Chapter 14: - Valentine's Day and a Secret Diary
Once the sun began to shine on Hogwarts the mood of most of the castle grew more hopeful. There had been no more attacks since Yami, Nearly Headless Nick, Justin and Mahado, and they were pleased to find out that it shouldn't be too much longer before they were ready to be used in the antidote.
Most of the school were of the opinion that the Heir of Slytherin had gone into hiding, however Ernie MacMillan of Hufflepuff wasn't of the same opinion, he was still certain Harry was to blame, saying he'd 'given himself away' at the Duelling Club and when questioned why Harry would attack Yami, told everyone that Harry saw Yami as a threat to his Quidditch career, since they were both Gryffindor Seeker, so Harry had tried to get rid of him. He had also taken to telling Yugi, every time he saw him, that Yugi should be careful in case Harry decided to attack the remaining twin.
Gilderoy Lockheart had successfully annoyed Yugi enough to make the small teen start to try to skip the fools classes, since Lockheart was convinced he was the one who'd made the attacks stop, telling everyone who'd listen that his prestige had scared off the Heir and that the petrified students were casualties of war. Joey was glad Yugi was skipping class and getting his notes from Kari, because he was certain another Shadow Game wouldn't have been far behind some of Lockheart's lesson, since he wouldn't stop talking about it. Harry overheard Lockheart saying that he was of the opinion that the school needed a moral boost to wash away the memories of last term.
Lockheart's idea of a moral-booster became clear at breakfast time on February the fourteenth. Harry and Yugi hadn't slept much the night before because of a late-running Quidditch practise and both rushed down to the Great Hall, slightly late. They thought for a moment that they'd walked through the wrong door. The walls were covered in large, lurid pink flowers and even worse heart shaped confetti was falling from the ceiling. They went over to the Gryffindor table, where Joey and Ron looked sickened and Kari, Ombre and Hermione were very giggly.
"What's going on?" Yugi asked, as he sat next to Joey and wiped confetti off his breakfast.
Joey and Ron pointed to the teacher's table, apparently too disgusted to speak. Lockheart was wearing robes the same colour as the decorations on the walls. The rest of the teachers didn't look too happy, in fact Snape looked as though he had been force fed a bottle of Skele-Gro.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockheart shouted, "And may I thank the forty-eight people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I took the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you and it doesn't stop there."
Lockheart clapped his hands and a dozen surely dwarfs, wearing gold wings and carrying harps walked into the great hall. Much to the student's surprise a group of dwarfs walked in with a humongous bag of cards. "These are my friendly card-carrying cupids, they will be roving around delivering your Valentines!" The dwarfs with the bag walked over to the Gryffindor table and Yugi yelped as they dumped the contents on top of him as Lockheart continued talking.
Yugi's head poked up from the top of the pile and he opened one. Yugi's eyes widened. "They've found me!" he squeaked, "The Fangirls have found me! I thought I was safe here! I thought I'd escaped all the Fangirls!" Yugi shook himself free of the cards and dashed out the door, yelling, "The Fangirls have found me, HELP!"
Bakura burst out laughing, he'd been annoyed that Yugi had gotten all those cards, but seeing the way the Pharaoh's runt had reacted was most defiantly funny.
Joey looked at the cards piled on top of his breakfast, "Should we open them for him?" Harry, who was sat across from Yugi, was watching Lockheart who was looking distinctly disgruntled about the sheer amount of mail that Yugi had received.
"We don't have time to open all of this," Hermione said, "We have class in a few minutes."
"I think we'd be better off burning it, since Yugi doesn't want it and we don't have time to open it for him."
"But there might be something important in there!" A small voice said from the other side of the table called. Joey looked around the pile and saw Ginny was sat on the other side.
"Ginny," Ron growled, "Please tell me you didn't send Yugi a card!"
"No, Ron." Ginny replied, noticing Kari's interested look, "I didn't send a card to Yugi."
