A.N I was just going to have mentioned something that happens towards the end of the chapter, but I decided it would be neat to show it and Harry's reaction; sorry if there are any mistakes; I looked through this chapter multiple times and used a spell and grammar checker, I hope I did a decent job at least. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Marvel; I did this just for fun.
Prologue
June 3rd, 2012
"She won't wake." a soft voice said. Harry turned from Ginny and spun around; behind him stood a tall black-haired boy leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But Harry still recognized him; it was Tom Riddle, the guy in the diary Harry had spoken to earlier in the year.
It hasn't been a fun school year for the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; someone opened what is known as the Chamber of Secrets, letting loose a basilisk on the school; fortunately, those that were unlucky enough to come across the monster only got petrified and could be saved. All except eleven-year-old Ginny Weasley, who wasn't so lucky, she had been dragged down into the chamber by the monster, and her older brother Ron Weasley and his best friend Harry Potter, along with Gilderoy Lockhart, went down into the chamber to save Ginny; Lockhart turned on them, trying to use a spell to wipe their memories so he could flee, but it backfired, causing a cave-in that trapped Harry on the opposite side of Ron and Lockhart, with rubble blocking him from the other two, leaving Harry no choice but to go on and try to rescue Ginny alone.
"Tom Riddle?" Harry asked, just to be sure; Tom nodded, acknowledging it was him, his dark eyes never leaving Harry's bottle green ones.
"What do you mean she won't wake?" Harry demanded, "She's not..."
"She's still alive," Riddle said, "But only just."
"Only Just?" Harry asked, looking back at Ginny; Riddle said nothing to explain what he meant, and Harry shook his head. "Are you a ghost?"
"A memory preserved in a diary for fifty years," Riddle replied. He pointed to the floor near a giant statue of Salazar Slytherin. Lying at the statue's feet, open was the little black diary Harry found in the bathroom haunted by a ghost named Moaning Myrtle, the bathroom had the entrance to the chamber Harry was now in, and Tom Riddle had also shown Harry the past through that diary. Harry never understood how he did it; he started writing in it. His words disappeared, only to be replaced by new ones written by Tom Riddle. When Harry asked if Riddle knew anything about the Chamber of Secrets and what was attacking the students, Harry was pulled into the diary and watched the events of the last time the chamber was open.
"You have to help me, Tom," Harry said, "We've got to get Ginny out of here; there's a basilisk here somewhere. I'm not sure where and I would not like to find out."
Riddle didn't move, and Harry somehow, with strength he didn't know he had, managed to lift Ginny off the floor in a standing position and hold her up with one arm, then went to pick up the wand he had dropped when he ran to her only for it to be gone.
"Did you see..." Harry's question was cut off by him seeing his wand now in Riddle's hand. "I'll take that," Harry said, lying Ginny down and reaching out for his wand; Riddle didn't even look at Harry's hand; he just kept his eyes on Harry's. "Listen. We've got to go before the basilisk comes."
"It won't come until it's called, " Riddle said.
"What do you mean?" Harry demanded, "Never mind, I don't care, just give me my wand, and I'll get Ginny out of here myself."
"You won't be needing your wand," Riddle said.
"Right, it's not like there's a giant venomous snake lurking around here or anything," Harry said, "If you want a chat, do it later..."
"We will talk now." Riddle interrupted, and as he smiled, he pocketed Harry's wand. Harry narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously.
"How did Ginny get like this?" Harry demanded.
"Well, that's quite a long story," Riddle answered, "I suppose Ginny Weasley is like this because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
"You?" Harry guessed. "She wrote in your diary."
"Yes, it was my diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it all year, telling me all about her worries, about being teased by her brothers, having to have secondhand everything, how she didn't think the great Harry Potter would ever like her. It was very boring having to listen to her silly little troubles, an eleven-year-old girl's nonsense." Riddle laughed. "If I do say so myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So, Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be precisely what I needed...I grew stronger on a diet of her deepest fears. I grew powerful, far more powerful than Miss. Weasley. Powerful to start feeding Ginny my secrets, pouring a little of my soul back into her.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" Riddle asked, "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school rosters and doubled threatening messages on the walls. She sent the serpent of Slytherin after Mudbloods and the Squib's cat."
"No," Harry denied, "Ginny wouldn't do that."
