Down in the Chamber

by BettetPlayer133

When Emily decides to abduct Ginny for a chance to talk to her supposed vanquisher, things don't go quite as expected. Fem!OOC!Riddle and OOC!Harry. Largely Canon Compliant.

1. Down in the Chamber

~§~

Good morning, day and evening my dear people.

After recently discovering a slight obsession with Fem!Riddle, I decided to write this little piece for myself and you to read.

It can certainly be read as a standalone piece, but I am open to continue from this point in the story onwards. I quite like how this has come out and even though the characters may seem a little bit quirky at times, I think I have done a decent job at forming them like I wanted to.

Both Riddle and Harry are of course completely OOC in this little piece, but that was indeed a conscious decision.

Since I don't really know what else to say, I guess all that's left is wishing you a good read, and hoping you give feedback. Would you like to see more of this in the future? Is there anything you thought was weird or didn't understand? Please leave a Review.

Have a good one.

Redd

~§~

Down in the Chamber: Oneshot

'§Open§'

A bronze snake slithered its way around the outer rim of the circular door before it unlocked with a loud click. Slowly but surely, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets creaked open.

Harry's wand felt slippery in his hands, as he stepped through.

The snake statues to his left and right almost made him feel like he was walking down some strange avenue. The avenue of Death?

His gaze remained wary for any movement.

He stopped to notice a rather small body with long red hair lying flat on its back at the end of the chamber. Ginny. Carefully, he started to close the gap between them, looking for any sign of the Basilisk or the Heir.

'Harry Potter.'

Loud but slow clapping echoed across the chamber and a shiver ran down his spine. A decidedly female figure emerged from behind a closeby statue.

Long black hair, pale green eyes, a slender figure and chiseled features. There was no doubt in his mind who this was. Riddle.

'It was you then.'

He shot a hasty glance around the room, and sure enough, he spotted Riddle's diary lying on the ground, just a few feet away from Ginny. This is no normal diary.

'Incendio.'

A stream of flame burst from his wand, bathing the diary in a sea of orange flames. But when his spell ended, the book's edges didn't even look singed. Riddle's laugh rang in his ears.

'A good attempt, Harry. I have to admit. Now lower your wand, would you?' She asked sweetly.

He turned towards her with a cold glare, his wand pointed right at her chest.

'Why should I?' He asked, defiance etched into his features.

Riddle shot him a pained smile. 'You wouldn't want yourself and your little friend here to end up dead by a Basilisk's gaze, no? Is that not a good enough reason?'

Hesitantly, Harry lowered his wand. He was rash, not stupid.

'Very good, Harry. Thank you.' She grinned. 'Now, you didn't seem particularly surprised to see me down here, did you?'

'No.' He replied curtly. Claiming he'd expected Riddle would be a stretch, but had her presence been a surprise? No.

Between her involvement in Hagrid's expulsion, the definite strangeness and thievery of the diary, and a lack of other potential candidates, it wasn't hard to believe it had been Riddle all along.

'Indulge me, please.'

Every bone his body screamed defiance. But the rational fiber of his mind knew it would be stupid to deny her request. Hermione would kill me. He had no base for negotiations.

'You showed me the memory of Hagrid's expulsion.' Harry began slowly, proceeding at Riddle's nod. 'And since I know Hagrid as a friend, I consequently sought him out after our… ordeal.'

He grimaced. 'Unfortunately, he was being arrested that very afternoon for, as I know now, completely false accusations.' He glared at Riddle. 'What little he managed to tell me before he was taken to Azkaban though, was enough to lead me to the monster responsible for his expulsion all those years ago.'

He waited for Riddle to respond but she simply gazed at him curiously.

'Aragog, Hagrid's Acromantula, spoke to me about the opening of the Chamber fifty years ago, and I learned that as I had expected Hagrid was indeed not the person who was responsible, but that he had been framed. I tried to find out more about the creature inside the chamber, but as it was, Aragog refused to tell me about it.'

'We do not speak of it!' Aragog's low hiss echoed in his ears.

'Interesting.' Riddle commented. 'I knew spiders feared Basilisks but to know that even Acromantula are afraid… Perhaps something to keep in mind for later.' She nodded for him to go on.

'After Ron, my best friend, and I returned from the forest, we were notified that our friend Hermione had been petrified along with an older Ravenclaw girl. I assume you targeted her because she figured it out.' He surmised.

