Magical Diary?

An Old Friend... Tom Riddle?!

Lucius frowned slightly, his gaze turning with confusion to the worn, vaguely familiar notebook in Aileen's hand.

A tattered cover, it didn't look like the usual parchment books from Flourish and Blotts, more like a pulp booklet bought from some Muggle store.

Wait!

This, this is?!

The next moment, a bolt of lightning flashed through Lucius's mind.

He knew where his sense of familiarity came from - the blank diary the Dark Lord had given him to keep safe more than a decade ago!

Just a few months ago, Draco had been seduced into breaking into his private collection room and stealing this damned thing from it!

"This...this shouldn't be Dumbledore..."

Lucius Malfoy's pupils shrank violently as he looked at Aileen in a mixture of shock and anger.

"Could it be you?!"

"Well, it seems you recognize this diary - hmm, this diary was indeed given to me by Professor Dumbledore."

Aileen's eyebrows twitched, a cunning glint flashing in her eyes as she followed Lucius Malfoy's words with the utmost naturalness.

From the actual handling process, the last handover of "Tom Riddle's Diary" took place between Dumbledore and Aileen.

In order to maximize the prevention of accidents, the old wizards worked together to block all the "interfaces" of this special Horcrux, leaving only the basic writing interaction function.

As for whether this answer would trigger the old Malfoy's speculation, Aileen had no doubts - the core goal today was to win Lucius back, and one of the most important steps was to dispel his possibility of siding with Dumbledore as much as possible. And the best way to stimulate Lucius Malfoy was to imply that Dumbledore was secretly making a move against his family.

As Aileen had anticipated, Lucius Malfoy's face darkened almost instantly with her answer.

Now the time, the people, the events, the motives, the logic, all the links were matched up one by one!

You know, he had suspected Dumbledore of orchestrating all this before.

Glancing at the old Malfoy, who was hesitant to speak, the cunningness in Aileen's eyes became even more agile.

The bait has been successfully bitten, now is the time to reel it in.

"So..."

Aileen stopped tapping, unfolded the old diary in her hand, and tossed it to Lucius casually.

"So do you know how to use this diary, and what exactly is it?"

"...This is the Dark Lord's diary from his school days, but there is nothing written on it."

Lucius Malfoy subconsciously reached out and caught it. He was right; this was the notebook the Dark Lord had given him.

In the past few months, he had often thought of this stolen thing, worried that one day it would become an evil ghost that would take away the peaceful life of his family.

However, Lucius Malfoy never imagined...

This "Dark Lord relic" that he had been looking for for months would return to his hands in such a casual way.

The middle-aged wizard's eyes were filled with deep confusion and unease as he kept looking back and forth at the thin, tattered notebook in his hand.

"A few months before the Dark Lord lost power, the Dark Lord gave me this diary and told me to take good care of it..."

"Some time ago, Dumbledore tried to steal it from my home, but I didn't expect it to end up in your hands in the end, so what's so special about it—"

"This is one of Tom Riddle's Horcruxes."

Aileen replied calmly, thought for a moment, and added an extra explanation quite seriously.

"You can understand it as, a fragment of Tom Riddle, that is, Voldemort's soul, is dwelling inside."

A Horcrux?!

There's a fragment of Voldemort's soul inside?!

Along with Aileen's words, Lucius's right hand trembled violently, almost unable to resist throwing the thin diary in his hand directly away subconsciously.

"I guess Tom Riddle has claimed to you countless times that he has conquered death, right?"

Aileen said casually, summoned the iced juice next to her, and took a small sip with relish.

"This is his way of conquering - he divided his soul into many fragments and secretly hid them in various objects, just like an earthworm cut into many sections."

"Of course, compared to the cute little creatures like earthworms, Tom Riddle's idea of making a large number of Horcruxes is too vicious and crazy. By the way, Mr. Malfoy."

Aileen paused for a few seconds, looked meaningfully at the middle-aged wizard with a look of surprise and uncertainty, and continued with her left hand gently supporting her chin.

"Do you know what the 'resurrection' method of a Horcrux is - for example, this diary in your hand?"

"What is it?"

"Sacrifice a wizard's life and magic."

Aileen said softly, dangerous light flashing in her lake-blue eyes.

"Even a student who has just received a Hogwarts letter, as long as a wizard is sacrificed, it can gain a physical body."

"...Sacrifice, a wizard." Lucius Malfoy shuddered and quickly threw the diary in his hand onto the workbench next to him.

"Don't worry, Mr. Nicolas Flamel, and my grandfather and a few others have joined forces to seal this Horcrux. It can't actively draw magic power from the outside world now."

Aileen shook her head with a chuckle, explaining, while raising her right hand and waving it gently.

The next moment, a quill and half a bottle of ink appeared on the workbench.

"Don't you want to ask Mr. Tom Riddle in person why he wanted to entrust such a dangerous and precious thing to the Malfoy family for safekeeping? The pen and ink are there, all you have to do is open the diary and write down your questions on it, and the 'Dark Lord's' remnant soul hidden inside should give you some answers after seeing the questions."

"...Answers?"

Lucius Malfoy was silent for a moment, gently opened the diary on the workbench, looking at the blank first page.

He picked up the quill, dipped it in the ink, and hovered it over the blank page, the expression on his face constantly changing.

After a long time, Lucius shook his head gently and put down the pen.

"No need, I know the answer."

Regarding the Horcrux, although he didn't know if it was true or false, if most of what Aileen had said was true, then he didn't need to ask.

On closer thought, in the wizarding world, if you want to find a magical family suitable for keeping a "Horcrux" while ensuring the activation conditions of the "Horcrux", the Malfoy family is obviously one of the most suitable options. After all, although they have always claimed to be pure-blood families to the outside world, they are actually smarter than most traditional magical families in terms of continuing their descendants and bloodlines.

In the truth that Lucius Malfoy knew, the blood of the Malfoy family actually contained a lot of Muggle-born wizard blood.

Then, Voldemort's reason for placing the Horcrux here with him is obvious.

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Yay!