Disclaimer: Anything familiar to JKR's books probably comes from there and is hers not mine. Also, Harry Potter, Hogwarts, the Wizarding World, and anything else that has to do with it belongs to the lovely JK Rowling, not me. I'm just playing in her sandbox and building my own Hogwarts in it.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Harry walked down the tunnel to the tunnel to the entrance to the Chamber, and wondered what he would find when he walked through the door in the wall. Would Ginny be awake, or would she be out cold with something else there besides Sebae? Could there be a third party in this entire thing?

When he stood before the doors, Harry held his wand in front of him and opened them, entering slowly and cautiously. He walked on until he caught sight of the statue of Slytherin he knew that Sebae was resting in. At the feet of Slytherin was a black and red pile of something.

Instead of running to her, he continued on cautiously, but he did move a lot more quickly than before. The moment he got to Ginny, Harry turned so that his back was to the statue before kneeling beside his friend and checking to see if she was alive. He could feel her heart beating slowly under his hand as he placed it over her heart and she was breathing shallowly; weak but alive.

A footstep made his head flash up, and Harry was greeted by the sight of a Slytherin with a Prefect's badge on his robes who looked to be around the age of sixteen or so. He had black hair that was arranged neatly and his face was pale; he could actually be called handsome.

"Who are you?" Harry asked, lifting his wand to point it at the mysterious Slytherin that certainly wasn't a Slytherin that Harry knew, and Harry recognized every student in the school by sight at the very least.

"I'm Tom Marvolo Riddle," the boy replied in a soft, smooth voice.

"So you did frame Hagrid fifty years ago; you opened the Chamber back then," Harry snapped as he realized quickly where he knew that name from.

While Harry was saying that, his mind was flying through all the information he knew. Tom Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets the last time, only a Parselmouth could get into the Chamber, the only other known Parselmouth was Voldemort, and Sebae had made it sound like there had only been two other speakers who had made her attack students, yet that sounded like something Voldemort would do.

That was when it hit Harry: Tom Riddle had to be Voldemort. He didn't know how he knew, but he just knew he was right, and that made it so that he might possibly be in over his head, yet he didn't care; he couldn't let Ginny die down here just because she had been used by Lord Voldemort.

"So you already know about my last triumph down here. That's very good," Riddle said while a smug smile came to his face, making it look a lot less handsome and a lot more evil.

"What are you, then?" Harry asked. "You can't be sixteen now, not when it's been over fifty years."

"A memory," Riddle replied, "preserved in a diary for fifty years."

Riddle pointed to a black diary on the floor right next to Harry, who was still kneeling on the floor beside Ginny with his wand pointed at Riddle. Harry blinked in surprise when he realized that it was the same diary he had seen Ginny writing in when she was not using her Journal.

"Ginny Weasley has been writing in it all year, and I've been writing back," Riddle informed Harry as he saw Harry's confusion. "She poured in all her deepest darkest secrets, hopes, and dreams, giving me a part of her soul. Then, I began putting some of myself back into her, just little tidbits of my life, supposedly trusting her with them."

"You've been possessing her all year," Harry realized. "All those times I saw her with red mixed in with her brown eyes, you've been in her mind, controlling her, making her open the Chamber and set loose the basilisk in here to attack the students. Now you're using her to make it so that you're not just a memory anymore; you're stealing her life force to bring you to life."

"Correct," Riddle replied, a bit impressed that Harry had figured it all out, if his face said anything.

"Why the Purebloods? You're supposed to be after Muggle-borns, Riddle," Harry asked, needing to know why Maya and Luna had been targeted.

"As a warning to the school that anyone can be attacked," Riddle said with a dark smile on his face. "It also was punishment for little Ginny, here, who needed to be reminded who was in control. She had been fighting me for too long, and I was tired of it."

"So Maya and Luna were examples and a punishment for Ginny just because she was being Ginny? Thanks for letting me know," Harry said with a sharp tone to his voice.

"If you must think of it like that, I guess they were," Riddle said with a nod, though it was obvious to Harry that he didn't think of like that, nor did he care who lived or died as long as he won.

"What do you want from me?" Harry demanded.

"I wish to know how you – a skinny boy with not extraordinary magical talent – managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time. How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?" Riddle demanded, the look on his face telling Harry that he had wanted to know this for a long time.

