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Chapter Twenty Seven: The Riddle of the Diary

Harry waited in a stone hallway in Gringotts, tapping his foot on the floor impatiently. He was escorted outside of the office of the director of Gringotts, who was perhaps one of the most powerful members of the goblin nation. From what rumors Harry had heard, he was also one of the most blood thirsty goblins in the entire race, so he had to remain on his toes, with a small belief that this might be a trap.

A surly looking goblin, armed with a spear walked up towards Harry, before it turned to face him.

“Ragnok will see you now, Mr. Potter,” announced the goblin in a surly tone and Harry nodded before he rose to his feet. He walked towards the office, fully aware that the goblin had his spear right behind him in a threatening manner.

The door swung open on its own accord as Harry saw a goblin who looked like he could give him a damn good fight, despite Harry’s ninjitsu skills. Two other goblins stood menacingly in the background, spears also in hand.

“Good evening, Mr. Potter,” said the goblin icily. “As you know, I’m Ragnok, the director of Gringotts bank and I’ve decided now would be the best time to entertain your request for a meeting with us.”

“Yes, I appreciate that,” replied Harry but if Ragnok heard him he didn’t acknowledge it.

“As you may have known, the human wizard calling himself Lord Voldemort has sent contacts to the goblin nation to an attempt to build a working alliance with his,” remarked Ragnok. “These meetings have been happening periodically over the past year and Lord Voldemort has given us some very enticing promises. Promises that have caused a fair portion of our race to lean towards allying themselves with Lord Voldemort.”

Ragnok paused for a moment, before the goblin continued.

“I must admit, Lord Voldemort does make some very interesting offers, but I personally feel that it’s the same rhetoric humans have been spouting for centuries,” continued Ragnok. “Our alliance with the Ministry of Magic was always tenuous at best and the latest treaty breach has caused much unrest among the goblin nation and I, along with many others, are under a strong belief that Lord Voldemort is attempting to take advantage of the latest Ministry of Magic breach of treaty and work himself into the confidences of our race. What do you think Mr. Potter?”

“Director Ragnok, I agree one hundred percent,” answered Harry in a clear voice, careful to maintain eye contact with the goblin. “Voldemort has already aligned himself with many other magical races and he would consider it a coup to form an alliance with the goblins, but it would be worthy of his own benefit.”

“It’s quite acceptable we seem to be on the same wave length, Mr. Potter,” replied Ragnok with a curt nod. “The goblins would not be as easy to manipulate into an alliance like savage, mindless brutes such as werewolves, vampires, or giants. We prefer to maintain neutrality of all costs.”

“Respectively speaking Director, neutrality is always being threatened,” answered Harry. “Voldemort doesn’t take no for an answer at any costs.”

“Ah, Mr. Potter, but do you take no for an answer for your offer for an alliance?” asked Ragnok.

“I’d like to think that myself and members of my Resistance group could work with members of the goblin nation to work towards the safety of all of Magical Britain, whether it be Muggle, goblin, or otherwise,” replied Harry in a diplomatic fashion.

“Yes, Mr. Potter, I realize your aims and while admirable, it’s my belief that you may be fighting a losing battle,” continued Ragnok. “While you may be more benevolent then most, I do not confuse your benevolence for stupidity. Should we form an alliance, you may find yourself needing to find a way to attempt to manipulate your side to come up better, to protect your species from Lord Voldemort. Naturally, you are just only human.”

“I’d like to think any alliance would be equal and even, without any benefits outweighing the other,” said Harry.

“Yes, that is a rather noble dream,” agreed Ragnok. “Still, the goblin race is split as is between Lord Voldemort and neutrality, an attempt to gravitate towards you by some would cause us to be weakened and the magical economy could not sustain itself without a proper amount of goblins to maintain it. If the magical economy fails, that could lead to outreaching problems with the Muggle economy, with the worst case scenario being a worldwide depression that leads to essentially an environment of anarchy all around the world.“

The way that the Director of Gringotts put that down made the situation that would have been caused by a goblin civil war that would be very grim. Harry had taken enough money out of his account and kept it in the safe place in the Potter Residence, just on the off chance that Voldemort had joined up with the goblins. His mother had done the same thing and between the two of them, they had enough to fund the Resistance organization, including the salaries of all the members along with purchasing the necessities for living for the next fifteen years, should Voldemort last that long.

