Of course, Tonks and Solieyu knew the reasons behind their friend's turn for the worse. All of the researching, all of the ideas, all of the time spent had turned up nothing so far. The puzzle pieces in Harry's mind were scattering further and further apart and he didn't like it one bit. It wasn't in Harry's nature to let something go, either, so he spent nearly every waking moment toiling over what he could have possibly missed.
The only person who could even pull him from one of his sour moods anymore was Tonks. Solieyu had tried once, but that had ended with the two Ravenclaws locked in a yelling match. Solieyu understood his friend's utter crankiness - he hated the fact that he, too, was unable to track down anything - he really thought Harry was being rather immature about the whole situation.
None of it mattered today, though. No, today was Valentine's Day. And that bloody great dolt of a Defense professor had gone and infested the castle. With dwarves.
Dwarves in tutus. Unshaven male dwarves in tutus. Unshaven male dwarves in tutus that sang! No less than three had been on Harry's tail ever since he left Ravenclaw Tower. He had been hoping to escape into the Great Hall, but that only made it worse. By that time, two more had caught up to him.
So he had promptly pulled an about-face and was now racing towards the Raven's Nest as fast as he could. The dwarves had no chance on the stairs. At least, they didn't going up. Little buggers proved annoyingly fast going down them, as Harry had found out earlier.
Of course, George Weasley had thought the whole situation was hilarious. A small brigade of disgruntled short things wanting to sing to Harry? Pure comedy gold to the redhead! Harry had shot the Gryffindor a glare as he had made his hasty retreat from the Great Hall.
Going through the false wall to reach the spiral staircase, Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He looked over his shoulder and heard the marching feet of the dwarves come to a halt around where he had vanished. Gruff voices that Harry couldn't quite make out discussed something or another and then, as one, the dwarves pierced through the fake wall.
Harry let out a strangled cry and raced up the stairs as fast as he could. Practically leaping through the trap door at the top, Harry slammed it as he landed on the stone floor of the Nest, pulled his wand, and charmed the blasted thing to keep itself closed. Harry flopped down, somewhat exhausted, and waited. Eventually, the dwarves hit the trap door's underside. They pounded for a few minutes, ground out bits of their singing valentines, and finally - finally - turned and left.
Harry closed his eyes and slumped, sliding down and letting out a thoroughly relieved sigh. He was distracted from his relaxation when a strange noise from nearby caught his ear. Opening one eye, he tilted his head just to the right. There, not five feet away, was Tonks. Her eyes were watering and she looked to be biting down on her lower lip rather hard. Every so often, a stilted snort tried breaking through. And eventually the defense fell altogether. As Harry sat up to glare at the girl, Tonks keeled over sideways in laughter.
"It isn't funny!" Harry shouted. "Those damned things have been out for my blood all day!"
"I don't think your blood is what the senders of those valentines were after, Harry!" Squeaked Tonks, between giggles.
Harry glared. "Don't make me hire some first years to write a few dozen valentines to you, Nymmy. I'll do it, too."
"Don't call me Nymmy!" Tonks groused, pushing herself upright once more. "And you wouldn't dare."
"Oh wouldn't I?"
"Not unless you want to risk my wrath."
"Your wrath would be a welcome change of pace." Harry grumped, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall.
"Aww. You just need some quiet time." Tonks said, crawling over and sitting next to him. "C'mon, Harry, loosen up!"
"Loosen up? After what I've been dealing with? How do you propose that I do that, exactly?"
Tonks thought for a moment before a wide grin formed. "Instead of assigning those firsties to write to me... make 'em write to Snape."
Harry snorted, despite his mood. "Good lord, no. They're already afraid of him. I'm not far behind them. I will pass the idea along to George before the day's over with, though."
"Aww, come on! It's be funny!"
"Sure it would... until Snape cuts out their hearts with a spoon." Harry muttered.
"Why a spoon?"
"Because it's dull, you twit. It'll hurt more."
Tonks smacked Harry on the arm. "I'm the twit. You're the one leading a parade of poorly-dressed magical creatures around the school."
"Touche." Harry grumped.
"C'mon. We have to go back to the Tower sooner or later." Tonks reasoned.
"...Alright. But if another of those creepy things comes at me, I'm kicking it as hard as I can."
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Harry! Oi, Harry, wait up!"
Harry looked around, blinking when he saw George running up to him.
