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Chapter Ten: The Diary of Darkness

The consciousness of the soul fragment of Tom Marvolo Riddle had started to stir within the diary. The puppet appeared to be getting weary of writing in Tom, as more attacks happened. She only wrote in the diary on one occasion during the Christmas Holidays and the writing time had been extremely brief in duration. Tom made a quick executive decision. He would allow the girl to ditch the diary for a short amount of time so he could move onto the second stage of his ultimate master plan. He would succeed where his future self failed, with the ultimate destruction of the one known as Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived. The mistakes of his future self would not be made once Tom brought himself fully to life. The only follower he needed was his beloved pet down in the Chamber of Secrets, this time Lord Voldemort would not need to rely on pitiful human servants who were capable of feats of incompetence. He would forge a powerful dynasty, using his Basilisk to kill anyone who dared get in his way. Starting of course with Harry Potter. It mattered little to Tom when the Weasley girl would be destroyed, as she was nothing more than a pawn in his plan of domination of the entire Wizarding World.

Tom had waited for this moment for a total of fifty years, a few more months should not make a bit of difference. His goals would be achieved, by any means necessary.

"So, Harry, how was your Christmas?" asked Hermione as her and Harry was walking through the hall along with Daphne and Theodore after the first day of classes after break.

"Pretty good actually, it was nice to be in a place I did not have to be looked at because I was some murderer," said Harry. "Still, makes it all the more depressing when it comes back."

"You are not kidding," said Theodore in a low tone of voice. "People are still up in arms about everything. These attacks are becoming more and more bold on every occasion."

"I overheard McGonagall and Snape talking, they said if there is one more attack, teachers will be escorting students through the hallway after every class and our freedoms will be greatly restricted," said Daphne in a low tone of voice.

"Just as well isn't it, any one of us could be next," said Harry darkly.

Hermione went to respond but a wailing sound right by the girl’s bathroom stopped her progress in walking down the hallways. Daphne looked at Hermione, having an irritable look on her face at the origin of the wail.

"What's her problem now?" demanded Daphne.

"Who's problem, what are you talking about?" asked Theodore.

"Moaning Myrtle, that's her bathroom," answered Hermione. "Someone must have done something to mortally offend her for some reason."

"Well, I say we should go in and find out," said Daphne.

"But that's a girls bathroom.." started Theodore before Daphne cut him off.

"I am aware of that, but no one ever goes in there, due to her flooding the place with her wailing," said Daphne irritably. "So come one, let's find out what is going on in there."

Daphne, Theodore, Hermione, and Harry walked into the bathroom and the first sight they saw was Moaning Myrtle sitting on her toilet, head in her arms, sobbing.

"Who's there?" whimpered Myrtle. "Come to throw more things at Poor Myrtle. It's not like she can feel them, I bet that's what you are thinking. It's not like any more feelings. Come on, throw it at me, it's not like I can't take it."

Harry had little experience dealing with Temperamental Ghosts, but he attempted to gather whatever strands of patience he was still clinging onto after all these months to try.

"What was it that was thrown at you, Myrtle?" inquired Harry patiently.

"I don't know, a book of some sort, I guess," sobbed Myrtle. "It washed out somewhere. I didn’t really care enough to look where it went."

With those words, Harry and his friends began looking for whatever has been thrown. However, Harry's attention was diverted for a moment with a very peculiar looking tap on one of the sinks. It appeared to have a snake carved on the side. An odd decoration for the girl's bathroom to say the very least, someone one would not normally be seen in such a place.

"Harry, look," said Hermione, bringing Harry out of thoughts and his attention away from the strangely decorated tap. Harry turned around and saw a diary of some sort lying in the water.

"Why would someone want to throw away a diary of all things?" said Theodore in a confused voice.

"Perhaps because it could be dangerous or have incriminating information, that they don’t want to be read," suggested Daphne.

"Yeah, that would be about it, wouldn't it," said Theodore as Harry made a motion to pick up the book. "I wouldn’t touch that if I were you, Harry. The book could be deadly."

