DISCLAIMER
I do not own Harry Potter ... but if I did Christian Coulson's Tom Riddle would've made more appearances cause damnnnnnnn
__________<>__________
The world around Harry was void of colour.
Everything he laid eyes on was a grotty shade of slime green or grey.
But he didn't need colour to work out where he was.
He was still in Hogwarts.
But instead of being in the warmth of the Gryffindor common room, he was now in one of the hallways.
Harry slowly and cautiously walked along the halls before rounding the corner, stopping at the foot of a stone staircase.
On one of the higher levels he saw a boy, seemingly older than him, dressed in a Hogwarts robe, staring up towards the top of the stairs.
"Excuse me", Harry started to say as he walked up the stairs, approaching the boy.
"Could you tell me what's going on here?" he added.
The boy with styled dark hair didn't even acknowledge his presence, his eyes not wavering from the top of the staircase.
"Are you Tom Riddle?" Harry then asked.
Everything was confusing him, and so he needed to stick to the things he knew.
Tom Riddle bought him here.
50 years ago.
To show him something to do with the Chamber of Secrets.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" Harry found himself asking, stopping just two steps down from the boy.
Again, he wasn't met with so much as a slight glance.
Being closer, Harry could now see a prefect badge pinned onto the boy's robe.
With the colours around him being so distorted, it was tricky to make out just what house he was prefect of.
The robes didn't help there, either.
And instead of trying and failing yet again to get his attention, Harry decided to follow the boys eyeline up the set of stairs.
He saw a range of older witches and wizards, four of which were heading down towards them, each holding a corner of a small wooden stretcher.
Both the boy and Harry watched on as the four adults walked down the stairs.
As they passed him, Harry saw what all the commotion was about.
There was a limp arm hanging out of a white sheet.
It was a body.
A dead body.
That what was on the stretcher.
"Riddle?" a familiar voice called out.
Harry turned around to see just why it was so familiar.
"Come."
"Professor Dumbledore", the boy Harry was now certain was Tom Riddle replied as he made his way towards the headmaster.
"Dumbledore", Harry muttered under his breath before following after Tom.
"It is not wise to be wandering around this late hour, Tom", Dumbledore warned.
"Yes, professor. I suppose I – I had to see for myself if the rumours were true", Tom responded.
"I'm afraid they are, Tom. They are true", Dumbledore sternly said.
"About the school as well? I don't have a home to go to, they wouldn't really close Hogwarts, would they, professor?" Tom asked.
His question struck something in Harry.
He considered Hogwarts to be his true home.
It closing would be a nightmare for him, and for another one of his best friends who he knew didn't have a home to go back to at all.
"I understand, Tom, but I'm afraid ... Headmaster Dippet may have no choice", Dumbledore replied.
Hearing Dumbledore wasn't the headmaster was odd, but Harry had been filled with an odd feeling ever since arriving in the past.
"You live in a muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?" Dumbledore then asked, noticing the destressed look upon Tom's face.
"Yes, sir", Tom replied.
"You are muggle-born?"
"Half-blood, sir. Muggle father, witch mother."
"And are both your parents –?"
"My mother died just after I was born. She lived long enough to name me. Tom after my father and Marvolo after my grandfather."
Dumbledore looked sympathetically at him.
As did Harry.
But this story all sounded so familiar to him.
"I'm sure Headmaster Dippet would have made special arrangements for you ... but in the current circumstances, you'll be safer at the orphanage."
It was familiar because it was Bel's story.
Well, there were slight deviations, but the resemblance was astonishing.
However, it wasn't something he had time to dwell on as he was too focused taking in what was around him.
Tom looked away in thought before saying, "Sir, if it all stopped, if the person responsible was caught ..."
Harry saw Dumbledore change his expression.
He looked at Tom Riddle with suspicious eyes, searching deep into his soul for an answer to one of his questions.
"Is there something you wish to tell me?" Dumbledore asked.
"No, sir. Nothing", Tom replied quickly and convincingly.
It was uncanny.
