Thanks to those who reviewed chapter Ten, the cliffhanger was rather cruel I admit, but the chapter was running long and it didn't want to wrap the story up in one massive chapter. Please continue to show your support by reviewing!
Chapter Eleven
Slytherin Speaks
Harry and Faykan found themselves at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.
His heart beating very fast, Harry stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where were Draco and Ginny? Faykan put a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him, and together they made their way forward between the serpentine columns, footsteps echoing loudly. As they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue as high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay two small, black robed figures, one with flaming red hair, and other silvery blond.
"No…" Faykan muttered. Both he and Harry sprinted to the fallen forms, and Harry kneeled next to Ginny.
"Don't be dead… please don't be dead…" Harry whispered as he rolled her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified.
"Draco, please wake up," Faykan said desperately, shaking Draco fervently. His head lolled hopelessly from side to side and Faykan pulled his hand away, covered in blood.
"They won't wake," said a soft voice behind Harry.
Both boys jumped and spun around, Faykan brandishing his sword.
A tall, black haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him.
"Tom… Tom Riddle?"
Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.
"What d'you mean, they won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "They're not, not…?"
"They're still alive," Riddle replied, "but only just…"
Harry stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.
"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.
"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years.
He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Harry wondered how it had got there; but there were more pressing matters to deal with.
"Harry," Faykan said softly, "We need to get the out of here… the basilisk…"
Harry nodded, hoisted Ginny half off the floor, and went to pick his wand off the floor…
But his wand was gone.
"Where…"
Harry looked up to find Riddle twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers.
Faykan narrowed his eyes at Riddle, "Give Harry back his wand, Tom."
A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He glanced at Faykan for a moment, and then turned to continue staring at Harry.
"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes…"
"It won't come until it's called…" Riddle said calmly.
Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer.
"What d'you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it…"
Riddle's smile broadened.
"You won't be needing it," he said.
"How did they get like this, Tom?" Faykan asked slowly. Harry saw him move to the side slightly, and his left hand reached for his wand inside his robes.
"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly, "and quite a long story. I suppose the real reason these two students are like this is because Ginny Weasley opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
"What are you talking about?" said Harry.
"The diary," said Riddle. "My diary, little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes; how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how…" Riddle's eyes glinted "how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter or his friends would ever like her…"
"You've been manipulating her from the beginning, haven't you Tom?" Faykan said coldly.
"You know, you remind me of someone I knew fifty years ago… he was particularly nosy about my business then as well," Tom eyed Faykan up and down for a moment. "You even resemble him remarkably."
"Your grandfather…" Harry breathed, his eyes meeting Faykan's momentarily before they returned to watching Riddle.
Riddle laughed; a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him and continued with his story. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry's neck.
"If I say it myself, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul 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 Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..."
Tom continued to recount how he had made Ginny open the Chamber of Secrets, and set the monster upon all the students, Nick and Mrs. Norris. Riddle mentioned that he grew very curious about Harry when he had the diary in his possession. Harry and Faykan just stared at him. Tom seemed to think he was the most ingenious person alive to be able to trick everyone.
"From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery, particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue…"
"So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. Then the boy came in behind her, and I made her take him too. She didn't want to of course; she was rather smitten with him, you see. 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, fists still clenched.
"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you, a skinny 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?"
There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.
"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time..."
Faykan's voice sounded next to Harry. He turned to see the coldness in his friend's eyes as he gazed at Tom Riddle, "Because he is Voldemort, Harry…"
Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once.
"Indeed I am, boy…" he said with a sidelong look at Faykan. He turned once again, back to Harry and grinned malevolently, "To business then, Harry. Twice; in your past, in my future, we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly, "the longer you and your little friend stay alive."
Harry was thinking fast, weighing his chances. Riddle had his wand and the Basilisk. Harry and Faykan had one wand and a sword between them. It looked bad, all right... but the longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny and Draco... and in the meantime, Harry noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becoming clearer, more solid... If it had to be a fight between them and Riddle, better sooner than later.
"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me," said Harry abruptly. "I don't know myself but I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me; my common Muggleborn mother," he added, shaking with suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you, we 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…"
Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile. "So… Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I can see now... there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both halfbloods, 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. That's all I wanted to know."
Harry stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again.
"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, and his faithful bodyguard."
He cast an amused eye at Faykan again, and then walked away. Harry stepped slowly towards Faykan as Riddle stopped between the high pillars and looked up into the face of Slytherin. Harry felt something cold and metallic press into his hand, and he closed his fist around it desperately.
"When I yell, run for the exit," whispered Faykan in his ear.
Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed, but Harry understood what he was saying,
"Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four."