Harry looked at the book and he sensed something dark about the book. There was a magical signature around the book sensed by Harry. He saw it in the past, although he could not place it at the current moment.

"Well, best I take this diary so it does not fall into innocent hands," said Harry, picking up the diary and putting it in his pocket.

"Harry, then what pray tell do you consider yourself," said Daphne.

"I consider myself someone a person who wants to find out what exactly this diary is," said Harry. "It could be the item I need to clear my name from this Chamber of Secrets fiasco for all I know."

Hermione looked at Harry thoughtfully.

"Still, what damage could a mere diary do," said Hermione reasonably.

"I don't know but I have a very paranoid feeling about this diary," said Harry.

Harry neglected to tell his friends that the minute he looked at the diary, he felt a strong desire to write in it at the first possible time but thanks to his strong mind power as a result of his ninjitsu training, he was able to fight that thought. Still, Harry had to bring his full amount of will power up to combat the diary.

The teachers seemed to be piling on a great deal of schoolwork over the next few weeks as the Christmas Holidays were now over. Harry did not even get a chance to look at the diary he found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom as he and his friends were so swamped.

On the plus side of things, Ginny seemed to be looking a little less ill after the Christmas Holidays. She seemed to be a bit more cheerful and less likely to avoid people, especially Harry, than she was before the Holidays. This fact put Harry at ease; he suspected the reason for that line of thinking was he hated to see any of his friends suffer for any reason. After all, what other reason could Harry be pleased to see Ginny not looking ill anymore? At this present moment Harry was assisting Ginny with a Potions Assignment from Snape in the library on a day where he somehow managed to complete all of his homework.

"Harry, it seems like whatever illness I had it seems to have passed sometime during the Christmas Holidays," said Ginny but she knew it was a lie. The minute she ditched the diary, she started to recover quite a bit. Ginny hoped she would never see the diary for as long as she lived.

"Still, do you happen to know what exactly was the reason why you looked like you were so sick?" asked Harry.

"No, Harry, I don’t have a clue, I wish I did though," said Ginny. There still seemed to be a few residual effects with the diary in her mind. The desire not to tell anyone about it for any reason seemed to still exist. "Harry, do you happen to have a better reference for this question about Hiccup Curing Solution in one of the books you have?"

Harry looked in his bag, checking to see if he had anything that would have helped his friend.

"Let me check," said Harry, rummaging through his bag and very nearly knocking the mysterious diary he found in Myrtle's bathroom out. Harry quickly pushed the thing back into the bag.

If Harry had not been so busy looking through his bag for one of his many books on Potions, he would have seen Ginny's eyes go wide as she saw the all too familiar diary sticking out of his bag. It couldn't be, but as Ginny got a closer look, her worst fears were confirmed. Ginny cursed her luck, how did Harry find it? What if the diary told him about the truth about the attacks? Ginny looked down at the parchment, to hide her worry.

"Here, you go, Ginny, this should help you tremendously," said Harry.

"Thank you, Harry," muttered Ginny, taking the book. She needed to get that diary away from Harry but she knew Harry was protective of his possessions, to almost a fanatical paranoid manner. At the first chance Harry managed to leave the diary elsewhere, she needed to get her hands back on it to prevent Harry from learning the truth.

If Harry found out who was really doing all the attacks, after all the damage done to his reputation, Ginny feared Harry might hate her and Ginny could not bear live with that fact, as Harry had been a great loyal friend and it would be hard to imagine her life without him being a part of it. He must not find out anything from that diary.

