A/N: I based this chapter on the seventeenth chapter of the book: 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets', but I changed it a bit for this chapter.
There is a Poll for Yoni Potter's full name up on my profile. I've adjusted it a little. You can still vote for the most voted names. So please, go and vote for your favorite name(s)!
This story has more crossovers in it, than the crossover Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and Harry Potter. In each chapter I'll let you all know the crossovers for each chapter.
For example: Crossover Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and Harry Potter + Percy Jackson
For this chapter is it:
Crossover Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and Harry Potter, but mainly Harry Potter + Sailor Moon (mentioned).
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters of the books, series, Manga/Anime and movies at all. They belong to their creators. I just own my O.C's.
Warning: A little violence and Character death detected in this chapter.
Please enjoy the story.
Chapter 2: The Heir of Slytherin
Yoni and Harry were standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.
Yoni and Harry stood listening to the chill silence, with their hearts beating very fast. Could the Basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny?
Yoni longed to break that silence, because it made her nervous and a little paranoid. She bit her tongue to make no sound. She didn't want that the Basilisk would hear them.
They pulled out their wands and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. They kept their eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following them. More than once, they thought they saw one stir.
Then, as they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Yoni and Harry both had to crane their neck to look up into the giant face above: it was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.
"Ginny!" Harry muttered, sprinting to her.
"Harry, wait!" Yoni cried out as she followed him closely.
They dropped to their knees at Ginny's side and Harry said: "Ginny! Don't be dead! Please, don't be dead!" He flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders and turned her over. Her face was white as marble and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be…
Yoni had put her wand back in her school robes and hastily searched on Ginny for a pulse in her neck and on her wrists.
"Ginny, please wake up!" Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.
"She won't wake." A soft voice said.
Yoni and Harry both jumped and spun around on their knees.
A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Yoni and Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But Harry recognized him immediately.
"Tom… Tom Riddle?" Harry asked puzzled and Yoni frowned. She was immediately on her guard. She felt that she couldn't trust him.
Riddle nodded affirmative without taking his eyes off Yoni's and Harry's face.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not… she's not…"
"She's still alive." Riddle said. "But only just."
Yoni eventually found a pulse, but it was weak.
"She has a pulse, but it's weak. She needs to get out of here! Now!" Yoni confirmed urgently.
Harry stared at Riddle. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him not a day older then sixteen.
"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.
"A memory." Riddle said quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years." He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, the Potter siblings wondered how it had got there… but there were more pressing matters to deal with.
"You've got to help us, Tom." Harry said and raised Ginny's head again. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a Basilisk… I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment… Please, help us…"
Riddle didn't move. Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor. Yoni helped him with it, but kept an eye on Riddle, because she still didn't trust him.
Harry bent to pick up his wand again, but it was gone.
"Did you see…" He began and looked up.
Riddle was still watching them… twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers.
"Thanks." Harry said, stretching out his hand for it.
A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Yoni and Harry twirling the wand idly.
The stares really started to work on Yoni's nerves. She found that very impolite to keep staring at someone. She even started to find it a bit creepy.
"Listen…" Harry said urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. Even if his sister was helping him. "We've got to go! If the Basilisk comes…"
"It won't come until it is called." Riddle said calmly.
Yoni and Harry both lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer.
Yoni looked at Riddle in confusion. She thought Basilisk was already with them in Chamber, but out of sight.
"What d'you mean?" He said. "Look, give me my wand. I might need it."
Riddle's smile broadened.
"You won't be needing it." He said.
Yoni and Harry stared at him. Yoni found that Riddle was acting very strange and was talking like Professor Dumbledore, in riddles.
"What d'you mean, I won't be…" Harry began puzzled.
"I've waited a long time for this, Yoni and Harry Potter." Riddle said. "For the chance to see you. To speak to you."
"Look," Harry said losing patience and he wasn't the only one. Yoni was also losing her patience. "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later…"
"We certainly can do that later." Yoni said impatiently and tapped impatiently with her foot on the wet floor.
"We've going to talk now." Riddle said, still smiling broadly and he pocketed Harry's wand.
Yoni and Harry stared at him in disbelieve. There was something very funny going on here.
"How did Ginny get like this?" Harry asked slowly.
"That's something I would like to know too." Yoni growled.
"Well, that's an interesting question." Riddle said pleasantly. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked puzzled.