Harry spun to look at the statue, lifting Faykan's sword in his hands. It was surprisingly light for such a large weapon. Faykan had also raised his wand in a defensive position, ready to cast at the first sign of movement from Riddle or the statue.
Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horrorstruck, Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.
"Go Harry!" Faykan shouted as he darted forward. Harry turned and ran, just as something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. But what chance could Faykan have against a Basilisk, the king of serpents? Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice:
"Kill them."
Immediately, Harry heard the commanding voice of Faykan, "elea naara wanwa."[1] There was a roar of pain, and Harry couldn't help himself. He turned to look. The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. Where the snake's eyes should have been were two cauterized holes, as if the sockets had been burned away.
"NO!" Harry heard Riddle screaming. "You may have blinded the Basilisk, boy, but it can still smell you!"
The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Faykan was firing jets of multicolored light at it, trying to distract it long enough for Harry to escape, but Riddle began to attack Faykan. The smaller boy was forced onto the defensive, which allowed the Basilisk to recover from being blinded.
"Forget that one, the boy is behind you. Smell him out. Kill him!" Riddle hissed as he dueled with Faykan.
Harry was ready as the Basilisk turned. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the scarred, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous…
It lunged blindly; Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed against Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands.
The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true. Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.
But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.
Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it was too late. White hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color.
"HARRY!" Faykan screamed. Harry could hear the sounds of running footsteps coming towards him, and someone hefted him into their arms, but it was too difficult to focus. Another shadow moved in front of him.
"He's as good as dead, boy. I'll let you live long enough to see your precious hero fall before me." Riddle laughed.
But Faykan was murmuring in Harry's ear, completely ignoring Riddle's taunts, "coia auta n'alaquel, harwa poika"[2]
Riddle apparently took no notice of what Faykan was doing, because he continued gloating, "I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time.
I'm in no hurry."
Harry felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning.
"So ends the famous Harry Potter," said Riddle's distant voice. "Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry... She bought you twelve years of borrowed time ... but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must . . . ."
'If this is dying,' thought Harry, 'it's not so bad.'
Even the pain was leaving him...
But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. Harry gave his head a little shake and there was Faykan, holding his wand over Harry's wound; except that there was no wound.
"Get away, boy," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him… NO! What have you done?"
Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Faykan, and suddenly there was the sound of gagging. Faykan was clutching his throat, unable to breathe.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Riddle roared raising the wand higher, lifting Faykan off the ground; suspending him in midair as the life slowly was strangled out of him.
Rage consumed Harry's mind. His friends were dying and there was nothing he could do. He glared at Riddle, contempt and anger boiling within him, and suddenly his scar burned white hot. His vision clouded in blinding whiteness, and Riddle started to scream in agony. Then in a burst of light, Riddle's body exploded into tiny sparks, and he was gone.
Faykan collapsed onto the ground, breathing hard with blood trickling from his nose. Harry's wand also clattered to the ground. Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he'd just traveled miles by Floo powder. His head was pounding with pain, but it was fading quickly as he pulled Faykan to his feet, and retrieved the sword from the roof of the Basilisk's mouth.
Then there came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
Harry tried to comfort her, and he saw Faykan kneel by Draco, who still hadn't awoken. Faykan lifted to boy's head and examined the wounds to the back of Draco's head. Finally Faykan set him down and lifted his wand over him. "Draco lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nangalad."[3] Slowly, Draco retuned to consciousness, groaning in the sudden pain in his head.
"What happened?" Draco said after a moment, "Last thing I remember was following Ginny into Myrtle's bathroom and something hitting me on the head."
"You were taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Draco. You and Ginny; she was being possessed by Tom Riddle, the heir of Slytherin." Faykan turned to Harry, "We really should get them out of here and up to the hospital wing."
"Riddle!" Ginny cried looking around, "Where is he? The last thing I remember is him coming out of the diary."
"It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, which was blackened and smoldering. "Riddle's finished. Look, him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here…"
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and… w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"
Faykan led the way out of the Chamber, supporting Draco while Harry helped Ginny. Harry urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.
After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached Harry's ears.
"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!"
He heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall.
"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?"
"We'll explain when we get out of here," Faykan said as he eased Draco through the gap.
"But…"
"Later," Harry said shortly.
They reached the pipe where they had entered minutes later, Draco now walking under his own power while Harry and Ron supported Ginny.
"Um, how are we going to get back up?" Ron asked.
"Stairs…" Harry hissed, and stairs emerged out of the tunnel walls, spiraling back up to Myrtle's bathroom.
Myrtle goggled at them as they emerged from the tunnel.
"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses. Faykan snorted loudly.
