Darkness was falling as Ron and Elizabeth made their way down to Lockhart's office. Elizabeth was surprised that no one stopped them as they left the common room, but the Gryffindors were so buried in grief that they slipped out with no resistance.
Minerva had given the news as gently as she could, telling the students that Professor Lockhart was doing all he could to recover Ginny. She'd left them all to pack, but not before pulling Elizabeth aside.
"Lupin is coming to the train station to take you home, kitten. Your father may have to be here a few days."
Elizabeth didn't have any intention of going home.
"Professor, we've got some information for you," Elizabeth said when Lockhart opened his door. "We think it'll help you."
"Er— well— it's not terribly…" the side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean… well… all right."
He opened his office door and they entered.
His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes had been hastily folded into one of them; books thrown into another.
"Are you going somewhere?" Elizabeth hardly recognized her voice. It sounded like Severus'.
"Er, well, yes… Urgent call… unavoidable…"
"What about my sister?" Ron demanded.
"You're the Defense teacher! You can't go now!" Elizabeth said, anger bubbling in her stomach.
"You're running away!" Ron accused. "After all that stuff you did in your books—
"Books can be misleading," Lockhart hedged.
"You wrote them!" Elizabeth threw her arms up in the gesture that always made Severus comment about her resemblance to Lily.
"My dear girl," Lockhart said, his voice patronizing. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. I mean come on—
"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?"
"Sweetheart," Lockhart said impatiently. "It's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. It's been a lot of work."
He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.
"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."
He pulled out his wand and turned to them.
"Awfully sorry, kids, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book—
Elizabeth's Defense training with Severus didn't fail her. "Expelliarmus!" She shouted, blasting Lockhart backward before he had even raised his wand.
Ron grabbed the fallen man's wand and tossed it out the nearest window.
"What d'you want me to do?" Lockhart asked from the floor. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is."
"You're in luck," said Elizabeth, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."
*S*S*
When they reached the bathroom, Severus was already there.
"That tap's never worked," Myrtle was explaining helpfully.
"Elizabeth, what are you doing down here?"
"You need a Parselmouth, Dad." Elizabeth looked at the tap. "Wait. Look," she pointed at one of the taps. A tiny snake was scratched into the copper.
"Say something," Ron said. "Say something in Parseltongue."
"Mr. Weasley, I don't think—
"Dad, I'm the only one who can talk to that thing down there!" Elizabeth looked at her father. Severus pressed his lips together and took a deep breath. "Fine. But it doesn't matter if we don't know how to get into the Chamber."
"Say something," Ron insisted.
Elizabeth thought hard. The only times she'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when she'd been faced with a real snake. She stared at the engraving, trying to imagine it was real.
"Open up," she said.
She looked at Ron, who shook his head.
"English."
Elizabeth book back at the snake, willing herself to believe it was alive. If she moved her head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.
"Open up," she said.
Except that the words weren't what she heard; a strange hissing had escaped her, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. The sink began to move, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.
"Let's go," Elizabeth looked at her father.
"Not Mr. Weasley," Severus decided. "Lockhart and I will go down first, and only if I send back my patronus will you follow."
"Please, sir. My sister is down there."
"I'm aware of that Mr. Weasley. That's why you are going to go right now and find as many teachers as you can and show them the entrance."
"Yes, sir." Ron ran off.
"I hardly think you need me, Severus," Lockhart said. "And considering your daughter stole my wand, I'm not sure what you expect me to do. Pity, because I probably could have been finished by now."
"You stole his wand?" Severus raised an eyebrow at Elizabeth.
"He tried to put a Memory Charm on us, Dad. I disarmed him. Ron threw his wand out the window."
Severus rounded on the other teacher. "WHAT?"
"The children made up some ridiculous lies, really, and I couldn't have them spreading such things about—
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Severus cast, hitting Lockhart in the chest. Then he turned to Elizabeth. "Are you alright? He didn't hurt you?"
"I'm fine, Dad, really. I blasted him on his ass."
"Language," Severus scolded, his voice completely devoid of irritation and heavy with pride.
"We have to go, Dad."
"Hold on," Severus conjured a little yellow sticky note and a quill, scrawled something, and affixed the note to Lockhart's frozen body. "Alright. I'll go down. Don't come until my patronus returns, understand?"
"Hurry, Dad."
