Tea with Hagrid
It wasn't until nearly a week later that anything interesting happened. Alice was almost beginning to think life might be settling down when Harry came rushing down late to breakfast one morning desperate to talk to them all.
"I -" he paused and looked around to make sure that no one was listening in, which wasn't really necessary as most people were still giving them a wide berth. "I spoke to the diary last night."
Ron's eyebrows shot up. "When you say spoke to it…?"
"I mean I wrote in it and it wrote back. But that's not what I wanted to tell you about. What's important is what it showed me."
Ron frowned. "Hang on I thought you just said you were writing to it?"
"I was, but then this window opened and I sort of… fell into it and it was like I was actually there fifty years ago, only I wasn't and -"
"Harry slow down," Hermione put a worried hand on his arm, "you're going to give yourself a heart attack."
"Alright," he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before dropping his bombshell. "It was Hagrid. Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets."
"What?!"
"He can't have."
"Are you sure? How do you know?"
Their various cries drew the attention of those sitting nearby so Harry dropped his voice to a whisper. "Because I saw Riddle catch him with the monster; it was this great, huge, hairy thing with pincers and too many legs. And we all knew that Hagrid was expelled," he looked grave, "we just didn't know what for."
"But," Hermione looked as though she was going to be sick, "he can't have meant it to hurt anyone. Hagrid would never do that."
"No, but you know what he's like, if he thought there was a monster in the castle… he probably thought he could make friends with it."
"He probably named it," Ron weakly tried to inject some humour to the conversation.
"We're going to need to talk to him Harry," Alice whispered, "get his side of the story."
"That'd be a cheerful visit," said Ron. "Hello, Hagrid, tell us, have you been setting anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?"
Alice tried to maintain the gravitas of the situation and not to smile too much at this, but it was difficult because to be honest Ron's description could apply to Hagrid almost as much as any of his pets. "What, so you would rather just assume he was guilty then?" She asked as Hermione nodded in agreement. "Don't you think we owe him the chance to explain?"
"Well let's go just now then." Harry got up from the table again looking at the girls expectantly as Ron rose to follow him.
"Harry," Hermione looked torn and Alice knew just how much of a mental battle must be going on inside her because it was one she was having herself. "We can't, we've got to get to Potions."
"Can't we miss it just this once?" Ron was hopeful, "it's not like Snape is going to be handing out lollipops or anything. Though to be honest," he considered, "even if he was they'd be poisoned or something." Alice shook her head; trust Ron to be thinking of food, even if it was in a bizarrely warped way, at a time like this.
"Harry," Alice cautioned when she saw he was about to argue.
"Fine!" He exclaimed seeing the obstinate look on Hermione's face. "We'll go and see him after classes." He slouched back into his seat. "It was your idea anyway."
And so it was that straight after Defence Against the Dark Arts had finished that afternoon the four of them raced down to Hagrid's Hut. Alice had asked Neville if he wanted to come, but seeing the determined looks on all their faces he had realised something was up and had elected to stay in the castle. It took Hagrid so long to answer his door that for a while Alice wondered if he was even in, but eventually they heard the thump of his heavy boots inside and then his large hairy face appeared around the crack in the door.
"Hello you lot!" His evident pleasure at seeing them as he ushered them all inside only made the task ahead of them all the more unpleasant. "I was just about ter put on some tea," he gestured with a hand the size of a frying pan towards the kettle whistling on the stove. As he was bustling about finding them some oversized mugs the four of them sat down and looked at each other awkwardly.
"Well this was your idea," Harry hissed at Alice after a few moments of silent communication and meaningful jerks of the head.
"Gee, thanks," she replied sarcastically. Nervously fiddling with the end of her plait she waited until Hagrid had sat down and poured their tea before she summoned up the courage to speak. "Erm… Hagrid?" She stopped and cleared her throat as a strangled squeak emerged instead of words. "Hagrid we were wondering if we could ask you something?"
