Tomorrow I get to take Hermione out of the infirmary, it's been two weeks. I took notes for the classes she missed and I made sure to stay for two to three hours a day, she needed a friendly face. Of course Ron and Harry made the occasional drop in, but she must've taken on a few catlike characteristics, because now she always wants a head rub, I make sure to oblige when my hands don't ache from writing two sets of notes. I remember one visit of mine vividly, I had found a bouquet of flowers in the trash, after she had drifted off. The note read:

To Miss Granger. Wishing you a speedy recovery! From your concerned teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart.

I smiled at her and decided to spend the night. Which I then did for three consecutive nights. Now it's Saturday. Her tail has finally disappeared and she'll be ready to move soon. Over this time, I've gotten a lot of writing done for our book. The first one, after a twenty week stay, has fallen down to number five, and this book feels even better than the last one. Harry and Ron burst in with a little black book, causing me to hit a wrong key. I sigh in frustration before setting my typewriter down. I clutch Snape's watch.

"There's a name in this diary." Hermione says, "Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"Tom Marvolo Riddle?" Ron asks, taking the book, "I know that name… Of course! The night I had detention... My job was to polish the silver in the trophy room. I remember because I kept burping slugs all over Tom Riddle's trophy. I must have wiped slime off his name for an hour."

"What was the trophy for?" Harry asks.

"Special Services to the School or something - fifty years ago?"

"Fifty years ago! Are you sure?" Hermione asks.

"Yeah, why?"

"Don't you remember what Malfoy told you?" Hermione asks, "The last time the Chamber was opened was-"

"Fifty years ago." Harry recalls, "That means-"

"Tom Riddle was here, at Hogwarts, when it happened. What if he wrote about what he saw? It's possible he knew where the Chamber was, how to open it, even what sort of creature lives in it. If so, whoever's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want this diary lying around, would they?"

"That's a brilliant theory, Hermione. With just one tiny little flaw. There's nothing written in this diary." Harry shows the pages and I groan. "Sam, I might need your help tonight. You are the best student in the school- behind Hermione, you might be able to help me figure this out."

"I-"

"It's okay, Sammy, I'll be fine alone for a night. Give me our book so far, I'll read through that." I sigh and hand it to her. She takes it and smiles. "This'll keep me occupied."

"Good. Be safe tonight."

"No promises." She jokes. I bend down quickly and kiss her on the cheek. She gets all red and flustered after that, which I always find cute and I leave with the boys. Again being a boy myself, that sounds weird, but trust me, it makes sense.

Me and Harry sit in the common room, exhausted from looking at this diary for hours to no avail, a ghost reading and humming at a loud volume next to me. Harry snaps first, "Do you mind?!" The ghost walks away with pride. Shakespeare purrs as I rub my knuckle over her chin then she knocks over the thing of ink. Harry quickly picks it up as she struts proudly away.

"Sorry about that." I grunt.

"It's fine, the book's rubbish any-" The ink spill disappears after seemingly responding to his friend. Harry gets excited and dips his pen in what's left of the ink before writing out, 'My name is Harry Potter.'

The paper scrawls out a phrase of its own. 'Who's your friend?'

'Samuel Hedrich.'

'I knew his father…' Then beneath it, 'I am Tom Riddle.'

Harry pauses a moment before writing, 'Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?'

'Yes.'

'Can you tell us?'

'No, but I can show you.' After a few seconds, we are in the entrance hall of Hogwarts everything seems faded.

"What the hell?" I whisper, then there's a boy at the end of the hall, peering around the corner. Harry flags him down, "Glasses, wait up!"

"Hey, do you know where we are?" He doesn't respond. "Hello?"

"He can't hear you." I say, "This is a memory." We watch quietly as a stretcher holding a covered body is anchored past us.

"Riddle." A familiar voice says, me and Harry both shoot our heads up and see the speaker, Dumbledore.

"Professor Dumbledore." Tom greets.

"It's not wise to be wandering around this late, Tom."

"Yes, Professor. I suppose I - I just had to see for myself, if…" He freezes for just a second, "…the rumors were true."

"I'm afraid they are, Tom." Dumbledore sighs.

"About the school as well? They wouldn't really close Hogwarts, would they, Professor?" Tom sounds pleading, but…

It feels manufactured.

"Headmaster Dippet may have no choice, I'm afraid."

"Sir? If it all stopped. If the person responsible was caught…"

"Is there something you wish to tell me, Tom?" Dumbledore asks.

