Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny climbed into the last carriage. They all sat down and the carriage started on it's way to the castle. The carriage had only gone a short distance when Harry suddenly smacked himself on the forehead.
"How could I have been so stupid?" Harry said more to himself than the others.
"Harry what is it? What's wrong?" Asked Ginny.
"What are you going on about?" Asked Hermione.
"The diary. Tom Riddles diary, it's not destroyed!"
"What!" Exclaimed Ginny.
"The diary hasn't been destroyed."
"Why didn't the plan work?" Ron asked.
"I hadn't thought it through. There's no way that the sword could have destroyed it."
"But…"
"I know. The sword only destroys the other Horcruxes after I kill the basilisk in the Chamber."
"Harry, no." Ginny pleaded.
"I have to. I'll be fine. I promise."
"But why does it have to be you?"
"Because I am sure I could navigate it without my glasses. Although I probably won't have to worry about that…" Harry trailed off.
"Uh…either of you care to clue us in?" Hermione asked.
"I have to go into the Chamber of Secrets and…"
"NO!" Hermione screamed.
"Harry you can't" Ron added.
"I have to. To be able to destroy nearly all the Horcruxes I have to kill the basilisk with Godric Gryffindor's sword"
"Harry, promise me, promise us that you won't rush into this. Take time to prepare."
"I promise Ginny. I promise all three of you. I have to talk to Dumbledore first any way."
Ginny leaned her head on Harry's shoulder. Hermione leaned against Ron while giving Harry a pleading look. Ron stared Harry reproachfully.
They rode in silence the rest of the way to the castle.
The carriage came to a stop, they climbed out and walked up the steps to the castle Hermione, Ron and Ginny stayed close to Harry and kept their eyes on him.
Harry went straight to the boy's dormitories and to his trunk. He lifted the lid and rummaged through his trunk until he found the diary. Harry pulled the diary out, unwrapped it and found that the hole had closed and there were no ink stains anywhere.
Harry tightly held onto the diary and headed down the stairs and bumped into Ron.
"Where are you going with the diary?"
Harry sighed and said, "I'm not going into the chamber. I'm going to see Dumbledore. I'd rather that he hold onto the diary while I plan out how I'm going to take care of the basilisk. I need to prepare and part of that is I need to ask Dumbledore about something. I'll explain later. There is no need for any of you to be everywhere I go and making sure I am not rushing into this. I will keep all of you informed about what I plan to do once I know what I am going to do. I promised the three of you. Trust me, please. Like I said I am going to see Dumbledore."
"I do trust you Harry. I know you are being honest with me about going to see Dumbledore. You know how Hermione is."
"Ron do you think you could distract her for me? Just so that I can leave the common room."
"How am I supposed to distract her?"
"Tell her how you feel, kiss her. I don't know think of something. I have to get this diary to Dumbledore as soon as possible."
"I still don't know what to do but I'll try."
Harry and Ron walked down the stairs and into a very crowded common room. They looked at each other and went in separate directions. Harry to leave the common room and Ron to where the he left the girls.
"Ron where's Harry?" Hermione asked nervously.
"Look, Hermione he's leaving."
"We have to hurry, we can't let him go into the chamber."
"Hermione, Ginny look he promised us that he wouldn't rush into this. He's just going to Dumbledore."
"But he has the diary with him."
"He's taking the diary to Dumbledore so that everyone at school is safe from the horrors of the diary. I trust him and believe him. Just stay here wait until it's time to got the feast. Harry said that he would keep us informed of what he plans to do once he figures it out."
"Harry wouldn't break his promise to us. I trust Harry completely. Yes I'll worry about what ever he plans to do, but I trust him. We all trust Harry and we believe him without a doubt so we have to show that to him." Ginny said.
"We just let Harry know that we are here for him if he needs help and we give him the space he needs to figure out what he's going to do." Ron added.
"We can still hang out right?"
"Well of course Hermione. We just hang out and not tail him wherever he goes."
Everyone then had begun to leave the common room to go to the dining hall for the feast.
As Harry walked down the hall to Dumbledore's office he though about what the password could be. He looked up and sighed in relief as he saw Dumbledore.
"Professor, I need to talk to you. It's important."
"Let's step inside my office." Dumbledore looked at the gargoyle and gave the password.
Dumbledore closed the door behind Harry and gestured for Harry to take a seat.
"Professor, it didn't work after all. Stabbing the diary with the sword didn't work. I should have known that I wouldn't. I should have thought it through more. At some point I'm going to have to go into the Chamber of Secrets and kill the basilisk with the sword. I am not going to go after the snake right away. Is there any way I would be able to use your Pensieve? There is a memory I need to see again but there is just too much going on in my head. It is crucial that I pay attention to this memory because there is something that I need find out and memorize. I will tell you more once I have seen the memory."
