The Very Secret Diary
Hermione remained in the hospital wing for several weeks. There was a flurry of rumour about her disappearance when the rest of the school arrived back from their Christmas holidays, because of course everyone thought that she had been attack.
So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey had to put curtains around her bed to save her the shame of being seen with a furry face. The only people other than She, Harry and Ron who knew what really happened was Lee and the twins, Briar having confided in them.
Briar, Harry and Ron went to visit Hermione every evening. When the new term started, they bought her each day's homework.
"If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work," said Ron, tipping a stack of books onto Hermione's bedside table one evening.
"Yeah, I'd be milking it for all it's worth" Briar agreed, putting more books on top of Ron's.
"Don't be silly, you two, I've got to keep up," said Hermione briskly.
Her spirits were greatly improved by the fact that all the hair had gone from her face and her eyes were turning slowly back to brown.
"I don't suppose you've got any new leads?" she added in a whisper, so that Madam Pomfrey couldn't hear.
"Nothing," said Harry gloomily.
"I was so sure it was Malfoy," said Ron, for about the hundredth time.
"I know I know what the monster is, all the pieces are there, I just can't put it together. I tried my book but the pages had been ripped out." Briar said, running a hand through her hair in frustration.
"What's that?" Harry asked.
Briar looked toward where he was pointing and saw that something gold was sticking out from under Hermione's pillow.
"Just a get well card," said Hermione hastily.
She tried to poke it out of sight, but Ron was too quick for her. He pulled it out, flicked it open and read aloud:
"To miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award."
Briar's nose wrinkled and she looked up at Hermione in disgust.
"He gave you that you sleep with it under your pillow?" she asked incredulously. "I would sleep with it in the bin"
Harry and Ron nodded in agreement, looking at Hermione with similar expressions of distaste.
But Hermione was spared answering by Madam Pomfrey sweeping over with her evening dose of medicine.
"Is Lockhart the smarmiest bloke you've ever met, or what?" Ron said to Brair and Harry as they left the infirmary and started up the stair toward Gryffindor Tower.
As they were going up to the tower Harry and Ron were moaning about how much homework Snivillus had given them. Ron went on about how he wished he had asked Hermione how many rat tails you were supposed to add to a Hair Raising Potion, but the boys were relieved when Briar said they could copy off hers since she had already finished it.
Harry and Ron were just in the process of thanking her when an angry outburst from the floor above reached their ears.
"I know that form anywhere-" Briar started.
"-It's Filch" Harry finished in a mutter as they hurried up the stair and paused, out of sight, listening hard.
"You don't think someone else has been attacked?" said Ron tensely, making Briar bite her lip in worry.
They stood still, their heads inclined toward Filch's voice, which sounded almost as hysterical as when he caught her and the twins in the act. She was sure she and the Weasley twins were the git's boggart.
"-Even more work for me! Mopping all night, like I haven't got enough to do! No, this is the final straw, I'm going to Dumbledore-"
His footsteps receded along the out-of-site corridor and they heard a distant door slam.
They poked their heads around the corner. Filch had clearly been manning his usual lookout post: they were once again on the spot where Mrs Norris had been attacked. They saw at first glance what Filch had been shouting about. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor, and it looked as though it was still seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
Now that Filch had stopped shouting, they could hear Myrtle's wails echoing off the bathroom walls.
"Now what's up with her?" said Ron.
"Who knows?" Briar scoffed. "She probably caught sight of her reflection or something. I'd cry too if I was going to look like that for eternity"
"Let's go and see," said Harry.
Holding their robes over their ankles they stepped through the great wash of water to the door bearing it's OUT OF ORDER sign, ignored it as always, and entered.
Moaning Myrtle was crying, if possible, louder and harder than ever before. She seemed to be hiding down her usual toilet.
It was dark in the bathroom because the candles had been extinguished in the great rush of water that had left both walls and floor soaking wet.
"What's up, Myrtle?" said Harry.
"Who's that?" glugged Myrtle miserably. "Come to throw something else at me?"
Harry waded across to her stall and said, "Why would I throw something at you?"
"Don't ask me," Myrtle shouted, emerging with a wave of yet more water, which splashed onto the already sopping floor. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me…"
A bubble of laughter escaped Briar's lips but she smothered it when the ghost glared at her.
"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you," said Harry, reasonably. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?"
His words got a worse reaction than Briar's laughter had.
Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked, "Let's all 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! Well, ha, ha, ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"
"I don't know, I think it sounds good right now" Briar muttered lowly to Ron, who nodded in agreement, looking at the ghost with wide eyes.
"Who threw it at you, anyway?" asked Harry.
"I don't know…I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head," said Myrtle, glaring at them. "It's over there, it got washed out…"
Briar, Harry and Ron looked under the sink where Myrtle was pointing. A small, thin book lay there. It had a shabby black cover and was as wet as everything else in the bathroom. Briar and Harry stepped forward to pick it up, but Ron suddenly flung out an arm to hold them back.
"What?" said Briar and Harry simultaneously.
"Are you crazy?" said Ron. "It could be dangerous"
"Dangerous?" said Harry, laughing. "Come off it, how could it be dangerous?"
"You'd be surprised," said Ron, who was looking apprehensively at the book. "Some of the books the Ministry confiscated Dad's told me – there was one that burned your eyes out. And everyone who read sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives.
"Oh yeah" Briar said in realisation looking at the book the same way Ron had. "My Uncle Moony knew this witch in bath who had a book that you could never stop reading, she had to wander round with her nose in it, trying to do everything one handed" Briar shuddered at the idea.
The little book lay on the floor, nondescript and soggy.
"Well we won't find out unless we look at it," Harry said and he ducked around Ron and picked it up off the floor.
"If your eyes are burned out I will kill you" Briar threatened, looking at her twin and the book worriedly.
Briar looked over her brother's shoulder and saw that it was a diary, and the faded year on the cover told them it was fifty years old. Harry opened it and she flinched, but nothing happened. Looking down on the first page was the faded name, 'T . M . Riddle' in smudged ink.
Briar frowned, she knew that name somewhere…
"Hang on," said Ron, who was looking over Harry's other shoulder, a lot easier than she had considering he's not the same size as him, "I know that name…T . M . Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."
Briar's mind clicked and she nodded in realisation. She had polished that so many times in the trophy room from the many detentions she had gotten from Filch.
"How on earth d'you know that?" said Harry in amazement.
"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention," said Ron resentfully. "That was the one I burped slugs all over. If you'd wiped slime off a name for an hour, you'd remember it too."
Harry peeled the wet pages apart. Briar looked at the diary expectantly but her shoulders slumped in disappointment when she saw that every page was completely blank.
"He never wrote in it," said Harry, just as disappointed as she was.
"I wonder why someone wanted to flush it anyway?" said Ron curiously.
Harry turned to the back cover of the book and Brair frowned, now that she was seeing it up close she knew she had seen it before. It was Ginny's diary, the one that she had been writing in but stayed completely blank.
"Maybe we should throw it away…" Briar said, if Ginny had tried to get rid of that book, maybe it should stay away, there was definitely something wrong about it, something dark.
"Why? It could be useful" Harry said dismissively. "He must've been a Muggle-born to have bought a diary from Vauxhall Road…"
"Well, it's not much use to you," said Ron before dropping his voice. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's nose"
Harry however pocketed it.
"I really think we should get rid of it, it was…" Harry and Ron left and she sighed, biting her lips worriedly. "…Ginny's" she whispered, moving to exit the bathroom also.
Hermione left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tailless, and fur-free, at the beginning of February. On her first evening back in Gryffindor Tower. While Harry and Ron wen to show her the diary, Briar instead went up to the first year dorms to talk to Ginny.
She found the youngest Weasley sitting on her bed. Her transfiguration homework was in front of her, but Ginny was just staring at it with an absent look on her face.
"Ginny?" Briar asked hesitantly.
Her voice seemed to shock Ginny out of her stupor and her head snapped over to look at her. Ginny was still looking a little worse for wear. There were bags under her eyes, her freckled face was pale and there was the tiniest tremor to her hands. It kind of reminded Briar how she was looking a few weeks after first year when she was still having nightmares of the cruciatus.
"Gin, are you okay?" she asked in an unusually motherly voice.
Ginny nodded shakily.
"I'm fine" she said and Briar didn't believe her.
"Can I ask you something?" Briar asked, sitting down next to Ginny on the bed. "It's about your diary"
As soon as the words left her mouth Ginny stiffened and, if it was possible, failed further. Ginny looked at her with wild, scared eyes. Briar documented every reaction, there was definitely something wrong with that book. But what?
"W-what d-diary? I d-don't-" Ginny stuttered, leaning away from Briar to put space between them.
