(Author's Note: Right guys, I'm back. Now, this chapter may take a while because we have a fair few pages to write. I'm changing a lot of aspects to try to get people interested. I got plans to have a picture of Sophie Lestrange as a cover for the next story. If anyone is an artist or can draw, Please PM me so we can talk about it. Thanks for two thousand views, like I said, it's not the best written story. It could be better but Considering the response, you guys don't seem to mind so I'm grateful for it. As before, I don't own Harry Potter, enjoy!)
Last time: The Polyjuice Potion was a success. They manage to 'interrogate' Malfoy on what he knows about the chamber of Secrets. Even though Malfoy said that he doesn't know who opened the chamber, he did conform that the chamber was opened before, and a muggle-born was killed. Even with the new bash of evidence, they still don't know who opened the chamber.
Hermione remained in the hospital wing for several weeks. There was a flurry of rumour about her disappearance when the rest of the school arrived back from their Christmas holidays. Of course, everyone thought that she had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed, to spare her the shame of being seen with a furry face. Everyone has come up to me and asked me what happened to her. I just told them that Hermione got sick during the holidays and Pomfrey is keeping her in the hospital wing until she got better. Yeah, I've been lying to them but if they were to find out that she accidentally got herself turned into a cat, Hermione will never hear the end of it. Me, Harry, and Ron visited her each evening. When the term started, we gave her the homework from each day so she doesn't fall behind.
"If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work." Said Ron, tipping a stack of books onto Hermione's bedside table one evening.
"Don't be silly, Ron, I've got keep up," Said Hermione briskly. It's great to see that her spirits greatly improved by the fact that all the hair had gone from her face and her eyes were turning slowly back to brown. "I don't suppose you've got any new leads?" She added in a whisper, so that Madam Pomfrey couldn't hear her.
"Nothing." Said Harry gloomily.
"I was so sure it was Malfoy." Said Ron, for about the hundredth time.
"Nothing can link my ugly cousin to this mess." I said, pouring a nice glass of pumpkin juice into one of the spare cups. "The only thing we got out of him is that the Chamber was opened fifty years ago.
"Really?" Asked Hermione.
"Yeah. The last time it was opened... A muggle-born was killed.
"Oh no." She said.
"We need to find out who's the Heir of Slytherin is and stop him or her before another person gets petrified or worse killed.
"Easier sais then done." Ron said. "At the moment anyone could be the Heir of Slytherin.
"We just need to find who has the motivation to do it." Harry said.
"And that died on its arse when Malfoy said it wasn't him." I added. "So, besides, the new information, we're back to square one."
"Yeah, I guess. Did you guys get into the Slytherin common room alright," Asked Hermione.
"Yeah, but we had a few complications." Answered Ron.
"How so?" She asked again.
"We bumped into Percy." I said.
"Percy caught you?" She said.
"Yes." Harry said. "But we lied to him."
"How so?"
"We told him that Pansy and Crabbe made out in the corridor while Goyle was looking out for them." I said with a smile. Hermione was cross-eyed about we just said but then her eyes widened when the realisation came.
"You and Harry kissed?!" Said Hermione in shock. Harry's face went a shade of pink while I chocked on my drink.
"W-what?!" I sputtered out. "No, w-we m-ma-de it up!"
"Oh." She said.
"What's that?" Asked Harry, pointing to something gold sticking out from under Hermione's pillow.
"Just a get well card." Said Hermione hastily, trying to poke it out of sight but I was too quick for her. I pulled it out, flicked it open and read aloud:
"To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Professor Gulderoy Lockhart; Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award." Ron looked up at Hermione, disgusted.
"You sleep with this under your pillow?" Said Ron. But Hermione was spared answering by Madam Pomfrey sweeping over with her evening dose of medicine. "Is Lockhart the smarmiest bloke you've ever met or what?" Ron said to us as we left the dormitory and started up the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower. Snape has given us so much homework, I could be fifty by the time I finish it. Ron wished he had Hermione how many rat tails we were supposed to add to a Hair-raising Potion, when we heard an angry outburst from the floor above reached our ears.
"That's Filch." Harry muttered as we hurried up the stairs and paused, out of sight, listening hard.
