Chapter 266: 3 liars (Edited)

[You're lying! Hagrid said he didn't open the Chamber of Secrets!]

The kitten was experienced in lying and deceiving, followed Dumbledore's instructions and wrote in his diary in his usual tone.

[Of course he will not admit his crime!]

Voldemort, of course, knew that Hagrid was now the Hogwarts warden and was prepared for such a situation.

He methodically replied, [When we caught Hagrid, he didn't confess, so Professor Dippet just expelled him, but after he left the school, the attack didn't happen again.]

"Nya?"

?ω?

Fish turned his head to look at Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall.

"Refute it as you see fit," Dumbledore said, "As long as he doesn't give away that he already knows it was him who opened the Chamber of Secrets."

So Fish put the quill back on the paper and wrote: [But Hagrid has been the school keeper for many years, and there has been no attack, and Mrs. Norris is only petrified, not dead, and when the mandrake matures soon, she will wake up, and Albus has said it was only a prank]

[Professor Albus Dumbledore, right? He always does, he likes to give the wrong people a chance]

Voldemort was clearly saying nice things for Dumbledore, but he was actually implying that he was lying, and he was also a bit distressed because he had forgotten about the mandrake, and if Mrs. Norris woke up, the basilisk thing would definitely be exposed.

He shouldn't have left the cat hanging to cause panic, he should have let the basilisk swallow it.

At this point, Voldemort felt a little annoyed, he hadn't expected Fish to take so long to get through to the paper.

He already planned to deal with the petrified cat or destroy the mandrakes in the greenhouse as soon as he could control Fish's actions.

As Voldemort made up his mind, Fish scratched his head.

Apparently, this kind of sly talk was very effective with the simple kitten, and if Fish hadn't always trusted Mother McGonagall unconditionally when it came to such important matters, he probably would have started trusting Riddle in the diary by now.

After all, he didn't seem like a bad guy and spoke well of Dumbledore.

But knowing he was a villain, the clever kitten was quick to see the insidiousness of Voldemort's comment.

"Minerva! This guy is a big liar nya! Fish almost believed him just now nya!"

(●ΦДΦΦ●)

"That's the terrible thing about Voldemort, he can always get people to believe him, to work for him."

Dumbledore sighed regretfully, he had always regretted seeing Riddle's ambition but failing to guide him properly.

Fish, who had only wanted to free Uroboros before continuing his conversation with Voldemort, was suddenly excited, for he found that he seemed to be able to learn many tricks from the other side....

This way, Minerva won't catch me or beat me easily in the future!

Then, after thinking for a while, the little cat eagerly took the pen and began to write in the diary.

[But that big spider you remember, there are many in the Forbidden Forest, and Fish has killed several, all much bigger than the one Hagrid had.]

Voldemort, in the diary, became depressed again as he remembered what Fish had told Ginny about fighting the big spiders in the Forbidden Forest.... He had thought they were normal spiders, but he had no idea that they were dangerous creatures like Acromantulas.

As to whether Fish was telling the truth or not, Voldemort had no doubts.

After all, Fish was the one who had been able to defeat the real Monster of the Chamber of Secrets, the Basilisk, and Voldemort, who saw this with his own eyes, naturally knew that what Fish was saying was true.

If he had known, when he showed Fish his memories, he would have cut them off where he had caught Hagrid.

Voldemort didn't know how many times he had regretted it today, but nothing had gone right since he had met Fish.

What was intended to be a clear sighting of the monster in the Chamber of Secrets, to bolster the credibility of his lie, had become a loophole....

The good news is that the loophole is harmless and Voldemort has a way to fix it.

But first he had to show his skepticism.

[Can you beat an Acromantula? It's a dangerous creature classified as XXXX by the Ministry of Magic!]

[Yes, Fish is amazing!]

The kitten ignored Voldemort's doubts and boasted proudly....

This left Voldemort speechless, intent on provoking Fish's ire in the process.

Many of his tricks hadn't worked against the brilliant Fish, and with time running out, Voldemort was getting a bit anxious.

[I don't think so!]

The urgency in Voldemort's mind showed unconsciously in his words, for under normal circumstances he would not have questioned Fish's words so bluntly.

[It's fine if you don't believe it, but Fish can defeat those big spiders anyway.]

The cat, who didn't care whether you believed him or not, continued to respond in a way that Voldemort had not expected.

Dumbledore was beaming, Fish felt nothing, but he could see Voldemort's urgency.

And when one is anxious, one can easily show weakness.

In that short period of time, Fish had caused Voldemort to lose control of his emotions twice.

This was the same Voldemort who had hidden his ambition as a teenager.

In the eyes of Dumbledore, who had spent time with Voldemort as a student, this was much more difficult than defeating him.

At the time, Voldemort had shown little sign of weakness at school, and Dumbledore's suspicion of him had been based on their first encounter at the orphanage, where he had inadvertently shown his misuse of his magic and his abuse of the other children at the orphanage.

Getting Fish to talk to Voldemort had been the right thing to do.

Before that, Dumbledore had merely let Fish try it out, not expecting much, but he hadn't thought that Fish's different way of thinking would somehow confuse the ever-deep Voldemort.

Could it be that Fish's true birth date was also at the end of July?

Dumbledore stroked his beard, his mind suddenly distracted.

For Fish's part, Voldemort regained his composure.

[Sorry, I lost my composure at this point] apologized Voldemort quickly: [The main thing is that what you said is too incredible].

[Believe it or not, it's impossible for those big spiders to be the Monster of the Chamber of Secrets].

Fish didn't care about that, he was waiting for Voldemort in the diary to teach him how to lie.

[Let's say you're telling the truth] Voldemort said, adopting the attitude that he wasn't going to argue with Fish, though he knew it wouldn't have much effect, [But you can't deny the danger of the Acromantulas, I don't think there are many young wizards at Hogwarts who can defeat them.]

That was true.

The kitten nodded approvingly, after all the time he had spent observing the dueling club, he thought that only a handful of upperclassmen would be able to defeat the big spiders.

[But those spiders can't petrify anyone petrification, and Hagrid doesn't have a wand!]

Fish questioned Voldemort from another angle, finding the constant search for loopholes interesting... it would be nice not to have to write.

[The wand problem is easy to solve, I know you can get unregistered wands in Knockturn Alley, next to Diagon Alley.]

Voldemort briefly explained the wand problem, and then wrote in his diary: [But you seem to believe Hagrid so much that there is no point in his saying anything more, even though at the time he might have been fooled by the real murderer....]

At this point, the Dark Lord had finally reached his goal.

[How about this, we can work together to find out the truth about the Chamber of Secrets].

After all this time, what Voldemort really wanted was to gain Fish's trust.

One of the best ways to build a bridge of trust is to do something together.

In the process, he could keep trying to bring out the negative in Fish, and Voldemort was sure that if he talked to Fish enough, he could find the right way to encourage Fish, and it wouldn't be like today.

What Voldemort didn't know was that he was doing exactly what Dumbledore wanted, because it was clear that Voldemort wasn't going to let Fish investigate the Chamber of Secrets on his own, and inevitably there would be a lot of communication during this period.

At this point, he could have Fish turn the tables on Voldemort.

Then, Dumbledore saw Fish write a quick line in his diary.

[Okay, I'll look for clues now.]

When he finished, Fish closed the journal and turned to Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall.

"We can't talk anymore, that's pretty much all Fish writes at once before the conversation is over." He explained to them both, "And..."

The kitten cast a bored look.

"Fish doesn't want to write anymore today either nya."

(?ω?)