Ginny tensed up after Severus read the title.
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 attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed, to spear her the shame of being see with a furry face.
"Stupid potion" Hermione muttered annoyed.
Madison, Gabriella, Ron and Leo went to visit her every evening. When the new term started, they brought her each day's homework.
"That was kind of you" Lily smiled at the four of them.
"Not really" Ron said. "Hermione threatened to kill us if we didn't bring it to her."
"No, I didn't" Hermione huffed. "I threatened to hex you."
"Same thing when it comes to your hexes."
"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.
"Don't be silly, Ron, I've got to keep up" said Hermione briskly. Her spirits were greatly improved by the face 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 her.
"Nothing" said Madison gloomily.
"I was so sure it was Malfoy" said Leo, for about the hundredth time.
Draco rolled his eyes.
"I told you it wasn't him, but did you listen? No!" said Gabriella.
Draco smiled, glad that Gabriella didn't believe it was him.
"What's that?" asked Madison, pointing to something gold sticking out from under Hermione's pillow.
"Just a get well card" said Hermione hastily, trying 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 times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award"
"That idiot really had to say all of that on a get well card?" Remus asked, rolling his eyes.
Ron looked up at Hermione, disgusted. "You sleep with this under your pillow?"
But Hermione was spared answering by Madam Pomfrey sweeping over with her evening does of medicine.
"Is Lockhart the smarmiest bloke you've ever met, or what?" Ron said to Madison, Gabriella and Leo as they left the dormitory and started up the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower.
Snape had given them so much homework, Madison thought she was likely to be in the sixth your before she finished it. Gabriella, on the hand, was in her element and had already done half of her homework.
"You sound like your mother, Gabby" James said. "She always does her homework before anyone else."
"And there's nothing wrong with that" Lily huffed.
"I know that, it means I can copy off you then" James smirked.
"I don't think so, you will never learn that way."
Ron was just saying he wished he had asked Hermione how many rat tails you were supposed to add to Hair Raising Potions.
"Five" Gabriella, Lily and Hermione said all together, before smiling at each other.
When an angry outburst from the floor above reached their ears.
"That's Filch" Gabriella muttered, as they hurried up the stairs and paused out of sight, listening hard.
"You don't think someone else's been attacked?" said Leo tensely.
"Oh god" Molly breathed out. "I hope not."
They stood still, their heads inclined towards Filch's voice, which sounded quite hysterical.
"… 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 ..."
"I don't understand why you would heir a Squib as a caretaker" Frank said, looking at Dumbledore. "It just seems a little cruel to me. I mean, he's got the whole of Hogwarts to keep clear and he can't even use magic to help him."
A few people nodded in agreement, but Dumbledore didn't say anything on the matter.
His footsteps receded 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 a glance what Filch had been shouting about. A great flood of water stretched over half of the corridor, and it looked as though it was still seeping from under the door Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
"I don't think Myrtle has ever flooded the bathroom before" Remus frowned.
Now Filch had stopped shouting, they could hear Myrtle's wails echoing off the bathroom walls.
"Now what's up with her?" said Ron.
"Let's go and see" said Madison, and 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 even 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 wall and floor soaking wet.
"What's up, Myrtle?" said Gabriella.
"Who's that?" glugged Myrtle miserably. "Come to throw something else at me?"
Gabriella waded across to her cubicle and said, "Why would I throw something at you?"
"Maybe because she's annoying" Sirius muttered, which made James snigger.
"Don't ask me" Myrtle shouted, emerging with a wave of yet more water, which splashed onto he already sopping floor. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me ..."
I didn't mean to throw it at Myrtle, I didn't even know she was there, Ginny sadly thought to herself.
"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you" said Madison, reasonably. "I mean, it'd just got right through you, wouldn't it?"
"You shouldn't have said that, Maddy" Lily sighed.
She had said the wrong thing.
"You think" Sirius snorted.
Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked. "Let's all throe books at Myrtle, because she can't fee 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!"
"Who threw it at you, anyway?" asked Gabriella.
"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."
Madison, Gabriella, Ron and Leo 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. Madison stepped forward to pick up, Gabriella, Ron and Leo all suddenly flung out an arm to hold her back.
"What?" said Madison.
"Are you mad?" said Ron. "It could be dangerous."
"Dangerous?" said Madison, laughing. "Come off it, how could it be dangerous?"
"You would be surprised, Madison" Arthur said.
"You'd be surprised" said Leo, who was looking apprehensively at the book. "Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated – Dad's told us – there was on that burned your eyes our. And everyone who some sonnets of sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old which in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed. And -"
"See, books can be very dangerous in the wizarding world" Arthur said.
"I know that now" Madison muttered.
