I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling.

Thanks for the support on this story. I hope it brightens your day in this gloomy period of our lives.

Enjoy!

"Colin. I won't say this again, stay away from Harry. He's mine and you are driving him insane and away from me. Leave him alone." The young girl hissed out threateningly. She seemed to be speaking in two voices, though he could not identify the other one battling Ginny's normally sweet tone. Colin wouldn't argue with the famous Weasley temper right now, so backed off and rushed to the Great Hall for dinner with everyone else. Ginny ran to her dormitory and checked on her diary to talk to Tom. Then she realised that she had foolishly thrown the book away when angry at Myrtle, the wailing phantom. Whilst trembling with fear at what Tom could have said to someone else or god forbid the boy in question about Harry, Ginny yanked open the door to Myrtle's bathroom and strode over to the stall where she had thrown the diary. It was gone. As she was about to cry out in anguish, Ginny heard Myrtle crying again upon the high windowsill. Addressing the ghost in a softer voice than before, she asked her to tell her who took her diary that she insisted wasn't thrown at the Ravenclaw girl. "Oh, I remember him, the handsome boy with green eyes and glasses. Ah, he was quite polite and lovely. I sat in the u-bend all day, thinking about him as if I had a body and he would"- She was cut off by Ginny bolting out of the door, which slammed and left Myrtle alone again.

The four Gryffindors were treated to a wonderful evening of catching stares of hate and fear from the other students as they ate their meal. Harry was calmer after his talk with Sirius and Amelia Bones, which he vowed to his Godfather he would not speak of to anyone. So, naturally, Harry kept it to himself until he could avoid the prying eyes and ears of the Hogwarts students when he would tell Neville and laugh raucously with him. Another reason was so that Susan Bones wasn't sick at the thought of her Auntie having any sexual relations, especially with a notorious womanizer like Sirius Black. Among the late-comers to the dinner table was Colin Creevey, looking pale and frightened. Ginny Weasley followed him in two minutes later but sat suspiciously far from him, odd for two friends in the same year. Harry took note of this and shrugged, assuming that the bollocking Ginny gave him was intimidating enough that he didn't want another coming his way. Zoe had been fine with her nightmares since Christmas but was still left shuddering at the prospect of having either of those two men in the castle, dictating her state of dress or mind. "Harry, what are we going to do as far as the trials go with Lockhart and Dumbledore. They both have the public, the Wizengamot or both wrapped around their little finger?" She asked as she nibbled at her shepherd's pie. Harry shovelled his own bite of meat and mash down his throat as Hermione slapped his shoulder. "Manners darling." She said sweetly, mocking him and making Neville and Zoe burst out in laughter as Harry apologised to his girlfriend. Hermione snickered quietly and smiled, going back to her salmon. "Well, the way I see it, we have no choice in the matter. Think about it. Our parents or Dad at the very least are still lingering on Dumbledore's past accomplishments. He along with a majority of the Wizengamot are indebted to him for cleaning up our streets and so forth. We either face the wrath of the people and our father or take the easy road out and forgive him. As for the piece of filth called Lockhart, no-one can deny a testimony from the mind of a legilimens to the Head of the DMLE." He smiled at the single victory over Lockhart.

With full stomachs and dazed heads, the student populous of Hogwarts headed to their respective dormitories and common rooms before the early curfew. As Harry left the hall, cradling his swollen stomach with a hand, he felt someone push past him and sprint in the direction he was going. He missed the features of the rude person but assumed that they were in a hurry, so he shrugged it off. The game of 'Who can piss Harry Potter off the most?' was a rapidly spreading fascination with the children of the school who knew no better, though, for the older students who had seen Harry duel and be ruthless on the Defence stage, they stayed away. Clearly, this person knew no better, which was annoying but a necessary evil to let the rest of his image go untarnished in light of current events. As they climbed the stairs leading to the hall of staircases where every house would split up, there came a jeering voice coming from the back of the crowd. "So, Potter, not snapping at your boyfriend today, are you? Or did you switch to someone new who didn't have an annoying fangirl attacking them every hour?" Draco Malfoy sometimes knew how to push exactly the right buttons, however, today, he was far from his desired result. His textbook sneer was only rivalled by that of Professor Quirrell's last year but still wasn't provocative enough. "No, actually Draco, what happened was a child not knowing when to stop and think. Then again, I don't see why you would know when to stop either, you've been trying and failing to taunt me for so long, yet you keep failing, as usual. Just like when you told Goyle to set a snake on Justin and Susan." Harry shot back, not caring for the blond boy's retort. "You can't prove that I did that Potter. Goyle did that himself, even Professor Lockhart thought so. Blaming me for setting a snake on Finch-Fletchley won't absolve any blame from yourself, being a parselmouth." Harry rolled his eyes and carried on walking with Hermione.

