Chapter 17 – Tom Marvolo Riddle

"Professor Snape, where's Professor Dumbledore?" Salazar asks when he sees the man enter the Slytherin common room, anxious to talk to the man most urgently about what's happened.

"He's been suspended." Snape simply puts.

"What?!" Salazar practically yells at the man.

"Mind your tone." Snape warns.

"Why?" Salazar pleads in a calmer tone.

"The Ministry felt it was for the best with how lacking he's been at protecting the Muggle-borns who've been attacked in the school this year." Snape explains, though seems irritated at having to say this. "I have come here to make an announcement which the entire school is to now follow." He states, raising his voice so that all could hear him, and they all gather around, pulling those in their dorms out to join the others as they all listen to the man. "Several changes will now be in affect from this moment onwards and will apply to all students. No exceptions." He pauses to ensure they're all listening. "You will be escorted at all times to classes by a teacher. You will stay together, in groups of three or more. You will not linger around the areas where students have been attacked. You will be vigilant and aware. You will report anything suspicious to a member of staff. All quidditch matches have been suspended until further notice. Curfew has been cut to six pm and extra circular activities have been cut after that time period. In Dumbledore's suspension, Professor McGonagall has taken up the role of headmistress in the school. Any questions, come to ask me or Professor McGonagall." He then stalks off in his usual doom and gloom.

Salazar is horrified. Professor McGonagall may not be as understanding at the true danger they're in. He's asked Bella about it already and she was anxious but willing to tell him the truth. He knows the truth now, knows why Dumbledore had those mirrors instated months prior after their little talk over phoenixes and the attacks. He must have figured it out back then but was unable to catch the beast. The monster that's attacking everyone, the creature seeking out Muggle-borns to kill is a basilisk and it won't be happy until it's finished its mission and killed every last Muggle-born in sight.

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Salazar isn't the only one on edge it would seem as everyone is just as worried, all on edge at Dumbledore's suspension. Not a speck of laughter lingers long in the air as misery follows them wherever they go. Salazar had gotten into a fight with Draco over him being cheerful at Dumbledore being gone and Salazar snapped at him that people are petrified. He should be worried, not happy. Harry and Ron are surprised to hear this across the great hall and Salazar was warned to be quiet by Snape promptly after. One day, McGonagall announces she has good news and people's first guess is that Dumbledore's coming back. Their next guess is that the Heir of Slytherin had been caught. A boy from Gryffindor table who Salazar recognises as quidditch captain for that house asks if quidditch is back on. Nope. The mandrakes are almost ready which means the victims may be able to reveal what had attacked them. Knowing his luck, the moment they say giant snake, everyone will look at him and, with a snake as his familiar, they'll probably accuse him of growing Bella up to a gigantic size then setting her on the students. He'll be expelled and his life will return to its boring state, all because he was different. Not really fair on him. Then again, when is life ever fair?

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HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER

"Ginny?!" Salazar's books drop out his hand in shock at what he's seeing, the word leaving him before he realises what's happening. Ginny turns away from writing on the wall in her own blood dripping from her finger. Her eyes seem glazed over as if she's not fully herself and the diary is held firmly in her other hand. Abruptly, with the same bleeding hand, she draws her wand on him, and everything goes dark.

Salazar is startled awake when a thundering sound comes from nearby as if something exploded. He looks up at a high-rise ceiling to see a gigantic statue of an ancient wizard. Frowning with confusion, he sits up with a groan and looks to his left only to freeze when he sees Ginny, face down on the ground next to him. She's asleep but pale and cold to the touch and Bella slithers out his sleeve to move next to the girl's head. "She won't wake so don't try, Sal." She informs and Salazar is worried for her.

"What did this to her?" He wonders out loud.

"Ask him." Bella seems to glare at something or one behind Salazar and he looks over to see a boy, about sixteen who seems familiar in a sense, as if knowing him from a distant memory, forgotten long ago. He's blurred at the edges, strangely enough as if looking at him through a misted window. He leans against a nearby pillar and smiles softly at Salazar as if they're old friends.

"Hello Salazar. I've been looking forwards to this day." The boy greets mysteriously.

"Keep talking." Salazar orders, standing up warily and subtly checking for his wand only to find it gone. This boy must have it.

"I've wanted to meet you, talk to you. I'm glad Ginny was able to get you down here for me. I was anxious waiting for you to wake up. Hoped she hadn't hit you too hard with that spell." He continues.

"And you are?" Salazar asks.

The boy smiles. "I'm Tom Riddle and I'm your father, Salazar."

"No, you're not. You're too young."

The man chuckles as if amused by something. "You would probably make a good Ravenclaw if given the chance. It is true that, in this form, I am too young to be the one who made you. But I am the youth he once was. A memory, trapped within a diary."