"You don't think someone else's been attacked?" Said Ron tensely.
"Hope not." I muttered. We stood still, our heads inclined towards Filch's voice, which actually sounded quite hysterical.
"...Even more work for me! Mopping all night, like I haven't got enough things to do! No, this is the final straw. I'm going to Dumbledore..." His footsteps receded and we heard a distant door slam. We poked their heads around the corner. Filch had clearly been manning his usual lookout post. We were once again on the spot where Mrs Norris had been attacked. We saw at a glance what Filch had been shouting about. A great flood of water stretched over half the corridor, and it looked ad though it was still seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Now Filch had stopped shouting, we could hear Myrtle's wails echoing off the bathroom walls.
"Now what's up with her?" Said Ron
"Let's go and see." Said Harry.
"Great." I said. We held our robes up to our ankles as we stepped through the great gush of water to the door bearing the 'OUT OF ORDER' sign, we ignored it as always, and entered. Moaning Myrtle was crying, if possible, louder and harder than ever before. She seemed to be hiding down her usual toilet. It was dark in the bathroom, because the candles had been extinguished in the great rush of water that had left both walls and floor soaking wet.
"What's up?" Said Harry.
"Who's that?" Glugged Myrtle miserably. "Come on throw something else at me?"
"What?" I asked as Harry waded across to her cubicle.
"Why would throw something at you?" Harry asked her.
"Don't ask me." Myrtle shouted, emerging with a wave of yet more water, which splashed onto the already sopping floor. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny throw a book at me..."
"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you." Said Ron. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?" Ron had sad the wrong thing. Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked.
"Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her hand! Well, ha ha ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"
"Who threw it at you, anyway?" Asked Harry.
"I don't know... I was sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head." Said Myrtle as she glared at us. "It's over there, it got washed out." We looked under the sink, where Myrtle was pointing. A small, thin book lay there. It had a shabby black cover and was as wet as everything else in the bathroom. Harry stepped forward to pick it up, but Ron suddenly flung out an arm to hold him back.
"What?" said Harry.
"Are you mad?" Said Ron. "It could be dangerous."
"Dangerous?" I said, laughing. "Come off it, how could it be dangerous?"
"You'd be surprised." Said Ron, Who was looking apprehensively at the book. "Dome of the books the ministry's confiscated – Dad's told me – there was one that burned your eyes out. And everyone who read Sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in Limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed. And.."
"We get the bloody point!" I said. The little book lay on the floor, nondescript and soggy.
"Well, we won't find out unless we look at it." Harry said as he ducked around Ron and picked it up off the floor. Harry opened the book and the first had a name written in smudged ink, T.M Riddle.
"Hang on." Said Ron, who had approached cautiously and was looking over Harry's shoulder. "I know that name...T.M Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."
"How did you know that?" I asked him.
"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention." Said Ron respectfully. "That was the one I burped slugs all over. If you'd wiped slime off a name for an hour, you'd remember it, too." Harry kept peeling through the pages to find out something about him.
"He never wrote in it." Said Harry, disappointed.
"What's the point of having a diary if you're not going to write in it?" I said.
"I wonder why someone wanted to flush it away?" Said Ron curiously. Harry turned to the back cover.
"He'd must been muggle-born." Said Harry, thoughtfully. "To have bought a dairy from Vauxhall Road...
"Well, it's not much use to you." Said Ron. He dropped his voice. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's Nose." Harry, However, pocketed it. I don't know why though. Hermione left the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail-less and fur-free, at the beginning of February.
"Great to see you back." I said to Hermione. "I was getting quite bored hanging out with the boys." Harry came over and show her T.M Riddle's diary and told her the story of how we found it.
"Oooh, it might have hidden powers." Said Hermione enthusiastically, taking the diary and looking at it closely.
"If it has, it's hiding it very well." Said Ron. "Maybe it's shy. I don't know why you don't chuck it, Harry."
"I wish I knew why someone did try to chuck it." Said Harry. "I wouldn't mind knowing how Riddle got an award for special services to Hogwarts, either."
"Could've been anything." I said.
