Chapter Twelve: Harry's Discovery

Several weeks had passed since the undercover job in Slytherin's dormitory. Hermione had to stay in the Hospital Wing until she had changed back to normal. After dinner, Harry, Ron, and Riley started heading to their dormitories for the night.

"Have either of you spoken to Hermione?" asked Ron.

"She should be out of the hospital in a few days," replied Harry. "When she stops coughing up furballs."

"Must've adopted some of the cat's traits temporarily." Riley assumed, tapping his chin in thought. "At least Tony didn't rub it in."

"Yeah."

They stopped when Harry looked down at the stone step in front of them, and looked down as well. There was a huge puddle of water covering it. They followed the path where the water was coming from, and upon entering the corridor, they saw that it was flooded.

"Yuck!" exclaimed Ron.

"Looks like Moaning Myrtle's flooded the bathroom." said Harry.

"Either that or the monster's out again." Riley added, looking at his friends.

The three of them hurried down the corridor and into the girls' bathroom. They were surprised to find that all of the sinks were turned on and flooding over, and water had covered the entire floor of the bathroom. The sounds of mournful sobbing reached their ears, and they saw Moaning Myrtle sitting by the window, crying and sniffling.

"Myrtle?" Riley called out to her.

Moaning Myrtle stopped crying, and looked at the three Gryffindors.

"Come to throw something else at me?" she asked.

"Why would I throw something at you?" Harry retorted, curiously.

"Don't ask me. Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me."

"But it can't hurt if someone throws something at you." Ron reminded her. "I mean, it'll just go right through you."

Riley groaned, facepalming.

"Ron,-" he started, rounding on him.

Moaning Myrtle beat him right to it. She flew straight over in Ron's face, looking seriously ticked off.

"Oh, sure! Let's all throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it!" she shouted, sarcastically. "Ten points if you get it through her stomach!"

Myrtle paused to throw her fist through Ron's stomach as she said this.

"Fifty points if it goes through her head!" she added, punching through Ron's head.

Riley smirked at Ron, who stared back at the ghost, startled.

"She got your number." he told his dormmate.

Ron shot him a glare before Harry pushed the two of them away from each other.

"Cut it out." the latter scolded his friends, before looking back at Myrtle. "Who threw it at you, anyway?"

"I don't know." replied Myrtle. "I didn't see them. I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell through the top of my head."

She floated away, whimpering with sorrow.

"I feel kinda bad." said Riley. "And I didn't even do anything."

Harry walked past him, his face fixed with puzzlement. A book laid on the ground in front of the stall that Moaning Myrtle usually occupied.

"Must be the weapon of choice." Riley observed, walking towards Harry.

"Let's take it to Hermione, see what she thinks." said Harry.

The three returned to the hospital wing, and showed Hermione what Harry had found. She examined the book and flipped to the back of the book.

"There's a name on this diary." she told her friends. "'Tom Marvolo Riddle'."

"Never heard that name before." shrugged Riley.

"'Tom Marvolo Riddle'?" Ron repeated, taking the diary from her. "Hang on, I know that name."

He paused to think, and looked as if he had really heard of it.

"Where do I know that name?" he wondered aloud.

After a brief moment, Ron finally remembered.

"Of course! That night at detention!" he gasped in remembrance. "My job was to polish the silver in the trophy room. I remember, because I kept burping up slugs all over Tom Riddle's trophy."

"Malfoy's been a lot of big help in this investigation, hasn't he?" asked Riley. "More help than Lockhart anyway."

Ron and Hermione each shot him a glare.

"What was the trophy for?" asked Harry."

"He won an award, fifty years ago." replied Ron. "Special services to the school or something."

He handed Harry the diary, and Hermione stared at him.

"Fifty years ago?" she repeated. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Why?" asked Ron.

The gears began to turn in Hermione's head as an idea came to her.

"Don't you remember what Malfoy told you?" she asked her friends. "The last time the Chamber was opened was..."

"Fifty years ago." Harry said, realizing where his friend was going. "But that means..."

"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."

"Another break in the case." Riley cheered, quietly.

"Yes, but if so, whoever's behind these attacks wouldn't want this diary lying around, would they?" Hermione reminded him.

"It's a brilliant theory, Hermione, but just one flaw." Harry announced, looking at his friends. "There's nothing written in this diary."