“Be that as it may, Mr. Potter, I will encourage others to remain neutral and not be enticed by Lord Voldemort’s promises and perhaps we may find ourselves on the same side at times,” concluded Ragnok, at that moment, a goblin rushed inside the office, blood dripping down from the floor.

“Director, a situation has arised, masked attackers have attacked the lower vaults!” yelled the goblin quickly.

“Employ all defenses, I’ll check the situation out!” ordered Ragnok as the other three goblins in his office followed him. Harry made a movement. “Mr. Potter, it would be highly unadvisable for you to attempt to help us. There are many traps down in the lower vaults that are designed to destroy intruders. Even if you are better than average wizard, goblin magic is different and it would be difficult for you to counteract the traps in time. You’d be much safer in here.”

Harry reluctantly nodded as the goblins left and the office door swung shut, sealing Harry into the office as Gringotts went into total lockdown. All human magic was suspended, including much to Harry’s displeasure, his Portus-Amulet was also unable to function when Gringotts was under lockdown.

Back in the Gryffindor common room, a book sat on a table, with an orb of black magical energy surrounding it as Luna and Ron approached it cautiously but a loud hissing caused them to have second thoughts.

“Hermione’s was influenced by something all year,” muttered Luna as she shook her head sadly.

“You mean like Ginny was during her first year!” exclaimed Ron fearfully.

“Afraid so, and it pulled both Ginny and Hermione into that book,” explained Luna.

“They’ll make it out alive, right?” asked Ron in a hopeful voice.

“I don’t know, it would be foolish to assume without knowing exactly how powerful that thing would be,” answered Luna.

“Where’s Harry Potter when you need him?” asked Ron.

“Daphne and Theodore should be returning any moment with Professor Potter, she might be able to help, she is the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher after all,” said Luna but her eyes had flashes of worry in them about both Hermione and Ginny.

Just as Luna had made that statement, Lily had made her way into the Gryffindor Common Room, followed by Daphne, Theodore, and Hailey. A few seconds later, Snape made his way into the Gryffindor common room.

“What’s he doing here?” demanded Ron.

“Five points from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn, Mr. Weasley,” replied Snape.

“Professor Snape is here because he has a bit of experience in dealing with the dark arts,” said Lily. “You said Hermione was acting rather strange when the tower was evacuated.”

“Yes, and Luna reckons that both Hermione and Ginny may have been pulled into that book,” explained Ron.

Lily made a movement forward to examine the book closely.

“I wouldn’t advise touching that, unless you want to lose an arm,” said Snape lightly. “It’s obviously created very powerful defenses to prevent tampering until it’s done.”

“Maybe we should get Professor Dumbledore,” suggested Ron.

“No, I doubt that he should be involved in this,” replied Lily with a bit of venom.

“It’s just as well as the Headmaster is currently out for the evening,” said Snape as he looked around. “Speaking of those who are out, I’m quite astonished that young Mr. Potter is not present right now. I would assume that he would that he would do everything in his power to free his girlfriend.”

“Harry is currently out for the evening and before you ask, no I can’t tell you where,” answered Lily shortly. “I can’t see anything I can do without triggering a magical chain reaction that would cause half of the school to explode.”

“Yes, there is only one thing that can be done, Miss Weasley and Miss Granger must find a way out of there from the inside,” said Snape.

Hailey just looked at the book with worry on her face.

“Do not despair Hailey, Ginny and Hermione will be okay,” replied Luna in a soothing voice.

“Harry’s not here, Harry could find a way to get them out,” muttered Hailey.