"Maybe he got it thirty O. or saved a teacher from a giant squid. Maybe he murdered Myrtle, that would've done everyone a favour..." Judging from the arrested face on Hermione's face that she was onto something and me and Harry knew what she was thinking about. "What?" Said Ron, looking at us.
"Well, the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago, wasn't it?" I said "That's what Malfoy said."
"Yeah..." Said Ron slowly.
"And this diary is fifty years old." Said Hermione, taping it exciting.
"So?"
"Oh, Ron, Wake up." Snapped Hermione. " We know the person who opened the Chamber last time was expelled fifty years ago. We know T.M Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago. Well, what if Riddle got his special award for catching the Heir of Slytherin? His diary would probably tell us everything: where the Chamber is, and know to open it, and what sort of creatures lives in it. The person who's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want that lying around, would they?"
"That's a brilliant theory, Hermione." Said Ron. "There's just one tiny little flaw. There's nothing in it." But Hermione was pulling her wand our of her bag.
"It might be invisible ink." She whispered. She tapped the diary three times time and said, "Aparecium." Nothing happened. Undaunted, Hermione showed her hand back into her bag and pulled out what appeared to be a bright red eraser. "It's a Revealer, I got it in Diagon Alley. " She said. She rubbed hard on 'January the first.'. Nothing happened.
"I'm telling you, there's nothing to find in there." Said Ron. "Riddle just got a diary for Christmas and couldn't be bothered filling it in."
...
The sun began to shine weakly On Hogwarts. Inside the castle, the mood had grown more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since those on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. Me and Harry overheard Madam Pomfrey telling Filch that as soon as the Mandrake's acne has cleared up, they would be able to cut them up and stew them and they will be able to cure the people who were petrified. The Heir of Slytherin must've went into hiding. It must be getting risker and risker to open the Chamber of Secrets, with the school so alert and suspicious. Perhaps the monster, whatever it is, was even settling itself down to hibernate for another fifty years. Gulderoy Lockhart seemed to think that he himself had made the attacks stops. I overheard him telling Professor McGonagall so while the rest of my house was lining up for Transfigurations.
"I don't think there'll be any more trouble, Minerva." He said, tapping his nose knowingly and winking. "I think the Chamber has been locked for good this time. The culprit must have known it was only a matter of time before I caught down. Rather sensible to stop now, before I came down hard on them."
"Sure Lockhart, you keep thinking that." I whispered to Neville. "This guy's a twit."
"You know, what the school needs now is a morale-booster. Wash away the memories of last term! I won't say any more just now, but I think I know just the thing..." He tapped his nose again and strode off.
"What do you think does he means by that?" Asked Neville.
"Knowing this guy? It could be bloody anything." I answered.
...
Dammit, I overslept. Bloody Wood made us do a late-night training session to prepare us for the damn Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match. The only thing it's done is that I'm going to be late for breakfast. I quickly flew on my school clothes, not bothering to have a shower and I ran out of the common room, and I ran smack into Harry, knocking both of us onto the floor.
"Oh, sorry, Harry." I said to him.
"That's okay." Said Harry as I pulled him up off the ground. "It's nice to be someone's cushion."
"Great to hear." I said. "So, I'm guessing you over slept, too?"
"Thanks to Wood."
Yeah, good old Wood." I finished. When we finally got down to the Great Hall, I thought we just walked through the wrong doors. The walls all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse, still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling.
"H-Harry, w-what day I-Is t-this a-again?" I stuttered.
"February the 14th." Harry answered. We went over to the Gryffindor table, where Ron was sitting looking sickened, and Hermione seemed to come over all rather giggly. "What's going on?" Harry asked them. Ron pointed to the teachers' table, apparently too disgusted to speak. Lockhart, wearing lurid pink to match the decorations, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony-faced. From where I sat, I could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall's cheek, Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all – and it doesn't end here!"
"V-Valentine's D-day? Can this day get any worse?" I said as I put my head in my hands. Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the Entrance Hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.
"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" Beamed Lockhart.
"Had to opened my mouth, did I?" I muttered to myself.
