Eyes Like Pickled Toad and A Destroyed Abode

(Y/N)'s POV

Harry found a diary that he was oddly attached too, weirdly enough it apparently belonged to the guy we speculated to have stopped the heir of Slytherin fifty years ago, Tom Riddle. He said it must have something to do with the chamber of secrets.

I just left him to it, I was too busy dodging the dwarves that Lockhart had sent to deliver Valentines messages this year. I had already been cornered by one earlier in the day, a bunch of third year Hufflepuff girls started giggling as it was delivered.

One looked as if she was about to faint, it must have been her that sent it. After the dwarf had delivered its song and message, I gave them all a polite wave and they scurried off in a pack.

I was walking with the gang when a dwarf called down the hall "Harry Potter, I've got a message for Harry Potter" I was ecstatic at this "Oh I can't wait" I said looking at Harry evilly, Harry caught on quick and tried to escape.

I put my arms around his in a bear hug so he couldn't, he thrashed and kicked "LET ME GO!" he snarled, I yelled at the dwarf "Over here!" he jogged up to us and began to sing gruffly while holding and playing a harp.

"His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,

His hair is as dark as a blackboard.

I wish he was mine, he's truly divine,

the hero who conquered the Dark Lord."

The dwarf finished with a flourish on its harp and turned to leave "Oh, this is the best day of my life" I said wiping a tear from my eye "That was brilliant."

There was a brief scuffle with Malfoy afterwards, but the day continued as normal until we were on our way back to the common room, I was reciting my new favourite poem to Harry, who was still red in the face.

"Shut up (Y/N)" spat Harry. A miserable looking dwarf then turned and sprinted at us, "(Y/N) (L/N)?" "No" I tried "YES" screamed Harry and Ron, both of them forcefully hung onto my arms to keep me there.

 I looked at Hermione for help but for some reason she wouldn't look me in the eye and was busy staring into her book bag. The dwarf cleared his throat. "If I got petrified right now, I'd call it a blessing" I prayed to any gods listening.

"His eyes glisten like the moon,

His smile lights up an entire room,

He spends his time helping me through gloom

I want him to live in my bathroom."

The entire corridor erupted into laughter, "Of course it was from Myrtle idiot, who else would it be?" said the cynical voice again. "She's not much of a poet" I said trying to laugh the whole thing off. 

The dwarf cleared his throat and said "Another note, asked me not to sing" as he handed me the card, I opened it and read it to myself.

"Dear, (Y/N)

I couldn't bring myself to write you a poem

But I hope that you have a brilliant Valentine's day

And hopefully one day I can share one with you

With love always from..."

"Anonymous" I said out loud, I looked on the back or on the letter to see if there was any indication as to who sent it. The message ended there, I poked the dwarf and asked him who gave him it, "Can't tell yah, its private" he said as he left to deliver more letters.

"I know this writing from somewhere" I thought, but for the life of me I couldn't place it. I spent the next few weeks racking my brain to try to find who had written me the note, with no luck.

I gave up after a few weeks of interrogating my classmates, "Guess I will wait for next year" I reasoned to Ron as we were studying in the common room. Hermione beside me nose deep in a book.

Ron was about to answer me when Harry ran in to the common room, looking frantic, "What's up? I asked, all three of us surrounded him, "What's wrong?" Ron asked. "It was Hagrid, Hagrid opened the chamber 50 years ago" he said to all of us.

"That can't be true, Hagrid would never-" I tried to defend my friend, Harry interrupted me, this annoyed me, a lot. "Riddle told me" he corrected himself "No, showed me, I saw it with my own eyes."

"Who?" said Ron confused. "His imaginary friend in the book" I explained angrily, "That tells us nothing Harry, just because Riddle showed it to you doesn't mean it's the truth." "I KNOW WHAT I SAW!" said Harry.

"We all know he loves dangerous creatures, what if one got out by mistake?" explained Harry once he calmed down. "You're off your nut Harry, does Hagrid look like an heir of Slytherin to you?" I argued back angrily.

"I'm not saying he opened the chamber; I'm saying he helped the monster escape, that's why he got expelled." We went over it repeatedly. "So, Hagrid finds the monster, Hagrid protects the monster, Riddle stops Hagrid, Hagrid gets expelled, Riddle gets his award for stopping it, and the attacks stop, it all fits" said Hermione looking at me.

"I refuse to believe that Rubeus Hagrid has ever killed anyone, intentionally or otherwise" I stated, furious that it would even be suggested, that stupid book was the cause of all of this. "We could just ask him" said Hermione quietly, suddenly avoiding my gaze.