The resemblance in both that question and that answer to the very one Harry himself had with the headmaster last term.
After a second more of Dumbledore looking suspiciously at the student, he said, "Very well, then. Off you go."
"Good night, sir", Tom said before walking away.
Harry decided to follow him.
He was already handed more information about the events with the Chamber 50 years ago than ever before.
Tom walked through the hallways and stopped down in the dungeons by the potion's classroom.
He was outside of a wooden door, reaching into his robe pocket.
Harry was a few paces back, watching as Tom pulled out his wand and threw the door open.
"Evening, Hagrid", Tom said, pointing his wand at a giant boy wearing a Hogwarts robe stood in the room.
Hagrid? Harry thought.
"I'm going to have to turn you in, Hagrid", Tom said as Hagrid slammed the top of a large wooden chest shut.
"I don't think you meant it to kill anyone, but –", he continued before Hagrid interrupted him.
"You can't. You don't understand", the half-giant's familiar voice begged.
"The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered", Tom said sternly, not lowering his wand as he walked further into the room, Harry following after him.
"It wasn't him. Aragog never killed no one. Never!" Hagrid defended.
"Monsters don't make good pets, Hagrid. Now stand aside", Tom demanded.
Harry was getting more and more confused by the second.
It was being made out in front of his own eyes that Hagrid was somehow involved in the death of a student.
The student he had seen earlier.
But it made no sense.
It was Hagrid.
"No!" Hagrid yelled, keeping his stance in front of the wooden box.
"Stand aside, Hagrid!" Tom yelled back.
"No!" Hagrid replied again.
Tom didn't ask a third time.
Instead, he cast the Cistem Aperio spell, the lid of the box exploding off.
Harry watched in horror as a giant spider crawled out of the box, quickly making its way out of the room.
"Arania Exumai", Tom shouted, trying to hit the spider with the spell, but missed.
"Aragog!" Hagrid yelled out in alarm as he tried to go after the spider, but Tom stopped him, holding him at wand point.
"I can't let you go. They'll have your wand for this, Hagrid. You'll be expelled", Tom said.
That was enough for Harry to hear.
It wasn't making sense.
Hagrid was known for his care of magical creatures, some of them considered monsters, but he could never try and cover for one that may have harmed someone.
Harry also knew about how cautious he was with Bel in the forest.
She had explained that she had ten lessons on safety before she was allowed on her first duty. Hagrid had insisted.
But what else was there to explain?
That spider was enormous, perhaps it did kill that girl.
"Hagrid!" Harry yelled out as he saw the younger version of his friend hang his head in shame or defeat.
But he felt a strange pull from behind him.
The sight of Tom Riddle holding Hagrid behind in that small room slowly moved further and further away from him.
And suddenly, he was back in the Gryffindor common room.
Colour and clarity returning to the world around him.
However, his mind was the total opposite.
It was shades of grey and confusion.
But there was one thing that was highlighted in his mind.
The only thing he could make sense of considering what he had just seen with his own two eyes.
Hagrid must have been the one to open the Chamber of Secrets.
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The next day, Harry had immediately filled Ron and Hermione in on everything he could remember.
They hadn't discussed a single other topic all day, only running through the events Harry had told them.
Which was exactly what they were doing as they walked into the courtyard.
"That does sound eerily like Bel's life story", Ron pointed out as Harry explained what Tom Riddle had said to Dumbledore.
"I guess so. But both of Bel's parents are dead. And, according to Malfoy, she is a pureblood. And she doesn't go back to the muggle orphanages during holidays, she stays here. I doubt Tom Riddle had the same reason as she does", Hermione explained.
"It's not important. It was just weird", Harry interjected.
It was true.
Linking Bel's past to Tom Riddle's past was an unnecessary thing to do.
It certainly didn't have anything to do with the Chamber of Secrets.
It was merely a coincidence.
Plain and simple.
"What is important is that it was Hagrid. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets 50 years ago", Harry continued on.
"It can't be Hagrid. It just can't be", Hermione said for the tenth time that day.
