CHAPTER FIFTEEN: SLYTHERIN'S SECRET CHAMBER
By the next morning, Ron's mood had not improved and he was still annoyed that after all the trouble we had gone to, in order to find the attacker, we merely had to ask Myrtle. To make matters worse, he wasn't entirely thrilled when I told him that we needed to try and get her bathroom to see her. He thought that dealing with spiders had been a close thing, but escaping our teachers long enough to sneak into a girls' bathroom, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible. Then, to make his mood increase even more, we discovered that our exams were still being held regardless of all the attacks and Grandfather's sacking.
When questioned why, Grandmother merely replied, sternly, 'Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible, and that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year.'
However, that afternoon, Ron and I were given the perfect opportunity to speak to Moaning Myrtle, when we were being led to History of Magic by Lockhart.
Lockhart, who had so often assured us that all danger had passed, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see us safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor. This proved my theory even more that what he said in his books was a load of rubbish.
'Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary,' he was telling us.
'I agree with you, sir,' I said, making Ron drop his books in surprise. It was time for me to test out my manipulation skills, not that Lockhart was much of a challenge.
'Thank you, Harry,' Lockhart replied graciously while we waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. 'I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night.'
'You are absolutely right, sir,' I continued, making Ron stare at me. 'So why don't you leave us here, sir? We've only got one more corridor to go.'
'You know, Harry, I think I will. I really should go and prepare my next class.
He hurried off.
'Prepare his class,' I sneered after him, 'More likely he's gone to curl his hair.'
We let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of us, before I grabbed Ron's arm and darted down a side passage to hurry off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. However, just as Ron was congratulating me on my brilliant scheme…
'Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?'
I flinched slightly and turned around to look at my grandmother, whose her mouth was in the thinnest of thin lines.
'We were -we were-' Ron stammered. 'We were going to - to go and see –'
'Hermione,' I said.
Ron and Grandmother both looked at me.
'We haven't seen her for ages, Professor,' I said quickly, treading on Ron's foot, 'and we thought we'd sneak into the Hospital Wing to see her.'
Grandmother stared at me, as though trying to see if I was lying, and for a moment, I thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.
'Of course,' she said, tears glistening in her beady eye. 'I realise this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been... I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission.'
Ron and I walked away, hardly daring to believe that we had avoided detention. As we turned the corner, we distinctly heard Grandmother blow her nose.
'That,' Ron said fervently, 'was the best story you've ever come up with. I can't believe she fell for it!'
I didn't say anything. I myself was surprised that she believed me, but I guess it was because she wasn't expecting me to lie to her about something like and probably because I was her only grandchild. I wondered if she would have shown the same generosity and favouritism if it had only been Neville asking.
In the end, we had no choice now but to go to the Hospital Wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that we had Grandmother's permission to visit Hermione. This turned out to be a very lucky trip. It was there that we found some interesting information… information that Hermione had clutched in her right hand.
Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, I pointed this out to Ron, before I tried to remove the scrunched up parchment from her hand. This proved to be a difficult task for Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that I was sure I was going to tear it. While Ron kept watch I tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free.
It turned out to be a page torn from a very old library book. I smoothed it out eagerly and Ron leaned close to read it, too. It spoke of the most curious and most deadly Basilisks. It described it in create detail, but certain phrases seemed to jump out at me. Phrases that helped explain the terrible events that had been happening this year. Phrases such as, "Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy," and "the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it" – hadn't Hagrid's roosters been killed around the same time the attacks started? Finally, I noted a single word had been written, in a handwriting I recognised as Hermione's; "Pipes."
'Ron,' I breathed, hardly able to control my excitement. 'This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk - a giant serpent, which why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue.'
I paused when I realised what I had said. I wasn't the only Parseltongue in the school, which means Uncle Severus and Grandmother must have heard the voice too, wouldn't they?
'The basilisk kills people by looking at them in the eyes,' Ron muttered, reading the page again. 'But no one's died… so how can it be the monster?'
