Have to wonder about the editors on the early HP books. We were told that the basilisk was using the pipes to get around, then we were told that it was 'thick as an oak trunk'. How many pipes in a castle would be big enough to allow something that thick to pass through them? Not many I'd bet. For that matter, they describe the pipe from the bathroom as 'big enough for a man to fit through', so just how did the basilisk get into Hogwarts?

Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.

When he suddenly popped up, white as a ghost, everyone dropped what they were doing and asked what had happened. The others didn't look much better than him when he told them that he'd just tripped over Justin Finch-Fletchley and he was petrified like Colin and the cat. Adding in the fact that Sir Nicholas appeared to be the ghost equivalent of petrified as well didn't make the news any easier to take.

While he wished that he could give them time to deal with this, especially Harry, Remus knew that they had to appear to be behaving like everyone else, and he and Angela needed to look over the scene of the crime, as it were, so he hustled them out the door to get them to class. As chance would have it Justin's petrified form was on their way to transfiguration and they got there just as the crowd started to gather, this gave Remus a chance to look around, but Justin's friends started shouting that Harry did it.

When one of them shouted that he said that he'd get the muggleborn, Hermione cut across his tirade. "You really are an idiot, you know? For a start, Harry's Mum was muggleborn, I'm muggleborn and Susan and Remus's Mums were both muggleborns, so only an idiot would think that Harry has anything against muggleborns. More to the point, he was the one who said that the muggleborns were going to get it!" With that she pointed at Draco Malfoy, who was standing there gloating with his goons behind him.

That turned everyone's attention on Malfoy, as they realised that she was right, and that made them remember the fact that he was also the one who'd cast the snake that went after Justin as well. Suddenly being the centre of the hostile attention made Malfoy bolt, with his goons lumbering along behind him, which only helped cement the idea in everyone's minds that he had something to do with this.

While that helped avert the students' suspicions from Harry, Hagrid's misguided attempt to help made Dumbledore look at Harry.

Hagrid ran up to the Headmaster with a wild look in his eyes and the dead rooster still swinging from his hand.

"It weren't Harry Professor Dumbledore!" Hagrid shouted. "I was talkin' ter him seconds before that kid were found, he never had time, sir….."

Dumbledore tried to say something, but Hagrid kept ranting on, waving the rooster around in his agitation and sending feathers flying everywhere.

"It can't've bin him, I'll swear it in front o' the Ministry o' Magic if I have to…."

Dumbledore eventually calmed him down and sent him away, but sent for Harry as soon as he got back to his office. When the note arrived in Professor McGonagall's class, Angela told her that she'd take Harry, telling Rackclaw to stay with the others and calling Tally to send Krogar to meet them at the Headmaster's office. When they arrived, the office was empty and Angela smirked, the old fool was obviously trying to show Harry who was boss by making them wait in an empty office, but two could play at his game.

She waved for Harry to have a look around while she went to sit in Dumbledore's chair, which was wasn't that much less imposing than that throne that he sat on in the Great Hall…. She stopped and made a mental note to confirm that these fripperies had all been paid for out of Hogwarts funds and then sell off the more extravagant pieces to put some money back into Hogwarts' coffers.

Thrones, desks inlaid with semi-precious stones and metals, golden bird perches, golden plates, there was no way they paid for those with their salaries…. That was another thing to check, was Binns being paid? If so, why, and where did the money go? A ghost certainly had no use for money. With that she went about what she'd planned, which was going through what was on Dumbledore's desk.

As she did that, Harry's attention was caught by a strange, gagging sound and he found that they weren't alone in there after all. Standing on a golden perch behind the door was a rather decrepit-looking bird that resembled a half-plucked turkey.

Harry looked at it and the bird looked mournfully back, making its gagging noise again. Harry thought it looked very ill. Its eyes were dull and, even as Harry watched, a couple more feathers fell out of its tail.

Harry was just thinking that all he needed was for Dumbledore's pet bird to die while they were alone in the office with it, when the bird burst into flames.

Harry yelled in shock and backed away into the desk. He looked feverishly around for some water somewhere but couldn't see any. The bird, meanwhile, had become a fireball. It gave one loud shriek and next second there was nothing but a smouldering pile of ash on the floor.

The office door opened then and Dumbledore came in, looking very somber.

"Professor," Harry gasped. "Your bird - I couldn't do anything - he just caught fire…."

To Harry's surprise, Dumbledore smiled.

"About time, too," he said. "He's been looking dreadful for days. I've been telling him to get a move on."

He chuckled at the surprised look on Harry's face.

"Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes. Watch him . . ."

Harry looked down in time to see a tiny, wrinkled, newborn bird poke its head out of the ashes.

"It's a shame you had to see him on a Burning Day," said Dumbledore, seating himself behind his desk. "He's really quite handsome most of the time, wonderful red and gold plumage. Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers, and they make highly faithful pets."

