The next day Ron and Harry were making their way to speak to Myrtle. Buffy and Oliver had had a long night and both could use the rest. Lockhart was escorting them to History of Magic. Now all they had to do was find away to ditch him.

"Mark my words," Lockhart said, ushering them around the corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouth will be, It was Hagrid. Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."

"I agree, sir," said Harry, totally shocking Ron.

"Thank you Harry," responded Lockhart graciously. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night…"

"That's right," replied Ron finally understanding where Harry was going with this. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go…"

"You know, Weasley, I think I will. I really should go and prepare for my next class."

Lockhart hurried of leaving the two alone. Harry and Ron smiled at each other.

"That was almost too easy. Come on. Let's go." Harry told Ron.

The two began to head toward the bathroom when they turned the corner running into McGonagall.

"Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?"

"We were-we were-" Ron stuttered. "We were going to-to go and see-"

"Hermione." Harry was getting looks from both McGonagall and Ron. "We haven't seen her in ages. We thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and er not to worry."

"Of course. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone."

Harry and Ron quickly departed her company and headed for the hospital wing having no other choice. It was eerily quiet as they moved to Hermione's bed. She was so still that it was frightening. Harry and Ron both looked her over.

"What's that?" Ron asked seeing the paper clutched in Hermione's hand.

"Ron, this is why Hermione was in the library the day she was attacked. Come on. Of the many fearsome beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the Basilisk. Capable of living hundreds of years, instant death awaits any that meets this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it…. Ron, this is it! The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk! That's why I can hear it speak! It's a snake!"

"But if it kills by looking people in the eye, why is it no-one's dead?"

"Because no-one did look it in the eye. Not directly, at least. Colin saw it through his camera. Justin…Justin must have seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick. Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost. He couldn't die again. And Hermione had the mirror. I bet you anything she was using it to look around corners in case it came along."

"And Mrs. Norris? I'm pretty sure she didn't have a camera or a mirror, Harry."

"The water. There was water on the floor that night. She only saw the Basilisk's reflection. Spiders flee before it-It all fits!"

"But how's the Basilisk been getting around? A dirty, great snake, someone would have seen it."

"Hermione's answered that, too."

"Pipes! It's using the plumbing."

"Remember what Aragog said, about that girl fifty years ago. She died in a bathroom. What if she never left?"

"Moaning Myrtle?" Harry nodded.

"Let's get Buffy."

Harry and Ron were running to find Buffy. She needed to know what they had found out. They were headed back to the common room when they heard McGonagall's voice magically magnified.

"All pupils are to return to their house dormitories at once. All teachers to the second floor corridor immediately."

"Not another attack? Not now?" Harry said as he and Ron stopped.

"What'll we do?" Ron asked. "Continue on to the dormitories?"

"No," said Harry. They came down an adjoining hallway and watched without being seen.

"As you can see, the heir of Slytherin has left another message. Our worst fear has been realized. A student has been taken by the monster into the Chamber itself. The students must be sent home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts."

"So sorry, dozed off. What've I missed?" Lockhart said as he jogged up to the crowd.

"A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last." Snape said with a look of pure satisfaction. Lockhart seemed to pale slightly.

"My m-moment?"

"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?" Snape reminded him.

"I-well, I-" sputtered Lockhart.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside?" Flitwick informed everyone.

"Did I? I don't recall…"

"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't a crack at the monster," Snape reminded him. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"

"That's settled. We'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. A free rein at last. Your skills, after all, are legendary." McGonagall said drawing strength from Giles.

"Very well. I'll just be in my office getting…uh…getting ready."

"Who is it that the monster's taken, Minerva?" Giles asked.

"Ginny Weasley."

"Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever. Ginny!" Ron read and began to panic.

"Lockhart may be useless, but he's going to try to get into the Chamber. At least we can tell him what we know!"

Harry said as they ran to Lockhart's office. They enter to see him cramming as much as he can into a bag.

"Professor, we have some information for you? Are you going somewhere?"

"Well, I-I…yes, um…urgent call, unavoidable. Got to go."

