Chapter 121

That night, the Weasley brothers actually sent the letter, as Silven requested, addressed to Rita Skeeter.

They also helped refine many details, such as how Silven had found the Chamber under fate's guidance, and his feelings upon learning he was Slytherin's heir.

Silven read their finished draft—it was indistinguishable from the real thing, emotionally rich and logically sound… If it bore a different name, Silven might truly have believed it was Slytherin's heir's memoir.

"You should consider working for the Daily Prophet after graduation—there's great potential there," Silven said sincerely.

"We'll think about it," the two said with smiles.

"Do you think they'll publish it?"

"Should be fine," Silven thought for a moment and said. "Nothing big has happened lately, and this involves Salazar Slytherin from a thousand years ago—exactly what they're most interested in."

"Good," both said, their expressions eager.

"When term starts, we'll tell everyone the letter was all made up—that you never said any of those things," George suddenly chuckled.

"What do you think they'll do then?"

"They'll pretend not to notice," Silven said. "By the way, did you write the exact time in the letter?"

"Of course, everything's written down—guaranteed," Fred said. "The Chamber has already been opened. You'll completely destroy its contents the night before term resumes."

"Good," Silven nodded.

"But is that necessary?" Fred asked. "That detail doesn't add much realism."

"I'd say it's better to write about you dreaming of Salazar Slytherin while asleep," Fred cleared his throat and imitated a withered voice.

"Slytherins are all fools—they don't deserve to be in my house! Only Gryffindors can find those who truly inherit my will!"

"That's way too fake," Silven said, looking at him with disgust. "If you added that line, everyone would instantly know it was fabricated—and it'd never get published."

"The Daily Prophet surely has Slytherin graduates—they won't let you smear Slytherin like this."

"Rita Skeeter understands this well. She's called Dumbledore an old madman and fabricated stories about professors, but she never touches house matters."

"I know. I was just joking," Fred muttered.

But his expression didn't look like a joke—he genuinely wanted to write that.

"By the way, take this too," George pulled out a worn piece of parchment from his pocket and handed it to Silven.

"Aren't you looking for something that lets you know what's happening in the castle while you're in your dorm?"

"Luckily, we actually have something like that," George said proudly. "Come on, Fred—let our Slytherin heir see what he's missing."

"No problem," Fred pulled out his wand, gently placed it on the parchment, and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Instantly, fine lines of ink spread like a spiderweb, connecting and extending to every corner of the parchment, finally forming a complete map of Hogwarts.

At the top of the map, in elegant green cursive script:

【Moonface, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs proudly present—The Marauder's Map, for the benefit of magical pranksters everywhere!】

The map covered every corner of Hogwarts Castle—from the entrance hall to the eighth floor, to the Astronomy Tower, even the grounds and greenhouses.

Dozens of tiny black dots moved across it, each labeled in minuscule script with a name.

Silven saw Hermione just leaving the library; if she walked down this corridor, she'd meet Filch coming down from the third floor.

"Great Moonface, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs—though I don't know who they are, I salute them," George said, unusually serious. "They helped us a lot."

"Like teachers. Like friends," Fred said.

"Hope it helps you too."

"It will," Silven took the parchment, glanced at the names, and chuckled.

…

Soon, half the holiday had passed, and the letter the Weasley brothers had sent finally appeared in the newspaper—same as last time, front page.

【According to insiders, Gryffindor second-year Ollivander has admitted he is the one who opened the Chamber and promises to destroy it completely before term resumes.】

【I learned of this a week after term began. That day, I saw Salazar Slytherin in the castle—he told me the Chamber's location and said I was destined to inherit his consciousness…】

Rita Skeeter had directly rewritten the original letter's content to make it sound exactly as if Silven had spoken it himself…

【The young Ollivander considered it a great honor and boasted about it at the Christmas feast, ignoring all criticism.】

【But in private conversations with friends, he confessed that being Slytherin's heir was stressful—whenever he felt this way, he would release the Chamber's monster to attack people, which brought him deep satisfaction…】

【After his secret was exposed, the young Ollivander reluctantly decided to destroy the Chamber the night before term resumed, alongside Albus Dumbledore.】

…

"We never said any of that," Fred said, staring at the paper. "She just made this up. We never said you'd feel stressed or release the monster."

