Chapter 13
The new Hogwarts term started off without much fanfare. Harry happily learned that Dora had passed all her exams, though she admitted she passed Stealth and tracking by the skin of her teeth. Still, she happily was moving on to her fourth part of Auror training, and quite possibly her last six months as an Auror Trainee.
Hermione remained in the hospital wing for a few weeks after the holiday due to how slowly the botched polyjuice was wearing off, but it was obvious that it was wearing off. Rumors were abound about her, but eventually people realized that it had nothing to do with the chamber, though that didn't stop people from wanting to see what happened for curiosity's sake.
Harry and Ron visited her every day and brought her each day's homework.
It was returning from one such visit that commotion near Myrtle's bathroom drew Ron and Harry's interest. They made their way towards Filch's outburst, worried about another attack, but thankfully found Filch just grumbling about Myrtle herself, who had flooded the bathroom far more than usual.
Shrugging, the two boys made their way into Myrtle's bathroom, stepping through the puddles, pulling their robes above their ankles to keep them dry.
Moaning Myrtle was crying, if possible, louder and harder than ever before. She seemed to be hiding down her usual toilet. It was dark in the bathroom because the candles had been extinguished in the great rush of water that had left both walls and floor soaking wet.
"What's up, Myrtle?" said Harry.
"Who's that?" glugged Myrtle miserably. "Come to throw something else at me?"
Harry waded across to her stall and said, "Why would I throw something at you?"
"Don't ask me," Myrtle shouted, emerging with a wave of yet more water, which splashed onto the already sopping floor. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me..."
"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you," said Ron, reasonably. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?"
He had said the wrong thing. Myrtle puffed herself up and shrieked, "Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head! Well, ha, ha, ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"
"Who threw it at you, anyway?" asked Harry, trying to head off her tantrum.
"I don't know... I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head," said Myrtle, glaring at them. "It's over there, it got washed out..."
Harry and Ron looked under the sink where Myrtle was pointing. A small, thin book lay there. It had a shabby black cover and was as wet as everything else in the bathroom. Harry stepped forward to pick it up, but Ron suddenly flung out an arm to hold him back.
"What?" said Harry.
"Are you crazy?" said Ron. "It could be dangerous."
"Dangerous?"said Harry, laughing. "Come off it, how could it be dangerous?"
"You'd be surprised," said Ron, who was looking apprehensively at the book. "Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated Dad's told me - there was one that burned your eyes out. And everyone who read Sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed. And-"
"All right, I've got the point," said Harry.
The little book lay on the floor, nondescript and soggy.
"Well, we won't find out unless we look at it," he said, and he ducked around Ron and picked it up off the floor.
Harry saw at once that it was a diary, and the faded year on the cover told him it was fifty years old. He opened it eagerly. On the first page he could just make out the name "T M. Riddle" in smudged ink.
"Hang on," said Ron, who had approached cautiously and was looking over Harry's shoulder. "I know that name... T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."
"How on earth d'you know that?" said Harry in amazement.
"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention," said Ron resentfully. "That was the one after I made Malfoy burp slugs over. It was worth it of course, but I still hated that shield after an hour of polishing it."
Harry peeled the wet pages apart. They were completely blank. There wasn't the faintest trace of writing on any of them, not even Auntie Mabel's birthday, or dentist, half-past three.
"He never wrote in it," said Harry, disappointed.
"I wonder why someone wanted to flush it away?" said Ron curiously.
Harry turned to the back cover of the book and saw the printed name of a variety store on Vauxhall Road, London.
"He must've been Muggle-born," said Harry thoughtfully. "To have bought a diary from Vauxhall Road..."
"Well, it's not much use to you," said Ron. He dropped his voice. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's nose."
Harry, however, pocketed it.
When Hermione was released from the hospital wing, late January, Harry showed her the book, and she, like him, thought it might be important. She, like him, wondered how Riddle got his award for special services, noting the years since and jumped to the same conclusion, that it might have to do with the Chamber. However, after using a spell and a revealer she'd gotten in Diagon Alley, she joined Ron's line of thinking in that it wasn't important and Riddle hadn't bothered to write in his diary.
Harry, however, still wasn't quite sure. He didn't know why. The name felt familiar, but he certainly had never heard it before and didn't know anyone magical prior to him coming to Hogwarts. It didn't help that learning more about Riddle revealed nothing. All he or Hermione could learn was that Riddle had been Prefect and Head Boy, and that he had been given an award for special services rendered to the school.
