Chapter Two: Harry Potter vs. The Heiress of Slytherin
Hermione smiled wickedly. "So, boys," she purred. "Did you MISS me?"
Ron could barely say a coherent sentence. I just stared at Hermione, not quite sure what to say to her.
I can't think of a way to describe how Hermione looked except for the fact that she looked EVIL. She was barely recognizable from the Hermione I had known. She wore a gray sweater with silver and green stripes along the collar, a gray pleated skirt, and a jacket that bore the crest of the House of Slytherin on it's breast pocket. She had long black hair tied back with a green and silver ribbon, her eyes were a vibrant emerald green and seemed to flash in the slightly dim light and her skin seemed slightly lighter. She wore a smile on her face that was more evil than pleasant and she twirled her wand around in her hand. For some reason or another, she looked awfully familiar to me; it was like she resembled someone I had seen before, but I couldn't remember who.
"I have been wondering when you'd show up, Harry Potter." She said icily. She said my name as if it was a dirty word. "You took so long that I thought that you'd never show up. Well, now you're here and that's what counts, isn't it?" Her tone was icy, yet pleasant.
Finally, I managed to force myself to speak. "H-H-Hermione?" I stammered. "Is that really you?"
Her face twisted into a really wicked smile. "The one and only, Mr. Harry Potter." She replied. "Who were you expecting?"
"Any Slytherin other than you." Ron answered sarcastically. "You are a Gryffindor."
Hermione's face contorted and then she forced it into a look of disgust. "Correction, Weasley." She said in a cold tone. "I WAS a Gryffindor. Now, I'm a Slytherin girl, just like the rest of my family."
"Hermione, how in the world can you be a Slytherin?" I asked, knowing full well that I was treading on thin ice.
She glared at me and her eyes flashed scarlet. " Well, for starters, I'm a pure blood. " she responded, her tone growing icy again, "and I have all the qualities of a typical Slytherin. I'm determined, resourceful, ambitious, shrewd, and cunning and have a certain disregard for rules. And I like to play dirty to get what I want and to get my way. I'm more than willing to do whatever it takes to achieve my goals, no matter how hard they may seem. Besides, what I'm about to do to the two of you will only amount to a mere stepping stone on my path to glory and world domination."
"What are you talking about, Hermione?" Ron asked, clinging to me.
"I mean that all I have done lately was just part of a plan to get you down here, Harry." She answered, speaking directly to me. Her tone was still icy. "I'm the one who set the Serpent of Slytherin free once more , after all. It was something I had to do along with making sure that neither of you leave the Chamber of Secrets alive. You both will die down here along and stay here, rotting away. And I'm going to kill you myself. And I am going to enjoy every single second of it. THOROUGHLY. "
"And just how do you plan to do that?" I asked her, wishing my voice wasn't so full of fear.
"Well, I could use the Killing Curse or, I could use Jade." Hermione said causally.
Ron began to shiver. "Who's Jade?" he asked, clearly scared.
"My pet basilisk." Hermione answered coolly.
Hermione, that's impossible." I said. "How can you control a basilisk? In several of the books about such beasts, it says that basilisks can only be controlled by Parselmouths and the last time I checked, you're not a Parselmouth!"
Looking back on the entire incident, I realize now what I didn't beforehand: I should've realized who Hermione was a descendant of when she raised one of her black eyebrows and gave me this look that clearly read: "Oh really?". Unfortunately, I didn't realize that in time to get away from her. As a matter of fact, the very next thing she said was the exact same thing that her expression said and she said it a few rather tense moments later.
"Oh really Harry?" she asked with a look of mock surprise on her face. "How can you say what you don't know? Do you know that for a fact?" She was saying my name as if it where a dirty word or something again.
I knew that she had me there because she was absolutely right. How did I know that for a fact? And how could I prove it? I couldn't and she, that cunning, traitorous, evil witch, knew it, too. I didn't know that. It was just a theory that I had no way to prove. So, I stood there in shock, while Ron clung to me. He was now shaking in fright and he looked as if someone had told him to keep a spider, a LIVE spider for a pet. That was how terrified he looked.
