Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Long time no see! Sorry for the wait but it's been really useful for me - hopefully you enjoy! (just a warning though: I lowkey hate this chapter and wrote it in like August so it will get better)

- I don't know why this chapter isn't uploading but I'm trying to sort it out - thanks for reviews!

"My eyes." The basilisk hissed and thrashed, Tom's curse slicing through it's deadly eyes, blinding it. It's screech of anguish echoed around the chamber, Harry could almost feel the pain radiating off of the basilisk, could almost feel it. Harry glanced up as Tom cast another curse at the basilisk, the lights flashing around the chamber, reflecting in the water as the spells shot around. The basilisk just made a guttural noise, almost as if it was growling angrily at Tom, before lunging forwards as Tom jumped to avoid its fangs.

Harry stood at the opposite end of the Chamber, standing so still he almost looked as if he had been petrified, he'd never truly understood the expression struck dumb before. Now he definitely understood it, especially the dumb part - though he did feel slightly smug at how he'd managed to outmanoeuvre one of the wizarding world's most feared dark lords.

He'd felt the power wash over him as he announced his heirship, his title, almost as if Salazar Slytherin was looking down on him, choosing him and giving him his blessing, and he knew that the basilisk was now his chess piece.

Tom had detected the change too, and immediately started making his way to the other end of the Chamber, which wasn't made easy by an angry 60 foot long basilisk. Taking the opportunity Harry had made his way to Ginny, after commanding the basilisk to go after Tom, (and to not turn around and accidentally kill him).

"Tell me how to save her and I'll let you live." Harry yelled across the Chamber, trying to project his voice so Tom would hear him.

Tom laughed, as if he wasn't facing his death. "It's too late. You can't save her." He replied breathily whilst flicking his wand and sending another spell at the basilisk.

Harry gritted his teeth as he dragged Ginny, propping her against the wall so she wouldn't accidentally get in the way of the fight between Tom and the basilisk. "Your lifeforce and hers are tethered, intertwined." Harry started, remembering their earlier conversation. "As you go stronger she gets weaker," Tom dodged out of the way as the basilisk moved to bite him. "If you die..." Tom's head snapped up, facing Harry and he knew he was on the right tracks.

He was twelve yet he was being forced to make a literal life-and-death decision: save Ginny by killing Tom Riddle, who by all appearances looked like a 16 year old schoolboy, not the mass-murdering psychopath he grew up to be. The alternative... well that wasn't even an option.

"Kill him." Harry commanded, changing his order from stop to kill, despite how heavy his chest already felt. He had to make sure his voice was steady and strong lest the basilisk change his mind again about who's in charge, but internally he already felt the anxiety about the order.

"Gladly." The basilisk flicked its tongue out, as if to show it was ready for its next meal.

Harry could see it in Tom's posture, even from the opposite end of the Chamber, he was trying to backtrack away from the basilisk, but he didn't even have time to turn around. The basilisk's jaw opened wide before slamming closed. Harry flinched and closed his eyes reflexively, ready to hear screams and sounds of anguish as Tom Riddle got ripped into shreds. Instead he heard a guttural hiss of frustration.

Upon daring to open his eyes, this time afraid more of the image he'd be presented with as opposed to the threat of petrification he saw a strange, and unexpected thing.

Instead of the gruesome picture of Tom Riddle in pieces he saw the vexed basilisk hurling out a diary - the diary - like it was a cat with a hairball. The King of the Serpents had blood on its fangs but there was no body to be seen.

"My meal." The basilisk hissed angrily, confirming to Harry that somehow, for whatever reason, despite blood dripping from the basilisks fangs, Tom Riddle was not consumed.

"Wha-" A voice suddenly sounded from Harry's right. It was weak, and scratchy, tired and pained - all feelings Harry could relate to - it was Ginny.

The basilisk turned around abruptly, and Harry flinched, slapping a hand over Ginny's eyes before he remembered that Tom had blinded the basilisk.