What Ron said made perfect sense. If the creature truly did kill by looking in the eye, how was it that no one was dead? I thought back to all the attacks, trying to think of something they had in common. After a few moments of silence, I realised why no one had been killed.
'No one looked it straight in the eye,' I said slowly.
Ron looked at me quickly.
'Colin saw it through his camera,' I explained. 'The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin was only petrified. Justin... Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick, who got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again... and Hermione was found with a mirror next to her. She must have just realised what the monster was so she pulled out her mirror and used it to look around corners first!'
'What about Mrs Norris?' Ron asked. 'I'm pretty sure she didn't have a mirror or a camera, Harry.'
'True, but the floor was covered in water. I bet you anything that Mrs Norris only saw the basilisk's reflection.'
'But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?' asked Ron. 'Someone would have seen a great, big, giant serpent moving about.'
'It's not using the corridors, Ron,' I said showing him the bottom of the page where Hermione had written "Pipes." 'Remember, I have been hearing the basilisk in the walls.'
Ron suddenly grabbed my arm.
'The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!' he said hoarsely. 'What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in –'
'Moaning Myrtle's bathroom,' I concluded.
We sat there, excitement coursing through us, hardly able to believe it.
'This means you can't be the only Parselmouth in the school,' Ron informed me. 'The Heir of Slytherin's one, too. That's how he's been controlling the basilisk.' He looked around. 'What do we do now?'
'We should go to the staff room and wait for the professors,' I said firmly, getting to my feet.
As we were heading to the staff room, Grandmother's urgent voice echoed through the corridors.
'All students are to return to their House dormitories immediately!' she ordered. 'All staff to the second floor corridor!'
Ron and I paled as we looked at each other, before we mutely ran to the second floor corridor and hid. The teachers arrived moments after us.
'It has happened,' Grandmother informed the silent staff, motioning to the wall on which the first message from the Heir of Slytherin was written. 'A student has been taken by the monster right into the Chamber itself.'
Flitwick let out a squeal, while Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. The other teachers, however, paled dramatically as they looked at the wall.
'Who is it?' Madam Hooch dared to ask.
'Ginny Weasley,' Grandmother replied, trying not to cry.
'But why would they take Miss Weasley?' Uncle Severus wondered aloud. 'She is a pureblood.'
'I do not know, Severus, but we must send all students home tomorrow,' replied Grandmother.
'So sorry - dozed off - what have I missed?'
Lockhart had just arrived at the scene and didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Uncle Severus stepped forward.
'Just the man we were after,' he said. 'A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last.'
'My – my moment,' Lockhart blanched.
'That's right, weren't you saying just the other night that you've known where the Chamber has been all along?' Uncle Severus continued innocently. 'I also recall you saying that you even know what the monster is.'
'That's right, Gilderoy,' Sprout chipped in. 'I remember you telling me the exact same thing.'
'I - well, I –' Lockhart sputtered.'
'Yes, I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested,' piped up Professor Flitwick. 'Didn't you say that the whole affair had been inferior, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?'
Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.
'I - I really never - you may have misunderstood –'
'We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy,' Grandmother said coldly. 'Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself.'
Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.
'V-very well,' he said. 'I'll - I'll be in my office, getting-getting ready.'
He practically ran from the corridor, and moments later, the other teachers sadly left as well as they had work to do.
With the teachers gone, Ron and I crept out from our hiding spot and looked at the wall.
Written in what looked like blood, right underneath the first message, was a single sentence that made Ron and I pale even more than we already were.
Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.
I looked at Ron and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
'Let's go to Lockhart,' I said quietly. 'He may be useless, but he is the only hope we have for finding Ginny. We have to tell him what we know.'
Ron looked blankly at me, and at first I wondered if he had even heard what I had said, but he soon nodded to me. He clearly didn't trust himself to speak.
