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the rest of the holidays with her friends, the cloud of awkwardness that followed them when they discussed the Chamber of Secrets was evident and caused friction. It baffled Saffron that they were so gung-ho on not wanting to look into Hagrid as someone who could have opened the Chamber of Secrets. She respected that they didn't believe that it was him, but to completely debunk the theory felt to her like they were insulting her intelligence.

She tried to let it be water under the bridge and forget about it, but she was unable to do so. Something felt off about how confidently Luna told her that Hagrid had opened the Chamber in the past, perhaps the thing that was off was that it was actually the truth.

Saffron was tempted to contact Luna but she opted not to. She didn't want to bombard the girl on her time off school with questions about the thing that had petrified the boy who seemed to be one of her only friends in school. She was going to wait until the term resumed to ask her about it in person. She had also organised a bag of sweets to give the girl as a present since she had been so kind in sending her a bracelet at Christmas.

Besides Saffron eagerly waiting to be able to talk to Luna, only one thing happened before the next term started, it occurred when she was coming back from visiting Olly and essentially Emilia too, in the hospital wing. She had put some new flowers in the vases, seeing as the person who usually did that Luna, was at home.

She spotted Harry and Ron walking in from the grounds, holding a broomstick each. She hurried over to them and greeted them pleasantly.

"How could you play in this weather?" Saffron asked, shivering against the cold breeze coming from behind the mountains. "I think I'd freeze to death,"

"It doesn't feel that cold once you're in the air," Harry told her, as they entered the warmth of the school after talking through the courtyard into the entrance hall. "The adrenaline sort of kicks in,"

"Have you been in the hospital wing?" questioned Ron, in spite of knowing the answer.

"Yes," answered Saffron tersely. "I've been switching out their flowers since their friends aren't here to do it,"

Harry opened his mouth to continue the conversation, but he stopped as an angry outburst from the floor above them met their ears.

"Filch," mumbled Ron, his eyes widening fearfully. "You don't think someone else's been attacked, do you?

Saffron stood frozen to the spot listening to every word Filch had to say. Luckily, it was just one of his personal traumas and not another victim of the Heir of Slytherin. He was complaining about mopping. They could hear him say to himself that he was going to Dumbledore and the sound of a door slamming told them he was heading in that direction as they stood there.

The three Gryffindors headed up the stairs to see what Filch was angry about. The hallway was flooded by several inches of water, which, Saffron saw had come from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The closer they got to it, the more evident it was that she had caused the flooding as she was letting out piercing screams every few seconds. But they were abrupt, making Saffron jump when she heard the first one.

"Now what's up with her?" groaned Ron, looking down at the water seeping into his shoes.

"Only one way to find out," said Saffron, walking through the water without having to lift her clothes up as the boys did. Harry and Ron were wearing trousers, whilst Saffron was wearing Maya's old skirt. She pushed the door open and saw the Myrtle was in quite a spot of despair.

"What's up, Myrtle?" said Harry cautiously, stepping into the dimly lit room

"Who's that?" snapped Myrtle. "Come to throw something else at me?"

Harry continued to approach her. "Why would I throw something at you?"

"Don't ask me," Myrtle screamed, briskly coming out of the toilet and sending a wave across the room to splash into their legs. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me..."

"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you," replied Harry slowly. "I mean, it'd just go right through you, wouldn't it?"

Saffron could already tell that he had spoken incorrectly, as Myrtle roared:

"Let's all throw books at Myrtle, because she can't feel it! Ten points if you can get it through her stomach! Fifty points if it goes through her head! Well, ha, ha, ha! What a lovely game, I don't think!"

"Who threw it at you, anyway?" asked Harry.

"I don't know... I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death, and it fell right through the top of my head," Myrtle glared at them. She pointed to a nearby sink. "It's over there, it got washed out..."

Saffron looked to the sink and saw that a soggy small book with a black cover was lying there. Harry made a start to go and examine it, but Ron threw his arm out to block him from doing so.

"What?" blinked Harry in surprise

"Are you crazy?" asked Ron seriously. "It could be dangerous."

