AN: You guys are so amazing! I hit 100 favorites last night at around 5:30, but now I have 125. And of course I can't leave out my lovely followers, all 216 of you. Special thanks goes out to reviewers Lightningblade49, loretta537, Spring Raine, Kine X, SomeGuyFawkes, agnar, Wonderbee31, slicerness, Cateagle, LadyLombax, A Lady of Time, red-jacobson, serenityselena, Majerus, serialkeller, femalefarrier, wolfish-willow, thunder18, and Kairan1979. Whew! The list keeps growing and growing. Also, I know that some of you may find the ending of this chapter kind of predictable, but it's actually not what you think it is. Final word count before author's note: 1,735

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise or The Times.

First years, Harry realized, were incredibly irritating. They seemed in awe of every little thing, even the non-magical details that Harry hadn't bothered with when he was eleven, like the floors. They all chattered away at each other, being obvious about their pointing at the portraits. A picture of a knight preened under the attention, while a mother with her child simply turned away.

"They're so annoying," Harry whispered to Percy.

"I thought you and your year were, too," Percy replied calmly.

"What?" Harry asked, affronted.

Percy just grinned.

"Hey Harry!" A high-pitched voice said. Harry turned and was blinded by a bright flash. He groaned and rubbed his eyes. He could hear Ginny snickering at him. The world finally came back into focus and he saw Colin Creevey smiling sheepishly.

"Sorry I didn't warn you. I just wanted to get a picture of a dangerous looking wizard standing next to a suit of armor," Colin explained.

"Dangerous looking?" Harry asked blankly.

"You haven't stopped scowling since we left the Great Hall," Ginny said scornfully.

"Oh, er, I'm really sorry," Harry apologized to all of the first years. Oliver's words echoed throughtout his head

"I don't think that's what Godric Gryffindor would have wanted."

Harry squared his shoulders. What had McGonagall said before his sorting? Something about your house being your family? No doubt she had given the same speech to these first years. He'd make sure it came true.

"Now, if you make a left right down this hallway, you'll come to the library. The librarian is Madam Pince. She can be kind of scary, and she can hold a grudge, so always be really quiet and make sure to return your books on time. If you don't, she won't let you check any out when you really need them."

"Astronomy is held at midnight for you guys, and you'll be really tired the next day, so make sure you take a nap before class. Don't oversleep though, because Professor Sinistra really doesn't like it when you're tardy."

"Never give Snape any reason to take points off. Don't even breathe too loudly, because on a bad day, that really gets on his nerves."

"Never, ever, ever taunt Peeves. He likes to do his best to get you in trouble, and he thinks it's funny to watch people get angry with him. The best thing to do is to remain calm."

By the time they reached the portrait hole, all of the first years looked up to Harry. All except Ginny, of course. But, Harry thought, you can't win them all.

"Harry!" Ron bellowed as soon as he saw him. "Doesn't Dad have a flying car?"

"Don't answer that," Percy advised Harry.

"Come on Ron," he said to his brother. "Let's go have a little chat."

Seamus, Dean, and Neville were playing a game of Exploding Snap and eagerly asked him if he'd join. He agreed, and the game had barely begun when another bright camera flash went off. Harry looked up to find who else but Colin Creevey.

"What's the picture for?" Dean asked curiously.

"My dad. He's a milkman, and we never dreamed that I'd get to go to a place like Hogwarts! I just wanted to show him what it's like," Colin explained.

"I know what you mean," Dean sympathized. "My step-dad is a journalist for The Times and my mum's a florist. They were both really surprised when I got my letter."

And that in itself seemed to make Dean Colin's new hero. Satisfied that he was safe (for now, at least) Harry excused himself and went up to his dorm. He waited a bit to see if anyone would follow him up and then took the diary out. He stared at if for a moment, as if waiting for it to do something, when he felt an intense pain in his scar. He rubbed at it angrily and looked away. Instantly, the pain eased. He paused, thinking about it. Slowly, he turned his head to look at the diary. The pain was even fiercer this time and he let out a hiss of pain. He turned his head away quickly and felt a stab of anger. How was he supposed to examine the diary now if he couldn't even look at it?

He gritted his teeth and looked at the diary again. This time he worked through the pain and opened up the diary, ready to read. Instead, he found nothing. He frantically thumbed through the pages, but all of them were blank. Maybe Ginny just wanted to scare him? But no, he had seen her writing in it. But how was he going to determine if the diary was dark or not if he couldn't see what was written?