A few days had passed since the Valentine's Day Nightmare, and Harry was feeling much better now. But the expression the Weasley twin wore on his face made his rising mood begin to waver.
"Something wrong?" Harry asked, slowing his walk down to fall in step beside George.
"You seen Ginny?" George asked. "She hasn't been in our common room all day, the girls in her dorm say she wasn't around last night. The Fat Lady says she didn't see her come in or out lately..."
"Dunno... I haven't seen her, either. But I haven't been actively looking for her, either. ...She looking any better? No offense, but she looked like hell last I saw her. What's going on?"
George scrunched his face up. "I wish I knew, Harry. I don't like this, though. First Fred gets petrified, Ginny starts looking and acting really strange, and Ron's been positively nice..."
"That last one's something to take note of." Harry dryly remarked.
"Yeah, it is. I think it's because Ginny nearly hexed his bits off a few weeks ago because he was saying something bad about women or... something. I couldn't get either of them to explain it. Anyway... Look, mate, just keep an eye out for her, alright? If you do see her, tell her I'm looking for her."
Harry nodded. "If you find her first, lemme know. I'll see if I can't round Tonks and Leon up, get them to help, too."
"Thanks, Harry. Knew I could count on you!" George said, grinning as he sprinted off.
Harry watched him go, the gears in his mind turning slowly.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Later that night, the four met up after dinner was over with. So far, none of them had seen the youngest Weasley. Nor had she turned up to eat. George said he had hopped into the kitchens and asked if any house elf saw her, to tell him. He was beginning to get really worried.
"Okay, okay, okay..." Harry began, raising his hands and frowning. "We can't keep going around at random. Isn't working. This castle's huge. George, is there anything you haven't told us?"
George looked as if he were about to speak, but shook his head.
"George."
"..." George sighed. "Yeah, okay. There is, but it isn't important, alright? It's just... another source of mine. Only it didn't turn up anything important, either."
"...Alright. I'm going to trust you. You have no reason to lie to us, anyway." Harry said. "We need to go floor by floor. George, are there any shortcuts up to the seventh floor?"
George nodded.
"Good. Leon, head with him. You're good at sniffing things out." Harry said, smirking at the slight glare he received. "Me and Tonks will start down here and work our way up. Let's meet in the library. Half up, half down. And if we don't see her, we'll head to the dungeons after. Any objections?"
No one spoke, so Harry nodded. "Right. Let's get going, then."
"Don't forget to check the hospital wing." Solieyu commented as he and George set off.
"Somehow, I don't think George is being truthful with us... But it's his sister, so if he wants to withhold information, it's his call." Harry said after they had disappeared.
"Yeah, he was acting weird. Wonder what his 'source' is." Tonks wondered aloud as they set off up the marble staircase.
"Dunno. But he seemed like he trusts it, whatever 'it' may be." Harry said. "Come on. This is gonna take awhile."
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Nearly half an hour later, Harry and Tonks were only just entering the second floor. Harry was wondering how the others were doing in their from-the-top-down search.
Rounding a corner, Harry shivered.
"What is it?" Tonks asked.
"Not sure... Just got a chill down my back." Harry said, looking around. Seeing nothing, he shrugged. "I guess it was nothing."
"Rarely is something 'nothing' when you're involved."
"Yeah, I've noticed that." Harry muttered, rounding a corner and immediately stepping into what he thought was a puddle of water.
"...I hate when we're right." Harry sighed. It wasn't a puddle. Rather, the whole corridor they had turned down seemed flooded. Turning to look at Tonks, he found that she was scowling something fierce. "...Tonks? What's up?"
Tonks pointed. "It's coming from Myrtle's bathroom."
"...Would you care to run that by me again?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Myrtle. Moaning Myrtle. She's a ghost who only hangs around this one bathroom. All us girls know about it... though most of us learned the hard way not to take a trip in there if we needed to go."
"So she's a ghost. What's so bad about that? The house ghosts aren't that bad. Peeves is a poltergeist, so he doesn't count, and--"
"She's different. Come on, I'll show you." Tonks said, taking Harry by the hand and leading him down the corridor and into the girls' bathroom.
Harry followed, still not seeing what the big deal was. Not a minute after they had entered, however, he was ready to leave. Moaning Myrtle was no mere ghost. Rather, she was a spectral entity capable of annoying the slime out of anyone who went near her. This particular day, it seemed Myrtle was especially upset. As Tonks and Harry waded into the bathroom, they heard sobbing coming from one of the stalls. Harry gave Tonks a look, which she nodded at.