"Dangerous?" chuckled Harry "Come off it, how could it be dangerous?"

"Ron's right, Harry," said Saffron before biting her lip nervously. "It could be cursed, you never know what could be in there,"

"But it's just a book," replied Harry.

"So many people have thought it was just a book, but something nasty ended up happening to the lot of them," said Ron. "Some of the books the Ministry's confiscated Dad's told me - 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. And--"

"All right, I've got the point," said Harry patiently. "But, we won't find out unless we look at it," Harry had readied himself to get the book. He ducked under Ron's arm and picked it up off the floor, ignoring Saffron and Ron's warnings. He examined the diary carefully. Saffron exchanged a worrisome look with Ron, but they both walked over to Harry and stood on either side of him.

The first page of it had a barely readable name on it, that said "T. M. Riddle"

That name seemed to ring a bell in Ron's mind. "I know that name . . . T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago."

"How on earth d'you know that?" said Harry with a laugh, sharing a perplexed look with Saffron

"Because Filch made me polish his shield about fifty times in detention," frowned Ron, thinking back to the terrible experience that was his personal detention with Filch. "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."

Harry looked through the pages but unfortunately, nothing had ever been written inside of it.

"Nothing?" Saffron asked him when he finished looking through it.

"Nothing," confirmed Harry. "But I don't understand why somebody wanted to flush it away if there's nothing in it,"

"That is strange," agreed Saffron, as Harry flipped the book over to the back and saw the name of the store on the back of it.

Harry turned to the back cover of the book and saw the printed name of a variety store on Vauxhall Road, London.

"He must've been Muggle-born," Harry told them. "To have bought a diary from Vauxhall Road..."

"Or she," corrected Saffron. "It could be a girl,"

"I reckon it's a girl," said Ron matter-of-factly. "Far more girls keep diaries than blokes. Anyway, it's not much use," He lowered his voice so only Harry and Saffron could hear him. "Fifty points if you can get it through Myrtle's nose,"

Saffron stifled a laugh but noticed that Harry ignored Ron's advice and put it into his jumper pocket.

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When they got back to the common room, Harry showed Hermione the diary and explained how they had stumbled upon it. Hermione was similarly of the opinion that the diary wasn't there for no reason. She seemed to think that it could have been planted there.

"Oooh, it might have hidden powers," Hermione held the diary up and examined it carefully.

"If it has, it's hiding them very well," replied Ron, he turned to Harry."Maybe it's shy. I don't know why you don't chuck it, Harry."

"I wish I knew why someone did try to chuck it," said Harry thoughtfully. "I wouldn't mind knowing how Riddle got an award for special services to Hogwarts either."

"Could've been anything," said Ro, sounding bored.. "Maybe he got thirty O.W.L.s or saved a teacher from the giant squid. Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would've done everyone a favour ..."

"The Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago," Hermione's eyes widened. "Wasn't that what Malfoy said."

"Yeah..." Ron didn't seem to know where Hermione was going with her point.

"And this diary is fifty years old!"

"So?"

"Oh, Ron, wake up," snapped Hermione. "We know the person who opened the Chamber last time was expelled fifty years ago. We know T. M. Riddle got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago. Well, what if Riddle got his special award for catching the Heir of Slytherin? His diary would probably tell us everything - where the Chamber is, and how to open it, and what sort of creature lives in it - the person who's behind the attacks this time wouldn't want that lying around, would they?"

"That's a brilliant theory, Hermione," Ron retorted defensively., "with just one tiny little flaw. There's nothing written in his diary."

"It might be invisible ink!" said Hermione matter-of-factly. She took her wand out and tapped it on the diary three times "Aparecium!"

Saffron pouted when she saw that there had been no effect, but Hermione had another idea. She pulled a bright red revealer out of her bag. She rubbed it hard on the page, but again, nothing happened.

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

As much as Saffron felt like what Ron said made sense, she, just like Hermione and Harry, couldn't shake the feeling that the diary had been in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, at that specific time, for a reason. They just had to find out what that reason was.