January 16, 1997

Harvey hated feeling so unsettled. Not only had they learned that Dumbledore had been removed as Headmaster, but now classes had permanently been canceled. Students were confined to their Houses, and were escorted to and from the Great Hall for their meals. Harvey knew it was only a matter of days before it would be official—Harry had warned him that it might happen—they were going to close Hogwarts.

He could only imagine what Hermione would say if she had been around to hear the news. Harvey could imagine how she would rant about how important school is and where else were they supposed to go.

It felt lonely in the Gryffindor common room as Harvey sat by the fire. He had Quidditch Through the Ages open on his lap, and was trying to read. It had been the quickest thing he could think of that would provide distraction from the confinement to the common room as well as a reason not to talk to anyone.

The last few months, Harvey had felt more like an outsider than ever before. His classmates had mostly given him a wide berth after the parseltongue incident, and with Ron declaring him Slytherin's heir, even some of his supposed friends had flat out turned their backs on him. Those friends sat across the room, playing Exploding Snap. Not everyone had turned on him, though. Hermione hadn't even blinked at his strange ability to talk to snakes, in fact, ever the student, had done thorough research into Parselmouth. The other Weasley's had also been kind; Ginny, once she had accepted his apology for taking the diary, she often sat herself beside him at meals or when he did his homework; and the twins, Fred and George, had always treated him like another little brother and knew how much of an ass Ron could be, so they stayed close by and ran interference whenever Ron tried to cause trouble.

Not that Ron had been very active lately. In fact, the youngest male Weasley seemed to be more withdrawn than ever. Harvey found it strange that the normally outspoken red head wasn't even interacting with his rowdy group that were currently snickering as a loud bang sounded at their table. Now that Harvey considered it, he couldn't recall the last time he'd even seen Ron. With the current close quarters, he thought it would be impossible for them to complete avoid one another.

For the last few days, every time Harvey had woken up and gone to sleep, the curtains on Ron's bed had been drawn. They had initially started out by sharing beds side by side, but after the recent end of their friendship, Ron had pushed Neville into trading with him. Ron's bed was now opposite Harvey in their room. In the mornings, it had never been unusual for Ron to still be snoring while the rest of them started their day. He would normally rise with his growling stomach. But at night, Ron was normally one of the last few to sleep. He'd find every excuse he could to stay up, but all week his curtains had been closed.

Harvey frowned and closed his book.

After he found Hermione, Harvey had gone to find his brother. Harry had explained when they had sat by Hermione's bedside in the infirmary that he believed Ron had stolen Ginny's diary from him. Harvey couldn't fathom why Ron would want the diary, certainly not to return it to his sister. To tease her with it maybe, but Ginny seemed less interested in having the journal returned the longer she was without it.

Harvey had witnesses Snape's search of Ron's things for the diary. Ron had stood smugly in the doorway as his things were searched by Percy. Snape had sneered and threatened him if he didn't return the diary at once, but Ron had played dumb. Claiming he had never seen whatever book they were looking for. The glint in his eyes told everyone he knew exactly where it was, and had no interest in handing it over.

Where the diary was exactly, Harvey had no idea. Ron wasn't one for clever spells that would keep the diary hidden from anyone. Ginny no doubt would be able to do some form of basic revealing spell. Ron had most likely hidden it somewhere in the castle.

It was possible that Ron's absence was because he was collecting the diary, but Harvey was certain that Ron hadn't left the common room. Percy was sitting perched, ready to scream at anyone who went so much as towards the door.

Harvey pushed himself to stand and placed his book on the table beside the couch. Ginny, who was on the floor, glanced up at him.

She asked, "Where are you going?"

"Just up to my room," said Harvey. "I'll be right back."

Ginny wobbled her head before dropping her head back down. He was glad she didn't pry.

Harvey headed towards the stairs and glanced around the space to see if perhaps Ron had just been hiding in the corner. But as he took the stairs, he didn't seem him.

He reached the Second-Year rooms and pushed open the door. No one was inside, and to the left was Ron's bed, curtains drawn. Harvey couldn't hear any signs of life so he walked over and grasped the curtain, yanking it open. The bed was empty. Messy and unmade, but empty. Harvey touched the sheets and they were cold, no one had been in this bed for hours.

