18 October 1992, Hogwarts
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.
It took three days for Harry to realize that an attack wasn't coming. Sure, it was too soon, especially compared to the original stories, which happened on Halloween night. So, the question was whether Riddle was just seeing that everything was in place or not, or was he spooked somehow by someone knowing that he was going to open the chamber of secrets once more.
Harry was in unknown territory now and that was slightly terrifying. Starting from today, the stories would hold little sway on how the future worked. They were already spotty, but now, they would be actively false. The heir of Slytherin was coming, and Harry needed to be ready.
The good news was that as of now, no one knew about the Chamber of Secrets opening once more, and the Basilisk was still locked up. But the bad news was that if things stick to the original story, Harry had thirteen days until a Basilisk would be set loose on the student body, something that he needed to stop at all costs.
And to do that, he needed the Diary. He still didn't really know how to destroy it. Basilisk Venom was practically non-existent and if it was, a vial would be worth more than Harry's entire inheritance. The only plan he had was to contact Arcturus Black and hope for the best. But the main issue was getting to the diary itself.
He needed to act quickly. The answer was remarkably simple, Harry needed to sneak into Lockhart's room at night while he would be sleeping, and try to steal the diary, somehow.
Yes, Lockhart was the most prominent suspect not only because of the age and gender that Harry discovered with his little trap but also because of the steady rise in teaching quality his classes showed. He still had his arrogance and pride, but there was a confidence with which he walked that was missing before. The pretence of competence that he always held started to fade away. Tom Riddle, even as a sixth year, was probably more knowledgeable than most Aurors, especially when it concerned Defense Against the Dark Arts, and with the possession being in place, connecting him to Lockhart, it would explain the man's teaching better material.
So, yeah, Lockhart was the most probable culprit and Harry needed to steal it from him somehow. It was a terrible idea, but it was the only plan he had. In general, just stealing from a member of the staff could get anyone suspended or even expelled. Hell, they could get arrested and charged if whatever they wanted to steal was expensive enough. It was generally a bad idea, but Harry had no other choice.
The good thing was that for the possession to occur Lockhart and the Diary had to be close for long periods of time, especially since the perpetrator is a shard of a soul that resided in an inanimate object. The possibly fraudulent professor had to have been writing in it for at least an hour a day.
Lockhart was a fraud that thinks he found a ticket to stop being one, to be competent enough that no one would ever doubt him, and that meant that he treasured the Diary more than anything. It was his security measure, his trump card. The man's biggest fear is to be discovered, and that diary guaranteed that this would never happen. He had to keep it close, especially at night, because he would never want to risk it being stolen.
That meant that stealing it at night, when it was guaranteed to be in Lockhart's room was the way to go. Now, professors were given two rooms, independent of their classes. They had a bedroom, which is connected to their office, which is also connected to their classrooms. They could use the bedrooms and office to do with them what they wish. They were under no obligation to not change anything about their personal rooms. Harry had read that in the charter when he was bored the previous year.
So, that night, after Dinner, Harry excused himself and slowly walked to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, put on his cloak and walked inside. His invisibility cloak was one of Harry's strongest advantages because it pretty much allowed him to ignore magic entirely when he walked through.
Harry used his Arcane Hearing to see anything about the wards in Lockhart's office. They were oddly very powerful, especially considering how horrible of a wizard Lockhart really was. It was in his magic. While his magic was getting smoother and more controlled, it still didn't come close to that of an Auror, a Hit wizard, or anyone that's a master of any magical field. Yeah, these wards were unknown enough that they had Tom Riddle's fingerprint all over them.
Harry could have just ignored them and walked in, but that would mean that he would need to disable the basic wards in the classroom so that he would be able to physically open the door, and that would leave traces. Instead, the Potter scion decided to wait for Lockhart to come back to his office and do his work for him.
In the meanwhile, the young Slytherin took out a book and started to read. He was advancing pretty quickly with his ancient Runes. Having learnt Norse and Elder Futhark, Harry decided to focus on Hieroglyphs instead. It wasn't that useful in enchantment, which was what Harry liked the most, but in warding and curses, they had few equals. The Aztec ones came close but with the civilization being pretty much wiped out, and so are half its ruins, the language is still being studied today. It was why there were so many curse breaker expeditions in the area. Countless ruins still haven't been discovered yet, and the traps there tended to be less fatal than the Ancient Egyptian ones, who honestly didn't give a fuck about crimes against humanity. Seriously, there were wards that turned people inside out, killed people and trapped them in a time bubble that kept looping, making them die again and again, living an eternity of agony and pain. So, yeah, Gringotts decided that it was more cost effective to focus on Aztec Runes for the moment. At least their methods of killing were somewhat humane.
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