Chapter 16: Riddle Me This

There were several Dementor attacks in London this morning – several Muggles and two wizards were Kissed. The war is getting worse now that Voldemort has gained those dark allies. I have to learn how to protect my brothers from them.

They were standing 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. Leo dimmed the light at the end of his wand before striding forward, Harry close behind.

Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, he thought he saw one stir before shaking his head, trying to calm his paranoia.

Then, as they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall. Leo felt it was a bit over the top and ostentatious.

They had to crane their necks 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 a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.

"Ginny!" Harry muttered, sprinting to her despite Leo's calls and dropping to his knees. "Ginny — don't be dead — please don't be dead —"

He flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over. Even as far away as Leo was, he could see her face looked as cold and white as marble, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be...

"Ginny, please wake up," Harry muttered desperately, shaking her as Leo approached the duo. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.

"She won't wake," said a soft voice.

Harry jumped and spun around on his knees. Leo leveled his wand at the newcomer, eyes narrowed threateningly.

A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Leo were looking at him through a misted window. Leo had no idea who he was, but he felt oddly familiar for some reason.

"Tom — Tom Riddle?" Harry said.

Riddle nodded and Leo tightened his grip on his wand, prepared to strike in case he made any sudden moves toward himself and Harry.

"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not — she's not —?"

"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."

Leo's eyes shifted from the blurred Riddle to Ginny's eerily still form and back. How is Riddle here? He's supposed to be in the book. He frowned. Unless...

"You're doing this, aren't you?" he growled. "Taking her life-force to feed yours. That's how you're here."

"I always felt you were too clever for your own good, Black," Riddle sneered, taking out a wand. Harry's wand.

"Listen," said Harry urgently, unsure of what was going on anymore. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes —"

"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly.

"What d'you mean?" Harry said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it —"

"It won't come until Riddle calls it, Harry," Leo informed the boy. "He's the Heir of Slytherin."

Riddle slowly clapped his hands.

"Well done, Black," Riddle stated in a bored tone. "However did you figure it out?"

"It wasn't that hard once I stopped wallowing in self-pity and put the pieces together," Leo smirked, striding forward to stand between the teen and his friends. "A magical diary containing the memory of a boy who was around when the Chamber of Secrets was opened just so happens to appear when the Chamber opens again? It was too much of a coincidence. I wasn't sure if you were the one doing it this time around or if you were just giving instructions. Either way, I knew you were bad news from the moment you tried to frame Hagrid. The only thing I'm trying to work out is how you're doing this to Ginny."

"Well, that's an interesting story," said Riddle pleasantly. "I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she 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 would ever like her..."

All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them. Leo was a bit perturbed by this.

"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," he went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny 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..."

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. Leo had a vivid memory of a blonde woman and a redheaded woman standing in front of him and Harry. A flash of green appeared followed by the same laugh Riddle just gave. The blonde tightened his grip on his wand a bit nervously now.

"If I say it myself, Harry, 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..."

"What d'you mean?" said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

"You possessed her," Leo surmised, his expression darkening.

"Yes," said Riddle, 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, watching Harry's horrified face and Leo's angry one, "'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, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me...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!'"

"But she eventually wised up. She tried to flush the diary away," Leo guessed.

"Yes, and that's where you came in, Harry," Riddle informed them, focusing primarily on Harry now. "You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. 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.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier. "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 was our friend, you giant sack of shit!" Leo snarled, stepping forward a pace. "And you framed him. Got him kicked out of school -"

Riddle laughed his high laugh again.

"It was my word against Hagrid's. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the 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 him as a gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed...Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did..."

"Can't really blame him. You don't exactly have what one would call a 'winning personality'," Leo informed him.

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Harry, his teeth gritted.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "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'd 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 it," said Harry triumphantly. "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," said Riddle quietly, "that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been — you. You, and your annoying, nuisance of a cousin."

"Coming from a git like you, that's a compliment," Leo remarked in a very dry tone.

"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny 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 her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling 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 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. 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 the two of you."

"Like what?" Harry spat.

"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, and Leo's earlier suspicions were confirmed.

"Guess old Moldywarts wasn't as tough as he thought he was. He did get sent packing by an eleven-year-old. Twice," Leo replied, managing a smirk when Riddle glared at him.

"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time..."

"Voldemort," said Riddle softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter..."

He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

"... That's a bit much," Leo admitted.

"You see?" he whispered. "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, Harry — 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!"

"Bullshit!" Leo snapped angrily.

