Chapter thirty: Three Cheers for Tom Puzzle! - Or not...

Barry walked through the silent tunnel, fully prepared to close his eyes if nessary. Slowly his shoes began to to absorb water around him and he could begin to feel his feet wrinkling,

"Salazar couldn't have picked a better location," he said through gritted teeth. Finally he came to yet another chamber in the center, lit by a single spot light was Minnie, lying motionless on the ground,

"Please don't be dead...Please don't be dead..." Barry muttered to himself as he ran towards her.

"Don't touch her!"

"Who the fuck?" Barry turned around and came face to face with a boy of about thirteen. Barry gasped, the boy a striking resemblence to himself.

"Ah...Barry Saucepan, of all people!"

Barry raised an eyebrow,

"I'm, sorry do I know you?"

"You have, you will and you do."

"Huh?"

The boy sighed,

"I'm Tom Puzzle."

"Well...Why didn't you that to begin with, instead of all the extra crap?"

"I was trying to add suspense, obviously wasted on you."

"Obviously," Barry said shortly, there was something about Tom he didn't like.

"Now, Barry Saucepan. The boy I was most eager to meet! The-"

"Hey, is she dead?" Barry interrupted, pointing at Minnie.

"Shut up would you! I'm trying to deliver a long winded and pointless speech here!"

"Is...She...Alive?"

"No! But she will be, you see as the life drains from her, the more power I gain. She opened her heart to-"

"Okay, that's all I needed."

"For god sake Saucepan! I'm trying to-"

"Deliver a long winded and pointless speech?"

Tom yelled in annoyance,

"Fuck up! Now as I was saying-"

"Sorry, Tom. But I gotta dash, I'll be taking Minnie with me..."

"No you won't!" Tom stood between Barry and Minnie, "Sorry Saucepan, but you won't be talking to your girlfriend anywhere..."

"Huh? She's not my girlfriend!"

"What!" Tom said in surprise, he pulled out a diary from inside his robes.

"Woah, Tom keeps a diary."

"Shut up, it's Minnie's"

"Your reading a chicks diary! Dude...That just ain't cool..."

"Shut up, it's partly mine..."

It was Barry's turn to be surprised,

"You share a diary with Minnie!"

"No! Now since your ready to listen, I'll explain-"

"Better make myself comfy then..." Barry said as he sat down next to Minnie, Tom chose to ignore his comment.

"Now Minnie here, has been writing in this diary for almost a year now. Writing to me. You see she would write about her feeling and the happenings of the day, then the diary would absorbed the ink she used and then I'd be able to write back to her. Part of me was in that diary. A part of my sixeen year old-"

"Your supposed to be sixteen!"

"Shut up Barry. Anyway little did Minnie know, that everytime she wrote to me, she gave away a small part of her life, The more she gave the stronger I came and soon I could control the little bitch. The only thing I couldn't control was her obsession with you. I couldn't have her obsessed with you. Infact I was lead to believe that she was going out with you. Which I thought would really make matters differcult. My main foe going out with the body I was controlling. Luckily I began to discover, Minnie lied about having such close connections with you. But I did give her the satisfaction of setting the basilisk on you real girlfriend Leah-"

"I'm going out with Lemo not Leah," Barry said, refusing to give Tom the satisfaction of knowing he had got to him.

"Well, according to Minnie, Lemo and Leah are the same person," Tom said smugly refuring to a particular page near the beginning.

"Hang on, I thought you said that the ink was absorbed!"

"Ahh...We have a listener! Yes, it does absorb the ink, but as Minnie get weaker and I get stronger, more ink appears back in the book."

"Are you saying-"

"I'm saying, Barry, she's dying."

Barry stared at him with great hate, he really didn't like how pleased Tom sounded with himself.

"What, no tears?" Tom said looking hopeful.

"Why would I cry? She's not my sister. Infact she's a right bitch. All she's done all year is criticise Lemo and attempt to pick fights," even as Barry said it, he still couldn't fight the nagging voice in the back of his head telling him he should display some sign of emotion.

"You know, it'd break Minnie's heart to hear that..." Tom said coldly, "Actually, it's kind of a shame she's so young. Wouldn't mind going out with her if she wasn't. Seems like the kind of chick I go for..."

"It's only three years," Barry said just as cold.

"Only three years with this version of myself. A lot more with my older self."

"Huh?"

Tom sighed again,

"You know Saucepan, I'd expected you to be a lot smarter than you really are! Well I'll just fill in the blank spots for you...Lord Voldemort is my past, present and future."

Barry gasped,

"I knew there was something about you!"

Tom threw his arms into the air,

"He gets it! Now I'm going to kill you!"

"With what exactly?"

"Your wand," Tom said with a wink, raising Barry wand in the air.

"How the fuck did you get that?"

"Magic..." Tom said with another wink.

"Fuck..." Barry cursed as he rose to his feet.

"Oh, but what is a fight without it being fair? I wouldn't want word to get out that I fought you wandless! It'd sound...Pathetic. No Saucepan, you may have your wand, I'll have the Basilisk. What's more, it only follows orders from me."

Barry cursed again.

"Now, Saucepan, I can't imagine the school approving of language like that!"

"Oh screw you..."

Tom raised his arms in mock surrender,

"Whatever, catch..." Tom threw Barry's wand at him, "Come beauty of Salazar Slytherin!" Tom hissed in Parseltongue. Barry heard the sliding of a huge bady along the concrete, his eyes snapped shut. This was it.