Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Harry's New Boggart – Chapter 7

Riddle's Essay

As it turned out, Ginny was right about Ron and Hermione snogging in the Gryffindor common room. They quickly broke apart, both blushing furiously, when Harry and Ginny showed up.

Ginny smirked and commented, "I see you're both practicing mouth to mouth resuscitation."

Harry smiled. "Working hard at it, too. I guess practice makes perfect." He and Ginny laughed, while Ron and Hermione's cheeks got even redder.

"So, did Dumbledore's portrait explain what happened to you two?" asked Hermione, obviously trying to change the subject.

"Yeah," answered Ginny. "Basically, when Harry saved my life in the Chamber of Secrets, we formed a life bond, and then when we fell in love, it strengthened. Our case is kind of rare, so no one knows the full extent of its benefits. One thing we do know is that we can heal each other."

"Wow!" exclaimed Hermione while Ron just stared at them. "I've read about those types of bonds, of course, but I never expected to see one. This is close to immortality, but not quite. I do hope you two don't start taking unnecessary risks because of this."

Harry added, "Dumbledore warned us that we should still be careful and not get reckless, but that we should stick together, especially on dangerous tasks like our mission."

"I wonder if it's part of why your boggart of me said I was your strength," commented Ginny thoughtfully.

"I wonder if this bond of love is part of my 'power the git knows not.'

"I'm sure Tom never saved anybody's life, and he certainly doesn't love anyone!" stated Ginny.

"Anyway," said Harry, "We've got one more piece of business to attend to, and then we need to leave."

Ginny's face fell, "Searching the chamber again."

Harry held her hand. "You don't have to come along. It's probably a wasted trip anyway."

"No, I'll go," she resolved.

Harry then looked at his other friends. "I'll want you down with us as well. Hermione, Ron, you've never seen the chamber, so you might notice something we never did."

Within thirty minutes, the four of them found themselves carrying school brooms into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The ghost looked sadly at them and said, "Oh, it's you."

"Hello, Myrtle," greeted Harry.

"You look lovely today," complimented Hermione.

"I can't believe that that nice boy Tom was responsible for my death. All this time I've wondered how I died. One doesn't just drop dead when one is perfectly healthy. But nobody ever bothered to tell ugly, miserable moaning Myrtle. Why would she ever care to know how she died? You're all just glad that I did die …" Harry interrupted her rant by hissing at the sink, revealing the entrance to the chamber. They all jumped down the hole.

Hermione was immediately grossed out by how filthy it was down there. "Ew! Look at all this mud!"

"Wait 'til you see the rat skeletons on the floor," said Ginny, half smiling.

"Let's mount our brooms and get this over with," instructed Harry. He kept a running commentary on what had happened there for Hermione's benefit. When they arrived in the chamber, they dismounted and Harry took Ginny's hand while Hermione and Ron were looking around.

"Harry," asked Ron. "Where does this hole lead?"

"That's where the basilisk came from. I never went in there."

"Maybe we should check it out," suggested Ron.

They took a few steps into the passage only to find that it twisted up and over in such a way that it would be extremely difficult for anything but a snake to get through, and then decided to mount their brooms. Harry took the lead, wishing he'd had his Firebolt instead of the old school broom he was riding. They kept following the passage silently with their wands lit until about ten minutes after they entered the passage, when they came to a point that the tunnel went straight up. Harry turned to Hermione. "I doubt very much Voldemort hid anything here."

"Probably not, Harry, but we've got to keep going." After they got out of the tunnel, they found a large square room with no other exit. Rat bones were completely covering the floor, except for a small elevated platform in the middle of the room, where a small wooden table with something on it stood with a chair.

"Tom never told me about this," commented Ginny weakly.

They all flew to the spot, but didn't dismount their brooms. When they were close enough to the table, they saw an old muggle tablet on the desk with a plastic cup holding muggle pens. Harry requested, "Hermione, I seriously doubt that any of this is a Horcrux, but test it just in case. Then let's grab the stuff off the table."

Hermione tested it and assured them, "Nope, no Horcruxes. I wonder if there are any clues in the tablet."

