Chapter 11

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

It was like the past year had never happened. Orion was keeping his distance from Hayden with Neville at his side while Ron remained by Hayden. The only difference was that Hermione seemed to shift between them, never speaking of what happened. She seemed torn between which side to agree with. Yes, Hayden had been wrong to lie but there was nothing suspicious about Riddle's diary—so far.

Realistically, Orion thought Hermione's reasoning was rather weak. She was just as curious as Hayden about the diary which drove Orion mad. Why couldn't they see that it didn't matter that the 'looked' innocent? Nothing even remotely connected to Voldemort could ever be innocent. In fact, it was the innocent looking items that were more often than not the most dangerous.

Quidditch practice was extremely uncomfortable. No one on the team knew what had happened between the two second years, just that they weren't talking to each other anymore. Orion spent the hours searching for the Snitch on the opposite side of the pitch as Hayden. Sometimes he managed to catch the Snitch and others he watched as Hayden caught it. Orion never made an effort to do anything that would put them in the vicinity to have a conversation.

As the Easter holidays arrived, the second years were assigned the task to choose their additional subjects for the third year. There were five choices: Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Muggle Studies. Orion immediately crossed off Divination as a possibility which, in his opinion, was a load of hogwash. Foretelling the future was guesswork at best. Muggle Studies could be interesting except for the fact that it was easier to learn about Muggles while being among them rather than in a classroom.

Care of Magical Creatures was certainly a popular choice since magical creatures played a large role in the magical world. The final two options, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, were the more difficult options. Arithmancy was a lot of number crunching and Ancient Runes studied the ancient alphabet. For Orion, it was between Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Students normally chose two classes but there had been some who had been able to handle more than that.

Other students didn't find the task as straightforward as Orion. Neville had pleaded for help from his parents but they had insisted that Neville had to choose what he wanted to take. Hayden picked the same subjects as Ron while Hermione surprised everyone by signing up for everything. Personally, Orion thought that Hermione was out of her mind especially considering that she signed up for Muggle Studies even though she was Muggle-born but it was Hermione's choice (or mistake) to make.

Just like hiding the diary had been Hayden's.

As the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff drew near, Oliver insisted on team practices every night after dinner. Orion had to fight the urge to quit the team even though he wasn't officially on it. There was barely enough time to finish all of the homework assigned leaving absolutely no time for Orion to gain ground on the fifth year books Remus had picked out for him.

Hayden, on the other hand, wasn't faring as well. It was common to see him still working on his homework when the majority of the Gryffindors had retired for the night. Hermione and Ron had tried to help in their own ways but they ended up arguing with each other more often than not since Ron's idea of helping was to just let Hayden copy off his completed work. Orion and Neville wisely kept their distance from Hermione for at least a few hours when that happened. Neither of them had any desire to be on the wrong end of Hermione's wand when she was in one of her moods.

Everything seemed to be slowly escalating as the Quidditch game approached. It didn't matter that the training sessions were getting better, the weather was improving or that the amount of homework had finally began to decrease. It had come to the point that Orion didn't care how Gryffindor played as long as the practices finally came to an end.

As had become a pattern, Orion and Hayden slowly returned to the Gryffindor Tower the evening before the match in silence, ignoring the excited chatter of the rest of the Gryffindor team. It all came to a screeching silence, though, when they entered the Gryffindor Tower and came face to face with a frantic looking Neville.

"Orion, Hayden," Neville said urgently. "I don't know who did it but—"

"—what happened?" Orion interrupted urgently.

Neville focused solely on Orion and forced himself to calm down ever so slightly. "Someone ransacked our room," he said worriedly.

Hayden ran up the stairs, taking two or three at a time with Orion and Neville on his heels. Stepping inside, Orion quickly noticed that Neville hadn't exaggerated. The room did look completely ransacked. The contents of Hayden's trunk had been thrown everywhere. The majority of the damage centered on the area around Hayden's four-poster and bedside cabinet except that Orion's bedside cabinet had been opened.

As Hayden began searching through his damaged belongings, the sound of hurried footsteps forced Orion to turn around to see Ron, Dean and Seamus hurry into the dorm room, their mouths hung open in shock. It was extremely difficult for Orion to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach. There was only one reason Hayden would be singled out like this.

Dean swore loudly. "What happened, Hayden?" he asked.

"I wish I knew," Hayden said as Ron started examining Hayden's robes.

"Someone was looking for something," Neville said nervously. "Are you missing anything?"

Hayden cast Ron a long look causing Ron to gasp in alarm. Orion knew what that look meant. Riddle's diary was gone. That meant that the diary wasn't as harmless as Hayden insisted. That also meant that he previous owner had been a fellow Gryffindor.