Yoni didn't understand much of it either and looked at Riddle with a frown.
"The diary." Riddle said. "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes: how her brothers teased her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books and how…" Riddle's eyes glinted. "how she didn't think famous, good, great Yoni Potter would ever like to be her friend and how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her…"
All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Yoni's and Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.
Yoni began to feel uncomfortable by the look. She found it a little bit scary.
"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl." He went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. 'No one's ever understood me like you, Tom… I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in… It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket…'"
Riddle laughed a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry's neck and turned Yoni's blood into ice in her veins.
"If I say it myself, Yoni, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted. I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her…"
"What d'you mean?" Harry said, whose mouth had gone very dry.
The gears in Yoni's head started to turn as she thought about what Riddle had said.
"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter? I think your sister almost figured it out." Riddle said softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the wall. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods and the Squib's cat."
"No." Harry whispered.
"She would never have done that voluntarily." Yoni snapped angrily.
"Yes." Riddle said calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries… far more interesting, they became.."
"'Dear Tom,'" He recited, watching Harry's horrified face and Yoni's angry face. "'I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me… There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad… I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!'"
The Potter siblings' fists were clenched, the nails digging deep into their palms. Yoni bit hard down on her lower lip, until it bled.
"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary." Riddle said.
Yoni crossed her arms, rolled her eyes and mumbled: "So would I."
"But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet, together with his lovely sister…" He went on.
"And why did you want to meet us?" Harry said controlled. Anger was coursing through him and it was an effort to keep his voice steady.
Yoni had to do her utmost best not to pounce on Riddle and strangle him with her bare hands. Her emerald green eyes had turned gold now for a minute.
"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you two, Yoni, Harry." Riddle said. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead and their expression grew hungrier. Than his eyes roved over Yoni's forehead, where he only saw a small oblique scar. His expression was still hungrily. "I knew I must find out more about you both, talk to you both, meet you both if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust."
"Hagrid's our friend!" Harry said and his voice now shaking. "And you framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but…"
Yoni had placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed in it.
Riddle laughed his high laugh again.
"It was my word against Hagrid's, Yoni, Harry. Well, you can image how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school Prefect, model student… on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls. But I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance… as though Hagrid had the brains or the power! Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed. Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did…"
"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you." Harry said, his teeth gritted.
Yoni growled softly.
"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled." Riddle said carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."
"Well, You haven't finished it." Harry said triumphantly and Yoni grinned broadly and confident. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again."
"Too bad that you plan to purge the school has failed." Yoni said laughing.
"Haven't I already told you both that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore?" Riddle said quietly. "For many months now, my new targets has been… Yoni and Harry Potter."
Yoni's grin fell and together with Harry she stared at him.
"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you, Harry. She saw you both with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling rooster? So the foolish little brat waited until the boys dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that Harry was on the trail of Slytherin's heir and that you had your dear sister involved into playing little detective with you. From everything Ginny had told me about you both, I knew you, Harry, would go to any length to solve the mystery… particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. Also that you, Yoni, would help your brother and descend along with him to make sure that nothing would happen to him, as any older sibling would do for their younger sibling. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing, because you two could speak Parseltongue… So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled, cried and became very boring, but there isn't much life left in her. She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last. I've been waiting for you two to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I've many questions for you, Yoni and Harry Potter."
"Like what?" Harry spatted. His fists still clenched.
"Yeah, like what? Yoni asked calm and cold. Her voice was sharp. She put another hand on Harry's other shoulder and squeezed both shoulders gently. She continued to look at Riddle with suspicion and didn't want to lose sight of him for one moment.
"Well…" Riddle said smiling pleasantly. "how is it that you two as a baby and a toddler with no extraordinary magical talent managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you both escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"
There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.
"I wouldn't know how we escaped. I think that we just had a lot of luck." Yoni said shrugging.
"Why do you care how we escaped?" Harry said slowly. "Voldemort was after your time."
"Voldemort…" Riddle said softly. "is my past, present and future, Yoni and Harry Potter…"
He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
Then he waved the wand once and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
"You see?" He whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Yoni, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards and witches everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world."
Yoni was totally off course when she heard that. She and Harry stared numbly at Riddle, at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder their own parents and so many others…
At last Harry forced himself to speak.
"You're not." He said quietly but full of hatred.
"Not what?" Riddle snapped.
