At least, the founder wasn't some creep who put his chamber in a girl's bathroom. There wasn't even plumbing when they did the castle, so someone moved it there, probably Riddle. If you think about it, it was an intelligent move. Bathrooms are already warded so no traps could be sprung on him there, the location also made it easier to connect to the castle pipes to allow the Basilisk to move around, and finally, no one would think of this being a place to do so. That means that Riddle had to look for another place with similar advantages to his new chamber, but still, it didn't mean anything since Harry didn't know any Parseltongue. He checked by summoning a snake and seeing if he could understand the hissing. He got nothing…
There wasn't much about the snake tongue in the Hogwarts Library, even in the restricted section, something that was odd since it was common knowledge and the founder of the House of Snakes himself was one. Yeah, that had Dumbledore's fingerprints all over it.
Not for the first time, Harry wished to know where the man put all the books he kept taking from the library. They would probably be enough to fill an entirely new one by themselves. That's how many books the man just confiscated because they were 'too dangerous'.
Now, the biggest question was, why did Riddle attack Dean Thomas? The boy mostly kept to himself and liked art. He didn't get into fights; he didn't make a spectacle of himself. Most people didn't even know if he was a muggleborn or a half-blood, and no one really cared. Hermione Granger would make a better target if he wanted to scare muggleborns. She was loud, she was a friend of the boy who lived, and she like to show up to the purebloods who looked down on her for being a Muggleborn. Colin Creevey was also the same. He was a high-profile target just for annoying everyone around him with nonsensical questions and taking hundreds of photos every day.
So, yeah, why Dean Thomas? Riddle hadn't attacked him in the stories, so why did this change? Maybe he knew something that Riddle didn't want to be spread out. No, he was smarter than that. A memory charm and a mental compulsion would be enough to silence anyone who wasn't a high-level Occlumens, something that Dean Thomas just wasn't.
Harry was so engrossed with his thoughts that he didn't notice his friends sitting next to him for breakfast, and was then poked by Daphne, "What the hell, Daph."
"You're being inconsiderate again. Remember, we agreed that when you're literally next to us, you wouldn't get lost in your own head."
Harry looked down, "Sorry, I didn't notice you sitting down."
"Of course, you didn't," Tracy commented, "So, what's making you this distracted?"
"The Chamber of Secrets…" Harry simply replied.
"So, you're like a quarter of the school that wants to be the ones to solve the infamous mystery of the founder," Blaise said with a sarcastic tone.
Harry shook his head, "No, I already solved most of it, but the problem I have is why Dean Thomas was chosen as a target."
"What, you solved it?" Daphne asked.
"Well, most of it, really. It's a bit obvious if you know where to look. You need to go back to the original attack, and you'll be able to have enough information to make your conclusions. Each attack is supposed to make a statement of sorts. Filch was an attack on the staff, showing everyone that no one was safe. Especially since he was barely gone for a minute when he was petrified. Every single old attack was the same, so the attacker is using similar means, in a way. The next person to be petrified is supposed to be known by most people. It's useless to spread fear if you don't know who the victims are in the first place. So, it had to be someone noticeable. Colin Creevey, Hermione Granger, and people like that. The purpose is to spread fear, so the question is, why Dean Thomas? He keeps to himself, and no one outside our year even knows who he is. Before the attack, I bet none of you knew that he was a Muggleborn. So, the question is why he was attacked in the first place?"
Daphne gave him a weird look, "What makes you think that the goal is to make people afraid?"
"Well, it has to do with the method of attack," Harry explained, "It's not a spell, because Dumbledore would have easily countered it. Wand magic is structured like that, but a creature's magic can be stubborn and unpredictable. And if the beast is what I think it is, then whoever is controlling it is making sure that it only petrifies people and not killing them. Killing people would actually be easier to do and would leave fewer clues in the crime scene."
"Yeah, but you're basing all of this on the attacks that happened years ago. Whoever is doing this is different. What if they don't want to spread fear? What if there isn't a convoluted plan?" Daphne responded.
That's ridiculous. Of course, Riddle wants to spread fear… Oh! Maybe he did want that before, but this is different. Tom Riddle woke up in the future and saw how much of a disappointment his future self was, so what would he do? Would he really restart a reign of terror just to momentarily hurt Dumbledore, who was in a much more secure position than he was when Tom was still a teenager?
No, of course, he wouldn't. There had to be something else. Something that's tied to Dean Thomas. Something that was different, this time… There had to be another motivation. Tom was a brilliant wizard, but he was fundamentally different. He was a Horcrux. So, what would a Horcrux need? He didn't have any magic, hence the need to possess people. Wait a minute, Harry was thinking of Riddle as its own independent person. But he wasn't, was he?
Harry stood up with a huge grin on his face and just exclaimed, "You're a genius, Daph!"
He then kissed her cheek and ran out of the Great Hall. He had a Diadem to find, after all.
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