CHAPTER 10

Summer gasped. It was true, Ginny had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets.

"No..." Ashley and Summer both said together before trailing back into the Gryffindor Tower.

"If only we'd waited for her." Summer whispered. "I wonder if she's still...alive."

"I honestly hope she is. Well we can't just give up now can we?" Ashley shrugged.

"No, we can't give up. She's our friend. Come on, we've got to get to the Chamber of Secrets!" Summer jumped off the sofa she'd been sitting on and raced through the portrait hole, Ashley right behind her.

"I'll go into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, you get the teachers! Hurry!" Summer told Ashley.

"No, we have to do this together!" Ashley shook her head.

"You have to get the teachers. I'll be okay. Go!" Summer said. Ashley nodded and ran off. Summer burst into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"Just to say, Harry and his friend and Professor Lockhart have just gone down that." Myrtle pointed to a sink that had sunken under the ground and a massive hole.

"Thanks, Myrtle!" Summer said before jumping into the hole. She slid down just as rocks began falling down! She jumped through it and right into Ron, Ginny's sister.

"Ow! Who the bloody hell are you?" Ron yelled.

"I'm Summer! I'm Ginny's friend!" Summer staggered back onto her feet and ran after Harry into a hole. She was 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.

Summer hid behind a stone pillar closest to the hole entrance. Summer saw Ginny lying on the ground beside a wizard, Harry was rushing to her.

"She won't wake." A chilling voice said.

A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, at though looking at him through a misted window.

"Tom — Tom Riddle?" Harry asked. Who was Tom Riddle? Summer thought.

"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not — she's not —?"

"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just." How can someone be only just alive? Summer thought.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.

"A memory," said Riddle 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 Summer had seen Ginny carrying around for the past few months.

"You've got to help me, Tom," Harry said. "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 move. Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again.

But his wand had gone.

"Did you see —?"

He looked up. Riddle was still watching him — twirling Harry's wand between his long 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, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. Summer took out her wand in case she needed it.

"We've got to go! If the basilisk comes —"

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

Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor.

"What d'you mean?" Harry said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it —"

Riddle's smile broadened.

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

Harry stared at him.

"What d'you mean, I won't be —?"

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

"Look," said Harry, losing patience, "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later —"

"We're going to talk now," said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry's wand.

Harry stared at him. There was something very funny going on here…

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

"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle 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?" said Harry.

"The diary," said Riddle. "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 secondhand robes and books, how —" Riddle's eyes glinted "— how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her…" Summer gasped.

All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face.

"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. Summer raised her wand, anger filling her.

"If I say it myself, 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?" said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

"No," Harry whispered.

"Yes," said Riddle, 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, "'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!'"

"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. 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…"

"And why did you want to meet me?" said Harry. Summer clenched her fists. She was a few seconds away from cursing Riddle.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Riddle.

"Crucio!" Summer screamed and pointed her wand at Riddle, she couldn't take it any longer. The Cruciatus Curse missed Riddle by just a bit. "Stay away from Ginny and Harry!"

END OF CHAPTER 10!

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~Bluefeather