IINSY Chapter 7

May 29, 1993 - morning

It had been three weeks since the last attack, today, the mandrakes were being cut and the potion to heal those that had been petrified was being started by Snape. It would stew overnight, and be administered in the morning, and we would know what was behind the attacks. Whispers were still going around that Vaughn was the heir, and the only reason the attacks stopped was because she was never alone. Vaughn had taken it as well as she could, brushing it off. In truth, the Slytherins had been the most tolerant of the escorting around the school, being the only house no one had snuck out of yet. When homework required books from the library, students were glad to make a list of the books, and send a few students with Professor Snape to get them, and there were two hours after classes when the room was nearly silent due to homework.

However, today was Saturday. No one had homework, the latest book run had not lasted long among the students, and students were now occupying themselves with whatever they could get their hands on. For Vaughn and Draco this meant learning the ancient Chinese art of origami, much to the amusement of Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, and Pansy, who had joined their group in the last week. Vaughn and Draco, after a few hours had small armies of origami animals, which were soon enough engaged in battle with small movements from Draco and Vaughns' wands. Seven of Vaughn's paper crabs were overtaking Draco's crane as the buzzing returned, making her army fall limp as she cradled her head in her hand for a moment before the pain subsided to nothing.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked.

Vaughn smiled and lifted her four remaining birds in the air, and her other origami creatures circled his, "I'm fine, but you're going lose."

Draco didn't seem to believe her, but they were soon entirely focused on the battle. Draco ended up winning, his crane throwing her rabbit into the fireplace, but the entire common room was well entertained.

It was then time for lunch, and with a little help, the scraps of paper were disposed of, and the Slytherins filed out of the room and made their way to the Great Hall, and the buzzing returned. Draco didn't miss her wince this time, "Seriously, are you alright."

"I'm fine," Vaughn insisted, confused that the buzzing was different this time, pulsing rather than a steady buzz.

Draco gave her a look, "I know you better than that."

She wanted to argue, but saw that stubborn look in his eye that meant he wasn't going to let it go, and conceded, "The buzzing's back."

"You think there's going to be another attack?" Draco asked quietly.

Vaughn thought for a moment before whispering back, "No… it's different this time."

"Are you going to tell Snape?" Draco said, seeing the look on her face.

"No," She said pushing her food around on her plate, suddenly not hungry anymore, "I', going to investigate it on my own."

"Are you insane? You know we aren't allowed out of the common room on our own." Draco whispered.

"I know that, but I don't think I'm going to find the monster, just the heir. I'll be fine." She closed her eyes and waited for the pull, but it didn't come. She opened her eyes and was in the Slytherin common room, and it was that sepia color.

She watched as Snape came through the door to find Draco alone in the common room, all the others had gone to bed. A version of herself walked through the door, and Draco jumped up and hugged her, "You bloody idiot, you could have died, are you okay?"

"A few scrapes, and I'm a little shaken, but nothing else." She said hugging him back.

Vaughn closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she was back in the Great Hall, and Draco, the goons, Blaise and Pansy were staring at her. She looked at them curiously, "What?"

"You looked like you were choking on something," Blaise supplied.

"Oh, I guess that's what happens when I have a vision." Vaughn shrugged, then explained, "I'm a Seer."

They seemed a little concerned that she hadn't told them before, but the next thing asked were, "What was the vision of?"

Vaughn looked Draco in the eye, "I saw that everything is going to work out. So don't worry that pretty little blonde head of yours."

Evening

The buzzing had grown urgent and Vaughn was starting to feel a faint pull right before dinner and made her plan to escape. She went to the girl's bathroom in the dorms and hid as the rest of the house left, telling the boys she had to talk with one of the older girls. As soon as they were gone, she pulled out her wand and made her way out of the common room on her own, hiding in the halls that led off the path to the Great Hall, and watched from the shadows as all four houses entered the Great Hall, and Filch closed the door with a resounding thud.

Vaughn took a deep breath and let the pull lead her up the stairs, in a similar fashion to last time, though now she felt ready to face whatever she was found. Strangely, it seemed to be Moaning Myrtle's bathroom once again. On the landing below the bathroom she broke into a run, stopping abruptly when she saw a person writing on the wall in fresh blood under the first message. Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever. That was the added bit on the wall. What was more shocking was the person, Ginny Weasley, who hadn't noticed she was standing not ten feet from her.

Vaughn lost it, "You're the heir, no wonder you were so desperate to have everyone believe I was the heir. It was just some sick plan of yours to remove blame from you, wasn't it."

Ginny turned around looking amused, and Vaughn paled.

"You aren't Ginny," Vaughn whispered. Her eyes were currently a bright blue, which was NOT the color they had always been. Her eyes were brown, she knew because Draco said that she didn't look half bad, but would look better if she had blue eyes like Ron and the two eldest Weasley brothers. Why Draco knew the eye colors of the Weasleys was beyond her, but it didn't seem important at the moment.

