A/n: I had some free time so I'm updating with the exciting middle part, crazy things happen when I'm inspired by reviews; they remind me that I'm not alone in this!
Kurt woke up at about midday feeling something he knew he never wanted to feel again, he couldn't remember what he'd forgotten; a feeling he'd spared Neville from but that now plagued by himself. He was in the third floor of the school hospital and he knew in an instance, though the details were still fuzzy to him, that he'd had another panic attack; that makes two more than he'd had before the Chamber of Secrets opened. Before Kurt could start assimilating his thoughts he decided a shower would be best, he needed to wash the previous day and night's activity off himself as he smelled like nature in a natural way as opposed to his usual artificial berry scent.
Kurt pulled his wand from his robes and pointed it skyward; he concentrated on his vanity case, tucked safely into his trunk in the Slytherin dungeon, "Venir." The white case that was filled with his day to day cosmetics appeared in his hands and he laid it aside, once more he began to concentrate and one by one he summoned his shower shoes, bathrobe, fresh school uniform and robes.
Kurt entered the small bathroom adjacent to the infirmary and ran the shower extra hot. As he stepped under the stream of water he started to sort through the previous day beginning with dinner, Hermione had been absent from dinner otherwise everything had been normal. He'd gone down to his room to feed Bomballerina, he needed to go feed her now before she brought something else dead back to his room.
Astronomy is where he found out Hermione had been petrified; minor breakdown but according to Professor McGonagall Hermione would be just fine by the end of the day. Kurt couldn't quite figure out what he was looking for but there didn't appear to be anything worth remembering right now, he began to shampoo his hair.
"I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair," Kurt half sang, half hummed the song as he lathered his hair generously with volumising shampoo. He suddenly was reminded of his meeting with Aragog last night, he was the one who had said something that Kurt felt he needed to remember; 'it is that which we spiders fear above all.' It sounded like something Kurt had read in one of his more risqué dark arts books but he couldn't quite place it, he would have to check his books for the reference.
Suddenly as he rinsed his hair and washed the last of the previous day from his body he remember; 'why would Tom Riddle lie to me?'
"It's Voldemort," Kurt remembered the familiar face from the picture on Dumbledore's desk, "Lord Voldemort is the Heir of Slytherin, he's attacking muggle born students."
When he said it out loud it made perfect sense, the first wizarding war had been sparked by his hatred of muggles and muggleborns; why hadn't he thought of this earlier? Then doubt crept into his mind, Voldemort is dead. He was supposed to be dead last year as well but that didn't stop him from appearing at the back of Professor Quirrel's head, was he on the back of somebody's head right now? Or had he learnt how to completely possess people?
Kurt ran the multitude of questions through his mind as he dressed, electing to do an abridged version of his moisturising routine, he began to transfer the contents of yesterday's robes into today's robes; pocket watch, wand and crumpled piece of parchment? He uncrumpled the parchment with great haste, the title read 'Basilisks'.
Kurt recognised that the parchment had been ripped from a book and remembered in an instance that it was the litter he'd taken from Hermione the previous night, he read through the page with great speed. It was about the magical creatures, he had read about them in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them but he couldn't figure out why Hermione would have this; there hadn't been a known Basilisk for hundreds of years and when they attacked they killed, both by making direct eye contact and with their potent venom. Hermione had written some notes in the margin, 'pipes' and 'indirect eye contact?'
I'm a parselmouth, it would explain the whispers of 'kill', I've been hearing it move around in the plumbing! Hermione was truly the brightest witch of her age, she had managed to figure out a riddle that had perplexed the greatest sorcerer for fifty years in a couple of months. Kurt read the extract once more, it's killed by the crowing of a rooster, he had to find a teacher and relay this information.
Kurt took off at a run toward the staff room with his gaze fixed on the floor, he doubted his contact lenses counted as indirect eye contact; he navigated the hallway, walking by a 'T' intersection of two corridors, with great speed but suddenly he felt himself falling, not again. Kurt remained conscious, it wasn't a panic attack. With his gaze fixed on the floor he looked to see what he'd fallen over, there was a fallen statue of Finn; petrified.
With a deep breath Kurt looked about to see what had distorted his brother's view of the monster, the only thing he could see was a window opposite the corridor. The basilisk must have been behind him if it was indirect, then he saw it's reflection in the window.
"I'm so sorry to leave you like this," Kurt laid a soft kiss on the boy's forehead and took of down the perpendicular hallway.
Kurt recognised it as the hallway in which the first attack had happened, this was where the writing on the walls had first appeared. He kept his eyes to the ground till he came to where the writing was and was surprised to find new words, 'HER SKE'. There Ginny Weasley was writing on the walls, was she the heir? But Tom Riddle had made so much more sense, or was it just convenient for him because it allowed him to believe that none of his peers were capable of such evil?
