A/N: FF_net isn't sending me any mail alerts about reviews, new chapters of stories by other authors, and such right now, so I hope you get this one... Hmm. Maybe its just me, because I didn't see any Twitter-alerts from them, yesterday.
The Diary
On the 5th of January, Harry was searching through his trunk for more parchment. Hermione, who was fully human again, had taken to hounding Ron and him to do their homework at last, and they were buckling down.
He found a few last rolls of parchment he could use, as well as the little black notebook and thought it would be handy for drafting essays so he could use the scarce parchment for the finished essay.
He grabbed everything and hopped downstairs again.
But when he started to write the first draft of his Herbology essay on the first page of the notebook, the writing disappeared, much to his dismay.
And then the unthinkable happened, the notebook wrote back!
Greetings stranger. You are very obviously not Ginny, so who are you?
Harry stared at the writing and elbowed Ron while pointing at the book.
Ron looked confused as well and said, "Dad always says to never trust anything when you can't see their brains."
"I can't see yours, either."
"Er, right. Maybe it was more like, 'Never trust something you can't see where they keep their brains'?"
"That makes more sense. So, what do I do? Should I answer?"
"I dunno. Maybe check if it's cursed or something?"
"Good idea! Uh… how?"
"Erm… Oh! I know! Cast the counter-spell! Let's see what happens!"
"Oh, good idea! Here we go." Harry tapped the book with his wand and said, "Redianormalis."
The book flopped a little and then lay still again.
"And now?" Harry asked.
"I dunno. Open it?"
"Right," Harry flipped the book open again and found only empty pages once more. "Let's try writing."
Hello? Harry wrote.
There was a pause and then slowly Harry's writing disappeared, and the other script appeared again, this time much more haltingly.
What happened just now?
Before they could decide if and what they should answer, a blur of red ran past them, the book was grabbed, and the thief ran off, nearly bowling over Percy who was coming through the portrait door.
"Hey!" Harry and Ron yelled.
Percy gasped, "Ginny?"
Harry and Ron looked at each other and then bolted after Ginny. This was much more interesting than homework!
Percy was nearly run over once more and decided to investigate what all the excitement was about and followed the other three.
Harry and Ron had to run down all seven staircases without catching Ginny, who ran into the Great Hall, where lunchtime was starting.
She ran straight to Professor Snape and thrust the notebook into his hands, huffing and puffing. "I found it!"
"Very good! Where was it?"
"Harry was writing in it!"
"Mr Potter?"
"Yes!"
"Well done, Miss Weasley. Ah, Mr Potter, please follow me," the Professor told the equally huffing and puffing boy, who had run up to him and Ginny shortly after she had arrived.
"Er, okay?"
Professor Snape turned and walked towards the door the teachers often used and Harry followed curiously, looking over his shoulder to look in exasperated confusion to Ron. But he was happy he might have a chance to see where this was going, as he was very interested in all of this.
Ron's protests of getting left behind went unheard, so he decided to take advantage of the lunch spread, at least.
Professor Snape and Harry arrived in a room with a great oval table in the middle and many chairs and teacups. Professor Snape went straight to the fireplace and then turned to Harry, "Have you used the floo before?"
"Uh, only twice. One time I arrived at the wrong place, and I fell onto my nose both times," Harry huffed. "Where are we going?"
"I would like to take you to the Department of Mysteries. We suspect the book contains rather evil dark magic , and we were looking for it all over Hogwarts. As you wrote in it, we must ascertain that you're alright."
"I feel fine, but okay. We did cast the counter-curse on it, though."
"Did you, now?" Professor Snape looked amused. "About using the floo, in order to step out safely, you need to start walking when the spinning slows down. Same as with port keys."
"Erm, whatssat?"
"Never mind. Also, pull in your elbows and it's advisable to throw in the floo powder, call out the destination, and then step into the green flames. There's less chance to choke and misspeak."
"Oh! Thanks!"
"I'll go first and catch you, should it not work the first time."
"Thanks, Professor!"
Professor Snape nodded and took a pinch of the powder from the container on the mantle and threw it into the fire, waited till it turned green, called out "Ministry of Magic," and stepped into the flames. And with a woosh, he was gone.
Harry, who had watched all of this diligently, copied it exactly and tried to start walking when the horrible spinning was slowing down. And it worked! He nearly stumbled; he was so surprised! Mrs Weasley must've been a little stressed out when herding all of the children to Diagon Alley or she would've told Harry how to do this as Professor Snape had, he was sure about it.
"Very good," the Professor praised him much to Harry's continuing surprise. The man had changed his attitude so much for the better!