Briar put a hand on Ginny's to stop her from legging it like she was sure she was tempted too.
"The black one" Briar said quietly.
Much to Briar's distress Ginny through herself at Briar in a hug and began to cry loudly. Briar hugged the smaller girl back and stroked her red hair comfortingly as her tears wet her neck.
"It was…so…awful, you don't…understand." Ginny cried through sobs.
"What don't I understand?" Briar asked quietly.
Ginny pulled away, her face splotchy and her eyes red. She sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
"I wrote in the diary…and Tom wrote back." Ginny said meekly and Briar tensed, things like that were never good. "It was so nice at first, I don't normally have people to talk to with all my brother's, since they mainly just tease me"
Briar bit her lip guiltily, suddenly wishing she had spent more time with the girl over the summer.
"But then the attacks started…and I – and I- started getting gaps in my memory" Ginny began to cry again and Briar put her arm around her. "I think I'm the one who's been attacking people" she finished quietly, as though scared what Briar's reaction was going to be.
Briar pulled away and put her hands on Ginny's cheeks, wiping her tears away with her thumbs. She met Ginny's tearful brown eyes with her hazel firmly.
"I'm not sure what's going on, but this is not your fault, none of it is your fault." Briar said strongly.
Ginny nodded, but Briar was sure she was going to feel guilty anyway.
"I knew Harry should have thrown it away, I've got to-" Briar started, but Ginny cut her off.
"Harry's got it? You can't tell him! You can't tell him anything I said, Tom will tell him all my secrets!" Ginny burst out in alarm.
"Ginny-"
"No, Promise me, promise you want tell him!" Ginny said firmly.
Briar bit her lip worriedly, keeping this a secret wasn't a good thing. However, then she looked into Ginny's determined face and she sighed, her shoulders slumping in defeat.
"I…Promise" Briar said reluctantly and Ginny pulled her into another tight hug.
Sorting through everything Ginny had told her, Briar thought it was safe to assume that this Tom Riddle person was the heir of Slytherin and he had been using Ginny for the attacks. Her musings were only proved when the attacks stopped, clearly because Ginny no longer had the diary.
Harry was convinced that the heir of Slytherin just lost their nerve, Briar was sorely tempted to tell him what she knew, but the worst thing to do in her eyes is betray your friends, so she wasn't going to break her promise to Ginny.
Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff didn't take Harry's cheerful view. He was still convinced that Harry was the guilty one, that he had 'given himself away' at the duelling club. Much to her amusement, Peeves was popping up in crowded corridors singing "oh, Potter, you rotter…" now, under hers and Lee's suggestion, with a dance routine to match.
Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to think he himself had made the attacks stop. Briar and Harry had overheard him telling Minnie so while the Gryffindors were lining up for Transfiguration.
"I don't think there'll be any more trouble, Minerva," he said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking. "I think the Chamber had been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught him. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on him."
"You know, what the school needs now it a morale-booster. Was away the memories of last term! I won't say any more just now, but I think I know just the think…" he tapped his nose again and strode off.
Briar shared an alarmed look with Harry. If Lockhart had something planned, it wasn't going to be good…
Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February fourteenth. Briar walked down to breakfast with the twins. The twins grinning at their most recent torment of Percy.
"Think he'll be mad?" George asked.
"You just glued his Prefect's badge to the ceiling." Briar snorted. "Of course he will"
"Brilliant!" Fred and George said in sync.
Their grins were immediately wiped off of their faces when they entered the Great hall, their eyes widening in horror.
"What is this?" Briar breathed, looking around with wide eyes.
"It's a nightmare, Bambi, it's a nightmare." Fred stated.
"No, it's worse than a nightmare." George disagreed, looking slightly sick.
"It's valentine's day" the three of them said at the same time, horrified.
The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. Briar moved to sit next to Lee, who was sitting looking sickened, and the twins sat opposite them.
"What's going on?" Fred asked Lee, still looking around the hall in the upmost disgust.
George and Briar looked at Lee questioningly as they wiped confetti off of their food.
Lee pointed toward the teachers' tale, apparently too disgusted to speak.
Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes to match the decorations, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony-face. Briar could see a muscle going in Minnie's cheek and Snivillus looked like he would rather admit James Potter was brilliant than be here.
"Happy Valentine's day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty sic people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all – and it doesn't end here!"
Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly looking dwarves. Not just any dwarves, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.
"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be moving around the school today delivering Valentines!"