Thankfully, his curiosity into Riddle seemed to be all that was taking his time outside of his normal pursuits. The mood in the castle was more hopeful as there had been no further attacks since the ones on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. The Mandrakes were getting closer and closer to being ready so the victims would all be returned to normal.
Granted, Harry still had to deal with people like Ernie Macmillan who were quite sure that Harry was the Heir and had given himself away and was just biding his time, or Lockhart who was convinced he himself had made the attack stop, but otherwise things were getting better. Harry almost wondered if the Heir of Slytherin had lost his or her nerve.
Misfortune didn't happen until mid February, and that misfortune had nothing to do with the Chamber and everything to do with Professor Gildery Lockhart.
Lockhart had decided that the school needed a morale-booster and decided that the best way was to cover the walls of the Great Hall with large, lurid pink flowers, and have heart-shaped confetti falling from the blue ceiling. Lockhart went a step further and wore lurid pink robes himself and had hired a dozen surly-looking dwarves for people to use to send valentine messages to people, anonymously or not.
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 Harry.
"Oy, you! Arry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry.
Hot all over at the thought of being given a valentine in front of a line of first years, which happened to include Ginny Weasley, Harry 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 Arry Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.
"Not here," Harry hissed, trying to escape.
"Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.
"Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging, cursing that he hadn't just stopped using the bag, and instead only kept the important things in his cloak pockets. He was vowing that he was done using it after today.
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. . . apparently he was done using it after today.
Harry 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. Harry started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, desperate to get away before Malfoy could hear his musical valentine.
"What's all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy Weasley arrived.
Losing his head, Harry 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 Harry's ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:
His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard,
I wish he was mine,
he's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord."
Harry would have given all the gold in Gringotts to evaporate on the spot. Trying valiantly to laugh along with everyone else, he got up, his feet numb from the weight of the dwarf, as Percy Weasley did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth.
"Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class, now," he said, shooing some of the younger students away. "And you, Malfoy-"
Harry, glancing over, saw Malfoy stoop and snatch up something. Leering, he showed it to Crabbe and Goyle, and Harry realized that he'd got Riddle's diary.
"Give that back," said Harry quietly.
"Wonder what Potter's written in this?" said Malfoy, who obviously hadn't noticed the year on the cover and thought he had Harry's own diary. A hush fell over the onlookers. Ginny was staring from the diary to Harry, looking terrified.
"Hand it over, Malfoy," said Percy sternly.
"When I've had a look," said Malfoy, waving the diary tauntingly at Harry.
Percy said, "As a school prefect -" but Harry had lost his temper. He pulled out his wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" and the book flew from Malfoy's hand into the air and Ron, grinning broadly, caught it.
"Harry!" said Percy loudly. "No magic in the corridors. I'll have to report this, you know!"
"Then I hope you report that Malfoy had my property and was refusing to give it up at the same time," Harry responded, not caring in the least, since he was one-up on Malfoy.
Malfoy was looking furious and as Ginny passed him to enter her classroom, he yelled spitefully after her, "I don't think Potter liked your valentine much!"
Ginny covered her face with her hands and ran into class. Snarling, Ron pulled out his wand, too, but Harry pulled him away.
It wasn't until they had reached Professor Flitwick's class that Harry noticed something rather odd about Riddle's diary. All his other books were drenched in scarlet ink. The diary, however, was as clean as it had been before the ink bottle had smashed all over it. He wanted to hit himself and he finally quickly focused on his magical core and let it flow out, trying to feel the magic in the room and it wasn't long before he felt magic coming from the book.
The book certainly had some sort of enchantment on it.
That night, Harry went to bed early, happy to dip out and avoid Fred and George loudly singing Harry's valentine, and decided to experiment. Looking at the diary, he was interested to see that none of the pages had any trace of scarlet ink on it.
Deciding to drop some ink on the page, he noticed that the ink would fade away. It wasn't long before he was in a conversation with one Tom Marvolo Riddle, and not long after that, Riddle revealed to him who was punished for opening the Chamber of Secrets fifty years previously.
By the time he had pulled out of the diary and found himself back in his dormitory, Ron was walking in.
"There you are," he said.