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world." He said, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days."
"Technically, both you and Dumbledore aren't the greatest sorcerer in the world. That would be Merlin. He's the greatest sorcerer in the world and no one has ever achieved or broke his wizardry level." Yoni said logically, but careful.
The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.
"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" He hissed.
"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted.
Yoni pursed her lips as unremarkably as possible. She knew that her brother was speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle. Harry was wishing rather than believing it to be true. On one hand, her brother was right that Dumbledore wasn't gone for good. He was only temporarily suspended, but he couldn't help them now.
Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.
Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling and unearthly. It lifted the hair on Yoni's arms and made her heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. Then as the music reached such a pitch that Yoni and Harry felt it vibrating inside their own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.
A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle. A second later the bird was flying straight at Yoni and Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at their feet, then landed on Harry's shoulder and folded its great wings.
Yoni saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eyes. She looked at the mysterious and magnificent bird with great admiration.
The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Harry's cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle.
Yoni even felt the warmth of the bird down to her own cheek.
"That's a Phoenix…" Riddle said, staring shrewdly back at it.
"Fawkes?" Harry breathed and the bird's golden claws squeezed his shoulder gently.
Yoni moved closer to Harry and stroked over the feathers of the bird's back with her fingertips.
"And that…" Riddle said, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped. "… that's the old school Sorting Hat."
So it was. Patched, frayed and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Yoni's and Harry's feet.
Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark Chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once.
"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and an old hat! Do you two feel brave, Yoni and Harry Potter? Do you both feel safe now?" He said, grinning evilly and mockingly.
Both Yoni and Harry didn't answer. Yoni might not see what use Fawkes or the Sorting Hat were. She also wondered why Dumbledore had sent his Phoenix to them with the Sorting Hat. She knew that Phoenixes had their own kind of powers, such as reborn from the ashes on their Burn Day, healing tears, giving courage and fear, can carry twice their weight, can disappear and reappear, and their songs were magical. She felt how her courage grew in Fawkes' presence. She saw that Riddle had become somewhat uncomfortable. Even though you couldn't see it in his body language, but in his eyes. Even if Riddle was still laughing. Together with Harry she waited for Riddle to stop laughing.
"To business, Yoni, Harry." Riddle said still smiling broadly. "Twice… in both your pasts, in my future… we have met. And twice I failed to kill you, Harry, and to abduct your lovely sister. How did you survive, Harry? Tell me everything. The longer you talk, the longer you both stay together and the longer you stay alive, Harry." That he added softly to it.
Yoni pursed her lips as she weighed their chances. Riddle had Harry's wand. Harry had Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, neither of which would be much good in a duel. She had her wand and her Avalon Transformation Pen. She suspected that if she could pull her wand out and engage Riddle into a duel, then the chances would be small for her to beat him. With her Transformation Pen she could turn into Sailor Avalon and defeat Riddle and the monster, but she didn't want to risk that someone, namely Dumbledore, would feel the magical pulses of the transformation and the attacks. That was her secret weapon, that no one should know about. It looked bad, all right. The longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny… and Riddle's outline was becoming clearer, more solid.
"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked us." Harry said abruptly. " We don't know ourselves. But we know why you couldn't kill me and abduct Yoni. Because our mother died to save us. Our common Muggle-born mother." His voice shook with suppressed rage.
"She stopped you from killing my brother and abducting me. And we've seen the real you, we saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you! You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul!" Yoni said teeth grinding. Her eyes turned golden again, before they turned back to normal.
Riddle's face contorted, but then he forced it into an awful smile.
"So. Your mother died to save you two. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I can see now there's nothing special about you two, after all. I wondered, you see? Even you two must have noticed between us, Yoni and Harry Potter. All three half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only three Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike, even though Yoni's a girl… But after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you two from me. That's all I wanted to know." He said with his awful smile.
Yoni and Harry stood tense, waiting for Riddle to raise Harry's wand, but he's twisted smile was widening again.
"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson and your sister shall watch. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against the famous Harry Potter and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him." He said.
He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting and walked away.
Yoni looked in fear as she watched Riddle stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed… but Yoni and Harry understood what he was saying: "Ssspeak to me, Ssslytherin, greatssst of the Hogwartsss Four."
Yoni and Harry looked up at the statue, while Fawkes swayed on Harry's shoulder. Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horrorstruck Yoni and Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole.
