Late at night, when everything was still, Lucas slipped out of the dormitory again.

The string of recent incidents had pushed the school to tighten faculty patrol shifts.

That afternoon in the Hospital Wing, Filius Flitwick had been seething, volunteering personally to catch whoever was pulling strings in the shadows.

But the Slytherin temporary common room sat far too close to the Room of Requirement. Lucas opened the dormitory door, stepped into a temporarily opened hidden passage, and walked straight through into the Room of Requirement.

This time, Lucas asked for a room where no one would bother him.

Lucas reached into his pocket and pulled out a ruby. Deep inside the solid gem, a faint figure hovered, and then the ruby spoke.

"You had your eye on me from the very beginning."

Tom Riddle had broken free of his petrification inside the ruby, only to discover that the gem's construction was unlike anything encountered before. Even Riddle had no way out.

It seemed purpose-built to imprison souls. Which meant the person who had captured him was, without question, a Dark wizard.

Riddle couldn't see the outside world from within the gem. But a plan had already taken shape.

Falling into a Dark wizard's hands would be wretched. Riddle had to make himself useful, and find the cracks in this wizard's armor.

The problem was, whoever had captured him was extremely cautious.

Then Riddle noticed the prison had changed. The solid blood-red void was gone. The outside world was visible now, an empty room, but the face of the wizard holding the gem remained hidden.

Even now. Still this careful.

Riddle's heart sank.

"You've already caught me. Whatever I say, I doubt you'd let me go easily."

The wizard said nothing. Waiting.

Riddle had no choice. "I have wealth that every wizard desires," came the words, tasting like ash. "I am the heir of Slytherin. You already know of Slytherin's pet chamber — so wouldn't you like to know where Slytherin's true Chamber of Secrets lies?"

Lucas spoke: "Behind the pet chamber."

Riddle choked. Straining to make out the face behind the voice.

That had only been conjecture. When entering the Chamber this time, the plan had been to investigate and confirm what the information inside Ravenclaw's Diadem pointed to.

"It seems my guess was right." Lucas's tone was flat. "But for now, these are still only guesses."

Lucas set Ravenclaw's Diadem down on the room's table. It wasn't yet time to put it on.

The object had once been made into a Horcrux. Lucas needed time to purify the dark magic still clinging to it.

As for the Chamber of Secrets, last time, near the Basilisk's corpse, Lucas had already spotted a mechanism of that kind. The magic Salazar Slytherin left behind did not yield easily. Only a Parseltongue speaker could open it.

Now Lucas had Argos. Argos had devoured the Basilisk. The key to entry was already in hand.

No need to rush.

Lucas took out paper and a pen. A comfortable table and chairs materialized in the room. Lucas sat down and addressed the ruby with perfect patience.

"I have no interest in tormenting people. What genuinely interests me is the life of the great Dark Lord. Starting today, we'll spend two hours each day — listening to the story of Tom Riddle."

In the glow of the desk lamp, the ruby burned so vividly red it looked ready to bleed.

And having fallen into the hands of an alchemical master, even the Dark Lord could not lie with ease.

But all of it required extreme care. Lucas intended to draw more clues about the Horcruxes from the Diadem, one conversation at a time.

---

The school launched multiple rounds of investigation into the student injuries. Two weeks later, the students were discharged one after another.

Severus Snape had developed a targeted antidote, and the wizards scratched by the house-elves were gradually released from the Hospital Wing.

Alice had recovered fully.

The Slytherin and Ravenclaw students who'd had their life force drained woke up remembering nothing. They all described the same thing: a handsome seventh-year male wizard. They'd treated him like a friend. But none of them could say where or when they had met him.

Every method the headmaster tried to gather evidence had come up empty.

Professor Walter finally woke after Alice was discharged. Walter had become very frail, and after a long conversation with the headmaster, requested to speak with Lucas alone.

When the note arrived, Lucas was, unsurprisingly, helping out in Snape's office.

Lucas showed Snape what the note said.

Snape slammed a hand down on the desk.

Snape had only just freed himself from two weeks of relentless potion-brewing. During that entire stretch, Lucas's progress on Felix Felicis had ground to a complete stop.

