Chapter 79: Voldemort's Diary
"Any leads?"
In the Hogwarts library, George, who had just returned to school, smiled as he asked the trio.
Before leaving for the holidays, he had given the trio the password to the Slytherin common room for that week.
"Nothing."
Harry looked dejected, while Ron declared confidently:
"Even though there are no leads, I'm sure it's Malfoy. Who else in the school could be the heir of Slytherin?"
"But Malfoy didn't seem to be lying when we questioned him."
Hermione shook her head, not entirely agreeing with Ron.
On Christmas night, the trio had successfully used Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Malfoy's lackeys and, with the password George provided, entered the Slytherin common room.
However, they didn't get the answers they wanted. Malfoy didn't admit to opening the Chamber of Secrets.
So, their plan had failed.
"Don't worry, take your time. Even the professors haven't found any clues, which means the heir is hiding very well."
George comforted them and continued reading his magic book.
Recently, he had started studying the Shield Charm, a powerful defensive spell. During the duels before Christmas, he had noticed how effective this spell was in combat.
When cast by a seventh-year wizard, it was like an impenetrable shell. Without sneaking around, it was nearly impossible to break.
After studying the Shield Charm further, he realized it could defend against both magical and physical attacks.
Even Muggle firearms couldn't penetrate it.
However, the Shield Charm had its drawbacks. It could only defend against attacks from one direction and required continuous magical input through the wand, meaning the caster couldn't simultaneously cast other spells for counterattacks.
To counterattack, the caster would have to drop the Shield Charm first.
This drawback wasn't a big deal for George, as he had psychic abilities in addition to magic.
He could use the Shield Charm for defense while using his psychic powers to control blades or needles for attacks, or even use a gun for curved, tracking shots.
The only slight issue was that the Shield Charm was a fifth-year spell, making it quite difficult to master. Even with three brains working together, it would take some time to learn.
"By the way, we found this. It might be related to the Chamber of Secrets being opened fifty years ago."
At that moment, Harry pulled out a small, thin, tattered black diary from his book bag and placed it on the library table.
"It's a diary with the name T.M. Riddle written on it. Ron said he saw in the Trophy Room that Riddle received a Special Award for Services to the School fifty years ago.
Hermione thinks he probably got the award for catching the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets back then."
"Voldemort's Horcrux diary!"
George stared at the diary on the table, sensing the evil and powerful soul within it, along with the tempting mental suggestions. His expression stiffened for a moment before he quickly forced it back to normal.
"Did you find anything written in the diary?"
"Nothing. It's completely blank. I tried using the Revealing Charm and a Revealing Eraser, but neither worked. So, I wanted to ask if you knew any way to uncover its secrets."
Hermione replied helplessly.
She believed the diary must contain something, hidden by a special spell. Since George had read more books than her, he might know how to break the enchantment.
George wanted to reach out and take the diary, but his rationality quickly suppressed the urge.
If he told the trio to hand the diary over to him for research, they would likely agree, given their trust in him.
Then, perhaps, he could use the soul of the young Voldemort within the diary to gain a wealth of dark magic knowledge.
However, his rationality told him that this was absolutely not the right move.
On one hand, Dumbledore might already be keeping an eye on Voldemort's diary. If he took it from Harry, Dumbledoor would surely notice, and everything would fall under Dumbledore's scrutiny.
On the other hand, even with his psychic abilities, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be tempted by Voldemort's dark magic. It was too dangerous.
For safety's sake, it was better not to touch it for now.
Once Dumbledore left Hogwarts, he could go to the Restricted Section to study dark magic. That would be safer and more reliable.
He had also tried to find Snape's Half-Blood Prince notebook to learn the Sectumsempra spell in advance, but he hadn't been able to locate it.
However, before the Christmas break, Snape had hinted that he might teach George a few of his original spells this semester. George wondered if Sectumsempra would be among them.
"I read in a book on alchemy that many magical items, once enchanted with the Awakening Charm, develop their own consciousness. If you can't gain their approval, you can't use their powers.
This diary might not be an ordinary one. It could have been enchanted with the Awakening Charm. You could try communicating with it."
"How do I communicate with it?"
Harry looked utterly confused.
"By talking to it?"
"I'm not sure. Try talking to it or writing in it. You can experiment with it when you get back to the common room."
George smiled and offered the suggestion.
The trio thought it made sense and, after waving goodbye to George, quickly left the library to try it out.
"Thank you, George!"
"You're welcome."
George took a deep breath and continued reading his magic book.
Some risks were worth taking, but others weren't.
For the next while, since Ginny had lost the diary and Harry had picked it up, the Chamber of Secrets remained closed, and the school returned to a temporary calm.
Half a month later, at the mutant school.
George frowned as he looked at the pile of wood in front of him.
"None of these are suitable."
This was the collection of all types of wood his assistant Leon had gathered from around the world. Unfortunately, none were suitable for making wands.
Now that he had learned wandmaking, he wanted to create a wand for his main body in the Marvel world as soon as possible, so his magic could reach its full potential.
However, this wasn't the Harry Potter or Fairy Tail world. Finding suitable materials in such a short time was nearly impossible.
The core wasn't too much of an issue. After some experimentation, he found that Professor X's hair, as the most powerful psychic, could serve as a temporary substitute. If Jean Grey were still alive, her hair would have been even better.
But the wand wood remained a problem.
In his vision, using the wood of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, would undoubtedly create the most powerful wand. Unfortunately, Yggdrasil's wood was beyond his reach.
Alternatively, a branch from Groot would also work, given that it was used as the handle for Stormbreaker.
But Groot was currently in space, and George couldn't get to him.
In George's opinion, using something other than wood for the wand shaft wasn't out of the question. For example, Uru metal, the best magical metal from Asgard, would be just as effective.
But again, he couldn't obtain it.
"What else could possibly work as a substitute?"
(End of Chapter)