And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths. Harry backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall.
Yoni stood where she was, because she was rooted to the ground. She shut her eyes tight and pricked up her ears. She heard the rustle of Fawkes' wings and wondered what a Phoenix could do to the King of Serpents.
Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Yoni felt it shudder. She knew what was happening.
"Kill him! Leave the girl unharmed!" She heard Riddle's hissing voice.
Yoni heard that the Basilisk moved passed her and moved toward Harry. She could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. Behind her she heard Harry running away from the monster. She carefully opened her eyes and looked behind her. She gasped as she saw the giant serpent slide behind her brother. She saw how her brother tripped and the serpent was only barely feet away from him. The serpent hissed loudly and frantically, and its tail heavy hit Harry so hard, that he was smashed into the wall. Than it thrashed its tail wildly off the pillars.
"Harry! Get out of there!" Yoni yelled and wanted to run toward him.
Suddenly a hand grabbed Yoni firmly by the wrist and pulled her back.
Yoni looked alarmedly at the person, to who the hand belong to. She saw that it was Riddle who had seized her.
"Oh no, you're going to stay here nicely, my beautiful Yoni." He said with a sadistic smile on his lips. "You're going to watch nicely how your brother goes down."
He laughed his high, cold laugh.
Yoni tried to wrench her wrist free, but his grip was too strong. She looked back to where Harry and the Basilisk.
The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. She saw that it was distracted and also what had distracted it.
Fawkes was soaring around the snake's head and the Basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers.
Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Harry and before Harry could shut his eyes the Basilisk turned. Yoni's eyes widened with fear and screamed. She saw that blood was streaming to the floor and the snake was spitting in agony.
"No!" Riddle screamed hissing. "Leave the bird! Leave the bird! The boy isss behind you! You can ssstill sssmell him! Kill him!"
The blinded serpent swayed, confused… but still deadly.
Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, and jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.
"Well done, Fawkes! Keep it up!" Yoni cheered the Phoenix on.
Riddle pulled her back closer to him by her wrist and she looked at him.
"You little insect! Keep your mouth shut!" He roared furiously at her and slapped her hard with the back of his right hand, his free hand, across her face. Through the force of the slap Yoni's head snapped to the left.
Yoni felt the whole right side of her face burn from the pain and she gasped in pain. From the corner of her eye she saw that Riddle's eyes were getting a red insane glimmering glow. She turned her attention away from him and looked back at her brother again. She saw that the snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Harry luckily ducked away and the Sorting Hat hit his face.
The Basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms.
Harry seized the hat, rammed it onto his head and threw himself flat onto the floor as the Basilisk's tail swung over him again.
Yoni held her breath as she watched. She saw that he grabbed the top of the hat to pull it off. Her jaw dropped in surprise.
A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat. Its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.
"Kill the boy! Leave the bird! The boy isss behind you! Sssniff… sssmell him!" Riddle hissed.
Harry was on his feet, ready.
The Basilisk's head was falling. Its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face Harry. The mouth was stretched wide. It was wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as the sword; thin, glittering, venomous…
"Look out, Harry!" Yoni cried out in panic.
The snake lunged blindly.
Harry dodged and the Basilisk hit the Chamber wall.
Yoni knew that the Basilisk was going to lung back at Harry. She had to do something to help her brother and to get to him.
The serpent lunged again and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands.
'It's now or never!' Yoni thought determined. She turned to Riddle and was irritated when she saw his self-pleasure grin. She wanted to curse and beat it from his face so badly.
"Your dear little brother has lost and I, Lord Voldemort, have won!" Riddle whispered euphorically to her. "I'll conquer this pathetic world and we shall rule over it together."
"Dream on, Riddle!" Yoni snapped angrily. "And you never learned never to speak too soon, because the table can still be turned against you."
After she had said that, she went to stand very hard on his foot with the small high heel of her shoe.
Riddle screamed in anger and pain. Because of the pain, he released her wrist and Yoni quickly got out of there. She ran straight toward Harry and stood behind him. He looked up and smiled at her. She smiled back and put her right hand over his hands, that were holding the handle.
The Basilisk lunged again and this time its aim was true.
Yoni and Harry threw their whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.
But as warm blood drenched Yoni's arm and Harry's arms, they both felt a searing pain just above their elbow.
One long poisonous fang were sinking deeper and deeper into each their arm, and it splintered as the Basilisk keeled over sideways and fell twitching to the floor.