“No, Miss Potter, for once your brother would have been unable to save the day if he had been here,” replied Snape coolly. “All we do is wait and be prepared to get those two proper medical attention should they find a way out, as a lengthy exposure to dark magic.”

Ginny shook her head as she found herself in a dark, cavernous hallway. It was the most barren, lightless place, she had ever seen in her life.

“Hermione, are you here?” whispered Ginny.

“Yes, Ginny, yes I am,” replied Hermione. “I’m sorry, this is all my fault..”

“Hermione, save it for later,” hissed Ginny. “We need to get out of here now.”

“Escape is useless,” replied a voice as footsteps echoed through the eerily quiet hallway and the sixteen year old form of Tom Marvolo Riddle appeared, smiling at Hermione and Ginny.

“YOU!” shouted Ginny as she rushed forward and attempted to attack Riddle, but a magical field caused her to bounce back to the ground. Ginny attempted to pull out her wand but much to her horror, she must have dropped it when she was pulled into the diary.

“I’ll make this simple for you two to understand, you are in my world where I have limitless power,” explained Tom calmly. “Magic can’t touch me, and your feeble Muggle attacks can’t do anything, so it’s useless.”

“What do you mean, we’re in your world?” asked Hermione.

“Hermione, I was created when your world’s Lord Voldemort was sixteen years old, I am a piece of his soul, his Horcrux, that foolish manipulator attempted to use me to control what I became but his attempts made me more powerful,” replied Tom softly. “Ginny, you remember those nightmares you were having this summer, that was me attempting to reclaim what was mine.”

“I was never yours Riddle, you used me, you played on my emotions and if I could kill you right now, I would,” answered Ginny angrily. “Yet, you couldn’t completely break free of the diary, because Harry, the love of my life, my heart, my soul, defeated you.”

Tom backed up a little bit with a painful grimace on his face, as Ginny professed her love for Harry but he quickly hid it.

“Yes, Harry Potter, you two maintaining close contact when you slept forced me out and put me into limbo,” replied Tom. “I had to formulate another plan to break free, because I’m not going back to the prison of that wretched diary, with nothing but my memories. The basilisk venom caused me to go into stasis until I was awakened.”

Tom Riddle stared at Hermione and Ginny.

“Hermione’s condition after the deaths of her parents made it rather interesting to influence her, I latched myself onto the first book she was allowed to have, feeding off her negative emotions would subtly influencing her thoughts in a way that would eliminate all positive emotions,” continued Tom softly “That caused her sudden disdain for her friends, especially Harry Potter and more negative emotions fueled me, until I had prepared to finish the job by drawing her into the diary but you just had to interfere Ginny. The fact I had to bring you in here as well, broke my hold on young Hermione.”

“You’re not going to succeed Riddle,” proclaimed Ginny in a defiant voice.

“No Harry Potter’s going to save you Ginny,” answered Tom in a curt voice. “There is no counterattack against me this time, no basilisk venom to put me out, you don’t even have a wand to defeat me, not that it matters as in here, I’m invincible. Soon, I will gain enough power where I can break out and gain my revenge on Harry Potter. Not only that, but you two will be trapped in here forever because Ginny, without Harry Potter, you’re nothing but a stupid weak little girl.”

Riddle held up Hermione’s wand before he walked into the wall, dissolving into it as he left the room.

“Have fun ladies,” hissed Tom as the stone walls around them began to grow spikes and then began to close in on Hermione and Ginny.

“Now, what do we do?” asked Hermione.

“Absolutely nothing,” answered Ginny as she sat down, her legs crossed, and began to meditate, concentrating on the walls stopping.

“Ginny, I don’t think…” started Hermione but Ginny interrupted her.

“Hermione, it’s crucial that I have complete quite so I can concentrate,” said Ginny as the walls began to grind to a halt before Ginny heard them stop thanks to her intense concentration triggering a very powerful form of wandless magic. It was a trick that Harry had taught her during training on one day.

Screwing up her eyes, Ginny concentrated, attempting to recall some way, anyway out before the walls started up again.

“We go up, Hermione,” said Ginny.

