In the last chapter: Harry discovers what the diary actually does and begins conversing with Tom. Anthony and Draco find out about Harry's animagus form. Ginny steels the diary back. Harry finds the final message in blood on the wall saying that Ginny's body would remain in the chamber forever.


HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER

The words cut into Harry's tangled thoughts and emancipated from his mind the only words that seemed appropriate.

"God damn it, Tom!" His voice echoed through the silent hall, indignant and tired.

A cold, wet blanket draped over Harry's mind as he settled his anger started seeking the solution.

Where's the Chamber? Harry projected, still standing in front of the wall, but not caring if someone were to see him.

'You know where it is. . .'

Harry huffed in frustration.

Damn it! This isn't the time for any games or riddles, a young girl could die. Harry tried to reason, hoping that the stakes of the situation might pry an easier answer out of his old friend.

'Nonsense! There is always time for games. At least, for you and I. As for the girl, why do you care? You know what lies for her beyond this world, you know it is better than this place.' Despite his words, Harry knew that his companion was not so flippant about snuffing out a life, so Harry didn't feel the need to lie in order to get his help.

You're right, having seen it myself, I can't say that dying holds much fear or grievance for me, were she an adult, had she lived a full life, I might not have stepped in so hastily. But she is still a child, she has not yet lived and if I can do something to save her I will, because death does not just affect us, it affects everyone around us, as well. And if that is not enough for you, then consider the repercussions of whatever that Horcrux has planned for her. If there is anything I have learned about soul magic over these past few years, it is that taking a life and magic always have incredible outcomes—either very good, or very bad—and the very good is all too rare.

There was a long silence afterward, and Harry wasn't sure what that meant for him. For Ginny.

Finally, Death spoke, a chilling and bone rattling baritone that tickled the hairs on the back of Harry's neck in a phantom breath.

'This is the same exact place that the girl wrote the other message.' Death said with significance.

Knowing that there was something Harry was supposed to have gotten from that, Harry looked around. He was right, of course, this was the exact same place that the other message had been left. The other message, which said that the chamber had been opened.

It's here? The opening to the chamber is here? Harry frowned at the wall, looking for any sort of sign that it was anything more than just a stone wall.

'Yes, very good. Now think, that girl somehow gets into the chamber with the diary's help and then gets the Basilisk out to attack students. How would such a creature move unnoticed through these halls?'

. . . Moving around unseen? Harry knew that there was no way it could have been placed under and concealment charms. Even if completely invisible, a full grown basilisk would be too large to not make noise or run into other students and staff along the way. Wait. . . Suddenly, the scene of that first message bloomed in Harry's mind like the spreading of ink in crystalline water.

The chickens. The blood. The petrified Mrs. Norris. The whispering in the walls. The warning. The flooded bathroom!

Harry spun around to face the abandoned girl's bathroom. It wasn't flooded this time, but Harry had already caught on.

The pipes! Of course! You said that the Chamber was hidden somewhere under the school, and if there's anything under the dungeons, it would have to be some sort of sewer or pipe system. If the Basilisk has access to the school's pipes, it could—theoretically—go anywhere in the school connected by some kind of pipe big enough.

The darkened bathroom was lit only by hazy shadowed light coming through the windows from the cloud-cloaked moon. The infamous Moaning Myrtle was missing, as she had been the night that Ginny had written on the walls in blood. Harry looked around the room for anything that might not fit. Tom had somehow found the chamber on his own while he was at Hogwarts, so he should find it much faster with help.

'Yes, but he didn't find it until his fifth year, you see.' Death interjected unhelpfully.

Death chuckled, the rattling of bones and cool, bitter brush of his amusement fazing into reality for a moment before he pulled back into the comfort of the veil.

'Salazar was a parselmouth, as was Tom, and as is you. The entrance to the chamber will opento you if only you'd ask it to.' Death finally relented and Harry found his agitation smoothing down for the moment.

Taking his tricky words to be literal, Harry spoke in parseltongue to the room at large.

"Open."

Harry was startled when there was a loud rumble of shifting stone right beside where he stood next to the sinks. He stepped back and watched as the sinks separated and spread out to create eight white marble pillars around the gaping black hole that seemed to be the entrance into the chamber of secrets. With the safety of the young girl currently down there on his mind, Harry didn't waste time with hesitation, just stepped off of the edge and slipped silently through the air for a moment before the slight curving of the pipe had the metallic wall slotting in under Harry.