Yoni and Harry slid down the wall. They both each gripped the fang that was spreading poison through their body and wrenched each it out of their arm, but they knew it was too late.
White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wounds. Even as they both each dropped the fang and watched their own blood soaking their robes.
Yoni's vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color.
A patch of scarlet swam past and they heard a soft clatter of claws beside them.
"Fawkes." Yoni heard Harry say thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes…"
Yoni smiled weakly. She could just see with her foggy vision how the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced Harry.
"That's true. He was really great… Thanks, Fawkes…" She said slowly and softly.
She could hear echoing footsteps and then a dark shadow moved in front of them.
"You're death, Yoni and Harry Potter." Riddle's voice said above them. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potters? He's crying."
Yoni frowned weakly. Phoenixes didn't cry when someone was dying. They cried to heal someone with their tears.
"I'm going to sit here and watch you two die, Yoni and Harry Potter. Take you time. I'm in no hurry." She heard Riddle said softly and mockingly.
Yoni began to feel heavier and weaker. Breathing was getting heavier and more difficult.
"So ends the famous Yoni and Harry Potter." Riddle's distant voice said. "Both alone in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by their friends and defeated at last by the Dark Lord, they so unwisely challenged. You both will be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Yoni, Harry… She bought you both twelve years of borrowed time, but Lord Voldemort got you both knew he must."
Yoni knew that Harry was almost healed by Fawkes. She was happy about that. She felt how her life became shorter and shorter by the second. The poison burned into her veins. She noticed that she slowly began to lose consciousness.
"Get away, bird." Riddle's voice said suddenly. "Get away from them. I said, get away."
Yoni could just see with the fogginess and the black spots in her sight that Harry raised his head. Riddle pointed Harry's wand at Fawkes; there was a bang like a gun and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet.
"Phoenix tears…" Riddle said quietly, staring at Harry's arm. "Of course… healing powers… I forgot…"
Yoni chuckled softly.
'Of course… and he claims that he's the smartest and most powerful sorcerer in the world.' She thought as she struggled to stay conscious.
Riddle looked first into Yoni's face and then into Harry's.
"But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter… you and me… Your sister can't help you now… She's so weakened by the poison. She'll be dead before you, but you'll soon be reunited in death." He said with a sinister grin.
He raised the wand.
Then in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Harry's lap… the diary!
Fawkes landed next to Yoni and laid its beautiful head on the wound on Yoni's arm. He started to cry again.
For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then without thinking, without considering, Harry seized the Basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.
There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands and flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then…
He was gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence.
Yoni blinked. Fawkes's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers. She felt that her strength was slowly returning. Even the pain was leaving her. Everything seemed to be coming back into focus. She gave her head a little shake and blinked again. She saw Fawkes, still resting his head on her arm. A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound… except that there was no wound.
There was a silence in the Chamber. Silence except for the steady 'drip drip' of ink still oozing from the diary. The Basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.
"You did well, Harry." Yoni said softly with a smile.
Harry turned his head toward her and smiled back.
"Everything okay, sister?" He asked worried.
"Everything is fine again. Thanks to Fawkes." She reassured him with a smile.
Harry nodded. Shaking all over, he pulled himself up. Slowly, he gathered together his wand and the Sorting Hat and with a huge tug retrieved the glittering sword from the roof of the Basilisk's mouth.
Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring.
Yoni slowly stood up and leaned against the wall to stay upright. Her legs trembled and her knees buckled. She also picked the fang up and put it into the pocket of her robes. She took a deep breath in and out, before she slowly approached Ginny. While Harry hurried toward her, Ginny sat up. Her bemused eyes travelled from the huge form of the dead Basilisk, over the Potter siblings in their blood-soaked robes and then to the diary in Harry's hand. She drew a great shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Yoni… Harry… oh Yoni… oh Harry… I tried to tell you both at b… breakfast, but I c… couldn't say it in front of Percy. It was me, Yoni, Harry… but I… I swear I didn't mean to… R… Riddle made me, he t… took me over and… how did you kill that… that thing? W… where's Riddle? That last thing I r… remember is him coming out of the diary…" Ginny blabbed.
"It's all right." Harry said, holding up the diary, showing Ginny the fang hole. "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the Basilisk. Come on, Ginny, let's get out of here."