Ginny looked annoyed. "Hey!" She protested - yep, definitely annoyed. "That hurt."

Harry removed his hand from her eyes, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry."

Ginny's eyes widened as she saw the basilisk slithering towards them. "Merlin." She gasped, before letting out a flurry of curses Harry had not expected from the youngest Weasley... then again, she was related to the infamous Weasley twins.

"Don't worry. Tom blinded it." Harry closed his eyes as a shuddered breath escaped through his mouth, his arm still gaped open and bleeding.

"It still has fangs!" Ginny started retreating backwards along the dirt-ridden floor, only for her back to soon come up against the wall.

"It's fine." Harry waved her off, trying to think of a good way to explain how he had control of the basilisk, one which wouldn't incriminate him as the heir. "It won't hurt you, she's helping us."

"She's helping us?" Ginny looked at him like he was a madman. Harry didn't blame her. "What in Merlin's name are you talking about? This basilisk has been going around the school for the past years petrifying-" Her voice cracked.

"Her allegiance has changed, or his or - whatever not important-" Harry shook his head, trying to shake out all of these irrelevant questions about whether the King of the Serpents was a King or more of a Queen. "- just trust me." Harry scrunched up his face in annoyance. Why the hell would this girl trust him, the entire school - the entire freaking wizarding world - believed he was the heir, and he told her to trust him? as though that would ease all her fears, as though she'd believe him despite all the incriminating evidence against him. He was in the chamber. The basilisk obeyed him. He was a bloody parselmouth-

"This is all my fault." Ginny's voice wavered as she slowly raised her eyes to meet Harry's.

Harry stopped, confused as her brown eyes implored into his. Ginny wiped away the tears welling in her eyes furiously, as though she was angry that they were there, and her head dipped down, as though she'd taken Harry's silence as an acceptance, as condemnation for her crimes. How had he gone from trying to convince her to believing he was the heir to her revealing that she was?

"Your fault?" Harry finally replied, unable to keep the sceptic shock out of his tone. The Weasleys were well known in the wizarding community as "blood-traitors", in short a term for pure-blooded families who aren't racist bigots like the Malfoys. The idea that Ginny Weasley, not only a Weasley, but an eleven year old girl (to clarify, it wasn't her gender that's the issue) had unleashed this beast who'd gone around petrifying muggleborns, well... Harry could scarcely believe it.

Harry scoffed despite himself: the very idea was ludicrous, perhaps she'd been concussed or was just so tired that she was speaking nonsense. "It, this," he waved his hand - the one which didn't have blood gushing out of it - around the Chamber, "this was Tom, he tried to kill you. That's not your fault."

"No. It was me." Ginny raised her chin defiantly.

"Ginny, what are you talking about?" Harry asked. "It was Tom, I saw him, he was the one who spoke parseltongue, he was the one ordering the basilisk around, he was the one who tried to kill me. Not you." Merlin this day had really gone down hill since DADA.

"I opened the chamber. I let everyone blame you."

"Ginny..." Harry shook his head in confusion, searching her face for some proof that this was just a sick hoax, an untimely prank, but only brazen Gryffindor courage shone through her eyes. "Why?"

"I-" Her bravery ran out as her voice failed her. Ginny shook her head as her lower lip trembled, tears now freely falling down her face. Harry couldn't help as the anger grew within him. He shouldn't be here. He was twelve and he'd been forced into this life and death situation to save her. To save Ginny. That's why he'd gone down here in the first place.

But she'd started this all? She was the heir who'd unleashed the basilisk on the school? She let everyone point the finger at Harry whilst she sat at the Gryffindor table eating breakfast and plotting her next move?

And now he was here, presumably trapped in a chamber that had been kept a secret for nearly a millennia, trapped with an arm leaking blood like a faucet, trapped with a basilisk, and with an eleven year old terrorist who'd- an eleven year old. It didn't make sense. Yet she'd admitted it freely, she told him she was the heir, that it was her fault.