"Since you've worked here so long," Hermione chipped in helpfully.
"I have that," Hagrid agreed smiling broadly, "nigh on fifty years now." His words caused a deathly hush to descend on the room as the four of them looked at each other significantly.
"Yes… well… about that, we were wondering if you knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets?" The end of her sentence came out in a rush as she hurried to get it over with.
Instantly Hagrid's whole demeanour changed. "Aah, well… about tha'… what you've got ter remember is that I was jus' a lad meself when…"
"When what?" Harry asked.
Hagrid stared from one carefully blank face to the next trying to work out how much they already knew and whether or not he was about to, or had already, put his foot in it. It seemed he had learned from past mistakes. "What do you know `bout the Chamber anyway?"
Silence.
"We know that it was opened fifty years ago," Hermione finally admitted, "and that last time a girl died -"
"- and that now she haunts the girls' bathroom on the second floor," Ron added.
"Ah, right, you have done yer homework haven't you?" He looked down and placed his hands in his lap as though summoning up the will to answer their question.
"Well all that's true. Though I s'pose you didn't need me ter tell you tha'. Last time I was in me third year. Always getting into trouble I was," he shook his head at the memory. "There were rumours o'course, but no one believed them. Then students started getting attacked, just like now, and people panicked. And then… well truth is…" Hagrid was silent for so long after saying this that Alice wondered if he was going to continue. Finally he took a deep, shuddering breath and looked up at them all. "Truth is they thought it was me that was attacking everyone." He looked from face to face for a reaction or outcry over his statement and when all he received was stony silence and an encouraging smile from Hermione he carried on. "It wasn't me though, I never would have hurt anyone. Aragog wouldn't neither. I just wanted ter look after him." His shaking hands were making the mugs dance and rattle on the table so Alice stretched out and covered them with one of hers. It looked tiny in comparison.
"Who's Aragog?" Hermione asked curiously.
"You believe me?" Hagrid's beetle black eyes glistened with tears as he looked at them in grateful astonishment.
"Of course we do," asserted Harry after a moment's considered silence. "If you say you didn't do it then you didn't do it." He raised his voice over Hagrid's sudden explosive sobs. "You're our friend Hagrid and friends believe each other."
They waited patiently for Hagrid to calm down and stop shaking the table with his enormous frame. Alice couldn't believe how relieved she felt knowing that it hadn't been him. She had never really believed him capable of it, certainly not deliberately, and she didn't doubt for a minute that what he said was true. From the faces of the others she could tell they all thought the same and for Harry's sake if for no one else's she was glad. He was so close to the giant that she didn't think he could have borne it if he'd turned out to have a part in what was going on. So many adults had let him down in his life that she was glad that for once it wasn't the case.
"He's an Acromantula," Hagrid hiccupped eventually.
"An excuse me?" Ron looked non-plussed as Hermione tutted and began to explain.
"Basically it's a giant spider Ron. They're native to Borneo but have been bred to an extent by wizards. They're part of the reason why a ban was placed on Experimental Breeding because they're notoriously violent." She looked at Hagrid rather accusingly as she concluded.
"Ah, now they're not tha' bad," he protested. "When Aragog was in the castle he was more scared o' me than anythin' else. Poor mite seemed terrified all the time."
"Poor mite?!" Harry exclaimed. "He was hardly -"
"Ow!" Alice suddenly felt something sharply connect with her shin and cried out in pain. "Sorry," she apologised as the others all turned to stare at her with varying degrees of concern and confusion, "I got cramp." Hermione however looked slightly sheepish.
"I'm sorry Alice," she wailed sometime later once they had left Hagrid's and were making their way back across the grounds to the castle. "I was aiming for Harry."
"You need to improve your aim then," she winced rubbing the lump that was coming up on her shin. She was going to have a bruise.
"I'm wounded that you would be trying to kick me in the first place. What did I do to deserve that?"
