"We've got to try to find out what this diary is hiding," Samantha said as she, Leslie, Ron, Max, and Harry walked to Gryffindor common room.
"It's a blank diary. How much can it really be hiding?" Ron asked.
"It's from fifty years ago, when the Chamber was first opened. And it belongs to T. M. Riddle, the same person who won an award for special services to the school fifty years ago," Samatha said. "Merlin, how many times do I have to repeat this?"
"Well, I'm sorry, but it seems just like a blank diary Riddle forgot about," Ron said.
"Then how would it end up in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom fifty years after it was bought?" Samantha asked.
"Er… maybe it was staged. Maybe it's a prank," Ron reasoned.
Samantha shook her head. "Why would they throw it at Myrtle then?"
"Doesn't everyone want to throw something at Myrtle?" Ron replied.
"Well, he's got a point there," Max said.
"True…" Samantha agreed. "Come on, we've got to test it out. In private."
"Where do you expect to do that?" Leslie asked.
"In an empty classroom, of course," Samantha said. "I know just where to find one…"
"You know, I never noticed how many empty classrooms we have here," Leslie commented as they walked past the Fat Lady.
"You're right…" Harry agreed. "Why do we have so many, anyways?"
"Oh, do you not know?" Max asked.
"Max, you're probably the only one who knows. Your parents tell you everything," Samantha said.
"Well, basically, You-Know-Who's rise to power was terrifying, and people waited to have kids because they were scared those children would become orphans," Max explained.
Samantha raised her eyebrows, looking at Harry.
Max seemed to notice. "Yeah," he said, nodding. "Well, some people had kids, obviously, or else we wouldn't be here today, but a lot of people were holding off," Max told them. "I mean, if you look at the numbers of students in seventh year to first year when we were in first year, the numbers are steadily decreasing, with our year at the bottom with forty five students. Then Harry's year, with…?" Max trailed off, waiting for Harry or Ron to answer.
"Forty," Samantha supplied. "An even split. What? I counted during his sorting," she added when they all looked at her strangely. "And Lauren's year has thirty eight."
"Ignoring Samantha's freaky memory," Max said, grinning, "I think we should expect to see numbers rising next year. Because, you know, the fall of a Dark wizard and the deaths of two innocent people really gets people in the mood."
Samantha stifled a giggle as Leslie swatted at Max's arm.
"Are they going to get more teachers, then?" Samantha asked. "Will we have to take class with some random professor?"
"I dunno," Max said.
"Well, I mean, they probably won't shoot right up," Leslie said. "People probably wanted to wait a while, live while they could before having children. I mean, I doubt people were doing much partying while fighting for their lives."
"That's true…" Samantha agreed.
Harry sighed. "Can we get back to discussing the diary?"
"Right. Here, this one is empty," Samantha said, leading them inside.
They walked inside and set the book on a desk before all crowding around it.
"So…" Ron said after a moment. "What exactly are we supposed to do?" he asked.
Samanatha shrugged, pulling out her wand. "Uh… Revelio!" she said, pointing it at the diary. Nothing happened. "Eh, I didn't know if that was a real spell anyways," she said. "Oh! This one is for sure!" She tapped the diary three times with her wand before saying, "Aparecium!" Again, nothing happened.
"Any other ideas?" Ron asked, clearly fed up.
Samantha searched through her mind, trying to find something. Finally, she had to admit she had no other ideas. "I don't know. I can't think of anything else."
She looked at Leslie, Max, and Harry, hoping they would have something, but they all stayed silent.
"Alright, can we get rid of the diary now?" Ron asked.
"We'll ask Hermione when she gets out of the hospital wing," said Harry.
Ron sighed, rolling his eyes. "It's just a blank diary."
"Should we tell the three of them what we know about Hagrid?" Leslie asked anxiously as the three of them walked outside.
Samantha thought for a moment. "I don't know. I think we should ask Hagrid first," she said.
"We should do that today," Max declared.
Samantha and Leslie stopped walking. "What?" Leslie asked.
"Well, we've put it off this long, let's just go do it," Max explained.
"Alright," Samantha said. "We'll ask today. Right now, even. You in, Les?"
Leslie looked slightly hesitant, but then nodded. "Let's do it. No time like the present, right?"
"Right," Max agreed.
The three of them changed their direction towards Hagrid's cabin, Samantha taking Max's hand in hers as they walked. They walked up to the door and Leslie knocked. A grinning Hagrid answered a moment later, holding Fang back. "Yeh three! Nice ter see yeh," he said cheerfully. "Wha' brings yeh here today?"
