Tonight Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 comes out and I'm super excited as I have midnight tickets. Anyways, here's the next chapter.
The slide down the pipe was very unpleasant; it was dark and slimy and felt like a straight drop down. Behind him, he could hear Lockhart and Ron screaming their heads off. Harry couldn't see two feet in front of him and was beginning to worry about the end of the pipe when it slowly started to level out. He can out hard on the stone floor and slowly got to his feet with a groan. Daniel came out just after him and rolled on the ground before standing. Lockhart and Ron finally came shooting out of the pipe and got to their feet, with Lockhart stumbling a bit.
Harry looked around to see where they were. The stone room where they were wasn't very big but it was tall with the walls covered in slime, as were the four wizards. A single large, dark tunnel led away from the pipe's exit and deeper into the Chamber. The floor was covered with small animal bones. Remembering the new message on the wall, Harry feared for his friend's fate. The tunnel was long with the only light coming from their wands and the only sound was of the crunch of bones as they stepped on them.
Ahead of them was something large and curved, but not moving. Ron kept back, holding his wand on Lockhart, while Harry and Daniel crept closer to the thing. Once they got closer, they could see what it was; a gigantic, poisonous green snake skin was lying curled up on the floor. Harry gulped at the confirmation of his belief on what the monster was. Daniel's face, which had been pale before, was now ghost white at the thought of meeting a very large snake. There was a scuffle behind them. Lockhart had grabbed Ron's wand and was now pointing it at them.
"The adventure ends here boys. I'll take a bit of this skin back up to the school and tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you lost your minds at the sight of her poor mangled body. Say good-bye to your memories. Obliviate!"
Harry leaped back, trying to avoid the spell. He needn't have bothered. For some reason, the wand exploded, causing a small avalanche in the cave. When the dust settled, he and Daniel were on one side of a rock wall while Lockhart and Ron were nowhere to be seen.
"Ron! Are you okay?" While Harry looked towards the ceiling, preparing for another cave-in, Daniel was trying to see if his best friend was alright.
"I'm okay, thought this git isn't. He got blasted by his own spell, doesn't even know who he is."
"Try and shift some of the rocks so that we can get through. In the meantime, me and Harry will try and find Ginny."
After receiving an approval from Ron, Daniel and Harry continued their journey. After a short walk, they reached the end of the tunnel which had a vault door guarded by two snakes. Harry spoke the password in Parseltongue and the snakes' eyes gleamed as the door opened, granting the Potter brothers entrance to the true Chamber of Secrets. The Chamber was very tall, being held up by dozens of snake statues. Daniel whimpered behind him. At the other end of the Chamber was a tall statue of a monkeyish man and at its feet was Ginny.
Daniel rushed forward, but Harry held back, something was off here. Looking around the Chamber, he couldn't see either the Basilisk or the Heir, where were they? He slowly walked over to Daniel, who was trying to revive Ginny, still looking around the dark Chamber.
"She won't wake," came a soft voice.
A tall sixteen year old boy with black hair was watching them. Even in the dark, Harry could see the serpent crest on his robes. No doubt this was the Heir of Slytherin, but Harry had never seen him before, who was he? Daniel answered that question for him.
"Tom? Tom Riddle?"
Harry was confused. Helena had told him that Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he was, looking not a day older than sixteen. Something wrong was definitely going on around here. Looking closer, Harry could see the resemblance between Tom, him, and his brother. Yet Tom looked strangely different than anyone else, he was blurred around the edges, like he was having difficulty seeing him. Was he a ghost? That would explain why he didn't look like he had aged fifty years.
Tom seemed to be able to read Harry's mind because he answered, "I'm a memory, preserved in a diary for fifty years." He pointed towards a familiar black book. The same book Daniel had before it was stolen and Harry had Neville try and steal. Harry's worry started to grow. Daniel tried to persuade Tom to help them, but he showed no sign in wanting to.
"How did Ginny get like this?"
At Daniel's question, Harry looked at Ginny. She was quite pale, almost deathlike. He looked back at Riddle, who had an unnatural smile on his face.
"It's a very interesting story, but the answer is because little Ginny Weasley had been writing to me, in my diary for months now. She told me all of her worries and woes, about her brothers tease her, coming to Hogwarts with secondhand things, and how the good, great Daniel Potter wouldn't even look at her, despite all of the attention she gave him. It's been very annoying listening to the troubles of an eleven-year-old girl, but I was sympathetic and kind and wrote back to her. She ended up pouring her soul into me, which was exactly what I wanted. I began to feed her some of my secrets, and because of it, she opened the Chamber of Secrets."
Daniel had a horrified look on his face, but everything was slowly starting to move into place for Harry. Small clues were now falling into place. Tom Riddle really was the Heir of Slytherin and had framed Hagrid fifty years ago, and used Ginny this time because he was unable to for some reason. The diary held the key. Meanwhile, Tom's story continued.
