Disclaimer: I do not own most of the characters or settings in this story. The honour belongs solely to JK Rowling. I suspect that I do not even own half of the plot, as this has been influenced by the numerous fanfics I've read.

Chapter 2: The Diary

            After spending half the night thinking about how horrible his classes were going to be this year with Draco Malfoy in almost every one of them, Harry finally decided that there was nothing he could do about it so he would enjoy the next few days before hell started. He eventually got to sleep around 4.00am, which was the reason for his arriving late for breakfast the next morning.

            "Hi sleepyhead," Hermione said as Harry sat down. Harry's hair was messier than usual and there were bags under his eyes.

            Harry didn't answer; he just gave her a withering look and started piling up his plate with eggs, bacon and sausages. Harry looked over at Ron and saw he was equally as depressed, but not at all sleepy. Harry knew from the persistent snoring that last night's revelation didn't affect Ron's sleep patterns at all.

            "Since we've got a few days before classes start, we should get started on that diary," Hermione said chirpily. "Mark's counting on us."

            Ron gave Hermione a dirty look and said through a mouthful of eggs, "I don't know what you're so happy about, Hermione. You'd think you would be a little sorry for us, maybe even share in our depression?"

            "Don't blame me for getting yourself into this mess, Ron. I nagged you all day to fill in your schedules," Hermione said bluntly.

            "I know Hermione. I promise we will never procrastinate again. We've learnt our lesson," Harry assured her.

            "And how long will this last, may I ask?" Hermione asked.

            "Oh, at least until after breakfast." Ron answered and they all laughed.

            "So what about the diary?" Hermione insisted. "We should get started, and since we're still at breakfast you can't procrastinate."

            "Straight after breakfast, Hermione. How about we go by the lake and read it? No point wasting this wonderful weather," Ron said looking up at the enchanted ceiling into a blazing blue sky. "Besides, I want to know what happened to Mark's grandmother too."

            Harry was going to add his agreement to Ron's when Professor McGonagall interrupted.

            "Mr Potter, I wish to speak with you." Professor McGonagall said in her customarily stern manner.

            Harry nodded and got up out of his chair. He followed Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall, into the Entrance Hall and up the stairs towards Gryffindor tower. She was leading him to her office. Harry briefly wondered if he had done anything wrong. He had only been here a couple of days. Surely he wasn't in trouble yet?

            Once in her office, McGonagall turned to Harry with a more pleasant but concerned expression on her face. "Are you alright, Potter? You look drawn."

            "I'm fine, Professor. I just didn't get much sleep last night," said Harry honestly.

"Well, I want you to keep an eye on that, Potter, and if it happens again I want you to see Madam Pomfrey."

            Harry nodded, and thought, 'Was this all she wanted to see me about? My health?'

            "I didn't bring you here to enquire about your health, however," McGonagall said, as if reading his mind. "I have some good news, Potter. You have been made captain of this year's Gryffindor Quidditch team."

            Harry's face beamed. "Thanks, Professor."

            "Don't thank me. You've earned it. You'll have a lot of work to do. Are you sure you have the time –"

            "Definitely," Harry said promptly. He had secretly hoped that he would be made captain at some point before he left Hogwarts.

            "Good, I am pleased to hear that. Now, you'll have to arrange the tryouts. I believe with the graduation of Miss Spinnet and Miss Johnson you will need to find two more chasers."

            "Yes, Professor. I'll put a notice up and start tryouts as soon as possible," Harry confirmed.

            "I will book the Quidditch pitch for Friday, then. Good day, Mr Potter."

            Harry left McGonagall's office feeling elated. He was captain! Harry rushed back to the Great Hall to tell Ron and Hermione the news.

            When he got there, he found that they were both as excited as he was.

            "Captain!" Ron exclaimed. "Excellent!"

            "Of course, you really did earn it, Harry. You are the best player on the team," Hermione said rationally.

            "Thanks guys," Harry smiled.

            "We should get some practise in now," Ron said. "Since Harry's captain, he really needs to set an example, right Harry?" Ron asked.