Before anyone could know it, Valentine's Day had approached and this fact disturbed Harry slightly. It seemed like a good majority of the girls in the school seemed all giggly and excited all of the sudden. Harry may have known a lot about the Martial Arts but psychoanalyzing the behaviors of girls was not one of his strong points. Master Splinter seemed to be lacking in that department of knowledge. However, the behavior of most of the girls in Hogwarts was not the thing that disturbed Harry, the fact that he got wind of the horror Lockhart was planning for the school for this day, he made an executive decision to hide out in the Slytherin Library with a duration of the day. Harry would not want to be forced to kill Lockhart due to his cheesy attempts to get into the Holiday spirit. In normal circumstances, Harry would jump at the opportunity to give Lockhart some pain. But with his name currently mud, he was not going to risk doing anything that would further ruin his reputable.

Plus, Harry wanted an excuse to figure out what exactly that blasted diary was. There had not been an attack since the one before Christmas and this made Harry suspect the diary even more. At least the dark looks Harry and his friends got were starting to die down, even Ron Weasley appeared to be beginning to behave in a somewhat civil manner. Nevertheless, Harry did not want to get sidetracked from his mission by thinking about how the opinions of people in the school seemed to change week to week. He set the diary out in front of him. It had no writing on its pages. This fact perplexed Harry, as he had the thought of someone throwing away a diary with no writing in it, seemed redundant.

"So what exactly are you, diary?" demanded Harry, pulling out his wand. "Let's see what well happen as I set you on fire. INCENDIO!"

A jet of fire flew from Harry's wand but it absorbed into the diary. The diary seemed not to be affected by fire. Still, Harry decided he would try a different, less sadistic tact. First, he brought concentration to full alert; it would be insulting for Harry to lose a game of will power to a mere diary. He picked up a quill and began to write.

What exactly are you anyway?

The diary went still for a moment before the ink sucked into the pages.

An interesting question to be sure, something I am not quite sure to answer as I do not quite remember how I was created. So, what is your name, writer?

So the diary wanted to play games with Harry, then so be it. An uppity diary would not humble Harry, he could assure himself of that fact.

The name is Harry Potter. I must say, a sentient diary is not something seen everyday.

Harry looked at the diary, as the ink sucked into the pages before the diary wrote back.

I am unique creation, I will give you that. My name is Tom Riddle by the way and am curious, how did you come across this diary?

Harry reached forward weakly and slammed the diary shut. He had been getting a splitting headache attempting to resist whatever dark powers the diary was giving off. The infernal thing seemed to be leading Harry in a direction. The boy shoved the diary back into the bag. He needed to find a way to destroy the book as it seemed too powerful to be allowed to remain intact. Fire would not work but perhaps once Harry went back to New York for Easter, he could expose the diary to every corrosive acid that he could find in Donatello's laboratory at the lair. Maybe that could be the ticket in the destruction of the diary.

Inside the diary, Tom was seething. He needed to show the boy that altered memory of that oaf Hagrid so he could throw him off, as Tom needed to begin to implement the third part of his plan. Given the boy's little fire trick, it seemed to Tom that he was hell bent on destroying the diary. Tom felt thankful that the venom of the Basilisk was the only component that could destroy the diary and it was not like the boy could ever gain control of his most faithful servant. A decision was made by Tom to accelerate his plans a few weeks sooner than he would have liked but it was mandated by necessity.

About a week after Harry's attempt to figure out what the diary was, he was chatting with Daphne, Theodore, and Hermione on Saturday after Flint had let out of one of his gruesome Quidditch Practices.

"Harry, you are saying the diary attempted to take control of you when you wrote in it," said Hermione, her eyes growing wide.

"Yes, Hermione, for the third time, that's what I said," said Harry. "I got a bloody splitting headache as I attempted to fight it and if I wrote much more in it, I don't think I could have fought it anymore."

"I wonder if this diary did have something to do with the attacks," said Theodore in a low voice. "This Tom Riddle seems rather suspicious. I have never heard of him and someone that powerful could be important enough to be mentioned in several books."

"Actually, I have seen his name once before," said Daphne. "I had detention with Filch before in the Trophy Room and I saw his name on a plaque with old Head Boys. He had to have been smart to get be Head Boy, so he may have had the knowledge to create a device which can possess someone to the extent to carry out the attacks."

