ActualWeeb: ...I'm just as shocked as you are. I can't believe I wrote another chapter in one day. Hopefully it doesn't suck, and I can't really tell, because I hate 99% of my work in the first place.

Anyways, I hope to continue to update as fast as I am now! Let's keep our fingers crossed.

I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter Eight, The Deathday Party

"Oh, I've been to line of those," said McGonagall. "They're not pleasant."

...that her whole head was on fire. Bella had been trying since the start of the school year to approach Ginny, but it was no use. Each time she tried to speak to her, Ginny gave a squeak and ran away. Bella assumed that perhaps she was shy, but she wasn't shy towards her family because she'd known them her whole life.

"Is she really?" Bill asked.

"No,'' Bella answered. "For once, I was extremely wrong about someone's personality."

Lilly Moon, however, began having tea with Hagrid every once and awhile.

"That's sweet," said Molly. "He could use the company."

Bella thought this was quite nice- Hagrid deserved some company aside from Bella.

Raindrops the size of bullets...

...shooting through the air like missiles.

"I want a Nimbus Two Thousand and One," James said wistfully.

"I have the model that came after that," Bella replied. "You can use it whenever you want."

"Really?!" James exclaimed. Bella nodded.

"Yeah, Sirius bought it for me."

"SIRIUS!" Lily yelled. "I thought I told you not to spoil her!"

"Yes, but it was the first present I ever gave her that she would remember," he shrugged. "See it as my way of making up for all the missed Christmases and birthdays."

...don't fulfill their requirements… half an inch, if that..."

"Sounds wrong out of context, doesn't it?" Ginny whispered to Daphne. Daphne suppressed a snort.

...lamp-like yellow eyes.

"Oh, no," Remus groaned.

...and George Weasley had an entire drawer to themselves. Bella noticed a very dusty drawer next to it labeled 'Marauders', but Bella didn't know who that was.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" James and Sirius yelled, high-fiving.

"PADFOOT, PRONGS, SHUT UP!" Remus yelled over them. He paused. "Huh. I haven't said that sentence in fourteen years."

"Yeah, that was your catchphrase, Moony," Padfoot laughed.

She pushed the thought from her mind. A highly polished...

...Crime …"

"Yikes, you really got him in a bad mood," George laughed.

...didn't much like Peeves,

"What? You don't like Peeves?" James exclaimed. "He's great!"

"To be fair, he's kind of an asshole to me in this year," she shrugged.

"Like what?" James asked.

"It hasn't shown much of Peeves yet," Bella said. "But if the book doesn't show him, I'll just explain later."

...KWIKSPELL

"Kwikspell?!" Sirius exclaimed. "Flich is a Squib?"

"What's that?" asked Tom.

"It'll be explained later," Bella told him.

...my five hundredth deathday,"

"Is that bad?" Tom asked.

"I'm still not all that sure,'' Bella laughed.

...it'll be fascinating!"

"I was wrong," Hermione sighed.

...Sounds dead depressing to me..."

"Don't speak to me in that tone of pun, young man," said Fred.

...fed a Filibuster firework to a salamander.

"FRED! GEORGE!" Molly exclaimed. ra

"Sorry, Mum," they said in unison with a grin.

...a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead.

"Ouch," Susan said.

...by the other ghosts.

All of a sudden, a ghost stood in their way. Bella recognized her as a ghost she'd passed many times in the corridor, but had never spoken had waist length black hair and a floor-length robe. Bella supposed she was beauty, though she looked very haughty and proud.

"The Grey Lady?" Cho gasped. "But she never talks to anyone outside of Ravenclaw!"

"You are...Isabella Potter, correct?" she asked.

"Er, yeah," Bella blinked. "Why?"

"And am I right that you are in your second year?"

"Yes."

The ghost stared down at her with a strange expression on her face. "Take Divination in your next year," she ordered. "It will do you good." The way that she looked at Bella told her that this was not debatable.

"Why would she tell you that?" Cedric asked.

Luna frowned. She had a suspicion as of why, but...no, it couldn't be, right?

"Uh, okay," Bella blinked. The ghost nodded and left. Bella turned to look at Hermione, who was looking at her in shock. "What?"