Kari snorted when Ron replied, "That's alright then." Ginny felt a blush rising as Kari looked at her as if to say, then-who-did-you-send-one-to. Kari's attention was distracted by a card landing on Joey's head, Joey picked it off and noticed it was addressed to him. Kari blushed bright red as he opened it.
"Are you alright?" Ombre asked, noticing Kari's blush. She saw a dwarf handing Ryou a card and went as red as her hikari. Joey looked up at Kari after reading it and the girl dashed out the door. Joey followed and Ombre went to but Ryou met her halfway down the hall.
"Can I talk to you?" He asked. Harry, Ron and Hermione passed them as the two were talking in the Great Hall. The others got away without getting Valentines, though they got a laugh out of the singing Valentine that Ginny gave to Harry. Joey and Kari wouldn't look each other in the eye and Ombre vanished with Ryou quickly after dinner.
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Harry thought he would be first to bed that night, but there was someone else up in the dorm. "Yugi, are you awake?"
"No." Came the reply, "I'm not awake." Harry smiled, as he walked over to Yugi's bed and poked the boy who was hiding underneath the covers. Yugi sat up, and looked at Harry. "This is the only place I'm safe from the dwarfs!"
"Want to help me with the diary?" Harry asked, smiling. Yugi nodded and they sat on Harry's four poster bed. The diary was the only thing not covered in red ink so Harry and Yugi decided to try writing in it. "Our names are Harry Potter and Yugi Muto." The words faded away.
Words appeared in the same colour ink that Harry had used. "Hello Harry Potter and Yugi Muto. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?" These words too faded away but not before Harry was answering.
"Someone tried to flush it down a toilet."
The two boys waited eagerly for a reply. "Lucky, that I recorded my memories in a more lasting way then ink. But I always knew there were those who didn't want this diary read."
Yugi grabbed the quill off of Harry, "What do you mean?" He scribbled in first accidentally in Japanese, then in English.
"Which one of you is a foreign student?" Riddle asked, "As regards to your bi-lingual question, this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up. Things which happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Harry snatched back the quill, "Yugi is from Japan, we're at Hogwarts now, and horrible stuff's been happening. Yugi's other half has been hurt. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?"
Harry was watching the page closely as Riddle's reply came quickly, "Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. They told us it was a legend, that it didn't exist. But this was a lie, in my fifth year the chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the student who was involved and he was expelled. But the Headmaster forbade me from telling the truth and gave me a shiny trophy for my effort, but I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned."
Harry nearly spilt the ink bottle in his rush to reply, "It's happening again now. There have been three attacks already, Yugi's partner was one of the victims, and no one knows who is behind it. Who was it last time?"
"If Yugi's 'other half' was only hurt and the Chamber has been opened again, then Yugi is very lucky not to have lost his partner. I can show you both if you like. You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you both inside my memory of the night when I caught him." Harry hesitated, looking at Yugi, who was staring at the diary hungrily, he looked back at the diary, where fresh words were forming. "Let me show you." Yugi nodded at Harry who looked at him then wrote two letters…
"OK."
The pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping halfway through the month of June. Yugi and Harry saw the little square for June 13th had turned into a miniature TV. Hands trembling slightly Harry raised it to their eye height and before they knew what was happening, they were tilting forward and they felt their bodies leave the bed and they were pitched headfirst through the opening in the page, into a whirl of colour and shadow.
Harry felt his feet hit the floor and stood shaking as the blurred shapes around him suddenly came into focus. Yugi was stood next to him, though the boy was panicking, "Harry! Where's my Puzzle?"
Harry's hand passed through a book he tried to pick up, Yugi saw this and wondered what was going on, they were stood in Professor Dumbledore's office. "Riddle only said he could transport the two of us, since the Millennium Puzzle is a powerful magical object I bet he couldn't bring it too. I bet it's with the diary." Harry said, thinking hard. Yugi nodded, not liking the fact he didn't have it with him.