"They will be roving around the school today delivering your Valentines! And the fun doesn't stop here! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you hoe to whip up a love potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any other wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!" Professor Flitwick buried his face into his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a love potion would be force-fed poison.
"I worried about the amount of Valentines I'm going to get." Ron said as we left the Great Hall for our first lesson.
"YOU?!" I shrieked. "What about me?! I'm the only decent looking girl in the whole school, who knows how many I'm gonna get. And Hermione, please tell me tell me you weren't one of the forty-six." Hermione suddenly became very interested in searching her bag for her timetable and didn't answer me.
"Yeah, she is." Ron whispered as we burst in giggles. All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver Valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers. Hermione got a Valentine from Manuel, I think it was a Shakespeare poem, I'm not too sure. The dwarf sang the poem in front of the whole class. Hermione's face was getting redder by the minute as she buried her face into my robes. Mind you, she only got one, I have got at least thirty or forty, and half of them were from Blaise Zabini. Thankfully, I've receive no more since lunch and Charms was the final class of the day.
"We've been lucky we haven't got anymore of those dwarfs bugging us." Ron said as we were walking up the stairs to get to Charms. "I believe we won't get any more."
"Don't say that. You've just jinxed us." I whispered in annoyance.
"Excuse me, but are you Harry Potter?"
"You twit, Ronald Weasley. " I sad to him. A grim-looking dwarf was here and that spells bad news for Harry.
"I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person." He said, twanging his harp in a threating sort of way.
"Not here." Harry hissed, trying to escape.
"This will be good." I said to Ron
"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.
"Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging. With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, wand, parchment and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over the lot. Oh, that stupid, bloody dwarf. I went over to Harry to help pick his things up. I see T.M Riddle's diary so I picked it up for him. When I touched it, I felt this strange magic hit me, something I've never felt before. Then my mind was hit with visions, snow, people with masks, blood, death, and something with dark, red, ruby eyes was looking straight at me, like it was piercing my very soul.
"So, this is the famous Sophie Lestrange. I look forward to meeting you soon, but for now, I've awoken the beast inside. Are you ready?" Then something with massive claws launched straight at me. I shrieked and I landed on my bum, dropping the diary in the progress.
"Sophie!" Said Ron as he rushed next to me with Hermione and Neville in tow.
"Oh my god, are you okay?" Hermione said to me.
"What did I...? What did I...? What did I...?" I physically slapped myself and it brought me back into reality. "Yeah, I-I'm fine." I finally answered them but my head's still spinning after seeing all that. Awoken the beast? What beast?
"I don't know what you saw." Said Harry after finally putting all of his things including the diary. "But it must've really scared you. Are you sure you're okay?"
"J-Just give me a couple of minutes, I'll be fine." I answered.
*Cough* We all looked up. The dwarf was still there. "Here is your singing Valentine."
"No..."
'His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.'
Everyone started laughing at Harry. No doubt this is Ginny's work, she does have a crush on The-Boy-Who-Lived. Harry was trying valiantly to laugh along with everyone else but he was definitely fighting a losing battle. I got up to my feet and try my best to shake off the events.
"You sure you're okay?" Hermione asked me again.
"U-Um give me a minute. After class, I probably go to Pomfrey. Get to class, I'll catch up." Hermione nods to me and takes with Ron and an embarrassed Harry. When everyone left the corridor then I put my hands on the wall. "Awoken the beast. Red, ruby eyes. What the hell?"
"Excuse me?" I turned around and show another stupid looking Cupid dwarf. "Are you Sophie Lestrange?"
"Yes." I huffed in annoyance.
"Splendid." It said.
"Please mate, don't sing it. Have I been embarrassed enough?" I said.
"Not this one. This person gave it to me but told me not to say it out loud. Shy type." He said as he handed me the letter and flew off playing his stupid looking harp. I looked down at the paper and it's wasn't a poem, well, it was a poor attempt of a poem.
'I'm not the poetic type, so I'm sorry if this doesn't make any sense,
But I have to get this off my chest.
You are the prettiest girl in the whole school,
I really like you, but you can never know
Love, Your secret Admirer.
Well, that's a new one. Who would want to have a crush on a crazy girl like me? I put the note into my robe and walked off to Charms.
