Dylan Potter
Classes were back in session and everybody could not stop gossiping about Hermione's absence. Some people thought that she had been attacked, but the faculty has been assuring everyone that Hermione was just sick and would be returning to class soon. Dylan, Harry, and Ron had been bringing Hermione her homework assignments after dinner so that she could stay caught up with everything. Dylan imagined that Hermione was probably one of the few students that would actually keep doing homework, despite being turned into a human/cat hybrid.
They had just left the infirmary so that Madam Pomfrey could give Hermione her evening dose of medicine and they were now heading back Gryffindor Tower. They already had a lot of homework so they need to spend their night getting some of it done. Dylan would rather spend her time investigating the secret of the Chamber of Secrets, but they haven't received anymore information since their meeting with Draco so she didn't really know where to start.
"Ugh I forgot to ask Hermione how many rat tails you need for the Hair-Raising Potion; Dylan do you remember?" Ron asked.
"Four," Dylan sighed.
Ron was about to thank her, but they heard loud yelling coming from the floor above them.
"Uh oh what ticked Filch off now?" Ron sighed.
Harry stiffened.
"You don't think there was another attack, do you?" he asked.
Dylan's eyes widened. The trio quickly took off and headed towards the noise. They hid out of sight so that they could spy on Filch's outburst.
"...more work for me. Mopping all night like I have no other plans. I have had enough, I will be speaking to Dumbledore about this," he angrily muttered.
As he began to walk away the group looked over at the scene. They were near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. There was a great flood of water that was coming from out of the cracks of the bathroom door. Now that Filch was no longer yelling, Dylan could hear Myrtle crying.
"Who upset Myrtle now?" Ron asked with a sigh.
"Lets find out," Dylan said as the group sloshed through the water. The bathroom door had a sign that said "Out of Order". Dylan pushed opened the door and walked towards Myrtle's wails that were coming from her usual stall. It took Dylan's eyes a second to adjust to the darkness which was on account of the candles being extinguished by the flooding of water.
"Myrtle, what's wrong?" Harry asked as they reached her toilet's door.
"Who is that? Did you come back to throw something else at me?" she sobbed.
Dylan looked over at Harry and Ron curiously. Why would someone throw something at her? Most people just wanted to avoid her.
"Why would I want to do that?" Harry asked.
Myrtle floated up into view.
"Hou would I know? I was just minding my own business when someone decides to prank poor Myrtle and throw a book at me," she explained.
"But you can't be hurt if you can't feel it," Ron said.
Dylan sighed. Ron seriously needed to think before he spoke.
"Oh sure! Why don't we all throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it! Hahaha! Sounds like such a lovely game!" she shrieked.
"That is horrible. Who threw it at you?" Dylan asked.
"I don't know! I was just sitting over there thinking about death and it just fell right through the top of my head. It washed out over there," she weeped pointing to a old looking black book. As Dylan walked closer, she began to recognize it. It was the book that she gave to Ginny, the one that Merri-Lee gave to her at Harris and Sammi's wedding.
"Wait, it could be dangerous," Ron said trying to pull Dylan back.
"Its just a book Ron. How dangerous could it be," Harry said.
"You should hear about the books that Dad told me about that the Ministry confiscated. There was one that burned out your eyes," he said.
Dylan rolled her eyes and picked up the book.
"It won't do that. I know this book. I-I gave it to Ginny last summer. It is a diary that Merri-Lee gave to me that I didn't want," Dylan explained. Her confusion was obvious in her tone of voice. Why would Ginny throw this book at Myrtle?
"Ginny? Why would she throw a book at Myrtle?" Ron asked as the two boys moved closer to Dylan to get a better look at the book.
Dylan slowly opened it. She was surprised to see that the pages were empty.
"She never wrote in it," Harry said curiously.
"That's impossible. I know I've seen her writing in it," Dylan said.
"Maybe she used some invisible ink or charmed it so that only she could see it," Ron shrugged.
"Because I'm sure a first year knows magic that advanced," Dylan snorted.
"Well maybe she got her hand on some invisible ink. Probably didn't want Fred and George finding it and reading it," Ron said.
"Who's T. M. Riddle?" Harry asked. Dylan noticed that on the inside of the cover the name "T. M. Riddle" could be made out.
"I-I have no idea," Dylan said.
"I recognize that name. He got an award like 50 years ago for special services," Ron said.
Harry and Dylan looked over at Ron.
"How did you know that?" they both asked.
"Back when we all had detention Filch made me polish that shield like fifty times," Ron explained.
"Why would Merri-Lee have his journal?" Dylan wondered allowed as she pulled apart the wet pages to see that they were all blank. She turned to the back cover and saw the name of some store that was one Vauxhall Road in London.
"He must have been a muggle-born if the diary came from Vauxhall Road," Harry said.
"That doesn't make sense though. Why did Merri-Lee have it?" Dylan asked.
"Maybe she bought it used," Harry said.
"Merri-Lee isn't the type to buy something used unless it is a priceless antique, but I doubt she would give me something worth something," Dylan said.
Something about this book made Dylan feel a bit nervous.
"Well I guess we should give it back to Ginny. I doubt that she would throw it at Myrtle so she probably misplaced it and someone found it and once they saw it was empty they decided to throw it at her," Ron shrugged.
Dylan wasn't so convinced. Ginny had been acting very strange and Dylan never saw her without this old book in her hands. Did Merri-Lee do something to this book? Was this book charmed to make someone go crazy? Merri-Lee was not above messing with someone to get her way. She was trying to get Dylan to move back with her at the wedding. Maybe she thought if she could get Dylan to go insane then the school would notice and force her back into her old home, but why would she want Dylan back? Did she miss having someone to torture?
"I think I'm going to hold on to it and mess with it. See if something is hiding in it," Dylan said.
"Why? You want to see what Ginny is writing about Harry?" Ron asked causing Harry to blush in embarrassment.
"Merri-Lee always has a motive. I just want to see if she did something to this journal," Dylan said.
"Do you really think she would give you something that could hurt you?" Harry asked. Dylan shrugged.
"I don't know...hey Ron did Riddle's award say what he did to earn it?" Dylan asked.
"Nope. Could have been anything," Ron shrugged.
"And it happened 50ish years ago?" Dylan asked.
Harry gave Dylan a knowing look. He was thinking the same thing.
Did Tom Riddle catch the Heir of Slytherin the last time this happened?
Dylan does not trust the book and is ready to investigate so she can finally get some answers. In the next chapter Plovert gets curious about why Kristen is spending less time with the Ravenclaw crew and insists on being a part of whatever she is doing, then after that Kristen decides to research Tom Riddle with a certain Ravenclaw friend.