"Ginny?" Kurt spoke in a shrill voice, "Ginny Weasley, what are you doing?"
"Looks like me," her voice didn't sound right for an eleven year old girl, "you must be Kurt Hummel."
"It's Kurt Elizabeth Hummel to psychopaths like yourself," Kurt's deduction had been correct, it was Tom Riddle but how had he come to possess her?
"I forbid you to look at him," Ginny whispered behind Kurt, parseltongue. Kurt slowly turned with his gaze fixed on the floor, he saw the base of the monstrous serpent's body where it had its head held high in the doorway of Moaning Mertyl's bathroom; Kurt took the risk and slowly raised his head, as his gaze reached the level just below its head the beast looked away and he took in its full hideousness. Kurt's attention was drawn by its large red plume, he pulled out his wand and observed it's base; the core of his wand was the same blood red.
Suddenly there was red hot pain and darkness.
~0~
Harry:
Harry and Ron had decided to go see Kurt after lunch, they'd visit Hermione after that. Getting away was a feat in the current climate as the new rules had been made much more stringent since Dumbledore's departure, fear had taken hold of the school and it set Harry on edge; Kurt was the only person who seemed to genuinely enjoy it without any malice, he kept saying that we need fear like babies need mother's milk because without it our bones won't set right. Draco Malfoy had been terrorising everyone, making snide comments about Hermione and who he wanted to see petrified next.
As they were trying inconspicuously make their way to the hospital wing, McGonagall came down the corridor from the direction they were heading, "Potter, Weasley, Have you seen Mr Hummel?"
"He had another panic attack last night," Ron answered saving him the effort, "he's in the hospital wing."
"Not anymore," McGonagall shook her head, "I was just in there and He's not there, his brother has been attacked."
Professor Snape's voice filled the hallway, "All students are to return to their dormitories, all members of staff are to come to the Third floor corridor, you know the one."
"Come with me," McGonagall gestured for them to follow, they climbed the stairs and reached the third floor corridor with the writing on the wall.
"Minerva," Snape looked mildly distressed, "The monster has taken two students into the chamber and left us another message." Professor Snape spotted the pair of them and the emotion melted from his face, "I thought I had specifically said all students are to go to their dormitories, care to explain why you're here?"
"I hadn't realised the seriousness of this situation," McGonagall answered for them, "they were helping me look for Mr Hummel, his brother has been petrified."
"Kurt Hummel is one of the students that the monster has taken into the chamber," Snape's distress was more evident in his tone as he tried to whisper.
"And who is the other student?" McGonagall's eyes were opened wider than Harry had ever seen them before.
"Ginny Weasley."
"It's got my Kurt!" Ron whimpered.
"Your Kurt?" Harry asked his friend, "Dude, your sister."
The staff arrived in drips and drags and finally after several minutes they had all arrived, Professor McGonagall relayed the information Snape had just shared with them, "Tell the students to pack their things, the Hogwarts Express leaves tomorrow morning. Filius, I want you to go get Mr and Mrs Weasley; Severus, you get the Hummels. I'll contact the Ministry, the Board of Governors and the parents; we've held off as long as we possibly could but the time has come for Hogwarts to close."
"What did I miss?" Professor Lockhart strode cheerily down the corridor from which they had come.
"Gilderoy," McGonagall's face lit up, "This is your moment, the monster has taken students into the chamber."
He looked them over with a keen eye, "What do you want me to do about it?"
"You've been telling anyone who will listen how you've known where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is all along," Professor Snape added, "And how you know just the counter curse, this is your moment; go write a new book."
"Quite right Severus," the man pulled at his collar nervously, "I'll go get ready and be on my way."
McGonagall turned to Ron and him, "You two best head back to Gryffindor Tower, on your way." She turned back to Snape, "Severus, is the restorative draft ready?"
"I spilled it," he pointed at the large stain beside the piece of discarded parchment, "I do have more in my office, I'll deliver it to the hospital wings after I visit the Hummels."
As the hallway cleared Ron bent over to pick up the piece of discarded parchment, Harry raised a quizzical brow, "What on earth are you doing?"
For the first time he got view of new the writing on the walls, 'HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER'; for a moment Harry wondered why he hadn't mentioned Kurt in the message, what would become of him?
"Maybe Kurt or Ginny dropped it," Ron looked over the piece of parchment and his eyes doubled in size, "it's a basilisk!"
"What's a basilisk?" Ron handed him the parchment and he read it with great haste, "This is in the Chamber of Secrets?"
Ron nodded, "That would explain why you could hear it and now we know how it was still alive all this time, something Kurt frequently reminded us made a monster improbable; that says they can live for hundreds of years."
"It fits," Harry's eyes, "look, 'Spiders flee before it' and this looks like Hermione's handwriting."
"It's not Kurt's," Ron shook his head, "he uses elaborate looping and he doesn't write in cursive because it would smudge because he's left handed."
