It was the start of winter break. The students who were staying at Hogwarts were standing around, chatting and attempting to enjoy the holiday spirit. It was until Harry was standing outside with Ron and Hermione outside against a ledge. They turned as they heard Fred say, "Look everyone, it's the heir of Slytherin!"
"Be careful! He's a seriously evil wizard," George added. The twins laughed.
"Fred and George!" a voice called out. The twins stopped laughing and turned around to see Ella and Edward standing behind them in a scolding manner.
"Come on, Miss Cullen," Ron said. "Fred and George were just having a laugh."
"They're the only ones," Harry said.
"This is no laughing matter. Does anyone know if Harry is truly the Heir of Slytherin?" Ella asked. Everyone who was standing near them, stood quiet. They knew that they shouldn't have alienated Harry just because he could speak Parseltongue. "Fred and George, I strongly suggest that both of you leave before a snake comes out and bites both of you!" They both left, quietly. They both knew that she despised anyone who went against Harry, joke or not.
"Okay, so half the school thinks you're nipping off to the Chamber of Secrets every night. Who cares?" Ron asked. Ella smiled. Ron was being a true friend. He was trying to help Harry to ignore what was being said about him.
"Maybe they're right," Harry said and left to go inside.
"Harry!" Hermione called after him. Hermione, Ron, Ella and Edward went after him, as Hermione called out, "Harry? Oh, come on!" Harry stopped and turned from the stairs.
"Look, I didn't know I could speak Parseltongue! What else don't I know about myself? Look. Maybe you can do something, even something horrible and not know you did it," Harry said.
"You don't believe that, Harry. I know you don't," Ella said. "There's a lot of things that you may not know about yourself, but one thing is for sure, you're very much like your father. You will find ways to know who you are and what they are. Trust me. I'm going to see if there's anything else from my sources to see if there's anything that you need to know more about yourself, okay?" Ella asked. Harry nodded. He appreciated her help. She was doing all that she can do to help him and he was doing nothing but going off and taking it out on the wrong people.
"And if it makes you feel any better, Malfoy's staying for the holidays, too," Hermione said after Ella and Edward left.
"Why would that make anyone feel any better?" Ron asked.
"Because, in a few days the Polyjuice Potion will be ready! In a few days, we may truly know who the heir of Slytherin is," Hermione said.
A few days later especially after what he found out from Draco, Harry went to Ella's home to see if she found anything. He knocked on her door. "Hold on. I'm coming," a voice called out. Moments later, the door opened, "Harry? What are you doing here?" Rosalie asked.
"I was just wondering if Miss Cullen was home?" he asked.
"You mean Ella?" she asked. Harry nodded. "Yeah, she's here. Come in from the cold weather. She stepped aside to let Harry in. "Do you want something warm to drink?"
"Hot chocolate would be great," he answered as he shrugged out of his coat. Rosalie took his jacket and put it on the coat rack as she went into the kitchen and made him hot chocolate.
"You can wait in the living area," she informed him. He went into the living area and sat down on the big couch. Despite the number of times of being here, he always looked around and always felt like it was something out of a magazine instead of a real home. Rosalie came back with the cup of Hot Chocolate, "here you go. I wasn't sure if you wanted marshmallows or not, so I put it on the side for you."
"Thank you," he said and grabbed one big one and put it on top of his drink. Rosalie smiled at his actions.
"I thought I heard him here," Edward said. Harry looked up and saw Edward coming in with several bags.
"What's that you're holding?" Harry asked.
"Warm clothes for the winter holiday," Edward answered. "Ella will be joining us momentarily. Rosalie, she needs your help with her car outside. For some reason the car stalled on the way home."
"How could the car stall? I just fixed it last week," Rosalie said.
"It appears that someone attempted to steal her car while we were shopping and messed up the engine," he explained.
"What is wrong with these stupid humans!" Rosalie swore.
"Rosalie," Edward warned, motioning to Harry.
"Sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to imply that," Rosalie answered.
"That's okay. You're just frustrated," He answered. "I'm wondering if it's okay that we could spend some time together. I would like to get to know you better."
"Rosalie, be nice!" Edward hissed in a voice way too low for him to hear. "He's afraid of you!"
Rosalie looked at Harry and smiled, "Of course. Maybe I should tell you my story. But you're here to talk to Ella, I better go and fetch her for you." Harry nodded and watched her leave.
"Does she really like cars?" he asked Edward.
"Yeah, she does. It's something that she enjoys doing," Edward responded as he put the bags at the bottom of the stairway.
"Ah, Harry, I apologize for keeping you waiting. I had to get Rosalie to calm down after she saw what had happened to the car," Ella said as she came into the living area. "She told me that you were here and wanted to talk to me."
"Well, I wanted to talk to you and Edward," he said.
They both situated themselves to sit across from Harry, concerned about what he wanted to discuss, "Harry, what is it?"