"What are we going to do?" Ron hissed anxiously. "If anyone finds out—"

"—I think it's a little late for that," Hayden shot back before turning to face Orion. "Ori, we need to talk."

Orion bit back the urge to snort. "Finally realize that you're in over your head?" he asked coolly. Hayden and Ron shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. "You know, I'm getting tired of being the only one who uses his brain."

Hayden bit his lower lip nervously before grabbing Orion from the arm and pulling him away from everyone else. "You're right, Ori," he said quietly. "We were gits. We should have known better than to think that anything belonging to Voldemort could help. He even tried to convince me that Hagrid was behind the attacks fifty years ago."

Orion stared at Hayden dumbfounded. Had he just heard what he thought he heard? "What?" he asked in confusion.

Hayden rubbed his hands together nervously. "Er—I wrote in the diary one night and—well—it wrote back," he said avoiding Orion's stare. "Riddle showed me how he framed Hagrid—"

"—what do you mean 'showed you'?" Orion interrupted impatiently.

Hayden looked even more like a small child who got caught stealing biscuits before dinner. "Well, I was sort of pulled into the diary and saw it happen," he mumbled.

Orion had never wanted to hit someone as much as he wanted to hit Hayden at that moment. How could Hayden have hid something like that? Didn't he realize that something like that wasn't normal behavior for an 'innocent diary'? "Tell me something, Hayden," Orion hissed angrily. "Did your parents ever teach you anything or did they raise you as a Muggle?"

Hayden flinched as his gaze fell to the floor. "I haven't written in it since—"

"—you should have turned it in!" Orion barked. "Bloody hell, Hayden! Didn't it ever cross your mind that was possibly the reason it was tossed away in the first place? What you're describing—that's serious dark magic!"

Hayden cast a quick glance at the other boys in the room before returning his gaze to Orion. "Look, I'm sorry. When I found out about it we weren't talking. What did you expect me to do? I'm not like you, Orion. I can't just go to the Headmaster of Hogwarts and talk to him about anything."

Orion's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Don't you dare blame me for this," he growled. "You had countless opportunities to turn it in but you chose not to. Take responsibility for you actions! If there's another attack it'll be because of you!"

Without waiting for Hayden to stumble over a retort, Orion stormed out of the room with Neville chasing after him. Hayden had really gone too far. Why couldn't he just admit that he was wrong? Why didn't he realize that some things were more important than pride and curiosity?

What troubled Orion most, though, was what Hayden had said the diary could actually do. As improbable as it seemed, the diary acted as if it had a life of its own. It reacted to what the writer wrote and even had the capability to physically pull someone in to see events of the past. As far as Orion knew, only a Pensieve could hold and show memories and, if that was true, what did that say about Riddle's diary?

Even though it was going to be difficult, Orion knew he had to pass on what he had learned to his father and uncle. They needed to know that the possible reason why there had been no attacks was that the object behind the attacks had been in someone else's hands. The question now—other than who had taken the diary from Hayden—was if the student involved actually knew who they were dealing with.

For some reason, Orion doubted they did. He had heard from various sources just how charming Voldemort had been when he wanted something. That was what had made Voldemort so dangerous. He made promises or threats that attacked where his target was the most vulnerable.

Passing on the information to Sirius and Remus had gone better than Orion expected. Yes, Sirius had yelled, cursed and ranted about something called Potter arrogance syndrome but at least he hadn't stormed the castle demanding Orion's removal. At least, Sirius wouldn't be doing that until he was granted permission to search through the belongings of every Gryffindor student to find the mysterious diary his son had talked about.

Orion could only imagine how his grandfather would react to that request.

It was nearly dinner time before Hermione caught up to Orion and Neville and assured them that she agreed with Orion. Hayden had been completely out of line to blame Orion. Apparently, Dean and Seamus hadn't wasted any time informing the entire Gryffindor Common Room that something of Hayden's was stolen and Hayden seemed to think that it was Orion's fault. That was probably the worst thing Dean and Seamus could have done to Hayden since the majority of the older years viewed Orion as the younger brother they never had.

The entire Gryffindor Tower was tense as the next day arrived and for once it wasn't because of Quidditch match. Hayden was on the receiving end of many glares when there should have been encouragement. Even Orion was surprised with how many people openly supported him over the-boy-who-lived.

"This is so aggravating," Hermione cried in frustration as she, Orion and Neville sat at the Gryffindor table, eating breakfast. "There has to be something we've missed."

"I don't doubt there is," Orion muttered as he stabbed his eggs with his fork. "Trust me, Hermione, I've checked everything. I even suspected the monster was a Basilisk—"

"—what?" Hermione interrupted abruptly.

