I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

Note: Surprise Sunday update. I wanted to give y'all a treat for being wonderful people. Hope all are doing well and have a nice day.

The Family that Chooses You

Chapter 44 – Connections and Disconnection

Harry sat by Hermione, not even knowing if she knew he was there. He held her clenched hand in both of his, hoping that she did. He sat and thought over the last few days. It seemed like no matter what happened, things always seemed to get worse somehow.

He tried to follow Oliver's advice from earlier in the year: place concerns into categories and see what he could help with and what he could not. Sadly most things seem to be going into the 'could not' category, much to his frustration.

Obviously he could not do anything to help those that have been petrified. The Mandrake potion was starting to be brewed so it was only a matter of time for the victims to be treated. Hopefully when they were, they would be able to identify the attacker.

Ginny had proven to be even more hostile and withdrawn. She was barely interacting with anyone, not even her brothers, and prone to hiding somewhere they could not find. Every time Harry looked at her, every time their eyes met, he saw the same awfully familiar expression that bothered him so much. Yet before he could approach her, offer any kind of help, she would disappear.

He and Ron decided to see if the off-hand comment Luna made, the one where Ginny said this Tom person blamed Hagrid for a similar situation many years prior, had any merit. They snuck out after hours under his cloak to visit Hagrid. Before they could ask him any questions however, Dumbledore had come with the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. They were removing Hagrid from Hogwarts for the same reason they were coming to talk to him about.

To make things substantially worse, Lucius Malfoy came and told Dumbledore that he had been removed by the School Governors, for failing to manage the situation. As if removing the Headmaster would help anyone.

Before being taken away, Hagrid had spoken out loud and not quite subtly about anyone wanting answers should "follow the spiders". Something that made everyone in his tiny cabin at the time look at him with evident confusion, even if two of the looks were invisible.

Harry and Ron attempted to do just that. They found a few spiders that were crawling with a distinct destination, towards the Forbidden Forest. When they got towards the deeper parts of the forest though, and seeing just how large the webs were, the boys had stopped. Ron, having earlier confessed that he had a phobia about spiders, said he really did not like the looks of the webbing. He told Harry about acromantulas, gigantic spiders that could grow larger than Muggle cars. Ron said he would continue on, but he really did not want to.

Harry did not want to either. The webbing gave him a very bad feeling and he agreed with Ron that if the acromantulas were as large as Ron said, there was no way they would be lurking around the castle. They decided to head back. As they walked back to the castle, secretly relieved and having a feeling that they dodged something perilous, they still felt low. They were no nearer to any answers that they sought.

Feeling discouraged, the boys decided to visit Hermione the day after their attempt in going into the forest. They both sat by her side, lost in their own thoughts. They started to leave and Harry gave Hermione's hand a last squeeze before he felt something in her clenched hand. It felt like paper.

After some gentle pulling, he managed to extricate it. He and Ron read the piece of paper and stared at each other.

"There's a bloody basilisk slithering around the castle?!" Ron asked in a horrified whisper. "That's Slytherin's pet?! That man was a maniac."

Harry read the paper again. "It has to be, it all makes sense. Spiders run away from it and we've been seeing spiders flee the castle. People haven't died because they didn't look at it directly."

"Right!" Ron exclaimed. "Colin's camera, and the mirror." He looked at the floating form of the petrified ghost. "Nick must have gotten a good look but he's a ghost. He can't die again. Justin must have looked through him." He pointed at a word Hermione scrawled. "What do you think 'pipes' means?"

"That's how it's been getting around," Harry said with dawning realization. "That's why I've been hearing a muffled voice around the castle. I'm a Parseltongue, I can hear it."

Ron shook his head. "Imagine going to the bathroom and seeing something poke its scaly head out of the loo. I'd die of fright, much less a basilisk's gaze."

"Thanks Ron," Harry said scathingly. "I really need to be afraid of using the bathroom. Thank you for putting that thought in my head."

Ron shrugged. "Just saying."

Harry buried his face into his hands. "Why does Hagrid love dangerous animals?"

"What does Hagrid have to do with this?"

"Luna mentioned that Ginny's friend Tom hates Hagrid because he caused something like this ages ago."