Severus disappeared down the pipe. It felt like an eternity before a silver doe appeared and looked at her. "Alright, hatchling. Careful." Severus' voice came from the doe before it disappeared.
She slid down the pipe and landed beside Severus.
"Draw your wand," he ordered. "And don't lower it."
"Any sign of movement, close your eyes right away." Elizabeth added.
"Correct."
They walked forward, Severus unsure of whether he should be behind or in front of his daughter. He found his attention split between his surroundings and Elizabeth.
"Dad, there's something up there…" Elizabeth gestured in front of them. They froze, watching. Elizabeth could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.
"Maybe it's asleep." Elizabeth edged forward a bit until Severus grabbed her arm. "Wait, Dad." She held her wand up for the light. "It's shed skin."
Severus relaxed his hold. They walked on, until they reached a solid wall on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.
They approached. Elizabeth looked at Severus and he squeezed her shoulder.
"Open," She hissed.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and the two walked inside.
*S*S*
Professor McGonagall arrived in the girls' bathroom, Flitwick and Sprout in tow.
"What went on here?" Flitwick marched over to the prostrate Lockhart and was about to reverse the body bind when Professor Sprout stopped him.
"Wait!" She plucked the yellow sticky note off the man's chest and read it aloud. "Do not unbind the imbecile. Severus Snape." Sprout looked at Minerva. "Surely—
McGonagall shook her head. "If Severus bound him, then bound he'll remain. There are too few reasons why he would have done so, none of which will help our cause for the moment."
"We can't just leave him here," Sprout fussed, dragging the man into a kind of leaning position against the wall.
"We most certainly can," Minerva snapped. "Stop acting like a Hufflepuff."
"I am a Hufflepuff," Sprout said indignantly.
"Ladies," Flitwick intervened. "If you remember, we have a mission."
"Oh yes," Minerva glared at the pipe. "We're going to vanquish whatever is down there and then I'm going to give my son a piece of my mind. Taking a little girl into a place like that. Lost his mind."
The three professors cast lumos and then slipped down the pipe, McGonagall first.
"Well, that was delightful," Flitwick brushed off his robes when he landed.
"Yes," Minerva grimaced. "The newest Muggle amusement park attraction, I'm sure."
"Did anyone send word to Dumbledore?" Professor Sprout asked, looking around the cavern.
"An owl as soon as Ginny Weasley was found missing," Minerva assured. "Now, Mr. Weasley, in his babbling, explained that Severus suspects a Basilisk resides down here. Everyone, take care where you look."
*S*S*
"Ginny!" Severus couldn't stop Elizabeth from rushing forward, falling to her knees beside the witch, who was lying face down on the floor. "Ginny… Ginny, please wake up." She shook the younger girl. "Fred will never forgive me if you don't wake up."
"Elizabeth," Severus moved to pull her up from the body. He wanted desperately to believe that Ginny Weasley was sleeping, but there was very little chance of that.
"She won't wake," said a soft voice from the dark.
"Tom— Tom Riddle?" Elizabeth looked at the slightly blurry figure.
Riddle nodded, but his eyes were on Snape. "Severus. I've been hearing rather interesting stories about you. Little Ginny's been writing for months and months about how her brothers tease her and how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books." Riddle's eyes glinted. "It was boring. However, I wrote back. I was sympathetic. I was kind. I was patient. Waiting."
"We have to help her, Tom, she's going to die." Elizabeth tried to pull Ginny off the floor.
"Yes." Riddle confirmed, as if it couldn't matter less. "She poured out her heart to me, including how different her brother had been since he met the famous Elizabeth Evans."
Elizabeth's fear about Ginny's situation began to recede, leaving room for her mind to think again. There was something about Riddle… she had sensed evil. She put her hand to her chest, feeling the violently spinning necklace below her robes.
"Leave Ron out of this," she said sharply.
Riddle chuckled. The sound was grating. "Not that brother, you idiotic child. Fred. His attachment to you seemed so strong… he was my backup plan if you didn't come for this one," he gestured to Ginny.
"What do you want with me?"
Riddle chuckled again. "Oh, I don't know. Severus, what would I want with her?"
"Elizabeth, come over here." Severus ordered, not answering.
"So it is true," Riddle shook his head. "I almost couldn't believe it." He continued to watch Severus as he recited, "Dear Tom, Elizabeth is in so much trouble! Ron says they exploded a cauldron in class today. I don't know what for, but she shouldn't act up like that in her father's class!"
