Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
Impstar, indeed, that will happen rather soon.
Armacryss, Highvalour, jafr86, Still Not Dead Yet, god of all, obsessivegirl73, Arct1cfox, Penny is wise, thank you for your reviews, folks!
The Sinful, I'm not sure BFG works at Hogwarts. =)
ElementalMaster16, that's Harry's fate for you.
Aura Knight-Lyrin, this basilisk will be quite a valuable 'asset' even after it's death. *SPOILER hidden in this sentence*

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter was beta-read by NARUHAREM FOREVA. Special thanks to him for that.
And thanks to everyone for 125 000 hits!

Chapter 24: The basilisk

"Indeed, Potter." The teen replied. "But I'm offended that you can't recognize me: we, or better yet, my future self and you, had a very memorable meeting some twelve years ago..." Harry scowled.

"You are Voldemort?" The young Dark Lord remained impassive.

"As I was, while still attending Hogwarts." Was his reply. "But I believe I shouldn't take any more of your time: you are already twelve years late to meet the blood traitors that you call your parents." The scion of the house Potter jumped away from young Voldemort, while taking a defensive stance. Voldemort didn't pay that any mind though, as instead of outright attacking the boy in front of him, he spoke to Salazar's head in parseltongue: "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!" The giant statue opened its mouth, creating a way for something to enter the Chamber.

"Here comes the basilisk." Harry whispered to himself, but the not yet corporeal Dark Lord heard him. And this caused him to let out an evil chuckle.

"Do you really think that a no-good half-blood like can defeat the noble king of serpents? Just be a good little boy our esteemed headmaster wants you to be and die to atone for your sins of daring to possess noble gifts of the Slytherin line!" The young Potter sent him a hateful glare, before shutting his eyes close as the basilisk entered the Chamber. "Kill the boy!" Young Voldemort ordered. Harry raised his wand and listened for the giant serpent approaching him.

"Lumos solaris!" The green-eyed Gryffindor yelled, creating a bright flash of light that temporarily blinded anyone that had his (or her as the basilisk was actually a female) eyes open. The basilisk let out an angry hiss and started blindly attacking anything nearby, hoping to his the offender... Using this to his advantage, Harry took the rifle he had on his back before now, and aimed it to where he expected serpent's head to be.

"No, no, no, Potter, you've been a bad boy for playing with these muggle toys." Young Voldemort, who somehow had already regained his ability to see, mocked. "I'll have to take this from you." He drew Ginny's wand. "Finite!" The conjured rifle resisted the spell for a second, before dissolving into nothing.

"Damn!" Harry swore, before having to jump behind the nearest pillar, as the basilisk, while still having its eyes closed, turned its head in his direction. The soon-to-be-reborn Dark Lord, though, wasn't finished with him, and sent an expeliarmus charm in his direction, while Harry was mid-jump... Somehow, the young Potter managed to dodge it. The second disarming charm, though, hit him, ripping the wand from his hand and sending it into Voldemort's, while throwing the younger boy onto the floor.

"Now, let's see how famous Harry Potter fares against the great basilisk Slytherin left to protect Hogwarts from dirty mud-bloods! Show me your power, Potter! You didn't have a wand that night, why should you need it now?" The not yet corporeal Dark Lord taunted. Harry wanted to retort that Voldemort's demise on the Halloween night was his mother's doing, but wisely kept his mouth shut, so that the basilisk would not find him that easily.

Suddenly there was a flash of fire just under the ceiling in the middle of the Chamber, causing everyone to look up (and see that the ceiling too had snakes as its theme). This flash of fire turned out to be a phoenix caring the Sorting hat in its talons... The pheasant-sized firebird descended towards where Harry was hiding from the basilisk and dropped its burden into boy's hands, before flying away to confront the serpent king (well... queen).

Hearing the phoenix attacking the basilisk – apparently, Fawkes was immune to his opponent's deadly gaze – the young Potter took his chance to study the Sorting hat, hoping to figure out why it was brought to him.

