Harry was furious, magic was roiling off him in waves as he ran through the castle with Daphne by his side.
Dumbledore and Lockhart struggled to keep up, advancing years in Dumbledore's case, and too much time in front of the mirror in Lockhart's case.
Nobody saw them as they ran through the castle, all the students were confined to their houses under the watchful eyes of their heads of house. They stopped short of Myrtle's bathroom, sure enough in the darkened corridor there was the message on the wall. Harry looked around impatiently waiting for Dumbledore and Lockhart to catch up.
Harry strode into Myrtle's bathroom and without breaking stride "Open" he commanded in parseltongue.
The entrance to the chamber of secrets ground slowly open.
"Light" another parseltongue command had the opened shaft lit with a muted green light.
Dumbledore had just made it to the door as Harry cast his first parseltongue command. He was red in the face and short of breath. The mad dash through the castle was the most energy he had expended in one go for many a year. Leaning against the bathroom wall trying to get his racing heart back under control, he watched Harry with a sense of wonder and despair.
It was easy to forget that Harry was only twelve years old, he looked every inch the pureblood prince, well groomed, well dressed, and well spoken.
But it was his magical ability that troubled Dumbledore the most. Watching Harry cast spells in parseltongue was the most frightening thing he had seen for a long, long time.
Harry turned to face Dumbledore and Lockhart. "Well, what are you waiting for? I have opened the bloody thing for you, get down there and rescue my friend" he practically shouted at them.
"You're not coming with us?" Dumbledore asked surprised.
"Of course we are, I just don't trust either of you to follow us if we went down there first. Don't worry, we will be right behind you." Harry said harshly.
They watched as first Lockhart then Dumbledore lowered themselves into the large pipe that went under the castle. Once they were out of sight Daphne turned to Harry.
"Harry" she started "Remember your training, no heroics. The chamber doesn't show on the Marauder's Map, so I don't think the protective wards will work down there. When in doubt use a wall of water. And if the worst happens, we have plenty of restorative."
Harry nodded, he liked the way Daphne could maintain her cool and focus him. He wrapped her in a hug, burying his face in her hair. He loved the smell and feel of it.
Breaking away from her he mentally focused himself, took her hand and they both slid down the long pipe into the chamber.
They got to the bottom and found themselves in what appeared to be an old brick lined tunnel. They followed it walking at a careful pace, they were just about to round a corner when suddenly the tunnel in front of them was lit up by spell fire. There were spells coming from all directions, how many people were down there. They both cast a shield and snuck a look around the corner.
Instead of the expected large group of people there was only Lockhart and Dumbledore.
Lockhart was firing spell after spell at a large round door that was covered in snakes wound in an intricate pattern. The spells were having no effect on the door at all, quite the contrary, the spells were bouncing off in all directions without leaving a mark. Dumbledore was side stepping the ricocheting spells, having to block some, all the while yelling at Lockhart trying to get him to stop casting spells, with just as little affect.
Harry took careful aim, just as he was about to stun Lockhart, Daphne beat him to it "Expelliarmus" Lockhart's wand flew through the air and she deftly caught it.
Lockhart looked around at who had disarmed him.
The tunnel got really quiet. "Are we done now?" Daphne asked as she handed Lockhart his wand back.
Lockhart looked at the ground sheepishly. "Sorry got a little carried away there" he looked furtively up and down the tunnel both ways, he let out a nervous giggle and the wand in his right hand hanging by his side fired off a spell into the ground. Another nervous giggle.
Daphne leaned over and whispered in Harry's ear "heart of a lion, that one" looking at Lockhart. Harry nodded agreement with a smile.
He turned to face the door, "open" he took a step back, wand raised.
They watched as the intricate pattern of snakes on the door changed shape until they were all lined up then slid back releasing the lock on the door. It swung open.
What presented in front of them was a massive chamber with the feeling of immense space. It was pitch black apart from in the very distance where a torch flickered, a mere pinprick of light, having little effect in vastness of the chamber.
They stepped through the door which closed behind them cutting off the little light that was coming from the tunnel.
Dumbledore raised his wand casting a bright white ball towards the ceiling of the chamber. For a moment it lightened up the area around them before it disappeared, lost in the immensity of the space and the darkness. After a minute it was as if it never was. He tried again with the same result.