“I beg your pardon,” said Hermione.

“No time to explain, just follow my lead,” confirmed Ginny and she gained her footing on two of the spikes, before using them as a ladder to move upwards.

Hermione looked fearful, she absolutely hated heights but conquering her fears were better than being impaled to death once Riddle found out that the enclosing spiked walls had been stopped by Ginny.

The two girls climbed a good distance, before they reached the edge of one of the walls leading to another blank stone corridor. Ginny gracefully made her way up and Hermione struggled, nearly losing her footing, before Ginny reached down and helped Hermione up to the top. Both girls stood and saw that three closed doors at the very end of the hallway.

“Riddle has to be behind one of those doors,” said Ginny. “I say we pay him our regards.”

“Riddle may be behind one of the doors, providing he’s still here,” admitted Hermione.

“Oh, he’s here alright,” answered Ginny with a bit of venom in her voice.

“Yes, but if he’s behind one doors, there’s no doubt surprises lurking behind the other two doors,” continued Hermione. “We need to be careful.”

Ginny nodded rigidly as she removed two tonfa, her preferred weapon of choice, more than willing to knock Riddle around once she encountered him. The fifteen year old girl reached forward towards the door and when she touched the door, it burst open with a loud hiss and a large black snake rose up, bearing its fangs against Ginny. While this snake didn’t have the petrification powers of a basilisk, the snake made the basilisk look like an insignificant pitiful worm.

Ginny stepped back, she had picked the wrong door and the snake rose up, bearing its fangs before it plunged towards Ginny, who managed to leap out of the way and the snake hit the ground, as Ginny stood herself, looking at the tonfa sadly. They wouldn’t have been able to even pick that thing’s teeth. Despair reached Ginny as the snake made another attempt to go after her but Ginny managed to somersault out of the way and as a result, the snake cracked into the wall.

Unfortunately, this only slowed down the serpent for a few seconds as it made its way towards Ginny. It would not be denied its prey.

“Hermione, get out of here, find a way to save yourself!” shouted Ginny as the snake made another attempt at her and Hermione backed off reluctantly, thinking there needed to be something that she could do to save Ginny.

The snake made its way towards Ginny, fangs bared and Ginny threw the tonfa at the snake but the snake caught its mouth, before it bit down on them. The tonfa crumbled to dust and Ginny quickly dodged behind the snake but the snake wrapped around Ginny, before it hoisted her up into the air. Ginny struggled with all of her might, as the snake opened its mouth, fangs bared but by swinging her feet forwards with all the force she could muster, Ginny cracked the snake right in the jaw, disorienting it for a few seconds. The snake raised Ginny up before it tossed the girl to the ground viciously. Ginny leaned against the wall, a bit disoriented as the snake stalked her, smelling its prey.

Hermione struggled to dislodge one of the sharp spikes from the wall. Ginny needed all the help she could get and something sharp like that might slow that snake down. After an intensive struggle and using all the willpower, she could muster, Hermione managed to find a way to dislodge the spike, before she gingerly pulled himself up and made a mad dash towards the snake.

“Ginny!” yelled Hermione but in her haste, Hermione managed to trip, causing the spike to fly into the air, before it skidded towards the ground.

The snake hovered over Ginny preparing to finish her off once and for all but the sound of Hermione’s voice and the noise of the spike clattering to the ground had caused the snake to slither around, focusing its attention on Hermione.

Ginny shook her head, in an attempt to clear the cobwebs and to her horror, she saw the snake advancing on Hermione, who was absolutely petrified with horror. The spike laid a few feet from Ginny and she leapt quickly, before she picked up the spike. In the blink of an eye, Ginny propelled herself into the air, the end of the spike pointed down.

Just as the snake prepared to take a bite out of Hermione’s throat, Ginny impaled the spike right into the top of the snake’s head. The snake hissed painfully as Hermione pulled herself out of the way, and Ginny backed off as far as she could as the snake dropped to the ground, dead.

“Are you okay?” asked Hermione.

