Chapter 12: The Diary
I don't own Digimon or Harry Potter
After the incident with the Polyjuice Potion, Hermione remained in the Hospital Wing for several weeks, when the rest of the students returned from their Christmas break everyone began having their own theories and reasons as to why she was missing. Some thought she had been attacked and kept visiting the Hospital Wing to try and catch a glimpse of the supposedly newest victim.
Only Daisuke, Veemon, Harry and Ron knew the truth and they weren't about to tell anyone else. They made sure to visit their friend every evening.
Soon term started back up again, and she insisted that they bring her the homework from each class. "I still don't understand why you want to do homework while in the hospital. If I were you, I'd be taking a break." Ron muttered, handing her another stack of homework.
"Don't be silly Ron, I have to keep up with everyone else," Hermione said, her face had lost all its fur, but her eyes remained cat-like, and her tail was hidden under the blankets.
"This coming from the girl who is the top of every single class?" Veemon asked. "Hermione, you could take a break until the exams, and you'd still ace everything." He told her, making the girl giggle softly.
"You're probably right, but I don't want to get into any bad habits." She then leaned forwards and spoke in a whisper. "Do you have any more leads?" she asked them.
"Nothing." Daisuke huffed with a frown.
"I was so sure it was Malfoy," Ron grumbled for about the hundredth time.
"We all did." Harry comforted his friend. "He seemed like the culprit, but I guess it could be like how we all thought Snape was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone last year but, in the end, it turned out that he was actually protecting the stone."
The others nodded before Madam Pomfrey walked over to shoo the others away as she gave Hermione another dose of medicine. "See you tomorrow," Daisuke promised her friend with a smile as she followed Ron and Harry with Veemon beside her.
"At least she's stopped throwing up hairballs," Harry said positively and his friends nodded in agreement as they began climbing the stairs to head back to Gryffindor Tower. As they reached the next floor, they spotted the entire hallway was flooding with water.
"Yuck!" Ron groaned in disgust, looking down at his now wet shoes.
"Looks like the bathroom's flooded again," Daisuke said, running off ahead with Veemon, Harry and Ron following her. They soon reached the door to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and saw water seeping from under it. "I wonder why she's upset now." she thought, pushing the door open and they all walked inside to investigate.
They heard Myrtle whimpering and moaning somewhere in the bathroom. "Come to throw something else at me?" They turned and saw her floating in front of the window high up on the wall.
"Why would I throw something at you?" Harry asked her.
"Don't ask me," Myrtle answered, sobbing, and rubbing her eyes. "Here I am minding my own business, sitting in my favourite toilet when someone decides to throw a book at me!"
"But…it can't hurt you," Ron said, trying to cheer her up. "I mean, won't it go right through you?" from the look on Myrtle's face, he had said the wrong thing. She flew towards him angrily and he stepped back in fright.
"Sure, let's throw things at Myrtle because she can't feel it! Ten points if you get it through her stomach!" she threw a punch and her arm phased through Ron's body making him shiver. "Fifty points if it goes through her head!" She then punched her arm through his head.
"Who threw the book at you?" Daisuke asked softly, trying to soothe the ghost's anger and sadness.
"I don't know. I didn't see them; I was in my toilet thinking about death when the book hit my head." The ghost sniffled. "It washed out over there." She pointed behind her in front of one of the cubicles.
Harry walked to where she was pointing and saw a small black diary with a shabby cover laying on the ground soaked in water. "Don't touch it!" Ron blurted out as his friend went to pick it up.
"Why not?" Harry asked.
"It could be dangerous," Ron answered. "Some of the books that the Ministry have confiscated were dangerous. My dad told me about a book that burned your eyes out, another book made you speak in limericks for the rest of your life."
"Alright, we get the point." Veemon told the boy. "How bad could it be?" he walked over to the book and picked it up, he opened the first page and suddenly burst out screaming making the three humans jump and scream too before they stopped and glared at Veemon whose screams had turned into laughs.
"Veemon!" Daisuke snapped, whacking her partner on the head, making him stop laughing. "That is not funny!" she snatched the diary from his hands as he rubbed his head.
"Sorry, but you should have seen your faces." The Digimon said with a cheeky grin. Daisuke rolled her eyes and grumbled as she and Harry looked at the book together, it was a diary and the date on the cover was faded, though they could make out the diary was fifty years old.
"Weird," Harry muttered, taking the diary, and opening it to the first page. "T.M Riddle?" he said curiously before turning to the next page and the next page, each page was blank with nothing written on them, not even a reminder about a birthday or dentist appointment.
