Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter Twelve: The Diary

By the time Ellie and Mrs. Manning had gotten home from London, it was very late. Ellie wanted to start looking through the attic immediately, but Mrs. Manning insisted she go to bed.

"You want to go up to that attic at this time of night?" she screeched.

"Please Mrs. Manning, it's not that late. It's only just gone eleven o'clock!" Ellie said, pleading with Mrs. Manning.

"Absolutely not! Bed, now!" Mrs. Manning said sternly. Ellie heard her mutter, "Only just gone eleven o'clock indeed!"

Ellie gave up. If she kept pushing it, Mrs. Manning would probably forbid her from going up altogether. She decided to get up early the next morning however, and began exploring.

Ellie was true to her word, and was up well before Mrs. Manning the next day. She got dressed as quickly as possible and headed up to the attic.

The sun was not quite up and the attic was dark. Ellie had to go back to her room to retrieve her torch before making her way back to the attic again.

Armed with her touch, she could barely make out a dusty corner that she had yet to investigate on her previous trips to the attic. She scrambled over, looking about for Talas the owl, hoping she was not disturbing her. At least if Ellie heard a screech like the one she had heard before, she would know what was causing it.

A couple of hours later, having been called by Mrs. Manning, Ellie left the attic, disappointed. She had found some more photo albums that had contained some photos of her mother, but there were none of her past her teenage years. There was nothing much else of interest to be seen – most of the things in the attic belonged to Mrs. Manning and her family.

When Mrs. Manning saw Ellie walking down the stairs to the hall covered in dust she opened her mouth to scold her, but Ellie's dejected face touched her and instead she merely told Ellie that breakfast was ready.

Over breakfast, Ellie was silent. She debated whether or not to ask Mrs. Manning questions about her mother. Mrs. Manning had definitely been a lot nicer lately, but still, she was never fond of Ellie asking her too many questions before and perhaps that had not changed. If only she had found something relating to her mother. Letters, a diary, anything.

It suddenly came to her in a flash. She choked as she swallowed a piece of toast quickly, and Mrs. Manning thumped her on the back.

"Are you alright dear?" Mrs. Manning asked, concerned, and Ellie managed to splutter out, "I'm okay."

"May I be excused?" Ellie added, and Mrs. Manning nodded. Ellie jumped up and dashed up the stairs to her room.

Of course! Why had she not thought of it before! The diary she had found on her first visit to the attic – she had bundled it into her trunk and had never thought about it since. What if it had belonged to her mother? The information she was looking for might have been there, within her grasp, all the time and she had stupidly overlooked it.

Ellie dug frantically through her trunk until she found the diary. Her heart thumping against her chest, she pulled it out and stared at it for a moment. The diary was locked of course, but she knew just the spell to take care of that. Ellie glanced sideways at the desk under her window. Her wand was resting on it. She knew she was not supposed to use magic outside of school, but she just could not wait two weeks until she got back to Hogwarts. She was willing to risk the consequences.

Her breathing shallow, she took her wand with a shaky hand, and aimed it at the diary she was holding with the other hand.

"Alohamora," she breathed, and a jet of light burst from the end of her wand and hit the diary. The lock on the side sprang open.

Ellie dropped her wand on her bed and swallowed. This could be it. Slowly, she opened the cover of the diary. Her heart leapt at the inscription on the first page:

August 15th 1975

To Claudia, my best friend in the world.

Happy 15th Birthday!

Love, Amelia

"To Claudia"! The diary did belong to her mother after all! She quickly began to turn the pages, eager to read what her mother had written. As she turned over page after page, she began to frown. Every page was blank. Every single page! Ellie flicked desperately through the rest of the diary, searching for something. Anything! A sentence, a word – but there was nothing. The entire diary was blank.

Ellie threw the diary to the floor in frustration. After all that and the diary was empty. She had come so close, but now she was back to square one.

Ellie sat in her room for a while, bitterly disappointed. It was so unfair! All she wanted was to know something about her mother. She did not even know how old her mother had been when she died! Ellie shook her head in despair for a few moments, but then suddenly she jumped up from her bed. The inscription in the diary! It had said "Happy 15th Birthday"! Now, what was the date on it again?

Ellie dived for the diary and yanked it open. There it was – August 15th 1975! Her mother's fifteenth birthday was on August 15th 1975, which made her…

Ellie froze, dumbstruck. Sixteen. Her mother was sixteen when she was born? That couldn't be right. No, the date must be wrong, or maybe that wasn't a 5 in "15th Birthday". Ellie twisted her head around and squinted her eyes at the inscription. Could it be an 8 maybe? It did look like a 5, but the writing was small so perhaps she was just misreading it.

After staring hard at the writing for a few minutes, Ellie gave up. It definitely looked like a 5, but it must be wrong. Ellie sighed. She would have to ask Mrs. Manning, or else let it puzzle her for the rest of the holiday until she could go back to school and get Jamie's opinion.

Ellie found Mrs. Manning sitting in the living room, drinking a cup of tea.

"Er, Mrs. Manning, may I ask you a question?" Ellie said politely.

Mrs. Manning glanced up at her for a moment and sighed.

"I suppose so," she answered.

So far so good.

"How old was my mother when she had me?" Ellie asked.

Mrs. Manning's eyes narrowed.

"Why do you want to know that?" she asked sharply.

"I'm just curious!" Ellie told her.

Mrs. Manning put her cup down on the coffee table and stood up.

"Never you mind how old she was!" Mrs. Manning said, wagging her finger at Ellie. Ellie began to feel frustrated. She decided to try a different question.

"Well, when was she born?" Ellie asked.

Mrs. Manning opened her mouth, as if to answer the question, but then shut it quickly and glared at Ellie.

"Ho, trying to be clever, eh? Trying to trick me? Well it won't work. Now you just be a good girl for once and stop asking so many silly questions!" Mrs Manning cried, and began to storm out of the room. At the door, she stopped and turned to Ellie.

"And clean up this room! It's a mess!" she added, gesturing to the cup on the coffee table.

Ellie gave her an indignant frown.

"You left that there just now!" she said, but instantly regretted it when Mrs. Manning looked coldly at her. She knew what that meant. She had just blown any chance there had been of having a nice Christmas with Mrs. Manning for once.

Sighing in frustration, Ellie got to work. It looked like she would have to wait until she got back to Hogwarts to get more answers. Ellie was determined that she would not let anything get in her way this time however. As soon as she could, she would ask Professor McGonagall what year it had been when her mother had started at Hogwarts. She would be able to work out the answer she wanted from there.