He held out the book towards them, flipping through the pages. They were all blank.

"Back to the drawing board." sighed Riley.

A few days later, after heading to the Hospital Wing to retrieve Hermione, Harry told his friends what he had learned from the diary. He explained that out of curiosity, he started writing in it, and Tom Riddle spoke to him. Tom showed him an event from fifty years ago, and revealed that Hagrid was the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets back then.

"Oh, come on." said Tony. "Hagrid's not good at keeping secrets, but he's always trying to keep students out of harm's way, right?"

"Right, Tony. It can't be Hagrid." agreed Hermione. "It just can't be."

"We don't even know this Tom Riddle." Ron pointed out. "He sounds like a dirty, rotten snitch."

Riley nodded in agreement, and heard a soft thudding sound beside him. He turned back to see he had dropped one of his comic books, and when picking it up, he saw Hagrid coming their way.

"G-Guys,..." Riley whispered, looking back at his friends.

"The monster had killed somebody, Ron." Harry reminded Ron. "What would any of us have done?"

"Guys."

"Look, Hagrid's our friend." Hermione told her friends. "Why don't we just go and ask him about it?"

"That would be a cheerful visit." Ron responded, sarcastically. "'Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'"

Riley was about to alert his friends once again that Hagrid was coming their way when...

"'Mad and hairy'?" Hagrid's voice repeated. "You wouldn't be talking about me, now, would you?"

The five students turned around quickly to face him.

"No." they answered, quickly.

Hagrid looked between them, suspicious. Harry saw the can in the half-giant's hand, and thought fast.

"What's that you've got there, Hagrid?" he asked.

Hagrid looked down at the can in his hand, then looked back at his friends.

"Oh, it's, uh, Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent." he explained. "For the Mandrakes, you know. Now, according to Prof. Sprout, they've still got a bit of growing to do."

"Oh, so not much longer, huh?" asked Tony.

"Not at all. Those Petrified kids, Sir Nicholas, and Mrs. Norris will be okay again real soon. You'll see. Once their acne's cleared up, we'll chop them up and stew them, and then we'll get those people down at the hospital un-Petrified."

"Best news I've heard all year." said Riley.

Harry and the others nodded in agreement.

"In the meantime, though, you five had best be looking after yourselves." Hagrid told them. "Alright?"

He walked away, leaving the five students standing behind him in the courtyard.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling a change in the winds." Tony declared, smiling.

He and the four Gryffindors started to walk away, but they caught sight of Neville running towards them and stopped.

"Is Malfoy picking on you again, Neville?" asked Tony.

"No." answered Neville.

He looked straight at Harry now.

"Harry, I don't know who did it, but you'd better come." the accident-prone boy told him.

He led the five of them back into the castle and straight to Gryffindor Tower. Upon entering the portrait, Tony lingered behind. Hermione looked back at him, and dashed back to the hole in the wall.

"Well?" she asked.

"I can't go in there." Tony said, pointing into the room. "I'm a Slyther-"

"Come on!"

Hermione yanked her friend inside by the arm, and pulled him up the stairs, taking chase after the four Gryffindors ahead of them. Upon entering, they saw that the boys' room was a mess. Feathers, books, and robes had been scattered all over the place, and picture frames and lanterns laid on the floor, broken. The beds and drawers themselves were torn apart. Hedwig and Shadow remained outside of their cages, screeching, while Bubba sat huddled in a corner. Riley walked over to the cat and picked him up in his arms, petting him, while Harry knelt down to check the damage.

"It had to be a Gryffindor." Hermione deduced, looking at her friends. "Nobody else knows our password. Unless it wasn't a student."

"Whoever it was, they must have been looking for something." said Ron.

"And they found it." Harry announced, looking at his friends. "Tom Riddle's diary is gone."

"Still feeling a change in the winds, Tony?"

"Did I say that?" Tony asked, uneasily.

Disclaimer: I own just the Cross family, the Gabriels, Jesse Reigns, Scott and Jasmine Willows. I don't own the Harry Potter series (books, movies, you get it), or any of the DC comics, books, the Walkman player, any artists or songs that appear in this story. If I did, I'd be richer than Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, the Malfoys, you get it. 'kay? Cool. Catch you later.