(Finally! A new update on my Lucy Potter story! Sorry for the wait! I hope you guys like it! I own nothing but my OC.)

...

"Wonderful! Wonderful! Excellent work today! We'll meet again next week same time! Oh! Miss Potter! Would you mind lingering for a moment? The rest of you I'll see next week!" Lockhart dramatically waved away the rest of the students who had gathered for Dueling practice.

"Uhh...sure Professor." Lucy tried to sound amiable though she cast a quick anguished glance at Harry and Ron.

Both boys offered her sympathetic looks before tucking away their wands in their robe pockets. "We'll meet you at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom." Harry whispered so no one especially Lockhart wouldn't overhear him.

Lucy nodded her head. "I'll be there after I bring Hermione the rest of her homework. Madam Pomfrey said she should be completely recovered in another day or so." She smiled until a distinct shadow fell over them.

"Ah Miss Potter! Before you run off, I wonder if you might do me a little favor. You don't mind, do you?" Lockhart asked, flashing one of his famed toothy smiles as the boys quickly scurried away towards the door.

Lucy blushed and looked down at the floor. "Of..course not Professor." She mumbled, hastily brushing a strand of her hair back behind her ear.

"Wonderful! Then I was hoping you would deliver this to Ms. Granger when you visit her today. I think it might pluck up her spirits a bit after what she's been through." Lockhart beamed, holding out an enchanted photograph of himself posed by regal looking desk and wearing violet robes not unlike the ones he was currently wearing now.

Lucy raised an eyebrow when she noted that the photograph was autographed and included a short message.

To my Dearest Fan and Most Dedicated Student,

I hope this image can bring a smile back to your own face.

Cheers!

G. Lockhart

Slowly, Lucy took the picture. "Thank you...Professor Lockhart. I'll be sure to give it to her." Lucy did her best to smile assuringly at her Professor before slipping the photo into one of the pockets of her robes.

"Excellent. Well better run along now. I'll see you in class tomorrow Miss Potter. Off you go." Lockhart briskly waved Lucy off. Lucy was only too happy to comply this time.

As she stepped out into the corridor however, she couldn't help debating with herself on whether or not to actually give Lockhart's photo to Hermione.

True Hermione was still somewhat enamored with him, but after what happened with Harry's arm Lucy really didn't want to have any part with anything related to Lockhart even if it was just a picture.

"Excuse me! Sorry! I'm so sorry Lucy!" Lucy gasped as a something that appeared to be a red and black blur zipped by in front of her so quicky, she nearly collided with whatever it was.

Then Lucy realized as the figure tripped upon reaching the end of the hallway that it was Ginny Weasley.

"Ginny?..Ginny wait up!" She called after the girl running after her, hoping this time that Ginny might listen.

Skidding around the corner, Lucy stopped just in time to see the door to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom swing closed. She cocked her head to the side.

Weird. Why would Ginny run in there? She wondered, slowly approaching the door and putting her hand out to push it open just as something that sounded like a splash echoed from the bathroom.

Lucy froze.

"There...it's gone now." She heard Ginny mutter before she sniffed then a brisk set of footsteps hurried back towards the door.

Hastily Lucy backed up, moving out of the way just in time before Ginny came bursting back out into the hall.

"Ginny!" Lucy gasped, gaining the younger girl's attention.

"Lucy! I..." Ginny started and trailed off, her face going ghostly white while her eyes bulged from their sockets.

Taking a deep breath, Lucy slowly approached the first year holding out a hand as if to calm a frightened animal.

"It's okay Ginny. I'm not going to tell anyone that you were in the out of order bathroom." She said softly even as Ginny took a step away from her.

"I just want to make sure you're okay. I'm worried about you." Lucy admitted. Ginny took another two steps backwards. Lucy stopped walking.

"You don't understand Lucy! No one does!...It's awful!" Ginny shook her head, turning and fleeing down the hall.

Lucy stayed frozen to her spot in the corridor, watching with a look of half bewilderment and half concern as Ginny rounded a corner towards library and disappeared.

What could be so awful? She wondered with a worried frown.

"Hey Lucy! Back from the hospital wing already? How's Hermione doing?" Ron asked as he and Harry ran up towards where she stood near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"Well actually..." Lucy started and trailed off when there was a tremendous splash, much bigger than the one she had heard earlier inside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

She, Harry and Ron jumped and skittered back instantly when a slew of murky water began to flood through the door.

"Ugh! Disgusting! Looks like Myrtle's flooded the bathroom! Good thing we're not brewing anything in there today." Ron groaned earning a sharp elbow to the ribs from Harry.

"Shhh! Not out here! Come on! Let's go see what's the matter!" He hissed, leading the way into the bathroom.

Exchanging short glances, Lucy and Ron quickly followed with Lucy holding up the ends of her robes a little so she wouldn't get toilet water on them.

