Book 2
Chapter 19
A beacon of hope
Albus Dumbledore, Gilderoy Lockhart, Xander, Hermione, Ron, and a bewildered-looking Ginny were all gathered in the Great Hall. Lucius Malfoy, his son, Draco, and wife, Narcissa were also present, as was the cowering Dobby. Also present were the rest of the Weasley family. The Minister of Magic, Dolores Umbridge and a few others that Xander recognised from the Ministry stood in a huddle in one corner, deep in conversation.
Hagrid was shown in by Professor Snape. The greasy-haired professor arched an eyebrow and made eye contact with Dumbledore; the Headmaster shook his head.
"Mr Lockhart," said Fudge.
Gilderoy looked at Xander and smirked and then looked back at the Minister. "That would be Professor Lockhart."
Dumbledore smiled.
"Quite," Cornelius Fudge said with a twitch; the Minister was not used to being corrected, especially from celebrities.
"I have researched the Chamber of Secrets extensively and have discovered some rather unusual holes in the original case. It was originally deduced that Rubeus Hagrid," Gilderoy turned and waved a hand towards the half giant, "was originally the cause for the Chamber of Secrets to be opened and the Muggle-born Myrtle killed."
"Yes, that's correct," Cornelius affirmed.
Gilderoy nodded and turned around to address Hagrid. "Would you please tell me the location of the Chamber of Secrets."
"I…"
Gilderoy smiled. "Could you please tell us how to open the Chamber of secrets?"
"I…"
"Are you even the Heir of Slytherin?" Gilderoy queried, Snape made a face that looked like he was choking.
"That's impossible, Hagrid couldn't possibly be the heir to Slytherin," spat Snape.
"Professor Snape," Dumbledore said with a hint of warning in his voice.
"Professor Snape is quite correct," Gilderoy added, with a hint of flare coming back to his body language. "In fact, in order to open the Chamber of Secrets, one has to be pure of blood; isn't that correct, Hagrid?"
"I s'pose…"
Hagrid looked on the verge of tears, and Xander felt sorry for him, but it was better and safer for his ancestry to come out this way.
"How then, do you explain a half-wizard, half-giant opening the Chamber?"
Hagrid sat there for the longest of moments staring at the dazzling teeth, completely and utterly stunned. Even the Headmaster didn't know what to say.
"A very clever ploy, Professor," Lucius said with a sneer.
"Yes, sir, and if my research into Hagrid's family tree is correct, he is descended from a family of giants. There is a way to test his blood line, is there not?" Gilderoy arched an eyebrow at Cornelius who simply nodded. "Good," Gilderoy continued. "Now that's out of the way, Mr. Potter, would you mind telling us where the Chamber of Secrets is?"
"In the girls' toilets where Moan…" He stopped and corrected himself. "Myrtle resides."
"And how do you know this?"
He looked at Ginny with an apologetic smile. "I followed Ginny there one night and saw her open the Chamber: she used a strange snake-like word."
"Can you copy it?"
Ginny went very pale as he replicated the word in Parseltongue and the entire room stilled in shock. Now, the thing about Xander was that there was no Horcrux in his body as there would have been in Harry's originally - of this, the Hyena spirit had assured him - it had been obliterated upon Xander's arrival, but because he had access to Harry's memories he was able to also access the part of Harry that had once been Voldemort.
"Ginny, for the record you are not under arrest, but can you tell me if there is anything that you can think of that might have put you under the influence?"
She shook her head and then stopped. She dug around in her bag and after a moment pulled out not the diary but her wand: she waved it about in the air and suddenly a blinding flash of light caught them off guard. Even Xander.
Xander, Albus and Serverus were the first to awaken; Xander looked around the room somewhat groggily and noticed that Ginny had disappeared.
"Did anyone get the number of that bus?" Albus chuckled and helped Xander to his feet; Snape was by his side with his wand at the ready.
"Mr. Potter, if you would be so kind as to direct us to the Chamber."
Xander nodded and they made their way there quickly. When they arrived at the girls' toilets, Xander said 'open' to the sink fixture in Parseltongue and it slowly started transforming. It opened up to show a long dark tunnel.
