harry potter book of crimes

The tunnel was as silent as a tomb.

Suddenly, they heard an unexpected sound.

"Click"

It turns out Ron crushed a rat skull under his feet.

Harry lowered his head to check the ground and found the bones of small animals everywhere. He tried desperately to restrain himself from imagining what Ginny would look like when they found her.

Lockhart walked in front, his strides not large but the frequency of his legs never changing much. He led Harry and Ron around a dark bend in the tunnel.

"Harry, there's something over there..." Ron grabbed Harry's shoulders and said hoarsely.

The two of them stood still for a moment, staring nervously.

Harry saw the coiled outline of a huge thing lying motionless on the other side of the tunnel.

"That's the slough of a snake, the skin shed by a basilisk."

Lockhart raised the wand in his hand so that the light could shine farther.

The light shines on a huge snake skin, which is green and very bright. It looks like the skin of a venomous snake. It is lying coiled on the ground of the tunnel, and it is empty inside.

Apparently the animal that had just shed this skin was at least twenty feet long.

"Oh my God!" Ron sighed weakly.

"Stay alert and keep moving forward," Lockhart said calmly.

The three of them turned one corner after another in the deep, dark tunnel.

Every nerve in Harry was trembling uncomfortably. He hoped to reach the end of the tunnel quickly, but at the same time he was a little afraid that the tunnel would really end.

Finally, he carefully turned another corner and finally found a solid wall standing in front of him, with two intertwined snakes carved on it, and their eyes were set with large, shining emeralds.

.

"Mr. Potter, it's your turn again," Lockhart said.

Needless to say, Lockhart had already guessed what he had to do.

He cleared his throat, and his emerald eyes seemed to twinkle.

He no longer needed to imagine the two stone snakes as real, because their eyes looked exactly like they were alive.

"Open it," Harry said in a low, hoarse hiss.

The two snakes separated, and the stone wall cracked in the middle, slowly sliding to both sides and disappearing.

This is one side of a long, dimly lit room.

There are many thick stone pillars here, carved with various entangled snakes, towering up to support the ceiling that melts into the darkness above, casting long and strange shadows into the room that is filled with mystery.

Lockhart half-raised his wand and advanced slowly between the stone pillars coiled with giant snakes without saying a word.

At this time, Harry and Ron each took out their wands and followed him cautiously.

Every step they took created a hollow and dull echo among the ghostly walls.

In such a silent environment, any unnecessary noise makes people feel extremely uneasy.

When they reached the spot between the last pair of stone pillars, a huge statue as tall as the room itself loomed before them, clinging to the dark wall behind.

The slightly green stone gave it an eerie atmosphere.

They had to raise their necks hard to see the face of the statue clearly - it was an old, monkey-like face, with a sparse long beard, almost all the way to the hem of the wizard's robe carved in stone, with two

Bigfoot stood firmly on the smooth floor of the room.

"...Salazar Slytherin." Lockhart murmured as he looked at the statue.

Between the two feet of the statue, lying face down, was a small figure in a black robe, her hair as red as flames.

"Ginny!"

Harry and Ron yelled, then hurried to her side and squatted down.

"Ginny! Oh - you don't want to die! Please -"

Ron threw down his wand, then grabbed Ginny's shoulders and tried to turn her over. Harry also put his wand aside and helped him.

At this moment, Ginny's face was like marble, cold and bloodless, but her eyes were closed tightly, so she was not petrified.

"Ginny, wake up - please -" Ron begged in a low voice as he shook her desperately.

Ginny's head drooped lifelessly.

"She won't wake up." A voice said softly.

Ron ignored the voice and just kept shaking Ginny's body, as if he couldn't hear anything else.

Harry turned his head sharply.

A tall boy with black hair was leaning against the nearest stone pillar, staring at him. The boy's outline was blurry and strange, as if he was looking at him through a window filled with fog.

"Who are you? What do you mean? You said she won't wake up?" Harry asked angrily. "She didn't - she didn't -"

"She's still alive," the vague boy said, "but she won't live long."

