A/M Ok I'm in the mood to put these up here. Right, I've been told these chappys should be longer by a couple of people, so I'll try after this one to do that, they just might take longer.
There's a little bit of swearing in this chapter, I still don't think it even earns the pg-13 rating, but just to be on the safe side I'll warn you now.
Almost all the way through this Harry and Tom are talking in Parsletoung, hence the sss's would you prefer I just put bracts or something around them to show that they are not speaking English or should I just leave the sss's? Oh and no Oliver in this chapter but maybe the next one.
Mikee: Yes, there will be more on the subject of Dumbledore, I'm hoping there was a point to explaining all that about him, there's supposed to be but I'm never sure with me. LOL, Riddle ambushed me and told me if he didn't get more of a part he'd curse me, so what's a girl to do? I had to put him in!
Katy999 (my wonderful Beta): Nope, not in this story at least, I won't kill Harry off. Yet.
Xikum: Thanks, yep, that whole palaver with Dumbledore is related to the plot, but I'm not sure Dumbledore will be happy, that's if he doesn't know about it yet (The old coot never tells me anything!) with the outcome. This is probably not the battle seen it should have been but I wanted to prove Harry is more than just a Gryffindor, I think your right with the whole -light+dark equals stronger thing!
Moraco: yeay you slapped Dumbledore! I really don't like him!
Jliles: Nope, I promise not to kill Harry off for at least 3 more Chapters. j/k Harry should be ok….Hopefully
Snape Coolgirl: OK I'm gona make the chapters longer. I'm not mean! *thinks for a bit…well maybe* *puppy dog eyes* Sorry, can you forgive me?
~*~*~
"hello Harry, did you missss me?"
"Tom Riddle."
~*~*~
"In the ssssoul."
"Impossible, I destroyed your diary, and you wouldn't be able to get past Hogwarts' wards if you were the real thing."
"Closssssse Harry. I'd have to be the real thing to get passsst the Hogwartsssss' wardssss, I've been here for years, I'm Tom Riddle'sss sssoul, the copy was what he put in the diary and Voldemort doesn't have a sssoul."
"What the fuck do you take me for? If you were the real Dark Lord, my sssscar would be hurting. Besssides, I've seen what happens to people without their sssoul. Voldemort my be insssane, but he has one, however twisssted it isss."
"Yesss and no, the body he isss in really doesssn't have one."
"You're not making any bloody sssenssse!"
"Harry, think."
"Why are you trying to help me?" Harry was starting to feel very terrified. If what this form was saying, then Voldemort had been at Hogwarts, the one place he thought safe, for years. He didn't understand what was going on, this thing; for he still refused to believe it really was Voldemort, was trying to tell him something and for the life of him he didn't get it at all.
"Becaussse Harry, we are ssso much alike. You are just like me, and ssso I want to help."
"I am not you!"
"And who am I?"
"Voldemort."
"At lassst, we are getting sssomewhere."
"Ssstop with the bloody word gamesss."
"No word gamesss Harry."
"Then tell me what you are talking about." Harry was clutching the basilisk tooth, his fingers white, he was starting to sway as memories hit him, damn it! He was not Voldemort; it was just a coincidence if they had a few things in common!
"Think it through Harry, put it in order, I have all day." The Tom Riddle-like thing sat on the floor cross legged with the kind of grace often associated with Elves.
"I will not sssit down and talk with you!" Harry's voice was getting progressively louder.
"Ssstop being so ssstubborn Harry, I won't try and tempt you over to the right ssside if that'sss what you're worried about, you can ssstand up and leave the moment you ssstart to feel I'm making too much sssenssse. I can't ssstop you, I'm not even sssupposed to have a body, but when you killed the basssilisssk I drew on itsss blood and it gave me enough ssstrength to manifessst a body. But I can't touch sssomething living, let alone hurt it." Harry sat down, as far from Riddle as he could.
The chamber was not much different from the last time he had been here. He hadn't had the chance to stop and take in the scenery last time and was too tense to now, but still he was in awe of the underground wonderland. It had such a gothic beauty, Harry was loathe to admit he felt... safe? Well, not so much safe, but that the surroundings were familiar and reassuring. He stayed close to the carcase of the snake and watched the wandless Tom do nothing.
