As Harry drove the sword of Gryffindor into the roof of the basilisk's mouth he felt an eruption of pain from his arm. Harry looked down at his arm to realize one of the basilisks fangs had sunk into his arm. Harry watched as the basilisk swung around frantically until it finally exhausted the last of his energy and dropped to the ground dead.
After seeing the basilisk defeated, he ran over to Ginny dropping his wand while doing so, his only concern was the unconscious girl. "Ginny please, please wake up." he said as he examined her body on the floor. She looked ghostly pale and exceedingly exhausted, as if all of her energy had been sucked right out of her, just then Harry heard a voice behind him, "she wont wake." said the voice.
Harry spun around to meet the eyes of a young man in the chamber. "Who are you?... Can you help her?... Please she needs help if there is anything you can do please!" Harry heard himself saying to the strange man that had appeared. "I am sorry but that is simply something I can not allow." said the strange man with an eerie calmness about him. "For you see the weaker Ms. Weasley here gets, the stronger I become." the man said with equal calmness.
"What are you saying? Just who are you!" Harry said, beginning to have a sense of dread about the man. "You're the one who opened this chamber aren't you! You're the one that unleashed the basilisk on the students of this school! Why did you decide on taking Ginny down here of all people!" Harry spat with a scowl on his face. "I Can assure you I have personally done no such thing, if you are looking for the culprit, look no further than the girl you are trying to save." Hearing this, Harry's mouth dropped and he winced as the pain in his arm shot up, causing him to lose focus for a moment. before concentrating on the man. "Tell me who you are!" Harry once again said.
To Harry's surprise however, the man simply looked at him with an expression of curiosity . "Could that wound on your arm possibly be from my Basilisk?" he asked with what seemed genuine interest. "What's it to you if it is?." Harry spat back. The man walked closer to Harry causing him to instinctively put himself in between the man and Ginny. "She isn't the one you should be worried about my boy, you should be worried more about yourself." Harry didn't budge, determined to save Ginny. "Why is that?" Harry asked. "Well you see you have been pierced by a basilisk fang" he said while slowly, pacing back and forth across the cold stone floor with no sense of urgency. "which is extremely venomous and if it remains in your system for much longer will cause severe pain and unknown side effects." the man said 'Oh yes as for your other question," the man took out his wand. Harry instinctively lunged for his wand which he realized lay in between him and the man, but to his surprise the man began to write letters in the air.
I Am Tom Marvolo Riddle the man wrote in the air and then flicked his wand to rearrange the letters. Harry read out the letters as the fear and pain almost made him pass out. "I am Lord Voldomort." Harry read. "How are you... I dealt with you last year!" Harry said in disbelief. "I am a mere memory of Voldomort held here by that diary that poor Ms Weasley has been writing in everyday" Said Riddle, slowly walking towards Harry's wand and picking it up as he continued to talk. "the more she wrote in that diary the more control I had over her. She was under my complete control for a while now." Riddle said as he inspected Harry's wand. "Curious," Riddle said as he inspected Harry's wand. "Give me back my wand Tom." Harry said standing up but slightly falling over from the effort, Harry didn't want to admit it but he was starting to see dots in his vision as the pain and venom continued to run rampant in his body. "I don't think so, for you see even if you had your wand there is nothing you can do to me I am a mere memory held in that diary." Riddle said, now pocketing Harry's wand. So he is attached to that dairy Harry thought as he eyed the basilisk fang. He slowly managed to walk over to the fang without falling over and picked it up. Riddle simply seems amused at Harry's antics clearly believing that the boy was going to try and stab him with the fang. Harry slowly walked back to Ginny but when he was only a few feet from her, with his vision getting worse and worse and the pain almost becoming unbearable in his arm he tripped and fell not a foot from ginny…. And not half a foot away from the diary. "Don't waste what energy you have left, don't worry you will be joining her soon enough" Riddel smiled cooly. Harry then reached out with his hand and grabbed the diary and opened it up to a random page and looked at Riddle.
"What are you doing?" Riddle said with growing concern for his safety. "NO STOP!" he said as he lunged towards Harry but he was too late. Harry plunged the fang into the diary as a geyser of black ink erupted from the diary. Riddle screamed an unearthly scream that sent the hairs on the back of Harry's neck up. He looked down at Ginny, color had started to return to her. Harry then took the book and closed it, looked up at Riddle and stabbed the cover of the book and watched as Riddle screamed in agony. Cracks started to appear in his face and body like he was made of glass, then all of a sudden Riddle exploded and nothing but Harry's wand remained at the site of where Riddle once stood.
"Wow, I guess that venom really is powerful." thought Harry "A bittersweet victory" for he now saw what the venom that was currently in his body could do. Just then Ginny sat upright as if waking up from a bad dream and looked around her frantically until she laid her eyes on Harry. "Harry! It was me, I did it, I'm the one who opened the chamber, I'm the one who freed the basilisk, I'm so sorry I never meant to do any of it." She stopped mid sentence. She looked at Harry and realized he was clutching his arm and he looked extremely pale.