Then there was Tom. There was no way he wasn't- he was Voldemort. He was the real terrorist, the mass-murdering, cult-leader who'd murdered his parents and countless others. He was the parselmouth. He was the one who tried to kill Harry yet again. It couldn't have been Ginny.

"No." Harry finally said. "This- this is not your fault. Or mine. Or even the bloody basilisk. This is on Tom, and only Tom."

"I was the one who trusted him, if I'd have just been-"

"You're eleven. And the dark lord who's name most adults can't say was manipulating you. This is not on you." Ginny's eyes widened in shock.

"The dark lord?" She asked, her tears halting in her confusion. Harry scrunched up his face, raising his hands to them as he gave himself a momentary reprieve. Instead he saw white lights as a sharp pain seared up his arm.

"Can we do this later?" Harry hated how weak his voice sounded, hated how tears formed in his eyes - not from sadness, or frustration, but from the sheer exhaustion which hit him like a freight train.

Ginny's eyes widened in concern as her eyes fixed on Harry's arm. "Harry..." She whispered softly.

"It's not your fault." Harry repeated as he finally allowed himself a rest, if he could just lean against the wall, as his drooping eyelids succumbed for a second or so. Reluctantly he forced them open, now was not a convenient time to be taking a nap. "Not your fault." He repeated. Maybe just a few minutes would be okay? Just a couple of minutes.

"Dumb blonde." Harry reluctantly forced his eyes open to the sight of Ginny leaning over his arm. "Says that Tom was You-Know-Who and then passes out, leaving you alone in bloody Slytherin's secret chamber with a 60 feet long basilisk. Or you're supposed to be a dumb blonde. Well actually you're a Ravenclaw, so I'd have thought you were meant to be clever or something..."

"Ginny." Harry croaked, trying to get her attention, his throat feeling unnecessarily sore as he began to prop himself up against the wall. Only to hiss out in pain as he placed weight on his arm - causing Ginny to flinch violently as she looked over her shoulder. "How long?" Harry asked as he began to examine the wound, only to see it tightly wrapped up in torn robes.

"Only ten minutes I think." She replied, her eyes pointedly avoiding his... again. Her voice was steady but her body displayed her pain like an exhibition: tear-tracks stained her cheeks; Harry's own blood sat, fixed to her pale and trembling hands; her hair was woven into a nest and her robe was ripped and covered in grime.

"Thank you." He told her, gesturing to his arm as she reluctantly raised her eyes to meet his. They went higher and narrowed again, before she shook her head. What on earth was going on inside that girl's head, Harry had no clue.

"You have some explaining to do." She told him much to his confusion. Hadn't they already established that he wasn't the heir of Slytherin - his memory was hazy from the blood loss and the intense life and death situation but he was pretty sure she'd even claimed to be the heir herself... not that that made much sense. Probably just some sort of halluc-

"About how You-Know-Who was Tom Riddle." Oh. Right. That.

"You were possessed, or something." Harry replied vaguely, not sure how to properly broach the subject.

"I know that part." Ginny rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I- Tom seemed so..." She trailed off.

"Charming." Harry finished offering her a comforting smile - or what he hoped was a comforting smile - Ginny nodded. "So... Tom wasn't just Tom," Harry swallowed deeply and took in a deep breath. He'd already told her this, and she already knew this, but he knew she'd want him to spell it out for her, to confirm her suspicions, her fears: "I don't know what happened, or how, but Tom, his real name, well, his more famous name... Ginny," He bit the inside of his cheek nervously, should he even be confirming this? Would this actually help at all in the long term? But he knew if roles were reversed that he'd want to know.

"Tom was Voldemort."

She flinched at the name. "No." She protested immediately, almost as if it was a reflex.. "Tom was sixteen."

"It was him Ginny. Like I said, I don't know how. I don't. But he told me." Harry rubbed his arm anxiously before wincing in pain as he agitated the wound yet again.

"I... I've been talking to him this entire year. It doesn't make sense."