Dumbledore may have missed or ignored the offended squawk and baleful look from Fawkes at being called a pet, but Harry didn't.

The Headmaster was distracted at that point though because he'd just realised that Angela was sitting at his desk and going through what was on it, so he hustled over there to evict her from his chair.

Once more in control of his domain, in his mind anyway, he fixed Harry with his penetrating, light-blue stare.

"I must ask you, Harry, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me." he said gently. "Anything at all."

He didn't appreciate the snort from Angela which detracted from the solemnity of the moment and gave Harry a chance to gather his thoughts. No, there was certainly nothing he was interested in telling Dumbledore.

"No Sir, what do you mean?"

Dumbledore frowned as this wasn't going the way he wanted. "Hagrid told me that he saw you just before the boy was petrified…."

"Oh, yes, I ran into him when we were on our way back to the tower to get our books for transfiguration."

They were dismissed at that by a very aggravated Dumbledore and Angela took Harry back to class.


Because of the events of the day, Harry of course had nightmares that night and Hermione went to him to hold him as he slept like she usually did. They were both drained by everything that had happened though and neither of them woke until much later than usual, so the others got up to find Hermione's room empty, with the door part open. Tally wouldn't say anything about where she was because that was the master's business and eventually Susan and Padma burst into Harry's room in a panic to tell him that Hermione was missing, only to find the two of them peacefully wrapped around each other in bed.

Tally hustled them out of the room, saying that the Mistress was fine, and they were left in the common room, loudly wondering what in Merlin's name was going on. Susan had missed the form of address Tally chose to use in her upset state, but Padma hadn't, which just made Luna's comment more believeable.

Luna spoke in her usual dreamy voice, but this wasn't her usual rambling about horned snugglepots or two tailed horn dogs or whatever she talked about, this was one of those incredible insights that she came out with from time to time. "Hermione is Harry's wife-to-be of course, can't you see that their souls have chosen each other? Oh they won't do anything or marry until they are of age, but they will be together forever. It's exciting really, I never thought that I'd have a chance to see true soul mates, but now I have."

Hermione stepped out of Harry's room at that point, refusing to let Tally pop her straight back to her room, but while she had expected to have Susan and Padma, and the boys for that matter, demanding to know what was going on, they were all staring at Luna in stunned silence. She took that opportunity to get to her room so that she could get dressed and come out for breakfast.

At breakfast, the questioning was still a lot more muted than she'd expected, and she was surprised that they let it go when she explained that Tally took her to Harry when he had these terrible nightmares because her holding him made the worst of it go away. She'd looked defiantly at Susan and Padma as she emphasised that she just held him, they weren't doing anything else! Because she'd seen the shocked and scandalised looks on their faces when they caught her in Harry's bed.

Their glances at Luna when they said "Yes, we know." just confused Hermione all the more and Hermione Granger did not like not knowing what was going on! She pulled Padma aside after for a quiet word and to find out why they were acting so strange. Hermione wasn't too sure about the wife-to-be thing but the bit about their souls choosing each other and being soul mates felt so right.

It was the fact that Luna had told them what she'd already decided and hadn't even told Harry yet about not doing anything or getting married until they were of age and being together forever that was really spooky though. So was Padma asking whether she'd noticed how Tally referred to her. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell her that she was wrong, but when she thought back she realised that Tally did call her Mistress, not Miss like she did all the other girls, even Angela. That made her wonder, if Luna was so spot on about everything else, was she really wrong about her being Harry's wife-to-be?

Hermione discussed what Luna had told the others with Harry that night, and the fact that this was exactly what she believed in her heart. She was relieved and happy to hear him say that he felt the same way about everything she said, but then they were both surprised when they felt the magical acceptance of a bond. They went to Angela to ask what this meant and she had them tell her exactly what they'd said. Angela laughed at that, because combined with the connection that the two of them had, which had been described so accurately by Luna, what they'd said to each other was enough to be accepted as a magical betrothal contract. After their initial panic, they decided that they were quite OK with that, but Harry asked what that meant in regard to the protection that they were trying to give Padma and Ginny in regard to their betrothal contracts.

That in turn started an education about the marriage rights of the heads of the Noble and Ancient Houses, and the fact that the greater holdings and status a Noble House has, the more wives the head of the House was entitled to take. What it came down to was that he could have legally taken two wives before he inherited everything from Nicolas Flamel, but as well as doubling his fortune, Nicolas had also named him as his heir, so he could legally take a third wife now, possibly more. She explained that she would have to investigate the status of the Flamel family to be certain of what rights he had inherited from Nicolas, but there would definitely be no issues for him to be betrothed to three girls at this point, so holding the other two contracts for consideration was still valid.

