There was a noticeable difference once the students became aware of Dumbledore's forced departure, Harry hadn't thought the students could become any more scared, he was wrong.

Mcgonagall had set up temporary dormitories for the first and second years just off the great hall, this allowed the aurors on guard to watch over them throughout the day. There were only four aurors on duty at any one time, to Harry's delight Tonks was one of those aurors, he had tried to keep in contact with her through letters but Harry preferred talking to writing letters.

His plan was that if he could build up a good friendship with Tonks she would let him study her metamorphmagus power, but he found she was busy for most of the day and too tired by the evening to talk.

Another issue with the aurors presence was that he'd been unable to get back into his workshop for a while, part of the reason was because they had been told to stay in the great hall unless being escorted to lesson but he also didn't want to risk an auror discovering his workshop and breaking in.

However even with the added security it seemed it wasn't enough, just two weeks after Dumbledore's departure word spread through the hall of another attack, but this time the victim wasn't a student. Professor Lockhart had already been sent to the St Mungo's intensive care unit, it seemed his class had been attacked on their way to charms and he had held off the attacker long enough for most of the class to escape.

Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley were missing, the aurors were frantically searching the school for them and Harry promised himself, if they didn't find Luna by sundown he would escape the aurors and find her himself. Harry couldn't help but notice how everyone offered their sympathies to the Weasleys but none of them bothered to check on him, only Colin seemed to realise that he was suffering too.

As he had dreaded the two girls had still not been found by dinner, after applying a notice-not he shrugged off his school robe and pulled the hood of his Invisibility cloak over his head and strode out of the hall.

His first stop was his workshop where he retrieved his spear and prototype shield, it didn't have the mithril core put in yet which meant the shield would only take a couple hits before needing to regenerate.

Once he had everything he wanted he went to the moving staircase and sent his magical awareness out, he knew he wouldn't be powerful enough to search the entire castle for Lune so instead he looked for someone that could. Eventually his magic detected a ghost, he began drawing in his awareness from elsewhere and focusing entirely on the ghost.

When he felt he had a good enough hold on the ghost he began pulling it towards him, Harry winced when he saw the ghost was Sir Nicolas. He had gotten to know the ghost and he didn't think being pulled through the castle would impress the ghost.

"Who hath summoned me hither" Nicolas demanded angrily

"I'm sorry Sir Nick, but I needed to talk to you. You see two first years have been kidnapped, Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley, I had hoped that perhaps one of the ghosts had seen something."

"I have seen nothing… although Ms. Warren said she had seen two girls, she seemed to have recognised the book one of the girls was carrying." Nicolas said grimly, his anger apparently forgotten.

"Ms. Warren?"

"Myrtle Warren, she's been haunting that bathroom on the 2nd floor for the past 50 years."

"Thank you Sir Nick, you've been extremely helpful."

Harry took off towards Myrtle's bathroom, on the way he crashed into Ron Weasley which sent them both sprawling over the floor.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Harry asked angrily, unknowingly copying Nickolas from moments before.

"What the hell am I doing? What the hell are you doing! I'm going to save my sister!" Ron said heatedly

"Well I'm going to save my friend and I'm not letting you stand in the way of saving another friend!"

"I'm… sorry, but Ginny's my sister, I'd gladly accept your help saving them both but I won't just sit on the sidelines and watch." Ron said definitely, Harry could see he wouldn't be convinced to stay away.

"Fine, but stay out of my way and keep anything you see me doing a secret… Get under the cloak." Harry regretted his decision to let Ron come along almost immediately as needed to move much slower, but he feared if he tried to go without Ron he would alert the aurors who would stop Harry for his own 'safety'.

Eventually he reached Myrtle's bathroom and was able to lift the Cloak off Ron

"Myrtle, are you here?" Harry called impatiently

"Oh, hello Harry." Myrtle giggled, floating out of her toilet

"Sir Nick said you saw two girls with a book, where did they go?"

"Well I remember recognising the book and then the red haired girl started speaking in a funny made up language, I think it was the same language the boy used when I died… anyway the sinks started moving out of the way to reveal this giant pipe that the two jumped down."

Harry went over to the sinks she had indicated and Looked, there was definitely some sort of magic going on behind the sinks but he didn't have time to break through the protections, instead he drew his saber and carefully cut a hole through the sinks.

When the blade had gone through the stone and marble the magic around the sinks had flashed brightly before finally collapsing, Ron looked amazed when Harry finally stepped away from the hole he had made.

"What the bloody hell was that?"