The three friends stopped running when they reached the stall that was overflowing water. Moaning Myrtle was sitting on top of the toilet, crying bitterly so that her voice carried around the whole bathroom.

Her sobs subsided only when she noticed the three children looking at her.

"Come to throw something else at me?" She whimpered, rubbing her transparent nose with the sleeve of her ghostly robes.

"Why would we throw something at you?" Harry inquired with a furrow of his brow.

"Don't ask me!" Myrtle suddenly lashed out, straightening from the toilet. "Here I am, minding my own business and someone thinks its funny to throw a book at my head!" She began to cry again causing more water to gush out across the floor.

Lucy flinched when her socks got wet.

"But...it can't hurt if someone throws something at you can it?" Ron asked, looking a little confused. "I mean..it'll just go right through you."

Suddenly Myrtle's expression darkened and she dashed through the air right into Ron's face.

"Oh sure!...Let's all throw books at Myrtle cause she can't feel it! Ten points if it goes through her stomach!" She punched at Ron's stomach making him shiver as her arm passed right through him.

"Fifty points if it goes through her head!" Myrtle shrieked, this time swiping at the top of Ron's head.

"But Myrtle...who threw the book at you?" Lucy asked carefully, hoping Myrtle wouldn't start crying again.

The ghostly girl slowly turned to face her. "I don't know." She hiccuped coming towards her. "I didn't see them. They ran away too fast. I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death and it fell right through the top of my head!" She sniffled.

Lucy inclined her head to the side. "You don't say..." She thought back to earlier when Ginny had run out of Myrtle's bathroom looking as if something had been after her.

"Hey! Look! This must be the book!" Harry called out, breaking into Lucy's thoughts as he stepped carefully into Myrtle's stall and picked up an old, black, worn out leather book from a puddle on the floor.

"Take it!" Myrtle moaned, floating away towards another stall. "I never want to see that horrible thing again!" She wailed before disappearing from sight.

The three friends watched her go then gathered around to look at the grimy book in Harry's hands.

"What kind of book is that? It doesn't look like a textbook." Ron wondered, scratching his head.

Harry shook his head and flipped the book open. "It's blank." He realized as he quickly combed through each page.

"Weird. Why would someone throw a perfectly good diary in the toilet?" Lucy wondered.

"A what?" Ron looked up at her.

Lucy shrugged her shoulders. "It looks like it's a diary. Hermione has one she writes in every night before she sleeps. This one looks much older than the one she has though." She explained.

"It certainly is strange." Harry agreed, closing the book and using the sleeve of his robe to wipe off the cover.

Ron wrinkled his noise. "And stinky. Let's get out of here before we all start smelling like dragon droppings." He turned to splash his way out of the bathroom.

The Potters were not slow to follow him though Harry tucked the book close to his chest as he ran, mentally make a note to himself to take a closer look at it later that evening.

He couldn't say exactly why, but something told him this book was not as empty or harmless as it appeared.

...

"Harry what are you doing?" Lucy inquired, coming to peek over her brother's shoulder as she saw him flipping through the book he'd found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom for what seemed like the hundreth time since they'd returned to the Common Room after supper.

Harry glanced over his shoulder at her and sighed closing the book again as the last of the other students disappeared into their dorms for the night. "Trying to figure out how to read this diary. I think it might be able to help us figure out who's behind all the petrification attacks." He whispered even though he and Lucy were the only ones in the common room now.

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him. "But it's blank Harry. And even if it wasn't, what makes you think it would have anything to do with the attacks?" She asked, sitting down in the chair next to her twin.

Harry silently turned the book over to reveal the golden inscription on the back cover.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle." Lucy read. "I think I saw that name somewhere. I can't remember exactly where though." She scratched her head.

"It was on one of the trophies in the school trophy room. He received an award for special services to the school almost fifty years ago. Ron said he threw up slugs on it about five times during his detention." Harry smirked a bit as he told Lucy this and she lit up.

"Fifty years ago? But that's when Malfoy said the Chamber of Secrets was last opened! You think maybe this Tom Riddle would know who did it?" She asked, leaning towards the book again.

Harry shrugged, opening it again and shuffled through a few pages. "That's what I'm hoping. The problem is it's blank and I can't figure out how to make it work." He poked at the pages with his finger then reached for the quill sitting on his right.

Lucy instantly reached to grab his arm. "Harry, what are you doing? You can't just write in someone else's diary!" She tried to protest, but in their short squabble for the quill, a drop of ink fell into the open book.

The Twins gasped when the droplet of ink disappeared magically into the page instead of staining the parchment as expected.

"Holy Cricket!...Did you see that?" Lucy began, releasing her grip on her brother's arm and leaning over the book.

Harry nodded and dipped his quill back into the ink well. "I sure did." He bent over the newly clean page again and began to write quickly.

My Name Is Harry Potter.

