Chapter 113 - 112: A Will as Strong as Iron Hogwarts: Knight Wizard

Hogwarts: Knight Wizard

Chapter 113 - 112: A Will as Strong as Iron

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Chapter 113 - 112: A Will as Strong as Iron

"What's wrong, Edward?" Harry asked, immediately leaning in to take a look, a bit flustered.

"Wait, this isn't right!"

He quickly noticed something odd about the diary.

Edward carefully lifted the diary from the table, only to find that not a single drop of ink fell from it.

The diary was so clean it didn't even look like it had been soaked in ink.

"Wow! That's amazing! What kind of magic is this? An invisible diary?" Harry exclaimed.

"You mean the kind where only what you write in it can be seen, and no one else can read it? I remember those aren't cheap at Diagon Alley," Harry said, clearly impressed.

"No, Harry, this isn't mine. Strictly speaking, it belongs to Mr. Lucius," Edward replied in a low voice, placing the diary on a small table nearby.

"Malfoy's dad?"

Seeing Harry's confused expression, Edward explained further.

"When we were at the bookstore, he slipped this diary into Ginny's old textbook while no one was looking. I swapped it out with a new one for her."

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"I owe you one, Harry. If that ink bottle hadn't spilled, it might've taken me ages to figure out what's so special about this thing," Edward added.

Harry scratched his head, a bit embarrassed. "Edward, you're always so modest. But you don't seem all that surprised. Do you have something like this at home?"

"No, I don't keep a diary," Edward said.

But he wasn't shocked by the diary, almost as if he'd seen something like it before.

Hold on.

Edward rummaged through his pockets and finally pulled out a booklet that looked far older than the diary. He laid it open on the table.

"That book looks ancient," Harry said, frowning. "I've seen that writing before—it's runes! But I thought we don't learn those until third year!"

"Blimey, are you already studying third-year stuff?" Harry said, feeling the gap between him and Edward was about ten Hermiones wide.

But then again, it made sense. Edward was already mastering fifth-year spells.

The Ironclad Charm? Harry hadn't even gotten the hang of it yet!

Watching Harry's jaw drop further, Edward just shrugged helplessly. He dipped a quill in ink and casually dripped some onto both the Magical Knight's Manual and the diary.

Under their watchful eyes, the ink spread briefly on the pages before vanishing, as if absorbed by the paper itself.

"Interesting…" Edward muttered, comparing the two.

Paper that absorbs ink wasn't hard to make; the magic behind it wasn't complex. But Edward had a gut feeling this diary was more than it seemed.

His Magical Knight's Manual was special too. After accidentally dripping blood on it, he'd been able to fully understand the ancient runes and began training in the Knight's Breathing Technique.

Could they be made of the same material? Unlikely, since the diary's back cover had a sales address from a newsstand in London.

But should he try dripping blood on the diary? Edward wasn't that reckless.

He'd heard from his father that Mr. Weasley was organizing large-scale searches for banned items. The Malfoys' manor hadn't been searched yet, but it probably held some shady stuff.

In that context, Lucius slipping the diary into Ginny's things felt like a setup, likely meant to cause trouble.

For wizards, blood was a big deal. Ignoring rumors about pure-bloods being smarter, if someone got hold of your blood, you could be hit with a nasty curse.

Instead, Edward figured it'd be safer to write something in the diary.

Like "hello, world," for instance.

With that thought, Edward scribbled a few words in it.

For a moment, he felt a strange déjà vu, like he was a programmer testing code in the wizarding world.

"Edward! Look! There's writing on the page!" Harry suddenly shouted, snapping Edward's attention back.

"What does 'hello, world' mean?" the diary wrote back.

Without hesitating, Edward snapped the diary shut.

Harry jumped at the sudden movement.

"Edward, what's wrong? This thing can talk! Shouldn't we chat with it a bit more?"

"Harry, maybe no one's told you, but any magical object that can talk to you, especially one with an unknown origin, is something to be cautious about," Edward said seriously. "This isn't like the portraits or statues on the walls. Haven't you heard the ghost story about the wizard who chatted with his reflection for a month, only to find himself trapped in the mirror while the 'him' in the mirror took over his body?"

"Blimey, that's creepy," Harry said, suddenly wary of the mirror nearby.

He thought of the Mirror of Erised.

"I think we should be careful with this thing. Let's wait until we're ready to deal with it. Then maybe we'll figure out why Lucius wanted Ginny to have it," Edward said.

Hearing that Edward still wanted to get to the bottom of it, Harry got excited.

"Definitely! Count me in, yeah?"

Over the next few days, Edward and Harry treated the diary like a program they were testing, writing one or two entries a day to probe it.

"Who are you?" they wrote.

"Call me Tom, Tom Marvolo Riddle, T.M.R.," the diary replied, its neat handwriting appearing on the page.

"Who am I speaking to? How did you find my diary?"

The diary's cover bore its owner's full name, but Edward felt like he knew it from somewhere.

He racked his brain. He was certain he'd seen the name at Hogwarts. But where were names most common at Hogwarts?

Edward's head snapped up.

The trophy room, during that midnight duel.

The Outstanding Character Award and Special Contribution Award plaques—they both had his name.

But those plaques were dated fifty years ago.

Was this a notebook left by that chivalrous senior? Then how did it end up with Lucius Malfoy?

Lucius wouldn't sneakily give something good to the Weasleys. There had to be something off about this diary.

But that didn't add up either. How could a diary from an exemplary student be tied to dark magic?

"This is weird, isn't it?" Harry said thoughtfully after hearing Edward's reasoning.

Clearly, he couldn't make sense of it either.

"Maybe we should ask someone who knew this Riddle guy. A teacher, or a Hogwarts student?" Harry suggested.

Edward thought his parents might know something, but they weren't even born in the 1940s. Someone born fifty years ago, though… one name came to mind.

Professor Dumbledore.

During the holidays, Edward's letters with Dumbledore had mostly been about a paper on the Bewitched Mirage. Edward had read Dumbledore's academic works and was nothing short of awestruck.

Maybe, when school started, he could ask Dumbledore about Tom Riddle while discussing the paper's authorship.

Edward didn't respond to Riddle's question and closed the diary again.

But Harry, clearly intrigued, wanted to keep chatting with it.

"Edward, you know what's the toughest thing in this room?" Harry asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Your self-control! Your head's like it's made of iron. I don't get how you can resist talking to this diary!" Harry said, amazed. "If it were me, I'd be chatting with it non-stop before handing it over to Dumbledore."

Edward chuckled.

The focus that came with his training did boost his self-control. He felt the urge to chat with the diary too, but he decided to hold off.

If Dumbledore confirmed the diary was safe, he could talk to it as much as he wanted later.

The summer flew by, time slipping through Edward and Harry's fingers.

When September 1st arrived, Harry realized he was leaving one place that made him incredibly happy for another—the Hogwarts Express, taking him to his friends and another joyful place.

The Bedivere family always planned ahead, so they arrived near King's Cross Station early.

"Harry, give me your trunk. There's a trolley here," Edward said.

With Edward's help, Harry easily loaded his large trunk and Hedwig's cage onto the trolley.

He wasn't surprised anymore that Edward could lift the trunks so effortlessly—his arm muscles had gotten noticeably stronger over the past year.

"This way, lads, but no rush. We've got plenty of time. We'll head through first, youល