Tom had already searched much of Hogwarts for the Chamber of Secrets. Many of his attempts had failed, but they never exactly discouraged him; not that anything would have displaced his boundless ambition to claim his birthright as the heir of Salazaar Slytherin. He was never one to give up after failing anyway. Students often if not always observed him to succeed in everything, so it made perfect sense as to why he was so adamant on finding it for himself.

He had only ever found small snippets of clues that lead to the Chamber of Secrets, but it was difficult to tell how accurate they were. Most of these 'clues' were a clear manifestation of his impending paranoia that he was just missing one thing; he thought that only one thing was obstructing him from finding it.

This lead him to reread books over and over again, most often over multiple hour-long periods. Tom even managed to lock himself up in the library, becoming a frequent guest at the Hogwarts Library. Madam Pince had even adapted to expect his presence and daily 'study session'.

After a few weeks of working on a clue again, he found himself walking along the hallways towards one of the girls' bathrooms. Some vague snippet had lead him so far, so why not go investigate? He had expected no one to be in it given how often Moaning Mrytle claimed it as her somewhat pitiful crying spot.

He still heard echoing cries and sobs intensify as he strolled nearer and nearer into the bathroom. He stepped inside, fulling expecting Moaning Mrytle. He froze as his eyes found their way toward the source of the sniffling, now staring down at the student who sat hunched, hugging their legs tightly with their head in between their knees.

He could not bring himself to disturb them, and resorted to attempting to go away. If you just cried it all out, it would've been resolved, though, in his opinion, it was useless to do so. Tom carefully took a step back, backing away from the situation; he was never one to comfort nor try to be comforted himself.