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(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)

Chapter 24:

A Paradox of Epic Proportions

"Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.
'Pipes,' he said. 'Pipes...Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls….'
Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.
'The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!' he said hoarsely. 'What if it's in a bathroom? What if it's in -'
'- Moaning Myrtle's bathroom,' said Harry."

It had happened. Ginny had been taken into the Chamber. The trains were going tomorrow. Jonah should've felt relieved - everything would be fine. Harry and Ron would be on the case.

But Molly had been Petrified. And everything still felt wrong.

Molly's Petrification had changed something - maybe not something huge, but enough to affect things. Someone was involved in this who wasn't involved in the original plot. And how could he even guarantee that Harry would help Ron? Even though Ron had a connection to Ginny, Molly had never made up with them after the whole car incident on the first day. Lousy way to go out, Jonah thought, skeletons still stuck in the closet.

Jonah was sitting in the common room, waiting for something, for anything to happen. For Draco to come down and make a scene about how one of those "blood-traitor Weasleys" had been taken at last. For Zoë and Ava to come down and throw some sort of last-day party. He needed someone to say something, just to cut the silence.

Finally, he decided to say something himself. He looked up at the portrait of Salazar Slytherin, hanging above the fireplace forebodingly.

"I'm going to do it," he said. "I'm going to save Molly, and Ginny, and everyone else who's been affected by your monster."

The portrait said nothing.

"I'm going to help Harry Potter kill the Basilisk."

Still nothing.

"Well, are you going to say something or not?"

Silence.

"Well, thanks," Jonah said sarcastically. "Thanks for talking me down from my suicide mission."

He looked at the painting one more time. Quickly, he drew his wand and traced a curvy line, which became a cartoonish mustache, which planted itself right under Salazar's nose.

"Better," he said. Then he ran out the door.

Stella was in her room, rewatching the Hamilton bootleg that she had recorded, when she heard a knock at the door. As quickly as she could, she hid the camera under her bed. "Come in!" she shouted.

Hannah Abbott walked in. "There's someone downstairs to see you," she said. "A Slytherin. I don't know his name, but he specifically asked for you."

"Weren't we, like, not supposed to leave our common rooms?" Stella asked.

"He's a Slytherin," Hannah said. "He probably Petrified his way in here."

"I'm sure he didn't," Stella said, biting her lip. She knew she couldn't reveal anything more, so she breezed past Hannah and started to walk, then run, down the stairs.

"I swear to God, if it's Draco -"

She opened the door to the common room.

"Jonah," she said, her angry face melting into relief. "You have no idea how good it is to -"

"Let's cut to the chase," he said, cutting her off. "I'm going to the Chamber of Secrets to help Harry kill the Basilisk. I want you to come with me."

Stella's eyes widened. "Jonah, the last time we interfered in a crucial plot point, somebody died. We could be killed - our friends could be killed -"

"Madison's involved again, too," Jonah said. "They found her socks after Justin and Nick's Petrification. And Molly's been Petrified. The timeline's already different - if we need to change things to keep history on track, so be it."

"This is a paradox of the most insane level," Stella said. "Changing history to get the same outcome - I mean, I really don't understand any of this. That's probably why I didn't like Cursed Child."

"Neither did I, but it's our reality now," Jonah said. "We need to go and help."

"But I forgot to bring my wand downstairs," Stella tried.

"Nope - you're not going to pull the lazy card on me," Jonah said. "Go up there and get your wand."

Stella rolled her eyes. "Be right back," she said. "God, you're tenacious."

"Didn't you say that when Madison was -"

"Exactly," Stella said, turning away from Jonah and stomping up the stairs.

A few minutes later, she came back - with not only her wand, but a T-shirt that read "I am not throwing away my shot."

"They were selling these at Hamilton," she said. "I thought it was fitting. Now let's do this."

Jonah smiled as he and Stella walked to the exit. Right before they left, though, Stella stopped.

"Wait a minute," she said. "How did you get here without being discovered?"

Jonah drew his wand and pointed it at Stella, then at himself. Almost instantly, Stella watched as her body, then Jonah's, disappeared.