After a long, and horribly boring, conversation, the two Ravenclaws saw what had caused Myrtle to sob uncontrollably... and most likely what flooded the general area. A black diary, old and tattered, had been flung into one of the toilets. It was too big to flush, and the way it had been lodged had seriously been gumming up the works, so to speak.
After levitating the diary up and out of the toilet and applying a few cleansing charms to it, Harry and Tonks hurried out of Myrtle's bathroom.
"I told you." Tonks said.
"No, you told me she was a ghost. That thing was more annoying than Peeves!" Harry argued. "So, aside from being a diary, does that thing look important or anything to you? I'm not so great with magical books and stuff yet..."
"Dunno. All the pages are blank, though." Tonks said, flipping through the diary's worn-out pages. "I'd say it's magical, yeah. Why else would someone toss out an unused diary?"
Harry shrugged. "Because it looks like it's going to fall apart?"
"Nah. Magical books are charmed to keep together for a long time, Harry." Tonks said. "That this one is so old-looking is probably good indication that it's really old. I dunno by how long, but I'd say long before either of us were born."
"So... someone throws a magical diary away. Now the question is why they did so."
Tonks didn't have an answer for that one, so Harry continued.
"The choice of locations is fairly obvious. Whoever tossed it - and I'm going to go ahead and assume it was a girl - must have known about Myrtle's bathroom. She chose it because of its reputation for rarely getting any visitors..." Harry said, gnawing on the corner of his lower lip. "Something isn't right here."
"Maybe she just didn't want it anymore. It happens everywhere... and a lot more often than you'd think." Tonks reasoned.
"This isn't everywhere." Harry said, glancing over at his friend quickly. "Last year, we nearly got eaten by a three-headed dog and I was nearly killed by a guy who had my parents' killer's face growing out of the back of his head. I think it's safe to assume magical items aren't just thrown away like that... especially around here."
"But why'd whoever-it-is try to flush it? It's much too big for that..." Tonks said, sizing the diary up. "She must've known that it would get stuck."
"Maybe she wanted someone to find it..." Harry said, slowly. His eyes were narrowed and he was gnawing at his lip even faster. "...Oh, damn."
"Oh, damn?"
"Tonks... I think this has something to do with what's happening. And if I'm right... ...Dammit all! Come on, we need to find George!" Harry said, taking off in a dead sprint.
Tonks watched him, confused, before taking off after him. "Harry, wait up!"
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
"GEORGE! Oi! George!" Harry called out.
They had made it up to the fifth floor in a matter of minutes and, after a brief search, found the Weasley twin checking random rooms along a corridor.
"What's up, you two? You look like you've just seen a ghost. ...Bloody Baron been chasing you?"
"It would've been better than Myrtle." Harry muttered.
"What was that?" Asked George.
"Nothing. George, look... You know how weird things are happening again this year?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. It's Hogwarts, mate. If something weird didn't happen, then you'd have reason to worry." George said, grinning crookedly.
"We found this diary while we were searching the second floor." Said Tonks, holding up the book. "It was stuffed in a toilet in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The whole ruddy hallway was flooded. Myrtle said she didn't know whose it was, since she was further down in the pipes and having a sob. Then Harry here took off running, saying we needed to find you."
Harry ignored the glare Tonks was shooting him. "George, look... Have you seen Ginny writing in something like this?"
George thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Can't say as I have, Harry. Why?"
"Just a hunch I have." Harry said, eyes unfocusing. "It's just strange that someone would throw something like this out... it's like she - we're guessing it's a girl since we found the diary in a girl's bathroom, after all - was trying to hastily get rid of it... almost as if it were cursed or something. And... well, no offense, George, but Ginny hasn't been looking that healthy lately. And you've said yourself that she's been acting strangely, right?"
"I'm not sure I like where this is going." George said, nodding slowly.
"Neither do I." Harry said. He turned, taking the diary from Tonks and handing it to George. "I have a feeling that Ginny's going to show up soon. Do me a favor. Show this diary to her and gauge her reaction. Whatever you do, don't let her get ahold of it. I want you to bring it back to us later... I'm going to head for the library, see if I can find any information on magical diaries that would be useful."
George nodded, taking the book and inspecting it. "This really does look old. Mum has a few things from our great grandmother that look nicer than this."
