Hermione was closer so reached Ginny's body first, Harry not too far behind. They sank to their knees, not caring about the small puddles that were dampening their school uniforms. Harry's heart beat thunderously as he stared at the poor girl, his eyes moving upwards to meet his friend's troubled gaze.

"She's freezing, Harry," Hermione pointed out. "I don't know whether that's because she's been down here for so long or…" She couldn't finish the sentence. She couldn't fathom what that reality would entail. They had watched helplessly as Professor Quirrel had died a year ago (not that they would have helped him in truth) but this would be a completely different sight to behold. They couldn't watch as someone so young and fragile became a permanent victim to the forces at play.

"Come on, Ginny," Harry murmured quietly, rocking the girl's body ever so gently. "Wake up for me. Come on, open those eyes. We never got to talk properly and I'm not leaving here until we can rectify that." He caught Hermione looking at him through sad eyes. "She can't be dead." But the way her body was limp, lolling lazily from side to side with his movements, suggested it was entirely feasible.

"Not yet," a voice came from somewhere in the chamber. "But she's tantalisingly close."

They both jolted at the unexpected sound. A tall boy with dark hair emerged from the shadows between two sets of pillars. He appeared out of focus, almost blurry around the edges, but his footsteps echoed against the stone floor all the same.

"Who are you?" Harry asked. He'd never seen this boy before. Surely they would have at least bumped into one another during their time at Hogwarts. His uniform was emblazoned with a green snake, which didn't come as much of a surprise.

"I'm a memory," the boy answered in his oddly soft voice. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

"Tom Riddle," Hermione hissed as she looked at him with wide eyes. "How is that possible?"

"If you're stuck in that diary, then how are you here?" Harry wondered. "Because Professor Dumbledore was given it. He wouldn't let you out."

Riddle didn't take his eyes off Harry, barely registering Hermione's presence. He gestured his head to a spot close to them and they saw, tucked away under Ginny's robes, the diary they had found in Myrtle's bathroom. The diary that Matthew had thought contained dark magic. How had it gotten here? Why did Ginny have it? Or had Riddle given it to her when she'd been taken to the Chamber? If the diary did contain dark magic as they'd been told, and the boy claimed to have come from the diary, then that left only one reasonable outcome.

"Did you do this to Ginny?" Harry pressed. Riddle didn't answer. The only sign of response was the corners of his mouth slightly twitching upwards. He was enjoying this, it was obvious to see. "What did you do to her?" He was growing angry. He could feel his wand still in his hand, itching to be used. But Hermione's presence was a reminder to be calmer than that, to get all the facts before acting.

"Me? I did nothing to her," Riddle said. His eyes barely blinked, unnerving them. "This was all down to her. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."

"Just get to the point," Harry bit out.

"The diary. 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 she felt like she had no one in this school to be around. She spoke of you as well, Harry Potter. How she had been told all her life of the stories of your brilliance and how she never could live up to the same standards." Riddle sighed dramatically. "It was very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl. But I have learnt to be patient over the years of sitting in that book. I wrote back. I was sympathetic and I was kind. Ginny simply loved me."

He walked ever closer to them, and the pair shifted nearer to each other for protection. "No one's ever understood me like you, Tom, she said," Riddle continued. "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 somehow didn't match his demeanour yet suited him perfectly. "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…"

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, wrapping an arm instinctively around the little girl.

Riddle turned his nose up at you. "You're not a part of this conversation, Mudblood. You shouldn't even be down here. Your presence defiles this great sanctuary of the pure."

Harry bristled on behalf of his friend. "You said you've wanted to talk to me for a long time. Well, that's not happening until you talk to Hermione with the respect she deserves."

"The only thing she deserves is the same fate as Ginny Weasley. The same fate as every dirty muggle born in society."

"That's not going to happen. Because there will always be people to stop people like you. People who will save and protect our closest friends, just as we're doing with Ginny."

"Is that so? Would you be willing to protect her after knowing what she's done? Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets."

Harry blanched. "That's not possible."

"Don't be a fool. You know it's entirely true deep down. It makes complete sense. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on a cat of all things, but that was just to get her started. She wrote the message on the wall to drive you away but, when that didn't work, she was behind every single attack. Including the one on your dear friend."

Harry couldn't really envisage Ginny besting Matthew though. "You're lying."

"Your friend found her in the library and his guard was down. Because who would suspect someone as pitiful as her? She took the diary from him and sealed his fate. She's become rather good at it. 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. They were so much more interesting! She was scared and panicked. Waking up with stains on her robes that she couldn't remember getting. Entire nights lost from her memory, driving her insane. Eventually, she found it within herself to give me up but it was an addiction by that point. She needed to find it after a while, to sustain the new craving. She'd heard talk of it being given to the headmaster and lost all hope, only to be reunited with it because of your friend's carelessness."

