Chapter 184: Ron's Dark History, Missing 'It'
After Mr. Weasley carefully reviewed the day's events, doubts began to surface.
He suspected that Ron might have obtained the diary somewhere else and claimed to have bought it in Diagon Alley, so he asked,
"Did you really find it in that book? I checked it carefully before buying it to make sure it wasn't damaged or missing pages. There was nothing inside at the time!"
Seeing Arthur didn't believe him, Ron felt unjustly accused, and his voice rose slightly.
"I'm not lying! It was in that book. I only found it after I got home. I thought it was just an ordinary blank diary at the time. It's an old book, after all. Isn't it normal for it to look a little worn? I didn't think anything of it."
"Is that so?" Arthur studied Ron's expression carefully; the boy didn't look like he was lying. He began to suspect that something had gone wrong somewhere.
He retraced his steps from selecting the book to buying it. It seemed no one else had touched it, so the incident hadn't occurred during that process.
"Did anyone else touch this book that day? Was it Lucius? Did he put it inside?!"
But after thinking back carefully, he realized that aside from Lucius Malfoy, who had gotten into a fight with him, no one else seemed suspicious.
"Lucius?" Dumbledore recalled that the man had been a school governor. He thought it was entirely possible that he was circulating items that had once belonged to Voldemort.
"But did he touch Ron's book that day? I only remember him taking Ginny's book. That's why you two fought, right?" Molly couldn't recall the details clearly. After all, it had been so chaotic.
"I don't understand why he touched Ginny's book either, but the diary ended up in Ron's book."
"Given that motive, the only one it could have been is Lucius, cornered by my investigation." Arthur couldn't remember clearly either.
"Did you actually see it? Was it Lucius or that little brat of theirs who put it there?" Arthur asked the twins and Ginny.
"I can't recall." Several people shook their heads. They'd been too busy watching their father beat up Lucius to pay any attention to what Draco was doing.
"I didn't notice. But little Malfoy was quite far away at the time. Probably didn't touch Ron's things." Harry and Hermione had been there too, but they'd only been concerned about the two men fighting. They hadn't paid attention either.
"Forget it. Let's put this matter aside for now. Even if he really did do it, we have no proof he tampered with anything." Arthur finally dropped the line of questioning, though he was practically certain Lucius was responsible.
"Mr. Weasley, do you know the name of the Malfoy family's house-elf?" Harry suddenly remembered Dobby and his possible connection to all this. "Since summer break began, an elf named Dobby kept tracking me down, warning me of danger and trying to stop me from coming back to school. Then he blocked the entrance to the platform, which nearly made us miss the train. Later, he cast a spell during the Quidditch match, trying to make me fall off my broom and get expelled from Hogwarts. But after the Basilisk died, he never showed up again."
"I'll ask around. When we searched Malfoy Manor, I didn't take much notice of their house-elf."
Arthur clenched his fists. "Don't worry. If Lucius is behind this, he'll pay for it."
"Keep going, please. After you got the diary, what did you do? How did he... how did the diary's owner control you?"
When speaking of the person in the diary, Arthur's Adam's apple bobbed. He couldn't bring himself to say the name, referring to him only with pronouns.
Ron noticed Arthur's odd behavior as well, but he didn't know why. It was just a name. Was there really more to it?
Molly was trembling too. "Ron, slow down. Try to remember carefully."
Ron found his parents' reaction strange. But others seemed surprised as well when they heard Tom's names. "This Tom, besides being an outstanding student who graduated from Hogwarts fifty years ago, did he do anything else? Why have I never heard of this name?"
But there was no time to dwell on it. He had to bury the question for now. He planned to investigate once he was out of the hospital.
With everyone watching, Ron began to recount what happened after he got the diary.
"Actually, I didn't know the diary's secret at first. I'd never been one to keep a diary. When I brought it to school, I only planned to use it as a notebook for scribbling down homework ideas and saving parchment." Ron's voice was thick with embarrassment about his poverty.
"But when I started using it for homework, I realized it wasn't an ordinary notebook. The words I wrote vanished without a trace. Then new text would appear, responding to me. That's what happened when I first started using it."
"Did he tell you how he managed it? Responding to your words in a diary?" Dumbledore was incredulous. He didn't know how Voldemort had managed it.
Ron shook his head. "He didn't say. He just mentioned it was a special method, preserving some of his memories inside."
"Preserving part of his memories?" Dumbledore's eyes flickered. He seemed to know how Tom had done it. He just needed confirmation.
"That book seems to be in the library's Restricted Section, doesn't it? Go retrieve it later." Dumbledore glanced at the wall clock. There was still plenty of time, so he listened patiently as Ron finished recounting his story about the diary.
"Honestly, I didn't believe him at first either. Like Dad says, you can't trust something that can think for itself. But here at school, I found plenty of awards with his name on them. The Trophy Room displays his Special Award for Services to the School and his Medal for Magical Merit. His name appears on the list of Head Boys, too. He sounds a bit like Percy, actually. But the biggest difference between them is that he always seems to understand my pain and comfort me."
Ron couldn't help glancing at Harry and Ethan as he spoke.
"So, just like that, you slowly poured out your emotions to him, and step by step, you fell under his control. Is that right?" Dumbledore seemed to know the rest of the story.
"Yes. Several times, I woke up to find things beside me with no idea how they got there. I didn't remember anything at all."
Ron said softly, "For instance... that's how I killed Hagrid's chickens."
"You did that?! That was right after school started, wasn't it? Hagrid thought something had escaped from the Forbidden Forest." Hermione quickly recalled the incident from over six months ago. Ethan nodded as well.