"You're not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast. "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 and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days —"

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted, and now even Leo was confused.

Riddle opened his mouth but froze.

Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Leo's scalp and made his heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Leo felt it vibrating inside his own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.

A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle.

A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, then landed heavily on his shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Leo briefly glanced back at it and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eye.

"That's a phoenix," said Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.

"No shit, Sherlock," Leo rolled his eyes, despite not knowing what it was beforehand.

"Fawkes?" Harry whispered behind him.

"And that —" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped, "that's the old school Sorting Hat —"

So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Harry's feet.

Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once.

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter and Leo Black? Do you feel safe now?"

"In order: yes, and safety is overrated," Leo replied dryly, feeling as though they were about to reach a climactic moment. "Much like you."

Riddle looked angry.

"I was going to give you more time to live – a chance to answer pressing questions I had – but I now realize that -"

"Depulso!" Leo shouted, blasting Riddle, who was not expecting the sudden attack, backward. "I don't have the patience or attention span for villainous monologues. Can we just get on with it so I can kick your arse?"

Riddle looked beyond furious as he rose to his feet and began to walk forward, only to stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed.

Leo raised an eyebrow and looked up. Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. With a grim expression on his face, Leo 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.

Leo's eyes immediately darted to Riddle's feet, keeping them there as something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Leo felt it shudder — he knew what was happening, he could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice.

The basilisk was moving toward Harry; Leo could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. Much as he wanted to run after his cousin, he knew his battle was here. With Voldemort. He raised his eyes, meeting Riddle's brown with his blue-grey.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you, Black," Riddle hissed, walking around Leo in a half-circle.

"You've already tried that several times, never seems to pan out," Leo informed him. "Perhaps you should consider a new hobby? Like macramé or horseback riding -"

"Crucio!"

Leo dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the red spell as he rolled to his feet, pointing his own wand and shouting, "Diffindo!"

Riddle raised Harry's wand, conjuring a shield that the spell passed harmlessly over. He then struck out with a spell of his own, and a jet of green light passed over the boy's head as he rolled to the side to avoid it. Riddle fired off a barrage of the green spells, prompting Leo to run, duck, and roll all around to avoid them. He was starting to get tired and worried that Riddle would be able to finish him off soon. Luckily, something else seemed to distract him.

"NO!" he screamed, looking behind Leo. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL SMELL HIM. KILL HIM!"

Leo glanced back briefly at the snake and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting in agony. Leo bit his lip, glancing between Riddle and the snake before coming to a decision.

"Mucus ad Nauseam Tria!" Leo shouted, pointing his wand at the snake.

Great giant bogeys streamed from the snake's nose as it hissed and thrashed in pain. Leo soon followed it as Riddle managed to hit him with the Cruciatus Curse, sending him screaming to the ground as his body writhed. He felt warmth and feathers fly by him and the sound of Riddle yelling angrily. The spell lifted.

Knowing he didn't have much time, Leo rose shakily to his feet, pointing his wand at Riddle – who was trying to fend off Fawkes – and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

The wand flew from Riddle's hand and Leo caught it deftly with his left hand before leveling both wands at the now defenseless Riddle. Riddle looked infuriated as Fawkes flew away from him, his eyes gleaming red as they locked onto Leo, who gave a tired yet triumphant smile.

"Looks like I'm three for three, Tommy boy," Leo panted. "Really should have considered an alternate hobby."

"Posture all you want, Black," Riddle snarled. "We both know you haven't got it in you to finish the job."

Leo's wands lowered slightly as the memory of Quirrell flashed through his mind. A moment later, his grip tightened as he raised his chin in determination.

"That's where you're wrong. I do have it in me – everyone has it in them. You, most certainly, have it in you," he shuffled forward slightly. "The difference between you and me is that I only do it when it's absolutely necessary – when there's no other way to protect the people I love. Looking at you now... you're defenseless. There's nothing you can do to hurt Harry now. It's over for you."

Riddle's angry gaze slid past him before his expression turned triumphant.

"You may have won, Leo Black. But Harry Potter has not," Riddle sneered, prompting Leo to whip his head around.

Harry was sitting against the wall of the Chamber, his right arm bloody and the basilisk's unmoving body rested nearby, a sword protruding from its mouth. The basilisk's fang lay beside Harry, and Fawkes stood leaning over the boy's arm.

"You're dead, Harry Potter," Riddle called out to him with a laugh. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying.

"So ends the famous Harry Potter. 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..."

"Depulso," Leo snarled, launching the man backward and into the wall before scrambling over to Harry.