By the time we reached Lockhart's office night had fallen and there seemed to be a lot of activity going on within. We could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps, though everything fell silent when I knocked on the door. The door opened the tiniest crack and we saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.
'Oh - Harry – Weasley –' he said, opening the door a little bit wider. 'I'm rather busy at the moment - if you would be quick –'
'We've got some information for you,' I said bluntly. 'We think it'll help you when you rescue Ginny from the Chamber.'
Lockhart suddenly looked very uncomfortable.
'You are going to rescue her, aren't you?' I asked suspiciously.
'Er, well, you see, I just got an urgent call - unavoidable - got to go –'
'What about my sister?' Ron demanded angrily.
'Well, as to that - most unfortunate -' Lockhart said avoiding our eyes. 'No one regrets more than I –'
'You're the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!' I reminded him. 'You're meant to help the school through dark times!'
'I have to say, that when I took the job, there was nothing in the job description about this!'
'I don't believe you!' I yelled. 'How can you live with yourself knowing that you let an innocent girl die?'
Lockhart just stared down at my furious face.
'Yeah, that's what I thought,' I said coldly. 'Come on, Ron. Let's go and tell the other professors what we have discovered.'
As I turned to go, Lockhart stepped out of his office and grabbed my arm.
'Let go of me!' I growled.
'I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to leave,' Lockhart informed us.
'And what are you going to do? Set some pixies on us?' Ron asked sarcastically. 'Face it; there is nothing you can do. Harry was right all along. You are just a pathetic, untalented fraud.'
'That is where you are wrong, Weasley. I am, in fact, very talented at Memory Charms. Unfortunately, I will have to do use it on you. I cannot have you telling the other professors and ruining everything I have worked so hard to create.'
He now had his wand pointed at me.
Eyes narrowed, I moved quickly grabbed his wand arm and broke his wrist. Dudley had broken my risk on a couple occasions, which meant I had firsthand experience in breaking wrists.
Lockhart cried out in pain and let go of me and his wand. He looked at me, horrified.
'You forget, Professor, I was raised by Muggles. I know how to defend myself without magic,' I told him coldly.
It also helps that I am a Valkyrie, I added silently in my head as Ron aimed his wand at the Defence professor.
'What d'you want me to do?' Lockhart asked weakly. 'I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do.'
'You're in luck,' I replied, forcing Lockhart out of his office and towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. 'We believe we know where it is and what's inside it.'
When we arrived outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom we sent Lockhart in first. I was pleased to see that he was shaking. This proved how much I despised him.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.
'Oh, it's you,' she said when she saw me. 'What do you want this time?'
That was rude, I thought.
'To ask you how you died,' I replied.
Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.
'Oh, it was dreadful,' she responded with relish. 'I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny, like another language. I realised it was a boy speaking, so I unlocked the door to tell him to go away and I died.'
'How?'
'I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes, over there by that sink.'
I went over to the said sink and began to examine it. At first it looked like any other sink, but when I tried to turn the water on, nothing happened. I then felt the tap and found the symbol of a snake, though it could have been a basilisk.
'We found it, Ron!' I whispered excitedly, turning to the equally excided Ron and terrified Lockhart.
'Say something in Parseltongue,' Ron said suddenly.
'But, Ron, I have never spoken Parseltongue except when I am face to face with an actual snake!'
'You've been speaking Parseltongue in your sleep lately,' Ron admitted.
I was surprised by that piece of information.
I ended up imagining that the tiny engraving of the snake was real.
'Open up,' I said before looking at Ron, who shook his head.
'English.'
Clicking my tongue in annoyance, I looked back at the snake, willing myself to believe it was alive. If I moved my head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.
'Open up.'
This time I did not need to look at Ron for confirmation, for the moment I spoke the tap blazed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. The sink then began to move; it sank right out of sight leaving a large pipe exposed. It was wide enough for an adult to slide into.
Ron and Lockhart gasped.
'I'm going down there,' I declared.
