The cavern leading towards the Chamber of Secrets was dank, damp, and dark, with several hundreds of skeletons, ranging from mouse sized up to the size of a horse, and to top it all off there was a "Freaking massive snake skin," as called out by Ron. This gave Harry an idea, there was only one type of snake that grew this large. "This is a Basilisk skin, if you see anything moving, make sure to look at the floor or anywhere but its eyes." He stopped to touch the skin before thinking about the possibility of crafting armour out of Basilisk hide. It was while deep in that series of thoughts that Lockhart decided he would rather not walk into the jaws of death, so in the fashion of avoiding such a fate he grabbed Draco around the neck as a meat shield. "Come now, Potter, we both know you don't want your pet Malfoy to be injured. Just let me leave and I'll let him go when I'm out of the cave." Draco, to his credit, didn't panic. He locked eyes with Harry and they both subtly nodded to each other. Draco faked a faint to the floor, and as soon as he went dead weight and Lockhart dropped him, he rolled out of the way, cutting himself on the jagged rocks that made up the floor of the cave. As soon as it was clear, Harry cast "Levicorpus" at the same time Ron sent out an over powered "Flipendo" which, when combined, had the effect of lifting him up and throwing him against the wall, hard. He landed in a motionless pile and at the same time rocks began falling, separating Draco and Lockhart from Ron and Harry. "Draco, are you alright?" Harry shouted through the rubble, worried his friend had been crushed to death. "Yeah, just cut up over my back and arms, I'll try to clear the rock and let you come back through. You can wait for me or carry on, I'll keep an eye on Lockhart," came the reply through the rock. Harry and Ron started their journey to the Chamber with trepidation. What would they find down there? Their walk took them past a small stream with some trees that had to have been kept alive with magic, some side paths that looked to lead into other caves and finally a huge door. The door was made of gold and stone, with snake statues littering the front, with one at the extreme edge. There looked to be no handle, but that wasn't a problem. "Open," Harry hissed at the door in Parseltongue and in response the snakes began to move, allowing the outermost snake to make its journey around the outside of the door. It slowly swung open to reveal a giant cavernous room. They entered the door and walked up the length of the
Chamber, passing statues of snakes and men. There were many side paths here, they could be attacked by the Basilisk through either one of them. They had reached the main section of the Chamber of Secrets, only to find Ginny lying unconscious on the floor. When they rushed over to help her they found their hands just moved right through her, was she a ghost now? "She won't wake, the process is already too far gone. Dear Ginny Weasley has served her purpose well," a voice sounded from behind them and they looked up to see a boy, Tom Riddle, approaching them with a grin. "You see, her life energy has already left her and resides within me, even her corporeality is mine. My diary has been a very, very helpful tool, where once it was my prison, now it is the key to my resurrection." Ron rushed over to the diary to try and stop the process somehow, even trying to tear out pages, but to no avail. "You'll find the diary is quite indestructible until I am free, then the enchantments will break and you can do whatever you want to it. One small detail I do want to inform you of is that Ginny now resides inside the diary, if you destroy it you'll only kill her." Tom's grin stretched even further, "even as we talk the last bits of her are passing into me. I have her memories, Ronald, how else would I know that Fred and George turned your favourite bunny toy into a giant spider when you were four, causing you to suffer arachnophobia." He laughed at that and Ron's face fell. "Ginny?" he called out through tears, distraught and angry at what Tom had done. He looked back down to the diary and, in his emotional state, magic started pouring out of his hands, he locked eyes with Riddle as the book in his hands started burning. The sheer amount of magic he had forced out had exhausted him, not so much yet that he didn't notice what was happening. Out of the remnants of the diary rose a spirit, Ginny's, she gave Ron a ghostly hug before vanishing forever. This final sight was too much for Ron's exhausted body and mind and so he fainted right there. Tom started laughing, it went on, and on, and on. It made Harry angry, his unnatural anger was nowhere to be seen, this was all him. "You think this amount of depravity is funny? You're a monster," Harry screamed at him, his body shaking. "Oh Harry, I stop the monsters, don't you remember? How is Hagrid these days? I hope he enjoys Azkaban, good old Abraxas Malfoy, all it took was a single letter sent using dear sweet Ginny. Imagine what I can do now that I'm back." At the end of his little speech he admired his corporeal body again, after fifty years he was free from that blasted prison. They made eye contact, Harry shaking with rage and Tom smiling widely. This smile got even wider after a quick scan of Harry's mind.