Xander winced.
He held up his wand and said 'Lumos!' as he jumped into the tunnel where the sink had been only moment previously. He slid smoothly all the way and landed squarely on his feet at the bottom. A moment later, Dumbledore and Snape slid into view, looking slightly dishevelled. With the two Professors in tow, Xander made his way to the large snakey door, again opening it with a word in Parseltongue.
"Fascinating," Albus said quietly.
They walked through the tunnels and came out into the massive cavern in which their footsteps echoed. There, lying on the ground unconscious was Ginny.
"Well, this is most interesting."
Xander, Snape and Dumbledore paused at the snide and patronising voice.
"The great Headmaster, himself, and Serverus, dear, dear Serverus. My most faithful follower at your new master's side."
Xander whipped around and saw the handsome face of Tom Riddle standing there in the flesh.
"And Mister Potter," Riddle spat, a nasty glint in his eyes. "The bane of my existence."
"Damn straight," Xander retorted.
"I'm impressed that you thought to fight me yourself, Dumbledore. You are clearly not the coward I thought you to be," sneered Riddle.
"He's more of a man than you are," Xander chuckled nastily. Dumbledore looked at the boy, impressed with the double meaning of Harry's words.
Riddle's lips twisted into a sick smile. "This girl took a lot effort to control, but once she opened her heart and spilled all of her secrets, it was simply a matter of time."
Xander feigned ignorance. "How?"
"I suppose it doesn't matter, seeing as I'm going to destroy the great Dumbledore himself, and yes, even Harry Potter, the only one who was able to stop me."
"The way I see it, the Headmaster did a pretty good job of that too. You had to resort to getting a girl to fill out her diary…" Xander taunted.
Riddle growled. "The diary," he said. "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 she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her…"
"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."
Xander sighed. "You're quite the charmer, aren't you?" Xander tittered. "You even charmed Hagrid into opening the Chamber for you."
"Oh no, Hagrid wasn't able to do that, the great oaf that he was, or rather is!" Riddle laughed. "It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. 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!"
"Not everything is about power, Tom," Dumbledore muttered quietly.
"What would you know, Dumbledore? You who denied me, the heir to Salazar Slytherin, I, Tom Marvolo Riddle."
Using Ginny's wand he wrote "TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE" in the air, and with another flick, the letters moved around to spell "I AM LORD VOLDEMORT".
"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, Albus - 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!"
"Dear Riddle," Albus sighed, and shook his head.
"You will not pity me!" Tom bellowed. "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
A great rumbling filled the cavern. Xander groaned as he heard the snake approaching rapidly. Dumbledore said something in a tone neither he nor Snape could understand and suddenly the great golden bird burst into the gloominess.
The Phoenix brought with him the school hat and landed on Dumbledore's shoulder. Riddle let out a laugh and screamed at the snake to kill them. Xander closed his eyes and felt the other two do the same, but the bird launched itself into the air and went straight for the Basilisk, pecking out its eyes.
Xander grinned and opened them when it was safe to do so.
The Basilisk went to strike at the bird.
"NO!" Riddle screamed. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL SMELL THEM. KILL THEM!"
They quickly dodged the giant snake as it lurched toward them. Snape shot out a Sectumsempra spell at Riddle; the cutting spell lashed out but flowed straight through him and hit a wall, causing chunks of rocks to spray everywhere like raindrops. Riddle laughed again and even did a little dance.
Xander ducked and rolled out of the way as the snake's tail came crashing down in his direction. As he did so, he spotted the hat and saw something glinting inside it. Already knowing what it was, he made a dash for the hat, narrowly missing a large boulder falling from the ceiling as the snake swayed about angrily, searching for its prey. Reaching the hat, he pulled out the sword of Gryffindor, glancing over at Riddle with a knowing look in his eyes.
Xander slashed at the giant snake, and spurred on by Riddle's shouts of dismay, it did not take him long to kill the Basilisk, using the same tactics that Harry had, he climbed up the statue and waited for it to come to him, he stabbed sword into the snakes head. The snake crashed down on the ground and suddenly a huge piece of stone fell on its head.
