DragonField
Honestly, I would humbly ask you (kneels) to break the mold in the second year. And I mean Ginny, because Lockhart couldn't secretly follow her on Halloween, he would just have to wait while he follows Ginny and she opens the three doors, the of the bathroom, that of the Chamber and that of the basilisk. Then I could stun her and summon a bunch of roosters. Instead of acting stupid and giving Tom Riddle the advantage and having him regain too much power. At the moment even Halloween is weak, it's still treatable. I hate all the sophomore stories, a lot of them break the mold of other years, but, it's like people are afraid to change sophomore year. When in reality it barely happens much. Honestly, apart from giving him great fame, he recovers the body and presents it publicly. It gives our main character time to access Howards instead of being tense waiting for a giant snake to attack you when you least expect it. He would have time to gain knowledge of the library, possibly destroying two Horcruxes, which in turn earns him possible respect from Dumbledore. Besides, our main character has already realized that many butterflies have flown away, it is better to end the problem now than to let "destiny" hit first.