Chapter 117 - A weird find

After hearing Myrtle's words, Thomas paused for a second and watched the ghost's face closely, thinking that this was one of her attempts to do something perverted, but the only thing that he could see on her face was sadness and nothing else.

Once he was more than sure than sure of that, Thomas turned his head towards the direction where Myrtle pointed him earlier, and to his surprise a small, thin book with a shabby black cover that was as wet as everything else in the bathroom was lying under a sink.

Before Thomas could even move, Adam who was closer to the sink than him, crouched down and picked up the wet book, looking at it as if it was some sort of dark artifact.

"Maybe we shouldn't have picked it…" Tracey said while looking uneasily at the book.

"Why?" Adam turned his head towards her.

"It could be dangerous or worse. We don't even know who threw it towards Myrtle…"

"Tracey does have a point, Adam." Daphne agreed with her friend before turning her head towards Thomas. "So, what are we going to do Tom?"

It wasn't the first time in his life that Thomas didn't know what to do, especially when his decision could put his friends in danger. "I… I don't know. I mean it's a bloody book, right? What's the worst that could happen?"

"You'd be surprised." Ron starts talking out of nowhere, looking apprehensively at the book. "Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated, at least the ones Dad's told me about … there was one that burned your eyes out. And everyone who read Sonnets of a Sorcerer spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives. And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could never stop reading! You just had to wander around with your nose in it, trying to do everything one-handed. What I want to say is that a lot of things could go wrong if the book is cursed."

He would lie if he were to say that Ron's story didn't make him rethink his decision to open the book, but Thomas knew that without any clues, the attacks would only continue to happen and more and more students would find themselves petrified. The more he looked at the book in his roommate's hands, the more anxious Thomas got, making him wonder if it was worth the risk to open it, or if they should just leave it alone and hope for another clue. He knew that the book could be a vital piece of evidence or a deadly trap. And if that wasn't bad enough, for some reason, he didn't want to see Daphne or Hermione hurt by some dark magic. Yet, truth be told, he was no god and more than once he had proven to himself that nothing would happen the way he wanted it to happen.

Turning his head to the rest of his friends, Thomas hopped for some guidance from them. They all seemed to have different opinions on what to do. Both of his roommates were curious and eager to examine the book. Tracey was cautious of the book. Daphne was supportive and trusting of Thomas. Ron was scared and pessimistic about the book. While Harry just stared at it, without saying or doing anything, almost as if he was frozen.

Thomas wished he could just snap his fingers and everything be fixed, or have Dumbledore's wisdom, or even Snape's cunning. But he didn't. He only had his instincts, and his mentor whom Thomas had no doubt would keep him safe to some degree at least.

"Give me the book, Adam," Thomas said, surprising all of his friends. "If someone is to be cursed, let it be me."

Adam hesitated for a moment, but then handed the book to Thomas "Are you sure about this, Tom? You don't have to do this alone, you know. We're all in this together."

Thomas shook his head, not wanting to risk his friends' well-being, besides worst come true and he was indeed cursed, well Bahamut should be able to take care of it and even if the old dragon was unable to help, Thomas could still ask Sera for help.

With that in mind, Thomas lowered his head and took a proper look at the book, and the first thing that he noticed was that this was not a book. No, it was a diary, the diary of one T. M. Riddle, who from what Thomas could see on the cover, was a student in this very school fifty years ago.

"Tom Riddle… I think I remember his name from inside the Slytherin common room, but I don't remember what he did." Daphne added while she stood shoulder to shoulder with Thomas.

To everyone's surprise, Ron knew the answer. "I know who that is. T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."

"How on earth d'you know that?" Harry who had been extremely silent ever since they walked into the bathroom asked his friend in pure amazement.

"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention," Ron answered resentfully. "That was the one I burped slugs all over. If you'd wiped slime off a name for an hour, you'd remember it, too."

"What are we waiting for then? Let's open it, Tom."

Hearing Michael's enthusiasm, Thomas rolled his eyes before opening the diary, only for him and the others to stare at it in shock. Even though Thomas wasn't expecting to see anything too important, he was still hoping to see some writing or some clues. But to his surprise and disappointment, he found that the pages were blank. There was nothing in them, no words, no pictures, no signs of anything.

He flipped through the diary, hoping to find something, anything. But it was all the same. Nothing but empty pages. Letting out a sigh, Thomas raised his head and looked at his friends.

