The Mystery of the Chamber of Secrets

Chamber 13: The very secret diary

Hermione remained in the hospital wing for several weeks. There was a flurry of rumour about her disappearance when the rest of the school arrived back from their Christmas holidays, because, of course, everyone thought that she had been attacked. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed, to spare her the shame of being seen with a furry face. Harry and Ron brought Hermione the day's homework when they visited her each evening.

Etta and Ginny also visited as Pterano had asked Etta if he could be smuggled up to the hospital wing to see Hermione. When Madam Pomfrey was not looking he peeped out of Etta's bag to get a good look at her. He seemed quite entranced by her furry face and was reluctant to leave. When they were settled in the common room after the visit that evening, they heard a commotion in the corridor outside. Etta was curious and she slipped out to investigate. 

Filch was shouting hysterically, "...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..."

His footsteps ceased and Etta heard a distant slam. The noise came from the corridor where Mrs Norris had been attacked. A great flood of water stretched across the corridor seeping from under the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She slipped into the bathroom and heard Moaning Myrtle crying. She was hiding in her usual toilet. The bathroom was dark as the candles that usually illuminated the room had been extinguished by the great rush of water that had left, both walls and floor, soaking wet.

"What's happened, Myrtle?" Etta asked kindly, peering down the toilet.

"Who's that?" gurgled Myrtle miserably, "Come to throw something else at me?"

"I would never throw anything at you Myrtle," Etta said sincerely.

"You might not, but someone did," Myrtle wailed.

"What did they throw?" Etta asked, trying to keep Myrtle calmer and talking.

"A book," Myrtle replied bluntly.

"Did you recognise the person who threw it?" Etta questioned eagerly.

"No because it fell right on top of my head and then got washed out over there," Myrtle said pointing under the sink.

Etta looked under the sink and found a small, thin book with a shabby black cover, which was as wet as everything else in the bathroom. She discovered it was a diary and the faded date on the cover told her it was fifty years old. As she examined it, she had a feeling that she had seen this book somewhere before. Ginny's face appeared in her mind and she recalled Malfoy had put a book similar to this in Ginny's bag. But, how had it got here, she thought. Why would Ginny want to throw away the diary? She opened it, feeling a little guilty, to see if the front page offered any clues. The name T.M Riddle was written in smudged ink but nothing else was to be seen on the soggy pages. The book cover of the book had the printed name of a newsagent's in Vauxhall Road London. So Etta determined that the diary had been bought in the Muggle world. It looked like Ginny had not used the the diary, yet somebody had tried to dispose of it, even if it was not Ginny. She resolved to find out about T.M Riddle before she spoke to Ginny and keep her possession of the diary a secret for now.

Etta asked Pterano to move about the school stealthily, to investigate who Riddle was by looking for items in old cabinets or old glass cases for items that might mention his name and this task would be easier as Mrs Norris was petrified. Pterano had been involved of a number of encounters with Mrs Norris since coming to Hogwarts and Filch had been accusing students of mis-treating his cat because she had a few tufts of hair missing and one or two scratches. Over the next few days, Etta and Pterano made a special effort to discover who T.M Riddle was. It was Pterano who found the answer. After staring at the trophies in the trophy cabinet for two hours, Pterano finally found one that had the same letters on it that Etta had shown him. He came to Etta after dinner and curled up on her lap in the common room and silently communicated that Riddle was given a trophy for Special Services to the school. Etta had also discovered in some old school records that T.M Riddle had been both a prefect and Head Boy fifty years ago and been given a medal for Magical Merit. But, this did not explain why Malfoy had given Ginny this old book.