“I’ll be fine, we need to find Riddle and make him tell us the way out of here,” replied Ginny as she made her way over to the second door, but Hermione grabbed her arm to prevent her from opening it.

“Ginny, he’s not behind any of the doors,” declared Hermione suddenly.

“Right Hermione, I should have known, he’s playing mind games with us,” agreed Ginny as she looked around. “Riddle, show yourself!”

“Why should I?” asked the voice of Tom Marvolo Riddle. “You two will be crushed without me having to lift a finger.”

“You know for someone whose all powerful, you seem to be hiding in the shadows a lot,” taunted Ginny, a sudden, if insane, burst of inspiration coming from her. “That snake that you sent at us was not a bad effort.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” demanded Riddle.

“You couldn’t beat Harry, your best efforts didn’t manage to kill me, Tom,” continued Ginny. “Is that really the best you can do? Come on, for the person who is supposed to be the most fear dark lord ever, you’re quite pathetic, a real joke.”

“Ginny, I don’t think this is a good idea,” muttered Hermione.

“A joke am I, little girl?” asked Riddle as the room began to glow.

“Yes, nothing more capable then mere parlor tricks,” responded Ginny. “You’re supposed to be all powerful, but the fact is that Harry beat you before and in a fair fight, he can beat you again. He’s more powerful then you, Tom Marvolo Riddle, will ever be. His love drives him to victory, not his unhealthy urge for ultimate power.”

“You have no concept of ultimate power!” shouted Riddle, his voice echoing across the wall but there was a slight pained quality to Riddle’s voice.

“Is that so?” asked Ginny. “I have on it than you ever will and so does Harry.”

“Ginny, he’s really getting pissed,” said Hermione urgently.

“I’m counting on it,” muttered Ginny in an undertone to Hermione. “Yes, Riddle, let’s face it, without resorting to the dark arts, you will never be able to defeat Harry. Hell, I doubt you can beat, as you so eloquently put it, a stupid little girl like me.”

The room flashed green as the fragment of soul seemed to be angered beyond all belief, before it manifested into the sixteen year old form of Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort.

“So, you doubt my power,” replied Riddle coldly.

“You have no power, Riddle,” retorted Ginny, with forced smugness on her face.

“I see that you’re no longer the insecure little girl that you were when you poured your heart out to me, when I used you to achieve my ends,” remarked Riddle, in an attempt to get a rise out of Ginny, but the girl just smirked.

“You better believe I’m not that person anymore, Riddle,” said Ginny.

Riddle held up Hermione’s hand in his wand, twirling it between his fingers.

“The fact remains I have a wand and you don’t,” said Riddle quietly. “I could make your friend here play for your flippant remarks.”

Riddle’s eyes gestured over to Hermione who shuddered involuntary.

“You could, but you would just prove beyond a shadow of a doubt what kind of person you are,” replied Ginny. “So, why don’t you leave Hermione out of this and you fight me in a fair duel.”

“Yes, remember, this same friend that you’re begging me to spare, compared your great love Harry Potter, to me,” taunted Riddle.

“Technically you did that Tom, so really you at least admitted that Harry could compare to you, even in a twisted matter,” said Ginny.

Riddle’s eyes widened, as he withdrew the wand.

“Before I leave, I’ll make sure you’ll spend eternity in this realm in traction,” hissed Riddle angrily as he waved the wand in a circle before sending a spiral of black light right towards Ginny.

With quickness, Ginny avoided the attack and landed on her feet.

“AVADA KEDAVRA!” shrieked Riddle as he aimed Hermione’s wand at Ginny, but Ginny dodged out of the way, before she bounced off the wall and leapt to the side of Riddle.

“Hey, snake breath, I bet you can’t zap me from here” taunted Ginny and Riddle threw a few more curses at Ginny, who ducked, dodged, and leapt around all of Riddle’s assaults. “Come on Riddle, a blind two hundred year woman has better aim than you do.”