"Very observant, you must be that troublesome girl that Ginny's always talking about. Vaughn Milthorpe, I believe." The voice wasn't Ginny's. It wasn't female, and it definitely wasn't an eleven year-olds voice.

"Yeah, I'm Vaughn. Who the hell are you?" Vaughn said suddenly realizing the man in Ginny's body had Ginny's wand trained at her throat, and she had dropped her own in shock.

"Come on, girl, swearing will get you no where." The voice spoke calmly, walking over and picking up her wand, "You'll find out who I am soon enough, though I do have to change this."

A wave of a wand changed the newest line on the wall: Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber forever.

"You're going to kill both of us?" Vaughn asked as magic was used to clean off Ginny's hands.

"Unfortunately, yes. I can't have you messing with my plans, and besides, you may be able to hide it from everyone else," The voice was far too amused at this point, "I know you're a mudblood."

Vaughn flinched at the word, "I won't go with you."

"Doesn't the little Slytherin want to see the famous Chamber of Secrets and meet it's monster?" The voice teased, "Besides, you either go in of your own accord and I give you a short death in a few hours, or I knock you out, drag you down there myself, and torture you to death in a few hours. Your choice, mudblood."

Vaughn seriously thought about resisting, but didn't like the sound of being around this man in a girl's body when she was unconscious, "I'll go willingly."

Ginny smiled, picked up a book off the ground, a grubby old diary by the look of it, and pointed to the bathroom door with her wand, "Get in there."

Vaughn followed the directions, Ginny's wand inches from the back of her neck and waited once she was in. A simple locking charm was put on the door, and Ginny walked over to one of the sinks and hissed. The sinks sunk into the floor revealing a hole in the floor that was a pipe that went down ten feet and turned sharply. Ginny smiled, "Clever place really, who in their right mind would think the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was in here. I only knew where it was because I was told where it was. Ladies first."

Vaughn gave him/her a funny look, confirming it was a man in Ginny's body, and jumped into the pipe. The ride was dirty, and the pipe had a stale smell to it, but it was longer than she thought it would be and fell ungracefully at the end of the tube in a pile of something that she didn't even want to know what it was. She stood and Ginny's body soon took her place on the pile, and her captor allowed her to wipe the dust of her clothes as he did the same to Ginny. If she had her wand she would have called him a pervert, but she was uncomfortable saying that when he could easily decide to torture her.

The walked through the giant underground halls, every once and a while, they would come to a dead end, Ginny would hiss, and the wall would open to a new chamber, and close after they walked through. Vaughn started second guessing her earlier vision, how the hell was she going to get out of this? Finally, the corridor opened up into a huge room, the far wall with a gigantic statue of Salazar Slytherin's head, and columns in two rows along the length of the room. Vaughn hadn't even realized she had stopped moving, until she felt someone grab her arm.

"Come on, we're almost there." Her captor said as he dragged her through the room, stopping in front of the statue of Salazar and pushed Vaughn to the ground, a move she hadn't been expecting, and scraped her palms on the stone floor. Ginny set the book on the floor, and Vaughn tried to get control in the situation, she peeled her wand from Ginny's hand and tried to use a stunner. It was blocked by a spell she hadn't learned. She was disarmed, which knocked her off her feet, and she cursed that the school uniform was a skirt, her knees were scrapped up. She stood again, not willing to go down without a fight, and dodged another spell.

The book's pages were suddenly flipping, and Ginny's eyes returned to normal, before she collapsed. However, a figure emerged from the book, a tall dark haired boy, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, with bright blue eyes. He picked up Ginny's wand, and smiled, "You have a lot of fight in you, don't you? I thought it would be more satisfying to defeat you in my own form."

"I can see through you," Vaughn said, "What are you?"

He smiled, "You can call me Tom, Tom Marvolo Riddle. As for what I am, I'm a memory of the sixteen year old version of the world's darkest wizard, Lord Voldemort."

Vaughn realized where it came from, "Tom Marvolo Riddle, the letters were changed around to I am Lord Voldemort."

"Ah, you don't seem so confident now. Go ahead, pick up your wand, this should be entertaining as I wait for my body to fully materialize." Tom said, smirking.

Vaughn picked up her wand, and he blocked three of her spells before hitting her with a strange spell, she didn't know what it was, but he said 'crucio' and her entire body was on fire. She refused to scream though, and after nearly a full minute she was released from the spell. She took a few staggering breaths, stood up and squared her shoulders, she wouldn't give up, no matter how much that last spell had hurt. Tom had her wand again.

