The Secret Diary & it's Master
written by Shakira Marvolo Riddle
"The diary. My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes… So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted… I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets." - The Diary Of Voldemort
Last Updated
05/31/21
Chapters
7
Reads
996
History
Chapter 2
This diary was originally purchased by Riddle in a Muggle shop called Winstanley's Bookstore & Stationers on Vauxhall Road in London, sometime before or during 1943.
Creation of the diary as a Horcrux
"The diary was proof that he was the Heir of Slytherin; I am sure that Voldemort considered it of stupendous importance."
—The diary's importance to Lord Voldemort[src]
Tom-riddles-diary
The inside cover and front page of the diary, showing the faint inscription "T.M. Riddle"
When Tom Marvolo Riddle was in his fifth year at Hogwarts, he achieved his goal of locating Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and used his ability to speak Parseltongue to open it. He further used this language ability to order the Chamber's Basilisk to terrorise the school and hunt down the Muggle-born students. Eventually one of the Muggle-borns, a Ravenclaw girl named Myrtle Warren, was killed. Riddle would later use this murder to infuse the journal with a piece of his soul, and transformed it into his first Horcrux.
After Myrtle's death, Albus Dumbledore, then Professor of Transfiguration, began suspecting Riddle. Knowing it was no longer safe to open the Chamber, and that the school might be shut down if the perpetrator was not caught, Riddle framed Rubeus Hagrid and his pet Aragog for the crimes, and earned himself an award for Special Services to the school. He imbued the diary with other powers, so that the Chamber could be opened again in the future.
In the following years, Riddle also questioned Potions Master, Horace Slughorn about the properties of a Horcrux and how one might create multiple ones. Influenced by Riddle's charisma and believing his own wisdom was being admired, Slughorn told Riddle what little he knew on the subject. Based from Slughorn's information, Riddle became positive on the possibility of creating more than one Horcrux, and became confident of using the diary as a weapon instead of the intended safeguard.
Re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets
"I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me... No one's ever understood me like you, Tom... I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in... It's like a friend I can carry around in my pocket... If I say it myself, Harry, I’ve always been able to charm the people I needed."
—Tom Riddle's manipulation of Ginny Weasley[src]
Harry-potter2-movie-screencaps.com-9236
Ginny Weasley writing in the diary furtively
Some time during the First Wizarding War, Lord Voldemort entrusted the diary to Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy. The plan was to use the diary to reopen the Chamber, but Voldemort fell before that plan came to fruition, although Voldemort never told Lucius that the diary contained a fragment of his soul, instead simply making it appear to be cleverly charmed. However, Malfoy still possessed the diary and, in 1992, he planted it on Ginny Weasley, hoping to kill three birds with one stone by sabotaging Ginny's father, purge the school of Muggle-borns, and eliminate an incriminating Dark artefact.
Because Lucius was unaware that the diary was actually a container for his master's soul fragment, he was able to treat it with such light-handedness. When the Weasleys and Harry left to King's Cross Station, Ginny accidentally left the diary behind at the Burrow. Just before they got to the motorway, she remembered the diary and demanded to be allowed to go back and get it. She soon learned how to use the diary to communicate with Tom Riddle, though she was unaware that he was Lord Voldemort, or if he was even real. Ginny wrote all of her deepest feelings and secrets in the diary, including her feelings of infatuation toward Harry Potter.
Tumblr lwytwl8cBl1qcm4vyo3 250
A possessed Ginny writing a message on the wall
Her emotional vulnerability allowed the fragment of Voldemort's soul within the diary to gain partial control of her mind and force her to re-open the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny was forced not only to paint terrifying threats in the school corridors, but also to release the Basilisk within the Chamber and strangle the school roosters to protect the Basilisk, all the while in a sort of trance, and never knew what she had been doing. The Basilisk attacked several members of the Hogwarts community, including Mrs Norris, Colin Creevey, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Nearly-Headless Nick, Hermione Granger, and Penelope Clearwater. These individuals were not murdered by the basilisk, but petrified, due to them never seeing the Basilisk directly through a series of fortunate events, ranging from seeing a reflection to seeing it through a camera to the viewer being dead already.
When the attacks began, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger began to investigate the matter. They initially suspected Draco Malfoy, who was openly prejudiced against Muggle-borns, but after using Polyjuice Potion to spy on him, they discovered that he knew as little about the attacks as they did. Hermione eventually deduced that the monster had to be a Basilisk, due to Harry's ability to hear it and the nature of the attacks, but she was petrified before she could inform Harry or Ron, though she managed to leave them a relatively straightforward clue.
Harry-potter2-movie-screencaps.com-16674
Ginny attempting to get rid of Tom Riddle's diary by flushing it down a toilet
Harry heard strange voices in the walls of Hogwarts, which exhorted the urge to kill. Harry followed the voices through the Hogwarts corridors until he came upon the second floor girls' lavatory. It was here that he discovered the water-logged diary, which Ginny had discarded when she suspected that it was she who had petrified the Muggle-borns, and that she finally realised that the diary was the cause. Soon enough, Harry was communicating with Tom Riddle, who showed him a memory within the diary, in which Riddle confronted Rubeus Hagrid about the keeping of a dangerous pet. This implied to Harry that Hagrid had opened the Chamber of Secrets, but Riddle was merely using Hagrid's pet Acromantula, Aragog, as a scapegoat so Hogwarts would not be closed down.