I knew that I had to get down there. There was still a chance that Ginny was still alive, though she did have selfish reason for going. She needed to satisfy her Valkyrie instincts from the thirst of adventure.
'I going with you,' Ron announced stubbornly.
There was a pause.
'Well, you hardly seem to need me,' Lockhart said with a shadow of his old smile. 'I'll just –'
He put his hand on the door knob, but Ron and I both pointed our wands at him.
'You can go first,' Ron snarled.
White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.
'Boys,' he said in a feeble voice, 'what good will this do?'
'If you die down there, we'll know not to follow,' I replied.
Lockhart wasn't able to argue with that and he did have time to either, for Ron pushed him and he slid out of sight. We then stood there waiting for a sign to know that it was safe to go down.
'You two are coming down, aren't you?' we heard Lockhart call out, worriedly, from down below.
Seeing as Lockhart was still alive and that he was screaming in terror, I lowered myself into the pipe and let go. The journey down was like being rushed down an endless, slimy, dark slide; where all I could see were more pipes branching off in all directions. None of them were as large as the one I was in. Behind me I could hear Ron, thudding slightly at the curves and screaming.
When I got to the end, the pipe levelled out, and I shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Lockhart was standing a short distance away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. I made sure to stand aside as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too.
'Lumos!' I muttered, staring into the darkness ahead.
For a while I stood there staring at the tunnel ahead, thinking. Having made up my mind, I motioned for my companions to follow me as I headed into the unknown.
'Remember to close your eyes, immediately, at any sign of movement,' I reminded them. 'We have no idea where the basilisk could be hidden.'
We walked in silence for a few minutes, before Ron grabbed my arm, pointing up ahead.
'Harry - there's something up there,' he whispered hoarsely.
We froze, watching. I could see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving. I glanced back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes while Ron had his eyes narrowed, ready to close them at a moment's notice.
I turned back to look at the thing and, my heart beating so fast it hurt, I slowly edged forward, my wand held high. The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.
I looked back at the other two.
'Relax, it's only a snake skin,' I informed them.
I then watched as Lockhart's knees had given way.
I rolled my eyes as did Ron. Out of all the teachers we were stuck with, we had to be stuck with one who didn't have enough courage to fill a thimble.
'Get him up,' I said to Ron, turning back to look down the passage.
'Get up,' Ron ordered sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.
I heard Lockhart get to his feet before Ron cried out. I turned around and found Ron lying on the ground and his wand aimed at me. Lockhart was smiling triumphantly at me as he aimed Ron's wand.
'The adventure ends here, boys!' he informed us. 'I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body - say good-bye to your memories!'
He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, 'Obliviate!'
The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. I dove out of the way as great chunks of the tunnel's ceiling came thundering to the ground. As a result, I ended up gazing at a solid wall of broken rock, completely alone.
'Ron!' I shouted urgently. 'Are you okay? Ron!'
'I'm okay,' I heard Ron's muffled voice from behind the rock fall. 'The git's not, though. He got blasted by the wand.'
''Serves him right,' I muttered.
'What now?' Ron's voice questioned, sounding desperate. 'We can't get through - it'll take ages.'
'You wait there with Lockhart,' I told Ron. 'I'll go on and find Ginny. While I'm gone, see if you can try and make a passage through these rocks. If I'm not back in an hour, find a way out and go to Snape or McGonagall.'
'Why them?'
'Just trust me. I know what I'm doing.'
''Kay.'
Taking a deep breath, I set off, alone, past the giant snake skin. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in my body was tingling unpleasantly. I wanted the tunnel to end and yet I dreaded what I would find when it did.
As I crept around yet another bend, I saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.
I approached with a dry throat.
Guessing what I needed to do, I cleared my throat, and ordered it to open.
The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight. Shaking, I walked through the entrance and found myself standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Gigantic stone columns were twisted with more carved serpents that rose to support a ceiling which lost in darkness. They casted long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.
