It was my second time experiencing a train ride - well the second time I was actually aware of it. My friendship progress with Astoria was quite slow - I did manage to reach possession just a week left before school, yet somehow it was only a few minutes - not nearly enough time to test something as complicated as a ritual - heck not even enough time for a round trip to Greengrass library for some reading. I could not even practise magic being wary of the Trace.

I remember reading various theories of how exactly the ministry's tracking spell worked - yet I noticed neither Daphne nor Astoria using their wands. Not even once. Opting for various magical trinkets or calling house elves for help instead. Which made me suspect pureblood children were not exempt from the Trace charm, perhaps even while being under their family wards it somehow still worked.

I inwardly sighed - 3 minutes - the time I had last night - such a slow pace of increasing the time would take me years to actually start experimenting with ritual magic.

I pondered my options - somehow my thoughts always trailing off back to Ginny, if only I could reach out to her somehow… 3 minutes were unfortunately not enough to even reach the Gryffindor tower! I also did not know the password to bypass the portrait for this year… Perhaps I could leave a note for Ginny somewhere? Or just charm it to fly to her? Hmm but what if someone intercepts it?

The train ride continued as I was lost in my thoughts, occasionally glancing at the screen - Astoria was just doodling something - drawing was her hobby which took quite a chunk of her time - she even used the notebook for practising draftsmanship - drawing circles, boxes and other things, not minding the figures disappearing shortly. Even with wonders of magic it was something more exciting and entertaining to create something on your own, without magic.

As my thoughts stirred I had an idea - yes I never actually cast that spell, which was supposedly quite hard, but I am sure I would manage, a few minutes should be enough to pass my message, I could hardly wait to get back in touch with my old friend!

Albus Dumbledore starred at the bubble with an empty page inside - he spent a month, a whole month! Trying to unravel the magic inside - yet he hardly made any progress - the magic cast on it was otherworldly, not like anything he had ever seen before.

In fact he was suspecting his own magic bubble was interfering with the artefact as no new symbols appeared on it since that one liner "hello?"

Suddenly he felt magic stirring as a few lines appeared on the page, they formed what looked like a box? A cube? Then a circle appeared nearby, then various ellipses of various sizes. Headmast was just starting in confusion - is there any meaning in this nonsense?

Then he glanced to the side where there was a complex runic circle, drawn inside cupboard doors - above it a quill was copying line by line what was happening, noting the date and time for each stroke in a font so tiny, another spell would be needed just to see it.

Albus rubbed his beard - at least that little gadget was working properly - if the page wrote or drew anything more meaningful he would know, there was no longer any need to inspect it every day.

A wave of his hand later the bubble disappeared under the closing cupboard doors.

Ginny Weasley just finished helping Bella with her studies - due to an unfortunate incident in her first year at school, her dorm mate had the misfortune to spend a few months as a stone statue - which of course affected her further grades.

Ginny offered to tutor her, somehow enjoying the role of a teacher, even after making Bella catch up with the rest of class the tutoring continued, now Bella was among the few best students in the class. Of course the red-headed girl herself was way ahead of her peers - in fact she was borrowing books from Hermione to study the year ahead, while also doing various reading on topics that interested her.

As midnight approached, she bade Bella farewell, and sneaked out of the dorm - it was kind of a habit by now for her to go to the room of requirements for some more Quidditch practice - she already was part of quidditch team, but somehow she still itched for more flying - official practice sessions just felt too short for her - there was only so much time after classes where teams were allowed to reserve the field for practice.

She was still sad about losing her friend, Tom - initially she spent quite some months wandering along the halls of the school, mainly the floors where her and Harry's items were supposedly found, yet finding no results, not even a clue.

Not long after she was already on the seventh floor, the room of requirements door already visible - 'Harry is already inside' - mused the girl as a smile spread on her face - she always liked when Harry took the trouble of adding 'room that only Ginny and I can see the entrance of' to his chant for entering the room.