Riddle nodded. 'Your friend is rather bright, I have to admit. For what it matters, I'm a tiny bit sorry, but she left me little choice.'

Harry didn't deem her worthless apology an answer. Instead he simply continued.

'She had a crinkled piece of parchment in her hand that had some detailed information on Basilisks. When we learned that Ginny had been taken to the chamber, Ron and I didn't hesitate to help.'

She shot him a wide-eyed glance. 'Let me get this straight? You, a second year student, decided it was wise to venture into completely unknown territory, knowing there was a controlled Basilisk around, without taking any precautions?' Her expression was something between humorous and disbelieving.

'A rooster's cry is fatal to a Basilisk.' Harry responded.

Riddle laughed. 'Even if you could conjure a rooster it wouldn't work. I killed all the live ones at the start of the year, there was no way you could've taken one down here.'

He remained quiet.

'Well, let's get to the heart of the matter now, shouldn't we? It's certainly good to meet you on my terms for the first time.' She exclaimed brightly.

Harry frowned at her antics.

'I wanted to meet you for a long time, you know? It wasn't particularly easy to orchestrate all this, but I had to make sure you wouldn't have the chance to escape, after all.'

'And you needed to petrify half the school to make this happen?' He questioned.

She looked amused. 'I have a flair for dramatics, I have to admit. But no one got hurt, right? I don't think you understand just how hard it was to get you on your lonesome.'

'What do you want?' He demanded, growing tired of her playful words and questions.

But his response didn't have the desired effect. Instead, Riddle just shot him an even brighter grin.

'To talk, Harry. I want to talk.' She said in a sing-song voice.

'About what?' He asked flatly.

'About you, of course.' She answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. At his frown, she continued. 'Surely you understand why I would find you so interesting.'

'I have no idea what you're talking about.' He didn't consider himself anything special, even if the world seemed to think otherwise.

Riddle tutted at him. 'Harry, Harry, Harry. What am I to do with you? You don't want to let Ginny die, open up a little.'

Fists and teeth alike clenched involuntarily. He needed to restrain himself or things could get very ugly very fast.

'Good, you learn.' She smiled condescendly, as she waited for his retort that never came. 'Now, please tell me a bit about yourself. How did a babe of not even a year survive the wrath of Modern Britain's greatest Dark Lady?'

'I didn't do anything.' He answered tightly. 'I assume it had something to do with my mother.'

'Oh, really? Please indulge me.'

'She sacrificed herself for me. Voldemort asked her to stand aside but she refused, throwing herself into the way of the Killing Curse meant for me. When Voldemort tried to kill me again, it didn't work, and she vanished.'

'And how do you know that?'

'I dream about it.' He said curtly. 'I remember my mothers cries, a flash of green and Voldemort's laughter.'

She eyed him critically. 'Most interesting…' She pondered. 'And what came of the Dark Lady after she was vanquished?'

Harry didn't know why she seemed so interested in his affiliation with Voldemort, but still answered. 'The country was in shambles after the war. People congratulated me on the streets. Her name remained feared ever since. I assume you know as much from Ginny.' He said pointedly. 'Why are you so interested in her anyway? She's dead.'

It seemed that was the wrong thing to say. Riddle's composed expression vanished and she broke out into cackling laughter, looking at him in a mixture of pity and amusement.

'Oh, Harry. My presence here is proof enough of the Dark Lady's continued existence. Why don't you try again? What more do you know?'

Harry briefly closed his eyes in frustration before meeting her gaze again. He had lied before, he could do it again. 'Dumbledore assumes she's still alive. The public doesn't think so. You didn't answer my question though.'

'You really want to know?' She asked almost genuinely.

Harry nodded.

'Well, alright then. I suppose I would've told you soon enough anyway. Do you know anything about the Gaunt Family?' She asked him.

'I know they're known for being descendants of Slytherin and speaking parseltongue, but the last one of them died over twenty years ago in Azkaban.'

Riddle regarded him curiously. 'You're well informed, I have to admit. Nothing else?' At his shaking head, she continued. 'As is probably no surprise to you, I am a parselmouth, the same as you. And though I do not know just how you came into possession of that particular ability, I know that I inherited it from the marital side of my family.' She explained.

'Your mother was a Gaunt then?'

