"Lost?"
"Yes, I’ve looked everywhere..."
"When?"
"... I realized it was missing when I woke up a few days ago."
"So she’s..." William nodded his head, not showing urgency, but instead looked at Luna, who was staring at the portrait absentmindedly behind Ginny.
"I ran into Luna near the tower this morning, she offered to help me..."
Perhaps influenced by William’s demeanor, the urgency in Ginny’s voice slowly disappeared. She took a breath and continued, "We’ve been searching the castle for several days: common room, classrooms, bathrooms... We’ve looked everywhere, but still haven’t seen it—"
"It’s okay, if it’s lost, it’s lost, it’s not important." William waved his hand, signaling the others to stay calm.
"But... didn’t you say it was related to Dark Arts?" Ginny was a little dumbfounded, "If someone else picks it up..."
"Yes, it does sound dangerous." Luna nodded along.
"Alright, I didn’t want to say it originally, but now that we’re here..."
William nodded, took a deep breath, his expression slightly darkened. Ginny waited nervously for the "sentence," because she lost the item and had refused William’s previous suggestion of him keeping it, so even if the result was getting expelled from Hogwarts after telling the professors, she could accept it...
"... Let’s eat first. Can you handle spicy?"
"..."
"?"
...
"Sir, these are the spices you mentioned last time—"
In Hogwarts’ kitchen, a House-Elf was eagerly introducing the things on the shelf to William. These were items from the list William provided; by the late 20th century, there were quite a few Chinese immigrants in Great Britain, making these supplies easier to get than a hundred years ago.
It’s meal time now, and the kitchen was bustling with activity. Countless dishes were placed on the long table at the center of the kitchen and then disappeared, among them were dishes William added to the Hogwarts kitchen menu.
"Ahem, well done, Luck..."
Even just receiving a casual compliment gave the House-Elf following William great encouragement. Although he stammered without saying much, his face lit up with genuine delight.
"Alright, you go ahead and get busy."
After sending the Elf away, William turned around and sat across from Ginny and Luna. They were sitting at a small table in the kitchen—this was a special spot William used for private meals, which Hufflepuff students often borrowed when not going to the dining hall.
"Uh, slow down your eating, no one’s taking it from you..."
Placing Kabuda on the table to let it feed itself, William picked up his chopsticks and watched Ginny stuff chicken into her mouth, her concern for her image vanished after the first bite.
"Woo-woo—" Ginny’s face was flushed red, the color on her cheeks almost matching her hair.
"She says it’s very spicy," Luna translated, she refrained from touching the frightening plate of chili, more interested in the Niffler on the table.
William waved his magic wand, and three cups of pumpkin juice appeared on the table.
For some reason, recently Hogwarts kitchen had an increasing stockpile of chicken and pumpkin—the abundance of pumpkins William understood, as the ones he expanded using the Engorgement Charm were enough to feed the school’s students and professors for half a month, but the chickens...
No clue.
"Ahem—"
Downing the pumpkin juice, Ginny tried to hold the chopsticks again, struggling to use the two wooden sticks to pick up food, but challenges are meant to be overcome—
"So, tell me, how did you lose the diary?"
After a period of silent eating, William finally brought the conversation back to the main topic.
"Last weekend evening, I was talking to it in the common room, trying to find out what it truly was—" Ginny paused, squinting slightly as she recalled, then continued, "But by early morning the day before yesterday, it vanished—I searched through all my belongings these days, at first I suspected my roommates, but why would they take a seemingly useless old diary..."
"So for these past days, she has been helping me search from the common room all the way to the Astronomy Tower—"
Luna pulled out her necklace carved from glass from Kabuda’s pocket, playing happily with the Niffler.
"But it’s been nowhere to be found, maybe I left it in the common room last night, but I asked many people and no one admitted picking up a black notebook," Ginny added, the two singing in unison as if they rehearsed it.
"It’s been several days already?" William nodded, "Alright..." He stared at the girl’s crown, the once vibrant blue-green glow was gone, he roughly had a guess—
That diary might have somehow consumed the "defensive measure" he placed on Ginny.
This was truly unexpected; he initially thought it was just an ordinary and ancient, powerless Dark Arts item but apparent, anything linked to Ancient Magic is far from simple.
Now, searching for a Dark Arts item that regained power inside a castle is no easy task.
Perhaps, he should take some time to visit the diary’s former owner?
After reassuring the first-year students and promising not to "report them" to have Ginny sent to Azkaban, William packed some roast meat and left the kitchen—
He returned to the Room of Requirement using the dormitory’s fireplace, tossed the meat to a certain greedy creature, and chose to cast aside these unrelated interruptions and started his homework—
Despite having rewards of no homework in Transfiguration Class, Herbology, Magical Creatures Class, and other subjects due to excellent performance in several oral exams and good post-class study results...
He still had to tackle assignments in Defense Against Dark Arts, Magic History, and Potions Class himself.
The reason being he didn’t want to deal with one Professor, another Professor simply ignored him—and the last one was someone he had a direct feud with.
A certain unnamed Potions Class Professor specifically assigned him three additional seven-inch essays during holidays, he attempted to appeal to Professor McGonagall but she couldn’t interfere with another Professor’s teaching.
Tsk, one day he would completely wipe clean that old bat’s head!