While she was discussing the Flamel inheritance, Angela also pointed out that the additional holdings and status had also increased the number of votes that House Potter controlled in the Wizengamot, once again she'd have to investigate the matter but she was of the opinion that this would probably make Potter the most powerful House in the Wizengamot, which of course strengthened the alliance they had with the Houses of Longbottom and Bones.

Harry went away from the discussion both relieved and worried, and definitely relieved that he had Angela as his Regent to manage these things because he was having trouble getting his head around what she'd just told him.


For days after Dumbledore was thrown out of Gringotts, he kept flying into a rage whenever copies of The Quibbler edition with the pictures of him being thrown out of Gringotts and huddled in a pathetic heap in the middle of Diagon Alley were found around the castle. He had people watching Luna to try and get evidence that they were coming from her, but all of his spies around the school reported that she wasn't getting mail and wasn't anywhere near where they were turning up.

The last weeks to the Christmas break went quickly but their plans changed when they found that Malfoy had declared that he was staying at Hogwarts for some reason, along with his goons and a few other Slytherins. Neville, Susan and Luna were committed to spend Christmas with their families but the twins had already said that they were staying because Arthur and Molly had won a trip for two in Egypt from some magazine contest that Molly didn't remember entering. Padma had gotten her father's approval to stay at school by telling him she was working on Harry. Hermione got her parents' agreement by promising to come home for Christmas dinner. Tonks stayed with them, as she was working on getting the information from the Slytherins, and trying to find something to pin Lockhart on.

Tonks had fit in well after the first few tense minutes. Remus greeted her with a smile but hadn't gotten more than "Nym..." out before she had a wand six inches away from his face as she bit out. "I. Told. You. Never. to. Call. Me. By. That. Name!" Angela managed to diffuse the situation by calling out "Hello Dora!" cheerfully and Tonks ran to hug her.

When she'd calmed down, she was introduced to the others. She was curious how someone as young as Harry could have impressed the Director of the DMLE so much, and she knew that these other kids had impressed her as well. She'd only been a girl when Lily Potter was killed but she'd been in awe of her, so hearing the Director say that Harry's little friend Hermione might be even brighter than Lily was something that made her sit up and take notice.

Tonks was also quite impressed by how driven these kids were, even the Weasley twins, while that self important twat of a brother of their's, Percy, was certainly driven by his need to try and show that he was better everyone else, the stories she'd heard about the twins had made them out to be more pranksters than scholars, so that was quite a surprise.

It was looking at Luna that almost made her cry, the Director had told her what those pureblood cows had put her through, and that gave Tonks a third agenda, to find a non-traceable way to get back at them.

After a week at Hogwarts, Tonks started to get bored though so they pulled her into helping tutor the kids. The different focus and talents she had broadened and improved the kids' learning, and the fact that she learnt a few things herself helped get her more committed to it.

She did have another job too, the twins' dead sexy brother Bill had asked her to collect what was needed to prove who the rest of the Wesley kids' fathers were. Bill, Charlie and the twins had already been confirmed to be Arthur Weasley's progeny, but Percy, Ron and Ginny weren't yet. Bill had seemed to be indicating that there were serious questions about that as far as their brothers went at least and Tonks had agreed to get what was needed from them, doing a deal with him for one date per collection. She would have done it all for one date but a girl's got to at least pretend to play hard to get and she wasn't about to turn down two more dates with Bill, her mother didn't raise no fool!


There were very few left at Hogwarts after the Hogwarts Express departed, because fear of what had been happening at the school meant that just about anyone who could leave, did. That made Tonks' first job difficult. This meant that she had a limited pool of Slytherin students to draw from and she'd had to call on Angela's skills with memory charms to cover up the fact that they'd been stunned so she could take their place.

In the end, what she found was that Draco Malfoy didn't know anything anyway. She knocked out one of his goons, Goyle, and took his place. They were in the Slytherin common room and she was thinking that most of her mother's family would have been in here when Malfoy started sprouting off.

"Saint Potter, the Mudbloods' friend," Malfoy moaned. "He's another one with no proper wizard feeling, or he wouldn't go around with that jumped up Granger Mudblood. And people think he's Slytherin's heir!"

She waited with bated breath. Malfoy was surely seconds away from telling her it was him, but then…..

"I only wish I knew who it is," Malfoy whined. "I could help them."

She decided to prod him. "You must have some idea who's behind it all ..."

"You know I haven't, Goyle, how many times do I have to tell you?" snapped Malfoy. "And Father won't tell me anything about the last time the Chamber was opened either. Of course, it was fifty years ago, so it was before his time, but he knows all about it, and he says that it was all kept quiet and it'll look suspicious if I know too much about it. But I know one thing - last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So I bet it's a matter of time before one of them's killed this time ... and I hope it's Granger," he said with relish.

