Most of the girls were looking forward to the first DADA lesson, expecting to meet the good looking teacher. The boys weren't so enthusiastic. Hermione was of mixed feelings. She really admired the teacher's looks, but his books seemed to be very inaccurate, something which the bookworm couldn't accept. How was it ever allowed? Shouldn't books tell you the truth? Well, except for fiction, but Lockhart's books weren't supposed to be fiction. Were they?
And then they had that lesson. Harry wasn't sure if it was something to laugh about or be angered by. It was a total waste of time, concentrating on nothing but the teacher himself. When finally he reached something related to their subject – how to handle Pixies – he just opened a cage of Pixies and let the children handle them while he found refuge in his office.
Some of the Pixies' antics were somewhat funny, he had to admit. The way they chased Lockhart out of his class was even hilarious, but hanging Neville from the ceiling wasn't funny at all, although a few Slytherins laughed.
"It's going to be another year of wasted opportunity to learn," he whined to Hermione. She had to admit that the charming professor was nothing but a shiny wrapping with nothing in it, although she wanted to wait for another DADA lesson before finally agreeing with him.
She was very concerned after that lesson. "I'm not sure what we can do, but I think our parents and guardians should complain. They're paying for us being taught a certain curriculum, not the teacher's favourite colours or his preferred ties."
Harry gave it a thought. "Maybe we should ask all the students to write home and say that this class is just a waste of time, so the parents should request another teacher. This should be especially relevant to fifth and seventh-year students who need to get ready for their OWLs or NEWTs."
Hermione considered his words. "That's a really good idea, Harry. I wonder why we haven't thought of it last year."
Harry chuckled humourlessly. "There are too many useless teachers here, not just Lockhart. Snape isn't much better in most cases, not really teaching anything, although he doesn't quiz us about his favourite colours..."
"That would be black," she inserted with a chuckle of her own.
"...nor is Binns, who puts us all to sleep, but at least tries to teach us some of what he's supposed to," Harry finished.
"Well, we can't remove them all at once. Lockhart is the newest addition, so he should be easiest to replace. What do you plan to do?"
Harry shrugged. "I'll talk first with fifth and seventh-year students in our house and see how they accept my idea, and then – we'll see..."
They still waited for the weekend, when most students were more relaxed and easier to talk to. Harry first spoke with Oliver Wood, knowing that many students were influenced by the Quidditch captain. "I thought that our DADA professor is so useless that our parents and guardians should protest spending their money on him. I believe they would like to pay only for real, useful teaching, not for frauds."
Oliver gave it a thought. "I think you're right. My parents are even concerned about my Quidditch training interfering with my studies. They wouldn't be happy paying for nothing, as it seems to be in this case." He then smiled. "Let me handle the upper classes students while you speak with first to third year only."
This proved to be a good idea, since Harry wasn't accustomed to trying to persuade others, and Hermione had no more experience in that than him. Still, they didn't keep it in the Gryffindor house only. Parvati, Hermione's dorm mate, introduced them to her twin, Padma, who was a Ravenclaw, and she spread the information there. Neville helped him talk with Susan and Hanna from Hufflepuff to do the same. He had no such success with the Slytherins, though. Daphne, when he talked to her, agreed to write to her parents, but couldn't spread this. "We're actually each on his own there. We only present house unity for others, but we're really only a collection of individuals with little interaction between each other," she explained. She still promised to talk to a few she knew better and to urge her parents to talk with other parents.
Things seemed to calm down for a while. As far as Harry could find out, more than half the student population wrote home, urging their parents to request a better DADA teacher. He couldn't find out what happened next.
\/\/\/
It was the second week after the start of term when a Potter house elf popped in front of Harry while he was in the toilet.
"Sorry to bother you here, Master, but it's very difficult to find you alone and in a place where nobody can see or hear our conversation. I'm Planky and I'm part of the team that guards you and Mistress."
Harry really felt somewhat confused but had to agree. Privacy was a rare commodity for the Hogwarts students. "What do you need to talk to me?" he asked.
"While guarding Mistress, we felt some dark magic nearby. We traced it to something in the trunk of a student named Ginevra Weasley. We could probably take it away, but that would be theft and you, as our master, would be the culprit. We suggest you talk to your head of house, or maybe the headmaster, about checking students' trunks for dark magic. We're going to inform the school's house-elves, so they can pass the information too. One of us will keep an eye on Ginevra, to make sure she doesn't harm anybody with that and isn't harmed herself. It doesn't look like she knows what it is."
Harry agreed to the proposed plan. He wasn't sure that McGonagall would act on his concerns. He'd have to consult with Hermione on the right way to approach the staff.
Hermione wasn't sure about the right way to act. She tried talking a bit with Ginny, but the younger girl was extremely shy and didn't cooperate. They then asked to talk to their head of house. "I feel that there's something dark somewhere in the dorms, something threatening. I asked a few house elves and they confirmed my feeling. I think it would be extremely helpful to have all the belongings of the students searched for dark magic. I suppose this can be done without actually taking each item out of the trunk and examining it."
McGonagall frowned. "The school wards are supposed to stop such items from being brought in, but maybe they need some maintenance. You say that the house elves approved your initial feeling?"
Harry nodded, making her frown some more. "And you, Miss Granger, did you feel something similar?"