"After the feast come back to my office. I will have the Pensieve ready for you. The password will be 'tootsie roll'."
"Thank you Professor. Oh, I would like you to hang on to Tom Riddles diary for me for a while. I need to make my plan and I don't want anyone to get a hold of that diary. It will be destroyed before the year is over."
"Very well. I will keep it for you until such time you are ready to destroy it."
Harry handed the diary over. Dumbledore locked the diary in his desk and they both got up and left the office. Dumbledore used the staff door to enter the dining hall, Harry had to go down the hall and a round a corner to the student entrance to the dining hall.
As Harry walked down the isle to the Gryffindor House table students looked in his direction and watched him. Whispering broke out through out the dining hall.
Harry was thankful that he finally reached Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He quickly took a seat.
"So you went to Dumbledore. What did he say?" Hermione asked.
"I'll tell you later."
Dumbledore cleared his throat to get the dining halls attention. Everyone went silent.
"Welcome back. I hope you all had a great holiday. Let the feast begin."
The dining hall was full of the sounds of forks and knives scraping plates and soft talking.
"Harry, what did Dumbledore say?" Hermione asked quietly.
"I'll tell you later. I won't be able to tell you after the feast because I am going back to Dumbledore's office. I don't know if I'll be able to tell you anything afterwards, maybe tomorrow."
No one said anything after that and ate in silence. The dining room began to empty, Harry got up and went to Dumbledore's office. He gave the password to the gargoyle and it leapt aside to let him pass.
As Harry walked into the office he saw the shallow basin with carvings of runes and symbols sitting on Dumbledore's desk. He looked up at Dumbledore and said,
"Though I have seen this a few times, how exactly do I extract a specific memory?"
"Try to concentrate on the memory you wish to view in the Pensieve. Hold on to as much of the memory as you can, if need be the before and after the rest will be there. Once you have that place your wand at your temple and extract the memory. Dump it into the Pensieve and give it a prod with your wand. I am sure you know how to do the rest."
Harry concentrated as hard as he could. There was so much on his mind that it was hard to pick out the memory he desperately needed to look at; it was a crucial piece he needed. Harry held on to the part he was after, raised his right arm and placed his wand at his temple and extracted the memory. He dumped into the Pensieve and gave it a prod with his wand. He watched the silvery contents swirl quickly.
Without hesitation Harry stuck his head into the Pensieve and spun until he landed on the ground from the memory. He looked around and saw himself with Tom Riddle standing around Ginny. Harry quickly walked over to Tom Riddle so that he could follow Riddle throughout the memory.
Riddle amusedly cast and eye at Fawkes on Harry's shoulder. He walked over and stopped between too high pillars. He looked up into the stone face and in parseltongue said, 'Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of Hogwarts four'. The stone face begun to move, the mouth opening wide leaving a black hole in its place.
The Chamber disappeared and Harry found himself in Dumbledore's office pleased.
"I take it you got what you needed."
"Yes, I did."
"Do you feel up to explaining?"
"As I told you earlier, the sword didn't destroy the diary. The reason why is that I had not killed the basilisk. I have to go into the Chamber and kill the snake, in order to do that I will have to summon it and I needed to know how to. I couldn't remember clearly what Riddle had said so I had to use the Pensieve. I have to kill the basilisk, if I am to be able to get rid of all the Horcruxes it has to be done. It has to be me as I can speak and understand parseltongue."
"When do you intend to go into the chamber?"
"I am not sure yet. I want to do this right; I can't make a mistake so I am going to take my time to plan it out. And yes, I'll be talking things over with my friends."
"Very well. I think you should get to your dormitory as it is late and you have classes in the morning. Also I believe that Quidditch practices will begin soon."
Dumbledore walked Harry out of the office and down the hall a short distance before heading back to his office.
"I've got you know. Out of bed after hours."
"Mr. Filch, Harry just left my office. I had to have a word with him before he went to bed."
Mr. Filch reluctantly let go of Harry.
Harry took off running hoping not to run into anyone else. He was tired and wanted to go to bed. Just a few feet from the portrait hole and there stood Professor Snape.
"What are you doing out of bed running around the castle at this hour? Shouldn't you be in bed asleep?"
"I just came from Professor Dumbledore's office. He wanted a word with me. You can ask him if you want. Though I am tired, I will go with you back to his office."
"No need. I will let you go." Snape said as he walked off.
Harry stood there in shock. He was not sure if he could deal with this Snape compared to how he knew Snape to be. It was going to take some getting used to. He walked up to the portrait and realized he did not have the new password.
