Ginny looked utterly flustered.
"Ginny, is Hodge right? Were you really influenced by that diary?" Ron asked. Seeing Ginny remain silent, his tone grew exasperated. "Didn't you ever think that thing was suspicious? How many times has Dad told us that something showing up out of nowhere could be hiding dark magic?"
Ginny's eyes welled up with tears.
Hermione put an arm around her and shot Ron a look. "I can't believe you just said that."
"What?" Ron blinked, caught off guard.
"Think about all the trouble you've caused," Hermione said. "Just two months ago, you and Harry flew a car across half the country—"
"That's different!" Ron interrupted loudly. "The car was Dad's own handiwork—sure, he didn't mean to fly it himself, but Fred, George, and I tested it out in secret… You don't get it, Hermione. Dad deals with this stuff all the time—misused Muggle artifacts, that sort of thing. He's told us about books confiscated by the Ministry that are laced with dangerous curses. One could burn your eyes out. Anyone who reads Sonnets of a Sorcerer can only speak in limericks for the rest of their life. And there was this Muggle who picked up a cursed dictionary, got so obsessed with it that he starved himself to death. And—"
"Alright, I get it," Hermione cut him off, turning to Ginny. "Did you notice anything off? Maybe you should see Madam Pomfrey for a check-up…"
"I—I didn't open the diary," Ginny said softly.
"Did you sense something about it?" Harry asked, trying to keep his tone gentle, as if he were asking about the weather. "You know, I stayed at the Burrow for a while, and I never saw you take it out."
"I knew it was… really evil," Ginny said, her voice trembling. "I didn't touch it—not once—"
"Not even once? It didn't tempt you?" Harry found that odd.
"I—I don't know," Ginny said, tears brimming in her eyes. "I just knew it was terribly evil, so I locked it in a trunk, but—" Her eyes widened suddenly. "One night, I woke up in the middle of the night, sitting at the edge of my bed, holding the diary…"
Hermione gasped.
"When was that?" Hodge asked. From her description, the diary seemed far more active than the diadem.
"D-during the summer," Ginny said, sobbing.
"And then what?"
"I buried it in the garden, and the weird stuff stopped happening. When school started, I brought it with me and found a spell in the library to seal it. I've been reinforcing the spell every so often," Ginny said, her voice shaking. "I was going to find a way to destroy it."
"You should've told Dad," Ron said accusingly. "If you had, that creepy diary would've been destroyed by now."
Hodge wasn't sure if that was the best idea. The Ministry could destroy a Horcrux—Fiendfyre would do the trick—but the problem was that regular spells didn't work on Horcruxes. If Mr. Weasley got his hands on the diary and failed to destroy it after a few tries, he'd likely ask for help. Then the news of a Horcrux would spread like wildfire.
"I checked the trunk, and there were definitely traces of spellwork, but they'd been tampered with," Hermione added.
"So—who could've done it?" Harry asked.
"Probably a girl," Ron speculated. "Someone who took Ginny's diary from the girls' dormitory and also stole that Hufflepuff girl's paints. Haven't you noticed the connection—"
"Ron," Hermione interrupted, exasperated, "Lottie said she often takes her paints out with her."
"Oh," Ron said, quickly backtracking. He turned to Ginny. "Didn't you have a friend—her last name was… Lovegood?"
"Luna Lovegood?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah, that's her," Ron said. "She's in your dormitory. If the diary affected her…"
"But wouldn't that be pointless?" Harry said. "If it's capable of causing harm, it'd target Ginny first. To everyone else, it looks like it belongs to her. If it was found, people would think she stole it."
"Maybe it's not as clever as we think," Ron shrugged. "It's just an object."
"Oh, come on. It might look ordinary, but it can control people!" Hermione said. Somewhere along the way, she and Ron had swapped opinions—now she was convinced the diary was dangerous.
"Hang on," Harry said. Hermione's words sparked something in his mind. Ordinary-looking, yet Ginny called it deeply evil… A sudden realization hit him, and he asked Ginny urgently, "You knew what it was all along, didn't you? You touched it at Flourish and Blotts! It didn't harm you, so normally, you'd just think it was some old book. But you never even tried to open it."
"I—" Ginny opened her mouth but fell silent. Hermione caught on, but Ron still looked confused. "Ginny, this is important," Harry pressed, encouraged by her reaction. "There's been an attack at school. This time, it was just a ghost, and Dumbledore says there's a chance to save her. But what about next time? I heard that thing say it wants to kill!"
Ginny trembled all over, her brown eyes locking onto Harry's. For some reason, Harry was reminded of the chilling, despairing scream he'd heard in his mind when facing a Dementor.
Ginny? Despair? How could that be?
"I don't know who—or what—attacked Moaning Myrtle," Ginny said after a long pause, her trembling subsiding. "But the diary…" She spoke slowly. "I know what it is."
Before Harry could think, he pressed, "What is it? Is it the key to opening the Chamber of Secrets?"
"No. It's a Horcrux," Ginny said softly.
"A Horcrux?" Harry, Ron, and Hermione said in unison.
"A Horcrux is something dark wizards use to store pieces of their soul—to achieve immortality," Ginny explained, her voice taking on a faint, dreamy quality, almost like Luna's. "The Dark Lord used one to survive that night twelve years ago."
Harry froze.
"What did you say?" he asked hoarsely.
"Horcruxes. There are seven in total. I only know details about four—no, five of them. My information isn't complete," Ginny said, looking at Harry.
"But…" Harry spoke slowly, each word deliberate, feeling a wave of fear unlike anything he'd felt facing Voldemort. Still, he pressed on. "How do you know?"
Ginny took a deep breath.
"Because—"
At that moment, Hodge finally spoke. He'd pieced together the full story and felt compelled to intervene before things spiraled in a bad direction.
"It's tied to that magical accident from a year ago, isn't it?" he said.
Ginny's fiery red hair whipped around as she turned to him, looking utterly shocked.
————
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