Chapter 18 – A Family Matter
"You see?" Tom whispers. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course."
"And how long did it take you to come up with that? How many attempts did it take you?" Salazar mocks.
"Well, did you really think I was going to use my filthy muggle father's name?" Tom growls out.
"So…I'm actually a Half-blood like you? Wizard blood need to go back by three generations after all." Salazar checks.
"Yes, you are." Tom says, pity in his voice.
"Okay then. Just checking that's all." Salazar says, not caring that much. "I mean, what's so bad about what blood type you are anyway? It doesn't matter."
After all he's said, they're both surprised by Tom's next words, "You're right, son. It doesn't matter. The Squibs don't matter. The Mudbloods don't matter. I'll help you understand, Salazar, understand why they don't belong in our world. All you have to do is listen to me, to listen to your father." He invites.
Salazar stares him down. "You're not my dad.Fathers are there for you and lift you up when you're down. They stick up for you when others don't and protect you from harm. They spoil you rotten with all they can and offer their home to you and more. They let you write to them any time you need help and, even if it's clear you don't share the same beliefs, they are willing to understand and try to become a better person even if you're the only one who gets to see it. If anyone's my dad, it's the man who's been there for me more in this past year than you have in the past eleven years of my life." He raises his head as if proud with his final line, "Lucius Malfoy is my father."
Tom makes a sound of irritation and anger. "You could be powerful, so powerful, second only to I, the greatest sorcerer in the world."
"You're not." Harry glares.
"Not what?" Tom snaps.
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world." He corrects. "Sorry to disappoint you, and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days."
"He is alive! Knew it. Mum said, she said all along. He's gone. She never said dead." Salazar rambles but is ignored as Tom becomes angry.
"Dumbeldore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" He hisses.
"He's not as gone as you may think!" Harry backfires and, just as Tom goes to retort, a song fills the air. The music is heart-warming and enchanting, lifting Salazar's soul and filling it with hope, flames then erupting at the top of the nearest pillar. It's a crimson bird the size of a swan with a golden glittering tail as long as a peacock's own. In its golden gleaming talons is a ragged bundle which it drops at Harry's feet as it swoops towards them. It lands on his shoulder as if protecting him and Tom stares in disbelief.
"That's a phoenix."
"Fawkes." Salazar gasps in awe. "Dumbledore was right. He looks beautiful when he isn't a new-born or weary on a burning day."
Tom seems annoyed at him mentioning the man but presses on. "And that is the old school Sorting Hat." Tom then laughs so hard that the sound echoes around the Chamber as if ten Toms were laughing instead of just one. "This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat!" He then goes on to taunt Harry, goading him and asks why Voldemort was defeated that night. Harry isn't sure but taunts Tom that a Muggle-born was able to stop him by dying to save him. A Muggle-born. Tom agrees that someone's mother dying to save them would be a powerful counter charm but then taunts Harry that there must be nothing special about him then. He points out they have many similarities. Both orphans. Both raised by muggles. Both Half-bloods. He then looks at Salazar and realises something with a smile. "You may say I am not your father but, like Harry, you and I are more alike than you realise. Not only do we share the same traits as I do with Harry, but we are all paselmouths, probably the only ones to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself." He turns to Harry. "You and I even look something alike…but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know." He finishes.
Both Harry and Salazar stand, waiting for Tom to raise his wand but instead Tom's twisted smile widens. "Now son, I don't want you involved in this as it is not your battle to fight. You are here to join my side, not to oppose it. Just to be sure." He raises his wand and makes a gesture with it which instantly causes Salazar to drop to the floor, limbs like rocks, too heavy to move.
"What did you do?!" Harry screams, worried for Salazar.
"You think I would hurt my own son, Harry? What do you take me for?" Tom scoffs.
"A psychopath." Harry answers honestly. This just angers him further. On the floor, Salazar groans as he can barely move without feeling as if a whole elephant is weighing down on him, on the verge of painfully crushing every bone in his body.
