(CoS) CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Tom Riddle's Diary

"I'm an arsehole," Harry told Ellie as soon as they were alone together. "There's really no other way to put it, is there?"

She laughed, though she couldn't entirely disagree with him. "I shouldn't have sprung it on you like that—I should have known it would get to you."

"And I should have been more sensitive about how that would get to you." He sighed, running a hand through his messy, brown hair. Ellie felt a strange, sudden desire to touch it, too, which she quickly pushed away. "Look, Ellie—no matter what your father did or didn't do to mine, it doesn't change the way I feel about you. You're one of my best friends, and I'm glad you told me the truth."

"Yeah?" she asked, feeling a wave of relief wash over her. "Glad enough that you didn't go blabbing to Ron and Hermione?"

He looked surprisingly hurt by the question. "Of course, not. I gave you my word, Ellie. I wouldn't do that."

She let herself smile at that. She should have known, she supposed; he had never given her any reason to think he might betray her trust. She supposed she had just been thrown by his hostility towards her.

"I liked your song," he told her then. He sounded surprisingly shy. "You have a beautiful voice, Ellie."

The way she felt in that moment, she had never really felt before. With Dean, she'd felt the tiniest, tamest stirrings of a thirteen-year-old a crush; with Fred, she felt the loudest, most confusing whirlwinds of unrequited love; and with Oliver, she always felt a tidal wave of hormones she wasn't yet equipped to deal with.

With Harry, though, she felt… correct. The right amount of heart pounding; the right amount of crushing; the right amount of deeper, human connection. It didn't scare her; it excited her.

And if she wasn't mistaken, he was feeling it, too.


Classes were back in session for the spring term, and things were going well, with one exception—Ginny was looking worse than ever.

"I think we need to go to McGonagall," Fred told Ellie a few weeks into term as they watched their bandmate, sister, and friend from the other side of the table in the Great Hall. "It's gotten worse, hasn't it?"

"It has," Ellie agreed, biting her lip. It wasn't that she didn't want to go to McGonagall; she did. But she knew how devastated Ginny would be if she got into trouble or even put on some sort of watch list over this. "Just… let me talk to her first. Warn her that we're going to."

Fred watched reluctantly as Ellie headed for Ginny's spot at the table.

"Hey," she greeted her friend carefully. "You know, there's tons of room over there with me and the twins."

But Ginny didn't so much as look up from her food. "No, thanks."

Ellie sighed. "Look, Ginny—I love you, okay? More than I think you realize. Which is why I have no choice but to go to McGonagall."

Instantly, Ginny's eyes shot up to her, filled with panic. "Hang on. You can't!"

"I can, and I should have a long time ago. It's killing me to see you like this, and it's killing Fred, too."

"Just… wait." Ginny bit her lip, glancing cautiously around, then said, "I'll tell you what's going on. Okay? Just not here."

Ellie glanced cautiously down the table at Fred, who was watching them with rapt attention. She gave him a weak smile before rising to her feet to follow Ginny out of the Great Hall to wherever Ginny thought was private enough to finally tell the truth.


"I don't know what it is, exactly," Ginny told Ellie fifteen minutes later. They were alone in Ginny's first year suite, and Ginny had just handed Ellie some sort of diary. "I found it in my things when we got back from Flourish and Blotts. You can have… conversations with it. I've been doing so all year."

"Conversations?" repeated Ellie, opening the diary and scanning it carefully. There was no writing to be found anywhere other than the cover, on which was a name: TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE. "What kind of conversations?"

"I don't know." Ginny looked embarrassed. "Just… about boys, friends, that sort of thing."

"But, Ginny—you have me for that sort of thing. You know that, don't you?"

"Of course. But it's different with the diary. You're always busy, you know, with the band, with the twins, with Harry—whatever. Tom… never is."

Hearing Ginny refer to the diary by first name made Ellie feel a little queasy. "O…kay," she said slowly. "So, then, what about Tom has made you so… upset?"

Ginny's eyes darkened at that. "I don't know, exactly. I think there's some really dark magic involved in that diary, Ellie. What I told you that first day you caught me was true—I slip into these blackouts sometimes. Can't really remember what happened after I started talking to him."

Again, Ellie thought of Harry and the strange voices he'd been hearing all year. She couldn't judge Ginny any more than she could judge Harry, she knew. "Then we should destroy the diary," she said. "Or turn it in."

"No!" Ginny shrieked a little too eagerly for Ellie's liking. "Sorry—I just mean… it's like a little piece of history. Not to mention, incredible magic. I don't think it'd be right to destroy it. Could you maybe just… keep it hidden from me? So I can't be tempted by it?"

"I don't know, Gin. Don't you think McGonagall or Dumbledore would be better equipped to handle something like this?"

"No. I think they'll expel me for having had it all this time and not turning it in. Is that what you want? For me to be expelled?"