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since Bill came and… n… now I'll have to leave and… w… what'll Mum and Dad say?"
Yoni gently laid her hands on Ginny's shoulders, looked straight into her eyes and smiled at her. She had to slightly bend over to get to the same eye level as Ginny.
"Ginny, we're not going to think about being expelled. We're not sure about that yet, but Harry and I'll make sure that you wouldn't be expelled from Hogwarts."
Ginny nodded.
Yoni straightened back up again, put an arm around Ginny's shoulders and walked to the entrance with Harry.
"Do you know what you need after all this?" She asked smiling at Ginny. Who shook her head. "Well, a lot of bear hugs from the people who care about you, a mug of hot chocolate, a Calming Draught, a Sleeping Draught, a nice warm bath and fresh clothes."
"That sounds great." Ginny whispered with a smile.
Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Yoni and Harry urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead Basilisk and through the echoing gloom back into the tunnel. Yoni and Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.
After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached Yoni and Harry's ears.
"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! We've got her!"
They heard Ron give a strangled cheer and they turned the next bend to see his eager face through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rockfall.
"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened!"
He tried to embrace her, but Ginny pushed him sobbing away.
Yoni squeezed herself through the gap.
"But everything is okay with you, Ginny." Ron beamed. "Everything is over, everything… Where did that bird come from?"
Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny and Yoni.
"He's Dumbledore's." Harry said and squeezed himself through the gap.
"How come you've got a sword?" Ron asked, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand.
Yoni had to giggle softly at Ron's reaction when he saw the sword.
"I'll explain when we get out of here." Harry said with a sideways glance at Ginny.
Yoni knew why Harry said that. Nor did she think it was wise to tell Ron yet who'd been opening Chamber and not in front of Ginny, anyway.
"But…" Ron started.
"Later." Harry said shortly. "Where's Lockhart?"
"Back there." Ron said grinning and jerked his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."
Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, they walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.
"His memory's gone." Ron said. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is or where he is or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself."
"He already was a danger to himself and others, before he was hit with the Memory Charm." Yoni mumbled darkly as she put her right arm over Ginny's shoulders and put her other hand in her side.
Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all.
"Hello. He said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"
"No." Ron said, raising his eyebrows at Yoni and Harry.
Harry bent down and looked up the long dark pipe.
"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" He asked to his sister and Ron.
Yoni let go of Ginny, also bent down beside Harry and looked up the long, dark pipe.
"Climbing wouldn't work. You'll slide back down again." She said with a frown and pursed lips.
Fawkes, the Phoenix, had swooped past Harry and Yoni and was now fluttering in front of them. His beady eyes bright in the dark and he was waving his long golden tail feathers.
Yoni smiled and Harry looked uncertainly at him.
"He looks like he wants you to grab hold…" Ron said looking perplexed. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there."
"Fawkes isn't an ordinary bird." Harry said and turned quickly to the others. "We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Yoni's hand. Ron, hold Yoni's other hand. Professor Lockhart…"
"He means you." Ron said sharply to Lockhart.
"You hold Ginny's other hand." Harry continued.
Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt. Ron took hold of the back of Harry's robes, and Harry reached out and took hold of Fawkes's strangely hot tail feathers.
The next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe.
Yoni could hear Lockhart, dangling below her and Ginny, saying: "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!"
The chill air was whipping through the locks of Yoni's hair, that had come loose from the bun, but before she'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over and all five of them were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. While Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.
Myrtle goggled at them.
"You're alive." She said blankly to Harry.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed." He said grimly and wiped flecks of blood and slime off his glasses.
"Oh, well… I'd just been thinking… if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet." Myrtle said, blushing silver.
Yoni raised an eyebrow to hear that.
"Urgh!" Ron said as they left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!"
But tears were still flooding silently down Ginny's face.
Yoni had an arm wrapped around Ginny's shoulders again.
"I think a ghost isn't really a competition for someone of flesh and blood to win my brother's heart. That must be weird and wrong. Who would fall in love with someone who's dead and who can't even touch you." Yoni said and rolled her eyes.
"Where now?" Ron said with an anxious look at Ginny. Harry pointed.
Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor. They strode after him and moments later found themselves outside Professor McGonagall's office.
Harry knocked and pushed the door open.
I hope you enjoyed it.
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Next: Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore are informed of what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, the Petrified victims are brought back to normal and the students leave at the end of the school year with the Hogwarts Express.