He walked over, grabbed her and pushed her onto the ground next Ginny, pointing Ginny's wand at her feet and spelling them to the ground. He looked at her and smiled, "I have some business to attend to with the Slytherin monster, and can't have you running off. Ginny might come around, but don't worry, she'll be too weak to help you, I am absorbing her life."

He walked off into one of the dark corners of the room, and disappeared into the darkness, and Vaughn began to panic. She was going to die down here, and no one could save her.

Teacher's Lounge

The four heads of house had just returned to the Lounge. Sprout reported that her whole house was in the common room, as did Flitwick. McGonagall sighed, "Ginevra Weasley is missing."

All of the teachers were shocked, and Sprout said, "The wall said 'their', doesn't that mean that there's more than one person down in the Chamber?"

"Vaughn Milthorpe is missing as well." Snape said and the room went silent, confused as to how two girls that hated each other would both go missing.

McGonagall turned to Lockhart, "Well, you've been saying all year how you know where the Chamber is and how you can kill the monster. Go and prove yourself."

Lockhart looked confused, "What, now?"

"Yes, while the girls may still be alive." McGonagall told him, and he reluctantly left the room.

"What if he gets killed?" Sinistra asked McGonagall.

"I'm sure the students will happily dance on his grave."

Slytherin Common Room

"Draco, she'll be fine, she said she saw that she would in her vision." Blaise assured the weary Draco.

"Seeing is more luck than fact, she could've been wrong." Draco said.

Blaise felt strongly that Vaughn could make it through anything, for Merlin's sake she had beaten up another student and still gotten off easy with Snape, so he told Draco so in the best way he could, "Alright, if she dies, I'll snog with both Crabbe and Goyle."

This caught Draco's attention, as well as the goons, and Crabbe said, "We won't let you snog us."

Blaise laughed, "If I lose the bet, which there is no way in hell I won't, I will put both of you in a full body bind and snog you until you admit you two are gay."

Quite the statement when Blaise himself was straight, although everyone had their suspicions that the two goons were gay, and both of them protested that fact and left the group to go sulk in a corner.

First Floor Corridor

Ron and Harry drug Lockhart up the staircase, Lockhart fighting the whole way.

Ron was extremely unsympathetic, "What happened to the brave hero who fought banshees, and vampires, and werewolves, and hags and-"

"Fine, I admit it, I didn't do any of that, I stole it from the people who did and changed their memory." Lockhart admitted, "Now can I leave?"

"Sorry, but McGonagall said you had to go fight the monster, so here you go." Harry said, glad to finally get his revenge on the man who wanted him to be focused on reaping glory. They pushed him into the girls' bathroom, which Lockhart protested, and Harry opened, and students volunteered him to be the first into the Chamber.

Chamber of Secrets

It had been almost an hour, and Ginny stirred, and looked around, then saw Vaughn. Her mouth opened, and a minute later she seemed to find the words to speak, "I'm sorry, you shouldn't have been dragged into this."

"I more or less brought myself into this. Don't apologize, it's a sign of weakness." Vaughn responded and helped Ginny prop herself up, "So, have you been Tom's puppet all year."

"Yeah, I kept on blacking out, and afterwards find out there was an attack. After the wall I found my hands covered with blood." She cast her eyes down, and they landed on the diary, "I found that in my book bag, and I started writing in it, and Tom wrote back. He became my best friend, and then I started having the black outs. I tried to get rid of it on Valentine's day before you and me…"

Vaughn nodded, "How did you get it back?"

"Harry found it, I don't know how, but he found it. I didn't want Tom using him as a puppet, so I stole it back and was afraid to try to get rid of it after my first try failed." Ginny answered, "And then it kept calling me, and I ended up writing it. Next thing I knew, Hermione and Penelope are in the hospital wing, all because of me. Today the last thing I remember is dropping the book and it landing open."

Vaughn felt bad for Ginny, and gave her a reassuring hug as best she could without really being able to move, "I know, it's not really your fault. It's Tom."

Ginny stared at her leg, "How did that happen?"

"I caught Tom while he was possessing you, he took me down here, and I wouldn't stop fighting so he spelled me here. Oh, he sort of has his own body now." Vaughn added, "He's sucking the life out of you, you'll die, and he'll kill me. Probably torture me to death."

Ginny was quiet for a whole minute, and getting paler and paler, "The only reason I was blaming you is because I didn't want to believe it was me that was acting as the heir. I didn't really hate you that much either, Tom just…"

"Fed your anger?" Vaughn finished as she began nodding off, "It's alright, I don't blame you. The Valentine was cruel though."

"Fred's idea," Ginny smiled as she slumped on the floor, slowly dying. Vaughn sighed, at least she had let Ginny die with smile on her face.

-

(A/N: Alright, next chapter will have a lot of action in it, so expect it to be a few days for me to actually write it. Please review, and also, IF YOU HAVE TIME: there's a poll on my profile page, please take it, I want your imput!)