$Talking$ = Parseltongue
Harry was honestly surprised when he realised that he was hearing something. His body burnt like Hell and his right arm was still painfully numb from the sword's curse, but he was hearing... just fine. Very well, actually, since he couldn't remember being able to hear his own heartbeat or that soft echo-like sound that seemed to surround him – but maybe it was because he wasn't running for his life that he could pay attention to what he heard. His breathing was slow and painful and he could feel the water moving around him as his chest rose. He curiously opened his eyes and inwardly winced when he realised that he must have dropt his glasses somewhere despite the Sticking Charm the Quidditch Team insisted to put on : his vision was all blurry and he couldn't see well, only capable of making out colors and, with some guesses, his surroundings.
He had fallen against the left side of the pipe, a few feet away from the bars. A big red and gold thing was moving behind said bars and Harry frown. What the Hell was that? Harry tried to move but could only bit his lips in pain and surprise – his body hurt. Hurt very, very much. He shouldn't move, not when he might possibly not die and he wondered if moving would make sure he did die. It sure felt like it.
He didn't wanted to die. So he didn't move.
A soft melody echoed through the pipes and Harry's eyes widened as warmth filled his chest, delicately soothing his pain and caressing his skin with a comforting energy. He knew that voice, and there was only one creature in Hogwarts who had the ability to comfort others simply by singing.
"Fawkes?" Harry croaked. He kept himself from coughing as he knew it would only result into more pain than the mere discomfort he had in his itchy throat.
The red thing moved and Harry heard another melodious sound. A small smile stretched his lips before his brain kicked in : there was a blue shield that kept the phoenix from moving past the bars (Fawkes was much smaller than Harry and could have easily slipped in through the holes) and Harry's eyebrows raised in surprise. There were wards that kept phoenixes from flashing in? He so wanted to learn them! It was just so... brilliant, it was an anti-phoenix ward. Anti-phoenix ward!
"Fawkes, Ginny's in the Chamber." Harry whispered quickly. "I don't know what happened to Riddle, but he has my wand. Be careful, kay?"
The bird crooned then disappeared in a bright flash. Harry moaned as the light hurt his retinas and, despite the painful sparks travelling through his whole body, he decided that he needed to go back to where Ginny was – or used to be, Harry wasn't sure if Voldemort had moved her from where he had left her. Fawkes had probably already moved Ron and Lockart back in the Hospital Wing – maybe even Ginny by now – and Harry was quite sure he needed some healing too. He also needed his wand back...
But if Voldemort had left, he had probably brought the wand along. Somehow Harry had troubles picturing the powerful Lord Voldemort – well, not-so-powerful when being a parasite behind Quirell's head, but he certainly had been before if he had been named a Dark Lord – leaving without a wand. Ginny's probably didn't work well for him since, from what Ron had told him, she had her great-aunt's uncle's wand and, from what he knew, second-hand wands never worked well but if it also chose you. Neville's wand was enough of a proof for that.
Harry decided to leave the diary, the fang and the cursed sword behind him and didn't even tried to look for them since he could easily come back to fetch them another day. He was damned too hurt to even try to pick them up. Not that he wanted to pick up the sword again: he was no masochist and the curse had been painful enough – not as painful as the Basilisk venom, but what was?
He got rid of his school robes, only keeping his uniform's trousers (which were very dirty indeed) and Dudley's old tee-shirt (which didn't even have a speck of blood on it, though it was a bit wet, especially the hem) since they would weight on him and make his movements all the more difficult. He noticed how he had a new scar on his now bare arm, purple and swollen and surrounded by hideous yellow protruding veins, though it didn't looked like a snake's bite. No, it looked like someone had pinched his arm and pulled until flesh had been ripped out, and then had proceeded to put the flesh back and make it stick to his arm with acid. All in all, it meant that Harry wouldn't be wearing T-shirts anytime soon.
Harry crawled all the way back to tunnel that linked the Master bedroom to the weaponry, where he finally got back on his feet with the help of the snake's corpse, then started walking slowly with his bloody hands leaving a trail on the Basilisk's sharp scales. It felt like an eternity before he was again standing in the weaponry, trying to steady his breathing as his whole body protested against the slightest moves. He couldn't lean on the Basilisk's body any further, since its tail curled up in the weapon room, almost blocking the entrance. At least it gave Harry enough place to walk around the tail instead of climbing on top of it and sliding down the other side – the Basilisk's was wider than Harry was tall, which wasn't very surprising considering the one thousand years of the snake and the twelve-almost-thirteen years of the Gryffindor. Not mentioning the time Harry had spent curled up in a cupboard, starved and bruised and miserable.