"Well, Hermione, Ron and I actually found a way to talk with Malfoy… Draco about who he thought was the Heir of Slytherin."
"What did you find out?"
"He doesn't think that it's me. He genuinely doesn't know who the Heir of Slytherin is. I admit that I wasn't sure if he was being honest but he doesn't. He did say that the Chamber was open 50 years ago. He said that his father had told him that when the Chamber was open the last time, a Muggle had died, Draco believes that only in time will another innocent Muggle will be killed and he actually wanted it to be Hermione. His father didn't tell Draco who opened it."
"Do you think that the Malfoys are involved with this?" Ella asked Edward.
"I don't know. There's no evidence to say that they are. Do I believe that he is helping somehow? Yes," he answered.
"Did Draco say anything else? Not just about the Heir of Slytherin but about the magical community?" Edward asked.
"He did say, 'You'd never know the Weasleys were pure-bloods, the way they behave. They're an embarrassment to the wizarding world… all of them.' Oh and, 'I'm surprised the Daily Prophet hasn't done a report on all these attacks. I suppose Dumbledore is trying to hush it all up. Father always said Dumbledore was the worst thing that ever happened to this place.' What do you think that means?" he asked.
"I'm not too sure, to be honest. It could mean that he wants the magical world to be under his control," Ella said.
"Or he wants Voldemort back to gain what they had back then," Edward suggested.
"What was that?" Harry asked.
"Power," Edward answered. Ella nodded in agreement.
The next day, Ella, Edward and Carlisle were at the Hogwarts hospital because they heard that something had happened to Hermione. When they saw here, they gasped, Ella spoke up, "Miss Granger, what happened?"
"Well, Harry, Ron and I made the Polyjuice Potion to talk to Draco to see if he knew anything about… well, you know. Anyways, I took some hairs off of a student and I didn't realize that it was cat hair," she said, shamefully.
"I hope that Madam Pomfrey gave you some potion to help you rid of this," Carlisle said. Hermione said.
"That's how Harry knew what Draco said about everything," Ella said to Edward, who nodded in return.
"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked.
"Harry came to see me a couple of days after the conversation he had with Draco," Ella replied. Right then, Harry and Ron ran up to where Hermione's bed and stopped shortly. "What's the hurry?"
Harry was about to answer but Ron was shaking his head. Harry didn't want to repeat himself, so he just showed Hermione the diary. "Ron and I found this in the bathroom near the Gryffindor Tower."
"There's a name in this diary. 'Tom Marvolo Riddle,'" Hermione said, reading the name inside the insert of the first page.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle?" he asked as he grabbed the diary from Hermione's hands. "Hang on. I know that name. Why do I know that name? Of course. That night I had detention. My job was to polish the silver in the trophy room. I remember because I kept burping up slugs over Tom Riddle's trophy."
"What was the trophy for?" Edward asked.
"He won an award 50 years ago. Special Services to the School or something," he said.
"Fifty years ago? Are you sure?" Ella asked.
"Yeah. Why?
"Don't you remember what Malfoy told you? Last time the Chamber was opened—"
"50 years ago. That means—" Harry interrupted.
"Tom Riddle was here at Hogwarts when it happened. What if he wrote about what he saw? It's possible he knew where the Chamber was… how to open it… even what sort of creature lives in it. If so, whoever's behind the attacks wouldn't want this diary lying around, would they?" Hermione finished.
"It's a brilliant theory, Hermione, but there's just one flaw. There's nothing written in this diary," Harry said, grabbing the diary and flipping through it.
The next day, there was nothing to do, so Harry decided to go to the Cullen house and inform Ella of what had happened that night when he sat down with the diary. Not only did he want to talk to Ella about what he learned, he also wanted to spend time with Rosalie Hale. He hoped that she was available to talk. He wanted to get to know her. Out of everyone, he didn't know her, Emmett, Alice and Jasper. He thought that today would be a good day to get to know her and Emmett. He approached the door, right when he was about to knock, the door opened and saw Jasper opening the door, "Hello, Harry. I was just about to leave. Anything I can help you with?"
"I was wondering if Ella was available. I need to talk to her about something important," he answered.
"Of course, you can come in, Harry," he said, allowing him to go through the door.
"Harry, what are you doing here?" Ella asked as she looked up from her book and put it aside.
"I was hoping to talk to you about what I learned last night," he answered. Ella was confused. "I didn't really go to bed right after leaving Hermione in the hospital. I spent time looking at the diary, hoping to come up with some answers and it left me somewhat confused."
"I'll leave you two to talk," Jasper said as he left.
"What is it, Harry?" she asked as she motioned for him to sit next to her.
"I was sitting in the common room in the Gryffindor tower and for some reason, I was compelled to write in it and the most bizarre thing ever happened."
"What was it?" she asked.
