Potter47 ~ Part One ~
The Shadow of the Past "This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down."
~ Tolkien ~ Chapter Five ~
Riddles in the Dark
"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'"
Professor Flitwick burst into tears.
"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"
"Ginny Weasley..."
Ginny...
Gin...
Harry's eyes flew open. He was sitting there, on the floor of the kitchen, surrounded by house elves. They all looked dreadfully worried, obviously not used to students collapsing on the floor. This was the kind of thing that happened upstairs!
They were not sure what to do, so they just watched as Harry regained consciousness. Actually, he wasn't sure if he had fainted in first place. It may just have been another memory.
That day...when Ginny had been taken into the Chamber...Harry had felt horrible. Dreadful. It was the worst day of Harry's life, he remembered thinking.
But the feeling in his chest, now, when Ginny had been taken again...it was worse than the Cruciatus Curse.
Harry had not known Ginny in his second year. He only thought of her as Ron's little sister, if he thought of her at all. But now...
He didn't know what he thought. He just knew that it felt as though his heart had been mercilessly cut from his chest, and sliced into twelve individual portions. If he had just kept his stupid mouth closed...
Harry still was on the floor. The elves still stared. They must have thought him insane.
I probably am insane, thought Harry. I certainly don't have a healthy mind.
Harry finally got up off the floor. He couldn't just sit there all day. He needed to do something.
He felt even worse than he had the day prior, when he saw Sirius being tortured by Voldemort. Then he could do something. He knew where Sirius was.
Did...will...Sirius get away?
No. No. No. No. Not something good to think about. Ginny. Need to save Ginny...
Pain once again seared through his head. But unlike before, he saw something.
Only for a second...but he saw something.
Ginny. He saw Ginny. She was screaming, obviously in pain. Probably Cruciatus...
No. Ginny doesn't deserve that. Where is she? Harry asked himself. He had only seen her face, none of her surroundings. He had no clue where she could be...
...and yet he knew exactly where she was.
There was no other answer. No other possible place that she might have been taken. Fate clearly wasn't done playing with their heads.
She was in the Chamber.
"Nil Desperandum," Hermione said to the stone gargoyle that hid the entrance to the headmaster's office.
"We most certainly should not." Albus Dumbledore stood right at the bottom of the steps. His eyes were twinkling, and he was smiling.
"Follow me."
They all stepped onto the moving stair, and it slowly took them up to his office door. It was torture for the two students. He clearly had good news, from his manner, and he was making them wait until they reached the top of the seemingly endless stairway before he told them what it was.
Finally, thought Hermione as the two students and Headmaster stepped off at the top of the wizarding escalator, I thought it was going to take all day.
They walked through the open door, and each took a seat inside the circular room. Dumbledore smiled at them.
"They're gone."
"What?" said both Ron and Hermione.
"No, I don't mean they are gone. I simply mean they are no longer at Hogwarts in nineteen forty five," he assured.
"How do you know that?" asked Ron, quizzically.
"I remembered. They were only there - then - for one day. I met them at the front doors, they went to Gryffindor Tower, I met them the next day, and then..."
"What?" asked Hermione.
"They disappeared. I never saw them again. I assume that they found some way out of that time."
"Then where are they?" asked Ron. "I mean, when, are they."
"I do not know yet. I don't remember seeing them again. If I did see them again, then right now, they are somewhere in between the last time I saw them in nineteen forty five, and the first time I saw them in whatever year they went to next."
"And this is...good...news, right?" asked Ron.
"Yes. Because they obviously figured out how to travel to another time. It's only a matter of time until they find their way back to now," Hermione said.
"Yes, Miss Granger," said Dumbledore. "It is only a matter of time."
Harry had hoped, ever since his second year, that he never would have to visit Moaning Myrtle's bathroom again. It held too many bad memories.
Of course, it seemed as though that was all that Harry's life was. Bad memories.
From his very first memory, he had always been miserable. The Dursley's had treated him as if he were a bug that just wouldn't die. Or a dog that kept following them and would not leave them alone. Not at all what one would call a good childhood.
