Chapter 17 - The Great Riddle
At breakfast, Director Bones was just musing over the twists and turns life can take a person, dragged kicking and screaming sometimes. She would soon consider her thoughts an omen, or perhaps an invitation for life to give her another surprise. She dropped her antique cup, tea forgotten, as she read over her niece's latest letter. The set was a wedding gift, some of the finest Potter work from the previous century, still as clean and new as the day it was bought, and priced accordingly. The set survived without a scratch, of course, not even a splash of tea to mark the accident.
No, her attention was drawn completely to the innocent revelation her niece made. She reached the end, stunned, and re-read it, making sure she hadn't imagined it, something all too possible with magic, then checking both the letter and herself for charms to be certain.
"I shall be heading in early, today." She briskly informed her bodyguards. "Set up an appointment for me with the Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and the Head of the Beasts Division."
"Yes, Madame Bones." Auror Proudfoot replied, stepping through the Floo to the Ministry in order to make sure both wizards got the message. Director Bones would see them or heads would roll, he would bet a month's pay.
The other two guards waited for her to be ready, then stepped through to her private office first, one of them calling back to her that it was clear to come in before making way.
The routine was a holdover from the Rise of Voldemort, something dreamed up by her old colleague Moody, and some called her mad for retaining it even in peacetime. Most days, though, Amelia didn't even really notice the security. She had long since worked out how to use the delays to her advantage, taking it as extra time to think about the many issues that cropped up.
While part of her mind was watching her Aurors do their jobs correctly, the greater part was dealing with the news that had her in such a state. 'I can't believe it! That, that, that oblivious fool! He had an entire colony, HUNDREDS of Acromantulas right there in the Forbidden Forest where any child could wander in, or worse, any Grade XXXXX giant spider could wander OUT for a snack! And he didn't bother telling me when I was stationing my Aurors at the school!'
A knock at the door brought her out of her reflections, opening at her nod to her bodyguards to allow in both Elliot Littlebottom, the Head of Magical Creatures and Horace Gifford, Head of Beasts to take their indicated seats.
"Gentlemen, thank you for freeing up time in your busy schedules for me."
"Not at all, Madame Bones, I am sure you wouldn't waste our time requesting such an urgent meeting without cause. So what can my Department do for the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?"
"For a start, you can tell me what you know of the Acromantula colony at Hogwarts, Mr Littlebottom."
"A what?!" Both wizards shouted, losing their composure.
"My sentiments exactly, especially as no one saw fit to inform me during my recent visit to settle in my Aurors over this whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco. A score of my best Aurors are there right now, unaware of the danger that was lurking. I want you to put together a team to investigate what happened. Apparently, they've disappeared. Every last one of them. I have sent a message to my people, which should arrive any minute, to expect us there."
Gifford looked at his boss. "I can pull a team in fifteen minutes. I can pull my best team in an hour."
"Both. Once your best team arrives, the other can return to their regular duties."
"Yes, sir."
"Thank you, gentlemen. Would a team of my investigators be helpful? This once, I'd be happy to put them under your command to get the job done. No politicking will be allowed to get in the way."
"No, thank you, Amelia, but should that change, I will be sure to let you know."
"You are sure, Elliot? You know I want this sorted, and I want the job done." Amelia checked.
He nodded, "We would lose time trying to integrate your team on the fly. I would hate to lose track of them because we took too long."
None of them were happy with that image, and went to light a fire under their personnel.
That Tuesday morning, as the staff and students were sitting at breakfast in the Great Hall, the grand doors opened again. Albus felt like shouting until he saw just how angry all three Heads of Department were, all of them at him. 'What is it this time? Don't they know how busy I am?'
"Headmaster Dumbledore, we require a moment of your time. Let's adjourn directly to your office." Amelia Bones was in no mood to waste any time, her glare a thing of beauty as it pinned the wizard in his seat.
Swiftly overcoming that, he realised acquiescence was his only option, leading the way with as much of his dignity intact as he could manage. Once inside, Amelia asked as calmly as she could manage, "Headmaster Dumbledore, is there any reason you neglected to inform me of the presence of Class XXXXX creatures here at Hogwarts?"
"What are you talking about, Madame Bones?"