Snape had only managed to find time today to watch Lucas destroy a second set of materials.

Clearing out the cauldron after that second failure, Lucas worked something out. Three sets of materials probably weren't enough to perfect the procedure. Which meant three sets might also be how many Snape had gone through the first time.

"How could Dumbledore allow a second-year student to be alone with a vampire!"

A gust of air swept past Lucas. Snape was already at the office doorway, ready to go argue with the headmaster directly.

The young witch who had delivered the note startled. Fumbling through the bag, a book was produced. "Professor Walter said — once Lucas sees this book, he'll be willing to talk."

The young witch had only gone to the Hospital Wing to collect a bottle of Pepperup Potion from Madam Pomfrey. Somehow this terrifying errand had landed in the way.

Message delivered, the young witch bolted, as though something were giving chase.

"No running in the school corridors, Hufflepuff, three points!" Snape's deduction landed on empty air. The witch was already gone.

A thick hardcover was shoved into Lucas's hands. Lucas looked at the cover.

A student graduation handbook. The very one Lucas had never managed to borrow.

Snape caught sight of it too. An unreadable look moved across Snape's face, and after a moment: "What is your connection to that vampire?"

Only then did Snape recall that Lucas had mentioned it several times, a suspicion that the vampire had been searching for someone.

So Lucas described the divination in the empty classroom. "At the time, I thought that if I channeled magic into that particular clue, I might be able to sense something. But being alone in a room with a vampire was far too dangerous. So I didn't."

Snape raised an eyebrow.

Snape looked Lucas up and down, searching carefully for any resemblance between Lucas and Walter's face. Then came a thought about what Lucas would look like as an adult.

If forced to say, the mouths were somewhat similar.

"Based on Walter's hints," Snape said quietly, "the family Walter comes from was once very prominent."

Lucas caught it immediately. "But my mother's family was of no distinction at all."

Even so, both Slytherins knew that wizarding bloodlines were extraordinarily complex. A surname alone told you nothing about a person's full lineage.

Snape pushed open the office door. "I have business with Madam Pomfrey. Keep up."

➤ Next: A Night Visit to the Vampire

Chapter 217 - A Night Visit to the Vampire

The castle felt eerie tonight. The candlelight flickered, and the shadows on the walls twisted and warped with every gust.

Lucas and Snape walked side by side through the corridors.

The culprit behind the earlier incident still hadn't been found, and the hallways were nearly empty because of it.

Snape led Lucas into a private room in the Hospital Wing. The small room had no bed, only a black lacquered wooden coffin sitting in the center.

The lid was left ajar, revealing a glimpse of dark crimson velvet lining.

The only light came from a single faint candle, left that way so Madam Pomfrey could check on the patient through the night.

Snape and Lucas stopped at the doorway and didn't go in.

Professor Dumbledore walked toward them. Seeing Snape, Dumbledore showed no surprise. "Severus, I think Walter needs an opportunity to speak with Lucas alone."

Snape stared at the headmaster, expression rigid. He still couldn't quite accept it. "You want a second-year student to face an injured vampire alone?"

"We'll be nearby, and Walter cannot leave the coffin." Dumbledore gave that assurance. "Come, Severus — I have other matters to discuss with you."

Lucas stepped into the room alone. He'd anticipated this from the start.

Snape gave Lucas one last look, then followed Dumbledore reluctantly in the opposite direction.

The room now held only Lucas and a coffin.

A moment later, a pale and aged hand reached up over the edge and shoved the lid open.

Lucas felt it, a wave of decayed, dark power.

Under normal circumstances, Walter gave off a sense of vivid, vital darkness. By vampire standards, Walter was nowhere near ancient. But seeing Alice injured, Walter clearly bore a heavy share of the responsibility.

To this day, Lucas still didn't know why Professor Walter had twice prevented him from hearing Alice's account on that day.

He used this conversation as his opening.

Walter's voice was badly damaged too. There was real grievance in the complaint that followed. "I have already explained to many people — I was only trying to make a joke."

Walter even offered an example. "I think if Professor Snape had signed this same contract, he would very likely have ended up in the same situation as me, simply for wounding the tender hearts of Gryffindors."