"Do you want her to answer that?" Ron muttered as Alice and Harry grinned.
"I kicked you to make you shut up. We don't need to tell Hagrid that you've seen his Acromantula; how would you explain that? I know that they've got long lives but it was fifty years ago Harry. Then we'd have to explain about the diary, and then he'd tell Dumbledore and we'd have to explain everything to him, and we would get into trouble and probably expelled, and -"
"Ok, ok I get the point. No telling anyone about the diary." He raised his hands in surrender at her barrage of reasons.
"That's all great," Alice added, "but Hermione, next time you want to shut Harry up, use a Silencing Charm alright? They hurt less."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't be dramatic Alice. Anyway so if Hagrid didn't open the Chamber why did this Riddle think he did?" Alice blinked at the rapid change of topic.
"Because he caught him," Ron clearly felt he was stating the obvious.
"Yes," she persevered, "but from what Harry described he went straight to Hagrid that night, as though he already knew about Aragog."
They all pondered this fact quietly as they approached the school.
"Maybe he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but once Myrtle had died he felt he couldn't stay quiet?" Harry postulated.
"Maybe he didn't think it was Hagrid at all," Ron considered, "maybe he just pinned the blame on him so that they would let him stay at Hogwarts over the holidays. Maybe he really didn't want to go back to his orphanage."
"I can understand that," Alice said quietly as Harry nodded in agreement.
"Well we could always find out if he was the sort to tell tales and things. Or rather if he wasn't. If he was reliable and things then maybe he was made a Prefect and his name will be in the Book."
"Book?" As usual Harry and Ron had no idea what she was talking about. "What book?"
"The Book, the list of all Hogwarts Head Boys and Girls and Prefects since the school was opened." Alice loved the way that Hermione equated these roles with honesty and it never occurred to her that anyone in such a position would do anything wrong. Still it was better than nothing.
"That must be one big book."
"It is."
"There," she pointed triumphantly a short while later as they all bent over the thick tome to read the tiny scribbled entry. Under the heading 1944-45 was scratched the name T. M. Riddle and the inscription Head Boy. "And then here look," she indicated the previous two years where he was listed as a School Prefect.
"He sounds like Percy," Ron glanced at the text disdainfully, "Prefect, Head Boy, you wouldn't catch me doing that."
"I doubt we're in any danger of anyone making you a Prefect Ronald," Hermione bit back in irritation. "I'm going to look at the shields to see if there are any more mentions of him." She flounced off across the trophy room.
"And I'll go this way," Ron marched in the opposite direction.
"Don't argue," Harry told their retreating backs absently as he began to flip through the rest of the book.
"What are you looking for now?" Alice asked him.
"Nothing, I just…" He paused on a page and stared at it for so long that she began to get worried about him. "Harry are you all right? ... Harry?" He didn't respond so she leant over next to him to see what the book said. "Oh." There on the page for 1977-78 were the names of Harry's parents.
"I never knew they were Head Boy and Girl," his voice sounded hoarse and scratchy. "No one ever told me…"
Alice put a comforting arm around his shoulders. "At least you've got things like this to remember them by, and be proud of them for."
"Yeah," he sniffed quickly and regained his composure. "I'm sorry Alice I've never asked about your parents. They were muggles weren't they? What happened to them?"
"I don't know really I was handed over to the orphanage after they died, by a relative I suppose, they just left me there. Told them my name and then left."
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know, I shouldn't have asked."
"Don't be daft. I don't remember it so I don't mind." Which wasn't entirely true but she had spent a lifetime convincing herself it was so why stop now? "Anyway, before we get too mushy," she grinned at him, "why don't we go and stop Ron and Hermione from killing each other and see if we can find out anything else about Riddle?"