"All right, I've got the point" said Madison. The little book lay on the floor, nondescript and soggy. "Well, we won't find out unless we look at it" she said, and she ducked round Ron and picked it off the floor.
Madison saw at once that it was a diary, and the faded year on the cover told her it was fifty years old. She opened it eagerly. On the first page he could just make out the name 'T. M. Riddle' in smudged ink.
Dumbledore glanced at Madison and Gabriella, but quickly looked away before they saw him.
"Hang on" said Ron, who had approached cautiously and was looking over Madison's shoulder. "I know that name … T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."
"Fifty years ago?" Alice frowned. "Why would his diary be at Hogwarts in the children's time?"
"Maybe he left it behind on accident" Frank said.
"How on earth d'you know that?" said Gabriella 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."
Madison peeled the wet pages apart. They were completely blank. There wasn't the faintest trace of writing on any of them, not even 'Auntie Mable's birthday' or 'dentist, half past three.'
"He never wrote in it" said Madison, disappointed.
"Maybe he wrote in invisible ink" James wondered out loud.
"Maybe he had written in invisible ink" said Gabriella, pulling out her wand.
"Great minds think alike" he smirked at Gabriella, who smiled back.
She tapped the diary three times and said, "Aparecium!" but nothing happened. "Or not" she sighed.
"What was that?" Madison frowned.
"It's a spell that reveals secret messages written in invisible ink" Gabriella explained.
"How did you know that?"
"I read, Maddy. You should try it some time."
"You really should, Madison" Lily said. "You can learn a lot from books."
"I wonder why someone wanted to flush it away?" said Leo curiously.
Madison turned to the back cover of the book and saw the printed name of a newsagent's in Vauxhall Road, London.
"He must've been Muggle-Born" said Madison thoughtfully, "to have bought a diary from Vauxhall Road ..."
"Well, it's not much use to you" said Ron. He dropped his voice. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's nose."
"Ronald" Molly growled. Ron just gave her a sheepish smile.
Gabriella tutted and smacked his arm. "Don't be mean."
Madison, however, pocketed the diary.
"Why?" Pete asked Madison, who just shrugged.
Hermione left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail-less and fur-free, at the beginning of February. On her evening back in Gryffindor Tower, Madison showed her T. M. Riddle's dairy and told her the story of how they had found it.
"Oooh, it might have hidden powers" said Hermione enthusiastically, taking the diary and looking at it closely.
"If it has, it's hiding them very well" said Ron. "Maybe it's shy. I don't know why you don't chuck it, Maddy."
"I think you should have thrown it away, Maddy" Lily said. "I dunno why, but I've got a bad feeling about that dairy."
"I wish I knew why someone did try to chuck" said Madison. "I wouldn't mind knowing how Riddle got an award for special services to Hogwarts, either."
"Could've been anything" said Ron. "Maybe he got thirty O.W.L's or saved a teacher from the giant squid. Maybe he murdered Myrtle, that would've done everyone a favour ..."
"Ronald" Molly hissed angrily. "You never say something like that again, do you hear me?"
Ron quickly nodded.
"Don't joke about something like that" hissed Gabriella.
But Madison could tell from the arrested look on Hermione's face that she was thinking what he was thinking.
"What?" said Leo, looking from one to the other.
"Well, the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago, wasn't it?" he said. "That's what Malfoy said."
"Yeah ..." said Ron slowly.
"And this diary is fifty years old" said Hermione, tapping it excitedly.
"So?"
"Oh, Ron, wake up" snapped Hermione. "We know the person who opened the Chamber last time was expelled fifty years ago. We know T. M. Riddle got an award for special service to the award school fifty years ago. Well, what if Riddle got his special award for catching the heir of Slytherin? His diary would probably tell us everything: where the Chamber is, and how to open it, and what sort of creature lives in it. The person who's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want that lying around, would they?"
"That's a brilliant theory, Hermione" said Leo, "with just one tiny little flaw. There's nothing written in his diary."
But Hermione was pulling wand out of her bag. "It might be invisible ink!" she whispered.
"It's not" said Gabriella. "I've already tried that spell and nothing happened."
"I wonder ..." Hermione trailed off, shoving her hand back into her bag and pulled out what appeared to be a bright red eraser. "It's a Revealer, I got it in Diagon Alley" she said.
She rubbed hard on 'January the first' Nothing happened.
Groans were heard around the room.
"I was hoping that that would have done something" James sighed.
"I'm telling you, there's nothing to find in there" said Ron. "Riddle just got a diary for Christmas and couldn't be bothered filling it in."