"What say you stop doing that Headmaster" Harry said quietly, annoyed that not only had Dumbledore just announced their presence, he was ruining Harry's night vision.
He felt Daphne give his hand a squeeze and then she was gone, he listened for her footsteps and smiled when he couldn't hear a thing.
He stepped the other way and started quietly walking up the other side of the chamber towards the light. He focused on being as silent as he could, he had nowhere near Daphne's talent for stealth.
He heard Dumbledore's urgent whisper "Harry? Daphne?" he wished the old fool would shut up.
Realising Harry and Daphne had left them, Dumbledore started walking towards the light, Lockhart following him. Harry monitored their progress from the pitch blackness of the left side of the chamber. Even though he could not see her, he knew Daphne was doing the same on the other side of the chamber.
Finally, Dumbledore reached to pool of light cast by the torch. There was a body lying on the ground, he rushed up and knelt beside it, checking if they were ok.
"She won't wake, her magic is almost gone. She wasn't my first choice, I would have preferred it was someone stronger, but needs must, I suppose." a voice said from just outside the pool of torch light. Dumbledore raised his wand and pointed to where the voice come from.
A young man stepped into the light. "Hello Professor, although I hear it is headmaster now"
Dumbledore looked at the boy before him "Tom? Tom Riddle?" he asked, a confused look on his face. "How can this be?"
"Yes headmaster, so good of you to come. But to be truthful, are you sure you are up to it? Let's face it, you are well past your prime. And I must say you are not looking too well at the moment."
"Why you young whippersnapper" Lockhart said flourishing his wand. "That is no way to talk to the greatest sorcerer since Merlin."
The young man stepped further into the light. Lockhart looked at him, the boy appeared as if he had been poorly disillusioned, he kept flickering in and out of focus. He was obviously not that great with a wand Lockhart thought.
"And who might you be my flash friend?" Tom asked looking Lockhart up and down.
"I am Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, third class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award." Lockhart stuck his best heroic pose "I am the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor"
"So" Tom Riddle smiled "This is the best that Hogwarts can offer in its defence, a tired old man and a puffed-up peacock. I confess myself, disappointed. I was expecting more of a challenge. Nevertheless, let's match the power of Lord Voldemort, heir of Slytherin, against best that Hogwarts has to offer."
Riddle raised his wand, the torches along the length of the chamber flared illuminating a series of columns, wound with snakes, forming a grand parade culminating in a giant statue of Salazar Slytherin.
Riddle looked at the statue and spoke a command in parseltongue "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
Dumbledore looked in horror as the statue's mouth opened, a snout appeared from the depths of the statue's mouth. As the rest of the head began to emerge, he had a flash of realisation, turning to Lockhart he saw Gilderoy had drawn his wand and was standing there ready to face whatever challenge should emerge. He shouted a warning at him at the same time as he cast what he hoped was a lifesaving spell "Gilderoy, look away. It is a basilisk!"
Harry had just about drawn level to where Hermione was laying when Voldemort had lit up the chamber. He ducked behind a column and took a quick look around. The girl on the ground wasn't Hermione! Whilst he couldn't see the girls face, there was no way that was Hermione's hair.
On the other side of the chamber Daphne had just reached the same conclusion. It must be Chang. Where is Hermione?
Then they saw the statue's mouth open and that snake snout emerge, and as Dumbledore shouted out, they both had the same epiphany "It is a basilisk!"
"It is a basilisk!" Hermione cried out. She quickly looked around to make sure nobody had heard her.
She slowly stretched her left leg, it had gone to sleep from where she had been sitting on it.
She looked around the cramped space she was hidden in, the space was limited due to the number of books stacked up around her.
She picked up the piece of parchment from where she had dropped it and read through her list again.
Chamber of Secrets
Petrification
Water
Great big yellow eyes
Giant Snakes
Spiders Fleeing
Dead Rosters
Cho missing
Something in the pipes
It all fits, she thought with the satisfaction of having finally figured it out.
She stood up carefully, ensuring Harry's invisibility cloak was still completely covering her. Looking at her surroundings, the restricted section of the library, she was horrified, she could not believe how many rules she had broken, from sneaking out of the common room to unauthorized access to the restricted section. She was a bad girl. There was light coming through the windows, she had been there all night. Madame Pince will be here soon, she needed to get these books put back quickly.