"What about my sister?"

"Well, uh, as to that, most unfortunate. No-one regrets more than I."

"What the bloody coward is trying to say is he's running out on us." Buffy said as she, Oliver, Xander, and Willow entered.

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher! You can't go now!" Ron told him.

"Well I must say, when I took the job, there was nothing in the job description about a…"

"You're running away? After all that stuff you did in your books?" Harry asked.

"Books can be misleading!" Lockhart told them.

"You wrote them!"

"He didn't write anything Harry. He stole it from other wizards," said Buffy.

"My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things."

"You're a fraud!"

"Ever since the first day of school I knew you were a phony. Proving it though was another matter." Buffy had her wand out. "Have a seat Lockhart. Tonight justice will be served. When I return from the chambers the world will know what a fraud you are. I'm going to bind you to the chair than seal the room. Only a wizard of extreme power can break the spell so I'm not worried about you going anywhere Lockhart."

Buffy bound Lockhart as she said she would. Then they all left the room as Buffy did the sealing spell.

"Willow, will you and Xander stay here and make sure that Lockhart stays put? Plus, in case we don't come back by morning, you need to let Giles know where we went."

"Sure Buffster." Xander told her and Willow agreed.

Harry filled Buffy and Oliver in on what they found out from the paper in Hermione's hand. As quickly as they could they made their way to the girl's bathroom.

"Oh! Who's there? Oh, hello Buffy. What do you want?"

"Myrtle, can you tell us how you died?"

"Oh, it was dreadful. It happened right here in this very cubical. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then, I heard somebody come in."

"Who was it, Myrtle?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. I was distraught! But they said something funny, a kind of made up language, and I realized it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door to tell him to go away and I died."

"Just like that? How?" Buffy prompted.

"No idea. I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes, over there, by that sink. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away…And then I came back again."

The group moved toward the sink looking it over. Oliver pointed out the tiny snake of the side of one of the faucets.

"This is it. This is it, guys. I think this is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."

"Say something. Harry, say something in Parseltongue." Ron told him.

"He-sha-hass-a!"

"Excellent, Harry. Ha, good work." Buffy said as the door opened. She glanced down at the dark tunnel. "I'll go first."

The ride down the giant slope wasn't as bad as Buffy thought it would be. She checked the place out before giving the others the okay.

"Alright, let's go." Harry said when Buffy gave the okay.

"Oh Harry, if you die down there, you're welcome to share my toilet."

"Um, thanks, Myrtle."

"Now remember, any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away." Buffy reminded them when everyone was there. "This way."

"What's this?" Ron said pointing to the ground.

"It looks like a…snake." Oliver said. Buffy and Harry were moving to get a closer look.

"It's a snakeskin." Harry told them.

"Bloody hell! Whatever shed this must be sixty feet long! Or more!"

There was a loud rumbling sound as the overhead ceiling began to cave in. Buffy quickly pulled Harry out of the way of the falling rocks.

"Harry!"

"Buffy!"

Oliver and Ron called out to their friends having been stuck on the other side.

"Ron! Ron, are you okay?"

"Oliver?"

"We're fine Buffy." Oliver called out to them.

"What do we do now?" Ron asked.

"You two wait here and try and shift some of these rocks so we can get back through." Buffy told them. "We'll go on and find Ginny."

The two moved deeper into the corridor. They came upon and door. "He-sha-hass-a!"

The door opened when Harry spoke to it once again. Buffy and Harry both moved cautiously until they saw Ginny's body lying on the floor.

"Ginny. Ginny, oh, Ginny, please don't be dead. Wake up. Wake up! Please, wake up."

Harry pleaded with her. He had dropped his wand and it had rolled slightly away from him. He and Buffy were too concerned about Ginny to notice.

"She's not dead yet so that's a good sign." Buffy said feeling a faint pulse.

"She won't wake."

Both Harry and Buffy looked up to see who had spoken. A tall black haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching.

"Tom. Tom Riddle. What do you mean she won't wake? She's not…" Harry stopped not being able to finish the sentence.