"I am talking about the colony of Acromantulas you had in that forest right over there, of course. Unless you aware of any other Class XXXXX creatures here, perchance?" Amelia asked acidly. While she knew of Harry's suspicions about the Basilisk, including that Dumbledore knew, the Headmaster was unaware of her knowledge and it was a good way to remind the man that a school should not have any such deadly creatures roaming around.
Dumbledore managed to hide his reaction to that admirably. Of course, he knew there was a basilisk here, but letting people know would just cause a panic, and dealing that would take time he simply didn't have.
"Please don't be ridiculous, Amelia. As for the Acromantulas, they have been living happily for many years."
"Fine dining, perhaps?" Amelia growled.
"No, nothing of the sort! As for notification, that was the job of my predecessor. It was during his time that the Acromantulas settled there, after all."
"How convenient that he's dead, Headmaster."
Ignoring that, he continued. "And when I was promoted to this position, they had already been there for years. I thought, quite reasonably I feel, that notification had already been handled and saw no reason to send in redundant paperwork."
"Just how long have you had Acromantulas roaming around here?" Littlebottom asked, horrified.
"They have been in the Forest around fifty years without a single incident. Now, Madame Bones, when will you be returning my member of staff to his home? He has been imprisoned long enough."
"He was taken in for questioning, Headmaster, regarding the attacks on students. Student safety must come first, so we have been asking him everything he knows. He's resistant to Veritaserum, which means we can't ask as fast as any of us would prefer. Hagrid is scheduled for his final dose today to make sure we had the truth out of him. After his involvement last time the Chamber was opened, he had to be checked again. I only just managed to stop Fudge from taking him off to Azkaban. The man was bleating about 'having to be seen to be doing something'!"
"Then I'll expect his return today, Madame Bones." Dumbledore was pleased to have been able to turn this around with his offensive. He made a couple of minor concessions, allowing them to start their investigation without his physical presence, and they went away satisfied.
The investigation went nowhere, however. Aside from a few cut and broken branches in a huge clearing, there was no sign that the giant spiders had ever lived there. They certainly hadn't left any clear trail out of the Forest and there was no magical residue from whatever wizarding force that could have taken them.
Apart from Hagrid's return and subsequent howling when he found out Aragog was gone, nothing much happened to disturb the school that week. In Cranleigh, however, it was a different matter.
"I can't believe that jerk!" While normally a quiet girl, right now Meaghan was shouting in her anger. "He put his hands on me saying I was his like I was just some bit of property. Then he tried to paw at my breasts, mauling them. I got him off me, thankfully, so what happens next? Why he goes crying to the teachers about how I was attacking him!"
Her parents had been called in after the teacher had taken the boy at his word, seeing the split lip and black eye, dragging Meaghan in before the Head Teacher at Glebelands. Mr Davison, on hearing the girl's story, asked his secretary to get her parents in quickly, and right now, her parents are shocked at what she was telling them.
"Did he give any clue as to why he thought you were his, honey?" Her mother was concerned, her father too angry right now at his daughter's treatment to trust himself to speak. He didn't want her to think he was angry at her.
"No, Mum, but I've heard other boys talking about girls like that. Oh, not Harry, never him. And I never gave that boy any encouragement. He took us being paired up for a science assignment as us being friends, which was bad enough with how stupid he is. I don't know what made him think I liked him or belonged to him."
"Thank you, honey. Let's talk to the Head Teacher, we'll see if we can't sort all this out." She gave her daughter a hug which they both needed, and led the way into Mr Davison's office, her husband still giving every appearance of fighting down his temper. It was a tactic that had worked well enough in the past, Mrs Best would be the reasonable one that people would deal with so that they didn't have to deal with her husband.
Normally, that's all it was, a tactic they used for negotiations. Today, however, it was far closer to the truth. Mr Best tried not to slam the door behind him. He failed.
Mr Davison looked up at his guests, already working out just how he would resolve all this when their first words scuppered his plans.
"I want that boy expelled. Bad enough he put his hands on my daughter, worse that he then lies about it straight away to one of your teachers. Worst of all when that teacher believes him over her without even asking for her side of things." Mrs Best was speaking coldly and harshly while her husband simmered next to her.
"Yes, well, I-"
"It's that or we let everyone know their daughters aren't safe at this school, which will only be the truth, you know."
"Your daughter did manage to give him a cut lip, a black eye and several bruises in the altercation, Mrs Best."
"And has anyone thought to give our Meaghan an examination?"
