(Author's Note: I'm Backkkkk! I'm very, very sorry that I left all of you waiting for this chapter. How long has it been? Well over a year? A lot of things came up, so I lost the need to write, hopefully this time I'll be able to finish it. Now, I'll start on the third story when the time arrives. Now, as before, I don't own Harry Potter, just the Ocs. Enjoy this chapter!)
Last time: Ginny has been taken by the Basilisk into the Chamber of Secrets. Sophie, Harry, Ron and a reluctant Gulderoy Lockhart mount a daring rescue mission but they get separated. Can Harry and Sophie defeat the Heir of Slytherin and rescue Ginny?
Well, this is where we stand, at the end of this very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. I was scared, somwhere in the darkness, Ginny was being held, by the Basilisk. The very same thing that attacked Colin, Justin, Nearly headless Nick, and Hermione. Oh god, I've got to fight a snake, well, me and Harry.
"Sophie, you with me?" Harry asked.
"Yes." I croaked. "Harry, how's your Gryffindor courage?"
"Mine's the size of a pea. Yours?" Harry answered.
"Mine's jumped on a horse and bolted. We've come this far. We need to move." I said. I pulled my wand out and me and Harry continued slowly between serpentine columns. I can hear my own heartbeat, It's about to jump out and say, 'nice knowing ya, Sophie', and run away into the darkness. Those hollow eyes of the snakes, I swear I thought one of them moved. Then, as we drew level with the last of the pillars, a statue, high as the chamber itself lommed into view, standing against the back wall.
"This is nice, not a place I want to hang out though." I muttered. "Do you see anything, Harry?'
"Ginny." Harry muttered and started sprinting towards the giant staute. It wasancient and monkey-like, with a long thin beard that fell almost almost to thebottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth chamber floor. And between the feet, face down, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming red hair.
"Oh no." I started sprinting towards her. Harry was already there, trying to wake her up. Ginny was very pale, she was out cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she couldn't be petrified, but that means...
"Please don't be dead." Harry muttered as he turned her over. "Please don't be dead." I put my fingers on the side of her neck, trying to feel for a pulse. I feel nothing.
"If there's a pulse, it's very weak." I say. "Ok, we have to forget the snake and the heir of Slytherin, we have to get Ginny out of here."
"But how?" Asked Harry.
"I don't know." I answered. "But I'll think of something. You keep trying to wake her up, I'll see if I can find a way out." I got up and started looking around. I wonder if those pipes has an exit we can use? I looked back down and Harry started shaking Ginny violently.
"Please wake up." He said.
"Harry!" I hissed.
"What?" He asked.
"I Said wake her up, but not like that." I answered.
"Well, What do you want me to try?" He questioned.
"I don't know, mouth to mouth?" I answered.
"She won't wake." I waved my wand around like a madmen. Harry stood up quickly to try find the source of the sound. There it was, a young man, standing near the pillar, watching us. He looked blurry but there's no mistaking who he was.
"Tom Riddle?" I asked. He nodded, not even taking his eyes off us. Hang on, he was at Hogwarts fifty years ago, but he didn't look a day over sixteen.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Asked Harry desperately. "Is she-? Is she-?"
"She's alive." Said Riddle. "But only Just."
"Are you a ghost?" Harry asked uncertainty.
"A memory." He answered. "Persevered in a diary for fifty years."
"Fifty years?" I asked. "But how?" He merely pointed towards the floor near the staute's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. How on earth did the book get down here?
"You've got to help us, Tom." Harry said. "We've got to get her out of there. There's a Basilisk. We don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment."
"It won't come until it's called." Riddle said calmly.
"What do you..." I started but then I see Tom twirling a wand in his right hand.
"Tom, give me back my wand." Harry said
"Oh, I don't think you two will need your wands." He said with an devilish smile. A flick of Harry's wand and the next thing I know my wand is sent flying onto the floor.
"Oi!" I shouted at him. "What gives?!"
"I've waited a long time for this." Said Riddle. "For a chance to see you two, for a chance to speak to you."
"Look," Said Harry, losing patience. "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later."
"We can talk now." Said Riddle, with an broading smile.
"Why can't it wait?" Harry said desperatly.
"Cause he's not in a rush to get out of here." I said. "Are you, Riddle?!"
"So Lestrange is starting to finally put the pieces together?" He said.
"What's he talking about, Sophie?" Harry asked.