As the Twins watched the words lingered only for a second on the page before dissolving like the ink splot did earlier.

This time however two new sentences appeared in its place in a slightly elegant scrawl that was much different from Harry's handwriting.

Hello Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle.

"No way!" Lucy gaped as the words quickly faded back into the parchment.

Harry quickly began writing again.

Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets? He took the tip of his quill off the page.

Just like before the words sunk seamlessly off the page.

Yes. The Diary responded almost immediately. Lucy backed away from the desk a little. "Harry, I don't like this." She worried sounding afraid. "We don't know anything about how magic diaries work here. How can we be sure we can trust what this one says?"

Harry turned and shrugged his shoulders at her. "It's the best lead we've found so far Lucy. Think about Justin, Colin and Nearly Headless Nick." He retorted.

Lucy sighed. "I know but..." She glanced back at the diary again. Harry turned and began writing again.

Can you tell us what happened? He scribbled out quickly.

Despite her discomfort, Lucy came back to look at the book.

No. The response came as swiftly as before. Lucy slumped slightly half in relief and half in defeat. "Well that's that." She murmured as the word disappeared off the page.

Breathing a frustrated sigh, Harry shoved his quill back into his ink well. "So much for that." He agreed about to close the diary until a new series of black lettering appeared on the page.

But I can show you.

Lucy furrowed her brows. "Show us? What does that mean?" She asked. Harry shook his head. "I don't know." He answered just as the diary wrote in itself again.

Let me take you back fifty years ago.

"How-?" Harry started to speak until the book rapidly began to flip to a later section of the diary blowing Lucy's hair back.

When the book was finally quiet again Lucy read the date that appeared at the top right hand corner of the open page.

"June 13 1943." She read aloud just as a bright blinding light began to appear starting from the very middle of the diary.

Lucy reached with her arms to shield her eyes just as some invisible force suddenly pulled her towards the book.

Lucy shrieked and shut her eyes just before her face could smash into the pages, but she never felt the impact. When the bright light faded, she found herself standing in a familiar corridor in Hogwarts though there was a slightly eerie almost dream like aura filling the castle now.

Harry was standing next to her and he seemed just as shocked and in awe as she was.

"Are you all right?" He asked, once he had caught his breath.

Lucy nodded her head. "I think so. Where are we?" She looked around herself.

"It...looks like Hogwarts." Harry began to look around as well until he caught sight of a tall dark haired figure standing at the foot of what appeared to be the moving staircases.

"Hey! Excuse me!" Harry started to approach the boy though he took no notice of him. Lucy followed after him.

"Could you tell us what's going on here? I'm Harry and this is my sister Lucy." Harry continued. The boy continued to ignore him and Lucy realized he was fixated on something at the top of the stairs.

She turned to follow his gaze.

"Are you Tom Riddle?" Harry tried again. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

"Harry!" Lucy nudged her brother in the arm before pointing at what the boy was supposedly watching for.

A group of four somber looking old men dressed in long black and gold robes were steadily descending the stairs carrying a long stretcher between them.

Behind them were more adults who neither Harry or Lucy recognized, but Lucy guessed that they were Professors by their matching dark robes and how concerned they looked for the situation.

Lucy glanced down at the stretcher as the other men passed her and Harry by and gasped when when a human arm slid out from under the sheet draped over it.

"Riddle!" A sharp yet familiar voice sounded through the hall then and both the Potters and the mysterious boy who had also watched the stretcher go by looked up to heed the voice.

"Come here my Boy." The man who had spoken gently yet firmly waved the boy over. The boy nodded and slowly made his way forward.

"Professor Dumbledore Sir." He mumbled.

Harry and Lucy exchanged glances then looked back at the Professor who had called out. That's Dumbledore? Harry wondered. He looks...younger. Lucy thought.

"It is not wise to be wandering around this late hour, Tom." Dumbledore spoke reprimandingly to the boy who promptly hung his head in acknowledgement.

"Yes Professor. I suppose I...I had to see for myself if the rumors were true." The boy admitted in a sort of depressed tone of voice.

Dumbledore's expression turned grave. "I'm afraid they are, Tom." He answered somberly.

"And about the school as well?" The boy's lower lip trembled slightly as he continued. "I don't have a home to go to. They wouldn't really close Hogwarts would they, Professor?" He asked softly.

Dumbledore's expression shifted into sympathy. "I understand your situation. But I'm afraid Headmaster Dippet may have no choice in the matter considering the seriousness of what has happened." He said seriously.

"But...if it all stopped...If the person responsible was caught then...?" Tom trailed off and Lucy shivered at the look she saw in his eyes.

Dumbledore inclined his head. "What do you mean Tom? Is there...something you wish to tell me?" He asked softly though his gaze was piercing.

