[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker":3,"chapter-hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-chapter-123":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Hogwarts: Don't Call Me a Wandmaker",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2292375,4482,"Chapter 123: The Unicorn and the Diary","hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-chapter-123",123,"\u003Cp>Before taking it out, Silven had prepared a feather pen, and wrote on the other blank page:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hello, Tom Riddle.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The writing vanished quickly—clearly, this was genuine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing this, Malfoy gave up struggling entirely… Silven wasn’t bluffing; he knew how to use the diary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Damn it, wasn’t Riddle supposed to say he was the first friend he’d ever had?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Malfoy felt his eyes sting, fighting back tears… Liar. Just like Potter—a liar!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Five minutes later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven thought he’d been polite—he’d started with “hello,” not an insult.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he’d waited this long and received no reply.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you sure this thing is real?” Silven asked Malfoy, but Malfoy refused to look at him, his red-rimmed eyes fixed elsewhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Quarter—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, it’s real!” Malfoy shouted, furious: “You stole it from me—it has to be real!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Strange.” Silven frowned. “When you used it, did it respond this slowly?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What do you mean, slow?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How long it takes to reply to you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Immediately,” Malfoy said. “Like two friends writing to each other face to face.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the word “friend,” Malfoy’s eyes reddened again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright.” Silven nodded. It seemed Riddle was refusing to communicate with him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That made things easier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven first dragged Malfoy back into the corridor, and before he could speak, switched his wand back to Silvermane.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Stupefy!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Stunning Spell he’d just learned from the Dueling Club wasn’t polished, but Malfoy was in poor condition—having been hung up so long, he was already dizzy—and the spell knocked him out cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom was sealed by the Headmaster, so Silven dragged him into an adjacent empty classroom and followed him inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He tossed the diary into the air, then raised his wand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A blue unicorn leapt from the wandtip—and without Silven needing to speak, the unicorn, still half-formed, lowered its head and drove its horn straight at the diary in midair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The translucent horn should have passed through the diary like a ghost through a wall, but instead it made a dull thud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then came a sharper, more agonized scream…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The diary began trembling. Drops of ink oozed out, as if bleeding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ink turned into black mist, coalescing into a shape… something resembling a human.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hello, Tom Riddle,” Silven greeted again—exactly as he’d written in the diary—though Tom Riddle now looked far from well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A strange, hazy glow surrounded him, but only his left half retained a human form; the other half was a chaotic blur of black mist, as if forcibly torn in two.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven was certain this wasn’t the unicorn’s doing—just a nudge at most. A hole or two might be possible, but losing half a body? Too extreme.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Again… Ollivander,” Riddle spoke, his voice thick with hatred, as if the air itself had chilled. “Or should I call you… Harry Potter…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait…” Silven froze mid-sentence. “What did you just call me?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Harry Potter—the Boy Who Lived, who killed the Dark Lord,” Riddle said. “You must be proud.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, I’m not proud at all,” Silven shook his head. “You’re mistaken. I’m Silven Ollivander. Harry Potter is another boy—if you like, I can introduce you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Impossible! I couldn’t be wrong!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Riddle grew agitated instantly. “You killed my future self—I felt it. That lingering hatred, that soul’s refusal to fade. You can’t fool me. I felt it the moment we first met!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Overcome by emotion, his remaining half dissolved—then reformed seconds later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Silven noticed Malfoy, still unconscious, twitched involuntarily—his face grew even paler.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ve wanted to ask this for a while,” Silven said, watching him. “Do you have some misunderstanding about me? I swear this is our first meeting—and my first time seeing this diary.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Still pretending?” Riddle sneered. “Aren’t you the one who came looking for me in that bookstore?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bookstore…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Flourish and Blotts?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Impossible,” Silven blurted. “How could you possibly know about that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Want to know?” Riddle smiled falsely. “I’ll answer you—but first, you must answer my question.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven’s reply was a twist of his wand—and a blue horn driving into Riddle’s shoulder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah… damn it…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scream echoed through the empty classroom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The unicorn shoved him again—this time nearly tearing off his arm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You have no other choice,” Silven said, each turn of his wand carving another hole in Riddle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You want to kill me… then that boy won’t live either,” Riddle hissed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So what?” Silven kept turning his wand. “No one can trace it back to me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, Riddle became a grotesque sieve—and finally broke. “Fine! I’ll say it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It was hatred—I felt the lingering hatred from your soul’s dissolution. And it was just like mine!