Harry exited the weaponry on his hands and knees, trying not to think about how he would have to walk later and trying to postpone the actual act. He had just hissed a low close after he left the hidden room before hearing Fawkes' song echoing in the Chamber; it guided him toward the place where the phoenix and Ron's crying sister were, as well as making the pain recede a bit. He put a smile on his face and forced himself back on his feet – it wouldn't do to have witnesses of his weakened self since Dumbledore probably hoped for some 'power' to save him, not unlike last year. And while the 'power' last year caused him to faint... well, had Fawkes not found him unconscious? Pleading ignorance after a certain point was certainly something he would do, instead of making up some story and risk being caught lying.
About his story... What would he say to Dumbledore? He needed to stay as close to the real events as he could (not to start things he couldn't prepare for), but he certainly would not tell anyone about his earlier explorations of the Chamber. Nor would he say anything about his 'talk' with a teenage Voldemort – the meeting, yes, but not the talk.
Speaking of things he wouldn't tell... What did Ginny remembered? It could cause him a lot of harm if his story didn't match hers. Small details were not very important, after all nobody would blame him for forgetting where exactly he had entered the pipes, but if Ginny heard them talking... Dumbledore wouldn't be happy to hear what he had said about Gryffindors. Actually, Harry's approach had been everything but how he usually acted, if still reckless (but that was Ron's fault, not his). It would be better not to go into details for that part. Did that meant he would need to erase some of Ginny's memories if she remembered anything?
... he didn't even had a wand to cast the spell. Shite.
"Ginny?" He croaked as he stopped a few feet away from her, then cursed himself as his voice didn't came out quite as confident as he had hoped. He was a little bit breathless from his walking on two feet, sure, but now he sounded as if he was about to cry! What would happen should the fan girl decided that Harry 'loved' her too and that he was her prince or something? He had heard enough fairy tale fantasies from the girls at his muggle school that he feared that Ron's sister would develop similar creepy expectations from his rescue in the Chamber. The steps were horrifyingly similar: the wicked witch (Voldemort) kidnapped the princess (Ginevra) and the prince (Harry) killed the witch's monster (the Basilisk) and save the princess (again, Ginevra). The next steps were for the princess (Ginevra) to marry and have children.
With the prince (Harry).
Harry shivered in horror when Ginny's eyes locked onto him. The adoration he could see in her face... Was it wrong of him if it made him feel dirty? Violated? He could almost feel her obsession about him growing and Fawkes' worried thrill didn't help him in the slightest. He smiled anyway and limped closer to them. His smile became genuine when he saw his wand – pale brown on the dark green floor – lying next to Fawkes' claws and he gently dropt to his knees next to the Gryffindor girl, his hand swiftly picking up the wand though he kept his gaze on the quickly paling girl. His thumb lovingly caressed the holy wood, but the wand felt different – still warm in his hand, but different.
He would need to look this up – or maybe ask Ollivander?
"Ginny?" Harry said again in a worried tone when the girl hid her face in her palms and started to sob loudly. Again.
"It was my fault, Harry!" She cried. "It was me! I did all that...Tom... I mean, Riddle made me but... I didn't wanted to, but..."
"It's okay." Harry lied easily. Inside, he was fuming since he was finally realising that it had been Ginevra Weasley who had vandalised their dorm. She had been the threat they were looking for! Not only had she almost ruined Hogwarts by getting kidnapped, but she haddared to rummage through his trunk? It was no wonder now that he couldn't find one of his few fitting shirts after that! It had not been ripped to shreds, she had taken it!
He was only lucky that he had always refused to wear Dudley's smelly old pants. Would she have stolen a boxer had he had any?
"It's n-n-not! I'm going to be exp-p-pelled!" Ginny sobbed.
If only, Harry mentally sighed. Aloud, he said: "Of course not, Ginny. You were possessed, it wasn't your fault."
Ginny's teary big brown eyes (so brown eyes, huh) looked up at him between her red fringe and wet fingers and he easily spot the plea she was trying to make: help me, save me, love me!
"Really?" She asked in a perfect almost-hoping voice that made Harry internally cringe. Why did that girl wanted to appear weak and pitiful? What good was there in being weak?
"Really." Harry reassured her with a small nod, hiding the painful throb that ran up his spine when he moved. "Ginny, do you remember how you were taken here?"
Ginny shyly shook her head, her eyes full of shame when she couldn't be useful to her hero. "No. I was talking to a friend, then... nothing."
