Disclaimer: I don't own HP, I only own Evan and Iris Potter. According to the 1993 calendar, Feb 14th was a Sunday, but, like JK herself who mentions them going to class that day, I have taken artistic licence and made it a Wednesday.

23-7-2023

Chapter Ten

The Diary of Tom Riddle

Much to Aludra's relief, Evan assured her that he had given the diary to Annabelle Proudfoot, one of the Aurors on Sirius' team. Aludra was a bit surprised that her father never mentioned anything about it to her, but she reasoned that the investigation was classified, and she had no doubt that her father wanted to keep her as far from it as possible. Anyway, now that the horrid thing was gone, she was much more concerned about Evan himself. He was becoming gaunt and pale-looking, with his temper worsening, though he tried his best to cover it up. She suspected the continued suspicion from the other students, even though there'd been no more attacks since Justin and Sir Nicholas, was getting to him. Not that his grumpy attitude helped his image, either.

It was February when she discovered the truth.

On Valentine's Day morning, they entered the Great Hall for breakfast, only to stop in shock and stare in horror at the garish display covering the Hall.

The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers, to the point that you couldn't even see out the tall windows. Worse still, heart shaped confetti were falling from the pale blue ceiling, coating the food and the poor owls struggling to deliver their messages. To cap it all off, Lockhart, wearing ridiculous lurid pink robes to match the decorations that were painful to the eyes, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony faced. From where he sat, Aludra could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall's cheek. Professor Burke looked like she had just swallowed a toad, she was so disgusted by what Aludra could only think of as the destruction of the beautiful Great Hall.

Still, she memorized the sight. She'd show it to her guardians in the family Pensieve when she returned for the summer. The two Marauders would get a good laugh out of it.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people 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!"

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.

It was practically dwarf-abuse. Aludra hoped they wouldn't rebel over this. It was just like Lockhart to be stupid enough to demean such a proud people.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "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 Slughorn to show you how to whip up a Love Potion? And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Slughorn, usually so genial, looked furious at the implication. Love Potions, after all, were highly illegal with a punishment consisting of a fine of a thousand Galleons and two years per dose in Azkaban's low security wing after the law passed by the Alliance in '85. Students weren't even shown how to make them anymore. Only Potions Apprentices. Her dad had been particularly pleased by that passing that law. It was one of the first the Alliance he'd created (consisting of the Blacks, the Bones, the Longbottoms, Browns, Lovegoods, Shacklebolts and Lovegoods, along with their seat-holding vassals. That reminded her, she must renew her acquaintance with Luna Lovegood. She was a sweet young girl, if a little odd ever since the traumatic experience of seeing her mother's violent death) had passed.

"Tell me neither of you sent a card," Ron pleaded quietly with the girls, who shot him offended looks.

"Of course, we didn't," Aludra scoffed lowly, "Just because we acknowledge he's handsome doesn't mean we're stupid enough to be too blinded by his looks to see how odious he is."

"What does odious mean?" Ron wondered in confusion.

"It means disgusting," Neville explained.

"Ah," Ron said. "Sounds like something Percy would say. But yeah, he is very odious, isn't he?"

Aludra shot him a small smile. He was still a bit foolish, but she'd become fonder of him over time. He was still young, after all, and young boys, especially those raised without tutors designed to prepare them for high society, could be stupid.

All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers, and late that afternoon as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarfs caught up with Evan.

"Oy, you! Ehven Potter!" shouted a particularly grim looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Evan.

Looking horrified, Evan tried to escape. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached him before he'd gone two paces.

"I've got a musical message to deliver to Ehven Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.

"Not here," Evan hissed, trying to escape.

"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Evan's bag and pulling him back.

"Let me go!" Evan 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 everything.

The quintet scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor.

"What's going on here?" came the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy. Evan started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, clearly desperate to get away before Malfoy could hear his musical valentine.

"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy Weasley arrived.

Evan tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

"Right," he said, sitting on Evan's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:

His eyes are as hazel as nuts,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord."

Evan looked utterly miserable. His friends tried hard not to laugh as they helped him up, but then Aludra saw Malfoy picking up a black leather diary and her amusement and sympathy vanished. Blood rushed to her head, and she barely heard the argument between Evan and Malfoy, nor did she even notice herself intervene and send Malfoy packing, snatching the diary from his hands. She turned to Evan still holding it, a pureblood mask of neutrality settling on her face to keep from showing how angry and hurt she was that he had lied right to her face.

"Ally-" Evan began, but was cut off when she threw the diary at him.

"How dare you lie to me?" She hissed. "How dare you endanger all of us by carting around an enchanted diary that belongs to Voldemort himself? Have you any sense at all? I will be going to tell the Aurors about this. You better hope that the magic of that thing has made you lose your senses, otherwise I will never forgive you, and I'll make sure that you'll never be enter high society and do anything with your political position!"

She turned and stormed away, flushed with anger and not even caring that she was going to miss Charms, her favourite class. Susan and Neville quickly joined her, Susan reaching out to clutch her hand and squeeze it in sympathy and understanding.


"You're positive that it belongs to Voldemort?" Her father asked her gravely an hour and a bit later, as they sat in her granddad's office. Dumbledore too looked grimmer than she'd ever seen him. It didn't make her feel any better. "And it's definitely enchanted?"