"If you want to die there, Mr. Potter, keep staring at me." The Hat said as it 'glared' at the boy that was holding it. Harry glared back at it, annoyed that it didn't give him any helpful advices.

"And what I'm supposed to do with you? Put you on my head?" He hissed, forgetting that the basilisk will hear him, if she hadn't heard the Hat already. The said hat developed a tick mark on what would be the forehead of its face.

"Well, Mr. Potter, if you know other uses for hats..." It retorted, still glaring at the green-eyed wizard that was holding it. Shrugging, Harry put in on. 'Hmm... I still stand by my previous evaluation of your character Mr. Potter: if it wasn't for your rushing into things, you'd do very well in Slytherin. Maybe...' The Hat stopped for a moment, before continuing. 'But I'm not here for that... Even though you're fighting for Hogwarts not as selflessly as Godric would have liked, you still are one honorable young man... It is decided: Gryffindor legacy shall assist you.' The next moment something heavy hit Harry's head from inside the Hat.

"Ouch!" The scion of the house Potter yelled. "What was that for?" Getting no answer, he removed the Sorting hat from his head, and saw a broadsword slide out of it, its handle landing right between his legs. The said broadsword was crafted from some silvery-blue metal. The swords handle was wrapped in dark-brown leather and had a big egg-shaped ruby at its end, while the blade was simple in design, lacking any decorations aside from its original wielder's name carved in Gothic letters near the guard. And the original wielder of this sword was ...Godric Gryffindor.

Well, aside from him not knowing how to use bladed weapons properly, the sword was very useful to Harry as it was currently the only weapon in his possession. And most likely it was also charmed against the summoning and disarming charms...

Looking away from the gift of the Sorting hat, the young Potter noticed that he was much too in his own little world up to now, as he could see flashes of magic that meant that Voldemort was trying to get the phoenix away from the basilisk. He could also hear the great serpent moving all the time as it was both dodging the flaming bird's attempts to claw its eyes out, and trying to kill the said bird as well...

"Why do you keep interfering, you, stupid burnt chicken!" The still-not-completely corporeal Dark Lord yelled angrily as he sent several bombarda curses at the phoenix. And as Fawkes was trying to dodge serpent's tail at the moment, he couldn't evade all of the curses, and one of those connected with his wing, sending him into the Chamber's wall... The basilisk was about to 'go' finish him, but Voldemort interfered. "You can eat the bird later. Kill the boy!" He ordered in parseltongue. Hearing this, Harry decided that it was his time to run. Knowing that the giant serpent was most likely faster than he was, the young Gryffindor sprinted to the nearest archway leading out of the Chamber... "Run, Potter, run." Voldemort laughed evilly. 'You will not be able to outrun your death, for I'm the one who controls the Chamber.'

Harry was indeed running for his life. The basilisk was hard on his heels, and only many twists and turns of the pipe they were in were saving him from being eaten by the serpent... Of course, even though he was concentrating hard on running away from the beast that was chasing him, the young Potter was also thinking hard, trying to find a way out of his current predicament.

He was trying to think of a way to kill the basilisk with the Gryffindor's sword: while he was sure that stabbing the serpent through its head would work, he didn't think he could pull that off and walk away. Throwing the sword and hoping it did enough damage to the snake was stupid too... If only he still had his wand with him...

Then it hit him: Gryffindor's broadsword was magical and most likely could double as a focus for his magic to be cast. The problem was – he had no idea how to cast spells with a sword, and stopping to try would be a suicide. Hm... There was a couple of spells that he thought he could try that wouldn't require him to stop... Desperately hoping that this would work, he took the broadsword in the reverse grip – thankfully the blade was much lighter than it looked to be – and pointed it in general direction of the basilisk that was chasing him.

