A few seconds of loud crashes later, Samantha was staring at a wall made of broken stone and rocks. She glanced around her, noticing Harry was there as well. A few seconds later and she registered the cursing coming from the other side of the wall was Max.
"What's going on?" she called through the barricade. "What happened to Max?"
"He got hit with one of the rocks," Ron said.
Samantha whispered a swear of her own. "Is he alright?" she asked.
"I think my leg is broken," Max said, and Samantha could hear the pain in his voice.
"Shit, are you going to be okay?" said Samantha, hoping Lockhart was in some way incapable of doing whatever spell he had done to remove Harry's bones on Max.
"I'll- I'll be fine," Max replied.
"What about Lockhart?" Harry asked. "What happened to him?"
"He got blasted with the spell," Ron answered, a touch of distaste in his voice.
"Serves him right," Samantha muttered. She then sighed, thinking of the situation they were in.
"What now?" asked Ron. "This looks as if it'll take ages to get through."
Samantha and Harry both looked at the ceiling, which had large cracks spreading over it. The siblings then glanced at each other, both knowing trying to blast the rocks apart with magic would be hard and possibly dangerous.
"We need to get to Lauren," Samantha whispered, almost hoping the others couldn't hear her.
Harry nodded, glaning behind him at the tunnel leading deeper into the Chamber. "Wait there," Harry instructed Ron, Max, and Lockhart. "Samantha and I will… we'll go on. If we're not back in an hour…"
There was a long pause. Samantha bit on her lip. She didn't want to leave them, especially Max, but she had to get to her sister. Max was safe there, she reminded herself. The basilisk would be on the other side of the rock wall that Harry and herself were on, and it couldn't get to any of them. Lauren was in a much deadlier spot, and therefore more urgent to get to.
"I'll try to shift some of the rock," said Ron, his voice wavering a bit. "So you can- can get back through, after…"
"We'll see you later," Samantha said, hoping no one could hear the fear in her voice as well as she could. She turned and was about to take a step when she was stopped.
"Samantha?" Max said. "I just… I love you."
"I love you too," Samantha responded. Her voice was quiet, but Max could hear it. "I'll see you soon."
"Be safe," Max told her.
Samantha took a deep breath, hoping that was all the mental preparation she would need before venturing farther into the Chamber. "Are you ready?" she asked Harry, a sense of determination on her eyes.
Harry nodded wordlessly. His jaw was clenched as he looked forward to the continuing hallway of the Chamber of Secrets. "Let's go," he told Samantha, and the pair set off for the hallway.
It took what felt like hundreds of turns, and seemed to go on without an end. Samantha knew she and Harry were feeling the same wish for the end, but dread of what would be there.
As all things have to, however, it did end, and with a solid wall. Carved into the wall was an intricate design of two intertwined snakes looking straight ahead, their eyes made from green emeralds.
Samantha shivered as she looked at them, feeling as if they could read into her somehow. She then looked at Harry,who had an unmistakable determination clearly displayed in his green eyes.
She then heard the familiar Parseltongue come out of his mouth, the strange, low hiss that was so very clearly not English.
At that, the stone-carved serpents separated, each side sliding smoothly away from sight to reveal an entryway to a dim chamber that stretched farther than Samantha could see. Samantha felt herself gasp at the sight of the tall, stone snake statues that were on either side of her. Without daring to utter even a word to each other, she and Harry walked inside, their footsteps echoing around the deadly silent room. Samantha didn't need any sort of confirmation or special powers to be certain that she and Harry were both hyper alert for a giant snake to come bursting out of the depths of the room at any moment by the jerky turns they both took every so often to glance at a snake statue they thought was moving.
The pair continued down the length of the Chamber, wondering where their sister was. Soon enough, the back wall was revealed, and an uneasy feeling took over Samantha's body. It was an extremely large statue of a wizard, with a long, thin beard and sweeping robes. When Samantha looked at the huge stone feet, she let out a breath of relief she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
At the base of the statue was Lauren, her dark red hair sprawled out, her body displayed as if she had been carelessly tossed there. Samantha and Harry rushed over, kneeling next to the body of their sister.