Tonks swallowed her anger and asked. "D'you know if the person who opened the Chamber last time was caught?"

"Oh, yeah ... whoever it was was expelled," said Malfoy. "They're probably still in Azkaban."

"Azkaban?" Surely they would have found records if anyone went to Azkaban last time?

"Yes, Azkaban, the wizard prison, Goyle," said Malfoy, looking at him in disbelief "Honestly, if you were any slower, you'd put down roots."

He shifted restlessly in his chair and said, "Father says to keep my head down and let the Heir of Slytherin get on with it. He says the school needs ridding of all the Mudblood filth, but told me not to get mixed up in it. Of course, he's got a lot on his plate at the moment. You know the Ministry of Magic raided our manor last week?"

Tonks tried to force Goyle's dull face into a look of concern.

Malfoy gave a superior smile. "Luckily, they didn't find much, even though father's got some very valuable Dark Arts stuff. Good thing we've got our very own secret chamber under the drawing-room floor!"

Tonks made a mental note to pass that little titbit on to the Director and made an excuse to leave.

Unfortunately she'd knocked Malfoy out of contention as the potential so called Heir of Slytherin, but she had managed to find out a few facts which might point them in the right direction. The location of the Malfoy's vault full of illegal dark objects though, that was gold!

With the Potter House question covered, Tonks went after the target she was officially here for, Goldilocks Lockhart. She quickly worked out why he'd jumped at taking a teacher's position here, because the pig liked young girls. Tonks was having trouble getting information about him because he was trying to chat her up whenever she went as a girl, even when she assumed the identity of a Third year student (she didn't want to risk trying anyone younger, if he tried it on with a girl that age she'd kill the bastard!). His focus changed when she went as a boy but then he was trying to be best chums. So she still couldn't get much information out of him.

She was still getting bits here and there though, so the Director told her to keep going because the rest of the team was drawing a blank, literally. What they were finding was that whenever they identified the actual events that he'd claimed to have done in his books, they'd track down the person that everyone actually said had done it, only to find all their memories of the event had been wiped.

The Director told her that she may be here for the long haul, and made arrangements with Angela to have her status at Hogwarts changed to a tutor and guard for the Potter group. Truth be known she didn't mind that because she found teaching students like these rewarding. It also gave her time to accomplish her other tasks, get back at those cows who'd hounded Luna and get what Bill wanted for him.

That was why, when she officially came in after the Christmas break, the records showed that Nymphodora (Call me Dora!) Tonks had failed out of Auror training and had been hired by the Potter Estate. In fact she'd jumped ahead of the others in training because the Director had made her a Junior Auror with her record sealed, and she was reporting directly to her. This meant that with Angela as a Senior Auror, the Director now had two people who held Aurors' authority right inside Hogwarts.


There was another piece of news that gave everyone in the Potter group reason to rejoice when they returned after Christmas, Gringott's curse breakers had managed to extract and destroy the Voldemort soul fragment that had been lodged in the mark on Harry's forehead. They had come up with one spell to extract, and another to destroy the soul fragment and when they did it, there had been no question that it had been destroyed. The shriek when it went almost shredded their ears and they immediately cast the detection spells again. None of the dark magic that was showing just before the second spell was cast showed now, so by all indications Harry was cleansed of Voldemort's presence. Another side benefit was that the mark was mostly gone now.

Given that Harry had apparently acquired some capabilities from Voldemort via the soul fragment, such as Parseltongue, wandless spell casting etc, they tested Harry's magic as far as these and other capabilities went after they'd destroyed the soul fragment, but he had lost none of them, if anything his magic was stronger without fighting with part of Voldemort. Before they left, Harry, Hermione, Remus and Angela all insisted on learning the cleansing spell that had destroyed the soul fragment, and also the detection spells, extraction spell and the destroy dark spell that testing showed would have pretty much the same effect as what happened to Quirrell when he touched the mark on Harry's forehead.


One night when they were taking the chance to relax, they were all laughing about Ron Weasley's attempts to befriend Harry under Mummy's orders, and they were taking turns to come out with stories of his stupidity. They made Harry tell about his original train trip to Hogwarts first, because they didn't think anything could top that, but Luna had one that came close.

Ron had actually been held back at the end of First year, so he was in Luna and Ginny's classes, and in Charms he was waving his wand around so madly that he almost broke it in two when he hit the edge of the desk with it. He'd taped it up, because he was afraid to tell his parents how he broke it, and nearly every time he tried to use it now it backfired. No-one wanted to be anywhere near him in class when he tried a spell because what came out of his wand and where it went was anyone's guess.

The other big laugh was that he was one of the only boys who thought Lockhart was brilliant and he hung on his every word.


