A/n: Nearly forgot to update today... This marks the end of the 'two updates a week' thing; school starts again tomorrow (actually cries) and so I won't have as much time to write.

The Chamber of Secrets was a lot larger than the path leading up to it. The ceiling was a lot further up, the height of the room similar to that of the Great Hall. Clearly, Salazar Slytherin had spared no expense when creating his hidden masterpiece.

"A lot of effort to go to just for something no one'll ever see." Ash commented, eyeing the decorations critically.

The pathway they walked along was flanked on both sides by water, reflecting the green light of the chamber. On either side there were many columns, each made of a multitude stone serpents, entwined intricately from top to bottom.

Directly in front of them was a massive statue of a wizard, sitting grandly on a seat that resembled a throne more than a chair. Lying in front of that was a clump of black robes, dwarfed by the statue. The figure had the flaming red hair that confirmed her as Ginny Weasley.

"Ginny!" Harry shouted, running up to the girl. She was unconscious; not dead, but unresponsive to Harry's frantic shaking.

Ash stayed back for a bit. He had felt a strange aura, but was unable to pinpoint it. It felt like... Voldemort's disembodied face had done during the Philosopher's Stone adventure last year.

He knew that Voldemort was no longer living, but he had to find the source of his aura. If he'd found a way to leech off another person then he - 'oh'.

Ash slowly approached Ginny; he stood with closed eyes, horrified to find that her aura was being drained by something. 'But what?'

Then both he and Harry noticed the boy stood over by a pillar, leaning against it casually.

"Tom Riddle?" Harry exclaimed, looking over to the boy in confusion.

Indeed, it was who he remembered seeing in the memory. He was here, physically, outside the diary; he should be sixty now, but he looked not a day older than the boy in the memory.

In fact, he appeared exactly as he had done in the memory. Same face, same clothes, same black and white translucence. But, he was still in a physical form. 'What the...'

"Yes. Hello, Harry Potter. Good to meet you at last." Riddle came over to Harry as he spoke.

Ash frowned. The one that was siphoning Ginny's aura... was Riddle. He looked between the two with confusion. The memory was using Ginny's life force to keep itself alive? But why her? And, Ash realised as he saw that neither his nor Harry's auras were depleting, why only her?

Riddle had still not taken note of Ash's existence, concentrating solely on Harry. Ash used this to his advantage, placing his hands on Ginny and lending her some aura.

"But... you... you were in the diary! A memory!" Harry didn't comprehend Riddle's existence, and the confusion was overriding his need to help Ginny.

"I am a memory. I've been trapped in that diary for fifty years now, just waiting for the chance to escape." Riddle explained, only managing to further Harry's confusion. Now though, Harry was beginning to remember his reason for entering the chamber in the first place.

"We... we need to get her out of here!" Harry said, looking at Riddle. "We need to help Ginny!"

He dropped his wand, still out from his threatening of Lockhart, and scrambled over to Ginny. He tried to pick her up but couldn't, as she was being held down by Ash.

"I've longed for an opportunity to speak to you for quite some time now." Riddle chose to ignore the young girl's plight, "Stay a while and chat." he invited.

"What?" Thinking more clearly now, Harry realised that Riddle was in fact very suspicious. "How do you know about me?"

"Ginny has been talking all about you in the diary. She's been doing it all year; pouring her soul out, while I befriended her. And once I'd gained her trust, I started... pouring my soul out to her." Riddle looked over to Ginny with a laugh.

"I started being able to control her; make her do things. The messages on the wall, the chickens... all of it she did, under my influence. But then, she started wising up. She realised: what if the gaps in my memory have something to do with this diary? So, she threw me in that toilet." Harry glared at Riddle as he spoke, being so casual about controlling another's mind and actions.

"Then, who should I be rescued by but you?" Riddle laughed, "Just the man I've been looking for! I just have to know: how did you manage to defeat Voldemort?"

Harry frowned. "What do you know about Voldemort?"

Riddle seemed to find something in Harry's words highly amusing. "Everything." he stated. "For, you see, Voldemort is my past, present, and future."

At the blank look he received, Riddle elaborated, "Tom Marvolo Riddle." He wrote the words with Harry's wand as he said them, then flicked the letters to rearrange them. "I am Lord Voldemort." he read, "The greatest wizard of all time, of course."