Harry looked at Professor Dumbledore's desk, a wizened, almost bald, frail looking wizard, was reading a letter by the candlelight. Neither boy had seen the man before.
"I'm sorry," Harry said, "We didn't mean to butt in…" The wizard ignored him. "Sorry we disturbed you, we'll just go now!" Harry shouted, thinking the wizard was deaf. Still no reply.
Yugi looked around the office, no Phoenix, no whirling silver contraptions. This was Hogwarts as Riddle had known it, meaning the wizard behind the desk was Headmaster and they, Yugi, and Harry, were little more then phantoms, completely invisible to the people of fifty years ago.
There was a knock on the office door.
"Enter." Said the old wizard in a feeble voice.
A boy about two years younger then Yugi, around 16, entered, taking off his hat. A silver prefects badge glinted on his chest. He was much taller then either boy, but like Harry, he had jet black hair. "Ah, Riddle." The Headmaster said.
"You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?" asked Riddle, he looked nervous.
"Sit down." Dippet said, "I've just been reading the letter you sent me."
"Oh." Said Riddle. He sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.
"My dear boy," Said Dippet kindly, "I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the Summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?"
"No!" Said Riddle at once, "I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts then go back to that – to that…"
"You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?" said Dippet curiously.
"Yes, sir." Said Riddle, reddening slightly.
"You are Muggle-born?"
"Half-blood, sir," said Riddle, "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 clicked his tongue sympathetically, "The thing is Tom," He sighed, "special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances…"
"You mean all these attacks, sir?" said Riddle, Yugi and Harry looked at each other and they moved closer, scared to miss anything. However, Dippet didn't have any more information and Harry and Yugi followed Riddle out. They chased him down the stairs until the reached the entrance hall where Riddle was talking to a younger version of Professor Dumbledore.
Riddle led them to the classroom where they had potions with Snape. The door was almost closed and someone was inside trying to get someone into a box, Riddle jumped round the corner, Harry and Yugi stepped out from behind him so they could see.
They could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box was next to it.
"Evening, Rubeus." Said Riddle sharply. The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.
"What yer doin' down here, Tom?" Riddle stepped closer.
"It's all over," Riddle 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'yer…"
"I don't think you meant it to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for the exercise and…"
"It never killed no one!" Said the large boy, backing into the closed door. Harry could hear a funny clicking noise from behind the door.
"Stand aside!" Riddle growled, drawing out his wand. The spell he cast lit the corridor with a flaming light. The door behind the large boy was flung open at such a rate of knots it knocked him into the wall opposite. The thing inside vanished up the corridor and was gone before Riddle could catch it. The tall boy was stood in his way.
The room lurched, the two boys felt themselves falling and they landed on Harry's bed, the Millennium Puzzle was on the floor, Riddle's diary was on Harry's stomach. Before they realised what was happening Ron burst into the room, mock gagging. "There you two are, trust me, you don't want to go down there. What's up?" Ron asked, noticing the two boys were sweating.
"It was Hagrid, Ron. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago…" Harry paused. "Wait, why don't we want to go down there?"
Ron shook his head and Yugi dashed out the door. He quietly walked down the steps, he couldn't hear anything, but that didn't mean anything. He turned the last corner and Yugi went bright red as he saw why Ron had told them not to go down there. There was only two people left in the Common Room and they were kissing. Yugi blushed and dashed back up the stairs, there was no way he was going to disturb them.
Five minutes later Joey walked into the dorm, looking extremely pleased with himself, but also slightly confused. Harry and Ron were looking at him like he was an alien from outer space while Yugi smiled at him, "We saw you!"
Joey went bright red, but smirked. "So?" Yugi just smiled and Harry and Ron weren't sure what to make of him as they got ready for bed. Joey was one of the last to fall asleep and was smiling.
