บท 39: Chapter 39:
It had been a week since Daphne found out about Rodrick's secret, a week since she'd accidentally told that same secret to her friend, a week since her friendship with the boy was all but broken and of course a week since she'd lost the chance to actually fix it. How did everything go so wrong so fast? To think all of it could've been avoided if she hadn't jumped to the wrong conclusion and...
It was all her fault.
She'd been reminding herself of that ever since she saw the state he was in last week... He looked so broken in that hospital bed, the healer didn't let them stay too long stating she needed to get to work but everyone there could tell she couldn't do anything. All they'd managed to do was put some bandages on his arm and shoulder, nothing else. She couldn't stay long anyway, as soon as she caught sight of him she felt tears go down her face, even Tracey felt the same. Lovegood's strange but cheerful demeanour had all but changed, she didn't wait to see the others reaction to it, she'd quickly left with Tracey back towards the dormitory.
She'd visited him every day, accompanied by her friend, most of the time Blaise and Lovegood would either follow or already be there. Strangely every time they visited they found a strange red bird waiting near Rodrick, Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore had been endlessly trying to get the bird out but it refused to leave the boys side.
Dumbledore had been quite upset.
Luna had apparently been with him before he was attacked, she told them all about finding Rodrick in that classroom on his own which had led to Daphne fidgeting, the girl gave her a wane smile and continued on with the story. After she'd finished Blaise decided it was a good idea to be funny.
"Look on the bright side... There's no way Gryffindor are winning the cup this year... Rodrick would've been proud,"
It didn't really help, mostly because Rodrick would've most likely pointed out that the headmaster wouldn't care how many achievements another house got, Harry Potter would overcome it. The fact he didn't or couldn't point that out was a sombre note.
Most of the Slytherins were currently in the dungeon; some were focused on studying, others were focused on packing to leave...
The holidays were starting soon, Daphne remembered, they were two days away. Rodrick wouldn't be coming with her. Her parents had shown up as soon as the news reached them, she was called to the headmaster's office on that day, her father had been arguing with Professor Dumbledore about the whole incident, after getting swept in a hug Daphne took Astoria with her to see Rodrick, the girl wouldn't stop asking. She did get a glimpse of her mother, she'd never seen her so furious. Her parents had stayed around the entire day, they refused to understand why the headmaster had insisted on keeping the boy at Hogwarts, Daphne knew why but couldn't find herself able to tell them, she'd already spilt that secret out to someone else already...
"Daphne?"
Daphne turned her face to the source of the voice, to find red hair crowning the girls head.
"Yes?" she replied a little surprised, she'd forgotten the girl was there.
"Are you okay?" Tracey asked kindly.
Daphne nodded her head slowly.
The girl didn't believe her but didn't say anything about it.
"You should get ready... Were leaving tomorrow you know."
Daphne's eyes had widened before she got up.
"Is Rodrick re-" she quickly stopped herself before she shook her head and moved towards her dorm.
Tracey was left sitting in the common room staring about; she quickly sighed, the silence had practically smothered their small group ever since the attack.
...
Rodrick blinked, he found himself staring up ahead at the hospital wing ceiling, he called out to the healer but found no response. Looking down to where the Basilisk had bit his arm he was surprised not to find a scar. He moved his arms around slowly trying to get an idea of his body's state and found them as light as air, grinning at his bodies recovery he got up from his bed quickly.
Looking down he was surprised to find himself dressed in dark robes. 'Didn't the hospital have different clothing prepared?' He checked for his wand and found it inside a holster on his trousers, as he made to move around through the wing his breath hitched slightly. There were more people stuck in bed than he'd expected. He remembered only one student getting attacked... Why were there four? He recognized one of them as Granger.
Did he fail to kill the Basilisk? That thought brought a frown to his face; he remembered it burning alive... Was there a second one?
That was the moment he heard someone running around the wing; he turned to see Madam Pomfrey, he tried to think of an excuse to be out of his bed before he saw her walk straight past him. She paid him no mind, Rodrick frowned again before he called out to the healer. He received no reaction. When he walked up to her, she didn't pay him any attention. She couldn't even seem to see him.
"What's going on?" Rodrick asked himself. He walked ahead towards the door idly wondering if it was a dream or not, it all felt surreal.
Reaching the hospital wing doors, he attempted to open them before he flinched, his hands had gone through the handle as if he were a ghost...
That was definitely not a good sign.
He shivered slightly before walking through the closed doors. He stopped himself there, 'where should I go?' He thought to himself. He quickly decided to set out for the headmaster's office.
Arriving there he found himself liking the ghost-like body, it meant he didn't need any passwords to enter or exit, as he walked towards the office. He was both surprised and wary to not find the headmaster waiting for him there, instead, it was his Transfiguration professor. He tried to speak to her but found no response, frowning he walked over to the desk and found a Daily Prophet clipping surrounded by other gimmicks. The contents of it shook him, Albus Dumbledore had been removed for failing to locate the culprit. 'There really was a second beast then?' Rodrick quickly made his way to a new destination, the Slytherin Dungeons.