Xander winced as Dumbledore smiled pleasantly, his eyes twinkling at the dead snake. Riddle shrieked. Xander picked up the diary that had fallen on the floor, placed it on the ground and stabbed it hard with the sword. Riddle's body twisted and contorted and he finally vanished with a bellow of rage; the diary, almost as though it, too, was dying, spilled out its inky guts onto the floor.
All three of them sighed with relief.
"Thank God for that," Xander said after cleaning a piece of dirt out of his ear.
"Quite," Dumbledore agreed.
Xander walked over to Ginny as the young girl started to awaken.
"Hey, Ginny," he said quietly. The young girl looked up and burst into tears.
"Ginny!" a female voice echoed through the Chamber.
Molly Weasley ran over and pulled her daughter up into an embrace, both crying freely, uncaring of who was observing. Arthur Weasley hurried into the Chamber and settled next to the two on the ground.
"A very clever ploy," Xander said to another entering the Chamber.
The white-haired man arched a single questioning eyebrow.
"I do not follow you, Potter," Lucius Malfoy replied, his voice as cold as ice.
"Mr. Potter to you, or are you going to need re-education on manners like your son?" Xander said viciously. A sneer crossed the older man's face as Xander said, "Frightened are you?"
"Of a brat like you?"
Xander smirked. "Ginny, where did you find the diary?"
Xander nodded when Ginny had explained. "Someone slipped the book inside her cauldron no doubt during the fight at the bookstore," he repeated. "Very clever. Who did it, your wife or son? Or perhaps you did the dirty work yourself?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, and even if I did, you don't have any evidence," Lucius Malfoy replied curtly.
Dumbledore stepped forward with a wince. "Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away. This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." He strode over to the door and opened it. "Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, twinkling kindly down at her. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice - I daresay the Basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."
"We can transfigure some rope to get out of here," Snape said as he looked around the Chamber with distaste.
Lucius Malfoy smirked and started to leave, turning on his heel with Dobby, the small house elf, cowering at his feet. "We're going Dobby."
"Dobby?"
The elf and his master turned as one.
"A deal's a deal," Xander said slowly. Dobby's eyes widened as Xander walked forward and handed the diary, which had an old sock stuffed into it, to Lucius. The man growled and took the book from him. Not being the sort of person to carry things himself, Lucius threw the book at the house elf, Dobby caught and stopped dead.
He whirled around to leave. "Come, Dobby." But the house elf didn't move. "Dobby!" Lucius Malfoy said angrily.
"Master has given a sock," said the elf in wonderment. "Master gave it to Dobby."
"What's that?" spat Malfoy. "What did you say?"
"A sock," said Dobby in disbelief. "Master threw it, and Dobby caught it, and Dobby… Dobby is free!"
Lucius froze, utter horror on his face. His eyes narrowed and his hand went to his cane, but froze when he realized that Albus, Severus and the Weasley family were standing around him, several with wands aimed.
His lips quivered with anger. "You lost me my servant," he said furiously.
"No, you did," replied Xander simply.
"I've sent an owl to the Minister asking if I could employ Dobby as my house elf. He will get paid, and will have benefits and days off," Xander explained to the Headmaster. Dumbledore smiled. "I've already talked to Petunia and Vernon about it and they agreed."
"I should imagine quite reluctantly," Dumbledore said. Xander shrugged his shoulders.
"Not my problem, Headmaster. Frankly they can just learn to deal with it. I'm paying out of my inheritance to have their house cleaned."
Albus nodded. "I should imagine that Cornelius will not refuse your request."
"He'd better not; besides I'm not finished with them yet." Albus took note of the nasty grin that spread across the boy's face.
"What do you mean?"
"Professor, what do you know about Sirius Black?"
Albus raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I am most pleased to inform you that the problem of the Basilisk has been solved, and that it is now safe to resume school classes. However, due to the stresses of the recent situation I am canceling all exams." The school erupted in cheers, apart from Hermione. Ron rolled his eyes at her.
Dumbledore continued. "I would like to make a sad announcement that Professor Lockhart will be leaving us due to the need to relax and write his new book."