Elizabeth hadn't moved from Ginny's side.
"So the Death Eater is the father of the Girl Who Lived," Riddle said, smirking. "Although, apparently, not one that inspires obedience." He looked at Elizabeth. "However, 'Death Eater' appears to be an incorrect term. In Dumbledore's pocket the whole time, where you?" He shook his head. "No matter. You'll die for that tonight. Ginny Weasley has fulfilled her purpose, and all traitors and mudbloods will be gone."
"I asked what you wanted with me," Elizabeth glared at him.
"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Elizabeth. Your whole fascinating history." He glanced at the scar on her forehead. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. And, of course, kill you." He threw a hand up as Severus reached for his wand. "Don't bother, Snape, you can't kill me. I'm a memory." He sneered.
"How do you know my dad?"
Riddle feigned shock. "You haven't told her, Snape? When I created this memory, you were one of my most trusted followers." He looked at Elizabeth. "I don't remember you having a child. But, then again, I didn't know everything about you, did I? Your Occlumency skills really are remarkable."
"She knows about my failures," Severus snapped. "What she doesn't know is who you are."
"Oh, well that can be easily remedied." He reached out in one motion and snatched Elizabeth's wand from where she'd dropped it on the floor. As if giving a handwriting lesson, he traced three shimmering words in the air:
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using in school. 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?" He sneered.
"I couldn't risk opening the Chamber a second time when I was at Hogwarts, so I preserved myself in a diary so that I could lead someone else to do my bidding. A shame it wasn't you." He played with the wand in his hands. "I had hopes, when you wrote the day I showed you my… handling of Hagrid. But then Ginny was back." He scowled at the prostrate girl. "She saw you with the diary, see, and stole it back. Right from under her Head of House's nose, she claimed."
"You made her open the Chamber," Elizabeth accused, on her feet now, as if she was going to fight the Dark Lord with her fists.
"Persuaded," Riddle corrected serenely. "My plan worked perfectly. The chamber is open, and soon you and your traitor of a father will be dead, just like your mudblood of a mother."
"Don't talk about my mother," Elizabeth lunged, but felt herself being pulled back.
When Elizabeth was in range, Severus released the capture charm and grabbed her arm.
"A good thought, Severus," Riddle mocked. "But just prolonging the inevitable, really. You, Evans, are in the presence of the most powerful wizard in the world."
"You're not," Elizabeth spat.
"Elizabeth," Severus whispered, desperately wishing that he had put a stop to her smart mouth before it had the chance to kill her.
"You're not," She repeated. "Hagrid said that even you fear Albus Dumbledore."
Riddle's expression went from mocking to dark. "Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!"
'He's not as gone as you think!" Elizabeth hissed. "You don't even have the followers you thought you did."
Riddle held up Elizabeth's wand. "I'm tired of listening to you—
He froze.
Music was come from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on the back of Elizabeth's neck. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Elizabeth felt it vibrating inside her ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.
"That's a phoenix…" said Riddle.
"Fawkes?" Elizabeth asked as the bird floated down from above and landed on her shoulder.
"And that… that's the old school Sorting Hat—" Riddle seemed unsteady.
So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Elizabeth's feet.
Riddle began to laugh. He laughed so hard that the Chamber rang with it.
"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Elizabeth Evans? Do you feel safe now?"
"That's not all she has," Severus growled, pushing his daughter behind him.
"Severus, if you were a match for me, you would have killed me long ago. Or long into the future, depending on how you look at it." Riddle smirked. "You'll need an army. And even then—
"He'll have an army," Minerva's voice echoed through the chamber. Riddle and Severus swung around to see McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick. Elizabeth took the opportunity to pull from Severus' grasp and grab the old hat, sure that Albus had sent her something more. Useless, most likely, she thought to herself. A joke. Or candy. Or…
Nothing. There was nothing in the hat.
Riddle had recovered from his shock. "Good of you all to join me. Killing you here will spare my friend a trip upstairs."
He positioned himself between the high pillars and looked up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed, in a language only Elizabeth understood.
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving, his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering from its depths.
Fawkes took flight as something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Elizabeth felt it shudder— she knew what was happening, she could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth.
"Close your eyes!" She shouted to the adults, pressing her own eyes closed.
"Elizabeth, go," Severus ordered.
"I can't," Elizabeth hissed. "It'll chase me down in a minute."
