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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 55: Dumbledore's Diary
Their eyes were drawn to the notebook on the table.
"He sent you something before he died?" Moody asked.
"I think he just sent it to the house. I found it this morning waiting for me at the table," Sirius explained.
"Then it was meant for the Order of the Phoenix." McGonagall glanced at it and felt it was familiar. "I think I have seen Albus writing notes on that a few times when visiting his office."
"What does it say?" Moody asked.
"Disturbing stuff…" Sirius didn't look like he wanted to talk about it, so he passed the book to them.
Moody, Tonks, and McGonagall opened the notebook in front of them and began reading from the beginning.
There were many annotations about someone called Tom Marvolo Riddle and his family.
"Who is this?" Moody asked. "A student of yours?" He gave McGonagall a glance.
"Mmm… It doesn't ring a bell, but I can check the archives. If he were a student, his name would be there," she answered.
"There's a date at the bottom," Tonks pointed out.
"1938. This was written a very long time ago," Moody noted.
"I started attending school in 1947, so I doubt I would have met him, even if we were both in Hogwarts," McGonagall commented.
"This parchment is definitely very old, and it looks like it was placed in the notebook later on," Tonks pointed out.
In fact, many of the pages seemed to have taken form somewhere else and later been added to this book of notes, as if it were a compilation that Dumbledore had put together.
They continued to read. There were many pages talking about this Tom Riddle. Dumbledore spoke about how brilliant and talented the boy was, despite having grown up in a Muggle orphanage and having no prior knowledge about magic before Hogwarts.
The tone of the writing changed as the years passed. His admiration for the boy turned to concern, as he began to notice more of the dark nature that Tom Riddle had.
"He became Head Boy when I was in my second year," McGonagall commented. "I should remember him."
"He was in Slytherin. Unless things were very different back then, students tend to keep to their own houses," Tonks said.
McGonagall nodded sadly. "That… unfortunately did not change over the years." That was a regret she always had. "Perhaps the school could have done without that division."
"Okay, there are a lot of pages about this boy, so he must be very important. I mean, if Albus sent us this before his death… it has to be for something relevant to us," Moody suggested.
"Keep reading… you'll understand soon," Sirius said before standing up. "I'm going to make some tea…" He walked out of the hall.
The others looked at each other. Whatever was written here had left Sirius in a poor state of mind.
"Fine, let's keep going," Moody said as he turned the page.
"Oh! This is the incident with the Chamber of Secrets. I do remember that. Hagrid got expelled for it and was lucky not to end up in Azkaban," McGonagall said.
"Apparently, Dumbledore noted a very strange behavior with this Tom Riddle during that time and suspected he was the one behind the incident," Moody said.
"What?! Then why didn't he do something about it?" McGonagall looked upset. "Hagrid is still suffering the consequences of what occurred on that day."
"It looks like Dumbledore could not find any evidence. From what he wrote here, these were just suspicions of his," Tonks added.
"Let's continue." Moody passed more pages, and they resumed reading.
The next part of interest came in his last year, when something occurred between him and the Potions professor of the time, Slughorn.
Something that would later cause Professor Slughorn to quit his job and disappear.
"But what happened?" Tonks read the page again just in case she had missed something.
"It doesn't say… maybe later on?" McGonagall suggested. "The pages are in chronological order."
"This Riddle graduated soon after that and went to work at some shop at Diagon Alley," Moody continued reading. "He came back three years later and requested a teaching position from Headmaster Dippet… he was rejected."
"The next entry is almost a decade later. 1954," Tonks noted.
"That's when I started teaching," McGonagall commented.
"He requested a teaching position again. Defense Against the Dark Arts, but this time it was to Dumbledore, as he had just begun working as Headmaster… he was rejected again."
"There are some notes written about the motives behind the rejection," McGonagall said. "Dippet rejected him for being too young, but Albus had other reasons."
"He was suspicious of him," Tonks read. "Riddle's dark nature had only gotten worse after being away for almost a decade. The Headmaster could tell that he had bad intentions when asking for the job and told him to go away."
"Mmm… the next entry is many years later. Early 70s… wait…" Moody's expression changed.
The same could be said about the other two women. Because this is when the First Wizarding War began.
It was then that the true nature of Tom Riddle was completely shown, after changing his name to something more threatening.
"He was talking about Lord Voldemort?… that can't be right," Tonks said.
"No… it makes sense now," Moody said. "For Dumbledore to send us this… it had to be about Him."
"We went to school during the same time… I had no idea." McGonagall came to the realization that she shared school with the Dark Lord, albeit for only a couple of years.
"There are still a lot of pages left," Tonks pointed out. "He must have taken note of everything he found about that monster."
"It is always useful to know your enemies," Moody added.
Tonks was correct. As they kept reading, they found out about all the secrets that Dumbledore had been keeping.
"Horcruxes?" Moody looked horrified. "He made more than one?!"
"There was a prophecy involving the Dark Lord and… Harry Potter?! Is that why Lily and James were targeted by him?" McGonagall looked shocked to find out how many things the Headmaster had kept secret over the years. "I can't believe it… why would Albus not share all of this before?. Why keep it all for himself?."
"There is still another page left," Tonks said.
Moody turned the pages and began reading again.
However, the last page was not talking about Voldemort, but someone else who had recently begun to concern Dumbledore enough for him to write it down.
"This is about Harry." McGonagall gasped.
At that moment, they heard the entrance door open.
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