Harry sat up. He was sweating and shaking.
"What's up?" said Ron, looking at him with concern.
"It was Hagrid, Ron. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."
**HP**
Deciding on whether or not to talk to Hagrid about why he had been expelled wasn't easy, and it didn't help that they all agreed that Riddle could very well have been wrong in blaming and apprehending Hagrid, even if Hagrid had some sort of monster. They ended up deciding to hold out on that awkward conversation unless another attack happened.
Meanwhile, the second years had other things to look forward to. Choosing their electives for the following year. Everyone had their own opinion on the matter, and none of them seemed helpful for him, especially since there were quite a few classes to choose from, and he had to pick three, but was advised to not pick more than five. His options were Muggle Studies, Wizarding Culture, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, Magical Theory, World Languages, and Magical Law, Government and the Wizarding World.
Hermione, of course, signed up for everything, against everyone's advice. Dean Thomas, who, like Harry had grown up with Muggles, ended up closing his eyes and jabbing his wand at the list, and then picking the subjects it landed on, with the exception being he had no desire to take Muggle Studies. Christopher Flack and Alison Kama, also muggleborn, soon followed his method of choosing.
The rest of his fellow Gryffindor second year halfbloods like Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown, Aaron Pickering, Kellah Scarman, Eloise Midgen, Sophie Roper, Fay Dunbar, and Kendra Frost took classes their parents told them to take or classes that some of their siblings took for the most part, with some exceptions being Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, which were chosen for the same reason Ron chose both.
Ron picked Divination and Care of Magical Creatures because they were apparently very easy. He also selected Wizarding Culture for much the same reason. As a pureblood, there would be little in that class he didn't already know, and the class didn't have a NEWT level, so it was guaranteed to end after fifth year. The remaining purebloods, including Neville, Parvati Patil, Zachary Buchanan, Robert Hawking, Rose Shafiq, and Ava Connors were mostly split between every class, again for similar reasons to the half bloods. Neville, Robert, and Zachary had to do Ancient Runes apparently due to family obligations, though Harry didn't really understand what they were saying about them. Ava and Rose picked Arithmancy for similar reasons. The other purebloods also all took Magical Law, Government and the Wizarding World, however they were all split on the remaining class they had to take, and even more split on taking the additional class or two they were recommended to take.
While Harry's fellow Gryffindor yearmates weren't really all that helpful to him in choosing, at least they were all diverse in their choices, so he could expect to see some familiar faces no matter what he chose. It was better than Percy's advice at least. Percy's advice was probably the least helpful.
"Depends where you want to go, Harry," he said. "It's never too early to think about the future, so I'd recommend Divination. People say Muggle Studies is a soft option, but I personally think wizards should have a thorough understanding of the non-magical community, particularly if they're thinking of working in close contact with them - look at my father, he has to deal with Muggle business all the time. My brother Charlie was always more of an outdoor type, so he went for Care of Magical Creatures. Play to your strengths, Harry."
Not great advice when you're effectively muggleborn and have no idea what those classes entailed, and in Harry's opinion, his only real strengths were flying and maybe Defence.
Honestly, of the people at the school, he thought Katie, Alicia, and Angelina had been the most helpful in at least talking about their electives.
Angelina, a pureblood had been basically forced to take Magical Law, Government, and the Wizarding World, but she wanted to play professional Quidditch, so studies not being super important, she had also taken Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies, and thought both were great, but she did think anyone raised in the muggle world would be bored in the Muggle Studies class. She also didn't care for the law and government class, thinking it dry, but did agree that it was fairly important to know about, and she said Care of Magical Creatures was good fun and very applicable when it came to learning about how to identify, interact, care for, and deal with magical creatures. Angelina thought he would enjoy Care of Magical Creatures and he would at least learn a lot in Magical Law.
Katie, muggleborn, and a bit more studious and with aspirations of working in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as a Hitwitch or an Auror was taking Magical Law and Government, Magical Theory, Ancient Runes, Wizard's Studies, and Arithmancy.
Runes dealt with Runic Magic, powerful and versatile, and it was used in permanent warding. Arithmancy was about the numerical formulae that made up enchantments, spells, and wards, and eventually led to knowledge in spell alteration, spell creation, warding, and enchanting.