"Disillusionment Charm," Jonah said. "I got skills, son."

"I can do a Disillusionment Charm, too," Stella said quietly as they walked out the door. "I used it to look in the Mirror of Erised last Christmas."

"What did you see?" Jonah asked.

"Madison, my family, my friends - but I still thought Madison was gone forever then, so there was an explanation for the sappiness."

"What do you think you would see now?"

"Me, in my room, alone, watching that Hamilton bootleg for the millionth time," Stella said. She could faintly hear Jonah laughing, and she smiled. Basilisk, here we come, she thought determinedly.

The two time-travelers waited in the bathroom, invisible, for what seemed like forever. Stella and Jonah alternated as guard while the other caught a few minutes of sleep. Presently, Stella was awake, waiting for Harry, Ron, and Lockhart to walk in and open up the sink.

She couldn't erase the thought of Molly's confused face, frozen in time, lying on the cot in the hospital room.

That's why we're here, she tried to think, attempting to turn her devastation into adrenaline. We're here to avenge Molly's Petrification, and the Petrification of everyone else who was innocent.

But Stella knew that she and Jonah were mice, waiting at the entrance to the lion's den. They were both Muggleborns - if anyone was to be Petrified, or even killed, in the Chamber of Secrets, it would be them.

It'll be worth it, Stella thought. Every war has casualties.

But she still felt just a little bit helpless. She could see Madison, looking down at her.

"You let me go into the deep end," she said. "You let me go and expose Quirrell and get myself killed. You're a coward."

Her eyes were glassy.

"Madison?" Stella said quietly. "What are you doing?"

"Because of you and your plan, I am now dead," Madison said. "Everyone who you love will die around you, and you'll have no way of stopping them. Because of you, I joined a new cause."

"Madison?"

"One where I'd be appreciated, taken care of, not sent off like a lamb to the slaughter," Madison said, an evil grin growing on her face. "Ginny?"

Ginny stepped forward from behind Madison. "Stella, I'm sorry," she said, in a maniacal tone. "You lost."

Suddenly, Stella fell into the shadow of a large snake - the Basilisk. It hissed at her, but she didn't look up.

"Goodbye, old friend," Madison said, then said something in Parseltongue. The Basilisk lunged - Stella screamed -

"Obliviate!"

Stella's eyes opened and she sat up, breathing heavily. "Ginny? Madison?"

But there was nobody in the room. The snake was gone.

"Jonah?" Stella said. Next to her, she could hear a voice grumble.

"What time is it?" he said.

"It's time," she replied simply.

After a few seconds of nothingness, Jonah appeared next to her.

"I undid your charm, too," Jonah said. Stella looked down to see that her body had reformed. "Are you ready?"

Stella sighed. "Ready as I'll ever be," she said, her voice trembling.

"So what happened while I was sleeping?" Jonah said as he stood up and then helped Stella up.

"Madison and Ginny were here," Stella said, her voice getting faster and faster. "And the Basilisk - and the eyes - and it lunged -"

"Stella," Jonah said quietly. "I think you fell asleep, too."

It finally dawned on Stella what had happened. It had all been a dream. She had fallen asleep, leaving both of them helpless. She had failed.

She started to cry softly, wrapping her arms around Jonah. After a moment's hesitation, he returned the hug, his face sullen and stiff.

"Don't worry," Jonah said. "We'll save Molly and Opa...and Madison. This time. But we need to get down there."

Stella nodded, breaking the hug. "Let's go."

Jonah nodded in reply, and the two walked over to the edge of the precipice where the sink used to be. "How are we getting down?" Jonah asked.

Stella thought for a moment, then grabbed her Hufflepuff tie and untied it from her neck. She drew her wand and pointed it at the tie, and slowly but surely, it morphed into a ladder.

"Transfiguration," she said, carefully lowering the ladder into the rocky cavern below. "And creativity."

Jonah smirked. "I'll give you that one," he said as he started to climb down. Stella held the ladder in place until he made it to the bottom, then she climbed down herself.