Still in pain, Harry picked up a quill and dipped it in ink. Carefully, he wrote.

Hello Tom. My name is Harry Potter.

The reply came almost instantly.

How do you know my name?

Harry pondered how to answer that.

I don't really feel like telling you that.

Fine. Then I don't have to answer any of your questions either.

You're sort of childish. I expected more of you.

So you know about me then?

Actually, Harry didn't have a clue who Tom was, but he decided to feed the man's ego.

Of course, who hasn't?

Tell me, am I known as Tom Riddle or Lord Voldemort?

Harry froze and reread the sentence. And read it again. And again. And then he slammed the diary shut and looked away. Tom was Voldemort. That was why his scar hurt so much. Ginny had been talking to Voldemort. An eleven year old girl had been talking to a dark lord. The question was, did she know it?

Harry heard thundering footsteps up the staircase and he hid the diary under his mattress. Seamus, Dean, and Neville burst through the door.

"Hey Harry!" Seamus greeted him. "How was your summer?"

"It was good," Harry said casually. "I spent most of them time at Ron's house. Where is he, by the way?"

"Fred and George tested a prank on him," Dean grinned. "He's begging Percy to get rid of it for him, but Percy refuses to even talk to him."

"Why?" Neville asked.

"He told you guys about the car," Harry explained. "No one's really supposed to know about it."

"Oh," Neville frowned.

"Can you believe that bloody ponce is supposed to be our Defence teacher?" Seamus said, flopping down on his bed.

"I'm gonna fail exams," Neville moaned.

"Don't worry Neville. We probably all will if Lockhart's our teacher all year," Dean comforted him.

Ron walked in the room and slammed the door shut behind him, face tomato red to match his hair.

"You got it off," Seamus said disappointedly.

Harry wondered what "it" was.

"Yeah," Ron said glumly. "Oliver didn't know what was going on, just that Fred and George pranked me, so he fixed it."

"Well, at least you got it off," Neville offered optimistically.

"I guess," Ron muttered.

No one really wanted to stay up talking, so they all turned out the lights and went to sleep. All except Harry, that is. He stayed awake, thinking of what he now possessed. Lord Voldemort was preserved in diary form, and might be able to get out and kill everyone.

Ginny Weasley lay awake in her dorm room. All of the other girls had simply given her the evil eye when she said she hated Harry Potter and turned their backs on her. They all giggled and blushed thinking about him. Ginny couldn't believe that only a week ago she would've done the same. All of her ridiculous fantasies about Harry Potter coming to rescue her from a dragon or a Dark Lord were so horribly fake. He was really just an awful boy, like her her brother, laughing at her dreams and throwing them back in her face.

And that wasn't the only thing wrong. The hat tried to sort her into Slytherin. Her, Ginevra Molly Weasley, a Slytherin? She had argued with it for what felt like ages, and when Percy asked her at the feast what had taken so long, she had to lie and say that the hat wanted to put her in Ravenclaw.

On the train, Ron, her own brother, wouldn't make Harry leave so she could sit there. Instead, she had to share a compartment with Looney Lovegood and a strange boy with a camera. As if that wasn't enough they got in the same boat with her too. Another boy, Malcolm Baddock, sat with them and didn't say a word the whole time.

Plus, the fifth year prefect for Gryffindor skived off his duties, so Percy and Harry showed them around the castle. Anyone who didn't love him before definitely did after that. Ginny was the only one who kept her head on, who realized Harry was only doing it to make other people like him. Ginny wasn't about to fall for that. She knew everything that was going on.

Who did he think he was? He couldn't just barge in and take over her family. She was supposed to be the star, the center of attention, the youngest, the only girl. But they all loved Harry Potter. He was respectful and polite, her mother said. He's a good boy, her father claimed. Fred and George thought he was fun, Percy thought he was smart. When Ginny asked Ron what he liked best about Harry stinkin' Potter, he simply replied

"He's Harry."

Well, Ginny didn't like any of that. And worst of all, she didn't even have Tom to talk to. Harry had taken that away from her too. Wait a minute….

Harry had finally fallen asleep around midnight, but he tossed and turned the whole time. He kept thinking he heard noises, and once he even felt something like hands rolling him over. He managed to convince himself that it was his imagination, but at around two in the morning, he heard a loud thump that woke everyone bar Neville up. Harry opened his eyes in time to see a figure closing the door and he glanced around the room. Drawers had been opened and trunks were rummaged through. The thief had obviously been looking for something specific. Harry felt a sense of dread. Quickly, he felt under his mattress.

The diary was gone.