Katie told him Wizard's Studies wasn't a bad idea for him, but she did highly recommend Magical Theory and Arithmancy, and she thought Runes, while very tedious, had some brilliant applications later on.
Alicia, halfblood, who was thinking about being a healer, was taking Care of Magical Creatures, Magical Theory, Arithmancy, and was in the Languages course, which apparently focused more on teaching you how to utilize spells to learn languages faster, while the instructor, Professor Tolkien, who was fluent in over a hundred languages, aided and instructed with perfecting the speaking, writing, and understanding portions. She agreed with Katie's recommendations of Arithmancy and Magical Theory. She said the Languages class wasn't bad, but if he didn't really care to learn other languages, than he might as well pick something different.
The day he had to submit his electives, he finally received a letter from Dora and even received one from Mad-Eye, and he eagerly opened Dora's first, hoping her advice would be better than most everyone else's.
Wotcher Harry,
Elective choices. What fun! Well, Harry, I took Divination, Muggle Studies, Magical Law, and Magical Theory. However, being how you were raised, you should definitely not take Muggle Studies. You'll be able to take the OWL and NEWT on it if you want, without taking the class, and probably should, but there's no point in you taking the class. You'll just be bored, and probably annoyed since I know the class is a bit old in its information compared to the actual muggle world.
As someone who went through my NEWT for Divination, I should probably try to influence you to take it as well, but honestly I would advise you to stay far away from it. I continued it through NEWTs because it is a fairly easy NEWT . . . if you really commit to it, and it is bloody hard to commit to. I swear, I had to study so much outside of class because falling asleep in class is too easy. In addition, unless you're a Seer, which I don't believe you are, then there's only so much you can get out of Divination. Honestly, I committed to it because I wanted another NEWT to pad my qualifications and portfolio for the Auror Academy. Nothing else. Looking back, I wish I'd picked something else to pad my portfolio.
Magical Law, Government, and the Wizarding World is extremely tedious, but it is useful for someone wanting to eventually work for the Ministry, someone like you who is effectively muggleborn, and for people who want to learn about the Wizarding World as a whole, not just the United Kingdom. Its adjacent counterpart is Wizard's Studies, which is really just a class that studies customs, etiquette, and culture in the wizarding world. It's designed to help muggleborns understand our world and fit in better. Either could be good for you honestly.
Magical Theory is equally tedious, but it does really help pay dividends into your other classes, and would probably help you with that elemental magic you love so much. I won't lie. There's no practical applications in the course, but it only goes up through OWL year anyway, and it's really just designed to help you understand magic more at a fundamental level and understand how magic works, which helps you learn and utilize more advanced magic. It's also a prerequisite for some of the cooler NEWT electives down the line.
Now, Care of Magical Creatures is something I would advise. Charlie took it and loved it. It's all about dealing with various magical creatures, and Merlin knows you've already run into your fair share of those, so I think you could see how useful that would be, especially for someone who didn't grow up in the magical world and isn't as aware of the various creatures you might encounter. It's also supposed to be a very easy OWL and NEWT, so that's a win.
Arithmancy and Runes. Both are supposed to be difficult, but they also have direct applications to multiple magical disciplines which might interest you. Runes are pretty important to permanent and more powerful warding, which are magical protections on an object or area. Understanding them is also important to breaking protections or curses that have been placed. You can ward without them, but the best warders are good with Runes and Arithmancy. Also, Runic magic powers a lot of our magical technology, like Mrs. Weasley's clock or even your robes have runes sewn into them to make those undetectable expansion charms permanent . . . or at least they'll last as long as the cloak does. Arithmancy is used in warding as well, but it also goes into spell alteration and creation, and enchantments, and numerology divination can be used to find truths from the future. Arithmancy is also very helpful for learning advanced and powerful magic, like that elemental magic that has interested you. Certainly able to learn it without it, but a knowledge of Arithmancy often helps people understand the theory behind a spell better. Again, dead useful, even if it is tedious. It pairs very well with Runes and Magical Theory.
Languages could be fun, and it's not a bad idea to take, but admittedly, there are a great many places and ways to learn languages outside of Hogwarts if needed. The class is really more self-study after you've learned the spells to help you learn languages faster, with the professor being more there to help guide you and provide information when you hit a wall, and to test and certify you once you've learned a language. It is useful for people who want to travel, people with desires on joining certain departments of the Ministry, or people who want to get involved with the international community.
