A tunnel, a diary and a memory.....

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 113592

This question of the link – or lack of it – between the passage 
behind the mirror on the fourth floor and that leading to the Chamber 
of Secrets crops up from time to time and, having just been involved 
yet again in a discussion, I decided to pull together some of the 
details we have.

Having started, I'm not sure whether I haven't created more loose 
ends and questions to deal with than I've managed to tick off on the 
list!

First, the time line for the tunnel which I did discuss back in 
message 90496. Harry is given the Marauders' Map by the twins in 
December 1993. I did originally say November but re-reading POA 
showed me that I was wrong:

`To everyone's delight except Harry's, there was to be another 
Hogsmeade trip on the very last weekend of term.' 

(POA "The Marauders' Map" p.143 UK edition)

[Completely OT, I just realised that the apostrophe is in the wrong 
place in the name]

It was on this day that Fred and George gave the map to Harry and 
mentioned the cave-in on the fourth floor tunnel and that it had 
happened `last winter' which could cover a period from roughly 
November 1992 to February 1993. Since the collapse of the Chamber of 
Secrets tunnel can be closely dated to the 28th-29th May 1993, there 
was obviously no link between the two events. I do not feel that 
there can be any physical link between the tunnels either. The 
Hogsmeade tunnel starts on the fourth floor and the Chamber of 
Secrets link is underground and accessed via the pipe from the first 
floor. I am sure that Fred and George have explored all the tunnels 
carefully and would have noticed if there was a branch off the upper 
tunnel in a different direction.

I feel the suggestion that Tom did something to make the tunnel 
appear collapsed doesn't hold water. "Disillusionment" is used to 
make a person or object almost invisible against its background – viz 
Moody's use of one on Harry in the Dursley's kitchen in OOTP ("The 
Advance Guard" pp. 53-54 UK edition). Again, Hermione points out 
somewhere (I haven't managed to locate it) that Hogwarts is enchanted 
so that any Muggle coming near sees only an old mouldering ruin with 
a sign saying "Keep off. Dangerous" but visible normally to wizard 
eyes. So if Voldemort tied to make the passage look blocked, the 
twins would presumably see it as usual.

Now to the diary which produces another whole crop of questions. To 
begin with, why did Tom Riddle decide to create the diary? His logic 
in COS seems odd:

`"I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was 
still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd 
spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving 
my sixteen-year-old self in its pages so that one day, with luck, I 
would be able to lead another in my footsteps and finish Salazar 
Slytherin's noble work.'

(COS "The Heir of Slytherin" p.230 UK edition)

Why create the diary at all? Does he think he is going to suffer 
amnesia when he walks out of the Hogwarts gates? He is not going to 
waste those years; he has the information safely locked up in his 
head.

Where has the diary been in the intervening 50 years? Has Lucius had 
it (how old was he in 1942?)? If so, why has it apparently not been 
used? Did he know how to access it? Or want to? Perhaps after 
Voldemort's unscheduled exit in 1980, Lucius felt that the less known 
about the diary the better. But.... When the wretched book reappears 
in 1992, why didn't Lucius try to get to the Chamber himself or why 
not give it to Draco and get him to create mayhem and mischief rather 
than  give it to Ginny who might not even get as far as trying to use 
it? I wonder whether Lucius knew precisely what it was or whether he 
dumped it onto Ginny in the hope that she might be a vehicle for it 
to lead to the undermining of Dumbledore's influence and the possible 
end of Hogwarts.

Finally, the memory "preserved in a diary for fifty years" (COS "The 
Heir of Slytherin" p.227 UK edition).

Again, questions, questions
. Has Tom Riddle been able to take on a 
form in those fifty years? Frequently - or not at all until Ginny 
came along to provide the way for him to regain shape? Was Memory!Tom 
able to leave the confines of the Chamber? Is he only able to 
function as a message writer when someone actually writes in the 
book? What triggers him into "Projection" mode?

Tom Riddle, he of the Chamber of Secrets, is one of Jo Rowling's more 
interesting creations, reminding me slightly of the holodecks in Star 
Trek. He was apparently around, probably dormant, while Voldemort was 
still creating terror and havoc. So, what is or was his function?

Geoff
Enjoy Exmoor and the 
heritage West Somerset Railway at:
http://www.aspectsofexmoor.com