There were few laughs the next day, because they'd had Dommy watching Dumbledore and he popped up to say that Dumbledore and a strange man were going to Hagrid's cottage, talking like Hagrid was in trouble. Harry grabbed his cloak of invisibility and had Dommy take him and Angela straight to Hagrid's cottage. They barely had time to warn Hagrid that people were coming when there was a knock on the door, they hastily hid in a dark corner under the invisibility cloak and when he was sure they were well hidden, Hagrid open the door.

"Good evening, Hagrid."

It was Dumbledore. He entered, looking deadly serious, and was followed by a second, very odd looking man.

The stranger had rumpled gray hair and an anxious expression, and was wearing a rather eclectic mixture of clothes, a pinstriped suit, a scarlet tie, a long black cloak and pointed purple boots. Under his arm he carried a lime-green bowler.

Harry could tell that Angela knew who the other man who'd come with Dumbledore was because he felt her tense up when she saw him. She turned and whispered into his ear. "That's Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic."

Hagrid had gone pale and sweaty when he saw them. He all but fell into one of his chairs and looked from Dumbledore to Cornelius Fudge in trepidation.

"This is bad business, Hagrid," said Fudge in clipped tones. "Very bad business. Had to come. Two more attacks on Muggleborns. People are worried. The Ministry's got to act."

"I never," Hagrid said imploringly at Dumbledore. "You know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir….."

"I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence." Dumbledore said as he frowned at Fudge.

"Look, Albus." said Fudge, uncomfortably. "Hagrid's record's against him. The Ministry's got to do something…. the school board has been in touch…"

Harry felt Angela tense up again and she shook her head slightly to say that this was the first she'd heard of it.

"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not help in the slightest." Dumbledore responded, but he seemed to be more going through the motions than anything.

"Look at it from my point of view Albus." said Fudge, fidgeting with his bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. I've Got to be seen to be doing something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more said. But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty…"

"Take me?" asked Hagrid, who was trembling. "Take me where?"

"For a short stretch only," said Fudge, not meeting Hagrid's eyes. "Not a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution. If someone else is caught, you'll be let out with a full apology….."

"Not Azkaban?" croaked Hagrid.

Dumbledore looked at him, "I am afraid so Hagrid, but be assured that I will be doing everything I can to get your name cleared and get you back here where you belong."

"But what about Fang and my job?"

"Never fear Hagrid, Mister Filch will look after Fang and your other duties while you are away, now come along. I promise that we will get this cleared up quickly so you can return."

They led Hagrid out of the cottage snivelling, and Harry waited a few minutes before he called for Dommy to take them back.

When Angela had stopped swearing, she sent Tally and Dommy to ask Amelia and Augusta whether they had been contacted about taking Hagrid into custody as members of the board, and in Amelia's case as the Director of the DMLE. The answer of course was 'No.' from both of them, so there would be questions about who it was who'd acted on behalf of the board. Amelia reminded her that she hadn't found anything when they looked before but promised that she'd investigate Hagrid's so-called 'record' and let them know what she found out, and also if she was officially contacted about any of this.

Amelia came back quickly as promised to say that there was no record in the DMLE for Hagrid, so they went to Professor McGonagall. She was angry that Dumbledore hadn't told her, as the Deputy Headmistress, anything about this and looked in the school records. She came back to tell them that Hagrid had been expelled and had his wand snapped on the word of a Hogwarts prefect, Tom Riddle, after one of the female students was killed by an unknown creature in one of the bathrooms at Hogwarts. No investigation had been done because of the many stories that were going around the school about Hagrid collecting and raising dangerous creatures as pets and Tom Riddle was Hogwarts' brightest star at that time, so just on Riddle's word alone they snapped his wand and expelled him. Apparently the then transfiguration professor, Albus Dumbledore, had made a case for Hagrid and got him taken on as a gamekeeper.


Harry gave Dommy the responsibility of looking after Fang and then they started going over what clues they had about the Chamber of Secrets, because none of them was under the delusion that Dumbledore was going to do anything to save Hagrid. If anyone was going to clear Hagrid's name and get him back it would be them.

Some points were obvious, like the fact that between the connection with Slytherin and the fact that Harry was the only one who could hear the voice, the monster had to be a serpent of some form. Given that it was supposed to survive Merlin knew how many generations until the 'true heir' arrived, it had to live hundreds of years at least, that had to narrow it down quite a bit. They also knew that it petrified its victims and sometimes killed from that girl who died fifty years ago, spiders were afraid of it for some reason and the fact that two roosters had been killed but none of the chickens had to be a clue as well. Luna suddenly whispered something in Hermione's ear and the two of them jumped up to get Tally to take them to the Potter family library.

Just after they left, Angela started swearing, when the others looked at her she explained. "We know that a girl was killed in a school bathroom fifty years ago?" Everyone nodded. "How many ghosts of students do we know of in Hogwarts?"