"So…like a photograph come to life like the ones in Hogwarts but one that can talk back and move outside the frame as if you're a real person?" Salazar concludes.

Tom smiles, nodding in confirmation. "Exactly, my boy."

"Don't call me that. You're still too young for me to think of you like that. It's weird." Salazar requests and then looks around. He sees the diary in Ginny's hand and then at the statue again before eying Tom as if catching onto something. He looks to Bella. "How close is the basilisk?" He asks her but she never gets a chance to answer.

"It is very close, within the Chamber but hidden away from plain sight." Tom answers in paseltongue, smiling again. It's getting annoying slightly, seems almost patronising in a sense.

"So, that's where I get it from." Salazar says, looking back at the boy.

"Well, I doubt you got it from your mother, whoever she was." Tom shrugs.

"Sabrina Storm." Salazar voices.

Tom shrugs again carelessly. "Never heard of her. Must have been a one-night stand."

"Must have…" Salazar narrows his eyes at him. "Because she hated you. Called you a monster. I'm surprised you never put her under the imperious curse just to get her to have me."

Tom scoffs. "Why would I need you? I intend to live forever. I have no need of an heir. I won't reject you, son, don't worry about that." He looks at Ginny with mock sympathy. "It's why I told Ginny to talk to you, to befriend you. Told her you were my son born after my time of the diary."

"So, the diary's linked to all this?" Salazar catches.

"Again, Ravenclaw would have been proud to have you." Tom says instead, avoiding answering the question.

"Salazar!" A voice calls out and Salazar looks over to see Harry Potter running towards him, drawing his attention away from Tom. "What are you…" Harry's eyes widen when he sees Ginny. "Ginny! Don't be dead! Please don't be dead!"

"She's alive. Just unconscious. She won't wake up either, Harry." Salazar informs and the boy stills from where he was checking her over.

"Why?"

"Ask him." Salazar glares at Tom who smiles at Harry. "I reckon that he's the one who's been controlling her too."

"Controlling her?" Harry eyes Tom suspiciously, standing up slowly. "Tom…Tom Riddle?" Tom nods with a smile.

"I don't trust him. He's…" Salazar pauses.

"You can tell him, son. Don't be shy now." Tom smiles.

"Tell me what? And why'd he call you son?" Harry asks, confused.

"He's my father. Well, the memory of him at least. Younger version. Was kept within that diary since his youth. It's like a video recording of someone in their youth taken out the TV." Salazar explains for Harry who seems to understand a bit better now.

Tom seems angered to hear this. "I am so much more than whatever muggles invent."

"Either way, I don't trust him." Salazar finishes as if there were no interruption, not turning away from Harry.

"You will, son, in time." Tom smiles again.

"Really, really won't. I don't trust monsters. Especially ones like you. Ones who control innocent girls into setting basilisks on others just for being born. Because it was you, wasn't it? You're behind it all, aren't you?" Salazar accuses.

Tom actually claps with a nod. "Ginny, that stupid girl, didn't know what she was doing at first after I, shall we say, put her in a little trance. Made her strangle the roosters and daubed threatening messages on the wall. Made her set the basilisk on the Mudblood and on the Squib's cat." He sneers in disgust at the very mention of them. "Until little Ginny got scared. She became suspicious and tried to dispose of the diary by flushing it in the girl's bathroom. 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?" Harry asks, keeping his voice steady despite all the anger surging through him.

"Ginny mentioned him, did she? Just like she mentioned about me? You tell her to get close to him too?" Salazar asks.

"No, actually. I just knew I had to talk to Harry, meet him if I could. So, I decided to show you," Tom's attention is on Harry now. "My famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust."

"And I bet you framed him too." Salazar says and Tom shrugs, not denying this.

"He's my friend." Harry growls out in anger.

Tom smugly then brags, "It was my word against Hagrid's. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school Prefect, model student; on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls. But I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realise that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin."

"Let me guess. Dumbledore?" Salazar guesses.

"He was only the transfiguration teacher at the time but still managed to convince Dippet to train Hagrid as gamekeeper." Tom continues, all but confirming it. "Seemed to be the only one who thought he was innocent. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed. Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did…"

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you." Harry growls out through gritted teeth.

Tom continues to say how killing the Muggle-borns isn't his main focus anymore, that it's Harry. "How is it that a baby with no 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?"

"Why do you care how I escaped?" Harry asks slowly. "Voldemort was after your time."

"Voldemort," Tom says softly with a faint red gleam in his eyes. "Is my past, present and future, Harry Potter." He then pulls Salazar's wand from his pocket and begins tracing it write shimmering words in the air.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

He then waves the wand and all the letter rearrange themselves to form a new line, a line that sends chills right down to Salazar's very soul, filling him with horror and dread.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

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Author's Note: Yes, Tom's speech is different here, but Salazar is here too and helped skip over a bit of that dialog and explain things quickly to Harry.