The Family Name

The Family Name

By Slytherin Tattoo

Chapter 13

Research on Tom was proving to be difficult. Artemis sighed and gave it up for the evening. The holidays had ended two days ago and the professors were all assigning tons of homework that he needed to get started on.

Someone sat across from him and he looked up. It was the Weasley girl and her Prefect brother. "You don't mind if we sit here?" she asked. "Everywhere's full."

He glanced around; this seemed to be the case. "It's fine."

Ginny smiled. Percy ignored him. "You're still looking tired," Artemis murmured.

Ginny fidgeted. "I'm OK."

Artemis didn't think this was really the case, but didn't press the issue. He took out his Care of Magical Creatures homework and his gift from Hermione--Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Ginny stared at it. "Can I see?"

He nodded and she flipped through the book and read a particular entry. Then she frowned and gave it back.

"Looking for something in particular?"

She flushed. "Yes, um, bowtruckles. We're studying them in Care of Magical Creatures."

"I've been reading it for clues on what's been attacking people."

Ginny paled and shifted in her chair.

Percy looked over, glared at Artemis, then spoke to Ginny. "Why are you consorting with a Slytherin?"

"I'm not consorting, I'm talking."

"Ginny. . ."

"So he's a Slytherin! He's OK!"

One corner of Artemis's mouth turned up. "I like to think so."

"You don't know that for sure."

"Well, Hermione likes him."

"You should be concentrating on your studies."

"It's all right, Percy," Artemis said in a voice smooth and taunting. "We'll just meet when you're not around. Alone together. Someplace secluded. Darkly lit. . ."

Percy appeared decidedly alarmed. "That's my little sister you're talking about!"

Ginny grabbed her bag and ran out of the library.

Artemis blinked. The girl was big on hasty exits, apparently. He sighed.

"She's too sensitive," he muttered as Percy gathered up his things to go after her. "Tell her I didn't mean to upset her, all right?"

"Just stay away from her!" Weasley threw him one last glare and strode away.

___________ ___________

Two hours later he got an urgent note from Granger. "Meet us outside the Great Hall ASAP. We just found Tom Riddle's diary!"

Artemis was down the hall, up the stairs and holding the diary in his hand in less than two minutes. It was small, thin, and soaked.

"Where did you find it?" he asked, holding it away from his body.

"In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."

"Where?"

"Moaning Myrtle--she's the ghost that haunts the girls' bathroom right down that corridor," Granger explained. "I was walking past it when I saw the whole hall in front had been flooded, so I went in to see what she was up to. She's usually pretty depressed. She was upset this time because someone had thrown a book through her head. That book."

It had a shabby black cover and the name T.M. Riddle written in smudged ink on the first page. The date on the cover was 50 years ago. It had been bought in London, according to the store name printed on the back. Other than that, it was blank.

"Of course I checked it for invisible ink," Granger continued. "And I used the Revealer on it I just got. But nothing."

"I don't think there's anything to find," stated Weasley. "He never bothered to write in it."

"Why should it happen to turn up now?"

"I think the Heir's been using it. If we could figure out how it works, it probably tells us everything--where the Chamber is, how to open it, what creature lives in it--everything. The Heir wouldn't want anyone else to find it, so he flushed it!"

"This was in the toilet?" Artemis's face wrinkled.

"Relax, Hermione cleaned it."

"Anyway, he didn't flush it," Artemis said.

"Yes, he did, Myrtle said she was in the U-bend and it fell through her head, but it washed on the floor when she flooded the. . ."

"No, she flushed it. It's a girls' bathroom."

"Harry and Ron have been in it."

They blushed and looked up at the ceiling.

"It's just a good place for privacy. It's been out of order for years because of Myrtle, no one ever goes in there."

"Except you, and them, and the attacker."

"So it could have been anyone."

"We only went in that once because you dragged us!" Ron defended them.

"It could have been anyone, I agree," Artemis said, ignoring him. "But the probability is high that it's a girl, because the fact is, males very rarely voluntarily frequent women's bathrooms."

"Thomas Riddle isn't a girl."

"No. I don't think that Tom Riddle himself has been running around Hogwarts, unless he really is disguised as a Professor. But the professors are all either too young or too old unless he's using a particularly complicated spell. In which case, he could as easily have spelled himself a disguise as a woman, which explains everything. But I doubt Riddle is here teaching. He'd give himself away too easily."

"How?" Potter asked.

"His actions. You can look in the eye of every professor here and know how they stand for or against Muggles."

"Can you?" Weasley frowned.

"Yes," answered Artemis and Hermione both.

"Then why are we investigating Tom Riddle?" Weasley sounded confused.

"It's the only real lead we have. Plus, I think he knew what was going on. I think he was the Heir then, if not now."

"We're looking for any clue we can find," Granger said, patting Ron's shoulder.

"Incidentally, what are the First Years studying in Care of Magical Creatures class right now?"

They looked at him in confusion. "Um, jabberknolls, I think."

"Hm."

"But what about the diary?"