And that was the end of Harry's childhood. As soon as he arrived at Hogwarts, he had seemed to be years older than he really was. In his first year...when he was only eleven...he had to save the wizarding world from the Dark Lord Voldemort. He had, through the whole year, been trying to discover what was hidden at Hogwarts and who was trying to steal it. He had thought it was Snape that was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone. He thought that he had been the one that had tried to kill Harry, but it was not. It had been Quirrell. With Lord Voldemort on the back of his head. And if it had not been for Harry, he would have become immortal.
If it wasn't for Harry, a whole lot of things would be different.
In his second year, someone opened the Chamber of Secrets. It had been up to Harry to solve the mystery, and it turned out it was Voldemort once again. He had enchanted Ginny through a diary, and set a basilisk on the school. Harry had had to slay the King of Serpents that year, and he was only twelve. Twelve! A twelve year old had killed a basilisk to save Hogwarts School. Couldn't anyone else have done it?
No. No one else could have done it. Because Hermione was right. She always was.
Harry had a saving-people-thing. And that saving-people-thing was why he needed to go down in the Chamber of Secrets once again. That saving-people-thing was why he didn't just go to Dumbledore, and have him rescue Ginny.
Well, that and the fact that only Harry and Voldemort could open the Chamber of Secrets...
And that was where Harry stood. In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom - without Myrtle, as it seemed she was still haunting Olive Hornby for teasing her about her glasses - standing in front of the sink. The sink. The one that hid the entrance to the Chamber.
He kneeled down, and looked for the snake. He found it. A small snake that had been scratched onto one of the copper taps, as a clue to where the Chamber was.
He once again tried to imagine that the snake was real.
"Open up," he said.
"English," he said.
Harry whipped his head around at the sound of Ron's voice. The room was still empty. Ron was not there. Another bloody memory.
He looked back at the snake, and tried once again to will himself to believe it was real. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look like it was moving...
"Open up," he said, but, like in his second year, he heard not those words, but a hiss. The tap began to glow and spin, and the sink sank out of sight. The pipe was exposed, big enough for a man to slide into.
"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just..."
Harry shook his head, as he slid his legs into the pipe. He wished those would just stop.
He slid down into the hole, tucking his arms to his sides. He certainly hoped he would not need to slay the basilisk again. Who knew what would happen in the future if the thing was to die now?
He didn't want to take the chance. He needed to get Ginny and run.
"Take Harry and run!"
No. No. No. No. No! He did not need those memories, too. One encounter with the Dark Lord was enough.
He made his way down the familiar passages that lead to the Chamber. It had been a while since his scar had hurt...
Do not think of your scar! For the instant Harry did, his scar seared. He heard another scream, though this time he actually heard it. He was close.
There was the wall. Two serpents, entwined together, emerald eyes glinting.
Emerald eyes.
Harry shook himself. A coincidence. I just overlooked it before. No reason to panic, just because they have my eyes. They're not even my eyes. They're just green, he assured himself.
Every nerve in his body was, once again, tingling unpleasantly. He approached the serpents.
The eyes looked so real.
Harry blinked. Calm down. That has nothing to do with anything.
"Open," said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.
Harry blinked once again. Hopefully, that would stop soon.
He once again stood at the end of the long, dimly lit Chamber. Serpentine pillars towered on either side of him. He walked, wand raised, down the greenish hall. Hoping that, as in the future, the serpent was still in its home, inside the statue of Slytherin.
Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, he thought he saw one stir.
Then, as he drew level with the last of the pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Harry had to crane his neck to look up at the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay a small black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.
Was that a memory? Because he did see a small black-robed figure with flaming-red hair. She was laying, facedown between the feet of Slytherin's statue. And Harry knew one thing: He was not going to fling his wand to the side.
"Where are you, Riddle?" he called. No answer. "Tom!"
"She won't wake."
Harry spun around and saw, just as he remembered, Tom Riddle, leaning against the nearest pillar, watching.
"I know that, Tom," he said, taking a step closer, wand trained on the young Dark Lord. "And, let me guess, 'She's still alive, but only just.'"
"I had had a feeling you'd know that, Harry."
"And why is that?"
"Because this whole thing...you, and her...down here. I've seen it before. Just this morning in fact. I never really believed in Divination, but I sure will now...."
Harry's mind raced. Riddle had seen this before. This morning. He, Harry, had had a nightmare this morning about this very event. And so had Ginny. But Riddle?