Harry walked back and forth in front of the portrait trying to think of what it was. Suddenly the portrait swung open.
"Harry there you are, I was just about to go looking for you."
"Hermione, I just left Dumbledore's office and was stopped twice, once by Filch and once be Snape. I realized I don't know the password and couldn't remember it."
"Well get in here."
Harry waked into the common room looked at his friends and headed up the stairs to the dormitories.
"Harry…"
"I am really tired. I don't think I could stay awake long enough to tell you what happened with Dumbledore." Harry said as he continued up the stairs.
Hermione, Ron and Ginny made their way up the stairs to their respective dormitories and went to bed.
To Harry's surprise he woke up early the next morning, fumbled around in the dark, found his glasses and put them on.
"Finally, you're awake. No one else is up yet. Lets go down stairs, maybe the girls are up." Ron said quietly.
On their way down to the common room they bumped into Hermione and Ginny. The four of them quickly walked down the stairs and found a place to sit close together.
"Dumbledore is keeping the diary for me until I am ready to destroy it. I asked him if I could use his Pensieve to re-view a memory…."
"A what?" Hermione asked.
"A Pensieve. It's something that allows one to view and look at a memory again. I had to review a memory that is crucial and a key part of what I have to do."
"You still plan on going into the chamber?"
"Hermione I have to. Like I said last night in carriage, it has to be me. Neither of you know what the basilisk looks like or even a clue as to its size. Look if one of the three of you were to attempt to go in there and if you miraculously managed to summon the snake, with one look you would be dead. I know how to summon the basilisk and I am confident that I'll be able to kill it without looking at it. The sword then will be infused with the venom of the basilisk so that I can destroy all but one of the Horcuxes."
"What the bloody hell are Horcruxes? You keep mentioning them but you haven't explained what they are." Ron said.
"Meet me here at lunch. We should get going to breakfast."
Before the other three could say anything fellow Gryffindor's came down the stairs. They went to down to the dining hall for breakfast and then to classes.
At lunch in the common room Harry, Ron and Hermione sat on the couch.
"So are you going to tell us or what?" Ron asked.
"Yes. But we are waiting for Ginny."
"Why?"
"Because we are. I've told her a little about Horcruxes."
"Why are you bringing my sister into this?"
"She has a stake in the outcome."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about me and her. You can't stop it from happening Ron. Just accept it and relish in the fact that nothing, more than friendship, will happen for a few years."
Before Ron could say anything Ginny walked in.
"Sorry. I got here as soon as I could. I was held up outside my class. It's nothing."
"Ginny I already told you that the diary was very dark magic. A Horcrux is really old, advanced, dark magic. It's a receptacle that holds a piece of one's soul. The subject of Horcruxes is banned form Hogwarts. There is one book that makes a brief mention of it but it doesn't give any information."
"If it's banned from school, then how did Riddle find out?" Asked Ginny.
"What I do know is that he found out some from a teacher who did not realize what Riddle was up to. This teacher regrets telling Riddle. But, Riddle also found out from other sources that we don't know."
"How could he make one?" Asked Ron.
"To make a Horcrux one must split his or her soul into fragments. In order to do that you would have to commit murder."
"And Riddle did this on purpose?" Asked Hermione.
"Yes. I don't remember if I told you, but he made seven in all. His diary is one. There's also a ring, a necklace, a diadem, his snake Nagini, a cup and…."
"And what?" Ron asked.
"Me."
"You. How?"
"When he murdered my mum and tried to murder me. Please don't go freaking out on me. I am here aren't I?"
"Wait, what's a diadem?" Asked Ron.
"It's like a crown, sort of like a tiara it belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw. In the Ravenclaw common room there's a statue of Rowena wearing it. Luna might be able to get us in to take a quick look at it so the three of you can see it."
"Looney?"
"Ron her name is Luna Lovegood. She's not looney, she's eccentric. She's very intelligent as well as her father. She might seem a bit off but that could be because she witnessed her mom's accidental death."
"Accidental death? How could that happen?" Hermione asked
"Well, her mom was sort of like the twins. She loved to experiment. Luna was there when the spell went badly wrong, as a result her mom died. Luna witnessed the whole thing. This happened two years before she started at Hogwarts."
"How horrible." Ginny said.
"Don't go around calling her 'Looney'. You should stop others from saying it as well."
"But Harry, if you are a Horcrux and the Horcruxes have to be destroyed to be able to take out Voldemort for good, how did you survive?" Hermione asked.
"That is a different story, and there is not enough time to tell it. We don't even have time to grab some lunch, its time to get to class."
All four ran out of the common room and to their classes, miraculously they were not late.
