Chapter Twenty – The Heir of Slytherin
The twins found themselves standing at the very end of a long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. With his heart beating very fast, Harry stood listening to the chilling silence. Could the Basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar?
Haiden pulled out his wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns, prompting Harry to move forward as well. Every careful footsteps echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. The twins kept their eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following them. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, Harry swore he saw one of them stir.
Then, as they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall. Harry had to crane his 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. And between the large feet, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.
"Ginny!" Haiden cried, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees. Harry followed after him, at a slower pace, eyes sweeping the dark Chamber. "Ginny – don't be dead – please don't be dead–" Haiden flung his wand aside, causing Harry to sigh as he magically summoned his brother's wand to him as Haiden turned Ginny over. Her face was white as marble (and as cold as it) yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't petrified. Harry noticed that her chest was rising and falling shallowly as he stood right next to them, she was still alive, but only just. "Ginny, please wake up." Haiden muttered desperately as Harry slid Haiden's wand into the hidden pocket inside of Haiden's cloak as Haiden shook Ginny. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.
"She won't wake." A soft voice told them. The twins jumped and spun around as Harry instinctively created a barrier around the three of them. A tall, black-haired familiar looking teenager was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching Harry with what seemed to be intrigue. The teenager was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. Something about the teenager wasn't right, it was clear that he wasn't a ghost, but he wasn't quite alive either. Harry willed his magic to his eyes and noticed a string of magic connected to the teenager's chest, Harry followed the string of magic to a little black journal opened near the statue's giant toes. The journal had another string of magic that connected it to Ginny. It didn't take Harry very long to figure out what was happening.
"You're sucking the life out of her." Harry said, interrupting the conversation Haiden and the teenager were having. The teenager's eyes snapped to him as he snarled at Harry, turning his handsome face into that of a monster before he stalked over towards them. The teenager reached out to try and touch Harry, only to be zapped by the barrier causing him to curse under his breath.
"Aren't you a perceptive little thing," The teenager growled as he ran a finger down the barrier, careful to not be zapped again, "and powerful too." Harry noticed that the hand that got zapped looked more ghostlike. Harry glanced down at Ginny to see that she had a little more color than before. "It's a wonder Dumbledore hasn't made you into his faithful puppet."
"As you just said, I'm too perceptive for him to do that." Harry hissed as he glared at the teenager.
"Listen," Haiden said, standing up with Ginny in his arms, his knees sagging a little with Ginny's dead weight, "I don't know what you two are talking about, but we've got to got! If the Basilisk comes–"
"It won't come until it's called." The teenager informed them, and it was then that his nightmare cleared up and he knew why this teenager looked so familiar. Harry quickly glanced around the Chamber, a plan forming.
"What d'you mean?" Haiden asked as Harry slowly reached his hand over to grip his brother's wrist, without gaining the teenager's attention.
"Well, it was nice to finally meet you and all, but we've got to go. I'm sure we'll see each other again, and we can all talk and catch up then." Harry said with a forced smile.
"I don't think so, I've waited along time for this, Haiden and Harry Potter. So, I think we're going to talk now." The teenager told them.
"How did Ginny get like this?" Haiden asked slowly.
"Well, that's an interesting question." The teenager started pleasantly, however Harry cut him off.
"Ginny wrote in that cursed journal," Harry nodded towards the journal on the wet ground, "which held a piece of someone's soul. And by doing that, she opened her heart to the soul thinking that it was a friend, which allowed the soul to attach to hers and begin sucking the life out of her. The more Ginny wrote in the journal, the more the soul took from her, until it was strong enough to control her." Harry quickly explained.
"Well, it seems that someone has done his homework." The teenager hissed out.
"It's what I'm best at." Harry said, tightening his grip on Haiden's wrist.
"What? What's going on? What are you two talking about?" Haiden asked, obviously very confused about what was going on.
"Little Ginny's been writing in my journal 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" – the teenager's eyes glinted – "how she wanted the famous, good, and great Haiden Potter to like her instead of Hermione. How she wished Hermione were out of the picture so that she could be with Haiden." The teenager suddenly let out a loud, annoyed groan. "It was 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 has 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…" The teenager, Tom, laughed a high, cold laugh. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry's neck. "If I say it myself, Haiden, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed." Tom winked at Harry suggestively.
"Sorry, you're not my type." Harry told Tom who laughed him off.