He sat next to the boy, gripping his uninjured arm as he observed Fawkes with growing nervousness. To his immense surprise, the wound was slowly disappearing until it vanished altogether. Harry and Leo exchanged a look of wonder.

"Phoenix tears..." said Harry quietly, staring at his arm. "Of course...healing powers...I forgot..."

Fawkes flew away, only to appear moments later, dropping Riddle's diary in his lap. Leo and Harry stared at it for a moment before Harry suddenly reached beside him, grabbing the basilisk fang and stabbing the book with it.

There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry and Leo's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then —

He had gone. Silence fell over the Chamber except for the steady drip-drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.

Leo hauled Harry to his feet before pulling him into a tight hug and handing him his wand. He walked over to the snake, ripping the sword from its mouth and admiring it for a moment. I should invest in one of these. Wand in one hand, sword in the other – I'd be a real terror the next time I have to fight Moldyshorts or one of his deluded lackeys.

Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Leo and Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk to Leo, grimy and sweaty, and then over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, before finally coming to rest on the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.

"Harry — oh, Harry — I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy — it was me, Harry — but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over — and — how did you kill that — that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary —"

Leo felt mildly affronted that his name wasn't even mentioned once. Then again, Ginny did fancy Harry, so he didn't think he should feel too surprised.

"It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, "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 Leo and 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?"

"I think you'll get a pass, given you were possessed by Voldemort and all," Leo informed her, rolling his eyes when she gave a great shudder at the name.

Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Leo took the lead as Harry took the back, urging Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Leo 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 Leo's ears.

"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up to walk beside Leo. "Ginny's okay! We'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 rockfall.

"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? How — what — where did that bird come from?"

Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.

"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, squeezing through himself.

"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Leo's hand as he climbed through.

"Why don't you have a sword?" Leo raised an eyebrow at the boy.

"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry with a sideways glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever.

"But —"

"Later," Harry said shortly. "Where's Lockhart?"

"Back there," said Ron, still looking puzzled but jerking his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's still out cold. Thought it would be best if I moved him in case the tunnel caved in."

Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, they walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Gilderoy Lockhart was laying there, a rather large gash on his head as he breathed slowly. Leo couldn't help but be impressed by his own handiwork.

Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.

"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" he said to Ron.

Ron shook his head, but Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past Harry and was now fluttering in front of him, his beady eyes bright in the dark. He was waving his long golden tail feathers. Harry looked uncertainly at him.

"He looks like he wants you to grab hold..." said Ron, looking perplexed. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there —"

"Fawkes," said Harry, "isn't an ordinary bird." He turned quickly to the others. "We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Leo, grab Ginny's hand and Lockhart's -"

"Do I have to?" Leo grumbled, not really wanting to.

"You knocked him out, you carry him."

Leo opened his mouth to argue before shrugging, grabbing Lockhart and Ginny, and saying, "Yeah, that's fair."

An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through his whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe. The chill air was whipping through Leo's hair, and before he'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over — all five of them were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and, as Leo shoved Lockhart away from him, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.

Myrtle goggled at them.

"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.

"I'm disappointed that Lockhart made it out alright," Leo grumbled as he rose to his feet.

"You knocked him out cold!" Harry exclaimed in an amused sort of tone.

"Yeah, I was hoping that he'd get eaten by a snake. When that didn't happen, I had to improvise," Leo shrugged, grinning widely. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Harry and Ron snorted with laughter.

"Where now?" said Ron, with an anxious look at Ginny. Harry pointed.

Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor. They strode after him – Leo using the Levitation Charm to float Lockhart in front of them - and moments later, found themselves outside McGonagall's office.

Harry knocked and pushed the door open.

Q & A:

AveRomani: I really like Leo. Is he perhaps related to or based off of one Mr. Valdez?

-No, he's not. To be honest, I didn't even think of Leo Valdez when I first started writing these books. I picked 'Leo' as his name for multiple reasons. Firstly, he is a Leo, so it sort of made sense. Secondly, I think his father would have enjoyed rubbing a little salt in the wound by naming his child after the mascot of his parents' rival house. Lastly... 'Leo' just sort of fit with everything. His personality, his House, the person he becomes. The more I write about him, the more perfect and suiting his name becomes. I remember trying to come up with a name for him - even looked up stars and constellations for inspiration - and just randomly thought of 'Leo'. Now, I can't imagine him having any other name. Sorry if I rambled a bit, just wanted to give the best explanation I could and give a little backstory on how his name came about.