This was humiliating, he was Lord Voldemort and Potter was a child, he should be able to take over his mind, there were two shards of him here after all, and yet he was being held back by Potions, Patronuses, and Prancing about, as well as the Potions Professor and Potter's Practicing Protection. Occlumency and Legilimency were the Yin and Yang of the mind arts, a good Occlumens knows a bit of Legilimency and a good Legilimens knows some Occlumency, the best master both. Potter was clearly struggling with the most basic mind protection, and yet has found ways to keep his mind his.

Lord Voldemort could sense other fragments of his soul at Hogwarts, the diadem was hidden, but his diary was here somewhere as well. Another big thorn in his side was Harry's friendship with the Grey Lady, she could eventually give up the diadem to Harry and he would discover the soul shard. That could all be avoided if Harry would just let him take control. He would take back the soul shards that were close to him, resting assured in the fact that he still had others outside Hogwarts. When he had that much of his soul inside Harry he would have much greater control. He had been isolating Harry from his friends as much as possible, and even if Harry was using some of that time to take back his mind, he wasn't with his friends and the strain would grow.

Voldemort knew his plans were nearing success and in the end he would either take control of Potter's body forever or he would regain a body of his own and a very loyal ally in what was left after he pulled his soul out and regained physical form. There would be at least one shard remaining in Harry regardless.

Harry had just woken up from a dream that had him split into multiple bodies, and turning from a human to a snake and back again, as well as numerous other strange occurrences. He didn't mind, anything was better than dreaming about Quirrell and the Stone every night.

Deciding he couldn't sleep, he got up, grabbed his Invisibility Cloak, and left the common room and followed a feeling in his gut. It led him to the third floor and to the Grey Lady floating there, seemingly waiting for him.

"Hello Harry, I had a feeling you would be here, how are you on this night?" Her voice was motherly and had a calming effect on him almost instantly.

They talked until the sun came up, when Helena made a comment about how Harry was so wise so young that it was like he had drank from the fount of knowledge.

"Does that really exist? I mean I always thought it was a fairytale," Harry questioned, looking puzzled. Helena chuckled lightly before answering.

"I never thought it did, if it did it would have to be deep underneath the castle. I've floated down there but we Ghosts can't get too far from Hogwarts or we begin to fade. This place is my prison after residing here so very long." Her voice became very sad and Harry felt awful for her. "You're the only living being in the school who even bothers to spend time with me. Sure, people ask me where my mother's Diadem is, but that's about the limit, you have never asked me where it is. You also haven't asked me questions about my mother, except where relevant to the conversation. You treat me like I'm alive again and I'm so proud of how you've grown. I haven't seen my children in many centuries and yet, I see my son in you. As far as I'm concerned you are family, Harry."

As she said that Harry felt a warm feeling come over him.

It was two weeks before Christmas and Harry was looking forward to leaving for the holidays with Dudley, they would be going in three days. It seems that not even the festive season could hold back the attacks, this time it was Peeves. How could Peeves be petrified? He wasn't alive, he had never been alive. Written on the wall next to him were the words

It's not just the living who are at risk now that the chamber is open. The Heir of Slytherin will purge the school.

This set everyone into a panic and even the teachers were scared.

Family. Last year he had none and yet now he had more than he could have hoped for. He had Dudley and his aunt who were biological family, he had the Grey Lady who was like another aunt, and Hermione, Neville, Ron, Theo and Draco. They were not quite close enough to be considered family, except Hermione. They understood each other in a way only Dudley did as well. He could see himself calling the rest family in years to pass, after all, a life without family had made Harry determined to grow his family as best he could. He wanted to be happy and he could see a future where that was possible. That small scared child from Wool's was never going to go back to that situation again.

As Harry was walking around thinking, he walked past an abandoned classroom that had someone crying inside it. He opened the door to see Ron's younger sister with a black book in front of her, she was sitting on the floor and looked hopelessly lost.

"Harry, you'll help me won't you? This book…." She couldn't continue, something wouldn't let her. Immediately her voice became calm and she slowed down. "The work here is so difficult and I'm struggling in Defence, Lockhart just talks about himself and I'm falling behind in Transfigurations." Her voice had sped up a little, some of the emotion coming back.

"Hey, don't cry, I can try to help you with Transfiguration work, but I refuse to touch Lockhart's curriculum." This got a laugh out of Ginny and they sat and worked on her homework together. She didn't notice Harry subtly put the black book in his bag.

After a long day of packing his things, Harry was finally able to inspect the black book. He was sitting in the Library and, when a noise from behind him startled him, he turned around and saw nobody, knocked over his inkwell and flooded the book. As he panicked he noticed the ink disappeared. Curious he opened the book, and saw written there.

"Please, do take more care in the future, I don't like being drowned." Harry was amazed at this book's ability to write back. He decided to test it.

Hello, I'm sorry about that.

As long as you are careful in the future, it's fine. I'm Tom Riddle, who are you?

Why did the name sound familiar to Harry, while filling him with rage? He calmed down before writing again, which took a lot of effort.

I'm Harry Potter.

Nice to meet you, Mr Potter, I'm the ghost of a student from fifty years ago who was killed during a spree of petrifications. Does this issue remain at Hogwarts or was my sacrifice worth it?

There are attacks right now, something called the Chamber of Secrets has been opened and the Heir of Slytherin is attacking people.

So my life was given in vain? May I show you my stopping of the perpetrator in the past which ultimately led to my death?

Yes.

That was all Harry could write before he passed out and woke up in his bed in the Slytherin common room. He went over to wake Dudley when he saw a stranger in his cousin's bed. He turned to his own bed and saw it occupied by a pale teenager who looked somewhat like Harry, but only slightly.

"Tom?" He asked the boy when he woke up, but he didn't reply. Harry watched him get up and leave before chasing after him. As they got to the Great Hall, Tom finally stopped, there was a procession of teachers walking with ministry officials and a body lying on a stretcher, floating in the middle of the group. As Tom turned to leave he was tapped on the shoulder by Professor Dumbledore, who was considerably younger than he was in Harry's time.

He told Tom that if the attacks were to continue that the school would close. After asking Tom if there was anything he wished to tell him, Tom answered that he didn't and then left. He went upwards to the room of a Gryffindor who he knew was raising a giant spider.

When he got there and forced the door open the student was hurriedly trying to hide something.

"Her parents want to see justice done, Rubeus. The ministry is here and they'll search the school top to bottom. They will find your monster and you will be executed for trying to hide it, come with me and confess and your punishment will be reduced." As he finished the very tall Rubeus was crying and saying no throughout.

"Aragog hasn't hurt anyone, he would never," he tried to argue, but Tom was already shaking his head.

"Acromantulas are not safe pets, Hagrid, you know this. Bring the monster to be killed and turn yourself in or I will have to act," Tom declared with finality and Hagrid, in a burst of emotion, smacked Tom through the door into the hallway to the horror of both Harry and the students of the time.

The memory ended abruptly and when he woke up he was back in the Library and yet the book was nowhere to be seen. His head was swimming with information as he thought about what he had just seen, but also who could have stolen the book. Ginny was the obvious culprit, perhaps she had made the noise behind Harry before he started writing. He really needed to be more vigilant.

Hagrid was the one who opened the chamber before. He then killed Tom Riddle and another student before what? Getting hired at the school… none of this made sense to Harry, it literally contradicted history. Maybe it was a magical practical joke product, Ginny was Fred and George's sister after all.

This was just weird and Harry would have to investigate and get to the bottom of things.