Lucas didn't find it funny.

But Walter was very possibly telling the truth. If Walter had genuinely harbored malicious intent toward Alice, surviving would have been very difficult.

That brought Lucas to his second question. "Why did Headmaster Dumbledore allow you to come to this school to teach?"

Walter gave an approving laugh. "That is a key question. Many people have asked me that, and most get no answer. I can tell you — I paid an enormous price to enter this school. I did so to find a family member."

Lucas wasn't surprised.

Walter rapped on the side of the coffin and told Lucas a well-worn story of a pure-blood heir who threw everything away.

The young, ignorant scion came of age and threw a wild celebration. Barely old enough to drink, he drank freely, danced with everyone, embraced and kissed them all.

After the banquet ended, he fell into a deep sleep that lasted three days.

When he finally woke, he found his perception of the world had begun to shift.

Fear of sunlight. A craving for blood. Sharpened senses. He was beginning the transformation into a vampire.

He was cast out from his family. During his wanderings he joined a vampire household and gradually found his place in the world of dark creatures.

There was resentment, naturally. But there was no going back.

The young man was too stubborn to bow his head, and by the time he finally looked back, the family's glory was already gone.

"Most importantly, because there was no heir, my family's estate was sealed permanently." Walter had reached the crux of the story at last. A sigh. Recalling the past still filled him with a lingering sense of loss.

"After that I spent a long time searching for a way to open the estate. I hired a very renowned Divination practitioner to locate any surviving bloodline of the family. The reading was extremely vague, it only confirmed the approximate age of the wizard."

"A witch, in her thirties. Before I could find her, the crystal ball shattered. I had to conduct a second reading. The witch also had a child, and the child's future was deeply obscure. The Divination practitioner's exact words were: 'he exists between existence and non-existence.'"

"You sacrificed your own name to strengthen the accuracy of the Divination?" Lucas confirmed.

"The vast majority of wizards ignore the power of names, because they simply cannot access that domain." Walter's tone was dismissive and proud at once.

Walter expressed admiration for Lucas, then continued. "Through that reading, I obtained more specific information, the child might be in Britain. So I came to the school."

"What could you offer Headmaster Dumbledore?" Lucas asked.

"You know, I had a home education, no house biases whatsoever. After entering this school, I found that you all hold different expectations of the headmaster. Why would you assume I must give something in exchange before the headmaster would agree to my request?"

Lucas wasn't swayed. And didn't bother pointing out that Walter had said, just moments ago, that he had paid an enormous price to enter the school.

Lucas simply said, with perfect composure, "I also believe the headmaster allowed you to enter the school out of a wish to reunite separated family members."

Walter laughed out loud from inside the coffin.

Once again, confirmed: Lucas was a very interesting young wizard.

"I was never certain whether you were the one I was looking for. That time in the classroom, when I had you attempt Divination, it produced absolutely nothing. I was deeply disappointed."

"At the end of last term, I left empty-handed. I had agreed with Dumbledore on one year's time, and I had tried every likely young wizard over the course of that year."

"So out of necessity, I attempted Divination once more." Walter struggled to push himself upright inside the coffin. Layer upon layer of bandages wrapped the skin from head to toe, making it hard to say whether at that moment Walter more resembled a mummy or a vampire.

The sight was genuinely bizarre. Perhaps some kind of cultural-clash aesthetic.

"Now we come to something the headmaster does not know," Walter said. There was a weight to the words, a deliberate marking of what came next. "Do you know what I saw in that reading?"

Lucas looked toward the floor. Walter wasn't permitted to leave the coffin, first because Walter needed to receive treatment, and second because whether by intent or accident, Walter had violated the contract. That proved Walter wasn't entirely trustworthy.

Forcing oneself upright had caused the skin beneath the bandages to split open again. Dark reddish-black fluid seeped through.

Lucas didn't answer.

"I want to watch you attempt Divination one more time, to fully complete the reading we began in the classroom."

That was the condition for revealing the prophecy.

Lucas looked at Walter. The look was dark and flat.

Then Lucas raised his wand, and transparent threads poured from the tip, weaving through the air to trace out a precise Divination pattern.

➤ Next: Lingering Doubts