Chapter 5 ~ The Lair of the Snakes
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A/N:
I made a mistake in the last chapter. It was supposed to be chapter 4 and not five. Now that I have that cleared up, enjoy the chapter.
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Once they reached the bottom Harry looked around. He started walking forward, the other two following him reluctantly. He turned and saw that Lockheart was shaking slightly while Draco looked almost bored.
"We should go back." The professor said as he flinched at a noise.
"It's only the bones of dead animals professor." Said Harry, pitching his voice in such a way that it made the older man cringe.
Draco jumped and clutched onto Harry's shoulder as they turned a corner. Avada Kedavra eyes searched the darkened tunnel for anything that could make the proud Slytherin so scared. His eyes landed on a long scaly form and he froze. He could see better than the other two right now, but he lit his wand to inspect what he had found a bit better. It seemed to be the skin of a snake, possibly the Basilisk itself.
"It's just the snake's skin. There is nothing to be afraid of Draco." He said. The blonde sighed and let go of him. Before they could go any further Draco gave a noise in protest. Harry swerved and shone his wand on the only other occupant there. Lockheart was holding Draco's wand, for Harry had taken his earlier.
"It is about time we left. I shall make sure neither of you remember this. I will go back and tell Dumbledore that I could not find the child and you two will forget." The man said.
"Can you even do any proper spells?" asked Harry.
"What makes you think I can't?"
"The spells I have seen you use do not work. If you could do decent ones," Harry said as he pointed at Lockheart's still pink, sparkly, and curly hair,
"-you would have fixed your hair. I am sure you hate the color." He continued with a grin.
"I-"
"It was all a hoax wasn't it?" asked Draco.
"I …"
"All you can do is make things worse. There is no way you did all of those things in your books." Said Harry. Lockheart froze, his secret found out.
"I am actually rather good at memory charms. The witches and wizards that did what I wrote about don't remember doing them."
"So?" Harry asked as if he knew the professor was about to try something.
"Obliv-"
Before the man could finish Harry knocked the wand from his hand. Instead of stoping the spell it caused it to bounce off of the wall. Harry quickly moved forward, hoping Draco would follow him.
The blonde wasn't fast enough, and Harry found himself looking at a wall of rocks.
"Draco?"
"I am alright." The blonde said, his voice muffled by the rock wall.
"And the idiot? Is he with you?" asked Harry.
"Yeah," said Draco. He turned and watched as the professor stood unsteadily.
"Where are we?" he asked. Harry heard him speak but was unable to figure out what had been said.
"I think the memory charm hit him instead. It definitely hit the wall because it was the reason for this cave in." Draco said.
"So …" Harry said, uncertain of what to do.
"Go on without us. I will try to get some of these rocks moved in the mean time." The other boy said.
"Alright."
Harry made his way through the many cavernous rooms and corridors. It was when he saw another source of light that he slowed down. He came to a stop as he saw a body on the ground. Unlike the other things on the stone floor, this body was alive, vut seemed lifeless. Then he turned and held in a gasp.
There, standing in front of him, was the boy from his dreams. The same black hair, blue eyes, and oddly sharp features had him blinking. Was this really happening? It's not like this could actually be real … right? He asked about Tom's appearance once when he still had the diary. The answer was exactly what he was looking at.
"Tom Riddle?" he asked, hearing a chucle from the boy.
"I see you remember me, Harry." The blue eyed boy said, a slight lilt to his voice. Harry might have shivered in pleasure if he wasn't distracted by a familiar book near the boy's feet.
"You were inside the diary. How did you … get out?" he asked.
"That is due to the generosity of this girl here." Tom said as he pointed to the body on the floor.
Now that Harry got a good look it appeared to be the Weasley girl. The little sister of the Weasel that annoyed him so much.
"What did she do to help you?" he asked.
"She gave me information. She also helped to set me free. The girl is alive, but not for long."
Harry knelt down and felt on the girl's neck for a pulse. There was one, but it was very faint.
"I may not kill her, but the power she is giving me now only makes me stronger." Tom said.
"Who are you?" asked Harry.
"I am Tom Riddle."
"I know that already. Surely, that is not all … or rather exactly who you are."
Another chucle as Tom snapped his fingers and Harry found his wand in the other's hand.
"Tom?"
"Shut up for a minute will you?" the blue eyed boy said as he drew something in the air. In red letters appeared the words: Tom Marvalo Riddle. Why is that important?
/Not like that will help …/ Harry muttered, slipping into parseltongue naturally now.
/You speak-/ Tom started, but Harry's sigh stopped him.
/This feels oddly familiar. I know you don't I? You are the one who has been invading my dreams./ Harry said.