"Kill them," Riddle hissed to his serpent. "The girl first. It will be fun to watch the others let her die."
Elizabeth eased her eyes into a squint. She was dead anyway, closed eyes or not.
Fawkes was soaring around the thing's head, and the basilisk was snapping at him with fangs long and thin as sabers—
Fawkes dove. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Elizabeth, and before she could shut her eyes, it turned. Elizabeth looked straight into its face and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, and been punctured by the phoenix.
"Open your eyes!" Elizabeth shouted. "It can't see!"
"Leave the bird alone!" Riddle was screaming. "The girl is behind you! You can still smell her! Kill her!"
Elizabeth dodged the basilisk before its tail could hit her. Riddle still had her wand, not that any of the spells the adults were firing were helping. Riddle was not much more than a mirage, and the snake was too unpredictable to hit.
The snake lunged at Severus.
"NO!" Elizabeth shouted in Parseltongue. "He's the Head of Slytherin House! He's a Snake!"
The snake tossed her head in apparent irritation. "This one speaks," she hissed at Riddle.
"It doesn't matter! Snape is a traitor! Kill him! And kill her!"
The snake made a motion that Elizabeth thought looked oddly like a shrug, and rose over Severus again, ready to strike.
"Help me," Elizabeth begged the cosmos. "Help him. Please."
The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Elizabeth ducked, and something soft hit her face.
The basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into her arms. She clutched the still empty hat to her face. At least she wouldn't have to watch…
The hat was suddenly hard. Quickly pulling it open she found a gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.
"Kill him later! Get to the girl! She's behind you!"
Elizabeth scrambled to her feet, ready. The basilisk's head was failing, it's body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face her.
Severus watched as the snake turned away from him.
"No!" He shouted. "Sectumsempra!" Bloody gashes appeared on the snake, and it turned back, furious.
Flitwick fired a sleeping charm at the basilisk, but it had no effect.
Elizabeth raised the sword, hitting the snake in the side, shifting its ire.
"Elizabeth Snape, stop that!" Severus shouted, raising his wand again, but he was too late.
The basilisk lunged. Elizabeth threw her whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.
She didn't need to hear Minerva's scream to know what she'd been wounded. The warm blood drenched her arms, and she felt a searing pain just above her elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into her arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.
Elizabeth slid down the wall. She heard Severus and Minerva shouting, and Riddle laughing.
White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as she dropped the fang and watched her own blood soaking her robes, her vision went foggy.
A swirl of red feathers swam past, and Elizabeth heard the soft clatter of talons on stone.
"Fawkes…" Elizabeth murmured. "You were great, Fawkes…" She felt the bird lay its head on her arm.
"Elizabeth!" Severus' voice floated over the serpent. "Hold on, we're trying to get to you!"
"Don't bother," Riddle called back. "She's dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it." Riddle's voice was fading, but Elizabeth was sure that it wasn't because he was losing strength. "Do you see what he's doing, Evans? He's crying."
Elizabeth blinked. She tried to focus on her arm, barely making out the pearly tears that were trickling out of Fawkes' eyes.
"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Elizabeth Evans. Take your time. I'm in no hurry. That cutting spell your father cast, did you hear it? He created that one himself, you know. A lot of rage had to be behind that invention, don't you think?" Riddle chuckled. He lazily flicked his stolen wand at the serpent's body, and it expanded, forming an impenetrable wall of snake between the dying child and the Hogwarts teachers.
"I'm thinking I'll use it when I kill him, wouldn't that be fun?" Riddle went on. "He survives a good crucio fairly well. A couple rounds of that and then Sectumsempra," Riddle smirked. "I might not even need Avada Kedavra."
"So ends the famous Elizabeth Evans," Riddle's voice was distant now. "Alone in the Chamber, adults who promised to protect her unable to help. Or perhaps unwilling? They did allow you down here." Riddle shrugged as if this was actually something he was considering. "You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Betsy…" He sneered. "That's what he calls you, isn't it?" Riddle assumed a false caring voice. "How do you think he's going to take this news? His sister and his girlfriend dead in the Chamber? Although girlfriend might be the wrong word, based on what the idiotic child wrote to me. Love at first sight, she seems to think."
I'm sorry, Fred. I'm sorry I couldn't save her, Elizabeth thought. I hope she dies as peacefully as I am. Really, the pain isn't so bad at all.