She nodded in satisfaction. 'Very good, Harry. Merope Delphini Gaunt married my father and conceived me when she was 19 years of age.' Her expression turned bitter for a moment. 'She died shortly after.'

Harry waited for her to continue.

'I will spare you the details of my parents' relationship, Harry, but suffice to say it wasn't great. You see, my father was Tom Riddle, a muggle-' She uttered the word with such contempt, Harry almost recoiled. '-my mother had managed to ensnare with a love potion called Amortentia. When they married, my mother's side of the family was understandably more than displeased with her. My grandfather Marvolo struck her from the family, and when she stopped giving my father the Amortentia, he left her as well. Heartbroken, disowned and weak willed, she died immediately after giving birth to me.'

She looked positively furious by now, and a tiny bit of him felt compassion for her more than unfortunate family history. He still remained wary though, hand buried inside his robe and tightly clasped around his wand.

'When I was born, her last action before perishing pathetically, was choosing my name. And do you know what she tried to have me named?' Harry didn't move. 'TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE.' She spat.

'The names of my father and grandfather, the people that hated her most in the world, and she tried to have me, a girl, named after these dreadful excuses of human beings? When the matrons told us kids the story in the orphanage I was laughed at for years before I finally taught them their place.'

She inhaled deeply. 'As revenge for my mother's pathetic existence, I decided to mutilate her legacy, to shame her even in death. No one would ever call me TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE again!'

'Flagrate.' She hissed under her breath, conjuring a rope of flames into the air. The name of her forefathers was burning in a bright orange.

'Tom Marvolo Riddle.' She repeated in a whisper, waving her wand and rearranging the fire. 'No, that wouldn't suffice.'

Harry flinched when she pocketed the wand again.

'I AM LORD VOLDMORT' Stood there written in the air, vanquishing any lingering doubt he'd had left.

'But of course Lord wouldn't do. Not that my mother would've cared, mind you, but the name would come to be feared nonetheless. The name stood for everything my mother hated, and so I decided to make use of her very wish to create it. So,' She asked breathlessly. 'Does this answer your question, Harry? Why I am so interested in you, so interested in Voldemort? Voldemort is not dead, Harry, she is my past, my present and my future. And I want to know where she is.'

Harry tried his very best to retain a stoic expression on his face. She was certainly right when she said she had a knack for dramatics. He certainly didn't have a hard time believing her words. His eyes flickered towards the diary.

'This is what kept you alive then?' He asked pointedly, refusing to be intimidated by her act.

Riddle regarded him sharply before a bright but slightly maniacal smile made its way back onto her face. 'Very good, Harry. Very good. You are so much more perceptive than I had been led to believe.' Her gaze bore into his head, and he felt the beginnings of a headache start suddenly. 'Now, why don't you tell me what happened at the end of last year?'

Harry's eyes widened in disbelief but before he could question how she could know, his mind told him that it was in his best interest to comply for the moment.

'I met Voldemort at the end of last year.' Harry began slowly, wary of any sudden movement that Riddle might make. 'She was on the back of our Defence Professor's, Quirina Quirrell's head, and was possessing her ever since she'd returned from her sabbatical. The Philosopher's stone was hidden in the castle and she attempted to gain its possession in order to restore herself to… life as she called it. She wasn't truly dead, but she wasn't alive either.'

Riddle's glare mildered and she prodded for him to go on.

'Quirrell… and her, I suppose, were drinking Unicorn Blood in the forest to ensure their continued survival.' He added as an afterthought. 'Voldemort and I fought about the stone and Quirrell and her burned at my touch. I killed Quirrell and she escaped in the form of a wraith right after.'

The previous fury on Riddle's face was now entirely replaced with the curiosity and interest she had shown just a few moments prior. She regarded him carefully.

'Anything else?' She asked pointedly.

'`My scar burned in her vicinity, and I refused her offer to join her. She killed my parents.' He added quickly.

It felt like Riddle was staring a hole into his head. With a twitch of her eye, she told him to step forward. But Harry stood still, meeting her gaze level-headed.

'Come here.' She snapped impatiently. 'If I wanted to kill you I would've already done so months ago.'

Hesitantly, he stepped forward, hand not leaving the inner pocket of his rope. Whatever Riddle was intending to do, he had no doubt it would not turn out to his benefit. When she was only inches away from his face, and raised her wand, he flinched.