Tom looks away. He did it. "No, sir. Nothing." I don't care who he accuses. It was him.

"Very well then. Hurry along." Dumbledore walks past us and Riddle runs for the dungeon door. We follow Riddle and hear a voice in the dungeons.

"C'mon, Aragog. Gotta get yeh outta here... C'mon now.. in the box…" We see that the boy is Hagrid and hear a clicking from the box.

"Evening, Hagrid." Riddle greets, Hagrid slams the cage shut. "I'm going to have to turn you in, Hagrid. I don't think you meant it to kill anyone -" This didn't happen. At least, not like this. The room has a fuzziness to it, that I can see immediately.

"No, yeh can't! Yeh don' understand!"

"Hagrid. 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."

"It wasn' him! Aragog never'd kill no one! Never!"

"Monsters don't make good pets, Hagrid. Now... stand aside…" Riddle blasts the door off of its hinges and a large spider-like creature scurries out. Riddle aims the wand at the spider, and Hagrid leaps at him, taking them both down as the spider escapes.

We fall back through the portal and ultimately end up back in our seats, with the book closed in front of us. "It was… Hagrid?" Harry asks.

"It couldn't have been."

"Why do you say that?"

"The memory was fuzzy, that means it's been tampered with. I learned how memory sharing works back in America, when it's fuzzy, either we're not getting the full story or-"

"He's lying." Harry mutters. "Still, it couldn't have been him, right? He's dead."

"Well, right now, Hagrid is the only logical suspect." I sigh, "Well let's tell Ron." We rush upstairs and shake Ron awake.

"What?" He groans.

"We know who might've done it!" Harry whisper-yells.

"Who?"

"Hagrid." I sigh.

In the morning, we find Hermione in the hospital wing using my typewriter. I go in first. "Hey Golden, what are you writing?"

"Just a bit more of the story."

"Okay, I'll read it over-"

"But I'm not done."

"Fine, finish it and I'll read it over." I say. She smiles at me. I could drift away in that smile. "Also, me and Glasses found something in that diary. We have a suspect now."

"Really? Who?"

"You're gonna have to wait a bit longer. Let's get you up first." I take the typewriter and set it aside, before extending my hand. Hermione sighs and takes it, letting me pull her up and help her get used to walking again. She, of course, gets a hold of it fast and the boys join us.

"Hey, Hermione, I forgot what it looked like to see you walk!" Ron laughs.

Harry smiles, "Yeah, it's good to see Sam got you on your feet again."

She blushes. "Thank you. Really, you guys don't need to give me all of this attention. You'd think I'm famous or something."

"I mean, technically you are." Ron points out. "Your book with Sammy is in the library non-school related works only get in if the demand is ridiculous. I even saw some Slytherins reading it."

"Good." Hermione says.

"Hermione, we have… something to tell you." Harry says at last.

"It can't be Hagrid. It just can't be!"

"He's just a suspect right now, okay?" I try.

"All we know is that a monster killed someone and Hagrid was trying to get rid of a giant spider. There's no telling where it is now."

"Look. Hagrid's our friend. Why don't we just go ask him about it?" Hermione suggests.

Ron has a part-sneer, "That'd be a cheerful visit. 'Hullo, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'"

"Mad an' hairy? Wouldn' be talkin' 'bou me, now would yeh?"

"No." I say, "We're talking about the spider infestation. Do you know anything about it?"

Hagrid looks off, "No. No I don'."

"Ron here squeals in the middle of the night and wakes the entire dorm up because of them." Ron punches me rather hard and I rub that spot, "I deserved that." I admit.

"We'll get it under control." Hagrid nods.

"What's that you've got, Hagrid?" Harry asks, referring to the strange canister beneath Hagrid's arm.

"Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent. Fer the Mandrakes, yeh know. Accordin' ter Professor Sprout, they still got a bit o' growin' up ter do, but once their acne clears up, we'll be able to chop 'em up, stew 'em, an' get those people in the hospital un-Petrified. 'Til then, you four best watch yerselves, alrigh'?" Hagrid lumbers off and Neville runs towards us, a copy of The Criminals tucked under his arm.

"Harry, I don't know who did it, but... you'd better come." Soon Ron, Harry, Hermione and I stand in the dorm room, where Harry's space is trashed.

"Shit." I whisper as Harry looks through the wreckage.

"It had to be a Gryffindor. Nobody else knows our password. Unless, it wasn't a student…" Hermione thinks aloud.

"Well, whoever it was, they were looking for something." Ron sighs.

"And they found it… Tom Riddle's diary is gone."

