Influence Of Imperius Curse - 45%

"Over here, students! You need to show me your permission slips before we can head to Hogsmeade." Professor McGonagall instructed the students in a loud voice so everyone could hear her. She was in charge of her house, Gryffindor to check if the students had gotten permission from their parents allowing them to go to Hogsmeade. All the students were standing in front of the castle in the courtyard. It was in the middle of November so, it was chilly outside and snow blanketed the courtyard. Excited expressions could be seen on the faces of the students as they wore warm clothes and obediently queued up to hand the professors their permission slips. All students from third years to seventh years were lined up. Though some fifth years and seventh years chose not to go so they could study for their O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts.

'Sol' was talking with the Weasley twins who were in front of him. The light in his eyes was dim but there nonetheless. At this moment, the three came in front of Professor McGonagall.

"Here you go, Professor." The twins handed their slips with a grin on their faces. The professor looked at the slip briefly before handing it back to them and motioning them to go ahead. The twins took their slips and walked ahead.

'Sol' walked forward and silently handed her his slip. The professor smiled at him before checking the slip and handing it back to him. "You're all good, Mr. Balor." Saying that she motioned him to go forward. 'Sol' took back the slip with a faint smile on his face and went on forwards. As he walked towards Hogsmeade with his friends, he had a different event going on in his mind.

A translucent and blue wisp shaped like Sol looked at his mind palace. It was slowly being infiltrated by black tendril-like smoke which was the Imperius curse. It was almost halfway there. Sol had an uneasy look on his face. He truly didn't want to fall under the curse since he did not know what the end result would be. Even if he was confident now, he wasn't sure about the future. It was especially true for this world's magic which doesn't follow any sort of grading system and even if the magic was graded according to the year you learn them, it was really abstract.

He has already taken temporary measures by separating his consciousness and sending the split part inside the mind palace to take care of everyday functions. Sol's main consciousness headed inside his mind palace, carefully avoiding the black tendrils on the floor and walls. All the traps and defenses had been dismantled to let the curse in. He headed into a room with only a desk, office chair, and computer on top. The computer looked advanced compared to the era he was living in. It only had a frame and a glass-like plane in the middle. He sat down on the chair and pushed a button on the frame. The button lit up and an image appeared on the screen. There were some images of hard drives inside. There were numerous hard drives titled "Music". He clicked open another hard drive and there were a number of images of folders that were labeled according to their purpose. Sol looked at the folders and leaned back on his chair. He supported his head with his arms and closed his eyes.

What did I miss? Why does the diary need to be here? Why does it need to control someone?

Sol opened his eyes as he scrolled the wheel of his mouse which was on top of his desk. He looked at the folders one after another. As he thought and thought, the computer kept on producing notifications sounds.

There must be something here. Something that the diary needs.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Mystery of Tom Riddle's Diary".

Maybe the diary needs a physical host to retrieve it.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Mystery of Tom Riddle's Diary".

Wait, the diary belongs to Tom Riddle and he was if I remember right a Slytherin.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Revelations".

Sol scrolled and clicked on the folder titled 'Tom Riddle'. In it, he found(read: remembered) that Tom Riddle was a student of Hogwarts from 1938-1945. Sol focused on the years.

Something must've happened whilst he was here. I mean he is Voldemort, it'd be weirder if he didn't pull something when he was a student.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Guesses" and "Tom Riddle".

50 years ago, 50 years ago... I don't think I have any knowledge or info on anything relating to 50 years ago. I'll still search for it though.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Mystery of Tom Riddle's Diary".

Sol moved the mouse, the arrow-like mouse cursor moved around on the screen before clicking on a rectangular box with a small symbol on it resembling a magnifying glass. He typed on the keyboard, "50 years ago". But there was no result. He cleared the search box and again typed, this time "1938-1945". No results again. Sol ruffled his hair.

Fuck it!

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Decisive Actions".

With that, he typed in all the years from 1938 to 1945 one after another.

"1938." - No result(s) found.

"1939." - No result(s) found.

"1940." - 1 result(s) found.

Hmm.. what's this?

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under the "Intrigue".

He clicked the arrow sign pointed downwards which was at the bottom of the search box and it opened like a drawer showing what was inside. It was a line of text which read, "Moaning Myrtle's initiation into Hogwarts: 1940".

Huh, Moaning Myrtle? Isn't that the toilet-ghost[1] on the third-floor girl's bathroom? What's she got to do with Tom Riddle?

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Moaning Myrtle" and "Tom Riddle".

Sol found the folder titled "Moaning Myrtle" under the "Ghosts" folder and opened it. A few lines of text and some memory files flashed on the screen. But the only lines which caught Sol's eye were the ones related to her death.

" Died on 1943. Cause Of Death: Undetermined(Not Enough Information). Says she died as soon as she saw a large, yellow eye."

Large, yellow eye, might be a magical beast of some sort. But which kind of large beast could kill a student without anyone ever knowing?

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Guesses".