Stella turned the ladder on its side, and she and Jonah walked over the rungs to avoid the sharp, rough rocks. After a few minutes, they arrived at a wall of fallen rocks. Sitting next to the wall was Ron, leaning over an unconscious man - Lockhart, Stella thought.

Ron looked up to see Stella and Jonah, standing on a ladder that had been turned into a bridge. "What are you guys doing down here?" he said. "Actually - never mind. At this point, I don't even want to know."

Jonah pointed his wand at one of the largest rocks, sitting on top of the pile. "Wingardium Leviosa," he said. The rock lifted up an inch and squeezed through, gently landing in front of the wall - a stepping stool of sorts.

"Harry's already past that wall," Ron said. "Should I come with you?"

"No," Stella said quickly. "Um - you need to stay with Lockhart. See if he wakes up - see how he's doing."

"Sounds good," Ron said. "And - whatever you're doing down here - good luck."

"Thanks," Jonah said. He stepped up on the rock, pulling himself up to the hole in the wall. In one swift movement, he swung his legs through the hole and pushed himself off, landing on the other side. "Your turn, Stella."

"Okay," Stella said. "Here we go." She stepped on the rock and reached her arms up, attempting to grab on to something. She found a handhold - and her right hand slipped, scraping against the rock.

"OW!" she screamed. "I TOTALLY WANT TO CURSE RIGHT NOW!"

"Please don't," Jonah and Ron said at the same time.

"Fine," Stella said. "Ooh, that hurts."

She tried again, using her legs to give her more leverage. After some agonizing climbing, she reached the top and jumped down.

"What did you hurt?" Jonah asked.

"My hand," Stella said, showing Jonah the red scrape on the palm of her right hand. "How are we going to fix this?"

"Episkey," Jonah said, pointing at the wound with his wand, and it began to seal up. "And creativity."

"Yeah, I deserved that," Stella said. She pointed her wand through the hole in the wall. "Accio Ladder."

The ladder came soaring through, and Stella had to duck so that it didn't decapitate her. She set the ladder on the ground and started walking on the rungs, Jonah following her.

After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at a grand room, with white marble and carved images of snakes everywhere.

"The Chamber of Secrets," Stella said quietly. Before she could say anything else, Jonah pulled her behind a column.

He put a finger to his lip - Quiet. Then he gestured a bit past the column, where a red-haired girl was lying on the floor while two dark-haired boys talked above her.

"Voldemort," said one of them ominously, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter…"

He drew his wand and wrote a name in fiery writing in the air - "TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE." He flicked his wand, and the letters rearranged themselves - "I AM LORD VOLDEMORT."

"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry — I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

After a pause, Harry spoke.

"You're not," he said, his quiet voice full of hatred.

"Not what?" snapped Riddle.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days —"

The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted.

As if on cue, a sound almost like if a flute met a clarinet came from behind Stella and Jonah. "Oh my God," Stella mouthed. "Fawkes's singing 'Hedwig's Theme' -"

"I know," Jonah mouthed. "Now be quiet."

The music slowly grew louder until the phoenix burst from the top of a pillar, holding the Sorting Hat in its claws. It gave the hat to Harry.

After a bit of incredulity on Riddle's part, he started to laugh - a stereotypical evil laugh that somehow was still scary.

"A songbird and an old hat!" he said. "This is what Dumbledore sends! I have Ginny Weasley, I have Madison Clark, and you have a songbird and an old hat. What else will he send? A broken wand? A frayed piece of rope?"

Stella grabbed Jonah's hand and walked into the open, pulling him along. "Us," she said.

Harry and Tom turned. "Stella?" Harry asked.

"Stella?" Tom asked, confused.

"Stella…" Jonah said, angry.

"Jonah…" Stella said in the same tone.

"Jonah?" Tom asked.

"Jonah," Harry said.

"Jonah! Stella!" a voice said from behind both of them. A solidified Madison ran out from behind another pillar.

"Not yet!" Tom cried, exasperated. "Impedimenta! Petrificus Totalus!"