"Well then, I guess that I'll have to dye my hair blond." Tom said with a smirk.
"Silver, not blond. And you must have an actual heart, not a black hole." Harry told him.
"Such wit, where did you get it?" Tom said.
"I was born with it." Harry said.
"I love my toys to have good wit, it's so more fun when they break." Tom said, his smirk darkening.
"If I'm a toy, then I'm one that you can't afford." Harry told Tom who laughed.
"We will see, Harry, we will see." Tom told Harry, racking his eyes over Harry before turning his attention towards the creeped out and slightly disgusted Haiden. "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, farm more powerful than little Miss Ginevra Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, started to pour a little of my soul back into her…"
"What d'you mean?" Haiden asked weakly looking from Ginny to Tom.
"Haven't you guess yet, Haiden Potter? I'm sure you're brother has already figured it out." Tom said with a taunting smile. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threating messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods and that Squib's cat."
"No." Haiden whispered.
"It wasn't actually her. She had no idea what she was doing, she was being controlled." Harry reassured his brother.
"Well, not at first." Tom said. "It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries… far more interesting, they became: 'Dear Tom,'" He recited obviously taking pleasure in the horror that was slowly over taking Haiden's face, "'I think I'm loosing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't known how they got there.' 'Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Harry said he saw me somewhere I don't remember being, I want to ask him about it, but I'm scared.' 'Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me…' 'There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad… They say that it's Harry attacking people, but I don't think so, I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!'" Harry could feel Haiden shaking, Tom was getting to him and Harry knew there was nothing the could do to stop it.
"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to finally stop trusting her diary." Tom said with a laugh. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you come in, Haiden. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up. It was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet…"
"And why did you want to mee me?" Haiden growled out, obviously trying (and failing) to hide his anger.
"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Haiden." Tom said, gushing fakely. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over Haiden's lightning scar. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So, I decided to show you my famous capture of the great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust–"
"Hagrid is my friend! And you framed him, didn't you?" Haiden growled and Harry had to bite his cheek to keep from telling Haiden that it was obvious that Tom framed Hagrid. "I thought you had made a mistake, but–" Haiden cut himself off when Harry squeezed his wrist. Haiden was getting too riled up, he was going to become an easy target, just like Tom wanted. Tom laughed his high laugh again.
"It was my word against Hagrid's, Haiden. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On one hand: Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student… on the other hand: Big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls. But I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought that someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance… as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!" Tom hissed.
"Wow, five whole years, huh? It only took me two weeks of actively searching for the Chamber to find it." Harry taunted with a smirk, causing Tom to hiss at him in Parseltongue to 'shut up'. "Come over here and make me." Harry hissed back causing Tom to raise an eyebrow in shock, it was clear that he hadn't known that it was Harry that could speak Parseltongue.
"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think that Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed… Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did…" Tom said and Harry had to fight off the thought that he was scarily a lot like Tom, and that Dumbledor's caution with him seemed to make a lot more sense. The man was terrified of history repeating itself.
"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you." Haiden said triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat."
"That doesn't matter to him, we're you paying attention. He doesn't care about killing the muggleborns. He wants us, well you. He want you dead. Ginny's just the bait to get you here." Harry explained to his brother who just blinked at him in confusion.
"Your brother's right, Haiden." Tom said as understanding what was happening finally dawned to Haiden who looked at Harry in fear. "And now that I have you trapped here, you're going to answer my question."
"What question?" Haiden asked sounding a lot more confidant than he looked.
"How is it that you – a skinny 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? I can get how Harry was able to do so, but not you." Tom said and Harry tried not to feel a little happy at the recognition.
"Why do you care how I escaped?" Haiden asked slowly. "Voldemort was after you time…"
"He is Voldemort." Harry said shocking Haiden.
"What?" Haiden asked. Harry snapped his fingers and Tom's full name 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' rose from the journal and floated in between Harry, Haiden, and Tom. Harry waved his hand over the name and the letters rearranged themselves: I am Lord Voldemort.
"Very interesting, how did you know my full name? I never told you it." Tom asked suspiciously.
"I had a nightmare." Harry told him and Tom hummed.
"Yes, 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, Haiden, 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!" Tom ranted.
"You're not." Haiden said, his voice quiet yet so full of hatred.
"Not what?" Tom growled out, eyes narrowing as if daring Haiden to say what they all knew what Haiden was saying.