"We did but she insisted we wait for you."
"We're here now. And you still haven't said you're expelling that thug."
"That is a little hasty..."
"Fine, we'll get Meaghan examined. You'll have your evidence of what he did, and I know there were witnesses since the boy did it right in the corridor. Come, let's not waste any time."
Mr Davison repressed a sigh as they headed to the nurse's office, then he found anger stirred inside him at the results. There were bruises to the girl's chest, arm and hip from the boy's fingers along with some defensive injuries, while his own injuries were consistent with having been fought off, not with his story of defending himself from the aggressive girl.
"Right, while school policy says I can't expel him for a first offence, it does give me leeway to allow the police in for serious cases. I think if we explain to his parents the nature of the occasion, they'll withdraw him themselves. I also hope to have your support for a modification to that policy when I announce it."
The two parents shared a look and nodded. "That seems satisfactory, Mr Davison. Though I would also hope you will explain to that teacher about the dangers of jumping to conclusions."
They took their leave, spending a little time with their daughter before they had to go back to work. Once they were gone Meaghan went to find Harry. Right now, she needed him. When she found him, he showed he had heard of the incident by quickly wrapping her in a firm hug. After telling her story, he gave her another, gentler hug, lightly rubbing her back while one hand was surreptitiously healing her with a basic medical technique from the Clan. "Shh, Meaghan, he's not going to bother you again. You're safe now." Her only response was to hold him tighter, shivering now as aftershock set in.
That afternoon, he was around her until school was let out, and the group walked her home, staying there until her parents got home from work. They were allowed to stay if Meaghan wanted, which she did, just being held by Harry and chatting to her friends was doing her a world of good.
The next morning, half a dozen bullies at Hogwarts found themselves tripping up as they walked along corridors for no apparent reason. At breakfast, they spilled food on themselves despite their utmost care, and no one could find any trace of a spell on them, so they were even more embarrassed. Bad enough to be clumsy, worse to be crazy to boot. Harry chuckled with the rest, he wasn't the only one to have noticed their cruelty and most people enjoy seeing justice. He had limited himself to mostly harmless actions, but he needed some way to relieve the stress and anger he felt from yesterday. With the ban on Quidditch practice, he couldn't fly and his girls didn't need as many massages. That left pranks and movies.
'The bastards should be grateful I'm holding back so much.' He thought to himself. Just DADA and Transfiguration on today, since it was a Friday, then he and his girls could head off to somewhere private and he could give them all an extra hug. Harry had already resolved that he needed more clones at Glebelands during the day to watch over the Cranleigh girls. He wouldn't let that sort of thing happen again.
That night, Amelia Bones came by the Kitsune Compound for dinner where she met up with all five of Harry's Cranleigh girls and their parents. After dinner, Mr and Mrs Best asked if Harry would take Meaghan to the lounge room, implying that the other girls should go too. Once it was just the adults, they related the story of what had happened. The Clan already knew, and were proud Harry hadn't snapped and killed the boy. That would have been messy. He'd also allowed Meaghan to come to him rather than going straight to her. He'd told them the night before that it was his first reaction, but that he remembered their lessons on subtlety and psychology, and no way was he going to hurt his Meaghan by pressing her like that.
While the adults were busy talking things over, Meaghan was cuddling into Harry. Ashley and the others had their own Harrys, taking advantage of the chance to get more snuggling too. Meaghan pulled her head back, looking into Harry's eyes. "Harry, could you have stopped him?"
He sighed and nodded. "Yes, Meaghan, I could, but the problem with that was that he had me very angry with what he was doing to you. There was a real risk I could have gone too far when I stopped him. My parents have been training me up in self defence. If you like, we can ask them if you can get training, too."
The girls went quiet for a little while digesting both the revelation that Harry could have 'gone too far', or at least thought he could, and the idea of learning to defend themselves. "Couldn't you protect us, Harry?"
"I can protect you to the best of my ability, Ashley, and I think it would work well, but only if I had a clone with each of you everywhere you went. That's not such a good idea." He blushed thinking of certain things, as well as the secrecy aspect. "I'll certainly do what I can to keep you safe whenever I'm with any of you, but I have my limits too. Plus, I admit I'd feel better if you can defend yourselves. Less chance of you getting hurt is always good in my book."