Two bluish-white bursts of light burst from Harry's wand, held in Tom's hand. The first one pinned Madison against the pillar, and the other kept her in place.

"Help!" she cried, trying to fight the spell.

"Madison!" Stella cried.

"SILENCE!" Tom shouted, his shouts echoing off the marble walls. "Let us see what Dumbledore's aid can do for you, Harry Potter. It is my personal opinion that you do not have what it takes. I hope you will prove me wrong. I doubt you will."

He turned to the statue of Salazar Slytherin, looming over the Chamber, and said something in Parseltongue. Madison cringed, the voice louder in her ear than ever before - "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four."

Jonah gripped Stella's arm. Harry turned to look at the statue, Fawkes swaying on his shoulder.

Slytherin's mouth was opening, slowly but surely. "Close your eyes," Stella said. But Jonah couldn't move. Stella looked over, and she saw the look in Jonah's eyes. She had never seen him that terrified.

She pressed her hand over his eyes and closed hers as the snake burst from Slytherin's mouth. After a few seconds, she heard Fawkes singing, and she knew that they were safe.

"I'm going to save Madison," she said. "Close your eyes - please."

Jonah nodded, and when Stella drew her hand away, his eyes were closed.

She dove to the side of the Chamber and pointed her wand at Madison. "Locomotor Madison!" she cried, and Madison fell from the wall.

Suddenly, she heard a hissing. Shielding her eyes from the yellow glow emanating from the snake's eyes, she watched as it fixed its eyes on Jonah. It formed an arc, about to pounce.

"JONAH!" she cried. She wanted to jump in and help, but it was her dream all over again. The Basilisk was about to kill Jonah, and she was frozen, helpless.

The Basilisk lunged - Stella screamed -

"NO!" a voice cried. Madison bounded across the Chamber, throwing herself in front of Jonah. In a split second, the same stone-grey that Molly had turned covered Madison, and the Basilisk caught her in its fangs. Realizing that it wasn't the person it had meant to get, it flung Madison's lifeless body against a column. Her stone hand hit the marble and broke off. The Basilisk retreated, about to lunge again, when Fawkes flew into its eyes and pierced them, blood flowing from them. The lights from the Basilisk's eyes disappeared; it could no longer Petrify anyone.

Everything happened before Stella could process it. All she knew was that Jonah was safe; and as long as he got out of the way, they could get Madison and watch from the sidelines.

"Jonah!" she said. "You can open your eyes."

With a shaky breath, Jonah opened his eyes. "What happened?"

"Run to your right!" she yelled, and almost instinctively, he followed her order.

She looked to make sure that the Basilisk was occupied and then ran, following Jonah to the right side of the Chamber. They both arrived at the lifeless figure of Madison, her arm outstretched, her hand lying a few feet away.

"No…" Stella said softly.

"NO!" Tom Riddle cried at the snake. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE CHILDREN ARE BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL THEM! KILL THEM!"

"Oh, no," Jonah said. "The snake's after all of us."

"What do we do?" Stella said.

"We have to guide Harry - help him fight the Basilisk from what we know from the books," Jonah said. "He needs to put on the hat."

"Harry!" Stella shouted. "Put on the Sorting Hat!"

Harry looked at the hat, shrugged, as though to say, "This might as well happen," and jammed the hat onto his head. It smiled as Harry fell to the ground. He took the hat off and drew a sword.

"The Sword of Gryffindor," Jonah said. "I never thought I'd ever see it."

"Are you getting emotional?" Stella said.

"Yeah," Jonah said. "So?"

"True," Stella said. "Now fight the Basilisk, Harry! You can do it!"

"KILL THEM! LEAVE THE BIRD! THEY'RE BEHIND YOU! SNIFF - SMELL THEM!"

Harry jumped to his feet, sword in hand.

"Dodge him!" Stella shouted. As the Basilisk lunged, almost drunkenly, Harry ran the other way. He raised the sword.

"STAB HIM IN THE MOUTH!" Jonah called.

Harry looked at Jonah, confused. Then he turned to see the Basilisk rearing towards him. He held the sword in both hands, threw his whole weight behind it, and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.