"How did Ginny get like that?" I asked him.
"Well, that's an interesting question." He answered. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
"What are you talking about?" Said Harry.
"The diary." Said Riddle. " My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitful worries and woes: how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, how..." Riddle's eyes glinted. "...how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her..." And all the time he spoke, he'd never took his eyes of Harry. "It's very boring, having to listen to the silly troubles of an eleven-year-old girl." He went on and on and on. "But I was patient. I wrote back, I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one's 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 round in my pocket..."
"Gee, being nice must've been so hard." I said. Riddle laughed. A high, cold laugh, that didn't suit him.
"If I say it myself, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted. I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start a little of my soul back into her..."
"What d'you mean?" Said Harry.
"Haven't you two guess it yet?" Said Riddle softly.
"Guess what?" I asked.
"Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."
"No" Harry Whispered.
"Oh yes." Said Riddle Calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wished you could have seen her new diary entries, far more interesting, they became. 'Dear Tom,' He recited. 'I think I'm losing my memory. There are roster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Drear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me... There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to? I think I'm going mad... I think I'm the one who's attacking everyone, Tom!'
"You sick bastard." I said through my teeth. "Ginny must've realised..."
"It took a very long time for Stupid Little Ginny to stop trusting her diary." Said Riddle. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you two came in, you found it. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you two, the very people I was most anxious to meet..."
"And why did you want to meet us?" Harry said, struggling to keep his anger in.
"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you two." Said Riddle. "I knew I must find out more about you two, talk to you two, meet you two if I could. So I decided show you my famous capture of the great oaf, Hagrid to gain your trust."
"Hagrid's our friend." Harry shouted.
"And you framed him, didn't you?" I asked with my voice shaking. Riddle laughed his high laugh again.
"It was mine word against Hagrid's. Well, you can imagine how it how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school Perfect, 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 realise that Hagrid couldn't be the heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance... as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power! Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train home gamekeeper. Yes, I think, Dumbledore might have guessed. Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did..."
"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you." Said Harry, his teeth gritted.
"Well, he certainly kept an annoying close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled." Said Riddle, carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber of Secrets again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I've spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, persevering my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."
"Well, you haven't finished it." Said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrakes Draught, will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be able right again."
"Gee mate." I said with an devilish smile of my own. "Fifty years cooked up in that book, all that hard work, and you've failed. Your Salazar Slytherin will be very disappointed in you."
"Haven't I told you two yet?" Riddle said. "Killing mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new targets have been – You two."
"Us?" I asked uncertainty.
"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, It was Ginny writing to me. She saw Harry with the diary, you see, and she panicked. What If one if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you two?" What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything that Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery – particularity if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me was buzzing because you could speak Parseltounge. So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. But there isn't much life in her:, she put too much into the diary, into me. Enough for me to leave its pages at last. I have been waiting for you two to arrived since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I've many questions for the both of you."
"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched.
"Well..." Said Riddle, smiling pleasantly. "Let's start with you, Lestrange." He looked straight at me, with hunger in his eyes, like I was a delicious piece of meat. I looked back at him with venom in my eyes. "How did you, the daughter of two of Lord Voldemort's most loyal followers, destined to follow in their footsteps, ended up being a blood-traitor? Ended up in Gryffindor? Becoming friends with fellow blood-traitors, half-bloods and Mudbloods? Denying your true potential? The life that you were supposed to have? In control of an monster, an animal, an killer. Fighting by your parents side? As Lord Voldemort's most trusted and loyal followers? Oh yes Sophie, I've seen it. You have the power to destroy everything for a pure-blooded supremacy, but yet, you fight it? Why?"
"What are you talking about?" I asked him. He kept looking at me with me with that smile before turning his attention to Harry.
"And you..." He started. "How is that a baby, with no extraordinary powers magical talent managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers was destroyed?"
"Why do you cared how I escaped?" Said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time."
"Harry Potter, Sophie Lestrange..." Said Riddle softly "Voldemort is my past, present, and future." He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words.
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves. What I saw, it took my breath away.
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
"Oh...My...God." I said in shock. Standing in front of me, was the most dangerous man of all the wizardry world. Anger was quickly replaced by fear.
"You're Lord Voldemort?" Asked Harry.