"Universal key, it's very useful when I need to get through difficult obstacles." Harry said absently, focusing on drawing the heat out of the stone. As he drained the heat he investigated the pipe so that he wouldn't be caught unaware by a trap.

"It may interest you to know that the hole is actually a portal, the only way to enter that pipe seems to be through this gap. If you were to dig down to the side and go across you would just pass right through, which makes sense considering there's a floor below us that clearly doesn't have a giant pipe passing through it."

With that Harry crawled through the hole and down into the pipe, when he saw the end of the pipe come into view he managed to get to his feet under him so that he came out of the pipe much slower and almost upright. The same couldn't be said for Ron who flew out of the pipe and rolled over the floor.

"Come on, onwards into the Chamber of secrets." Harry said jokingly, inwardly hoping Ron didn't see how scared he really was.

"How do you know it's the chamber of secrets?" Ron asked nervously, easily catching up with Harry's much shorter stride

"Well it makes sense doesn't it? This is a secret chamber hidden under the school."

Harry felt Ron grab hold of his robes and pull him backwards, angrily he turned around but paused when he saw Ron pointing at something behind him, Harry looked and realised Ron was pointing at something large that Harry would have walked into in the dark.

"Relax… I think it's only the skin of a large snake…" Harry said slowly, having only seen a faint magical signature from the thing and upon closer inspection saw it was hollow. He quickly stood up and drew his wand when he realised the signature on the skin was the vivid green net that had petrified the heir's victims.

"This is the creature that attacked the students… but what snake that large can petrify its victims?" Harry said softly, not wanting to draw attention to their location

"I don't know, but I only know one type of snake that grows that big, my brother Charlie works with dragons and he once got called in to fight a basilisk, he said it was 12 feet long… but this must be at least 20 if not bigger." Ron said worriedly

Harry activated his shield and passed it to Ron "If you see anything move cover your eyes with this, it should block you from anything that isn't unblockable."

"What about you?"

"Hopefully my magic is strong enough to stop the basilisk's magic… anyway I'm hoping my Cloak will protect me somewhat."

The two boys continued walking in silence, there was now a sense of danger as they realised they might not survive what was to come.

After what seemed an age they were met by a circular door with a snake motif, Harry quickly cut through the hinges and let the door roll away. Together they entered the main chamber, Ron let out a cry of panic and ran towards his sister's unmoving body, Harry quickly followed and checked on Luna who was lying next to Ginny.

He sighed in relief when he felt stable life signs from Luna, he Looked deeper and realised she had been petrified by the basilisk, he moved to Ginny and frowned when he had difficulty finding her signature. It was as if she had been drained dry, physically she seemed fine but she barely had any magic left.

"She won't wake" Harry turned and was momentarily confused, the boy that was standing in front of him was eerily similar to the disguise Dobby had made for him over the summer, the only main difference was the boy's hair being shorter.

"Who are you?" Harry asked cautiously, spotting the wand the boy was carelessly toying with, a wand that looked suspiciously like Ron's

"You may know me as Tom Riddle, had you bothered to talk to my diary perhaps you would have known this." The boy's accent was hard to place, he sounded like he was trying to emulate a news reporter from the world war two film Harry had been forced to watch.

"You're T.M Riddle? But you died, I saw your gravestone"

"Oh, so you know who I am? Yes I died, but you see I had taken steps to ensure my immortality. As you can see, they were quite successful."

"But where did you learn how to do this? I looked at the school records and nobody with your name attended Hogwarts in the 20s."

"In the 20s? What no, I went to Hogwarts 40s… the diary even has the date written on it…" Tom sounded genuinely confused, he even lowered the wand to stare at Harry.

"But your grave said you were born like 1905, are you not Thomas Matteo Riddle?"

Tom began chuckling madly "By merlin no, you found the grave of my filthy muggle father and you thought he was me? Oh that's hilarious, as if my father would ever have been worth one tenth of me. See this is why I got rid of his filthy name, if I was to rule the world I needed a name better than just Tom."

"Who are you then?" Ron asked, looking away from his sister to glare at Riddle

Rather than answer, Tom started writing his name in the air, Harry recognised the spell as the one he had adapted for his mithril pen. Once Tom had finished writing his name he flicked Ron's wand and rearranged the name until it became "I am Lord Voldemort"

"Your you-know-who?" Ron scoffed

Harry started at Tom carefully, it was hard to miss how he was transparent and his body seemed to be made entirely of magic, specifically Ginny's magic. But when he had written out his name the spell had been powered by Voldemort's distinctive dark red magic.

"Fortunately for you, I don't have the energy to fight you. So instead let us see who will win, Slytherin's monster or two second year boys." Tom turned from them and began shouting at the statue that dominated the far wall of the chamber "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four!"