"Lumos solaris!" There was a flash of light, not as bright as he could make with his wand, but still... Moment later Harry could hear the basilisk hitting the 'walls' with its head as the great serpent tried to shake off the temporary blindness. Deciding to use this to his advantage as much as he could, Harry cast another charm with the sword: "Atero!" A small smokescreen made up of black smoke appeared between him and the basilisk. Of course this wouldn't be enough to stop the great serpent, but hopefully, it would delay it for long enough for him to find a way to kill it without dying himself...

Unfortunately for him, it appeared that Voldemort didn't lie back in Chamber (not that Harry had heard him), and he had some control over the Chamber of Secrets and the pipes that surrounded it, as the young Potter soon found himself in a dead end. And taking in account the fact that he hadn't passed any forks, the chances were he'd be dead as soon as the basilisk could catch up with him. That, of course, didn't mean that he would go down without a fight!

Not having much else to do, Harry pointed the sword in direction where the basilisk would come from and closed his eyes and listened... He didn't have to wait for long as not a minute later he heard the basilisk slithering towards him.

"Petrificus totalus!" Harry shouted, sending the full body-bind curse at the basilisk – there was no point in trying to hide, as he knew the snake could see and smell him... Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the curse had no effect on the beast, as it continued moving towards him. "Defigo!" Simple piercing curse, though, made the serpent to let out a slightly painful hiss – apparently Harry managed to send the piercer into its mouth... Hearing the snake's reaction to his last spell, Harry made a 'mistake' of opening his eyes and looked at the basilisk... And nothing happened, aside from him noticing that the great serpent had slithered even closer to him, and was getting ready to swallow him...

Then it hit him: Voldemort wasn't afraid of looking into the eyes of the basilisk because he was a parselmouth, just like him. So he was immune, more or less, to the infamous death gaze of a basilisk! Too bad, right now this little piece of knowledge was of a little use to him: the great serpent sprang upon him. On instincts, Harry raised the sword, while leaning backwards and slightly to the right, desperately hoping to avoid being swallowed...

"Aagh!" The young Gryffindor screamed from white-hot pain as a saber-like fang of the basilisk slashed vertically across his forehead, through his right eye, and down to his stomach, stopping just an inch away from his liver... The snake though, had the sword piercing the roof of its mouth, its poison gland and into its brain. And since basilisks aren't immune to their own venom... it was dead within twenty seconds.

Harry himself didn't have much time left as his body was quickly succumbing to the deadly venom. Just as the basilisk stopped convulsing and died, the young Potter felt a pain even stronger than the one caused by the venom explode from his scar. That was the last thing he remembered...

Harry moaned a bit pathetically as he regained conscious. His head felt like a balloon filled with water to the point where it could explode any moment, but at the same time pain from the slash was gone. His right eye was still destroyed, while the left one could barely see anything as the image was fading away, though he could make out something red and gold near his right shoulder, as well as the dead body of the basilisk in front of him... Somehow he survived.

Turning his head to the right, despite the protests from his body, the scion of the house Potter saw a large bird – his vision was slowly becoming better – sitting on the floor and looking at him. Although thinking clearly was difficult right now, he still understood what happened: Fawkes the phoenix had cried onto his wound, and its curative tears saved him.

"Thank you." The boy-who-lived-again said in a raspy voice, before forcing himself to sit up. He didn't knew how much time had passed since he left the Chamber, but he needed to get back there as soon as possible to stop Voldemort from completing his resurrection...but how to do that?

His head was filled with a great mass of unsorted memories and wisps of emotions that, despite everything, clearly weren't his, but there also were some memories that should be his, but he didn't remember having them... Setting the mystery of the memories aside, Harry concentrated on finding any information that would be useful in dealing with the current Dark Lord problem.

Surprisingly, there was something, hazy memories of various objects, one of which was the diary he saw in Voldemort's pocket back in the Chamber... Following this memory, Harry reached another, this one about something called 'horcrux'. Deciphering it wasn't easy – his current condition being the reason for that – but he managed to get the key information:

'Horcrux' was the name for a piece of one's soul bound to an object that wasn't one's body, and 'Horcruxes' were believed (by whomever these memories belonged to) to be a way to become immortal... It was possible to destroy a 'horcrux', but it required either a fiend fire curse, an avada kedavra curse, basilisk venom, or a complex ritual...

