In this chapter, Mary and Ginny will fight the Heir of Slytherin…and the Queen of Serpents! Bam!
Feel free to listen to the basement of the police station song while they're inside the passageway to the Chamber of Secrets.
As for the fight, I would recommend the Third Malformation of G.
Chapter 27: The Queen of Serpents
"Why are we talking to Moaning Myrtle? I don't mind her company, but we're pressed for time." noted Ginny.
"I think she might he the girl who died fifty years ago." explained Mary.
The two of them went to the girls' bathroom.
Moaning Myrtle was indeed there.
"Is it alright if I asked you how you died?" asked Mary.
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. All I remember is witnessing a pair of yellow eyes…and suffering cardiac arrest." explained Moaning Myrtle.
"That sounds like the basilisk, alright." questioned Ginny.
It seemed she was indeed the girl who had been killed by the basilisk all those years ago.
The poor girl.
Recalling how the basilisk had been using the plumbing system, Mary decided to look around to see if she found anything suspcious.
She discovered a tap with the snake on the side.
Mary decided to speak parseltongue…
...and a tunnel suddenly appeared.
"How did you do that?" asked Ginny.
"With my mouth." explained Mary.
"Oh…" comprehended the Weasley girl.
Luckily, it wasn't a long drop.
Not long after they entered, Ginny and Mary discovered Vector the toad…and what appeared to be his toad friends. It seemed odd that they were all in a place like this.
More peculiarly, they were all sitting on chicken eggs.
Neville had instructed them all to do so until they hatched.
Vector seemed to recall Hagrid telling him that wasn't safe, but Neville explained that Hagrid was a criminal.
So perhaps he shouldn't listen to the half giant.
"I don't get it…why did he have you all sit on these chicken eggs?" asked Mary.
Suddenly, Mary remembered what Hagrid had said…and what the piece of paper had said as well.
"Aaaaaaahhhh! We have to destroy these eggs, now!" exclaimed the girl with glasses.
"What?!" shouted Ginny.
Luckily, the toads hopped away before they could get hurt.
Ginny was confused but did as instructed.
The eggs were all destroyed before she could hatch.
Mary sighed in relief.
But why would Neville want to breed basilisks?
She got the feeling he was possessed somehow, just as Quirrell had been.
Mary noticed something had been written on one of the eggshells.
It read Beauxbatons.
"Does the word Beauxbatons mean anything to you?" asked the girl who lived.
Ginny examined another eggshell, and discovered it read Ilvermorny.
"Oh my god! Oh my god!" bellowed Ginny.
"What's wrong?" asked Mary.
"Whoever was breeding these basilisks was planning to send them to wizarding schools all over the world!" exclaimed Ginny.
Apparently, they figured if they marked the eggs, they would know which schools they had left to go as they delivered them.
"That's horrible!" exclaimed Mary.
"Wouldn't it take time for these basilisks to grow though? I imagine it would take time for a basilisk to become dangerous." noted Ginny.
Perhaps it did take time for a basilisk to obtain its feared killing gaze.
Mary noticed aging potions on the wall nearby.
"They must have been planning to age the basilisks with these!" exclaimed the girl with glasses.
They wouldn't last forever, but she imagined they would last long enough for many Muggle-borns to die.
It was a good thing they acted when they did. Otherwise no Muggle-born student would be safe.
Oddly enough, Ginny noticed that none of the eggs read Durmstrang.
Oh wait. They didn't accept Muggle-borns.
After stopping the basilisks from being born, Mary and Ginny discovered a sealed door.
Luckily, all the former had to do was use parselmouth again.
The door opened and the two of them found themselves in what couldn't be anywhere else but the Chamber of Secrets.
There was a statue of Salazar Slytherin, and several serpent statues as well.
Also, the chamber was full of water.
At the center of the chamber was Neville, who had passed out.
"Neville!" exclaimed Mary.
Also present was Tom Riddle.
The girl with the lightning-shaped scar noticed.
"Tom Riddle? Was it you who opened the Chamber of Secrets?" asked Mary.
To her knowledge, one could only enter the chamber if you were a parselmouth.
He was a Slytherin, now that she thought of it. So it seemed possible.
"Yes, it was I." noted Tom Riddle.
"So it was you who kidnapped Neville!" exclaimed Ginny.
"He had his uses. As long as he used my diary, I could continue draining the life from him. It was only a matter of time before I could use him to open the Chamber of Secrets, and continue Salazar Slytherin's work." noted Tom Riddle.
"But Salazar didn't want to attack other schools!" shouted Mary.
"Why stop with Hogwarts? I felt that Salazar was too narrow-minded. Though his basilisk was certainly useful, I can tell you that." remarked Tom.
"Your plans have failed! The Muggle-borns will be unpetrified!" shouted Ginny. And so will Mrs. Norris and Nearly Headless Nick.