"You definitely know 'your' Kurt," Harry chuckled.
"Oh come off it Harry," Ron giggled nervously, "What does it say?"
"Pipes, that must be how it's getting around," Harry turned the sheet so he could see the remainder of the text in the margin, "Indirect eye-contact, that's why nobody's dead. Collin saw it through his camera, Justin saw it through Nearly-Headless Nick, Nick and Peeves are already dead so they couldn't die again."
"Mrs Norris must have seen it in the water," Ron exclaimed, "Mertyl flooded the bathroom after I insulted her."
"Kurt probably found this and figure out where the Chamber of Secrets was," Harry was nodding with every word at this point, "he was probably on his way to get help."
"But where is it?" Ron furrowed his brow.
"Somewhere in this corridor," Harry looked about the T-junction so quickly that he felt himself getting dizzy, "This is the vicinity in which most of the victims were found; Collin was found on the corridor outside the trophy room, Hermione was on the passage to the library stairs, Finn was at the end of this corridor, Peeves and Mrs Norris were here, and Justin Finn-Fletchley was found on the floor directly below us."
"If it's using the pipes then the opening must be in a bathroom," Harry raised confused brow, "Aragog said the girl was found in a bathroom, maybe she never left." Ron shrugged, "Also that's the only place I know with an opening to a pipe."
"The girl was Mertyl!" Harry was shocked by how they had spent so much time in that bathroom without knowing they were in danger, "You're brilliant."
Ron shrugged, "You spend enough time with Kurt and Hermione, and they are bound to rub off on you; the art of deduction."
"Don't tell them I said this," Harry looked about nervously as if they would appear and rip him a new one for what he was about to say, "You're much better at it than either of them, they would have had to go to the library first."
"Lockhart's going into the Chamber," Ron pointed out, "We should go with him."
"That sounds more like the Ron I know," He playfully punched his friend as they took off down the hallway at speed.
They navigated their way through the castle till they came to Professor Lockhart's office, forgetting his manners Harry entered without knocking. He and Ron were treated to quite the sight, Lockhart was running around like a headless chicken throwing things into suitcases, bags and trunks; the odd part was that he appeared to be tossing the packed bags into his fireplace. When Harry stepped into the fire he realised that the flames were green like hey had been at The Burrow over the summer, Lockhart was using the floo network.
"What are you doing?" Ron demanded before Harry could form his own words.
"Terribly urgent call," Lockhart didn't stop packing as he spoke, "Unavoidable."
"What about Kurt and Ginny?" Harry countered.
"So sorry but there's nothing I can do," Lockhart didn't stop packing as he spoke, "None regrets more than I."
"But you're the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," Ron exclaimed, "You can't leave."
"Yes boy," Lockhart stopped packing and stepped closer to them, "I'm a teacher, when I applied for the position there was nothing about a Chamber of Secrets."
"But what about all the things you did in your books?" Harry was taken aback by the man's reaction to the situation, "you must have some idea how to deal with this."
"Do you think my books would have sold half as well if people hadn't thought I'd done all that stuff," Lockhart turned his back to them rather dramatically as though about to begin monologing, "I just wanted to be a world famous author but nobody bought my first book; so when by chance I came across a wizard who'd just defeated a pack of werewolves I did what I had to in order to sell books, I wiped his memory and claimed his victory. I'm going to have to do the same to you now."
"You're a fraud," Harry and Ron had their wands at the ready for when the man tried to wipe their memories, "Expilliarmus."
"What should we do with him now?" Ron turned to him expectantly.
"Let him go," Lockhart mumbled out the corner of his mouth.
"We know you said that," Harry kept his wand at the man's neck, "I think we'll take him with us."
They led the man along with their wands to Mertyl's bathroom, the whole way he kept begging for them to let him go but they didn't pay him any mind. When they reached her bathroom, Mertyl was floating over the stalls and sighing over and over again, as they stepped closer she turned around, "who's there? Oh, Harry, it's you. What do you want? I haven't seen you since you took that book."
"I wanted to ask you how you died," Harry tripped over his words, he wasn't sure if that was an appropriate question or how Mertyl would react.
"Oh, it was awful and it happened in this very cubical," she let out a heavy defeated sigh as she pointed to the stall below her, "I was hiding in the bathroom and crying because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. Then I heard someone come in and start talking in a funny made up language; I realised it was a boy, so I unlocked the door and came out so that I could tell them to go away but I died. It took them hours to find my body, turns out nobody missed me when I was alive and nobody missed me when I was dead; finally Olive Hornby came in on command of Professor Dippet, she found me and she never forgot it till the day she died- I made sure of that."
"You just died?" Ron asked, "How?"
"All I remember is seeing a pair of large yellow eye by that sink over there," Harry followed the line of her finger to the sink that faced toward the wall, farthest from the door. Harry tried to open the tap but nothing happened, "it's never worked, for as long as I've been in this bathroom in life and in death."
