Scott wanted to observe Ginny Weasley so he could judge how much the Horcrux was affecting her from her condition.
He hoped that would give him a rough idea of when the sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle inside the Horcrux, Tom Riddle's Diary, would begin to act.
However, after observing her, Scott found that Ginny Weasley seemed to be doing quite well.
At the very least, she looked full of energy when she hit people.
Likewise, he couldn't detect anything unusual in her magic.
Scott felt a little disappointed.
If he could spot something unusual in Ginny Weasley's magic, he could put an end to the Chamber of Secrets Incident right now—all he would have to do was tell the professors.
There was no reason Dumbledore wouldn't be able to sense the same thing Scott could.
What a shame.
Still, although it was a shame, Scott wasn't too surprised.
After all, Ginny Weasley was being controlled by one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. It was clearly beyond Scott's current ability to fathom a Dark Arts creation of that caliber.
Though, if it were Dumbledore, he might be able to spot something unusual about Ginny Weasley even now. Unfortunately, Dumbledore rarely came into close contact with young wizards.
Except for Harry Potter.
Dumbledore held several positions in the Wizarding World and was far too busy. He was often away from the school, too.
And Scott had no reason to steer Dumbledore toward checking on Ginny Weasley's condition.
Generally speaking, before doing anything, he considered his own safety and position. He would never do anything that might have a negative impact on him.
The three Weasley siblings soon stopped roughhousing.
Ginny Weasley still looked a little upset, though.
Scott crouched to pick up her books and apologized first. "Sorry, Miss Weasley."
"Oh! Thanks! Just call me Ginny, Scott."
Ginny Weasley thanked him openly and reached out to take the books.
Taking the opportunity to sense her magic from close up, Scott said again, "Sorry, Ginny."
Ginny sighed with an air of maturity, a comically world-weary expression appearing on her young face.
"Fred and George have always been this mischievous." She glared at the twins again. "I'm used to it by now."
George was still grinning. "Oh, Ginny! I'm serious—you sound even more like Mum now!"
"'They've always been this mischievous.'" Fred mimicked Ginny's voice, shaking his head as he spoke. "That's what Mum always says about us!"
"You're dead!"
Ginny raised her book and chased after them again.
The three of them quickly ran off, one chasing the other two.
Scott watched them go, narrowed his eyes, and suddenly flicked his wand toward them.
In the distance, the Raven Woodcarving in Fred's hand came to life again. Before Fred could react, it wriggled free and flew back to Scott.
Scott caught the raven and smiled gently at the first-years, who still looked a little dazed. "Hey, are you all right?"
"Y-yeah, we're fine!"
The short, scrawny boy with gray hair came to his senses and stared at Scott in amazement.
"Oh! Amazing Transfiguration! And Ginny just called you Scott—you must be Scott Trollope!"
A camera hung around the boy's neck.
That reminded Scott who he was: a fanatical admirer of Potter, and one of the students who had been petrified by the Basilisk in the "original story."
"You know me?" Scott asked, nodding to him in a friendly way.
"Oh! I'm Colin Creevey, a first-year Gryffindor!" The boy eagerly introduced himself, still excited. "A few days ago, at the Quidditch Pitch, they said you used Transfiguration to save the Ravenclaw players!"
"It was nothing. I'm sure you'll be able to do the same one day."
Scott patted his shoulder and offered a casual word of encouragement. Then he said goodbye to the young wizards and walked past them toward Ravenclaw Tower.
By handing Ginny her books, he had sensed her magic up close again, and this time he finally detected a slight discordance.
But the feeling was subtle, and hard to put into words.
Had he not known beforehand that "Ginny was in contact with Voldemort's Horcrux," he might have instinctively ignored it too.
As things stood, he still couldn't report it to the professors as a discovery.
But this wasn't entirely a bad thing.
At least the feeling was enough to help him judge the state of Tom Riddle in the diary.
In the "plot" Scott remembered, Riddle used the diary to control Ginny and drain her life force, allowing him to appear before everyone in the complete form of a seventeen-year-old Voldemort.
But that required a relatively long process.
Judging from Ginny's condition, Scott concluded that Riddle wasn't ready yet.
That meant Riddle most likely wouldn't act early. It also meant that things would probably stay safe for the time being.
So Scott's chances of succeeding with his original plan were now as high as they could be.
That lifted his spirits again.
Strictly speaking, his conclusion might not be entirely accurate, but the discovery still eased the tension that had been steadily building in him.
Sure enough, in the days that followed, aside from a widespread bout of flu caused by the sudden drop in temperature, nothing else went wrong at Hogwarts.
In Care of Magical Creatures, Scott and the others successfully used the Painless Severing Charm to perform an operation on the little Crup, removing its tail.
The only amusing thing that happened during this time was the broomstick the Turpin family gave Roger as compensation.
It was a second-hand Nimbus 1700, exactly the same as the old broom Roger had lost.
Roger, who had been looking forward to owning a new broom, was terribly disappointed.
Eddie thought it was because the Turpin family had been on the verge of bankruptcy after paying Lisa Turpin's ransom. They could only afford to compensate Roger with a cheaper, second-hand broom.
"Well, at least this saves me the time it would take to get used to a new broom," Roger consoled himself.
The important thing was that the broom the Turpin family had given him was the same as his old one, so he had no choice but to accept it.
With Halloween approaching, November 1992 was just around the corner.
For Quidditch players like Roger, November also meant that the new school year's inter-house Quidditch League was about to begin.
During this time, the Quidditch teams from all four houses began training like mad, come rain or shine.
Roger often complained in the dormitory that Bruce's training was inhumane, but Scott thought he clearly enjoyed it.
More than once, he even dragged Scott and their other roommates into analyzing the Ravenclaw team's chances of winning the championship that year.
Although they encouraged him every time, none of them really believed the Ravenclaw team would win.
After all, every member of the Slytherin team now had the latest model of broom, the Nimbus 2001. Their advantage was simply too great.
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