Dumbledore's wall of water he created had the desired effect of mitigating the basilisk gaze so that Lockhart was only petrified. Dumbledore banished Lockhart's petrified body across the chamber into the darkness behind the columns. He was hoping that Daphne or Harry would be able to give him a restorative draught. Dumbledore had no idea where either of them were but his guess was pretty well spot on as Lockhart was soon being attended to by Daphne.
The basilisk turned its head towards Dumbledore's movement. Dumbledore had already retreated into the darkness behind the columns and had started conjuring huge granite blocks creating an unbreakable wall between two of the columns forming a solid barrier between the basilisk and himself. By the time the basilisk had completed its turn and Dumbledore should have been in view, there was only a stone wall. The basilisk stopped and tasted the air with its tongue. He could not find the scent of any strange wizards, there was just too much magic in the air. It turned its head from side to side, listening for any noise. It heard nothing.
"He is behind the wall" Riddle said in frustration. There was nothing else he could do. Until he was completely resurrected, he was a mere shadow, able to do minor spells at the most, certainly not strong enough to blast or vanish Dumbledore's stone wall.
Harry glanced at Dumbledore with a grudging respect, that was some pretty clever spell casting, and the amount of conjuring would be beyond most wizards.
He had his wand drawn pointed at the end of the wall in case Riddle poked his nose around it. Without thinking he wandlessly and silently cast a muffliato, enabling them to hear what was going on but stopping the basilisk hearing them. "That was some pretty handy wand work, Headmaster" he said quietly "Any tips on defeating a basilisk?"
"Harry" Dumbledore groaned. Harry turned and looked at Dumbledore again, he was now laying on the floor clutching is chest.
Harry raced to his side "What's wrong sir?"
"Heart.. heart… " Dumbledore groaned.
"Can you dissapparate?" Harry asked knowing the headmaster was the only one who could inside Hogwarts walls.
Dumbledore just shook his head, he was in too much pain to say anything. He stared pointedly at Harry's wand and mouthed a word.
Harry instantly caught on. He shut his eyes and clasped his wand tightly, focusing all of his magic.
"Fawkes" he tried projecting his thought "We need help"
Harry held his breath, unsure if Fawkes would heed the call of another.
Suddenly in a flash of flames Fawkes appeared, trilled once landing on Dumbledore's prone body.
"Take him to the infirmary, and come back and get us" Harry whispered urgently.
Fawkes and Dumbledore disappeared in a flash of flames.
The basilisk attacked, the flash of flames from behind the wall was enough provocation to have it slamming its body into the wall trying to knock it down, which it did with surprising ease.
As the stacked blocks started falling around him, Harry took off into one of the many smaller side tunnels with the basilisk hot on his heels.
Daphne had watched the scene from the relative security on the other side of the chamber as she administered the restorative draught to Lockhart. He would still be out for a while, but should make a full recovery. She saw Dumbledore conjure a massive stone wall protecting him from the basilisk's stare. Harry would be behind it too. She too was impressed, she didn't know the old man still had it in him.
Then there was the flash of fire, a Phoenix trill and another fire flash. She hoped the old man had the decency to take Harry with him. A hope that was soon shattered as when the basilisk broke down the wall and she caught a glimpse of Harry fleeing down a small tunnel followed closely by the basilisk.
She was torn, every fibre of her being was screaming out to follow them to help Harry. But what could she do against a basilisk? No, she told herself, Harry can look after himself, she needed to get Chang.
Standing up, she straightened her robes, and with her wand in hand, she took a deep breath, and marched straight out towards Riddle.
"Step aside, pretty boy" she said with her best Slytherin sneer. As she walked past him, she too noticed that he was not fully corporeal.
As she approached Cho still laying on the floor, she heard Riddle cast a spell at her back, she spun and side stepped the spell he had sent her way and batted away the second one. They were surprisingly under powered.
"Mister Riddle, must we do this every time our paths cross, it always turns out bad for you." Daphne had heard the conversation between Riddle and Dumbledore and deduced that this must be Riddle from back in his Hogwarts days. She studied him closer, there was something not right, she stole a quick glance at Cho on the floor, there was a small black diary laying on the floor just out of reach of her outstretched hand. Her gaze snapped back to Riddle.