"What's he saying?" Ron asked quietly, Harry couldn't help wonder if the boy had trouble hearing and would have asked the boy if the mouth of the statue hadn't opened wide and the basilisk had slithered out.

"Ah crap, Ron try and distract it! I'll try and get it while it isn't looking!" His plan failed almost immediately when the snake turned towards him and stared directly at him before chasing after Ron.

Harry tried to avoid looking at its eyes but it was as if a compulsion charm was forcing him to look at them. He could faintly feel his Cloak flutter as if caught in a breeze and the hood of the Cloak slipped over his eyes, cutting the connection.

Ron saw Harry freeze when the basilisk looked at him and feared the boy had already died, trying to draw the snake's attention he yelled and ran into a side tunnel. He could hear the snake slithering after him and didn't dare look back in case he also fell victim to the snake's gaze.

While Ron ran from the basilisk Harry was fighting a different battle, the magic from the basilisk had wrapped around his own magic and was pressing down heavily, the basilisk's magic had quickly robbed him of any movement but his mind remained active.

The magic attacked Harry from all sides and he knew he couldn't keep it at bay for long with a single tendril of magic, he couldn't even feel his mithril or philosopher's stone to draw in more magic. He tried to form something out of mithril but he wasn't able to get his magic past the net to from any mithril on his skin, desperately he formed the mithril inside his brain while frantically thinking 'Do not kill me, please just let me split my magic, please don't kill me.'

He felt something build in his head, just like severe a headache. It started to fade just as quickly as it had formed, as it faded Harry became gaining better awareness of his magic. He became aware of how to split his magic and did so with barely a thought.

Now that he had several probes of magic at his disposal he attacked the basilisk's magic with new found ferocity. He was able to push the net further away and soon was able to draw upon his mithril, the influx of power from the mithril was enough to break the magic entirely. The force of the magic breaking sent Harry to his knees and knocked Tom across the chamber. Before either boy could recover Ron ran into the chamber closely followed by the basilisk, Harry quickly covered his eyes as he didn't want to go through petrification for a second time.

"Enough of this, I am the greatest sorcerer of all time! I will not be thrown around like a ragdoll" Tom yelled, sending a wave of magic that knocked Harry and Ron over, it also seemed to be a signal for the basilisk as it stopped chasing after them.

"You're wrong, you're not the greatest sorcerer" Ron said defiantly

"Oh, you think there's someone greater than myself?" Tom said humorously

"Well Dumbledore for one and I reckon Harry here knows more about magic than you ever will."

"Dumbledore? Dumbledore has been beaten by the mere memory of me! As for Potter, well he may know some fancy tricks but what does he know of true magic?"

"Dumbledore will only truly be gone when there is nobody left who is loyal to him." Harry said softly, as soon as the words left his mouth a ball of fire appeared in the middle of the chamber and Fawkes flew out, holding what looked like an old hat.

"A hat? This is what Dumbledore sends his gallant defenders? The old sorting hat and a songbird? How… quaint." Tom said mockingly

Fawkes had finished his lap of the chamber and dropped the hat at Ron's feet before landing on Harry's shoulder and chirped happily. Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Ron reach down and pick up the hat, for some reason the boy decided to put the hat on his head.

"Well now let's who's greater, the might of Slytherin or two children and a pet bird."

The battle passed in a blur for Harry, after giving the order to attack Riddle had disappeared and the basilisk had resumed trying to kill them. Fawkes had dived at the snake's eyes and had punctured one of its eyes before a curse from Riddle had struck the bird, as Fawkes fell the snake had launched forward and swallowed the bird in a single gulp.

Harry had tossed his spear to Ron to make up for his lack of wand and the two had instinctively gone to either side of the basilisk. Ron went to the side without an eye and would repeatedly throw the spear, each strike was pitifully small against the sheer size of the beast but the size of the snake also made it hard to miss.

For Harry it seemed like his mithril had not only gifted him the power to split his magic. Every so often he would get a feeling from his mithril that would guide him, it didn't outright tell him what to do but it helped him make the right choice.

The hide of a basilisk was almost completely immune to all but the most powerful magicks, the scales naturally reflected magic and the latent power of the basilisk defused the spells that made it through the hide. This meant almost every spell Harry knew wouldn't even scratch the snake, limiting Harry to physical attacks such as a blade or elemental attacks.

He would fire a strong blasting curse at the ground in front of the snake sending bits of tile flying into the air, he would then direct the air to send the shards of tile towards the snake's face. While he assaulted the snake's face his mithril directed him to simultaneously attack the tail of the beast. With his gauntlet he directed a tendril of magic to launch a blade of sharpened air which managed to draw a drop of blood.

