[See note regarding source FILOFAX.]
PL: How did Ginny Weasley come into possession of the diary – or, rather, how did you get the diary into Ginny’s possession?
FILOFAX: Well, there’s an interesting story. I believe I mentioned before that the diary was initially intended for Potter.
PL: Yes. Why did you change your plans?
FILOFAX: Really, I didn’t. It was a matter of chance. Sometimes the greatest innovations result from twists of fate. This particular twist came at Flourish & Blotts on 19 August, when Potter arrived with the Weasley family to purchase his school books.
PL: What was your original plan regarding the diary at Flourish & Blotts on 19 August?
FILOFAX: I intended to transfer the diary to Potter under the guise of presenting him with a full set of my books, which I’d assigned as required reading for my DADA course at Hogwarts. Not a bad way to make a knut or two, by the way – demand an entire public school to purchase seven copies each of your slow sellers. A bit of a bonanza, as the Americans say. Anyway, it was an easy enough transfer. We arranged the signing to coincide with Potter’s trip to London. Flourish and Blotts was only too pleased to have the publicity. The Prophet even came along. It took a bit of finagling as I’d missed the deadline on my Africa book, so we swung back to an old release to boost sales – five-year anniversary or something, I don’t know how they spun it. Anyway, we’d get a picture in the lifestyle section of Potter and me, make the announcement that I’d be coming to Hogwarts, so on, so on. And in the middle of it all I’d slide the diary in between Gadding with Ghouls and Holidays with Hags and that would be that.
PL: How did you know what day he was coming?
FILOFAX: Please, don’t insult me. We were monitoring the mail, of course.
PL: So you were ready for him when he arrived – what about the plan changed?
FILOFAX: Nothing. I did everything as planned. It was Potter who behaved out of line. As soon as he got the books he passed the entire pile onto the lovely Ginevra. And that’s when I knew it. Few times before have I had so blinding a flash of inspiration. Of course. We were creating a hero. And at that stage of psychosexual development, what better way to cultivate the heroic impulse than to imprint upon the younger sister of that fist homosocial romance? He loved Ronald, of course. All English schoolboys love their bedmates. But it’s always the sister who takes them in the end. I knew then as I watched those young cheeks burning in shame that it had to be Ginny. It could only be Ginny. I let her take the diary. The plan was set. I went to Albus immediately.
PL: Did Dumbledore support this change in plan?
FILOFAX: Dear Albus. He never quite understood the intricacies of, er, normal infatuation. He didn’t see it. He was more interested in the Malfoy brat. But no matter. I saw him straight.
PL: Was Lucius Malfoy involved in the Flourish and Blotts plan?
FILOFAX: Yes, he was. We brought him in in to start a row just in case a distraction was needed to hand off the diary. He was always wanting to get involved; made him feel important, I suppose. But it didn’t prove necessary. He went at it anyway. All for the best, I suppose. It all made it into the Prophet story, which served to bury any hint of clandestine activity. In this line of work you want either no hints or a preponderance of them. When I’m on the scene, it tends toward the latter.
PL: Did you intend for Ginny Weasley to open the Chamber of Secrets?
FILOFAX: Hmm. It’s somewhat more complicated than that, I’m afraid.
PL: Was the diary designed in such a way that it would coerce Ginny Weasley into opening the Chamber of Secrets?
FILOFAX: I don’t think you understand. The diary wasn’t created with Ginny Weasley in mind.
PL: Was the diary designed in such a way that it would coerce whoever used it into opening the Chamber of Secrets?
FILOFAX: You still don’t seem to understand. The diary wasn’t designed to do anything. It was created to be. An embodiment, as it were, of whatever memory it held. Embodiment is the wrong word, I suppose. Trans-textualization, I suppose. Memory to living word. A bio-graphy. An auto-bio-graphy. Caro textus factum est.
PL: The diary was the trans-textualization, as you say, of Lord Voldemort?
FILOFAX: Oh horrors! Why would you use that name? I jest. Yes.
PL: And you thought it appropriate to pass this on to an 11-year-old girl?
FILOFAX: I’m sorry. I don’t seem to understand the question.
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