"Of course I believe you," Silven said offhandedly. "For Rita Skeeter, this is basic procedure. If she'd written the article exactly as you suggested, I'd suspect you used the Imperius Curse on her."

"But now it's not funny at all," George muttered.

They'd written a story about a Slytherin heir sorted into Gryffindor, rushing to the Chamber after class to have tea with his fanged servant.

But after Rita Skeeter's rewrite, it became Silven's identity exposed, forcing him to reluctantly destroy the Chamber—completely different from their intent, not even the same story.

But Silven didn't care—he'd already gotten exactly what he wanted. The rest didn't matter.

He was at Hogwarts, where hardly anyone outside his friends even spoke to him; even if the paper called him the second Dark Lord, it wouldn't affect him at all.

Besides, his parents and grandfather weren't even in Britain—they couldn't read the Daily Prophet—so it was irrelevant.

The only trouble was the increasing number of letters—so far just ordinary ones, but soon they'd likely include Howlers.

But that was easy to fix. That night, Silven went to the kitchen and found a house-elf named Kreacher to help.

This idea came from Harry.

Harry once said that during the holidays, Dobby had stolen all his letters without his knowledge.

If Dobby could do it, other house-elves could too.

Silven explained his request to the kitchen elves—they immediately agreed, and as they left, they stuffed his pockets full of cakes and biscuits.

The next day, Silven received not a single letter.

Everything returned to calm, as if nothing had ever happened.

Every day Silven still carved magical runes into the wand's body, occasionally stepping out to play a game of wizard's chess with Harry to relax, and stealing a glance at the parchment at hand when he had a moment.

As if the two reports in the Daily Prophet had nothing to do with him.

A few more days passed like this, and on the morning of the day before returning to school, a sudden violent explosion rang out from the dormitory, startling everyone.

Those in the common room scrambled upstairs, and the moment they looked up they saw Silven standing right at the dormitory door.

His hair was all standing on end, his face was grey and dusty, and his once-perfect robe had been blown into shreds.

"Silven, you…"

"It's nothing, nothing, just a small mishap." Silven patted his own face, still shaken.

Luckily he had run fast just now; if he'd known, he wouldn't have given Hagrid the troll-bone wand first, but what was even more of a pity was wasting a three-headed dog's whisker.

The others were just as badly startled; they knew Silven had a habit of dismantling the dormitory, but they hadn't expected him to upgrade it this year straight to blowing it up.

At this rate, by the time Silven graduated, the Gryffindor Tower might no longer exist.

"Do you need help?" Harry cautiously glanced into the dormitory and said, "We can help you."

"It's fine, I can handle this little thing all on my own," Silven said.

"Really don't need it?"

"Really don't need it."

After sending the others away, Silven returned to the dormitory and began cleaning up the mess. Fortunately, the explosive force of the dragon-blood wood wasn't that great; even the table that had been blown in half could be mended with a Repairing Spell.

"If only I had a wand that enhanced the Repairing Spell," Silven thought, and took the lead in pulling a piece of parchment from the pocket of another robe on the ground.

It was the Marauder's Map the Weasley twins had given him; thankfully, it hadn't been damaged by the blast.

Silven glanced at it instinctively, and the motion of his hands suddenly paused… He had only gone one night without looking, yet the map now showed very obvious changes.

Several unfamiliar names had suddenly appeared in the castle.

First of all, at the very edge of the map, Hagrid should have just returned from Hogsmeade Village, but right next to him was another person's name: Rita Skeeter.

On the second floor of the castle, Silven saw Colin Creevey and Cedric Diggory; both of these people had chosen to go home for Christmas, yet had returned to school early at this time.

And it wasn't just them; there were several other rather unfamiliar names, probably upper-year students, who had all come back early.

Just as Silven was lost in thought, Luna Lovegood appeared on the map.

His gaze fell on the Daodixia Sect, and Snape, who had been absent for the entire holiday, also appeared — right next door to his office, a spot that should be his private storeroom.

Not far away, the Slytherin common room, which had originally had not a single name in it, now had one extra: Draco Malfoy.

But what was strange was that Crabbe and Goyle, who were always inseparable from him, were not with him this time.

……

(End of this chapter)