"Lauren," Samantha muttered, brushing some hair off of her sister's face.
"Please don't be- don't be dead, Lauren," Harry begged, flipping Lauren completely onto her back.
"Her eyes are closed, she wasn't Petrified," Samantha pointed out, a sinking feeling coming to her stomach. Lauren's face was pale and cold from the floor it had been pressed against. At least, that was what Samantha wanted to believe.
"Lauren, please wake up," Harry said, shaking her and letting her head bob from side to side.
"She won't wake," said a soft voice.
Samantha nearly yelled, but she managed to keep that down. In place of that, she and Harry whirled around, Samantha holding her wand at the direction the voice had come from defensively just in case.
Inside the Chamber with them was a teenage boy leaning against a pillar, looking a few years older than Samantha. His dark brown hair, which had a slight wave to it, was brushed to the left, and his face was objectively very handsome, every bone carved to perfection. The edges of his body were slightly blurry, which Samantha found very strange.
"Tom- Tom Riddle?" Harry asked.
"That's Tom Riddle?" Samantha said in disbelief, looking at the boy. Tom Riddle, the boy who had attended Hogwarts fifty years ago was back, still a teenager, was standing in front of her. The same one who had turned Hagrid in, the same one who had won an award for special services to the school way back when the Chamber of Secrets was last opened.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not- she's not-?"
"She's still alive," said Tom. "But only just."
Samantha felt a subtle wave of relief splash over her, but she also knew something bigger was up. She didn't know what it was, but without a doubt, something bad was going to happen. She could feel it in her bones.
"Are you a ghost?" Harry asked Tom Riddle.
"A memory," said Tom quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years." He pointed at the diary that lay a few feet from Lauren near the base of the statue. Samantha hadn't noticed it at first, but now she wondered how it had gotten there and who had taken it from Harry in the first place.
"You've got to help us, Tom," Harry told the teenager. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk… I don't know where it is, but it could be along at any moment… Please help us."
Tom Riddle didn't move. Something was really wrong, and Samantha knew it. But she didn't know how to tip Harry off without raising suspicion from Tom. So instead, she picked Lauren up off of the ground, her limp body draped over Samantha's arms bridal style.
"Did you see-?" Harry began, and then stopped short. Samantha looked up, seeing Harry's want being twirled around by Tom's long, pale fingers. "Thanks," he said, reaching out for his wand, but Tom kept it just out of his reach, a smile growing on his handsome face.
"Harry," Samantha said softly, unsure of what to make of the current events. All she knew was that she had her wand in her hand and Lauren in her arms and they all needed to get out of there as quickly as possible.
"Listen," Harry told Riddle, his tone ranging on the dangerous zone. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes-"
"It won't come until it's called," Tom said calmly.
"Harry, let's go," Samantha said, a dull ache growing in her arms from holding Lauren up and uneasiness rising in her stomach.
"I need my wand," Harry protested, reaching his arm out to try and grab it while Tom kept it further out of reach.
"No, you won't be needing it," Tom told Harry coolly, his smile broadening.
"What d'you mean, I won't be-?"
"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle. "For a chance to see you. To speak to you."
"Look," Harry said, sounding impatient. "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later-"
"We're going to talk now," said Riddle, his smile as wide as ever as he placed Harry's wand in his pocket.
Samantha wasn't sure whether she should take Lauren back to the others and see if something could be figured out there, or stay here with her brother and this stranger who was giving her very eerie vibes. "Something's not right, Harry," Samantha said, eyeing Tom suspiciously.
Harry looked at his sisters and swallowed nervously. "How did Lauren get like that?" he asked Tom.
"Well, that's an interesting question," Tom said, his tone suddenly light but his eyes hard as he stared down Samantha. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Lauren Potter's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
Samantha felt her heart drop. "She did what?" she asked, the same time as Harry said, "What are you talking about?"
