[See note regarding source FILOFAX.]
PL: You haven’t answered my question – how did the Chamber of Secrets plan shift after you became involved?
FILOFAX: I’m not sure how to answer that question.
PL: With regard to the Chamber of Secrets, what was Dumbledore’s intent prior to your involvement, and how did it incorporate Harry James Potter?
FILOFAX: Intent, intent. I don’t suppose Dumbledore had any intent. He was, shall me say, amused by the resonance of a 50th-year anniversary of the previous opening and Potter’s arrival. He knew Potter to be a Parselmouth, and he knew the serpentine nature of the Chamber. For all his acclaim as a master of intrigue, that was about all he had. A mere spermatozoa of an idea. But upon me, shall I say, his seed fell on fertile ground.
PL: May I remind you of my request to limit innuendo in your responses?
FILOFAX: May I make a request that you give me a good spanking if I misbehave?
PL: Did you help Dumbledore formulate a more cohesive plan with regard to Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?
FILOFAX: I did.
PL: Can you tell me how you and Dumbledore formed that plan using a relatively straightforward narrative approach?
FILOFAX: Oh, how boring. But, if I must, I can certainly try. As you already seem to know, Dumbledore was mad about grooming Potter to be a hero. I didn’t ask why. I don’t know now; I’ll never need to know. He referred to Potter as ‘The Weapon’ – we all did. Potter’s education at Hogwarts, in addition to Potions and all the rest, was preparation to play the public hero. Dumbledore thought a plot about the opening of the Chamber would be a smashing second installation to that education. I don’t know the full nature of the first, but I understand it was – well, Bode was demoted, wasn’t he? I shan’t speak ill of my colleagues. But I don’t believe their first little instalment was exactly a bang-up job.
PL: Was Dumbledore’s initial proposal that Potter himself open the Chamber?
FILOFAX: Not exactly. He simply stated that Potter could. It was I, I believe, who suggested that this wouldn’t be optimal for the boy’s performance in the eyes of the public. Rather villainous to release a serpent upon the school only to kill it – these things get out, especially in a place so gossip-ridden as Hogwarts. No, someone else had to open the Chamber, release the monster therein – and Potter, the budding St. George, had to slay it.
PL: In order to create a hero, you needed to create a villain?
FILOFAX: Now that has the Campbellian stink, doesn’t it? But who could that villain be? That kept us up many a long night. We ran through a long list of candidates. There was Potter’s natural dislike for Severus Snape – but Dumbledore had other plans for that one. There was Potter’s school-yard rival, that delightful little brat of Lucius Malfoy’s – but he lacked the, er, finesse of a true villain. We had the rather amusing idea of putting it on Hagrid again, but two seconds with that oaf is enough to bin any clandestine plots that incorporate even his most tangential involvement. No, it couldn’t be anyone in the school. So we considered living Death Eaters – perhaps one of those who got away – Malfoy, Senior this time, was considered – or perhaps an Azkaban escape. But the logistics, and the interference from the DMLE, even with Amendment IV in place – impossible. Finally, in a bacchanal of gin toddies we tossed it all in the air and proclaimed that we must go straight to the source himself.
PL: Riddle?
FILOFAX: Very good. Dumbledore told me that the boy had already developed the delusion that he’d encountered Master Tom the previous summer, something about the back of a head . . . I tell you, what they were thinking with that entire operation . . . gods in heaven, thanks be that I was out of the country . . . so, you see, anything less than a confrontation with Voldemort would be a bit of an anticlimax. The challenge, of course, was that the chap was dead. And that’s when I hit on a most wonderful idea.
PL: Are you referring to the diary?
FILOFAX: You know quite a bit, don’t you? Yes, the diary. Albus and I were in a great stupor of ‘if only’s when I revealed to him the Filofax. He understood immediately. You see, it was the perfect solution – the combination of both my objectives. Do Dumbledore’s bidding; field test the new technologies. He adored the idea. I brought it to Artefacts later that day.
PL: And Artefacts constructed a diary that contained the memories of Tom Riddle?
FILOFAX: You make it sound like it was easy. It was a marvel of engineering.
PL: Could you explain it?
FILOFAX: I can show you, if you’d like.
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