Chapter 159

A/N: The text in Bold is quoted directly from the book. I could have paraphrased it but I couldn't write this scene any better than JKR did, though I have changed some things to allow for the difference in personality of my Harry after the years of friendship with Spencer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Criminal Minds or any of their characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

Harry did his best to comfort Ron when they found out that the student that was taken into the chamber was Ginny Weasley. He wondered if she was just unfortunate to be in the wrong place and the wrong time or if she'd known anything about it before today. She'd been acting so oddly and the more students that were petrified the worse she'd seemed to become.

Unfortunately, Ron refused to be comforted. Perhaps like Harry he realised that her going missing may have had something to do with her nerves throughout the year and felt guilty that he hadn't tried harder to help his sister.

Harry looked at Ron as if he was insane when he insisted that the two of them should find the Chamber of Secrets and go down there on their own to rescue his sister. Even acknowledging the fact that Ron didn't know that Harry was aware how false their friendship was, he barely had a single conversation with Ginny, why on earth should he be the one to rescue her. It was a job for a beast specialist or creature control. Surely there must be something like that in the wizarding world and if not then it was a job for the professors or her parents not two twelve year old boys.

Harry insisted that they try to find a teacher and explain that they thought they knew where the Chamber of Secret's was and that the creature inside it was a basilisk. At the very least they should get some roosters to kill the snake. He had some doubt whether it would do much good after what happened with Professor McGonagall and Flitwick last year but he desperately hoped that this time would be different. A student was in severe danger and this wasn't something the professors had planned for like bringing the Philosopher's stone into the school, surely they hadn't been spelled not to help this time.

Ron reminded him that all of Hagrid's roosters had been killed.

"He didn't get more after the second time, and still nobody realised that the monster was something that roosters could kill. Every single sign on that page Hermione had points to the monster needing protection from the roosters, the spiders all fleeing the castle. How did nobody realise?" Harry ranted. "If Hagrid hasn't got more roosters maybe we should get some from Hogsmeade."

"It will take too long!" Ron said desperately.

"I'm not going down there without a professor; a whole group of professors would be better. We should have spoken up in the staff meeting and they all could have come. They could've got your Mum and Dad to bring their rooster when they floo'd them. A basilisk is a class XXXXX dangerous creature. What are we going to be able to do about it? Do you really want your Mum and Dad to lose two kids instead of one?" Harry shouted.

"She's my sister! And we know how to save her! We can't just leave her there!" Ron yelled.

"I'm not saying we should leave her. I'm saying that we should give the professors the information they need to save her instead of doing something foolhardy ourselves. We're more likely to be able to save her if we have help! Or they'd probably be more likely to save her without a pair of second years getting in the way," Harry said, trying to calm himself and Ron down. Though part of him just wanted to keep standing there yelling until they attracted enough attention to have the help they needed.

"What about last year? They wouldn't help us then," Ron said.

Harry looked at him in surprise, he honestly didn't think that Ron or Hermione remembered being turned down when they went to McGonagall and Flitwick with their concerns about the Philosopher's Stone. Especially with the way Hermione still seemed to trust them absolutely.

"It isn't the same. They believed that the stone was safe and we were making things up. They know Ginny has been taken by the monster. They will believe us this time," Harry said encouragingly. He wasn't at all sure that the professors would agree to help but at least after what happened last year they wouldn't let the two of them go off on their own after telling the professors that they knew how to get into the Chamber of Secrets. Then at least they'd be safe even if nothing was done to save Ginny.

Ron sighed and reluctantly agreed trotting off to find the nearest teacher. Unfortunately the closest classroom was DADA and Harry tried to talk Ron into trying someone else, reminding him that Lockhart couldn't cast half the spells he thought he could even the stuff most of the seventh years could do. Ron wouldn't listen, a basilisk was exactly the type of monster that Lockhart had defeated before and he was sure he had something special that would do it.

Harry had real doubts that Lockhart had done anything he'd written in his books. He thought they should be marketed as fairytales not spell books that they were expected to learn something from. Harry wasn't at all surprised when they found the Idiot packing to run, but he couldn't believe it when Ron still wasn't willing to find a more competent professor. Instead, Ron remembering how they'd refused to help them last year, pulled his wand on Lockhart and forced him to accompany them.