Upon entering the common room, Neville came down from the dormitories waving his hands to get Harry's attention. They walked over to him asking "What's going on? Why are you out of breath?" Harry asked, trying to calm the boy down. Neville panted out "Someone… Got into our dorm room and… left feathers everywhere! We can't get into your trunk to check if anything is missing. Everyone else's is fine." He had heard enough and rushed upstairs, rifling through his trunk after using his special charms to unlock it. He threw clothing, books and supplies into a pile, careful to place down the ink bottles gently. He found the missing item after putting everything back. "Damn it! Bloody Hell!" He shouted and kicked the wall lightly, venting his frustrations on the bricks. Dean had checked his trunk at the same time as Harry, shooting glances at him and asked if something had been taken. "There was a black diary in here, one that was very important. It's gone." Harry looked up at Neville, who had walked in on hearing Harry's frustrations and told him what had been taken. He didn't understand the importance of that diary as Harry did. "Listen, Neville. I found that Diary in Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor after investigating a flood. It contains the memories of a 16-year-old in 1943 called Tom Riddle, who was at Hogwarts when the Chamber of Secrets was opened the first time. I had some conversations with him and he showed me a memory of him claiming to have the thing responsible. I wasn't going to tell you guys until I had found a way to clear my name and I am sorry for that but… I feel like I was so close to finding out the truth and it slipped through my fingers."

Harry told Hermione and Zoe the truth afterwards, albeit reluctantly and his girlfriend rightly scolded him for keeping it to himself. "Harry, we could have been working together on that, then we could have been working faster and more efficiently. I'm just disappointed that you had to keep it from us all. And you have known about it since before Christmas?! We could all have been helping for over 2 months now." She sighed in disappointment, thinking 'Does he have to learn it the hard way that he needs to be able to ask for help?' Harry spied the reprimand in her voice and looked to his sister, who was equally shaking her head as she broke eye contact with him, hurt that he didn't tell them. "I didn't tell anyone because I know what I was doing was right and I don't need my girlfriend, my brother and sister telling me that it is too dangerous to be able to speak to a diary to help me prove my innocence. I don't need a telling off Hermione… but I don't want to argue with you all. So, can you please help now. I'll compile all of the things that he told me and then we can work from there." His dignity thoroughly shattered, he walked up the stairs and grabbed his parchment and a quill, working his way through the facts he knew from Tom Riddle.

"Right, so he told you, or I guess, showed you that Hagrid was at least a suspect in the case. Though, we will have to ask him about the grounds of the expulsion and the acromantula that escaped. He can't have been serious about loving that thing, can he?" Hermione asked. Neville shivered at the thought of the possibly now-giant arachnid and went back to looking at the parchment. "After that, we can check the records of this person to check if they are who they say they are and if we can trust them. Tom Marvolo Riddle just sounds mysterious." She concluded. After outlining their specific roles concerning the research on Tom Riddle and the death of a girl in 1943, they strayed from sleuthing and moved onto doing some homework instead. Harry picked up his herbology textbook and learnt some more about bubotuber pods whilst Hermione helped Zoe catch up on some transfiguration homework that she had missed when in the hospital wing. After a long night of work and revision for the end of year exams, which Hermione insisted were 'vital and unavoidable', the four split and went off to bed, pulling covers over themselves wat past the 10 pm mark.

Alarms went off in the dorm as four boys rose from their beds, two of them eager to get to defence class, where they would be learning the theory for stunning spells that would be taught next year along with the counter-spell, the reviving charm. They met Hermione and Zoe at the bottom of the staircases and headed down to breakfast where it seemed that the only other people up were a few Ravenclaws, two Hufflepuffs and the teachers. As they settled at the Gryffindor table, Hagrid came lumbering through the doors and was about to make his way to the Head table and take his place next to Professor Flitwick… until Harry blocked his path and greeted him. "Hey, Hagrid, have you noticed any of the school chickens go missing recently by any chance?" The half-giant narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the boy and shook his head with an air of apprehension. "Can' say that I ave'. Though the roosters have been droppin' like flies. Wha' of it? Don' know what appened' do yeh?" He asked back. "No, it's just that… my dorm was raided recently and the perpetrator left feathers everywhere. Are the roosters the only things that are dying?" Harry wondered out loud. Hagrid nodded glumly. Harry asked him another question that brightened his mood slightly. "Can we come over later? We want to relax and chat tonight." Hagrid engulfed him in a hug and agreed as he put the suffocating boy down. He bade goodbye to the four and rushed off to grab his eggs and bacon fit for a small feast. Harry turned back to his friends and sat down, shaking himself to make sure he was still awake and hadn't been crushed by Hagrid's hug. "Well guys, looks like we have a date with Hagrid tonight."

Love writing for Hagrid, he's so goofy in his pronunciation, but we all love him.

I need help from my loyal readers: In 3rd year AU do I incorporate Time-Turners or not? Time travel is difficult to write, especially when I have to use Hermione's POV for it. If you have an opinion on that question, please shoot me a PM or leave the answer in a review. Thanks

Stay safe

-E