Samantha hesitated before answering. "We need to talk to you about something, Hagrid," she said in a serious tone.
Hagrid's grin began to fade. "Abou' wha'?"
"Hagrid… we know about you and the Chamber," Max said carefully.
Hagrid's eyes grew wide. "Ge' inside before anyone hears yeh," Hagrid said, ushering them quickly into his cabin. "How'd yeh find out abou' tha'?" he asked as he shut the door and drew the curtains closed.
"I asked my parents over winter break, I told them the Chamber was opened again and they told me who had been accused of opening it before if I swore not to tell anyone except Sam and Leslie," Max explained.
Hagrid shook his head. "I didn' do it," he said.
"Of course not, Hagrid, we didn't think so even for a second," Leslie said.
"We just… we want to know if you know anything about it whatsoever that could help us figure out who is opening it this time," Samantha pleaded.
Hagrid looked stealthily up at the three of them. "I don' like talkin' abou' it," he said.
"Hagrid, this could save someone's life," Leslie said.
Hagrid huffed. "I'll tell yeh if yeh promise not to tell anyone else," he said. "Not Harry, Ron, or Hermione. Too many-"
"Too many people knowing would be suspicious," Samantha finished. "We should make that our life motto at this point."
Max laughed a bit, trying to hide it. "We should," he agreed.
"We'll put it on a shirt," said Leslie with a grin.
The three of them shared a smile before remembering what they were doing there.
"Right…" Samantha said. "Hagrid, we won't tell anyone at all, we promise," she said.
Hagrid eyed them. "I don' know who did it," he started. "I had a spider, Aragog. This student found out and turned me in, claimin' I was openin' the Chamber and Aragog was the monster."
"Hang on," Samantha interrupted. "They claimed Slytherin's monster was a mere spider?"
"Well, Aragog isn' really yer average spider," Hagrid said.
"Hagrid," Leslie said slowly. "What do you mean by that?"
"Er, well, he's kind o' big," Hagrid answered bashfully.
"Were you keeping a giant spider inside the school?" Max asked bluntly.
"Er- sort o'," Hagrid said.
Samantha shut her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Moving on from that," she said after, "The attacks stopped after you were expelled, right? What happened?"
"They stopped after alright," Hagrid answered grimly.
"Hagrid," Max said. "Who turned you in?"
Hagrid sighed. "Tom Riddle. Fifth year prefec'," Hagrid answered.
Samantha, Max, and Leslie gasped. "T. M. Riddle," they said together.
"Wha'?" Hagrid asked.
"Hagrid, thank you so much for telling us," Samantha said quickly. She needed to get to the library. "We'll come by again soon, I promise." And with that, she rushed out, with Max and Leslie following closely behind, uttering rushed goodbyes to Hagrid as they ran away.
"Library, right?" Max asked as they raced towards the castle.
"Library," Samantha agreed with a nod.
They got to the library, with Madam Pince angrily telling them not to run. They slowed to a speedy walk, back to the section of the library least visited by students, the section containing student records.
Samantha, Leslie, and Max grabbed a few books with past Hogwarts prefects and Head Boys and Girls and headed to the nearest table to begin looking through them.
"Ooh, it's McGonagall," Leslie said.
"Really?" Max asked without looking up from his book.
"She was Head Girl, also," Samantha added, looking through the pages of her Head Boys and Girls book. "I found him!" she cried suddenly.
"He was Head Boy?" Max asked, shutting his book.
"And prefect," Leslie added, pushing her open book in front of Samantha and Max.
They looked at his picture, small and black and white. He wasn't moving, instead forever stuck in the pose he had been in when the picture had been taken. There was a slight smile on his lips, almost foreboding. He had indeed been a prefect, and later Head Boy.
"Handsome," Samantha said unsurely, not knowing what else to say.
"He was in Slytherin," Max pointed out.
The three of them stared at his picture a while longer, unable to deduce anything else from it. Finally, Samantha took the book and ripped his picture, with his name and prefect status under it, out of the book.
"Sam, what are you doing!" Leslie cried.
"Sh," Samantha said. "In case we need it, we'll have it. No one's gonna notice. Who would be looking for this boy anyway? It's not like he's famous," she pointed out.
"True," Max agreed.
"Well," Leslie said, glancing around them as if suspicious of everything, "let's get out of here."
Hermione was able to leave the hospital wing at the beginning of February. She had been very curious when they first showed her the diary. "Oooh, it might have hidden powers," she said, taking the diary to examine it.
