Chapter 72

The tunnel was as silent as a grave.

Suddenly, they heard an unexpected voice.

"Click"

It turned out that Ron crushed a mouse skull.

Harry looked down at the ground and found some small animal bones everywhere. He tried desperately to restrain himself from imagining what Ginny would look like when they found her.

Lockhart walked ahead with a small stride, but the frequency of his legs did not change much. He took Harry and Ron around a dark bend in the tunnel.

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

They stood still and watched nervously.

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

"That's the skin shed by the snake and the snake monster."

Lockhart raised his wand so that the light could shine further.

The light shines on a huge snake skin. It is green and very bright. It looks like the skin of a poisonous snake. It lay coiled on the ground of the tunnel, which was empty.

Obviously, the animal that has just shed this layer of skin is at least twenty feet long.

"My God!" Ron sighed weakly.

"Stay alert and move on." Lockhart said calmly.

The three turned one corner after another in the dark tunnel.

Harry's every nerve was shaking uncomfortably. He wanted to go to the end of the tunnel quickly, but at the same time he was a little afraid that the tunnel really came to an end.

At last, he carefully turned another corner and finally found a solid wall in front of him, engraved with two intertwined snakes, their eyes inlaid with large, glittering emeralds.

"Mr. Potter, it's time for you to play again," Lockhart said.

Needless to say, Harry had guessed what he had to do.

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

As like as two peas, he did not need to imagine the two stones.

"Open it," Ha said in a low, hoarse voice.

The two snakes separated, the stone wall split from the middle, slid slowly to both sides and disappeared.

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

There are many thick stone pillars, carved with all kinds of coiled and entangled snakes, towering to support the ceiling melted in the high darkness, casting long and treacherous shadows on the mysterious and dense room.

Lockhart, half holding his wand, walked slowly between the stone pillars coiled by the giant snake without saying a word.

At this time, Harry and Ron also took out their wands and followed him carefully.

Every step they took lightly produced a hollow and dull echo among the ghost walls.

In such a quiet environment, any unnecessary sound makes people feel very uneasy.

When they reached the position between the last pair of stone pillars, a huge statue as high as the room itself appeared in front of them, which was close to the dark wall behind.

The slightly green stone covered it with a gloomy and terrible smell.

They had to raise their necks hard to see the face of the statue - it was an old, monkey like face, a long sparse beard, almost all the way to the hem of the stone carved wizard's robe, and two big feet stood steadily on the smooth floor of the room.

"... Salazar Slytherin," lohat muttered, looking at the statue.

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

"Ginny!"

Harry and Ron shouted, then hurried to her and squatted down.

"Ginny! Oh - don't die! Please -"

Ron threw down his wand and grabbed Ginny by the shoulder to turn her over. Harry put his wand aside and helped him.

Ginny's face was as cold and bloodless as marble at the moment, but her eyes were closed, so she was not petrified.

"Ginny, wake up -- please --" Ron shook her desperately and pleaded in a low voice.

Ginny's head hung lifeless.

"She won't wake up," said a voice softly.

Ron turned a deaf ear to the sound. He just shook Ginny's body as if he couldn't hear anything else.

Harry turned his head sharply.

A tall boy with black hair leaned against the nearest stone pillar and was watching him. The boy's outline was vague and strange, as if he was looking at him through a foggy window.

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

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

Harry froze in his place, while Lockhart stood still without saying a word.

"Who the hell are you? A ghost?" asked Harry, unsure.

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

He reached out and pointed to the big toe of the statue, where lay the diary Harry had found in the weeping Myrtle's bathroom.

Harry wondered for a moment how it got there. He had put it in his bedroom - but he had more urgent things to deal with.

Harry stopped talking to him. Instead, he took great pains to help Ron lift Ginny from the ground.

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

"Did you see --"

"For every wizard, the wand is a lifelong partner... Take it."

At Harry's side, Lockhart handed Harry's wand, but his eyes were always fixed on the vague figure.

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

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

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

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

"Well," said Harry, losing his patience, "you probably don't understand what I mean. We're in a secret room now. We might as well talk about it later."

"We must talk now," said the boy, still with an obvious smile on his face.

"There's nothing to talk about! We must go back now. We want to save Ginny!"

Ron suddenly broke out. His angry shout echoed in the big room. The echoes overlapped, and the sound was even more annoying.

"Let's talk," said Lockhart suddenly. "I think we must know how Ginny came to be like this?"

"Yes, why did Ginny become like this?" Harry couldn't help asking.

Ron, half holding Ginny with Harry, couldn't help calming down. After all, this problem is really crucial.

"Oh, that's an interesting question," said the boy happily. "It's a long story. Let me see, the real reason why Ginny Weasley became like this is that she opened her heart to an invisible stranger and told all her secrets."

"What are you talking about?" said Harry.

"Diary," said the boy, "my diary. For months, little Ginny has been writing her heart and telling me her distressing troubles and sadness - how she was teased by her brothers, how she had to come to school in old robes and books... And what she thinks --"

The boy's eyes flickered cunningly, "she thinks the famous, kind and great Harry Potter will never like her..."

As he spoke, he never looked away from Harry's face, as if he had no interest in the existence of others.

There was an almost greedy look in his eyes.

"It's boring to hear an eleven year old girl talk about her childish troubles," he continued, "But I'm patient and write something to answer her. I'm kind and considerate - Ginny is in love with me. Oh, Tom, no one understands me like you... I'm so glad to have this diary to tell you my heart. It's like having a friend you can carry in your pocket!"

The boy let out a cold, harsh laugh, which didn't seem to be from a 16-year-old at all - which made the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand up.

"It's not my boasting... 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 happened to be exactly what I needed - I swallowed her most secret fear and secret, and my appetite grew stronger and stronger... I grew stronger and stronger than little miss Weasley. I was strong enough to reveal some of my secrets to miss Weasley and began to open a small part of my soul to her..."

"What are you talking about!" Ron couldn't help yelling, but the other party wasn't even interested in glancing at him.

"Can't you guess, Harry Potter?" he whispered. "Ginny Weasley opened the chamber of secrets; she strangled the school Rooster and painted those scary words on the wall; she released Slytherin's snake monster and attacked four mud species and the squib's thin cat."

"Oh - no! Impossible!" Ron's face twisted. "It's impossible! You're lying! It's Marca who opened the chamber of secrets! Marca McLean!"

"... Marca McLean." hearing the name, the smile on the boy's face immediately disappeared, and his eyes showed a clear look of anger.

"Don't mention that name to me!" his voice suddenly became low.