Harry felt the faucet, there was a serpent engraved on either side of it, "this is it, this is the opening of the chamber of secrets."
"Say something in Parseltongue," Ron suggested.
Harry concentrated very hard, he'd never spoken Parseltongue intentionally, "Chamber of Secrets, Open." The circular marble slab that sat over the ring of sinks began to rise and slowly the ring opened up, the sink in front of Harry sank into the ground revealing the opening of a pipe. He turned to Ron, "you were right about it being the opening of a pipe."
Ron lead Lockhart to the opening of the pipe, it appeared to be dark and unending, "You go first."
"Boys, you don't mean to do this," Lockhart pleaded.
"After you," Harry pushed and they listened to him scream, he hit the floor sooner than they'd expected but it seemed a long drop none the less. Harry grabbed Ron's hand and with a small nod they jumped; they fell for a good ten or so feet before the pipe started gradually levelling out till it was more of a slide than a dead drop, leading them farther from the castle. When they reached the end of the pipe they were thrown into a shallow pit that was filled with the bones of countless small rodents that crunched and cracked beneath their weight.
"It's quite filthy down here," Lockhart moaned.
"Honey," Ron countered in forced high voice, "Save it for Oprah."
"Any sign of movement and you shut your eyes right away," Harry warned them before they followed the adjoined corridor deeper into the bowels of Hogwarts, the corridor opened into a rugged and bare antechamber with stromatolites.
"What's this?" Ron asked as they eye the length translucent yellow monstrosity filling the antechamber.
"It looks like a snake," Lockhart suggested.
"It's a snake skin," Harry corrected.
"The thing that shed this skin must be at least sixty feet long," Ron face palmed, "hence the king of serpents." Lockhart fell to the floor and curled up in foetal position, "Heart of a lion, this one."
Suddenly he got to his feet and snatched the wand away Ron's wand, pointing it at the pair, "I guess we've come to the end of the road but don't fret, I will chronicle our adventure in my next book; a tragedy about how I was too late to save the girl and the pair of you lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. It will be quite the tear jerker, people will eat it up. Say good bye to your memories, obliviate."
As the words left Lockhart's lips Ron's broken wand exploded sending Ron flying into the corridor from whence they'd come and Lockhart flying into the ceiling with great force, as a result a great many of the stromatolites were knocked loose and began to rain down on the small cavern. Harry took evasive action, by the time the dust had settled the cavern had been split in two by a floor to ceiling pile of rocks, "Ron, are you okay?"
"Just dandy," Ron screamed back, "but my wand is literally just splinters, Lockhart's memory charm rebounded and he can't remember who he is."
"Wait here," Harry shouted back the instruction, "try to clear as much of this rubble as possible, I'm going on to het Ginny and Kurt."
"Harry," Ron's voice was shakier, "bring them back."
Harry nodded even though he knew Ron couldn't see, he took a deep breath and carried on the only way he could now. Harry came to a large heavy looking set of silver doors with twin serpents engraved on them; with a repeat of his initial Parseltongue command the doors opened themselves to him. He climbed down the short ladder into the main chamber, the Chamber of Secrets; the chamber was long, narrow and had structural ceiling, unlike the antechamber; it was lit in the same pale green as the Slytherin common room and was lined with snake heads the size of cars on both sides; the chamber was flooded aside from a cement peninsula that started where Harry was standing and spanned the length of the chamber stopping a few feet from the great statue of a wicked looking man; there were pipes coming from every wall and even a large one from the ceiling.
As Harry walked the chamber's length he noticed two bodies lying side by side and broke into a run; when he reached them he noticed that both were unconscious, Kurt felt fine but Ginny was cold to the touch.
"Wake up," Harry laid down his wand to shake Ginny but she didn't respond, "please be alive."
"She won't wake," a voice came from the shadows off in the wing where the cement slab stretched out to each corner.
Harry struggled to see who was speaking due to poor lighting but as they moved closer he recognised the handsome boy in the instance, "Tom, Tom Riddle? What do you mean she won't wake? She's not-"
"She's still alive," the boy assured him with an air that reminded Harry distinctly of Kurt, "but just barely."
As the older boy stepped closer Harry could see that he was faintly outlined, "Are you a ghost?"
"A memory," the boy counter, "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."
Harry returned to trying to wake Ginny before she succumbed to hypothermia from the cold dampness of the Chamber, he wondered why Kurt was still warm but suddenly remembered that layers were Kurt's friend. His attention was drawn from his friend and his best friend's sister by a peculiar behaviour of Tom Riddle, he picked up Harry's wand and held it in his hand with Kurt's wand.
"Tom, what are you doing with my wand?" Harry got to his feet, "And why do you have Kurt's wand? Give me my wand and help me move them before the basilisk comes."
