Chapter 122: High Sounding
The air near the edge of the Library's Restricted Section seemed to freeze.
The talkative expression on Ernie Macmillan's face stiffened.
He turned his head and met Tamara's deep, icy black eyes. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
"Riddle..." Hannah Abbott took a frightened step back, her voice trembling.
Although Hannah had come to trust Tamara deeply through their repeated interactions, Tamara at this moment looked like a demon crawling out of hell. The sight alone was enough to make anyone shudder.
Ernie's expression was terrified, but his strong self respect forced him to overcome his fear of this Slytherin in front of his classmates.
His face flushed red, and he argued back loudly, his voice filled with shame and anger.
"Am I wrong? As a Slytherin, you've repeatedly shown favouritism toward Harry Potter. That's not normal!"
"Favouritism?"
Tamara slowly repeated the word, a chilling sneer curling at the corners of her mouth.
"I am merely disgusted by your ignorance."
She took a step forward. The terrifying aura that belonged to the Dark Lord pressed down so heavily that Ernie could barely breathe.
"What do you think the Dark Lord was? Some third rate hack who could be defeated by an infant who could not even walk or talk, simply because the child waved his hand?"
Tamara's voice carried a suppressed, violent rage.
"That is an insult to the ultimate power of magic. Even more, it is an insult to the title of Dark Lord."
"If a drooling infant could crush him through sheer strength, then what were the decades of fear that gripped the entire Wizarding World? A giant joke?"
She scolded him with extreme passion, every word defending her dignity as Lord Voldemort.
But as she continued, Tamara suddenly realized something was wrong.
The way the Hufflepuffs around her were looking at her had shifted from fear to a suspicious kind of unease.
Why did she sound as though she held You Know Who in such high regard?
To maintain her perfect disguise and avoid unnecessary trouble, Tamara's voice stopped abruptly.
Her chest heaved violently, and within a fraction of a second, her mind began working frantically.
Immediately afterward, the arrogant Dark Lord clenched her teeth and forcibly twisted the killing intent in her eyes into deep sorrow and anger.
"Your ignorant remarks just now were not only insulting magic itself..."
Tamara clenched her fists tightly. Her stomach churned as she spoke in a humiliated voice, almost forcing the words out through her teeth.
"...you were insulting those Wizards who died heroically in the war against the Dark Lord."
"What?" Ernie froze.
"If you say Potter is a more powerful Dark Wizard, if the Dark Lord truly was so easily defeated..."
Tamara closed her eyes, feeling she had never said anything so disgusting in her life.
"...then what do you take those sacrificed Aurors for?"
"What do you take those who died under the Killing Curse to protect their families for?"
"You are completely denying the value they paid for with their lives."
"I... I didn't mean that..." Ernie's face instantly turned pale. Under the weight of the enormous moral high ground Tamara had claimed, he panicked completely.
"Save your ridiculous conspiracy theories, Macmillan."
"That was a miracle created by Lily Potter's ancient blood sacrifice magic, not some infant Dark Wizard."
Tamara suppressed her nausea and threw out her final words before turning away coldly.
"Read more books and spread fewer rumours. Hufflepuff intelligence should not be represented by someone like you."
Ignoring the Hufflepuffs, she strode out of the Library.
Tamara did not want to stay for another second. She feared that if she remained there any longer, she would be unable to resist pulling out her wand and giving each of these fools a Cruciatus Curse.
However, what Tamara did not know was that two rows of shelves away, hidden in the shadows, Harry Potter had followed her and heard everything clearly.
So that was the real reason Tamara had cleared his name at the Duelling Club earlier.
She had not been favouring him. It was because she had a noble moral compass.
She could not tolerate others insulting those who had died in the war just to slander him.
She seemed so cold on the outside, even deliberately distancing herself from him these past few days, yet her heart was more righteous and gentle than anyone's.
"Tamara!"
Harry chased her out from behind the bookshelf and called to her from the corridor.
Tamara stopped and looked back. Seeing the culprit who had forced her to put on such a performance, her expression immediately darkened further.
"Is there something you need?" Tamara's voice was cold enough to shed ice.
Harry did not mind her coldness.
He quickly stepped forward and lowered his voice, wanting to use an exclusive secret to break the ice between them.
"I ran into Hagrid just now."
Harry leaned closer, his tone grave. "He told me something strange has been happening at school. Several of the roosters he keeps were killed. They were strangled."
Harry looked at Tamara expectantly. He thought this clever Slytherin, after hearing such an eerie clue, would certainly discuss it with him seriously, or even investigate it with him.
However, Tamara only lowered her eyes slightly.
As the Heir of Slytherin, she knew all too well that a rooster's crow was fatal to a Basilisk.
Clearly, Tom Riddle in the diary had already begun clearing the field so he could release the little pet in the Chamber of Secrets.
But what did that have to do with her?
Of course, she did not want the sixteen year old soul fragment in the diary to absorb too much life force and become an uncontrollable variable that could challenge the authority of the main soul.
But playing hide and seek in a filthy chicken coop in the middle of the night like some Gryffindor idiot?
Such an inefficient and degrading form of intervention was simply an insult to the Dark Lord.
Solving a problem always meant cutting it off at the source.
Since that arrogant memory had to rely on that stupid girl from the Weasley family as a vessel to act, then she only needed to find a suitable opportunity to deal with Ginny Weasley directly, extract the diary, and take control of it herself.
"I see."
Tamara nodded perfunctorily, her tone completely devoid of emotion.
"But don't you think that's very unusual? Maybe it has something to do with the Chamber of Secrets..." Harry said urgently, wanting to continue.
Tamara interrupted his rambling.