            Harry was just about to agree when Hermione said, "What about the diary? We need to get started. Mark is counting on us."

            "There's plenty of time, Hermione," Ron complained. "Harry really needs to practise – "

            "Ron!" Hermione cautioned. "What did we say not ten minutes ago about procrastination?"

            "That's right. Harry should not procrastinate about Quidditch practise." Ron stated firmly as if that settled the matter.

            "I think Hermione is right," Harry said. He chuckled at the look of shock on both Ron and Hermione's faces. "Ron, it's just that we didn't listen to Hermione about the schedule all day yesterday, and look what happened. We're stuck with the Slytherins for every class -"

            "Not for Care of Magical Creatures," Ron reminded him.

            "Only because the Slytherins don't want to take that subject. They hate Hagrid," Hermione countered.

            "The point is," Harry continued, "I think we should listen to Hermione. Besides, we can practise after lunch, right Hermione?"

            "Absolutely. What if you get the diary and meet Ron and me at the lake, okay?" she asked.

            "Okay."

            Twenty minutes later they were all huddled by an old oak tree by the lake, Ron and Harry lying on their backs enjoying the weather while Hermione was on her stomach with the diary open in front of her. They were watching the giant squid trying to grab hold of a couple of first years so that it could drag them into the water. One of the first years became so frightened that she ran straight for the Hogwarts front doors screaming. Harry chuckled.

            "Harry! That's mean! We should really go and see if she's alright. We have a responsibility now to the younger students," Hermione chastised.

            "She's alright," Ron stressed. "The Giant Squid wouldn't actually hurt anyone."

            "I know, but still."

            "She's alright," Harry repeated Ron's words and Hermione fell silent.

            "Maybe it was a book." Ron said, jumping to the earlier conversation about Mark Evans' grandmother. "Dad says that a book can do strange things to a person. Remember Ginny when You-Know-Who possessed her with that diary?"

            "Could be," Harry agreed.

            "Or maybe an Obliviate spell," Ron continued, "Like what happened to Bertha Jorkins."

            "Whatever it was," Hermione said, holding up the diary, "the answer has to be in here somewhere."

            "Well, have you found anything yet?" Ron asked.

            "Only that she's a perfectly happy muggle house wife taking care of a husband and two children in a perfectly normal suburban house in Bristol," Hermione answered.

            "Yeah, but anything that will tell us why she went nuts?"

            "Ron!"

            "Well," Ron pressed, unaffected by the chastisement.

            Hermione sighed, "Nope, nothing yet, but I've only read half a dozen entries. There are still loads to read."

            "This is going to take ages," Ron complained.

            Hermione rolled her eyes and went back to the diary.

            "Maybe you should go to the latest entry. If there is a clue, it would be there," Harry offered.

            Hermione was clearly not impressed with their lack of structure when it came to research but she complied. As she read the last entry, her eyes started to bulge.

            "You're right. Right here, look at this Harry," she said excitedly and handed Harry the diary. Harry read aloud the last entry of the diary.

   Monday 14th November, 1959

   I had a strange visitor today. He never told me his name, but he was tall and had short jet-black hair. He seemed to be quite respectable at first, and his robe looked just like one of the one's in those old books of mine. He claimed to be from some sort of historical society and he was asking about the book. That strange one Terry used to read to me when I was sick because I couldn't open it. He said it had historical importance and would buy it from me. I told him Terry gave it away last summer and he became angry, so angry he smashed all the glasses in my cabinet without even touching them. They were my best glasses too. Hand made and very expensive. Terry is going to be beside himself when he finds out. I hope I never see him again. He was frightening, and he scared poor little Jeremy. He cried for hours after that strange man left.

            Harry reread the entry several times to take it all in. "Alright. So there was a book which she couldn't open, and a strange man with jet black hair."

            "Sounds a lot like Snape," Ron said, jumping to conclusions.

            "Why on earth would you think that?" Hermione asked.

            "Tall, jet-black hair, and a shocking temper," Ron said, counting of the items that formed his case.