"He never wrote in it?" Daisuke asked. "That's odd."
"Well, it's no use to us now," Ron said with a shrug. "We'd best get going before Filch turns up and blames us for the flooding." The others nodded and they all left the bathroom leaving Myrtle to her sobbing.
It was soon the start of February and Ron and Harry sat together in the Gryffindor Common room one evening when the portrait hole opened, and they spotted Daisuke and Veemon walking in followed by Hermione. "Guess who finally got discharged from the Hospital Wing," Daisuke said happily.
"About time," Ron said with a grin as Hermione sat next to them.
"Great to have you back Hermione," Harry said and Hermione nodded.
"Thanks, I was beginning to go mad in there." She replied. Harry then began telling her everything about the diary and how they had come across it.
"It probably has hidden powers," Daisuke said as she handed Hermione the diary to look at. "But it's really good at keeping them hidden."
"Maybe it's shy?" Ron suggested with a shrug. "I wonder why you don't just chuck it."
"I'm trying to think of why someone did want to get rid of it in the first place," Harry said, taking the diary back from Hermione and flicking through the pages.
"It's fifty years old right?" Daisuke asked softly and her friends nodded. "The Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago, maybe this Riddle guy knew what happened back then."
"But the pages are blank." Ron pointed out.
"Invisible ink maybe?" Harry said.
Hermione took out her wand and tapped the first blank page three times. "Apparecium." She said, but nothing happened.
"I'm telling you, there's nothing special about this diary. Riddle probably got it for Christmas, and he couldn't be bothered using it, it happens to everyone." Ron said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
Harry shrugged. "Maybe you're right." He said but for some reason he didn't think it was wise to throw the diary away just yet, he couldn't put his finger on it, but he believed the diary had yet more to reveal he just didn't know what that could be.
A few weeks later, Harry and Daisuke and Veemon arrived in the Great Hall slightly late as they had slept in, and they found all the walls had been covered in garish pink flowers. "What's going on here?" Daisuke asked with a frown. "I like pink, but this is way too much…"
"Agreed," Harry said in disgust, looking up as confetti shaped like hearts rained down from the pale blue ceiling. He, Daisuke and Veemon sat down next to Ron and Hermione who were having different reactions to the decorations, Ron's face was green in disgust while Hermione and several other girls were all pink in the cheeks and giggling.
Ron pointed to the teacher's table where Lockhart was standing up from his chair wearing bright pink robes while the rest of the teachers all looked stone-faced as Lockhart waved his hand to silence the students.
"Happy Valentine's Day! And may I thank each one of the forty-six people who have sent me cards. Yes, I have taken to arranging this little surprise for you all. Think of it as a morale booster now that the Heir of Slytherin has seemingly lost their nerve now that we have not had any attacks recently." The professor said before clapping his hands.
The doors to the Great Hall swung open and in marched twelve surly-looking Dwarves who all had dressed up like cupid. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me…" Daisuke whispered in horror.
"My card-carrying cupids will be moving around the castle the whole day to deliver you your valentines. And while you're at it, why not ask Professor Snape how to brew a love potion or ask Professor Flitwick about some Entrancing Charms, he knows more about them than anyone else, the sly old devil." Professor Lockhart continued with a grin.
"I bet Snape would rather feed himself poison than teach anyone how to brew a love potion," Daisuke muttered as the four friends left the Great Hall, heading to their first lesson.
"Hermione, please tell me you weren't one of the forty-six who sent a card to Lockhart." Ron pleaded.
"Oh, I don't know what you're talking about." She replied, suddenly very interested in reading her timetable and Ron groaned.
Harry and Daisuke shared a giggle before Harry felt someone tugging on his robes and he frowned, looking down he paled on seeing one of the dwarves standing beside him. "I have a message to deliver to Harry Potter." They said, twanging the harp they held in their hand.
"Oh no. Go away!" Harry hissed, he tried to run off, but the dwarf grabbed his book bag.
"Stop running, lemme deliver my message." The creature said, pulling Harry back and Harry kept pulling away before his bag tore open spilling everything inside onto the floor.
"No!" Harry yelped when his ink bottle smashed and spilled all over everything. "Damn it that was a Christmas present you dumb dwarf!" he snapped angrily.
"Veemon!" Daisuke called out and her partner nodded.
"Right." He said and he walked over to the dwarf. "Get outta here ya jerk, come on move along. Who cares about some dumb valentine?!" he snapped, kicking the creature in the backside as he chased it away.