"You send me one of those, and I will dump you in a second" Briar muttered lowly to Lee.
"Well, it's a good thing I know you so well then isn't it." Lee said and gave her a box of Honeydukes chocolate.
Briar smiled, accepting the present, and gave him a small kiss on the lips.
"I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter the spirit of the occasion!" Lockhart continued, still beaming. "Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"
Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snivillus was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.
All day long, the dwarves kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers. Briar was extremely annoyed having had at least twenty of them, each from a different person in the school. It seemed her popularity was going to be the death of her.
Late that afternoon, as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs to Charms, one of the dwarves caught up with Harry.
"Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to Harry.
Her brother blushed and grabbed her elbow so that they could rush away, but was blocked by a line of first years, which happened to include Ginny. The dwarf however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached them before Harry could even drag her two paces.
"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening way.
"Not here," Harry hissed, still trying to escape.
"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's baf and pulling him back, which in turn made Briar stumbled since he had a hold on her.
"Let him go!" Briar snarled as Harry tugged on his bag.
With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in too. His books, wand, parchment and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over everything. Briar scrambled to help her twin pick up all his things, shoving them into her own bag, figuring she could just get Hermione to clean it later.
"What's going on here?" came the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.
Harry shot her an alarmed look and the two over them began to feverishly shove everything into Briar's bag.
"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy Weasley arrived.
"Just leg it" Briar hissed.
Harry moved to do just that but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor, making Briar wince.
"Right," he said, sitting on Harry's ankles. "Here is you singing Valentine: His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, his hair as dark as a blackboard. I wish he was mine, he's really divine, the hero who conquered the Dark Lord"
Briar finally managed to yank her twin to his feet and Percy didn his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth. She looked towards the first years and saw that Ginny was almost as red as her hair and she had a forlorn expression on her face.
"Gin, you didn't" Briar sighed as she approached the girl, no one over hearing due to the commotion over Harry.
"He hated it" Ginny sniffed sadly, her eyes filling with tears. "He's going to hate me"
Briar shrugged.
"A lot of that was because it happened so publically. I think you're just trying too hard" Briar told her, not denying that Harry hated it, because she was sure he had.
"This is awful. I'm such an embarrassment" Ginny said quietly.
"Ginny, don't worry no one is going to know it's you" Briar told her, patting her shoulder reassuringly.
"I supposed" sniffed Ginny.
Briar gave the girl what she hoped was a comforting smile before turning to make her way to charms, however in that moment, Malfoy turned, furious.
"I don't think Potter liked his valentine much!" he yelled as Ginny passed him to entre her classroom.
Ginny covered her gave with her hands and ran into class.
Snarling, she and Ron pulled out their wands to hex him in every way imaginable, but Harry pulled them away.
When they got to charms Briar spent the majority of the lesson sifting through Harry's things and Flitwick kindly taught her a cleaning charm ("Scourgify") so that she could sort out all of his things and Hermione repaired his ripped bag.
In the Dormitory that night Briar found it amusing as the twins sang "his eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad" over and over again, before it caused Harry to retire to his dormitories early and Briar hit them over the head to get them to stop.
A moment later Briar went up to the second year boys' dormitory to check on her brother. She frowned in confusion when he saw that he was lying on his bed, out of breath, sweating and shaking.
"Harry, are you okay?" Briar asked in concern, rushing over as he sat up.
"It was Hagrid, Bambi. Hagrid opened the chamber of Secrets fifty years ago"
Briar eyes widened in shock.
"What?" she gasped, before snorting in disbelief. "Where in the name of Merlin did you get that idea form.
Harry began to explain to her about going into Riddle's diary and everything he saw. Her twin though that Hagrid probably did it on accident, never meaning to kill someone but just wanting to help out the monster.
"-That's what Riddle got the award for" Harry finished, gloomily.
Briar bit her lip, she wanted to tell him that it was all Riddle, that he framed Hagrid, but she couldn't do that without breaking her promise to Ginny.
"Harry, I've met Aragog-"
"Aragog?" he asked in confusion.
"The spider. He lives in the forest, he wouldn't be able to petrify people" Briar explained.
"But Riddle-"
"Harry, Lockhart has gotten loads of awards and if he deserved any of them I will eat my hooves. Harry, he could've been wrong" Briar said, trying to hint towards the truth.
Harry frowned and seemed to think about the words, but Briar was sure he wasn't convinced.