"Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry wrote, his hands shaking with nervousness.

He was writing in a black diary he found in the girls' bathroom; the same one where Hermione had brewed the Polyjuice Potion in.

And now she was petrified too..

First Ria, and then Hermione.

He was now even more desperate to get to the root of the problem.

The petrification of Ria had raised many questions.

She was, for a short time, assumed to be the Heir of Slytherin. Now that she was petrified, it was proved she wasn't. Not that Harry believed her to be, anyway.

The reason why she was petrified also wasn't clear. Didn't McGonagall say Salazar Slytherin wanted to get rid of the Muggle-borns? Ria wasn't a Muggle-born, she was a Half-blood.

Something didn't sit right..

"Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets." The words in the diary brought him back to reality. It belonged to a student named Tom Riddle.

"In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my fifth year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. My friend and I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled."

"But the headmaster, Professor Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade us to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave us a nice, shiny, engraved trophy for our trouble and warned us to keep our mouths shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned." Riddle's reply came, his handwriting untidier and hasty.

"It's happening again now. There have been three attacks and no one seems to know who's behind them. Who was it last time?" Harry hurriedly wrote, almost knocking off the ink bottle in the process.

"I can show you, if you like," Riddle replied. "You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you inside my memory of the night when I caught him."

Harry hesitated, his quill loosely gripped into his hand. What did Riddle mean by taking him inside his memory?

He saw the letters scribbled on the page. "Let me show you."

His mind travelled back a few days.. when he found Ria still on the floor. Like always, he had been blamed for it. Argus had found him first. He had tried explaining, but it hadn't made a difference.

He looked back at Tom's words. This was his chance to know..

Harry took a deep breath before gripping his quill. "OK."

The pages of the diary fluttered, as if strong winds had started blowing all of a sudden. The pages then suddenly stopped, and Harry saw a little square that had June thirteenth written on it.

He raised the book with shaking hands and pressed his eyes against the little window.

Suddenly, he felt being pulled in. The window was widening. He felt his body leave his bed and he found himself in a world that felt very real.

His feet hit the solid ground and his legs went jiggly, but he regained his balance. His eyes roamed the surroundings, and he knew where he was.

The room was Dumbledore's office, but Dumbledore wasn't sitting on the chair. It was another old wizard with a few whisks of white hair, reading a letter. Harry failed to recognise him. Harry tried to apologise for intruding, but the man didn't reply or even notice him. He just walked past Harry.

That was when he realised it was Riddle's memory. Dumbledore wasn't the headmaster, and Harry didn't even exist, making him completely invisible.

There was a knock on the office door.

"Enter." The old wizard commanded.

A boy of age about sixteen entered, taking off his pointed hat. A silver prefect's badge was glinting on his chest. He was much taller than Harry, but he, too, had jet-black hair.

After him, a much shorter girl entered. She looked to be around the boy's age too. Her blonde hair and blue eyes stood out, along with the blue and bronze stripped scarf around her neck.

"Ah, Riddle, Lagarde." The headmaster sighed, and Harry's ears perked up at the name.

Was she.. Katherine Lagarde? Or just someone with the same name?

"You wanted to see us, Professor Dippet?" asked Lagarde, both of them looking equally nervous. She fiddled with the dark stone pendant around her neck.

"Sit down," Dippet said. "I've just been reading the letter you sent me. My dear children.." He continued, in a kind tone. "I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?"

"No," said Riddle, sharing a quick glance with the girl. "We'd much rather stay at Hogwarts than go back to that— to that—"

"You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?" Dippet asked curiously.

"Yes, sir." Lagarde said, going slightly red in the face.

"What about your parents?" He asked her.

She shrugged hesitantly. "Both of them were Purebloods, sir. They passed away more than a year ago. And I have no other family." She answered.

Dippet looked at Riddle. "Half-blood, sir." He answered "Muggle father, witch mother."

"And are both your parents.."

"My mother died just after I was born, sir. They told me at the orphanage she lived just long enough to name me.. Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather."

Dippet clucked his tongue sympathetically. "The thing is, Tom, Katherine.." He sighed.

Harry gulped. She was Katherine Lagarde..

"Special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances..."

"You mean all these attacks, sir?" asked Katherine, and Harry's heart leapt. He moved closer, not wanting to miss any detail.

Did she really know about the Chamber of Secrets?

"Precisely," The headmaster sighed. "My dear children, you must see how foolish it would be of me to allow you to remain at the castle when the term ends. Particularly in light of the recent tragedy... the death of that poor little girl. You will be safer by far at your orphanage."

"As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Magic is even now talking about closing the school. We are no nearer locating the— er— source of all this unpleasantness.."

Riddle's eyes had widened. "Sir.. if the person was caught... if it all stopped—"

"What do you mean?" Dippet squeaked, immediately sitting up in his chair. "Riddle, do you mean you know something about these attacks?"