"Fuck." I groan, "What now?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asks.

"What do you mean, what do I mean? The book's gone, it couldn't have been Hagrid, and if that thing could come out at any time, why didn't it attack last year? That was our one shot, and we don't know who took it!"

Hermione sighs, "Unfortunately, Hagrid is still the suspect. Sammy, come with me. Harry, Ron, we'll be at the library." They nod and we head out. When we're in the hall, me and Hermione look each other in the eyes, "So… you don't think it was Hagrid?"

"No. In fact, I'm positive that Tom Riddle opened the chamber."

"How do you know?"

"I'm me." I shrug. We walk into the library and sit together, each with a pile of books on the history of Hogwarts. "I have a bad feeling." She looks at me funnily. "Something bad's about to happen… but I don't know what."

Hermione grabs my hand, "Hey, I'll be fine." Then she crinkles her and does an awful New York impression, "I'm me." We burst into laughter, soon calming down with our faces just centimeters apart. If I wanted to I could- I pull back, nervously. You cowardly piece of shit.

"So… are you ready to get back to class?"

"…Yeah." She says. "I bet McGonagall missed me."

"Yeah, but I don't think Snape did."

"The only Gryffindor he'd miss is you. Your snarky comments are always the best part of that class."

"Yeah." I sigh. "You seem to know a lot about romance, right?"

"Depends on what you ask."

"I have an idea for a short story I wanted to post online to get hype up for our new book, I wanted some advice. These two have been close friends for… going on two years? The boy fell in love with the girl the moment they met." I sigh, "What would the boy do to make her like him back?"

"Well, in a lot of cases… she already does." Hermione smiles at me. It's forced. "I think that if he would confess… she'd tell him how she feels."

"…Maybe." I sigh. We share a long silence as we look through the books, communicating in sighs and hums, ultimately finding nothing. I steal glances at her. The small wrinkle that forms on her forehead, the eyes locked on the paper, the slight purse of her lips… Once she catches my gaze, we stare at each other for a second, …even small things like the straightening of her back and the crossing of her legs… She gives in first, biting her lip and looking back at the book. …Just make her that much more adorable. "It's getting late." I yawn.

"Yeah." Hermione nods, "You go ahead, you need the sleep. I think that I have something."

"Really?"

"Yes." She pokes my forehead, "Now you need to go. You aren't Superman."

"I could be yours." Shit, I said that out loud.

She raises a brow, "That's a big job, don't want you to be overwhelmed."

"I'm tougher than I look."

"But you aren't as tough as you act. You're too cocky for your own good." She giggles, before putting a soft kiss on my cheek, "That's one of the best things about you." I smile, "Now go, Superman. Save someone else."

I smile at her. "Fine." I groan, "I need sleep anyways, see you in class tomorrow."

I didn't. We went through Herbology without any sign of Hermione. Then Professor McGonagall's class. Now I'm worried. Soon, we're in Lockhart's class. Harry's excited about his game today, I don't really care. I'm scared. For the second time in my life, that spine-chilling blade edge runs down my spine. She's gotta be safe, she's gotta be safe, she's gotta be-

"May I borrow Mr. Hedrich? A voice asks. Snape. "There is an urgent matter that requires his immediate attention." He tries his best to sound bored, but I hear, underneath it, just a hint of worry.

"Of course Mr. Snape." Lockhart says. "Sam, just make sure that you've memorized for the test." I grunt in response and shuffle towards Snape.

When we're in the hall Snape doesn't meet my eyes. "Sammy, you're not gonna like this." He whispers. I follow him to the infirmary and spot Hermione. Frozen.

"No." I whisper, walking towards her bed. Flashbacks. I see her as Mom. Tears start to come to my eyes. I run my fingers through her hair, I touch her porcelain skin. "I failed you."

"You didn't fail her." Snape whispers. "She made you leave the library to keep you safe from whatever did this to her." I sniffle and grab her hand tightly, Snape's hand rests on my shoulder. "I know how you must feel. Overtaken by rage, drowning in hatred, swimming in despair. The best I can do is assure you of her survival. She will survive this, the mandrakes will be ready within the week and I promise you that the Chamber of Secrets will be found and the monster that did this eradicated." I desperately clutch onto Hermione's hand wishing for any sign of life. Nothing. "I see that you need time alone. I will take my leave, but I do warn you, Potter and Weasley will be here soon."

"Hermione. I don't know if you can hear this, but I love you. Whoever did this to you… I'll make them pay." I stay still for a while.