They just cuddled for a time, thinking, then one by one they nodded and Ashley summed it up. "Okay, Harry, we would feel better if we can defend ourselves. You will be there to help us train, right?"
"Wild horses couldn't drag me away." He grinned, it was the literal truth, too. He'd just get out of whatever ropes tied him up instead. He made an extra clone that headed out to bear the official request to the Clan, giving them the opening to talk to their parents. The families talked it over, naturally wanting a demonstration before they let their girls try it. Amelia Bones was also eager to see what Harry could do.
That weekend, the Clan led their guests to a newly redecorated room, their new training hall, soft mats, weights, and other expected accessories. There, Harry was engaged in what the Clan considered a light Taijutsu-only spar against Hinata, usually the most peaceful of the Clan. It was clear that while she may be peaceful, it was only by choice as she was keeping Harry on the run, her longer reach and equal speed for this display made the match one-sided. Harry got an occasional hit in past her defences, but she was getting in at least three for every one of his.
In truth, this was completely staged. Harry's performance was set at normal maximum speed and reflexes, and his strength a little below that, while Hinata was allowed greater strength and her own greater reach. If it had been a real match, Harry would have never lasted that long since her abilities were far greater than his and her skill and experience immense. The idea, however, was to show that Harry was able to defend himself well but that his parents and teachers were even better. Showing a 'girl' beating up a 'boy' with training was also good.
After three rounds of what appeared a fairly brutal defeat, they finished up, taking off the padding. Harry was hugged by the girls even as he assured them he was fine, before they got started. First off were the warm-ups before they got started on how to find their balance. For now, the girls would be allowed to take it at whatever pace they liked, so long as they had competent supervision to make sure they didn't go too hard or injure themselves.
The Clan mentioned that they would be on hand, and could help deal with any injuries that might occur despite their best efforts, implying that they would be willing to pay any medical expenses. They fully intended however to do the healing themselves.
Amelia was impressed. That young man was fast enough that she doubted any of her Aurors would be able to take him down if they weren't warned. It simply was that surprising, and surprise was vital. Once close enough, he might even be a threat to the best of them. With what she'd seen, however, he would still be helpless to a prepared and warned Auror. Then again, so would your average adult wizard, which was the entire point of Auror training.
She was also impressed with how determined the girls were to improve themselves. Oh, it was obvious they wanted to prove themselves to Harry, but that was fine. It was the amount of effort they were putting in, and the way they got along, that mattered to her as a former 'Puff. She was already of a mind to give them the authorisation Harry had wanted, and was more and more pleased with that choice as each day passed. She decided then that she would give him permission once the school term was over.
Back at Hogwarts, Harry was hoping to get his magical girls more prepared too, but figured that would have to wait until the summer. In the interim, he was watching over them, something easier since he no longer had to keep a clone full time on watching the Forest, and kept up searching the castle. He was making his way methodically along the first floor, agonizingly aware that this search was taking too long.
In an effort to speed up, he ignored the sink in the bathroom on that floor, the one that didn't work. It was obviously not important. The rest of the bathroom was empty anyway, and he moved on to the wall beside the bathroom.
The next morning, he wondered why he'd skipped the sink, so he went to look at it. When he got close, he knew he'd made the right decision in the first place, it wasn't interesting. It just had a snake motif, after all.
The third morning, he just ignored the whole thing as yet another oddity of Hogwarts, getting back into his routine, a decision he regretted profusely on the final Saturday in May.
They were in the Library when McGonagall's amplified voice rang through the school. "All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers to the staffroom. Immediately, please."
Harry turned to his friends, "I guess that's our cue, girls." He created a clone that took his place, heading back to the Hufflepuff rooms with his Hufflegirls, while the real Harry headed to the staffroom. Whatever was going on, he intended to find out. The large, paneled room was still empty when he arrived, and he quickly took up position on the ceiling.
McGonagall was the last to arrive, the door banging closed behind her and ensuring silence. "It has happened. A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."
Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard, asking "How can you be so sure?"
"The Heir of Slytherin," Professor McGonagall declared, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' "
"Who is it, which student?" Madam Hooch had sunk weak-kneed into a chair.
"Ginny Weasley." Professor McGonagall answered grimly.
Harry created a clone to stay there and listen to the rest of the meeting. Right now, he figured he had all the information he needed to find the Chamber at last. All he had to do was get into the Gryffindor girls dorms during a lockdown, get Ginny's scent, then trace that to the Chamber.
