Today was our Quidditch match against Gryffindor.

I was hoping it would be an easy match, but I knew it wouldn’t happen for two reasons:

1. Harry Potter was playing and there would always be trouble when he was around.

2. Draco Malfoy may have been a brilliant Quidditch player and an amazing Seeker, but Harry Potter was probably better.

Anyway, we got onto the pitch. The game started.

Immediately, a Bludger flew towards Harry. He flew away from it.

It flew at him again.

He dodged.

And, once again, it tried to attack him.

I realised this was no ordinary Bludger. Someone had tampered with it.

Draco seemed amused. “Training for the ballet, Potter?”

The other Bludger was attacking Sirius, so I went to go hit it away. “What d’you think is going on with that Bludger? Someone’s meddled with it!” I commented to him, indicating it.

Sirius glanced over at it. “No idea.”

The other Bludger flew at him so I hit it off towards a Chaser.

Then I flew back to rejoin Anja. “How’s your first Quidditch match going so far?” I asked.

She grinned. “It’s not exactly difficult when you’ve only got to keep one Bludger away from our team. The Beaters for Gryffindor, though…that must be hard work.”

I waved at Fred and George. They waved back and came over to us. “Who’s this?” George asked, indicating Anja.

“Oh, this is Anja. She’s the new Beater for Slytherin and my twin sister,” I told them.

Fred and George glanced at each other. “More twins?”

“Yes,” I agreed, “twins do seem to be good Beaters, don’t they?”

The Weasley twins looked at each other, then us and then grinned. “Yeah.”

They then flew off to try stop the tampered Bludger from killing Harry.

Which was reasonable, I suppose.

Finally, Harry and Draco both spotted the Snitch and went flying off after it.

Harry seemed to be ahead until he stretched out his arm to catch it and the Bludger flew into it.

I think his bone broke.

After that incident, I suspect he was much more careful. But he still tried to catch the Snitch, of course.

And, being Harry Potter, he caught it, somehow.

He fell to the ground in the manner of his typical victory and then passed out.

Draco’s father, seated in the audience, looked furious and stormed out.

Meanwhile, Draco himself looked pleased at Harry’s fainting, but annoyed about losing.

Anja, from next to me, sighed. “I suppose we have to get used to losing while Harry Potter is around.”

I nodded. We both landed and went over to Harry. He had just come to and Lockhart was standing over him.

“Oh, no, not you,” Harry muttered.

I definitely agreed with him on that one. “Doesn’t know what he’s saying,” Lockhart told us cheerfully.

Lockhart then attempted to fix Harry’s arm. I don’t know exactly what spell he used, but it didn’t work.

Instead of mending Harry’s broken bone, he removed it.

So Harry ended up having to go to the hospital wing anyway.

Just then, I felt a voice whispering in my head.

“Come to the Chamber…come to the Chamber…”

I looked around. Ginny Weasley was nowhere to be seen.

“I have to go,” I told Anja.

She sighed. “Not this again. Where are you going?”

“The Chamber of Secrets,” I replied calmly, then, before she could reply, I dashed off into the castle.

Finally I reached Myrtle’s bathroom. “Hello,” she said. “I suppose you’re just going to run past me like last time…”

She began sobbing loudly.

“No, Myrtle,” I tried to explain. “It’s just that…well…there’s somewhere I need to be, right now. So, I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

I opened the Chamber and walked down to where, as always, Ginny was waiting for me.

“I got your message.”

Ginny nodded. “Good. Well, it’s your turn.”

“What?”

“Your turn to release the basilisk. And just so you know, I have no preference as to who you kill,” ‘Ginny’ told me. “So long as it’s a Mudblood.”

I had half been expecting this, I had to admit.

But I hoped that I would not be the cause of any deaths.

Or, as in Mrs Norris’ case, anyone being Petrified.

I guessed that she had been Petrified instead of killed because of the water on the ground.

“Hurry up!” ‘Ginny’ urged me.

I turned to face Slytherin’s face as ‘Ginny’ had done, then hissed in Parseltongue, “Come…Slytherin’s monster…come…”

The basilisk slid from Slytherin’s mouth. It slid off. “How does it get around without being seen?” I asked interestedly.

“It uses the plumbing,” came the response.

I nodded. That made sense. It would be easy to get around the school using the pipes in the walls.

I decided to ask a dangerous question.

Especially dangerous considering that this person was perfectly happy to kill people.

“I know you aren’t really Ginny Weasley, you’re just possessing her. Who are you really?”

‘Ginny’ turned to me. “You want to know my real name? I am Tom.”

He said his name with disregard, and possibly even hate towards it.

Why?

“Well, okay, Tom. I have to go now,” I told him and then walked slowly back though the tunnels until I was back in the girls’ bathroom.

“Myrtle…” I began hesitantly. “Was there a Tom here when you were at school?”