"You see,' I whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friend only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name for ever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's veins. I, keep the name of a foul, common muggle, who abandoned me before I was even born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, 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?!" I was scared. I didn't know We were going to get out of this alive. Tom Riddle was Lord Voldemort, Salazar Slytherin's heir.
"No, you're not." Harry said, his quiet voice full of hatred.
"Not what?" Snapped Riddle.
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world." Said Harry. "Sorry to disappoint you, and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try to take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw right through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're these days." The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.
"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!' He hissed.
"He's not as gone as you may think." Harry retorted. Hang on, there was music coming from somewhere. The music was getting louder, it was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly,, then flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar. A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle. A second later, the bird was flying straight at us. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, then landed heavily on his shoulder. As it folded its great wings, I looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and beady black eyes. The bird stopped singing. It sat still and still next to Harry's cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle.
"That's a phoenix..." Said Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.
"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, and he felt the bird's golden claws squeeze hid shoulder gently.
"You know this bird?" I asked.
"And that..." Said Riddle, now eying the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped. "..that's the old school sorting Hat. So it was. Patched, frayed and dirty, the hat lay motionless at our feet. Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once. "This is what Dumbledore sends his best two defenders? An songbird and an old hat. Do you feel brave? Do you feel safe now?"
"Yeah, he's got a point, Harry. We don't have much to work with." I said.
"Now, to business." Said Riddle, still broadly. "Tell me everything, Harry. How you did you survive? The longer you talk, the longer you two stay alive."
"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me." Said Harry Abruptly. "I don't know myself. But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle-born mother." He added, shaking with suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. And me and Sophie have seen the real you, we saw you last year. You're ugly, you're foul." Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile.
"So, your mother died to save you. Yes' that's a powerful counter-charm. I can see now – there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered you see. Because there are strange likeness between us, Harry Potter. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike... but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."
"Alright then," I said. "You've got what you wanted. Now what, bitch?" Riddle's twisted smile was widening again.
'Now." He answered. "I'm going to teach you two a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, heir of Salazar Slytherin, against the famous Harry Potter, the dangerous Sophie Lestrange and the best weapons that Dumbledore can give them." He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the sorting Hat, then walked away. I watched Riddle stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed.
"H-H-Harry, w-w-what did h-h-he say?" I said with fear.
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of all the house fours." He answered back. Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horror-struck, we saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths. We backed away, until we hit the dark Chamber wall, and I shut my eyes tight, to avoid looking into its eyes.
"Fawkes is gone." Harry Whispered.
"I knew that bird was a coward." I whispered back. "But then what chance does a phoenix has against the king of serpents?" Then something huge hit the stone floor of the chamber, I felt it shudder. We both knew what was happening. Then I hear Riddle give out another order in Parseltounge. "Now what did he say?"
"Kill them." Harry Whispered. That damn was moving towards us, I could hear its heavy body slithering ponderously across the dusty floor. Harry said something
"Can we leave now?" I whispered. I feel Harry's hand touched mine.
"Yes." He said then he pulled me away. My eyes were still shut tightly. Then Harry tripped up and pulled me down with him.
"HARRY, THIS IS NOT THE TIME..." Oh shit, the Basilisk is right behind us, I can hear it. It's ready to strike. There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above our heads and then something heavy wacked me so hard that I was sent flying into the wall. Ow, I hit my head on the wall, I can feel blood pouring out, not again. I can hear more mad hissing, something thrashing wildly off the pillars. I can't help it, I got to open my eyes, I need to know what's going on. The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. I saw it, guess the bird wasn't a coward after all. Fawkes was soaring around its head, and the Basilisk was snapping furious at him with fangs as long and thin as sabres. Fawkes dived, his long golden beak out of sight and sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The Basilisk looked straight at me, and my eyes were still opened! Goodbye, world. Hang on, it's blind. It can't see shit. We actually may stand a chance here.
"No!" Said Riddle seriously. "The bird may've blinded the Basilisk but it can still hear you." Can still hear us, eh? I looked around for the nearest pipe, big enough to fit an snake. Hello, found one, time to pluck up my Gryffindor courage.
"Oi!" I shouted. The Basilisk turned around and it looked straight at me. "I'M OVER HERE YOU BIG, DUMB SNAKE!" I think it took offense to that. It's slithering straight towards me. I looked down and I found an nice, chunky rock. I picked it up and tossed it down the pipe. The snake, blindly, followed the sound and it disappears down into the darkness. Phew, that was a close one. Now, where's the boy-who-lived? There he is, cowering underneath the sorting hat, I ran straight over to him. "Harry, it's okay, it's me."
