Sorry this took longer than usual. I've been going through a lot of drama lately in my life.

There's nothing special about this chapter. Another retelling, more or less, with some commentary from the Blue Exorcist characters. Make sure to read the notes at the end of the chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 26

Confrontation

The door opened after Harry spoke Parseltongue to it, revealing a long corridor lined with pillars entwined with carved serpents. Everyone's footsteps echoed the further they went. More than once either Harry or Rin would flinch when one of them thought one of the snakes moved. Shura kept her sword up, eager to strike.

When they walked past the last pair of pillars, a statue as tall as the Chamber itself emerged from the darkness. The trio had to crane their heads to see the statue's face which looked monkeyish with a long, white beard that almost fell to its feet.

Shura let out a whistle. "Who knew Salazar Slytherin had a big ego?" she muttered. She then noticed a black robed figure lying face down at the feet of the statue. The flaming red hair made it obvious who it was. "Girl Weasley?"

"Ginny!" Harry muttered as he hurried over to her and dropped to his knees. "Ginny - please don't be dead!" He flung his wand aside and turned her over.

Rin managed to catch up to Harry and dropped down next to him. "Is she okay?" he asked. Ginny's face was paler than ever. It was white as marble.

Shura slid down to the floor next to them and pushed them aside. "Move over!" she ordered. She felt Ginny's face. "Cold as ice." She then put two fingers on the side of the girl's neck. A frown appeared on Shura's face, becoming more worried as the seconds ticked by. "I do not like that pulse. Too slow for comfort."

"Her eyes are closed, so she's not Petrified," Rin noted. His face then paled. "Is she…?"

"Ginny, please wake up!" Harry pleaded as he shook her. Her head lolled hopelessly side to side.

"She won't wake," said a soft voice. The trio jumped and spun around.

A tall, dark-haired boy was leaning against the closest pillar, watching them. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misty mirror.

"Tom? Tom Riddle?" asked Harry.

"The guy from the diary?" asked Rin.

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry (although his eyes did flick to Rin for a split second before returning his focus on Harry).

Shura looked between Riddle and the two boys next to her. She didn't understand how a boy who lived fifty years ago could be standing there looking not a day over sixteen.

"What do you mean she won't wake?" Harry asked desperately. "She's not - she's not -"

"She's still alive," Riddle assured Harry, "but only just."

"The hell does that mean?" asked Shura. Riddle shot her a look of contempt but didn't answer.

Rin tilted his head as he got a good look at Riddle. "Are you a ghost or something?" he inquired.

"A memory," Riddle answered quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

He pointed towards the statue's feet and they all saw the open diary Harry had found in Myrtle's bathroom. For a second Harry wondered how it got there but shoved that thought aside. There were more pressing matters at hand.

"You've got to help us, Tom," Harry pleaded as Shura raised Ginny's head to put her rolled up robe underneath as a pillow. Shura was now only in her black pants and bikini top.

"We've got to get her out of here," Rin insisted. "There's a basilisk somewhere. We don't know where it is, but it could show up any minute. Please help us!"

Riddle didn't move.

Shura frowned. "You deaf or something, Tommy? There's a basilisk on the loose. You want it to kill us?"

Harry bent down to pick up his wand to defend the group but saw it was gone.

"Did you see…?"

He looked up and saw Riddle holding his wand, twirling it in his fingers.

"Thanks," said Harry, reaching his hand out.

A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Harry while still twirling the wand in his fingers. Rin got his wand out, ready for the basilisk to pop out any minute. Riddle saw it and with a flick of Harry's wand, Rin's wand flew out of his hand and into Riddle's.

"Hey!" Rin barked. "Give that back!"

"You won't be needing them," Riddle told both Rin and Harry.

Shura growled in frustration. "I understand you need one of their wands, but both of them?!" she said incredulously. "You want the basilisk to kill us?"

"It won't come until it's called," Riddle said calmly.

"That doesn't make me feel better," Shura remarked.

"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle, ignoring Shura. "For the chance to see you. To meet you."

Harry opened his mouth to argue but Shura beat him to it.

"Yeah, yeah, you've always wanted to meet the famous Harry Potter," she drawled. "You and every other student at Hogwarts. We can talk about this later."

"I'm going to speak to Harry Potter now, Squib," Riddle told her, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed both wands. Rin and Harry bristled at how he addressed their Demonology teacher. Something odd was going on here…

"How did Ginny get like this?" asked Harry.