"I'm sure that's why Harry wants to bring it with us," said Ginny sarcastically, earning a quick glare from Hermione. They grabbed the stuff and flew out of there, and checked the rest of the chamber for any hidden passages, to no avail, so they left. When they got to the bathroom, they were happy to see that Myrtle was nowhere to be seen, so they left after Hermione scourgified all of them. They went to the common room to look at Riddle's notebook more closely. Ginny seemed very apprehensive about it. She asked, "I know it's not a Horcrux like the diary, but be careful. Hermione, can you check it for other curses or anything?"

"Of course, Ginny." After she'd performed several spells on the tablet, pens, and cup, she declared, "This stuff is exactly what it appears to be."

They read the first page of the tablet. It appeared to be a cover sheet for an essay. It said, "My Fondest Memories, by Tom Marvolo Riddle." All their eyes widened at that concept, and they turned to the next page, beginning to read accounts of how Tom had terrorized kids at the orphanage and other places. Each incident had the date and location written down with the description. It was very organized.

After reading a few pages, Harry said, "Turn to the back. I want to see when it ended." Hermione, who was holding the book while they read over her shoulder, complied. The last page was the account of murdering the Riddle family and framing his uncle Morfin for it. "We should definitely read this. It may help us determine the most likely places where Horcruxes are hidden. But I think we can leave Hogwarts now and take this with us."

With Hermione's help, they had everything, including the pensieve, packed into a bag that she'd charmed to be much larger on the inside than the outside, in just a few minutes. They then walked straight to the Headmaster's office to floo back to the Burrow. They met Ms. McGonagall there, and she had a concerned expression on her face.

"Leaving so soon?" she asked.

"Yes," answered Harry. "Thank you for allowing us to stay here."

"Of course," she replied, "Even though the school isn't open, you four are always welcome here."

"Thank you," said Hermione.

McGonagall sighed, "Judging from whatever happened earlier today in the Slytherin common room, I'd wager that whatever Professor Dumbledore has you doing isn't exactly safe."

Harry frowned, "No, it's not."

"Please, do be careful."

"We'll do our best," promised Ginny.

"I know," McGonagall replied. "Before you go, Mr. Potter, there is something else I need to discuss with you."

"What's that?" asked Harry, curious.

"Number Twelve Grimmauld Place."

"I told Dumbledore a year ago that the Order can continue to use it."

"I know, but the Fidelius Charm has worn off since its secret-keeper, Professor Dumbledore, died."

Hermione gasped. "Do you mean it's been visible all this time?"

"Yes, so the Order stopped using it. That's probably why that petty thief went there." She huffed. "Anyway, the Order would appreciate it if you'd assign another secret-keeper so that we can reinstate the Fidelius Charm."

Harry looked thoughtful for a minute. "It's not that I don't trust anyone, but after what happened to my parents with Peter Pettigrew, I truthfully can't imagine letting anyone else besides myself being secret-keeper for my house."

She nodded, "I suppose that's fair, but you'll have to be available to let others know where the house is."

"How about I write the address on a sheet of paper, and you hide it somewhere? When you get a new member, you take the paper out of the house and show it to them, then hide it again. You can tell everyone you burned it."

"I suppose that would be acceptable," she agreed. "When do you want to perform the spell?"

"As soon as possible," answered Harry.

"Then tomorrow morning," McGonagall stated clearly. "I can perform the spell, but I'll need one volunteer to help. Miss Granger, you just volunteered."

"Er, sure, I guess so," replied a shocked Hermione.

"Mr. and Miss Weasley, you may go home and tell your mother that I need Mr. Potter and Miss Granger for help with something here and that they won't be back at the Burrow until tomorrow around dinnertime. Do not tell her what we're doing! I don't want anybody else to know that Harry is the secret-keeper." Then she smiled slightly. "I want to give them the impression that I am."

After Harry and Hermione kissed their respective 'loves' goodbye, they went back to the common room, being warned to be prepared to leave very early. They sat down and began reading. Harry was reading the book on Horcruxes that Hermione had already finished while Hermione was reading Riddle's tablet. After about a half hour of silence, Hermione let out a frustrated groan. "Harry, this tablet hasn't simplified the search; it's given more possible locations! And unless you can get Riddle to tell you where it's at, we're going to have to just pick place after place and search them all."

"That might take forever!" responded Harry. "I say we start the search the day after tomorrow at the places mentioned in the tablet but not in Dumbledore's notes. I think he'd try to hide them in places no one else knew about that were related to his youth."

She sighed. "All right, but that still leaves five locations."

Chapter end