"Is the Basilisk gone?" Harry asked. I took the hat off his head and he looked straight at me.
"Yes, it's gone." I answered. "For now."
"Well done, Sophie." Said Tom, clapping his hands with his little devilish smile. "That's some good quick thinking, to use sound, to send my Basilisk away, but all that's done, is brought you a little more time." Shit, he's right. The Basilisk will eventually realise we're not down there and come back. We're running out of time.
"I've got to say, you two have done well to survive this long." Then Riddle's smile disappeared. 'But the fun, ends, now."
"You just don't know when to give up, do you?" I said. Riddle raises his eyebrow at me. "You fail to kill Harry twice before, what makes you think you can do it now?" Riddle's smile returned and he started laughing again.
"I can feel it, soon Ginny will be dead, and I'll ceased to be a memory." We both looked at Ginny. She looks paler now. We had to hurry.
"Sophie, look." Said Harry as he pointed at the hat. Something that was silver and long was poking out of the sorting hat. Harry pulled it out and out came a sword.
"ENOUGH!" Riddle roared. "I think you've enough help, Potter. Let's even out the playing field, shall we?' The Riddle pointed Harry's wand straight at me. "CRUCIO!" It hit me so fast, I didn't even see it coming. I was in some much pain, I was screaming to the top of my lungs. It felt like an thousand knives was cutting straight through my heart.
"SOPHIE!" Harry shouted at me but then the Snake burst out of the pipes, hissing madly. I think we pissed It off. Harry looked straight at me.
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!" I shouted through the pain. "JUST. KILL. THE. SNAKE." Harry looked right at the Basilisk. The pain stopped, at least for the moment. My whole body ached. All the while, Riddle walked straight over to me.
"Isn't it a shame?" He asked. "All three of you are going to die down here. CRUCIO!" The pain returned I was screaming, then it stopped again. I turned on my left side, then I saw it. Heh, the idiot knocked me down, right next to my wand. All I needed was an opportunity. "I was going to keep you alive long enough to see me kill your best friend. What's her name again?" He pointed the wand at me again. "Such a waste, you could've been so much more." Then there was a high-pitched screech. We both turned and looked and there it was, the sword has pierced the Basilisk. It keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor. "NOOOO!" Riddle screamed, that was the opportunity I needed. With whatever strength I had left, I grabbed my wand and pointed it straight at Riddle.
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted then a red bolt flew out of my wand and hit Riddle square in the back, knocking him backwards to the ground, dropping Harry's wand in the process. I chucked a small smile, we did it. I looked straight at Harry. He pulled something out of his arm. Oh no, it was a fang. Harry held the fang in his hand as he fell to the ground next to Ginny. "Harry." I muttered as I crawled over to him. "Harry?" He looked at me and he starting to look very funny.
"Sophie, I did it." He said weakly.
"Hang in there, Harry." I said as I try not to cry. "You'll be alright." Fawkes landed right beside Harry and he put its beautiful head on the spot where serpent's fang had pierced him.
'Fawkes." Said Harry thickly. "You were brilliant, Fawkes..."
"You're dead, Harry Potter," Said Riddle as he sat up, still feeling the effects of the spell. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying." Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers. "I'm going to hit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry. So ends the famous Harry Potter, alone in the Chamber of Secrets forsaken by his friends, defeated at last by the dark lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry.. she brought you twelve years of borrowed time... but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must."
"Harry?" I said, I was definitely crying now. Harry was losing strength, he was fading, then he shot back up. He shakes his head and looks at me. "Harry?" I said, confused. I grabbed his arm and looked straight at his wound, sure there was tears around it, but there's was no wound.
"Get away, bird." Said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him."
"STAY Where you are." I said, pointing my wand at him.
"Of course," Muttered Harry. "Phoenixs have healing powers."
"What?" I said.
"Fawkes is an Phoenix. Dumbledore told me when I was in his office when they all thought I attacked Justin." Then Fawkes flew off and came back in a flash, dropping something in front of us, Riddle's diary. "Thinking what I'm thinking, Sophie." He asked.
"Fuck yes." I said as I slide the book straight to Harry as he grabbed the Basilisk's fang.
"What are you two doing?" Riddle Said, is that fear in his voice?