Once more the mithril directed him to summon the blood to him, sympathetic magic was one of the most primal arts and perhaps the most well known amongst the Arcane arts. The basic principle of sympathetic was about affecting something small so that it affected something much larger.

Before the times of formalised learning in the form of Hogwarts sympathetic magic was the most common magical art, this was because it's relative simplicity meant that a student didn't need to spend years perfecting it. Back when witches and wizards were feared time was not a luxury many could afford, so if a witch or wizard couldn't give off an image of power they would've been killed.

Known more commonly as Voodoo Magic the caster would imbue an object with the spirit of their victim, the connection between object and victim affected how power the magic was. A lock of hair on a human shaped doll had a strong connection, but blood remained the most powerful form of connection.

Harry had never attempted sympathetic magic before but with his mithril guiding the way he felt he couldn't go wrong. It occurred to him that just having the blood wouldn't be enough, otherwise even a paper cut could be fatal to a wizard. This meant some likeness to the victim needed to be built, to help himself mentally connect the giant serpent in front of him with the drop of blood in his hand.

As he thought he kept up a wave of low powered spells aimed at the beast's head, it was as if he was on autopilot and he instinctively formed the spells which left his wand. He summoned knives that flew at the snake's eye and dust that blinded it, when the basilisk had tried to get close to him he had fired a blasting curse into its mouth.

With his gauntlet he transfigured some nearby rubble into a small model of a snake and then smeared the blood over the model's back. His magic then directed him to push a layer of magic over the model with the intent to bind, he followed obediently and was fascinated to see the blood be absorbed into the stone.

The snake in his hand seemed to warm and Harry would swear he saw it move, he tried to think of a way to stop the basilisk with the object but was interrupted by a spell flying towards him, he threw himself to the side but in the process dropped the statue. Harry turned and glared at Tom Riddle who now held both Ron's wand and Harry's statue.

"Tut tut, such dark magic Harry, I didn't know you had it in you. Unfortunately I can't have you killing the basilisk, not when she's so very close to finishing your friend." Tom then started firing a barrage of curses at Harry, forcing his focus away from the basilisk.

It was all Harry could do to withstand the curses, some he could block or deflect but most he needed to dodge. Each of Tom's spells weren't nearly as powerful as they had been the year before but despite this each and every one of Tom's spells had the potential to end him.

He tried throwing back his own curses at Tom but no matter what he threw at him, Tom just blocked or deflected his magic like it was nothing. It was fortunate Harry had learned to not rely on shields through his lessons with Lockhart since anytime he raised a shield it was almost immediately shattered.

Harry waited until Ron had thrown the spear before calling it to him, he didn't want to leave Ron without a weapon but Tom was by far the most dangerous thing in the room.

When his spear arrived he used it to absorb the more lethal spells, imbuing their power into the spear. This gave him enough breathing room to start his own barrage, throwing Tom off his own casting. He waited for the perfect moment and shot two powerful blasting curses either side of Tom then threw his spear straight at him.

Tom saw the spear coming and tried to jump out of the way only to have Harry's blasting curse hit him squarely in the chest, once more throwing him across the chamber. Harry quickly turned back to the basilisk and was amazed to see Ron had somehow found a sword, the boy would leap forward and take a wild slash at the snake. The sword must have been made of mithril as it left a long, deep gash in its hide.

Harry summoned the sympathetic statue from Riddle and smashed it against the floor, the basilisk let out a deep cry of pain before turning to Harry and moving towards him quicker than he could react.

The snake seemed determined to kill him before she died. Harry threw his hands up desperately in an attempt to stop the snake's strike, only to have one of the fangs perfectly strike his gauntlet. The moment the mithril touched the fang it started to burn and Harry was alarmed to feel the fang piece his palm through the mithril.

It felt as if the fang had gone right through his hand and had struck the Philosopher's Stone on the other side when the Stone began to glow brightly and the pain faded. The red fire like magic of the Stone spread up into the fang like a vein, the fang seemed to grow smaller and was pulled down into the Stone until nothing remained.

The sound of clapping made Harry turn, Tom Riddle stood at the other end of the chamber, his robes were caked in dust and his face was heavily bruised but still he grinned as if he had won, Ron's wand lay shattered behind him.

"You may have killed the beast but it matters not, for I have won anyway. While you were busy fighting I was draining the last of poor Geneva's magic and soul, which means I am now flesh and blood and no longer bound to that book. I would love to stay longer but this chamber is about to collapse and I have a country to rule."