The snake and the boy parted, the sword releasing from the Basilisk, a fang lodged in Harry's arm.

"Get the fang out!" Stella cried.

Harry looked down, as if just noticing the deadly tooth. He pulled it out, then collapsed on the ground.

"FAWKES!" Jonah shouted.

The phoenix flew down and landed next to Harry.

"Fawkes…" said Harry thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes…"

The bird lay its head near the wound as Tom Riddle stepped closer and closer.

"You're dead, Harry Potter," he said. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying."

Stella went to say something, but Jonah stopped her. "We're back on track," he mouthed.

"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."

"I forgot how passive-aggressive Riddle is," Stella said quietly. "He's got a real sarcastic streak."

"So ends the famous Harry Potter," Riddle said, the smile on his face growing and growing. "Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, failed by his friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry...She bought you twelve years of borrowed time...but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must…"

Stella and Jonah watched, huddled together next to Madison's body, as Harry grew weaker, and weaker, and weaker...and then began to grow strong again.

The look on Riddle's face changed abruptly. "Get away, bird," he said, a bit of panic entering his voice. "Get away from him - I said, get away -"

He pointed his wand at Fawkes. A golden light shot out of it, hitting Fawkes's claws. Barely harmed, Fawkes flew from Harry's side.

"Phoenix tears…" Riddle said. "Of course...healing powers...I forgot...But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter...and them, watching, helpless."

He gestured to Stella and Jonah.

"How about I kill the one person on whom your lives depend?" he said.

Jonah gripped Stella's arm - not out of fear this time, but urging her to restrain herself. She nodded.

"An amazing thing, these silent heroes," Riddle said. "Let us begin, Harry. You and me...you and me…"

He raised his wand - and then Fawkes flew back, the diary in his claws. He dropped it into Harry's lap.

He and Riddle looked at each other for a split second. Jonah and Stella watched, wondering - after what they had done - would it be enough?

And then Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.

Thanks for reading this chapter! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:

1) Lots of references in this chapter! Wonder, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, Tangled the Series, Tangled (the movie), Wicked, one of Mindy Kaling's memoirs, John Mulaney's New In Town special, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Hamilton.

2) I really enjoyed writing the dream sequence with Madison and Ginny taunting Stella. I read a scene where someone falls asleep but didn't realize it in one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was little, and I've always wanted to write a scene like that.

3) The Stella/Jonah repetition is one of Madison's inspiration's favorite parts in the series.

4) I love Ron's reaction to all the chaos - the idea of just kind of giving up on understanding is something that I think fits Ron really well.

5) Poor Madison. Her inspiration came up with the idea of her character getting Petrified, so I had her jump in front of Jonah. (Fun fact - jumping in front of someone or something to save it was one of the original ideas for Madison's original death.)

6) Stella's comment about Riddle's snark is something that I thought when I was rereading the chapter on which this part of the story was based.

7) Writing the paragraph in which Madison is Petrified and the Basilisk's eyes are stabbed was a challenge, but really fun. I recently learned about stream-of-consciousness writing in modernist works (like Franz Kafka's writing), and I thought it would be cool to incorporate it a bit in this part. It almost makes it more dramatic, to have everything happen at once.

8) I love Jonah drawing the cartoon mustache on Salazar Slytherin's portrait's face. It's so petty and meaningless and hilarious.

9) The idea of time traveling and, as Stella puts it, "changing history to get the same outcome," will come in handy later on.

10) If you're wondering where the slide to the Chamber went, I realized while writing this chapter that I had forgotten to include it in earlier sections of the story. I guess I had the movie on my mind, and I decided to make this part a little bit more like the movie in that fashion. It also sets up the "creativity" punchline, which I think is pretty darn funny.

11) Finally, some of Tom's speech is direct from the original book. It's always fun seeing Tom's speech, so dramatic and well-worded, and just a few lines before, to have a character say "I TOTALLY WANT TO CURSE RIGHT NOW!" The writing whiplash adds to the absurdity of the story, and I love it.

Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!