Harry smiled softly at her, relieved at the news, then looked at Fawkes who was making knowing sounds. He glared at the bird, but it only made the phoenix emit an amused thrill before he jumped in the air and flew circles around them.
Harry turned back toward Ginevra before he stood up stiffly, hiding his wince with a quick smile. "Ron's waiting for us near the entrance."
Ginny beamed at him then held her hand out so he could help her stand. He did and managed to hide the grimace of pain that wanted to appear on his face by tightening his fist behind his back – from the warmth he felt running in his palm, he suspected that his nails had managed to cut his skin and draw some blood. Like he didn't hurt enough...
Ginny clung to his hand and arm like a famished man to a piece of bread and put almost all of her weight on him. He suspected she was feigning some sort of injury or physical weakness and hoped that he would propose to carry her, but her pull on his arm was so painful he feared opening his mouth in case what came out was some sort of... insult. She tripped when they passed through the door and it took all of his control not to push her back into the Chamber and lock her in.
And when he hissed for the door to close behind them, the annoying little bint jumped and stumped on his foot.
$Bloody shite!$
The sharp hiss escaped his mouth in what Ginny decided was a completely normal hiss of pain. She babbled an apology, but Harry smiled softly at her and told her there was nothing to apologize for: she had been surprised and didn't know that his foot was there. She blushed profusely and put even more weight on his shoulder, only to turn her head away in an act of shyness.
Harry wanted to cry. No, wait – he wanted to be bitten by a Basilisk again. And die. And stay dead. And kill the annoying little twat who believed she was living a bloody fairy tale!
Ginny, not being half-blind, saw Ron and Lockart long before Harry noticed they were anywhere near the place he had left them. Ginny squeaked in joy at seeing them – though Harry was sure she was happier seeing her dear DADA professor than her brother as she rushed toward the blond fraud first, pulling a pain-blinded Harry Potter with her. It was all he could do to hold back the tears threatening to escape on his cheeks and he needed four of Ginny's panicked 'Professor!' to irritate him enough to distract him from his agonizing body.
"He's awake, Ginny." Harry said in a low voice – his tone could be mistaken as caution, though Fawkes was making soothing sounds, so he knew the phoenix knew he was faking his health. But Harry felt like only sleep and time would rid of that pain (maybe he could beg a Pain Reliever Potion from Madam Promfrey?), just as always, and he rolled his eyes at the bird before focussing on Ginny.
"No, he's not!" The girl panicked. "His eyes are open but he's not awake! Do you think he's petrified like Colins? Do you think the monster's still around here?"
"Lockart attacked us." Harry said in a firm tone. "He stunned Ron and tried to erase my memories – but Ron's wand is broken and he was using it and the spell hit him instead."
Fawkes thrilled at him with humour at the lie, but didn't expose him. Harry supposed the bird knew that Lockart was a fraud and didn't found fault in Harry for taken advantage of this little fact to perfect his story.
"But why?" Ginny whispered as her eyes, once again, were filled with tears. "If he came to save me, why did he attacked you?"
Harry looked at Ron and casted a Finite at him – he wasn't surprised when the half-assed spell didn't do a single thing. He had casted a few others before leaving Ron there, 'proving' he had tried to wake his friend, but only failed. He wasn't supposed to know the real incantation to remove a Stunner, after all. Lockart had failed to teach any of them something useful, and Quirrell had only been slightly better.
"He was a fraud." Harry explained. "He never did a single thing he wrote about in his books. He was going to erase both my and Ron's memories, saying we lost our minds seeing you dead, let you die and write another book about killing the Basilisk."
Harry almost smiled when he heard the horror and betrayal filled gasp Ginny made – with someone else (he'd tell Ron too, just in case) telling this part of the story nobody would have to lie. Although people could say he lied to Ginny, he really didn't. He would bet his Nimbus 2000 that this had been Lockart's plan before understanding that Harry had no intentions of playing the clueless victim's part.
"I casted Finites on Ron, but he wouldn't wake up." Harry added. "So I went to get you alone."
Harry couldn't stomach seeing the stars of adoration in Ginevra's eyes as she came closer to him, probably intending to hug him before he stepped aside and looked away as if he had not seen her intention. He knew what was going on in her head and in made him sick.
She was probably going on and on about him being her hero.
Harry turned toward Fawkes. "Can you bring us to the Hospital Wing?"
The bird let out a happy thrill that caused Ron's sister to turn her adoration toward the phoenix. Harry felt a little better at that.
"Can you carry Ginny out first?" Harry asked. "I'm sure everyone's worried about her."