/In a sense yes. Wouldn't you like to know who I 'really' am?/
/Sure./
Tom flicked the wand he was holding and the letters began to shift in the air. They moved for a moment and then rearranged themselves into something completely different.
"I am Voldemort." He read aloud.
Voldemort? Wait a minute …
"You're Voldemort? Isn't that impossible? You're dead." Harry said, standing up from the ground.
"I am a memory. I decided that I would place my memories into a diary and then later use it to open the Chamber again. Then Salazar's wishes could be fulfilled once more." The boy said.
"What is the point if I stop you?" Harry asked.
"Why do you fight against me Harry Potter? You would do better on the side of the dark."
"You are the one who started it." Harry snapped, his eyes meeting the blue ones of the young dark lord.
Before Harry could blink he was holding his wand again.
"I am curious to see what you can do. Let us see how the boy-who-lived stands up against the great Lord Voldemort." Tom said. He started hissing and a statue across the room began to rumble. From inside of the mouth, there came another hiss. Harry vaguely recognized the statue as Salazar Slytherin. There was no time to contemplate that because a large snake was standing no more than fifteen feet from him in only a few short minutes.
He let his eyes sweep across the body, taking care to avoid the eyes.
"The Basilisk." He said. Tom grinned and hissed:
/Attack!/
/There is no need to attack me./ Harry said.
This got the snake to hesitate for only a minute as Tom hissed at it angrily.
"The Basilisk only answers to me. Your knowledge of Parseltongue will not save you now."
The snake advanced on Harry, forcing the boy to run. There weren't a lot of spells he knew that could hurt it. His wand was practically useless right now. He closed his eyes and acted purely on instinct. It would not due to get petrified or killed by the creature if he was stupid and looked back at it. What was he going to do?
He hissed as the snake brought its tail down to crash into him. The force of the blow sent him into the wall, but that was not the end of it. The snake slammed him into the ground, his body meeting the stone painfully. He got up growling as he surveyed his shoulder, which he'd fallen on. It was more than likely dislocated, and it was a good thing it wasn't his dominant arm. It was his wand arm, and that could prove to be a hinderance.
The snake lunged for him and he sent a fire spell in its direction. The fire didn't even singe the snake's hide. Frustrated he tried a dark fire spell, which didn't do much better. The snake rammed into him, and he was stuck rolling away or being crushed. Rolling out of the way caused him to split his arm open on something sharp unfortunately. AS his blood flowed his eyes bled a reddish color and he glared at Tom.
"You will regret this. I was planning on knocking her out, but now she is dead." He promised. Standing up he glanced at the floor to try and figure out what cut him open. He spied a green and silver dagger on the dirty ground, one with a letter 's' and a snake's head for the hilt. He reached down to grab it just as the snake came for him again. He dodged this time, sprinting in the other direction. Hopefully he could use this … dagger to help him against that bloody snake. If it would only obey him this would be so much easier.
He got through quite a few corridors before stopping to catch his breath. He could hear the snake following him, but that wasn't the only thing to worry about. He had a strong urge to bite into his arm and drink it dry. That would only create more blood lust, something that would make things worse right now. It was hard enough to concentrate as it was, and being in that state was not advised under most circumstances.
He startled as the Basilisk poked its ugly head into the room he was hiding. He snapped his eyes shut and raised the dagger. The snake batted it away and he was slammed onto the ground once more. Snarling he got up and shot a dark fire spell at the snake's eyes. It howled in pain and swayed dangerously.
"You may have blinded her but she can still smell you." Tom said, his voice sounding distant and close at the same time. Harry ran out of the room and toward the place where the Weasley and Tom were.
The Basilisk followed him, albeit much slower than himself. Once the snake made it back into the room he was in a fighting stance. As the snake lunged for him he sunk elongated fangs into the flesh of its stomach. With an anguished hiss the snake fell to the ground. There wasn't a lot of time, and if he didn't do something quickly it would not matter if the snake lived. Tom would have enough energy to fight him soon, and by then he would probably b deep into the blood lust.
His body still bled from the dagger and various smaller cuts littered it from the Basilisk's tossing of him around. He ran to find the dagger so he could use that against the snake. Hopefully it would work. AS he grasped it in his good hand the snake was right behind him. He slipped past the larger creature and came to a stop in the main room again. If he could take care of the diary maybe he could stop the snake.
He spun as the heavy breathing of the snake caught his ears. It was here. He lunged just as the snake did, landing his now sharp claws across the snake's side. With that as a distraction he plunged the sword into the snake's mouth. It roared and reared its head. Then the body was on top of him and one of its fangs sunk into his arm. The snake was dying, he could see that, but its poison would probably kill him too. Vampire, dragon, thestral hybrid or not, he could still die by Basilisk poison.