"Oh, don't worry. I plan to do something about the mandrakes. And besides, there's another reason to visit the greenhouse. I'm sure the gardener had earmuffs to protect themselves from the mandrakes' screams. I'm sure they can protect a basilisk from a rooster's crow just as easily." noted Tom Riddle.
"But we destroyed the eggs!" exclaimed Ginny.
"You did? Well, it won't be difficult to make more. And besides, I'm not interested in killing mudbloods at the moment. I'm more interested in finding out how Mary Potter defeated one of the greatest dark wizards of all time when she was only a baby!" noted Tom Riddle.
"I got lucky, I suppose." noted the girl with the scar.
"Well, your luck has finally run out, Mary Potter! You shall be slain at the hands of Lord Voldemort!" exclaimed Tom.
"Voldemort? He's not in this chamber, is he?" asked Mary.
To her knowledge, he was still a ghost.
"I assure you, he is. I Am Lord Voldemort." nodded Tom Riddle.
Now that Mary thought of it, wasn't I Am Lord Voldemort an anagram of Tom Marvolo Riddle?
It made sense.
Ginny gasped.
"Surprised?" questioned Tom Riddle.
"Not really, I don't think anybody would name their kid Voldemort." answered the girl. It seemed like a very odd thing to do. Though people didn't say that Voldemort was as handsome as Riddle was.
"I didn't want to share the same name as my idiotic Muggle father, so I decided to change my name to Lord Voldemort. I knew that people would be afraid to speak of it one day." noted the Slytherin.
"Voldemort's father….was a Muggle?" questioned Ginny to herself.
Who knew?
"Wait, if the basilisk can kill its victims by making eye contact, how do you avoid being killed?" asked Mary.
"Lucky for me, parselmouths are immune to the gaze." explained Tom.
"Then I guess I won't have to worry about the gaze myself then." noted Mary.
"You do? I guess that would explain how you got here." admitted the teenage boy replica.
The girl with glasses sighed in relief.
"Very fortunate for you, Mary Potter. But don't think for one second you're safe from the monster. The basilisk has more than one way to kill its victims." warned Riddle.
"Isn't the gaze enough?" asked Mary.
"In many cases, yes. But in other cases, creatures can resist the gaze, and a few are immune to it all together. But you'd be hard-pressed to find a creature that's fully immune to a basilisk's potent venom!"
"Oh, right." realized the girl. Hwrmione had warned her about that.
Tom Riddle spoke parseltongue, and the statue's mouth suddenly opened.
Sure enough, there was the basilisk.
Ginny quickly averted her eyes.
"This chamber shall become your tomb…just as it shall be Neville's!" exclaimed Tom.
"Try using parseltongue to communicate with the beast! It might save us!" suggested Ginny.
"I don't think we can reason with a monster as bloodthirsty as this one." answered Mary.
Unfortunately, she had a point.
"Prepare to die, Mary Potter!" bellowed the basilisk.
Mary panicked and ran away.
Unfortunately, her spells bounced off her hide.
It seemed basilisks had magic resistance.
How was she going to stop it?
Unfortunately for Ginny, there wasn't anything she could do.
She couldn't so much as lock eyes with the basilisk without getting killed.
It was a shame, because she wanted to help Mary Potter.
Suddenly, Croaky got her attention.
She had decided to enter the Chamber of Secrets to use it as a swimming pool. She could sense water pretty well.
Originally, she was going to hang out with Vector and his friends (though she would be the odd one out of the group, much like her owner), but all they seemed to be doing was laying on eggs.
Apparently, the basilisk was facing away from Ginny, so she was safe from the gaze at the moment.
As it turned out, Croaky was carrying her magic mirror.
She felt that it could be useful.
Ginny agreed.
"Hmm, what can I use this for? Gilderoy Lockhart said that it could reflect cu-wait a minute…" realized the Weasley girl.
Was it possible that it could reflect the basilisk's gaze right back at it?
It was worth a try.
The basilisk opened her mouth, ready to consume Mary Potter.
"You'll be a decent appetizer!" exclaimed the snake.
"Hey, ugly! Over here!" shouted Ginny.
The basilisk turned around…
…and wished she hadn't.
While this didn't actually kill the monster, it was enough to burn her eyes. Badly.
The Queen of Serpents was now blind.
Mary could hear her scream in agony.
"Way to go, Ginny! You blinded the basilisk!" exclaimed the scarred girl.
Taking her friend's words to heart, Ginny opened her eyes.
It seemed she was now safe to look at the monster.
"Wait, if the basilisk is vulnerable to her own reflection, why is she in a chamber full of water?" asked Mary. That didn't seem like a safe place for the basilisk to be.
It was confusing, though she was glad that the monster was blinded.
"Perhaps it only works if I use a magic mirror." noted Ginny. It was designed specifically to reflect curses and the like. That's why it had worked with the gaze.