Harry froze on the spot, and Lockhart beside him just stood quietly without saying a word.

"Then who are you? Are you a ghost?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"It's a memory," Riddle said calmly, "kept in a diary for fifty years."

He pointed to the big toe of the statue, where lay the diary Harry had picked up in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Harry couldn't figure out how it got there. He had obviously put it in his dormitory - but he had more pressing matters to deal with.

Harry stopped talking to him, but spent a lot of effort to help Ron half-lift Ginny from the ground.

Then he leaned over to pick up his wand, but it was gone.

"Have you seen-"

"For every wizard, the wand is a lifelong companion...hold it well."

Beside Harry, Lockhart handed Harry his wand, but his eyes were always fixed on the blurry figure.

"Oh - Professor, thank you - but what's wrong?"

"He wants to take away your wand." Lockhart raised his head and pointed over there with his chin.

The tall boy stared at Lockhart for a moment, but then looked at Harry again.

"Harry Potter, I've been waiting for a long time," he said, "for a chance to see you and talk to you."

"Oh," Harry said, gradually losing his patience, "You probably don't understand what I mean. We are in the secret room now. We might as well talk about it later."

"We must talk now." The boy said, still with a clear smile on his face.

"What's there to talk about! We have to go back right now, we have to save Ginny!"

Ron suddenly broke out, and his angry shouts echoed in this huge room, and the echoes overlapped, making the sound even more irritating.

"Let's talk about it," Lockhart suddenly spoke again, "I think we must know, how did Ginny become like this?"

"Yeah, why did Ginny become like this?" Harry couldn't help but ask after hearing this.

Ron, who was half holding Ginny with Harry, couldn't help but calm down. After all, this issue was indeed critical.

"Oh, this is an interesting question," the boy said happily, "It's a long story! Let me see, the real reason why Ginny Weasley became like this is that she turned to an invisible person.

The stranger opened his heart and told all his secrets."

"What are you talking about?" Harry said.

"Diary," said the boy, "my diary. For months, little Ginny has been writing in it, telling me her heart-wrenching troubles and sorrows - how she was teased by her brothers, what

Having to wear old robes and carry old books to school...and, she thinks-"

The boy's eyes flickered cunningly, "She thought that the famous, kind, and great Harry Potter would never like her..."

As he spoke, his eyes never left Harry's face, as if he had no interest in the existence of other people.

There was an almost greedy look hidden in his eyes.

"It's so boring, listening to an eleven-year-old girl talk about her childish worries," he continued, "but I patiently wrote some words to reply to her. I am kind and understanding -

Ginny is just in love with me. Oh, Tom, no one understands me like you do... I'm so glad I got this diary to confide in you, it's like having a friend you can carry with you in your pocket

!”

The boy let out a cold, piercing laugh that didn't sound like a sixteen-year-old child at all - and it made the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand up.

"I'm not bragging...Harry, I've always been able to confuse people at will. So, Ginny opened her whole soul to me." The boy said with a sly smile, "And her soul happens to be exactly

What I needed - I devoured her most secret fears, her deepest secrets, my appetite grew bigger and bigger... I gradually became stronger, much stronger than the little Miss Weasley. Strong enough to challenge Wei Weasley.

Miss Sly revealed several of my secrets and began to open up a small part of my soul to her..."

"What did you say!" Ron couldn't help shouting, but the other party didn't even have the interest to glance at him.

"Can't you guess it? Harry Potter?" he said softly, "it was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets; it was she who strangled the school cock and smeared it on the wall

Those scary words; it was her who unleashed the Slytherin basilisk and attacked the four mudbloods, as well as the skinny cat who was a squib."

"Oh - no! Impossible!" The expression on Ron's face was distorted, "This is absolutely impossible! You are lying! The one who opened the secret room was Maka! Maka McClain!"

"...Maka McClain." Upon hearing the name, the smile on the boy's face immediately disappeared, and his eyes showed obvious anger.

"Don't mention this name to me!" His voice suddenly became deeper.