Madison couldn't explain, even to herself, why she didn't just throw Riddle's diary away. The fact was that even though she knew the diary was blank, she kept absent-mindedly picking it up and turning pages, as though it was a story she wanted to finish. And while Madison was sure she had never heard the name T. M. Riddle before, it still seemed to mean something to her, almost as though Riddle was a friend she'd had when she was very small, and half-forgotten.
Gabriella glanced at Madison, but Madison didn't look at her.
But this was absurd. She'd never had friends, other than Gabriella, before Hogwarts, Dudley had made sure of that.
"At least you had each other" Lily smiled at her girls.
Nevertheless, Madison was determined to find out more about Riddle, so next day at break, she and Gabriella headed for the trophy room to examine Riddle's special award, accompanied by an interested Hermione, and a thoroughly unconvinced Ron and Leo, who told them they had seen enough of the trophy room to last them a lifetime.
Riddle's burnished gold shield was tucked away in a corner cabinet. It didn't carry details of why it had been given to him "Good thing, too, or it'd be even bigger and I'd still be polishing it" said Ron)
However, they did find Riddle's name on an old Medal for Magical Merit, and on a list of old Head Boys.
"He sounds like Percy" said Ron, wrinkling his nose his disgust.
Percy glance at Ron. He knew his brother didn't like him that much, but hearing these books, it sounds like Ron hated him.
"Prefect, Head Boy - probably top of every class."
"You say that lie it's a bad thing" said Hermione, in a slightly hurt voice.
The sun had now begun to shine weakly on Hogwarts again. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since those on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, and Madam Pomfrey was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning that they were fast leaving childhood.
"That's good news" Alice smiled.
"The moment their acne clears up, they'll be ready for re-potting again" Madison and Gabriella heard her telling Filch kindly one afternoon. "And after that, it won't be long until we're cutting them up and stewing them. You'll have Mrs Norris back in no time."
Perhaps the Heir of Slytherin had lost his or her nerve, thought Madison. It must be getting risker and risker to open the Chamber of Secrets, with the school so alert and suspicious. Perhaps the monster, whatever it was, was even now settling itself down to hibernate for another fifty years ...
"If only" Madison whispered to Gabriella, who nodded in agreement.
Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff didn't take this cheerful view. He was still half convinced that Madison and Gabriella were the guilty ones, that they had 'given themselves away' at the Duelling Club, but, on the other hand, he couldn't stop thinking about what Gabriella had said in the library.
"Good, keep thinking about that, you dick!" James growled at the book.
Peeves wasn't helping matters: he kept popping up in the crowded corridors singing 'Oh Potter, you rotter's ...' now with a dance-routine to match.
Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to think he himself had made the attacks stop.
Everyone is the room rolled their eyes.
Madison and Gabriella overheard him telling Professor McGonagall so while the Gryffindor's 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 has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught them. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on them."
"Oh please, like you would know what to do" Sirius scoffed.
"You know, what the school needs now is a morale-booster. Wash away the memories of last term! I won't say any more just now, but I think I know just the thing ..."
He tapped his nose again and strode off.
Lockhart's idea of a morale-booster became clear at breakfast time on February the fourteenth.
Madison groaned when she thought about what happened.
Madison hadn't had much sleep because of a late-running Quidditch practice the night before and she hurried down to the Great Hall slightly late. She thought, for a moment, that she'd walked through the wrong door. The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling.
"That's sound -"
"Horrible" James said, cutting Lily off.
"I was going to say lovely actually" she huffed.
Madison went over to the Gryffindor table, where Ron, Leo and Gabriella was sitting looking sickened, and Hermione seemed to have come over rather giggly.
"What's going on?" Madison asked them, sitting down, and wiping confetti off her bacon. Leo pointed to the teacher's table, 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-faced.
"He's so over the top" Peter said, rolling his eyes.
From where they sat, Madison and Gabriella could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall's cheek. Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six 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 dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.
"That must have been horrible for them" Remus said.
"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your Valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! 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!"
"The little brats better not asked me to whip up a Love Potion" Severus muttered.
Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as thought the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be forced-fed poison.
Severus smirk, he could see his future self doing that.
"Please, Hermione, tell me you weren't one of the forty-six" said Ron, as they left the Great Hall for their first lesson. Hermione suddenly become very interested in searching her bag for her timetable and didn't answer.
"Hermione, why?" Sirius groaned in annoyance. Hermione blushed and didn't answer him.
"I think you can take that as a yes" Gabriella whispered.
"Gross!" Ron whispered back.
"Definitely gross" Madison agreed.
"Oh, shut up, you three!" Hermione snapped, storming off down the corridor.
"I think she heard you" said Leo.
"Yeah, no shit, sherlock" said Gabriella, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, I'm so going to say that from now on" James grinned. Sirius, Remus and Lily all groaned, knowing that that's all they are going to hear for days.