Tom slowly shook his head. "No Sir..nothing." He responded coolly. Now it was Harry's turn to shiver at how eerily similar the exchange sounded to the one he and Dumbledore had shared just the other day following Justin Finch-Fletchely's petrification.

"Very well then." Dumbledore nodded his head, his expression not changing. "Off you go." Tom bowed his head as if in reverence.

"Goodnight Sir." He turned and strolled back down the stairs, heading off down the hall without even glancing in the Potters' direction.

Harry started to follow him. "Come on!" He whispered to Lucy though it was clear that no one could really hear or see them here.

With some reluctance, Lucy followed until they had caught up to Tom at a door to a room neither of the Potters were familiar with.

Tom raised his wand and shoved open the door revealing an extremely large figure standing in the back corner of the room hunched over a small cage.

The person jumped when he noticed Tom and his drawn out wand. "Evening Hagrid." Tom greeted in a voice devoid of any genuine kindness as he stepped through the threshold.

"I'm going to have to turn you in. I don't think you meant it to kill anyone." Tom took another step closer towards the other person in the room who instinctively took a step back.

Harry and Lucy gaped when they saw the face of the student Tom was accusing.

It is Hagrid! Harry gasped. Lucy shook her head. It can't be...

"You can't! You don't understand! It wasn't-!" Hagrid tried to protest, but Tom didn't lower his wand or change the expression on his face.

"The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do, is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered." Tom very nearly growled pointing his wand towards the cage which Hagrid was standing protectively over.

"But it wasn't him! Aragog never killed anyone! Never!" Hagrid continued to protest, keeping his large hands over the top of the wooden crate.

Tom shook his head. "Monsters don't make good pets. Now stand aside so I can do what must be done!" He threatened. Hagrid did not move.

"No!"

"Stand aside Hagrid!"

"No! I won't let you hurt him!" Hagrid raised his voice, moving to pick up the cage. Tom saw what he was doing however and acted quickly.

"Cistem Aperio!" He flicked his wand shooting a spell that broken open the cage revealing what was inside.

Harry and Lucy jumped aside as a large hairy spider sprang to the ground and scurried out of the room through the corridor.

"Arania Exumai!" Tom fired off another spell, but this time he missed allowing the spider to make its escape around a corner.

"Aragog!" Hagrid started to run after it when Tom stopped him. "I can't let you go. They'll have your wand for this Hagrid. You'll be expelled." He snarled in a cold voice.

Lucy felt another unsettling shiver move through her body as Hagrid wilted in his place, Tom's wand still pointed at his head.

Harry reached out towards him only to find that his feet would not move. "Hagrid!" He screamed out even though he knew Hagrid could not hear him.

Lucy staggered backwards as an invisible force began to pull her and Harry away from the room, out of the corridor and away from the scene.

With another wild rush of air and blinding flash of light, the Twins found themselves returned to the desk at the Gryffindor Common Room again.

Harry gasped and collapsed over the desk as his vision swam for a few minutes. Lucy keeled over to the floor.

"What...was that?" Lucy panted as she fought to regain her bearings through her dizziness.

Harry coughed and tried to straighten his posture. "It was Hagrid!...Hagrid opened the Chamber of the Secrets fifty years ago! That's why he's not allowed to do magic now." He exclaimed forgetting that it was the middle of the night.

Lucy collapsed back onto her rear. "But why would Hagrid do such a thing? It doesn't seem like him to be so thoughtless." She frowned.

"I don't know, but we've got to tell Hermione and Ron what we found out tomorrow." Harry stood from his chair, grabbing Tom Riddle's diary and stuffing it into his robe pocket. Lucy sprang up after him.

"Harry no!" She grabbed his arm to stop him. "We can't tell Ron and Hermione anything until we're absolutely sure of the truth." She insisted.

Harry gave her a funny look. "Why? This could be a huge step towards ending all this! If Hagrid did-."

"If Hagrid didn't do what Tom Riddle said he did then we'll have betrayed the first real friend we ever made here! If it weren't for Hagrid, we would still be with the Dursleys right now going to those awful schools and getting beaten by Dudley every single day! Have you forgotten that, Harry?" Lucy cut him off.

Harry flinched at the vehemence in his sister's voice then he sighed. "No, but...you saw what happened Lucy. A girl died! Besides I wasn't going to suggest we outright accuse him, I just thought maybe we could ask Hagrid-."

"Forget it Harry. I say we get Hermione and Ron to meet us in the library tomorrow during free period and see if we can't find out more about this Tom Marvolo Riddle first. I don't know about you, but I did not like the way he spoke or looked at Dumbledore." Lucy released her grip on her brother's arm and folded her own arms in front of her chest.

Harry shook his head. "That could take too long Lucy! We already had to wait a month for the Polyjuice Potion and during that time three more people were attacked! What if one of our closest friends is next? What if it's one of the Weasleys?" He protested.

