The Diary

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~Gryffindor Common Room~

Harry and Y/n are sitting together, flipping through the blank pages of the diary. Harry starts to set the diary aside, then notices a bottle of ink sitting on the desk. An idea flickers. Taking his quill, Harry dips it and hesitates. As he does, a drop of INK hangs, suspended like a tear, then... drops. Y/n takes the diary. Harry: "Y/n! Wait. What are you doing?" Y/n: "Writing.." The ink blazes briefly, then... vanishes... as if it were sucked into the page. Excited, Harry dips his quill again, and, this time, writes: My name is Harry Potter. The words blaze, VANISH. Slowly, oozing out of the page, comes a response: Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. Y/n writes away from Harry's view. Y/n: 'You are Lord Voldemort, aren't you?' Tom: 'Why do you ask?' Y/n: 'It wasn't a question. I have seen thousands of realities.' Tom: 'Yes.' Y/n: 'Then this is what I thought it was. This is one of your several Horcruxes.' Tom: 'Yes.' Y/n: 'Ruby will destroy you. I have no qualms about it. Goodbye, Mr. Riddle.' Y/n goes to walk off when Harry rips the diary from her hands. Y/n: "What the hell?!" Harry: "We need answers-" Y/n: "Answers that he did it?" Harry's mind races. Deciding, he mutters the words he writes. Harry: "Do... you... know... anything...about... the... Chamber... of...Secrets?" Tom: 'Yes.' Harry: "Can... you... tell... me?" Tom: 'No.' Harry frowns. Then... slowly... new words ooze to the surface. Tom: 'But I can show you...' Harry waits, intrigued. Then, suddenly... The pages FLUTTER WILDLY, stop on "June the 13th." On the page, a tiny square... like a Window. Harry lifts the book, puts his eye close, and... falls through the widening Window, into a whirl of color and shadows, tumbling onto his feet... Y/n followed.

~Entrence hall, 50 years ago~

In a torch-lit corridor. Everything is de-saturated, save for Harry, who retains the true, rich colors of the present. He glances about, disoriented, then spies a boy; whom Y/n landed next to. Y/n flips the boy off smacking him with her Darkhold. It went through him. Y/n: "Aw, man." They're at the end of the corridor, peering around a corner. A flurry of shadows dances on the wall beyond the boy, revealing the presence of others, unseen, in an adjoining room. As Harry advances, low voices emanate from the shadows. As he reaches the boy, Harry speaks in a whisper. Harry: "Excuse me. Could you tell me where I am? Hello...?" The boy doesn't respond, eyes staked to the activity in the adjoining room... which Harry sees now is the Entrance Hall. A group of elder witches and wizards-- Hogwarts Professors -- talk amongst themselves, then... abruptly go silent. Make way for two young wizards, bearing a stretcher. VOICE (O.S.): "Riddle." Y/n is still trying to smack him. The boy wheels... and looks right through Harry. Harry turns, too. It's Albus... fifty years younger. Tom: "Professor Albus." Y/n tries to smack Tom with a book again. Albus: "It's not wise to be wandering around this late, Tom. Tom: "Yes, Professor. I suppose I -- I just had to see for myself, if..." Riddle glances toward the young wizards, and watches them carry the stretcher out of the Hall, into the night. Tom: "... the rumors were true." Albus: "I'm afraid they are, Tom." Tom: "About the school as well? They wouldn't really close Hogwarts, would they, Professor?" Albus: "Headmaster Dippet may have no choice, I'm afraid." Tom: "Sir? If it all stopped. If the person responsible was caught..." Albus: "Is there something you wish to tell me, Tom?" Tom: (a long beat) "No, sir. Nothing." Albus studies Riddle for a moment.  Albus: "Very well then. Hurry along." Albus strides directly past Harry, not seeing him. When he is gone, Riddle moves quickly, toward the dungeon steps.

~Dungeons~

Up ahead, a splinter of light leaks through a door. Riddle puts his eye to the crack. Inside, someone is speaking. Hagrid: "C'mon, Aragog. Gotta get yeh outta here... C'mon now.. in the box... As Riddle pushes the door clear, Harry sees a second, smaller room. Crouched by a box, is a huge boy... young Hagrid. A strange clicking comes from the box. Tom: " Evening, Hagrid." Hagrid slammed the door shut. Tom: "I'm going to have to turn you in, Hagrid. I don't think you meant it to kill anyone --" Hagrid: "No, yeh can't! Yeh don' understand!" Tom: "Hagrid. The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered." Hagrid: " It wasn' him! Aragog never'd kill no one! Never!" Riddle: "Monsters don't make good pets, Hagrid. Now... stand aside..." Riddle draws his wand, and blasts the closed door off its hinges, extinguishing the torches within. Harry gasps. A low-slung creature with a tangle of black legs, a gleam of many eyes, and a pair of razor-sharp pincers, scuttles out of the shadows. As Riddle points his wand at it, Hagrid leaps. Hagrid: "Noooooo!" As they tumble to the floor, the entire room whirls off its axis, spinning, and Harry finds himself plummeting through color and shadow again, falling flat on his back to the floor of the Gryffindor Common Room, the ceiling above spinning, slowly, to a stop. Harry rises, and dashes upstairs.

~Boys' Dormitory~

Harry rushes to Ron, and shakes him awake, whispering intensely. Harry: "Ron! Ron!" Ron: "What? What's happened...?" Harry: "It was Hagrid. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."

~Outside Hogwarts~

CAMERA SOARS high over the castle, as below, students hurry to their classes. Finally, it FINDS: Harry, Ron, and Hermione walking together across the grounds. Hermione: "It can't be Hagrid. It just can't be." Ron: "We don't even know this Riddle. He sounds like a dirty, rotten snitch to me." Harry: " The monster had killed someone, Ron. What would any of us done?" Hermione: "Look. Hagrid's our friend. Why don't we just go ask him about it?" Ron: "That'd be a cheerful visit. Hullo, Hagrid. Tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?" Hagrid: " Mad an' hairy? Wouldn' be talkin' 'bou me, now would yeh?" The trio wheels, and spots Hagrid grinning at them. They instantly look guilty. Harry/Ron/Hermione: "No!" Hagrid looks at them curiously. Harry nods to the strange canister in his hand. Harry: " What's that you've got, Hagrid?" Hagrid: "Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent. Fer the Mandrakes, yeh know. Accordin' ter Professor Sprout, they still got a bit o' growin' up ter do, but once their acne clears up, we'll be able to chop 'em up, stew 'em, an' get those people in the hospital un-Petrified. 'Til then, you three best watch yerselves, all righ'?" They nod, watching Hagrid lope away. Just then, Neville comes running up. He looks pale with fright. Neville: "Harry, I don't know who did it, but... you'd better come. Harry's space is a disaster: trunk riffled, drawers flung open, bedclothes strewn on the floor. Hermione: "It had to be a Gryffindor. Nobody else knows our password. Unless it wasn't a student..." Ron: "Well, whoever it was, they were looking for something." Harry: " And they found it... Tom Riddle's diary is gone."

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