A/N: Now Year 2
Chapter 9: The Diary
Context: Harry and the Weasleys have just been to Diagon Alley.
When they arrived back at the Burrow, they all stood round while Mrs Weasley brushed the soot off them, then all took their purchases to their rooms. A few minutes later though, Mr Weasley called up the stairs in a serious voice, making Harry jump "Boys! Come down!" "What's going on?" Harry asked Ron. "Dunno," replied Ron, "Dad never shouts like that unless something's really wrong or important." When Harry got down to the kitchen, he saw Mr and Mrs Weasley looking quite stern, and Ginny sat at the table, looking nervous. A plain looking book with a black cover was on the table in front of her.
"What's the problem, Dad?" asked Fred. "The problem," said Mr Weasley, pointing at the book, "Is this. We didn't buy it, and yet it ended up inside Ginny's cauldron. Do any of you have any idea how it got there?" Harry had a sneaking suspicion, so he asked "Ginny, where exactly did you find it?" "In – inside my Beginner's Guide To Transfiguration." she sniffed, looking like she was about to cry. George gasped, connecting the dots first. "Dad - that was the book Mr Malfoy got hold of before you hit him. Maybe he put it in there before he gave it back." Mr Weasley scowled, and drew his wand, jabbing it at the book. A second later, he turned as white as a sheet, as a small black cloud burst out of the book before being sucked back in. "Molly," he said, "I'm going to have to take this into work and have an Auror look at it. Whatever it is, it's an extremely Dark object."
Mrs Weasley collapsed into a chair in shock, and Ginny fainted, as Mr Weasley used the fireplace tongs to pick up the book, then left for the Ministry. Too stunned to do anything else, Harry and the other Weasleys went back upstairs. "What's an Auror?" asked Harry. "Dark wizard catcher." replied Ron, as they sat down to play a game of chess a while later.
Mr Weasley was out all day, and didn't get back until teatime. When he did, he told them all what had happened. "I took the thing to the Auror Office to have them check it out. Thankfully, Moody was in. He knew straight away it was dangerous, and took me down to the Department of Mysteries to hand it over to them. They destroyed it." "It was that bad?" asked Fred. "Yes, it was, and then Moody grilled me for three hours on where it had come from. And then, once he let me go, he got a team of Aurors and went and arrested Lucius Malfoy. Then they dosed him with Veritaserum – makes you say nothing but the truth, Harry, very hard to make – and got a goldmine of information out of him. He's on his way to Azkaban now."
Harry and Ron grinned at the news. Hopefully, the fact his father was in prison would stop Draco Malfoy acting like he owned Hogwarts and bothering them whenever he could.