"Thanks," Harry muttered, gathering his things, and putting them back in his torn book bag. "Great, now Cedric's gonna think I ruined his present for me on purpose…"
"I doubt it," Daisuke said with a smile as she helped her friend out, she picked up the diary and shook the small droplets of ink off it before noticing Ginny Weasley nearby looking from the diary to her and Harry and then back to the diary, her face pale white. "Ginny, is something wrong?" but the young girl took off running down the hallway before anyone could stop her.
"Weird…" Veemon muttered, having returned from chasing the dwarf off. "Why do you think she ran off like that, it's like she saw a ghost or something."
"No idea," Daisuke replied as the bell rang to signal the start of the next lesson and everyone hurried off to class.
Later that evening, Harry was sitting alone in the Gryffindor Common room at one of the small tables around the room, the diary laid open in front of him. He flipped through it again before deciding to write in it, maybe if he did that something would happen. He dipped his quill in a new pot of ink and began to write.
"My name is Harry Potter…" he muttered, before the ink had even dried on the page, it vanished as if it sunk into the diary and his eyes widened.
A moment later new writing appeared. "Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle."
Harry bit his lip before he began writing again. "Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?" he wrote, and like before the words vanished.
"Yes." The diary replied and Harry grinned in success.
"Can you tell me?" he wrote.
"No." the diary replied after a few moments, and he slumped in defeat. "But I can show you." More writing appeared and he raised an eyebrow, not noticing Daisuke as she walked down the stairs and over to him. "Allow me to take you back in time fifty years, to when I caught the Heir of Slytherin."
"Harry, what's going on?" Daisuke asked when the pages of the diary suddenly flipped to another page and the date 13th of June appeared in the upper right corner. Her eyes widened in surprise as Harry picked up the book, his eyes also wide with surprise.
Before either of them could say a word the pages of the diary began glowing, Daisuke stepped closer as Harry tried to put the book down, but it was too late. Both glowed before they were sucked into the book which snapped shut and laid motionless on the table.
Daisuke let out a surprised yelp when she landed on the cold stone floor with Harry landing beside her. "Ugh…Harry, what just happened?" she groaned.
"The diary…the diary was talking to me," Harry told her in a hushed tone.
Daisuke rubbed her head and blinked. "Talking to you? I didn't hear anything."
"Well, it was more like someone was writing replies to what I wrote in the diary. I think Tom Riddle did some really weird magic, it made the diary sentient." Harry said, trying to understand things himself. He helped Daisuke to her feet before they both noticed that they were in Hogwarts castle but everything around them was a dark greyish colour while they remained the same.
"Weird…" Daisuke whispered. She walked down the hallway and Harry followed her before they came to a set of stairs and spotted a figure standing on the landing of some stairs. "Who could that be?"
"I think it's Tom Riddle, he told me he was going to show me how he caught the Heir of Slytherin fifty years ago," Harry answered looking at the boy who they could see was in his sixth year of Hogwarts, and he had a Prefect pin attached to his robes.
"Harry, wait," Daisuke said, grabbing her adoptive brother's arm as he began walking up the stairs. "Something's not right." A moment later, the two saw what Riddle was looking at, four members of the Hogwarts staff were walking down the stairs carrying a stretcher between them. A body was covered by a sheet and a limp hand was visible, dangling from the stretcher.
Daisuke gasped, covering her mouth with her hands while Harry gulped, watching as the stretcher was carried out of sight.
"Riddle!" a familiar voice said from atop the stairs, Riddle who had been watching the stretcher suddenly looked up and saw Professor Dumbledore standing there. "Come."
"Professor Dumbledore," Riddle said, walking up the stairs.
"Dumbledore?" Harry whispered, following Riddle with Daisuke.
"He must not be Headmaster yet," Daisuke whispered, noticing the man didn't wear his usual colourful clothing.
"It is not wise to be wandering this late hour, Tom," Dumbledore said to Riddle.
"I know sir, but…I was…I had to see if the rumours were true." Riddle said, composing himself quickly.
"They are, Tom. They are indeed true." Dumbledore said.
"About the school as well? I don't have a home to go back to, they wouldn't really close Hogwarts would they, Professor?" Riddle asked.
"I understand Tom, but I am afraid Headmaster Dippet has no choice," Dumbledore answered.
"Sir, if the person responsible was caught…if the attacks were stopped…" Riddle said, making Dumbledore's eyes narrow slightly.
"Is there…something you wish to tell me Tom?" he asked.
"No sir," Riddle said and Dumbledore eyed him for a moment before nodding.
"Very well, off you go." He said.
