I am sooooo sorry that it has taken me so long to update. I always have every intention of writing a new chapter, but life just seems to happen. I hope this makes up for it a little bit!

Disclaimer-I don't own Harry Potter at all.

Chapter 20: Riddle Me This, Riddle Me That

"Yuck! Why is the floor so wet?" Ron exclaimed as they splashed their way through the water that was flooding the first floor corridor.

"I'm guessing," mumbled Harry, "that the water on the floor would have something to do with it." They came to a halt outside of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and Harry pointed at the entrance where water was seeping underneath the door. "I'm also guessing that Moaning Myrtle is flooding her bathroom. Someone must have upset her again."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Or it's just her time of the month," he muttered under his breath.

"Honestly, Ron!" Hermione scolded as she hit his arm. "Myrtle can't get 'a time of the month.' She's dead. Her body is unchanging."

"She could have died while she was having," Harry pointed out. "Maybe she is forever cursed with it. I'll ask Mum sometime if I think of it. C'mon, let's see what's up."

Hermione pushed open the door, and the trio quickly checked the bathroom for any signs of Myrtle. She wasn't that hard to find with all of her wailing; she was perched up on one of the stalls screeching about some nonsense or another. Hermione quickly began turning off all the faucets, while Harry slowly approached the very loud and very annoying ghost. "Myrtle, what's wrong with you?"

Myrtle, who had just noticed the trio, gave a very loud and exaggerated sniffle. "Come to throw something else at me?"

Harry resisted the overwhelming urge to roll his eyes and simply shook his head. "Believe me, Myrtle, I only throw things at people when I feel like they deserve it. Now, what was thrown at you?"

Myrtle pointed to the far corner of the room. Harry noticed a small black book lying in a puddle of water. As he went to pick it up, Myrtle said, "It was thrown right through my stomach." Clearly the ghost was trying to get some sympathy from Harry, but he wasn't listening. He was too busy studying the little black book that was undamaged by the water. Hermione noticed the oddity as well and went to examine the book herself. Ron, however, couldn't care less about the book; he was too busy acting like an idiot and harassing Myrtle.

"Well, the book couldn't have hurt you too much, could it have?" He stupidly pointed out. "I mean you're a ghost. It would have just gone right through you.

Harry and Hermione let out a collective groan at Ron's absurdity. While they were simply sick of it, Myrtle was enraged by it. She was floating angrily in front of Ron before he could even blink an eye. "Oh, sure!" Myrtle shrieked. "Let's all throw things at Myrtle because she can't feel them. Ten points if you get it through her stomach." She punched Ron in the gut; he winced despite the fact the fist went right through him. "Fifty if you get it through her head!" She punched his head the same way she had punched his stomach.

Harry snickered silently at Ron's predicament. Before he could stop himself, he murmured to Hermione, "Whoever threw this at her, only got ten points then. Rather unfortunate if you ask me." Hermione giggled quietly at Harry's joke, but both were glad that Myrtle was too occupied with Ron to hear it.

Harry, book in hand, stood up again and straightened his robes. "Myrtle, who threw this at you?"

Myrtle abruptly stopped her tirade at Ron to turn her attention to Harry.

"I don't know." Myrtle sniffled. "I was just floating around my U-bend thinking about death, when someone came storming into the bathroom. I went to shout at them, and the person threw the book at me."

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He could have gathered as much from the discarded book. "Myrtle, I'm sorry that someone threw a book at you but do you know who it was? I would, uh, like to speak to that person about their obviously deplorable behavior."

Myrtle perked up at the sound of that. "You want to yell at someone for throwing a book at me?"

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

Myrtle squealed in delight. "Oh, Harry, I've never had a boy stand up for me before. You're like my knight in shining armor." Myrtle then let out a long sigh. "But, unfortunately, I can't help you, Harry. I didn't really get a good look at the person that threw the book at me. I think it was a girl though. The only boys that come in my bathroom are you, Harry, and you're moronic red-haired friend over there."

Harry smirked at Myrtle's nickname for Ron, but then he frowned in disappointment. They still had no idea you had gotten rid of this mysterious diary. "Thanks for your help, Myrtle. I'm sorry someone threw this at you and that Ron was such a prat to you. He can't help it sometimes. We'll see you later." Harry then, book still in hand, quickly led Ron and Hermione out of the bathroom. As soon as the trio was out of the bathroom, Ron turned gaping at Harry.