Half of them blurted out. "Myrtle!" together and Angela nodded grimly. "What a great Auror I am, the clue's been staring me in the face all along and I've missed it!"

Hermione and Luna were brought back soon after that, all excited, Hermione read a passage from the book they found in the Library. "Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it."

They all nodded, as that was too close not to be what they were facing. There was still the question of why Colin, Justin and the cat were petrified rather than killed and what happened to Sir Nicholas, but that may have just come down to them not seeing the Basilisk's eyes directly.

The girls were excited when Harry said that they believed that they'd located the entrance too, but Harry waved to Angela because she was the one who put it together. It was fun for a moment to see Hermione kicking herself because she hadn't put that together herself.


That fun moment was cut off all too soon when Professor McGonagall called for Dommy to bring the twins to her office (as vassals of House Potter, she, Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout could call for the Potter elves, this was quite useful when they needed to contact the group quickly). Angela, Remus, Harry and Hermione went with them and they found Arthur, Percy and Ron already there, along with Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout and Lockhart. When Angela looked around rather obviously Professor McGonagall said. "We can't locate the Headmaster for some reason, and apparently Missus Weasley is making herself presentable, but we can't wait for them….."

"A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."

Professor Flitwick gripped the back of a chair to hold himself up and asked, "How can you be sure?"

"The Heir of Slytherin," Professor McGonagall answered faintly. "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' That's a clear enough."

Professor Sprout burst into tears.

"Who is it?" asked Professor Flitwick as he sunk, weak-kneed, into the chair. "Which student?"

Professor McGonagall looked sadly at Arthur and his sons. "It's Ginevra Weasley, her bag was left under the sign like Mister Filch's cat."

Arthur collapsed into a chair at that, the shock of finding that his little girl had been taken by the monster too much for him. He stirred himself when Harry shouted.

"No! We're certain we know what the monster is and where the entrance is, we'll get her back!"

He turned and ran out of the office with everyone else at his heels. When Lockhart tried to stay behind, Ron grabbed him, shouting that they needed him. Remus sent Dommy to get Rackclaw to bring all of the guards to the out of order girls' bathroom in the dungeon as quick as possible.

When they reached the bathroom, Harry told the rest of them to stay back while he and Hermione went to Myrtle's stall.

Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.

"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Hermione. "What do you want this time?"

Myrtle's whole aspect changed when Hermione responded."To ask you how you died." She looked as though she had never been anything but taunted before and was revelling in this new experience.

"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I was hiding because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. I think it must have been a different language. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use the boys' toilet, and then…"

Myrtle slumped, finishing quietly. "I died."

"How?" said Harry.

"I have no idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away . . . ." She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, was she sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."

"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.

"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink at the other end of the bathroom.

Harry and Ron hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face.

It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.

"Oh that tap's never worked." said Myrtle brightly as he tried to turn it.

"Harry," said Hermione. "Say something. Say something in Parseltongue."

Drawing on how they'd tested this at Gringotts, he said. "Open up."

All the others heard was a strange hissing sound, but at once the tap glowed with a bright white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move, sinking right out of sight to leave a large hole exposed, this hole almost wide enough for a man to stand up in. There was a pipe leading down from this hole.

Harry heard someone gasp and the others crowded around to look down the hole. Lockhart suddenly pulled out his wand, saying. "You can't make me go down there!"

Fred and George cried out. "Expelliarmus!" in unison to disarm him but Lockhart was blasted back into the hole. Harry caught Lockhart's wand and saw Lockhart disappearing down the pipe, screaming all the way.

He had made up his mind immediately what he was going to do. He couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was any chance that Ginny might be alive.

He tossed aside Lockhart's wand as he looked at the others and said that he was going and Hermione, Remus and Angela stepped up without a word, there was no way he was going without them. Rackclaw and the other goblin guards had just arrived and Rackclaw, Krogar and two others stepped up as well.

Arthur stepped up but Remus shook his head. "No Arthur, you're out of practice, you might get in the way of us saving Ginny." Arthur nodded sadly as he accepted this, but Fred and George stepped up and said. "Well we're not!" At Arthur's nod, Remus nodded as well.

It took less than thirty seconds to this point but Percy started arguing that they needed to wait for the proper authorities. The twins just told him that he wasn't going to stop them saving their sister and leapt into the pipe, sliding after Lockhart. At least Lockhart was letting them know that this was a long way down, because he hadn't stopped screaming yet and they weren't getting any closer, so he was still falling.

Harry leapt in after the twins, changing to his animagus form as he did so and Hermione and Angela followed right after him. Remus turned to the professors and said. "You should stay here with Arthur in case the basilisk gets past us, hopefully between you and our other guards you'll be able to stop it. Remember, don't look it in the eye, it will kill you if you do." He snorted. "It would be nice if someone could work out how to get us back out of there too."