"We need to find someone else. He isn't going to be any help when he hasn't even agreed to come," Harry said.

"He'll help to save his own life," Ron insisted.

"Or he won't and we'll all die because his books are fiction, and he's as useless in an adventure as he is in class and at healing bones," Harry grumbled.

Lockhart turned to glare at him and Harry glared right back. "I tell you what. You come down with us, kill the Basilisk and save Ron's sister, and Ron, Ginny and I will write a full front page add in 'The Daily Prophet' and 'Witch Weekly' thanking you and describing how heroic you were to save us all," Harry offered, trying to motivate the man to help.

Lockhart looked mollified but still far too terrified for Harry to have any confidence that he'd actually be of use, he hoped that the promise of the advertisement would be enough to stop the idiot from actually working against them. Not that he could really blame the man, he would certainly not hesitate to sacrifice him if it meant that he Ron and Ginny or even just he and Ron would get out of this mess unscathed.

They reached the bathroom and Lockhart had to be prodded in at wand-point. Harry wondered if this was proof that they were on the right track or just annoyance that he didn't want to have to admit to going into a girls' toilet to get to the Chamber.

Myrtle was there for once and after some sucking up to get her to forgive them for whatever Ron and Hermione had said to her, she explained how she'd died and where the basilisk had come out of the wall.

Harry pretended to try to open the tunnel. He actually felt more dread about going down there without proper backup with Lockhart there than he would have with Ron on his own. Unfortunately, in his hissing nonsense he said the word open and that must have been the password because the sinks descended into the floor leaving a large tunnel sloping downwards, filthy with accumulated grime.

Ron sent Harry down the tunnel first, perhaps aware that Lockhart wasn't the only unwilling wizard on this adventure. He slid down out of control and called up when he reached the bottom and a moment later Professor Idiot slid down screaming in terror the whole way.

Ron and Harry were distracted for a moment by the sight of the huge shed snake skin and Lockhart lunged for Ron's wand.

Harry whirled around at the sound of movement and cast a reflective charm silently before Lockhart even started his spell. Of course, the fool had to stop and explain himself before he actually attacked. Harry wondered whether he was trying to apologize really badly or if he just couldn't pass up a single chance to brag about the one spell he was actually competent in. Either way it gave Harry the chance to ready his defences.

"Obliviate," Lockhart yelled.

Harry smirked as he used his magic to reflect the spell back onto the idiot professor, and strengthened the spell as much as he could as it hit him as well. The git planned to turn him into an idiot, he deserved to lose all his memories.

The power of the spell ricocheted off Lockhart doing what it was intended to do but also hitting the roof and wall around him triggering them to collapse. Perhaps he'd put too much power into the spell but a memory wiping spell shouldn't be able to affect rocks, it's not like they had a mind that needed to remember what a rock does. Harry resolved to look it up if they ever got out of here.

Harry leapt back using his shield to protect him and Ron pulled the idiot back from being crushed leaving the two of them on the bathroom side of the cave in and Harry on his own on the other side.

Harry looked at the cave in with some satisfaction. He might be trapped but at least he no longer had to worry about so called friendly-fire, nor did he have Ron and Lockhart there to judge and report on his actions if he had to defend himself with magic that a second year shouldn't be able to do. He thought his chances of survival were much better on his own, though he was still pissed off about having been forced to come down here and risk his life to begin with. He considered simply sitting there and waiting to be rescued but Ron would expect him to have at least tried to rescue his sister, He could stand up to any magical attack that Ron and Lockhart could produce but he already had more than enough evidence that duelling in this ancient underground tunnel wasn't a good idea and Ron was just as likely to insist on going to rescue Ginny when he finished digging through the cave in anyway so he might as well at least have a look to see if it were possible. He also considered pretending that he'd tried and that he couldn't find her but he was concerned that Ron wouldn't take his word for it and the only way to get away with that would be to vanish or transfigure Ginny into something which he wasn't prepared to do. It was one thing to refuse to risk your life for someone and quite another to be the reason nobody else could find and save her. He wondered whether his glasses would be enough to make the basilisk stare petrify him instead of killing him the way the mirror had for Hermione and Penny and his camera had for Colin. He didn't think that they would be, camera's had mirrors in them too didn't they. Harry picked up a piece of rock and tried to transfigure it into a mirror. It was a decent first attempt, though the surface wasn't exactly flat distorting the reflection in several places but he wasn't planning to use it to look at himself so he figured it would work okay. He made a second one and cast an unbreakable charm on each of them in case he dropped them and started to use them to look down the tunnel. They were awkward to use so he went slowly.