"You have me at a disadvantage Miss? you seem to know my name and intimate that we have met before. And yet your face is not familiar, I would certainly remember such a beautiful pair of eyes." Riddle had stopped firing spells, the girl was too handy with a wand for them to be effective. Instead he was stalling until either the basilisk returned after dealing with whoever here with the old man, or until his body was fully formed again.
He silently cursed himself for settling for such a weak subject in the Chang girl. The transfer of her life force was taking way too long.
There was the sound of an explosion from one of the side tunnels followed by a very loud rumbling, the chamber actually shook.
"Well aren't you the charmer" Daphne replied trying her best to focus on her situation and not whatever madness Harry was up to. "Even if you are less substantial than some of the others boys here at Hogwarts." She walked back over to where Cho was laying on the floor. She looked at Riddle and back at Cho. There were black tendrils of something stretching out from the diary connecting it to Riddle, magic? With the same tendrils coming from Cho to the diary.
"I was in Slytherin too whilst I was here" Riddle said noting the house insignia on her robes "Head boy as well. Before I went on to achieve greatness"
"Your obviously very talented, if this is an example of your work" Daphne said looking from him to Cho. "Let me see if I have this right. You are using her magic to power the diary, which in turn is creating a magical replication of yourself stored in the diary? That is brilliant!"
"That is very good, not quite right, but overall very well deduced" Riddle was pleased to have his brilliance acknowledged.
"But how do you power the compulsion charm to get the donor to continue pouring their magic into the diary?" Daphne queried "Surely self-preservation must kick in at some stage"
Riddle just smiled at her and waited, she seemed pretty smart, smart enough to work it out if given time.
"Of course, it's a diary. A place to pour all your hopes, your dreams, your fears" Daphne said "Lots of emotional magic. You are very clever"
Riddle was looking incredibly pleased with himself, finally someone recognised his genius.
"But it is just a party trick really, isn't it? Clever enough sure, but to what end? A magical construct built from memories" Daphne said with a shrug of her shoulders putting a slightly disappointed look on her face. She had been keeping an eye on Cho, she had to hurry this up. She turned away from Riddle and walked closer to Cho.
"I will have you know this is great magic!" Riddle said fiercely "This is not some magical construct, this is resurrection, coming back from the dead. This magic that you so glibly dismiss is actually a Horcrux. Whilst I was still a student. All the talk I hear about how great Dumbledore is, he never achieved as much so young"
"Oh" said Daphne with surprise "So it is not only unoriginal but also ancient. The Egyptians were doing horcruxes thousands of years ago."
Riddle screamed with rage and threw a curse Daphne which she easily side stepped. Except as she did, she tripped over Cho and fell to the ground.
As she went to regain her feet, she felt a strange drain on her magic. She realised she was lying on the diary. She tried standing again but could barely move.
She looked in horror as the tendrils from the diary to Riddle grew thicker and more numerous, no longer feeding off Cho's magic, instead feeding off her own, and Riddle's form quickly grew more solid.
Riddle felt a surge of magic. Yes! he thought with triumph, with the fresh source of magic it would only be a matter of minutes until he was fully resurrected.
It was time for the girl to suffer for her insolence. "Not just one Horcrux. I will have you know little girl that there is more than one horcrux. In fact," he said with wonder as his magic reached out to the world around him "I can already feel the other horcruxes calling out to me, the cup, the ring, the diadem, and of course the diary which you are so willingly giving your magic for."
"So, I think it is time for you to witness the true power of Lord Voldemort" Riddle raised his wand "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Harry ran down a dark tunnel, he could hear the basilisk right behind him. He sensed more than saw a smaller tunnel entrance on his right, he ducked into it and kept running whilst bent over.
He heard the basilisk come to a stop at the tunnels entrance, it was too small for it to enter, it couldn't even look down the tunnel, instead it flicked its tongue down the tunnel to get a taste for the wizard it was chasing.
Harry crept further into the tunnel, it was a dead end, he was trapped.