With that, he leapt into the pipe, but Ron leapt in before Rackclaw and the other goblin guards could follow. He wasn't about to let Harry Bloody Potter, two girls, the twins and a bunch of goblins show him up! Ron Weasley would have his share of being a hero!

Running down the pipe, Harry was moving faster than Fred and George were sliding down on their arses, so he passed them on the way down, actually he leapt over them in the tunnel, so he was the first to reach the bottom after Lockhart. Hermione, Angela and Remus had all gone snow boarding in the muggle world, so they skated down on their feet and also got more pace up on the slick, slimy surface in the pipe than Fred and George. All three of them had also caught up with the twins by the time they reached the bottom.

Harry heard the thump and scream when Lockhart reached the bottom, so he started braking to make his landing softer, though it was more crashing into the wall than landing, as the pipe levelled out at the end and exited in the wall rather than the ceiling. He came to a stop in his animagus form before changing back, pulling out his wand and crying. "Lumos!" to light up the landing area for the others, a quick glance at Lockhart where he was crumpled against the wall showed that he'd either knocked himself out or fainted. He could hear that the others were still a few minutes away but at least they could see where the end was this way. He could hear someone else screaming behind them, and guessed that it was Ron.

Hermione, Angela and Remus had gotten past Fred and George and spread out a little so that they came out one at a time. Harry cast a banishing spell at each of them as they came out of the pipe to stop them from crashing into the wall. Angela and Remus did the same for Fred and George and the goblins. Fred slowed Ron, but he still had a fair bit of pace when he piled into the opposite wall.

When they were all down, Remus snorted. "Well that was fun!"

Harry didn't have more than a brief grin in him before he asked. "Does anyone have any idea how far we've come or where we are?"

Hermiome piped up. "By my calculations we've come at least a mile!"

Rackbar nodded. "From the direction and angle of our descent, we must be under the lake now."

They all nodded at that, no-one was going to question a goblin on where you were headed underground.

The tunnel they were in was at least twice the size of the pipe they just came out of but the floor was just as wet and slimy. Casting light in either direction showed that the floor had been recently disturbed in one direction, but the other direction looked like it hadn't been disturbed in centuries, which made it obvious which way they had to go. A quick look around confirmed everyone's agreement and they headed out. Unfortunately Ron had revived Lockhart so they were still with them.

Even though it wasn't necessary, Remus reminded them. "Remember, look away if you see anything moving. You should really close your eyes, but that's probably just choosing another way to die."

Trying to lighten the mood, Angela responded. "Well that's a cheery thought, why are you my partner again?"

Harry tried to help turn the tone. "What's this? Neither of you have requested you liege lord's permission for this union!"

Angela smirked. "I must apologise my lord, I was under the impression that as your Regent I was able to bless the union myself."

Harry inclined his head. "Quite right, my apologies Madam Potter."

There were a few snickers from the twins and Hermione giggled, then they shut up to concentrate on the serious business in front of them.

Finding pieces of old sheep, cattle and bigger skeletons along the sides of the tunnel didn't add to their sense of security at all, because they had to look at each to see whether it looked like a small girl's, or recent. Luckily none of the skeletons they saw appeared newer than the last time the chamber was opened, or human, but a few might have been goblin bones.


They'd gone about a mile down this tunnel, carefully checking when other tunnels came in from the side, when they saw something large at the edge of the light being cast by their wands. With a quick look to confirm that they were all ready, Harry, Remus and Angela cast starburst charms at the shape that they could see and rushed forward, hoping to surprise it while it was blinded by the brilliant light of the starburst charms.

What they found was actually a vivid green shed snakeskin, but that didn't reassure them much because they knew that snakeskins were shed when the snake outgrows them, and this skin was already over twenty foot long. Harry started out again but Lockhart slumped as if he'd fainted and for some reason Ron tried to grab him. Lockhart moved faster than Harry had ever seen him as he snatched Ron's wand and stepped back.

"I told you that I wasn't coming down here but you bastards blasted me down that bloody pipe! There's no bloody way that I'm going up against something like that so I'm getting out of here. Now I'm afraid that I can't let any of you tell the story of how I ran away screaming like a little girl as that would damage my reputation and seriously hamper my income, so now I'm afraid that I'm going to have to show you what I'm really a master at. Don't worry, none of you will remember a thing, so it should be a quick way to go when the snake gets you. I'll just have to tell my heartfelt story about how the little girl was gone by the time we reached her, and how you were all so stricken with grief that you rushed in to attack the snake and tragically died before I had a chance to kill the monster."

Lockhart was preparing the spell to blast all of their memories as he talked, but he saw Harry coming at him out of the corner of his eye just before he released it and turned and blasted the spell at him instead. With any other wand it might have worked (well against someone else, it was questionable whether any spell aimed at Harry in malice would have worked), but he had Ron's dodgy, broken wand that blew back more often than not and when he tried to throw the powerful spell with it, it exploded with enough force to bring the ceiling of the tunnel down.