Knowing that the basilisk could be lurking in any of the shadowy corners, behind any pillar, I pulled out my wand and moved cautiously forward between the serpentine columns. While I moved forward, I kept my eyes open for Ginny, but I was also prepared to close them at a moment's notice.
As I drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall. I had to crane my neck to look up into the giant face above. It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. Between the feet, facedown, laid a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.
'Ginny!' I muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to my knees.
I unwisely flung my wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. I hurriedly checked for a pulse. I found one, but it was weak.
'Ginny, please wake up,' I said desperately, shaking her.
Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.
'She won't wake,' said a soft voice.
I jumped and spun around on my knees.
A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though I were looking at him through a misted window.
'What d'you mean, she won't wake?' I asked the boy desperately.
'She's only just alive,' the boy replied, walking towards me.
'Who are you?' I questioned suspiciously.
'I'm known as Tom Riddle,' he replied, slightly avoiding my question of who he was.
'And how did you get down here?'
'Ginny brought me down here,' Tom answered, nodding to an old diary in Ginny's arms. 'I am but a memory that has been preserved in a diary for fifty years.'
For a second I wondered it was possible for me to be talking to a memory, but seeing as there were more pressing matters to deal with, I pushed the thought aside.
'You've got to help me, Tom,' I said quickly. '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!'
Tom didn't move. Instead, he stood there watching my and twirling my wand between his long fingers.
'What are you doing with my wand?' I asked suspiciously. Something didn't feel right, and suddenly a new, more serious question occurred to me. 'How did Ginny get like this?'
'Well, that's an interesting question,' said Tom, '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?'
'My diary,' Tom explained nodding to the diary in Ginny's frozen arms. '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 second-hand robes and books, and how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her…'
I glanced down at Ginny wondering why she thought that I didn't like her. That was until I realised that Tom wasn't talking about liking as a friend. I shifted uncomfortably.
'It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven year old girl,' Tom went on, 'but I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me and, 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 her. In fact, I grew powerful enough to start feeding her a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her.'
'What are you talking about?'
'I forgot that twelve year olds need things spelt out to them.' Tom sighed, before explaining what he meant. 'It was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets and wrote the threatening messages on the walls. She was the one who set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat. But let me put your young mind at ease. She, of course, didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries. They were far more interesting than those I had been forced to listen to in the past.'
'You used her? How could you? And why would you want the monster set upon those innocent students!' I demanded angrily.
'Isn't it obvious yet, Harry? I am the Heir of Slytherin, but those Mudbloods weren't my target. For many months now, my target has been you.'
I stared at him, taken back. Why had he been after me?
'I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled, cried, and became very boring, but there isn't much life left in her. She put too much into the diary, into me, enough to let me leave its pages at last. I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry.'
'Such as?'
'Well, how is it that a baby, with no extraordinary 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 were destroyed?'
There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.
'Why do you care how I escaped?' I asked with a hint of anger in my tone. 'Voldemort was after your time.'
'No, Harry. Voldemort is my past, present and future.'
He pulled my 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:
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
My eyes widened, and I looked up at him fearfully. He was Voldemort. I knew that I was in big trouble now.
'It is the name I fashioned myself while I was at school,' Tom said carelessly. 'It was a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world, and from what Weasley has told me, I have become just that.'
'No you haven't,' I growled. 'My grandfather is the greatest wizard in the world, and I'm sure my uncle will become one too. You'll never be a great wizard!'
'And who is your grandfather?' Tom demanded.
'The man that you fear most,' I replied.
Tom stared at me for a moment, before his eyes widened with shock.
'You are Albus Dumbledore's grandson?' he whispered.
'Granddaughter,' I corrected, showing him who I really was. I would need all my strength to get out of here alive.
'A Valkyrie!' Tom looked amazed. 'Who is your father?' he demanded suddenly.
'James Dumbledore.'