Sol once again clicked on the search box, this time he typed, "Yellow eyes" and instantly got an answer. He clicked to look at it only to stare at the line of text in front of him in disbelief.

"Basilisks have yellow eyeballs and their pupils are in slits."

Haha...how could a basilisk be in Hogwarts? And where did it go? It's not as if someone could hide it. Besides the 'where', it's not as if someone could instruct it to kill. Not everyone has Salazar Slytherin's...gift of...parseltongue.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Guesses", "Questions", "Salazar Slytherin" and "Revelations".

Does Voldemort have Parseltongue? Wait, if I suppose he did have Parseltongue, then he could've controlled Basilisks and if it was indeed a Basilisk who killed Moaning Myrtle, then where did it go? It's not like you can just hide a 60-foot long snake without anyone noticing.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Guesses" and "Moaning Myrtle".

Wait a sec!

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Revelations".

Sol moved the mouse and searched around. After a while, he opened the folder "Third Floor." Inside the folder were even more folders named "Portraits", "Classrooms", etc. He opened the folder called "Mysterious Girl's Bathroom."

Aside from another folder titled "Moaning Myrtle", there were also some memory clips. He opened one of the memory clips. The memory player opened and a recording of someone roaming around in the third-floor girl's bathroom. Naturally, it was Sol and it looked as though it was shot from his perspective. The memory played as Sol saw himself roaming around the bathroom, checking the stalls, turning the taps, washing his face, or talking with Myrtle. He watched it again and again, afraid of missing something. He wasn't in a hurry. Right now his body was merrily drinking Butterbeer with his fellow lads. His split consciousness was handling it well for him. Sol's main consciousness kept on combing the video until...!

Sol's translucent eyes widened as he focused on the tap facing the door to the girl's bathroom. It had a small snake drawn on the side of it.

Why though? It's obviously related to Salazar Slytherin with there being a snake and all. But why is there a snake? What does it signify? Is it a signal? A brand...or a marking? There must be something that only Salazar Slytherin can access. But how would he access it? It must be something special to him. Potions? No, there are many Potion Masters who aren't from Slytherin.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Guesses", "Questions", and "Salazar Slytherin".

Sol looked at the snake with a burning gaze when it finally clicked!

Yes! Snakes! It might have something to do with snakes. Should I try Parseltongue? But I don't know anyone who knows Parseltongue. Could Harry know? He does have Voldemort's soul inside him. Or could I use Lamiaspeak? I'll try it first using Lamiaspeak, if it doesn't work then I'll have to find someone who can speak Parseltongue. If any of those don't work, it might be that only a special potion can prompt something. I really hope it isn't the last one. I'll die of old age before I can experiment with every combination.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Guesses", "Questions", "Harry Potter", "Languages", "Voldemort" and "Revelations".

Okay, that's it! Now, I don't have a use for the diary.

-*Ding* New thought generated. Filing under "Decisive Actions".

Sol focused and his mind palace shook. After a while, the tremors shook. Sol had a smile of relief on his translucent face. He looked back at his computer and closed the folders. He then right-clicked on the desktop and clicked one of the options that popped up. Instantly a box with a line of text popped up.

-Delete extra and repeat thoughts? Y/N

Sol clicked on the 'Y' and another line of text popped up with a progress box underneath.

-Deleting extra and repeated thoughts: 1...2...4...%

The progress bar slowly filled up as Sol up from the chair and stretched. "Eugh!" he let out a moan and left the room. He swaggered around his mind palace happily, no smoke-like black tendrils in sight. Wherever the tendrils were, those places had black markings on them. These parts were receding at a fast pace. The corruption was being forced out of his mind. He walked around and found his split consciousness who was controlling his body and merged with him. Outside his mind, the light in Sol's eyes gradually brightened and returned to its normal state. Sol looked around and saw a big glass Butterbeer in front of him. The Weasley twins, Katie, Cormac, Lee, and some of the Quidditch team were talking beside him and to him. Sol abruptly stood up and downed the glass of Butterbeer in front of him. The sweet taste of the Butterbeer filled his mouth whilst the little alcohol slightly burned his throat.

"Ahh!" Sol exhaled in satisfaction and looked at the others. "Sorry, got to go."

"Huh? What?" Katie threw him a confused look.

"Where are ya going?" Cormac asked him. "Back to the castle," Sol replied before heading out the door.

As they watched Sol's figure through the window of the Three Broomsticks Inn, Katie asked with a sullen face, "What's up with him?"

Seeing the downcast look on her face, Cormac teased with a sly grin, "What? Were you hoping to go on a date to Madam Puddifoot's with him?" Cormac knew he'd get with a jab as soon as he said it, so he dodged the first one.

"Aha!" Cormac exclaimed in triumph only to get hit with a second jab to the stomach. "Ough!" he cried out in pain.

"Hmph!" Katie snorted before going back to drinking.

On the other hand, Sol passed by various stores and houses which were covered in snow as he headed towards the castle with a resolute and somewhat expectant look on his face.

There might be some treasure right...?