Artemis cast a spell to dry it off, then opened it to a page at random. He ran his finger over it, thinking. "What did the M stand for?" he asked idly.

"Huh?"

"Tom M. Riddle. What's his middle name?"

"Did it say in the yearbook?"

"No, but it should give his full name in the list of Hogwarts Special Service Awards in. . ."

"I remember that book. I'll look it up," Granger volunteered.

"Leave the diary with me for awhile."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Weasley protested immediately. "You're still Slytherin."

"I could bring you down to the dungeons while I experiment on it, but you'd get lynched, Gryff," Artemis sneered.

A tense silence ensued. Finally Potter broke it. "I've got an invisibility cloak."

Did he? Wasn't that interesting! But not for the issue at hand. "I'm not letting somebody invisible stare at me. Just give me the bloody book for a bit."

"Oh, let him," Granger burst out. "He's a genius; he may come up with something."

Artemis smiled without meaning to as Weasley spluttered and Potter's eyes went wide. "Thanks, Granger. I'll let you know what I find."

__________ __________

When the Second Year dorm was finally deserted, Artemis took out his fairy technology and applied it to the diary. He had found his fairy computer especially to be indispensable. He'd scanned in all the books he'd checked out from the Restricted Section and downloaded them to its hard drive before returning them. He'd run various programs on different spells, words, and symbols, trying to come up with possible alchemical formulas. Now he looked up spells for un-enchanting a diary, and looked at it through various filters from a LEP Recon helmet. But after everything he tried, the diary still seemed blank and uninformative.

He put the equipment away and sat down on the bed, looking the book over once again. He tried saying various passwords, like Salazar Slytherin, purebloods, Chamber of Secrets. Eventually he took the diary and a needle-sharp pen nub and went looking for Malfoy.

Draco, Pansy, and Zabini were in the Common Room, trying to transfigure a salt shaker into a lampshade, with unsuccessful results. Artemis walked up to them, book held open in one hand.

"Where have you been all day?" Blaise asked petulantly. He'd been feeling ignored lately.

"Studying," Artemis answered, sticking Malfoy hard in the back of the hand with the pen.

Draco swore loudly. "What did you do that for?"

"What? Oh dear, you're bleeding." He grabbed Malfoy's wrist and held his hand over the book, letting blood drip on a blank page.

The page soaked it up with no trace. Then a sentence appeared on the page. "Ink would have sufficed."

Artemis's eyebrows rose.

Draco looked down at the diary. Then he spoke quietly, with a dangerous edge in his voice. "Are you spattering my blood into an enchanted book to see if words will appear?"

"Yes," Artemis admitted, and Zabini laughed.

"Why?" Draco demanded through gritted teeth.

"You didn't think I'd use my own, did you?"

The book and Artemis both went flying as Draco plowed into him, and started punching him in the face. Zabini needed Pansy's help to pull him off.

"You shouldn't mess around with enchanted books like that," Parkinson told him seriously. "You could have endangered Draco's soul with that little stunt."

Zabini smirked. "He doesn't have one, remember?"

Draco's "Rictusempra!" hit Zabini in the stomach.

Artemis wiped away blood of his own from his lip. Then he sighed, opened the book to the first page, and pulled at Malfoy's sleeve as he was readying his second hex.

Draco's eyes involuntarily went to where Artemis was pointing. "Diary of T.M. Rid. . ." His eyes widened and he lowered his wand. "Where'd you get that?"

"Apparently, Moaning Myrtle."

"What all have you tried?"

"About everything except writing in it."

Draco went and sat down at the table and Artemis sat down next to him. Zabini and Pansy exchanged incredulous looks. "What do we write?" Draco asked.

Artemis picked up a quill lying on the table and turned to the first page. "Tell us about the Chamber of Secrets."

The words faded away and were replaced by others. "Who are you?"

Artemis hesitated, then wrote, "Neville Longbottom. I'm Slytherin."

"Hello, Neville. My name is Tom Riddle. I'm Slytherin, too. How did you come by my diary?"

"Truth?" Artemis asked aloud, looking at Malfoy. Draco thought, then nodded.

"Someone tried to flush you."

"Lucky that my memories are recorded in a more lasting way than ink. I always knew there would be those who would not want this diary read."

Draco had picked up a quill, as well. Now he wrote, "Everybody's a critic," and smirked.

Artemis rolled his eyes.

The diary responded with, "Your handwriting is different. Who are you?"

"Neville's friend, Harry Potter."

"You're Slytherin?" the diary asked.

Draco curled his lip. Potter, in his House? "Not me, I'm Gryffindor."

"Well, we can't all be Slytherin," Tom replied.

"Tell me about the Chamber," Artemis repeated.

"The Chamber. In my day, they told us it was a legend, that it did not exist. But this was a lie. In my Fifth Year, the Chamber was opened and the monster attacked several students, finally killing one. I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled. But the Headmaster, Prof. Dippet, ashamed that such a thing had happened at Hogwarts, forbade me to tell the truth. A story was given out that the girl had died in a freak accident. They gave me a nice, shiny trophy for my trouble and warned me to keep my mouth shut. But I knew it could happen again. The monster lived on, and the one who had the power to release it was not imprisoned."