“Foolish girl, I’ll make you pay!” hissed Riddle angrily as he even more dark curses at Ginny, but with each miss, Riddle became more reckless with his aim and didn’t come anywhere close to connecting with Ginny. “Stand still and fight me straight up.”

“Can’t, sorry, too busy defeating you,” replied Ginny and Riddle hit a few more curses, all striking the edges of the wall behind Ginny as she moved. Ginny looked as the wall began to wobble. She leapt over Riddle. “HERMIONE MOVE!”

Hermione and Ginny ran as far as their legs could carry them, as the wall began to topple before it collapsed onto the unsuspecting Tom Marvolo Riddle just as the two girls managed to climb down halfway down the spiked wall, putting themselves out of harm’s way.

As the smoke cleared, they pulled themselves up as Riddle appeared to have been buried underneath a pile of bricks.

“Ginny, that was actually brilliant,” remarked Hermione in a surprised tone of voice.

“Thank you, Hermione, but I doubt very much that’d work against the current Lord Voldemort, but since he was younger and more prone to get frustrated by immature taunting, everything worked out well,” said Ginny. “Now let’s find your wand so we can get out of here.”

At that point, ominous black smoke began to rise up from the bricks, causing Hermione and Ginny to stop in their tracks.

“You think you’ve defeated me,” echoed a calm voice as the smoke contorted into a large shadow construct shaped like a face that had red slits for eyes, no nose, and a cavernous mouth, with a forked yellow tongue sticking out. “As I told you before, I’m invincible in this realm, not even a ton of bricks can destroy me, nothing can beat me, now I’ll finish you.”

The shadow head breathed green fire at the ground towards Hermione and Ginny and the two girls managed to leap up out of the way, as the fire incinerated the ground where it touched.

It looked down at Ginny and Hermione, before it nodded and contorted into the form of Tom Marvolo Riddle.

“It’s been fun ladies, but my time in this realm is done, I have enough power to leave here and exist in the real world,” said Riddle as a small swirling vortex appeared behind him.

“Rush him, think nothing but positive thoughts!” yelled Ginny suddenly and Hermione nodded, before following her lead, and leapt right towards Riddle.

Their skin blistered as they moved closer as Riddle attempted to push them backwards, but somehow, Hermione and Ginny knocked Riddle back a few steps before they were blasted back themselves and they hit the ground with a thud.

“It’s over!” replied Riddle as he raised up to his hand, looking for the stolen wand but much to his horror, he couldn’t find it.

Ginny looked dumbstruck, because Riddle had appeared to have lost the wand but she hadn’t gotten her hands on it either in the attack.

“Looking for this, Riddle,” answered Hermione quietly, as she raised her own wand up and she and Ginny made their way through the vortex with Riddle attempting to follow behind, but the vortex sealed itself a second after Hermione and Ginny passed through.

“Beaten by a Mudblood!” hissed Riddle angrily as he felt a pull that began to draw himself back to the prison of the Horcrux container. “NO!!!!”

In the world outside, the black energy orb began to crack open.

“Back!” yelled Lily, her eyes averted to Daphne, Theodore, Ron, Luna, and Hailey who stepped backwards with Lily had her wand pointed in the book just in case something dangerous came out of it. Snape also had his wand on the book.

A minute later, swirling mist popped out of the book, before they contorted into the physical forms of Hermione and Ginny who looked rather dazed and looked as if they had bad sun burns but otherwise all things considered in good health.

“It was Riddle,” replied Ginny in a weakened voice as her adrenaline had disappeared and was replaced by a pain that coursed through her own body.

The book that Ginny and Hermione existed burst into green flames and burned at a rather quick rate, before it turned to ashes that fluttered around the air.

“It looks like he didn’t want to leave any trace here,” replied Luna.

“Yes, he went back to the diary and Merlin only knows where that is, but I did hear him say that someone tampered with it and that gave him the power,” said Ginny.

Snape backed off, he knew exactly who might have caused that, but naturally he was forbidden to say.

“Lily, I believe you can handle getting these two off to the hospital wing, I shall inform the Gryffindors that it would be safe to return to the Common Room,” said Snape quickly as he walked off.