Finally, the basilisk moved off looking for another way to get to Harry. It got very quiet, Harry strained to hear where the basilisk was, had it truly gone or was it waiting for Harry to emerge?
Suddenly there was a quiet trill in his ear, Harry stood up quickly and hit his head on the low roof of the tunnel. There was a flash and Fawkes was sitting on his shoulder, Harry could of sworn there was a smirk on its face. "Not funny, Fawkes" he whispered. Fawkes trilled again, definitely a laugh.
"Is the Headmaster ok?" Fawkes nodded.
"Can you take the rest of us all in one go?" Fawkes trilled again. "We need to be all together?" Fawkes nodded and trilled sadly.
"It's ok, we will have to go back to the chamber and deal with Riddle first then, can't have him picking us off one by one."
Fawkes trilled and nodded his head towards the ground.
"You brought me something?" Harry asked feeling around on the floor in the darkness. His hand closed on a piece of cloth, he lifted it up to peer at it, the sorting hat? "Gee thanks, you shouldn't have" he said sarcastically.
Fawkes gave him an angry trill, to which Harry hastily apologised "sorry, it's just what do I do with a hat?"
Harry could have sworn Fawkes rolled his eyes at him "oh, right, put it on, sorry"
Harry put the hat on.
"Well hello there, Mister Potter, how are things going in Slytherin?" the hat said in Harry's head.
"I am fitting in just nicely, I think you made the right decision" Harry answered honestly.
"And yet here you are saving people and chasing basilisks. I am thinking maybe you should have been in Gryffindor after all." The hat remarked slyly.
Harry couldn't fault its logic, it was all Gryffindorish to be doing such a rescue, but Harry reasoned that it was only meant to be a quick visit, grab Hermione and then leave. It all just got a little out of hand.
"Seeing you have tapped in to your inner Gryffindor, perhaps you will find this to your liking" the hat said as it slid off his head, and landed with a loud clang on the floor.
Harry was surprised by the noise the hat made landing on the stone floor. He bent down to pick it up and was surprised to discover that the hat contained a sword, which glittered even in the darkness of the tunnel. He tucked it into his belt, better than nothing I guess, he thought. He stuffed the sorting hat into a robe pocket. Drawing his wand, he looked around at Fawkes, "Can you create a distraction to draw the basilisk away from the chamber to give me time?"
Fawkes fire flashed away without answering. There was a loud squawk further down the tunnel Harry had originally run down, followed by a loud hiss and the sound of the large basilisk heading towards the noise.
Harry took advantage of its absence to run down the tunnel back towards the chamber. Stopping in the middle of the tunnel, he turned around and cast the most powerful blasting spell he had ever performed, bringing the tunnel roof down behind him. When the rocks finished falling and the dust settled enough to see, it was obvious that there was no way the basilisk was getting through there.
He cautiously made his way back along the tunnel to the chamber, he could hear voices. Was Daphne flirting with Riddle? As he got closer the tone of the conversation changed with Riddle sounding upset by something Daphne had said.
As he exited the tunnel behind the column, he saw Daphne laying on the ground unable to get up, Riddle looked almost fully resurrected and had a murderous look on his face. As Harry stepped out from behind the column, the world as Harry knew began crumbling around him in slow motion.
He saw the tip of Riddles wand glow green and heard him begin to cast the killing spell at Daphne's prone form "AVADA "
The basilisk burst through a tunnel to his right, jaws wide open, fangs glistening with poison as it lunged at Harry.
Time stood still.
Harry looked at Daphne, she couldn't move.
Foolishly Harry risked a glance at the basilisk, all he could see was the wide-open mouth full of poisonous fangs.
He looked back at Daphne just as Riddle finished casting "KADAVRA!" the green spell left his wand.
Without thinking Harry thrust out his arms wide, his left arm towards Daphne where the killing curse was racing towards her, and his right arm towards the basilisk bearing down on him.
His left hand grasped his thestral wand as it released from its holster on his left wrist, he fired a banishing spell at Daphne hitting her just as the killing curse arrived.
His right hand grasped the hilt of the silver sword from his belt and extended it towards the basilisk where it pierced the roof of its mouth travelling into the basilisk's brain, killing it instantly as the full weight of the basilisk hit Harry.