Orion shrugged. "It was the only way I could think of to explain Sir Nicholas," he answered. "Hayden shot the idea down, though."

Hermione frowned, deep in thought for a moment before jumping to her feet. "I need to check something out in the library. I'll meet you in the stands." She left before Orion and Neville could even open their mouths to question her.

"What was that about?" Neville asked dumbfounded.

"I wish I knew," Orion said as he rose to his feet. "Come on. We should get moving if we want a decent spot."

Neville hurried to join Orion as they walked past Ron, Hayden and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. As they left the Great Hall and started walking down the marble staircase, a voice filled the air that made Orion's breath stop in his throat.

"Kill this time…let me rip…tear…"

Orion frantically looked around but quickly noticed that once again only he had heard the mysterious voice. This was bad—very bad. Another attack was possibly in process and Hermione was in the library, unaware of the danger.

"Ori?" Neville asked nervously. "Ori, what's wrong?"

"It's the voice," Orion answered quietly as he glanced around at the crowd filing down the staircase to leave the castle for the Quidditch pitch. "I have to find Hermione and warn her."

"I'll go with you!" Neville offered as Orion turned to move against the crowd.

"No!" Orion said sharply, looking over his shoulder at Neville. "Go to the pitch. We'll meet you there." Neville looked like he was ready to protest. "Please Neville. Just go."

Neville hesitated for another moment then reluctantly joined the crowd. Orion didn't waste any time pushing his way through in order to take the quickest path to the library. Once Hermione was safe, Orion knew he had to tell Professor Dumbledore everything—including the voices he had been hearing. It didn't matter if everyone thought he was mad. All that mattered was that no one else was hurt.

"Blood…I smell blood!"

Orion forced himself to run faster. The voice was getting louder and more confident. There wasn't any time to waste. The only thing on his mind was Hermione. He nearly tripped on the stairs twice and nearly lost his footing with every turn he took. Every second seemed to last an eternity allowing questions and doubts to fill Orion's mind. What if he wasn't fast enough? What if Slytherin's monster attacked her? Killed her?

Orion knew he would never forgive himself.

Turning the final corner, Orion nearly ran over Hermione and a fifth-year Ravenclaw Prefect with long, curly hair. He quickly jumped out of the way without a second thought and nearly fell flat on his face in the process.

"Orion!" Hermione cried in alarm. "What are you doing here?!?"

Orion pulled Hermione away from the Prefect. "It's happening again," he hissed quietly. "There's going to be another attack."

Hermione's eyes widened. "You heard the voice again?" she whispered then stared at Orion for a long moment before continuing. "Ori, you're not a Parselmouth, are you?"

Orion's eyes widened fearfully. "H—how did you know?"

Hermione's gaze softened. "It all makes sense," she insisted. "Ori, the monster is a Basilisk. Spiders fear it—remember when we saw those spiders acting strangely? The crow of a rooster is fatal to it—all of Hagrid's roosters have been killed according to Hayden. You're the only one who can hear 'the voice' because you're the only one who can understand it."

Orion had to admit that—when put that way—it couldn't be anything other than a Basilisk? Unfortunately, they had other pressing matters at the moment. "That's great and all but we should really get moving," he said, glancing around nervously.

That snapped Hermione back to the matter at hand. With a small mirror in hand to look around corners, Hermione led the way with the Prefect, who hand introduced herself as Penelope Clearwater, following her. Orion was the lookout for the opposite direction. With his wand at the ready, he was to fire at any sign of movement which would be their only warning to run like there was no tomorrow.

"I can't believe we're doing this," Penelope whispered nervously. "Wouldn't it be better to hide somewhere and wait for someone to find us?"

"Who would that be?" Orion countered not bothering to glance behind him. "Everyone's at the match."

"All right, we're at another corner, Ori," Hermione whispered over her shoulder.

Orion halted and waited for the word from Hermione while keeping his gaze on the empty hallway in front of him. For some reason, the voice had gone silent which made everything feel all the more eerie. It was hard to imagine an oversized snake having the ability to move through the school without a sound but Orion seriously doubted that it was remaining stationary. Basilisks were intense hunters. They never turned down prey unless it was a matter of life and death.

"See anything, Hermione?" Orion whispered.

Silence. Orion felt something stiff hit the back of his legs before two loud thuds filled his ears. Stumbling to maintain his balance, Orion couldn't even think before something hard slammed into his back, sending him flying forward—into the wall across the hallway. Pain beyond pain filled his body for only a moment before darkness consumed him.

A/N: Sorry about the delay. I was on a business trip out of the country. I'll try to update Hayden's Journal soon.