Harry Potter: Don't touch

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Professor Lockhart is a bloody liar. Andromeda, Nymphadora, Ronald, and even bloody Zachariah had been right all along. Harry pondered how he could have been so stupid as to overlook the obvious, admire Gilderoy and not even try to verify the truth of the books, but he couldn't find an answer.

The professor of defence against the dark arts was let down by a rather simple thing - a mismatch of dates. Mention of the exact date in the books was present quite infrequently, but if you spend a little time to sort it out, you can easily find the error - Lockhart so wrote his books that he had to be in two different places at the same time. There were other logical inconsistencies that Harry hadn't noticed when first reading the books.

But despite the many confirmations of the teacher's lies, Harry decided to double-check everything: he asked Lockhart about his spells and got wrong, unconvincing answers. The last fact that convinced Potter that the professor hadn't really done anything was the information that the spell that could heal a werewolf simply didn't exist, and that the one who invented it would be entitled to a tidy sum of galleons.

Justin doubted his conclusions at first; he thought that Potter had not asked well and was simply mistaken. But after he had done some of the same things that Harry had done, Finch-Fletchley was convinced that he was right. Potter's first thought was to tell all the students about Lockhart's hypocrisy. But then a rather amusing fact came to light - everyone already knew about it. Only Harry and Justin and a few other people had been vocal in their admiration for Lockhart and believed every word he said.

This information made Potter feel bad, he remembered the fight with Ron, Tonks over Lockhart, Zachariah's words... With Finch-Fletchley's consent, Harry dissolved the society of Lockhart fans they had created, and told each of its former members how much truth there really was in Gilderoy Lockhart's books. Potter then headed to the Gryffindor drawing room - to apologise to Ron Weasley. He had been right all along and had tried to explain it to him, but Harry had been unwilling to listen.

Because Potter didn't know the password, he had to stand near the portrait of the Full Lady for about ten minutes, waiting for someone from the lion faculty to come through the passage. He was let into the sitting room by a blond Gryffindor fourth year, he didn't even bother to ask what Harry needed from them, he just opened the passage and wouldn't let it close until Harry got in. Potter found Ron quickly, he was in the sitting room waving his wand over some notebook. Without hesitation Harry walked straight up to him.

- Hello, Ron.

- Hi, Harry," Weasley said, blushing slightly. He stopped waving his wand and stared at him. - What did you come here for?

- I came to apologise. I'm sorry, I was wrong about Lockhart, he really is a liar and made it all up. I was wrong.

- I-- It's okay, Harry. Peace. I was angry at the time too, I didn't understand how anyone could admire that peacock at all... Anyway, I'm glad you finally realised that," Weasley stammered, feeling even more uncomfortable than Potter.

- Great. Okay, shall I go then?

- Yeah... Wait, though. Do you know any spells that can... Show magic? I mean..." Ron tried to formulate his thoughts, but he couldn't, so he waved his hand. - Anyway, I've got this diary, it's not mine, and I think there might be a secret hidden in it, a code, or maybe the location of the Chamber of Secrets. Here, have a look.

- The location of the Chamber of Secrets? - Harry stepped closer and began to examine the diary.

He had definitely seen it somewhere, but where? Someone had used it at mealtimes, I think... Or was it last year?

- It's familiar. I think I've seen it somewhere. Where did you get it? - Potter asked.

- Well..." Ron hesitated. - Hermione and I were doing some cooking in the girls' toilets... And the diary was in there....

- Right.

What would Ron be doing in the ladies' room with Hermione Granger? There must be some kind of exciting story involved. Harry didn't want to know the details, but somehow he was sure Justin would definitely be upset. After all, he had said that Hermione didn't have any friends. Well, as it turned out, she did.

- I read about this spell at the beginning of the year. The manifestation of invisible magical ink. Aparecium! - Harry exclaimed, pointing his wand at the diary.

Nothing happened. Potter was used to it by now and wasn't particularly surprised.

- Hermione's already tried that," Ron said. - Don't you know anything else?

- I don't know... I know a place where you can read about spells like that. I could look it up and try something, but it wouldn't be quick, you still have to learn them.

- Yeah. I know that place too, the library. All right," Weasley waved his hand. - You can take the diary and look for something in there if you want. It's the diary of one Tom Riddle, he caught the previous Slytherin heir, so we thought there might be a way lurking in here. It was just a hunch. It's probably wrong, we thought it was Malfoy, but it wasn't him either. Anyway, take this diary for yourself, I've tried everything I know, if you don't find anything you can throw it away.

Walking out of the Gryffindor lounge, Harry headed straight for the Wishing Room. If this diary was written by someone who had already found the Chamber of Secrets, he might well have written how to find it. Probably in some unusual way that not everyone could read. Potter hoped that if he tried a bunch of testing spells, he might be able to find out something.

After sitting in the Room-by-Wish for two hours, he had to admit - the diary in front of him was an ordinary diary without any secrets. All the manifesting spells either didn't work or showed that there were no secrets in the diary. What did Ron say if he didn't find anything? Throw it away?

Well, he could keep it, it was a diary, so he could use it as a diary, paint it pink and, like in first year, conduct experiments, writing down the results. Deciding that this was exactly what he would do, Harry went back to his bedroom. There he sat down on his bed, took out his diary and thought about what experiment he should do.