"Well that's an interesting question," Riddle said pleasantly. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and soul to an invisible stranger."

"What are you talking about?" asked Rin.

Riddle's eyes landed on Rin. "The diary," he answered. "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me her pitiful worries and woes - how her brothers tease her, how she had come to school in secondhand robes and books," Riddle smirked at the Japanese boy, "how your brother was the only one kind enough to listen to her talk about -" his eyes glinted at Harry "- how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her…"

Rin's jaw dropped. Ginny had been talking to Yukio about Harry? How much did Riddle know about the rest of the group? What did Ginny tell him?

"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," Riddle continued. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. 'No one's ever understood me like you, Tom… I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in… It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket… You would get along great with Yukio. You remind me of him sometimes…'"

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs on everyone's neck stand up.

"If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted… I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears and darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding her some of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her…"

Shura's eyes widened. "Oh, hell no…" she breathed.

Riddle smirked at Shura. "I see you've figured it out, Squib. Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods and the other Squib's cat."

"No," Harry whispered.

"You little bastard," Shura growled.

Rin shook his head vehemently. "Ginny wouldn't do that."

"She would," Riddle countered calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries… far more interesting they became… 'Dear Tom,'" he recited, watching Harry, Rin and Shura's horrified faces, "'I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I've been seeing weird bugs flying all over the school but some students don't seem to realize they are there…'" Shura's eyebrows shot up at that entry. "'Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, I told Yukio about the weird bugs and that they've been swarming me. He told me that I received a temptaint but I don't know how I got it. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me… There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad… I think I'm the one attacking people, Tom!'"

Harry's fists were clenched, his nails digging into his palms. Rin was growling, looking like he wanted to throttle Riddle into a pulp. Shura tightened her grip on her sword.

"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting the diary," Riddle continued. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people to pick it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet…"

"And why did you want to meet me?" asked Harry.

"Well you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar. "I knew I must find out more about you, to talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust -"

"Hagrid's my friend!" Harry exclaimed.

Shura looked ready to strike. "You son of a bitch," she growled, sounding like an angry animal. "You framed him, didn't you?"

Rin's entire frame was shaking. Wisps of smoke was leaking through his clenched fists. "You're gonna pay for that!" he growled, almost sounding demonic.

Riddle wasn't phased by Rin's behavior, he just laughed his high laugh again.

"It was my word against Hagrid's, you lot. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student… on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle with trolls… but I have to admit even I was surprised how well the plan worked.

"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed… Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did."

Shura smirked. "I bet the boss saw right through you," she said smugly.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close eye on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"Well, you haven't finished it," Harry said triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be alright again -"

"Haven't I told you already," Riddle said quietly, "that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my real target has been… you."

Harry stared at him. Rin's jaw dropped.

Shura only rolled her eyes. "You gotta be kidding me…" she muttered.

Riddle continued. "Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling the roosters? So the foolish brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. Not that challenging since the cat sidthe demon was fond of her. Some of my abilities Ginny possessed easily scared the wretched thing.

"I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery - particularly if one of your best friends was attacked."

"You mean you targeted Hermione just to get Harry's attention?!" Rin roared. Blue tongues of fire sprouted on various points of his body. No one messed with Hermione Granger and got away with it. No one.

"Indeed I did," Riddle confirmed smugly, eyeing the blue flames hungrily. "I then made Ginny write her farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. But there isn't much life left in her. She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last… I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."

"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched as Rin's flames died down.

"Well," Riddle said with a pleasant smile, "how is it that you - a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent - managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time…"

"Voldemort," Riddle said softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter."

He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing his name:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

"Oh my God," Shura breathed.

"Holy shit," Rin squeaked.

"You see?" Riddle 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?" Shura raised her eyebrows at this revelation. "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 and witches everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I became the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

The three just stared at Riddle in shock, horror, and disbelief. This was the boy who would grow up to kill Harry's mother and father and several others.

Harry forced himself to speak. "You're not," he said, his voice full of hatred.

"Not what?" Riddle snapped.

"You're not the greatest sorcerer in the world," Harry said. "Sorry to disappoint you, but the greatest sorcerer in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now."

The smile was gone from Riddle's face and was replaced by an ugly look.