"Hogwarts has a Gamekeeper specifically responsible for dealing with poultry thieves, as well as an idiot Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor who receives a high salary."
"Potter, if you are truly that bored, I suggest you spend more time practising Expelliarmus instead of worrying about the lives of a few birds."
Tamara turned away coldly.
"I have things to do. Excuse me."
Harry froze in place.
Watching Tamara's indifferent back, he once again felt the frustration of being pushed away.
But this time, disappointment did not drown him as usual. Instead, he stared at the end of the corridor, his mind beginning to work sharply.
This was too contradictory.
If Tamara truly did not care about him as much as she acted, she would not have risked offending the whole school to defend him at the Duelling Club. Nor would she have scolded Ernie in the Library.
But if she did care about him, why was she pushing him away so coldly, without even having the patience to hear him finish sharing a clue?
Harry's mind replayed Tamara's merciless mockery just now.
If you are truly that bored, I suggest you spend more time practising Expelliarmus.
Practice spells?
Become stronger?
A bolt of lightning seemed to clear the fog in Harry's mind.
He understood.
This matter was definitely not simple. The roosters must be connected to the legendary monster in the Chamber of Secrets.
And Tamara was so clever. She must have sensed that real danger was approaching.
The reason she pushed him away with such a harsh attitude was not because she hated him at all, but because she felt his current strength was too weak.
Facing the true crisis of the Chamber of Secrets, he would not only fail to help. He might even become a burden.
So she had chosen to face the unknown darkness alone, using coldness to isolate him in a safe place.
"I will master Expelliarmus," Harry murmured.
...
After getting rid of the annoying saviour, Tamara thought she could finally return to the Slytherin Dungeons for some peace and quiet.
But it seemed she was destined to have no peace today.
As she passed through an empty corridor on the second floor, a petite figure suddenly darted out from behind a suit of armour and blocked her path with perfect accuracy.
"Tamara..."
When Tamara saw who it was, her brow instantly furrowed.
Ginny Weasley.
The red haired girl looked rather terrible at the moment.
Her face was pale, dark circles shadowed her eyes, and she looked as if she had just suffered through a serious illness. Even her soul seemed to exude a sense of being drained.
Tamara saw the signs at a glance.
The diary was absorbing her life force faster.
"Is there something you need, Miss Weasley?"
Tamara maintained a restrained distance, doing her best not to reach out and snatch the diary from the girl's arms. Her tone remained perfectly polite.
Ginny nervously twisted the hem of her robes. She looked up at Tamara, who was slightly taller than her, hesitated for a long time, then suddenly took a deep breath and asked a question that nearly made the Dark Lord die on the spot.
"Tamara... do you... do you like Harry?"
Tamara fell silent.
Her breathing stopped completely in that instant.
If not for the last thread of reason holding back her right hand, she would absolutely have used Avada Kedavra to send this red haired little girl on her way.
Like?
That self important Scarhead?
Tamara was furious beyond words.
But she could not lash out. She even had to force a gentle smile onto her face.
"Why would you have such a... bizarre delusion?" Tamara asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"Because of a feeling." Ginny's voice was small, but carried a hint of stubbornness.
"You've been protecting him. At the Quidditch match, at the Duelling Club, you're always standing in front of him. I thought... maybe..."
Tamara took a deep breath.
She had to find a reason, immediately, to wash away this disgusting misunderstanding.
"Ginny."
Tamara lifted her chin slightly, reclaiming her arrogant posture. Her tone carried a lofty pity.
"Your vision is too narrow. Do you think my repeated interventions were solely to protect Potter?"
She looked at Ginny and spoke with a perfectly straight face.
"In my eyes, Potter's impulsiveness, Lockhart's incompetence, and even the stupidity of the entire student body in believing every rumour they hear are no different."
"I do not intervene out of favouritism toward any one weakling."
"When a group of people with no ability to protect themselves makes a mess in front of me, that chaos offends my eyes."
"This is not some ridiculous affection. I simply loathe incompetence. I loathe the unseemly noise that weaklings create before me."
These words were spoken with supreme arrogance, even carrying a suffocating pressure. She completely treated the entire school, staff and students alike, as if they were a captive flock under her control.
Tamara thought that, as Harry's fan, Ginny would certainly run away in anger after hearing her speak so disparagingly of her idol.
However, she had completely underestimated the side effects of the diary, as well as her own current charisma.
Ginny was not angry.
On the contrary, she stared blankly at Tamara.
During these days of being bewitched by the diary and weakened in spirit, Ginny's thoughts had already begun to change quietly.
The legendary Boy Who Lived was dazzling, but he was also too distant and too unreal.
But Tamara, standing before her, was gentle, patient, powerful, and beautiful. At the most critical moments, Tamara could always provide stable comfort and absolute protection.
More importantly, in Ginny's subconscious perception, the feeling Tamara gave her was strikingly similar to Tom in the diary, who understood her best.
The young girl did not understand what true love was.
She only knew that, in fear and weakness, she instinctively longed to approach an existence that could bring her a sense of safety.
Ginny's originally dull brown eyes suddenly shone with bright light.
She looked steadily at Tamara and broke into a brilliant smile.
"Tamara, you're so good."
Ginny took a deep breath and said loudly with great seriousness, "Since you don't like Harry, then I don't care about him anymore either!"
"I've decided. From now on, I'll like you!"
After saying that, the little girl seemed to have lifted a great weight from her heart. She turned and ran away like a nimble little mouse.
In the dim corridor, only the great, evil, and arrogant Dark Lord remained, standing alone in the cold wind.
Tamara stood frozen in place, completely losing the ability to think.
A long time passed.
Then, in the second floor corridor of Hogwarts, only the Dark Lord's voice echoed, filled with pure confusion.
"...What?"
.....
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