"We don't even know this Tom Riddle. He sounds like a dirty, rotten snitch to me. Kind of like Percy", said Ron.
"The monster had killed somebody, Ron. What would any of us had done?" Harry argued.
There was something that he had dreamt of last night.
In the time between closing his eyes and waking up to tell Ron and Hermione, he had a dream.
Actually, it was more of a nightmare.
He was back in the same place as before, but this time he was standing where Tom Riddle stood.
And the girl under the white sheet had been Bel.
She had been going after the monster, surrounding herself with danger, doing it all alone.
If that had happened, Harry knew he would turn in anyone he believed was responsible.
Even if it didn't seem plausible.
"Look, Hagrid's our friend. Why don't we just go and ask him about it?" Hermione offered.
"That would be a cheerful visit. 'Hello Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'" Ron replied sarcastically.
"Mad and hairy? You wouldn't be talking about me now, would ya?"
The three Gryffindors turned around to see Hagrid towering over them.
"No", they all answered at the same time and speed.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, where it was apparent that their answer wasn't exactly true.
"What's that you've got, Hagrid?" Harry then asked to move along.
"Oh, it's uh, flesh eating slug repellent. For the Mandrakes, ya know. Now, accordin' to Professor Sprout, they've still got a bit of growing up to do, but once their acne's cleared up, we'll be able to chop 'em up and stew 'em, and then we'll get those people at the 'ospital un-petrified", Hagrid explained, and the three students all nodded along.
"In the meantime, though, you three had best be lookin' after yourselves, all right? And that Bel too. Speaking of which, you haven't seen her, have ya?" the half-giant then asked.
"She's over there", Harry immediately replied, pointing over to one of the stone benches at the side of the courtyard.
He had laid eyes on his friend the second they entered the courtyard.
She was sat with three of her Hufflepuff friends that Harry recognised.
What had caught his attention had been hearing her laugh.
It reminded him of why he hadn't gone to find her the second he was placed back into the present.
She needed to be kept out of this.
Of course, he had explained his reasoning to both Ron and Hermione so they could zip their lips.
Hermione, naturally, didn't like it one bit.
But Harry explained that her safety was on the line, and so the two had reluctantly agreed to follow his lead.
It did soon make itself apparent just how difficult that was going to be.
Just as Harry had spotted Bel when they arrived, Bel had spotted Harry.
"Hey guys. Hello Hagrid", Bel greeted as she approached the group.
She was dressed in her Hufflepuff robe and scarf, just as the three friends she had left were.
Ollie, Riley, and Tia all staring over at the group with slight distaste.
"There ya are. I need to talk to ya about tonight. I don't need ya to come along into the forest with me", Hagrid addressed the new addition.
Harry looked at Ron and Hermione with curious eyes, all three wondering just why Hagrid wasn't bringing Bel along.
This would be the first time.
And it seemed too coincidental with what they believed to be happening for it to go unnoticed.
"Oh, I mean ... I won't complain having a night off. But why? Is there something wrong?" Bel asked.
"No, no, no, nothin' like that. I just figured tonight won't take both of our efforts. Get some more rest, eh?" Hagrid replied quickly.
A little too quickly.
Bel nodded and didn't seem to appear suspicious in any way.
If Harry was being honest with himself, and he felt guilty for doing so, he was glad Bel wouldn't be going into the forest with Hagrid soon.
If his suspicions were correct, Hagrid was a dangerous person to be around right now.
"Is everything all right?" Bel then asked, taking notice of the shared suspicious glances of her Gryffindor friends.
"Everything's just fine", Ron blurted out.
"Nothing odd going on at all", Hermione added.
Now Bel was looking suspicious herself.
Harry had to hold back from face planting his head in his hand.
"Okay ...", Bel muttered.
Before she could continue on with the many questions Harry suspected she would have for them, Neville came running up to them in a panic.
"Harry! I don't know who did it, but you better come! Come on!" Neville exclaimed before running back into the school.