As the angle of the slope increased, Harry's descent slowed until he was sliding and tumbling out of the end of the tunnel and into a room of sorts. It was graceless and rather painful, but Harry didn't have the time or mind to feel embarrassed.

Climbing to his feet, Harry quickly cast a lumos and took in his surroundings. The empty chamber was shrouded in thick blankets of dust and decorated in dried and brittle little bones of many rodents and small creatures who had perished in the cold dark antechamber.

As Harry moved forward over the carpet of waste and decay, his lumos reflected off of murky panels a short distance away. When he stepped close enough, Harry could see how the panels connected into a desiccated husk long enough to encircle the entire perimeter of the large room and still have overlap. This must be the shed skin of the Basilisk, Harry thought apprehensively. The likelihood of him coming face to face with the creature was high, but it was not time for fear or hesitance, so Harry barely paused at the skin before climbing over to the large corridor beyond.

At the end of the long passage was a circular steel door, much like the door of a vault, with steel snakes as thick as Harry's arm locking the door in place. Taking another chance, Harry spoke in parseltongue once again.

"Open!"The deep sounds of heavy metal mechanisms working within resonated in the hall and the solid steel snakes took on a life of their own, pulling back from the frame. When it was done, Harry slid through the small opening in the door he managed to make with it being so heavy.

The Chamber of Secrets was massive. A cavernous room that stretched further and higher than the great hall. The chamber was half flooded, leaving the enormous stone snake heads to appear to be emerging from the dark waters with bared fangs in order to bite. The wet stone under foot muddled the sound of Harry's steps as he began walking down the elevated floor.

Even from a distance, Harry made out the sight of Ginny lying unconscious on the ground at the other end of the chamber, a figure of dark robes and pale skin leaning over her could only be Tom. He didn't look up, but Harry knew he'd been noticed. As Harry moved more into the large cavern at the end of the chamber, he briefly took in the enormous statue behind Tom of an imposing figure that might possibly be Slytherin himself.

"You shouldn't have come, Harry." The smooth timbre of Tom's voice was almost as alarming as his handsome and young features, not to mention the Hogwarts school robes he wore. Tom's dark eyes met Harry's and for a moment, they seemed regretful or guilty, but Tom looked back down at Ginny as he slowly rose, the expression ceasing.

"What are you doing Tom? Why is she like this?" Harry's voice was even and calm, but had hardened as much as his gaze. Anger marred Tom's smooth face and he met Harry's stare with resolve.

"You wouldn't understand, Harry! Fifty years! Fifty years spent living as a memory in that blasted diary. Trapped and silenced for half a century and then I finally make contact with someone only to find out that the one I became failed! Lost to a mere babe." Tom hissed with roiling fury, though at the very end, he glanced away from Harry. "The girl didn't know many details of that night, but oh did she have much to say about the boy who lived! Once I realized what had happened to the rest of me, I knew I would have to take things into my own hands. I can't do anything without a body, which is why I need her. . ."

Harry looked down at Ginny as well. She looked so pale and still, if not for the slight movement of her ribs, Harry might have thought she was already dead. Focusing his attention back on Tom, Harry spoke.

"I can't let you kill her, Tom. Acquiring a body like this . . . it will not give you what you want. Your power will be average at best, forming a body around half a soul will leave you heavily deformed and impaired. You will surely lose your mind and—"

"Enough!" The roar of anger was followed by a few hissed words in parseltongue, spoken too fast and too quietly for Harry to understand. Then Harry's attention was captured by the stone head behind Tom when it's mouth opened wide and the dark scaled head of a Basilisk slid out. Harry made sure not to look it in the eye and instead looked at Tom's hardened expression.

"I cannot have you stopping me, Harry. I suggest you run." Tom warned as the Basilisk slid completely out of Slytherin's mouth and rose up high above their heads, waiting impatiently for a command from its master. "Keep him away, but do not kill him." Tom hissed over his shoulder to the snake. Not a second later, the Basilisk lunged and Harry had to jump back to avoid the sharp dripping fangs the size of his forearm.

The Basilisk worked quickly, moving Harry back out of the end cavern and into the long hall of sorts, plunging and striking. Despite Tom's orders not to kill, Harry could tell that the starved beast was frenzied and trying it's hardest to sink its teeth into Harry. Harry threw spells and curses at the creature, but most bounced off of the armored scales known to the wizarding world for their magical resilience.