Arriving there and once again having walked through the password-locked door without a care, Rodrick found another surprise waiting for him. The entire room was filled with Slytherins, they were all talking about something or another, Rodrick found it hard to keep track... Mostly because he saw the way his friends were spread out. They weren't anywhere close to each other, in fact, they look almos- Rodrick stopped himself in his tracks. He was nowhere to be seen. He searched throughout the room trying to find his place but failed. He paid more attention to the conversations hoping for an explanation but only got more questions. Malfoy was the one talking, he spoke about how the headmaster had been kicked out, about the students that were attacked. He mentioned the four students he'd seen at the hospital but nothing about himself.
Perhaps the most disconcerting thing was that Malfoy had mentioned his loss in the first Quidditch game of the year. God bless Malfoy for having an ego so high he would bring that up as a point in this kind of conversation.
Slytherins did not lose the first game... And yet Malfoy was saying they did.
Rodrick quickly left the dungeon to contemplate his thoughts. What on earth was going on? Was he being shown the world where he didn't exist? It made sense, if Potter was still on the team, Gryffindor would've likely won... He was responsible for Potter getting kicked out. He was also responsible for the Basilisk dying, without that, it would've kept on with its rampage. The big question was why was he being showed this in the first place? One thought startled him the most, did he die? Was the after life a movie viewing of possible lifetimes or something?
Rodrick shook his head, he was pacing about the castle before he saw the familiar looking blood writing on the wall, only something else was written this time. His eyes widened slightly, the writing mentioned a student being taken. He turned around to face the first-floor bathroom, that was where the Basilisk had come out from. His gaze landed on three different people, Harry Potter, Lockhart and Weasley. Rodrick furrowed his brows as he walked closer to them. He flinched slightly when he saw Potter start to hiss at the sink, 'Parseltongue?' he'd never heard about it before... He watched and chuckled slightly as he saw the two young students push Lockhart inside, he followed them, his curiosity too high to ignore.
...
He watched as the moron dived a child in an attempt to grab his wand, Rodrick facepalmed himself, of all the stupid things to do, he went for the broken wand. Ironically it did give him some confirmation; he watched as the professor attempted to Obliviate the two students, it confirmed Nott's theory on the man stealing people's achievement.
He really ought to give Nott more credit; he was right more often than not.
If he ever got back to his world any case.
The spell naturally backfired and propelled the defence Professor onto the ceiling, the resulting crash caused the place to start crumbling, Rodrick on instinct moved out of the way but remembered he was nothing more than a ghost here, ironically if fate decided to give him his body back at that moment he would've turned into mangled bones. He watched as Ron Weasley struggled to get the rocks out of the way, he knew he was being petty, he smirked triumphantly as he walked through the rocks with ease. He followed Harry Potter and watched as he once again hissed to open the large stone door.
...
Rodrick stared around in awe at the chamber, it truly fit a place Salazar Slytherin would create, he eyed the long-standing pillars, and at the end of the dimly lit chamber, he saw a large stone face of most likely Salazar Slytherin himself. He turned his attention back and watched on as Harry Potter fidgeted about himself, he couldn't blame him. He'd seen more than one of the snakes on the columns move their gazes towards his classmate. Rodrick turned his attention to the statue, at the bottom of it lay a small body crowned by red hair, Ginny Weasley. He watched as Harry rushed to the girl's side and his attempt to wake her, his own attention was brought to the object near her hands, a small diary. Rodrick wasn't sure why but as a ghost his senses seemed to skyrocket, he saw a long silverish cord from the book latch itself onto the girl, and another one latch elsewhere, he followed that chord and found it linked to a young man dressed in Hogwarts robes. He looked blurred, was he stealing life from the girl on the floor?
Turning his attention back to the book, Rodrick took his wand out and examined it; it was covered in dark magic... What on earth was this thing!?
He heard Potter start talking to the shade and found out the boys name was Tom Riddle; it sounded familiar, he was sure he'd seen it somewhere around the castle. The boy didn't reply immediately his eyes were fixated on something, Rodrick quickly realized he was staring towards his direction. 'Can he see me!?' That thought was quickly put away as the tall, thin boy turned back to Potter and started conversing with him.
He can sense me...
Rodrick watched the two students. He found himself slightly put out at Harry's naivety, couldn't he tell this Tom Riddle wasn't going to help? The boy had taken his wand, which alone would've set him off.
The way Tom was speaking towards Harry was disconcerting; it was almost as if he knew him or linked to him. Rodrick had focused his eyes before he felt a shiver go down his spine. There was a small almost unnoticeable chord going between the stranger and latching itself onto Harry Potter... No... It latched itself onto Harry Potter's scar.