Lucy flinched internally as the question implicitly triggered an image of Ron, Ginny and even Fred and George frozen in a splayed horrible heap just like Justin and Mrs. Norris had been.

Even though she knew she couldn't deny what she and her brother had seen a few moments ago in the magic diary, she still couldn't bring herself to accept that Hagrid, gentle, bumbling, caring Hagrid was responsible for the murder of a little girl.

"Hagrid's our good friend too." Lucy responded finally. "And even though it may take a little longer...until we know more I don't think we should say anything to him about this." She said in a much quieter voice than before.

Harry sighed as if conceding, but Lucy knew by the look in his eyes that he wasn't going to yield to her convictions.

A dull ache stung briefly in her chest as she watched her brother who had before stood beside her against every trial and adversary take a step backwards from her towards the boys dorms with a stubborn shake of his head.

"I'm sorry Lucy, but I can't let another person get petrified...or killed. I can't." Harry swallowed hard, speaking in a tone that was both regretful and unyielding before leaving Lucy alone in the dwindling light of the common room.

...

Tom Marvolo Riddle...6th Year Slytherin House was accorded special honors for Outstanding Services to the School. His favorite subject in school was the Defense Against the Dark Arts...ugh! This doesn't tell me anything new either!

Lucy sighed agitated before slamming the book she had been searching through closed with an audible thud that made Madam Pince, the librarian glance over at her sharply.

"Shhh!" She hissed, putting a finger to her lips in an almost menancing manner.

Calming herself, Lucy flushed, nodding apologetically at the older woman before laying her head down on top of the stack of remaining books she had yet to search through.

So far she had turned up with almost nothing to show for the hours of research she had done trying to figure out some discerning clue about Tom Riddle.

None of the history books much mentioned him aside from the recognition he got from both the school and the Minister of Magic for his actions in stopping the attacks on Hogwarts fifty years ago and the old annuals from the years he'd been a student at Hogwarts were even less helpful.

If only her friends were here to help like they did before when they were searching for clues about the Sorceror's Stone and more recently for the Chamber of Secrets. But Hermione was still in the hospital wing and after arguing with her brother the previous night, there was no way Lucy could go to Harry or Ron for help.

"Ah!" Lucy squeaked, sitting up startled when something hit the back of her head and poofed something into her hair.

"Oh! Sorry!...Sorry Lu! I was aiming for Mclaggen there on your right! Are you all right?" A sheepish Fred and George slowly peeked out from behind a desk a few feet away from where Lucy was sitting.

Lucy sighed, but nodded her head at them. "I'm all right."

Just wish I had more to show for all the research I've been doing. She thought to herself, lightly dusting off her hair and shoulders before shuffling all the books into a pile and grabbing her copy of Hogwarts of History.

"Wait!"

"Wait Lu!"

"You're not still mad about what we said a couple nights ago, are you?" Fred and George both started to follow the younger girl from the library.

"Yeah we didn't mean anything by it. Honest!" George piped up, making Lucy slow down as she got to the door.

She sighed and wrapped her arms tighter around her book. "I know...I'm not mad just...a lot's been going on." She muttered, looking down at her feet as the Twins took up posts on either side of her.

"Well don't let it get it to you too much." Fred smirked.

"Yeah it's not like it's your fault." George added with a smile of his own.

"Tell you what? How about if Georgie and I show you something we've been working on? It might give you a laugh."

"Or two." The Twins suggested eagerly with a chuckle, speaking with their sentences connected nearly on top of each other in the way Lucy noticed they often did.

"Well..." She hesitated, knowing she ought to go see Hermione and ask for her help in finding more information on Tom Riddle, but one of the Weasley Twins was already reaching to take her arm.

"Come on! It will only take a minute."

"This way!" Fred eagerly led the way while George pulled Lucy along. They stopped only when they reached what appeared to be a small broom cupboard under the stairs which led to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Uhhh..." Lucy murmured unsure of what Fred and George may be up to as George let go of her arm and followed his brother to the door of the cupboard.

"Just wait! You'll get a kick out of this Lulu."

"It's wicked brilliant!" The Twins promised as Fred opened the door of the broom cupboard. Still grinning, George leaned inside and pushed aside clusters of what appeared to be old tablecloths, curtains, towels and linens before carefully pulling out a small bunch of red flowers.

Lucy furrowed her brows in confusion. "Ummm...are those just flowers?" She asked, cocking her head to one side.

Fred shot her a look. "They're not just flowers Lucy."

"These are nosey rosies." George chimed in.

"Our first completed protocol."

"We finished it early this morning."

"Care to give them a sniff?" Fred took the posy from his brother and held it out to Lucy who hesitated before taking it.

"Nosey Rosies?" She asked uncertainly. The Weasley Twins nodded, grinning wider as Lucy brought the posy to her nose.

"I don't smell anything." She said after taking a couple short whiffs of the artificial blooms. The Twins grinned.