All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver Valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers, and late that afternoon, as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of them caught up with Gabriella.
"Miss Potter - Miss Gabriella Potter!" a cheerful dwarf shouted, rushing over to her.
"No Gabriella Potter here, you have the wrong person!" said Gabriella, trying to run off, but the first-years were blocking her path.
A few people started sniggering.
"Crap!" she sighed. Gabriella turned around and saw the dwarf stood there with black box in his hands.
"What was in that box?" James demanded.
"You will have to wait and see" Gabriella said, which made James groaned. He wanted to know now.
"There you are" he said, handing it to her. "Bye, miss Potter" he turned around and walked off down the corridor.
"Bye - and thank you" Gabriella went to open the box, but stopped when Madison came rushing over to her.
James groaned. "She was going to open it and you stopped her."
"Help me, there's a crazy dwarf after me!" she said, looking around. "Oh god, here he comes."
"Oy, you! Madison Potter!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Madison. Hot all over at the thought of being given a Valentine in front of a queue of first-year, which happened to include Ginny Weasley.
Ginny groaned.
Gabriella grabbed Madison's hand and tired to escape. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached her before she'd gone two paces.
"I've got a musical message to deliver to Madison Potter in person" he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.
"Not here" Madison hissed, trying to escape.
"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Madison's bag and pulling her back.
"Jeez, just let her run off, for god sake!" James huffed.
"Let me go!" Madison snarled, tugging.
With a loud ripping noise, her bag split in two. Her books, wand, parchment and quill spilled onto the floor and her in bottle smashed over the lot. Madison and Gabriella scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a hold-up in the corridor.
"What's going on here?" came the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy.
"My voice isn't cold" Draco muttered. "At least I don't think it is."
Madison started stuffing everything feverishly into her ripped bag, desperate to get away before Malfoy could hear her musical Valentine.
"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice, as Percy Weasley arrived.
"Quick, Maddy, go!" said Gabriella
Losing her head, Madison tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf sizes her around the knees and brought her crashing to the floor.
"There was no need to tackle her!" James hissed.
"Hey!" Gabriella snapped. "There's no need to be so rough with her!"
Gabriella tried to help Madison up, but the dwarf sat on Madison's ankles. "Right, here is your singing Valentine:
"Her eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
Her hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish her was mine, she's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord."
Ginny felt her face burning up when people started sniggering.
Madison would have given all the gold in Gringotts to evaporate on the spot. Trying valiantly to laugh along with everyone else, she got up, her feet numb from the weight of the dwarf, as Percy Weasley did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth.
"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class now" he said, shooing some of the younger students away. "And you, Malfoy."
Madison, glancing over, saw Malfoy stoop and snatch up something. Leering, he showed it to Crabbe and Goyle, and Madison realised that he'd got Riddle's diary.
"Give that back" said Madison quietly.
"Wonder what Potter's written in this?" said Malfoy, who obviously hadn't noticed the year on the cover, and thought he had Madison's own diary. A hush fell over the onlookers. Ginny was staring from the diary to Maddison, looking terrified.
Molly and Arthur glanced at each other, then looked at Ginny, who was sat there, playing with her fingers.
"Hand it over, Malfoy" said Percy sternly.
"When I've had a look" said Malfoy, waving the diary tauntingly at Madison.
Percy said, "As a school prefect -"
"Again with the prefect card" Sirius groaned. Percy looked at him, then looked away. He never even realised how much he said that.
But Madison had lost her temper. She pulled out her wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and just as Snape had disarmed Lockhart, so Malfoy found the diary shooting out of his hand into the air. Leo, grinning broadly, caught it.
"Yes, Maddy!" James cheered, nudging his daughter in the arm, which made a laugh.
"Madison!" said Percy loudly. "No magic in the corridors. I'll have to report this, you know!"
"I'm sure you could have let it slide just that once" Arthur said.
But Madison didn't care, she'd got one over on Malfoy, and that was wroth five points from Gryffindor any day. Malfoy was looking furious, and as Ginny passed him to enter her classroom, he yelled spitefully after her, "I don't think Potter liked you Valentine much!"
"You didn't need to do that, Draco" Narcissa mumbled.
Ginny cover her face with her hand and ran into class.
Molly and Arthur got up and pulled Ginny to the corner of the room.
"You send Madison that Valentine?" Arthur asked. Ginny nodded.
"Because you liked her?" Molly asked. Ginny nodded again.
"I like both. I like boys and girls. Does that bother you?" Ginny asked, feeling a little nervous. She hasn't even came out to her future parents yet, so she has no idea what her past parents are going to say.
"No, sweetheart, of course not" Molly said, tucking Ginny's hair behind her ear.