"The diary," said Tom. "My diary. Little Lauren here's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes- how she has incredible siblings who do incredible things and she's afraid she won't live up to them. How she misses her parents that she never knew. How every time she touches something-" Riddle paused for a moment, looking at the gloves Lauren had pulled over her hands "-she sees it for what it is, and not what it puts out into the world."
Samantha shivered, looking down at the peaceful face of her sister. She wished she had told Lauren to talk to her, made her feel as though she was valid, so this never would have happened. And Samantha made a promise, a vow, to herself that she would never let her get that same disconnect from Lauren ever again. She would never let things get to that point again, and especially wanted to avoid the relationship her mother and Petunia had had.
"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," Tom continued. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Lauren 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…"
Tom's laugh was as cold as ice, and didn't seem to fit the handsome boy whose body it came from. Samantha clenched her jaw, glaring at him.
"If I say it myself, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Lauren poured her soul out to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted… I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Potter. Powerful enough to start feeding her a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her…"
A sick feeling began growing at the back of Samantha's throat as her mind started piecing together as many parts of the puzzle as she had. It was far from complete, however, and she knew it.
She shifted Lauren in her arms, switching her body to the position one might carry a toddler in. "What did you do to my sister?" Samantha demanded, stepping one time closer to Tom.
Tom scoffed, eyeing the Potter girls with distaste. "Your sister told me you were smart. I thought maybe you would have figured it out sooner," he told Samantha.
"What happened?" Harry asked, his tone harsh and accusing as he stared Riddle down.
Tom Riddle smirked nastily. "Lauren Potter opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed the threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on five Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."
"No," Harry whispered.
"Yes," said Tom 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, "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 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, 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 everyone, Tom!"
Samantha could see Harry's fists clenched, and she tightened her grip on her sister. Her mind ran over the events of the school year. Ginny had to have known, which must have been why she was arguing with Lauren… and why Sarah had fallen away, because Tom was trying to isolate Lauren…
"It took longer than I would have thought for Lauren to stop trusting the diary," Tom continued. "She never touched it with her bare skin, you see. She didn't touch anything with her bare skin. But she didn't need to, because she started to figure it out and tried to dispose of it. And that's where the two of you come in. Mainly Harry, of course. I couldn't have been more delighted when you found it. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet…"
"And why did you want to meet me?" said Harry, sounding and looking angry.
"Well, you see, Lauren told me all about her family," said Tom. "Specifically her two older siblings, and the little she knew of your fascinating history, Harry." Samantha saw him lock his gaze on the scar on Harry's forehead. "I knew I must find out more about you, 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 our friend," Harry cut in, his voice shaking from rage. "And you framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but-"
Tom laughed again, making Samantha uneasy. "It was my word against Hagrid's. And you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On 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 trolls… but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance… as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!
"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train his as a gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed… Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did…"
"I bet Dumbedore saw right through you," Harry said, and Samantha could see his teeth were gritted.
"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Tom carelessly, rolling his eyes. "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 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," Harry pointed out.
"Harry, no-" Samantha said, slightly afraid of what would happen if he provoked Tom.
"Quiet, Samantha," Harry told her. "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 all right again-"
"Haven't I already told you," Riddle began quietly, "that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been you. So you can imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Lauren 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 of her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling the roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Lauren had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery- particularly if someone close to you was attacked. And Lauren had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue…
"So I made Lauren write her own 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.
Samantha sighed, wishing they could stop with the chatter and get out of there, leaving the diary to hopefully never be seen again. On the other hand, she didn't know what would happen to Lauren if they left, or what to do to get her back to her original self.
"Well," Tom said, a cold smile spreading across his face. "How is it that you, an average 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?"
Samantha glanced at the floor, thinking about what had just been said. Tom had called Voldemort by his name. She'd never heard anyone but Dumbledore, herself, and Harry do that. He'd also referred to him as the greatest wizard of all time, despite Voldemort having come after Tom's time. Obviously, something was missing from the story.
