Daydreamer's Disease

Daydreamer's Disease

CHAPTER ONE = The Tom Speculation

"And we will only need each other, we'll breathe together, our hands would not be taught to hold another's, 'cause we're the special two. And we could only see each other, we'll bleed together, these arms will not be taught to need another's, when we're the special two," Mia sung out, not caring if Patrick was listening through the keyhole.

She stopped singing for a moment as her Muggle mother's CD player blared out The Special Two by Missy Higgins, and took a brush off the dresser and started brushing her wavy chestnut-coloured hair. Her green-blue eyes flickered for a moment on a half-open drawer. She spotted the shiny, black cover of his diary, and kicked the drawer shut.

It had been only a couple of weeks since Mia had written in Waldemar Schatten's diary. She had wanted to, but fear held her back. Was he the young Voldemort in disguise, or had she jumped to conclusions? Maybe he was making a point - that perhaps preserving your soul in a diary was an ordinary thing. She couldn't bring herself to ask her Uncle where he had discovered the diary; for fear that he was one of Tom's old friends, planning to become one of those Death Eaters.

During the last weeks of her holidays, Mia spent her time reading all about Lord Voldemort's rein. She had finished reading The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and was starting on something new. It was a recently published book, titled The Serpent beneath the Flower. It was written by an anonymous author, and Mia knew why. It was a biography of Voldemort's past life as the handsome, charming Tom Marvolo Riddle. It had details of his parents (an inbred, poor witch named Merope Gaunt, and his father, a rich, arrogant Muggle named Tom Riddle Senior); his time at the Muggle orphanage in London; the years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; the framing of half-giant Rubeus Hagrid for opening the Chamber of Secrets; his obsession with Dark Arts, in particular horcruxes; the murder of his Muggle father and grandparents and so much more. Mia could really get inside Tom's skin and walk around in it.

Mia stared at Tom Riddle's picture for the longest time, and then flicked to the last page that featured a picture of himself as Lord Voldemort. She couldn't think why and how the beautiful boy turned out the way he did. He had had potential, and ruined it completely with his unhealthy obsession.

And she then asked herself - who in the world wrote this book?

Suddenly she clicked - perhaps this book was written by Voldemort himself. It surely explained how the author had gotten all the details, right down to the nitty gritty. And surely those who used to know him were afraid to talk about his past life nowadays. But who else would know so much about his life - his wife? Mia didn't believe Voldemort wanted nor needed a wife. She doubted he had even loved anybody, after all, his mother died after he was born and his father abandoned them. In fact, Mia decided Voldemort must be either a sociopath or have some sort of anti-social disorder.

Now, as Mia had been better informed about the enchanted diary Tom had written, she began to feel bad for deserting Waldemar on that sunny day in January. It obviously wasn't "Tom" she was writing to because his diary had been destroyed by Harry Potter in Harry's second year (he was now in his fifth), so it was impossible - unless somebody had created a replica? But somehow, Mia managed to swamp this theory.

After being brave enough to flick through the pages of Waldemar's diary, Mia considered his words quite sincere. He sounded as if he had been well-brought up, as his writing was very neat and the language a little old-fashioned and proper. Maybe he's telling the truth. Maybe I'm overreacting, Mia thought, and decided the only way to get on with life was to believe him.

*

Mia's Uncle Peter came to visit them the week before she was due back to Whispering Wall. He brought with him some things Mia had forgotten the last time they went shopping in Dimension Alley, including parchment made from gum trees and cinnamon-flavoured quills - her favourite.

"Knew you'd need these," he whispered as he quickly handed them to her. He knew Mia's parents would probably disapprove of him buying her school supplies.

"Thanks, Uncle!" Mia replied gratefully, and retreated to her room to put them away.

Just as she was heading back to the lounge room, she remembered to ask Uncle Peter about the diary. Getting him aside from her parents, she said,

"Uncle Pete?"

"Yes, Mia?"

"You know the diary you bought me for Christmas?"

"Mmm," he replied, slightly raising an eyebrow.

"Well, umm... where did you get it from?"

Uncle Pete scratched his whiskery chin, before saying,

"Don't tell your parents this, but..." - He lowered his voice quite significantly - "I bought it from that new shop in Dimension Alley, the one they wouldn't let you in."

"You mean to say, you bought it from Secretly Secrets?" Mia asked, bewildered.