While it was supposed to be impossible twice over for Harry, that didn't even slow him down as he left the staff room, taking the convenient timing of Lockhart's late arrival to allow him to slip out unnoticed. From there, he ran at his top speed while under the Invisibility Cloak to the Gryffindor Tower, giving the password that Lavender and Parvati told him to keep him up to date, then dashing past the alarmed stairs to the First Year Girls' room.
A glance told him which bed was Ginny's, a quick search and he had found one of her old sweaters, carrying more than enough of her scent for him to get to know the pattern. He was back out, into the corridors and away, before the common room door was fully open, leaving behind a confused pack of Lions at the strange wind.
He slowed down at last, creating five clones to start hunting for the girl's scent or for a snake's since it had been out too. Harry went off one way, his clones in other directions, following various paths. After covering what seemed like half the castle, Harry swore fervently. Her trail ended at the first floor girl's bathroom!
He stopped, creating and dispelling another clone to send the message to the others. Fourteen clones would again be on hand, all quickly grabbing their equipment from Harry's supplies. Harry had another Class XXXXX creature to face, and unlike the others, this one could kill with its eyes. He opened the bathroom door, going straight to that 'unimportant' snake carving, knowing that it must be the key to the Chamber and willing to wait to chastise himself for missing the obvious. He set up a sound barrier around the entrance and tried hissing "Open!". The tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. A second later, the sink started moving, sinking out of sight and leaving a large pipe exposed, wide enough for a man to slide into.
"Right, one clone first to make a full visual inspection. If the basilisk is there, dispel yourself straight away. If the basilisk isn't right there, signal and we'll come through."
"Right, Boss." The clone had full armour and gloves ready, getting in head first and using chakra to anchor himself as he took it slowly into the pipe. It was like a dark, slimy slide, and the clone grinned. The darkness had always been his friend at the Dursleys, it was safety, and the Clan's training only increased his comfort in the shadows, making a strength out of a defence. His night-vision was enough to let him see the end of the pipe approaching, and he was using all the tricks he knew to stay unseen as he got out on the damp stone floor. He boosted his sight and hearing to the maximum as he looked around, examining everything.
Everything, however, was just a dark, stone tunnel, large enough to stand in and going off into the distance, slimy walls, and a litter of small animal bones on the ground. He sent a signal back to the top, 'Safe to proceed. Empty.' and a short while later the rest arrived. Naturally, one was left up top to keep watch, so there were fourteen of them there, Harry and thirteen clones, all of them cleaning the slime off their clothes after the trip.
A quick examination brought the rest of them up to date, and they headed out, the real Harry in the centre of their spread out group. Around the bend was the largest snake skin he'd seen, he'd estimate it at least twenty feet long, closer to twenty-five, and a vivid poisonous green, the same shade as the basilisk.
The tunnel turned again and again, and at last the group rounded a last bend to find a solid wall in their way. The carving of two entwined serpents, eyes set with great, glinting emeralds, were explanation enough as to what they had to do next.
"Open."
The serpents parted and the wall cracked open to reveal the way ahead.
"That Slytherin loved his drama." One clone opined, rolling his eyes.
"Still, it is effective within the limits of what they know. The Chamber did lay here just a myth to these people for nearly a thousand years." Another chipped in.
As their eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, they picked out the towering stone pillars with yet more serpent carvings, very dramatic but hardly practical lighting. Harry and most of his clones put on blindfolds, adjusting them for comfort, while one at the front and back kept their eyes uncovered. They were disposable if need be, and the extra information could be vital.
These two took to the walls while the main group advanced cautiously, noting every detail in case they needed to fight here. At the end of double row of pillars, at the feet of a giant statue, lay a small figure whose scent Harry knew well. "Ginny."
One of the clones was signalled to remove his blindfold, heading over and examining the girl. She was laying face-down, so he looked her over for injuries and checked her for a pulse, finding it weak and unsteady but there. Turning her over, her face was white as marble and just as cold. "Ginny, wake up!" he told her urgently.
A tall, black-haired boy shimmered into view, strangely blurred around the edges. "She won't wake."
"Who are you?" Harry's clone asked.
"Why, I'm Tom Riddle, of course."