"Matthew wouldn't do that!" Hermione shot back. "He barely wanted to touch the thing!"

"Then explain why it is here now." Riddle waited for a response. "But of course you can't. Because the only logical conclusion is that your friend had it on him shortly before the monster got him. And isn't that intriguing?"

"I'm sure he had his reasons," Harry said, defending his friend to the last. "It wasn't as if he was working with you."

"No, that's true. But it's that sort of blind loyalty that'll lead you down the wrong path, Harry Potter."

"And how would you know that? Why were you so eager to meet me?"

"I've learnt so much about you over this past year. Ginny would write endlessly about you. Your entire history transformed into a fairytale." Riddle gritted his teeth as he looked towards Harry's scar. "How you got to this point. How you surrounded yourself with two friends that made it impossible for anyone else to get close to you. I tried to reach out to you, I did. When Ginny threw away the diary, I felt your presence at one point. But you allowed your actions to be dictated by someone else. I had expected better from you."

"Just because he takes on advice, doesn't mean he's any less of a person," Hermione argued. "I think you underestimated us. I think you never expected us to get down here in time. Or to get here at all."

Riddle arched a slender eyebrow. "Is that so? Ginny complained about how much of a know-it-all you were, and yet you stand here and make mistake after mistake. I wanted you down here. Well, not you. You're completely irrelevant to what I have in mind. My fascination lies with Harry."

Harry tried his best not to react. Reacting was like letting Riddle win somehow. He chose to stay still, watching the strange boy prowl in front of them.

"Imagine my confusion when Ginny Weasley told me how you…a skinny excuse for a wizard with barely any noticeable extraordinary power…managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time. I had to know."

"That's where you're wrong," Harry said. "Dumbledore's the greatest wizard that's ever lived! Not… him ."

"Oh, Dumbledore. That old fool had his suspicions about me right from the start. With him constantly watching over me after the oaf Hagrid was expelled, I wasn't able to continue the attacks as I would have wanted. Which forced me to preserve myself in that diary so that one day, someone would come along and finish Salazar Slytherin's work on my behalf. I wasn't going to waste all the work I had put in in finding the Chamber of Secrets. Especially not because of the prying eye of an old man."

"You ran away," Hermione summed up with a smug smile.

Riddle's nostrils flared dangerously. "I did not! I beat him at his own game! I was able to continue my work whilst he thought he had done enough to stop me. He grew complacent, whilst I remained vigilant for decades. Biding my time. And now, thanks to the life that is draining from that girl, I'm able to return to the form I deserve. There's not a lot left to take from her. It won't be long." He glared at Hermione. "Then there will be nothing you can do to stop me from ripping you apart."

Harry instinctively moved in front of her. "Leave her out of this. You wanted to talk to me. So do it. Why were you so fussed with what happened that night, between me and Voldemort? He was well after your time."

"Voldemort…is my past, my present, and my future." Riddle clicked his fingers and a puddle on the floor began to morph and swirl at random, before transforming into bubbling letters against the stone. They spelled out his name. Tom Marvolo Riddle . With a wave of his hand, the letters moved and combined, separating in a different order. I Am Lord Voldemort .

"Can you see it now?" he whispered, a mad glint in his eyes. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. Do you really think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? When Salazar Slytherin's blood runs through my veins? When that very father abandoned me before I was born, all because my mother 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!"

Harry felt at sea, his brain dizzy and spinning. This boy would turn into the monster that murdered his parents. The monster that murdered countless others. He only found the strength to speak when he felt Hermione's hand slide into his own.

"I already told you…you'll never be the greatest. Not when Dumbledore exists in the history books. You're still scared of him now, all these years later. Or is that because you're still that same kid ?"

"The old fool is gone, taken from his beloved Hogwarts! All because of the memory of me !"

"Dumbledore will never be gone. That's what he told us. And that's what terrifies you."

"You're the one who should be terrified, facing down me…I will teach you what terror truly feels…like."

Riddle stumbled over his words because of an unexpected interruption. A call rang through the chamber, an unearthly sound that Harry had never heard before it. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on edge and he glanced curiously at Hermione, searching for answers.

"Harry," she said. "I think that's phoenix song!"

True to her words, a large crimson bird soared into view, gliding above ethereally. Its tail was golden and seemed to shimmer in the reflections of the water around them. Its sharp talons were clutching something ragged that was vaguely familiar but, from that height, it was difficult to make out properly. They watched in amazement as the bird circled once more before heading towards them, landing on Harry's shoulder after dropping the unknown bundle onto the floor. Harry had expected it to hurt, especially given the size of its talons, but it was somehow perfectly in sync and balanced. He gazed past its pointy beak to stare into its beady black eyes.