"If it has, it's hiding them very well," Ron said. "Maybe it's shy. I don't know why you don't just chuck it, Harry."
"I wish I knew why someone did try to chuck it," Harry said. "I wouldn't mind knowing how Riddle got an award for special services to Hogwarts either."
Samantha, Max, and Leslie exchanged guilty looks. They had kept their promise to Hagrid and had not told anyone else what he had told them.
"Could've been anything," said Ron. "Maybe he got thirty O.W.L.s or saved a teacher from the giant squid. Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would've done everyone a favor…"
"There aren't even thirty subjects to get O.W.L.s on," Samantha said. "Besides, how would that qualify as special services?"
"Boosts their average," Harry pointed out.
"Do wizarding schools even have averages? It's not like there's a bunch of options," Samantha pointed out.
"Riddle didn't do anything like that," Hermione said.
"Do you know what he did?" Max asked too quickly.
"Well, not for certain, but if the diary is fifty years old, and Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago, and the Chamber was first opened fifty years ago, Riddle was probably the one that caught the heir!" Hermione said excitedly. "His diary would probably tell us everything - where the Chamber is, how to open it, and what sort of creature lives in it - the person who's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want that lying around, would they?"
"That's a brilliant theory, Hermione," said Ron, "with just one tiny little flaw. There's nothing written in his diary."
"It might be invisible ink!" Hermione countered, pulling her wand out. She tapped the diary three times before saying, "Aparecium!"
"I already tried that," Samantha said.
Hermione shook her head, pulling a red eraser out of her bag. "It's a Revealer, I got it in Diagon Alley," she explained. She rubbed hard on the page marked January first, and still nothing happened.
"I'm telling you, there's nothing to find in there," said Ron. "Riddle just got a diary for Christmas and couldn't be bothered filling it in."
The heir of Slytherin must be planning something big, Samantha thought constantly through the next two weeks, because there had been no attacks since Ellie, Justin, and Nearly-Headless Nick.
Samantha, Max, and Leslie had joined Harry, Ron, and Hermione on their trip to see Riddle's special services award, where the only new information they found was that he had won a Medal for Magical Merit.
"Maybe we should ask a teacher about him," Samantha suggested one night as the three of them talked on Max's bed. Samantha lay with her head hanging off of the side of the bed, Max was laying on his back with head head at the foot of the bed, and Leslie had her legs tucked up next to her as she leaned into Max's pillows.
"We can't do that. How would we ever explain how we know about him?" Leslie said.
"The award in the trophy room," Samantha said.
"Let's not do that. We don't need teachers thinking we're trying to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets," said Max.
"But that's exactly what we're trying to do," Samantha pointed out.
"We don't want the teachers knowing that, though. They'll never let us go anywhere alone again," Max reasoned.
"True…" Samantha agreed.
"You know, we should really start holding these meeting in the girls' dorms," Max said, bored.
"We can't do that," Samantha replied, braiding a small section of her hair that dangled off the bed.
"Why not?" Max asked.
"There's a stupid rule that boys can't go into the girls' dormitories but girls can go into the boys'," Samantha explained.
"What? Since when has that been a thing?" Max questioned, sitting up.
Samantha sat up as well and began to pull the thin braid out of her hair. "Since the founders deemed it as necessary," she replied. "They probably think it'll stop kids from doing it, which is rather stupid. I mean, it's not like we don't have access to literally everywhere else in this castle."
"It's a very outdated rule," Leslie said. "They should stop people with bad intentions from getting in. Not a whole gender."
"We'll change that when we're adults," Samantha said. "Or maybe we can fix it while we're still in school. I mean how difficult can it be?"
"How difficult can it be to change a spell the Founders of Hogwarts, considered by some to be the best wizards and witches ever, put on the dormitory hundreds of years ago?" Leslie said. "Rather easy, I'd presume," she said sarcastically.
"We're gonna be the best wizards and witches ever," Samantha said casually. "We'll fix it all, from the stupid rules to the biases and everything in between."
"Good luck with that," Elias said as he walked in.
"Shut up," Samantha told him with a grin.
"Never," said Elias, grabbing a book out of his trunk. "While you guys solve all the world's problems, I'll be doing the Potions essay, which is due tomorrow incase you've forgotten in all your nobleness."
"Damn it," Samantha muttered. "I forgot about that."
"Like I said," Elias replied, smirking.