"Oh, that will go well, say Hagrid, have you unleashed anything mad and hairy recently?" said Ron. It was fair to say we all went to bed with a bit of hostility between us that night.

The issue was dropped for a while as we were too busy picking our subjects for third year, personally, I went for Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle studies and Divination. The first because it sounded awesome, and the others because divination seemed easy and muggle studies was just extra credit for me.

The only other thing of note that happened within the following weeks was when the Gryffindor boys dorm was trashed. I remember after I heard I ran in to the room in a panic, pushing past Neville.

"Bones!" "BONES!" I shouted scouring the room for her, Neville jumped into action to help, we eventually found her under Neville's bed, shaking like a leaf, this had been her favourite place to relax and someone just ransacked it.

I scooped her up in my arms and began swaying with her as I had done a thousand times before, she finally calmed down and fell to sleep, I looked over at my trunk to see all my books had been opened, some of them now dog-eared or torn, Harry was still searching for something, "Tom Riddle's diary, it's gone."

"Nobody cares about your stupid book" I spat; I was getting tired of him prattling on about Riddle, hell I would have gotten rid of it myself, but Hermione wouldn't let me ruin any books, even useless ones like Lockhart's. 

I walked down to the common room to tell the others what happened passing Neville as I went "Thanks for helping mate" I patted him on the shoulder. Harry didn't talk to me for the rest of the day.

But even so, the next day I was still ready to cheer Harry on during his Quidditch match, I had told myself I would cheer twice as hard as usual; Hermione had gone to the library to look something up, so I had to make up for her absence.

"Let's get moving, the match is about to start" said Ron as all three of us jogged up to the pitch. We waited for a few minutes for Harry to change and then made our way to the team lockers, where the rest of the Gryffindor team was waiting.

"Good luck mate" I said to Harry as he went off to start the match. As the team departed Alicia Spinnet said "Bye (Y/N)" and winked at me, I waved at the older girl "Good luck" I said quietly, my face going red.

 Angelina Johnson laughed and said "Stop teasing him", pulling the Chaser away towards the pitch by the arm. Ron was in the middle of laughing at me when Professor McGonagall came in looking very urgent.

"The match has been cancelled, all students are to return to their dormitories" Wood went to protest but she just looked at him sternly and he stood down. "It's good you're here you three" she gestured to Me, Harry and Ron. "I think it would be best if you came with me."

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it" I joked as we walked up the spiral stairs, but my heart dropped when I realised where we were heading, to the hospital wing. We had already reached the entrance when I realised why.

"There has been another attack, two victims this time" McGonagall added, as Harry and Ron caught on. I looked at their faces, Harry was pale and clammy, Ron was wide eyed in shock, I'm sure I didn't look much better.

"No, no no" was all I could bring myself to say as my brain put the pieces together, "I'm sorry" said Professor McGonagall as she realised I had figured it out, I rushed into the room, my eyes darting around, I saw the other victim, a Ravenclaw girl, it was a sad sight to see but I was more concerned with what I saw next. Something I never thought I would ever have to bear.

Another new occupant of the hospital wing, frozen like a statue, with her eyes still open, still wearing the scarf I bought her at the beginning of the year, was Hermione Granger.

Harry's POV

I was worried about (Y/N), very worried, it's been a week since Hermione was attacked, he had visited her every day, that wasn't the problem, the problem was what he did every other hour of the day, he was sat in the library, reading every book he could find that might have an inkling of knowledge about the chamber of secrets or a monster that caused petrification.

He barely ate, which was very unlike him, he got into bed at very late hours despite the curfew that had been put into place, and he kept harassing teachers for information on spells I'd never heard of. Even Madam Pomfrey who he harassed about healing spells, Flitwick was now actively avoiding him, so he didn't ask him anything else.

Even Bones was missing him, she would usually play about in the common room but now she just sat at the portrait entrance waiting for him to get back, I had tried to pet and play with her whenever I had time. But I could tell she really missed Hermione and (Y/N).

Ron had first put the thought in my head, "What if he's waiting to see if it comes back?" he said absentmindedly in conversation. Now I was sure that was what he was doing.

Whenever I tried to talk to him about it the next day in the library, he would snap at me, "Of course I am, and I'm trying to learn what I can before it gets here, what have you been doing?" he basically shouted at me.

"Hermione figured something out, I know she did, I just don't know what!" he banged his hands on the desk in frustration, Madam Pince glared at him, he just glared back harder "What!" he confronted her, she just tutted and turned her head.