"The basilisk won't come until it is called," Tom stepped around the two preteens, "and as for your wand, you won't be needing it."
"Give me my wand," Harry pleaded, "we need to get them out of here, we need to save them."
"You see, I can't do that," Tom smiled wickedly and all resemblance to Kurt melted away, "the thing is, as poor Ginny grows weaker, I grow stronger. It was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets and let loose the Serpent of Slytherin, ordering it to attack the mudbloods."
"No, she wouldn't," Harry reasoned it in his mind and it didn't add up, "she couldn't."
"It was her writing the threatening messages and strangling the roosters," Harry remembered seeing Hagrid with a bunch of dead roosters last year.
"Why?"
"Because I told her to, you'll find I can be very persuasive," the boy let out a manic laugh, "it's especially easy when I'm possessing you. My old school diary came to be in Ginny's possessions last summer and when she wrote in it, she was most enthusiastic to see it writing back; she would write in it endlessly, complaining about school, hand me downs, her peers, her family but most especially two things, Harry Potter and Kurt Hummel. As Ginny Weasley poured her soul out to me, I drank it up and poured a little of my soul into her; the power of the diary began to scare her, so she tried to get rid of it and who should find it but one of the people I was most anxious to meet."
"Why did you want to meet me?"
"I wanted to have a little chat," Tom's sneer made Harry's stomach turn, "So I tried to gain your trust by showing you my capture of that brainless oaf Hagrid."
"Hagrid's my friend," Harry protested, then something dawned on him, "and you framed him."
"It wasn't hard to do," Tom shrugged, "it was the word of a prefect against an acromantula raising third year, Dumbledore was the only person who believed in his innocence."
"I bet he saw right through you," Harry couldn't help but smile at the man's brilliance.
"He kept an annoyingly close eye on me from then on," Tom snapped, "I knew it wasn't safe to open the chamber again during my time at Hogwarts, so I left this diary with my sixteen year old self preserved in the pages so that I would be able to control another and get them to do my bidding, carrying out the noble work of Salazar Slytherin."
"Well, you didn't do a particularly good job of it," Harry quipped, "The mandrake draft is being administered to the victims as we speak."
"You silly little boy," Tom let out a cold shrill laugh, "Killing mudbloods hasn't mattered to me for months, my new target has been you and this one." Harry didn't need to follow his finger to know who he was pointing at, "How is it that a baby with no extraordinary magical power was able defeat the most powerful wizard of all time? How is it that you were left with nothing but a measly scar but Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"
"Why do you care?" Harry was sure he was supposed to be drawing a conclusion at this point but it wouldn't click, "Lord Voldemort was after your time."
"Lord Voldemort is my past, present and future," Tom began to wave Kurt's wand in the air but nothing happened, "This stupid thing is defective." He tossed the wand aside and started again with Harry's wand, the letters floating in the air appeared to be his name 'TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE' but then he waved his wand the letters rearrange themselves to form 'I AM LORD VOLDEMORT'.
"Wait," Harry tried to build the bridges in his mind but couldn't, "You're Voldemort and the Heir of Slytherin, or are you just Voldemort because you look nothing like him. Also, I always thought Voldemort was his surname and his title was actually lord; why has no one ever mentioned that it was an anagram?"
Tom turned to Harry with anger in his eyes, "You are really dense, I'm both. Surely you didn't think I'd keep my filthy muggle father's name; I fashioned myself a new name, one wizards all over the world would someday fear to speak when I became the greatest sorcerer in the world."
"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer in the world," Harry proclaimed proudly.
"Dumbledore has been driven from this castle by the mere memory of me," Tom exclaimed with a clap of his hands and a manic laugh.
"He'll never be gone, so long as those who remain are still loyal to him," Harry countered and then went in to wound, "You aren't even second, because Kurt was invited to study under the Order of the White Lotus when he was only eleven; which was apparently a big deal, so at best you're average. Speaking of Kurt, Why him?"
"Ginny told me he was my wayward son," Tom chuckled as he looked down at Kurt, "I think she might have used the word spawn."
As the last word left his smarmy lips Kurt sat up right like he'd risen from the dead and spoke in a tone that sent chills up Harry's spine, "I'm not your son."
~0~
Kurt woke up to extreme clarity and knew the words he'd spoken to be true, he got to his feet, took in his surrounding and extended his left arm with fire in his soul, "Accio wand."
"He wakes," Tom scoffed before he could say any more the most beautiful song Kurt had ever heard filled the chamber and echoed of all the walls, out of the pipe in the ceiling came Fawkes in all her glory and beauty; swooped low and dropped the sorting hat into Harry's waiting arms, "This is what Dumbledore sends his champion? A song bird and an old hat."
Kurt gave a small laugh, "He also sent me!"