There was a round door at the end of the tunnel and Harry would've stopped there and pretended that he couldn't open it if it hadn't been opened already. He considered closing it to pretend anyway but the door was too heavy for him to move. There must have been some magic involved in opening it.

He entered a large room and noticed that the stone work looked to be in much better condition here, he could use defensive magic here without bringing the roof down on top of him. He walked around a column to be out of site of the entrance he used and contemplated stopping again. He could always claim to have searched the room when Ron got through the cave in and caught up with him. Unfortunately as soon as he rounded the column he saw Ginny lying on the ground looking incredibly pale, her eyes were closed so at least he didn't think she had been petrified or killed by the basilisk and he didn't see any blood or injuries. He went over to see if she was dead but stopped when he realised she was lying in the centre of a rune circle. He wasn't about to risk stepping in and being caught up in whatever it was doing to Ginny. He tried to erase some of the runes and had some success but it didn't seem to matter he could still feel the power of the now near invisible runes. He tried to summon Ginny out of the circle but she didn't move, he tried to banish her and levitate her, then he tried to conjure a jet of water forceful enough to wash away the runes and push her out of the centre of the rune circle. But whatever was powering the circle prevented his spell from working. Harry looked around for something he could transfigure into a stick or something large enough to push Ginny out of the centre of the runes.

"She won't wake," said a soft voice.

Harry looked over.A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window.

"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said curiously. "What is the rune circle doing to her? Is she dead?"

"She's still alive," said Riddle smirking. "But only just. There's nothing you can do. Her hero arrived just as she said you would but you're too late to save her."

Harry stared at him. Standing there wearing the uniform fromfifty years ago, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen. "Are you a ghost? I've never seen a ghost quite like you" Harry said uncertainly.

"A memory. Preserved in a diary for fifty years." Tom pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Hermione had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom that had shown them the memory of Tom accusing Hagrid's pet spider of killing a student. So Harry was right, Tom had framed Hagrid.

"We've got to get Ginny out of the rune circle and get out of here. There's a basilisk … I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment…" Maybe appealing to Tom's sense of self preservation would work, since he didn't think anything else would.

Riddle didn't move. He was standing there watching him, twirling Ginny's wand idly between his long fingers. A smug smirk curled the corners of Riddle's mouth.

Harry realised that Tom Riddle had done this to Ginny though he still had no idea exactly how he'd done it. Through the diary, he'd been in the diary and Ginny must have been the person who stole it from Hermione, had she also been the one to throw it away? Had Tom Riddle been controlling her actions all year, setting the Basilisk loose to attack the students?

"Where's the basilisk?" Harry asked. Was it in Tom's control?

"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle confirming Harry's fears.

Harry shot a spell at him but it passed right through. He had to do something, if the Basilisk was in Tom's control, he could call it out any moment, and Ron could get through the cave in and be there soon. Harry didn't want to have to limit his magic to things that would alarm Dumbledore when Ron told him of them. He didn't even consider that Ron might be useful as more than a distraction.

"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle. "For the chance to speak to you."

"Why did you want to meet me?" asked Harry, surprised.Though he supposed he shouldn't be if Ginny had been writing in the diary no doubt she'd written entire pages all about her crush on 'The-Boy-Who-Lived'.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning 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.

"So you're just another 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' fanboy?" Harry said disgustedly. "We don't have time for this."

Tom ignored him, intent on telling him his story, bragging about what he'd done. "It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance … I think Dumbledore might have guessed Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did. …"

Harry almost laughed at the boy monologing on, like a storybook villain. Just like the idiot Lockhart had. It's a pity Harry couldn't use the extra time like he had then to react but it didn't seem like Tom was interested in attacking him, at least for the moment. Perhaps he had time to think of a plan.

