Silver stood on the side of a long, dimly lit room. Many stone pillars carved with coiled and entangled snakes towered high to support the ceiling melting in the darkness of the high place, casting long and strange shadows on the entire room filled with green and mysterious mist.

Fox on Dumbledore's shoulder let out a sharp, short and rapid cry. "Beware, Jack, Fox feels it is very dangerous here."

"Yes, professor. This is Slytherin's secret room after all, so it's hard to guarantee that there will be no other mechanism. Be careful." Silver pulled out his magic wand and slowly advanced between the stone pillars coiled by the giant snake. Every step he took would create a hollow and loud echo between the four walls of the ghostly shadows.

“It will feel mentally depressed to stay here for a while,” Dumbledore said. “It seems that Salazar Slytherin’s accomplishments in architecture are also unique.”

When they walked to parallel to the last pair of stone pillars, a statue as tall as the room itself appeared in front of them, close to the dark wall behind them.

Silver had to raise his neck high to see the huge face above: it was an old, monkey-like face, a sparsely long beard, almost dragged to the hem of the wizard's robe carved into stone, and two gray big feet stood on the smooth floor of the room. Between the two feet, a small figure in a black robe, with red hair like flames.

"Oh my god, that's Ginny." Silver hurried over and ran to Ginny. Silver tentatively scrutinized her neck artery with her hands—there was only a faint beating.

Dumbledore came over: "How is the situation? Jack."

"It's not that good about her situation, but she's still alive." Silver pointed at Ginny with his wand. "Recover quickly." But there was no reaction, and Ginny showed no sign of awakening.

Dumbledore looked at Ginny's condition carefully: "She is not physically injuring, but-"

"But her soul is about to die." A tall black-haired boy leaned against the nearest stone pillar and was watching them. The boy's outline was blurry and strange, as if he was looking at him through a misty window.

"Professor Dumbledore, long time no see." The boy saluted Dumbledore.

"Tom." Dumbledore greeted him calmly. "I didn't expect you to go on this road at that time."

"Professor, I didn't expect us to meet in this way. I thought I would meet Harry Potter, the savior who defeated the future," Tom Riddle said, spinning his wand in his hand.

"I don't want to see you either, Tom." Dumbledore's expressionless face.

"Don't be so heartless, Professor." Tom Riddle smiled. "While meeting you is beyond my expectations, I am still very happy to meet you. Professor, you will witness my success on the road to immortality."

"I want to hear how you do it all."

"Oh, this is a pretty boring experience. I spent five years finding the legendary secret room and inheriting what my ancestor Slytherin left me - a thousand-year-old basil monster. Before I could show my skills, an accident happened - the girl from Muggle origin caused a great impact, and Hogwarts even considered temporarily closing because of this. I don't want to see this happen. I like Hogwarts." Tom Riddle said.

"Like it? I'm really moved by hearing this." Dumbledore sneered.

Tom Riddle shook his head. "Professor, it's hard to understand my feelings for Hogwarts. I got what I wanted at Hogwarts. And the days I spent at Hogwarts were the happiest time in my life. Once Hogwarts closed, I had to go back to the Muggle orphanage that I was bored, which I didn't want. So to stop Hogwarts from being shut down, I had to find a scapegoat-"

"So you looked for Hagrid." Silver suddenly interrupted.

"That's right." Tom Riddle looked at Silver in surprise. "It was me who exposed Hagrid. You can imagine what was going on in front of Mr. Armando Dippet. On the one hand, I, Tom Riddle, was a poor man, but extremely intelligent, and both his parents were both wise and brave. He was a predecessor and a model student in the school. On the other hand, he was a silly Hagrid, who was clumsy and troubled, and he had to make trouble every week. He raised werewolf cubs under the bed and sneaked to the Forbidden Forest to fight the monsters. But I have to admit that even I myself did not expect the plan to be implemented so smoothly. I thought someone would definitely realize that Hagrid could not be the heir of Slytherin. It took me five years to figure out the situation in the secret room and discover the secret entrance. Does Hagrid have such a mind and such ability?"

