Draco Malfoy and the Chamber of Secrets
"Ginny!" Harry muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees. "Ginny — don't be dead — please don't be dead —"
Draco watched from his view on the second level, unsure of what to do. He watched as Harry flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over. Her face was white as marble.
"Ginny, please wake up," Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.
"She won't wake," said a soft voice.
Draco sneered at the man near Harry, he readied his wand a spell on his lips.
Harry jumped and spun around on his knees.
A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window.
"Tom — Tom Riddle?"
Draco's eyes widened in recognition of the name. His father had told him that name once, and it was a name to be feared for sure.
Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not — she's not —?"
"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."
Harry stared at him. "Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.
"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."
He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary the pink feather pen laying so innocently on top of it. Harry knew it had been Ginny's favorite.
Draco watched as the boy walked over to the unobservant Harry, and snatched up the wand, looking it over.
"You've got to help me, Tom," Harry said, raising Ginny's head again. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk… I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment… Please, help me."
Riddle didn't move. Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again.
But his wand had gone.
"Did you see —?"
He looked up. Riddle was still watching him — twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers.
"Thanks," said Harry, stretching out his hand for it.
Draco wanted to smack his head at how DUMB Harry was. Why was he trusting this boy? Didn't he know who Tom Riddle really was? Draco wanted to scream at him, but feared calling the snake back to them.
A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Harry, twirling the wand idly.
"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes —"
"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly.
Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer.
"What d'you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it —"
Riddle's smile broadened.
"You won't be needing it," he said.
Harry stared at him.
"What d'you mean, I won't be —?"
Merlin help him, Draco thought, if I don't help him soon, his own stupidity is going to kill him. Draco looked around for something he could do.
"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle. "For the chance to see you. 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're going to talk now," said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry's wand.
Harry stared at him. It looked like Harry was finally catching on.
"How did Ginny get like this?" he asked slowly.
"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly. "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 pitiful worries and woes — how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how —" Riddle's eyes glinted "— how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her…"
Draco rolled his eyes, as he moved as best he could into a better position to attack the man.
All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.
"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…"
Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry's neck.
"If I say it myself, Harry, 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 feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her…"
"What d'you mean?" said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry.
"HARRY! RUN!" Draco yelled, waving his wand. "Expelliarmus!" The spell didn't seem to work, Riddle still had the wand, instead the man just glared at Draco. "Harry! He's Lord Voldemort!"
Riddle seemed utterly irritated that Draco had interrupted his monologue, and yelled out for his snake to attack him. Harry looked up to see the huge basilisk pouring through a second story chamber, right next to Draco.
Draco yelled out as the Snake came near him, with a running jump he was able to reach the other side of the dilapidated balcony of another Chamber. He quickly climbed in, hoping that somehow it wouldn't bring him face to face with the snake.
Harry ran as well, snatching his wand from off the ground, where Tom had dropped it, but Draco saw no more.
He huffed and panted into the hall of pipes, looking around for any sign of movement. He swore he heard slithering once or twice as he moved through the tunnels, trying to find his way to Harry.
Music was coming from somewhere, growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Draco's neck and made his heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Draco felt it vibrating inside his own ribs. He tried to move towards the noise, fearing it was going right for Harry.
"Kill him."
The basilisk was moving toward Harry; he could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. Draco saw Harry running blindly sideways, his hands outstretched, feeling his way — Voldemort was laughing.
Harry tripped. He fell hard onto the stone and tasted blood the serpent was barely feet from him, he could hear it coming. Draco rushed over to him, putting his arm under Harry and pulling him away from the snake's mouth. They dove behind a pillar just as the basilisk smashed into it, shattering the stone.
A phoenix was soaring around its head, and the basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers as it dived. 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 Harry, and before Draco could shut his eyes, it turned. Draco looked straight into its face and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting in agony.
"NO!" Harry heard Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL SMELL HIM. KILL HIM!"
"Harry! It's been blinded open your eyes." Draco said as he ran into a tunnel. The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. The bird was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.
Harry was still out in the main chamber, seemingly confused by all the battle around him.