"Well uh...have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately, Lucy? I think there's something on your nose." Fred retorted pulling a small hand mirror from his robes.

Lucy started to raise an eyebrow. "What are you...?" She started to ask until she saw her reflection in the mirror.

Or more pointedly, the short round pig's snout which had replaced her normal human nose in the middle of her face.

For a moment, Lucy just stared at her reflection shocked as if not fully sure if she was really looking at her own face or if it was some sort of magical illusion.

Slowly she raised one hand and poked cautiously at her new snout, flinching and widening her eyes when she realized it was real.

"Oh..my..!" Lucy gaped as she prodded at her nose again. This time her pig's snout wiggled back at her in her reflection.

Startled, Lucy dropped her hand.

"Well...what do you think?"

"Isn't it genius?"

"Just imagine sneaking these to some no good git with a fake love note."

"The minute they go for a sniff..." Fred trailed off and George made a strange face, gesturing with his hands in front of his nose.

Lucy giggled at how silly he looked, emitting a soft snort at the end of her laugh. The Twins laughed at the surprised and slightly mortified look that came over her expression as Lucy self-consciously covered her mouth and nose with her hands.

"Um how-how long am I going to have this pig's nose?" She asked meekly, her cheeks flushing red as the Weasley Twins continued to grin at her.

"Tough to say." Fred responded.

"Could be a few hours." George shrugged helplessly.

"Or longer."

Lucy felt her stomach churn. "A few...hours?" She felt her face go from deep red to blanched white just as the sound of multiple pairs of hurried feet sounded through the corridor, coming closer and closer to their location.

"Oh no!" Lucy started to panic when George quickly pulled off his scarf. "Here! Cover up with this Lu!" He hissed, already moving to tie the well worn object around the bottom half of the younger girl's face.

He finished just as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville appeared around the corner chattering excitedly about something.

"Oh Lucy!" Hermione called out upon seeing her best friend. Lucy froze with one foot up on the stairs, keeping her back to the group as she responded carefully.

"Hi..um...I'm just..going to go up and..do potions homework." She muttered lamely, continuing up the stairs as the Weasley Twins quickly made themselves scarce.

"Wait! You have to come see this too Lucy! I don't know who did it! But it's bad!" Neville rushed up, causing Lucy to turn away, clapping a hand over the scarf that was tied around her face.

"Uhhh Lucy?...Why do you have a scarf wrapped around your face for?" Hermione asked with a confused frown, coming up to stand next to Lucy on the stairs.

Lucy flinched away when her friend tried to reach for the scarf and looked down to avoid meeting Harry's gaze.

"Nothing! I...I gotta go." She ran up the stairs and burst into the common room only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw the soft trail of loose parchment scattered across the floor to the stairs that that led down to the boys dormitory.

"Hey!" Hermione exclaimed, bumping into Lucy's back. When Ron collided into both of them, Lucy felt the scarf start to slip down from her face and she grabbed at it in a panic.

"That's not the worst of it! Come on!" Neville quickly pushed his way to the front and dashed towards the boys dorms.

Hermione, Ron and Harry ran after him and after a long moment of hesitation so did Lucy, keeping her hand firmly over the scarf on her face.

What she saw and what the others saw upon entering the room where Harry, Ron and Neville stayed both shocked and confused them.

Not only was there parchment, quills and books everywhere, but the bed mattresses were all upturned, a couple trunks were left laying open and there were feathers strewn all over the floor.

For a moment, Lucy forgot about her little predicament as she and Hermione carefully stepped into the room amid screeches from Hedwig.

"What happened here?" She asked in a muffled voice as Harry dashed to his side of the room and rummaged through the piles of stuff that had gotten thrown out of his trunk.

Ron started to shuffle through some papers.

"Whoever it was it had to be a Gryffindor. Nobody else knows our password." Hermione reasoned. "Unless it wasn't a student."

Ron dropped the items he had been looking through and shrugged his shoulders. "Well whoever it was, they must have been looking for something." He stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"And they found it." Harry chimed in without missing a beat. Looking up at his friends, he stood slowly back to his feet.

"Tom Riddle's diary is gone."

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. "Whose Diary?"

"Tom Riddle." Lucy chimed in from slightly behind her, her voice still muffled slightly by the scarf. "Harry and I found out last night-."

"What?" Ron interrupted looking confused. Lucy sighed and took a slow deep breath. "I said, Harry and I-."

"Lucy, for Merlin's sake take off the scarf! We can't understand a word you're saying." Hermione cut in, crossing her arms.

Harry quirked an eyebrow at Lucy, but Lucy shook her head, keeping her hand over her nose. "I can't."

"Why not?" Ron asked. Rolling her eyes, Hermione marched over and yanked down on the scarf before Lucy could stop her.