Ellie had a feeling Ginny was mistaken about that, but she'd hate to be wrong and end up getting Ginny expelled, after all. She decided to get Harry and Fred involved before making up her mind completely; surely at least one of them would know what to do.

"Fine," she finally said, nodding. "I'll take it. Just promise me you'll try again, Ginny—that you'll come back to the real world with us."

Ginny smiled the first genuine smile Ellie had seen on her in weeks and said, "I promise."


"I don't get it," Fred said an hour later when Ellie, Fred, and Harry had gathered in the Room of Requirement, the only place Ellie could think of that would be completely safe from prying ears and eyes. "It's just a stupid diary."

"Clearly not," said Harry, sounding surprisingly hostile. "Ginny said it was charmed with some pretty serious magic, right? So we just need to figure out what. Ellie, have you tried writing in it?"

She shook her head, biting her lip. "I wasn't sure any of us should, with what Ginny said. A part of me just wants to betray her trust and go to the teachers. What if whatever it did to her, it does to us, too?"

"Maybe one of us should leave," said Harry, glancing pointedly at Fred. "That way, if the other two do get put under this Tom guy's spell, there's someone safe on the sidelines to bring them back."

Fred glanced at Ellie, who did her best to shoot him a let's-just-try-it-his-way look.

"I'm not outright leaving," he finally said, crossing his arms. "It's too dangerous. But I'll stay on the outskirts while you two play with this thing."

Ellie and Harry both nodded at that, and Fred made his way to the far wall of the Room of Requirement while Harry whipped out a quill and began to write.

HELLO, he tried.

The ink disappeared from the page entirely, causing Ellie to gasp. A second later, new ink came onto the page, in new handwriting: Hello.

"Well," Ellie shouted to Fred, "she was right about it talking to her."

He watched anxiously as Harry dipped his quill into his ink and tried again: MY NAME IS HARRY POTTER.

Again, the ink faded; again, new ink appeared. Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle.

"Ask it something only someone here would know," suggested Fred from his faraway spot. "Y'know—a current event."

"I've got it," said Harry, scribbling, DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS?

"Good question," said Ellie, "but I doubt—"

She stopped short when she saw the one word that replaced Harry's: Yes.

"Bloody hell," Harry muttered as he scribbled again. CAN YOU TELL ME?

No.

Ellie groaned, running a hand through her hair. But before any of them had a chance to comment, more words appeared: But I can show you.

"That's not good," Fred said when Ellie repeated the words for him to hear. "I don't like that, guys. You should—"

But it was too late. A bright, white vortex had emerged from the book, and it was enveloping Harry, who grabbed Ellie's hand instinctively. Within seconds, the two of them had spiraled into the book—and into some sort of memory.

They reappeared in an oddly familiar room, though Ellie couldn't quite place where she had seen it before.

"This is Dumbledore's office," Harry whispered to her. "Only, it must have been before Dumbledore was headmaster—look."

Ellie followed his gaze to the old man who was seated at the headmaster's desk—clearly not Dumbledore. "We must have gone back in time," she whispered. But there was clearly no need to whisper; whatever they were, they weren't visible or audible to those in the memory.

A handsome boy walked in at that. He looked to be about Oliver's age, with fair skin and dark hair. "Sir, please," the boy said. "I stay here every summer. Hogwarts is my home! You can't just abandon me when times get rough!"

"I'm afraid it is not my decision to make, Tom." Tom? So the boy in the diary was this boy? "With the Chamber of Secrets open, all the parents and board members have said it is unsafe to keep any students here."

"But—but—I can't go back to the orphanage!" pleaded Tom.

"I am sorry, Tom," said the headmaster. "There is nothing I can do for you."

Tom sighed in frustration and left the office. Ellie glanced hesitantly at Harry before following. They stepped out the door and down the stairs behind Tom, having to walk quite briskly to keep up with him. They stopped in the dungeons.

To her surprise, it was a young, nervous-looking Hagrid they came upon next.

"Rubeus," Tom greeted coldly.

"'Lo, Tom," Hagrid greeted nervously, trying to conceal a large, locked crate he was standing in front of. Even his large body wasn't enough to hide it.

"I'm going to have to report you, Hagrid," said Tom coolly. "You're obviously harboring the monster guilty of committing these crimes. It's not right."

Hagrid shook his head fearfully. "It's not him—it's not what you think—Aragog is innocent! He'd never hurt a fly!"

Tom shook his head and pulled out his wand. Ellie was starting to like him less and less. Tom cast open the box, and and out jumped a giant, hairy spider that scuttled away. Ellie heard herself scream, and Harry went stiff, too; the spider was at least the size of one of them.

Ellie wanted desperately to stay and talk to Hagrid, or even Tom, but she felt herself being spun back to normal time and normal Earth, and all she could do was close her eyes and take Harry's hand.


Same sequence as in the original book, but different timeline, and different participants. What will Ellie, Fred, and Harry do with the diary? You'll find out soon! Don't forget to review if you're enjoying the story. Thanks for reading!