Where is he?

Harry smirked as he moved his bishop across the board. "Checkmate," he said.

Dylan's frown deepened and he groaned. "Seriously? How?"

Harry leant back in the chair and said, "You just need to practice more."

Dylan scoffed, knocking over his king. He used to enjoy chess—that's what he had told Harry—up until he challenged Harry and found himself constantly losing. In the six years of their friendship, Dylan had yet to win a game. He'd gotten close, but Harry always seemed to pull out some clever trick that would leave Dylan gob-smacked. During their fourth year, Dylan had officially declared that he would never play Harry again—at least, not until he knew he could win—but it seemed the boredom from their confinement has driven him to playing with Harry sooner that expected.

Harry had enjoyed the amusing six games they had played. Dylan wasn't terrible at chess, in fact, he was good—just not good enough. Playing against Dylan did make Harry consider his moves, but not like when he played against Remus or even Snape.

Jenna sat on the ground beside the table that held the chess set, laughing quietly as Dylan grew more frustrated with every game. She was finalising one of the last assignments she had been given before classes had been canceled. With not much else to do, most of the Ravenclaw students had spent their time finishing off any outstanding work.

Harry had spent a lot of his time focusing on finalising his potion. Technically, Snape hadn't signed off on his proposal. He knew his mentor had read his report and they had briefly discussed his plans, but Snape had been rather occupied. Not only with trying to assist McGonagall with locating the Chamber, but also keeping on top of his work load. While Snape had initially sneered at Harry's disobedience, he had praised—in his way—the progress Harry had made. And after a stern warning not to blow up his dorm room, Harry had continued to test what he could in the confined space.

Harry's progress left him with what he believed was the final potion. In his pocket sat a vial that was filled with a vibrant aqua coloured liquid that had no hint of a smell. There was a possibility that the lack of a smell meant the potion had failed, but Harry wouldn't know that until he could properly test it. Which he couldn't do in the confines of Ravenclaw tower. While Harry had faith in his abilities, he didn't want to accidentally cause the whole tower to become uninhabitable if it went wrong. The teacher's already had enough to worry about.

So now, with little else to do but wait, Harry was trying to keep himself occupied. However, it was a challenge. Snape had informed Harry not long before student's were confined to their dorms that he had been unable to retrieve the diary from Ron. Harry had no doubt that Snape would have thoroughly searched the youngest Weasley boys bedroom as well as his person, but no diary. It seemed that Ron had been smart enough to hide the diary before Snape could hunt him down. It concerned Harry that the diary could be anywhere.

Dylan stood from where he sat and said, "Let's play a new game."

As Dylan strode towards the stairs, Harry pulled his wand from his pocket and tapped the chess board. The pieces started sticking themselves back together before the board turned over and the pieces climbed back inside.

Jenna suddenly closed the book in her lap and asked, "I wonder how Riddle managed to charm the diary?"

Jenna had become fascinated by the diary once he'd explained it to her. After Snape's abrupt appeared the other day and his rather loud demand for the diary, Harry had explained to his friends exactly what he had seen and what was going on. They were all now aware that the diary seemed to contain the memories of a previous Hogwarts student, that the diary had been in the hand's of Ginny Weasley, and that Harry could also speak Parseltongue. Most of the information he hadn't intentionally kept from his friends; Carlisle had been aware of most of it. But Harry had initially been trying to stay out of the drama. His year at Hogwarts was supposed to return to normality, but it had been anything but that.

"There could be a number of ways that he did it," said Harry.

Jenna scrunched up her nose. "But not many of the standard charms, that would hold memories, would allow a memory to behave in such a way."

Harry couldn't disagree.

"The way you explained it's responses, made it seem like it was alive."

He nodded. "It was almost like I was speaking to another person directly."

"Perhaps you were?" Jenna sat forward. "Maybe, this Tom Riddle died young and contained what was left of him in the diary before his passing. It could be like a portrait where a piece of the wizard's soul is used to make it so alive."

"Interesting." Harry rubbed his chin. "But why would it be so fixated on the Chamber?"

"What make's you say it is fixated?"

"Well, it seems rather odd that this diary magically appears the same year as the Chamber being opened, and the monster being released."

Jenna nodded. "You said the diary belonged to Lucius Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"Maybe he might know."