Ron snorted. "Not saying that's not possible 'cause of the dragon bite I got last year, but I thought the basilisk was Slytherin's pet. There's no way Hagrid is the Heir of Slytherin." He stopped and looked at Harry. "Wait hold on, Ginny has a friend named Tom? Tom who? Have you met him?"

Harry shook his head. "No, but Luna was worried about Ginny. She said Ginny had been saying awful things and kept saying Tom told her. I think she has his diary."

"Oh I know that thing. I found it in Myrtle's bathroom."

"What were you doing there? Was this after Christmas?"

Ron went red. "Well I really had to go and I was close by and there weren't anyone around. I went in and she was moaning more than usual, said someone threw it at her. I recognized it because I've seen Ginny carry it around so I took it back to her. She looked really mad when I did. When I said I'd throw it away she snatched it from me and ran off." He looked troubled. "You know, I really should have noticed something was off. With everything going on, I got distracted."

Harry thought about how Ginny must have felt alone with everything going on. With everyone distracted by the Heir and the Chamber and the petrifications. No wonder she would get really defensive about her friend Tom. Even if he was a bad influence like Luna thought.

Bad influence.

"Harry?" Ron shook his friend's shoulder. Harry had gone pale and had not spoken for a few moments, unnerving him. "Are you okay?"

"I understand now," Harry whispered.

"I certainly don't, mind telling me?" Ron said with mounting irritation and fear.

"I've noticed Ginny looking a certain way. She looks like she is listening to someone talk to her, someone only she can hear."

"She's not a Parseltongue though," Ron argued.

"Not the muffled voice I heard. But a voice in her head. One that tells her awful things, one that she listens to despite it being awful. She listens because she thinks she should. She does what it says because she," he gulped, "thinks it's right."

It was Ron's turn to grow pale. "You…is that…like, you're talking from experience aren't you?"

Harry nodded.

"But…I mean," Ron looked very uncomfortable, "no offense mate but her family doesn't talk to her like that."

Harry smiled weakly. "I know, I lived with you for a few weeks and don't think your family would pretend otherwise while I was there." His eyes narrowed. "What if it's the diary? Can you have enchanted diaries?"

Ron looked sick. "Dad told me loads of stories about cursed books. Some really scary stuff." Ron began to feel afraid and seeing the same fear on Harry's face prevented him from completely losing it. He felt some comfort knowing Harry felt the same. "We need to go tell someone, both about Ginny and the basilisk."

Harry nodded. He felt like they finally had a direction, a lead to follow. He silently thanked Hermione and the boys threw the invisibility cloak over themselves and snuck out of the Infirmary. As they walked through the halls, dodging Prefects and teachers and ghosts, Harry had a thought.

"Ron," he whispered, "do ghosts usually haunt where they die like in Muggle stories?"

"New ones do, something about an attachment to where they died. It takes them a while for them to leave, either by coming to terms or getting bored."

Harry thought. "And ghosts look like what they looked like when they died, right?"

"Usually yeah. Also shows how they died sometimes too. Like how Nick is Nearly Headless and he can flop his head about." Ron frowned. "What's with all the questions about ghosts all of sudden?"

"Isn't it weird that most of the ghosts in the castle are dressed in really old clothes and robes and things but Myrtle is dressed in a school uniform?"

Ron gaped. "I've never noticed that. Wait, you said this Tom guy said that this happened before, that someone died, and Hagrid was supposedly the one that caused it. You don't think…"

"What if Myrtle was the one who died? And if she's still attached to where she died…"

The boys stopped. McGonagall's voice filled the halls. "All students are to return to their common rooms immediately. All Prefects are to watch over their Houses. All Senior Staff attend to me in the Transfiguration Classroom."

"I don't like the sound of that," Ron moaned.

"Come on," Harry muttered.

"Back to the tower?"

"No, we need to talk to the professors. Now we know where they'll be. Let's go."

-0-

"You are going to die, Harry Potter," Tom Marvolo Riddle said.

Actually, he was more like the memory of Tom Riddle, later to be known as Lord Voldemort. However, as Harry lay on the slick stone floor, his arm burning with basilisk poison, he figured they were close enough at the moment. He wished he had the energy to argue, but he also knew he probably did not have a lot of time left.