Yes she did share the secret of the room with the boy - due to past events they got closer and Ginny even found the courage to confess her feelings - she was elated to find out Harry liked her as well - one thing led to another and they were already dating by now.

If only Harry had more experience in dating! - Ginny's cheek reddened, remembering that she was the one who always initiated something new, even something trivial like holding hands - Harry was simply too shy, perhaps it's true what Tom told her all that time ago, that girls matured earlier?.

Shaking her head she calmed down and pushed open the door - Harry was already playing with Quidditch dummies inside, she smiled, waving her arm to summon a nearby broom to her hand, then pushing off the ground towards him - it's gonna be another long and exciting night for them.

As midnight approached I let out a relief - apparently Slytherin dorms were small single rooms - which meant I had all the privacy I could ask for. Not wasting any time I picked up the wand and waved, silently murmuring the spell.

Expecto Patronum!

A faint bluish smoke manifested - I suspected I did not choose my memory correctly…. I could hardly refer to dark lords memories - he did succeed with the charm, yet his 'happy' memory was more akin to nightmare to me - how could anyone find torture pleasant?

I tried a few more memories, finally picking the one where I finally escaped the loneliness, the first time Ginny wrote to me.

Small blue smoke appeared, and I thought I failed once again, yet on another look it seemingly condensed into a small butterfly, still somewhat blurry, but I was happy with my success. The familiar feeling overtook me as I hit the bed again. Three minutes was clearly not much time at all! Still it should suffice for learning this spell, I did not only need to make patronus stable and less blurry - I also needed to cast the modified version - the one to pass messages along.

And so a week has passed - I kept reviewing my mistakes and I thought this is it, today is the day.

I focused my intent and will and waved my hand.

Expecto Patronum!

A now familiar small blue being appeared. I could hardly see its mouth, but I clearly heard it speaking.

"Hello"

Tom Riddle's voice resounded as I shuddered, yes I forgot patronuses took the voice of the caster… and I was in fact a fragment of the dark lord. The test was a success so I sent my message to the blue fellow and he flew away with quick speed - towards my former host.

I glanced at the clock in the wall - just two minutes left, but Hogwarts was not that large for a magical construct capable of passing walls… well hopefully, if not I can try again tomorrow.

Ginny was going across the corridor, towards the room of requirement, yet suddenly there was a blue flash just behind her.

In panic she turned around wand in hand and saw a …. Blue butterfly.

Her shock did not end there as a voice started speaking.

"Hello Ginny"

A voice that was pleasant to hear and while she knew she never heard it before, somehow the more it spoke the more familiar it felt.

"I just wanted to let you know that diary or well a part of it is now in Astoria Greengrass possession."

The girl seemed happy to finally hear something about her missing friend, though she wondered, who it was who passed the message? Was it even true?

"Yet she sees me as a homework helper not a friend like you, I sincerely hope you can somehow take the book back, good luck."

Somehow she understood now - it was Tom, her friend speaking. Tears started building up in the corner of her eyes, as the butterfly disappeared in a puff of blue smoke after some final words - "I miss you, my friend!".

Ginny wiped a few tears from her cheek - her mind focusing on the task at hand. Who even was Astoria Greengrass? She felt she heard the name quite recently but could hardly pick up where from.

She rushed to the room of requirements and grabbed a broom, quickly flying towards Harry, perhaps he would have some ideas.

The boy seemingly noticed she was not there for quidditch today, nor the cuddles.

"Hello Harry"

"Hello, you seem in a rush, Ginny, what's up?" - He seemingly noticed her slightly red eyes as his face suddenly looked more serious and caring - "What's wrong? Anything happened to you?"

They landed on the ground - chatting in the air was not the best of options as words could be lost due to passing air.

"Remember the book I told you about? The one my friend named Tom is trapped in? The one that got missing after a break into our dorms?"

Harry just nodded - he did remember she shared this secret a few months after they started dating and opening up more - perhaps him sharing his days at Dursleys led the girl wanting to share something too.

"Of course, did you find it? Or perhaps a lead?"