...
I didn't go to see Madam Pomfrey because the last thing I needed people thinking that I was going crazy like my parents. Instead, I went straight to dinner and had a nice pork chop, occasionally having a peak at some of my Valentine letters. I was getting quite bored sitting in the Great Hall all by myself so I left to return to the common room. When I arrived, I see Harry still fiddling with the diary.
"Still trying to work that out?' I asked. He looked up and gave me a smile.
"There's got to something that this book can tell us." Answered Harry. I took a seat next to him and looked at the empty pages that lay in front of us.
"How about you write something in it?" I suggested.
"What good would that do?" He asked.
"I don't know, just give it a try." I said. Harry grabbed his quill, and dipped it in the ink. He then proceeded to write in it.
"My name is Harry Potter." He mumbled as he wrote. The ink shone brightly on the paper for a second and then, as though it was being sucked into the page, vanished.
"Okay, where did the ink go?" I asked in amazement. Something happened, oozing back out of the page was which Harry didn't write.
"Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?" These words, too, faded away.
"Go on." I said to Harry. He started to scribble something back.
"Someone tried to flush it down a toilet." We waited for the reply.
"lucky that I recorded my memories in some more lasting way than ink. But I always knew that there would be those who would not this diary read."
"What do you mean?" Harry scrawled, blotting the page in his excitement.
"I meant that this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things which were covered up. Things which happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and wizardry."
"Secrets? What's this school hiding?" I asked Harry.
"Let's ask him." Harry said started to write again. "I'm at Hogwarts, and horrible stuff's been happening. Do you know anything the Chamber of Secrets?" Riddle's reply came quickly.
"Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who'd opened the chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They give me a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I know it could happened again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release was not impressed." Harry quickly wrote back.
"It's happening again now. There had been three attacks and one seem to know who's behind them. Who was it last time.?"
"I can show you, if you like." Came Riddle's reply. "You don't have to take my word for it. I cam take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him."
"Take us inside?" I said. "Harry, we can't say if this book is telling the truth."
"I know, but what choice do we have?" Asked Harry. When we looked back at the diary, we saw fresh words forming.
"Let me show you."
"Ok." Harry wrote down. The pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping halfway through the month of June. We saw the little square for June the thirteenth seemed to have turned into a minuscule television. Harry's hands were trembling so I held his left hand with my right. He raised the book to press his eye against the little window, but then we were sucked through the window and we landed on solid ground. We stood, we were both shaking as the blurred shapes around us came suddenly into focus.
"Harry, where are we. More importantly, when are we?" I asked.
"This is Dumbledore's office." Said Harry
"But I'm assuming is that guy is not Dumbledore." I answered. This wizened, frail-looking wizard, bald expect for a few wisps of white hair, was reading a letter by candlelight. I've never seen this man before.
"I'm sorry." Harry said shakily, I didn't mean to butt in..." But the wizard didn't look up. He continued to read, frowning slightly.
"I don't think he heard you." I said. Harry drew nearer to his desk and stammered
"Er – I'll just go, shall I?" Still the wizard ignored him.
"We'll go!" I shouted at the old man. "Hello? We're right here." Nope. Not even a nod. "This guy's a real old fart." I said to him. Then we heard a knock on the office door.
"Enter" Said the old wizard in s feeble voice. A boy of about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver Perfect's badge was glinting on his chest. He was definitely much taller than me. "Ah, Riddle." Said the Headmaster.
"You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?" Said Riddle. He looked nervous.
"Sit down." Said Dippet. "I've just been reading the letter you sent me."
"Oh." Said Riddle. He sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.
"My dear boy." Said Dippet kindly, "I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?"
"No." Said Riddle at once, "I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to that – to that..."
"You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?" Said Dippet curiously.
"Yes, sir." Said Riddle, reddening slightly.
"Know that feeling." I muttered.
"You are Muggle-born?"
"Half-blood, sir." Said Riddle. "Muggle father, witch mother."
"And are both your parents -?"
"My mother died just after I was born, sir. They told me at the orphanage she lived just long enough to name me: Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather." Dippet clucked his tongue sympathetically.