Artemis and Draco looked at each other. Slowly, Artemis wrote, "What was the name of the girl who died?"

"Mattison. I don't remember her first name."

"You told them Hagrid opened the Chamber," Draco penned.

"Have you heard the story then?"

"Yes, but it wasn't him. It was you, wasn't it?"

Artemis stared hard at the page after he'd written this, willing for the answer to reveal something.

"I don't understand." The words appeared slowly. "Why do you suspect me?"

Draco pulled the diary a bit closer. "Hagrid, able to open a secret chamber? A half-giant the Heir of Salazar Slytherin? Bloody unlikely! No, it had to be someone more intelligent, more cunning than that."

"I'm just a poor, orphaned half-blood myself."

"I've traced the Nineveres (your mother's ancestors) back to Jebediah LeStrange and Augustus Hellmer, and I know the Hellmers are connected to the Cains, and the Cains inter-married with Theodore Maximus at some point, and he was the descendant of Rosebud Root, purportedly a mistress of Salazar Slytherin's grandson."

Draco stared at Artemis. "When were you planning on sharing this with me?"

The diary remained silent.

"Now look what you've done," Draco scolded, and wrote, "Neville gets carried away sometimes. Don't worry about it. Look, I think it's great that you've risen above your bloody awful Muggle father. So you want to kill Muggles! No great difficulty in understanding why. I can't blame you, really. And your wizarding blood, being so pure. . . not surprising you feel angry that it was so mixed with dirty Muggle blood. From one who promptly went and abandoned you. Worthless excuse for a father."

There was another long pause, then, "You're not really Harry Potter, are you?"

Draco answered quickly, "No, he's Potter and I'm Longbottom. Sorry. We were just playing around."

"You seem to have done a lot of research about me."

"You dated my grandmother," Draco wrote. "She has fond memories of you."

Another long pause. "The Chamber's been opened in your time, hasn't it?"

"Yes. And we want to know where, and how, and who, and what lies within. We want, in fact, to get involved. What can you tell us?"

But the diary said no more that day.

____________ _____________

"What was all that about, Draco?" Pansy cornered him on the side of the room by the fireplace.

"I wanted to check out Fowl's enchanted diary." He gave her an endearing, charming smile.

She ignored it. "You two are in on something together. I thought you hated each other."

"We do! Trust me. This is just, um, a side incident, entirely un-noteworthy. We're working together to mutually gain something we want--the fact that it's Fowl is beside the point, in this case."

"You like him more than you let on, don't you?"

Draco threw his hands in the air. "No! I don't!"

On the far side of the room, Blaise had cornered Artemis. "So you've been ignoring me the last few weeks in favor of a charmed diary and Malfoy."

"Not at all. I just found the diary today. Malfoy hounded in on it because of his normal arrogance and superiority complex that can't bear to be left out of anything. Don't worry, we still loathe each other."

"No, you were working together too well, you both knew too much about that book. You've been keeping secrets from me that he's in on!"

Artemis sighed. "He's in on a small secret because I needed him to ask his father some information. Then he latched onto it and started demanding to know more. It's not my fault."

"So what is this secret, huh?"

"We've just been doing some research on the Heir of Slytherin, that's all. We both want to know who it is."

Zabini blinked. "That's boring. Why keep that secret?"

Artemis rubbed his temples. "Because I didn't want anyone to know I was working with Malfoy! It would be--degrading. A Fowl, asking a Malfoy for anything? Unthinkable!"

Zabini was beginning to look amused. "Indeed. Perish the thought."

"Anyway, now that you know, you can spend some time with me in the library, there must be a dozen books we haven't gone through yet. . ."

"That's OK," Zabini interrupted. "Thanks, but no thanks. I leave you and Malfoy to enjoy each other's company."

"That's a disgusting idea, too."

"Never mind, I promise not to breathe a word of your cooperation."

"Or the diary." Artemis looked at Zabini warningly. "You can't mention that to anyone."

"I won't."

"Good! So then--want to play Wizard's Scrabble?"

"You always win at that! How about Wizard's Clue?"

"Dumbledore did it in the dungeons with the Exploding Hex! All right."

Chevalier and Bole walked in at that point, along with Leo Bole and his girlfriend Cassandra. "Can we play, too? We're bored!"

"I love Wizard's Clue," Leo told them happily as they all sat down. "It's so much fun to watch the little 3-D wizards and witches cast their little curses and beat each other with Bludgers and stuff."

Eva stepped on his foot under the table. "Yes. The imitation blood you added in last time was a bit much for me, though."

And by the fireplace, "For the last time, Parkinson, I am entirely straight!"

"But a secret affair between long-time rivals is so romantic. . ."

"Romantic? Begone--I cast you out of Slytherin!"

"Are you sure you won't reconsider? I'm sure you could win him over. . ."

"Argh!" Draco threw his hands up again and stalked to his room.

Pansy sighed.

______________ _____________