"I don't know." I answered at last. "You tell me."
"Harry, that's a really dangerous question to ask her at the moment." Ron spoke up in a small voice. "What if she won't talk? Or what if she kills us?"
"Shut up, Weasley." Hermione snapped. "Shut up before I shut you up.no wait I WANT to do that."
"Ron, please, be quiet." I hissed at him. Then, I faced Hermione. "Are you a Parselmouth or not, Hermione?"
She giggled wickedly. "Well, of course I am." She answered cheerfully, far too cheerfully for my liking.
I stared at her for what seemed like forever. "You are?"
"Well, my father being who he was , how could I not?" she replied. "It's not like I had a choice in genes, you know."
This should have told me something, but it didn't. And that was possibly because it was at that point that I began to notice that Hermione was beginning to remind me of someone, but I couldn't remember who.
Hermione's smile had turned nasty again as she noticed this. That was when I realized that something very funny was going on here.
"How did you get like this, Hermione?"
"Well, that's quite an interesting question." She said, coolly. "And it's a rather long story. I suppose the real reason I'm like this is because I met my true father and he gave me power worthy of my intelligence . As a side effect of the spell he cast, it changed my personality a little."
"A LITTLE!?" I cried. "Hermione, you are an entirely different person! "
"Well, my true father, my WIZARD father, is very powerful. " Hermione's response was causal, too causal. "Of course, he also happens to be someone you've escaped at least three times in your fifteen years of life. And may I add that you managed to escape him rather narrowly, I might add."
Now, THAT told me something that nearly gave me one hell of a heart attack. I gasped, my eyes wide with shock.
"She can't be." I whispered. "She simply cannot be."
"Harry, what is she talking about?" Ron asked.
"Ron, you don't want to know."
Unfortunately for both of us, Hermione just happened to overhear us. "Oh you don't, do you?" she asked, using a tone that told me that we happened to be in rather deep trouble and that she was getting a real kick out of watching us get scared. She also asked the question and sneered in a way that reminded me of Malfoy.
Ron began to shake again.
"No," I answered, trying to keep the fear I felt out of my voice. "Hermione, I don't want to know."
"Well, I'm going to tell you anyway." She said. "And this secret, you two will take to your graves." She laughed a high, cold laugh that didn't suit her at all. It sent shivers down my spine." And I personally guarantee that."
At the time, I wasn't really sure what point Hermione was getting at, but a few moments later, I honestly wished that I wasn't sure at all.
When neither Ron nor I could come up with a response, she smiled again. "Harry, my true father is one of the things you fear the most, what you fear above everyone else. He's haunted your nightmares for years He is the very reason why you have THAT." She'd moved very close to me while she'd been talking and when she said "that", she ran her fingers over the lightning bolt scar I had on my forehead. When she touched the scar, it began to burn with pain. The pain was so intense that I thought that I would die.
That was when she confirmed what had been my worst fear at that point and it hit me like a cauldron over the head.
"Voldemort." I said softly. "Tom Riddle. Your father is Tom Riddle the last Heir of Slytherin! And he became Lord Voldemort!"
Ron whimpered.
To prove that I was right, Hermione took out her wand and used it to write three shimmering words in the air: "Hermione Cassandra Granger". Then, with a wave of her wand, her last name, "Granger" vanished and in its place the last name, "Riddle" appeared. "Brilliant deduction Potter!" she cried, with an evil laugh. Her eyes flashed scarlet again and they were quite wild with excitement." Yes, Lord Voldemort is my true father. He gave me wonderful new powers and stronger magic, powers and magic worthy of my intelligence, put not without a price, of course."
I had no clue as to why she was telling me all this, but my scar was still burning like mad and I couldn't concentrate on much else. That was when I remembered who exactly Hermione looked like, who she resembled. Tom Marvolo Riddle. Hermione looked exactly like a female version of Tom Riddle. Unfortunately, I was in far too much pain to speak.
"Would you two like to know what my price to pay for my new powers and my new magic is?" she asked, a hungry look in her gleaming scarlet and emerald eyes.
