Growing up Pureblooded

Not an Ordinary Diary

The next day, after Narcissa came by to collect Draco, Aries went upstairs to his bedroom and took out the diary. Having spent the better part of the last two months handling the most powerful magical object believed to exist, Aries knew instantly that what he held in his hands was no ordinary enchanted journal. It was a powerful magical object in its own right, and somehow, Harry got the sense that it contained something even more precious than the Philosopher's Stone.

He ran his fingers along the spine, and felt a sharp pain in his forehead. The pain was excruciating, but Aries found it relatively easy to ignore, because he simultaneously felt a strange sense of exultation. The part of his mind that he used to speak Parseltongue, which had been strangely quiet over the past several weeks, had suddenly reasserted itself with a vengeance, and Aries felt alive and strong again. In some ways, this new feeling was similar to that of contemplating the Stone: Aries experienced an exhilarating clarity and sense of purpose. He smiled as it washed over him. He found that he had missed it desperately.

At the same time, Aries could sense that there were major differences between the diary and the Stone. Gazing upon the Stone had always been accompanied by a sense of quiet sorrow, like the song of a phoenix in all the old stories, and Aries had always felt strangely small afterwards, as a small child might feel all alone in the middle of an enormous desert, with the infinite blackness of the starry firmament stretching overhead. This new feeling was far more...pleasant. As he held the diary, Aries felt large and powerful, as though all the stars in the sky were nothing compared to him and his destiny. And whereas the Stone had all too often made Aries feel like a dirty little boy sticking his nose where it didn't belong, the diary felt as though it belonged with him. There was a kinship between them; they were alike in some fundamental way that Aries did not yet understand, but which he fully intended to explore.

He opened the diary and took out his quill. This diary, and all its secrets, he wrote in his neat, elegant hand, are now the property of Aries Sirius Black, the true Heir of Slytherin. His words vanished, and new words appeared in a different hand. Hello, Aries Sirius Black. I am Tom Marvolo Riddle.