If I could go back, I would have still taken Magical Theory, Muggle Studies, and Magical Law, but I also would have taken Arithmancy, and probably Care of Magical Creatures or Runes. I honestly think you should consider Arithmancy, Magical Theory, Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and possibly Magical Law or Wizard's Studies, though Wizard's Studies does not have a NEWT class and is not a prerequisite for any NEWT electives, while the Magical Law class is both.
Runes, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures will open up a lot of career paths for you, especially in career paths that you might be interested in, whether that be an Auror, a Curse Breaker, a Warder, a Healer, or working in really almost any field, especially if you get your Muggle Studies OWL and NEWT. Magical Theory will help you with all of your classes and with your interest in Elemental Magic. Magical Law will help you understand the world better, but with your extracurricular elemental magic studies, you might really only want to take four classes max.
Something you should also consider with these courses is that you take them and all your other classes up through your fifth year. After that, you can drop classes if you don't like them or don't get the OWL on them, which includes your core classes you're already taking. Some of these courses don't have NEWT versions, but they are prerequisites for certain NEWT electives that you might want to take. I would advise you to try to take classes that you'll hopefully take through the NEWT level so that you're actually getting something out of those hours spent in the classroom. Otherwise, you're just wasting time.
That's just my advice. Hope that helps. Let me know if you need anything else!
Love,
Dora
Harry smiled. Her letter had been more helpful than a lot of the other advice that had been thrown his way. Sure, he really didn't know what he wanted to do after school, even if being an auror with Dora sounded cool, but keeping his options open wasn't a bad thing. He knew Ron was taking Care of Magical Creatures, so he'd have him for that class, and Hermione was taking them all, so he'd have her for any other class. Ron was also taking Divination or at least planning to, and Dora made it sound like he really shouldn't. He wasn't completely sure. On one hand, harder classes didn't sound great, but doing more powerful and advanced magic did, and he could admit, it would be nice to know that in the end he hadn't wasted the many hours taking a class only to fail or drop it. He certainly didn't plan to continue Astronomy or History, and it really felt like a waste of time to spend five years in both classes only to drop them.
Harry turned to Mad-Eye's letter, figuring he'd see what the ex-Auror said before he went and talked to his friends again and finally decided.
Lad,
The way I see it, when it comes to electives, you should pick the ones that will help with the type of job you'll like in the future. Granted, I doubt you know what you want to do, but I'll tell you this, I doubt you would be happy sitting behind a desk doing paperwork all day everyday from the start of the day to the end of the day.
Harry grimaced. That did sound miserable.
So, I would recommend you take the classes that tie most to the jobs that involve either some manner of fieldwork or at least working with your wand and tinkering with magic. I recommend Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Magical Theory, Magical Law, Government, and the Wizarding World, and World Languages as your best choices.
Muggle Studies would be a waste of your time. You can already live in the Muggle world, probably better than the person who teaches the ruddy class. If you weren't effectively a muggleborn, it would be worth taking, but otherwise, not at all.
Divination is mostly hogwash. Either you're a seer or you're not, and even with seers, things are muddy. Half the time, people cause what the seer saw to happen simply by trying to prevent it from happening. Sure, you can learn how to divine small things from the future with some knowledge in divination, but even that is often negligible and just causes paranoia in those who practice it. Bloody waste of time in my opinion.
I took Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Magical Theory, Magical Law, and World Languages. I will say that while being an Auror, there were quite a few times that I'd wished I'd taken Care of Magical Creatures when I'd run into some bloody creature on various types of assignments and I'd have to wait for someone from the Beast Division to come assist until I started studying up on my own. Runes and Arithmancy I've used often in my career and even outside of my career. Dead useful for many things. Same with Magical Theory. Getting a better understanding of magic now will help you later. Magical Law is just useful, even if the bloody bureaucracy is infuriating. We have to live with it, so understanding it is important, and languages help one dealing with people from around the world, something that happens more often than people think in any of the more field related jobs, and certainly often if you work at the Ministry. Too many people have to rely on translators to help them accomplish things, simply trusting their translator to help cover for them.
Wizard's Studies isn't a terrible option, but I'd recommend something else. You can learn about Wizarding culture on your own when you need to learn it. Spend your time at Hogwarts focusing more on things that are harder to learn once you leave school. The choice is yours of course. Don't let anybody make decisions for you when you can help it, but you asked for advice, and that's what I've got.