"Nor does a diary apparition - or whatever he was - being able to steal your lifeforce. He wouldn't have lied about being him." Harry paused. "I think you know deep down it's the truth. It's up to you now to confront that truth or repress it. I'm not going to force you down either road, but I promise I'm not... It's the truth Ginny."

The two devolved into silence as Ginny processed the information - or rather, the confirmation of the information she'd already known. That Tom Riddle was Lord Voldemort himself. That she'd been possessed by the Lord Voldemort. That perhaps the Dark Lord wasn't as dead as they'd all suspected.

"What happened to your hair?" She finally asked, running a tentative hand along one of his locks.

"What do you mean?" That definitely wasn't the question he was expecting to break the silence. Nor did it seem relevant on any level - so what if it was messy, or grimy or even greasy, he had just saved her goddamn life!

"I..." She blushed slightly, "You didn't exactly fade into the background this year." She explained. "So, I did notice you," Her blush deepened, "You had blonde hair." She stated, her hand rising to rub the back of her neck as her face began to match her fiery hair.

"I had?" Harry replied incredulously, before pulling down a lock of hair so it was over his eye - luckily it was long enough and messy enough to do that. "Huh." Harry muttered as he was met with the sight of the raven-black hair from before his coma, what he now knew was his birth father's hair. "I don't k-" He began to say before he stopped in surprise as under his touch the hair began to morph back to the dirty blonde he'd become so familiar with over the last few years.

Harry could feel his eyes go comically wide as his hair changed colour, and Ginny's widened too before she gasped. "You're a metamorphmagus?" She asked excitedly. "My brother's best friend was one, she could do all sorts of things like turn her hair purple and grow a pig's snout on her face." She explained.

"I had no idea." Harry uttered dumbfounded. "Great, another rare ability that'll make the wizarding world ostracise me... again." Harry added bitterly. He wasn't quite willing to take the full responsibility for his rash actions that led him here yet, he was planning on sticking to being angry at the wizarding world, the ministry and that damn reporter Skeeter - and Dumbledore of course - for at least a little longer.

"This one's a good one though." Ginny reassured him, lightly touching his non-injured arm and Harry blushed despite himself.

"Can we keep it on a downlow anyway?" He asked. "Our secret?" He didn't want another reason for him to stick out from the crowd. He just wanted to fit in and be normal - or at least normal-ish - for as long as he could get away with. And if he was a metamorphmagus there was a small chance the wizarding world would figure out he was Harry Potter in disguise - though that possibility did seem a little far-fetched, the wizarding world hadn't displayed a lot of intelligence so far.

"Um, yeah. I guess." Ginny accepted, despite sounded confused, thankfully she didn't question Harry any further - he was far too tired to try and explain his thought-process to a girl who was practically a stranger.

"We should probably get going now," Her eyes scanned him over, as if to make sure he wasn't on the verge of passing out again. "Otherwise they'll think we're..." She trailed off but he knew what she meant.

"Yeah." Harry muttered, hoping beyond belief that his dad didn't know about what was going on down here.

"How do we get out of here?" Ginny asked. "I was sort of unconscious or possessed or whatever every other time we came down here, I don't really remember..."

"I know the way to the exit. I'm just not exactly sure... Well..." Harry trailed off, knowing his idea was insane, but also knowing that he'd prefer to not join the collection of skeletons that littered the floor. "You're not going to like it."

The journey out of the chamber of secrets was one of the most insane events in Harry's life - which is saying something.

The basilisk had taken a little bit of persuasion to go from trying to murder them to helping them - this persuasion came in the form of rats. Lots of rats. Which Harry had no idea how he was going to obtain. Though he had been forced to shake the deal down from humans, to dogs, to rodents, so all in all a successful bit of bargaining there.

Hitching a ride from the basilisk was, frankly, terrifying, but Harry had seen no alternative to getting back up the plumbing, it wasn't like he could just magically transfigure the slide into stairs or something, that would've been at least seventh year level transfiguration - if not more.