"That's the Grey Lady," Hermione said. "She doesn't talk to anybody."

"Except for us Ravenclaws," said Cho.

"Oh. Weird," Bella shrugged. All of a sudden, Hermione looked up.

"Oh, no," said Hermione. "Turn back, I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle." Bella had heard of Moaning Myrtle, the girls in her dorm have complained about her.

"Who's that?" Ron blinked.

"She haunts one of the girl's toilets, I think," Bella told Ron. "I've never met her."

"She haunts a toilet?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "It's been out-of-order...

...OY! MYRTLE!"

"Dammit, Peeves," Ron hissed through his teeth.

...just talking about you," said Peeves slyly in Myrtles ear.

"Only in passing, really," Bella lied smoothly before Hermione could talk. "Ron didn't recognize you when he saw you, so we were just telling him that your name was Myrtle."

"Thank Merlin you're a good liar," Ginny sighed.

Myrtle eyed Bella suspiciously.

"You were telling him about how awful I am," she accused, silver tears welling rapidly in her small, see-through eyes. "That that's Moaning Myrtle over there! Fat Myrtle! Ugly Myrtle!"

"Why would we say such things about you when we don't know you?" Bella asked. "I don't think you're ugly."

Peeves grinned. "Oh, but they were! They were saying such mean things about you!"

"Don't listen to him," Bella told Myrtle when she began to cry. "He's always spewing lies like that- he's a poltergeist."

Myrtle began to look convinced and calm down when Peeves ruined by screeching, "They called you pimply!"

Moaning Myrtle burst into anguished sobs and fled from the dungeon. Peeves shot after her, pelting her with moldy peanuts, yelling, "Pimply! Pimply!"

"Oh, dear," said Hermione sadly. "At least you kept her calm for a little while, Bella."

Nearly Headless Nick now...

...here we go," said Nearly Headless Nick bitterly.

"Me, whenever you speak," Ginny whispered to Daphne. Daphne rolled her eyes.

...headless horseman.

"Are those the ghosts who rejected Nick?" Susan asked.

"Yep," said Ron.

...look at the fellow-"

Nick gave Bella a meaningful look.

"Well, to be fair, he can peel his head nearly off his neck," Bella pointed out. "You can see all the bones and muscles, it's really terrifying."

"Ha!"...

...started a game of Head Hockey and the crowd were turning to watch.

"What a dick," Tonks said.

"TONKS! There's a six-year-old here!" Molly scolded Tonks.

"But kids swear all the time!" Tonks turned to Tom. "What's the worst swear you know, kid?"

"Shi-" Tom started to say, but with a stern look from Bella he shut up. "Nevermind."

"Don't encourage children to swear, Tonks," Remus sighed. "I can't believe I actually have to tell you this."

…rip...tear...kill …

"It's that voice!" Susan gasped.

...Was it a phantom, to whom stone ceilings didnt matter?

A look of realization came upon Daphne's face as she realized what the voice was. Oh, yeah. This was on that night.

...I SMELL BLOOD!

"Dear God, that's horrifying," said Charlie.

...ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

"The Chamber of Secrets?" Sirius gasped. "Isn't that a myth?"

"The what?" Tom asked in confusion.

"There's a legend that Salazar Slytherin created a secret chamber that only his heir can open and control the monster within it," Bella answered.

"Why'd you tell him that?!" Ginny hissed. Bella shrugged.

"He's going to find out anyways."

"What's 'heir' mean?" Tom asked.

"Well, if Salazar Slytheirn is your ancestor, you'd be his heir," she explained.

"Oh... Is the heir of Slytherin a bad guy?" Tom asked. The message sure made it sound like the heir was evil.

Bella paused.

"They can be, if they choose to be."

...her eyes wide and staring.

"Well,'' said James nervously, "at least you can sneak around easier."

"Not with a grieving Filch, you can't," Ron grumbled.

...We don't want to be found here."

"Too late," Fred sang.

...You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

"Can't you shut the hell up for five seconds?!" Ron exclaimed.

"He's not speaking at the moment, Weasley," said Snape.

...the hanging, immobile cat.