'Don't be a baby.' She muttered under her breath. 'I'm not going to hurt you.'

'Horcrux Revelio.' She cast an unknown variant of the standard revelation charm right at his scar, before erupting into the most intimidating laughter Harry had ever heard.

Riddle threw herself on the floor and cackled, tears streaming from her eyes, and breathing haggardly. When she rose from the ground a few seconds later to meet Harry's fearful expression, she still had a maniacal grin on her face.

'I can't believe it. This is…' She pondered a moment before her enthusiasm promptly faded. 'But how many did I make then… this- it must've happened by accident.' She whispered to herself.

'Tell me about your conversation with Voldemort.' She demanded suddenly. 'What did she say, what was she like?'

'She- she was… insane,' He began carefully. 'She told me to give her the stone- the Philosopher's stone and that she would bring my parents back to life in exchange. I knew she was lying of course, so I didn't accept. After that she commanded Quirrell to try and kill me immediately. To me she seemed like an absolute maniac. Who in their right mind drinks Unicorn blood to stay alive?'

To his absolute surprise though, Riddle didn't seem offended by or angry at his words. Instead, she only lost herself in her own ramblings even more.

'Too many Horcruxes…' She muttered under her breath. 'Slughorn must've been right. I don't think I can console her this way- Do you know where she is now?' She asked.

Harry shook his head. 'I have no idea.' He replied honestly.

'I've got to reconsider, then-' She perked up. 'That means I have some good news for you. And Ginny I suppose.'

'What?' Harry asked disbelievingly.

'Ginny doesn't have to die for me to unbind myself from the diary. I can use the thing in your scar instead. I suppose that's good.'

He couldn't follow her words. 'Why do you care anyway? It's not like you haven't killed before. Myrtle was killed on your instruction.'

A pained expression overtook her features. 'If you believe it or not… Myrtle's death was an accident. I simply used it for my own benefit. I had to kill someone sooner or later anyway.'

'Why?' Harry asked exasperatedly.

'All in good time, Harry. All in good time.' Her gaze flickered towards the diary. 'Pick it up.' She commanded.

He stared at her perplexedly but complied with her demands. The diary felt wet and uncomfortably cold in his hands. He looked towards Riddle for further instruction.

'Take your wand and point it at the diary. Push magic into it with every fibre of your being.' She commanded.

'Push magic into it with every fibre of my being?' He repeated her words. 'What is that supposed to mean?'

She sighed impatiently. 'What's the hardest spell you can cast?'

He needed to think about it for a moment. 'The Reductor, I suppose.' He shrugged. It was a fourth-year spell but Harry had taken to learning it after his encounter with Voldemort the previous summer.

She shot him an impressed glance. 'Not bad for a second year.' She praised. 'Do you remember the first time you managed to cast the spell? The effort you had to put in to get it to work?' She asked, and he nodded. 'That's pushing your magic. Now do what I said.'

Harry complied frustratedly and tried to replicate the feeling Riddle had told him about. He could start to feel the strain in his muscles and the heat of his wand shortly after.

'Good. Go on.'

It wasn't like he had a choice. The ache in his body worsening, he pushed through, pressing magic into the diary as hard as he could possibly manage. Black spots started to appear in his vision before a skull-splitting agony near his scar sent him into unconsciousness.

~§~

'How long was I out?'

Harry woke in the dreadful cold and wet of the chamber's floor, painfully recounting what had happened before he passed out. Riddle's ecstatic form stood over him, a smile of satisfaction on her face.

'Five minutes.' She said. 'It worked.'

She held the diary in her hand before eviscerating it with a toneless burst of her wand. A standard fire-conjuration charm, he assumed.

'Why'd you destroy it?'

She shrugged. 'I have no need for it. The magic that was previously bound to the diary is now entirely transferred into my corporeal form.' She ran her hands down her body. 'As you can see I'm not nearly as transparent as before.'

'You're a person again now?' He asked skeptically.

'In a way.' She nodded. 'You should probably thank me by the way. I just rid you of a terrible burden.'

'What?' He said eloquently.

'The thing in your scar was quite… unpleasant. Suffice to say it was a mistake of the future-me, and one I don't intend to repeat ever again. It probably had a lot of negative effects on you that should be gone now.' She answered.

'Like what?'