"Where to now?" Draco said, and Faykan led them to Professor McGonagall's office, barging right in without knocking.
There was a moment of silence as Harry, Faykan, Ron, Draco and Ginny walked through the doorway, covered in muck, slime and blood, broken only by the scream of Mrs. Weasley as she launched herself at her daughter, closely followed by her husband.
Harry, however, was looking past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest.
Harry felt himself, Faykan and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasleys tight embrace seconds after she released Ginny.
"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"
"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly.
Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it what remained of Riddle's diary.
Then he started telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence: He told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione had finally realized that he was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how he, Faykan, Draco and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how they had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom.
"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him as he paused, "so you found out where the entrance was, breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add, but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"
So Harry, helped by Faykan because Harry's voice was growing hoarse, told them about Riddle, the diary, and about Harry using Faykan's sword to kill the Basilisk while Faykan fending off Riddle's memory.
"Might I examine this sword, Mr. Undol," Dumbledore said softly, and Faykan unsheathed and presented the sword to the Headmaster. Dumbledore looked at the blade with great interest, and studied the rune covered hilt. "Mr. Undol, by any chance do you know what these runes on the hilt read?" he asked.
"Certainly," Faykan replied, "they read: Turgon aran Gondolin tortha, Gar a matha I vegil Glamdring Gud Daedheloth, Dam an Glamhoth. Meaning: Turgon king of Gondolin wields, has and holds the sword Glamdring, Foe of Morgoth's realm, and hammer to the Orcs."
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows in amazement, "You know how to read and speak the ancient language of the elves, Mr. Undol?"
"Yes sir."
Dumbledore returned Faykan his sword and picked up the blackened diary from Harry, peering keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages. Finally, Dumbledore looked up at the Weasleys, then over to Draco, who was sitting in the background trying to stay awake.
"Miss Weasley and Mr. Malfoy should go up to the hospital wing right away," he said in a firm voice. "This has been a terrible ordeal for them both." He strode over to the door and opened it, "They need bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, twinkling kindly down at Ginny. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice; I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."
Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken. Draco turned and left with Ron supporting him; he did look very tired to Harry.
"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall, "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"
"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter and Undol, shall I?"
"Certainly," said Dumbledore.
She left, and Harry and Faykan gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore. What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with them? Surely… surely, they weren't about to be punished?
"I seem to remember telling you both as well as Mr. Weasley that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules, said Dumbledore.
Harry opened his mouth in horror.
"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling. "You three will receive Special Awards for Services to the School and, let me see, yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."
For a minute, none of them spoke. Then Dumbledore pulled open one of the drawers in Professor McGonagall's desk and took out a quill and a bottle of ink.
"What you need, boys, is some food and sleep. I suggest you go down to the feast, while I write to Azkaban; we need our gamekeeper back. And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too," he added thoughtfully. "We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?"
Harry and Faykan got up and crossed to the door. Harry had just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall.
Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face. And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.
"Good evening, Lucius," said Dumbledore pleasantly.
Mr. Malfoy almost knocked Harry over as he swept into the room. Dobby went scurrying in after him, crouching at the hem of his cloak, a look of abject terror on his face.
"So!" he said "You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts."
"Well, you see, Lucius," said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, "the other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter and your son had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place."
Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury.
"My son… So, have you stopped the attacks yet?" he sneered. "Have you caught the culprit?"
"We have," said Dumbledore, with a smile.
"Well?" said Mr. Malfoy sharply. "Who is it?"
"The same person as last time, Lucius," said Dumbledore. "But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary."
He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Mr. Malfoy closely.
"I see..." said Mr. Malfoy slowly to Dumbledore.
"A clever plan," said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring Mr. Malfoy straight in the eye. "Because if Harry here," Mr. Malfoy shot Harry a swift, sharp look, "and his friends Faykan and Ron hadn't discovered this book, why… Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will…"
Mr. Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly masklike.
"And imagine," Dumbledore went on, "what might have happened then... The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pureblood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and killing Muggleborns... Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise..."
Mr. Malfoy forced himself to speak.
"Very fortunate," he said stiffly. Mr. Malfoy turned to Harry again, "I suppose I must thank you for saving the life of my son." He looked through his robes, and then turned to look down at Dobby with a small grin. "Ah…" he breathed, "I present you with this gift and my thanks…" he said pointing at Dobby. "Dobby, I formally give ownership of you to Mr. Harry Potter." He nodded and left quickly half slamming the door behind him.
[1]elea naara wanwa : sight burn away
[2]coia auta n'alaquel, harwa poika : life return, wound be clean
[3]lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nangalad : hear my voice, come back to the light.
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