"Why do you care how I escaped?" Harry said slowly. "Voldemort was after your time…"
Samantha gasped, her mind coming to a startling realization. She nearly dropped Lauren from the shock. "No," she whispered, her eyes wide and the air from her lungs knocked out of her. "You're not… you can't be…"
Something in Tom's eye glistened. "Voldemort is my past, present, and future," Tom said softly. He took the wand he had stolen from Harry out of his pocket and drew the name Tom Marvolo Riddle in the air. He then flicked the wand once, and the letters rearranged to spell I Am Lord Voldemort.
"You see?" Tom asked in a whisper. "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, 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!"
"You're not," Harry whispered after a moment of quick silence.
"Not what?" Tom asked smugly.
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry. "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 to take over Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days."
Tom's face was now full of rage, and although Samantha felt a twinge of fear at that, she also felt ready to fight. She wanted to fight.
"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me," To hissed.
"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted.
Tom opened his mouth to respond, but he never said anything. Instead, they began to hear music playing from far away, growing louder by the moment. It was a strange sound, making Samantha feel tingly and strange. The music grew to a nearly unbearable pitch before a burst of flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.
A large crimson bird appeared as the source of the mysterious music. In its golden talons was a lumpy bundle that piqued Samantha's curiosity. The bird began to fly down, dropping the parcel it was carrying at Harry's feet and landing on his shoulder.
Samantha gasped, seeing the bird up close. "It's Fawkes," she said, her eyes wide.
"That's a phoenix…" Tom said. "And that…" he eyed the lump on the ground, "is the old school Sorting Hat." He began to laugh once more. "This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do the two of you feel brave? Do you feel safe now?"
Samantha scoffed, adopting the cold personality Tom Riddle harbored. "We're braver than you'll ever be," she told him.
Tom shot her a nasty glare. "You can't possibly think that. I assembled one of the greatest armies of all time. My name is feared by everyone-"
"Being feared doesn't mean you're brave. You were sorted into Slytherin, the house of the determined and cunning. That's not a bad thing. We'd be nowhere if not for determination. But there's a reason you weren't sorted into Gryffindor. They have determination as well, but achieve things through bravery. Slytherins trick their way to the top," Samantha said. She didn't know exactly what she was saying or how much was true, but she wanted to see how she could weaken Riddle.
"Gryffindors are foolish blood traitors," Tom responded. "They value things that get you nowhere in life, like love." His teeth were gritted as he said that, like there was some bad memory he was reminded of while saying that.
"Love was what saved us in the first place," Harry said. "No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me. I don't know myself. But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. And she saved all of us. Our common, Muggle-born mother," he said spitefully. "She stopped you from killing me. And your powers were stripped and you couldn't kill any of us. I saw the real you, I saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul-"
Tom looked outraged, but forced his face into a demented smile. "So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful counter-charm. I can see now… there is nothing special about you after all. I wondered, you see. Because there are strange likenesses between us, Harry Potter. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike…. But after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me."
Tom paused for a moment, and Samantha saw Harry stare intently at the wand in Riddle's hand.
"Now, Harry and Samantha, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against the famous Harry Potter, his sister, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give them…"
Tom then walked away, heading to stand at the base of the statue of Salazar Slytherin. He looked up at the head, which was nearly impossible to see, and opened his mouth to speak. Samantha heard the hissing that she knew was Parselmouth. She couldn't understand what he was saying, but knew he must be summoning the basilisk.
Slytherin's stone face was moving, his mouth growing into a wide, black tunnel. And with horror, Samantha realized there was something coming from inside, something slithering its way up and out. Her breathing growing shallow, she backed away with Harry before she set Lauren carefully on the floor next to the wall, pushing her hair over her eyes so if by some miracle she did wake up, she wouldn't be able to see. And then, Samantha prepared herself as best she could to face the deadly snake, her wand gripped tightly in her hand.
Hey guys! Going to split the battle in the Chamber into two parts otherwise it'll be too long. Not sure yet when the other one will be up, but it shouldn't be too long. I hope your year has started off great, and if not, it's only a few days in, so there's still hope.