"Did you now? You had a nightmare? Sorry to disappoint you and all that,"
but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so...
"but this wasn't what you saw."
"Of course this is what I saw," snapped Riddle, twirling his wand in his left hand, and Harry realised that whenever he had seen the Dark Lord, his wand had indeed been in his left hand. Harry had never thought that Voldemort might be left-handed.
Harry almost tried to curse him, since he was not paying attention, but thought better of it. That was probably exactly what he was trying to do. "Idiot. This is exactly how it happened. Wait...I didn't say I had a nightmare!"
"But you did," said Harry, wand still raised, "you woke up this morning, and you were terrified. I could tell."
Riddle, who had appeared confident once again, now seemed the slightest bit nervous.
"Liar! Y-you just made that up!"
"What did you do, Tom?" asked Harry curiously. "How did you disappear? Because I'm pretty sure that you can't Apparate on Hogwarts grounds..."
"You've got to be kidding me! You've actually read Hogwarts, a History? I thought I was the only person who had ever read that...."
"You probably are."
Riddle blinked. "Oh." He stopped twirling his wand. "You want to know what I did? Sure, I'll show you."
Faster than Harry could react, Riddle pointed his wand at him, and cried, "Tempus Fugit!"
Harry winced as the spell sped toward him, sure that it was some sort of torture. It would have been pretty stupid of Riddle to waste a chance like that and not even hurt him.
But no pain came. It seemed that Riddle had acted pretty stupidly, and Harry had bought himself some time.
"What happened?" asked Harry. Nothing seemed different. It seemed as though the spell, whatever it was, had not worked.
"Look at Ginny."
Harry did. It took him a moment to notice it, as he did not have to notice what Ginny had done.... No, he had to notice what Ginny was not doing.
"She's not breathing!" he said. He spun back to Riddle. "YOU KILLED GINNY!" bellowed Harry. "YOU KILLED HER - I'LL KILL YOU!" His wand was pointed at Riddle in a flash. He was not thinking of what consequences it would have on the fabric of time. He was not thinking of anything, save the pure hatred that filled his heart at the mere sight of Riddle. For the first time in his life, he called, "Avada Kedavra!"
He knew something was wrong the instant he said it. Riddle did not move an inch, nor did he try to curse Harry. He smiled.
"She's still alive," said Riddle slowly, as if to savour the sound of the words as they rolled off his tongue, "but only just."
"But she's not breathing!"
It was then that Harry noticed the small green light that floated a couple feet in front of him. He couldn't tell all that well, but it seemed as though it was slowly getting longer. Very slowly. It was right where his wand had been, when he had said the Killing Curse.
He looked from the light to the smiling Riddle. "That," said the latter, "is your Killing Curse." He pointed at the light. "I suggest you don't touch it."
"What happened?"
"Do you know any Latin, Harry?" asked Riddle. "Do you know what, 'Tempus Fugit,' when translated, means?"
Harry shook his head. Hermione would know that.
"Time flies, Harry. Time flies."
"What? You stopped time?"
"No one can stop time, Harry. You can, however, use magic to move very, very fast." He smiled again. "You could say we're between ticks of the clock." He waved his wand, and a slow ticking noise came out of nowhere.
Tick, tick, tick.
"Actually, it would be more accurate to say we are in the infinitesimally small space between two milliseconds..."
"Milliseconds?" Harry could not believe that. And it would mean that the Killing Curse travelled how fast? He could still tell it was moving...
Tick, tick, tick.
"Yes. It was the best thing I could think of, on such short notice. I just cast the spell on little Ginny and myself, and took my sweet time coming down here. It seems to me as if it has taken you hours to get here. How long has it been? Forty-five minutes?
"You certainly seemed angry when you thought I'd killed her," said Riddle. "You must really care about her..."
Tick, tick, tick.
"Take the spell off," said Harry, through gritted teeth. He knew that it would probably do no good, but there was always the chance.
"Touched a nerve?" Riddle appeared delighted. "Oh, Harry, do you...do you love her?"
Tick, tick, tick.
"Take the spell off..." Harry wanted nothing more than for that curse to hit Riddle right in the forehead.
"Oh, if you insist..."