He and Ron had gone to talk to McGonagall and the other professors, but discovered that Ginny had been taken to the Chamber, a final note written out for others to find. Ron had nearly been overcome with dread but managed to hold on. Lockhart had come and when told to take care of the situation, he had left with stronger bluster and a weaker smile.

Harry and Ron had gone to him with their information only to find him preparing to leave. He was every bit the fraud the boys thought he was, discovering that he had in fact lied and stolen credit for all the accounts he had written. The boys managed to take his wand before he could Obliviate them and forced him at wandpoint to Myrtle's bathroom.

As they had guessed, she was the student killed years prior. She had died in the bathroom and had stayed there as a ghost. Harry also discovered the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and after some difficulty, opened it.

When they reached the bottom of the entryway into the Chamber, Lockhart had taken Ron's broken wand. It had detonated in a spectacular fashion, causing a cave in and trapping him and Ron on one side of the cave in and Harry on the other.

Harry, wishing he could go anywhere else but deeper into the Chamber, went in anyway. Determined to save Ginny. After the way the Weasleys treated him, first the twins and Percy and Ron in first year and then the whole family the last summer, he had to rescue Ginny.

He also had to rescue her because he knew how she felt. Having someone tell you terrible things, making you feel so alone and isolated. He knew how terrible it felt. He would not wish it on anyone.

If he could save her, maybe he could save himself at the same time.

Harry found the girl, senseless and cold to the touch. The diary she had been writing into all year, pouring her thoughts and feelings into it, communicating with what she thought was a friend, had stolen her magic and her life bit by bit. Tom had been quite cruel about that, showing no mercy nor remorse for doing something so awful to Ginny.

If anything, the strange magical construct looked like he enjoyed it. He was able to walk and interact with the real world with his stolen power. He revealed that he was the Heir of Slytherin. That he would one day become Lord Voldemort. Through Ginny, through her actions by his coercion and eventually possessing her, she was how basilisk was released and all those poor victims that were petrified.

The basilisk came at his command. Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix familiar, had come to Harry's aid. The magical bird gouged out the basilisk's eyes, after dropping Gryffindor's hat for Harry to grab. When he put it on, asking for help, he found the Sword of Gryffindor waiting. With the sword, Harry managed to stab the basilisk through the roof of its mouth, killing the creature.

He got bit during the fight.

Harry could feel the poison burning in his arm. He imagined he could feel it traveling slowly through his veins, scorching him from the inside out. He was so consumed by the pain he did not realize Fawkes had landed beside him. After a few moments the pain began to recede and he felt blessed relief instead.

Tom scowled. "Blasted phoenix, forgot about its tears." He waved Harry's stolen wand and the bird flew away from the blast of magic. "No matter, I can handle you now."

Harry tried to pretend that he was still in crippling pain, to make himself look more pathetic and weaker. Luckily, he had a lot of practice there. "I've only just got bitten by a basilisk; I can't be much of a threat to you." he taunted.

Tom looked angry. "Words and attitude are all you have left Potter. No wand, your only ally flees. You may not be dying of poison but you are weak. Wait." His anger dissipated. "Something else. Another factor." His eyes bored into the boy.

Harry stayed silent.

"Ah. I see now. No wonder I was somewhat reluctant to harm you myself earlier. No wonder I felt that you and I were alike."

"We're nothing alike!" Harry yelled.

"We're more alike than you think. There is a connection." Tom made a gesture, his hand twisted and claw-like.

Harry felt his head burn. Intense pressure began to grow in his head, right behind his scar. Harry screamed. The pain was like nothing he had ever felt before. He saw nothing but greenish light and he clutched his head with his hands, trying to keep it from splitting in half. The pain built and grew until Harry felt like he was going to pass out or die, whichever came faster, before something burst from his scar.

Blood spilled down his face but he did not mind. The immense pressure and pain were gone and he would take bleeding over that kind of pain ever again. His scar throbbed and felt raw, and he could feel it bleeding. He inexplicably felt lighter, as if a terrible weight that he had always borne was suddenly taken away. The sudden departure of, whatever it was, left him feeling incredibly exhausted.