“Right, to the Hospital Wing, just to make sure Voldemort didn’t leave anything behind when you were inside that Horcrux,” said Lily as she encouraged Ginny and Hermione to their feet before Daphne, Theodore, Hailey, Ron, and Luna helped them to the hospital wing.

Harry arrived at his mother’s office really early the next morning, he had been up until the later part of the night, as it took quite some time for the goblins to take care of the situation at Gringotts.

“Harry, there you are, I was beginning to worry,” said Lily as she ushered her son inside the office.

“Sorry, Mum, there was a situation, the lower vaults were attacked, I had to wait seven hours and in the end, whoever did so escaped,” replied Harry. “All magic was cut off so I couldn’t have used the mirrors.”

“I’m sure you can tell me more about that later Harry, but there’s something I need to tell you about Hermione,” said Lily and Harry looked a bit apprehensive. “Her thoughts have been manipulated all year.”

Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, Bellatrix did do something to her on that night,” remarked Harry, but Lily shook her head. “No, then what happened?”

“The sixteen year old Voldemort, the one in the diary, attempted to use Hermione as a vessel to return to the real world and enact his revenge on you for what happened in the Chamber of Secrets,” explained Lily. “Ginny managed to catch onto the plot and both girls were pulled into another realm where Riddle resided. They’re both okay, currently sleeping in the hospital wing, even though they just managed to get out before Riddle could complete his plans.”

“So that means you have the diary, right?” asked Harry hopefully.

“No, sadly Riddle used another book, apparently someone was tampering with it and the resulting tampering made Riddle more powerful,” answered Lily. “Sadly, the book was destroyed when Riddle was blasted back to the diary, so there is no way to trace it.”

“I’ve got to talk to Hermione, then,” said Harry and Lily nodded in understanding as Harry made his way to the hospital wing.

As Harry arrived, he saw Hermione sitting up in bed, wide awaken, as if she was expecting Harry.

“Hi,” muttered Hermione quietly, not knowing what to expect from someone who she once considered her best friend and hoped still was. “I suppose you heard what happened.”

“Yes, Hermione, I heard and I must admit both of you did great, not many people would have been able to fight Voldemort, even his sixteen year self,” said Harry with an approving smile. “Maybe I underestimated you when I…”

“Ginny did most of the fighting, I just managed to pry the wand out from underneath Voldemort’s fingers,” said Hermione.

“Would this wand happened to have the thing that prevented Riddle from being able to come into this world and wreck havoc?” asked Harry and Hermione nodded. “So you played your part in stopping Riddle too.”

“I guess so,” replied Hermione modestly.

“I’m sorry,” answered Harry.

“What for, you didn’t do anything, I was the one who compared you to Voldemort of all people?” demanded Hermione.

“Yes, but I shouldn’t have discouraged your need to get revenge against Bellatrix Lestrange, I should have helped you learn some powerful curses that might have helped you gain a fighting chance, it made you more susceptible to Riddle’s influence,” answered Harry as he waved off Hermione’s protested.

“Harry James Potter, there’s no way could have known that Riddle would have attempted to use me like that,” admonished Hermione.

“No, I suppose I couldn’t,” replied Harry. “Still, I’m glad I have my best friend back.”

“You’ll still willing to be friends with me after what I said,” said Hermione.

“Of course, if you’ll have me,” responded Harry and Hermione gave him a sisterly hug to answer his question, which Harry returned.

In the distance, Ginny had watched without a word, happy that Hermione and Harry had made up. She knew Harry was a miserable wreck about Hermione saying what she did, he had looked up to her a great deal as an older sister figure, and it was a relief that Hermione’s words were influenced by external possession. He put a lot of stock in Hermione’s opinion, as it was nice to get a different perspective as Harry, Ginny, Daphne, and Theodore tended to think on the same wavelength due to being Slytherins.

Still, if Hermione ever did anything to hurt Harry again, Ginny would throw her off the Astronomy tower.