Harry, listening from the shadows, was glad his clone was letting the stranger talk. He'd gotten the signal that Ginny was alive for now, her condition weak but not urgent, which meant what was most urgent was information, and, in the wizarding world, the best way to get that was to play dumb and let the arrogant idiots ramble.
"Are you a ghost?"
"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years." He pointed towards the toes of the giant statue, where a little black diary lay open.
"Ok, do you know how to wake Ginny? How did she get this way? Come on, we need to hurry since this is the home of a basilisk."
"Oh, the basilisk won't come until it is called. As for the girl, well, that's an interesting story. She got a diary, and wrote in it, then I would write back. 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..."
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…"
"And so you took her over."
"Oh yes, of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries, such delicious panic. She kept writing about you coming to save her, but you never did, and now it is too late for her."
Harry didn't know why these villains insisted on gloating to their victims, but his parents had explained that it was a common fault in people, needing to explain themselves even in the worst of situations. He did know that he should never interrupt an enemy who was making a mistake.
"Isn't it delightful, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "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 loose.
"I was most incensed when everyone thought those gingers had managed to duplicate my feat with the basilisk, so obviously they had to go next. After that I was hoping to get one of your pet Mudbloods, but at the last second he got away so I settled for that slimy little blood traitor McLaggen.
"Soon enough, I lost interest in the filth, though. So many people were talking about you, and I was fascinated."
Harry rolled his eyes. That idiotic fame of his struck again.
"You see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Rid dle. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the light ning scar on Harry's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could.
"It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery — that last attack was to see if you were worthy to meet me, if you survived.
"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 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 overheard you speaking to the walls trying to find this place. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."
"And what questions could you have that I'd want to answer?" Harry spat, fists still clenched, while he had a moment of mortification that Ginny had been close enough to hear him and he hadn't known.
"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you — a young boy 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?" said Harry slowly, still acting dumb. "Voldemort was after your time…"
"Voldemort," said Riddle softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter. …"
He pulled Ginny'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 re arranged themselves:
i aM loRd voldemorT
"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry. 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!"
The real Harry waiting in the wings was stunned. 'I have to kill the terrorist again?! Just how is he coming back?' His clone was affected differently, rolling his eyes at the arrogance.
"No, Tom, it's people like you that make me think the Muggles are the lucky ones. Does growing up with magic rot your brain? You know how powerful the Muggles are, how successful, and since you created this diary of yours, they've done things no wizard has. They've plumbed the depths of the oceans, they've gone to the Moon, sent cameras to the other planets and sent back pictures.
"They rule the world, Tom. Not you, not wizards. And given what you did, they do it better than you ever could."
The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.
Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.
Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Harry's scalp and made his heart feel as though it was swollen to twice its normal size. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Harry felt it vibrating inside his own ribs, 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 the Harry in front of Riddle. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying and Harry reflexively made the catch, then landed heavily on his shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Harry looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eye.
The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm 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 his shoulder gently.
"And that —" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped, "that's the old school Sorting Hat —"
So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat rested in Harry's arms. "You know, Hat, you were right about keeping secrets. For what it's worth, I apologise for threatening to destroy you."
"Quite alright, Mr Potter. You're not the first, and you won't be the last."
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 defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?"
Harry didn't answer Riddle. "If Dumbledore sent you to me in my time of need, then what are you supposed to do?"
There was no answer, but that wasn't a real surprise. An answer might have been useful, and providing answers wasn't the Headmaster's style, no matter that it was his job.
"To business, Harry," said Riddle, still smiling broadly. "We have met before — in your past, in my future — we have met. And yet I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly, "the longer you stay alive."
Harry was thinking, he wanted to enrage Tom, for an enraged opponent was a sloppy one, easy prey to the unexpected strike. However, Ginny was dying the longer he waited, which meant he needed to hurry.
"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me." said Harry abruptly. "Oh, there's some twaddle about my mother dying to save me granting me powers, but that's just a bedtime story for little girls. My mother wasn't the first woman you murdered, after all, and I wasn't the first child you attacked, you pathetic coward.
"When I saw you last, you were just a disgusting pimple on the back of the head of an idiot. Appropriate for one like you, it matched your mind. I'm surprised you didn't take Lockhart instead. He seems just as arrogant and obsessed with his image as you.
"As for how you died? Obviously, the Wizarding World are a bunch of idiots if they believe I did it, and you're the king of idiots for accepting it. I was a baby, what was I going to do, soil my nappy?"
Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile.
"So. There is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. 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."
Harry stood, relaxed and waiting. Rid dle's twisted smile was widening again.
"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against fa mous Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him."
He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away. Harry seized the chance to strike at his enemy's back, throwing a handful of kunai at the memory of Riddle and watched disappointed when they went through without even a mark, the knives sinking into the wall on the other side.
Harry would have been afraid if he had to rely on just what Dumbledore gave to help. 'Why the hell didn't he send a rooster?' He watched Rid dle 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 — but Harry, waiting on the wall behind, understood what he was say ing.
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four." The real Harry rolled his eyes at that, more of their arrogance.
The clone wheeled around to look up at the statue, Fawkes steady on his shoulder.
Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving, the 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.
Harry's clone backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall, and as he shut his eyes tight he felt Fawkes' wing sweep his cheek as he took flight. His hearing tracked the basilisk and the phoenix.
The King of Serpents hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Harry felt it shudder — he knew what was happening, he could hear the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice:
"Kill him."
"No." It wasn't a shout, nor a plea, just a statement of fact. "I will not die today."
Riddle and the basilisk both turned toward the real Harry. Just then, the other clones jumped to the Chamber's floor, taking their attention back. The serpent was confused, all of these boys smelled the same, looked the same, so it decided to just kill them all.
It lunged at the nearest one who casually dodged out of the way, and carried on to the next closest, which also didn't bother to move until the last moment.
Harry and his clones were quickly building up an idea of the basilisk's capabilities. Next, he took a handful of shuriken, throwing them at the beast. When they just bounced off, he glared and threw another set, this time at full force. They stuck in the creature's hide, falling out when a turn stretched the skin on that side.
"Ok, you've got some defences. Good. I haven't had a real challenge since my parents last put me on a combat mission."
Next, he quickly built up a Fire technique, blowing out a fireball bigger than he was. This was just a C-rank technique but he didn't want to risk anything larger in the Chamber until he was sure the place wasn't going to come down on his head. Besides, it would have roasted any of those Acromantulas so it should do some damage to the Basilisk, right?
Wrong. The most the creature did was close its eye as the fireball raced at it, hitting its, as it was revealed, fireproof hide.
"Interesting. I can't use Earth techniques here, too much chance the place is supported by magic. Let's try.."
A Lightning Whip was next, one clone darting in and dashing it against the creature's massive body. While the snake hissed in pain, that's all it did, and the backlash from the magic and chakra colliding dispelled the clone immediately.
Next, Harry and his clones tried a rain of kunai, hurled with chakra-enhanced muscles, and he was grimly satisfied that these managed to penetrate five inches into the creature, starting to slow it down. The fight was taking too long, however, and was getting far too destructive. Already, one of Harry's clones had needed to grab Ginny and get her out of the way.
He told the Hat he was holding, "Some help right about now would be great. There's got to be some reason Dumbledore sent you along into a fight like this."
His answer came in the form of a heavy clunk, as a silver sword inset with rubies fell out of the Hat. "A sword? Well, you were made by Gryffindor according to the books, and rubies are the Gryffindor gems. I suppose that makes this thing Gryffindor's sword."
He was drawn from his musings by a clone's shout. The Wind cutters had had no more effect on the beast than the kunai, which was frustrating.
"I'm thinking one of us will need to stab the beast's weak points, and very few creatures armour their mouths. You, distract the snake, while you two get into position to stab its brain from underneath. The rest of us will stay in reserve."
"Boss, you come up with the craziest ideas, you know that?" The clone he'd assigned to serve as bait complained even as he got ready. He couldn't disagree, the only reason he was even considering this was because the clones were completely expendable. He never wanted to send anyone to their deaths.
"Hey, ugly, over here!" The clone was baiting the creature well, yelling, waving its arms, and the serpent took it up on the offer.
As the basilisk drew near, it opened its enormous jaws, exposing rows of fangs as long as that fancy sword, thin, glittering, venomous. The clone acting as bait, as well as the other two, all acted at once, thrusting their ninja-to up into the roof of its mouth, trying to aim for its brain. The crazy idea proved itself at once, the weapons sinking almost effortlessly in compared to piercing the magically toughened hide and the clones got out of there before the jaws could snap shut.