Secretly Secrets was about the most mysterious and alluring shop Mia had ever seen. It wasn't the brightest shop in the street, but didn't give off some sense of foreboding either. A misty fog seemed to hang around the dark windows, giving the impression they hadn't been cleaned, but on close inspection the windows were spotless. Outside the shop there weren't any items for sale like the others, but instead a sign stuck to a post that read: Secretly Secrets: Too dark for your children, not dark enough for shadows. We are closely affiliated with the Department of Mysteries.

Mia had pulled her brother away from her parents, pointed at the shop, and whispered,

"What do you think is in there?"

"Something we're not meant to know about," Patrick replied unexcitedly.

"Oh, you're no fun!" Mia whined, and promptly began to ask her dad if she could go inside when he replied firmly,

"No."

Uncle Pete continued in hushed tones as Mia's Mum was staring at them warily.

"Shhh! Well, I shouldn't really have told you that - but yes, I bought it from that shop. And let me tell you it was quite a bargain, seemed they wanted to get rid of it or something."

"Are you sure it's, um, safe?" Mia replied.

"Positive. In fact, I tested it at home and removed what I wrote afterwards. You've got nothing to worry about." He paused, and then said, "Better get back over there, you know, your Mum still doesn't know how I managed to get Patrick a broomstick when I can hardly pay for some nice robes..." He hurried off, leaving Mia to her own thoughts.

*

The next day was very humid, considering they were in the hottest month of the year. The sky was a beautiful deep blue, and no clouds were in sight. Usually on days like these Mia would catch the Murray River to Adelaide Knight Bus and be dropped off at Semaphore Beach, where one of her best friends, Natalie Pattinson, lived. Mia's other best friend, Anne-Marie Brockenhuus-Schack (her Danish background owing to her extremely long last name), lived in West Lakes, which wasn't too far from Semaphore.

But today, Mia sat outside their river-front home in her green bikini, watching people talk, joke and laugh on the banks of the river. Many children were splashing about in the brown water, screaming and yelling. Out towards the other side of the river, where great sandy cliffs rose, she watched a brawn man take a woman for a ride in his new, shiny red speedboat. How dare they enjoy themselves, when she was feeling so miserable?

Both of Mia's friends had deserted her, or to be precise, gone on holiday. Natalie was enjoying herself in England, where she was meeting her boyfriend Rigel Diggory's family. Rigel was cousin to Cedric Diggory, a victim of Lord Voldemort's (as Mia had of course read about) and they both looked strikingly similar. Anne-Marie, on the other hand, was visiting family in Denmark. The only word Mia knew in Danish was ironically farvel, which meant goodbye.

Mia got up and retreated to the house. She went straight to her room and started foraging for one of her photo albums. There it is! The one she was looking for, with the gorgeous leather cover, was sitting right next to Waldemar's diary. Not deterring her eyes from the album, she grabbed it and quickly shut the drawer. Mia still wasn't sure about his diary yet, even after all she had learned.

Opening the first few pages of the album, Mia watched family, friends and neighbours all waving and smiling at her. She turned a few more pages, and spotted herself, Natalie and Anne-Marie with their arms around each other. It was taken at Whispering Wall, on the last day of term. Natalie stuck her tongue out, and Anne-Marie pouted. They all laughed, including the Mia watching them. Sighing, she turned another page, and gasped. She had forgotten about this photo.

Two tall, very good-looking boys stood next to each other, and on the boy in the middle's right side stood Natalie, grinning mischievously. The boy next to her was none other than Rigel, her boyfriend of now nearly a year, and next to Rigel was of course, his cousin, the lovely Cedric Diggory. Whilst Natalie and Rigel waved and made faces at her, Mia couldn't help but notice Cedric's subdued presence in the picture. It was as if he had already died. His grey, misty eyes gazed into her own, and instead of waving at her, he smiled gently and blew her a kiss. Mia blushed subconsciously, and blew one back.

Mia had met Cedric twice before, and each time was just as delightful. Even though he had a girlfriend at the time, Cho Chang, she couldn't help but feel something between them. And when Cedric's life was taken away, Mia chastised herself for not taking things further, in spite of Cho, and felt she had just lost a piece of her heart.

After closing the photo album and placing it back in the drawer, Mia lay down on her bed and began to daydream. How she couldn't wait for school to start again - the holidays made her think, perhaps a little too much.