            Hermione rolled her eyes. "This was back in 1942, Ron. It can't have been Snape," she said logically.

            "Maybe it was a relative," Ron countered.

            Hermione groaned. "If it wasn't Snape it was a relative. Can't you think of a different suspect for once?"

            "Well, Snape's always in the thick of things isn't he? He says he's on our side, but how do we know for sure?"

            "He saved Harry's life, remember?"

            "He was repaying a debt, wasn't he? For when Harry's dad saved him from Lupin. He had no choice. And why did it take so long for Snape to get the Order after us when we were at the ministry. We were hours on those thestrals! What was he doing?"

            Hermione ignored that. "Dumbledore trusts him."

            "Dumbledore makes mistakes."

            "Ron, Hermione. Stop it," Harry snapped. He was too busy thinking about the entry in the diary to listen to Ron and Hermione's squabbling.

            "Do we have any information on that book?" Hermione asked.

            "Not yet. It implies she's mentioned it before though, so there may be something in an earlier entry," Harry answered.

            "So we need to read it through properly," Hermione said smugly, and took the diary back.

            After Hermione started reading again, Ron piped up, "I told you it was a book!"

            Later on in the day after Harry and Ron returned to the Gryffindor common room after some one-on-one Quidditch practice, Hermione ushered them over to the corner of the room were she had been studying.

            "I've been reading some more of that diary, and it appears that Mark's grandmother was a witch," Hermione said.

            "Okay," Harry replied.

            "Not a full witch though. She never went to a wizarding school or anything, but she could do things. Like basic levitation and summoning spells. She didn't mean to, of course. But she was fascinated by the subject. She couldn't read that book so she got her husband to read it for her until he gave it away. She doesn't say exactly why he did that, but she implies that she was becoming sick with it and felt much better after the book was gone."

            "So maybe the book does make people crazy, like Ron said," Harry asked, and Ron grinned, thinking he got it right.

            "We don't know that for sure," said Hermione.

            "But it's possible," Ron said.

            Hermione nodded, "It's possible."

            "So what does this mean? Really, are we any closer to finding out the truth?"

            "Was there another mention of that book?" Ron asked.

            "Questions, questions," Hermione sighed. "I don't know and yes."

            Harry and Ron looked at each other, stupefied. Hermione rolled her eyes again. "I don't if we are any close to finding out the truth, and the book was called 'The Ancient House of Carvin'. Apparently, her husband Terry could open that book, and so could Jeremy, who was her five year-old son, but she couldn't."

            "The Ancient House of Carvin," Harry reiterated. "Sounds like a name for an old wizarding family."

            "I know. I'm going to start looking in the library tomorrow," Hermione said.

            "What! You haven't already started?" Ron asked with mock amusement.

            "You go then," Hermione challenged.

            "No, that's alright. Tomorrow will be fine."

            "Good, because I've still got plenty of study I need to do. I still have to finish my Transfiguration and Arithmency texts. I'm so far behind!"

            Ron and Harry smiled at each other, not even bothering to comment. They settled down to a game of wizards chess while Hermione caught up on her study. Just as Harry thought he might have the upper hand for once, Hermione said, "Do you guys know a girl called Glory Vexten?"

            Both Ron and Harry shook their heads.

            "Ah ha!" Harry exclaimed, because he had just made a spectacular move, taking Ron's queen.

            "Bloody hell," Ron said.

            "Well, this person is on our schedule," Hermione said, shoving the schedule right under Ron's and Harry's noses, bumping Harry's king and causing it to topple over. Ron's chess pieces started to cheer.

            "Hermione! I was winning!" Harry shouted.

            "Sorry," Hermione said, not really sorry at all.

            Ron picked up the schedule and looked at it. "Hey, Hermione's right, and she's in every one of our classes, including Care of Magical Creatures. Look," Ron said, passing the schedule to Harry.

            Harry briefly looked at the schedule. He didn't want to study it too closely until he had to, lest he be reminded of who he was stuck with all year. It was true though. This Glory Vexten was on the list.