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world." Haiden said and Harry fought back a flinch as Tom's eyes flashed to him before going back to glaring at Haiden. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so!" Harry couldn't stop the hurt he felt at that. "Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days–"
"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" Tom hissed.
"He's not as gone as you might think!" Haiden retorted.
"Even though he is physically gone from the castle, his spirit is still here with the people who trust and believe in him." Harry explained. Tom opened his mouth to argue only to freeze. Music was coming from somewhere in the Chamber. Tom whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber, searching for the source of the music. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spirit-tingling, unearthly, and strangely familiar. It lifted the hair on Harry's scalp and made him feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. It didn't take Harry very long to realize that it was Fawkes coming to give Haiden the Sorting Hat with Gryffindor's sword hidden inside it. He had to stop himself from hyperventilating, his nightmare was coming true. Though, he had to admit, there had been some small changes but it was still his nightmare come true. Harry glanced at Haiden and wondered if he could warn him or even say a last goodbye before his death.
Fawkes swooped in and dropped the hat heavily on Harry's head, shocking Harry out of his fear as he instinctively caught the hat before it hit the ground. This was supposed to land on Haiden, not him. He looked down at the tattered hat in his hand, this wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to get the hat. He neither trusted in Dumbledore nor believed in him. How could he have called Fawkes to him?
…No… that was a lie… there was one thing that he trusted and believed in about Dumbledore…
"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and old hat? Do you both feel brave? Do you feel safe now?" Tom taunted while laughing.
"In fact, I do." Harry told him, glaring up at Tom through his eyelashes as a new plan quickly formed in his mind. "Because I may not be Dumbledore's biggest fan, in fact I bloody hate him." At this point Harry slipped into a small rant. "And he may not trust me, and he may constantly keep an eye on me." He caught the worried look Haiden was now sending his way, and cleared his throat. "I may not understand why he sent me this and not Haiden, who seems to worship the ground the old man walks on, but I do trust and believe that he has his reason for his madness. Especially when it comes to Haiden." Harry said and felt the hat grow heavy.
Harry quickly pulled one of Haiden's hands away from Ginny, causing him to have to quickly shift her to keep from dropping her, and shoved it into the hat. He forced Haiden to grab the hilt of the sword knowing that even though the hat was given to him, he would not be able to pull the sword from the hat.
"What th–" Haiden cried only to stop when Harry glared at him.
"You said you trusted me, right?" Harry asked him and Haiden nodded. "Then trust me that I also have a reason for my madness. When I tell you, I want you to pull your hand out of the hat and set everything you're holding on the ground, face the exit, and close your eyes. And then, when I give you the signal, I want you to run as fast as you can."
"But–" Haiden started to protest.
"Trust me." Harry hissed out urgently. "You. Will. Be. Safe. I will make sure of it. Okay?" Haiden slowly nodded and Harry turned his attention to Tom. "To answer your question, Tom," Harry purposefully used the man's muggle name, earning a glare, "he escaped every time he faced you because we were together. And this time will be no different." Harry looked back at Haiden. "Pull your hand out." Haiden took a deep breath before he pulled Gryffindor's sword from the hat, sat both Ginny and the sword on the ground, quickly faced the exit and closed his eyes.
"What are you doing?" Tom asked as Harry quickly faced the statue with his eyes closed, and spoke the words that had been burned into his brain by his nightmare.
"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four." Harry heard the Slytherin's gigantic mouth opening. And wasting no time, Harry whistled the song Fawkes had sung on his way to them. Fawkes responded as Tom took control of the Basilisk as Harry planned he would, ordering it to not listen to Harry before ordering it to kill Harry and Haiden. Harry quickly called up his magic and through it around Haiden, willing it to not only protect him but lead him back to the Chamber as Fawkes attacked and blinded the Basilisk. Everything was going according to his plan. "Run." Harry hissed at Haiden before he threw himself on top of Ginny, his eyes still closed.
"NO! LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS GETTING AWAY! YOU CAN STILL HEAR AND SMELL HIM! KILL HIM!" Tom roared. Harry felt and heard the now blind serpent chase his brother. While Haiden was keeping the Basilisk busy, Harry quickly got the last part of his plan ready to execute. He quickly grabbed the journal and tossed it next to Ginny, making sure that it didn't touch the poor girl, before grabbing the sword. "You can't stop the inevitable, I will come back." Tom growled at him.
