Hogwarts is my Home

Chapter 29: The Secret Diary (CS CH13)

The next morning after breakfast, Spencer, Ron, Harry, and I went to the Hospital Wing to see Hermione.

Spencer agreed to get Hermione's homework every day and bring it to her.

We were heading back to our Common Rooms, when I decided to start a conversation.

"If I had just been turned into part cat, I'd use that as an excuse to not do school work. Not Hermione, though."

"Well, she has to keep up," Spencer said briskly. "She can't fall behind."

"You know, sometimes I forget you're a Ravenclaw... and then you say shit like that and I remember," Ron said, playfully smacking her back. She smirked.

"Shh!" Harry said. "That's Filch."

"You don't think there's been another attack?" Spencer asked tensely.

Filch's voice was hysterical, though, going on about, "-even more work for me! Mopping all night, like I haven't got enough to do! No, this is the final straw, I'm going to Dumbledore-"

We poked our heads around the corner when we heard him walking off. We were in front of the bathrooms where Mrs. Norris had been attacked. There was water flooding out from the girl's bathroom and it sounded like someone was crying inside.

"Now what's up with her?" Ron asked.

"Let's go and see."

The two started walking into the bathroom, holding their robes off the ground. Spencer and I gave each other a confused look before following suit. 

"What's up, Myrtle?" Harry asked a person in one of the stalls.

"Come to throw something else at me?" she asked shakily.

"Why would I throw something at you?" 

"Don't ask me. Here I am, minding my own business and someone decides to throw a book at me!" She revealed herself, and I was shocked to see something other than a student- an alive student.

"That's a ghost!" Spencer whispered into Ron's ear.

"Yeah, it is." He said in a supporting way, showing that he cares about her interests.

"But surely it wouldn't hurt, it'd go right through you."

She flew right up to my face and screamed, "Sure, let's all throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it. 10 points if it goes through her stomach! 50 points if it goes through her head!"

"I'm sorry," I said, barely audible.

"You should be." She flew away and sat in the window.

"Who threw it at you, anyway?"

"I don't know... I was sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death when it fell through the top of my head." She glared at us. "It's over there."

Under the sink lay a thin book with a shabby black cover. Harry stepped forward to pick it up, but I flung out an arm to hold him back.

"Don't, it could be dangerous."

He turned around and tilted his head at me. "Come off it, T, how could it be dangerous?"

"You'd be surprised. Dad's told me about some of the books the Ministry's confiscated. There was one that burned your eyes out."

"Well, we won't know unless we look at it."  Spencer picked up the book- it was a diary. Etched onto the bottom of it was T.M. Riddle.

"Hang on, I know that name... T.M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."

"How on earth do you know that?" Spencer asked Ron in amazement.

"Filch made me polish his shield about a hundred times in detention. If you wiped slime off a name for an hour, you'd remember it, too."

"He never wrote in it." She flipped it over. It said it was from some shop on Vauxhall Road. "He must've been Muggle-born."

"Well, it's not much use to you," I said.

"Fifty points if you get it through Myrtle's nose!" Ron gleamed. 

Harry sat in the Common Room that night, flipping through the blank pages, searching for answers. 

I watched him, but yawned. "You can go to bed," he said. "You don't need to stay up with me."

"Okay. Tell me if you find anything out."

"I will."

The next morning, he was waiting for me on the stairs.

"I found something out, T. It was Hagrid that opened the Chamber fifty years ago," he said darkly.

"It can't be Hagrid. Why would he still be allowed here, then?"

Harry simply shrugged.