Ch. 16: The Diary

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Harry, Ron, and I, after leaving the hospital wing, were walking down the second-floor corridor. As we were walking, we suddenly spotted a flood of water on the ground outside of the girls' bathroom where we had brewed the Polyjuice Potion. Just after we spotted it, we heard sobbing coming from inside and instantly knew it was Myrtle.

"Looks like Myrtle's flooded the bathroom again," Harry said.

We all three made our way through the water into the bathroom. We followed the sobbing to the last stall, and Myrtle spun around and looked at us with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Come to throw something else at me?" Myrtle asked, much to our confusion.

"Why would I throw something at you?" Harry asked.

"Don't ask me. Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me..." Myrtle said.

"But it can't hurt if someone throws something at you. I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?" Ron asked.

This seemed to be the wrong thing to say, as Myrtle's voice rose in anger when she spoke.

"Oh, sure! Let's all just throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head!" Myrtle shouted.

"Who threw it at you, anyway?" Harry asked.

Myrtle's voice softened again.

"I don't know. I didn't see them. I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell through the top of my head," Myrtle answered.

Harry then looked at something. I followed his eyes to see a small black book. Harry walked over and picked it up.

"Fifty points if you can get it through her nose," Ron said jokingly to Harry.

"I heard that!" Myrtle shouted.

We all decided to get out of there before Myrtle got even more upset.

As we're walking down the corridor, Harry examined the book.

"It's a diary. And it's old," Harry said.

"It's a diary, it's old, and it's recently been in a toilet, Harry," Ron said.

"Ron, you know those toilets never get used," I said.

Harry then began to open it as Ron and I both stopped him.

"Are you mad? That could be cursed. Dad once told me about a book the Ministry confiscated that burned the eyes out of anyone who tried to read it," Ron said.

"Yeah, Harry. Ron's right on this one," I said. "We should have it examined first, at least."

"I'll take my chances," Harry said and opened the diary before either of us had a chance to stop him a second time. "Ahh! My eyes! My eyes!"

Ron looked terrified, but I just rolled my eyes.

"Come on now, Harry, that's not funny," I said.

Harry grinned. When we looked ahead, we all spotted Ginny Weasley, standing at the end of the corridor with a horrified look on her face. Then, she ran off.

"Ginny! I was only joking-" he started before realizing she was gone. He then looked at Ron. "Brilliant. Even your sister thinks I'm the monster now."

"Who doesn't?" Ron said.

I almost said something, but stopped myself. After all, he wasn't wrong. Ron then looked at the diary as he frowned. I looked to see what he was looking at. On the first page, there was a name: Tom Marvolo Riddle.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle?" I asked.

"Hang on. I know that name..." Ron said. After a few moments, it seemed something had came back to him. "Of course! The night I had detention! My job was to polish the silver in the trophy room. I remember because I kept burping slugs all over Tom Riddle's trophy. I must have wiped slime off his name for an hour."

Harry then flipped through the pages.

"That's odd. He never wrote in it," Harry said, showing us that the book was, in fact, empty.

"Hang on, let me try something," I said, and Harry handed me the book.

I waved my wand and casted a spell that would reveal invisible ink.

"Well, it's not invisible ink. We should talk to Hermione about this," I suggested.

"You guys go on. I'll wait for you in the Common Room," Ron said.

Harry and I nodded as we made our way to the hospital wing. When we got there, we showed Hermione the diary and explained how we found it. She studied it for a bit.

"Tom Riddle. Hm. And Ron said he won an award fifty years ago?" Hermione asked.

"Special Services to the School or something," Harry said.

"Fifty years ago? You're sure?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. Why?" Harry asked, and I realized what Hermione was saying.

"Harry, she's asking because don't you remember what Malfoy told you? The last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened was-" I started and it seemed the realization had hit him, too.

"Fifty years ago! That means-" Harry started.

"Tom Riddle was here at Hogwarts when it happened. What if he wrote about what he saw?" Hermione said. "It's possible he knew where the Chamber was, how to open it, even what sort of creature lives in it. If so, whoever's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want a diary like this lying around, would they?"

"That's a brilliant theory, Hermione. With just one tiny little flaw. There's nothing written in this diary," Harry said.

"It might be invisible ink," Hermione said as she started to pull out her wand.

"I already tried that. Nothing," I said.

"Of course you did," Hermione said. "Well, I don't know, guys. But Harry, I think you should be careful with this. Something tells me Ron might be right. It could be dangerous."

"You guys don't think I'm dangerous, do you? I mean, you're not scared. Of me," Harry said.

"I'm scared Harry, but not of you," Hermione said.

"Harry, I've already told you there's no way you could've done any of this. We were with you when the first attack happened," I said.

"Right," Harry said.

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