Dear the girl who hates the Ministry and Umbitch,

Don't worry. Even if you came to Scotland, you'd never be able to find Hogwarts. It's surrounded by Anti-Muggle protections so Muggles can't get within 50 feet of Hogwarts.

Yeah we do, we need a lot more people like Cedric in this world and less people like Voldemort. Cedric didn't deserve what happened to him. No one does.

I found out in my second year at Hogwarts. It's another long and complicated story but I'll try and keep it short. I haven't got much time to write letters these days and I'm currently writing this in between classes.

Anyway, so I was in my second year and something bad was happening at Hogwarts (surprise). There were these attacks that were going on at Hogwarts where the victims would end up in a paralysed state. (Don't worry they all got revived in the end, it just took a complicated potion to be able to help them.) Anyway these attacks were only happening to the Muggle-Borns at Hogwarts. So talk went around that it had something to do with the Slytherin house. (The Slytherin founder only accepted Pure-Blooded and Half-Blooded wizards and witches and resented any Muggle-Borns.)

Well I guess some people did some research because soon after there was talk about the Chamber of Secrets being opened again. It was said that when Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts he had built a secret chamber and kept a horrible monster inside it to get rid of all the Muggle-borns inside the school.

(Salazar was one of the founders of Hogwarts. He thought only Pure-bloods should be accepted into Hogwarts but the other founders didn't agree so they argued and in the end Salazar left.)

Are you following so far?

Anyway, all of this was happening but on top of that I kept hearing this voice. A voice in the walls that kept saying it was going to kill. I would follow this voice and lo and behold, it would lead me straight to a new victim of these attacks.

This led to people believing I was the heir of Slytherin and was the one under the attacks. Oh, did I mention it was said that only the heir of Slytherin would be able to open the Chamber of Secrets? Also, I told no one of the voice I heard apart from Ron and Hermione because hearing voices is never a good thing.

Another useful piece of information is shortly after all this happened I found out I was a Parselmouth. Which means I can talk to snakes.

Anyway, one day I stumbled upon an old diary with the initials T.M. Riddle. I had recognised the name at this time to be the same one that was on a award in the trophy room for their services towards the school.

Well I wrote in the diary and the diary ended up writing back. Tom was writing to me. Let me remind you I didn't know Tom was Voldemort at the time. Anyway I asked Tom if he knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets because it had been rumoured that the Chamber had been opened 50 years previously, matching up with the time Tom was a student at Hogwarts. He said he couldn't tell me but he could show me.

He showed me a memory. It was a memory of him at Hogwarts. A girl had just died from one of the attacks and it showed Tom discovering who was opening the Chamber and attacking those people. Or so I thought. That memory was a lie. It was Tom tricking me and trying to get me to trust him. For a while I did. Until I found out the truth.

Soon after the diary gets stolen from me and then days later, the Chamber of Secrets is confirmed to have been opened again and this time it had taken a student hostage. My friend Ron's sister, Ginny and she was dying.

Our Defence teacher at the time, Professor Lockhart, was put to the case of solving this all because he always used to boast about how he knew all this, that and the other. So me and Ron had decided to go and tell Lockhart what we had discovered.

We had found out a lot by then. Most of it was down to Hermione but she had been Petrified and attacked too.

Anyway, so we went down to Lockhart's office but it turns out he was a complete fraud and planned to do a runner.

Anyway, me and Ron knew the Chambers hidden entrance so we took Lockhart with us. We thought it was better him that got hurt than us after all. Anyway we go down to the Chamber and I find Ginny lying unconscious, dying with Tom's diary next to her.

It turns out that Tom had enchanted his old diary so his memory lived on in it. The diary was possessing Ginny and getting her to help with the attacks. She never knew what she was doing and of course she wasn't the one carrying out the attacks. We found out that the monster that lives in the Chamber was actually a Basilisk (a giant snake) which explains why I heard the voice in the walls. Anyway I fought off the Basilisk. The memory version of Tom was getting stronger by taking Ginny's power from her.

Long story short, Tom admitted to being Voldemort (he thought he would kill me anyway) but I managed to destroy the diary, kill off the memory of Tom and save Ginny's life.

So that's basically how I found out a lot about Voldemort's past. Some things I've learnt off Dumbledore too.

Thank you El, now everytime I see Umbridge I'm always going to think of Umbitch.

I've talked about Umbridge to loads of people and they said exactly what you said; to keep my bloody head down and ignore her. Well I wish everyone would understand that that's easier said than done. You try being accused of being a liar while you know that the most dangerous man on earth is walking around and plotting your death.

I'm trying to bite my tongue around her, I really am but she just says things that are so unfair and wrong and it gets me so angry and before I know what I'm doing, I'm shouting at her. I already have another detention with her tomorrow night. Merlin, help me.

I don't know why Dumbledore's not talking to me either but I wish he would.

And thank you El, I really appreciate it. I might just be able to make it through this year if I know I have you and these letters to look forward too. I honestly don't know what I would do without you.

I'm glad you're managing to stay on top of your work. I wish I could say the same about me but currently I'm failing abysmally.

What's happening in your life? I feel like I'm always talking about myself and I hate it. Fill me in on what happens in Eleanors world.

Love,

the boy who doesn't know what he would do without you.