"Oh, she didn't know, of course." Riddle admitted. "not at first; it was very amusing, having her writing frantically to me about not knowing where she had been or what she's been doing, worried, in a near panic that she was the one who opened the chamber, took Ginny an embarrassingly long time to stop trusting her diary, but finally she became suspicious and tried to dispose of it, but then you found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was hoping to meet."
"Why?" Harry demanded, "Why would you want to meet me?"
"Because Ginny told me all about your fascinating history, your backstory if you will, " Riddle said, his eyes going to Harry's forehead. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. Imagine how angry I was when next my diary opened, and it was Ginny again, so I had her write her farewell message on the wall and come down here and wait. She struggled and cried, but there wasn't much life left in her. She put too much in the diary, enough that I was able to leave my pages. I have been waiting and hoped you'd appear. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."
"Like what?" Harry demanded.
"Like how you, a skinny little boy with no extraordinary magical talent, managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time, how you came out of it with nothing but that scar on your forehead? While Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed." Riddle said.
"Why do you care? Voldemort was after your time." Harry said.
"Voldemort is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter," Riddle said, pulling Harry's wand out; he wrote his name in the air; Tom Marvolo Riddle" then he waved the wand, and the letters scrambled until they now formed the words: I am Lord Voldemort.
"You're Voldemort?" Harry demanded.
"You see, it was the name I was already using in Hogwarts with most of my intimate friends. Do you think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name? I am the heir of Salazar Slytherin. I wasn't going to keep my common Muggle father's name, who abandoned me even before I was born. Who left his wife when he found out she was a witch, leaving me to grow up in an orphanage. No, Harry, I fashioned myself a new name, one I knew wizards everywhere would fear to speak when I become the greatest wizard in the world."
"But you're not the greatest wizard in the world," Harry said. "Not even close."
"I suppose you're going to say you are?" Riddle said.
"No, Albus Dumbledore is. Everyone says so. Even when you were at your strongest, you didn't dare try to take over Hogwarts, and you knew there was no way you could beat Dumbledore," Harry said.
"Dumbledore has been driven out of this school by the mere memory of me." Riddle hissed.
"He's not as gone as you might think," Harry replied; Riddle opened his mouth to reply but froze as music started coming from somewhere; they both looked around; the music grew louder, then suddenly flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar, and a crimson bird the size of a swan appeared, it was Fawks, in his talons was the Sorting Hat, he dropped it at Harry's feet, then flew around and landed on Harry's shoulder.
"That's a Phoenix, and that's the shorting hat," Riddle said.
"No, really?" Harry demanded, "I had no idea."
Riddle began to laugh, "This is what Dumbledore sends his great defender a songbird and an old hat? Does it make you feel brave, Harry Potter?"
"I wasn't exactly scared of you anyway." Harry lied. He was a little scared at the moment, especially when he thought of the Basilisk that was still lurking around here somewhere.
"Everyone fears Lord Voldemort." Riddle said, "You'll soon learn to; twice in your past, in my future, we have met, and twice I failed to kill you; how did you survive? Tell me everything."
"I whether leave, thanks," Harry replied.
"You will tell me now," Riddle demanded in a hiss, almost sounding like a snake.
"No one knows why you lost your powers." Harry snapped, "Or how I survived, no one was there except my parents and me, and you killed them, and I was a year old, so I have no idea what happened that night, except that my mother died saving me, and when you turned your wand on me, the spell somehow rebounded and hit you instead, now weak and pathetic you fled."
Tom Riddle stared at Harry with a calculated look before his face broke out into a grin.
"So, your mother died to save you? That's a powerful counter-curse. I see now there is nothing special about you after all." Riddle said. He cast an amused look at Fawks, then the shorting hat, then turned and walked away; he stopped between the high pillars and started speaking in Parseltongue. As Harry watched, the stone face of Slytherin opened, and a giant snake came slithering out of it, Harry backed away until his back hit the chamber wall, and he closed his eyes tightly as Fawk's wing swept his cheek as he took flight.
"I'm going to teach you a lesson, Harry Potter. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against Albus Dumbledore's great defender and the best weapons he can provide." Riddle said.
"If you want to match powers, then fight me yourself, don't send your little pet to do it," Harry said.