Against Harry's better judgment, Bel followed them all the way towards the Gryffindor common room.
Of course, he would want her there under any other circumstances.
But she was supposed to be kept away from anything unknown or dangerous if he had anything to do with it.
And when they entered Harry's shared dorm, he saw that holding back information to do so would be difficult.
His room was totally trashed.
Drawers wide open, clothes and papers scattered everywhere, lamps and picture frames smashed causing glass to be littered across the floor.
His bed was also torn to shreds, small white feathers floating up around the room.
"It had to be a Gryffindor. Nobody else knows our password", Hermione reasoned.
With her sentence, everyone turned to Bel, except for Harry who was frantically rustling through the books on the ground.
"I didn't do it!" Bel immediately defended herself.
"Of course you didn't", Ron replied.
"I didn't tell anyone the password, either. I swear", Bel added, knowing where their minds would be going.
"My point exactly. It had to have been a Gryffindor", Hermione said, showing her trust in her friend.
"Unless it wasn't a student", the Gryffindor girl then added.
"Whoever it was, they must have been looking for something", Bel reasoned as she glanced around the room.
It was rather odd for her to be stood in Harry and Ron's boy dormitory.
But the state of it, and the situation they were now in, meant she didn't dwell on that feeling.
"What makes you say that?" Harry then asked, standing up straight.
"Look at this place. They destroyed it. Who would do that unless they were looking for something that was hidden. Something in a place they didn't know", Bel explained.
Whilst Bel took a step into the room to try and comfort the distressed Hedwig, Harry looked towards Ron and Hermione with wide eyes.
Bel was right, of course. Someone had been looking for something.
And they had found it.
He couldn't find Tom Riddle's diary anywhere.
But he couldn't bring it up in front of Bel, she would ask why it was so important.
"Nah ... I think it must have been a first year playing a prank or something. Nothing to worry about", Harry quickly said before gesturing for everyone to leave the room.
"Are you sure?" Bel asked as the group all walked down into the common room.
"Yep. I mean ... what would I have that someone would want?" Harry lied.
Bel stood still, her mind clearly turning before she looked up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione all stood waiting for her reaction.
"I guess you're right", she eventually replied, and the three Gryffindors let out a sigh of relief.
But just as she turned to leave, she stopped herself, adding, "What's going on with you three? You're acting ... strange."
"Are we?" Harry asked as he turned to his friends for help.
"I certainly don't think so", Hermione joined in.
"Maybe you're just paranoid, Bel. You know ... after last term", Ron added.
Bel glanced down at the floor, reminiscing on the stress she had been under last term.
The guilt she felt, the pressure of failing again and again.
Perhaps it did have a lasting effect.
"It's not unreasonable that I might be. But if there is something going on ... I hope you three would tell me about it", she muttered.
It did feel hypocritical.
Bel herself had a tendency to keep things from people, even her closest friends.
But it was in the interest of their safety.
What she didn't know is that was exactly what they were now doing to her.
However, no matter the hypocrisy, Harry felt as she had.
Guilty.
"Of course we would", he said almost in a shameful whisper.
Bel smiled at the three of them before excusing herself to go back to find her Hufflepuff friends, seemingly satisfied with their conversation.
"I don't know how much longer we can keep the truth about this diary from her", Ron said once she had left.
"She isn't an idiot, Harry. Think about last year, what would we have done without her? If it is Hagrid, maybe she could help?" said Hermione.
Harry did know Bel would be useful, very helpful, and a valued contribution to whatever mess they were getting themselves into.
"I know all of that. But Tom Riddle's diary is gone now. Involving her would stress her out again. If we tell her we think it's Hagrid she'll definitely go to him. We agreed not to do that. The best thing to do right now is to keep her out of it. It's for the best."
Hermione and Ron both shared a disapproving glance but nodded in agreement.
Keeping Bel out of it was for the best.
What was the worst that could happen?
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I'M ALL OVER THE PLACE
IDEK WHAT I'M WRITING ANYMORE
Like I zone out and suddenly a chapter is done lmao