"Hey!...Hermione!" Lucy protested, moving quickly to cover her nose though it was too late. Ron and Harry's eyes widened to the size of plates when they saw her pig's snout and Hermione took a step back in surprise.

Neville pointed a finger at her. "Some...something's happened to her nose!" He exclaimed as if Lucy did not know it.

Lucy felt her cheeks burn with embarassment. "I...didn't notice." She muttered, still keeping her hand over her nose as Hermione, composing herself and coming back to get a closer look at her friend's predicament.

"How did this happen Lucy?" She asked. "It's not like you to mess up this badly with your wand work." She crossed her arms.

Lucy averted her gaze. "Well...I was working on a new Transfiguration spell and...well..." She shuffled her feet, hoping her friends and more importantly her brother wouldn't be able to see through her lame excuse.

"Well whatever happened, you need to fix it before the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff tomorrow. Wood will never let you hear the end of it if you show up looking like that." Ron pointed out, earning a scowl from his friend in return.

"He's right Lucy. Maybe Madam Pomfrey can fix your nose like she did my face." Hermione smiled hopefully. Lucy tried to smile back until she caught the look on her brother's face.

"Maybe, but...shouldn't we report what happened in the Gryffindor Tower first and figure out what happened to the diary?" She asked, sensing his thoughts and looking back at the mess again.

Hermione shook her head and reached for her free hand. "Harry and Ron can take care of that. Let's get you to the Hospital Wing now so you can get your nose fixed before the game tomorrow." She pulled Lucy towards the door, fixating the boys with a pointed look.

Reluctantly Lucy followed her, pulling the scarf back up and around her nose as Harry and Ron looked from the girls to the mess around them.

...

"Well if it's not one thing, it's another. Merlin's beard! You children these days! Next I suppose a student will walk in here having grown antlers or a fangs!" Madam Pomfrey huffed as she came over to Lucy's side with a strange tube of ointment in her hands.

Blushing, Lucy squeezed her borrowed scarf in her hands as Madam Pomfrey quickly squirted some of the pale green cream from the tube onto her fingers.

"Well in any case, look up here Dearie. Just a few dabbings of this and your nose will go back to the way it was within the next day. Although I trust next time you will be careful when you practice your spell work." The old school nurse gave Lucy a pointed look as she gently administered the cream all around Lucy's snout.

Smiling sheepishly, Lucy nodded her head at her. "Yes Madam Pomfrey." She murmured quietly, twitching her nose slightly when a strange medicinal smell came off the cream.

"Will...will my nose go back to normal in time for the Quidditch match tomorrow?" Lucy added hesitantly as Madam Pomfrey added another layer of the ointment to her nose.

"Well it should. Just as long as you don't wipe any of that off." She responded, pointing with her index finger as she finished her ministrations and put away the ointment.

Lucy smiled relieved and grateful. Hermione waited till the nurse had gone to attend to another patient before sitting down on the edge of the bed next to her friend.

"So...what were you trying to tell us earlier about that diary Harry was going on about?" She asked quietly, making Lucy feel even more relieved when she didn't ask about how she really happened to get a pig's nose.

'Well, last night Harry was flipping through an old book that we found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom earlier and it turned out it was an old diary kept by someone called Tom Marvolo Riddle." Lucy began to explain frowning as she recalled the images she and Harry had seen after the diary had magically sucked them into its pages.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle? I think that I read that name some place. Can't remember exactly though." Hermione frowned and furrowed her brow, snapping her fingers as she tried to recall the memory to herself.

"He has a special award in the trophy room from a long time ago. That's all I was able to gather really from the research I did in the library." Lucy offered, shrugging helplessly as she wished once more than her time looking through the old history and school record books were more fruitful than they were.

Then she remembered something else and added quickly. "Also he was there the night the Chamber of Secrets was last opened...When a girl was killed."

Hermione's eyes widened to the side of plates and she whipped her head around quickly to make sure Madam Pomfrey wasn't about to come up on them before speaking again.

"A girl died? How do you know that?" She asked in a low voice. Lucy pressed her lips together. "Because I saw it. Well Harry and me...we got sucked into the diary and whatever magic was inside it showed us what happened that night. The dead girl's body being moved, Tom Marvolo Riddle begging Dumbledore not to let Hogwarts close, and Hagrid-."

"Wait! Hagrid? What's he got to do with this?" Hermione interrupted just as a couple of younger students ran by the door to the Hospital wing talking and laughing amongst themselves.

The two girls waited till it was quiet again before speaking. "Just before the diary sent us back to the common room, it showed us Tom Riddle turning Hagrid in for setting the monster in the Chamber loose on the school." Lucy whispered, bending her head so that only Hermione would be able to hear what she said.

"I think that's why he's not allowed to do magic anymore, but the thing is I don't really believe Hagrid is the one who did it. Sure he likes to keep the scariest and creepiest animals as pets, but he'd never purposely try to hurt someone I don't think." She reasoned.