Ron answered for both of us. "Not really." He said, his voice quite shaky.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously and she coupled it with a smile that I'd only seen on Voldemort himself. That's how evil it looked. She looked quite menacing and scary. "Well, I'm going to tell you anyway, like it or not." She said. She was speaking directly to me. "My price to pay for my new powers is your life, Harry Potter." She said. "I had to agree to kill you with my own two hands or my wand. And I'm going to do that. And I'm going to enjoy every single moment of doing just that. I, Hermione Cassandra Riddle, am going to love making you suffer, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived.up until now that is."
The pain in my forehead receded a little and I finally managed to speak directly to the traitor of Gryffindor, Hermione, and my ex- best friend.
"I won't go down without a fight." I said, more boldly than I was feeling at the moment. "Hermione, I refuse to loose to you. You're still my friend and I still believe that the real you is still in there. I won't give you up with out putting up a damn good fight first."
"Admirable sentiments, Harry Potter." She replied coolly. "But I'm afraid that you have no choice in the matter, or rather, you have no say in this. You will meet your end as I see fit, just like Weasley will."
I knew full well that this was no time to be stubborn and to argue with Hermione, especially when she had the power and the capability to kill me at any second. "No, I won't, Hermione." I said. "I won't because you don't have the courage to do it. You're too scared to kill me. And that is because deep down inside, you still care about me. And I know that there is still a part of you that loves me the way I love you."
The look on her face was nothing short of malicious; if looks could kill, Ron and I would be dead and buried already. She raised her wand. "Now, like I said earlier, you two won't be leaving the Chamber of Secrets alive. You have no chance against me, for my magic is far superior to yours. As a result, you have two choices: die quickly and painlessly or die slowly and painfully. Or, as a last resort, you can fight me."
"I'll fight you." I said, immediately wishing that I'd never said such a thing. Ron looked at me in horror. "I'll fight to the death."
She arched an eyebrow. "Very well then." She said, twisting her face into an awful smile. "Let's fight."
The way she said that was beginning to make me wish that I'd never ever gone down into the Chamber of Secrets in the first place.
Hermione smiled wickedly. "So, boys," she purred. "Did you MISS me?"
Ron could barely say a coherent sentence. I just stared at Hermione, not quite sure what to say to her.
I can't think of a way to describe how Hermione looked except for the fact that she looked EVIL. She was barely recognizable from the Hermione I had known. She wore a gray sweater with silver and green stripes along the collar, a gray pleated skirt, and a jacket that bore the crest of the House of Slytherin on it's breast pocket. She had long black hair tied back with a green and silver ribbon, her eyes were a vibrant emerald green and seemed to flash in the slightly dim light and her skin seemed slightly lighter. She wore a smile on her face that was more evil than pleasant and she twirled her wand around in her hand. For some reason or another, she looked awfully familiar to me; it was like she resembled someone I had seen before, but I couldn't remember who.
"I have been wondering when you'd show up, Harry Potter." She said icily. She said my name as if it was a dirty word. "You took so long that I thought that you'd never show up. Well, now you're here and that's what counts, isn't it?" Her tone was icy, yet pleasant.
Finally, I managed to force myself to speak. "H-H-Hermione?" I stammered. "Is that really you?"
Her face twisted into a really wicked smile. "The one and only, Mr. Harry Potter." She replied. "Who were you expecting?"
"Any Slytherin other than you." Ron answered sarcastically. "You are a Gryffindor."
Hermione's face contorted and then she forced it into a look of disgust. "Correction, Weasley." She said in a cold tone. "I WAS a Gryffindor. Now, I'm a Slytherin girl, just like the rest of my family."
"Hermione, how in the world can you be a Slytherin?" I asked, knowing full well that I was treading on thin ice.
She glared at me and her eyes flashed scarlet. " Well, for starters, I'm a pure blood. " she responded, her tone growing icy again, "and I have all the qualities of a typical Slytherin. I'm determined, resourceful, ambitious, shrewd, and cunning and have a certain disregard for rules. And I like to play dirty to get what I want and to get my way. I'm more than willing to do whatever it takes to achieve my goals, no matter how hard they may seem. Besides, what I'm about to do to the two of you will only amount to a mere stepping stone on my path to glory and world domination."