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

Shura raised her sword. "He's not as gone as you might think!" she declared. "Think whatever you want about the boss, but at the end of the day, he'll still kick your ass," she smirked at Riddle, "little half-blood wizard."

Riddle's face turned bright red. Before he could open his mouth to argue, some sort of music started echoing throughout the Chamber. Everyone looked around, trying to find the source of the music.

A crimson bird the size of a swan swooped into the Chamber. It was the source of the music. The bird had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons that were clutching a ragged bundle. The bird flew straight towards Harry and dropped the bundle at his feet then landed on Harry's shoulder.

"That's a phoenix," said Riddle, staring shrewdly at it.

"Fawkes?" Harry breathed.

Shura's eyes widened. "Wow! He grew up quickly."

"And that -" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged bundle that Fawkes dropped, "- is the old school Sorting Hat."

Rin and Shura facefaulted.

"That's it?!" Shura yelled at the phoenix. "How the hell is a talking hat going to defeat the basilisk?"

"What is Dumbledore thinking?!" Rin added in exasperation.

Riddle burst out laughing. He laughed so hard, he was clutching his sides and his laughs were echoing throughout the Chamber.

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders? A songbird and an old hat! Do you lot feel brave? Do you feel safe?" Riddle mocked.

"I feel pissed off," Shura answered through gritted teeth.

"To business, Harry," Riddle said as soon as he pulled himself together. "Twice - in your past, in my future - we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk, the longer you stay alive."

Harry had to think fast, weighing his chances. Riddle had not one, but two wands. Rin patted Harry's arm and gestured towards Ginny and Riddle. Both boys noticed that Riddle was becoming more and more solid.

Harry decided to start. "No one knows why you lost your powers when you tried to kill me that night," he said abruptly. "I don't know myself. But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save my life. My Muggleborn mother," he added, shaking with suppressed anger.

Riddle's face contorted in anger then he forced it into a smile. "So, your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I can see now… there is nothing special about you, after all." He then turned his attention towards Rin. "Unlike your blue flame spewing friend here."

"How do you know so much about my brother? What did Ginny tell you?" Rin demanded. While he didn't want to bring his brother into this conversation, he remembered that Voldemort held an interest in his blue flames. If what Riddle said about being Voldemort was true, Rin had to try to drive Riddle's attention away from his blue flames.

Riddle smirked. "Only that she sometimes wished that Yukio was one of her brothers. He was the only one who was willing to listen to her woes without worrying about him sharing her secrets… when she wasn't telling me them, of course. Pity he couldn't be here."

Tongues of blue flames appeared again on parts of Rin's body. "You keep my brother out of this!"

Riddle's smirk widened. "Your flames. There's something… otherworldly about them. I can feel their power from where I'm standing. I'd like to see how you wield this power in the future."

"Fat chance!"

Riddle's smirk didn't budge from his face as his eyes shifted between Harry and Rin. "Very well. I'm going to teach you two a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, heir of Salazar Slytherin against the famous Harry Potter, his flaming sidekick, a sword-wielding Squib, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give them…"

Riddle turned towards the statue of Slytherin and started hissing at it.

The trio looked up and stared in horror as the statue's mouth slowly opened wide… and something was slithering up from the depths of it. Shura motioned the boys to get behind her and to back away slowly. They kept going until their backs hit the Chamber walls. It only got worse when Fawkes took flight away from the group. Shura would have made a smart mouth remark if the situation wasn't so dire.

"Shut your eyes," Harry whispered. The others did so and they felt the basilisk land on the ground.

Shura tried not to panic. After all, she wouldn't be a master swordswoman if she didn't know how to fight without her eyesight. She only hoped her skills could match a basilisk.

The group heard Riddle hiss an order to the giant snake. Rin and Shura didn't need to know Parseltongue to know what he said to it:

"Kill them."

Whew! Finally done! The final battle is so long, I had to divide it in two.

In case you didn't notice, Shura called Ginny "Girl Weasley." This is because she's teaching four out of the five Weasley siblings at Hogwarts (Percy isn't taking any of her classes). To help her remember which sibling she's talking to, she gave them all nicknames. Ron is Weasley, Fred and George are Weasley One and Weasley Two, and Ginny is Girl Weasley.

I'm actually surprised that no one called Voldemort out on actually being a half-blood wizard instead of a pureblood in the books or movies. I think it would have been a real game changer if his followers knew.

Happy Halloween!