Tom Riddle turned to the large statue and began to speak in Parseltongue, "Oh great Serpent of Slytherin, come forth and carry out your master's bidding," the jaw of the statue dropped and revealed darkness, "Now let's match the power of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin with yours. Kill Harry Potter."
"Harry run!" Kurt exclaimed, he remember the large serpent from earlier and knew it was trouble for Harry.
"Parseltongue won't save you now Potter," Tom cackled, "it only obeys the heir."
The large serpent emerged and went straight for Harry, ignoring Kurt as if he didn't exist; something Kurt didn't take too lightly, "Stupify."
The stunning spell had minimal effect on the serpent, it twitched as if to turn on him but stopped itself. While it was distracted by Kurt, Fawkes had the opportunity to swoop down and begin a vicious assault on the beast that strongly juxtaposed her beauty, she managed to sever one eye and blind the other, Harry had gotten to his feet and was now backing away with new found freedom of vision.
"Your bird might have blinded the basilisk but it can still hear you!" Tom reminded them, and as though on queue the serpent lunged at Harry but missed by an inch or so as Harry took off across the chamber and into the pipes.
"Hey," Kurt turned his attention on Voldemort when Harry disappeared from sight, "ugly."
"You call me ugly," he looked affronted by Kurt's words, "I am devilishly handsome."
"Not when I'm done with you, Incendio," Kurt flicked his wand and a ball of fire appeared, he broke off a piece and threw it at Voldemort, and then another and another.
"You dare speak to your father that way?" Voldemort was bubbling with anger as he lazily flicked the flames away.
"I'm not sure who misinformed you," Kurt threw at a more rapid pace, "but my father is Albert Bartholomew James Hummel. Aculeus."
"You would pick a filthy muggle over the Dark Lord?" Madness danced in his eyes, "Crucio." An intense pain washed over Kurt and he fell to his knees as his muscles spasmed into submission under the agonising pain, "Where is Burt Hummel now? He's abandoned you because nobody would want a discarded blood-traitorous rodent like yourself, no better than a mudblood."
Kurt knew that Voldemort was using ligilimancy on him in an effort to break him, he'd read of the art of penetrating another's mind and it made his blood boil to know that this monster was privy to his thoughts. Harry went running across Kurt's peripheral vision, Kurt deduced that Voldemort's concentration was broken as the pain lifted but he did not move; he thought he still had a hold over Kurt, his powers must have been weaker until he was completely alive again.
"Yes Potter," he taunted with Harry's wand still pointed at Kurt, "the process is almost complete, soon Ginny Weasley will be dead and Lord Voldemort will return, very much alive." The basilisk emerged from the deep water between the statue and their slab, "finish him!"
"Expilliarmus," Kurt executed the spell perfectly and Harry's wand went off flying, "Accio wand." He held both wands in his hands as he watched the serpent pursue Harry once more, "stupify!"
Kurt fired the curse from both wands, something he knew to be impossible for someone his age; the spell was much more effective this time. Kurt turned his attention to Harry who was scaling the statue with a great big sword in his hands, "Where did you get sword from?"
"It came out of the sorting hat," Harry stood atop the statue when he spoke, the basilisk lunged at him and he swung the sword.
"Stupify," once more Kurt stunned the serpent, this time it turned straight at him, "Shit."
As Kurt readied himself to run for his life Harry did something Kurt would have never done; he jumped off the statue and lunged the sword down between the basilisk's eyes, coming to rest straddled on its head. The monster let out a great cry, flailed about wildly before dropping and throwing Harry off; it was dead.
Kurt ran over to where Harry was, dropping both wands; he was greeted by an exposed bone that had ripped through both flesh and the leg of Harry's trousers, "What do I do? I can only repair little bones and I can't carry you."
"I guess I'll have to finish this the old fashioned way," Voldemort picked up Harry's wand.
"Actually, No!" Kurt slit the palm of his hand open on the sword and it began to bleed freely, "the only way you can do that is with a little Ginny Weasley in you and I'm not letting her leave this place with less soul than before. Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, hanc animam redintegra," As Kurt spoke with his bleeding palm extended toward Voldemort his blood pooled on the floor along with the blood from Harry's leg and the basilisk; it formed a two ended arrow that pointed to Voldemort at one end and Ginny at the other, "lustratus! lustratus!"
Slowly Voldemort started to become more feint and Harry's wand fell straight through him, "No, stop!"
The arrow stopped pointing at Ginny Weasley when Voldemort was almost completely transparent and turned to the diary that lay discarded beside her, Voldemort started to disintegrate and flow into the diary. Kurt grabbed the sword and slashed the diary in two, "That's for calling my father a filthy muggle, for your information he has very good hygiene habits."
Ink spilled from the diary where he had cut it.
Ginny's eye's shot open, she looked about and saw Kurt and then Harry, "I didn't mean to, he made me do it."