"Now Harry, I understand that you're preparing for a duel, however today is not that day. I know things you don't, I will talk to you again and on that day you will join me." As Harry drew his wand, ready to kill, Tom activated a connection they seemed to share and overloaded Harry's mind with visions of them ruling together. At this Harry dropped to his knees clutching his now bleeding scar, Tom removed himself from Harry and Ron's minds. Having read Harry's mind and seen his plan to remove Lockhart, a plan he wholly supported as the git had managed to annoy Tom with the sheer mentions of him by Ginny, he gave the boys new memories that had Lockhart as the man behind the attacks and the murder of Ginny Weasley. He let them remember her spirit passing from the diary, but that was it. He cleared the length of the Chamber and stunned a blonde boy, giving him the same memories of an evil Lockhart. Speaking of the man, he was lying in a heap, blood leaking from his head very slowly. Tom decided to wipe his mind clean, before turning around and going back into the Chamber of Secrets to take advantage of a secret passageway out of Hogwarts. "We will meet again Harry, after all you carry a bit of me with you," he said to himself with one last look at the boy who had now fallen unconscious from the visions and pain. * Draco found himself waking up with conflicting memories, like he'd had memories added, but the originals were left there. In a daze he walked through the passage he had made in the rocks and ventured to find Harry, Ron, and Ginny, he could barely take in his surroundings as every one of his senses was fuzzy. He eventually found a giant open door decorated with snakes, that led into a cavernous room. He went as fast as he could into the room, spotting his friends at the end. He revived Harry and failed to revive Ron. At once Harry jumped up and was on alert, trying to find Lockhart. "Where is he, where is that bastard Lockhart? He killed her Draco, he just straight up killed her." Harry seemed to be going into shock and so Draco did what any good friend would do and slapped him, it didn't help, it just served to annoy Harry. "Harry, we have to help Ron. I stopped Lockhart before he could escape. He's in a heap by the entrance… though I also remember you and Ron taking him down. I honestly don't know what's right at this point," he said, sounding lost and confused. They floated Ron out of the Chamber and, when they walked past him, floated Lockhart out. It wasn't until they reached the Hospital Wing that they encountered anyone, this person was a newly revived Minerva McGonagall and she wasn't having it.
"Potter, Malfoy, that's a thousand…" She was cut off as Ron and Lockhart floated around the corner and, knowing they were now safe, both Harry and Draco passed out, dropping Ron and Lockhart, from the two or three feet they were floating at, onto the floor. "Oh dear," was all Minerva could say before she opened the Hospital Wing doors and shouted for help. * Seventy-two hours after they had left the Chamber, Harry, Ron, and Draco were awake. They talked for a while before the door opened to reveal their friends. "I owe you five Galleons, Hermione, it did take 72 hours for them to wake up," Dudley called out upon seeing them awake. They all laughed at that and spent the next few hours together talking when the events from the Chamber flooded back to them. "Ginny…" Ron started, but failed to carry on. The Malfoy and Weasley families entered the Hospital Wing, bickering about stupid things, when they saw for themselves that their sons were awake. Draco's parents dragged his bed over to the other end of the Hospital. "Oh Ron, my dear boy, we have been so worried about you. Thank Merlin you're alive, I don't know how I could manage losing two kids on the same day." They had a family talk and cry that lasted a few hours, at which point the Malfoys, save Draco, and the rest of their friends had left, and Harry had fallen asleep. Arthur and Molly Weasley stayed there, promising to watch over their son until he was well. *