Harry then was shown the Atrium and was led to the reception desk so they could get their wands registered. The bored-looking young security guard did so without looking up and so the two of them went down to the DoM without getting challenged or gaped at. Professor Snape was famous now too after his pictures were printed in the papers, Harry was sure of that.
When down on Level Nine, Harry got a little creeped out, but his curiosity won out. A person clothed in robes with their hoods up – so that was an Unspeakable? – seemed to have been awaiting them and he or she led the two visitors through a strange room that was revolving and had many similar-looking doors. It was rather confusing, but awesome, nonetheless.
Unfortunately, Harry didn't get to see any strange and obscure magics, only a nondescript meeting room, where another Unspeakable was waiting.
Professor Snape nodded to the Unspeakable that had collected them and said, "Greetings No. 15," and to the one sitting at the table, "Good day, No. 1."
Harry gaped at the Professor. How did he know? They looked absolutely the same! But then he noticed a tiny patch under the 'DoM' stitched onto their robes that had the numbers on them that the Professor had used. Ah!
"What brings you to us, Master Snape?" No. 1 asked in a distorted voice, which made it impossible to know his or her gender.
"This," he laid the black notebook onto the table.
That got quite the reaction. The two Unspeakables had jumped up and immediately cast a domelike spell to contain it. They then seemed to collect themselves and No. 15 asked in an equally distorted voice, "Where did you find it?"
"Miss Weasley found it and rushed it to me. And she got it from Mr Potter."
Harry nodded.
"And where did you find it, Mr Potter?"
"Uh, you see, there was a flooding of a bathroom maybe a week ago, or two? It was sometime after Christmas. And when I investigated, there was this empty notebook lying on the floor and it stayed dry somehow. So I took it. I put it into my trunk planning to tell my friends about it, but I forgot all about it. There was so much going on this Yule break! Today I was looking for something to write on and found it again. And uh, when I started drafting my Herbology essay by writing in it, my writings disappeared, and the book answered!"
"That confirms Miss Weasley's story. According to the both of you, the book went from her directly to Mr Potter. That's a relief," No. 1 said.
"Is the book evil?"
"It is, yes. Very much so."
"Oh! We, that's Ron and I, decided to scan it for evilness, but we didn't know any spells to do that and so we cast the counter-curse that's on everyone's mind right now."
The two Unspeakables seemed to consider that information and one of them asked, "How did it react?"
"It kind of twitched? And when I wrote in it again, it seemed confused and asked what had happened just now."
No. 1 nodded, "It was a good idea to try that spell. We'll investigate it further. Thank you for bringing it here so quickly, Mr Snape and Mr Potter. We'll take it from here. Now we need to scan you to make sure the book didn't get its hooks into you, Mr Potter. Please stand in front of me, I need to cast a few diagnostic spells."
Harry easily complied and was soon told he was all clear and allowed to leave.
"Wait, that's it?" Harry whined.
The rest chuckled and nodded, even Professor Snape! And so, the two visitors from Hogwarts left again to return to the school.
Professor Snape then got chewed out by Dumbledore because he once again had gone directly to the Unspeakables and even taken Harry there without consulting the Headmaster.
Harry, in the meantime, got pounced on by his friends with questions for an explanation of what had just happened. He readily told them all about it and his Herbology essay was forgotten.
An hour later, Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office deep in thought. Everything seemed to get fixed without his input.
First, the wizarding world got saved from that evil dark spell by bumbling Lockhart, of all people.
Then Harry lost his scar, and the proto-Horcrux within it – as he had learned. The poor boy!
The Unspeakables were unravelling the mystery of the petrifications and now another Horcrux of Tom had been found. Another poor boy!
It was like he, Albus Dumbledore, wasn't needed anymore. The Unspeakables had everything well in hand. It was terribly annoying. Maybe he should've worked with them more closely in the past? But what was done, was done.
And even the Minister had a good head on his shoulders now and didn't ask for Albus's input.
He rubbed his face, feeling exhausted.
Maybe he should just retire…
If only Gellert hadn't turned out to be such an evil mastermind and was sitting in the same prison, he had built himself…
But wait!
Gellert?
Gellert had gone to Durmstrang Institute, where people must've cast The Evil Dark Spell in secret as well! He needed to cast the counter on his old friend at once!
Albus Dumbledore quickly packed a small travel bag, wrote a short note to Minerva, sent it, and asked Fawkes to bring him to the hall outside of Gellert's cell. Maybe he had been right and the Greater Good did always win in the end!
A/N: I haven't seen the third 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' movie, so I am mostly working with what I remember from the Harry Potter books in regards to Grindelwald.