"Kill him," Riddle hisses, and Harry felt the basilisk moving towards him; with his eyes still closed, Harry began to run sideways, his arms outstretched, feeling his way. As Riddle laughed, Harry tripped and fell hard on the stone floor; the snake was getting closer, and there was a loud spitting sound above him; then something heavy hit Harry hard, smashing him against the wall, then Harry rolled out of the way, in time to hear the basilisk hit the wall, where he just was, and still with his eyes closed, Harry jumped up and ran, he got a few feet away and fell on the floor again, tripping on the bottom of his robs. Harry rolled out of the way as the basilisk lunged at him. Then he heard Fawks make a nose as he flew past Harry; he couldn't help it; he had to know what was happening, so he opened his eyes to see Fawks circling the great snake's head. The phoenix dived his golden beak, sank it right in one of the basilisk's eyes, then the other, and kept switching back and forth as blood poured down the monster's face, its eyes now gone, pecked out by Fawks.
"No!" Riddle yelled, "Forget the bird. Get the boy, damn it!"
Harry, not wanting to know if the basilisk could find him, jumped up and started running. It was a lot easier now that he could keep his eyes open; the snake heard his footsteps and followed. Fawks flying behind it.
Harry felt like screaming for help but knew it was useless. No one would be able to hear him; as he got closer to Harry, the snake swung its tail around; Harry jumped out of the way, landing hard on the floor. He rolled away from the snake, jumped up, and started running back up the other way, the basilisk right behind him, lunging at him, it almost got Harry's leg at one time, and Harry turned and started running towards the left, but no matter what he did, he could not lose or even get far ahead of the basilisk, Harry once again had to jump out of the way as the basilisk struck at him, Harry fell on his stomach, rolled over, sat up, and backed up into the wall, he had found himself trapped with the giant snake above him, hissing, with its giant forked tongue sticking out, venom dripping from its fangs that were almost as long as Harry's arm.
"Say goodbye, Harry Potter," Riddle said, walking closer, "This is your end."
"At least I die knowing it wasn't by your hand, so you still didn't kill me yourself," Harry called back; he should probably keep his mouth shut, but he was going to die; either way, he might as well get a few words in.
Fawks' song filled the chamber as the phoenix came flying toward Harry, he was carrying the shorting hat, and he dropped it on Harry's head, which fell onto his lap, then started flying around the basilisk, getting its attention. Harry had to move out of the way as its tail started flopping around, swatting at Fawks.
"Kill the boy!" Riddle yelled, just as the basilisk's tail smacked the head of Salazar Slytherin, going right through it and sending it crashing to the ground. Harry quickly threw himself over Ginny, covering her, a desperate act to protect his best friend's little sister. Thankfully, the head fell opposite where he and Ginny lay. However, pieces of stone still flew everywhere, smacking them and leaving little cuts. Harry decided he needed to get the basilisk away from Ginny before she got trampled or hurt by it.
"Bravo, Voldemort," Harry taunted, standing and moving away from Ginny. "Your little pet just decapitated your ancestor."
"Leave the bird!" Riddle yelled, "The boy is behind you. Sniff..smell him!"
Harry grabbed the shorting hat because Fawks seemed to think he needed it and turned and took off running. Harry stopped and turned around and watched as the Basilisk came towards him; Harry forced himself not to run; running from it wasn't helping. If Harry was going to die, he was going down fighting, and he just hoped Ginny could get away somehow.
"Alright, hat, if there's a reason Fawks keeps throwing you at me, it would be time to show me now," Harry said, second later he heard something hit the floor beside him and looked down to see a sword; Harry dropped the hat, and quickly grabbed the sword and held it in front of him. As the basilisk lunged at Harry, he threw his whole weight upward and drove the blade right into the hilt of the roof of its mouth; blood-drenched Harry's arm as a fang drove dipper and dipper into it; Harry cried out as the basilisk fell over on its side, it's tooth broke out, and stayed in Harry's arm.
Harry flopped down, pulled the large tooth out of his arm, and tossed it aside. It was too late, though, the venom was spreading through his body, and he could feel himself starting to get weaker as enormous amounts of pain shot through him; even with his glasses on, Harry's version blurred as he began to feel sick, and dizzy, Harry leaned over onto the wall next to him. He closed his eyes, his breathing getting heavy. He could feel the venom moving through the veins in his arm. It was colder than Harry figured it would be, he was beginning to freeze, and his skin was tingling.
"You killed my basilisk." Riddle accused; he was now standing above Harry, looking down at him.