He had to prepare a small potions paper for tomorrow on the use of a branch of a magical oak tree in brewing potions, but he didn't have to do that homework, Professor Snape wouldn't treat him any better anyway, and he could get an "O" without the work. Choosing a topic, Harry took out a pen - not the one Tonks had given him, that had long since run out of ink and he only carried it in his pocket as a talisman, but another, a recently purchased magical version of a Muggle writing device - and began to write.

Experiment 2. Is it possible to teach a snake to speak human?

If it's possible to communicate information in snake language that can be interpreted into human language, why can't we do the opposite? However, immediately after finishing the sentence, the letters seemed to be stamped into the sheet and disappeared from sight, vanishing from the page.

"Awesome, the diary is absorbing the ink, cool experiment," Potter thought.

He was about to close the diary and think about where to throw it away when suddenly there was an inscription on the page that wasn't written by Potter's hand.

'Hi, I'm Tom Riddle, who are you, and how did you get my diary?

'The diary is alive!- Harry was both terribly surprised and delighted. - It really does have secrets hidden in it."

'Holy shit, who are you?- he wrote

I already wrote, I'm Tom Riddle. How did my diary get to you?

How can you be Tom Riddle if he's the owner of this diary?

I asked you a question. If you'd be so kind as to answer it.

Tom Riddle locked his consciousness in his diary. This book is sentient now, and it may take offence if you don't answer its questions. It's worth treating it as a real conversation partner.

Your diary was thrown out in the ladies' room," Harry answered the question and, after some thought, finished:

Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?

Good thing I wrote the information down in a more secure way than ink, I know a lot of people don't want anyone to have the knowledge I have. I know a lot about the Chamber of Secrets. When I was in my fifth year, the Slytherin heir opened the Chamber of Secrets, a female student died because of it. I know who was responsible for all the incidents back then, I caught him and he was expelled. I also know what the horror of the Chamber of Secrets is. Because of this knowledge I was able to stop the attacks.

Harry's heart raced hard. Would he really know the answer to all his questions now?

Can you tell me what you know? I'm at Hogwarts now, and someone has opened the Chamber of Secrets again, a student has already died, just like that time. And the monster is still prowling around the castle with impunity, intent on killing.

I can do more than tell you about the Chamber of Secrets. I can do more than that. I can show you who opened the Chamber of Secrets, take you into my memories, but I need your consent.

Show me? Bring back memories? What do you mean? What would the face of a past Slytherin heir do to him?

Don't. I don't know anyone's face, your words will be enough for me. Just tell me what you know and I'll inform the Headmaster.

Harry waited about ten minutes for a reply this time. The diary seemed to be contemplating whether to trust him or not.

The Chamber of Secrets was opened by Rubeus Hagrid. The monster is a Giant Spider.- The inscription finally appeared.

What the hell is this nonsense?- Harry instantly wrote.

There was no reply.

I know Hagrid, if he kills someone, it's only to feed that someone to his fish, and the monster of the Chamber of Secrets is not a spider at all, but a giant basilisk, I'm sure. I've heard it speak in a snake language, there's no way it could be a spider.

The Diary, or rather Tom Riddle answered instantly.

Who are you?

My name is Harry Potter.

The diary fell silent again. He didn't answer for about half an hour. Harry was tired of waiting, so he pulled out his transfiguration book and started reading - he wasn't going to sit up all night waiting for an answer because Riddle had just fallen asleep.

When letters began to appear on the diary page, Harry put the book aside and stared expectantly at the words appearing. However, instead of an answer as to where he should look for the Chamber of Secrets, another stupid question appeared on the diary.

What are you feeling, Harry Potter?

Nothing. You know, Tom, your questions are getting dumber and dumber lately," Harry cut in disappointedly.

The diary fell silent again. It looked like Harry was never going to learn anything. He reached for his book again, but the answer came surprisingly quickly.

Are you sure it's nothing?

Yeah.

It would be fun if it wasn't actually Tom Riddle texting him right now, but Justin Finch-Fletchley. He's the only one capable of asking the same weird questions. Spell the book to get him interested in it first, and then ask stupid questions. When Harry imagined it, he burst out laughing.

Say, Harry Potter, do you know what emotional control is?

I do. Justin's version is very plausible.

Nope.

Aren't you wearing some kind of artefact that prevents your body from resisting emotional control?

I don't even know what those are. What amulets. I take it you're not gonna tell me anything more about the Chamber of Secrets?

No answer.

'Fine,' Harry thought to himself.

The conversation with the diary had amused him quite a bit, he especially liked imagining that Justin was on the other end of it. He walked out of the bedroom with a silly grin, opened the small window in the living room and tossed the diary in there.

- Fly away, you stupid book! - Potter threw it after her.

An hour later, however, he had an epiphany. What had he done? A clever book, a person living in it. You could take it with you to exams and ask for answers. All he had to do was get Tom Riddle, who had been at Hogwarts for five years, to help him with his silly homework. He walked back into the living room, opened the window again, pulled out his wand and exclaimed:

- Vingardium Leviosa!

Throwing the diary out the window was easy, but getting it back in was quite problematic. You had to make sure it hit the window exactly, which was quite a challenge. After five minutes, however, Harry succeeded: the slightly dirty book flew back into the living room.

Hello again, sorry for throwing it out of the window, let's make a deal, I'll give you... Well whatever it is you need... I won't drown you in Hogwarts lake, and you'll help me with my lessons. Not exactly a fair deal, I know, but if you don't want to go swimming, I suggest you take it.

It didn't take the Diary didn't take long to make a decision.

Deal.

For some reason, Harry had a feeling in his head that this Tom Riddle was in a terrible rage, but Potter decided to ignore the strange feeling.