"Stupid little Miss Weasley began to stop trusting her diary after a while. She tried to dispose of it and then you came in. Ginny told me all about your fascinating history, how at one year old you survived the darkest wizard to ever walk to face of the earth. I knew that I had to meet you, talk to you if I could, so of course I showed you the capture of Hagrid to gain your trust. I'm still surprised that even after all of these years, people still think that oaf had the brains or the power to open the Chamber."
"I knew!" Both Riddle and Daniel turned to Harry. "The Grey Lady told me all about you at Hogwarts, especially your capture of Hagrid. I knew right away that he hadn't done it. And I bet I'm not the only one."
"Daniel Potter's little brother. Little Ginny told me about you too, how kind you were, how caring your friends were. It took a while to get my control back over Miss Weasley because of you. I laughed when I got my revenge when Ginny petrified your little Mudblood friend."
Harry's blood boiled when he insulted Hermione. He gripped his wand, ready to attack Riddle, but he didn't notice, already going back to Daniel.
"Your brother is right of course. Professor Dumbledore knew it wasn't Hagrid, he was already suspecting me. I knew it wasn't safe to open the Chamber while still at school with him watching me. So I created this little diary to get someone to do the dirty work for me. But I'm no longer concerned with attacking muggleborns when the biggest question is how you escaped being killed by Lord Voldemort."
"Why do you care how I escaped, Voldemort was after your time."
Riddle's smile turned very nasty. Using Ginny's wand, her wrote his full name in the air. Then, with a wave of the wand, the truth was revealed; Tom Marvolo Riddle was Lord Voldemort. He then began to gloat, insulting his own father and Dumbledore, claiming his powers were the strongest in the world because he had chased Dumbledore out of the castle as a memory.
"You're not the greatest sorcerer in the world, its Albus Dumbledore. And he's not as gone as you might think. Not as long as those who remain are loyal to him."
Daniel's words seemed to scare Riddle a bit. Suddenly the Chamber was filled with a beautiful song and a large red bird flew into the Chamber. Recognizing a phoenix from pictures, Harry watched Fawkes fly around the Chamber, his song filling him with hope. Making one final circle, he dropped the old Sorting Hat into his arms before landing on Daniel's shoulder. He stared at the objects before launching into a loud laugh that shook the Chamber.
"Now boys, let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, heir of Salazar Slytherin against the Potter Brothers." He then spoke to the statue in a hiss, summoning the monster.
"Run Daniel, he's summoning a Basilisk! Keep your eyes closed or you will die."
Both boys took off running, and Fawkes took to the air. Ducking behind a pillar, Harry heard the beast crash onto the floor of the Chamber.
"Kill the boys!"
Riddle's voice was now cold and high; it sounded just like Voldemort from last year. He could hear the Basilisk moving on the ground, heading away from him, towards Daniel. He knew neither of them stood a chance against a Basilisk, but he had to rescue his brother. Remembering the Hat in his hands, and knowing that Fawkes wouldn't have brought it if it wasn't useful, he slammed it on his head as asked for help.
Surprisingly, the Hat answered. "This may be of some use to you. Remember the story."
Taking off the Hat, Harry looked inside. There was a small silver disk. Holding it in his palm, he didn't know how this would help against the King of the Serpents when it started to grow. Suddenly in his hand wasn't a small disk, but a large silver shield. Fawkes flew down and grabbed the Hat. Remembering the story of Perseus and Medusa, Harry leaped around the pillar, shouting.
He knew his shouting had caught the attention of the Basilisk, he could feel its gaze even hidden behind the shield. There was a loud screeching sound and all movement stopped. Knowing it was stupid; Harry peeked out from behind the shield and saw the Basilisk with his own two eyes. It was enormous, bright and poisonous green with a body as thick as an oak tree. It eyes were bright yellow and unmoving. Hearing a hissing noise, Harry first thought that the snake was still alive, but realized it was coming from his shield. The Basilisk's gaze had melted the shield, but upon looking at its reflection, the beast was petrified; ironic.
Behind it he could see Daniel with a long, gleaming silver sword with large rubies in the handle. Seeing the snake frozen, Daniel charged, and with one quick slice, the Basilisk was beheaded, just like Medusa from Greek mythology. Riddle's screams of fury rang throughout the Chamber, his face full of uncontained rage as he looked at the remains of his ancestor's great creature.
"I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!" He pointed his wand at Daniel and was prepared to fire a curse when Harry fired his own spell at him. Riddle quickly turned his attention towards the threat while Harry shouted at Daniel to destroy the diary. Fear flooded through Riddles face as he watched Daniel run towards the diary. He once more turned but was unable to stop Daniel from stabbing the diary with the sword. With a dreadful, piercing scream, Tom Riddle vanished in an explosion of gold light.
I hope you all liked this end of Riddle. As you may have noticed, I have a thing for mythology, and I will be putting some parts of it in my story, but only where it's creditable, like Fluffy or the Basilisk. A reminder, Harry couldn't get the sword because he's not a Gryffindor, and the shield was just a plain shield, nothing special or magical about it, it's just a simple silver shield. Just one more chapter in second year and it's on to the summer and some major plot points. Hurray!