"What are you talking about, Hermione?" Ron asked, clinging to me.
"I mean that all I have done lately was just part of a plan to get you down here, Harry." She answered, speaking directly to me. Her tone was still icy. "I'm the one who set the Serpent of Slytherin free once more , after all. It was something I had to do along with making sure that neither of you leave the Chamber of Secrets alive. You both will die down here along and stay here, rotting away. And I'm going to kill you myself. And I am going to enjoy every single second of it. THOROUGHLY. "
"And just how do you plan to do that?" I asked her, wishing my voice wasn't so full of fear.
"Well, I could use the Killing Curse or, I could use Jade." Hermione said causally.
Ron began to shiver. "Who's Jade?" he asked, clearly scared.
"My pet basilisk." Hermione answered coolly.
Hermione, that's impossible." I said. "How can you control a basilisk? In several of the books about such beasts, it says that basilisks can only be controlled by Parselmouths and the last time I checked, you're not a Parselmouth!"
Looking back on the entire incident, I realize now what I didn't beforehand: I should've realized who Hermione was a descendant of when she raised one of her black eyebrows and gave me this look that clearly read: "Oh really?". Unfortunately, I didn't realize that in time to get away from her. As a matter of fact, the very next thing she said was the exact same thing that her expression said and she said it a few rather tense moments later.
"Oh really Harry?" she asked with a look of mock surprise on her face. "How can you say what you don't know? Do you know that for a fact?" She was saying my name as if it where a dirty word or something again.
I knew that she had me there because she was absolutely right. How did I know that for a fact? And how could I prove it? I couldn't and she, that cunning, traitorous, evil witch, knew it, too. I didn't know that. It was just a theory that I had no way to prove. So, I stood there in shock, while Ron clung to me. He was now shaking in fright and he looked as if someone had told him to keep a spider, a LIVE spider for a pet. That was how terrified he looked.
"I don't know." I answered at last. "You tell me."
"Harry, that's a really dangerous question to ask her at the moment." Ron spoke up in a small voice. "What if she won't talk? Or what if she kills us?"
"Shut up, Weasley." Hermione snapped. "Shut up before I shut you up.no wait I WANT to do that."
"Ron, please, be quiet." I hissed at him. Then, I faced Hermione. "Are you a Parselmouth or not, Hermione?"
She giggled wickedly. "Well, of course I am." She answered cheerfully, far too cheerfully for my liking.
I stared at her for what seemed like forever. "You are?"
"Well, my father being who he was , how could I not?" she replied. "It's not like I had a choice in genes, you know."
This should have told me something, but it didn't. And that was possibly because it was at that point that I began to notice that Hermione was beginning to remind me of someone, but I couldn't remember who.
Hermione's smile had turned nasty again as she noticed this. That was when I realized that something very funny was going on here.
"How did you get like this, Hermione?"
"Well, that's quite an interesting question." She said, coolly. "And it's a rather long story. I suppose the real reason I'm like this is because I met my true father and he gave me power worthy of my intelligence . As a side effect of the spell he cast, it changed my personality a little."
"A LITTLE!?" I cried. "Hermione, you are an entirely different person! "
"Well, my true father, my WIZARD father, is very powerful. " Hermione's response was causal, too causal. "Of course, he also happens to be someone you've escaped at least three times in your fifteen years of life. And may I add that you managed to escape him rather narrowly, I might add."
Now, THAT told me something that nearly gave me one hell of a heart attack. I gasped, my eyes wide with shock.
"She can't be." I whispered. "She simply cannot be."
"Harry, what is she talking about?" Ron asked.
"Ron, you don't want to know."
Unfortunately for both of us, Hermione just happened to overhear us. "Oh you don't, do you?" she asked, using a tone that told me that we happened to be in rather deep trouble and that she was getting a real kick out of watching us get scared. She also asked the question and sneered in a way that reminded me of Malfoy.
Ron began to shake again.