"We love you for you" Arthur said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "No matter what."
"That's such a relief to hear" Ginny said.
"Why?" Molly asked worriedly. "Didn't you think we would accept you?"
"Yeah - maybe - I dunno."
"We accept you no matter who you decide to go out with" Arthur smiled.
"All that matters to us, is that whoever you decide to date, treats you right" Molly said.
Ginny smiled and hugged her parents. They pulled apart after a while and sat back down.
Snarling, Ron pulled was his wand, too, but Gabriella pulled him away. Ron didn't need to spend the whole of Charms belching slugs.
It wasn't until they had reached Professor Flitwick's class that Madison noticed something rather odd about Riddle's diary. All her other books were drenched in scarlet ink. The diary, however, was as clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it.
"That's weird, not to mention a little suspicious" Lily frowned.
He tried to point this out to Ron, but Ron was having trouble with his wand again; large purple bubbles were blossoming out the end, and he wasn't much interested in anything else. She tried showing Leo, but he was too busy helping Ron, so she turned to Gabriella, only to found her looking at the diary.
"Shouldn't that be covered in ink?" she frowned.
"Yeah, but I don't understand why its not."
"Very suspicious" Peter mumbled.
Madison and Gabriella went to bed before anyone else in their dormitory that night. This was partly because Madison didn't think she could stand Fred and George singing, 'Her eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad' one more time, and partly because she wanted to examine Riddle's diary again, and knew that Ron thought she was wasting her time.
Gabriella also went to bed early so that she could open the box. She sat on her four-poster bed and pulled it out of her bag. She opened the box and love hearts confetti fell out onto her bed, which made her jump. She looked down at her bed and sighed in relief.
"Oh thank god" she whispered. "It's just confetti, I thought it was spiders for a second."
Ron, James and Remus all shivered at the thought of having spiders in his bed.
Gabriella picked up four love heart confetti and put two of them in front of a photo of her mother and father, then put the other two in front of a photo of her and Madison.
"Aww" Lily smiled to herself.
She smiled and turned her attention back to the box. Inside was was a small dream catcher and a note. Gabriella picked up the note and read it to herself.
'I have no idea if these things work or not, but when I saw it, I thought of you.
Hopefully this will keep the nightmares away.
Love, Jason x
P.S, I was going to give it to you the other day, but I thought I would save it till now. Happy Valentines day, shorty x'
James glared at Jason, not liking that he was buying his daughters gifts, even if it was a sweet idea.
Gabriella smiled at Jason, who grinned back.
Gabriella smiled and put the note in the top drawer of her nightstand, then used a charm to stick the dream catcher on the wall above her bed.
"Hopefully you will catch all my bad dreams for me" she said, running her hand over it. She got out of bed and walked over to Madison, who was sat on her bed, flicking through the blank pages of the diary, that had no trace of scarlet ink on it.
Gabriella sat down on the end of Madison's bed and looked at her. "Have you talked to Ginny yet?"
"No, not yet. Every time I call her name, she runs away from me. I think she's embarrassed about what happened, even though she's got no reason to be. I thought her Valentines was very sweet and it took a lot of guts to send it."
"You actually liked my Valentine?" Ginny blushed. Madison grinned and nodded.
"What are you going to tell her once you do talk to her?"
"I dunno actually - I mean, she's cute and everything, but I've never even thought about Ginny that way before."
Ginny and Madison looked at each other and blushed. They went on a few secret dates in Madison's four year, just to test the waters before they told everyone, but, in the end, they decided that they were better off as friends, so they never told anyone, other than Gabriella and Hermione.
"And how do you feel now?"
"I dunno - flattered, I guess, but I don't even know if I like girls or not."
"Well, you are still young, aren't you?" said Gabriella. "You have years to figure out who you like, but just for the record, I don't care if you like girls, boys, or even both. I love you no matter what, and nothing will change that."
"I would prefer it if you didn't date anyone, if I'm being honest" James said, making Madison and Gabriella smile. He turned to look at them, "but seriously, I don't care who it is, as long as they treat you right."
Madison and Gabriella smiled at their teenage father, before glancing nervously at their teenage mother. Lily grinned at her daughters, letting them know what she also doesn't care who they date. They grinned back.
Madison smiled at her little sister. "Same to you, you know, if you decide to date a girl. I will also love you no matter what."
"I don't think I like girls in that way. I mean, I think girls are pretty and everything, but I can't see myself being in a relationship with one."
"And that's perfectly fine" said Madison, before glancing down at Riddle's diary in her hands. "I still don't understand where the inks gone."
"Maybe it's got a charm on so that it doesn't get dirty."