Her eyes caught a site of the puncture wound inflicted by the basilisk. Her eyes widened as she began to realise Harry had been injured. "Harry, you're hurt!" Ginny almost yelled from fright. Harry quickly covered up his puncture wound with his hand "Dont worry about me Ginny I am fine." He said as he stood up attempting to hide the pain and the dizziness that was engulfing him. Ginny noticed Harry struggling to stand but then realized that she was being silly, this is Harry Potter of course he would be fine. He is the boy who lived after all, nothing can hurt him.
Ginny smiled at Harry and went over to him and hugged him, which caused Harry to wince, but this went unnoticed by Ginny. "C'mon let's get out of here, Ron is here too. He should have cleared us a path to make it back through. Ginny blushed madly as Harry wrapped his arm around her waist. I can't believe Harry Potter is holding me right now, he must really want to protect me. she thought to herself as they began to walk back down the long damp stone path. The sounds of their footsteps echoing throughout the chamber. She was a little obsessed with the story of Harry Potter, in fact it was her favorite bedtime story that her mother read to her. Then when she had met Harry truly for the first time at the Burrow, for she didn't count the platform for she didn't know it was him, She saw just how attractive he was. She was never able to actually speak to Harry for whenever he started talking to her she always got so nervous that she would blush, stutter, and usually always embarrass herself by knocking something over. Ginny felt protected by Harry, like she would be safe as long as she was in contact with him. While Harry was holding her she could forget all of her problems and just enjoy being held by the boy who lived.
Harry wrapped his arm around Ginny, I hope she doesn't realise that I'm holding her right now because I can no longer stand on my own. Harry thought to himself grimly. The venom was infecting his body and the more it spread the worse he felt. "Let's get out of here" he told Ginny as he began to walk with her support. Harry's vision was failing him, he could only see a few feet in front of him at this point and his limbs felt like they might collapse under his weight at any second now. What kind of rescue is this? Harry thought to himself as he continued holding onto Ginny for support. Im supposed to be rescuing her but in the end i couldn't even make it out without having to rely on someone else just like always, i really can't do anything by myself can i? Harry thought to himself bitterly as he remembered everything his friends had sacrificed so he could confront Voldomort last year.
Harry and Ginny slowly made their way towards Ron who had successfully made a path through the collapsed rubble for them to escape through and was now babysitting Lockhart while waiting for them. When Ron heard some sounds coming from the other side he pulled out his wand and went over to investigate. When he reached the collapsed area he saw Harry and Ginny climbing their way through the hole he had made. "Ginny! Thank Merlin you are safe!" Ron said as soon as Ginny made it through the entrance and was then met with a giant bear hug from Ron. Ron then started looking over Ginny to make sure she wasn't hurt in any way.
Neither of them seemed to notice Harry stumbling his way through the entrance in the rubble and out to the other side where he sat down for his head was spinning. I can't let them find out I'm hurt, I can't look weak. Harry thought to himself as he waited for the room to stop spinning around him.
"Hello there, say do these people live here?" Lockheart asked without a care in the world. Ginny then looked at Lockhart with confusion "What's wrong with professor Lockheart?" Ginny asked. "The git got hit by his own memory charm." said Ron not even trying to hide the annoyance in his voice. Ron was about to tell Ginny all about what happened and how he, Hermaione, and Harry figured out what happened and how Harry led the way but before he could get started he was interrupted by Harry. "Ron let's talk about all of this later, first things first we need to get Ginny and Lockheart out of here." said Harry and he stood back up trying his best to look like he was doing fine.
"Have you figured out a way out of here yet Ron?" Harry asked. "Funny you mention that because that slide we went down, a little while after you left the slide turned into a staircase back up." said Ron. "Well I guess that makes sense, no point in making a secret chamber and not having a way to get back out." Harry said.
Harry dreaded having to walk up all those stairs to get out, his vision was going in and out of focus and his limbs were in severe pain as he, Ron, Lockheart, and Ginny began to make the ascent out of the chamber. It took everything Harry had in him to climb up those stairs with everyone else. As the four of them made their way back into the bathroom entrance Ron looked over at Harry. "Hey mate I'm going to go with Lockheart back to Dumbledore's office and explain to him what happened. I will also have him Floo my family to get them all down here, can you take one more look at Ginny to make sure she is alright?" Ron asked. "Of course mate, no problem" Harry said. To be honest with himself Harry was relieved that Ron had suggested that for he wasn't sure he would be able to make it all the way to Dumbledore's office without taking a break.
As Ron and Lockheart exited the bathroom Harry looked over at Ginny. "Why don't we rest for a minute, I'm sure you would like a moment to calm down after all that you've been through." Harry hoped that she bought his excuse for wanting to rest. Harry Potter truly is amazing, after all he went through to get me back and keep me safe he still is only concerned for me. Ginny thought to herself blushing as she sat down next to Harry. He was relieved that she decided to take a break as well. Harry knew that he needed to get to the hospital wing to have madam Pomfrey heal him, he just needed to make it without letting Ginny or anyone else know what he was doing.