"I picked up my quill with ink in it and paused. I picked up too much ink in my quill and it led to a single drop of ink onto the page that I opened the diary and it oozed into the page and disappeared without a trace. I didn't know what was happening. I turned the page and there was nothing, so I wrote my name on it and…"
"And what, Harry?" she asked.
"It wrote back, 'Hello, Harry Potter, my name is Tom Riddle.' From there, I knew that I could ask the diary anything about the Chamber of Secrets. At first, I asked it if it could tell me what happened 50 years ago but it did something rather odd," he said.
Ella looked at him, suspiciously, "Harry, did the diary transport you to what happened 50 years ago?"
Harry sat there quiet unsure what to say but he decided to be honest with her, "Yes but this is where I get confused because I don't know if I should believe this or not."
"Tell me what happened," she told him.
"The pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, mouth hanging open, I saw on the corner of the page which was written June thirteenth. My hands were trembling slightly. Before I knew what was happening, I was tilting forward and I felt my body leave the chair headfast through the opening of the page, into a whirl of color and shadow. I saw a man standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up and I tried to speak to him but he couldn't hear me. I think the man I saw was Tom Riddle. I saw him speaking to Dumbledore but a younger version of him. Based on the conversation between the two of them, they were talking about someone being killed and the Chamber of Secrets being opened. Dumbledore could tell that Tom wasn't being honest with him when he asked Tom if he had anything to confess," Harry said.
"Why would Dumbledore ask Tom that?" Ella asked.
"Oh, yeah, Tom asked Dumbledore something about what would happened if the guilty person would step forward about the dead girl," he answered. "Dumbledore didn't do anything but then again he really couldn't do anything. Then I followed Tom who went to Hagrid. Tom believed that it was Hagrid and his pet spider who killed the girl."
"Now, that wouldn't be possible. Hagrid doesn't know how to open the Chamber of Secrets," Ella said.
"That's true, but why would the diary show me that then?" Harry asked.
"I don't know, but I do suggest that you think about this, Harry," she said, "Hagrid has been living here for years how can he possibly open the Chamber now and not before? Plus Hagrid doesn't even speak Parseltongue, either." Harry digested what she had told him and nodded. "Is that all that you wanted to tell me?"
"Yeah, that was it," he said. Then he remembered something else, "I just remembered. I was wondering if Miss Hale is available. I want to get to know her better."
Ella looked at him and smiled, "Of course, let me call her and see if she's available." Harry nodded. Ella went to her bedroom for something. She was walking back to the living area with Edward, "Just tell Rosalie that Harry wanted to spend time with her. Oh, and ask her if she could bring her tools."
"What for?"
"The car is stalling again," she answered.
Edward groaned. "Maybe it's time to buy a new car."
"What type of new car?" Ella asked.
"The car is giving us nothing but trouble," he said.
"But we need a dependable car especially in this environment, Edward," she said.
"We can buy a new and a more dependable car," he retorted.
"All right, only if Rosalie helps. She knows cars and can help us enormously with buying the right car," she said. Edward nodded. "Now, go get Rosalie, please." Edward nodded and kissed her before he left. "Now, would you like anything to drink or eat?"
"Hot chocolate would be great," he answered. "Do you have any Muggle chips? I miss eating them." Ella laughed. She motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen and showed him the various Muggle food that he can eat. As soon as he sat down, Edward came walking into the house with Rosalie and Emmett in tow.
"Ella, love?" Edward called out.
"In the kitchen," she voiced. All three of them walked into the kitchen and saw that Harry was stuffing his mouth with food. They all laughed.
"Edward was telling us that you will be buying a new car," Emmett said.
"Yeah, but only with Rosalie. I trust her judgment more than yours, Em," she said.
"Hey, I know stuff about cars too," Emmett said, defending himself.
"Yeah, but look at the car we have now. Edward and I have it because we followed your advice which Rosalie ends up fixing all the time," Ella said.
"That's true," Rosalie responded.
"I still want to be involved," Emmett said.
"Do we really need to make this a family event, Edward?" Ella asked.
"I don't think we do. Besides, Emmett is just a whiny kid," Edward replied.
"That's my husband you're talking about," Rosalie said.
"True, but do you trust your husband's advice about cars?" Edward asked.
Rosalie was just about to say something but decided against it, "You're right, brother dear. This is something that I'm better at than him."
"Aw, come on Rose," Emmett huffed.
"But I still love him anyway," she said. "Edward said something about Harry wanting to talk to me?"
"Yeah, I wanted to ask you about your life. I wanted to get to know you better," Harry said after he swallowed his food.
"Are you sure you want to hear this, Harry? It doesn't have a happy ending," Rosalie asked. She really wanted to be sure that this was something that Harry wanted and didn't want to scare him. Harry nodded. Rosalie took in an unnecessary breath and said, "Okay, I will tell you my story but I suggest that you don't eat or drink anything because I don't want you to choke on anything."
"Okay," he said and pushed his food away and paid attention to Rosalie.