Tom studied my face carefully.
'You don't know who I really am, do you?' he asked quietly.
'Yes I do!' I snapped. 'You are a monster and a killer!'
'Has your grandfather ever mentioned me to you?' he asked curiously.
'Why would he?'
Tom chuckled coldly as he looked me up and down.
He then muttered a spell that I had heard Uncle Severus use countless times. A spell used to drop a Glamour.
My anger vanished and was replaced with astonishment as I looked upon the face of someone who looked like a younger version of Uncle Severus.
'I see Father never spoke of me, my niece.'
My jaw dropped.
It couldn't be true! Why didn't anyone tell me? I could not believe that my own uncle had murdered my parents and attempted to murder me on two occasions, though it was more likely three occasions now.
'Though it does not surprise me that my father has not spoken of me,' Uncle Tom continued. 'Father's compassion has always made him weak. It is one of the reasons why he has been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!'
'He'll never be gone!' I retorted. 'Not as long as those who remain are loyal to him!'
Uncle Tom opened his mouth, but froze.
Music was coming from somewhere. Uncle Tom whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, and unearthly; it lifted the hair on my scalp and made my heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. Flames then 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 me. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at my feet before flying away.
'Fawkes?' Uncle Tom and I said in unison. Fawkes was Grandfather's phoenix.
We then looked down at me feet and saw that the ragged thing was in fact the Sorting Hat.
At first we were silent, but Uncle Tom broke that silence when he started laughing.
'Father mustn't care that much about you if this is all he sends you!' He laughed. 'He must have become senile in his old age.'
I didn't reply. I could not see how Fawkes and the Sorting Hat would help me. Grandfather must have a good reason to send them to me.
'Now, my dear, I'm going to teach you a little lesson,' Uncle Tom said, walking away before stopping between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. 'Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four.'
Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving as his mouth opened, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole and revealing something that was stirring inside. Something was slithering up from its depths. I watched as the basilisk hit the stone floor of the Chamber.
'Kill her,' Uncle Tom ordered.
The basilisk was moving toward me. I could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. I turned my back on it and ran forward, only to trip and fall painfully to the ground. Then, just as I felt the basilisk above me, Fawkes reappeared and dove straight at the monster above me.
I then heard the basilisk hissing madly behind me. Little did I know, Fawkes' long golden beak sank out of sight, into the monster's eye, and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor.
'NO!' I heard Uncle Tom scream. 'LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE GIRL IS BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL SMELL HER. KILL HER!'
The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes. I turned to look at the basilisk, before jumping out of the way as its tail came lashing at me.
I've got to do something, I thought, looking around desperately for some way to defeat the basilisk.
My eyes fell upon the Sorting Hat and watched in awe as something shimmered within. I made my way over to it and pulled out a gleaming silver sword. Its handle glittered with rubies the size of eggs. It was a beautiful piece of work.
'KILL THE GIRL! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE GIRL IS BEHIND YOU. SNIFF - SMELL HER."
I was on my feet, ready for it to attack. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face me. I could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow me whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering and venomous.
As predicted, it lunged blindly at me. I dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed my side. I raised the sword in both my hands with my Valkyrie instincts now in full effect. The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was precise. I threw my whole weight behind the sword and drove the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth. However, as warm blood drenched my arms, I felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into my arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.
Tears shimmering in my pained, emerald eyes, I slid down the wall as I ripped out the poisoned fang, but I knew it was too late. White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as I made my way slowly back to Ginny, my vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull colour.
'It's amazing how quickly the venom of the basilisk penetrates the body,' Uncle Tom said quietly, when I came to a halt next to Ginny. 'You have little more than a minute to live, if that.'
I turned and glared at him.
'How can you be so cold hearted?' I asked. 'I am your niece and you are happy enough to watch me die!'
