"He's the one that caught Hagrid with an Acromantula, which cannot petrify people. Marvolo is a Gaunt traditional name, who are descendants of Slytherin, so that makes him the prime suspect. People with sociopathic tendencies often like to get involved in the investigation, sometimes out of arrogance, and sometimes out of fear. And if you rearrange the letters in the name, you get the name of a certain Dark Lord. Adding in the fact that the Dark Lord was rumoured to be a Parselmouth and a descendant of Slytherin, the pattern fits."
As the boy continued speaking, Albus started to get paler and paler, "That is very dangerous information, young Harry."
"You mean that since Riddle isn't a wizarding family name, the Dark Lord is probably a half-blood which means that his entire cause was probably a lie to grab power?"
"Yes, he does not take kindly to those who look deeply into his past. You have seen the past year what happens when he is irritated, he would be infuriated if he figured out that someone knew of the past that he has been trying to hide for so long."
The boy looked pensive for a second, "Understandable, to be honest, and I had no plans on doing so. I'm just pointing it out to remind you why he started attacking muggleborns in the first place and actively didn't kill them. A Basilisk's gaze is a very easy method of killing, especially discreetly. But instead, he chose to cultivate this fear, to create this infamous personality of the heir of Slytherin."
"The gaze was redirected…" Dumbledore started.
"Every time? One is a happenstance, twice a coincidence, but twelve times, for twelve attacks, you can't seriously believe that? You don't see it, do you? After all this time, decades of thoughts, you still didn't understand why Tom Riddle decided to open the Chamber of Secrets in this manner, and how this time, it's very different, even if it looked the same."
"And do you care to enlighten me?" Dumbledore asked with an amused tone, even if he was inwardly disturbed.
"Oh, you don't see it, do you? Who am I to take away your enlightenment? I have given you the clues to figure it out yourself. Who knows, Headmaster, perhaps by the time you realize his motivation, you'll understand him a little better. This was a lovely talk, Headmaster, but I believe you have a lot on your mind, Headmaster. Good night."
The boy actually turned and walked towards the entrance, leaving a gaping old man. He scratched Fawkes on the way back and left without saying another word. The sheer audacity of that boy…
Still, it did give him a lot to think about…
19 December 1992, Hogwarts
It was the end of the semester, and for the first time, Harry wasn't staying at Hogwarts for the winter holidays. The previous year, Harry was blinded by Hogwarts' beauty and the wonder of a magical castle for him to explore. But the thing was that it was easy to get bored if you stayed too long in a single place, and while the castle was lovely, a change of atmosphere was welcome.
Normally, the Potter scion wouldn't have done it. Every time he stayed in Diagon Alley, he risked being found out by some concerned parent and brought to the ministry, and he didn't really need to pay anything to stay in the castle during the holidays.
However, Arcturus Black invited him to attend the Yule ceremony with him in his manor, and the Potter scion had planned to ask the Black Patriarch for a favour that he needed for his Basilisk contingency. With Tom Riddle returning in a couple of months, Harry needed to prepare for the possibility of fighting a Basilisk, and luckily, his magical crest had given him the plans for a weapon for him to use.
In other news, Harry had finally made some progress in the Anti-Basilisk Glare goggles, precisely, he had found a way to decrease the possibility of the lenses breaking. The key lies in the Alchemical Elixir of Hardening, which reinforces a material permanently and makes it impossible to change. Ironically enough, it was a form of petrification. Harry was still wary of the permanent effects of Alchemy, but elixirs were usually the safest side of the field to learn from if you made sure not to touch and imbibe the product at any point.
To even strengthen the enchantment, Harry decided to make each lens to be about the size of a human, which allowed him to carve the runes without any issues on the side of the lens. The lenses were then shrunk using a shrinking charm, which was rendered permanent after treating the lens with the Hardening Elixir, which petrified them. The lenses were positioned in a way that would reflect any magic effectively, and the loss would be sent in by small Orichalcum veins that surrounded each lens and transported the energy into two rubies that were magically treated to hold magic to be used at a later date. Jewelcraft was a surprisingly diverse field of magic.
So, yeah, Harry had finished his Anti-Basilisk Glare goggles. It had taken a few weeks to figure out the Alchemical process so that he wouldn't blow himself up or injure himself permanently. However, the only issue was that he didn't know how these would hold against an actual Basilisk Glare, and he had no way of testing that. Perhaps, the Black Patriarch would help. He would probably find that out in a couple of hours.
Harry's thoughts were interrupted by Blaise who was struggling to push his heavy trunk in the first compartment of the Hogwarts Express available, "I'm really happy to be out of the castle and going home this year."
"I see what you mean." Sighed Harry, once the group of four were all seated in the compartment. "Between the snow storms and the attacks, winter is really not pleasant at Hogwarts this year."
"I heard only a few students were staying here for the holidays," Tracy interjected.
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