As it transpired there was an old Medal for Magical Merit that Riddle had been given and an award for Special Services to the School, but neither of them mentioned what he got them for or what sort of person he was; although obviously he was very academic. After hitting another dead end in their quest for information the four of them gave up on searching for Riddle. Hermione had decided that perhaps they shouldn't listen to what he said - or wrote - and Ron for once surprisingly agreed with her saying that his Dad always said you should never trust something if you couldn't see its brain, or something to that effect. Although Harry acquiesced with their appeals he would constantly take the diary out of his pocket and flip through it as though hoping the answer would just spring off the page.
"Harry will you please put that thing away?" Hermione asked as they sat by the fire. "We've got heaps of homework this week, doing that would be more productive surely?"
"What is it?" asked George from the rug where he and Fred were stretched out, both of them looking rather comical and devoid of eyebrows after a prank to celebrate their birthday had backfired rather badly.
"It's a notebook," Harry hedged.
"Sure it is," Fred smirked making a grab for it before Harry had time to pull it out of reach.
"Aw come on Harry, I hope you're faster than that when we play Hufflepuff next month or Wood will kill you."
"Fred give him the book back," Alice spoke without looking up; she had a heap of homework to do and she really wasn't in the mood for their antics.
"In a minute midget," Fred flashed her an incorrigible smile before waving the book above his head. "Oi Ginny, fancy having a read of Harry's diary?"
"Don't be mean," she chastised as his sister, sitting in the corner with a few other first years, glanced up at him and froze. Her eyes skipped from her brother to the diary then towards Harry, whose face resembled a tomato, and back again.
"Aaw Fred, I think you might have embarrassed her," his twin smirked.
"That's not very nice, "Hermione informed him primly. "How would you like it if someone did that to you?"
"I would bear it with untold fortitude and a charming smile," George demonstrated said facial feature to emphasise his point. When Hermione continued to scowl at him he rolled his eyes. "Fred."
"Fine," his brother tossed the book back to Harry with a shrug. "Besides," he winked at Alice. "Evans knows she's the only woman in our lives."
"What did I do to deserve that?" she asked drily.
Two days later Alice was sitting with Neville trying to coax him through some particularly sticky Transfiguration homework; she had found that most of the time he could actually come up with a semblance of an answer, he just never had confidence in it.
"Look you've got the answer to this one back here," she pointed at the appropriate paragraph in his hastily scrawled notes. "Just read it again and have a think about it."
"Oh it's no use," Neville put his head in his hands, "I'm never going to get it. I'm just too stupid."
"You are not stupid!" Alice felt a twinge of annoyance, but it wasn't directed at Neville. "Don't ever say that and don't ever let anyone convince you that you are. You can do it!"
He looked up in surprise at her outburst. "…Okay," he said eventually.
"Good," she could feel her face going red. Outbursts weren't her style but Neville needed to believe in himself more - though she supposed that was rich coming from her. "Now try again." She watched as he obediently studied the passage for a few moments, his forehead creased in a frown and the end of his quill between his teeth.
"Hang on," he said after a few moments contemplation. Quickly he scribbled a few lines and turned his parchment so that she could read it clearly. "Is that it?"
"Yes!" she beamed at him as Ron and Hermione approached the table with their arms full of books.
"What's going on?" Hermione queried looking at their two happy faces.
"Alice has just been unravelling the mysteries of Transfiguration for me."
She shook her head. "Not really, you did most of it yourself; I just pointed out the odd thing here and there. Anyway," she changed the subject before he could argue, "what have you two been up to?" she indicated the piles of books they carried.
"Hermione," Ron scowled behind her back where she couldn't see, "decided we should go on a mission to find every book about the building of Hogwarts that we possibly could." He didn't outright mention in front of Neville that they were still looking for information on the Chamber of Secrets, but Alice suspected he had probably worked this out anyway from all the comments and hints they had dropped in front of him. He seemed content to let them investigate on their own however - partly as he had received explicit instructions from his grandmother not to get into any trouble - so long as they let him tag along, which they were more than happy to do.
"And they were the only ones you could find?" Alice was surprised there had been so few.