Madison pulled a new bottle out of her bedside cabinet, dipped her quill into it, and dropped a blot onto the first page of the diary. The ink shone brightly on the paper for a second and then, as though it was being sucked into the page, vanished.
"What the fuck?" a few people gasped.
"What the -?" Gabriella gasped.
Excited, Madison loaded up her quill a second time and wrote, "Our names are Madison and Gabriella Potter."
The words shone momentarily on the page and they too sank without trace. Then, as last, something happened. Oozing back out of the page, in her very own ink, came words Madison had never written.
"Hello, Madison and Gabriella Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?"
"Oh no" Arthur said. "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain."
These words, too, faded away, Madison went to write again, but Gabriella stopped her. "I don't think you should write back. Something doesn't feel right about this book."
"It's a book that talks back, what could go wrong?"
"A lot of things" Arthur said at once.
"It's a book that talks back, a lot of things could go wrong."
"I agree" Arthur nodded. He knew all too well how dangerous books can be and he didn't want the girls getting hurt.
Madison scribbled back before Gabriella could stop her. "Someone tried to flush it down a toilet."
She waited eagerly for Riddle's reply, whilst trying to ignore the look Gabriella was giving her.
"Lucky that I recorded my memories in some more lasting wat than ink. But I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read."
"What do you mean?" Madison scrawled, blotting the page in her excitement.
"You get excited by the wrong things, Maddy" Gabriella sighed.
"I mean that this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things which were covered up. Thins which happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Covered things up" Remus muttered, wondering what it could have been.
"That's where me and my sister are now" Madison wrote quickly. "We're at Hogwarts, and horrible stuff's been happening. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?"
Her heart was hammering. Riddle's reply came quickly, his writing becoming untidier, as though he was hurrying to tell all he knew.
"Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the trust. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned."
Madison nearly upset her ink bottle in her hurry to write back.
"It's happening again now. There have been three attacks and no one seems to know who's behind them. Who was it last time?"
"I can show you, if you like" cam Riddle's reply. "You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him."
"Say no" Lily said.
Madison hesitated, her quill suspended over the diary. What did Riddle mean? How could they be taken inside somebody else's memory? She glance nervously at the door to the dormitory, which was growing dark. When she looked back at the diary, she saw fresh words forming.
"Let me show you. Let me show the both of you."
"No!" Gabriella said at once. "Say no. We have no idea what he means by that. Say no, Maddy!"
Madison paused for a fraction for a second and then wrote two letters.
"Ok."
"For god sake, Maddy!" James snapped. "I'm getting a little sick of you not listening to your sister, especially since 9 times of out 10, she's been right."
Gabriella glared at Madison. "Why do you never listen to me?"
"That's what I would like to know" James said, looking at his daughter, who was now glaring at him. James sighed and carried on listening to the story.
Gabriella went to get off the bed, but stopped when the pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping halfway through the month of June. Mouth hanging open, Madison and Gabriella saw that the little square for June the thirteenth seemed to have turned into a minuscule television screen.
Madison's hands trembling slightly, she raised the book to press her eye against the little window. Gabriella, who didn't like what was happening, went to grab the book off Madison, but before she knew what was happening, she was tilting forwards; the window was widening, she and Madison felt their bodies leave Madison's bed and they were pitched headfirst through the opening in the page, into a whirl of colour and shadow.
"No way" Sirius said, slowly. "You go sucked into the diary?" he asked Madison and Gabriella, who nodded.
Madison and Gabriella felt their feet hit solid ground, and stood, shaking, as the blurred shapes around them came suddenly into focus. They knew immediately where they were. This circular room with the sleeping portraits was Dumbledore's office - but it wasn't Dumbledore who was sitting behind the desk.
A wizened, frail-looking wizard, bald except for a few wisps of white hair, was reading a letter by candlelight. Madison and Gabriella had never seen this man before.
"That must be Headmaster Dippet that Riddle was talking about" Peter mumbled.
"I'm sorry" Madison said shakily, "we didn't mean to butt in ..."
But the wizard didn't look up. He continued to read, frowning slightly. Madison drew nearer to his desk and stammered. "Er - we will just go, shall we?"
"I don't think he can hear you" Neville said, a little confused on what's happening.
Still the wizard ignored her. He didn't seem even to have heard her. Thinking that the wizard might be deaf, Madison raised her voice.
"Sorry I disturbed you, we will go now" she half-shouted.
"Really, Maddy" Leo sniggered. "You think someone is deaf, so you shout of them."
Madison playfully glared at him and bobbed her tongues out, which made him laugh.
Gabriella walked over to him and waved her hand in front of his face, but the wizard didn't seem to noticed. "I don't think he can see us, which means he probably can't hear us either."
