Chapter 47: First Contact

After determining that he could not destroy the diary with his current strength, Ivan decided to try to communicate with Tom.

He wouldn't believe anything in the diary anyway.

That night, Ivan sat on his bed, covered himself with the sheets, pulled out a pen and wrote in the journal, "Hello, my name is Ivan Mason."

The black ink glowed for a second, but then, in the next second, it seemed to be absorbed into the paper and disappeared without a trace.

Then a set of words appeared that I had never written before: ``Hello Ivan Mason, my name is Tom Riddle, how did you find my diary?"

Seeing the diary respond made Ivan's heart leap with excitement.

The words disappeared as he began to write more.

"Looks like you offended someone, so they flushed your diary down the toilet where I found it," Ivan wrote.

New words appeared in the journal, "Fortunately, I recorded my thoughts in a more lasting way than ink, as I knew there will always be people who will not want this journal read. This diary records some terrible things from the past, some of them are from Hogwarts."

Ivan quickly wrote, "Oh, so you were a student at Hogwarts?"

And new words appeared in the diary again, "Yes, when I was a student at Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets was...."

Before he finished the riddle, he was interrupted by Ivan writing in the diary, "Great, you'll be able to help me with my homework."

Tom Riddle's soul was stunned, and he took a long time to respond, but when he did respond, he wrote, "Homework?"

Ivan quickly wrote, "Yes, I have been looking for a senior to help me, but Gryffindor students only seem to be interested in Quidditch, flying broomsticks, and breaking the rules. Professor Snape and Binns gave us a difficult job."

Ivan's handwriting was quick and sloppy, like that of a first year boy who hadn't quite adjusted to Hogwarts and had finally found someone who could help him with his homework.

Ivan finished writing, "These assignments are very difficult, and with my ability, it is completely impossible to complete them. Tom, won't you help me?"

The journal took a moment and the words appeared, "I'm sorry Ivan, but I think the homework should be done by yourself. If you want, I can tell you something else, like things about the Chamber of Secrets! When I was in my fifth year, the Chamber was opened, and the creature inside attacked several students and killed one. I finally caught the man who opened the Chamber of Secrets and he was expelled!"

Ivan quickly wrote: "Yes, good for you! But I'm going to stay up late with homework, Christmas vacation will be over soon and if I don't finish my homework, I don't think I'll need the monster in the chamber to do anything, I'll probably get killed by the teachers. It's been nice talking to you, bye!"

With a snap, Ivan closed the journal mercilessly.

Ivan snorted and fell backwards onto his bed, thinking, "I was just making first contact with Riddle today, so there's no need to have an in-depth conversation with him.

And besides he had to be careful when dealing with Voldemort, he might be led by him, so Ivan took the initiative in the conversation.

Anyway, he already had the diary, he didn't need to worry about the attacks continuing, for now, there was still time for him to communicate with Tom before he had to deal with the Basilisk.

A few days later, all the students returned to Hogwarts.

The news of the attack on Justin had already spread throughout Hogwarts. And the few joys that Christmas created vanished in an instant.

The atmosphere was depressing, panic filled the minds of all the teachers and students.

They all became more vigilant and suspicious.

As long as there was the slightest hint of trouble, they would flee.

Although Harry wasn't there for the third attack, that didn't stop anyone from suspecting him.

Especially in the face of inquiries, Harry couldn't explain to them why he left the Christmas party early, which was very suspicious.

More and more people started whispering and Ernie Macmillan from Hufflepuff said, "Ever since Justin accidentally told Potter he was a Muggle, I've been waiting for this."

But the worst thing about him saying this was that people believed him because they thought Ivan and Hermione were Harry's accomplices and this made his paper make it even worse.

Peeves was no help because he kept showing up in the crowded corridors and chanting loudly, "Oh Potter, oh Potter, you're no good, you kill students and you find it funny!"

He also danced when he sang.

Besides Colin, Luna and the Weasley family, hardly anyone dared to approach Ivan, Harry or Hermione.

It also seems that Malfoy guessed that Ivan and Harry had beaten him on Christmas Day, so he was always leading Crabbe and Goyle around, provoking them, like a hyena looking for an opportunity to attack.

Besides class, they spent most of their time in the library.

Hermione was going through books from fifty years ago, trying to find who had opened the chamber. Her only clue was that he had been expelled from school and held in Azkaban until now.

As for Harry and Ron, they decided to learn more about Tom Riddle, he got an award for services to the school, he was also a prefect, and head boy.

Ron, wrinkling his nose in disgust, said, "You know what? he sounds like Percy, Prefect, President of the student council, AND maybe first in all his subjects!"

"From the way you talk, it sounds like that's a bad thing." said Hermione in a slightly hurt voice.

"Yeah, I never thought I'd be that kind of person.", Ron replied.

Then, Ron turned his head and looked nervously at Ivan, saying, "How's your research on the diary going?"

"I haven't learned anything," Ivan said as he shook his head, he thought it best not to let them know anything about Riddle for now.

Ron sighed in relief and said, "Like I said, it's just a normal diary."

Ivan, hearing Ron's words, said, "I would hardly call it ordinary, I made sure it's water, fire and spell proof, I can't find a way to destroy it."

"That's good, Riddle must have wanted to protect his diary," Ron said, with an unnatural expression.