"Wouldn't you like to know, Voldemort?" Harry sneered. "I think I prefer Tom for you. It's more fitting."

"Tom Riddle, the silly name of my silly Muggle father who abandoned me before I was even born because he found out my mother was a witch," Riddle said in disgust. "No, I wouldn't keep that name, so I fashioned myself a new name, one that I knew all of the Wizarding World would fear on day."

Riddle pulled Ginny's wand out of his pocket and wrote in the air with it, forming burning red letters.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

He then swished the wand, and Harry watched as they reformed into new words.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

"So you see, only my closest friends ever called me that in school, but I used it even back then. Now it is feared as I became the most feared and the most powerful wizard in the world!" Riddle laughed quietly.

"You're wrong," Harry snapped, making Riddle shut up. "Albus Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard in the world. Even now you're hiding from him!"

"Albus Dumbledore has been run out of this school by the mere memory of me!" Riddle retorted.

"Ha! Dumbledore will only be truly gone when no one loyal to him is left at Hogwarts, and I promise you that it won't happen for a long while!" Harry laughed. "Besides, I bet he saw right through you back when you were a kid."

Riddle opened his mouth to retort when a song filled the Chamber and a ball of flame burst into being by the statue of Slytherin. Harry and Riddle both watched as Fawkes flew down to Harry and threw the Sorting Hat down at his feet before landing on Harry's shoulder.

"An old song bird and the old Sorting Hat…" Riddle mused. "This is the best Dumbledore can send his champion? Pathetic. Well, Potter, let's see how well you can do against the power of Lord Voldemort, the Heir of Slytherin, with the best Dumbledore could give you since it is obvious I won't be getting anything more from you."

Harry added silently: Lord Voldemort, Heir of Slytherin, against Harry Potter, Champion of Albus Dumbledore, and the Chosen Heir of Slytherin.

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four," Riddle hissed, but Harry could understand everything he said and was fighting back a smile.

Harry didn't even watch as Riddle freed Sebae but grabbed the Sorting Hat at his knees and stood up slowly, trying not to make Fawkes sway too much on his shoulder if he could help it.

With the Sorting Hat in his left hand and his wand in his right, Harry looked up at Sebae as she landed on the floor of the Chamber at the feet of Slytherin.

"Yes, Master?" she asked, obviously talking to Harry, but Riddle thought he meant her.

"Kill him!" he hissed darkly with a smug tone to it.

Harry let his lips curve upward slightly as he saw that Sebae hadn't moved a muscle, but he didn't move them much because he didn't want Riddle to see. Sebae wouldn't do anything to harm him, Harry, because he was the Chosen Heir and had been very kind to her.

"Kill him!" Riddle yelled at Sebae in Parseltongue, but she just ignored him.

Harry started wishing for a way to defeat Riddle, anything to defeat him. He just knew that he had to do something or Ginny would die, and he hadn't come this far to let that happen.

"KILL HIM!" Riddle yelled as loud as he could, getting very desperate.

Harry's hand tightened around the Sorting Hat in his left hand as he wished with all his heart, even the Gryffindor portion, for a way to save Ginny.

To Harry's surprise, something solid suddenly appeared in the Hat. Reaching over with his right hand, which still had his wand in it, Harry was surprised to realize it was a hilt he was touching, one larger than his Dagger, which meant…

Harry pulled out a sword with rubies in the hilt, and he caught the sight of two words on it: Godric Gryffindor.

Tom Riddle saw Harry pull out the sword and laughed a laugh that made it feel like there were ten of him instead of just the one, but Harry wasn't afraid.

Ever since he had found Slytherin's Dagger, Harry had been reading everything there was to know about the Founders, and he knew for a fact that Godric's sword was also goblin-made, which meant…

"Bite," Harry hissed to Sebae as he raised the sword towards her. Sebae immediately moved to bite the sword, and Harry watched as the basilisk venom was absorbed by the sword just as it had been by his Dagger.

Harry barely noticed the worried and confused look on Riddle's face when Sebae did as he had ordered while she hadn't listened to Riddle. All Harry could think about was that he knew how to get rid of Tom Riddle now. A dark smile crossed Harry's face as he met Riddle's eyes, and for once, Tom Riddle, a.k.a. Lord Voldemort, showed fear in his eyes.