The wizard folded up the letter with a sigh, stood up, walked past Madison without glancing at her and went to draw the curtains at his window. The sky outside the window was ruby red; it seemed to be sunset. The wizard went back to the desk, sat down and twiddled his thumbs, watching the door.
Madison and Gabriella looked around the office. No Fawkes the phoenix; no whirring silver contraptions. This was Hogwarts as Riddle had known it, mean that this unknown wizard was Headmaster, not Dumbledore, and they, Madison and Gabriella, were little more than a phantom, completely invisible to the people of fifty years ago.
There was a knock on the office door.
"Enter" said the old wizard in a feeble voice.
A boy of about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver prefect's badge was glinting on his chest. He was much taller than Madison and Gabriella, but he, too, had jet-black hair.
"Everyone is taller than you, tiny" Draco snorted.
"I know" Gabriella sighed. "It's so unfair" Draco sniggered more. "Tut, it's not funny."
"It's a little funny" he smirked. Gabriella rolled her eyes.
"Ah, Riddle" said the Headmaster.
"You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?" said Riddle. He looked nervous.
"Sit down" said Dippet. "I've just been reading the letter you sent me."
"Oh" said Riddle. He sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.
"My dear boy" said Dippet kindly. "I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?"
"No" said Riddle at once, "I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to that - to that -"
"He doesn't want to go home?" Frank frowned. "I wonder why."
"You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?" said Dippet curiously.
"Oh, that's why" Frank muttered, feeling a little sorry for the boy.
"Yes, sir" said Riddle, reddening slightly.
"You are Muggle-Born?"
"Half-Blood, sir" said Riddle. "Muggle father, witch mother."
"And are both your parents -?"
"My mother died just after I was born, sir. They told me at the orphanage she lived just long enough to name me: Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather."
"T. M. Riddle" Peter muttered to himself.
Dippet clucked his tongue sympathetically. "The thing is, Tom" he sighed, "special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstance ..."
"You mean all these attacks, sir" said Riddle, and Madison's heart leapt, and she moved closer, scared of missing anything. Gabriella, on the other hand, was looking at Riddle suspiciously, there was something about him that she didn't like.
"What didn't you like about him?" Remus asked.
"Everything" Gabriella answered, and that's all she said on the matter, making a few people frown.
"Precisely" said the Headmaster. "My dear boy, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow you to remain at the castle when term ends. Particularly in the light of the recent tragedy ... the death of that poor little girl ... You will be safer by far at your orphanage. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Magic is even now talking about closing the school. We are no nearer locating the - er - source of all this unpleasantness ..."
Riddle's eyes had widened.
"Sir - of the person was caught ... If it all stopped ..."
"Sounds like he knows something" Sirius mumbled.
"What do you mean?" said Dippet, with a squeak in his voice, sitting up in his chair. "Riddle, do you mean you know something about these attacks?"
"No, sir" said Riddle quickly.
"He definitely knows something" Remus said, agreeing with Sirius.
But Madison and Gabriella was sure it was the same sort of 'no' that they themselves had given Dumbledore.
Dippet sank back, looking faintly disappointed. "You may go, Tom ..."
Riddle slid off his chair and stumped out of the room. Madison and Gabriella followed him. Down the moving spiral staircase they went, emerging next to the gargoyle in the darkening corridor. Riddle stopped, and so did Madison and Gabriella, watching him. They could tell that Riddle was doing some serious thinking. He was biting his lip, his forehead furrowed.
They, as though he had suddenly reached a decision, he hurried off, Madison and Gabriella gliding noiselessly behind him. They didn't see another person until they reached the Entrance Hall, when a tall wizard with long, sweeping auburn hair and beard called to Riddle from the marble staircase.
"What are you doing, wandering around this late, Tom?"
Madison and Gabriella gasped at the wizard. He was none other than a fifty-year-younger Dumbledore.
"I didn't even realise that you had been at Hogwarts for that long, sir" Alice said to Dumbledore, who just smiled in response.
"I have to see the Headmaster, sir" said Riddle.
"Well, hurry off to bed" said Dumbledore, giving Riddle exactly the kind of penetrating stare Madison and Gabriella knew so well. "Best not to roam the corridors these days. Not since ..."
He sighed heavily, bade Riddle goodnight and strode off. Riddle watched him out of sight and then, moving quickly, headed straight down the stone steps to the dungeons, with Madison and Gabriella in hot pursuit. But to Madison's disappointment, Riddle led them into a hidden passageway or a secret tunnel but the very dungeon in which Madison and Gabriella had potions with Snape.
The torches hadn't been lit, and when Riddle pushed the door almost closed, Madison and Gabriella could only just see Riddle, standing stock-still by the door, watching the passage outside.
"Who's he waiting for?" Sirius asked Madison and Gabriella.