"Only Professor Dumbledore, you seem to see clearly. Since then, Professor Dumbledore has been monitoring me, so it will be difficult for me to have another chance to open the secret room. But I don't want to waste my efforts to find the secret room for so many years. I decided to leave a diary to keep the sixteen-year-old me in those pages, so that one day, by luck, I can lead another person along my footsteps and complete the noble cause of Salazar Slytherin." Tom Riddle said.

"You actually conducted that evil experiment at the age of sixteen, Tom." Dumbledore's blue eyes were filled with anger. "Professor, it's a different story to be evil, but you have to admit that it's very useful, isn't it?" Tom Riddle smiled.

"How did Ginny become like this!"

"Professor, with your wisdom, I think you should guess it. Do I need me to say it in detail?" Tom Riddle looked at Silver: "Oh, there is a child here, so I'll just say it again."

"It's a long story. The real reason why Ginny Weasley became like this is because she opened her heart to an invisible stranger and told all her secrets."

"Diary," Riddle said, "my diary. For months, little Ginny had been writing her heartfelt words, telling me her distressing worries and sorrows: how she was teased by her brothers, how she had to wear old robes and come to school with old books, and, she thought-" Riddle's eyes flashed sly, "--thinking that the famous, kind, great Harry Potter would never like her."

"What a pity. Harry Potter is not here today. Otherwise, I would blush when I heard his admirer Little Ginny confession?" Riddle smiled hurriedly.

"It's so boring. Listen to an eleven-year-old girl talking about her childish worries," he continued. "But I was patient and wrote some words to reply to her. I was kind and understanding. Ginny was in love with me. Oh, Tom, no one understood me like you. I was so happy to have this diary that I could tell you intimate words, like having a friend who could carry you in my pocket."

Riddle let out a cold and harsh laugh, unlike a sixteen-year-old child.

"It's not that I brag myself, I've always been able to confuse people as I want. So Ginny opened her whole soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I needed. I devoured her most secret fears, the deepest secrets, and her appetite grew bigger and bigger. I gradually became stronger, much stronger than the little Miss Weasley. It was strong enough to reveal my secrets to Miss Weasley, and began to open a small part of my soul to her."

"I controlled Ginny Weasley to open the secret room. She asked her to strangle the rooster in the school and smear the scary words on the wall. She let her release the Slytherin's basil monster, attack several mud breeds, and the squinting skinny cat."

"Of course, at first she didn't know what she was doing. It was very interesting. Later, the silly little Ginny no longer trusted her diary. She threw the diary away, and Harry Potter inserted it in at this time. You can imagine how happy I was. I brought Harry Potter into my memory and let him see the scene of my capture of Hagrid."

"I thought that this would be possible to take Harry Potter's soul down. When the diary was opened again, it was Ginny, not Harry Potter. Imagine how annoyed I was. So, I asked Ginny to write a line of Desperate Book on the wall and come here to wait. She struggled desperately and cried and made a fuss, which was really annoying. But there was no more life in her body: she injected most of her life into the diary, and injected into me, so that I could finally leave the diary. Since Ginny and I got here, I have been waiting for Harry Potter, but I didn't expect that Professor Dumbledore and you and a student I don't know."

Tom Riddle said slowly: "Although I don't know why you are here, it doesn't matter. I can go to see Harry Potter after you resolve it. Anyway, Professor Dumbledore's grudges and I are not that bad. And this student." Riddle paused. "I always feel that I have seen him somewhere, and he gives me a familiar and annoying feeling..."

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Tom, I didn't expect that you are so arrogant. You may not have the courage to fight to the death with me in the future."

Riddle whispered: "Yeah, I admit that I'm a little afraid of teaching you Dumbledore, mainly because when I was a child, you were the first person to teach me a lesson with magic. This psychological shadow has tormented me for a long time, and I really want to eliminate this psychological shadow-so-"

Riddle stopped among the towering stone pillars and looked up at the face of the Slytherin stone statue hidden high in the dark. Riddle opened his mouth and hissed - he was summoning the Basilisk!

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Chapter completed!