"Maybe not, but at least I can delay it long enough for Haiden to prepare." Harry told him a moment before Haiden came sliding into the Chamber, barely managing to stay on his feet as the blind Basilisk crashed in after him. Haiden quickly made his way over to Harry and Ginny, panting. Harry quickly focused his magic through the sword, to the tip, and drew a circle around Haiden. "Do not leave the circle until Tom's soul is dead." He ordered before pointing at the journal next to Ginny. "Use anything sharp that I slide to you. And make sure to stay in the circle no matter what happens." Harry stressed before taking off, purposefully splashing in the inch of water on the ground to catch the Basilisk's attention. He slid to a stop on the other side of the Chamber and put his back to the wall and waited for the Basilisk to come for him, coating the sword with his magic. Harry closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath to steady his nerves, and when he opened his eyes it was almost as if everything had not only slowed down but came into sharp focus.
The Basilisk lunged at him, and Harry jumped out of the way, swinging the sword, slicing it's hard scales. Harry knew it wasn't a deep cut, nothing to slow it down, but it wasn't supposed to be, it was only supposed to piss it off. The Basilisk, in a fit of anger, lunged at Harry once more, this time in the exact angle he needed it in. Harry steeled himself, making sure to not flinch, and, at the last possible second, stabbed the sword through the top of the Basilisk's mouth. Gripping the hilt of the sword with both hands, Harry forced the sword through the Basilisk's mouth and into it's brain. The magic coating the sword allowed it to slide right through the soft skin and skull as if it were butter, killing the Basilisk. Panting in exhaustion and pain, Harry pulled his arms from the now dead Basilisk's mouth, a fang lodged in his left arm just above his elbow.
Harry slid down the wall, quickly weakening from the poison. He gripped the fang and, with his quickly draining strength, pulled it from his arm with a wince. After taking a second to get his breath back, he used the last bit of his magic and strength to slide the fang to Haiden who quickly grabbed it. Harry saw that Haiden looked like he was about to run over to him and shook his head.
"You are both foolish and dead, Harry Potter." Tom said as he slowly made his way over to Harry. "Such a great waste of all that power and potential." Harry didn't know if the poison in his veins was making him delusional, but he could have sworn that Tom sounded mournful. Fawkes quickly flew over to him and landed next to him.
"What do I do with the fang?" Haiden asked desperately.
"Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Harry? He's crying. Mourning your death." Tom said, mournfully, as he knelt down to look at him with sad eyes as Fawkes cried into his wound. Harry weakly turned his head to stare at the bird, if he had the strength he would have stopped the bird, knowing that it was too late, the poison had already made it to his heart and the phoenix tears would never reach his heart in time to save him.
"…Stab…the…journal…" Harry forced out, barely able to catch his breath long enough to speak. Tom began to gently pet his now sweat coated hair, and if Harry wasn't so damn tired he would have moved his head away from the hand. Harry groaned as the world began to spin around him. Harry felt Tom lean down to whisper in his ear.
"We could have been great together. With our powers combined, we would have been unstoppable." Tom whispered, gently taking Harry's chin in between his long fingers and gently turned Harry's face so that he was now looking at the teenager. "We are so alike, you and me. It is almost as if you were made for me." Harry wandered what was taking Haiden so long as Tom forced a kiss on him. Suddenly, Tom pulled away harshly with a pain filled scream as holes of light appeared on his body, and Harry could have sworn he heard Haiden telling Tom to get away from him. Harry smirked weakly as Tom vanished with a loud, anguished scream, and Harry wished to hear that scream over and over and over again.
"HARRY!" Haiden cried rushing over to him, gently maneuvering Harry to lay his head on his lap. "No! Don't die! You can't die! Don't leave me alone! I just got you back!" Haiden cried, hugging Harry to him.
"I'll…always…be…with…you." Harry breathed out. And the last thing Harry saw before the cold hands of death took him away was a winged person. The right wing was pure white and the left wing was pitch black. The person had long, black hair and large, piercing emerald green eyes.
The person bent over him and his brother, watching them with a bored look. Once the person noticed that Harry was looking at them, their bored look morphed into an insane smile. They opened their mouth and Harry was shocked to hear the voice that he had been hearing for the past two years.
Beware the Dog. Befriend the Wolf.