When the chamber started to shake violently and dust fell from the ceiling, Ron acted on instinct and ran over to his sister, she was still unmoving but he didn't want her body to be buried in the chamber.

He carefully picked up Ginny and threw her over his shoulder before helping the other girl to her feet, whatever spell had been keeping her unconscious seemed to have broken and she was looking around the chamber dazedly.

"Harry! We have to go, this whole thing sounds like it's going to fall any minute now!" Ron shouted desperately

"Take Luna and go, I'll be right behind you!" Harry looked at Ron seriously before flicking his eyes towards the exit and then waving his wand around in a complicated pattern

Against his better judgement Ron handed Luna the shield before taking her hand and leading her out of the chamber, the sorting hat was clutched in one hand and the sword of Gryffindor in the other. He still didn't know what possessed him to ask the hat for help but it had been the right call as the hat had answered his plea and gifted him the fabled sword of his house's founder.

Halfway down the rocky tunnel whatever was lighting up the cave began to fade, he feared they would have to go the rest of the way in darkness but the sword and shield had started to glow dimly, the sword with a soft and warm red while the shield was a cool green.

The light was enough to illuminate their way and soon they arrived at the pipe, Ron cursed loudly as in the heat of the moment he had forgotten about it. He threw the sword at a wall in anger and defeat but hope soon filled him when rather than just bounce off the wall the sword sunk deep into the stone.

He retrieved the sword and then turned to Luna "Get on my back and hold on tight, make sure Ginny doesn't fall off." He crouched as Luna climbed on then walked up the pipe until his feet started to slide backwards, he then thrust the sword into the stone and pulled himself upwards.

He then willed his magic into his hand and tried to imagine his hand was now sticky, he hadn't forgotten what Harry had taught him over a year ago but had never managed to get his magic to work wandlessly without Harry's help. He could only hope that his desperation would help his attempts this time.

The sound of the chamber crumpling had faded somewhat but he could still hear it faintly, fueling his panic and giving him a sense of urgency.

He slapped his hand against the smooth stone and cautiously pulled the sword out of the stone. His hand flared in pain as his entire weight plus two girls was held up by it and Ron quickly thrust the sword back into the stone a few feet higher.

'I must reach the top' Ron thought as he repeated the process for what felt like the hundredth time, by now every one of his muscles was screaming but he didn't dare stop for even a moment. After what seemed like an age, light started to fill the pipe as he reached the exit, wordlessly Luna crawled off his back and through the hole Harry had made.

Once she was through, she turned and helped pull Ginny out, she then reached out to help Ron through but he didn't move. He looked down the dark pipe and thought about Harry.

He had let the boy down before and he was determined to make up for that mistake, he was just about to let himself fall down the pipe when he was grabbed by something and pulled him through the hole.

"Harry's down there isn't he?"

Harry awoke slowly, he looked around and saw he was once more in the hospital wing.

"Ah Harry, I cannot tell you how pleased I am to see you awake." Dumbledore said warmly

"Headmaster? What happened, where did Tom go? Did Ron get out okay?"

"I do not know where Tom went, from Mr. Weasley's account it sounds like he vanished into thin air. As for your friends, Mr. Weasley managed to get all three of them out of the chamber. It may interest you to know he was about to go back for you once he had gotten Miss Lovegood and Weasley to safety.

"As it is I managed to stop Mr. Weasley and went after you myself, I found you unconscious at the feet of a great pillar that seemed to be holding the chamber up."

"I didn't think we would've had enough time to get out before the chamber fell so I tried to stop it collapsing… Professor what about Fawkes? He was swallowed by the basilisk!"

"Fear not my boy, Fawkes was able to flame to me just before he died, it was he who warned me something was wrong at Hogwarts. When I arrived the aurors informed me that four students were missing and so I asked the ghosts and portraits for help, it was they who directed me towards the second floor bathroom."

"Was Tom Riddle really Voldemort?"

Dumbledore sighed sadly and his jovial mood faded

"Yes, I believe so. I have long suspected Tom became Voldemort but before last night I lacked any firm evidence."

"Then he's back isn't he? Voldemort has come back."

"Yes… Lord Voldemort has returned to the realm of the living, I fear dark times are ahead of us Harry…"

For those counting, this is the end of 'Part two'. Take this time to get up, stretch your legs and get a snack.

As Dumbledore never actually said "I will never truly be gone for as long as people are loyal to me" in Hagrid's hut in this story, Harry basically came up with it by himself, taking inspiration from what Dumbledore has said in the past to Harry.