"Ginny, Follow the chamber," Harry said between gritted teeth, "You'll find Ron, go get help."
Something dawned on Kurt as he watched the blood on the floor that had separated into three puddles once more, "I'm bleeding." He whispered it the first time, "I'm bleeding, I'm going to die. Harry you're bleeding, you're going to die."
"What happened to the badass that cut his own hand open and stood up to Voldemort?" Harry let out a painful laugh.
"Anger and Adrenaline," Kurt smiled as he became dizzy from blood loss and fell to his knees, "We were going to die anyway."
Fawkes hopped up to Harry's leg and began to weep, before Kurt's eyes the wound began to heal; Harry smiled broadly, "Phoenix tears have healing powers, we're going to be okay."
"Can I have some of that before I scar," Kurt held out his palm, the bird sqwauked at him and he pulled his hand away.
Harry giggled, "I think that might have been: Honey, save it for Oprah."
"Oh my gosh, I said that one time," Kurt help out his hand with a small apology, the phoenix tears burned slightly but Kurt's hand healed better than any modern medicine could manage, "Which ways out?"
"The way is blocked," Harry offered with a wince, "the stromadolites fell and blocked the way."
Fawkes gesture for them to grab on, Kurt through caution to the wind and the majestic bird lifted all three of them out through the pipe from whence she had come, they took a turn at the next pipe they came to and they were soon descending.
"Ron," Harry called out as they touched down.
"Harry, Kurt, Ginny," his face lit up at the sight of his sister, "You're alright."
"Of course we're alright," Harry punched him in the arm, "We were with Kurt."
Kurt looked about what he suspected was the antechamber, "this place is filthy."
"How do we get out?" Ron asked.
"We could create a human chain and Fawkes could lift us out," Harry suggested.
"Fawkes might have super strength but I can barely do a pull up let alone hold another person's weight up," Kurt counter and gave it some thought, "Flagellum." Kurt's wand extended into a long white whip, he tied one end to Fawkes's ankle, Everybody keep a firm grip, the grooves in the leather should make it easier."
"Hi," Professor Lockhart smiled goofily at him, "Who are you?"
"Why is this clown here?" Kurt raised a brow as they took off down the hallway and up the pipes, "And what's wrong with him?"
"He's a fraud and he tried to wipe our memory with my wand and it exploded," Ron giggled.
"Oh," Kurt shrugged, "that's how he gets away with it?"
"You knew he was a fraud?" Ron countered.
"Professor Dumbledore told me," Kurt shrugged as they touched down in Mertyl's bathroom, Kurt turned to the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, "Close." The sinks moved back into their original positions and it was over, Kurt turned on his heels to leave the girls bathroom, "I asked him why he would hire such an idiot and he told me that he was the only person who applied and that he had to hire him even if he was a fraud, it was during one of our little meetings."
"Why don't I get to have little meetings with Dumbledore?" Ron asked in an unnaturally sharp voice.
"Quiet Ronald," Kurt smacked the boy's arm, "people are sleeping, I need to sleep and eat, I'm so hungry." Kurt noticed them all following him down the stairs instead of going on to the grand staircase and Gryffindor tower, "Where are you all going?"
"We kind of have to tell somebody we're alive," Harry stated, Kurt knew in that moment that his hunger was inhibiting his ability to think. As they crossed the main courtyard hordes of students in their pyjamas appeared in the corridors, pointing at them and whispering, "How the hell did they know we were out."
"We walked by like a hundred painting," Ron pointed out to him, "They're all gossips those paintings."
From the crowd emerged a too familiar face, "I knew you fools would be able to figure it out without me!"
"Hermione!" Kurt ran to her and hugged her tightly, "these two almost got me eaten twice."
"Oh God," Hermione looked horrified, "What are you wearing?"
Kurt was taken aback by the question but suddenly remembered his brooch, "you mean the brooch, it's an eye carved from bone."
"It's grotesque," Hermione made uncomfortable eye contact with the brooch.
"It's art," Kurt countered.
There was suddenly a large cheer and Kurt prepared himself to take a bow but he saw Professor Dumbledore and knew everyone was glad to see him, "I'm back, I guess that means we're staying opened." The cheers turned to roars, Dumbledore leaned down to whisper to Kurt, "Good thing it's Friday, and we don't have to worry about classes tomorrow."
"It's actually Saturday," Hermione checked her watch, "three in the morning to be exact."
Dumbledore waved her off, "I was in New York five minutes ago, jet lag minus the jet." As though having a sudden realisation his head shot up, "Three in the morning, why isn't anyone in bed?"
"They were waiting in the great hall to hear back from the Chamber of Secrets, most of the students were very worried about their peers," Professor McGonagall seemed to appear from thin air, "We have business waiting in your office, the five of you come with me." She then addressed the masses, "The rest of you get to bed, we will discuss this in the morning but I advise you to unpack your bags."