"Goodbye, Tom Marvolo Riddle," Harry said just before he stabbed towards the ground with Gryffindor's sword, impaling Riddle's diary with it.

Harry, Fawkes, and Sebae watched as Riddle yelled out in pain and disappeared even while ink exploded out of the diary like blood. Ginny's wand fell to the ground where Tom had been before, but Harry wasn't even looking as he dropped to his knees beside Ginny again and waited for her to, hopefully, wake up.

Then, the redhead stirred, and Harry let out a sigh of relief before she opened her eyes.

"Harry?" she said weakly as she looked up at him before realization kicked in and she began to cry.

Harry lifted her up and into his lap, wrapping his arms around her in an attempt to comfort her. He ran one hand up and down her back while she cried, whispering words of reassurance in her ear the whole time.

"I-I'm sorry, Harry," she said once she had calmed down enough to look him in the eyes. "I-I tri-tried to f-fight him, but T-Tom was too s-strong for me. H-he wouldn't l-let me g-go."

"It's okay, Gin," Harry told her softly. "Tom Riddle is gone, his diary is destroyed." Harry pointed at the diary, which still had the sword in it.

Then Ginny looked up and saw Sebae looking down at both of them in concern and froze.

"H-Harry, there's a giant snake behind you," she whispered quietly.

"It's fine, Ginny," Harry told her with a laugh. "That's just Sebae. She won't hurt you." Harry paused as he realized something. "Did you just look Sebae in the eyes, Ginny?"

"Kind of hard not to…" she muttered darkly as she continued to look up at Sebae.

"Ginny, can you understand me?" Harry hissed in Parseltongue, catching Sebae's attention behind them.

"Yes, of course I can, why shouldn't I be able to?" Ginny replied, also using Parseltongue, though it was obvious to Harry that she hadn't realized it.

"Gin, this is Parseltongue, not English," Harry informed her.

"You mean I can still use Parseltongue?" Ginny exclaimed, obviously afraid of the idea.

"Gin, I can use it too, remember? It's not a bad thing."

"You didn't get yours from Tom! I couldn't do this before!" More tears fell from Ginny's eyes, but she wiped them away quickly.

"Yes I did, Ginny." Ginny looked up at him in disbelief. "Remember my idea of getting Parseltongue from Voldemort?" Ginny nodded. "Well, Tom Riddle is Voldemort, so we both got it from him."

Ginny gasped and looked at him for a minute before she realized that it meant they had something in common and leaned her head against his chest and let more of her tears fall, though these were more tears of release than fear or anything else.

"You're free," Harry told Sebae as he rubbed Ginny's back again, though she looked up when she heard him speak. "You won't be locked up in there again, Sebae; I promise I won't do that to you. You'll be free to move about the Chamber all you like."

"Thank you, Harry," Sebae replied before she licked Harry's cheek with her tongue.

"What are we going to do now?" Ginny asked Harry, not caring that she was using Parseltongue as much as she had before because she realized that it wasn't really a bad thing and that it meant she and Harry could talk without any other person understanding them except for Tom.

"We need to make it look like I killed Sebae so that they don't make us let them in here so that they can kill her," Harry informed her. "Sebae is here to protect the school in a time of need, not to attack students.

"Unfortunately, I don't think anyone will believe us if we tell them that, so we've got to make it look like I've killed her."

"How?"

"Hey, Fawkes, if I cut myself and let myself bleed over this sword, will you heal me?" Harry asked the phoenix that was somehow still on his shoulder; Fawkes just tilted his head to the side as if to ask why. "We don't want anyone killing Sebae here, so we're going to pretend I killed her." Fawkes nodded.

"Like so," Harry told Ginny just before letting her go and standing up, Fawkes still riding with him.

Pulling the sword out of the diary, Harry was thinking fast as an idea came to him. Was it really a good idea to put something with basilisk venom imbedded in it right into his arm? Not really, which meant the sword and Dagger were both out, leaving…

"Ginny, do you have your dagger with you?" Harry hissed, knowing that she would ask why but also answer his question.

"Right here," she replied as she unsheathed it and showed it to him. "Why do you need my dagger? You've got your own and the sword."