'Headaches, strange dreams. You should have more of your magical resources available to you than before. The thing was leeching quite a bit of your power over the years.' She indulged him.

'What is that thing?' He asked pointedly.

She regarded him curiously. 'You really want to know?' Harry glared. 'Alright, then. It's a shard of my soul that accidently found its way into your forehead the night my master soul tried to kill you. It's a wonder really that you're still alive. I didn't even know that could happen before you told me about your scar's strange reaction to Voldemort's presence.'

'It didn't hurt in your vicinity.' Harry noted.

'It wouldn't. It was for all intents and purposes the same thing that I was. What the diary was for me, you were to your scar.'

'What?'

'A Horcrux is usually an object in which a wizard or witch has hidden a fragment of his or her soul in order to become immortal. It anchors them to the world of the living by not allowing the split soul to pass on into the afterlife. Only whole souls can pass into the realm of the dead. They are created after committing murder. Though the object thing didn't really apply with you as we now know.'

'And you made one of these- two?' He couldn't believe what he was hearing, let alone that she was telling him. This is madness.

'Six, by my estimation.' She replied unflinchingly. 'Of course I don't know since I only remember the first fifteen years of my life, but that was initially my goal. Judging from what you've told me of my master soul's state of sanity, I assume I was successful in the endeavour. I created my first one using Myrtle's death by the Basilisk and made the diary a Horcrux. Retrospectively probably the most foolish thing I could've ever done.'

'What?' Harry felt like one-worded questions were becoming a habit rather quickly.

'I knew that the Horcruxes would change who I was as a person, but I was willing to accept that at the prospect of immortality. You must know, Harry, I had great aspirations before becoming the Dark Lady you know nowadays. I always wanted to change society, and wasn't averse to violence, but from what I've heard about my future-self…' She trailed off.

He waited for her to go on.

'I never planned to wage war over the country. The Voldemort you told me about is undoubtedly a product of an abuse between ritualistic magic and Horcruxes. I thought what Ginny told me was all propaganda at first. I couldn't believe I had turned into a… monster, but now it doesn't feel very hard to believe anymore.'

The last restraint inside Harry's mind broke as he listened to her words. 'You don't strike me as very sane either.'

She glared at him. 'You wouldn't be either, if you had grown up the way I did. I'm not a good person but I'm as much a product of my environment as anyone else. What do you imagine it was like growing up in a muggle orphanage in London during the second world war as a witch?'

Harry flinched. Admittedly, he could relate to that and Riddle's upbringing. He didn't know when he had started to differentiate between Voldemort and Riddle, but maybe he had never seen them as one person in the first place.

'I'm sorry. I should be the last one to question one's sanity. You've had it rough.' He hesitated. 'But that doesn't excuse any of what you did. You still killed Myrtle, and you still petrified a great many people and framed Hagrid.' He replied steelily.

Her expression turned sombre at his accusations. He was surprised to see her lack of defiance.

'And it's not something I'm proud of. Myrtle's death truly was an accident.' She said solemnly. 'And Hagrid's expulsion was an easy way to lay blame on someone else. To be quite fair, he was still breeding an Acromantula in the confines of Hogwarts. He certainly deserved to be expelled, even if it was for the wrong reasons.'

Hagrid was his friend, but Harry had to admit he could hardly argue with her logic. Hagrid was rash, as the ordeal with Norbert had shown already. His expression told her as much.

'I don't hate muggleborns in the way you think, for all intents and purposes I am one myself.' She added.

Harry frowned. 'Why did you only target mudbloods then? You explained that you opened the chamber this time to talk to me, but why did you do it fifty years ago?' He asked her.

She sighed. 'It took me four years to unveil my ancestry and find the chamber. When I met Tessie-'

Harry interrupted her. 'Tessie?' He asked exasperatedly. Who in their right mind named the deadliest magical creature on the planet Tessie? Was Salazar Slytherin Hagrid's ancestor? Maybe he should introduce the Basilisk to Fluffy some day.

Riddle let out a hollow chuckle at his disbelief. 'Yeah, Tessie, don't ask me why Salazar named her that. Anyway, when I first met her I was angry and frustrated with the school. Dumbledore wouldn't allow me to stay for the summers, as a mudblood in Slytherin the bullying was as bad as it had ever been, and I was angry at the world. I decided to make the world pay in the only way I could.'

