𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐄 ¹

38. the heir of slytherin

Harper paled. "You didn't," she muttered, knowing what he had done.

"What d'you mean?" Harry said, looking from her to Riddle.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter? Your sister has," Riddle said softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

"No," Harper growled. "You did!"

"Yes," Riddle said, calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries . . . Far more interesting, they became . . . Dear Tom," he recited, watching our horrified faces, "I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got here. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me . . . There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad . . . I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom."

Harper's fists were clenched, the nails digging deeper into her palms.

"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," Riddle said. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet . . ."

"And why did you want to meet me?" Harry said, while Harper felt anger coursing through her.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," Riddle replied. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and his expression grew hungrier. "I knew I must find more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust."

"Hagrid's our friend," Harper defended the half-giant.

"You framed him, didn't you?" Harry spoke up. "I thought you made a mistake, but . . ."

Riddle laughed his high laugh again.

"It was my word against Hagrid's. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school Prefect, model student; on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls. But I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I though someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance . . . as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!

"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed. Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did . . ."

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," Harry said, gritting his teeth.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," Riddle said carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."