No!
The diary is nowhere to be found.
According to Ginny, she tossed it into the third-floor girls' bathroom that evening. She thought the place was abandoned and that no one would be foolish enough to go in there.
But Tver searched the entire bathroom from top to bottom, practically turning it inside out. If the drain hadn't been so narrow, he would've climbed down into the pipes as well. In the end, aside from the Polyjuice Potion Harry's trio was brewing, there was no diary—not even anything suspicious.
As a side note, Polyjuice Potion is an advanced concoction taught only to upperclassmen. It lets a person fully transform into someone else, and even many fifth- or sixth-years struggle to brew it properly. Yet Hermione, on her very first attempt and learning solely from books, had managed to produce a decently made batch. Her talent had already surpassed Tver's.
After all, back at Durmstrang, most of the potions he learned were for treating different kinds of injuries...
But the Horcrux's whereabouts weighed on his mind. Even if the Horcrux continued controlling someone and ran wild through the castle, Tver wouldn't worry about it for a moment. What bothered him was the thought of it hiding—or worse, slipping out of Hogwarts during the holidays. If that happened, finding it would become a nightmare.
His first suspect was Harry. In the original plot, after Ginny lost the diary, Harry was the one who picked it up. But after watching him for days, Tver hadn't noticed anything strange. Aside from frequently sneaking into the girls' bathroom, Harry had been so well-behaved lately it hardly seemed like him. Even Snape couldn't find a reason to give him detention.
So lately, aside from teaching the Blinding Light Charm to second-years and above, Tver had been preoccupied with the diary.
"Professor Fawley?" George Weasley asked, gathering his courage.
"Oh."
Tver snapped out of his thoughts and finally realized class had already started. The fourth-years were staring at him impatiently.
"All right, let's begin today's lesson."
"You've been working in teams for three months now. How's it going?" he asked with a smile.
"Everything's fine except we still can't beat the statues," Fred said with a pained expression.
The students nearby nodded in agreement, giving Tver looks full of shared suffering. Their teamwork had improved dramatically, and their individual combat ability had grown noticeably. But no matter what tactics they tried or how much progress they made, they still couldn't defeat the Chain Hammer Statue. Every single time, it smashed them until they were exhausted.
Their emotions were like a roller coaster. Just as their newfound strength was boosting their confidence, the next class would tear it all down again. After taking hit after hit, their young hearts were nearly numb. Eat, sleep, and get launched across the room by a statue—that was their life now.
Sensing their resentment, Tver quickly waved his wand, summoning four statues nearby. From left to right stood the Sword Statue, the Halberd Statue, the Sword-and-Shield Statue, and the Chain Hammer Statue, each spaced ten feet (three meters) apart.
"Ahem." He drew their attention to the statues. "Don't give up so easily. Today, you'll deal with all four. You'll finally get to experience the joy of beating one."
Roger Davies's eyes widened.
"We can't beat even one, and now you want us to fight four?!"
"Relax. These four have very different strength levels. You can start with the weakest." Tver pointed at the sword-wielding statue on the far edge.
"Once you defeat the first, you can move on to the stronger ones. Step by step, until you take down the final statue."
"And with Christmas coming up, everyone who manages to defeat the third statue will get a Christmas gift from me~"
Tver arched an eyebrow, and the students who'd been hesitating instantly burst into excitement. They'd been longing for last year's Christmas gifts all over again—even though, judging from the professor's habits, this year's gifts would probably be those same goblin chocolates.
But that was enough!
What was infuriating was that many students who'd received gifts last year couldn't bear to eat them, and would often show off the chocolates even after they'd expired. What was even more infuriating was that everyone else was still incredibly jealous of that expired chocolate.
Now they finally had a chance of their own.
Fueled by fierce determination, they quickly gathered their squads and jogged toward the Sword Statue. Before Tver even needed to say a word, a perfectly straight line had formed in under a minute, much to his surprise.
Professor Fawley loved orderly classes more than anything, and the students had no intention of upsetting him at a moment like this—or so they thought proudly. And with their usual shamelessness, the Weasley twins and Cedric managed to claim the very front.
"So, how are we supposed to deal with this statue?" George asked, feeling a little lost.
"Damn it! No wonder they were being so nice—they let us take the front!"
Fred glared back at the classmates fully prepared to watch the show unfold.
"It's fine," Cedric said with a confident smile. "If they want a demonstration, then let them follow right behind us and watch how to properly handle these statues."
"Are you ready?" Tver called out.
"Ready!" the three shouted in unison.
No sooner had the words left their mouths than the statue drew its longsword. But George was even faster.
"Reducto!"
The red light missed the arm, but it still blasted off a large chunk of the statue's shoulder, scattering stone fragments.
"Slow reaction, low physical strength," Cedric immediately analyzed, acting as support. "Leave defense to me. Fred, restrict its movements. George, hit the right arm whenever you can."
The right arm held the sword; take that out, and the statue was effectively finished. But the statue had no intention of surrendering. Ignoring the missing chunk from its shoulder, it took two heavy steps forward and suddenly loomed over them.
The sword swept from right to left, a sharp gust tearing toward the trio. Yet an instant later, an Impediment Jinx hit its chest. The statue trembled and staggered back, losing its balance—just in time to take another Reductor Curse.
Crack! Nearly half of its left forearm shattered, but it didn't slow the right arm at all.
Bang~ The longsword smashed through two layers of Shield Charm before getting stuck in the third.
The statue tried to yank the sword free, but Cedric and Fred weren't about to let that happen.
"Immobulus!"
The moment Cedric briefly locked the sword in place, ropes burst from the ground, chaotic but firm, wrapping tightly around the statue. Before it could even struggle, George fired off another Reductor Curse.
Boom! The statue's entire right arm was blown clean off.
"If I can't hit it even now, I might as well go home and knit a sweater for Mum."
He dramatically brought his wand to his lips and pretended to blow away imaginary smoke—a gesture he'd learned from one of the professor's Muggle books and had always thought looked incredibly cool. He'd been waiting for an opportunity to show that off.
But he had barely struck the pose before two figures tackled him to the ground.
"You two bastards—!"
"We just beat a statue for the first time! We're allowed to celebrate!"
"Sorry, I just really wanted to crush you two brothers."
...
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