"Oh no, these were just the ones that we could carry." Hermione was earnest in her response.
"Yeah we read a bunch in the Library before Madame Pince kicked us out." Ron crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue to show what he had thought of this, causing Alice and Neville to snort with laughter. Hermione, who hadn't seen but assumed from their responses that Ron had done something turned to scowl at him.
"What -?" But before she could say anything to him an incensed looking Harry crashed through the portrait hole, dressed in his Quidditch robes, and marched across the room with a face like thunder.
"It's gone!" he hissed evidently being in possession of himself enough to remember to keep his voice down. "Someone's taken it!"
"Who has? What are you talking about?"
"Riddle's diary." His revelation was greeted with a stunned silence so he continued. "It was in my bag when I went to practice. When we had finished and I went back to change… it was gone. Someone's stolen it!"
They all looked at each other in silence for a few moments, Harry still breathing hard although his temper seemed to be subsiding.
"Do you reckon whoever took it knows what it is?"
"Well why else would you take a tatty old diary?" Harry snapped at Ron then seemed to immediately regret it. "Sorry."
"You're sure you haven't left it somewhere?" Hermione had fallen into her habit of chewing her lip whenever she was worried. With the things that they got up to Alice was often surprised that she had any lip left.
"No, I'm positive. It was in my bag before practice and now it's not."
"But who knew you had the diary?"
"No one, other than -"
"Actually anyone could know." They all turned to look at Alice. "The other night," she elaborated, "when Fred stole it he held it up for the whole common room to see."
"Are you saying you think it's a Gryffindor?" Ron seemed insulted by the very idea.
"Not necessarily, they could have told someone else or were overheard or -"
"We get the idea." Harry threw himself into a chair with an audible thump looking morose. "Now what do we do?"
Taking a deep breath Hermione seemed to rally. "We carry on and do what we were going to do anyway. We read all these books and look for more clues."
Ron groaned.
For the next few days Alice read every book she could lay her hands on about Hogwarts architecture. However it was difficult to fit in time for this as they had begun to study for their exams on top of all the normal homework the teachers were giving them. This resulted in several evenings when she and Hermione would sit up reading late into the night when all the other girls in their dormitory had gone to bed. Their investigative time that week was also impeded upon by having to choose which subjects they wanted to take up in Third Year.
"I don't understand why we can't just do everything," Hermione complained to incredulous looks from Harry and Ron as the four of them poured over their lists by the common room fire - Neville was closeted away in his room writing for advice to every relation he possessed.
"Because unlike you, we aren't all super human and actually want to have some time to eat and breathe next year."
"Trust you to want to have time to eat," Harry grinned at him.
Alice squinted at her list. If she was honest she really wanted to sign up for everything - though perhaps not Divination - but she knew that would be impossible. "Ancient Runes sounds interesting."
"Yeah if you want to be a druid when you leave school," Ron snickered.
"Shut up Ronald," Alice and Hermione spoke in unison.
Smirking at his friend's expense Harry told him, "I'd do as you're told if I were you. Those two mean business."
"Well," Ron sniffed pretending to be insulted, "I'm going to take…" he scanned his list quickly and made a snap decision. "Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. They sound easy."
"Ron!" Hermione was scandalised as Alice just rolled her eyes. "You can't make decisions that will seriously affect the rest of your life with such… such flippancy!"
"Yes I can," he seemed to be enjoying winding Hermione up as much as anything, "look." He jotted the subjects down on the form McGonagall had given them and smiled innocently up at her. "Done."
Hermione growled in frustration. "Well on your own head be it."
In the end Alice plumped for Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures and when Hermione wrote down every single subject she wisely chose to say nothing. They would never let her do all of them anyway.
A/N: I just had to include Ron's line about setting mad and hairy things loose in the castle because I've always loved it. Also for the purposes of the story I would imagine that The Book of Prefects etc wouldn't carry info about what House a student was in or they would have been immediately suspicious of Riddle.
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