Harry had to turn and run to avoid being flattened by the falling ceiling as it filled the tunnel. When things had stopped falling, he came back as far as he could and tried calling out in hope of finding out how everyone else had fared. He heard enough to know that Lockhart got flattened but everyone else was OK aside from scrapes and bruises. He slumped in relief at that and then called back to say that he was going on to get Ginny.

They tried to get him to wait for them to get through but he pointed out that they didn't know how long she'd been down here or what was happening to her, so they stopped arguing and said that they'd clear the blockage and come after him as soon as they could. With that he turned and headed down the tunnel again.

About half a mile further on the tunnel ended in a chamber. What appeared to be a portal had two interlocked snakes carved into it. He didn't need two guesses to work out how to open it, he just hoped the command was what he expected. With that, he said. "Open." in parseltongue. He was at once relieved and terrified when the snakes slithered out of the way and the door leaves ponderously opened.


The long, narrow chamber that he stepped through the portal into with his heart in mouth and wand at ready was magically lit. He was swearing to himself as he moved carefully through the chamber, because it would take a miracle for him to see the basilisk when every column had serpents carved into it and the lighting cast a green glow over everything. It also didn't help that his imagination kept telling him that the carved snakes were moving. As well as the basilisk, he was looking for the one he'd come here for, but finding a small girl in there would be harder to than spotting a bloody great basilisk.

When he passed the last of the serpent columns, the chamber opened up in front of the massive bust of Salazar Slytherin, this bust went to the ceiling of the chamber, which by Harry's estimate made it at least thirty feet high. As impressive as Slytherin's monument to himself was, though, Harry's attention was captured by something much smaller off to the side of it, a small figure in black robes with flaming red hair.

Harry cried out "Ginny!" as he ran to her and dropped to his knees beside her. Laying there with her eyes closed, she didn't look like the ones who were petrified, but she was so deathly pale that he thought she was dead until she saw that she was faintly breathing. He started shaking her and calling her name until he heard a soft voice say. "She won't wake."

Harry jumped and twisted around to see a tall, black-haired boy leaning against the the base of Slytherin's bust, watching them. He didn't look quite right or quite all there and Harry thought his glasses must be misted up.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Tom, Tom Riddle."

He saw that that meant something to Harry and smirked.

"What do you mean, she won't wake?" Harry asked desperately.

"She's still alive." said Riddle. "But only just."

Harry stared at him, a little confused. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, slightly indistinct but not a day older than sixteen.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.

"No, a memory," said Riddle quietly. "One that was preserved in a diary for fifty years."

He pointed toward the floor near Ginny. Lying open there was a little black diary.

"You've got to help me Tom," Harry said, gathering Ginny into his arms. "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 me."

Riddle didn't make a move so Harry struggled to his feet with Ginny in his arms before bending to pick up his wand. But his wand had gone.

"Did you see….?"

He cut off his question when he saw Riddle. Riddle was still watching him, and he was twirling Harry's wand between his fingers.

"Thanks." said Harry, stretching out his hand for it.

A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Harry, twirling the wand idly.

"Listen," said Harry urgently, struggling to hold Ginny. "We've got to get out of here! If the basilisk comes…"

"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it to deal with that thing!"

Riddle's smile broadened.

"You won't be needing it," he said.

Harry stared at him. "What do you mean, I won't be needing it?"

"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle. "For the chance to see you. To speak to you."

"Look, we don't have time! We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later…."

"We're going to talk now," answered Riddle as he pocketed Harry's wand.

Harry stared at him and then lowered Ginny back to the floor. Obviously Riddle was behind this somehow.

"How did Ginny get like this?" he asked.

"Now, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly. "And quite a long story. I suppose the main reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and shared all her secrets with an invisible stranger."

"What are you talking about?"

"The diary, my diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes, how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second hand robes and books, how" Riddle's eyes glinted "How she didn't think the famous, good and great Harry Potter would ever like her . . . ."

As he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.

"It was boring really, 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 cold laugh. It made a chill go down Harry's back.

"If I do say so myself, Harry, I've always been quite good at charming the people I need. So little Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I kept growing stronger and stronger on 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 do you mean by that?" said Harry, his mouth suddenly very dry.

"Haven't you worked it out yet, Harry Potter?" Riddle laughed softly. "It was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school's roosters and wrote those threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on two Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat.

"No!" Harry whispered.

"Yes." Riddle replied calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. You should have seen her new diary entries ... they became far more interesting ... Dear Tom," he recited, watching Harry's horrified 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, l 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, my brother 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!"

"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," said Riddle. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. Now if you had gotten it I would have been happy. Because you were the person I was most anxious to meet . . . ."