            "I think it is safe to assume she's a Slytherin, if she's in classes with all the other Slytherins," Harry said.

            "Or, like you, she was slack when filling out her schedule," Hermione shrugged.

            The next day born sunny and warm, and the last thing either Ron or Harry wanted to do was be locked up in the library, but as Mark's pleading eyes had asked them to, they couldn't refuse. The three of them were all in the library straight after breakfast, looking for a book entitled 'The Ancient House of Carvin', or any mention of such.

            They started in the History section of the library. After a while, Harry said, "You know, this library really needs a better cataloguing system. Even the muggles use a computer. Just type in the search term and out pops a list of books to look at."

            "What's a computer?" Ron asked.

            "An electrical device used to store and retrieve information," Hermione said in the simplest terms she could think of.

            Ron blinked. "What's an electrical device?"

            Hermione laughed a little. "Um, I'll show you some time," she said.

            The three of them searched for hours, but they didn't find any family by the name of Carvin. "This is pointless," Ron complained. "We don't even know if this family has anything to do with Mark's grandmother."

            "Except that she had their book," Hermione said.

            "Maybe she just bought it at a discount store," Ron countered.

            "But that man was specifically looking for that book. It was important to him," replied Hermione.

            "Will you two stop bickering? You haven't stopped since we got to Hogwarts," Harry snapped. He was developing a headache.

            "Sorry," Ron and Hermione said together.

            Just then, something happened that really made Harry's day. A certain blond haired Slytherin sauntered into the library with a girl Harry didn't recognise.

            "Malfoy," Harry said to the others. "Let's get out of here."

            Ron and Hermione agreed promptly and started to gather their belongings. Before they were finished, however, they noticed Malfoy and the girl meander up towards them.

            "Get lost, Malfoy," Harry snapped, collecting the last of his things. He threw his bag over his shoulder and made to leave, but Malfoy stopped him with a firm hand on Harry's arm.

            "Let go," Harry said with bared teeth.

            "What do you want, ferret?" Ron asked.

            Malfoy flushed briefly, but otherwise seemed undaunted. "And here I thought you were completely enamoured with me, Potter."

            "And why would I be enamoured with you, ferret?" Harry asked, mimicking Ron's nickname for Malfoy.

            "Well, you have chosen every one of my classes. I never knew you desired so badly to be close to me." The girl with Malfoy smirked.

            "Well, Malfoy, there were no other classes left. I guess your name causes all to run and hide."

            "Whatever," Malfoy drawled.

            Harry looked at the girl who was with Malfoy for the first time. Harry assumed that this must be Glory Vexten.

            Malfoy too, turned to the girl. "I forgot my manners in all the excitement. Glory, this is Potty, Weasel and the Mudblood," said Malfoy, pointing to Harry, Ron and Hermione in turn.

            "Where are your cronies, Malfoy?" Ron scorned. "Holding each others hand in the bathroom?"

            "Wouldn't you like to know? Maybe you'd like to join them," Malfoy countered.

            "Come on, let's go," Hermione said to Ron and Harry.

            "Or not," Glory Vexten said, stepping in front of Hermione. Vexten was relatively tall, around 5'10", with wavy blond hair, and a serious attitude. She was staring down at Hermione's 5'5" form with extreme distaste. Malfoy chuckled in the background, eagerly anticipating the outcome.

            Vexten ran a finger down Hermione's cheek. "Draco's told me all about you, little Mudblood. The biggest know-it-all in Hogwarts." Vexten leaned about as close to Hermione's face as she could without kissing her. Hermione held her ground. "We'll have to see what we can to do to remedy the situation."

            Ron and Harry had already had enough. They got out their wands and pointed them at Vexten. "Leave her alone," Ron said loudly. Madam Pince jerked her head towards the noise.

            Malfoy flinched slightly and reached for his wand, but Vexten merely laughed. "Careful, Weasel. You don't want to get into trouble by the librarian for fighting do you?"

            "Leave – her – alone," Ron repeated, sounding out each syllable.

            "Ron, stop it," Hermione said.