"Open." Harry hissed as they reached the end of the tunnel. The sink had mechanically closed itself at some point after Harry had descended down it, to save Ginny from the fearsome king of the serpents... now he sat neck to the youngest Weasley perched on the head of the basilisk. Indeed, it had been a bit of a crazy day.

Hearing voices Harry decided it would be better to levitate Ginny up the remainder of the way - making your entrance atop a basilisk probably wasn't the best way to prove one's innocence - and she returned the favour (after he remembered to say his thank yous to the basilisk and promise him he'd return soon with several rats with him).

As he'd suspected, having scrubbed off the dirt from his hands and surveyed the room, they weren't alone in the bathroom. Not only was an extremely disgruntled Myrtle present, but also Professor McGonagall, Gilderoy Lockhart, Lucius Malfoy, a man Harry didn't recognise - though the ginger hair was a bit of a giveaway.

"Dad." Ginny let out, relief flooding her face as she dropped ran into his embrace.

Harry ripped his eyes away from the two, his chest suddenly heavy and his throat thick with emotions. He felt drained, weak, exhausted but the overwhelming feeling was loneliness. He was surrounded by teachers and parents, people who didn't know him, strangers, all he wanted to see was one person, but he wasn't there. Even his friends weren't there - why wasn't Terry there?

Then a soft, familiar voice called his name. "Harry."

Harry twisted his stance, and there at the doorway, half-hidden behind McGonagall he stood and Harry couldn't help it as a tear dropped down his face.

"Dad." He cried out, crashing forwards into his waiting arms. Harry nestled his head into his Luke's chest as the doctor wrapped his arms tight around Harry, as more tears washed down his face.

"You are so grounded." Luke whispered but Harry could tell the man was relieved above anything else, and as he said it he just wrapped his arms tighter around Harry's trembling body. "Okay." He finally said, gently pushing Harry away to face him, bringing up his hand to wipe away Harry's tears. "It's okay. Everything's okay now."

"Well, not really." Malfoy sneered, his tone filled with disdain which was mirrored in his eyes as they surveyed the scene. Harry looked to him, and at the point he noticed another man besides him in dark robes. "If anything this just proves the point."

"My son didn't do anything." Luke protested angrily, and Harry could tell by his frustrated and enraged expression that this conversation had happened before.

"Right." Malfoy scoffed, and he turned around to say something to the man behind him when Ginny intervened.

"He's telling the truth."

"He's confounded her." Malfoy countered.

"He's a second year." McGonagall stepped forwards, her thick Scottish accent shining through as she put Malfoy down.

"He didn't do anything to me - except save my life." Ginny continued. "Besides," she trailed off hesitantly before taking a deep breath, "It was me. I opened the Chamber of Secrets." She claimed, her voice firm as her Gryffindor courage shone through.

"Ginny?" Arthur exclaimed confused. "What are you talking about."

"This." She removed herself from her position under Arthur's arm and handed a torn-up and battered book - a diary - over to McGonagall. "I can explain everything, but first, I think Harry needs to go to the nurse."

Luke surveyed him nervously, his frantic eyes searching all over his body before they landed on his arm and he noted the ripped robe tightly around it. "You did this?" He asked Harry who shook his head, wincing in pain as Luke gently unravelled the robe.

"It was Ginny." He hissed as the robe got caught on some dried blood.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. It's okay." Luke apologised, in pain at the thought of him inflicting any pain onto Harry. "That's deep. Really deep. You need stitches immediately, and it'll leave a big scar."

"Don't worry Mr Reynolds, our school nurse will handle it." McGonagall interjected.

"Doctor Reynolds." Luke bit back angrily - angry that his son was put in this situation, angry at his son for being in this situation, and angry that there was barely anything he could do right now. "I can do it." He told them firmly.

"As if muggle practices can defeat magical." Lucius sneered but Luke just ignored him, his eyes still scanning the wound.

"The infirmary, headmistress?" Luke asked.

"Follow me." McGonagall instructed and Luke gently put his arm around Harry, allowing him to put his weight on him as he guided him out the door. "Both of you." McGonagall insisted and she turned around, looking at Ginny with a curious, but fierce expression.