"Carlisle has already spoken with his father about it. Whatever it is, Lucius wasn't willing to share. He only told Carlisle that if he knew where the diary was he should tell him."

"And did he?"

"No. While Draco drives him crazy, he could tell that if his father learned that it was Draco who had handed it over to Ginny, that it wouldn't be good."

Jenna frowned. "That sounds ominous."

Harry shrugged. "One thing I would like to know, is why?" he said.

Jenna asked, "What do you mean why?"

"Why create a diary like this?" He leant forward, placing his elbows on his knees. "What would have Riddle accomplished by inserting a piece of his soul or his magic into this diary."

"Have you been able to find anything about this Tom Riddle?"

Harry shook his head. "Haven't had much of a chance. The last seven days haven't allowed me enough time to really dig into any records."

"Maybe we should ask Professor McGonagall?"

"We could try, but I don't think we'll get anything."

Jenna sighed, she squinted her eyes and seemed to consider something before she spoke again. She said, "Let's try this from another way." She pushed herself to stand. "What do we know about everything so far?"

Harry huffed. "Someone or something is attacking Hogwarts students. The theory, Salazar Slytherin built the Chamber of Secrets before he left Hogwarts and contain a monster inside the chamber. The chamber is said to be only accessible to Slytherin's heir. I take this to mean that Slytherin's heir needs to be a parselmouth, one, so they can access the chamber, but two, so they can control the monster. The monster I am confident is a Basilisk because it is the only creature that can petrify it's victims and can be controlled by a parselmouth. It can also kill without physically touching it's victims.

"Then we have the diary. It once belonged to a previous student, Tom Riddle, who was a Slytherin and was at Hogwarts during the first attacks. Tom blamed Hagrid's pet spider for the attacks the first time, so the school wasn't closed. But I have no idea what other connection his has to everything."

Harry frowned as he finished. They didn't really know all that much. There were so many unanswered questions that Harry had no idea how anyone was supposed to figured it out.

"There does seem to be a lot of missing pieces," muttered Jenna.

But his gut was telling him that Tom Riddle was more involved then just framing Hagrid.

"What if the reason Tom blamed it all on Hagrid was to cover his own tracks?" posited Harry.

Jenna turned. "Interesting. Explain."

"Slytherin's family tree ended at the beginning of the twentieth century, almost 100 years ago…"

"How do you know that?" asked Jenna.

Harry smirked. "While I may not have been sorted into Slytherin, my family is very much a Slytherin household. I was taught my wizarding history through a very different sent of lenses that you were."

He continued, "If Tom was in an orphanage, then no one would have his magical lineage. It's very unlikely he would be a Pureblood, unless he was a child out of wedlock but even then, I doubt he would be abandoned in an orphanage. Which means he's probably a half-blood. There are no well known magical families with the surname Riddle, so his mother was probably the witch while his father a muggle. So, imagine, this young boy comes to Hogwarts, is sorted into Slytherin and learns about magic. Along the way, he discovers this ability to speak with snakes and stumbles upon the legend of the chamber."

Jenna asked, "How did he find out where the chamber was? No one else has discovered the entrance."

"How many parseltongue can you say that you have heard about?"

"None, until you."

"Exactly, a parseltongue has probably never searched the school before. Tom may have found it by accident."

"So he finds the chamber, discovers the Basilisk and then just starts attacking people?"

Harry sighed. "That in lies the real question, is why? Slytherin was obsessed with blood purity which is why he built the chamber. And while there are a few families that still have such outdated thoughts, not one of them has a link to Slytherin. And why would Tom, if he was Slytherin's heir, care about such a thing? His own blood wouldn't technically be pure."

"True," mumbled Jenna. "But then, if Riddle was Slytherin's last heir, who is linked to them now?"

Harry shrugged. "I have no idea."

Dylan strutted into the room with a smile. He placed down a deck of muggle cards and said, "Now, this game will prove that you aren't good at everything."

Harry chuckled while Jenna frowned.

Dylan smile disappeared as he took in Jenna's face. "What?"

Jenna crossed his arms. "We were discussing the chamber and you interrupted."

"What is there to discuss? It was opened, someone let out a big ass scary snake to try and kill us all, and now they are shutting down the school." He sat in his chair and opened the deck of cards.