Most of the school were of the opinion that the Heir of Slytherin had gone into hiding, however Ernie MacMillan of Hufflepuff wasn't of the same opinion, he was still certain Harry was to blame, saying he'd 'given himself away' at the Duelling Club and when questioned why Harry would attack Yami, told everyone that Harry saw Yami as a threat to his Quidditch career, since they were both Gryffindor Seeker, so Harry had tried to get rid of him. He had also taken to telling Yugi, every time he saw him, that Yugi should be careful in case Harry decided to attack the remaining twin.
Gilderoy Lockheart had successfully annoyed Yugi enough to make the small teen start to try to skip the fools classes, since Lockheart was convinced he was the one who'd made the attacks stop, telling everyone who'd listen that his prestige had scared off the Heir and that the petrified students were casualties of war. Joey was glad Yugi was skipping class and getting his notes from Kari, because he was certain another Shadow Game wouldn't have been far behind some of Lockheart's lesson, since he wouldn't stop talking about it. Harry overheard Lockheart saying that he was of the opinion that the school needed a moral boost to wash away the memories of last term.
Lockheart's idea of a moral-booster became clear at breakfast time on February the fourteenth. Harry and Yugi hadn't slept much the night before because of a late-running Quidditch practise and both rushed down to the Great Hall, slightly late. They thought for a moment that they'd walked through the wrong door. The walls were covered in large, lurid pink flowers and even worse heart shaped confetti was falling from the ceiling. They went over to the Gryffindor table, where Joey and Ron looked sickened and Kari, Ombre and Hermione were very giggly.
"What's going on?" Yugi asked, as he sat next to Joey and wiped confetti off his breakfast.
Joey and Ron pointed to the teacher's table, apparently too disgusted to speak. Lockheart was wearing robes the same colour as the decorations on the walls. The rest of the teachers didn't look too happy, in fact Snape looked as though he had been force fed a bottle of Skele-Gro.
"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockheart shouted, "And may I thank the forty-eight people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I took the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you and it doesn't stop there."
Lockheart clapped his hands and a dozen surely dwarfs, wearing gold wings and carrying harps walked into the great hall. Much to the student's surprise a group of dwarfs walked in with a humongous bag of cards. "These are my friendly card-carrying cupids, they will be roving around delivering your Valentines!" The dwarfs with the bag walked over to the Gryffindor table and Yugi yelped as they dumped the contents on top of him as Lockheart continued talking.
Yugi's head poked up from the top of the pile and he opened one. Yugi's eyes widened. "They've found me!" he squeaked, "The Fangirls have found me! I thought I was safe here! I thought I'd escaped all the Fangirls!" Yugi shook himself free of the cards and dashed out the door, yelling, "The Fangirls have found me, HELP!"
Bakura burst out laughing, he'd been annoyed that Yugi had gotten all those cards, but seeing the way the Pharaoh's runt had reacted was most defiantly funny.
Joey looked at the cards piled on top of his breakfast, "Should we open them for him?" Harry, who was sat across from Yugi, was watching Lockheart who was looking distinctly disgruntled about the sheer amount of mail that Yugi had received.
"We don't have time to open all of this," Hermione said, "We have class in a few minutes."
"I think we'd be better off burning it, since Yugi doesn't want it and we don't have time to open it for him."
"But there might be something important in there!" A small voice said from the other side of the table called. Joey looked around the pile and saw Ginny was sat on the other side.
"Ginny," Ron growled, "Please tell me you didn't send Yugi a card!"
"No, Ron." Ginny replied, noticing Kari's interested look, "I didn't send a card to Yugi."
Kari snorted when Ron replied, "That's alright then." Ginny felt a blush rising as Kari looked at her as if to say, then-who-did-you-send-one-to. Kari's attention was distracted by a card landing on Joey's head, Joey picked it off and noticed it was addressed to him. Kari blushed bright red as he opened it.
