Diary

With Luna's company, the time Ginny spent in the library has been greatly lengthened. Of course, they didn't go for the purpose of studying or review, let alone preview. They were looking for the strangest book in the world.

"I know there's a kind of book," Luna said. "After reading it, whatever story the book tells, you'll be running into the exact same thing. Unfortunately, that book is full of horror stories."

"My dad confiscated a book called 'Sonnet of a Sorcerer'. Whoever reads it can only talk in limericks for the rest of their life."

"It's so interesting! But it's definitely not as strange as 'Joke Buffer'. This book contains the last cold joke in the universe."

"I have a better one. The book will chat with me."

Luna stopped talking, looking surprised, "You said you have a book that would talk to you?"

"Why would I lie? I can show you if you want to."

They found an empty corner. Ginny took out the diary.

Tom, Ginny wrote, how are you?

I'm good, thanks. How are you? Ginny's writing disappeared, a new line showed up.

My friend doesn't believe you can talk to me. Can you say something to her?

Er… like what?

That'll do it, thanks.

"See? I'm not lying." Ginny said happily.

Luna took the diary from her, looked carefully, and found a label on the back cover. "It seems to be bought in a Muggle store. He's probably not pure-blood. Look, here are the addresses and names of the newspaper dealers."

"So? There are many half-bloods."

"How long have you got this diary? What did you tell him? What did he tell you?"

"I found it in my bag when I was in my first Transfiguration class. At first, I thought it was fun to chat with him, but then I found him very cunning. He has never told me anything about himself, although he does say a lot of stupid things."

"Ginny," Luna thought for a while, "Are you sure he says stupid things because you always ask him stupid questions?"

Luna was a very good friend in so many ways, except that she's too straightforward.

"Stupid questions or not, I feel like he's not all bad. I think he went to school here fifty years ago, and he's quite a good student too. I saw a trophy that day with the same name and about the same period, for special services to the school, that's probably him. Oh, and he helps me with my homework sometimes."

"Are you sure it's not 'doing your homework for you'?" There's the uncomfortable way Luna has of saying things the way they are. "Regardless of whether he is doing homework or taking exams for you, Ginny, you can't trust him too much. It's dangerous to trust something that can think on its own."

"Of course I don't trust him. Since the first thing he said to me, I knew he's a big liar."

"How so?"

"I drew such a picture at that time. Look," Ginny demonstrated her work on another piece of paper. "He said I draw beautifully."

"He is a big liar!" Luna immediately concluded.

"Also, I asked him later, are you angry that I tore up two pages of you just now and doodled on it? He said he didn't mind at all."

"He lied, if I was the diary, I would have punched you!" Ginny felt that Luna was being too honest.

"So I just told him insignificant things, that's all."

"Ginny, things are getting more and more interesting. Let's study Tom Riddle. Anyway, I have nothing better to do."

"You got a plan?"

"Not anything specific yet. Let's divide the work first. I'll investigate the school history. You'll talk to Riddle more. After all, he might slip something out eventually."

"Okay," Ginny felt that this method was very susceptible. "I feel like I'm more likely to slip something out."

"What do you have to slip out? Even giving him all the information about you from birth till now probably won't change anything." Luna saw Ginny's unsatisfied face and added, "But you are very cautious, that's a good thing. If you don't know what to talk about, just write diaries on it. He will definitely talk to you if he saw you wrote something that he's interested in. We can deduce his thoughts based on what he is interested in."

"Writing diaries? Sounds like a lot of work… what benefit could I get?" Ginny didn't buy it.

"Why, of course, it has benefits. Do you know that there is a great writer named Tolstoy in Russia?" Luna decided to motivate Ginny with the deeds of a great man.

"What about him?"

"Tolstoy insisted on writing diaries for fifty years."

"And?"

"And… and he… died."

"What? What's your point? Writing diaries would kill you?"

"Well… he's great! He wrote diaries! Don't you wanna be as great as him? Then start writing diaries!"

At dinner, Ginny was persuaded because she felt that if she didn't agree, she wouldn't be able to have dinner today. She and Luna took their bags and walked towards the Great Hall. On the way, Luna said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Hum?"

"Why did you draw a troll in class?"