A/N: Harry's thoughts are in italics, as usual.

Chapter Fourteen: Riddle me this

"These are the Halls of the Dead, where the spiders spin, and great circuits fall quiet one by one."

-Steven King

The corridors of Hogwarts were eerily quiet as Harry and Ron made their way inside. As they continued, Harry thought he heard something, and between that and sensing as best he could, he was sure. He placed a hand on Ron's shoulder. As Ron stopped, Harry muttered quietly, "I think someone's coming." Standing still, they could still hear footsteps, growing ever clearer.

Ron moved to the side of the corridor, closed his eyes, and covered himself with the cloak.

Harry hurriedly surveyed his surroundings. The corridor was empty for the moment, except for him, Ron, and a suit of armor - which had a spear. That would do, if it came down to that. He moved to stand by the suit of armor, listening and sensing carefully. The footsteps were drawing nearer, and yes, something was following. The basilisk, Harry was sure of that. It was still a ways behind the person walking towards them, however; he needn't close his eyes yet.

It was a boy several years older than Harry who rounded the corner and blinked in surprise at the sight of Harry standing quietly by the wall, watching him.

Dark hair and hazel eyes that now and then seemed to glint with a reddish-light, the boy, a fifth or sixth year Slytherin prefect by appearance, was no one Harry recognized. The robes weren't quite the current style uniform either. An intruder. This is the one we've been seeking- the heir.

"Who-" began the boy, but his mouth then quirked up into a smirk, "ah, Harry Potter, just the person I wanted to meet."

"Indeed? How coincidental. And you are the heir of Slytherin, are you not? What's your name?"

"You'd be correct, and I'm Tom, Tom Riddle." Riddle. Three of them murdered, no sign of cause of death, and a dark-haired boy spotted on the grounds that day.

"However, I'm afraid I don't have much time for formalities at the moment. Tell me, how was it that you defeated the greatest sorcerer of all time, and you only a baby?"

"Greatest sorcerer of all time? Who would that be?"

"Don't play games with me, boy," Riddle snarled, "I'm referring to Voldemort, as you know perfectly well."

"And what concern is it to you? He was after your time." Harry replied calmly, throwing in one of his few guesses about the stranger.

"Voldemort is my past, present, and future." Riddle wrote three words in the air with a wand, Tom Marvolo Riddle, which then rearranged themselves to spell something completely different: I am Lord Voldemort.

"Then why should I tell you anything?"

"We've got a lot in common, you and me. We're both half-bloods, orphans, Slytherins, parselmouths..."

"Dumbledore's on his way."

"What? How would you know even if he was?"

"I have many abilities," Harry replied, floating up to sit cross-legged in mid air. He refrained from smirking with some difficulty, trying his best to take advantage of the fact that the boy was already on edge.

"So do I," snapped Riddle savagely, turning and hissing an order to the direction from which he had come, "but I've tired of playing games. I must be going now, see you never, Potter."

As Riddle left, Harry floated to the ground, grabbed the spear from the suit of armor, crouched down, and waited. He could hear the basilisk slithering towards him, sense it drawing nearer, around the corner, and then…wait until the last possible moment...he could smell it, feel the slightest warmth of its breath and…Now! He half thrust, half threw the spear up into the lunging mouth as he dodged to the side, eyes still closed, throwing himself to the floor. Then, there was something wet dripping onto him from above. He could hear the snake gradually become completely still. He pushed himself to his feet and opened his eyes.

He'd just barely made it out of the way in time. The basilisk, however, hadn't been so lucky. That thing is huge.

"Ron," he called hoarsely, "the coast is clear."

Moments later Ron emerged from beneath the invisibility cloak on the other side of the hall, opened his eyes, and looked around.

"Bloody hell, Harry, did you?"

"Yeah."

"Where did the Riddle guy go?"

Harry pulled out the Marauders' Map and glanced over it thoroughly.

"He got away. I'm still not entirely sure what he was. I suppose we'd best go up and report to the headmaster, or whoever's currently in charge, on our findings now."

"Yeah," muttered Ron, who was still staring at the gigantic carcass monopolizing the hall. "Urgh. And I thought the spiders were bad."

"Well, there were a lot of them."

Ron still seemed rather shaken. "It's so quiet. D'you think everyone's alright?"

"I don't know, but it's usually pretty quiet in the middle of the night. I don't think there's much to be told from that. The staff will probably know."

Ron nodded, and then followed Harry towards Dumbledore's office.

"I almost wish we'd brought your crazy dog - whatever he is - with us," Ron muttered, and Harry laughed.

They found Dumbledore's office to be much more crowded than they had expected. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Tracey, and two redheaded adults Harry didn't recognize were sitting inside. They all looked up as the boys entered.

"Well," commented Tracey, looking up and down a blood-covered Harry, "it looks like I missed out on some fun."

A/N: Comments? Questions? Opinions? I'd love to hear them.

Many thanks to Schottenfroida for beta-ing, and to my reviewers:

Black-Raven3, Manatheron, kizunakat, Aqua Mage, Thestrals, Dark-Angelic-Goddess, MarauderinglyMagical, Batsutousai, Nights Silhouette, FroBoy, Mee Yah, firmin, tinkita, illachi, NamelessHeretic,