"That's it," said Bill.

"I think we should take a break for a couple of minutes," Molly said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"We should get drinks for everyone," Lily suggested. And so, everyone bustled in the small kitchen to get a beverage. Mad-Eye could be found searching the cabinets for firewhiskey. After three minutes, he apparently realized there was no alcohol and headed into the dining room with a glass of water in hand. Bella stared after him. That was strange, everyone was going back to the main room to read again. What was Mad-Eye doing?

Deciding to take her chances, Bella opened the door to the dining hall and entered.

The second she walked in, her nostrils were assaulted by the smell of smoke, and Mad-Eye whipped his wand out of his pocket. Feeling her instincts kick in, Bella pointed her wand at him the second he began to take out his wand. A second later, both had each other's wands pointed at the other's face.

There was a pause as the two stared each other in the eyes before Moody laughed and lowered his wand.

"I always knew you had good instincts, Potter. You were almost as quick as me," Moody said with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Well, I guess years of paranoia will do that to you," Bella smirked, lowering her wand as well. She looked at Mad-Eye, who had a lit cigarette in his hand. "Smoking? Really, sir? There's no windows in here."

"Bah!" he said, waving his hand. "I can just vanish the smoke." He waved his wand, and the smoke disappeared. For a few seconds, Bella's nose was free of the smell, but seconds later, new smoke was created.

"God, that smells awful," Bella chuckled, leaning on one of the tables. "I could never smoke."

"That's what I thought, too, until I tried it," Alastor replied before blowing out a puff of smoke.

"I didn't even know you smoked," Bella commented. "Barty Crouch Jr. never smoked while impersonating you."

"I was planning to not smoke while at Hogwarts. Too many children, it might influence them, you know." He put the cigarette to his lips before puffing out another thing of smoke, causing Bella to hold back a cough. "But I'm sure you didn't come here to make small talk about cigarettes. There's something more on your mind, I can tell."

Bella frowned.

"Well, yeah," she said slowly. "It's about Crystalline."

"Aha, you see it too, don't you?"

"See what?" she asked.

"That she's suspicious," he told her. "She has given us not one bit of information about herself, yet she knows all of our past and future. Not only that, but she's giving this information to people who shouldn't be trusted with it."

"Like Malfoy?" she asked.

"Yes, but also like your friends, such as Longbottom and Weasley." When Bella opened her mouth to protest, Moody continued. "They're civilians, you see. In your future, I can guarantee that you will learn secret information. Giving that knowledge to children with no occlumency training, to civilians who could be killed for this knowledge, well, this Crystalline is almost assuring their deaths. They may be able to hold their stance in Defence Against the Dark Arts, but not against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"That also begs the question," said Bella. "Why did she bring Tom? I mean, he's six. He can't defend himself at all, and he clearly wouldn't know how to keep a secret. If he comes to our timeline- and I'm sure he will, he has nothing for him in his- then how would we protect him? Keep him secret?"

"Exactly," he said. "Even on the off-chance that the boy isn't tricking us, unless we lock him up and never let him outside, he will probably be kidnapped or killed."

"What do you mean 'on the off chance'?" Bella frowned. "Tom doesn't seem to show any signs of turning dark yet."

"That's the strange part," said Moody. "Dumbledore confided in me quite a few years ago, you see. He told me about how he used to teach You-Know-Who. Shortly after Rubeus was expelled, Dumbledore did a test. There's a potion that will show the statistics of what emotions a person is capable of feeling."

"I can't see sixteen-year-old Tom accepting that potion," she said.

"He didn't," Mad-Eye said. "That's why, with approval from Headmaster Dippet, who was headmaster at the time, he made it mandatory for the entire school. Only Dippet saw the results at the time, but years later, after Riddle had already become the well-known dark lord he is today, Dumbledore finally saw the results. Riddle isn't capable of feeling love, sadness, or guilt. Only anger, greed, pride, and fear."

"And Dippet let Riddle stay at the school after that?" Bella said in disbelief.

"Dumbledore believes that Dippet didn't want to accept the results. Riddle was a star pupil, you see, and stopped the attacks on the muggleborn from the Chamber of Secrets."