Mad-Eye
In some ways, it shouldn't be surprising that Mad-Eye and Dora's advice was similar, but seeing as Dora had done different classes, it was a bit interesting to see how they both advised him to go down a certain path.
He went over to where Ron was with Hermione, both with their forms ready to go be delivered to McGonagall.
"Hey, mate," Ron said, and saw the letters Harry was carrying. "Tonks finally write you back?"
"Yep, and despite having a NEWT in Divination, she recommended that I don't take it, as did Mad-Eye, which admittedly lines up with what Katie, Alicia, and Angelina said," Harry admitted, "so I'm not going to take it."
Ron's eyes widened. "What? Why? Mate, it's supposed to be stupid easy to pass!"
"Dora said the actual OWL and NEWT are actually a bit difficult if you're not great in the class," Harry said, and Ron blanched at that. "She said she had to study like crazy to pass. Plus, she pointed out that we'll be able to drop classes after fifth year, and she recommended that I pick classes I might want to keep, since they could either be things I enjoy, things I'll use, or qualifications that will help me get a job out of Hogwarts."
"That's a good way of looking at it," Hermione said, nodding in approval.
"So what are you going to take?" Ron said, looking a bit put out that Harry wasn't going to take Divination with him.
"Well, I'll take Care of Magical Creatures with you both," Harry said, and Ron brightened. "Dora said your brother Charlie took it, and that it's a pretty easy class, but very useful, and sometimes fun. Mad-Eye also said it's really useful and he wished he'd taken it."
"Yeah, Charlie loved it," Ron agreed. "I'm pretty sure that NEWT was one of the only qualifications he needed to work at the Dragon Reserve."
"Dora said I should take Arithmancy and think about doing Runes as well, and Mad-Eye recommended Runes and Arithmancy as well, so I think I'm going to take both of those," Harry said, and Ron winced.
"Better you than me, mate. No way I want to do those stuffy tedious classes."
Harry grinned.
"I guess we'll find out! Worst case scenario, I drop them after fifth year. I'm also going to take Magical Theory, and I'm told that class doesn't continue after Fifth Year anyway, so silver linings."
"That's the spirit," Ron said with a laugh while Hermione glanced at them both with slight disapproval and amusement.
**HP**
Dora and Mad-Eye were walking towards the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch, just ahead of the crowd that was exiting the castle to watch Gryffindor play Hufflepuff.
"I don't really need to be at all of the lad's games," Mad-Eye grumbled next to her.
"Oh, because this is so clearly interfering with plans you had for the day," Dora replied sarcastically. "Please, you need to get out more, Mad-Eye. You'll go insane when you finally retire completely if you're not careful."
Mad-Eye snorted.
"Perhaps you're right, lass, but that doesn't mean I like being out in the open, even at a school."
"Dora! Mad-Eye!" They heard Harry's voice call from behind them and they both turned to see Harry running up towards them, looking a bit frazzled.
"Wotcher, Harry!" Dora greeted, brightly.
"Listen, I don't have much time before I need to go change," Harry said quickly. "I heard the cold voice that said it was going to rip and kill, and last night, somebody broke into my trunk and stole a diary I'd found. A diary that told me who was blamed for opening the Chamber fifty years ago."
Dora blinked in surprise, thinking about the cold voice that only Harry could hear, but instead focusing on what Harry had just said.
"Where did you get this diary? Whose diary was it?" Dora asked.
"It was a diary I found," Harry admitted. "It belonged to some prefect from fifty years ago. A guy named Tom Riddle."
"And it had the whole story just written down?" Mad-Eye asked, sounding a bit skeptical.
"Well, not exactly," Harry said. "At first, it was blank, and all we knew about Riddle was that he received an award for special services to the school fifty years ago. I found out though, that when you write in it, the diary writes back."
Dora and Mad-Eye exchanged concerned glances.
"Potter, that's very dangerous. Never trust anything if you can't tell where its brain is. It could have been trying to entrap you, or deceive you," Mad-Eye scolded and Harry winced, but looked a bit defiant.
"I mean, it seemed harmless at first, and even in the end, it just showed me Riddle's memory of the event, which included him capturing Hagrid with some sort of hairy monster that ran away. I guess Hagrid was expelled."