"No," I answered, trying to keep the fear I felt out of my voice. "Hermione, I don't want to know."
"Well, I'm going to tell you anyway." She said. "And this secret, you two will take to your graves." She laughed a high, cold laugh that didn't suit her at all. It sent shivers down my spine." And I personally guarantee that."
At the time, I wasn't really sure what point Hermione was getting at, but a few moments later, I honestly wished that I wasn't sure at all.
When neither Ron nor I could come up with a response, she smiled again. "Harry, my true father is one of the things you fear the most, what you fear above everyone else. He's haunted your nightmares for years He is the very reason why you have THAT." She'd moved very close to me while she'd been talking and when she said "that", she ran her fingers over the lightning bolt scar I had on my forehead. When she touched the scar, it began to burn with pain. The pain was so intense that I thought that I would die.
That was when she confirmed what had been my worst fear at that point and it hit me like a cauldron over the head.
"Voldemort." I said softly. "Tom Riddle. Your father is Tom Riddle the last Heir of Slytherin! And he became Lord Voldemort!"
Ron whimpered.
To prove that I was right, Hermione took out her wand and used it to write three shimmering words in the air: "Hermione Cassandra Granger". Then, with a wave of her wand, her last name, "Granger" vanished and in its place the last name, "Riddle" appeared. "Brilliant deduction Potter!" she cried, with an evil laugh. Her eyes flashed scarlet again and they were quite wild with excitement." Yes, Lord Voldemort is my true father. He gave me wonderful new powers and stronger magic, powers and magic worthy of my intelligence, put not without a price, of course."
I had no clue as to why she was telling me all this, but my scar was still burning like mad and I couldn't concentrate on much else. That was when I remembered who exactly Hermione looked like, who she resembled. Tom Marvolo Riddle. Hermione looked exactly like a female version of Tom Riddle. Unfortunately, I was in far too much pain to speak.
"Would you two like to know what my price to pay for my new powers and my new magic is?" she asked, a hungry look in her gleaming scarlet and emerald eyes.
Ron answered for both of us. "Not really." He said, his voice quite shaky.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously and she coupled it with a smile that I'd only seen on Voldemort himself. That's how evil it looked. She looked quite menacing and scary. "Well, I'm going to tell you anyway, like it or not." She said. She was speaking directly to me. "My price to pay for my new powers is your life, Harry Potter." She said. "I had to agree to kill you with my own two hands or my wand. And I'm going to do that. And I'm going to enjoy every single moment of doing just that. I, Hermione Cassandra Riddle, am going to love making you suffer, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived.up until now that is."
The pain in my forehead receded a little and I finally managed to speak directly to the traitor of Gryffindor, Hermione, and my ex- best friend.
"I won't go down without a fight." I said, more boldly than I was feeling at the moment. "Hermione, I refuse to loose to you. You're still my friend and I still believe that the real you is still in there. I won't give you up with out putting up a damn good fight first."
"Admirable sentiments, Harry Potter." She replied coolly. "But I'm afraid that you have no choice in the matter, or rather, you have no say in this. You will meet your end as I see fit, just like Weasley will."
I knew full well that this was no time to be stubborn and to argue with Hermione, especially when she had the power and the capability to kill me at any second. "No, I won't, Hermione." I said. "I won't because you don't have the courage to do it. You're too scared to kill me. And that is because deep down inside, you still care about me. And I know that there is still a part of you that loves me the way I love you."
The look on her face was nothing short of malicious; if looks could kill, Ron and I would be dead and buried already. She raised her wand. "Now, like I said earlier, you two won't be leaving the Chamber of Secrets alive. You have no chance against me, for my magic is far superior to yours. As a result, you have two choices: die quickly and painlessly or die slowly and painfully. Or, as a last resort, you can fight me."
"I'll fight you." I said, immediately wishing that I'd never said such a thing. Ron looked at me in horror. "I'll fight to the death."
She arched an eyebrow. "Very well then." She said, twisting her face into an awful smile. "Let's fight."
The way she said that was beginning to make me wish that I'd never ever gone down into the Chamber of Secrets in the first place.