The first thing Harry felt when he next woke up was a warm hand gripping his tightly - slightly too tightly - as though the owner of the hand was afraid that Harry could slip away any second. Hushed voices spoke fervently in the room, though his vision was blurry and the room was too bright, all he could see were outlines.

"Harry, you're awake." He'd know that voice anywhere.

"Dad?" Harry replied, rubbing at his eyes. "Glasses?" He requested.

"Here." Luke said gently, placing the glasses on Harry's head so that finally he could see things clearly.

He was in the hospital wing at Hogwarts - a place he was quite unfamiliar with - but next to the person he was most familiar with. Standing across the room from his father was a matronly woman who Harry recognised as being Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse.

"Mr Reynolds." She nodded at him and Harry quickly realised that it was polite to nod back, and so obliged. "I'll give you two a minute."

Harry turned around slowly, ready for his father to reprimand him for his foolishness, for how he endangered his life and just rushed head-forth into danger with barely a second thought.

"I'm sorry." He apologised, hoping that at least he could get his father to be a little less angry.

"I know. It's okay." Luke squeezed his hand reassuringly. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"You're not angry?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Oh no, I'm furious, more at the school than at you, but there is definitely a portion of my anger reserved for you. What were you thinking? Oh right. You weren't. Otherwise you'd have never risked your life like that. What do you think I'd have done if you hadn't survived? We wouldn't have been able to find your body." Luke ranted, but with each sentence he squeezed Harry's hand a little harder as if he was reassuring himself that there was a happy ending.

"You were right outside the chamber... you'd have found my body."

Luke shot him a glare - he deserved it. "The chamber didn't open until you came back up." He explained before lightly flicking Harry for that being the part of the speech that he'd focussed on. Of course, his rare parseltongue ability - the only way to access the Chamber - seemed to belong only to him, and Voldemort of course... surely they'd have been able to find another parselmouth from somewhere in the world, if they'd figured out how to open it in the first place...

"Love you too." Harry replied sarcastically, childishly flicking Luke back - but then again, he was a child, surely he was allowed to be childish.

"I love you." Luke told him, "You're still grounded though." Harry just nodded, it was a more than fair punishment. "For the whole summer." Harry grimaced but just nodded more. "Maybe until you've graduated actually."

Harry laughed slightly before daring to ask the question he'd been so scared of. "Graduating from..?" He trailed off nervously.

"Your friends came to visit you. They only let one in," he explained, "Terry. He was extremely nervous and guilty," Luke looked at Harry pointedly who couldn't help but feel sheepish over how he'd manipulated Terry into leaving him. "He clearly cares about you a lot. I know that it hasn't been easy for you to make friends in the past. I'm not going to take that away from you, especially when it makes you that happy." Luke said running his hand though his hair. "You can stay at Hogwarts."

"Thank you!" Harry exclaimed gratefully, moving to hug Luke who obliged, his arms tightening around Harry's protectively.

"Though you are going to have to promise to keep me more informed, and I'm making sure Professor McGonagall keeps a correspondence with me as you've proven yourself untrustworthy." Harry burrowed his head further into Luke's body before letting out a muffled apology, feeling so guilty at letting his dad down that he wanted to throw up.

"Ginny!" Harry suddenly realised. "She's okay right? She's not in trouble?" he paused, "I'm not in trouble anymore am I?"

"No one's in trouble - other than being grounded." Luke quickly reassured. "She's eleven, they know it's not her fault when she gets manipulated by a magical diary - I'll be honest... I really don't understand that part - magical diaries and all - but there was some supposedly valid explanation, and long story short everything is okay now."

Luke was right. Everything was okay - though Dumbledore was reinstated as headmaster which left a bit of a sour taste in Harry's mouth.

"Let's just hope next year isn't as eventful, yeah?" Luke asked with a grin, innocently wondering how anything could ever be worse than what Harry had just been through.