"So you know about all that?"

"Of course I do, who do you think I am?" he frowned. "My point is the Riddle we see now is either deceiving us, or he is not the same Riddle we have today. Whether that's because of Crystalline or some alternate timeline, I don't know, but my money is on Crystalline."

"I'll ask Tom about it," said Bella. "He can't lie to me."

"That's a good idea," said Moody. "But, if he's on Crystalline's side, be careful. She's hiding something, that's for sure."

"She's hiding a lot of something," Bella sighed. "Why does no one else seem suspicious of her?"

"Because she's powerful, and could easily kill us if she wanted."

"Um... I don't see how that cancels out suspicion."

"Think about it," Moody continued. "Someone from another universe comes with fancy technology and knowledge of our futures and fates. Somehow, she can transport us anywhere at will. When someone like that comes around, it's easiest to believe that they only have the best intentions for us."

"But why would she?" Bella sighed. "Why would she choose us? Does she do this with every universe, with every fictional series from her world? Or is there something she has to gain from us specifically?"

"Whatever her reason is for choosing us," said Mad-Eye, "I can bet that it's for her gain, not ours."

"Hey, Potter," said Mad-Eye after there was a long pause. "Do you think Dumbledore suspects Crystalline like we do?"

Bella paused.

"I think," she said slowly, "that Dumbledore knows something about her that we don't."

"What makes you say that? Do you suspect him?"

"No," Bella answered. "But there's a familiarity in his eyes whenever he sees her. Why do you ask? Do you suspect Dumbledore?"

Moody chuckled.

"No, I just wanted to see how far your suspicions could stretch."

He tossed his cigarette into a nearby trashcan and vanished the smoke once again. The two went out into the kitchen, but only Mad-Eye continued into the main room. The reason Bella remained in the kitchen, however, was because someone else was there.

Tom Riddle was sitting on the counter, refilling his glass of chocolate milk, a look of determination on his face. Bella cleared her throat, and Tom was startled enough that he knocked his glass to the ground, shattering it and spilling milk everywhere.

"Bell-Bell!" he exclaimed happily. "Uh...I broke a glass. Sowwy."

"Reparo," Bella said calmly, pointing her wand at the glass, which was repaired.

"Woah, that's so neat!" he exclaimed.

"Tom," Bella said, causing him to look up in confusion at the seriousness in her voice. "Could you tell me something?"

He nodded, looking at her with curiousity, wondering what had caused her to make the atmosphere so serious and tense. "Yes."

"Tom...Can you feel the emotion called 'love'?"

Aaand scene! What will happen next? Is Tom actually working with Crystalline? Is he deceiving them? Is he even the real Tom Riddle? Who knows?! I do, but I'm not going to tell you because I am awful. Also, because I'm curious, are you suspicious of Tom? Crystalline? Dumbledore? All three? Let me know in the reviews! On to the reviews!

fanfiction reviews:

Guest: Thanks! Also, as for the sexuality scene, that was a joke, cuz their sexualities aren't important to the story. The only canon lesbian in this is Daphne, and Bella's sexuality and gender is is up for interpretation, so you can headcanon her as whatever you want.

CJPotter4Life: Thank you! The bold thing isn't my idea, though, most RTB fics do that :p

training to be a fangirl: Aw, I'm sorry I couldn't make it long enough! At least I updated quickly again, right? Also, I agree, Lilly is one of my favorites in this fic. I hope I don't send you to St. Mungo's with all the mystery around Crystalline! Also, as for the electronics theory, we'll have to wait and see if it's true!

lilly-flower15: Thanks, I'll try to update ASAP!

Padfootette: Thank you! I'll update soon c:

Talon: What scene are you talking about?

KieranDell1409: Well, I'm always in my room, so one of those steps is complete.

god of all: Thanks, I'll try!

Rose099: I will :)

00-SilentObserver-13: Aw, thank you so much! I'm glad you find this interesting. And don't worry about Madame Pomfrey, she has to deal with broken noses all the time. :p

DarkRavie: Thanks a bunch!

wattpad comments:

Kili-Loverxxx:Thank you! I'll update ASAP.