*Disclaimer*: I own nothing
Chapter 1
The massive metal door gave a low squeal as it glided inwards. Harry Potter gave a furtive glance around as he cautiously stepped inside. He did not want to meet the monster that lived here if he could avoid it.
The Chamber of Secrets was dominated by a massive statute standing along the far wall. It was at least 20 meters high, and badly worn due to age and the dampness of the chamber. It depicted the ugliest man Harry had ever seen and he had seen his uncle come home after an all-night bender.
The ceilings of the Chamber soared above him, disappearing into the darkness and gloom without stopping. Long shadows were cast onto the walls from an even light that emanated from everywhere and nowhere.
At the base of the statue, almost hidden between its legs, lay a tiny, redhead shape. Ginny.
Abandoning any sense of caution, Harry broke into a run. His footsteps echoed loudly throughout the Chamber as he raced towards Ginny.
He arrived at her, casting aside his wand in order to grip her shoulders and look at her.
"Ginny" he near shouted as he shook her "Ginny, wake up!"
She didn't respond, her face deathly pale and limp.
He looked around in a blind panic, trying to work out how he would get Ginny out of here. He had to get her to Madam Pomfrey. He supposed he could carry her out on his shoulders but then he would have to…
"She won't wake you know"
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin as he spun around.
A man who definitely had not been there before was standing next to him. He had a handsome, pale face and his body was ever so slightly transparent. Like a ghost, when Harry looked at him straight on he disappeared but he could see him out of the corner of his eye. He held Harry's wand in his right hand.
He was slightly older than the last time Harry had seen him, but there was no mistaking him
"Tom Riddle? What are you doing here? What do you mean she won't wake?"
"I mean that I won't let her wake. I still have need of her."
"What did you do to her?"
Riddle looked cruelly at Ginny. "It's not what I did to her, but what she did to herself. She poured her heart into me and told me of all her problems, telling me all about her brothers teasing her, having to come to school in old clothing. About how her crush has no idea she exists." "When she opened her heart to me, I was able to place some of myself in her."
"Soon I will rise and she will fall."
Harry's head swam. "Ghosts can't do that."
"Your right, Ghosts can't affect the living in such a way but I'm not a ghost."
"Then what are you?" Harry asked, a hint of fear in his voice.
"A memory … preserved in the diary for the last fifty years."
He gestured, and for the first time Harry noticed the small black book that Ginny had in a death grip.
"I don't understand"
"I didn't expect you to Harry." Riddle sneered "You see, the original creator of this diary left a part of himself inside of it when he left this place."
"He put me here so that I could continue the glorious work, purging this place of the mudblood filth that has so tainted its walls. And when everything was done, when only the pure remain, people would worship the name of Voldemort!"
Horror filled Harry. It all made sense, the blood fanaticism, the snakes, even the scene in the diary with Dumbledore.
"Your Voldemort!" Harry shouted
"Very good Harry, I thought I would have to spell it out for you. But if you have figured out that, you must also realize that you will not be leaving this chamber alive. After all, one good turn deserves another and you destroyed me once."
He turned away from Harry to face the statue and raised his arms.
"Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!" he incanted in Parseltongue.
With a low roar, the wall between the statute's legs began to descend downwards into the floor like a massive door.
Riddle turned back to Harry with a smug expression on his face. "Goodbye Harry. I will so enjoy watching you die."
He disappeared as the door rumbled to a stop.
Harry could only stare stunned at the gaping space between the statues legs.
A sudden movement caused him to dive to the side behind a pillar.
Something enormous slithered out from inside the statue.
It sounded like a thousand soldiers in metal armor scraping across the uneven floor. Harry didn't dare look in the Basilisk's direction for fear that he may catch its gaze and die.
The creature stopped moving in what sounded like the center of the room. Harry didn't dare take a breath.
"Kill Him" Riddle's voice thundered across the cavern.
The snake struck. Harry dodged out of the way as its massive body demolished the pillar where he had been standing.
It struck again, this time crushing the floor where he had been standing. Harry ran for his life, eyes tightly shut, zig-zagging his way across the floor. Every few seconds, the Basilisk thundered down where he had been a moment before.
They played this game for what seemed like hours as Riddle's laughter echoed across the chamber and into Harry's ears.
A loose stone caught Harry's foot and he went sprawling on the floor. He lay, stunned, as the snake sounded like it was winding up for the killing blow.
"Well that's that. At least it will be quick" Harry thought morosely in his mind.
Suddenly a loud, clear cry echoed throughout the chamber. Harry hear the Basilisk scream in pain, and felt a piece of fabric hit him in the chest.
Despite himself, Harry opened his eyes.
First he looked down at his lap. He saw the Sorting Hat sitting on his chest. Then he looked up.
The Basilisk was even larger than he had thought, large enough to swallow a double decker bus without flinching.
Flying around its head was a bright red bird with razor sharp talons. Fawkes!
The Basilisk roared again and turned its head towards Harry. His eyes inadvertently met the eyes of the monster…
Only to discover that its eyes had been destroyed and were crying blood. The Basilisk was blind!