"Goodnight, sir," Riddle said before he walked past Dumbledore. Daisuke and Harry shared a look and quickly ran off following Riddle as he walked through the castle, oddly checking to see if he was being followed or could be seen by anyone.
He walked down to the dungeons of the castle, and they saw him slowly drawing his wand before he threw open a door and stormed into the room. Inside, Harry and Daisuke's eyes widened at who they saw Riddle pointing his wand at…it was a younger looking version of Hagrid, wearing Hogwarts robes and he was standing in front of a large chest.
"Good evening, Hagrid." He said, his wand aimed at the half-giant. "I'm going to have to turn you in. I don't think you meant for it to kill anyone."
"You can't. You don't understand." Hagrid said.
"The dead girl's parents will be here by morning; the least Hogwarts could do for them is to make sure that the thing that murdered their daughter is slaughtered," Riddle told him.
"It wasn't him. Aragog'd never kill no one, never." Hagrid said.
"Monsters don't make good pets, Hagrid. Now stand aside." Riddle ordered.
"No, I won't let you hurt him," Hagrid said.
"Stand aside Hagrid," Riddle said again.
"No!" Hagrid shouted.
"Cistem Aperio!" Riddle shouted, waving his wand at the chest which burst open, and a large spider scurried out of the chest and ran out of the room straight past Daisuke and Harry. "Arania Exumai!" Riddle shouted, firing a blast of light, but it missed the spider leaving a large scorch mark on the stone floor.
"Aragog! Aragog!" Hagrid shouted as he moved to chase after it but Riddle held his wand in his face.
"I can't let you go; they'll have your wand for this Hagrid. You'll be expelled." Riddle told him.
"No, Hagrid!" Harry shouted, reaching out for his friend as he and Daisuke were suddenly pulled down the hallway and they both vanished in a flash of light.
A moment later, the two reappeared in the Gryffindor Common Room. "Whoa," Harry said in shock before he got out of his chair. "Do you realise what this means?"
Daisuke gulped and nodded. "Hagrid…he opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago…" she whispered. "But…that doesn't make any sense, why would he do that?" she asked, and Harry shrugged his shoulders before they both went off to bed.
The next day in between classes, they along with Ron, Hermione and Veemon walked through one of the smaller courtyards with Daisuke and Harry telling them what they saw in the diary the previous night.
"It can't be Hagrid; it just can't be," Hermione said.
"We don't even know who this Tom Riddle is, you guys said it yourself, he didn't want the school to close," Ron said. "Maybe he framed Hagrid."
"The monster had killed someone Ron, what would any of us have done?" Harry asked him.
"We'd have got the facts straight. We'd have not jumped to conclusions." Daisuke answered. "Hagrid is our friend; we need to talk to him."
"Oh, that'll be a cheerful conversation," Ron muttered. "Hello Hagrid, tell us have you let anything mad and hairy into the castle lately?" he said.
"Mad and hairy?" They turned around and looked up to see Hagrid right behind them. "You wouldn't be talking about me now, would you?"
"No!" The five shouted quickly and Hagrid narrowed his eyes at this.
"What's that you got there Hagrid?" Daisuke asked, looking at the large bottle in his hand.
"Oh, Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent for the Mandrakes. We can ill afford to have any of them get eaten, we need all of them for the antidote, Professor Sprout tells me." Hagrid answered.
"That's…um neat," Daisuke said nervously. "Um Hagrid…y…you didn't happen to um meet any shady figures over the summer again, did you?"
"Course not, I've learned my lesson from last year. No dangerous creatures living in my house this year, except for Fang of course." Hagrid joked but he saw they weren't laughing. "Well, I…I'll be off. You lot best be careful now, ya hear?" he nodded before walking off almost bumping into Neville when the boy ran into the courtyard past him.
"Harry, I don't know who did it, but you better come quick. Come on!" Neville shouted before he ran off and the five followed him, running to keep up with him as he led them to Gryffindor Tower and up the stairs to the boy's dormitory.
"Bloody Hell!" Ron exclaimed in shock, seeing the area around Harry's bed had been torn apart, his books were shredded, his pillows were de-feathered, his sheets were thrown off the bed, everything was a wreck and Hedwig hooted from her perch.
"What happened?" Daisuke asked as Harry began searching through what was left.
"It had to be a Gryffindor, nobody else knows our password, unless it wasn't a student," Hermione said.
"Whoever it was, they were looking for something." Veemon said.
"And they found it," Harry said once he finished searching. He looked at his friends with a worried expression. "Tom Riddle's diary is gone."
The end of the chapter
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