The next morning was Valentine's Day. Samantha had stayed up late doing her Potions essay, and her Muggle Studies and Transfiguration essays she'd also forgotten to complete. Her tired eyes were nearly blinded when she stepped inside the Great Hall.
"What," she asked Leslie as the girls rubbed their eyes, seeing as Samantha had kept Leslie and Max up with her, "is all of this pink?"
As Samantha's eyes adjusted more, she was able to clearly see the decorations. There were large pink flowers stuck to the walls and heart shaped confetti was falling from the ceiling. There were pink decorations every few feet along the center of every table, and next to those were displays of heart-shaped pastries and cookies.
Samantha walked to the table and sat down next to Connor, with Leslie sitting next to her.
"What is going on?" she asked Connor and Elias, as Damon had yet to come down.
"It's Valentine's Day," Elias replied.
"I know that, but no one has cared much about Valentine's Day the last two years," Samantha said.
Elias pointed at the teachers' table.
Lockhart was sitting there in bright pink robes that made him blend in with the rest of the room, a wide smile on his face. The other teachers all looked annoyed, and as if they wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
"Course," Samantha muttered bitterly.
Samantha was grabbing a banana and a pastry with cherry in the middle when Max sat next to her. He rested his elbow on the table and rubbed his temples, keeping his eyes closed.
"I'm hoping I'm hallucinating because I'm tired," he said. He opened his eyes and looked around in dismay.
"Nope, we're all in this torture together," Samantha said.
"What does he even think he's accomplishing by doing this?" Max asked, yawning.
"I haven't got a clue," replied Samantha.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted suddenly, making Leslie jump slightly. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards!"
"People sent him cards?" Max asked incredulously.
"Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all- and it doesn't end here!"
"Oh no," Leslie said, tiredly stirring her cereal around.
Lockhart clapped, and a dozen dwarfs wearing golden wings and carrying harps marched in. There was a collective groan from Samantha, Max, Leslie, Damon, Connor, Elias, and probably the rest of the school as well.
"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" Lockhart announced happily. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion!"
"Doubt it," Damon said, eyeing the teacher's table.
"Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion? And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!" Lockhart said.
"Putting someone on a Love Potion or an Entrancing Enchantment sounds like a complete disaster," Samantha said. "I mean, if the person doesn't like you back, just let it go."
"Easy for you to say," Damon muttered.
"Oh?" Samantha asked, turning to face him.
"You heard that?" Damon asked, surprised.
"I can hear everything you're saying, we're sitting two seats away from each other," Samantha replied.
Samantha wanted to kick the dwarfs all day long. There were only two parts of the day Samantha actually enjoyed. The first was when she went back three hours and got some much needed extra sleep, especially if she was going to survive the whole day plus the three other times she had to turn back for classes. The second was finding out there was a Hogsmeade visit that weekend.
"We'll make up for this monstrosity of a Valentine's Day in Hogsmeade," Samantha told Max.
"Of course," Max replied, grinning, and the two kissed.
"Potter, Langbert, get to class," McGonagall said as she walked by while their lips were locked together.
"Yes, Professor," said Max and Samantha together in the same monotone voice.
At dinner, though, Samantha thought she'd have to add a third item to the good things that happened that day.
"His eyes are as green as a fresh picked toad, his hair is as dark as a blackboard, I wish he were mine, he's really divine, the hero who conquered the Dark Lord," Fred and George sang as they walked into the Great Hall.
Samantha nearly spit out her water. "What in the world is that?" she asked, laughing.
"A valentine your dear brother received," Fred answered.
"How have I not heard of that already? Oh my god, that's literally the best thing ever," Samantha said. "I'm never letting him live it down."
The Gryffindor common room was filled with people chanting that song all night, probably what caused Harry to go up to bed early.
"I think I'll go too," said Leslie, still tired from staying up most of the night with Samantha.
"Me too," Max agreed, standing up. "How are you not tired, Sam?"
Samantha shrugged. "I don't know," she replied. "I'll come up later, I'm gonna do that History of Magic essay assigned today."
"Alright. See you then," Leslie said, and her and Max walked to the separate staircases leading to their dormitories.
Hi! Hope you are all enjoying the story. Review if you want, I love reading them. I also just want to say that I do not support JK and her views on trans people, I continue to write this because Harry Potter is too big a part of my life to ever let go. Whoever you are and wherever you are, i support you and you can get through whatever you're going through, I promise. Also, one final thing, if I'm not posting this story or any other story I write super regularly, it's because I'm busy with school and other things so I promise I will finish this story but it'll definitely take some time.