Chapter Text
"What?!"
Hermione looked anxiously over at Harry. "I know. I couldn't believe it either, but I saw it myself."
"But a portrait of 'Tom Riddle'!" Harry said, flabbergasted. "But- Why- How?!"
"Apparently," Hermione explained, "at the time, they would make portraits of the Head Boy and Girl. But it ended up getting too expensive so they stopped. It seems that the rest of the portraits have been put in storage. But his was hidden." Hermione continued to look at Harry as if he could explode at any moment. Which he very well could.
"Alright," said Harry, trying to calm himself down. Besides, it's just a portrait, what harm could it do? "So where's it hidden?"
Hermione looked around nervously, "The Room of Requirement. But a different version of it. The Room was huge, much bigger than I've ever seen it, and filled with all sorts of old junk. Some of seemed pretty interesting."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Show me."
~o0o~
"You're right. This place is full junk."
Harry observed this as they climbed over said junk.
"How did you even find the portrait?" Harry asked.
"Well when I found this place," she said as she stepped over a chair to get to the other side of a large pile of junk, "I was not only very surprised but obviously curious. So for the past few days I've been exploring as much of this place as possible."
"Oh," he said as her recent behavior suddenly clicked. "So that's where you've been disappearing to. Ron just thought you were going to the library."
"Of course he did," she said, rolling her eyes.
A few moments later they came to a small clearing against the wall.
"Well," Hermione said expectantly, "here we are."
Harry walked up to the lone painting on the wall. It was surrounded by towers of stuff, but it was the only portrait in sight. The occupant of the painting was currently asleep, curled up in a large arm chair, which was the only furniture in the painting. The small plaque on the frame proclaimed the sleeping figure as 'Tom Marvolo Riddle - Head Boy - 1943'. Harry thought Tom looked quite peaceful when asleep. The complete opposite of how he was when awake. Harry was nervous about waking Tom, but pulled up some of his Gryffindor courage and prepared to speak.
"Um, hello?" When he got no answer, he cleared his throat and spoke loader. "Hello? Tom?"
Tom stirred and look around sleepily. "Hmm. Can I help you?" he said with a yawn.
"Uh, well, um." said the ever eloquent Harry.
Tom raised an eyebrow at him.
Thankfully Hermione was there to help him out. "Why are you in here and not with the other Head Boy and Girl portraits in the storage room?"
"Hello to you too." he muttered before saying, "I was hidden here by the original Tom. He wished for me to 'keep an eye' on some items for him."
Harry took this moment to rejoin the conversation, "What items?"
Tom gave him a look that very clearly said 'like I'm going to tell you.'
Harry and Hermione shared an annoyed look.
Tom stared at them. "Well if you don't have any more questions..."
"Wait!"
Tom, once again, raised an eyebrow at the two fifth years.
In his haste, Harry asked the first question that crossed his mind, "Why'd you do it?"
A slightly confused expression crossed Tom's face. "Why did I do what?"
"Why did you kill Myrtle?"
Tom gave Harry a very calculated look. "I did not mean to kill her. She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Before either Harry or Hermione could react to the revelation, Tom reminded them of the time and they hurried out to the corridor.
But little did Harry know, that as he walked to class, cracks started to form in his beliefs of everything that Lord Voldemort was. All due to a seemingly insignificant conversation, and everything that was to follow.