"Are you alright?" Ombre asked, noticing Kari's blush. She saw a dwarf handing Ryou a card and went as red as her hikari. Joey looked up at Kari after reading it and the girl dashed out the door. Joey followed and Ombre went to but Ryou met her halfway down the hall.
"Can I talk to you?" He asked. Harry, Ron and Hermione passed them as the two were talking in the Great Hall. The others got away without getting Valentines, though they got a laugh out of the singing Valentine that Ginny gave to Harry. Joey and Kari wouldn't look each other in the eye and Ombre vanished with Ryou quickly after dinner.
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Harry thought he would be first to bed that night, but there was someone else up in the dorm. "Yugi, are you awake?"
"No." Came the reply, "I'm not awake." Harry smiled, as he walked over to Yugi's bed and poked the boy who was hiding underneath the covers. Yugi sat up, and looked at Harry. "This is the only place I'm safe from the dwarfs!"
"Want to help me with the diary?" Harry asked, smiling. Yugi nodded and they sat on Harry's four poster bed. The diary was the only thing not covered in red ink so Harry and Yugi decided to try writing in it. "Our names are Harry Potter and Yugi Muto." The words faded away.
Words appeared in the same colour ink that Harry had used. "Hello Harry Potter and Yugi Muto. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary?" These words too faded away but not before Harry was answering.
"Someone tried to flush it down a toilet."
The two boys waited eagerly for a reply. "Lucky, that I recorded my memories in a more lasting way then ink. But I always knew there were those who didn't want this diary read."
Yugi grabbed the quill off of Harry, "What do you mean?" He scribbled in first accidentally in Japanese, then in English.
"Which one of you is a foreign student?" Riddle asked, "As regards to your bi-lingual question, this diary holds memories of terrible things. Things that were covered up. Things which happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Harry snatched back the quill, "Yugi is from Japan, we're at Hogwarts now, and horrible stuff's been happening. Yugi's other half has been hurt. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?"
Harry was watching the page closely as Riddle's reply came quickly, "Of course I know about the Chamber of Secrets. They told us it was a legend, that it didn't exist. But this was a lie, in my fifth year the chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the student who was involved and he was expelled. But the Headmaster forbade me from telling the truth and gave me a shiny trophy for my effort, but I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned."
Harry nearly spilt the ink bottle in his rush to reply, "It's happening again now. There have been three attacks already, Yugi's partner was one of the victims, and no one knows who is behind it. Who was it last time?"
"If Yugi's 'other half' was only hurt and the Chamber has been opened again, then Yugi is very lucky not to have lost his partner. I can show you both if you like. You don't have to take my word for it. I can take you both inside my memory of the night when I caught him." Harry hesitated, looking at Yugi, who was staring at the diary hungrily, he looked back at the diary, where fresh words were forming. "Let me show you." Yugi nodded at Harry who looked at him then wrote two letters…
"OK."
The pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping halfway through the month of June. Yugi and Harry saw the little square for June 13th had turned into a miniature TV. Hands trembling slightly Harry raised it to their eye height and before they knew what was happening, they were tilting forward and they felt their bodies leave the bed and they were pitched headfirst through the opening in the page, into a whirl of colour and shadow.
Harry felt his feet hit the floor and stood shaking as the blurred shapes around him suddenly came into focus. Yugi was stood next to him, though the boy was panicking, "Harry! Where's my Puzzle?"
Harry's hand passed through a book he tried to pick up, Yugi saw this and wondered what was going on, they were stood in Professor Dumbledore's office. "Riddle only said he could transport the two of us, since the Millennium Puzzle is a powerful magical object I bet he couldn't bring it too. I bet it's with the diary." Harry said, thinking hard. Yugi nodded, not liking the fact he didn't have it with him.
Harry looked at Professor Dumbledore's desk, a wizened, almost bald, frail looking wizard, was reading a letter by the candlelight. Neither boy had seen the man before.
"I'm sorry," Harry said, "We didn't mean to butt in…" The wizard ignored him. "Sorry we disturbed you, we'll just go now!" Harry shouted, thinking the wizard was deaf. Still no reply.