Daphne was pushed aside by Harry's spell, out of the path of the killing curse a split second before it struck her.
That same killing curse went on to strike the little black diary she had been laying on.
As it struck, an ear-splitting shriek rang around the chamber as the now almost completely resurrected Riddle was blown apart by the destruction of the horcrux contained within the diary. The diary itself was remarkably untouched apart from leaking out all the ink that had been poured into it over the years.
As the basilisk ploughed into Harry he was flung across the chamber towards where Daphne lay. The sword was still in his hand as he slid to a stop a few feet from where Daphne lay. He looked down at his right arm, there was a basilisk fang broken off sticking out of his forearm. "Bugger!"
"Harry? Are you alright?" Daphne asked as she struggled to sit up. She saw the fang in his arm "No" she screamed and crawled towards him. Cradling him in her arms she looked him in the eyes "You are not allowed to die, Harry Potter. Do you hear me? We will get you help."
"Daphne, I need you to do something for me" Harry manage to croak out. "You need to pull the fang out. Put on your dragon hide gloves and pull it out."
"But the poison is already in your blood" she wept.
"Yes, but until the fang is removed, Fawkes can't heal the wound" he said indicating the Phoenix that was by his side crying tears into the wound "Unless you like the piercing and perhaps we could look at some way of keeping it there" Harry joked.
"Prat!" Daphne said hastily reaching inside her robes for her dragon skin gloves.
"Ok, I think that is everything" Harry said to Daphne "Are you ready to get out of here?"
Daphne did a quick check, Cho and Lockhart were resting comfortably propped up against one of the columns. It would be a long recovery for them, Cho had almost no magic left, as well as the trauma and the guilt, Daphne would be surprised if she was back at school next year.
Lockhart had no memory of what happened that day, the same memory loss that affected the other petrification victims. The good news was that due to the short amount of time that he was petrified, his recover would be quite swift.
Harry had the diary hidden in his robes, the sleeves of which were pulled down hiding the rather large scar on his right forearm.
They had already determined how much they would be willing to share until they could talk to their parents. Harry was sure that once they were out of the chamber they would be accosted by Dumbledore if he was still breathing.
"One more thing first, Tori would kill me if I didn't do this" Daphne said to the bewilderment of Harry.
She tied his hair back properly, took a quick glance at the grime and blood on his face, deciding it should stay. She straightened her hair and robes before dragging Harry over to the body of the basilisk. Getting Harry to draw the sword, Godric Gryffindor's sword as it turned out surprising them both when they had examined it, she got him to stand next to the basilisk with the point of the sword on the ground, his left hand resting on the jewelled hilt, the blade facing outwards so the Gryffindor name could be seen. She stood next to him, his right arm going naturally around his waist.
"Professor Lockhart" she called out as she leaned into Harry.
Lockhart looked up and saw them next to the basilisk, it was an incredible sight. The massive basilisk whose magical eyes were clouded over in death, the beautiful girl, and the heroic, blood smeared boy leaning on the sword that was obviously the weapon used to slay the beast. It was the sort of thing his publishers were always trying to achieve for the covers of his books, but never quite got right, it never looked as authentic as the scene he was witnessing.
"If everyone is ready to go" said Daphne breaking the pose. Lockhart had to blink a few times to clear the image from his mind.
"Fawkes, if I could impose on you one more time?" Harry asked Fawkes as they gathered around Cho who was barely conscious.
Fawkes let out a loud squawk and fire flashed them to the infirmary, surprising Madame Pomfrey as she attended to a sleeping Dumbledore.
"Mister Potter, what have you been up to now" she asked Harry as she rushed to levitate Cho onto a bed, Cho obviously being the one that needed the most attention.
"In to bed Gilderoy, you don't look to good" she said. Lockhart complied with out protest, he could do with a good lie down.
"You too Mister Potter, you are not going anywhere until I check you out"
Harry sighed, climbed onto a bed and lay back on the pillow, it had been an exhausting day and he didn't have any fight left in him to argue with her.
Author's Note:
Hi all, thanks for hanging in there. I know updates have been spasmodic.
Before anyone asks, the next chapter will cover the aftermath, with rewards and just desserts for the all the players, and just may include another back story of one of our characters.
Thanks to all that read this, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it
Greg