The puzzle of the soul 1: The black book

9: Tom Riddle

As the days passed, Lilac noticed how she got little sleep. She stayed up, doing everything she could to find new information about the subjects she was interested in. The black book lay in her dormitory and she kept postponing to take a look at it.
Suddenly though, she felt like she should just try to figure out why it had been thrown at Myrtle.

She opened the book and frowned, it was empty. Page by page, nothing.

"Why must you be empty?" Lilac asked out loud. Nobody was there to hear her since it was late enough for the common room to be empty. Next to her the fire was lighting up her face and the book she held.
She turned the book in her hands, finding letters engraved into the back.
"Are you a diary?" She mumbled, "Tom riddle, stupid name." The letters told her the book was fifty years old. How weren't the pages yellow and old? How was the cover still in good condition?

Lilac sighed and grabbed her ink from her bag.
"Let's see how well you can keep clean." She dripped some ink on the cover, which disappeared in the book. A small frown entered her face. Opening the book, she wondered wether it was made to soak in ink. Why would a book do that? Would it appear somewhere else? Was it a way of communicating?
The questions led her to grab her quill. She wrote the simplest thing she could think off.

'Hi' the word disappeared in the parchment. Lilac looked at the page, waiting patiently.

'Hello, who are you?' something wrote back in neat letters.

Lilac wondered who could have written it, but decided there was only one way to figure this out, 'I'll tell you my name once you tell me yours.'

'My name is Tom Riddle.' The book wrote in the same letters as before.

New thoughts entered Lilac's head. Was this possessed by a ghost?
'Am I talking to an old man?' Lilac asked the book. Looking at the letters on the back she decided the person must be, 'Or are you dead?'

'You haven't told me your name yet.' The book wrote back. Lilac waited for a second, hoping she had damaged its ego, 'But I will tell you that I am very much alive.'

Lilac smiled and thought about the possibly of this being some kind of phone, but in the form of a book... and sigh writing...she got up and started pacing, looking at the book as she did so.
Suddenly she stopped and closed the book with a snap. She rushed up to her dormitory, waking one of her roommates up, and ran back downstairs with a book in her hands. She flipped trough the pages and found the page she was looking for. She read trough it before she flipped the page, only to have it ripped out.
"Really?" Lilac complained.
Why would someone do this to a book?

Lilac sighed and grabbed the black book she had thrown aside for the moment. Grabbing her quill and ink again, she wrote down her question, 'What's a horcrux?'

The book didn't reply for a second before letters appeared.
'Why do you want to know?'

'Isn't it obvious?' Lilac wrote back immediately, 'I believe it is, so answer me please?'

'All right...' A whole load of letters appeared, explaining about what a horcrux was. Lilac smiled, she could use this book.

'Then, you're a horcrux, right?' Lilac replied to the information.

The book suddenly slammed shut as the fire in front of Lilac extinguished.
A wand pressed her throat as a voice behind her spoke up in a low dangerous voice.
"Who are you?"

*

"Me?" Lilac smiled and looked down at the wand, "I'm just an innocent first year."

The person behind her pressed the wand more into her neck, making Lilac try and get away from it.
"Tell me, who are you?" The person growled.

"I'm Lilac, Lilac Paymont, nice to meet you." Lilac looked up to see what looked like a fifteen year old with short black hair.

The person looked into her lilac coloured eyes for a second before he pulled his wand away, "How did you figure it out?" He asked as he stepped away from her, not putting away his wand.

"Well, you kinda gave it away." Lilac shrugged and picked up the black book, "What I wonder, who's Tom Riddle?"

The ghost, or Tom Riddle, as Lilac figured, gave her a confused look, "What do you mean, who's Tom Riddle?"

"I mean," Lilac leaved trough the empty pages, "Why'd you want a horcrux? Isn't it rather bothersome to make one?"

"It kind of is..." Riddle admitted before he shook his head, "I'm not going to tell you everything, Lilac Paymont."

Lilac smiled, "Yes you are." She waved the book around, "I wanna know."

An annoyed look crossed Tom Riddle's face. "How did I get into this mess?" he asked himself as he wiped a hand across his face.

"I don't know, you tell me?" Lilac looked up pleadingly, "Please?"

Tom Riddle seemed to get an idea, "How about I show you what happened, how I got where you found my journal—"

"It's more like a diary—" Lilac tried to correct, but Tom Riddle cut her off.

"Do you want to die?" He asked before he huffed, "I'll show you, and then you bring me where I want you to."

Lilac thought about it before she nodded, "Sounds like a deal."
As if on command, Tom Riddle disappeared and the book slammed open, the pages flipping itself. Lilac could feel herself as if being sucked into the book, a strange thing.
Suddenly though, she found herself in the corridors of Hogwarts. She looked around and saw some kids walking and talking about the latest quidditch match. The students listening seemed interested, which meant... "Are we back in time?" She asked out loud.

Tom appeared next to her, "How could you possibly have figured that out yet?"

"Nobody's interested in quidditch after some days." Lilac smiled, "And that quidditch match was weeks ago, I think."

"Right..." Tom shrugged it off and turned to someone who walked up to them, "See her?"

"Who? Ginny Weasley?" Lilac wondered out loud, "What's she got to do with this?"

Tom Riddle didn't say anything as Ginny walked right trough Lilac, creating a cold feeling all trough her.
Turning on her heel, Lilac figured out where Ginny was going. Judging by her stressed and determined look, it wasn't for what the place was made for.
Lilac had to run a little to catch up to Ginny's fast pace, but in the girl's bathroom, Ginny slowed down. She grabbed the black book from her robes and looked at it in some type of hatred, before she threw it away as hard as she could.

"And that is how you found me." Tom Riddle said.

"Hold up," Lilac held up her hand and looked at how the book went trough the ghost, "Okay, go on."
Getting a questioning look, Lilac raised an eyebrow, "I had to see wether you were fooling me or not."

"Right..." Tom Riddle mumbled before with one wave, Lilac was sitting back on the couch. The book stopped moving and Tom Riddle appeared next to her, "So you'll take me to Harry Potter then?"

Lilac paused, "Wait, what?"

"You said you'd take me where I wanted to go, so take me." Tom Riddle explained, not really accepting a no.

"But..." Lilac sighed, "I'll have to wait until tomorrow."

Tom Riddle nodded, "Make him find the journal, and be sure he doesn't suspect you, nor the Weasley girl."

"Alright, I'll try," Lilac said as she got up, "May I ask first why you'd want to get to Harry Potter?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Tom riddle said as he crossed his arms, smiling slightly as he said this, "I'll need him to open the chamber of secrets."