Harry tried commanding the snake in parseltongue, but that didn't fool the beast, it would only obey a true descendant of Slytherin. He tried to stay level headed, as he had been trained, but practice and real-life monsters were very different situations, so Harry began to desperately fling spells at it that he knew would keep it back, but not enough to do any damage.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Tom kneel beside Ginny once again and point a wand at her prone form.

"NO!" Harry shouted just in time to break Tom's attention from whatever spell he was about to cast. Unfortunately, that also meant that Harry couldn't protect himself against the crushing jaws that wrapped around his abdomen and plunged at least a dozen fangs through his unprotected flesh. Harry's eyes were still locked on Tom's as pain lanced through his entire body as well as the venom. Harry saw the moment Tom had seen the advancing snake behind him, could recall the instantaneous horror and arm that reached out as if to do something.

Harry didn't hear Tom speak, but suddenly the teeth were leaving his body and he crumpled to the ground, the holes left in him having cut his marionette strings. The shock had placed Harry in a numb and thick trance, making it impossible to fully comprehend or react. But that trance was broken when his vision was filled with pale smooth skin and wide dark eyes. Harry's gaze traced languidly over the perfectly combed wave of dark hair just before the pain really crashed over him and Harry sucked in a surprised breath. Harry's view point was shifted slightly when an arm slid underneath his shoulders and pulled his upper body half onto a lap.

". . . this wasn't supposed to happen! I didn't—I. . ." The soft voice calmed Harry enough to gain back half his mind and process the situation. The Basilisk had bit him. Either he'd bleed out, or the venom would get to him first. Ginny was still alive, for the time being. That last part had Harry refocusing on Tom, he needed to convince him somehow to spare her.

When Harry's lips parted, they were already wet and slightly sticky, but the movement snatched Tom's gaze away from the probably ravaged and grotesque state of his abdomen at this point.

"Please, Tom . . . don't—hurt her. Your other- . . . -self is still alive. He's coming for you. . ." Forcing his mouth to produce words was like forcing a caterpillar to go through metamorphosis, but Harry did it anyways. His words barely reached a whisper, but Tom seemed to understand him if the confusion and pain in his expression was anything to go by.

A heady fogy settled over Harry's mind as the energy seemed to seep out of him and pool warmly on the floor and strong leg beneath him. The familiar sensation of slowly being peeled back from one's physical body set in and Harry knew he didn't have much time, but the venom and blood loss were not aiding in his coherency.

Suddenly, the low humming that Harry thought was his blood rushing past his ears raised in volume and Harry recognized the sound almost intimately. The thrumming call that flourished into haunting notes that he had heard that quiet and solemn night in his room at Grimmauld Place. The enchanting, mournful sirens call that had left Harry feeling a helpless sorrow. For what? He didn't know.

Hearing it now, as Death came to claim him for not the first, nor the last time, Harry didn't know what to make of it.

The cold leaching his body was momentarily chased away when the temporary physical form of Tom curled over him and his face pressed hard against his shoulder while clenching fingers dug painlessly into his arm and side. The position put Tom's ear so close that Harry found himself taking advantage of it to unburden the last thoughts flitting through his head.

"Can you hear it? Tom? I wonder . . . do all souls sing as they die, or is it just mine?" The words were barely even formed thoughts before they slid out between tacky lips, but they seemed to mean much more than Harry realized, because as the sensation was just beginning to leave his limbs and his mind drifting back into the veil, the arms around him tightened in a way that would have been painful otherwise.

"Be good, Tom." Those were the last words Harry managed before he plunged through the veil and into the afterlife.

When Harry reemerged on the ethereal plane, he was not in a sun-lit meadow, like last time. This time, he was standing in the middle of an empty road with sky scrapers all around him, stabbing up from the concrete plane. So tall and close together that they blocked out the sun, foggy clouds drifting through the tops and hiding them from view, confusing the light and making it hard to tell if it were day or night. The surreal stillness of the empty cityscape washing Harry over in rocking tides.

"Is it going to be different every time?" Harry asked into the empty air, his voice being swallowed up by the immensity of the buildings around him.

"Most likely. If everyone's experience of the afterlife was the same, then that would be awfully boring." Death answered from behind Harry. Harry turned to look at his frightening friend.