"That makes sense." nodded Mary.
Unfortunately, Tom Riddle was now angry.
"Damn you, blood traitor! I was content to sit back and watch as the queen of serpents devoured Mary Potter, but now I see I can do that no longer. You too, shall die!" exclaimed Tom.
He grabbed Neville's wand and fired curses at Ginny.
Luckily, her mirror could reflect the curses.
But on the other hand, Ginny's curses didn't seem to affect Tom Riddle either, for some unknown reason.
"What's going on?" asked the Weasley girl.
Casting spells on the diary didn't seem to work either.
It seemed to have protection.
Suddenly, she noticed that the basilisk was in the water, but Mary wasn't.
She decided to try electrocuting the monster.
It worked better than simply firing spells at it.
Mary could hear it scream once again.
But the basilisk was still alive.
The Queen of Serpents was tough.
"You think if we kill the monster, Dumbledore will be headmaster again?" asked Mary.
Ginny shrugged. It seemed possible.
"Albus Dumbledore can't help you now!" exclaimed Tom Riddle.
Though if it weren't for him, he might have been able to open the Chamber of Secrets again, rather than use a cursed diary. Dumbledore had been suspicous of him and rightfully so, so he decided to keep an eye on him following Hagrid's expulsion.
As soon as he said that, Fawkes the phoenix flew in.
He was carrying the Sorting Hat.
"Perhaps I spoke too soon. But is that really the best he could do? You won't win with a mere pigeon and a mere hat!" exclaimed Tom Riddle.
"Where am I? I was in the headmaster's office taking a nap." questioned the Sorting Hat.
Had Dumbledore opened a new swimming pool without his knowledge? There was a lot of water around.
Fawkes beckoned Mary to reach inside the hat.
She nodded and did so…
…and ended up pulling out the Sword of Gryffindor.
"What?!" exclaimed Tom Riddle.
"Huh. I guess you really are a true Gryffindor." remarked the Sorting Hat.
He had made the right choice after all.
When the basilisk opened her mouth again, Mary shoved the sword down her throat.
This was enough to slay the monster.
Before she died, she flailed around. But she eventually stopped moving entirely.
"No!" exclaimed Tom Riddle. How could Mary slay the Queen of Serpents?
"I did it!" shouted Mary.
"Mary, you cut your hand on one of the basilisk's fangs!" screamed Ginny.
The Gryffindor second year gasped.
It appeared that she had indeed been poisoned.
She began to feel dizzy, and then passed out on the floor.
"I may have lost the Queen of Serpents, but at least now I won't have to worry about her anymore." noted Tom Riddle.
"Noooooo…." murmured Ginny.
"Once I've finished draining the life from Neville, I can breed more basilisks. And then I shall exterminate all the Muggle-born students that had the audacity to try to learn magic!" exclaimed the heir of Slytherin.
"I don't believe it…Mary Potter is gone…" said the first year.
"She got what she deserved for daring to defy Lord Voldemort." sneered the handsome boy.
Feeling incensed, Ginny noticed that the basilisk's fangs were still dripping with venom.
She then noticed Tom Riddle's diary lying on the floor.
This gave her an idea.
She plucked a basilisk fang from the deceased serpent's mouth, careful not to cut herself as Mary had.
"What are you doing?" asked Riddle.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm avenging my friend." explained Ginny.
She approached the diary.
"No! Stop!" bellowed Tom.
"And let you kill all the Muggle-borns? No, I don't think so." answered the Gryffindor first year.
She used the fang to stab the diary.
Tom screamed in pain and clutched his leg.
In the process, he dropped Neville's wand.
"You can't do this to me! I'm the Heir of Slytherin!" bellowed Riddle.
"And I'm the pharaoh of Egypt. Big whoop." retorted Ginny.
She stabbed the diary again.
Tom Riddle clutched his chest and screamed in agony.
"This can't be happening! I can't die because of a mere first-year!" bellowed Riddle.
"It's happening now, isn't it? Farewell, Tom Riddle, May you serve as an example as to what happens when one lets their racism consume them." noted Ginny.
She stabbed the diary for the last time, and Riddle exploded into a torrent of ink.
Neville woke up afterwards.
He seemed to be in perfect health, thank goodness.
Fawkes cried over the fallen Mary.
"Yes, I know. It's sad." nodded Ginny.
Suddenly, she began to stir.
"Mary? You're alive?" questioned the first year.
"I don't feel like I'm poisoned." noted the second year.
Ginny hugged Mary.
Neville wasn't sure what was going on, but he joined the hug.
Good had triumphed over evil.
Albus Dumbledore would be proud.
Were you surprised that Ginny destroyed the diary? I did foreshadow it. Though you might not remember.
I wanted to subvert your expectations though.
Well, time to wrap this arc up…like a snake.