Tom Riddle's Diary

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Tom Riddle's diary is a journal Lord Voldemort, then known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, used while studying at Hogwarts. The diary is a Horcrux. It interacts with those who write in it and can possess them, using them to open the Chamber of Secrets. The diary was destroyed by Harry Potter in his second year at Hogwarts.

Appearance and Functioning

Tom's diary is small and thin. The year it was bought (probably 1943) is printed on the shabby black cover. On the first page it is signed with "T. M. Riddle". All the other pages are empty. The back cover bears the name of a Muggle newsagent's in Vauxhall Road, London.

If somebody writes in the diary, the ink is sucked into the paper and Tom Riddle's answer appears. The diary is able to interact with the writer and can even show the person stored memories (similar to a Pensieve). The imprint left on it by teenager Tom Riddle, however, is much stronger than that left on a painting by a regular wizard, or on the Marauder's Map by the four troublemakers. The diary feeds on the soul of its confider. The more secrets and thoughts a writer poures into it, the stronger Riddle's soul fragment inside the diary becomes until it will finally overpower and possess the writer's soul. Tom Riddle can even become strong enough to leave the diary altogether and manifest. If this state endures, the confider will die of exhaustion.

Creation of the Diary

Tom Riddle created the diary when he was sixteen, shortly after he murdered his father and grandparents, opened the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts and framed Hagrid for the murder of Myrtle. He was and extremely intelligent; when Albus Dumbledore, the Transfiguration teacher at the time, learned about the diary, he was not surprised at the advanced level of magic the teenager had accomplished. It is probable that the diary was Voldemort's first Horcrux. It is both protection and weapon for Voldemort: it contains a part of his soul, making him immortal, and it can possess people to reopen the Chamber of Secrets. Unlike his other Horcruxes, Voldemort did not intend the diary to remain safely hidden. He wanted it to be read.

Shortly before the end of the First War, Voldemort entrusted the diary to Lucius Malfoy. Lucius did not know the diary was a Horcrux, but he was informed that it could open the Chamber of Secrets. Voldemort intended Lucius to smuggle the diary into Hogwarts, but the plan was never enacted before Voldemort's fall.

Ginny's Possession and the Destruction of the Diary

Years later, Lucius Malfoy decided to plant the diary with a student in order to reopen the Chamber of Secrets. Several months after he planned this, he slipped the diary in with first-year Ginny Weasley's school supplies while the Weasleys and the Malfoys were snarling at each other in Flourish & Blotts. Ginny took the diary with her to Hogwarts and began to confide in the diary more and more, especially about her crush on Harry Potter (CS2, CS4, CS5, CS17).

Tom Riddle soon acquired control over eleven-year-old Ginny's actions. He forced her to open the Chamber of Secrets and to set the Basilisk loose in the school. The girl grew steadily more uneasy every time a Petrification happened, and after Colin Creevey, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick had been attacked, she tried to get rid of the diary by throwing it away in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Ron and Harry found it there and took it. Harry discovered that, if written to, Riddle replied, and asked about the Chamber of Secrets. Riddle showed Harry his memories of Hogwarts shortly after Moaning Myrtle's death, in which he learned that Hogwarts would have to close if the attacker were not caught and subsequently framed Hagrid for it (CS10, CS11, CS13).

When Ginny found out that Harry had the diary, she panicked and stole it from the Gryffindor boys' dormitory. Riddle forced her to set the Basilisk loose again, this time Petrifying Hermione and Penelope Clearwater (CS14).

Following Hagrid's arrest, Harry and Ron follow his tip-off and meet Aragog in the Forbidden Forest. With the information they learn from the Acromantula, Harry works out that the girl who died the first time the Chamber was opened was Moaning Myrtle, but weren't able to slip away from the constant security and supervision to ask her about her death (CS14, CS15, CS16).

Three days later, Riddle, exasperated, possessed Ginny again, making her write her death message on the wall outside the bathroom and enter the Chamber. He fed on her soul, using it to regain a corporeal form, rendering her unconscious (CS16, CS17).

Harry and Ron had just discovered from Hermione's library page that the monster inside the Chamber was a Basilisk. They went to tell the teachers, but when they heard of Ginny's disappearance, they and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, went to Myrtle's bathroom; using Parseltongue, Harry opened the entrance (CS16).

Inside, he and Riddle had a confrontation, which ended in Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, saving Harry from the Basilisk's venom. Harry stabbed the diary with one of its fangs. Because Basilisk venom is one of the things that destroys Horcruxes, Riddle, not yet free of the diary, writhed and disappeared. Ginny's soul was freed from his, and she regained conciousness (CS17).