"Fawkes?" Harry asked the creature. "Dumbledore was right about you. You look magnificent."

Hermione had stumbled to her feet, leaving Ginny on her own as she reached for what the phoenix had been carrying. Her brows knitted together in confusion. "The…sorting hat?"

Riddle's puzzlement turned to utmost humour in an instant, and he began to cackle, a cold and harsh sound at odds with the beautiful sound Fawkes had been emitting just a moment before. "This…is what your supposed great Albus Dumbledore provides you with? A songbird and an old hat? Perhaps he actually wants you to die, with how useless these things are."

The boy appeared more confident than ever, stepping closer to them. Harry gripped his wand tightly, as did Hermione. There was nothing they could do for Ginny at the moment. They had to defend themselves. This was the one advantage they currently had. Riddle's form didn't come with his wand, though it seemed that his magical abilities still waited somewhere, waiting to emerge with their full force once he was renewed.

"Do you want to duel?" Riddle asked airily. "Is that what you have been taught? Defend yourself then! Take aim!" He smirked as they raised their wands with steady arms. "Oh, you must be confused. Not at me. That would be silly and foolish. No…let's see whether your lessons have taught you enough to survive against my pet."

Harry could tell what was about to happen before it started. Riddle held his arms up high and began to talk in a hiss that only he could understand. Slytherin's mighty statue behind them began to rumble but Harry wasn't waiting to see what that signalled, not with Hermione by his side. He was next to her an instant, his hand going over her eyes. He clamped his shut too and they clambered over one another to reach the edge of the chamber. Fawkes had abandoned Harry's shoulder but he couldn't tell where the bird had gone. It had probably fled, fearing for its life. Harry couldn't blame it too much. He knew the serpent was approaching. He knew the basilisk had been unleashed. And they were powerless to do anything. Harry held Hermione's hand in a death grip, not knowing what else would help.

The floor seemed to rumble as the great creature slithered over its surface. But, when it had initially been slow and smooth, the movements became more rapid and clumsy. Harry didn't know what possessed him to do it but he risked squinting his eyes open to see what was happening, still making sure to stand in front of Hermione to give her more protection. The scene before him was chaotic. The basilisk was weaving in between the pillars, snapping and hissing at something. Harry waited for its eyes to turn to him but couldn't look away. Not when he saw that Fawkes was the one distracting it, using his sharp beak to attack the giant beast. At one point, a spatter of blood was sent through the air and Harry feared for the bird's safety. He watched it fly out of reach of the basilisk, only to be caught staring when the monster turned its attention to him.

Only, its imposing, bulbous, yellow eyes weren't there. They had been scarred and punctured by Fawkes' persistent strikes, unable to ward off the ambush. Harry nudged Hermione gently and she squeezed one eye open to look at him. He gestured to the sight before them and she blanched, her skin almost as pale as Ginny's.

"Harry," she said slowly. "I don't want to ruin your sense of confidence but basilisk's still have an amazing sense of smell…"

The basilisk, still in pain, was thrashing around randomly, its tail swinging about and smashing into the structure of the chamber. The room shook and groaned from the impact and they swayed on their feet. Harry still held the sorting hat in his hands.

"What do we do?" Harry asked helplessly. Fawkes was doing his best to give them time but they represented a more substantial meal for the massive snake. And Ginny's prone body was liable to be crushed, either by the basilisk's heavy body or by the stone tumbling to the ground.

"Think, Harry! What does the sorting hat do? How does it work?" She waited for him to act but had little patience, snatching the hat from his grasp and shoving it onto his head. His eyes dawned with realisation before he scrunched them closed once more, thinking desperately. This was their only chance. Dumbledore had told them that help would always come when they needed it. There wouldn't be a moment where they were in need of something, a miracle, more than this.

Harry let out a small yelp as something heavy landed on his hand. A sword emerged from the sorting hat as he pulled it up, first showing its glimmering hilt lined with jewels, before its pointed end was revealed. They stared at it in astonishment. The only issue was that Harry's yell of surprise had alerted the basilisk to their location and its head was pointed towards them. Harry looked at his friend, knowing that he would need her strength as he always did and held out the sword towards her. They both grasped the hilt and aimed upwards. Their eyes closed as the head loomed over them, poised to strike.

As the basilisk came down, its jaw surging towards them, they felt the sword plunge into the roof of the monster's mouth. But Harry also felt one of its sabre-like teeth make contact with his arm just above his elbow. The searing pain was incident and he collapsed to the ground along with the basilisk, which had keeled over onto its side, no longer moving. Hermione was on him in a dash, panicking as she saw the poisonous fang sticking out of him. Adrenaline fuelling his actions, he wrenched the offending item out from his arm, revealing a deep wound left behind that looked to be already festering. Harry's head was dizzy and he knew it was too late. He could faintly make out the sensation of Hermione's touch but her outline was blurry and unfocused. A blur of crimson came across his view, along with something black, but his poison-riddled mind couldn't comprehend what that meant.