Fawkes chirped and flew to Ginny's shoulder. He hold one of his talon out for Ginny to grab then quickly flew into the giant pipe, carrying the squealing red head away.
Harry quickly turned toward Ron and casted his strongest Finite yet – theoretically, it would work.
Indeed, the Gryffindor's eyes snapped open and he looked around himself, only to gape at Harry's dirty appearance. Harry tried to appear relieved at his friend's awakening, but he was feeling too tired to do anything but smile weakly.
"Hey Ron." Harry said, before quickly continuing when Ron's eyes flew around the dirty room. "Ginny's alright, Fawkes' taking her to the Hospital Wing."
Relief washed over Ron's face and he fell back against the wall Harry had leant his body against earlier that night. "What happened?"
Harry pointed the drooling form of Gilderoy Lockart and was slightly amused to see Ron's eyes widen before the red head boy burst out laughing.
"What happened?" Ron repeated between two laughs.
"Lockart stole your wand, stunned you then tried to Obliviate me. His Obliviate turned against him... and his stunner was very powerful. I couldn't remove it and I was worried Ginny might..."
"It's okay." Ron interrupted him. "I prefer missing an adventure and having Ginny alive than kicking butts and having Ginny dead because you spent hours trying to revive me."
Harry winced when Ron talking about the 'adventure'. He then wondered if the red and gold did drain brain cells. He would need to figure out something to protect his and Hermione's intellects before anything happened to theirs – it would be a crime to allow Hermione's brain to be corrupted by too much exposure to gryffindorishness, and her bossy attitude was more the result of her lack of social experience and ego than anything else, so it was bearable.
"I thought I could try it again before Fawkes came back." Harry said. "You know, so you could be the one to hold Lockart when Fawkes comes back."
Horror and disgust turn Ron's freckled face slightly green. "You're evil!"
There was a small tug at the corner of his lips, but Harry didn't smile. What he did to Lockart could indeed be considered evil by most people, but Harry wasn't about to let luck decide if he was getting hurt or not (even if he was pretty sure his luck had saved him once again). Lockart was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, but the icing on the cake was that he was someone Harry had no problems disposing of: he was annoying, he took advantage of others, he was a liar and, more than once, Harry had noticed Lockart's less-than-professional peeks into the cleavage of the students' girl population.
Harry was a liar and remorselessly took advantage of others - he was an opportunist, after all. Still, he never lied to himself about what he did or what he was. And while he was always finding reasons to justify himself with, he knew that the only reason he had done what he had done to Lockart was because he had wanted to.
Salazar Slytherin would have been proud of him.
Fawkes came back after another five minutes and Ron suddenly looked even more constipated at the idea of touching Lockart. Still, he grabbed the man's hand with a disgusted frown and took Fawkes' talon with his other hand, allowing the beautiful phoenix to pull him out of the Chamber. Harry waited ten more minutes before the phoenix came for him, only to plea the bird with his eyes when they arrived in Myrtle's bathroom.
"Can I go to the loo?" Harry asked with feigned innocence.
Fawkes' amused caw told him that the bird saw through his act – not that Harry thought he could deceive such a creature – but allowed him to do as he wanted. Harry smiled sadly in thanks as he escaped to the nearest cabin, put the Ravenclaw's necklace around his neck and turn the small hourglass once.
He used his spare hour to put the necklace back where he had found it – under the safety of his Invisibility Cloak though, as he didn't quite liked the idea of anyone seeing him when he was supposed to be down the Chamber. The pain running through his body made it difficult to be back in the bathroom in time – since he had practically ran across the castle to fetch his Cloak, give the simple-minded Ravenclaw her necklace back and finally return his Cloak to his dorm – but he managed to slip in the cabin next to the one he had used for going back in time just before Fawkes exited the Chamber's entrance with Ginny.
It felt strange to hear himself talking, knowing that it was him, but not the now-him – unlike a picture or those family-movies the Dursleys adored where the action was in the past, Harry knew he existed right now.
Twice. Probably three times at one point in the last hour, but as long as he didn't get to hear himself talking to himself without talking himself (did you get that? Because he didn't) he was willing not to think about existing at multiple places at the same time.
He waited a minute after he heard the cabin's door close before he opened his own, carefully walking outside to meet Fawkes. The bird gave him a mocking shrill before flying out of the room. Harry sighed then followed the bird and only paused to hiss at the Chamber's entrance to close.
It was time to meet with the Headmaster and see if he was that good of a Slytherin after all. The Sorting Hat might say so every time it saw him, but this would be a test of his real abilities.