Some more reading up on his creature status told him that. He may be able to live for a while without dying, but it was only a matter of time. He ripped the fang out and pushed the heavy body off of him. He turned to Riddle and glared at him. The boy seemed shocked by the fact that he was still alive. Blood and poison dripped from his left arm where the fang had just been.
"How are you still alive?" Tom asked. Harry smirked and stood up. He walked over to the diary and picked it up. He flipped through a few blank pages and then smirked at Tom.
"I am not human. I would have thought you'd notice that by now. It looks like the great Tom Riddle isn't as smart as he thinks he is."
This angered the young dark wizard enough for him to take Harry's wand again.
"You think that will scare me Tom? I know how to fight without my wand."
"What?"
"Just watch." Harry said as he stabbed the pages of the diary with the Basilisk fang. Tom's form faltered, and Harry picked up his wand as it fell to the ground. He pushed the fang further into the book and snickered as the form of Tom Riddle faded altogether, the boy screaming in agony.
It almost pained him to see the boy from his dreams leave. Now he knew the identity of Tom Riddle, it didn't really get him anywhere. That still did not explain how he was in his dreams. It was doubtful that a memory could do such a thing. Spells were strong, but there had to be another source …
He glanced over at the Weasley girl to see her coming to.
"Harry I am so sorry." She said as she came over to him. He opened his eyes and met her blue ones. She seemed shocked by something but for the life of him he could not tell what. His vision started to blur as she walked toward him.
"Harry? Harry!" she said as he dropped to his knees. Rubbing his aching head he tried to look at her. It was more like looking through mist or fog as he attempted to focus on something. Anything, anything to stay conscious …
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Draco sighed as he took his wand from Lockheart. The man was now pacing around the small chamber, looking very confused.
"Where are we?" the man asked for the tenth time.
"I already told you. This is the Chamber of Secrets." Draco said. It was very hard not to start yelling at the pink haired man.
"Do you live here?" Lockheart asked.
Draco slapped himself and then glared at the man.
"I do not live here. I have only just been here once before. Now for the last time shut up." He said. He'd been trying to shut the man up since Harry left, and that had been an hour ago. This man was giving him a headache.
"I … Who am I?"
"…" Draco couldn't even stand it anymore.
He cast the silencing charm on the professor, glad that Harry taught it to him. The man immediately tried to speak but found he could not. Draco dragged him to the ground and sighed heavily. This was going to be a long night …
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Dumbledore sensed something was going on as he looked at his phoenix Fawkes.
"Can you find out what's going on Fawkes?" the old wizard asked. The phoenix nodded and trilled its agreement. In a shower of flames it vanished from his office.
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Harry awoke in a room that seemed foreign at first. The most noticeable thing was the burning in his arm where it had been sliced open and his shoulder that was injured.
"Don't try to move. I am going to reset your shoulder and then I will tend to the rest of your wounds." Said a familiar voice. Snape.
"How long have I been out?" harry asked.
"I could probably guess around half an hour. Shut up so I can work."
Harry complied and tried to relax as Snape fixed his shoulder. The same stuff as before was used on his arm and then the area was bandaged. The pain in his shoulder was a nice distraction from the burning in his arm at the contact of the medicine. He could already feel his shoulder healing, but the rest of the wounds would take time to heal.
"Are you injured anywhere else?" Snape asked when he was finished bandaging his arm.
"There are some smaller cuts I think. Probably bruising as well."
"Where?"
"I will have to remove my clothing." Harry said. The potions master nodded and watched warily as he stood up. He looked exhausted and very much like he had just seen hell.
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A few hours later found Dumbledore, Harry, Ginny, Draco, Snape, and Ginny's parents in the headmaster's office. Fawkes brought Harry, Draco, and Lockheart to him but Snape took Harry away. He insisted on healing him instead of taking him to the hospital wing. Dumbledore shrugged and let the potions professor tend to his student. Now they were sitting and waiting for Ginny's explanation. From what Draco and Harry had said, Ginny was behind most of what happened in the Chamber of Secrets.
After Ginny's explanation and some more information from Harry Dumbledore came to a decision. He was not going to expel the girl, but he would need to take measures to make sure something like this did not happen again. How he would do that exactly was something he still needed to figure out. But when he did, the chamber would not be opened again.
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A/N:
That concludes the Chamber of Secrets portion of this story. The next chapter will be kind of like chapter 1, in the respect that it will detail a few differences from year three but I will not redo it entirely. The Prisoner of Azkaban part of this story will be mostly canon with a few changes. I will be using the same dream-sequence type thing to explain it.
R and R