The Secret of Tom Riddle's Diary

Chapter Twelve - Criminals, Dumbledore, and Dementors

Victoria found that her late night trips to feed the basilisk and learn more in the Chamber continued to have Albus Dumbledore showing on the map. She continued to remain very wary of the man. She never saw him up close. The closest she came was in the Great Hall at meal times. She would never catch his twinkling eyes on her, but she knew she needed to be careful of the man.

The one outside class in the Greenhouse went well. She kept her Occlumency barriers up strong and never saw the Dementors except from a distance. But during the day, Sirius Black made his first attempt into the castle. Everyone was terrified as they whispered that evening in the Great Hall what had happened. During an hour when everyone was in class, he had approached the Fat Lady Portrait of Gryffindor and broke into that Common Room. Peeves had seen him and tried to stop him.

"Was he after Harry Potter?" one whisper said.

Another said, "Does he know Potter isn't even here anymore?"

Others wondered how he was able to sneak past the Dementors.

"Apparate? Disguise?"

Victoria wanted to check on another theory - Animagus.

That night thanks to Black's attack they had to sleep on the floors of the Great Hall as one big school.

Victoria couldn't sneak off and run to the Chamber to feed the basilisk or write in the journal. But she dared not write in it.

"Tom, not sure I can write long. We are sitting in the Great Hall. The Professors have the whole school sleeping here thanks to Black - he attacked Gryffindor tower."

"He does know that Harry Potter is gone, doesn't he?" was the response.

"What if he is looking for something else?" Victoria responds.

"What might that be?"

"The Weasley map keeps showing Peter Pettigrew -"

"He was killed by Black according to the papers -" he responded.

"I am wondering if the Potter gang had a secret," she wrote.

"What secret?" he wrote back.

"Lupin is a werewolf -"

"What if to help him along his friends became Anamagi?"

"It would explain his escape and how he eludes the Dementors." He wrote.

"And Pettigrew if exposed, would be perfect for the Dark Lord -" she wrote back.

"Well, I will look into all their trials on my end." He wrote.

"I have to leave. Others are telling us lights out."

With the command given, Victoria put up strong shields in her head and laid down to sleep.

Security remained tight. Security trolls were brought in to guard the hidden entrance to Gryffindor Tower. Tensions were high in the school through the Easter break.

Victoria spent the week at Avery Manor - the majority of that time was spent in a book Tom had required of her to read: An Introduction to the Dark Arts.

Nothing changed as they returned from Easter vacation. The Dementors remained guarding the building, but no further attacks by Sirius Black had happened. One more month of tough security, sneaking even harder to get into the Chamber of Secrets to feed the basilisk and then at last Finals came.

The repeat of her first year exams were easy. Victoria even remembered thanks to several of her Occlumency training exercises some of the test questions.