Harry gasped. This was a younger version of the man who'd killed his parents? "You're wrong." he said, deciding to tackle Tom's last words first, "You're not the greatest wizard of all time. That's Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore?" Tom scoffed, "The man that was defeated by the mere memory of me?"

Harry didn't respond. Instead, the next words were spoken by Ash, alerting Riddle to his presence.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing into the sky.

Harry followed his finger, looking up in time to see Fawkes appear. The bird was carrying, of all things, the sorting hat.

Fawkes swooped down, dropping the hat by Harry's feet. The phoenix itself landed next to Ash, looking worriedly at the boy.

Ash was still trying to lend Ginny his aura, though it was getting increasingly difficult. The strain reminded him of his time in the Tree of Beginning, so he cut off his aura to preserve it. When he did, he noticed with alarm that the world spun slightly, and he had to place a hand on the floor for support.

"So, this is what Dumbledore sends his great defender." Riddle mocked, "A bird and an old hat."

Harry glared at him again, having been momentarily distracted by the arrival of Fawkes. "You know," Harry said, "I managed to defeat you when I was a baby because my mother, a muggle-born, managed to save me. So you're no better than Dumbledore."

Riddle growled. He opened his mouth, but didn't speak to Harry. Instead, the next words out of his mouth were in parseltongue.

"Come." He ordered.

Ash noticed at once that the wizard statue was moving. Stretching his remaining aura, he managed to see the vague outline of a creature.

"The basilisk!" he warned Harry, "Close your eyes, he's calling for it!"

Harry followed Ash's advice. He turned and ran, not looking back. Ash sat there and kept his eyes closed, seeing with his aura vision as the giant snake came into view.

"You'll pay for that." Riddle growled at Ash, angry that Harry had got a head start. "Kill the boy." The order was in parseltongue again.

Ash tried to stand, but couldn't. His aura had depleted too much; he could barely even sit up.

He scrambled backwards, but the basilisk was too fast. It caught up to him easily. Ash screamed as the basilisk's fangs tore through his flesh.

Harry called out Ash's name, but couldn't do anything to help. Turning round would only get him killed.

"Stop." Riddle ordered. The basilisk immediately dropped Ash's limp form, the force of being dropped causing him to skid along the floor and fall with a slight splash into the water.

"Now, get the other."

Harry barely had any time to react before he heard the basilisk sliding along the floor, getting louder the closer it got. 'This is it.' Harry thought, finding it slightly sad that he wouldn't even be able to face the thing that was about to kill him.

Just as he was sure the basilisk was going to kill him, it screamed out in pain. Harry had to concentrate on not opening his eyes, wishing dearly to know what was going on.

"No, stop that! What are you doing, you stupid bird?" Tom's exclamation, still in parseltonge, gave Harry an impression of what was going on.

A few minutes of squawks and screeches later, Harry couldn't take it anymore. Hesitantly, he opened one eye.

Only to find that he wasn't killed instantly. The basilisk had been blinded by Fawkes, and was unable to kill with a look anymore.

"Thanks Fawkes," Harry muttered, moving away from the action even further now that he could see again.

"It might not be able to see, but it can still hear!" Riddle announced, "Get him!"

Harry hid behind a column, trying to quieten his breathing. He noticed the sorting hat, still in his hands, and put it on.

Instead of hearing the voice of the hat inside his head, he heard the clunk of metal. He felt it too; a sword had just landed on his head.

Now armed, Harry chose to ignore how strange the sword's appearance was for now in favour of killing the basilisk. He came out from his hiding place, facing the basilisk.

The creature heard his footsteps, racing towards Harry to fill out it's master's orders. Harry raised his sword as the basilisk approached, jabbing it right through the roof of the creature's mouth. It pierced through to its head, killing it instantly.

Unfortunately, he didn't move quickly enough. One of the fangs had scratched his arm quite badly. The fang had snapped off as it cut Harry, landing on the floor next to him.

Riddle approached, looking at Harry with a smirk.

"You know something interesting about basilisk fangs?" he asked happily, "They're highly venomous. In fact, one bite, just like the one you've got there?" Riddle paused to examine Harry's wound. "You'll last a minute, at most. And I get to watch you die."

Harry panted, feeling the venom start to do its job. It spread a numbness up his arm, then hurt as though a fire was in his veins.