Riddle raised his wand, and paused. He smiled at Harry.
He took a step to the right, and undid the spell. The jet of green light flew right by him.
"Damn!" swore Riddle. "You missed me!" He laughed, and while it was not the bone-chilling high laugh that Voldemort had had after the third task, it certainly was not an enjoyable sound.
"What do you want, Voldemort?" asked Harry. He winced as soon as the words left his mouth.
Riddle's gaze snapped to Harry. "What did you call me?"
"Voldemort. A friend of mine told me it meant 'flight from death.' That's basically what you just did." What harm could it do to lie?
"Crucio!"
Oh. That harm. The pain coursed through Harry's body, head to toe, through every nerve. But at the same time, he laughed. He did not know how he laughed, as he thought that it was an impossible thing to do while an unforgivable was being used on one's self, but he did.
The pain stopped instantly. Riddle had a befuddled look on his face. "What's so funny?" he said.
"You really need to get better at that." The words spilled out of Harry's mouth before he could stop them. It really was a stupid thing to say.
"What?"
"That was nothing compared to the last time someone did that to me." Harry thought it a bad idea to tell exactly who had been doing the cursing at that particular time...
But it did seem to have a good effect, as Riddle did not attempt to curse him again.
"Oh? And I suppose you could do better?" he challenged.
Was he insane? That was a really stupid thing to say.
Harry blinked at him. "Sure."
He stood up, not even realising that he had fallen, and pointed his wand at Riddle. If it could possibly work, he had a plan. But there was no way...
"Now, I've never done this before..." he told the boy standing in front of him, whose wand was not even aimed. Riddle appeared to be preparing himself for the pain that he was sure would come. Harry's mouth began to form the curse, but at the last possible second, he turned. His wand pointed at Ginny, he cried, "Tempus Fugit!"
And Riddle appeared frozen. It was almost comical, the look on his face. One of pure shock. His jaw was slack. His eyes were wider than Luna's.
Harry laughed. It was an incredibly funny sight.
He walked over to Ginny. "Enervate!"
Her eyes blinked open. "Harry?" She started to lean on her arm to get up, but fell back down.
"It's all right, Gin." He leaned over her and offered a hand. She took it, and he pulled her up.
Her eyes widened when she saw Riddle. "What did you do to him?" she asked incredulously.
"Nothing," said Harry. "We're just moving faster than him."
She looked at him. "Well that's obvious, but..." she closed her mouth. "This is all well and good, but how do we get out of here? We're still trapped in nineteen forty-five..."
"I dunno."
Harry walked over to Riddle, and looked him in the eye. He snorted. "You know, Gin, he actually challenged me to curse him. I though he was supposed to be smart."
He raised his wand on the future Dark Lord, and said, "Obliviate!"
Turning back to Ginny, he said, "One can never be too careful."
"What do we do now?" she asked, still a little unsteady on her feet.
"Well, we get out of here, for one thing..."
He walked over to her, and put an arm around her waist, and let her lean against him, as they began to walk down the Chamber.
Of course, that would be far too anticlimactic of an escape, for Harry Potter.
Green smoke materialized around them, soon enveloping them in its haze. It blocked out all view of the Chamber, and Riddle. Even each other, and their faces were mere inches apart. A falling sensation encompassed them, and they were no longer sure if they were standing or if they had collapsed upon the floor.
Eventually, the vapour lifted, and they were able to open their eyes. They found themselves just where they were before. In the Chamber of Secrets.
Slowly, they rose to their feet, and looked around. Riddle was gone. There wasn't a sign that he had ever been there.
"Ginny," said Harry. He knew what had happened. The same thing that had happened twenty-four hours ago. Well, in actuality it was a great deal more than twenty-four hours ago...
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...-"
Part One, The Shadow of the Past, is now complete. There will be four parts to the fic, and Part Two, Closer to Where I Started, is coming soon.
Speaking of the next chapter...
"A retentive memory is a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness."
~ E. Hubbard
No, that is not the next chapter's quote, I just felt like putting it here. No, the real quote, is...
"He who would write and can't write, can surely review."
~ Lowell
You really have to stop falling for that. No, the next chapter...well, it was the first one. And I wasn't hinting at anything...
~ To Be Continued ~