Her features were genuinely grim and the pained expression on her face left little for Harry to doubt in her words, even if she was still his enemy. It doesn't really feel like it though, does it?

'Since the school would've been closed down if even one pureblood were to be petrified, I let out my anger at the muggleborn population. I have always relished in the ecstasy of power, Harry, it's who I am. Maybe because I was so devoid of any for so long.'

She didn't need to tell him for Harry to know she'd been bullied at the very least during her time in the orphanage. But he personally had never felt the urge to lord his own power over other people.

Didn't you threaten your relatives with your wand at the end of last summer? He ignored the whispering voice in the back of his head.

He stared at Riddle but it seemed like she had told him everything she'd wanted to say.

'So what happens now? You kill me and go on to your quest of not world domination?' He asked half-sarcastically.

She laughed at his question. Not a maniacal laugh, a girlish giggle, or a humourless chuckle, but a genuine, honest laugh. Perhaps he was losing his mind, after all.

'I don't want to kill you, Harry. Maybe I wanted to before you came down here, I'm not quite sure, but now my intentions are clear. You intrigue me, Harry Potter. An enigma to the student body, a prodigy in defensive magic, with a reputation that precedes his name across the world. But despite all that you don't seem to take any enjoyment in your fame. You strike me as a sharp, talented boy that is yet to find his place in this world, and I think that I can help you.' She said passionately.

All Harry could hear was Voldemort's offer ringing in his ears. 'I will never join you. You killed my parents.'

Riddle slowly shook her head, a dejected look on her face. 'But I didn't kill your parents did I? I'm not the Voldemort of your time, but a former version of her, as different as night and day. We could be great together, Harry. Both orphans, half-bloods, parselmouths, talented at magic. Are you not as disgusted by your muggle-relatives as I am?'

Harry's eyes widened. 'How do you-'

'Ginny told me, of course.' She interrupted him softly. 'Think about it, Harry. Really, think about it.'

'I-'

'I don't need you to answer now. Take your time to think about it, I will remain here in the chamber for a while. But unfortunately I cannot allow you to share any of what you've learned today with the world for my personal safety. I'm sure you understand.' She smiled charmingly.

'I will obliviate Ginny of course, but I will require a magical vow from you. If you do not comply… I see no way but to test if Tessie's gaze does still work properly after all these years.'

Harry wanted to defy her, wanted to cry out his refusal but the words died in his throat. He had no choice. He inhaled deeply.

'What do you want me to do?' He asked, his voice leaden.

'You are aware of how magical vows work?' Harry nodded. 'I will wake up Ginny to serve as a binder before stunning and obliviating her of anything that has happened down here. She will still remember me possessing her over the course of the year, but we will come to that when it is time. For now, the vow.'

Riddle turned towards Ginny and pointed her wand at her body. She was less pale than before, even if he remembered her having more colour than she did now.

'Rennervate.' Riddle incanted softly, Ginny's eyes fluttering open in response.

The red-haired girl immediately shot up from the ground and hastily glanced around the chamber. As she spotted Harry, she erupted into a fit of half-coherent words.

'Harry- Riddle, Emily- she's the one responsible- I tried to tell you- but she stopped me- it's a Basilisk- it wasn't my fault- please-' She pleaded towards him, entirely ignoring Riddle's presence.

Harry remained silent as Riddle interrupted her. 'Shut up.' She snapped. 'I didn't wake you up to bother Harry with your insecure ramblings. Come here.' She demanded.

Ginny looked at him fearfully, but he retained a stoic expression. I'm sorry but I don't have any more power than you do.

'Harry.'

Riddle held her arm out and he clasped it tightly. Ginny stared at them in utter horror but kept silent.

'We will require you as a witness to a magical vow. If you try anything I'll leave you for the Basilisk to feast. Do you understand your job?' Riddle demanded, handing her the wand which he presumed had been Ginny's in the first place.

Ginny paled. 'Yes, Emily.' She pointed her wand at their intertwined hands.

Riddle inhaled deeply before beginning the chant. 'Will you, Harry James Potter, promise to keep my, Emily Mary Riddle's, continued existence a secret, to the best of your abilities?'

Harry gulped. 'I will.' He answered tonelessly.

'And will you, to the best of your abilities, promise to never intentionally reveal this secret to anyone without my explicit permission.'

'I will.' He repeated.

'And will you, to the best of your abilities, promise to listen to my advice before leaving this chamber?'