"It's empty." He said, showing them the diary. "There's nothing in it."

Daphne took the diary from him and examined it herself, skipping a few pages at a time with a shocked expression on her "You're right, Tom. It's empty. How strange."

The others agreed with her and took turns looking at the diary and while they all hoped to find something… truth be told, nothing was written in the diary.

"So, what are we going to do with it? "Thomas asked his friends, not sure what to do now with the empty diary.

"It's empty, so maybe you could use it after you dry it of course," Daphne suggested.

"Well, it's not much use to you, right?" Ron said while eyeing Myrtle for some reason. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's nose."

Daphne smacked Ron on the head, making him wince. "That's not funny, Ron. That's cruel and insensitive. Myrtle is a perverted ghost, not a target."

The others shook their heads at Ron, who looked sheepish and muttered an apology as

Myrtle glared at him but didn't say anything.

Thomas decided to ignore Ron's remark and put the diary in his bag. He felt a strange attraction to it as if it was calling to him. He wondered if there was more to it than meets the eye. He decided to keep it for now, and maybe try to find out more about it later.

"Come on, let's go eat something." He said to his friends. "We've wasted enough time here. Maybe we'll find another clue somewhere else."

And just like that time passed by quickly without any other incident happening, other than Hermione leaving the hospital wing, de-whiskered, tail-less, and fur-free, at the beginning of February. On her first evening back with her friends, Thomas showed her Tom Riddle's diary that they found under the sink.

"Maybe it's enchanted, or maybe it will write the future, or maybe…" Hermione spoke enthusiastically, taking the diary and looking at it closely.

"And here I thought that you were supposed to be practical one… "Daphne rolled her eyes at her friend watching her looking at empty pages.

"No matter how serious I want to be, Daphne, this diary you guys found… is nothing we have ever seen before and I would lie if I were to say that I'm not even a little excited to solve this mystery.

Thomas was standing between the two girls and didn't know what to do with the diary either. The bloody thing was only a waste of space and besides the name and the date written on it, there was nothing else that could have helped them find more about whoever threw the diary.

"Mystery or not, I still do not understand why someone would have thrown the diary at Myrtle. Not to mention that as stupid as it might sound, maybe this Riddle could be the key to solving this mystery."

"What do you mean by that Tom?" Hermione asked while raising her eyes from the empty diary.

"Think about it. The chamber of secrets had been opened fifty years ago, right? And this diary belonged to a student who learned here fifty years ago. No matter how much I want to think that there's nothing between these two events, the truth be told is that if I were to be a student all of these years ago and the chamber of secrets was to be opened, I would have written about it in my diary."

Both Hermione and Daphne were quite surprised to hear Tom's deduction. They wondered if what he had just said could be the truth. Could Tom Riddle have witnessed the opening of the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago? Could he have written about it in his diary? And if so, why was the diary empty now?

"That's a very interesting theory, Tom," Hermione said, looking between her friend and the diary. "But how do you explain the fact that there's nothing in the diary? If Tom Riddle did write about the Chamber of Secrets, where did his writing go?"

"Maybe someone erased it," Daphne suggested. "Maybe whoever threw the diary at Myrtle wanted to get rid of the evidence."

"Or maybe it's hidden," Tom said, feeling a spark of curiosity. "Maybe there's a way to make the writing appear. Maybe it's a secret diary, and only the owner can read it."

"Or maybe it's just a blank diary, and you're all wasting your time." Ron who was sitting on the other side of the table said lazily while stretching his body. "We are wasting our time with this empty diary. We should have just thrown it away and be done with it."

"Ron for the love of pancakes, think about for a second. If Tom's theory is proven right, then we might find out where the chamber of secrets is and how to close it for good." Michael retorted, looking disappointedly at the red-haired Gryffindor.

"It might be invisible ink!" Tracey wondered out loud, making everyone look at her.

Hearing her words, Thomas quickly grabbed his wand and pointed it at the diary. "Aparecium!"

But nothing happened. The diary was still full of white pages with nothing written on them.

"Here Tom, try this," Hermione said while shoving a bright red eraser into his hand. "It's a Revealer, I got it in Diagon Alley."

Using the revealer on the diary had the same results… and with it, their hopes diminished once again.

"I'm telling you, there's nothing to find in there," Ron said once again. "Riddle just got a diary for Christmas and couldn't be bothered filling it in."

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