Chapter 232: The frustrated Riddle (Edited)

"Pah!"

Fish threw the journal to the floor.

He hated writing, and this stupid book had "eaten" his writing!

No wonder there wasn't a single word in this journal.

Fish folded his arms and stared at the journal on the floor for a while, but decided that wasn't enough, so he stepped on it again a few more times.

"Bad book! Bad book! Bad book! Bad book!".

(●`Д′●)?

After stepping on the journal and bouncing vigorously for a while, Fish finally calmed down a bit and then bent down to pick it up again.

Although he was angry that the journal had swallowed his own writing, he liked the fact that it didn't break even after hitting it so hard, so after venting his anger, he had to put it away.

Speaking of which... Why did he want to use this diary to keep the congratulatory words at this time?

According to Fish's own thinking, this thing should be used as a shield and a cat scratcher. He never considered the option of writing in it, but now he suddenly wanted to write something in it for no reason.

"Strange nya?"

Fish scratched his hair, confused, and quickly put the matter behind him.

Anyway, it's not uncommon for Fish to do this on a sudden whim, even though this kind of wanting to write in a journal isn't in line with Fish's usual habits, it's not enough for him to care too much.

With this in mind, Fish picked up the journal and tried to slip it into his pocket, but his dynamic vision caught a small flash of bronze writing as the journal flipped over.

"Are you still there?"

"Nya?"

⊙ω⊙

Fish hurried to open the journal again, but the words had disappeared.

"Did you just write that?" asked Fish, pointing his finger at the journal.

But after waiting a long time, there was no response from the other side.

Fish flicked his ears, cocked his head to one side for a moment, and then picked up a bottle of black ink and poured some onto the journal.

The little cat is simple, but not stupid, the words that flashed at this moment obviously used the same bronze ink as his own, so he guessed that the journal had to be refilled with ink so that it could answer him again.

To test his suspicions, Fish had poured a different color of ink into it.

The ink was quickly absorbed by the diary, as was his own handwriting, and Fish once again poked at its blank pages.

"Is that you talking?"

However, the journal was still blank.

Inexplicably nya...

Fish scratched his hair again, though he could guess that he probably had to write in it to communicate, but he didn't want to add more work to his day when he already had plenty to write about.

He would wait until he was in the mood to write later.

With this in mind, Fish grabbed the journal and dropped it back into his magic bag.

He's too busy writing greeting cards!

What Fish didn't know was that as soon as he closed the journal, another line of writing appeared, "Hello, my name is Tom Riddle."

Unfortunately, until the writing disappeared, Voldemort in the diary got no response.

Had Voldemort not been a mere wisp, he would have spurted blood from his mouth.

As a half-dead Horcrux that has been in place for fifty years, the remnant of Tom Riddle is limited in what he can do, and spends most of his time sleeping inside the Horcrux.

Even with the power he had gained from Ginny Weasley, he was but a drop in the ocean, and could not sense the outside world, or even know how much time had passed.

He had made plans for the basilisk to give Fish the diary he was hiding in, but Riddle wasn't quite sure when he would officially be free of it.

He wasn't particularly worried, however, as the diary was unique in that Riddle had cast a special spell on it that would attract anyone who came into contact with it, giving them the desire to study its secrets and write in it.

Although this effect is very subtle and weak, there are many things that need only a slight start, and Riddle is confident enough to be spoken to... as Ginny Weasley once did.

So Riddle wasn't worried about Fish throwing the diary away once he'd "found" it ...

It wasn't until Riddle, in his sleep, that he felt a sudden, violent jolt that nullified much of the power he had managed to draw from Ginny.

Riddle had been terrified, thinking that Fish had given the diary to Dumbledore and that Dumbledore was trying to destroy himself, which was what had happened.

But even Voldemort's own body was powerless against Dumbledore, and as a weakened Horcrux, he was even more powerless.

Just when Riddle was on edge, suddenly nothing happened, leaving Riddle, hiding in his Horcrux, completely confused.

As curious as Riddle was, he could not perceive what was going on outside.

Before, he might have been able to forcibly probe for ten seconds, but after the power was taken from him, there was nothing Riddle could do.

In order to preserve what little power he had left and not go mad from boredom, Riddle fell back into a deep sleep with a sense of apprehension....

It wasn't until Fish wrote a Christmas message in his journal that he woke up.

So almost two months had passed in the blink of an eye?

After realizing what Fish had written in his journal, Riddle was incredulous.

Had it taken that long for this boy, Fish, to write in the journal?

Riddle didn't think it would take a boy who could ignore school rules and wander at night a month or two to visit the basilisk.

But these questions were not important, what was important was that he had to talk to Fish as soon as possible, guide him little by little to open his heart, so that he could harness the power of this gifted boy.

So he quickly used the ink he had just absorbed to write in his journal....

"Hi, my name is Tom Riddle, did you just write a Christmas card?"

But when the line disappeared, Riddle got no response.

Due to the nature of Horcruxes, not even Voldemort could keep writing in them for long, and it was thanks to the diary that he was able to communicate with the outside world in his weakened state.

"Don't be afraid, I'm just a memory, I'm not a bad person."

Riddle, fearing that Fish would hand the diary directly to Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall, was quick to reveal another paragraph of the text to reassure him.

But...

Still no answer.

Now, Riddle was getting a little anxious, he didn't know what was going on outside, but it was clear that Fish hadn't been swayed by the spell in the diary and didn't feel like writing in it, as he had predicted.

"Hello?"

"Just write in the journal and you can communicate with me."

"I'm really not a bad person."

Riddle tried to communicate with Fish again, but there was no response.

"Are you still there?"

With very little ink to absorb, Riddle made one last attempt.

After a long wait and no response, he fell back into a deep sleep.

After an unknown amount of time, the journal suddenly absorbed another small amount of black ink, waking Riddle from his slumber.

Although the sleeping Riddle could not feel the passage of time, he had a rough idea of what was happening to him.

The interval between this and his last awakening was very short, no more than three days.

Riddle was sure of this, because the bronze ink he had absorbed was still "fresh."

But he wasn't sure if the new black ink came from Fish's investigation of the journal's secrets, or if it had accidentally spilled and fallen on the journal.

Coupled with the fact that he had received no response to anything he had said earlier, Riddle hesitated for a moment.

However, after a moment's thought, he used the new ink to display a line that read.

"Hello, my name is Tom Riddle."

Of course, he continued to get no response.

What irritated Riddle most was not the constant sleeping, but the occasional awakening and lack of response.

But irritated as he was, Riddle, who had no way of knowing what was going on outside, could only go back to sleep with a stomach full of frustration.

And Fish, who knew nothing about it, was typing furiously at this point. After copying 400 copies of the greeting cards with the duplication spell, he had to fill in the names one by one....

Suddenly, I don't like Christmas so much!