"And you just want to let them shut down Hogwarts?" asked Jenna.

"Of course not," grumbled Dylan. "But what can we do?"

"Figure it out, so we can find the one opening the chamber and stop them," stated Jenna.

Harry pushed himself to stand and walked across the room to look out the window. Ravenclaw tower provided a wonderful view of the school grounds. He watched as a light snow fall graced the windows for a moment before melting.

It made perfect sense that Tom was Slytherin's heir. No one else had any link. They would be screaming it from the dungeons if they were. But why leave a diary with the memory of framing Hagrid. What did the diary accomplish? Tom's memory had told him that Myrtle's death had been covered up as an accident, so why would it share a memory that showed it was otherwise?

It hit Harry like a explosion. "Jenna?"

Jenna turned to him. "Yeah?"

"The diary."

Jenna looked at him, confused.

"Riddle has no descendant at Hogwarts today."

"What makes you so sure?" she asked.

"What purpose is there to a diary that contains Riddle's memories of the first time the chamber was opened?"

She shrugged.

"There isn't one, if Riddle had any descendant. But let's consider this for a moment. In the memory, Riddle was horrified at the idea of returning to the orphanage. As a child, he would have been a freak to those around him. Any sort of accidental magic would have scared children and adults alike. He was probably ostracized. Then he gets brought to Hogwarts, he learns that he isn't a freak but a wizard and that those who tormented him are nothing more than ignorant muggles. And then he discovers his family history, that he related to Salazar Slytherin and what his beliefs were about muggles and blood purity. And he agrees with them. So he goes searching for Slytherin's chamber and finds it, and what is a boy to do, but unleash a monster of his fellow students, hurting those who he believes are unworthy. But when the attacks leads to the actual death of a student and he is forced with a reality where he is stuck back at the orphanage, he realises his mistake. So he blames Hagrid. Someone who has a soft spot for magical creatures that most people turn their backs on, and it stops Hogwarts from being closed. But now what? Riddle still believes in Slytherin's ideals, but has no way to continue them while he is at school."

Jenna's eyes widened.

"So, he charms his diary, hoping to inspire another Slytherin to do the same. But he ends up with no lineage of his own, so no one to pass the diary onto. So it needs another purpose. Not to inspire, but to control."

Dylan frowned. "Wait!" he cried, "you think this diary controls people?"

"It's a theory," said Harry.

"A bloody good one," said Jenna. "Imagine the spell that would take. To infuse magic into an object that could then control another person."

"It would be dark magic, that's for sure. A curse that I've never heard of. But it makes sense. It explains it all."

"Then, does that mean that Ginny is the one who opened the chamber?" asked Dylan.

Harry's stomach turned. "Most likely."

"But she doesn't have the diary anymore," said Jenna.

"No, but that doesn't mean it can't still control her," said Harry. "Ginny had that diary for most of the year. I saw her with it numerous times, writing who knows what inside it."

Jenna placed her hands on her face. "That poor girl."

"Harry, you should tell McGonagall," said Dylan.

Harry knew he should, someone needed to make sure Ginny would be okay. But he felt like he needed to talk to Ginny. She hadn't said much about the diary, only what Harvey had told Harry, that it was a diary that responded. But if Ginny had been doing things like opening a chamber and controlling a Basilisk, wouldn't she remember? He needed to speak with her.

Without a word, Harry headed towards the stairs. Jenna and Dylan glanced after him, before following.

"Harry!" called Jenna, but she didn't respond.

No Ravenclaws moved to stop Harry as he reached the entrance to the common room. Harry felt their eyes but he swung open the door and was headed down the stairs before anyone could speak. He could hear Jenna and Dylan behind him; they called after him, but he just kept going. Eventually they stopped trying and just followed him.

They reached the Fat Lady not too long later, without having been caught.

The Fat Lady stared at them. She frowned. "You three should be in the Ravenclaw Common Room."

Harry frowned, he didn't have time for this. "I need to speak to Ginny Weasley, urgently."

The Fat Lady pursed her lips. "I think not."

Harry pulled his wand from his pocket. He knew he would get in trouble, but there was no time for this nonsense. "You will need to forgive me, but I don't have time for this."

