The shadow let out a beast-like roar, clearly having no intention of agreeing with Harris Raymons.
Surrender without a fight? What a joke. I am the noble Voldemort!
Although the shadow still retained part of Voldemort's reason, after being trapped inside a Horcrux for so long, it had long since forgotten what it meant to feign compliance.
I'll tear him to pieces!
The shadow clinging to the walls surged like a living thing, writhing and twisting as it rushed at Harris Raymons.
Watching the shadow manipulate the darkness around him to attack, Harris Raymons drew his wand and pointed it at the creature.
"Stupefy!"
A flash of white light burst out, but the shadow was completely unaffected. Countless blades formed from darkness shot toward Harris Raymons.
"Damn it, this is soul power." Harris Raymons cursed under his breath and reached up to grab the raven Star on his shoulder.
He gave it a light squeeze. Star let out a sharp cry, and a thread of silvery magic spilled from its beak, forming a chain that blasted apart the surrounding shadows and shot straight toward the dark figure.
The shadow gave a strange shriek at once. Its humanoid form instantly dissolved into a mass of black mist and tried to slip out of the room.
The silver chain missed its target, then immediately unfurled, tearing through the air with a shrill whistle as it lashed the cloud of mist.
Though it was insubstantial smoke, it had no power to resist the silver chain and was sent flying on the spot.
After the mist formed from the shadow was knocked away, the silver chain did not bounce back. Instead, it bit into the mist like a venomous snake.
By sheer coincidence, the direction the mist was sent flying in was exactly where Harris Raymons had placed the jack-o'-lantern.
The mist slammed into the wall, rippled, and re-formed into the dark figure. Before it could even react, an irresistible force yanked it downward.
When the shadow finally came to its senses, it suddenly felt that it had gained a body. It was just that this body was so bizarre that it left it completely bewildered.
The room in front of it was still the same room. The Horcrux it had originally inhabited was not far away, and the man who had tried to pry into its memories was staring at it with a strange expression.
"I really didn't expect this..." Harris Raymons's expression was colorful. "This uncontrollable ancient magic always finds some new way to surprise me."
He looked at the jack-o'-lantern he had placed on the table. That Halloween decoration had completely changed.
The cheap pumpkin shell was now wrapped in silver threads, giving it an unexpectedly noble air, while blue-black flames flickered inside the carved ghost face, making the jack-o'-lantern's expression look even more vicious.
If he carried this thing outside, it would absolutely be the flashiest jack-o'-lantern of the whole Halloween season.
Unfortunately, no matter how eye-catching it was, Harris Raymons was not about to take it outside as decoration. At this point, the jack-o'-lantern was no longer an ordinary ornament, but an item used to seal Voldemort's soul fragment.
The raven possessed the ability to wield ancient magic, but unfortunately, magic of that kind, the sort that could turn decay into wonder or even reshape the world, became extremely unpredictable when used without a wizard who had truly mastered ancient magic.
Take this ancient magical chain with sealing properties, for example. If Harris Raymons had been allowed to choose, even a teapot would have been more reliable than a jack-o'-lantern.
"Well, whatever. Catching it is good enough. At least I didn't hold my breath in the Pensieve for nothing." Harris Raymons smiled and picked up the jack-o'-lantern wrapped in silver threads.
The moment he noticed cracks appearing in the crystal that carried Voldemort's memories from Ravenclaw's Diadem, Harris Raymons had already discovered the shadow's presence and decided to capture it.
But he was a professor. There was no way he could keep an eye on it twenty-four hours a day. If the shadow hidden inside Ravenclaw's Diadem refused to come out, then all that waiting would have been a complete waste.
But if he stopped watching it, he was afraid it might slip away while he was gone.
So he simply played along, pretending not to notice it and luring it out for a classic trap.
The plan had gone very smoothly. The only surprise was that the shadow ended up sealed inside the jack-o'-lantern.
Blue-black fire flickered inside the lantern, constantly trying to break free from this absurd sealing vessel.
But no matter how it slammed itself around, it could not affect the silver threads on the surface of the jack-o'-lantern in the slightest.
"Don't bother. This is ancient magic. You're just a fragment of a soul inside a Horcrux, so stop dreaming about breaking through its power."
As Harris Raymons spoke, he set the jack-o'-lantern back on the table and began thinking about how to beat some answers out of this soul and get information about the Chamber of Secrets from it.
"The days ahead might be a little rough for you, Mr. Tom Riddle." Harris Raymons smiled as he stared at the blue-black flames inside the jack-o'-lantern, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.
The flames inside the jack-o'-lantern flickered uneasily, sensing that something was very wrong.
"Let me think. Where should I start? The Imperius Curse probably won't work, but the Cruciatus Curse should be fine, right?"
Whether this fragment of Voldemort's soul wanted to reveal anything or not, Harris Raymons planned to torture it first.
It was not just about giving it a warning. It was also a way to vent his own dissatisfaction and stress, or rather, a kind of compensation for himself.
If not for the curse Tom Riddle had placed on the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Harris Raymons would never have needed to rush to find the Chamber of Secrets, much less crawl through sewer pipes.
Just as Harris Raymons was about to give Tom Riddle's soul fragment a little appetizer, a knock sounded at the door.
He immediately stood up, grabbed two pieces of cloth to cover Ravenclaw's Diadem and the jack-o'-lantern, then turned and walked to the door to open it.
"Professor Raymons."
Standing outside was Filch. He looked at Harris Raymons stiffly and said, "The banquet is about to begin. The professors need to be seated first, and you're the only one left."
"Meow~"
Filch's cat, Mrs Norris, crouched at his feet and let out a soft cry at Harris Raymons.
"All right, I understand." Harris Raymons replied politely, then glanced back at the jack-o'-lantern under the cloth, a little regretful.
It looked like he would not be able to properly entertain Tom Riddle today.
He closed the door and left with Filch, completely failing to notice that a tiny, almost insignificant strand of shadow had slipped through the crack beneath the door, caught up to Mrs Norris, and merged into her shadow.
Mrs Norris, who had been walking along behind Filch with her tail held high, suddenly shivered. A thin haze seemed to fall over her once-lively eyes.
She quietly came to a stop, watched Harris Raymons and Filch leave, then turned and headed toward Harris Raymons's room.