"You will find out in a minute" Madison mumbled.
It felt to the girls that they were there for at least an house. All they could see was the figure of Riddle at the door, staring through the crack, waiting like a stature. And just when Madison and Gabriella had stopped feeling expectant and tense, and started wishing they could return to the present, they heard something move beyond the door.
Everyone in the room listened to Severus, wondering what on earth was going on.
Someone was creeping along the passage. They heard whoever it was pass the dungeon where they and Riddle were hidden. Riddle, quiet as a shadow, edged through the door and followed, Madison and Gabriella tiptoeing behind him, forgetting that they couldn't be heard.
For perhaps five minutes they followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, his head inclined in the direction of new noises. Madison and Gabriella heard a door creak open, and then someone speaking in a hoarse whisper.
"C'mon ... gotta get yeh outta here ... c'mon now ... in the box ..."
"That sounds like Hagrid" Molly frowned, but it can't be Hagrid, can it? Hagrid wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone a human.
Madison and Gabriella looked at each other. There was something familiar about that voice. Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner. Madison and Gabriella stepped out behind him. They could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to it.
"Evening, Rubeus" said Riddle sharply.
Gasped were heard around the room. It can't be Hagrid, it just can't be. Then again, you never 100% know someone, no matter how well you think you know them.
The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.
"What yer doin' down here, Tom?"
Riddle stepped closer. "It's all over" he said. "I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attack don't stop."
"What d'yeh -"
"I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and -"
Lily, James, Sirius and Remus all glanced at each other. They knew that Hagrid has been irresponsible with pets in the past, what with a three headed dog and a fire breathing dragon, so what's not to say that he got a pet that could kill, but didn't realise it, until it was too late.
"I know Hagrid has been infdf with pets in the past, but I don't - oh, who I am I
"It never killed no one!" said the large boy, backing against the closed door. From behind them, Madison and Gabriella hear a funny rustling and clicking.
"Come on, Rubeus" said Riddle, moving yet closer. "The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do it make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered ..."
"It wasn't him!" roared the boy, his voice echoing in the dark passage. "He wouldn'! He never!"
"Stand aside" said Riddle, drawing out his wand.
His spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The door behind the large boy flew open with such force it knocked him into the opposite. And out of it came something that made Madison and Gabriella let out a long, piercing scream no one but them seemed to hear.
Everyone looked at Madison and Gabriella, all of them wondering why they screamed.
A vast, low-slung, hairy body and a tangle of black legs; a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor-sharp pincers.
"That sounds like a spider" James shivered.
Riddle raised his wand again, but he was too late. The thing bowed him over as it scuttled away, tearing up the corridor and out of sight. Riddle scrambled to his feet, looking after it: he raised his wand, but the huge boy leapt on him, seized his wand and threw him back down, yelling, "NOOOOOOO!"
The scene whirled, the darkness became complete, Madison and Gabriella felt themselves falling and, with a crash, they landed spread-eagled on Madison's four-poster bed in the Gryffindor dormitory, Riddle's diary lying open on Gabriella's stomach.
"Good" Lily sighed in relief. "You got back ok."
Before they had had time to regain their breath, the dormitory door opened and Hermione came in.
"There you are" she said.
Madison and Gabriella sat up. They were sweating and shaking.
"What's up?" said Hermione, looking at them with concern.
"It was Hagrid, Hermione" said Madison. "Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."
"I don't believe he did it" Alice said.
"We don't know that for sure" said Gabriella, throwing Riddle's diary away from her.
Madison looked at her. "Did you not just see what I did?"
"Of course I did, but I'm not blaming Hagrid without any proof."
"We have just seen the proof" hissed Madison.
"And how do you know that for sure? Tom seemed a little off to me. What if he just went after Hagrid because he was an easy target?"
"I'm with Gabriella on this one" Lily said. "Something doesn't feel right about this."
Hermione stood there, completely confused as to what Madison and Gabriella were talking about. "What's going on?" she asked, but they didn't answer her and carried on their her argument.
"Riddle wouldn't do that" Madison scoffed.
"How do you know?" Gabriella snapped. "You have known Tom for two seconds, what makes you think he can be trusted?"
"Because we have just saw his memorise with proof that it was Hagrid."
"That proved nothing, and I believe Hagrid when he said his monster had nothing to do with the attacks!" Gabriella stormed over to her bed and pulled the curtains around. "Stupid bitch" she mumbled, as she lied down.
Draco snorted, which made his mother nudge him to stop.
"I heard that" said Madison.
"Yeah, you were meant too."
"Well, that was a lovely way to end the chapter" Severus smirked, closing the book. "Who would like to read next?"
"I will" Molly mumbled, taking the book off him.