Harry attempted to get to his feet and was almost knocked unconscious by something hard striking him on the crown of his head. He ripped the hat off his head only to discover that the sword of Gryffindor was laying inside the hat. Mystified, but with bigger problems, Harry grasped the sword and pulled it from the hat.
He painfully got to his feet and discovered he had a new problem. The snake was blindly thrashing around, destroying large parts of the Chamber in the process.
Fawkes went in for another pass at the snake, only to get crushed between its head and a pillar. He burst into flames, and fell to the ground as a hatchling.
"Great" Harry thought "If I don't die because of the snake like Fawkes, I can be crushed by the Great Hall."
The thought of Crabbe or Goyle crushing him to death after they had had desert jolted him into action.
The snake lunged again, this time striking the wall directly above the metal door, sending an avalanche of stone and metal down to cover the entrance.
Staring at the rubble, Harry had an idea. It was a crazy, borderline suicidal plan but it was all he had. He ran back over to Ginny and began to search her robes. Hoping against hope that it was still there, that Riddle hadn't taken it…
Finding her wand, Harry turned and moved back towards the door. He used the levitation spell to life the largest piece of rubble he could find.
He floated it over to the Basilisk and hovered it above its head. He had to get this just right…
The basilisk began to slow its thrashing and come to a rest. Sensing his moment, Harry canceled the spell dropping the boulder directly onto the snake's skull.
The Basilisk let out a monstrous scream. Harry quickly levitated another piece of masonry into the creatures gaping mouth, sending fangs and blood in every direction.
The snake gagged and sputtered on the large rock, giving Harry an opportunity to smash a third rock into its ruined eyes.
The creature collapsed to the floor, stunned.
Harry moved quickly over it, and stabbed it through the top of its skull. It let out one final gurgle and lay still. He pulled the sword free
"I was about out of rocks" Harry said to himself half deliriously
"Well well" said the voice of Tom next to him "You survived." The annoyed figure sprang into existence next to Harry.
"No matter. Soon I will be whole enough to deal with you myself."
Harry knew Riddle was somehow connected to the diary. Destroying the damn thing must do something right? He spotted a broken fang laying next to Ginny who was still holding the diary.
Harry ran through Tom, who was still not entirely solid. He skidded to a stop on his knees next to Ginny. Ripping the book from her arms, he stabbed it through the front cover with the fang. Ink poured from its pages like a wound.
Tom let out a terrible scream. A large hole had appeared in the center of his chest. Harry raised the fang again and stabbed the book in a different spot.
Tom's screams got even more frantic before they vanished completely. He vanished into thin air, leaving nothing behind but a faint scream.
Harry grinned triumphantly before slumping to the ground unconscious next to Ginny.
Harry was awoken by the sounds of sobbing.
He saw the huddled form of Ginny, sitting next to him in the fetal position and rocking. He reached out to and placed a hand on her shoulder, only for her to scream.
"Harry?" she asked tearfully "I thought you were dead."
"Not yet" he said.
"Can you walk? We have to get out of here"
Ginny gave a small nod and allowed him to pull her to her feet. Harry slowly walked around the snake to where the infant Fawkes was resting. The tiny creatures let out a soft cry as Harry picked him up.
The trio walked towards the entrance only to be greeted by the massive pile of rubble that used to be the door. It would take a team of 10 wizards hours to move the pile enough to create an opening.
They didn't have 10 wizards, and from the look of Ginny's slowly swaying form, they didn't have hours.
Harry spied a piece of metal that had become wedged under one of the largest pieces of wall. He could maybe use it as a lever in order to wedge a small opening, but it would only be big enough for a tiny person. Even he might be too large. Somebody would also have to stay on the other side to hold it up.
He knew what he had to do.
He turned and handed Fawkes to Ginny. "Ok here is what we are going to do. I'm going to push down on that piece of metal to make an opening. You crawl through with Fawkes."
"What about you?" She asked
"Somebody has to stay here to hold it open. You go through that corridor, find Ron and go get help."
Ginny looked very skeptical of this plan but was really in no condition to argue. She crouched down in front of the pile and gave Harry a nod. He pushed down with all his might on the lever.
Ginny began to crawl as fast as she was able through the newly formed tunnel.
"I'm through" she called out after a few seconds. Harry let the lever fall and the entire pile shifted down destroying the tunnel.
"Are you alright?" she called out worriedly.
"I'm fine." he said. "Go find Ron, I will be fine here. Go!"
Her footsteps got fainter and fainter until they vanished all together.
Harry was all alone with the dead Basilisk and destroyed diary.
It suddenly occurred to him that it could be many hours, maybe even days, before someone could reach him. He suddenly wanted out of here very, very badly.
He turned around and saw the still open door between the statues legs. It had to lead somewhere right? Maybe he could get out sooner than help could arrive.
He knew what his friend Hermione would say that he should wait here for the teachers or the ministry to arrive. But she wasn't the one trapped in a dark cavern half a mile below ground with a corpse.
"Better than hanging out around here for hours" he muttered to himself.
He grabbed a fang, and scooped up the torn diary, before descending into the darkness of the open door.