thinner than that of a normal person, while the white aura enveloping her body was gradually growing dimmer.

“She is still alive. But her life force is continuously draining away. At this rate, it may completely run dry before long.”

“What does that mean?”

Ron clung to a final shred of hope.

“Can Ginny still be saved?”

“She can. But she needs a sufficient amount of life energy, or we need to reclaim the life energy she has already lost.”

As Vader spoke, he looked toward the stone pillar closest to the statue.

“The friend hiding in the darkness…”

“Don’t you think it’s time to come out?”

Vader raised his staff.

White light spread outward in a hemispherical wave, instantly illuminating the dark corner.

Only then did they see someone standing there.

A tall boy with black hair.

His outline was blurry, as though he were separated from them by a layer of thick fog.

“Harry…”

Ron swallowed nervously.

“Don’t you think he looks like…”

“Riddle?”

“Tom Riddle?”

Harry found it almost impossible to believe.

Vader’s pupils contracted.

He glanced at the diary clutched in Ginny’s arms, then at Tom Riddle’s figure as it gradually transformed from a blurry apparition into something solid.

He immediately understood what had happened to Ginny.

“So that’s it.”

Vader deliberately put on an expression of surprise.

“The diary absorbs the user’s life force to create a physical body for itself, allowing it to achieve a different form of resurrection.”

Cheating.

This was blatant cheating.

Vader had thought the enemies were simply the Basilisk and the diary.

He had never expected the real enemies to be the Basilisk and Tom Riddle—

The sixteen-year-old Voldemort.

The difficulty had suddenly gone from Easy Mode to Hard Mode.

Who was he supposed to complain to about that?

“It’s you!”

Ron angrily stood up and pointed his wand at Tom Riddle.

“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done!”

A flash of green light appeared at the tip of Ron’s wand.

But instead of firing outward, it rapidly flowed backward along the wand.

Bang!

An invisible force knocked Ron’s wand from his hand, while the green light shooting from the base of the wand left a scratch on the wall.

“You’re welcome.”

Vader lowered his staff and pretended to be puzzled as he looked at Tom Riddle.

“I don’t quite understand. This method has a major flaw.”

“After all, you’re ultimately only a memory, not a soul.”

“Even if you can temporarily obtain a physical body, you’re still like a candle without a wick. You have to continuously absorb life force just to maintain your existence.”

“Do you think I’m going to tell you why?”

A mocking smile appeared at the corner of Riddle’s mouth.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t.”

Vader shrugged indifferently.

“I’m not that curious.”

“You’re not a Hogwarts student, are you?”

“My name is Enzo. I’m a student of the Magic Academy of the Kingdom of Rock.”

“I was sent here by Dean Griffin to help the future great figure of the magical world resolve this crisis.”

“And who are you?”

Riddle turned his attention toward the trembling Lockhart.

“I’m Gilderoy Lockhart, the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts.”

Riddle immediately became wary.

“Where’s your wand?”

“Ah, that…”

“I left it in my office.”

“Wandless magic?”

Riddle forced down his anger.

“What confidence.”

When he had no physical form, Riddle had gone out of his way to avoid Gilderoy Lockhart.

But now he possessed a body.

He possessed the magical power he had at sixteen.

There was no reason for him to fear Lockhart anymore.

Riddle opened his right hand and gently pushed it forward.

Lockhart was blasted several meters backward.

He groaned in pain before staggering back to his feet.

Riddle simply couldn’t believe it.

The Gilderoy Lockhart who had made him so wary for months couldn’t even withstand his simplest test.

Was this reasonable?

No.

It wasn’t reasonable at all.

Riddle shook his head repeatedly and immediately decided to test him again.

“Crucio!”

Lockhart let out a miserable scream and curled up on the ground, convulsing violently.

“Please, spare me! I-I beg you, spare me!”

“I have lots of money! I-I also have plenty of readers!”

“I-I can help you obtain life energy!”

Lockhart begged without the slightest trace of dignity.

His pathetic behavior left several people staring at him in stunned disbelief.

After a brief moment of astonishment, Riddle stopped casting the spell.

But his expression had turned as dark as a thundercloud.

“What a useless fool.”

“Yes, I’m a useless fool.”

Lockhart shamelessly dropped to his knees.

“So please spare my life. I swear I won’t tell anyone anything.”

“The teaching staff at Hogwarts really is something else.”

Vader’s voice was filled with amusement.

“Where did your headmaster even find this particular gem?”

“Lockhart is the only one who’s a fraud and a glory-seeker. The other professors really are talented.”

Harry struggled to hide his embarrassment before quickly changing the subject.

“Riddle, it seems you were fooled too. You thought Gilderoy Lockhart’s magic was second only to Dumbledore’s.”

“That—that joke isn’t funny!”

Lockhart trembled.

“People could die from a joke like that! How could I possibly compare myself to Dumbledore?”

“Exactly. You’re nowhere near worthy.”

Ron looked at him with contempt.

“Ridiculous.”

“Absolutely ridiculous.”

Riddle’s expression twisted.

“This is utterly absurd. Damn fraud. I’ll definitely kill you.”

“No! Please, don’t kill me! I’m still useful!”

“I wasn’t talking about you.”

“You’re not even worthy of dying by my hand. That would be an insult to Voldemort.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

Lockhart was overwhelmed with relief at having escaped death.

But then something occurred to him, and his voice began trembling violently.

“Vol… Vol… the Dark Lord?”

“You’re Voldemort?”

Harry asked.

“Voldemort.”

“He is my past, my present, and my future.”

Riddle raised his index finger and drew several characters through the air, each glowing with a crimson light.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

The letters then rearranged themselves automatically, transforming into:

I Am Lord Voldemort.

“I refuse to keep carrying the filthy name of my Muggle father.”

“The blood of Salazar Slytherin himself runs through my veins, passed down to me through his descendant, his daughter.”

“So I created a new name for myself.”

“I want every wizard to fear speaking that name.”

“Because I am the greatest wizard this world has ever known.”