"They've both got basilisk venom in them. I'm not chancing anything with that in it."

"Good point," Ginny admitted as Harry grabbed her dagger from her.

Holding the dagger in his left hand, Harry stabbed it right into the crook of his elbow. Clenching his teeth to hold in any noises of pain, he dragged the dagger along to make the cut bigger before dropping the dagger and holding the tip of the sword to the wound, careful not to let it actually touch the wound, and letting the blood flow down it.

Once he thought there was enough blood on the sword to look like it had been stabbed through Sebae's head, Harry held out his arm for Fawkes, who cried on the cut. Soon after, Harry, who had been beginning to feel lightheaded from blood loss, was able to move a bit easier and went to kneel next to Ginny again.

"Now we just need a story," he told both Ginny and Sebae, knowing if all three helped it would be perfect. "I used Gryffindor's sword to stab Sebae through the skull."

"As you stabbed me, one of my fangs got stuck right where you just cut yourself, so the Phoenix healed you and made it so that you didn't die of my venom," Sebae suggested.

"Once you were healed, you took the fang, which broke off while you were stabbing Sebae, and stabbed the diary with it, putting the sword through it afterwards to make sure it stayed dead," Ginny hissed matter-of-factly, as if knowing Harry would use the idea without a doubt.

"And then I got the two of us out of here," Harry mused. "Not bad… Now I just have to figure out a story for how and when I figured out about the Chamber, because the truth will upset many people."

"What do you mean?" Ginny's face was a mask of confusion as she looked at Harry right in the eyes.

"Oh, I was here during Christmas Break," Harry told her off-handedly. "If Draco drove you all mad one day because I had supposedly disappeared, that was the day. Anyway, I need a cover story so that it looks like I only just found out where the Chamber is a few days ago at the most; knowing the monster is a basilisk isn't something that would have helped, so I can be truthful about that."

"You can figure that one out," Ginny said with a hint of laughter in her tone.

"Fine," Harry groaned. "By the way, it's great to have you back for good this time."

"What in the world do you mean by that?"

"Can you tell me your version of this story?" Harry requested, purposefully not answering her own question.

"I found Tom's diary in one of my schoolbooks after we went shopping and thought that maybe someone had forgotten it was there. When I got to school, I started writing in it, and I found out that someone wrote back, so I began using it more and more, putting almost everything I knew in there. One of the few things I didn't put in there was that you're a Parselmouth because it's just something I wanted to keep to myself.

"Then, I started losing my memory for periods of time; black spots whenever I tried to remember. One day before Halloween I suddenly woke up in my room covered in blood and feathers; on Halloween I had what looked like red paint all over me; then I couldn't remember where I was for each of the attacks." Ginny had tears in her eyes again, so Harry pulled her back into his lap and hugged her while she continued.

"That's when it began to hit me that I was the one attacking the students. When I figured that out, I began fighting Tom and trying to write in the Journals as much as I could. Those Journals might have been the only reason Tom couldn't control me full time all the time; they reminded me about why I was fighting and that I had friends. It was the reassurance I needed.

"Still, he was able to control me at least part of the time by the end of the year, so I've got a lot of black spots in my memory where I remember absolutely nothing, yet I somehow know all of the school stuff I don't remember learning if I ever think about some of it. It's like he was putting the information into my mind for me. The idea of it disgusted me, but I couldn't do anything about it!" Her tears finally fell then, and Ginny began sobbing.

"It's okay, Gin, he's gone. He won't be coming back from that stupid diary. Next time he comes for you, I'll be there to help you," Harry told her as she calmed down.

"I'm sorry I asked, but I needed to know for sure… Gin, I knew you weren't you because some days you would be lively, sarcastic, and fun while others you would be quiet, sullen, and looking like you were fighting something. A couple of times I saw the quiet you, your eyes had red mixed in with them. Those were the days Tom was controlling you. I'm just glad you're back for good this time, even if it takes a while to recover from this." Harry hugged Ginny to him a bit tighter before letting her go.

"Sebae?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Harry?" she replied as Ginny lifted her head up to look at the basilisk, whose head was now beside the pair.

"If something ever happens to Hogwarts and I send Ginny to bring you to me, will you go with her?" It was an idea that had just hit Harry as he realized that if Voldemort really came back and attacked Hogwarts, it would probably be easier for Ginny to get away than for him to.