She nodded. “Oh, yes, there were a few, but I only really knew one of them. Tom Riddle.”

“Yes?” I asked.

I thought that maybe, somehow, the person who’d killed Myrtle – the Heir of Slytherin from her time – had managed to possess Ginny and open the Chamber again.

But all I had to go on was what I’d worked out about Tom.

“Tom Riddle was a Slytherin. He was one of the sixth-year Prefects when I died. He was very popular and all the teachers liked him except for Professor Dumbledore. Nobody knew much about his past, but I think he lived at an orphanage,” she told me.

“Thankyou, Myrtle!” I said.

That was all I needed to know. If he was a sixth-year, he would have been the right age. And if he was a Slytherin, it was more likely that he was the Heir.

But I couldn’t be sure.

It could just be a coincidence, but I didn’t believe in coincidence.

Now there was another question for me to answer. How was Tom possessing Ginny if he lived so many years ago?

I walked out of the bathroom and down the corridor, letting my feet take me where they wanted.

“Jade!” called Ginny, running down the corridor after me. “Jade!”

I turned around. “Hi, Ginny.”

She lookedworried. “Oh, Jade, I can’t remember what I was doing! I remember the Quidditch match, and then…nothing. I think I’ve been possessed again!”

“You’re right,” I said sadly. I told her what had happened and my conversation with Myrtle about Tom.

Ginny frowned. “Tom Riddle?” I nodded. She reached into her bag and pulled out an old, battered-looking diary.

The diary she’d been holding when I had first met her in the Chamber.

“Look at that.” She indicated a name on the diary.

Tom Marvolo Riddle. 

“Who do you suppose he is?” Ginny asked. “I’ve never heard of him.”

I nodded. “If he’d opened the Chamber of Secrets, you’d think he was a Dark wizard. But then, all other Dark wizards are about as Dark as a rainbow compared to Voldemort.”

She sighed. “He probably won’t be in any history books either, then.”

I agreed.

Then a thought occurred to me. “You don’t think he’s possessing you through the diary, do you?”

She nodded. “Maybe. It does seem to have a mind of its own, this diary.”

I sat down on a nearby seat and took a quill and inkwell from my bag. “Right, let’s see what happens, shall we?”

She handed me the diary and sat down next to me.

My name is Jade Evans, I wrote.

The words disappeared and some other words appeared on the page. A message from Tom Riddle.

Hello. My name is Tom Riddle.

I turned to Ginny. “You’re right. It does seem to be able to think.

Are you the Heir of Slytherin? I wrote.

Maybe. Are you?

Yes.

I suppose Tom thought for a while about what to say next.

I see. I am still unable to tell you whether or not I am the Heir of Slytherin.

I sighed.

But this diary clearly had some part of Tom Riddle embedded in it so it could think.

I must go now.Goodbye, Tom Riddle.

Goodbye, Jade Evans.

The words disappeared and the page was blank once again.

I got up and said goodbye to Ginny. “Oh, and Ginny?”

“Yes?”

“Throw that diary away. It’s possessing you.”

She nodded somewhat reluctantly. “Okay.”

I went back to the Common Room.

Blaise told me that he and Anja had agreed to meet up with Alex by the lake, so we headed that way.

When we got there, I told Alex what I had already told the other two. Then I told them about setting the basilisk on someone in the school.

Alex looked horrified. “Jade, that’s terrible!”

I nodded. “I know. I really hope it’s not Hermione. After all, she’s the only Muggle-born that I really know.”

According to Anja, it was a good idea to search for a petrified or dead Muggle-born Hogwarts student.

I didn’t argue, so we went up to the castle again and looked around every level.

Finally, we found him.

It was Colin Creevey, a first-year Gryffindor who was one of Harry’s greatest fans.

He was Petrified. He lay flat on his back, unmoving, with his camera in hand.

I didn’t even hesitate. “Get a teacher. This is my fault, I’ll stay with him.”

Alex and Anja walked off down the corridor together while Blaise and I stayed with Colin.

I looked at Colin again. He seemed to be looking into his camera at something, but I didn’t want to risk opening it to see exactly what.

After all, who knew what a basilisk’s eyes could do to a camera?

I felt extremely guilty. I was to blame for this poor first-year getting Petrified.

Of course, I was glad it wasn’t someone I knew well, like Hermione, but even so, I wasn’t happy about this.

I heard a noise. Someone was coming.

A few seconds later, Alex and Anja appeared, followed by Professor McGonagall.

“Oh, my! I shall have to call Albus! 5 points to each of you. Can you please wait here while I go and alert the Headmaster?” she exclaimed.

I nodded. “Yes, Professor.”

She quickly ran off down the corridor.

A few minutes later, she returned with Headmaster Dumbledore. They took Colin away, presumably to the hospital wing.

And all I was thinking was, This is all my fault.