The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Harry ducked. Something soft hit his face.
The basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. Harry seized it. It was all he had left, his only chance — he rammed it onto his head and threw himself flat onto the floor as the basilisk's tail swung over him again.
Help me — help me — Harry thought, his eyes screwed tight under the hat. Please help me.
There was no answering voice. Instead, the hat contracted, as though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly.
"Harry! Hurry! What are you doing?" Draco yelled to him, looking distraught.
Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head, almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed the top of the hat to pull it off and felt something long and hard beneath it.
A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.
"KILL THE BOY! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU. SNIFF — SMELL HIM."
Harry was on his feet, ready. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous —
It lunged blindly — Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands —
The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true — Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth —
But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.
Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it was too late. White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color.
A patch of scarlet swam past, and Harry heard a soft clatter of claws beside him.
"Fawkes," said Harry thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes…"
He felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced him.
He could hear echoing footsteps and then a dark shadow moved in front of him.
"You're dead, Harry Potter," said Riddle's voice above him. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying."
Harry blinked. Fawke's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers.
"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."
Draco rushed forward grabbing the diary, closing it with a snap and his wand on fire. "Stop! FIX HIM! Or I'll burn your book!"
Riddle laughed turning to Draco, for the first time really acknowledging him. "Go ahead and try! Nothing can hurt that book."
Draco tried to light it on fire, but Riddle was right, it was no use. He screamed in frustration going over to Harry. Harry looked up at Draco smiling, giving a wink. Draco relaxed which seemed to spark something in Tom Riddle.
"Get away, bird," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him, both of you— I said, get away —"
Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Fawkes; there was a bang like a gun, and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet. Draco rolled out of the way, trying to find a hiding place.
"Phoenix tears…" said Riddle quietly, staring at Harry's arm. "Of course… healing powers… I forgot…"
He looked into Harry's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way."
He raised the wand…
Harry's foot stepped on the book that Draco had dropped on the ground. The diary, with little Ginny's pink feather quill. Without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.
There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then —
He had gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.
Draco ran over to Harry, taking the boy into his arms. He hugged him as hard as he could, until both of them hurt. Harry smiled at Draco, his hand reaching up to wipe the blood away from the Slytherin's nose.
Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Draco watched from further away, slowly walking up to them. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary on the ground. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Harry — oh, Harry — I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy — it was me, Harry — but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over — and — how did you 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 diary, 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 Harry helped 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 Dad say?"
Draco rolled his eyes, "We should get going."
Ginny nodded, but looked back at the Diary. She ran over to it, Harry and Draco watching as she bent over the ink splattered pages. She smiled down at the book, it seemed to whisper to her, "Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her…" She picked up her quill, the ink soaking into it like a sponge. Without the other's notice she put the quill into her robe, picking up the ruined book. "It might be best to take this to Dumbledore." She said with a smile.
Draco looked at Harry seriously for a moment, "I can't go out there with you. I'll get into far more trouble then you, you can get away with just about anything. Weasley will just say I was trying to open the chamber myself."
Harry put a hand on Draco's shoulder, "I understand… I'll open the chamber again later, when things have died down. I hate to leave you here."
Draco hugged Harry again, "It's okay." He turned and glared at Ginny. "If you breathe a word of this, so help me I will make your next 6 years at school a living hell!"
Ginny sobbed and ran over to Harry who pat her head, "You really don't have to be so mean. You'll promise not to say anything, right Ginny?" Harry asked, and she nodded against his stomach. "See?"
Draco rolled his eyes, but followed them as far as he could. It took almost thirty minutes, but Harry came back, a broomstick with him. They flew up the chamber together, landing once again in Myrtle's bathroom.
Harry looked deep into Draco's eyes, a blush forming on his face. "Draco… You really came through for me… I don't know what to say…"
Draco extended his hand, like he had in first year. "Friends?"
Harry laughed, taking Draco's hand in both of his, shaking it. "Yes, Friends."
/AN: Oh noes! There is one chapter left! Wow forgot about Dobby! Hopefully I can finish it quickly!