Ron nodded. "Yeah, just that one time. The next thing I knew, I was at the Quidditch pitch covered in chicken feathers. Afterward, I asked Tom what he'd done to me, but he didn't answer at all."
"So?! You kept talking to him?! Even knowing he'd already controlled you into doing something wrong?!" Arthur was furious, feeling like he'd failed as a parent.
"No. I tried tearing up the diary too, but I lost control. It seemed like some kind of magic had been cast on it. I couldn't tear it at all. Even when I hit it with spells, I couldn't damage it. So after multiple attempts, I gave up. I thought about throwing it away somewhere, but I was afraid someone else would pick it up and end up like me. So I locked it in my trunk."
Dumbledore grew increasingly certain of what this thing was.
"And later, how did you summon the Basilisk and petrify Mrs. Norris?"
Hearing this question, Filch couldn't help stepping closer. He desperately wanted to know the answer too.
"Um..." Ron hesitated.
"Go on. I promise you won't be punished."
Ron hesitated, wavering, then finally gritted his teeth and said, "After I locked the diary away, I kept having nightmares. Tom had taught me so much before, so I managed to earn some points for Gryffindor. But after that, I'd dream my real self was exposed. Everyone looked at me like I was a liar. I'd wake up in the middle of the night with all these feelings I couldn't tell anyone about. So I pulled out the diary again and started writing to him."
Seeing that the professors and parents weren't angry, Ron spoke more freely. "Tom told me things outside of class. He encouraged me to sneak around at night. I even entered the Restricted Section and looked through the books inside."
"Sneaking around at night? So it was you!" Filch, standing nearby and listening to Ron, suddenly realized the truth. Only then did he realize which student he had been chasing for several nights.
Ethan said, "Well, well. So it was you! No wonder you had such terrible dark circles back then."
He thought of how Ron had nearly gotten him caught by Filch and Lockhart. If not for his quick thinking, he might have been detained as well.
"I'll give you detention!" With leverage over this cat-killer, Filch instantly came alive.
"Forget it, Argus. He didn't mean to do it either. Just let him go this time," Dumbledore said, keeping his promise to plead for Ron.
Filch looked at Dumbledore, his expression shifting several times. Finally, his lips twitched, and he sighed helplessly.
"I'll let it go this time. But if I catch you again, even the Headmaster pleading for you won't help!"
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore," Ron said gratefully to the old man.
"You're welcome. After all, Argus didn't catch you red-handed, did he? Now, let's get to the point. Why did you attack Mrs. Norris on Halloween night?" Dumbledore didn't want to hear any more about Ron breaking school rules either, and urged him on.
Ron shrank back from Filch's fierce gaze. "If I said I didn't mean to attack anyone, would you believe me?"
No one reacted.
"Uh, actually, that day I'd just been curious about what was in the Chamber. So, at Tom's urging, I left the party early and went to the abandoned bathroom, trying to see exactly what was in Salazar's Chamber. But I lost control again. I don't know exactly what happened. When I came to, I was already back in the empty dormitory, my body still stained with blood-red paint. I realized Tom had used my body again, done things I had no memory of. So I questioned him in the diary, but this time he seemed to have disappeared. He never answered."
"Because I didn't know exactly what had happened, I spent a long time cleaning the paint off my clothes and hands before anyone came back. It wasn't until everyone returned to the dormitory that I knew what I'd done." Recalling this, Ron couldn't help but feel lingering fear. That feeling of losing control, of doing things without knowing it, was simply terrifying.
"Later, I realized this couldn't go on. If I lost control again, maybe it wouldn't just be a cat that got petrified. So I threw the diary into the Black Lake, hoping to get rid of that shadow once and for all."
"Unfortunately, it seems your attempt failed," Dumbledore replied.
"Yes. I thought that was the end of it. But I still felt uneasy, worried the diary I'd thrown in the lake might wash up somewhere and be found. In the days that followed, I kept thinking about going into the Black Lake to check if it was still there. But I had no way to get that far underwater, so I could only watch that bathroom. Then one day I saw a pair of huge yellow eyes reflected on the water's surface. After that, I don't remember anything."
"That's everything that happened after I got the diary."
Ron finished speaking. The rest was up to Dumbledore and the professors to figure out.
"Very well. Get some rest." Dumbledore stood up.
The old man turned to the two Heads of House with a grave expression. "Filius, Pomona. I need you to go to your respective common rooms and ask around. Find out who might be using a black-covered diary. I suspect Severus and Minerva won't have much luck searching the Black Lake itself."
"Yes, Professor Dumbledore." They understood the gravity of the situation. They left in a hurry.
"Argus, I need you to keep a close watch these next few days. Head to the Owlery and monitor any owls leaving the school. Check whether any students are mailing out a black diary."
"Yes, Headmaster." Filch's face turned serious.
"Professor, the merpeople in the lake said they hadn't seen any black diary. We went down to the lake and looked around just now. We didn't find it either." Just then, Snape and Professor McGonagall returned and reported their findings.
"Not surprising. Return to your respective House common rooms and ask around first. Has anyone seen someone using a black-covered diary?" The old man nodded.
"Arthur, Molly. Please come to my office later. The password is the same as before. There are a few things I need to tell you." Finally, Dumbledore addressed Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
"Yes, Professor." They both nodded.
"You should head back soon as well. Ron needs his rest." Walking toward the door, the old man turned back to address the students still in the room.
"Leaving right now." "Yes, Professor." "Leaving in a little while."
Several people answered, one after another.
He gave a barely perceptible nod, then left the hospital wing.
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