"Bet they weren't lobbed in a toilet, though." Tonks dryly commented.
"Actually..." George began.
"Look, anecdotes later." Harry said, rolling his eyes. "Just head back to your common room, stake the place out. If you can, rope Ron and Hermione into it. We'll keep a lookout for her as well and we'll send her to you if we spot her."
"Alright." George said. "Anything else?"
"No... not yet." Harry said. "Though I'm starting to get a very grim idea of what could be happening."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Look, you two... I haven't really told anyone this, but... well, you know that time I couldn't help myself and hexed that ponce Lockhart under the desk?"
"How could I forget? It was the best Defense class this year." Tonks said, grinning.
"While I was suffering through detention with him, I heard something. Something... I dunno... odd. It was a voice that was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I managed to get away from Lockhart and followed the sound of the voice for awhile... but I wound up at a dead-end. After fishing the diary out of Myrtle's toilet, something occured to me..." Harry said.
"...The pipes." Tonks said, eyes widening.
"The pipes." Harry echoed, nodding. "I think that whatever's petrifying people is getting around through the plumbing. I just wish I knew how big the pipes were so I could see about working out what the hell it could be."
"Great. Now I'm not going to want to take a nice leisurely trip to the bathroom anymore." George piped in. "Thanks for that."
"It's not like either of us like the idea." Harry said. "But even that doesn't make much sense... I mean, it'd have to be small enough to come out of the biggest hole in a bathroom... And that'd have to be the one in a toilet, wouldn't it?"
"So you think we may have a little whatsit swimming through the plumbing, popping up occasionally to turn people to stone?" Tonks asked.
"Something like that. There are still too many damn pieces of the puzzle that aren't fitting." Harry said, sounding clearly frustrated. "It's like the school is trying to tell me what's going on, but it won't be direct with me."
"Sounds like Dumbledore." George commented.
"Yeah, it does." Agreed Harry. "That's what bugs me. Anyway, I'll try and figure this out. You go see about Ginny." He paused for a minute, then asked, "Hey, where'd Leon get off to, anyway? Shouldn't he be here?"
George shrugged. "Said he was feeling sick. He didn't look very good, so I told him to go on to the hospital wing. Heard him muttering something about blood as he wandered off."
"Blood..." Harry echoed, frowning. "...Okay, thanks. We'll go look for him."
"Right-o." George said. "Be careful, you two."
"You too, George." Tonks said, watching the redhead jog off down the hall. Once he was out of earshot, she turned to Harry and asked, "Do you really think some creature's living in the plumbing?"
"It would explain how it gets around without being seen." Harry said. "But it still needs to be large enough to escape the bathroom..."
"And you think that's where Ginny might come into play?"
"I don't know." Sighed Harry. "I just don't know."
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Author's Notes: Obvious quote! Well...changed a little to fit a bit better. But everyone should get it. I've got a few more Rickman quotes I may or may not give to Snape. The
Metatron's are going to be the most amusing. I have a great one lined up for the scene before our team goes into the Chamber with Lockhart...
I know the chapter's kinda short, and given the length it took to write it, I apologize. I'm sure you all know the infamous Page 606 Rumor by now. Stupid bloody twits and their spoilers. It seems real. And if it's not, it's the best hoax ever. Ach. I like the thought of an evil Snape. I honestly do. So I'm hoping the rumor's true in a way. ...I also think that Rowling's getting a bit Tolkien-esque with the chapter titles this time around. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, though.
I've had to compress two chapters into this one. And, as you can see, Smart!Harry is working things out faster than his canonical counterpart did. I'm still hoping to get to 20 chapters, but it may just not happen. Especially if I keep gluing chapters together like this. I couldn't help it, though, since the Chapter 12 and Chapter 13 ideas were just paper thin on their own. I needed to fill things out with some detectivework on Harry's part.
If all goes well, the next chapter will include Harry's trip into the diary, along with either the SETUP for going into the forest or the actual journey there. It all depends. But it'll be out after Half-Blood Prince. But that's a given, isn't it? I've debated whether or not I should even be uploading this now, since I'm sure others are trying to avoid leaked spoilers, too. But I said I'd update before HBP came out, and by god, I am. It's a big short, but it was also an uneventful chapter as a whole, logic and deductions aside.
Here's to hoping the rumors are false, Snape isn't a dickweed, and the headmaster's livelihood.