Harry's mind was telling him to get the hell out of there; it was Lord Voldemort for fuck's sake, the evil Son-of-a-Bitch that had killed so many people. The more Slytherin part of Harry was telling him that all the evidence so far pointed to the fact that Riddle was telling the truth, and that whatever he had to say would be worth hearing, it may give some clues as to how to kill the dick head and so far the guy had done nothing more threatening than sit down.
"Well, aren't you going to tell me what you were talking about?" Harry prompted after a few moments of dead silence.
"No, like I sssaid, you're going to work it out." Tom said in a final, if not a little bored voice. Harry looked at him closely, his hair was parted to one side and a couple of strands flopped over his grey-black eyes, they were not a thing like the red flecked ones of the real Lord Voldemort. This slightly transparent younger version of him seemed less malicious, Harry decided to play along.
"You haven't told me anything to work out!"
"Yesss I have."
"Fine!" Harry threw his arms up, "Right, well you sssaid, the diary was a copy. A copy of what?"
"Me."
"I know that!" Harry was glaring at his hands, not daring to look at his parent's killer for more than a few seconds after the horrifying discovery that he didn't look as inhuman as Harry wanted him to. He looked like any normal 16 year old and that was messing with Harry big time. Slowly something dawned on him, "You're the original, the diary wasss a copy and Voldemort doesssn't have one. Well, you're his sssoul. Ssso, why doesssn't he walk round like a living corpssse?"
"Now you're getting there."
"All I'm doing is coming up with more questions."
"Yesss, and they are half intelligent. Tell me, how can you look for answersss if you don't have the right questionsss?"
"You can't."
"Looks like you haven't been ssstuck in Gryffindor to long to cloud your brain, next quessstion."
"Um, you've been here for a long time, but you didn't get a body till you drained the Basalisk'sss blood."
"Not quite."
"Um, you didn't have a body till you drew on the basalkisk'sss life force?"
"Sssomething like that, from what I know it'sss the first time its ever happened, no-one ever thought it possssible for me to have a body."
"Right, ssso, it's well known that you kept your sssoul somewhere elssse, why wasss I never told!"
"No, it's a guarded sssecret."
"But, you just sssaid no one ever thought it possssible, wouldn't that mean…"
"That'sss question number 3."
"Um ok… Ssso, quessstion number 4," Harry said nervously, not really clear on number 3, but he didn't want to have to ask Tom for more help, it was ridiculous as it was! That was it. That was most definitely question 4! "Why are you helping me?"
"Think about it Harry, what have I told you about my sssituation?"
"That you've been down here for a long time, that you have a body,"
"And?"
"That you can't touch anything or hurt anything, and I sssuppossse becaussse it'sss the Basalisk you draw ssstrength from, you are confined to the chamber?"
"Yesss."
"Well, if I were in your sssituation, I'd want to die. I'd need the freedom; the boredom, the confinement here, it would drive me insssane."
"Well, there isss that, it's alssso quite interesssting to find out how you think, the descendant of Gryffindor, but at heart you are a Ssslytherin, I'm enjoying this, if you end my torment here that'sss just another little bonusss."
"You want to die?"
"Well, come now Harry, don't sssound ssso ssshocked, what is it they sssay? To the well educated mind death is but the next great adventure? Besssides, isn't death just sssssso fun, and not to mention poetic. It'sss really sssomething to be treassssured." Harry was shocked out of his security that had sneakily built itself up with out Harry knowing about it through out the conversation by the callous words.
The memories that had been threatening him the whole time he was down there hit him full force.
His mother screaming, begging for Harry's life; Ron dieing at the hands of his own brother; Hermione's bloodied body, complete with bright red gift bow and a note that read, 'To Harry, Happy 15th, love The Dark Lord' on the front lawn of Privet Drive; Neville, his dorm mate of 6 year's lifeless body, it was all too much. Death was no great adventure, it tore apart families and ended friendships. There was nothing even remotely great about it.
Harry ran, he didn't look back, he didn't think, he just ran, disgusted with himself. Terrified at the part of him that had sat and talked to the monster in the first place, he didn't care what happened, right now all he needed was Sev, someone to remind him he was not evil, someone who loved him, someone who understood him. So Harry ran as if his life depended on it, and maybe it didn't, his sanity certainly did.
~*~*~TBC~*~*~