The Potter Twins and the Chamber of Secrets {2}

19. Riddle's Tale *

"Can't take the kid from the fight, take the fight from the kid" ~ Camisado, Panic! At The Disco

It's the beginning of February, and Hermione is finally out of Hospital, completely back to her normal self.

Late one night, Harry and I sit down in the common room with the diary we found in the bathroom. Oddly enough, there isn't any wiring in the pages;

"Haylee write something in it," Harry whispers, passing me some ink and a quill.

I dip the quill in the ink and drop a blot of ink on the first blank page. It shines brightly for a second and then suddenly, it vanishes, like it was sucked into the page.

Excited, I continue writing, with Harry looming over my shoulder;

"My name is Haylee Potter, and this is my brother Harry."

The words shine brightly and then vanish again. And then, after what feels like an age, something appears in my writings place.

'Hello, Haylee and Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by this diary?'

These words also vanish, and I write back;

'Someone tried to flush it down a toilet.'

I look to Harry momentarily, eagerly awaiting Riddle's reply.

'Lucky that I recorded my memories in some more lasting way than ink. But I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read."

But it's just a diary what could he have inside that's so special?

'What do you mean?'
I write back eagerly.

'I mean that this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things which were covered up. Things which happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.'

"No way," I hear Harry murmur.

'That's where we are now. We're at Hogwarts and horrible stuff has been happening. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?'

I write back quickly, my usually neat handwriting barely readable.

My heart is hammering within my chest, and I can feel Harry's uneven breath on the back of my neck.

'Of course, I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Professor Dippit, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me, to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They have me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned.'

I nearly tip over the ink bottle in a frantic hurry to reply;

'It's happening again now. There have been attacks and no one seems to know who's behind them. Who was it last time?'

'I can show you if you like,' Riddle replies, 'you don't have to take my word on it. I can take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him.'

"What does he mean?" Harry whispers in my ear, as I hesitate my quill over the parchment.

'Let me show you.'

I pause again, for a split-second before replying;

'Okay.'

The pages of the diary begin to blow as if they're caught in a high wind, and they stop as they reach the month of June.