Well, that was moderately helpful as there was a source of basilisk venom – the dead serpent queen – barely three feet away from him. The problem: the venom was still in the poison glands of the beast... Harry tried to think of a way to make the venom useful, and stumbled across a thought that Godric Gryffindor's sword was a goblin-made adamant one, and had a magical property of absorbing anything 'useful' in came in touch with; and since the sword had pierced the poison gland of the basilisk, it now carried its venom on its edge... Good.

While he was thinking, his body recovered enough for him to be able to move more or less normally – aside from the fact that he felt really really tired... Pulling the sword out of the serpent's head, the young Potter stood up and started walking back towards the Chamber, while Fawkes was circling around him, singing some phoenix song that was giving him some strength...

~/ *** \~

Still-yet-to-be-completely-corporeal Voldemort was leaning against one of the many columns in the Chamber of Secrets, waiting for the basilisk to return: he had guided that dirty half-blood Potter into a dead end, and there was absolutely no way that brat would be able to survive the encounter with the great serpent, even if that stupid fire chicken flew there to help him...

Yet, the young Dark Lord found out that he had underestimated that son of the mudblood Evans, when the boy, covered in blood, his right eye missing and his robes torn, tiredly walked into the Chamber with a sword in his hands.

"You win this round, Potter." Voldemort hissed in parseltongue. "But you will die by my hand there!" Drawing the two wands in his possession – Harry's for his left hand and Ginevra's for the right – he cast a double avada kedavra curses. The young Potter barely dodged the twin beams of sickly-green light as he dropped onto the floor, while pointing the top of his sword at him.

"Defigo!" A reddish beam of a piercing curse flew from the sword, forcing the young Dark Lord to create a protego shield. Even though the shield existed for a fraction of a second, this gave Harry enough time to create a smokescreen with the atero spell. Growling in anger, Voldemort sent several killing curses into the black smoke in hopes of killing that annoying Potter boy, but missed his target every time. He also made a mistake of throwing too many high-level curses in a short amount of time, which left his not yet completed body tired... Apparently, this was exactly what the scion of the house Potter was waiting for, as he emerged from the smoke. "Defigo!" Voldemort lazily created a magical shield to protect himself from the weak curse. "Petrificus totalus!" Dropping the shield as soon as the body-bind curse hit it, the Dark lord counterattacked:

"Dodge this, Potter! Avada kedavra!" Fawkes appeared out of nowhere in front of Harry, taking both killing curses, before exploding into a cloud of ashes. This caused Voldemort to pause in his attacks, and the green-eyed Gryffindor used this opportunity to slash him with the sword, managing to damage the diary in one of the pockets. "Wha-?.." Was all that the Dark Lord managed to say, before he screamed from pain as a golden expanding cut appeared across his chest, while dark-red, almost blood colored, ink started flowing from the damaged diary.

"Die, Tom!" Harry shouted – somehow he now knew that Voldemort's real name was Tom – as he stabbed the man through the diary, making another great golden wound appear on Dark Lord's body... Several seconds later the wounds the 'horcrux'-created Voldemort suffered expanded so much, that there was nothing left from the man and he died with a final, blood-curdling scream... Two wands and an irreparably-damaged diary in a black cover fell onto the floor of the Chamber of Secrets, followed closely by one Harry Potter, while Godric Gryffindor's sword just dematerialized to return to where its original owner placed it before his death...

Young after his ...forced rebirth Fawkes stretched his wings and took off. The majestic bird picked up the wands and carried them to their respective owners, before fire-flashing Ginny first and then Harry to the Hospital wing. That done, it returned to Chamber and, picking the diary, fire-flashed to moaning Myrtle's bathroom to inform Dumbledore that the heir of Slytherin had been dealt with.

That's all, folks!
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