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven stopped moving his wand—but Riddle grew even fainter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That hatred was like a knife plunged into me—I could feel you searching for me. You wanted to kill me!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lingering hatred from soul dissolution… could it be that wand?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If anything connected him to Voldemort’s soul, it was only that two-inch wand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just days before going to Flourish and Blotts, he’d used that wand to kill six Death Eaters—and its inherent nature had utterly destroyed the Voldemort soul fragment embedded as its core.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So strictly speaking, he *had* killed one of Voldemort’s soul fragments—and he’d heard Voldemort’s voice then… but could such a thing leave behind lingering hatred?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven twisted his wand again. The unicorn immediately butted Riddle in the head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah… I’ve answered you already…” Riddle snapped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sorry. Habit,” Silven waved dismissively. “How do I fix this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Carrying Voldemort’s lingering hatred around? That didn’t feel right.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No need,” Riddle gritted his teeth. “This magical castle has already scattered it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re not lying?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m not you,” Riddle sneered. “You can’t even keep your own name.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I really am not Harry Potter,” Silven took a deep breath. “Forget it. Tell me something else—where did you go?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A wizard picked me up,” Riddle said. “When I realized you were searching for me, I had to act. I possessed the nearest wizard and escaped your sight.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It wasn’t easy. The cost was half my soul. But I succeeded. That filthy wizard—half-goblin—carried me away from the bookstore.” Riddle’s tone was casual, but his eyes churned with hatred thick enough to solidify.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Losing half his soul meant he could no longer use others’ lives to regenerate—he’d remain trapped in this tiny diary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could he not hate?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then how did you end up with Malfoy?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The wizard brought me,” Riddle glanced at the unicorn, now gathering strength again, and gave up entirely. “He came to take photos of Lockhart—but forgot me in his office when he left.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Photos… that wizard with the camera?” Silven remembered—the photographer from the Daily Prophet who’d taken pictures of Lockhart at the Welcoming Feast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So Lockhart was the first person to possess you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes,” Riddle said. “He signed the diary with ink mixed with dragon’s blood. The magic in the dragon’s blood helped me survive my weakest phase.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then I realized this was a perfect opportunity—he was a true wizard, not some filthy goblin-blood. I could draw on his life force to regain strength.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So you possessed him?” Silven recalled Lockhart’s first bizarre Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No,” Riddle shook his head. “When I tried, I was interrupted by a group of students.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gilderoy Lockhart never saw my reply—but someone else did.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Draco Malfoy,” Silven said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Correct,” Riddle continued. “He thought I was a powerful magical artifact, so he stole me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How wonderful. That Malfoy also believed in pure-blood supremacy. We quickly became inseparable friends—he opened his heart to me, confided his secrets.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Riddle glanced again at Malfoy on the floor, his eyes flickering with contempt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But it was boring. I expected him to ask how to gain power—but he didn’t. He just complained every day about how stupid Harry Potter was, how stupid his friends were…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yet because of that, I learned your name for the first time—the famous Boy Who Lived, who killed the Dark Lord.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I told you—I’m not Harry,” Silven sighed. He waved his wand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The unicorn happily galloped over and butted Riddle square in the mouth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While Riddle recovered, Silven mentally reviewed what he’d learned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Riddle likely wouldn’t lie—he knew the unicorn could kill him. Most ways to destroy a Horcrux target the object itself—like piercing the diary with basilisk fangs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the unicorn was different—it could directly damage the soul fragment inside. The damage was minor, but the pain? For Riddle, that was worse than basilisk venom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He probably wasn’t lying—but he wasn’t telling the whole truth either. Silven would have to judge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least now he understood why he hadn’t found the diary at Flourish and Blotts—the reason was him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But could a soul fragment act as a warning device?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If so, did that mean he could never approach another Horcrux again?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It would flee the moment he got close—how was he supposed to destroy it then?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Riddle said the resentment on his body had been dispersed by the castle’s magic, what if some still remained? I can ask again later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1497,"2026-06-20T04:03:11.805Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","e2b4af0b92f3969bfa3e7ff3f73b0b64a9819176ae8212abfa1ca78b2a9cdafc","hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-chapter-124","hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-chapter-122",149,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fhogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-cover.jpg"]