Tom looked stronger while Harry looked weaker. He somehow looked more whole, as if something that was missing was reunited with it. The magical memory construct laughed wildly. "Ahhh, it recognized me of course. Together, I am even stronger! I no longer need the girl's magic." He licked his lips unpleasantly. "I will still take it though, because I can. Because I want to."

He leered at the boy. "After I deal with you. I have no need of you anymore. Goodbye Harry Potter."

Fawkes flew past and dropped Riddle's diary into Harry's lap.

Before Tom could summon it away, Harry stabbed it with a broken basilisk fang.

The diary itself screamed, a glass shatteringly loud wail of pain that no book should ever emit. The fang pierced the front cover and the diary bled. Ink spilled from the puncture wound and the corrosive venom of the basilisk made the book shrivel and shake, parts of it turning black and falling apart.

Tom suffered just as much as the diary.

He screamed in agony. He bled light and magic, both foul and dark. He tried to use Harry's wand but it fell from a hand that wasted away. He took a step before collapsing, his legs fading. He writhed as bit by bit, he vanished. Long after his constructed form disappeared, his final scream echoed around the Chamber, until it too finally fell silent.

Harry looked at the destroyed diary before him and very, very carefully set the fang aside.

He crawled towards Ginny. He almost cried when he touched her hand. It was warm to the touch, not like the cold state she was in when he first came to the chamber. "Ginny," he said hoarsely, shaking her. "Ginny, please wake up."

The girl's lids fluttered and she groaned. "Wh-where am I? Oh no! Tom!" She started to shake trying to sit up.

"Ginny! It's me, Harry," he said lamely. "Don't worry, Tom's gone. He can't control you anymore."

Ginny whimpered. "No, he can! I tried to get rid of the diary but I could hear him. No matter where I was, I could hear him. At first he was so kind and understanding but he got really rude, really ugly. He used my words against me, made fun of me." She started to cry. "I hurt people because of him!"

He took her hands in his. "Ginny, it's okay. Look." He used his chin to point at the destroyed diary. "He's gone. He's really gone."

Her eyes stared at the broken book. "Wh-what if he isn't?"

"I saw him dissolve in front of me, after I stabbed that thing with the fang. He's gone."

She stared at the book. Tears ran down her face and she saw without seeing.

"I'm sorry," Harry said."

That caught her attention. She looked at him confused. "Why are you apologizing to me? I should be apologizing to you!" She saw how disheveled he looked. His bruises, his blood. "I got you hurt!" She cried harder.

"I'm apologizing because I should have recognized the signs," he said softly. "You've looked really distressed lately and I felt it looked too familiar. And I realized almost too late why. And now you confirmed it." He looked pained. "It's really terrible, isn't it? Constantly hearing a voice saying awful things. Telling you things you want to hear and then twisting them. Making you relieve your lowest moments. Never leaving you alone."

She gasped. That was exactly how it was. "How do you know?" she asked. "Have you been possessed too?"

He shook his head. "Nothing so…magical," he said. "Let's just say I know exactly how you feel."

She knew he was telling the truth and not making empty noises of sympathy. If she was not already crying, she would be now. "Does it get any better?"

He sighed. Even now, overwhelmed with relief from surviving, relieved at seeing Ginny alive, his body a giant mass of pain from the fight, he could still hear the Dursleys in his head if he tried to listen. Something was a little different. The words did not drive as deep, they were not magnified by some kind of hidden malice, they lost some of their hissing edge.

But they were still there.

"It gets better. I still hear mine, but it's quieter. I've had help in ignoring them. Hearing them less. It's hard, but it does get better."

Ginny's tears began to dry. "Thank you," she whispered.

He squeezed her hands. "You'll have help too. Your brothers love you, so do your parents."

Her tears doubled. Now they were not tainted by pain, they were the tears of release. Of seeing a burden but knowing it is not an impossible one.

"I'll help you too. I know what it's like."

She did not like hearing that. She hated it in fact. She also felt relief knowing that someone else knew the kind of pain she knew. She hated that she felt relief.

Harry looked exhausted. "Come on. Ron's at the entrance and hopefully he cleared enough space for us to crawl through."

They left the Chamber together. One broken in body, the other in spirit.

But they left the Chamber behind.