"Well, It's just like you said." I said with a smile. "We let you live long enough, but now the fun ends." And on that note, Harry plunged the fang straight into the heart of the book. There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then... he had gone, and there was silence. Silence expect for the steady drip if ink still oozing from the diary. The Basilisk's venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it. I slowly got up and walked over to the spot where Riddle used to be. I picked up Harry's wand and looked down.
"That's for Hermione, you son of a bitch." I said through clenched teeth. I turned around and walked up to Harry, who has already picked up the hat and the sword. "I think this belongs to you." I said as I handed him his wand.
"Thanks." Harry said as he gracefully took his wand back. "Are you okay?"
"It stings, but I'll be okay." I answered.
"What spell did he hit you with?" Asked Harry.
"A spell that my parents are very fond of." I said then we heard a faint moan, Ginny was starting to stir. She sat up as we ran over to her. Her bemused eyes travelled from the huge form of the dead Basilisk, over Harry, in his blood soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Harry, Sophie... I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy. It was me, but I – I S-swear I d-didn't mean to – R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over – and – how did you two kill that – that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary-"
"It's all right," Said Harry, holding up the dairy, and showing Ginny the fang hole, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the Basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here-"
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as we help her awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and – w-what'll mum and day say?"
"We'll worry about that later." I said. "Right now, Let's get out of here. This place is starting to give me the creeps." Fawkes was waiting for us, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Harry urged Ginny forward, we stepped over the motionless coils of the dead Basilisk, through the echoing gloom and back into the tunnel. We heard the stone doors close behind us with a soft hiss. After a few minutes progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached our ears.
'Ron!" We yelled, speeding up.
"Ginny's Ok! We got her! Said Harry. We heard Ron gave a strangled cheer and we turned the next bend to see his eager staring through the sizable hole he had managed to make in the rock fall.
"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?" He tried to hug her but Ginny held him off, sobbing. "But you're ok, Ginny," Said Ron, beaming at her. "It's over now, it's – where did that bird come from?"
.He's Dumbledore's." Said Harry, squeezing through himself, I followed him straight through.
"And how come you've got a sword?" Said Ron, gaping at glittering weapon in Harry's hand.
"I'll explain when we get out of here," Said Harry.
"But-"
"Later,' Harry said.
"Where's Lockhart?" I Asked.
"Back there," Sais Ron, grinning and jerking his head up the tunnel towards the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see." Let by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, we walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself. "His memory's gone," Said Ron. " The Memory charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's an danger to himself." Lockhart peered good-naturally at us all.
"Hello." He said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"
"No," Said Ron.
"He's not well at all." I said as Harry bent down and looked up at the long, dark pipe.
"Have you thought how we've going to get up this?" He said to Ron. He shook his head, but Fawkes the Phoenix had swooped past Harry and was now fluttering in front of us, his beady eyes bright in the dark. He was waving his long golden feathers.
"He looks like he wants you to grab hold.." Said Ron, looking perplexed. "Bur you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there."
"Fawkes," Said Harry. "Isn't an ordinary bird." He turned quickly to us. "We've got to hold on to each other. Sophie, grab the back of my robes, Ron, Grab Sophie's free hand. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Professor Lockhart-"
"He means you.' Said Ron Sharply to Lockhart.
"You hold Ginny's other hand." He finished. We all grab hold of each other, and when Harry grabbed hold of Fawkes, Fawkes lifted up with embarrassing ease and we were flying up the pipe.
"Amazing, Amazing." Lockhart shouted. "This is just like magic." We eventually reached the top of the floor and we landed on the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and as Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place. Myrtle goggled at us.
"You're all alive. " She said blankly at us.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed." Harry said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses.
"Oh well,... I'd just been thinking. If you had died, you'd have more than welcome to share my toilet." Said Myrtle, blushing silver.
"Urgh!" Said Ron, as we left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's got fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!" But tears were still flooding silently down Ginny's face. "Where now? Said Ron, with an anxious look at Ginny. Harry pointed. Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor. We strode after him, and moments later, found ourselves outside Professor McGonagall's office.
"Well, time to face the music." I Said as Harry knocked and pushed the door open.
(Author's note – Done and Done. As I said before, I do apologize for the lengthy wait. Next chapter will feature a telling off, Lucius Malfoy returning and the return of Hagrid. Leave a review if you want, and as always, until next time, Kizzard245 out!)