Hermione shook her head. "No, you're right. Something's not right about this at all. What about this Tom Riddle figure?" She asked, scratching the side of her head lightly as the gears in her head began to spin faster.

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. He seemed pretty worried about having to leave Hogwarts like he didn't want to have to go home." She frowned, understanding that feeling well. "I didn't trust him though. He seemed...too eager to turn someone in for what had happened."

Hermione nodded her head. "I suppose we could do some more research on it. I could get started tomorrow in the restricted section while the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match is going on and you could join me once the game is over. I still have my pass from Professor Sprout since I've decided to write an extra credit essay for her on the wizarding world's most dangerous predatory plants." She smiled eagerly at the thought of spending a whole afternoon in the library and Lucy despite the situation smiled back.

"Perfect! We're sure to get to the bottom of this soon if we look in the restricted section. I'll try to get Harry and Ron to join us too though it may take some convincing. Especially Harry since he's adamant that Hagrid had to have something to do with this." She giggled lightly.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well we'll soon discover the truth. And hopefully by tomorrow afternoon, you won't have a pig's nose anymore." She joked, making Lucy turn a little scarlet as she remembered her current predicament.

"One can only hope."

...

"Miss Potter? You'd better get a moving, if you don't want to miss your own match." Madam Pomfrey paused on her way out of the hospital wing to answer a message sent by one of the professors earlier.

"Yes Madam Pomfrey."

Lucy nodded quickly to the nurse, reaching as she did so to touch the end of her nose again even though it had returned to its normal shape and size hours ago.

Harry had brought her her Quidditch robes and broom to the hospital wing so that she could get ready quickly and avoid a lecture from their Team Captain Oliver Wood who was always in frenzy it seemed when a match day came.

As she secured the last strap of her Quidditch gloves, she thought about her last conversation with her brother which though it was less confrontational than the one they had before after their adventure in Tom Riddle's Diary, was still riddled with disagreement between them.

Harry still felt they would get more information if they questioned Hagrid about the Chamber themselves, but Lucy did not want to bring their mutual friend into this without finding out more about the Chamber and what happened the night the diary showed them first.

Harry eventually agreed to the plan, but Lucy knew he really wanted to go along with his plan first due to both the expression on his face when he gave in and the thoughts she picked up from him thanks to their strange telepathic twin link.

At least he's agreed to show up at the library. That's enough for now. Lucy thought to herself as she picked up her beautiful Nimbus 2000 from where she had leant it against the headboard of the bed and swiped the Weasley scarf from where she had hid it under the pillow.

Tucking the old frayed knit object into her robes so she could return it to its owner, Lucy started to head out for the Quidditch Field when she suddenly became aware of an array of rapidly moving footsteps coming towards the Hospital Wing amid an array of worried and frantic sounding voices.

Coming to a standstill in the middle of the large room, Lucy blinked just as a group of Professors, three of whom Lucy recognized as Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore rushed in carrying between them a small limp figure who appeared to be a student.

When the Professors turned the person so they could lay them down on the nearest empty bed, Lucy saw a familiar head of thick curly blonde hair and gasped so loudly that Professor McGonagall whipped her head around in her direction, startled.

"Why!...Miss Potter! You are still here?" She asked, coming over to the girl who was slowly going into shock as Madam Pomfrey quickly hurried to tend to the poor clearly petrified student whose right arm was extended as if she had been about to stop an attacker.

Lucy looked up at the kindly elderly witch before her knowing the answer even before she asked it. "Professor?...Is that...?" She started and trailed off as a lump the size of a bludger rose up in her throat.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Professor McGonagall nodded, glancing back towards the bed as Madam Pomfrey began to bustle about looking for a fresh blanket to cover her newest patient with.

"I'm afraid so Dear. She was found near the restricted section of the library petrified with this clutched in her hand." McGonagall quickly withdrew a small guilded hand mirror from her robes and showed it to Lucy.

"Does it mean anything to you?"

Staring at the mirror, Lucy shook her head though she could guess why Hermione had that seemingly strange object with her in the library.

Nodding as she realized that Lucy was in too much shock to speak, McGonagall tucked the mirror back into her robes and held out her hand invitingly to the girl who was beginning to shake as the full realization of what had just happened hit her like a blast of ice cold water.

"Very well then. You and I will need to go to the Quidditch field then and find your brother and Mr. Weasley. They will want to know about this as well." She said quietly as Lucy, only half realizing what she was doing, slipped her hand into McGonagall's warm wrinkled fingers.

As they rushed to the door of the Hospital Wing, Lucy managed to steal one last glance at Hermione, catching a glimpse of the shocked and terrified look that was frozen on her face just before she was pulled out into the main corridor.

No! No! Not now! Why did it have to happen again now?...Why did it have to be my best friend?...

...