'I will.' He said one last time.

He felt the golden-glowing bands burn into his skin before the pain faded into numbness and he looked up to see an ecstatic Riddle look at him in satisfaction.

'Thank you, Harry.' She turned towards Ginny. 'My wand.'

Ginny handed Riddle her wand and was stunned unconscious by a flash of red just a second later.

'The obliviation will take some time. I'm good with mind magic but I have to make sure it isn't reversible.'

Harry shuddered. 'Lockhart tried to obliviate when we tried to enter the chamber.'

Riddle shot him a look of disbelief. 'Lockhart? The Defence Professor?' She surmised.

'Yes.'

She shrugged. 'Didn't think he had it in him. Obliviation is a rather difficult and obscure branch of magic. The knowledge is very restricted but that hardly matters with all the books down here. What happened to him?'

'There are books down here?' He continued at her nod. 'He actually managed to cast the spell, but unfortunately for him, he did so using Ron's broken wand. The result was…'

'A lunatic, I presume?' Riddle suggested.

'Yeah.' He agreed breathlessly. 'I'm glad he failed.'

She smiled. 'I think so as well. Now, please give me a minute.'

She leaned down towards Ginny's body and opened the girl's eyelids with a flick of her wand. Pointing the wand between her brows, Riddle softly cast the memory charm.

'Obliviate.'

Harry didn't know for how long he just stood there, still not really grasping the reality of the situation.

He was in the Chamber of Secrets, talking to a teenage Voldemort as if she was any other person, instead of trying to save Ginny and get out of here. Even worse, he had even agreed to meet all her demands and not once tried to withstand her.

The voice in the back of his mind told him all attempts would've been futile anyway, but he couldn't help but feel bad for not trying in the first place.

But it was too late now anyway. He had already sworn an Unbreakable Vow to Riddle and hardly had a chance to act against her. She had admittedly been rather lenient in her demands but that didn't mean it would be easy game to stop her either.

He wasn't even entirely sure he wanted to. A small part of him sympathised with Riddle, and even understood where she was coming from.

He hated the Dursleys as well, but to hate muggles as a whole? Could he justify even talking to her civilly? Was she not the one who had killed his parents? She didn't remind him of anything like the Voldemort he'd met last year on the back of Quirrel's head. But was that reason enough?

'I'm finished.' Riddle's voice broke through his inner conflict. 'You alright?'

'Thinking.' He replied quietly.

'I think you have enough time for that once you get out of the chamber. For now I want to discuss how we move forward from here.' She told him.

'Okay.' He had no choice, the vow compelled him.

She eyed him thoughtfully. 'The Vow will protect you from any potential mind magic, be that legilimency or memory stuff, but what remains to be decided is just what story you will tell to the people outside this chamber.' She surmised.

Harry nodded. 'Do you have anything in mind?'

'Just about.' She replied. 'Don't go into too many details, it runs the risk of creating contradictions if you repeat the story often-'

'I know how to lie.' Harry interrupted, feeling the vow burn his arm in repercussion.

Riddle smiled apologetically. 'Of course. Just say that you met me down here and that you destroyed the diary. Imagine your first Incendio on the book worked- That was quite ingenious by the way. Of course nothing short of Fiendfyre would've worked, but I admire the spirit. -and I was destroyed along with it. Ginny won't remember anything of what happened today, so you won't have to worry about her. I trust you can bring the lie across convincingly.'

Harry nodded.

'I will remain down here for the time being and enjoy having a proper corporeal form again. Please visit again tomorrow and bring some food with you. We'll talk more then.'

'That's it?'

'Yes.' She shrugged. 'I assume you are quite drained from both the removal of your little soul piece and everything you learned today, and I'd rather talk to you when you're in prime condition.'

Harry was quiet for a moment. Her assessment was shot true.

'So you'll just let me go now? Seems a bit anticlimactic.' He stated.

She laughed. 'It is, isn't it? I don't think either of us imagined we would part like this.'

'No.' Harry agreed with a humourless chuckle. 'See you… tomorrow then, I guess?'

He picked up Ginny from the ground and noticed that she was lighter than he had expected. He lodged her between his arms bride-style and glanced back at Riddle.

She nodded. 'See you tomorrow.'

As he turned around and headed towards the exit of the chamber, Harry wondered what his life had become just now.