The serpent's death throes were noisy as the beast thrashed around before going still. One clone dropped down in front of the corpse, deliberately looking in the creature's eyes to check if it was safe yet. When the only thing that happened was him feeling a little off from the smells, he called out "Clear!"
The rest of the Harry's removed their blindfolds. Harry noticed that the ninja-to were already corroding from the venom coursing down the blades.
"Hmm, well, that was invigorating, Tom. Now, for you."
"You think you can kill me?"
"Well, I just slew a thousand-year old Basilisk. Yes, Tom, I do."
With that, Harry's clone pulled out one of the blades and stabbed not the boy himself but the diary that contained him, something the foolish future Dark Lord had told him outright, confident in his superiority. The diary which had shrugged off shuriken and kunai during the battle found itself pierced right through.
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 was gone. Ginny'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 coating the kunai had burned a sizzling hole right through it.
Looking around, Harry was glad that the phoenix had disappeared after dropping off the Hat, seeing the boy it had come to help hadn't needed it after all. He gathered up the fallen weapons, securing them again, with the ones coated in venom given special care and handling appropriate for such dangerous items.
Harry and his clones surveyed the Chamber until there was a faint moan, Ginny was stirring in a clone's arms. The clone dashed away from the group, back through the tunnel and up the pipe.
Ginny opened her eyes to see Harry there, holding her in the girl's bathroom, the fateful diary in one hand, and the pipe filled with rocks and dust, an illusion Harry had layered over there to make it look like the Chamber was now destroyed.
"Harry! Oh, Harry, I, I, it was me, Harry - but I - I swear I didn't mean to- I tried to stop him when he attacked you! - Riddle, he took me over - oh no - that poor woman! Where is she? Where's Riddle?"
"Riddle's gone, Ginny, he can't hurt you any more. What woman are you talking about? Is she in danger?"
"He - I - I think she's been potioned. The Draught of Living Death! I - I remember trying to get the ingredients together for it. She's been hidden behind the statue, I put her there because Riddle wanted to use her for something. I never understood why he wanted her, though, just something about having to wait fifty years to break a drought."
Harry was thankful for that small mercy, there was only one answer that came to his mind, and was unspeakably grateful he'd saved the woman from that, whoever she was.
"It's ok, Ginny, I got her out." He lied, trusting that the other clones and the real Harry would see to making it a reality. "Let's take you to the Hospital Wing, get you sorted out, ok?"
"Ok, Harry, whatever you want." Ginny closed her eyes, exhausted, and Harry's clone signalled to the other to relay the message while he stood guard. A minute later, the real Harry was back along with his clones and the unconscious woman, as well as one of the basilisk's fangs. He wanted some proof for his story, after all. The woman was delivered to one of the deserted rooms Harry had found in his roaming, a clone keeping watch, while the rest spread out and the real one took Ginny to Madam Pomfrey.
He kicked open the doors with a bang, using that to announce his presence. The old woman came bustling out all fired up to yell at whoever was disturbing her patients until she saw a disheveled Harry holding a pale, unconscious Ginny, the same student Pomfrey was afraid would be lost forever.
"Mr Potter! Oh, bring her here, please, that's it, lay her down, gently now, gently." Harry was tempted to roll his eyes, he already knew to do just that, but kept quiet.
The Matron pulled out her wand, waving it at the girl and breathed out relieved. "Just exhausted, thank Merlin. Now for you, Harry." When she started pointing the wand at him, Harry had to consciously fight down his response to let her do her work.
"Dirty, tired, some scratches and bruises but otherwise okay. Sit down and I'll fetch a potion after I call the Headmaster."
"Yes, Madam Pomfrey. Would you also call my Head of House, please? I'm afraid she'll be angry with me if she can't find me, you see." Harry was putting on the best 'meek child' impression he could, he had a real job of acting ahead.
Pomfrey almost smiled at that understatement. Professor Sprout struck many as gentle, unable to harm a fly, but she had been Sorted truly when she went into Hufflepuff, her loyalty to her House would spawn a truly impressive fury if they were threatened.
Ten minutes later, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and Sprout all came into the Hospital Wing, hurrying over to Harry and Ginny.
Fawkes pushed himself off Dumbledore's shoulder, swooping in to land on Harry's outstretched arm.
McGonagall was just staring at Harry, then again so were Snape and Sprout, so it was left to Dumbledore to open proceedings. "Well done, my boy, well done indeed!"
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