Some sort of emotion flickered in his hazel eyes as he stared down at me. In fact, he looked a little torn. Was the teenaged Uncle Tom less evil than the adult uncle? Did he still have some human remorse and scruples?
We stood staring at each other, though I broke I contact when Fawkes landed on the ground next to me.
'You were brilliant, Fawkes,' I told him fondly. 'I just wasn't quick enough.'
Fawkes looked at me before he laid his beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced me and began to cry. I watched in amazement as me vision slowly came back and my wound healed, after all, phoenix tears did have healing powers.
I quickly looked at my teenaged uncle and saw him staring at the healed wound. He had surely known what Fawkes was capable of yet he did nothing to stop and prevent the phoenix. However, he did jump back and started yelling as Fawkes began to attack him.
For a while I watched as the teenaged Uncle Tom struggling, before my eyes fell upon his diary again. Then, without thinking or considering what I was about to do, I seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to me and plunged it straight into the heart of the book. This resulted in a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in gushes flooding the floor.
I looked at my teenaged uncle; he was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then he was gone. My wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence, except for the sound of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a hole right through it.
Shaking all over, I looked over at Ginny as a faint moan escaped her lips. I rapidly became Harry Potter once more and only just in time. Seconds later Ginny's bemused eyes opened and travelled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over me, in my blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in my hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Harry - 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 alright, Ginny,' I said soothingly, holding up the diary, and showing her the fang hole. 'You're safe now. Riddle and the basilisk won't ever bother the school or you again. Come now, let's get out of here.'
I gently helped her to her feet and led her out of the Chamber, stopping briefly to pick up the Sorting Hat.
Fawkes was waiting for us, hovering in the Chamber entrance.
I 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 my ears.
'Ron!' I yelled, speeding up. 'I've got her!'
I heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and we turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall.
'Ginny!' A relieved Ron thrust his arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. 'You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How - what - where did that bird come from?'
Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.
'He's Dumbledore's,' I replied following Fawkes through.
'Where did you get that sword from?' he gasped, eyes widening.
'I got it out of the Sorting Hat,' I responded dismissingly, looking around. 'Anyway, where's Lockhart?'
'He's back there.' Ron jerked his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. 'He's in a bad way.'
I looked over at Lockhart and saw him sitting at the mouth of the pipe humming peacefully to himself.
'Let me guess, his memory's gone, isn't it?' I said, shaking my head. Lockhart was indeed the worse teacher in the entire universe.
'Yeah, the Memory Charm backfired. It hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself.'
'And those around him,' I muttered.
Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at us.
'Hello,' he said. 'Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?'
Ron rolled his eyes and gave me a, 'See what I mean' look.
Shaking my head again, I bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.
'Do you have any ideas how to get back?' I asked, looking back at Ron.
'No idea.'
I looked at Fawkes who had swooped past me and was now fluttering in front of me. He was waving his long golden tail feathers in my face.
'Are you sure, Fawkes?' I asked.
The phoenix continued to wave his tail feathers in my face.
'Okay, if you're sure.' I turned to the perplexed Ron. 'We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. You -' I pointed at Lockhart to get his attention '- hold Ginny's other hand.'
Still perplexed, my friends did as I said as I took hold of Fawkes and Ron's hand.
'When you're ready Fawkes,' I said.
Seconds later, Fawkes pulled us up into the air and up the pipe. Ron and Ginny both let out strangled cries, while Lockhart exclaimed, 'This is just like magic!'
The trip up the pipe took a little longer than the trip down, but when Fawkes pulled us out of the pipe, we all let go and landed on the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. From there, Fawkes led us along the corridor. We strode after him, and moments later, found ourselves outside Grandmother's office.
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Written: 25 November 2012
Updated: N/A
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DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED, FAIR USE ONLY. I DO, HOWEVER, CLAIM SOME COPYRIGHT OVER HARRI SINCE SHE IS HALF BASED ON MY ORIGINAL VALKYRIE CHARACTER, PRINCESS HARRIETTA.