"The Slayer here was right. She's still alive, but only just."

"Are you a ghost?"

"A memory. Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

"She's cold as ice. Ginny, please don't be dead. Wake up. You've got to help me, Tom. There's a Basilisk."

"It won't come until it's called."

"Release her Tom." Buffy demanded.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Slayer. You see, as poor Ginny grows weaker, I grow stronger. Yes, it was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets!"

"No. She couldn't, she wouldn't!" Harry told him.

"It was Ginny who set the Basilisk on the Mudbloods and Filch's cat. Ginny who wrote the frightening messages on the walls."

"But why?" Harry asked.

"Because I told her to. You'll find I can be very persuasive. Not that she knew what she was doing, she was, shall we say, in a kind of trance. Still, the power of the diary began to scare her. She tried to dispose of it in the girl's bathroom. And then, who should find it but you, one of two people that I was most anxious to meet."

"And the other was me I suppose."

"Yes. Being the Slayer has given you an unknown power that's greater than any I know. I must have it"

"And why did you want to meet me?"

"Ginny wrote quite a bit about both of you. I knew I had to talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my capture of that brainless oaf Hagrid to gain your trust."

"Hagrid's our friend! And you framed him, didn't you."

"It was my word against Hagrid's. Only Dumbledore seemed to think he was innocent."

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you."

"He certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after that. I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school so I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages so that one day, I would be able to lead another, to finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"But you haven't finished it this time. In a few hours, the Mandrake draft will be ready, and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again."

"Haven't I told you? Killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore. For many months now, my new target has been you two. How is it that a baby, with no extraordinary talent, was able to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed? I had to meet the child that is being called the greatest and most powerful slayer of all time. You have made quite a name for yourself already. I believe I have someone here you know."

From another corridor came the man that was Hank Summers. Buffy wasn't surprised. Ever since her dream she knew that he was evil.

"Who are you? I know that you are not my father."

"Very good slayer. You're right he's not your father, but his resemblance to your father was enough to keep you distracted so that you didn't figure out that Ginny was the one who opened the chamber."

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

"Voldemort is my past, present, and future." He took Harry's wand from his pocket and began writing in the air.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

"How corny can you get? His name is an anagram for I AM LORD VOLDMORT."

"Oh, and she has brains too."

"You…you're the heir of Slytherin."

"Surely you didn't think that I was going to keep my filthy Muggle father's name. No, I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one-day fear to speak, when I became the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

"You're not you know?" Buffy told Voldemort.

"Not what?"

"The greatest sorcerer in the world Albus Dumbledore is!" Harry told him.

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!"

"He'll never be gone! Not as long as those who remain are loyal to him!"

"Harry's right. Dumbledore is around and should we need him he will come."

"That's a phoenix…" Riddle pointed out.

"Fawkes?" Harry said as the bird flew dropping something not too far from Buffy and Harry.

"So this is what Dumbledore sends his great defender: a songbird and an old hat." He turned toward the Hank Summers look alike. "Get me the Slayer."

The Hank Summers look alike pulls out a wand and he and Buffy began to duel. Tom turns his attention back to Harry.

"To business Harry, twice in your past, my future, we have met. And twice I have failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk the longer you stay alive."

Harry stood there weighing his options. He looked to where Buffy was at and saw that she was still deep in battle. Riddle had his wand and all he had was Fawkes and the sorting hat. He noticed that Riddle was becoming more becoming more solid.

"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me. But I do know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle born mother. She stopped you from killing me. And I've seen the real you last year. You were a wreck. You were barely alive. That's where your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul-"

"So your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful counter charm. I can see now…there is nothing special about you after all. Sles-aa-gonda-tha-say-le-thain! Let's match the power of Lord Voldemort, heir of Salazar Slytherin, against the famous Harry Potter."

An extremely giant, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, snake came out of the passage behind Tom.

"Si-ha-thes!" Harry tried.

"Parseltongue won't save you know, Potter. It only obeys me!" Tom watched as Fawkes attacked the Basilisk. "No! Your bird may have blinded the Basilisk, but it can still hear you!" Harry started to run from the snake.