"Yes Daddy," Aludra confirmed, usually all her training to keep from showing how upset she was. "It has 'T. M. Riddle' stamped on the cover, and it was blank, but when Evan wrote in it, it wrote back and said its name was Tom Riddle. The only Tom Riddle who has ever attended Hogwarts was Voldemort. I checked while doing research with Uncle Moony over the break. Plus I could feel the Dark Magic coming off it. It was drenched in it. I'm surprised I didn't notice Evan still had it sooner."

As a Black, Aludra was more naturally sensitive to Dark Magic than the average wix, despite not having much practice at detecting it. Her father and uncle had purged the family manor thoroughly before allowing her to step foot in it, but her father had given her some training by taking her to their Heirloom Vault at Gringotts where their family treasures were kept.

Sirius looked grim, but he reached out and patted his daughter on the arm in reassurance. "Don't upset yourself over it, little star. Even sensitive as we are, it's hard to pick these things up, especially when you aren't looking for it."

"I'm worried about Evan," Susan spoke up softly. "He's not been himself lately. More introverted than usual even for him, temperamental, only picking at his food...I think the diary is affecting him." Neville nodded in support, as did Aludra. Just because she was angry, didn't mean she didn't still care, despite what she'd snapped at Evan.

Still, she didn't intend to forgive him easily.

"I'm sure it is," Sirius sighed.

"Items enchanted with Dark Magic often has that effect on its holder," Granddad spoke for the first time. "Fortunately for young Mr. Potter, nothing worse than that will happen. We shall go now to confiscate the diary and hopefully it will aid us in finding and closing the Chamber of Secrets."

"Yes, we'll go now," Sirius agreed, rising to his feet. He leaned down and kissed Aludra's hair, patting Neville's shoulder and bowing over Susan's hand. "Best get back to class now, you three."

"They're over for the day," Neville informed him after checking his watch. "We finish early on Wednesdays."

"And I will inform your professors that you had good reason to miss your final class of the day," Aludra's Granddad assured them. "Shall we, Sirius?"

"Yes," Sirius nodded grimly.

Dumbledore led the way to the Gryffindor Common Room. When they entered, they found the room in a flurry with people hovering around the boys' staircase and muttering to each other. Percy Weasley was about to leave, but he halted and gave a flustered bow to Sirius and Dumbledore. Seeing as Percy Weasley, acknowledged heir to House Weasley after his father (and, by the way talks Septimus Weasley had with Sirius were going lately, possibly first-in-line unless Arthur Weasley grew a spine and started to assert some control over his incorrigible wife), was very respectful towards his family's lord and benefactor, even more so than members of the school staff or Ministry, Aludra assumed the gesture was more for her father than her grandfather.

"Lord Black! Headmaster! I'm surprised to see you both here. It's a very minor matter. How did you find out? Did Lady Aludra and her friends inform you?"

"I'm on duty so I'm afraid it's actually 'Auror' Black right now, Master Weasley," Sirius explained. "And I'm not sure what you're talking about. We're here for our own reasons. But what has happened?"

"Oh, my apologies," Percy apologized, looking embarrassed. "Evan Potter's diary has been stolen, you see. The dorm was torn apart. The boys are very distressed at the damage to their possessions. Some things aren't fixable, I suspect."

Aludra's eyes widened and she looked significantly at Susan and Neville, who each clearly shared her thoughts. Her father and grandfather also shared grim looks.

"Would this diary happen to be black leather with 'T. M. Riddle' stamped on it?" The headmaster asked with none of his usual jovial nature.

"Yes sir," Percy replied, looking politely bemused at how the headmaster knew something like that about a student. "I was just going to inform Professor McGonagall of the theft."

"I see," Dumbledore sighed.

He glanced at Sirius and they appeared to have a silent conversation before Sirius nodded and strode to the centre of the room. Aludra spotted Evan and Ron on the staircase to their dorm and shot them angry looks. She had no doubt that Ron had known Evan still had the diary and also kept silent about it.

Boys. Reckless, arrogant idiots.

"Attention students!" Her father called out, his wand pointed to his throat to amplify his voice. "I first want to reassure everyone that our team knows the location of the Heir himself and I can assure you that he is far from Britain, never mind Hogwarts itself. However, we still must stop the Heir's servant. As such, we will be searching all the belongings of all students, starting with those in Gryffindor. This is not optional. You will present all of your belongs for inspection, or you will have to explain your refusal at the Auror Headquarters with a solicitor and your parents if you are underaged. Our search will start tomorrow at dawn with the Seventh Years. We plan to do a year each day, so be prepared. We will discover if you are hiding anything illegal, and take you for questioning. Good evening to you all."

The room erupted into whispered, urgent conversations and several protests that the Slytherins ought to be investigated first. Sirius ignored it all and returned to Aludra's side to exchange their farewells.

It was a good plan, Aludra mused as she kissed her father and grandfather goodbye, Dumbledore whispering that he would ensure Madam Pomfrey looked at Evan and his roommates for any signs of damage from the Dark Magic in the diary.

Evan caught her eye, but she coldly turned her back on him, not wanting to forgive him until he properly apologized for his lies and stupidity.