Later, Ginny, having seen the diary amongst Harry's books, stole the diary from among Harry's room. She feared that Riddle would tell Harry about her feelings toward him, and shortly thereafter went missing. She was forced to paint a threat against her life on the walls of a hallway and sealed herself inside the Chamber. Hogwarts was again under threat of being closed down.
Creation of the diary as a Horcrux
"The diary was proof that he was the Heir of Slytherin; I am sure that Voldemort considered it of stupendous importance."
—The diary's importance to Lord Voldemort[src]
Tom-riddles-diary
The inside cover and front page of the diary, showing the faint inscription "T.M. Riddle"
When Tom Marvolo Riddle was in his fifth year at Hogwarts, he achieved his goal of locating Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and used his ability to speak Parseltongue to open it. He further used this language ability to order the Chamber's Basilisk to terrorise the school and hunt down the Muggle-born students. Eventually one of the Muggle-borns, a Ravenclaw girl named Myrtle Warren, was killed. Riddle would later use this murder to infuse the journal with a piece of his soul, and transformed it into his first Horcrux.
After Myrtle's death, Albus Dumbledore, then Professor of Transfiguration, began suspecting Riddle. Knowing it was no longer safe to open the Chamber, and that the school might be shut down if the perpetrator was not caught, Riddle framed Rubeus Hagrid and his pet Aragog for the crimes, and earned himself an award for Special Services to the school. He imbued the diary with other powers, so that the Chamber could be opened again in the future.
In the following years, Riddle also questioned Potions Master, Horace Slughorn about the properties of a Horcrux and how one might create multiple ones. Influenced by Riddle's charisma and believing his own wisdom was being admired, Slughorn told Riddle what little he knew on the subject. Based from Slughorn's information, Riddle became positive on the possibility of creating more than one Horcrux, and became confident of using the diary as a weapon instead of the intended safeguard.
Re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets
"I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me... No one's ever understood me like you, Tom... I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in... It's like a friend I can carry around in my pocket... If I say it myself, Harry, I’ve always been able to charm the people I needed."
—Tom Riddle's manipulation of Ginny Weasley[src]
Harry-potter2-movie-screencaps.com-9236
Ginny Weasley writing in the diary furtively
Some time during the First Wizarding War, Lord Voldemort entrusted the diary to Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy. The plan was to use the diary to reopen the Chamber, but Voldemort fell before that plan came to fruition, although Voldemort never told Lucius that the diary contained a fragment of his soul, instead simply making it appear to be cleverly charmed. However, Malfoy still possessed the diary and, in 1992, he planted it on Ginny Weasley, hoping to kill three birds with one stone by sabotaging Ginny's father, purge the school of Muggle-borns, and eliminate an incriminating Dark artefact.
Because Lucius was unaware that the diary was actually a container for his master's soul fragment, he was able to treat it with such light-handedness. When the Weasleys and Harry left to King's Cross Station, Ginny accidentally left the diary behind at the Burrow. Just before they got to the motorway, she remembered the diary and demanded to be allowed to go back and get it. She soon learned how to use the diary to communicate with Tom Riddle, though she was unaware that he was Lord Voldemort, or if he was even real. Ginny wrote all of her deepest feelings and secrets in the diary, including her feelings of infatuation toward Harry Potter.
Tumblr lwytwl8cBl1qcm4vyo3 250
A possessed Ginny writing a message on the wall
Her emotional vulnerability allowed the fragment of Voldemort's soul within the diary to gain partial control of her mind and force her to re-open the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny was forced not only to paint terrifying threats in the school corridors, but also to release the Basilisk within the Chamber and strangle the school roosters to protect the Basilisk, all the while in a sort of trance, and never knew what she had been doing. The Basilisk attacked several members of the Hogwarts community, including Mrs Norris, Colin Creevey, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Nearly-Headless Nick, Hermione Granger, and Penelope Clearwater. These individuals were not murdered by the basilisk, but petrified, due to them never seeing the Basilisk directly through a series of fortunate events, ranging from seeing a reflection to seeing it through a camera to the viewer being dead already.
When the attacks began, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger began to investigate the matter. They initially suspected Draco Malfoy, who was openly prejudiced against Muggle-borns, but after using Polyjuice Potion to spy on him, they discovered that he knew as little about the attacks as they did. Hermione eventually deduced that the monster had to be a Basilisk, due to Harry's ability to hear it and the nature of the attacks, but she was petrified before she could inform Harry or Ron, though she managed to leave them a relatively straightforward clue.
Harry-potter2-movie-screencaps.com-16674
Ginny attempting to get rid of Tom Riddle's diary by flushing it down a toilet
Harry heard strange voices in the walls of Hogwarts, which exhorted the urge to kill. Harry followed the voices through the Hogwarts corridors until he came upon the second floor girls' lavatory. It was here that he discovered the water-logged diary, which Ginny had discarded when she suspected that it was she who had petrified the Muggle-borns, and that she finally realised that the diary was the cause. Soon enough, Harry was communicating with Tom Riddle, who showed him a memory within the diary, in which Riddle confronted Rubeus Hagrid about the keeping of a dangerous pet. This implied to Harry that Hagrid had opened the Chamber of Secrets, but Riddle was merely using Hagrid's pet Acromantula, Aragog, as a scapegoat so Hogwarts would not be closed down.
Later, Ginny, having seen the diary amongst Harry's books, stole the diary from among Harry's room. She feared that Riddle would tell Harry about her feelings toward him, and shortly thereafter went missing. She was forced to paint a threat against her life on the walls of a hallway and sealed herself inside the Chamber. Hogwarts was again under threat of being closed down.