But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. Elizabeth gave her head a little shake and there was Fawkes, still resting his head on her arm. A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound— except there was no wound…
"Get away, bird," said Riddle's voice suddenly back full strength. "Get away!"
Elizabeth raised her head. Riddle was pointing her wand at the bird; there was a bang, and Fawkes took flight.
"Phoenix tears…" Riddle said it like a curse. "Of course… healing powers…"
He looked at Elizabeth's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Elizabeth Evans… you and me…"
He raised the wand…
Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Elizabeth's lap… the diary.
For a split second, both Elizabeth and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then, without thinking, without considering, disobeying ever lecture Severus had ever given her about thinking about her actions, Elizabeth seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to her and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.
On the other side of the basilisk, the teachers were trying to raise the snake enough to get under it, but even their combined magic couldn't raise the massive serpent.
Severus was making one last attempt to slice the dead snake when they heard it. A long, dreadful, piercing scream. Blood seeped under the basilisk, and Severus' heart stopped.
The screaming continued and then… silence.
Severus sagged against the basilisk's side, his robes soaked in blood.
"Sev," Minerva's voice was pleading. "Come on, Severus, stand up."
Professor Sprout was gathering a slightly stirring Ginny Weasley into her arms. "I'm going to take her," she said softly to Flitwick.
"Sev," Minerva was still trying to get her son to get up. "Come on, son, he'll be here any moment. He's going to come for us."
Severus shook his head. It was strange, he thought, that rage wasn't overtaking him. When Lily had died… he'd wanted to kill someone. He had killed people. Voldemort had, again, taken his world from him and this time all he wanted to do was lie down and let the Dark Lord take him too. It's a shame I won't be with you, Lil, he thought vaguely. If I was a better person… take care of our girl.
He slid down the scaly wall, his face coming dangerously close to the blood. The acrid smell of… ink? The acrid smell of ink hit his nose. Red ink. He was sitting in a puddle of red ink.
There was a little blood, from the basilisk cuts, but it was mostly ink.
Then there was a flutter of feathers above him. He dragged his eyes up to see Fawkes, emerging over the tower of snake flesh… with Elizabeth clinging to the bird's feet.
Severus decided that his instincts were failing him entirely. First the lack of fight, and now the inability to stand. He should be running at his daughter, but instead he sagged on the floor while the phoenix delivered her to his side.
"Dad! Are you alright?"
He found his arms full of green-eyed Gryffindor. "Elizabeth," his voice sounded shaky.
"Kitten!" Minerva knelt beside her son and granddaughter. "Are you alright? We heard you scream—
"It wasn't me," Elizabeth shook her head. "It was Voldemort."
Severus flinched.
"I stabbed it," Elizabeth said, letting Minerva pull her to her feet. "The diary, I mean. It bled ink."
Severus managed to get to his feet, pulling his daughter back into his arms, feeling stronger the longer he held her.
"Ginny!" Elizabeth said, looking around wildly.
"Professor Sprout and Flitwick took her," Minerva soothed. "She was talking as they left. She looked like she was going to be fine."
"We need to get you to the Hospital Wing," Severus said, his heart having returned to a normal rate.
"I feel okay, Dad. Fawkes cried on my wound…"
"You're getting checked out," Severus said firmly.
"I'm tired," Elizabeth said, feeling the sudden weight of exhaustion.
"Of course you are," Severus found that channeling his terror into a stern demeanor was the easiest way to go at that moment. "You know better than to lie about your health, young lady. 'I feel okay, Dad'. I should wash your mouth out," he scolded, scooping her up cradling her against his chest. "Your behavior leaves much to be desired," he huffed, striding from the chamber.
"Sorry," she mumbled, halfway to sleep.
"As you should be," he confirmed, as they reached the pipe. Flitwick had left a charmed rope ladder, making their trip up less eventful than the wild slide down.
"Dad?"
"Hmm?"
"Lockhart?"
"Yes," Severus glanced at the bound man on the floor. "I suppose we should transport him to the headmaster's office. Or perhaps just back to his own office to pack his things."
"Finish packing," Elizabeth mumbled.
"Finish?" Minerva pointed her wand at the man and levitated him in from of her as the exited the bathroom.
"He was running away…" Elizabeth yawned.
"Enough talking," Severus said quietly.
"Enough…" Elizabeth succumbed to the overwhelming fatigue, her head securely nestled in Severus' neck.