Yugi looked around the office, no Phoenix, no whirling silver contraptions. This was Hogwarts as Riddle had known it, meaning the wizard behind the desk was Headmaster and they, Yugi, and Harry, were little more then phantoms, completely invisible to the people of fifty years ago.
There was a knock on the office door.
"Enter." Said the old wizard in a feeble voice.
A boy about two years younger then Yugi, around 16, entered, taking off his hat. A silver prefects badge glinted on his chest. He was much taller then either boy, but like Harry, he had jet black hair. "Ah, Riddle." The Headmaster said.
"You wanted to see me, Professor Dippet?" asked Riddle, he looked nervous.
"Sit down." Dippet said, "I've just been reading the letter you sent me."
"Oh." Said Riddle. He sat down, gripping his hands together very tightly.
"My dear boy," Said Dippet kindly, "I cannot possibly let you stay at school over the Summer. Surely you want to go home for the holidays?"
"No!" Said Riddle at once, "I'd much rather stay at Hogwarts then go back to that – to that…"
"You live in a Muggle orphanage during the holidays, I believe?" said Dippet curiously.
"Yes, sir." Said Riddle, reddening slightly.
"You are Muggle-born?"
"Half-blood, sir," said Riddle, "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 clicked his tongue sympathetically, "The thing is Tom," He sighed, "special arrangements might have been made for you, but in the current circumstances…"
"You mean all these attacks, sir?" said Riddle, Yugi and Harry looked at each other and they moved closer, scared to miss anything. However, Dippet didn't have any more information and Harry and Yugi followed Riddle out. They chased him down the stairs until the reached the entrance hall where Riddle was talking to a younger version of Professor Dumbledore.
Riddle led them to the classroom where they had potions with Snape. The door was almost closed and someone was inside trying to get someone into a box, Riddle jumped round the corner, Harry and Yugi stepped out from behind him so they could see.
They could see the dark outline of a huge boy who was crouching in front of an open door, a very large box was next to it.
"Evening, Rubeus." Said Riddle sharply. The boy slammed the door shut and stood up.
"What yer doin' down here, Tom?" Riddle stepped closer.
"It's all over," Riddle 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'yer…"
"I don't think you meant it to kill anyone. But monsters don't make good pets. I suppose you just let it out for the exercise and…"
"It never killed no one!" Said the large boy, backing into the closed door. Harry could hear a funny clicking noise from behind the door.
"Stand aside!" Riddle growled, drawing out his wand. The spell he cast lit the corridor with a flaming light. The door behind the large boy was flung open at such a rate of knots it knocked him into the wall opposite. The thing inside vanished up the corridor and was gone before Riddle could catch it. The tall boy was stood in his way.
The room lurched, the two boys felt themselves falling and they landed on Harry's bed, the Millennium Puzzle was on the floor, Riddle's diary was on Harry's stomach. Before they realised what was happening Ron burst into the room, mock gagging. "There you two are, trust me, you don't want to go down there. What's up?" Ron asked, noticing the two boys were sweating.
"It was Hagrid, Ron. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago…" Harry paused. "Wait, why don't we want to go down there?"
Ron shook his head and Yugi dashed out the door. He quietly walked down the steps, he couldn't hear anything, but that didn't mean anything. He turned the last corner and Yugi went bright red as he saw why Ron had told them not to go down there. There was only two people left in the Common Room and they were kissing. Yugi blushed and dashed back up the stairs, there was no way he was going to disturb them.
Five minutes later Joey walked into the dorm, looking extremely pleased with himself, but also slightly confused. Harry and Ron were looking at him like he was an alien from outer space while Yugi smiled at him, "We saw you!"
Joey went bright red, but smirked. "So?" Yugi just smiled and Harry and Ron weren't sure what to make of him as they got ready for bed. Joey was one of the last to fall asleep and was smiling.