"No, sir." He answered hesitantly.

Dippet then looked at Lagarde. "Do you, Katherine, dear?" He asked, and something about his tone and the way he looked at her unnerved Harry. Dippet was definitely suspicious of her.

Katherine had her gaze locked down on her hands, but then she looked up at the Headmaster with slightly glossy eyes. "No, sir. I don't know anything about these attacks." She answered with no hesitation. "I had seen them before and I warned you, sir. It's your fault that you did not believe me—"

"Katherine." Tom warned her, but she didn't stop speaking.

"If you did, she would've been alive." A lone tear escaped her eye, and she quickly wiped it away. She looked angry.

Dippet sank back in his chair, looking faintly disappointed. "You may go now." The two slid off their chairs, and Harry followed them.

Once they left the office, Tom caught up, walking beside her. "What were you thinking?" He scoffed.

"I could ask you the same thing, Tom." She said. "You're thinking now too, I can tell. What is it?"

He shook his head. "Just follow." His pace increased, and she clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"Tom.. Tom!" She followed him, and so did Harry. Though they were interrupted by Dumbledore when they reached the entrance hall. He looked slightly younger.

"What are you doing, wandering around this late, Tom? Katherine?" He asked.

"We had to see the Headmaster, sir." Riddle answered.

"Well, hurry off to bed. Best not to roam the corridors these days. Not since..." Dumbledore trailed off, eyeing the two with the same penetrating gaze Harry knew he had received many times.

He walked away from them, and the two watched him leave. When he disappeared from their sight, Riddle headed straight down the stone steps to the Dungeons with Katherine trailing behind him. Harry kept following them.

"Tom? Tom!" Lagarde tugged at his arm, trying to stop him. "What are—"

"We don't have a choice." He said to her, emphasising on every word.

Her expressions slowly changed. "I thought we agreed that it was a mistake.." She said to him, "And now— now, you're going to tell them?"

Was it Katherine who opened the Chamber? Harry thought, but then shook his head.

No. Ron did say he had found a trophy with Tom and Katherine's name on it. Maybe they were the one to turn the real Heir in?

But then.. could the Dark Lord's partner be trusted?

Tom sighed as he held her by her shoulders. "Do you trust me, Katherine?" He asked. The girl hesitated for quite a while before nodding. "Then just keep quiet. And let me do the work."

She huffed and finally gave up, nodding her head. Riddle took her hand and dragged her with him.

It felt to Harry that they were hiding at a spot for at least an hour. All he could see was the figure of the two at the door, staring through the crack, waiting like a statue. And just when Harry had stopped expecting, he heard someone move.

Someone was creeping along the passage. He heard whoever it was, pass the dungeon where he, Riddle and Lagarde were hidden. Both of them, quiet as a shadow, edged through the door. Harry tiptoed behind them.

For perhaps five minutes they followed the footsteps, until Riddle stopped suddenly, making Lagarde stop too. His head inclined in the direction of new noises.

Harry heard a door creak open, and then someone speaking in a hoarse whisper. "C'mon... gotta get yeh outta here... C'mon now... in the box..."

There was something familiar about that voice...

Riddle suddenly jumped around the corner. Harry stepped out behind him. He could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box next to it.

"'Evening, Rubeus," Riddle said sharply.

The boy slammed the door shut and stood up. "What yer doin' down here, Tom? Katherine?" Riddle stepped closer. Lagarde stared at them with horror in her eyes.

"It's all over," he said. "I'm going to have to turn you in, Rubeus. They're talking about closing Hogwarts if the attacks don't stop."

"What d'yeh-"

Slowly, realisation dawned upon Lagarde's face. "Tom! Wait— Don't—"

"I apologise, but I'm not letting you defend him anymore, Katherine." He said to her without taking his eyes off Rubeus. "I don't think you meant to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for exercise and—"

"It never killed no one!" The large boy, backing against the closed door. From behind him, Harry could hear a funny rustling and clicking sound.

"Come on, Rubeus," Riddle said, moving yet closer. "The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure that the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered..."

"It wasn't him!" The boy roared, his voice echoing in the dark passage. "He wouldn'! He never— Katherine! Yer know he wouldn'!" She looked too stunned to speak.

"Stand aside," Riddle said, drawing out his wand.

Riddle's spell lit the corridor with a flaming light. The door behind the other boy opened with such a force that it knocked him out. And a large, low slung, hairy body came out of it, with a gleam of many eyes and a pair of sharp pincers. Harry let out a deafening scream.

Riddle raised his wand again, trying to fight the thing that was causing destruction now.

The scene whirled, the darkness surrounded Harry. He felt himself falling. And with a crash, he landed on his bed, a baffled expression on his face and Riddle's diary lying open on his stomach.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

[word count: 2010]

a/n: yeah.. short one. I know
but guess who's doing another double update ;)