Tom raises his hand. "Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson, Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him." Tom smirks at Fawkes and the Sorting Hat before walking away. He stops between the high pillars and speaks to the statue in paseltongue. "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four." Without further warning, the mouth of the statue opens up and the basilisk slithers out. Harry shuts his eyes before he can take sight of it and Bella yells at Salazar to have him do the same. After hearing Tom order the basilisk to kill Harry, he then hears movement, lots of movement.
He hears running and a thud, a bird cawing and the basilisk's mouth snapping repeatedly. He doesn't dare peek and Bella, sweet Bella, hisses updates in her ear, somehow unaffected by the basilik's stare. Perhaps it's because she's an animal, not a human? Either way, she tells him that Fawkes is diving at the basilisk's head and then that it's punctured the basilisk's eyes, blinding it. He could look now. He watches, helpless on the floor as Tom hisses at the basilisk to ignore Fawkes and to focus on killing Harry. It eventually does but not before the Sorting Hat now had somehow made a sword appear from within it. He dodges as it lunges blindly at him, hitting the Chamber wall instead. Using both hands, Harry raises the sword as the basilisk lunges at him again and stabs the snake through the roof of its ginormous mouth. The basilisk drops sideways and twitches as it dies on the floor. The spell is suddenly lifted from Salazar as Harry pulls out a fang from his arm, clearly in pain. Salazar rushes over to him, kneeling at his side.
"Fawkes! Harry needs help. Do you mind? I remember what Dumbledore said about you." He calls and Fawkes lands next to Harry, crying into the wound. Tom watches, confused at what's happening, almost taunting Harry about Dumbledore's beloved bird crying for him until Salazar had spoken. Magically, the wound heals up with every drop until it's gone and Harry's looking much better than before. Salazar smiles at Harry and shakes him. "Harry, you're fine. Fawkes is a phoenix. They have healing tears. He saved you."
"Really?" Harry's in disbelief as he stares at Fawkes in amazement.
"Phoenix tears…I forgot." Tom realises, stunned and shocked at how Harry had defeated the basilisk. Fawkes takes off only to return not a moment later and drop the diary in Harry's lap. Harry abruptly stabs the book with the basilisk fang, startling Salazar and causing Tom lets out a long, piercing scream. Ink spurts out the diary in torrents, screaming all over Harry's hands and flooding the floor. Tom too was on the floor, writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing until…nothing. Tom Riddle was gone. Salazar is slow to move over, hesitant as if it could be a trick but then snatches his wand from where it had fallen to the floor. Shaken from the fight and from being brought back from the brink of death, Harry stands and gathers up the Sorting Hat and the sword (having to tug it quite hard to free it from the basilisk's mouth). Hearing a moan, they both rush over to Ginny who has awaken at last, sitting up in horror at the sight of the basilisk. She begs them to understand, pleads that she didn't mean to, that Tom had made her. Harry reassures her that it's alright, but she's then worried she'll be expelled, worries what her family will think.
"Seriously? Girl, your family will only worry about if you're safe or not. Draco may hate them, but he's also jealous." Salazar admits.
"He is? Why?" Ginny asks, confused.
"Because, even with all the money and the fame, he's still jealous of the fact that you get parents who show love in public and don't care about their public image as much. You have a family who care more about each other than what others may think. That it doesn't matter about holding up the family name or that you have to think a certain way because that's what they trained you to do and that thinking any other way will bring shame on your family and disappoint them forever. Trust me Ginny, if half of he told me about you lot is true, then you have nothing to worry about. You muppets stick up for each other and once they hear what Tom did to you, well, they'd probably want to take turns stabbing the book for themselves." He reassures and becomes still when he's pulled into a tight hug by the traumatised girl. He then relaxes, smiling into the embrace. It's then he knows, yes, Ginny Weasley will be fine, just fine.
Salazar Storm Salazar Storm Salazar Storm Salazar Storm Salazar Storm Salazar Storm Salazar Storm
Author's Note: Sorry but not typing up the whole conversation between Harry and Tom as it's pretty much the same as it was in the book. Also wanted to gloss over the battle as that, again, would be a lot to type up when most of you probably remember how it goes.