He had stopped going to Lockhart's lessons entirely, none of the teachers brought this up, considering the circumstances. "Why would I? Hair products won't help Hermione will they?" he said when I asked him about it.

"Neither will you if you are worked to death" I said. "Me and Ron have been thinking, we should visit Hagrid, what if he knows something?" "Fine, but how are we getting there?", he replied, not looking up from the book he was reading on monsters.

"My dad's invisibility cloak, we can go tonight" "Ok I will meet you in the common room later" he said, still not looking up.

(Y/N)'s POV

I was close to figuring it out, I could feel it. If everyone would just leave me alone to my thoughts, I'm sure I could work it out. But of course, with my luck, it never ends up like that. "Hello (Y/N)" said a dreamy, soft voice, I recognised it immediately, I didn't need to look up.

"Hi Luna" "What are you up to?" "Kinda busy right now Luna, I'm looking up magical beasts" "Like Nargles, or Blibbering Humdinger's?" "No", "Bigger" I said rubbing my eyes in exasperation.

"Like Unicorns?, Did you know that their blood has magical properties?" "Yes" "Oh" "If she keeps pestering me like this I'm going to leave" I thought. She stepped forward and I noticed something odd, even for her.

"Luna, why are you not wearing shoes?" I wondered looking at her bare feet as she wiggled her toes. "Oh, I was feeding the Thestrals earlier and they seem to have vanished, I suspect it is the work of Nargles."

"WHY! There is a monster about Luna, I don't need you getting hurt too." "Someone has to, nobody else looks after them" she looked at me as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You can't just leave her like this" said the voice in the back of my head, suddenly a lot less cynical. "I needed a break anyway; C'mon I will help you find them, Nargles couldn't have gone far." I said, packing up my things, Madam Pince gave me a glare on the way out.

First I headed up to my dorm, I got an old pair of boots that I had outgrown and gave them to her, they were huge on her but they were better than nothing, we began to retrace her steps.

We started out in what I could only assume was the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room and worked our way through the castle, careful to avoid any teachers or roaming prefects who would punish us for being out of our dorms. Eventually after a few hours of searching and chatting we did find the culprits, only it wasn't Nargles.

I recognised a few of them, some of them where in the group of Ravenclaw girls who laughed at me last year, they were in the process of hanging the shoes off a torch bracket when we found them.

"Good afternoon ladies, how are we today?" I said suddenly, all of them jumped and turned, one flattened down her hair and put on a smile, by the looks of her she was a third or fourth year, she probably thought I was older than I was.

"Hey" she said suggestively, batting her eyelids. "Is what horses eat" I said out of reflex, it was one of my dads' favourite jokes and it popped into my head, the girl started laughing hard, too hard. "You're funny, want to go out some time?"

Honestly, on any other day I would have probably said yes, but today, I wasn't feeling it. "No" there was a seconds pause "I would prefer it if you gave my friend here her shoes back, and anything else you might have stolen" I said gesturing to the shoes and then to Luna, who was stood behind me.

"We didn't steal anything!" one of the girls behind her piped up, "Are those your shoes?" I asked, she shook her head, "Well then... I think you did" I extended my hand out to take them.

"We were going to give them back; your friend needs to learn how to take a joke" said the flirty one. "And you need to learn to keep your hands to yourself, how would you like it If I took your clothes and hung them all over Hogwarts?" she blushed a deep pink and looked down.

"Exactly. Now, from now on you leave my friend alone, or we are going to start having some problems" I said sternly as she handed me the shoes, "Now go back to your common room, it's dangerous to be out right now" they all nodded and ran off.

"Oh god, I sound like Percy, shoot me now" I laughed, handing Luna her shoes. "Thank you (Y/N)" she said quickly, leaning on a wall to put her shoes on, giving me my boots back.

"You're welcome, its fine though, next time you go and feed the Thestrals I will come with you, you can tell me all about them." A wide smile graced her face, "That sounds lovely."

We took a slow walk back to the Ravenclaw common room, in a comfortable silence. "Thank you again, it was very kind of you to help me." She said as we got there

"Try to keep a hold of your shoes next time, stay safe" I laughed as we hugged and went our separate ways. I made my way back to the common room as quickly as I could, apparently it took longer than I thought, and it was about to get dark. "Where have you been?" enquired Harry as I arrived.

"Chasing Nargles" I commented, throwing my boots in a corner, picking up Bones and stroking her, I pet her until everyone went to bed, she eventually fell asleep, so I laid her on an armchair. As Ron came in, I asked, "We ready to go?" he nodded, and we set off.

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