With the flick of his wand, the Fat Lady's portrait froze. Those around her all gasped in shock and turned to stare at Harry with horror.

"Mate," said Dylan, "what did you do?"

Harry let out a huff. "Temporarily trapped her. She is nothing more than a painting at the moment." Another wave of his wand and the portrait swung open, revealing the tunnel into the Gryffindor common room. "Come on."

Harry moved through the tunnel and frowned as he reached the other side; a number of Gryffindor students looked at him surprised.

It was none other than Percy Weasley who shot up from his seat and marched over. "What do you think you are doing?" he demanded. "Students are on lock down."

Harry ignored him and glanced over him. "Where's Ginny?"

"You need to leave," stated Percy. "I will inform McGonagall if you don't."

Jenna said, "Go right ahead, Weasley. Where's your sister?"

"I'm here."

Ginny's small voice floated from the couch closest to the window.

Harry pushed past Percy, their shoulder's knocking.

"Watch it!" snapped Percy.

Ginny looked at them concerned. "What's the matter?"

"I need to ask you about the diary," said Harry.

Percy made a smacking sound of annoyance with his tongue before walking over to stand beside Ginny. "Enough with this sodding diary. It is gone."

"It's not gone, Ron nicked it," said Harry.

"Why does it matter? If Ron took it, so what. It's a blasted diary."

"A diary that could be the reason that all of the innocent students have been attacked this year," shouted Harry. He grabbed Percy by the collar of his shirt. "Now, shut up." He shoved him away, making Percy stumble back a few steps.

Percy didn't fall, but he did frown and straighten his shirt.

"Harry, I don't know where it is," said Ginny.

Harry smiled softly at Ginny and reached out to grasp her shoulders. He said, "I know. That isn't what I wanted to ask you."

Ginny turned her head slightly.

"Did you ever find yourself doing something and you didn't know why you were doing it?" he asked.

Ginny shook her head.

"What about gaps in your memory?"

Ginny went still. Her face turned white.

"Ginny?" he pushed.

Ginny swallowed and then slowly nodded.

"When did it start?" he asked.

She looked down at the floor and said, "It started not long after I arrived at Hogwarts. I woke up in my bed with my shoes on a few times. I thought perhaps I had started to sleep walk. But then I started losing hours in the day."

It frustrated Harry that Ginny hadn't said anything earlier. If he'd realised that potential danger the diary was, he would have given it straight back to Snape instead of keeping it.

"I think I did some bad things," Ginny whispered.

Harry knelt in front of her and shook his head. "Ginny, everything that has happened isn't your fault." He squeezed her arms. "This diary should never have fallen into your hands. You are not responsible for what has happened."

Ginny scrunched up her face. "I don't understand why, though. Tom was always so nice to me."

Harry wished he could comfort her, but he knew that Tom Riddle's diary had only been nice to manipulate her. It had done what it was designed to do.

"Harry, we need to find this diary," said Jenna.

"Maybe we should speak to a Professor," said Dylan.

"We need to do both," said Harry.

He stood back up and glanced at Percy who was looking confused and worried.

"Where's Ron?" asked Harry.

Percy shrugged. "Haven't seen him."

Ginny shook her head. "He hasn't come down today."

Harry turned to see the twins. They were standing beside a couch. They both shrugged and shook their heads.

"He's not here."

Harry turned to see Harvey. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Not here?" asked Percy.

Harvey said, "I realised I haven't seen him in a few days. I thought perhaps he was avoiding me. But I checked his bed, it hasn't been slept it."

"Does anyone remember the last time they saw Ron?" called Harry, turning to the rest of the Gryffindor's that were sitting about the room.

He received a wall of blank expressions.

"Harry," said Jenna, "if this diary controlled Ginny, what are the chances it isn't also controlling Ron?"

"Ginny wrote in it for months," said Harry. "Ron probably doesn't even realise what it does."

"He knows," said Ginny. "He kept taking it during the summer. I never saw him write in it, but that doesn't mean he didn't."

Harry took a steady breath to calm himself, he needed to think. Ron had taken a diary that was capable of controlling someone's mind. It was possible Ron had been exposed to the diary for months and that now it was using him to finish what it had started, but with all of the students confined to the rooms, there weren't any easy pickings. But Ron was missing, so where would it take him?

"What is going on here!"