"The thing is, Tom." He signed. "Special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances..."
"You mean all these attacks, sir?" Said Riddle. Hello, we maybe getting somewhere.
"Precisely," Said the Headmaster. "My dear boy, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow to remain at the castle when term ends. Particularly, in the light of the recent tragedy... the death of the poor little girl... You will be safer by far at your orphanage . As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Magic is even now talking about closing the school. We are no nearer locating the – Er – source of all unpleasantness..." Riddle's eyes had widened.
"Sir – if the person was caught... If it all stopped..."
"What do you mean?" Said Dippet, with a squeak in his voice. "Riddle, do you mean you know something about this attacks?"
"No, Sir." Said Riddle quickly.
"Okay." He said. "You may go, Tom..." Riddle stormed out of the room.
"Tom knows something." I said to him. "Let's follow him." We followed Riddle down the moving spiral staircase they went, emerging next to the gargoyle in the darkening corridor. Riddle stopped. He then suddenly hurried off, and we quickly followed him. We didn't see another person until we reached the Entrance Hall, when a tall wizard with long, sweeping auburn hair and beard called to Riddle from the marble staircase.
"What are you doing, wondering around this late, Tom?" My god, that's Dumbledore, just fifty years younger.
"I had to see the Headmaster, sir." Said Riddle.
"Well, hurry off to bed." Said Dumbledore, giving Riddle exactly the kind of penetrating stare I've seen from him. "Best not to roam the corridors these days. Not since..." He sighed heavily, bade Riddle goodnight and strode off. Riddle watched him out of sight and then, moving quickly, headed straight down the stone steps to the dungeons, with us in hot pursuit. Annoying, Riddle didn't lead us into a hidden passageway or a secret tunnel but the very dungeon in which we has potions with Snape. The torches hadn't been lit, and when Riddle pushed the door almost closed, we could only just see Riddle, standing stock-still by the door, watching the passage outside. It felt to us that we were here for at least an hour. All we could see was the figure of Riddle at the door, staring through the crack, waiting like a statue.
"If this thing goes on any longer, I make myself a cake." I said to Harry. There was a noise. Something was moving beyond the door. Someone was creeping along the passage. He hears whoever it was pass the dungeon where me, Harry and Riddle were hidden. Riddle, quiet as a shadow, edged through the door and followed, We tiptoed behind. Wait, why are we tiptoeing? We can't be heard. For perhaps five minutes they followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, his head inclined in the direction of new noises. We heard a door creak open, and then someone speaking in a hoarse whisper.
"C'mon... gotta get yeh outta here... c'mon now... in the box..." There was something familiar about that voice. Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner. We stepped out from behind him. We could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to him.
"Evening, Rubeus." Said Riddle sharply. The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.
"It's all over" He said. "I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop."
"What d'yeh..."
"I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and..."
"It never killed no one!" said the large boy, backing against the closed door. From behind him, we could hear a funny rustling and clicking.
"Come on, Riddle." Said Riddle, moving yet closer. "The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered..."
"It wasn't him." Roared the boy, his voice echoing in the dark passage. "He wouldn't! He never!"
"Stand aside." Said Riddle, drawing out his wand. His spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The door behind the large boy flew open with such force it knocked him into the wall opposite. Something came out, and it wasn't pretty.
"Woah, what is that?!" I shrieked. A vast, low-slung, hairy body and a tangle of bad legs, a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor-sharp pincers – Riddle raises his wand again, but he was too late. The thing bowled him over as it scuttled to his feet, looking after it, he raised his wand, but the huge boy leapt on him, seized his wand and threw him back down, yelling.
"NOOOOOOO!" Next thing we know, we were back in the common room.
"Harry, what did we just see?!" I said to him. Just then, Ron walked into the common room.
"Hey guys." Ron said, then his facial expression changed when he saw our shocked faces. "What's up?"
"It was Hagrid, Ron. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."
(Author's Note: Finally finished. It's a very long chapter and there are bounds to be mistakes, but at least it's done. I will consider a beta if you guys believe that it's not good, so please let me know when you leave a review. So next time, well, you guys already know. So until next time, Kizzard245 out!)