"Harry, mate, why did you call me a moron in there?"

Harry only felt a little bad for hurting his friend's feelings. If Ron had just kept his mouth shut, they could have gotten out of the bathroom a lot sooner, and Harry wouldn't have had to charm Myrtle so much. He was pretty sure the emotional ghost now had some kind of weird crush on him. "Because you upset Myrtle for no reason, you big dummy. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings Ron, but you sort of brought that upon yourself. Now, let's take a look at this diary." Harry opened the book and noticed that nothing was written in it. He found that really odd. Why have a blank diary? He flipped it over to see if he could find out who owned the diary. The name Tom Marvolo Riddle was engraved in gold on the back. Harry turned to Hermione. "Hermione, have you ever heard of the name Tom Riddle?"

Hermione shook her head. "I'm sorry, Harry. I've never read that name anywhere."

"Ron, have you ever heard that name?" Harry asked his redheaded friend hopefully.

Ron racked his brain, and a lightbulb appeared to go on in his head. "Yeah, I've seen his name before. He has a trophy in the Trophy room. I had to polish it when I had detention with Filch at the beginning of the year. It was for special services to the school."

"Special services to the school? Hm...I think I'll take this down to Mom and Dad tonight. I'm going to stay there tonight, and I'll ask if either one of them knows." Harry told his friends. He hoped that either Snape or Sinistra would know who this Tom Riddle character was. This could be a very crucial clue in uncovering the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets.

Upon entering his parents' quarters that afternoon, Harry realized that he wasn't going to get any answers for a while. Sinistra was tutoring some NEWT students, and Harry had no idea where Snape was. He had heard the man was in a terrible mood today, and his temper had hit his classes like a tornado. The man had made several first and second years cry and given his entire NEWT level class detention. The seventh years that were the cause of Snape's horrible mood. They had apparently tried to rebel against the man because he had given them a pop quiz that they had all failed. So, in retaliation, they all decided to blow up their cauldrons at the same time. They all knew that the potion could cause an explosion that was not harmful at a certain stage, so they all caused an explosion.

Harry heard that his dad had to cancel all classes for the rest of the day yesterday. Snape had also been so furious that he had been unable to say anything to his irresponsible class for five minutes until he erupted in anger. He had given them the tongue lashing of their lives. Sinistra, who was the source of most of his gossip, told him that Snape had gone on for twenty minutes, and he was only stopped by Dumbledore, who had felt the earlier explosion. Dumbledore had to literally drag Snape out of the room, and he told the seventh years that they were responsible for cleaning up the mess they had created, and they all owed Snape a huge apology. Despite the fact this happened yesterday, Snape was still furious over it.

Harry didn't know if asking his Dad about the diary tonight was a good idea or not. Harry hoped that his Dad won't fly completely off the handle; however, Snape was a very unpredictable fellow, and he might surprise Harry, or his temper may flare up and Harry would be on the receiving end of it.

Unsure of how his encounter with his father would go, Harry decided that his best bet was to examine the diary himself first before he brought it to Snape and/or Sinistra. That way, if it turned out to just be a normal diary that didn't get wet, he wouldn't feel like the ultimate dunderhead if he brought it to his parents. Harry plopped down at his desk in his bedroom-after changing into some warmer, more comfortable clothes-and began paging through the diary. His earlier suspicion that it was just a normal diary seemed more and more logical as he continued to thumb through the diary. Every single page was blank. The only writing at all on or in this diary was Tom Marvolo Riddle on the back cover.

Suddenly, Harry was struck by an idea. Maybe this was some kind of magical diary where someone had to write in it first before any other writing would appear. Harry grabbed the nearest quill and ink, dipped the tip of the quill into the ink, and hovered over the diary. What did one write in a magical diary? It's not like it could write back. What if Harry discovered some random girl's diary where she wrote about her crush or her latest bout of acne in invisible ink? Oh, well, if it started talking about something weird, Harry decided he would stop reading it. A drop of ink fell from the tip of his quill. Harry went to grab his wand to clean it up, but the ink had been seeped up by the diary. How curious.

Harry dipped his quill in his ink again and wrote in the diary.

Hello. My name is Harry Potter.