"Harry," Hermione cried through her tears. "Harry. You need to keep your eyes open. Please. Don't close them. You have to be strong for me. Come on, Harry."

Riddle's outline was there in the distance but Harry couldn't make out his face. "Your friend isn't the only one who's crying, Harry Potter. Even Dumbledore's bird is shedding tears. That's a true sign that you're dead. At last."

Hermione watched as Fawkes sidled up next to Harry, leaning its head just above the wound. And she understood. The tears dried up and she wiped away the evidence of their existence. She stood up, turning on Riddle. As she moved, she bent down towards Harry and whispered in his ear, hoping he understood. And she smiled. It was the first time that Riddle had shown any nervousness, a sense of self doubt creeping into his expression.

"You bang on about how brilliant you are," she commented, "but you don't even know what a phoenix can do. Such as produce tears that can heal any wound."

"No…get away from him! Get away, bird! This can't be!" He tried to move towards where Harry was still lying down but Hermione remained in his way. Her wand kept him at bay.

"You're not having a good day." She moved in a slow circle and Riddle couldn't keep his eyes off her, watching her move, watching her wand twitch in her hand every so often. "First, your monster dies at the hands of two second-years. And now you've failed to kill Harry for the third time. I'm sorry to say that your day is only going to get worse. Aren't I right, Harry?"

Riddle panicked. His attention had been taken away from his true target. Giving Harry enough time to take the fang that had caused him the pain that was now gone, and stab into the very heart of the diary on the floor. A blood-curdling scream was unleashed, as well as thick, slimey ink from the book. It covered his hands and parts of his uniform, obscuring the blood that was already stained there. They watched as Riddle yelled out, writhing around just as his basilisk had done, before, with one final pulse of light, he was gone. A gaping hole had been made in the diary, signalling the loss of Riddle's long-dead spirit.

Hermione was on him once again, though he was already finding his feet. The hug she gave him was the tightest they'd ever shared and had enough force to nearly knock him down again. But he enjoyed it. It gave him the same sense of warmth as Fawkes' tears had done, but he wasn't in the right headspace to think about what that meant. He was just smiling.

"How did you know that was going to work?" he asked in amazement.

"I didn't. But it was worth a try, wasn't it?" she shrugged.

"But…what if it had gone wrong?"

"Harry, I don't always have to think rationally. I'd just taken down a basilisk, for goodness sake…I was on a high!"

A soft groan came from nearby and they focused their attention on the form of Ginny, who was slowly shifting. When her eyes opened, the first face she saw was Hermione's, with small specks of blood covering her cheeks. Harry lingered just behind, smiling awkwardly at the Weasley girl.

"Hermione…Granger?" Ginny croaked. "Did you…save me?"

Hermione didn't know how to respond. It was Harry who spoke. "It was all Hermione." He gestured to the sight of the serpent, which made Ginny's eyes turn into the size of saucers. "She did that. And also distracted Riddle long enough for me to get a bit lucky."

"That's not how it happened!" Hermione sputtered.

"It is to me," Harry replied simply. The last thing he needed was another saviour complex. If one person looked at Hermione like everyone else did to him, then that was only what she deserved.

"You saw Riddle?" Ginny asked. "So it wasn't just me?" Tears began to fall, flowing rapidly. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I couldn't do anything about it! I wanted to tell someone but who would listen to me? It was me! I feel dreadful! I did it! I'm the one who…I can't even say it…the basilisk…and Riddle…and…and…"

Hermione placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Shh, it's okay, Ginny. We already know. Riddle…he explained everything. How he took advantage of you. That's not your fault. It'll never be your fault."

"And Riddle's gone now," Harry added. "He can't hurt you now. He can't hurt anyone."

"Still…I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wailed. "All my family have come to Hogwarts and have spoken about how good it is, and I'm going to have to leave! My mum and dad! They're going to be devastated."

Hermione helped her up, Harry assisting on her other side. "We won't let that happen. I think we've earnt a bit of sway with the professors after today."

They looked around the chamber, at the tunnel beyond. "It's going to be a long way back up. And my arm is still a bit numb."

"What happened?" Ginny was staring at his arm, but there was no evidence of any damage anymore.

"Oh…I just got a little bit stabbed…nothing to worry about really. Not the sort of thing that slows me down." He enjoyed her look of disbelief.

Hermione shook her head at his antics. "Harry's also forgetting that we don't need to walk all the way back up. I have no idea how he would get up that pipe anyway…so it's a good job that we have a Fawkes who can lend a helping…wing."