Dear Riddle—probably, or,
little did I know that you've been behind
this all along. You must be; Snakes, again?
You seriously should have pondered a little longer
wether that unoriginality of yours wouldn't bite you
in the bum! Like that little viper did to mine the other day...but anyway,

Harry Potter was indeed not schizophrenic. But after the occurrence of a certain diary he couldn't help but mistrust anything in the same format. Parchment rolls were fine, he didn't expect his handwriting to fade from it and be replaced with a more curvier and classier in the next beat. But notebooks, especially one bound in black leather?

That was just nearly asking for it.

It was just after midnight and Harry wasn't able to ignore the calling of the notebook which had recently become the only thing open for his rants. Maybe it was the snakes that did it. They surely gave him a reason to rant anyway.

He was lying on his chest against the mattress, the heavy blanket drawn over his head like a tent, a torch in one hand and a quill in the other, dripping on the spot where he had left the last comma on the page.

It was getting thicker and thicker the longer he thought of what to write next, or if he even should, because he was actually getting a little heavy-lidded and tired after all.

'Harry...?'

Suddenly came a sleepy voice behind the blanket, causing the light in Harry's hands to flicker as he startled in place.

It was Hermione. Harry didn't need to throw the blankets back to know it, but he needed some air anyway so he lifted them up slightly and in the next moment her face came up next to the ray of light.

'Why are you still up?' She whispered curiously, glancing at the notebook but then she must've thought better because she looked away just as quick to frown at Harry.

'Probably the same reason as you,' Harry rasped back, sighed and slapped the notebook shut over the quill.

'Those snakes...' He went on. 'I don't trust them. And nobody else seems to be bothered about it—do you want to get under the blanket? Your knees will get sore.'

She smiled momentarily, but then she stopped. 'It's okay, I actually wanted to show you something.'

'What is it?'

The expression on her face which was haunting over the former smile was pretty telling in itself. And when Harry crawled out from underneath the blankets and followed her down to the dormitory he looked almost the same, pale and horrified.

Someone had left an ancient-looking jar on the table, and through the glass the amberish liquid was clearly visible. Harry took a hesitating step towards it, then felt Hermiones hand on his arm, holding him back.

'Not that,' She said. 'It's the other thing,'

While her other hand pointed towards the thing at the foot of the table, Harry felt the wave of relief being chased down by confusion.

'Did something happen to your ziplock bag with those vipers in it?'

It happened after a Quidditch match when everyone separated to go back into their dorms, and then the two genders separated for the bedrooms, that they found a ziplock back each on their beds, carrying two seemingly dead vipers in it.

See, because they were dead, nobody felt alarmed enough to tell the authorities. Though Harry immediately smelt something fishy going on there, for him it just didn't make sense why they'd get a delivery of snakes out of the random.

'Has one woken up?' Harry asked, his eyebrows making a jump over his glasses.

Hermione pressed her lips together, nodding slowly, dreadfully. 'Yes, Harry...they have...'

'Sweet sardines! Wow!' He exclaimed, then lowered his voice and brought a more sympathetic look over his face. 'Well, don't worry, Hermione. The same thing happened to me too, but it was a little unfortunate because I was letting one out and just when I turned my back on it it...—'

He stopped short, straightening up with a blank expression. 'Wait, don't tell me you said they as in both of them...?'

'I did...Harry.' Her voice was tinsel-thin as if she was expecting Harry would break like a delicate thing if she was any harsher when she was gentle to begin with. 'But that's nothing to worry about, I've devenomed them both right away, and read through some books about vipers until I came across a helpful article explaining how we could make use for it; A venom antidote, I figured, if someone gets bitten we can aid in their help right away! Merely by recycling the venom.'

Harry felt deeply let down. This didn't sound like Hermione at all, surely she could've come up with something better than an antidote when there was a full mystery hovering over the snakes like a fog nobody else seemed to mind but Harry.

He kept his eyes on her face, feeling like a stone was plummeting down his stomach acid. Were his friends giving up too? After all they've been through?

He found his voice again. 'But, don't you think there's more to it than a simple antidote? Surely there must've been something. And that's not something.' He shrugged his shoulder at the vague direction of the jar.

'Harry,' Hermione's hand landed on his shoulder and there was a certain finality in her voice when she continued. 'I don't think there is. Actually to further this, I believe sometimes things just...happen?

'This doesn't have to be linked back to You Know Who, it could just as well be a task Snape handed out for us to solve. Really, I believe that, and so does Ron. Especially since only the fifth years are affected by this, he must think we're about old enough to do this on our own.'

'Why are you telling me this?'

There was a tense pause. 'Because you haven't gotten any sleep in since it happened, and we all want you to get some rest in. We're worried about you, Harry.'

Harry shook his head lightly as he began walking backwards, leaving her hand still up in the air, and when she traced it back to herself Harry said, 'Worried about me?!' He saw her flinch. 'Is that even the right Granger I'm talking to? Or just some girl—some—or,'

The words didn't want to come, it felt like they were draining right back down his throat. Suddenly he was much calmer, but grave.

'Okay.' He said at last. 'I will get some rest in. Goodnight, Hermione.'

Back on his bed he didn't even bother building up the blanket tent all over again. He already knew how to finish his diary entry and was already scribbling away...

but anyway, I know it's you wether you'll
confirm this or not. And I'm going to

Suddenly, as if a ghost hand had appeared and began dragging a mob over the page, the ink, including the dried ones, smeared on towards the left, leaving the letters in a gloomy dark haze.

Harry watched in bewilderment when another swipe made the colour fade out and then bleed away until the page was clean. Then out of the blank, came a string of new words...

                    Merlin's   beard! Yes   indeed!
                    I'm   behind   this very   page.
                    Those entries are getting quite
                    tiresome to read by now with
                    that tedious tedious repetition!