16 November 1992, Hogwarts
Slowly, the image of the older Slytherin had dissolved into nothing. Later, Harry realized what Riddle meant when he was on his way to sneak into Ravenclaw tower and saw an unconscious Luna Lovegood in the middle of the corridor. The issue was that she didn't have Riddle's diary with her. Damn it; he was so close. This was really getting old.
As Harry approached the stunned blonde slightly, and after looking around for the Diary, he sighed in exasperation and just Rennervated the young girl. The girl woke up with a start and asked, "What happened?"
"I just found you stunned here and woke you up. Do you remember what happened?" Harry answered.
"No, I think they hit me in the back. Although, it could be an angry pack of Wrackspurts. They can be pretty mean, you know. I did feel my head getting a bit floaty and unfocused before I fell asleep," the Ravenclaw answered dreamily.
"Seriously, Luna, you were stunned from the back. You've got to know that" the last Potter interjected.
"Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. Isn't that wonderful, the uncertainty of it all."
"And is it also wonderful that they took Tom Riddle's diary too?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.
Suddenly, the girl looked panicked. She leapt towards her bag and frantically kept trying to find the book in question. She kept murmuring, "Where is it? No! No!"
She then looked at Harry with teary angry eyes, "Where is he? Where is Tom?"
The girl actually took out her wand in anger. Damn, she was really attached to the diary, huh.
Deciding to calm her down, Harry said, "I don't know where Tom is. I'm trying to find him, but someone else took the diary. Do you have any idea who it could be? Any clue would help me find him."
"Why are you even looking for him?" the younger girl asked suspiciously.
Harry grabbed the back of his head in embarrassment, "Well, he and I have been playing a game for a couple of months. I kinda won this round, and since he's such a sore loser, he decided to hide away."
The young Ravenclaw gave Harry a dry look, "I'm not an idiot Potter. Just give it to me straight."
Harry shook his head, "You won't like the answers I'm giving you…"
"I can take it, just tell me already. How do you even know about Tom?" Luna answered with a resolve that was unusual for an eleven year old girl.
The Potter scion looked around to make sure that no one was listening in on them before taking his wand and muttering, "muffliato."
"Look, it's a long story, but I'm kind of a seer. I get random flashes of things that happened in the future and the past. During the summer, I found out that a certain Diary was going to be used to release a monster on the student body. Since divination is very unreliable, I couldn't really tell anyone about it, especially since the specifics were hazy. I researched a bit and found out about the Chamber of Secrets and made a list of suspects who might have done it the last time. Tom and I found out about each other when I put a trap on the entrance to the chamber. We've been playing this game of cat and mouse for a while, where I'm trying to find his diary, and he's possessing a victim to petrify muggleborns. I ended up finding that you had the diary, and he freaked out. We duelled, I won, but he somehow got the Diary off you before I did."
Harry wasn't really lying as much as he was bending the truth. He was a seer ever since his magical crest gave him the ability. He did find out that the Diary was going to be used to release a monster on the student body, he did try to track down who had made it, and they duelled. Harry had objectively won, but Riddle had escaped enough to fight another day.
Hell, Harry was able to drain all the energy that Riddle was able to get from Luna. She wasn't going to get any of it back, but she could regenerate it in time. But that meant that Riddle was too weak to possess anyone for a while. Around two to three months to be exact. It was enough of a break that Harry would be able to prepare himself for the inevitable confrontation with the man again. Yeah, it took Riddle from August to October to have a strong enough influence over Luna that he would be able to possess her.
The young Ravenclaw though, looked stricken at Harry's revelation, "Are you sure about that?" at Harry's nod, she deflated, "I thought he was my friend. I really liked having one. He was just using me?"
"I'll be honest, I don't think he was. Not in the way he thinks, at least."
The girl started to get angry, "I trusted him with everything I had, everything I am. And in return, he took over my body to petrify two people and kill a cat. How is that not using me?"
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