Harry's message sunk into the diary and mere seconds later, the diary wrote back to him.

Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle.

So, this diary could answer him back. Harry had never heard of such a thing before. This Tom Riddle character must have been a smarty pants to come up with something like that. Harry thought that whoever had gotten rid of the diary must have gotten sick of Tom being a know-it-all or maybe Tom had stopped helping that person with homework questions. Harry shrugged. Well, he might as well use Tom to his advantage.

Hi, Tom. Did you used to go to Hogwarts?

Yes, I did. I was top of my year. I also won several awards including the honor of being a prefect and head boy.

Harry rolled his eyes; this Tom Riddle reminded him an awful lot of Percy. Harry decided he would put Tom's smarts to good use.

Tom, can I ask you a question?

I suppose. I know a lot of answers.

Do you know if a girl dies while she has her period, and becomes a ghost, will she forever have her period?

Tom took several minutes to answer back.

I can honestly say that I have never been asked that question, or have I ever been inclined to look up the answer. Why do you ask such a bizarre question?

Just wondering, I guess. Harry wrote back. There's this one ghost here, Moaning Myrtle, and she is always in a crabby mood. My friends and I were just wondering. I'll just ask my mum later. Sorry for the stupid question.

No apologies necessary. I was hoping you would ask a question that I could actually assist you with. However, I do believe I know this Myrtle you are talking about. I went to school with her. She sounds about the same as she did back then. She died in our sixth year.

Oh, well that's too bad. How did she die?

Harry heard the portrait door open. He assumed it was Sinistra, but he was too distracted by Tom's response to investigate further.

She was killed by a monster, supposedly the monster from the Chamber of Secrets. That was fifty years ago. The student responsible was expelled.

Harry was shocked. Tom knew about the Chamber of Secrets. It had been opened when the boy had been at school and knew who did it. Maybe Tom could help Harry now. He was about to respond when Sinistra appeared in the doorway. "Hi, Harry," she greeted him brightly. Harry quickly shut the diary and turned around to face her with a smile on his face. "I didn't know you were coming down tonight."

She came over to ruffle his hair before sitting down on his bed. Harry faced her and shrugged. "I wanted to come down for some peace, and I had a couple of questions to ask one of you. I was hoping that it was you unless Dad is somehow in a good mood tonight."

Sinistra laughed. "It's hard to tell sometimes when he gives detention. Hopefully, he is in a much better mood than he was last night."

"Was it that bad?" Harry asked then shook his head. "Forget I asked such a stupid question. Students here are so stupid sometimes. Honestly, pissing off Dad is not a smart idea. What a bunch of dunderheads."

Sinistra tweaked Harry's nose. "Mind your language, Harry. However, I have to agree with you; those students were a bunch of idiotic dunderheads."

"They certainly are moronic," a deep voice agreed from the doorway. Snape stood in Harry's doorway with his arms crossed and a slight scowl on his face. Harry thought, at first glance, that Snape was still angry. However, noticing the slight hint of calm and amusement in his father's eyes, he relaxed, no longer fearing Snape's temperament. "However, after their rather grueling detentions I assigned this evening, they may very well shape up. I hope so at least." With that, Snape moved further into Harry's room. "How are you tonight, Potter? I didn't realize that you would be coming down."

Harry sheepishly grinned at his dad. "I wasn't planning on it, but something came up. I needed to ask Mum a question. Speaking of," Harry turned to face Sinistra, who had an amused look on her face and asked, "if a ghost dies during her period, will she have it forever?"

Sinistra was speechless. How did this boy come up with such absurd questions? She quickly glanced at Severus for help, but she noticed his attention was focused on something on Harry's desk. She realized it was the book Harry had been writing in earlier. Turning her attention back to Harry, she gave the best answer she could think of. "I've never really given it much thought before, Harry. Honestly, we could just ask—"

"Potter!" Aurora was cut off by Severus' angry outburst. Severus was furiously looking between the journal and Harry. She was about to ask what the matter was when she noticed the name on the journal and gasped. Tom Marvolo Riddle. "Where the hell did you get this?"

There's chapter 20! I'm really hoping to finish up year 2 very soon; it only has a couple more chapters. Hopefully, I'll get some motivation and have them out soon. Reviews would help, though. I really like to know what people think of this story. Thanks again to all my readers and especially those who have stuck with this story!