Courage

-17-

Book: Courage
Chapter 17
Word Count: 3585

The end of the summer vacation came too quickly for Layla's liking. She was looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts, but her summer at the Burrow had been incredible.

On their last evening, Layla was sat on her camp bed in Ginny's bedroom when Ginny walked in.

"Lay? Do you mind helping me pack my books? I can't fit them all in my trunk."

"Of course," said Layla, standing up as Ginny pulled her trunk in. They laid the trunk down and Ginny handed her books to Layla, who wished she could use a charm to make the trunk bigger on the inside. She hated the 'no magic outside of school' rule.

"What's this book?" asked Layla, holding up a black diary. "I thought you already had a diary. Did you get a new one?"

Ginny furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, grabbing the black diary from Layla.

"I've never seen this before."

She flicked through the pages. The pages were blank, plain, with no lines or anything. Ginny sighed, handing the diary back to Layla.

"Someone probably accidentally slipped it into my cauldron in Diagon Alley by mistake. I don't need that. You can have it if you want, it's empty, and I know you've almost used all of the pages in your journal. As long as you can handle the fact that there are no lines in this book."

"I can write straight, anyway. It does look like a pretty good diary. Thanks, Gin!" exclaimed Layla, placing the diary down on her camp bed to write in later. She then placed Ginny's books underneath her neatly folded robes and, struggling, Layla managed to get the trunk closed after a stressful few minutes.

"Thanks," said Ginny. "Dinner should be almost ready! Mum is making something special since it's our last day of summer."

After their sumptuous dinner, it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

As Layla sat in bed, she looked over at the peacefully sleeping Ginny, and then picked up the black diary from beside her. She studied it curiously before grabbing her quill and ink, beginning to write in it.

Hello, diary.

She began, thinking of what to write next. Should she describe her summer? The fight between Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy at Flourish and Blott's? What an arrogant prat Gilderoy Lockhart was?

But as Layla was thinking of what to put in the diary, she was startled when the words she had just written sunk into the page, the ink disappearing, and new words appeared on the page instead.

Hello. What's your name?

Layla's eyes widened in surprise. Was this an enchanted magical diary? Was it really writing back to her? She wrote a reply.

Layla Lupin! What's yours?

Tom Riddle.

Are you really a talking diary?

Something like that, yes. This diary contains part of my soul so it is easy to communicate through it.

Part of your school? Does that hurt?

No. It would only hurt if you destroy this book, but something in me is saying I can trust you. Am I right, Layla?

Something in the diary was like almost possessing Layla, causing her to smile as if she was ready to pour her heart out to the mysterious diary man, Tom Riddle.