Hermione shook her head. "I'm not as sensitive to magic of any kind as Harry is. With so much magical stuff around, I may even feel it and not know what it is."
Minerva sighed. "I'll have to consult with the headmaster, but I believe it won't harm to scan students' belongings this way. I intend to do this before next week."
That weekend, all Gryffindor students were called to the common room. Minerva spoke to them and kept them away from the dorms while Albus, Filius and Severus scanned each dorm room magically. Harry wasn't surprised when, after scanning all the dorms and speaking quietly with Minerva, she asked Ginny to come with her to her dorm. A few minutes later, she was levitating a small book out of the tower, followed by a very pale Ginny.
An hour later, Harry was summoned to the headmaster's office. "Mr. Potter, I thank you for your alertness. We found a very dark artefact in the trunk of one student, something that could put the whole school in danger. The dark item was disposed of in a secure method and its danger is over. Now, can you tell me how you became aware of it?"
The way the headmaster was looking at his forehead, Harry suspected that he thought that whatever had been in the scar was still there, making Harry more sensitive to such magic. He decided to tell the truth, that was much simpler. "A house elf came to me before the term started and told me there would be a danger at Hogwarts and I shouldn't go to school. Some other house elves decided to protect me. One of them came to me and told me about the item of very dark magic in the girls' dorms. I didn't really sense it."
Dumbledore seemed to be relieved by this information. He then asked a question that Harry was expecting since the previous year. "How did you get rid of your scar? All we tried here, before you were passed to your guardians, didn't help at all."
Harry didn't want to tell about his Gringotts experience, but he could give a slightly modified version. "Before the first year, when I went to Gringotts for some money, the Goblins identified my scar as some dark magic that they felt offended about and forced me to have it treated. It was quite painful for a bit, but after they did it, the scar was no longer and I felt like I was cleaner and more powerful. I was certainly in a much better mood." That was close enough to the real story without giving any unwanted details.
Dumbledore looked pensive. "The Goblins removed the dark magic, you say? I've never considered approaching them for such matters..." He returned to his normal façade after a moment. "Well, on behalf of the whole school, I thank you for your alertness that helped us rid the school of the danger. You gained your house fifty points."
When Harry left the office, he was glad that there was no Legilimency attack on him. He could probably withstand it and even counter-attack, so he thought, but this way was better.
\/\/\/
He couldn't see Ginny for a few days after the incident. "She stays mainly in her bed, when not taking classes," Hermione informed him. "I think she is disgusted with herself for bringing that dark artefact to school, endangering everyone in it."
"Can't we do something to help her overcome this?" Harry asked.
"You can't do anything, since you can't go to the girls' dorms and she barely leaves them. I try to talk to her at least once a day. I think she's getting out of it. She'll be alright in a few more days, I believe," Hermione reassured him.
Indeed, it only took two more days for Ginny to decide to leave her dorm and join the students in the common room. She first made her way to where Harry and Hermione were sitting. "Harry, I'm sorry I've acted like a stupid child. That dark artefact was a diary that answered back when I wrote in it, and it showed a special interest in you. It should have been a clear warning to me but I failed to see it."
"Whose diary was that, initially?" he asked.
"There was a name there. Tom Marvollo Riddle. Dumbledore said this was the name that person was known as before he adopted the name V… Vol… Voldemort."
Harry gasped at hearing that. It was Hermione who spoke now. "Well, no wonder he managed to trick you. He did this with many older and wiser people, who should have known much better than a first-year girl. You shouldn't blame yourself for not having the knowledge and experience to properly identify it. Just make it a learning experience, so nothing similar would be able to trick you."
Ginny nodded seriously. "I will. I'm glad it was discovered before it could do any serious damage."
"So are we all," Harry reassured her. "Actually, what did it try to make you do?"
Ginny didn't seem too sure. "It repeatedly mentioned the Chamber of Secrets, Slytherin's chamber, as he called it, and wanted me to go there. It almost succeeded. I once found myself in Myrtle's toilets without ever going there, as far as I could remember. I was leaning over a certain washbasin when somebody opened the door and that probably took me out of the trance invoked by that dark magic." She shuddered at the thought.
"Will you be ready to show me where exactly it took you?" he asked, not quite sure if he wanted to get involved.
"Maybe in a few weeks. Right now, I keep my distance from there, in case there's a lingering effect, you know."
Harry nodded understandingly. While he wasn't very knowledgeable in Magic, he knew that some experiences, both normal and magical, could have long term effects on people, as he'd read more than once.
That night, another thought occurred to him, and he tried to refine it by talking to Hermione. "If she agrees, I may try Legilimency on her and extract all the information the diary gave her to do its bidding."
Hermione wasn't sure it was a good idea. "Why should you expose yourself to such dark magic?"
"It's not the dark magic I'm interested in. It's the information about the chamber of secrets. If there's something dangerous there, we should inform the teachers. If there's something else, like books and old scrolls, I'm sure they would be of interest."
Mentioning books to Hermione was sure to have an effect. "Well, maybe you should try, but right now we should get some sleep." She covered a yawn. "Goodnight, dear," she said, cuddling closer to Harry.
"Goodnight love," Harry said tightening his hug and closing his eyes.