"I should probably go back now." Harry sighed at the memory of the scene he'd left. "I just hope I'm not returning to find a body."

Harry took one last look at the abandoned city around him, then at Death. Flashing a brief half-smile at his deathly company, Harry tilted back and began to free fall, punching a hole right through the veil and plummeting back into his healed body.

With a sudden intake in breath, Harry's eyes flicked open and he sat up. After a moment to collect himself, Harry looked over to his right to find Ginny . . . sitting up and looking at him. Harry blinked twice. Then he commissioned his mouth back into use.

"Ginny? Are you alright?" He inquired softly, voice slightly scratchy. As he spoke, Harry scanned the now-quiet chamber to make sure they were no longer in immediate danger, but the girl being awake and alive was a good sign. The Basilisk was nowhere to be seen and the diary remained intact and inanimate a few feet from Ginny.

Ginny sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and nodded jerkily, but not a moment later, her eyes glistened and Harry quickly crossed the distance to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Before he could ask, words were pouring out of the girl's mouth in a quick succession.

"Oh good Morgana, I'm such a fool!" She exclaimed in a muted, defeated voice. Glancing over at the discarded diary, Harry saw the dark clouds of thought drifting over her mind before she spoke again, a self-deprecating smile tugging at her lips bitterly.

"You know . . . at first I thought it was just silly. That I might have forgotten putting it in my cauldron or one of my brothers slipped it in as a prank. Once I discovered that it could actually write back to me, I thought it might be charmed to be a sort of secret pen-pal that wouldn't ever tell my secrets to anybody. Growing up in a house with six older brothers, I didn't really have anyone to talk to, so I figured 'what's the harm in spilling everything to a dairy? Especially one that doesn't actually record anything I write.'

"It wasn't until platform 9 ¾ that I realized something wasn't right. Ever since I knew what Hogwarts was I've been thrilled to come here, to learn magic like all of my brothers before me. I could hardly get a full-night's sleep all summer because I was so excited. But . . . standing in the compartment of the Hogwarts Express, looking out at my mum and dad as they waved at me from the platform . . . I felt nothing. There was no excitement or relief, just a feeling of inconvenience, of wishing it was over already. That was wrong, and I knew it, yet I didn't connect that it had anything to do with the diary at that point." Ginny looked back over at Harry, her bright brown eyes shining with unshed tears.

"An then again, two weeks into the term, I ran into George and it felt . . . strained. I realized that I hadn't talked to any of my brothers since I had gotten the diary. I didn't even know! But by then it was too late, I couldn't get through the day without writing in the diary, else my stomach would churn and thoughts were relentless. After a while, I started losing little bits of time—just a few moments during class or meals, nothing I would take much notice of. Then, the blackouts grew longer, I'd be walking to my last class one minute, and then the next I'd already be on my way back to the dorms, having finished my day. Also, Tom started asking me questions, questions I would have thought suspicious or been wary of answering, but every time he asked, I instantly answered, as if compelled. They were . . ." Ginny skidded to a stop and flicked her gaze away and back at Harry worriedly.

"It's okay Ginny, whatever it is, it's okay to tell me, you can trust me." Holding her gaze solidly for several moments seemed to calm the redhead. Taking a deep breath, she reasserted herself and continued on.

"They were questions about you, and about . . . Voldemort." The name stuttered off of her tongue, the forbidden name still such a taboo in and of itself. Still, the youngest Weasley soldiered on.

"When I realized just who Tom was, I was so terrified. That very night, I tried to get rid of the diary, since I knew I would be punished if anyone found out what I'd done and who I was helping. Tom had something planned for that night, had used me to prepare and I knew I had to act fast so I tried to flush it down a toilet in the abandoned girl's bathroom, but it ended up flooding it instead. After that was a haze. I still remember bits and pieces, I remember writing on the wall, but not what came after." Her breath began to come in a little shakily, but a slight squeeze of Harry's hand on her shoulder brought her back down enough to go on.

"When the diary disappeared, I knew it wasn't over, I knew it had been taken, since Tom wasn't done with me just yet. At first I thought Dumbledore had it and at any moment I would be dragged away by Aurors. When I realized you had taken it, I almost thought Tom had done it on purpose, to finally meet the one he'd been asking about, but I could still feel his compulsion. I felt an overwhelming need to get the diary back and continue what we were doing. At least, at first I'd thought that it was the magic making me steal the diary back, but afterward, I understood that it my own selfishness. I knew what he was and that he was using me, yet I still craved his attention, his companionship!