They walked the short distance to the gilded gargoyle, "Ritz bars," Dumbledore let out a little laugh as he spoke and the staircase began to rise from the ground and they all climbed on. When they came to the landing the office doors were waiting and open to embrace their master, "Feels good to be back."
"Professor Dumbledore!" Finn's voice exclaimed as they entered, his face lit up, "Kurt!"
"Finnocence," Kurt eyed his parents sitting beside his brother on couches he had never seen in this office before, "Dad, Carole and a sleeping Harley."
The Weasleys were gathered in their masses for a reunion of their own. His father stepped closer before enveloping him in a hug, "You got captured by a killer monster."
"You know what they say," Kurt spoke into his father's shoulder, "Live fast, die young; bad girls do it well-"
"Good thing you're not a girl," Hermione interjected before he could speak.
"You stole my punch line," Kurt groaned as he stepped back into the space beside her.
"You must be one of the brave fellows who saved my ballerina boy," his father had turned to Harry, he got down on one knee so that he was at eye level with Harry. Kurt exchanged a warm hug with Carole and gave Harley a kiss on the forehead before engaging Finn.
"He ended up saving all of our lives," Harry was blushing brightly at this point, "He did… I don't even know what he did and stopped Voldemort."
"Voldemort?" His father had turned back to him, "that's the Hitler guy, right?" Kurt nodded nervously, "that's my boy!"
"How I do it!" at which point the Hudson-Hummel brood began to dance rather spastically with comic faces to match before striking poses and declaring, "flawless."
"Now we know why he's so strange," Fred whispered to George, who elbowed him in the ribs.
"I'd like some details," Professor Dumbledore pointed for the four of them to sit on one couch while he was passing out cups of tea and playing mum.
They began to recount their adventures; first Ginny told them of her possession and the blanks in her memory, she started with finding the diary in her new school things during the summer, chronicled all the attacks and their motives, and finally closed with how Percy intercepted her attempt at telling Ron and Harry when she'd rid herself of the diary and how she was forced to steal it back when she saw Harry had it. Hermione was next, she recounted their entire year of investigation- omitting their use of polyjuice- till she came to her sudden realisation in transfiguration; she remembered reading about the basilisk somewhere, not realising it was Kurt's copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, she found an extract that she ripped out and told the first person she saw, they were on their way to find help when they were petrified whilst looking around a corner with a mirror.
Kurt's turn was next, his tail was a humble one, that spanned less than twenty-four hours; he'd been followed by Ron and Harry who told a disjointed tale of bumping into McGonagall as she was looking for Kurt, hearing the monster had taken Kurt and Ginny, finding the discarded parchment on the basilisk and going into the chamber.
Professor Dumbledore was stroking his beard, "That's all lovely but what actually happened in the chamber?"
"Tom Riddle tried to steal a piece of Ginny's soul with the diary," Harry answered meekly.
"Diary?" Professor Dumbledore looked intrigued.
Kurt furnished the ink splattered diary, "Sorry, I kind of destroyed it in a fit of anger."
"How did that come to pass?" Professor Dumbledore gave a small smile, "I've tried countless times to bait you into anger and you didn't so much as flinch."
"Voldemort is better at pushing my buttons," Kurt shrugged, "it was after Harry did the craziest thing ever, he stabbed the basilisk between the eyes with the sword-"
"Then… I don't know what Kurt did but it saved the day," Harry interrupted him.
"I simply used three samples of noble blood; the blood of a slain beast, the blood of the brave and the blood that is sacrificed; to cast a spell that ripped Ginny's soul from Voldemort's, repaired Ginny's soul and returned Voldemort's to where it had come from, the diary," Kurt smiled, "then hacked it with the sword and it sprayed ink everywhere."
"So one might say you sprayed the room?" George joked, earning himself a disapproving look from Percy and his father.
"Truly remarkable," Professor Dumbledore nodded.
Whilst Kurt was preening in his victory a red-haired woman he'd only seen in passing on platform nine and three quarters kneeled before him, "You saved my Ginny's soul, for that I am eternally grateful."
"No need for that," Kurt smiled sweetly, "I was doing what was in my best interest, Ron would have been unbearable if he'd lost his sister. Now, could somebody get me something to eat before I die here?"
Everybody let out cheerful laugh.
the low down:
-Voldemort calls it a memory in my timeline because of later reasons, I know people got all up in JK's grill about it and the horcrux confusion but I've done it intentionally.
-the spell kurt uses is the exorcism from Supernatural, I've refashioned it based on the literal translation which is exactly what Kurt explains it to be.
-For those of you who are confused, Voldemort is not Kurt's father; that's still to come.
-The sword of gryffindor is impregnated with basilisk venom.
-The diary was actually destroyed.
thanks to mumimeanjudy for letting me know the last two were left ambiguous due to how the events happened.