Chapter Fifty One

Inside the Chamber

After Harry left Ron with Lockhart to take care of him and to start digging a hole big enough for him and Ginny to crawl through when they got back, he started walking down the corridor and looking for something that might be what he is looking for. As he was walking, he kept hearing the voice of what he could only assume was the Basilisk. It kept telling him that, "he was sorry for hurting his friends, and that he was only put down here by Salazar Slytherin to watch over his Chamber. He understood why he was down here, and that he wouldn't stop him from taking out the evil. He only asked that the young Parselmouth would be able to some how let him live out the last days of his life." Harry thought on this while he was walking down the corridor. He didn't know how long the Basilisk had to live, but he didn't think that it was long. From what he had read in the books, the Basilisk weren't immortal, they only lived for what seemed like just over a millennium.

"I will let you be, as long as you don't attack me old one. I know that you only have a little bit longer to live from what I have read in the books about your kind. If you have truly been down here since Salazar's time, you only have a short time before you go on to where Basilisk's go when they die. Just let me get there and find my sister, and I will let them know up top that you were defeated."

"Your sister is the little red headed one isn't she? She is in much danger from one of my original masters heirs. He is down here, but he isn't. He is in spirit, but getting stronger. Please hurry young Parselmouth, she needs you quickly. No one has been killed this time, was there?"

"No old one, no one was killed this time. They were all lucky in that they didn't get the full blast of your vision. I am on my way, but how much farther is it til I find out where you are?"

"You don't have much farther, we can hear your footsteps on the other side of the Chamber Door. You should be on the other side of an ancient door, just use your snake speak to order the door to be opened, and you will find us in there."

"Thank you old one. Open," when Harry said this the doors that he was standing in front of creaked open, and he found himself in a large chamber that had statues of large snakes and doors all around. "Wow, the Chamber of Secrets. It is huge, much bigger than I thought it would be." Harry was in awe as he looked around for Ginny. He found her on the far side of the Chamber with a boy in black standing over her muttering some words. The boy was transparent, but Harry could tell that he was becoming more and more into life, while Ginny seemed to breath shallower and shallower.

"Your to late Harry, I have finally gotten my body back." Tom Riddle the younger version was laughing when he said this. Harry heard from the old one that he still had about ten minutes to save his sister.

Harry was running through his mind what he could do, and it came to him with a quick thought. He sent a message to the old one. "Hey old one, can I have your help in something quickly? I need to destroy the diary before he can get his body back. I'm thinking that if we used your fang and sent it through the diary, it will be destroyed and so will his essence."

"I will let you have one of my fangs young one to destroy the crazy one. I can tell that my time is up anyway. Do you see that sword that is sitting on the dias over there? That is the sword of Gryffindor, use it to kill me, and take my fang. I am almost dead anyway, so don't worry about it."

Harry went and grabbed the sword and walked over to the Basilisk. "Are you ready old one? I will make this as quick as possible, so you won't suffer that much." As the Basilisk lowered his head, Harry ran the sword through one of it's eyes and into his brain killing him instantly. He then took out one of the fangs, and turned towards the boy in black. "Are you ready to die again Tom?" Harry was smiling for he was near the diary, and he was ready to take down this menace to society.

Tom turned towards the young Gryffindor and said. "Your to late young one. I can already feel the life draining from the young girls body. There is nothing that you can do."

"Boy you are crazy Tommy boy, not only will I save my sisters life, but I will also end this now." With that, Harry took the fang and drove it through the heart of the diary and Tom Marvolo Riddle's ghostly essence was no more. "Good bye and good riddance Tommy boy. I hope that I will never have to face you again." Harry ran over to Ginny and picked her up checking her pulse. When he found that she was still alive, he walked out of the chamber saying good bye and thank you to the old Basilisk.

Bye the time that Ron, Harry, Gilderoy and Ginny made their way out of the Chamber, Dumbledore and the rest were back from the Ministry, and Ginny was awake again. "Thank you for saving me Harry and Ron. I didn't mean to let the thing out, is everyone ok? Tom was manipulating me through the diary, is he gone?" Ginny was crying now, because she was afraid that she was going to be expelled for this.

"Everyone's ok, or will be in a couple of days when the potion is done that will bring them out of their sleep. Don't worry Ginny, I don't think that they will expel you for this after you tell them what happened." Harry and Ron were comforting their little sister not knowing if what they just said was true or not.

"You are correct Mr. Weasley, we won't be expelling her for this. We know that it wasn't her fault, and that she was controlled by the memory of Tom Riddle. Now why don't three get to the Hospital Wing to get checked out. What happened to Lockhart, he seems to be out of it?" Dumbledore was asking this question, but he thought that he knew what was wrong.

"It was a backfired memory charm sir. He doesn't remember what happened, or who or what he is. It's like a complete mind wipe that happened. It wasn't our fault that this happened sir, he was a fraud, and he tried to cast it with Ron's old broken wand." Harry was smiling at the thought, but was worried for the man.

"Ah I see, well it seems that it's to St. Mungo's for him to see what they can do to help him. Now off to the Hospital Wing, your friends have all taken the potion and are about ready to leave there also. You shouldn't be there long, just long enough for Madame Pomphrey to make sure that your OK." Dumbledore had his twinkle in his eyes again, and the three students made their way to the Hospital Wing.

They weren't in the wing for long before they were all shuttled off with their friends. The rest of the school year went quite well and quietly. Hermoine and the others caught up on their missed homework with the help of the others. Ginny had no long lasting side effects of being controlled by Tom. Harry, Hermoine, Ron, Ginny, Draco, Pansy, Neville, Dudley, Luna and surprisingly enough Parvarti Patil got closer as friends over the rest of the year. It seems that Dudley and Pavarti had hit it off as friends right away, and she was at his side in the Hospital wing while he was out of it.

At the leaving feast that year, it was quite a feast. Gryffindor won the House and the Quidditch cup again. Ron and Harry were given special commendations for their work in the saving of their sister, and what they did to help save the school. Everyone was excited about the upcoming summer holiday, for they were going to be having fun this summer.

Hermoine's parents invited Harry to come along with them on vacation to France, and he readily agreed after getting permission from the Weasley's. They were going to be gone for a couple of weeks, but be back in time to go to the Burrow for the rest of the summer holiday and Harry's birthday. What Harry didn't know, and wasn't going to find out was that her parents wanted to meet Harry and to get to know him better. They knew that Harry and Hermoine were getting closer, and they wanted to know the boy that might one day become their daughters boyfriend, and someday their son-in-law.

Dudley was invited to come over to the Burrow along with the Patil Twins, and they said that they would come over for Harry's birthday and then stay for the rest of the summer.

A/N: I know that it didn't go as the book went, but I hoped you liked year two just as much. This one chapter covered what had originally been scheduled to be five chapters, so that I can fit more ideas into the story, or cut down the size of the story. As always please read and review, and starting next chapter we will be having the summer between second and third year. Thank you again for your reviews. Donald