"Even now, after everything, I want to protect him! Does that make me a bad person?" The question caught Harry off guard, even worse, sluggish tears stripped down her pale cheeks and gathered at the very dip of her chin before dropping into her hair. Harry allowed his instincts to guide him through the motions of comforting as he reached forward and grasped the sides of Ginny's small child-like face to make sure she took in the weight of whatever he was about to say.

"No, Ginny, it doesn't make you a bad person. We don't always get a say in who comes into our lives or when they'll leave, most of the time it's not people or times that are convenient for us. First friends . . . well, they're important to us and it's very hard to let that go. Just because of something that wasn't in your control, that shouldn't mean that you have to make yourself hate your first friend, that is something you should be able to hold onto. Though, you should know that you and him can't talk again. It's dangerous, Ginny, he tried to hurt you. All of those years spent in that diary, unable to speak to anyone, it has made his mind unwell and I cannot allow him to hurt you." Harry tried to explain, not wanting to upset the young girl. Despite, her eyes widened with dread.

Ginny grabbed both of Harry's wrists in her small bone-white hands and gripped tight.

"You mustn't give it to Dumbledore! He'll kill him! Tom told me so himself." Her voice lowered to a whisper in panic and her little fists squeezed.

"I know, you don't have to worry, I'll be taking the diary with me to the Black ancestral home. The wards there are strong enough to block against tracing or detection spells and the diary doesn't affect me." Harry soothed, easing the fingers through around his wrists and instead taking her hands. Ginny looked puzzled, yet hopeful.

"It doesn't?"

"No, I can feel it whenever it tries to wrap its magic around me, so I'm able to stop it. As for Dumbledore, like you said, he'll want to either destroy the diary or use it to draw Voldemort out, which would be even more dangerous than the incident last year where three students—including your brother—were almost seriously hurt, or even killed by the trap Dumbledore set up for him. So he can't know it's still intact." Harry paused to think through a quick plan on what to tell Dumbledore. It was quite simple, actually.

"Alright, so we're going to have to lie a little, but most of that will be on my part, since you were unconscious through the whole thing. You tell him almost the complete truth; that you were possessed by the diary and scared to tell anyone about it because you didn't want to get in trouble, you say that you blacked out and when you woke up, you were in the chamber of secrets, the diary was gone and the Basilisk dead. Now, Dumbledore is a powerful legilimense so be sure to act shaken up and not meet his eyes directly so that he won't be able to get into your head. If you have to, look at the spot just between his eyebrows, it simulates eye contact without it actually being made, he won't be able to get anything. That's all you have to worry about, I will take care of the rest of the story, the less you know the easier it is." Ginny nodded along, a fierce look of determination on her face that Harry had seen a glimpse of here and there over the course of the year.

"Now, are you alright to walk?" Harry asked, knowing that the more time they spent down there, the more likely it'd be that someone came after them and he wasn't sure if the entrance to the chamber was still open after he jumped down or if it automatically closed.

"Yeah I'll be fine, but what about you? You were out for quite a while, and is that blood?" Ginny's voice jumped up a few notes when her eyes caught sight of the school shirt under his robes now stiff with drying blood. The blood had disappeared from his skin through the process of healing, but the evidence on his clothes was still present.

"Oh! It's not mine, I didn't kill the Basilisk, but I did hurt it." Harry lied smoothly, as he stood on steady legs and helped a still-weak Ginny to her feet. Harry summoned the diary and slipped it into an inner pocket once she was up.

With one arm across her shoulders and gripping the top of her arm, while the other hand grasped the arm closest to him, Harry helped Ginny begin walking down the length of the chamber.

"Ginny?" Harry started once they were nearing the end of the room.

"Yes?"

"Please know that this doesn't mean things have to go back to how they were. Tom may have been your first friend, but he won't be your only. There will always be a spot open for you among me and mine. I think you're incredibly brave and resilient to have gone through what you have this past year. Write to me over the summer, stay in touch and I promise you that you that things will improve." Harry offered a rare-friendly smile, which Ginny enthusiastically returned.

"Okay, Harry Potter. I will." The two left the chamber and fished for the resolve they would need to finish out the last few harrowing days of the year.