"You said it was stolen?" Dora said, and Harry nodded, looking around.
"From my trunk in my dormitory. Had to have been a Gryffindor," Harry muttered.
"Did you report it missing?" Mad-Eye asked.
Harry shook his head, "I wasn't really sure if Hagrid actually was the Heir or not. I mean, the attacks must have stopped, but Hagrid wouldn't be here if they had proved it was him. I'd have to tell a teacher to report it, and how many knew why Hagrid had been expelled fifty years ago?" Harry asked with a shrug. "I don't really want to be the one to bring that all up again if I don't need to."
Mad-Eye grimaced. "I'll go back to the castle and do a perimeter check looking for whatever might be attacking people. Dora, you go find Dumbledore, McGonagall, or Flitwick. Potter, go play your match, and if you find that diary, you'll give it to Dumbledore immediately and write to me. Something about it doesn't feel right."
Dora nodded, thinking it strange that this magical diary just happened to show up and know about the Chamber of Secrets while everything was going on.
Harry nodded, and immediately went off towards the changing rooms. Mad-Eye started hobbling off towards the castle while Dora ran for the stadium, figuring she might find professors in the stands. If she didn't, Mad-Eye would probably run into them while he was heading to the castle.
Dora quickly realized that the Professors she was looking for hadn't made it to the stands yet and rushed back down to the ground and started running back towards the castle, seeing the concerned looks on the few straggling students that saw her running.
She made it to the school as McGonagall came out of the front door, looking grim.
"Professor," Dora said, "Did you run into Mad-Eye?"
McGonagall nodded sadly. "There's been another attack. A double attack. Alastor's checking around the castle as we speak. I'm going to go and cancel the match and send the students back to their common rooms. You should go wait in the hospital wing. I'll bring Potter there to meet you."
Dora's eyes widened, hearing that Harry would be brought to her. "Who was attacked?" she asked.
"A Ravenclaw fifth year prefect, Penelope Clearwater, and Hermione Granger," McGonagall said solemnly, and Dora gasped.
McGonagall nodded. Harry would be crushed.
"I'll wait at the hospital wing," Dora said, and McGonagall rushed off towards the Quidditch pitch, leaving Dora wondering how much longer it would be before the Ministry and the governors stepped in.
It wasn't long before Harry and Ron were brought to the hospital wing and both boys exclaimed in shock and despair seeing their friend petrified on a hospital bed, next to the fifth year prefect.
"They were found near the library," said Professor McGonagall. "I don't suppose either of you can explain this? It was on the floor next to them..."
She was holding up a small, circular mirror.
Harry and Ron shook their heads, both staring at Hermione.
Dora pulled Harry into a hug, seeing how much shock he was in.
"I will escort you back to Gryffindor Tower," said Professor McGonagall heavily. "I need to address the students in any case."
"Harry, everything is going to be okay," Dora said firmly, and he turned to her, and she did not like the determined look in his eyes. "Just stay safe, okay?"
Harry nodded at her numbly and she watched worriedly as McGonagall escorted Harry and Ron out of the hospital wing and Mad-Eye came in.
"Anything?" she asked hopefully, and he shook his head looking disgusted.
"Nothing. Too much magic here for my eye to properly see through walls and such as is," Mad-Eye said. "Potter's not going to take this lying down."
"No, he won't," Dora agreed, thinking about the best course of action. "I'm really worried he knows more than he's revealed. I mean, prior to today, I'd never heard of Riddle's diary."
"That kid's too curious for his own good. He's got good instincts and a good investigative sense," Mad-Eye grumbled. "He'll make a damn fine Auror if he goes that route, but right now, he's again biting off more than he can chew, I think."
Dora agreed.
"I'm going to talk to Albus again," Mad-Eye said. "I'll see you at training tomorrow. Watch yourself while you're leaving Tonks."
"Will do, Mad-Eye," Dora responded faintly, lost in thought. "Constant vigilance and all that."
AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. This chapter really just helps prep the final stages for the Chamber and then serves to introduce the extra electives I decided to add. I felt that there was no reason why Hogwarts wouldn't offer some more classes, and I felt it made more sense to add more classes to help better explain why Hermione struggled with the Time Turner so much in Third Year, since she's not going to be just taking two more classes compared to Harry and Ron.