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Harry, his teeth gritted. He may dislike the Headmaster, but surely he'd been as suspicious of Tom as he was of Harry. He wondered whether Tom had been aware of exactly how Dumbledore used other students to befriend him in order to spy and report on everything he did and said, or was this something new because he'd had ten years to plan for Harry's arrival at Hogwarts.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

Yeah, Harry knew all about having to, pretend to struggle to learn, to pretend to be average to escape further scrutiny. How annoying it was to curtail his activities and always make sure he was using his fake wand and to be careful that nobody got hold of it to realise that it wasn't real. How much he hated pretending to be fooled by fake friends and parroting statements he didn't think were true to keep Dumbledore's spies from looking into his abilities more closely. But unlike Harry who just wanted to be left alone, Tom had been planning a mass murder and had left an object behind knowing that it could cause multiple deaths outside of his control. He didn't care about cleansing the school of muggleborns he just wanted to kill as many people as he could and destroy Hogwarts. Thank heavens he hadn't been able to control Ginny even more than he had and set the basilisk loose in the great hall at dinner or something. He wondered whether it was because Ginny Weasley was at heart not a killer that she'd been able to fight him controlling her for as long as she had. Perhaps there was more to the silly little fangirl than Harry realised.

"Well, you haven't finished it," said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even Filch's stupidcat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again. Nobody's even heard of you other than me and Ginny and I won't be talking about you and I doubt Ginny will want everyone to know she got taken in by a bloody talking diary, this will all be forgotten by next year."

"Haven't I already told you that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been — you. 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 — particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. Ginny told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue."

Harry laughed slightly bitterly. "You're mistaken, I wanted nothing to do with the mystery or the Chamber of secrets. I'm here because my best mate Ron forced me to come down here with him to save his sister, I'm glad he's not here to watch her die. He never seemed to care too much about her before today so I'm sure he will get over her loss if he doesn't have to see it and deal with having failed to save her. I'll tell him that it was already too late when I got here, that she was already cold so she must have died before we even found out she was taken. It will make him feel better."

"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?" There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.

"I have no idea. Personally, I think that it was my mother that killed him, but you know, she's muggleborn so the purebloods couldn't accept that. I wonder if anybody will ever realise that it's totally idiotic to think that a toddler has more magical prowess than a fully trained adult muggleborn. Why do you care how I escaped? Voldemort was after your time," Harry said.

"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 rearranged themselves:

i am lord voldemort.

"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!"

"Well at least you're better looking than last year's Voldemort," Harry said casually. "He was butt ugly, stuck inside the back of Professor Quirrell's head. Was your own name not good enough for you? Let me guess your father was muggleborn? You shouldn't be ashamed of it. Like I said muggleborns are as good as any other witch or wizard from what I've seen. As for becoming the greatest sorcerer in the world. You failed!"

This boy was, or would become, or had become, the man who'd murdered his parents and the reason that Dumbledore had left him with the Dursleys to be abused, and like the Voldemort of his own time, this one wanted him dead as well.

"You don't know what you're talking about?" Tom snapped.

"You never becamethe greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry derisively,using air quotes for the ridiculous title before forcing himself to speak Dumbledore's praise, knowing it would enrage the other boy as much as hearing it from someone else would enrage him. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days —" Harry smirked, it was the truth, Voldemort was scared of Dumbledore. He hated him as much as Harry did. They might even have become allies against him if Voldemort hadn't also murdered Harry's parents and helped Dumbledore condemn him to ten years in hell, and been a batshit crazy mass murderer and stuff.

The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look. "Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted, remembering the words Dumbledore had said to him. "And strictly speaking it wasn't you that attacked the students it was the basilisk. Nobody has connected it with you at all, except perhaps Malfoy who knows that your Diary is here in the hands of a silly little girl. Tell me was it your idea to give it to a kid, or was Malfoy acting on his own when he gave it to the daughter of someone he hates enough to sink to the level of fist fights in a book shop in front of a Daily Prophet reporter. It's lucky the photographer didn't notice, or perhaps Malfoy had to pay them not to show the photographs. I wonder how much that would cost him. I'd say he was too caught up in his own feud to be thinking about what you'd want at all."

Riddle opened his mouth, but froze. Hauntingly beautiful music was coming from somewhere, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar and Fawkes was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, then landed heavily on his shoulder.

A/N2: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.

Please stay safe everyone.