"Your friend over there?" Riddle continued when Harry had nothing to say. "Already dead, I imagine. Nothing can survive the venom of a basilisk."

Harry tried to keep up his glare, but found his vision going too blurry for him to even concentrate on Riddle's face. Fawkes came up to him, crying sadly.

"I'm sorry Fawkes." Harry said vaguely as he started to collapse further onto the floor, "I wasn't fast enough."

Riddle found great amusement in the bird's tears. "Look, even the bird is crying for you. It knows you're about to die."

As the tears started hitting Harry's arm, he noticed that the cut was starting to close. He remebered Dumbledore talking about Fawkes' powers as a phoenix, realising suddenly that he was being healed.

Riddle realised this too, trying to shoo the bird away. But it was too late, Harry had recovered. Fawkes flew off when its job was done, going over to where Ginny lay.

Riddle stared, outraged, at Harry's healed arm. He growled, drawing Harry's wand back quickly to cast a spell.

Before he managed it, Fawkes returned. The bird dropped Riddle's diary in Harry's hands. Harry realised that if Fawkes was bringing this to him now, it must hold the key to defeating Riddle.

Remembering what Riddle had said about basilisk venom, Harry grabbed the fang that had broken off when impaling him, thrusting it into the diary.

Immediately, Riddle stopped the spell. He screamed in pain, dropping the wand.

"No!" he gasped as Harry twisted the fang in the diary. Ink seeped out of the pages like blood as Riddle's image, once looking solid and almost colourful, started to fade.

"Stop!" Riddle screeched, a terrible high pitch sound that dragged out and faded away as Riddle disappeared completely.

Harry pulled the fang out once Riddle was gone. Over by the statue, Ginny stirred.

"Harry?" she said, looking dazedly over at him. "What-"

She stopped talking as she remembered the events that had led to her being unconscious on the chamber floor, sobbing now as she tried to convince Harry that she'd tried to stop it.

Harry hugged Ginny consolingly, trying to calm her. Eventually he got her to stop crying, and the two walked over to Fawkes.

Fawkes was stood over the still body of Ash, crying into his wound. It looked bigger than Harry's, several large piercings round his shoulders that appeared to have gone in quite deep, but missed his internal organs.

When Fawkes stopped his tears, the gaping holes in Ash's skin looked considerably smaller, but still bad. They weren't bleeding anymore, so Harry guessed that he would be okay.

"Ugh." Ash groaned as he gained consciousness, opening his eyes as he tried to sit up in the water. "This is freezing." he complained, shivering a little as he stood up.

"How do you feel?" Ginny asked, looking more than a little concerned.

"Like Bianca just ran into me." Ash muttered. The other two stared at him. "She's someone in Unova. She always ends up knocking me into bodies of water accidentally." he explained, noticing their confusion.

Harry held out a hand to Ash to help him out of the water, then the thee bedraggled, dirty children started making their way back to Cilan and Ron.

The three arrived to the sight of a few rocks, and Cilan's whole team of pokemon.

"Just wait a minute and we'll be done." Cilan said, grabbing a rock and shifting it. "There's only a few left."

With those words, Pansage grabbed the last rock and tossed it behind him, nearly squashing Ron in the process. Cilan returned all his pokemon while Ash, Harry and Ginny made their way through the cleared path.

"Ginny!" Ron shouted, hugging his sister tightly, "I can't believe it! You're alive!"

Ron looked thankfully over to Harry, frowning slightly at his appearance. "Blimey mate. Looks like you've been in a fight." he commented.

"I have." Harry deadpanned, "With a basilisk."

"Wicked!" Ron grinned, letting go of Ginny and moving over to high-five Harry.

As Ron and Harry reunited, Ash made his way over to Cilan.

"Hi." he said, swaying slightly. He still hadn't quite recovered from the events in the chamber and felt ready to fall asleep right there.

"Gosh! What happened?" Cilan asked, steadying Ash by grabbing his shoulders.

"Oh. Just got nearly bit in half by a basilisk. Nothing big." Ash said sarcastically, "I'm fine now though," he assured Cilan, "Fawkes' tears healed me."

Cilan nodded, looking over at the phoenix. It had followed Harry through the passage on the way back from the chamber.

"So." Ron said, looking at the others, "How are we going to get out?"