The Secret of Tom Riddle's Diary

Chapter Five Back in the Chamber of Secrets

The first thing that Victoria noticed this second time around as opposed to her last two years as the famous Harry Potter was that she wasn't famous anymore. No Colin Creevey was asking for her picture. No students whispering about her in the halls. No one doubling around to catch a glimpse of her. She felt normal.

But she started to notice what Tom meant when he said that Slytherins were treated differently than Gryffindors and the other two houses.

She did hear whispers when she and others walked by.

"Great, more slimy snakes –"

"How much money do you have to pay to get into that club?"

She heard Ron Weasley say those things. It made her wonder. Did Harry Potter say those things too? She got a different view of Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Yes, she would see the two of them gossiping or laughing at other students. But oftentimes, she heard vitriol spewed against the two of them.

"That Malfoy is the worst of the snakes – and Pansy isn't much better."

But Draco and Pansy – they would drop anything to help one of the First Years out. The two in fact had been placed in charge of getting the First Year Slytherins to Transfiguration the first day.

The Professors could be just as bad. Professor Sprout was always yelling at them to leave her poor Hufflepufffs alone. Flitwick would criticize every wand motion when they practiced their Charms. Victoria knew that her wand movements were perfect. She had done it this way last year for Professor Flitwick, but he had praised her – no him then. Haywood in potions was soft spoken, but nearly as critical as Snape. Victoria knew how to brew a cure for boils – she had practiced it with Tom who was an expert himself. Professor Vector couldn't help any of them, since only 3rd years and up had her.

In the evenings, Victoria would write in Tom's Diary as he had instructed her. He seemed to show some rare pride when she told him how she had been sorted Slytherin. He also was pleased to hear how sh placed at the line-up – as he called it. He assured her that the upper years were giving her a head start in her social standing.

She grudgingly admitted that Tom had been right about the anti-Slytherin biases in the castle. She even told him that Harry Potter's old friends were very biased toward them. They would never help a Slytherin first year lost. The teachers were nearly as bad. He was very snide with, "I told you so –"

But apparently, he wanted the Diary in her hand, because she had work to do.

One evening as she wrote to him, she saw the following words:

"You need to go down to the Chamber of Secrets"

She wrote back, "Why?"

"The Basilisk needs to eat."

"But it will eat me?" she responded.

"No!" He responded. "Sneak out into the hallways, cast the Pied Piper spell I taught you, stupefy the rats that come to you –"

She didn't respond, shivering from fear and disgust of the rats. So, he wrote.

"Levitate the rats, Victoria, darling. You know how to get into the Chamber."

Luckily for Victoria, she had Harry's Cloak of Invisibility. When she went to bed, she tucked it under the pillow. She snuck out of bed, fifteen minutes afterwards, the diary, the cloak, and her wand in hand. Then, she snuck past the Upperclassmen still up doing homework. Unfortunately, for her the Pied Piper spell worked too well. She stunned them, and wrapped their tails together with magic. Then, she levitated them and took them to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She was just relieved that Peeves was not nearby.