It was hard to be angry at the Quidditch captain since he was in a somewhat difficult position. He couldn't really refuse Malfoy's 'donation' but the strings that came with it threatened the standing of the team as an organization.
Harry sighed, "Look, Tracy from the look of it, most of our house's team members aren't taking it seriously, since their positions in the team are secured because of the broom, Malfoy and Flint being the surprising exceptions. So, either they'll embarrass themselves so bad Flint will have to do the tryouts, or they win, and in this case, you'll have to wait until next year after Travers and Smith leave the team, and you'll have your shot."
"It's just not fair," the brunette grumbled.
"I know it's not, but life rarely is fair. Sometimes, you just lose for no reason," the Potter scion explained calmly.
Daphne interjected, "And don't forget that this 'donation' is really hurting Malfoy Sr. in the school board. Apparently, he got reprimanded for it being an unethical action and asked to pay a fine. Not one that mattered to someone as rich as him, but enough for people to raise their eyebrows."
Harry was prepared to reply when he suddenly got a ping on his magic. He was confused for a moment, only to remember that this was the small alert that came when his rune moved. Someone had just opened the chamber of secrets. Damn, he stood up suddenly startling his friends. He ignored his questions and looked around. Lunchtime was variable in Hogwarts, depending on the schedule. That meant that most of the hall was empty. Damn, he looked around and decided to look for his suspects.
From a quick look, none of the first years in any house were there. He looked at the Hufflepuff table and saw Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones talking to each other animatedly. Similarly, Zachariah Smith and Justin Finch-Fletchley were still there, if only they were eating in silence, so that's them cleared.
The Gryffindor team chasers were also not there, not that it was a surprise since Oliver Wood wanted to squeeze every single training moment for no reason, Cormac McLaggen was also absent from the hall. However, Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe were there but Penelope Clearwater was absent. Damn, out of the sixteen suspected students, he barely eliminated more than six. As for Lockhart, he wasn't there, but neither was most of the staff, so that wasn't surprising.
Fucking hell, this was a disaster. Harry took out a piece of parchment in his hand to figure out the house of who was opening the chamber, but it was a lost cause. It was the middle of classes. There were a few students in the classrooms, but dozens were still in the corridor. He couldn't narrow down who the possessed victim was.
Seeing that there wasn't any other choice, Harry stood up and ran towards the entrance to the chamber. It took a couple of minutes to arrive, but when he did, Myrtle wasn't there. It was a longshot too, since Riddle knew about Myrtle's existence since you know, he killed her and everything. It was too much to hope for a mistake.
Still, he knelt down trying to see if the runic stone he had put under the sink had been activated. The rune was connected to one of the sinks, specifically the one with the snake engraving on it, but there was something odd. Yes, it was activated and that meant that someone was currently in the chamber. No one tampered with the enchantment itself, but the location of the rune was different. The wasn't an accident, you could only move the stone if the sticking charm on it failed, and that only happens if the magic in the rune is drained while sending the message. The only conclusion was that Riddle now knows that someone is going after him.
Harry didn't want to stay because he didn't fancy his chances against a fucking magical weapon of mass destruction that killed with eye contact and had a magical negating venom. Instead, he found another idea. Especially since this might be a counter trap of sorts.
Now that he thought about it, casting a spell in a bathroom wasn't really forbidden, was it? Only messing with the enchantment activated the ward. It was why Harry used a small stone and enchanted it instead of directly enchanting the sink itself.
What if Harry was able to create a more elaborate spell, like one that divined the information from a magical signature and connect it to the sink again? It's not like he needed to be subtle anymore; Riddle knew that someone was going after him.
Harry nodded to himself, he needed to move fast. He quickly carved another rune, on a new stone and put it in the same location as the first and fled the scene. He quickly went back to the Great Hall and sat down again, "Sorry, I really needed to go to the bathroom."
Ignoring his friends' doubting looks, he went back to eating his meal. Half an hour later, he got another ping from his runic stone. It tried to figure out who was responsible. There were two magical signatures, that were combined somehow. Yeah, it was the possession victim. Both signatures were male, so whoever had done it was a male too. Whoever it was divining must have noticed the magic and destroyed the stone. However, not before something critical was sent as well. The perpetrator's body's age. Twenty-six. Yes, whoever had the diary wasn't a student, and from the sounds of it, there was a suspect that already fit this profile. Lockhart.
Gilderoy Lockhart had just opened the Chamber of Secrets. And for the first time in over a month, I grinned wholeheartedly. I had my first true suspect and now I only needed to steal the damn thing.
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