Something about that terrified him.
Rodrick focused as the stranger explained everything, from what had caused all this, Ginny Weasley had been writing in the diary, it was cursed to respond and the more emotions put in, the more power the diary had over the writer and if given enough...
The diary would possess them.
Rodrick started to understand why he was seeing the young girl in his visions whenever they involved the Basilisk, she was the one who set it loose in the school, and Tom was the one who gave her that power. Something else was confirmed, he didn't exist in this world, either that or he went to Durmstrang, he doubted that second one.
He took a long deep breath, he had a bad feeling about what was going to happen... That small connection was slowly starting to make him feel cold. Tom spoke about how he'd discovered the chamber in the past... How he'd framed the games keeper... How his newest target was the boy in front of him... If the last year was anything to go by, Rodrick just met the young version of Voldemort.
Wonderful.
The stranger just admitted to being the dark lord, 'that was nice of him,' on a side note he really was lucky he had enough letters to make that name, on another note He wasn't pureblood. That had potential use...
Now that he'd gotten confirmation that this was an infamous murderer, however?
Rodrick took his wand and cast the killing curse at him.
It didn't work, passed right through him. Of course...
Voldemort looked as blurry as a ghost, or perhaps his magic didn't work in this world? None of them seemed to react to the green glow, maybe only he could see it? The irony didn't hit him; he called the boy a murderer moments before trying to kill him himself.
Harry Potter really had a lot of sass in him; he ought to give the boy more credit if he ever returned to his world. He'd just insulted the dark lord without a care in the world.
Dumbledores oversized burning bird had shown up, carrying the school sorting hat... What on earth was that supposed to do? Was the hat going to sort Voldemort into Hufflepuff and hope he killed himself?
Still... Something told him that particular fact was important... For the life of him he couldn't figure out why though. It was just a hat.
He watched as Voldemort demanded answers out of Potter, Rodrick noted warily that he was becoming more stable by the second and considered whether the killing curse would work or not now... It wasn't his world, who would care? He turned his gaze back to the book; he saw the chords had grown thicker... Perhaps...
Rodrick raised his wand before considering the fact that he could not affect the world... Not on a physical level anyway... He turned it towards Harry Potter and cast off the Imperius curse.
"Destroy that diary."
He wasn't sure if the curse had any effect, Harry Potter didn't make to move, Rodrick didn't have the biggest ego, but a 12-year-old should not be able to resist an Imperius even if it was from a fellow classmate... The troll didn't anyway... The only reaction he got out of Harry Potter was a twitch, he didn't notice Harry's eyes glancing a look at the diary.
Rodrick sighed, he really couldn't help here after all.
In hindsight, he really shouldn't have taken his attention away from Voldemort, even if Rodrick was a ghost. When he turned his gaze back to the dark lord, his eyes landed on two golden familiar looking spheres.
'Ah, crap...' Where Rodrick's last thoughts as the world around him changed.
...
He blinked once again; he was no longer in the chamber, this time he was outside the castle. He turned around eyeing his surroundings; there was almost no one in sight before he gasped... He saw two figures relaxing against a tree... He recognized both...
Luna Lovegood was, if Rodrick could believe his eyes, pouting towards the person next to her...
That person in question was the part that freaked him out.
Rodrick stared at the second figure, disbelief writ all over his face; he was staring at the familiar face, the one he'd seen in almost every one of his dreams with his grandfather the one that would appear every time he stared into those mirrors.
He was staring at himself.
Perhaps the most disconcerting part of all of this was the book in the boy's hand... His own hand? Rodrick really didn't know how to describe it... It was the same book, the same book that Ginny Weasley had. Tom Riddle's Diary.
Tom Riddle's Diary.
Voldemort's Diary.
Before Rodrick could even say anything he watched as his other versions gaze snapped towards him, 'Can he? I? sense me as well?' Something inside him churned as he saw the other version of him get up and slowly point his wand towards him. 'Wait a sec-' Before Rodrick could finish that thought, he saw a spell hurl towards him that sent the world around him spinning before it was covered in darkness.
...
Rodrick blinked once again. 'Merlin how many times do I have to do this?' he opened his eyes and found himself back in the hospital wing, trying to move out however proved to be difficult and painful, turning his head around he saw his arm had been bandaged up completely, he heard something behind him and when he raised his head he found the familiar burning bird gazing down towards him. He was back in his world, back in reality. He wasn't sure what to make of the dream's he'd had, perhaps they were simply lives that could've happened... He wasn't sure how on earth he'd ever have gotten that cursed diary though. He watched around him idly and breathed a sigh of relief when he found only one student in the hospital wing with him, he heard a small screech of surprise and turned to see Madam Pomfrey run towards him, a smile on her face.
Rodrick relaxed back into the bed; he was finally back home.
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