So it's been a while…. oops
Enjoy :) SuchaNarcissist
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§Parseltongue§
Bold is notes or screaming, it should be pretty obvious which.
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Solitude stands in the doorway
And I'm struck once again by her black silhouette
By her long cool stare and her silence
I suddenly remember each time we've met
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Harry was staring at the parchment again Hermione noticed, it was happening more and more often at the moment. They'd come to the library to get some work done outside of the chaos of the Gryffindor common room and all Harry would do is poke at the stupid joke parchment repeatedly. Personally Hermione felt that the worst part was of it all was Luna, the girl had recently had the impetuousness to not only befriend Harry but to sit there and smile at him, laughter dancing in her eyes every time that blasted parchment was in sight. It was clear that if they weren't in the library her laughter would be dancing on the air like so many of the strange creatures Luna pulled out of her hat.
In the last hour Hermione had noticed the jabs getting steadily more and more vicious, by the time she'd got her transfiguration essay to even a half decent length- the second exception to Gamp's law had always reminded her of muggle chemistry and she had been wanting to reference a few of the more alchemical books in the library but not even she could ignore the sparks flying with every second poke anymore.
"Hadrian you need to calm down, it's just a silly piece of parchment quite possibly designed to make you this angry. Why don't you go take a walk down to the kitchens and get a cold glass of pumpkin juice? When you come back we can work on the potions essay together- to take your mind off it."
"You're probably right about the walk and I do love annoying Snape with a decent essay. I just- I just Aaargh!" Harry shouted, emphatically kicking his bag under the table, before walking off towards the exit of the library.
"Well maybe now I'll be able to get this essay finished, sometimes that boy gets awfully finicky over the smallest of things." Hermione commented offhand to Luna, who proceeded to slowly tip off of her chair and onto the floor whilst humming the mission impossible theme tune.
The next shelf over a small black book lay on the floor half poking out of the space underneath the bookshelves a thick layer of dust concealing any defining features. A minute later and a bony hand grasps the book carefully, long pointed nose glancing at the spine before sweeping off to the front of the library.
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It took four hours for Harry to notice the missing diary, one spent in the kitchens calming down with the house elves, two spent writing up his potions essay with Hermione and another to retreat to his favourite work room intending to spend a bit of time with the diary instead of that accursed parchment that he noticed its absence. It didn't take long after that for the hour in kitchens to have been pointless.
He knew as soon as he acknowledged the lacking presence in his bag that the diary was free to carry out its assigned task. More importantly Hadrian knew that he had to get the blasted thing back before it decided to send a basilisk after him. After all he is a known killer of dark lords.
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It took a fortnight, a mere fortnight for the diary to begin its dread task. It began as a day like any other; Hadrian prepared for the day, descended to breakfast with Hermione and Luna and received his daily prophet as always. Then a dead owl fell in his porridge.
That dead owl was the first of many, in fact all the schools owls perished that day- not just the owls either, any form of avian bird that had been provided food by the Hogwarts house elves died that day. Honestly Hadrian felt like spending the entire day holed up in his workroom away from all the whining, crying and occasional scream as birds popped like water balloons overhead. Albeit that was rather funny the first half dozen or so times but eventually the delight of seeing a hapless first year with raven spleen in his hair, bile on his robes and intestines like a mantle on his shoulders wore off.
An owl exploding above him was the final straw, he had to find where the diary had got to, he could only get away with saying he was laughing from shock once after all.
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With Luna's shaky and often intensely unsettling aid it took Hadrian half a day to track down how the diary had escaped his custody. He would've kicked himself if that hadn't have been how the entire mess had started.
From his bag the diary had slid under the bookshelf, there it had been "swooped upon like a fwooper on a streeler, without the poison, or the dropping or the eating."-Luna's words not his. Unfortunately it was hard to tell who could have picked it up and from the fact that it had already successfully killed off all the roosters on the school grounds it was clear that it had left the library and was free amongst the students.
However it did narrow his suspect pool somewhat, it had to have been collected by someone who would have a reason to be looking at 'charms for the enticement of mice' or 'woodworking with woodlice, a magical's guide to muggle techniques' or even 'An enchanter's guide to toilets: do you really need a toilet brush?'. On a separate note Hadrian was alarmed by the sorting system in this library.
The only other hint he had was that the book must have fed on blood, else it wouldn't have enough power to possess a person for long enough to poison the bird feed in the kitchens, or to enter the kitchens undetected.
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It take until Halloween night for the diary to strike again, upon leaving the Halloween feast after a pleasant day of scaring the living daylights out of anyone who had annoyed him over the year so far, the entire school cohort wandered into a frozen tableau, two house elves- one with a comically large bucket and another with a glowing wrench were frozen in position in front of the open bathroom door, water puddled around their feet and faces screwed up in fright.
Large blood red words daubed upon the wall stated that 'The chamber of secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware'.
Draco Malfoy was the first to break the silence with a cry of "You're next Mudbloods" which trailed off after spotting a shock of black hair slowly turning to face him, an oddly sinister smile on the visage. Draco didn't say anything again for a while after that.
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So it has been a long while since I last updated which is bad, but I have updated which is better than nothing I'm sure. Continuing the positives I almost all of the plot for second and third year written out which means that even if I forget to write for a while, chapters shouldn't take too long to get written and posted.
Enjoy :) SuchaNarcissist