Hermione had a fretful look on her face and she turned to Harry, looking rather fearful before speaking.

"Harry, you need to show the diary to someone," said Hermione. "Like, even if he is not trustworthy at all, Dumbledore has to know. He may be able..."

Harry held his hand up, preventing Hermione from speaking any further.

"Dumbledore knows," said Harry darkly in a near cryptic whisper. "I know it, he is playing a lovely game of human chess, all at the sake of controlling me. He has been walking this fine line since the moment I stepped into Hogwarts. People would look at me like I’m mad if I told them the truth as he has been the beacon of light for too long and people in general in the Wizarding World fear change. Still, there has to be someone I could show the diary too."

"Snape," said Theodore simply. "If anyone could figure out what that diary exactly is, it would be Professor Snape. The knowledge he has on Dark Arts in unparalleled. Even Lucius Malfoy could not hope to match Snape in knowledge, as much as he tries."

"That may actually be the best plan," said Daphne. "Snape will know, Snape has to know, and quite frankly, we have few other options."

"So it's settled, Harry," said Hermione. "You have to get back to your dormitory and get that diary to give to Professor Snape so he can look at it and figure out what it is."

Harry got up, nodding his head. He began to walk out of the library.

As Harry and his other friends were talking, Ginny entered the Slytherin Second Year Boys Dormitories. She felt a strong urge to get the diary and get it now. Tossing Harry's things around, in a reckless pursuit to get the diary, Ginny found what she was looking for. The moment she touched the diary, her mind went completely blank. Tom had been anticipating the girl going back after the diary once she got a guilt trip and took control straight away.

Tom used his puppet to look around the room. As she was stealing the diary, Tom was going to use her to steal something that should be his, as he was the heir of Slytherin. It took a few minutes to locate Tom's objective and he felt pleased Potter was careless enough to leave the artifact in his room and not leave it on his person. Tom used his pawn to pick up the object and stuff it in a pocket in the back of the diary. Further use would be made of the object when Tom put his plans for total domination of the Wizarding World into full motion.

Tom willed the girl to leave the area before she was discovered and Tom's plans blown completely. Thankfully for Tom, he had Ginny out of the crime scene about ten minutes before Harry had arrived at his dormitories.

Harry entered the Slytherin Common Room, frantically climbing up to the Boys Dormitories. Time was of the essence, he needed to locate the diary and show it to Snape before it was too late.

The sight that greeted Harry when he arrived was that of a war zone.

Harry gritted his teeth, someone wanted that diary out of his hands before he could show it to Snape. Harry suspected Dumbledore initially, as the Headmaster; he would know all the passwords to the houses. The thought was extinguished, as Harry knew Dumbledore would do a better job in covering than whoever stole the diary at this point.

Theodore arrived at the dormitories about a minute later. He walked up to Harry, not noticing the mess at first, as he was too distracted at the task at hand.

"Did you find it Har..." started Theodore before stopping seeing the mess around. "Someone stole it, didn't they?"

"Yep," stated Harry grimly before picking up and attempting to account for all his possessions. However, one crucial object, other than the diary, seemed to missing from the equation. "That's not all this thief stole."

"What else is missing?" asked Theodore, although by the look on his face, Harry had a feeling Theodore knew.

"The Portus-Amulet is gone," said Harry desperately, cursing his carelessness at leaving it among his possession.

Harry felt a great amount of dread at this moment and rightfully so. If an object with the power to transport anyone, anywhere, around Anti-Apparition wards even, fell into the wrong hands. Unlimited Portkey capabilities that would not run out for some time could potentially be used for evil. Harry wished he kept the Portus-Amulet on him at all times now, instead of only when he was wandering out at night.

Harry shuddered at what evil might befall Hogwarts now. Whoever the attacker was now had control of the monster of the Chambers and the Portus-Amulet, so Harry had a sinking feeling that the attacks may start up again. This time, the attacker would be more dangerous and have more stealth capabilities then ever due to the capabilities of the Portus-Amulet.