"No, but now I know where it is - somehow it's in Astoria Greengrass possession - whoever that is"

Harry seemed to ponder - "Greengrass… There is a Greengrass in my year, called Daphne, a Slytherin, perhaps it's her relative?"

Ginny's eyes widened - she remembered where she heard that name - the sorting ceremony!

"Likely, can you check the map to see if she's in Slytherin?"

It took a few minutes for them to locate the girl on the Marauders map - as suspected she was in Slytherin.

Ginny groaned - "Now what? I cannot really prove the notebook is actually mine"

Harry just chuckled - "We can just waltz inside their common room and look for it, just like a pair of Slytherins did to us a while ago"

Ginny glared at him - "How we do not know where the secret entrance is…" - she seemingly remembered one of Harry's adventures he shared - "I see… "

Harry nodded - "Yes, I personally went inside there during the first year, I know the way in, just not the password, but the entrance is wide to just tag along the passerby"

"There's no rush, we can look at Astoria's schedule from day to day and choose a fitting time for sneaking in"

And so a few days have passed - taking turns just observing a bunch of moving dots in the map, Harry and Ginny already had a rough idea of the girls schedule.

Every day she went outdoors near the great lake and just sat there, alone. Harry happened to fly above her during quidditch practice and saw that she was simply… sketching the castle.

Which is why the duo decided to use this time window to commence their break in.

As they observed the dot moving towards the lake, the pair nodded to each other - Ginny disillusioned herself and Harry just dropped the invisibility cloak over his body.

Sure they could have both used the cloak - but it was uncomfortable to walk in such a way, they were not short kids anymore. Ginny could have disillusioned Harry, but maintaining full disillusionment on not one but two moving targets was still beyond her skills.

Just ten minutes later the duo were already by the entrance to Slytherin dorms, just waiting for the door to open as they did not know the password yet. It did not take long as Slytherins seemed to go in and out every few minutes. Soon they were inside.

Navigating past the swarm of students in the common room was the biggest obstacle - once at the dorms it was easy to sneak around, the common room clamour from afar just helping the duo mask their sounds.

Wandering around the halls, they located Astoria's room, a few complex unlocking charms from Ginny later they managed to get inside.

The room was small with barely any furniture, yet seemingly comfortable enough for a living. Harry and Ginny split up, looking for the small black notebook.

A few hours later, they had to back away - they did not really have anything left to search and Marauder's map showed that Astoria was coming back to the dorm - unfortunately their search did not bear any fruit, the notebook was either not in the girls room or perhaps too cleverly hidden.

Harry and Ginny rushed putting things back in place. Exactly as they found them, then sneaked out of the Slytherin the same way they came from - just locking the door back in place.

Their escape was going smoothly, yet at the corridor near the entrance Harry slipped up - a group of students was walking, blocking nearly the whole corridor - as the boy tried to pass them through the small gap on the side, he did not notice his cloak getting caught on something on a piece of armour nearby.

Shortly after he tripped and his cloak slid back on to the ground.

The boy who lived, with his gold and red accented attire certainly stood out in a corridor of Slytherins adorned in green and silver. Harry rushed out from the Slytherin entrance, yet he knew - he would not get away from this scott free - surely sneaking around with an invisibility cloak broke a bunch of Hogwarts rules, especially when near other houses' dorms. With how the new headmaster hated him he knew he would be getting a ton of detensions from this… At least it was not inside the house - which might have even resulted in expulsion.

I was waiting for a week already, yet the rescue never came - I was still stuck with Astoria. Based on patronus' return, just before my possession ran out, I figured the task was accomplished and a message was sent? Perhaps stealing a book was harder than I thought it would be…

As I was musing in my thoughts while occasionally glancing at Astorias screen for doodles, I saw some text appear up in the sky. My focus jumped there, yet all I saw was *hello?* - though not any handwriting I knew about… Perhaps it's the other half of the book?

Picking up my pen, I hastily wrote back the greeting - *Hello*