"Help me, help me! Buffy!"

Buffy heard Harry cry out. She risked taking a glance to see what was happening to Harry. She saw Harry being chased by the giant snake out of the room and down into another path. She knew she had to take care of this man quickly so she could help Harry. Returning her attention back to her opponent she had her first wand in one hand and the wand Oliver gave her in the other hand. Buffy sent several spells at once toward the guy. He blocked them just as Buffy had planned. Using her slayer strength and speed Buffy was next to the man. With one good slayer hit to the face he flew across the room hitting the wall and falling unconscious. She watched as the body on the ground began to change forms. It went from looking like her father to a brown short looking demon. Quickly she moved to make sure the demon was gone for good. With the demon being officially dead Buffy moved to follow Harry when Tom brought Harry's wand up and began firing spells at Buffy.

Harry had managed to lose the snake for a few seconds, by throwing a rock down the tunnel he wasn't in. The snake followed the sound. He made his way back to the main chamber. He entered just in time to see Buffy hit with the Crucio curse. She saw her drop to the ground near Ginny withering in pain.

"Ginny…Buffy…" Harry said as he moved toward them.

"Yes, Potter. The process is almost complete. In a few moments, Ginny Weasley will be dead, the slayers power will be mine, and I will cease to be a memory. Lord Voldemort will return very much alive."

The snake returns and starts going after Harry once again. Harry tries to think fast when he sees a sword appear in the Sorting Hat. He quickly grabs it and runs to the statue of Salazar Slytherin and starts climbing it. The Basilisk followed him. He stops halfway up and takes a swing at the Basilisk. Holding as tightly as he can the Basilisk lunges at him barely missing. It lunges again as Harry gets to the top. Harry swings the sword again, but doesn't faze the snake. He keeps trying until the sword is knocked from his hand. He quickly makes a grab for it. He aim had been true this time as he shoves it through the top of the Basilisk's head through the mouth. Unfortunate for Harry one of the Basilisk's tooth stabs him in the arm. The effect of the poison works almost instantly as his strength begins to lessen. He drops to the ground next to Ginny and Buffy. He sees that Buffy trying hard to embrace the pain that is over taking her.

"Remarkable, isn't it, how quickly the venom of the Basilisk penetrates the body? I guess you have little more than a minute to live. You'll be with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry. Funny, the damage a silly little book can do, especially in the hands of a silly little girl."

Buffy through all the pain managed to carefully pull out Mr. Pointy. Riddle's eyes were focused on Harry. He didn't expect her to be able to do anything but feel the pain. Gritting her teeth to push down the pain she shoved the stake as hard as she could through the book.

"What're you doing? Stop, no! Ah! AHH!" Voldemort cried out as he began to disappear. Buffy passed out as soon as Riddle disappeared.

"Buffy! Ginny!"

Harry could see that Ginny was beginning to wake up. He knew that he didn't have that much more time left. He pulled the tooth out of his arm.

"Harry! It was me! But I swear, I didn't mean to. Riddle made me, and…. Harry, you're hurt."

"Don't worry. Ginny, Buffy is out cold. You need to get yourself out. Follow the Chamber and you'll find Ron and Oliver. Have to get Buffy to the Hospital Wing. You were brilliant, Fawkes. I just wasn't quick enough."

Fawkes began to cry and two of his tears into Harry's wound.

"Of course! Phoenix tears have healing powers! Thanks. It's all right Ginny. I need to check on Buffy."

Harry got a little dizzy when he got up but it passed quickly. He, Ginny, and Fawkes, moved to check on Buffy. Harry rolled her over. She was breathing but her face was pale. He knew he had to get her to the hospital soon.

OKAY, I HOPED EVERYONE LIKED THAT PART. I THINK I HAVE ONE OR MAYBE TWO MORE PARTS TO GO WITH THIS STORY. I HAVEN'T DECIDED YET. PLEASE RREAD AND REVIEW MY STORY. THE NEXT PART WILL BE OUT VERY SOON.