"Good," Harry was able to get out as Fawks landed next to him. "That thing was ugly."
Riddle chuckled, "A smart mouth until the very end, Harry Potter, oh, and this is your end. I will enjoy getting to watch you die, watching you take your last...Why are you turning blue?"
"Blue?" Harry asked; his eyes opened, and he raised and looked at his arms and hands; Riddle was right. Harry was turning blue. Was this the Basilisk venom killing him? Was he suddenly blue because of the cold? Was it some kind of reaction? Of course, it would be Harry's luck to have an allergic reaction to the venom that was already killing him.
As Harry sat there with his doomed thoughts, staring at his arms and hands, he grew colder and shivered as the venom inside him suddenly froze, stopping it from spreading further into his body. As it did so, Harry's vision became clear again, and the sick feeling and dizziness went away; all that was left was the cold feeling inside him, as if something was keeping the venom from spreading.
"Look at me." Riddle snapped, so suddenly Harry listened, causing Riddle to back up, eyes wide. "Your eyes...what creature are you?"
"What?" Harry demanded, "I am human. My parents were human, a witch and a wizard." It must have grown cold in the chamber because Harry could now see his breath.
"Oh, this is good, really good." Riddle laughed, "Looks like Mr. Potter wasn't your father. Your mother must have cheated; the venom must have triggered some dormant creature gene, but what creature did she lay with? I don't think giants are blue, nor werewolves or vampires; what other humanoid-like creature is there? And what's with the markings on your face?"
"That's a lie; my mother didn't cheat!" Harry yelled, "I'm human..full human!"
"I grow bored with this; just die already," Riddle said, as tears gathered in Fawks's eyes, and as if he was being careful not to touch Harry, he leaned his head over and let them drop into Harry's wound. "Excellent, your death must be close. Even Dumbledore's bird is crying."
But as Riddle laughed, Harry suddenly screamed, shaking a little, as the tears were causing a burning pain to go through him. It felt as if his veins were on fire, Fawks moved away, watching as if worried, but the burning feeling started to fade. Harry looked to see the blue start to fade from his skin, returning it to its natural color, then the venom disappeared altogether from his body, and his wound healed, leaving behind a barely visible scar.
"No!" Riddle screamed, "I forgot Pheonix tears have healing powers."
Harry wondered if that was what that pain was, Fawk's tears healing him, or was it something else?
"I will just do it myself; that's what you wanted, right?" Riddle demanded; he pointed Harry's wand at him. Harry didn't know if Riddle had any of his magic being just a memory, but he wasn't taking any chances; he rolled out of the wand's aim and happened to move right next to Riddle's diary, which coincidently happened to be next to where Harry tossed the snake's tooth. Harry turned to see Riddle pointing his wand at him again as he walked toward him.
Giving Riddle his best smirk, Harry grabbed the fang and drove it into the diary; Riddle stopped, dropped Harry's wand, then screamed as ink spurted out of the diary, over Harry's hands; Riddle withered and twisting then he was gone, after a moment Harry stood, pulled the tooth out of the diary, tossed it aside, went over picked up his wand, stuck it in his pocket, then grabbed the shorting hat, then walked over and pulled the sword out of the basilisk's mouth, being careful not to touch the teeth or venom still dripping from them, then after glancing at his arm to make sure he had not turned blue again, he turned to Fawks who was now perched on top of the basilisk's body watching him.
"Thanks for your help, Fawks. I appreciate it," Harry said, "And the blue thing, it stays between us, right?"
Fawks made a noise, and Harry looked closely at the sword. It was made from silver, with three large rubies on each one of the points on the handle, with several smaller rubies around them; carved in the middle was what looked like a goat head with two tiny rubies as eyes under it was what looked like some kind of rune; it had what looked like a triangle standing on its side, with a line going down the back. The name Godric Gryffindor was carved at the top of the blade, just under the handle, but for some reason, it didn't seem to belong, like it was put there sometime after the sword was made.
Harry's mind was taken from the sword when he heard a faint moan; he looked over at Ginny to see she was stirring. Harry hurried to her; she sat up as he sat next to her.
"Harry?" Ginny asked, "What happened...how did you get here?" she looked around, "I didn't mean to do any of it...I swear Riddle made me."
"I know," Harry said, "Riddle is gone; I stabbed the diary. We'll explain everything to Dumbledore." Ginny turned from Harry and looked around.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Ginny asked.