            Vexten was quick. With a swift movement of her right arm, she knocked the wands out of both Ron and Harry's hands, and the wands went flying, completely out of reach.

            "And just who are you, without your wands?" Vexten said with disdain. "Do you really think you can take me?"

            "After Voldemort, you're easy," Harry declared. Both Ron and Malfoy gasped at that name, Hermione flinched a little, but Vexten smiled broadly.

            "Voldemort's not here, though, is he?" Vexten said Voldemort's name without the slightest worry. "Though I must admit, you have given him a good running away from a couple of times," Vexten said scornfully. "You have never truly faced Voldemort, Potter. Let's see now. You were lucky when you foolishly went after the Philosopher's Stone. You nearly handed the stone to the Dark Lord on a platter. Pity that failed. You may have stopped Voldemort's memory from becoming solid, but it doesn't take superior ability to pierce a book with a basilisk tooth. Anyone could do it. You personally restored Voldemort back to health just over a year ago. Well done. And the way you ran back home afterwards was simply superb. Hiding behind the statue at the ministry while Dumbledore and Voldemort dueled? That was a brilliant piece of work. Most courageous. You were good against the basilisk and the dragon, I must admit, but they're not Voldemort, not by any stretch."

            Harry was getting angrier and angrier throughout Vexten's diatribe. How dare she ridicule everything Harry did? And she accused Harry of restoring Voldemort to health.

            "You've escaped Voldemort, Potter. You've never truly fought him. Believe me, there's a difference. And I'm not particularly afraid of anyone who earns themselves a reputation by cowardly running away from battle." Vexten grabbed Hermione by the head and kissed her full on the lips with Hermione unsuccessfully trying to fight back. Ron pounced on Vexten, but she kneed him in the groin easily. He fell to the ground in pain, clutching his groin.  "I'll see you around, Potter. And if the Dark Lord ever needs any favours, I'll be sure to ask you first." With that, Vexten threw Hermione to the ground and walked out, Malfoy following behind laughing.

            Hermione started spluttering. She wiped her mouth with her hands, trying to wash away the residue of Vexten's kiss.

            "Water!" she cried. Both Harry and Ron were staring at her, completely astounded by Vexten's audacity. Ron was still on the ground, clutching his groin. "Water!" she cried again. Eventually, Harry came to his senses and ran to the water fountain in the corner of the library to retrieve a goblet of water. Hermione took the water, gargled, and then spat it out onto the floor.

            "Eww!" Hermione said after she had done this a few times.

            "She won't get away with that, Hermione," Ron declared and Harry added his agreement.

            After they had calmed down, a desolate Harry retrieved his and Ron's wand, and then helped Ron and Hermione to their feet. Ron gingerly sat down on a nearby seat where they had been working before Malfoy and Vexten's intrusion

            "I think we just met the new girl," Harry said, nonchalantly.

            "Ignore her, Harry," Hermione said, after gargling and spitting out another mouthful of water. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

            "But she did know," said Harry.

            "Harry-"

            "How did she know about the Philosopher's stone, or the basilisk, or what happened at the ministry?" Harry demanded

            "I don't know," Hermione admitted. Ron shook his head, indicating he didn't know either.

            "One thing's for sure," said Ron. "She's definitely a Slytherin."

            "Not just a Slytherin. I'd bet everything I have that she's got a skull with a tongue protruding from its mouth tattooed to her left forearm," Harry added.

            Ron agreed, but Hermione protested. "We don't really know for sure –" although with the incredulous looks she received from both Ron and Harry, she had to concede the point.

            "We'd just better stay away from her," said Hermione.

            "Which will be pretty hard, considering she's in every one of our classes," reminded Harry.

            "Just ignore her," repeated Hermione. "Come on, we've got work to do." She looked down at her mess on the floor. "I'd better this clean up before Madam Pince sees."

            Feeling it was safe now that Malfoy and Vexten had left; the three of them unpacked their belongings in order to return to their search for the book called 'The Ancient House of Carvin'. But before they got very far, Hermione exclaimed, "That little bitch stole my wand!"

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Please R&R