"I will follow her to you if she asks," Sebae stated.

"Thank you, Sebae. Now… is there a way to make you invisible or something like that, yet still make it so that you can attack people?"

"I believe Salazar had a spell for it in his study inside the statue…" Sebae hissed thoughtfully.

"I guess Ginny and I now have something to look for when we come to visit you at the beginning of next year, eh?" Harry hissed with a bit of laughter in his tone.

"You – you want me to come with you when you visit Sebae?" Ginny asked Harry, looking up at him with a bit of shock on her face.

"Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"I just didn't expect it…" Ginny put her head back into Harry's chest as if to hide herself from him.

"Don't do that, Gin, please," Harry begged. "I really do want you to come with me if you're willing to come down here again."

"Thanks, Harry," Ginny said just moments before both of them winced in unison.

"Daphne," they hissed together with laughter in their throats. Harry then pulled out his Journal, activated it, and made it so that it was voice instead of writing.

Harry: What Daphne? You know I could have been fighting the basilisk when you did that, and it could have made it so that I was dead!

Blaise: She didn't think of that, I'm pretty sure. Her face is completely shell-shocked. Nice one, Harry.

Harry: I was being serious, Blaise… You have no idea how much that can hurt when it's Daphne.

Tracey: Are you okay, though, Harry?

Harry: Oh, just fine; I'm down in the Chamber of Secrets with a corpse of a basilisk, a Phoenix, a Sorting Hat, a sword, and Ginny. I'm just peachy.

Silence reigned on the Journal for a minute before anyone said anything.

Ginny: I think you broke them.

Harry: Me too.

Fred and George: GINNY! YOU'RE ALIVE!

Ginny: Of course I'm alive you idiots. Harry did just say that I was down here with him. Besides, can you see him doing anything but rescuing me alive?

George: She does have some good points there, dear brother of mine.

Fred: That she does, brother of mine.

Both: THANK YOU, HARRY!

Harry: Oh, it was no problem, right Gin? *Snickers along with Gin*

Tracey: We're missing something again.

Harry: *Hisses*

Ginny: *Hisses*

"This is hilarious," Harry told Ginny in Parseltongue so that their friends wouldn't understand.

"I know, especially the twins."

Draco: Why are you both hissing…?

Harry: That question isn't even worth an answer. Well, I believe it's time I try to find a way to get the two of us out of here. I'll see you all once Dumbledore is done ripping us apart for all the information he can get.

Harry shut his Journal and helped Ginny stand up before taking the Journal and slipping it into one of his pockets while the Sorting Hat went into another. He cleaned Ginny's dagger and then gave it back to her to sheath and cover up.

"We have to leave now, Sebae; I'm sorry," Harry hissed.

"Visit me soon after you get back to school, please," was all she said in reply.

"Of course," both Harry and Ginny told her.

Harry led Ginny out of the Chamber after picking up Gryffindor's blood-covered sword, barely paying attention when the doors closed behind them with a hiss. Fawkes flew ahead of them as they made their way to the large pipe that Harry had flown up on his broom last time, but he didn't have his Nimbus with him this time.

Just as Harry was about to say something about it, Fawkes held out his tail to the pair, and Harry remembered Dumbledore telling him that Phoenixes could carry immensely heavy loads.

"Fawkes will give us a lift back," he told Ginny. "Don't worry about the weight; Phoenixes can handle it."

Harry smiled down at Ginny and she offered him a small smile in return before they each grabbed half of Fawkes' tail and wrapped their other arm around the other.

"Get us out of here, please, Fawkes," Harry requested of the bird, which easily lifted the pair up and began flying them out of the Chamber of Secrets.

I'd have posted this earlier, but school, homework, and exhaustion do no go together well... :-/ Also,I swear, I didn't realize the last chapter was a cliffhanger until you all mentioned it in the reviews!

Well, how did you like my version of the Chamber? I even managed to get canon into it while being different! *Grins and snickers a bit* Anyway, I'm expecting comments, so please leave them in a review as I shut up now. :)

Thanks to Arnel from SIYE for Betaing. (Keep forgetting to add that on this site... :-/)

Posted: 3/2/11