I'm back. Work has been crazy, and my energy has been zapped recently, but today I finally felt motivated to finish the chapter. I know the last update didn't deviate much from canon, but that's only because I needed Susanna to be with Harry and Ron, especially after all the emotions she'd been struggling with. There is, however, changes in the original story in this chapter.

As always, I only claim my OC. Let's get into it.


They stood at the end of a long, dimly lit chamber. The floor was especially damp. To Susanna, it seemed to go on for three city blocks. Towering pillars supported what must have been a ceiling, for it was lost in the darkness. Snakes were entwined around the stone columns. It was silent, save for the cousins' heavy breathing. They looked around for any sign of the basilisk or Ginny, but it was only them.

Susanna glanced at Harry, who licked his lips before raising his wand. Susanna followed his lead, and together they walked between the serpentine columns. But no matter how carefully they stepped, the splashing water from the puddles gave them away. Even more terrifying were the carved out eyes in the stone snakes, all of which seemed to be watching them as the cousins passed by.

Once they reached the last of the pillars, Susanna and Harry were met with a statue nearly as tall as the Chamber itself, a large pool of water separating it from them. They had to crane their necks to look up, taking in the giant face above them. It was ancient and wrinkled, the carved hair and beard branching out like snakes. Susanna lowered her chin, taking it all in, and let out a horrified gasp when she saw what - no, who - was lying in front of them.

"Ginny!" Harry muttered beside her, his cousin's gasp alerting him to her discovery. Neither one of them wasted another moment in sprinting to her and crashing to their knees. Susanna distantly heard her wand clattering beside her, but paid it little mind as she was too focused on checking on Ron's little sister.

"No, no, please don't be dead. Ginny, you have to wake up." Susanna pleaded, trying to shake the girl awake. She was frozen to the touch, her face white as marble and her brilliant red hair now a much duller shade.

"Ginny, come on." Harry begged as desperately as she did.

"She won't wake." A soft voice suddenly filled the chamber. Harry scrambled back while Susanna looked in the direction of the speaker, pillowing Ginny's head on her lap. A tall, dark-haired boy leaned against the pillar across from them, staring the cousins down. He looked a little blurry, almost like he wasn't all there, but there was no mistaking who stood before them.

"Tom? Tom Riddle?" Harry asked. Riddle nodded, walking a few steps closer, his eyes solely on Susanna's cousin. "What d'you mean, she won't wake? She's not - she's not -"

"She's still alive, but only just." Riddle informed them, and something about the way he spoke frightened Susanna. What scared her even more was the fact that somewhere, fifty years after he'd been at Hogwarts, the boy looked just as he did in the diary.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry asked while Susanna narrowed her eyes at the approaching teenager.

"A memory." Riddle gently corrected him, but his tone set Susanna's teeth on edge. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years." He pointed to the floor a short distance from Ginny, where the little black diary was resting. Susanna's eyes stayed on it as she pieced together how it'd even gotten down to the Chamber - surely the person who stole it was the Heir of Slytherin, but the only other person down here, aside from a memory, was Ginny.

Ginny, who'd been unlike herself all school year. Ginny, who burst into tears whenever the monster and attacks were mentioned, who'd been in the hallway when Draco found Susanna with Riddle's diary, who would've been able to get into her dorm, who was trying to talk to Harry this morning about the Chamber but was scared off -

"You've got to help us, Tom." Lost in her thoughts, Susanna was too late to stop Harry from trying to lift Ginny, his wand falling from his hands and rolling across the floor. It landed at Riddle's feet, who was quick to pocket it, smiling dangerously at the cousins. Susanna slowly let go of Ginny to reach for her own wand, hiding it from sight as she stared distrustfully at the teen. "Susanna, please, I can't lift her on my own. Have you seen my wand, Tom? The basilisk can come any second, we have to -"

"It won't come until it's called." Riddle's smile began to broaden, but it didn't reach his cold eyes. "You won't be needing it." He patted the pocket of his robe.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "Suze, what are you doing?" He watched as his cousin rose, her eyes never straying from Riddle's as she stood in front of Harry, wand clasped tightly in her left hand.

"Who are you, really? And what did you do to Ginny?" Susanna snarled, her eyes flicking to the diary before returning to Riddle.

Riddle's smile became a thin smirk. "Clever girl. It's a shame you're a filthy little Mudblood, Ginny told me so many good things about you."

"Wow. You Slytherins need to start getting more creative with your insults." Susanna shot back. She spared a glance at Harry as he stood beside her, ignoring his cousin's silent warning to get back.

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

"Why?" Harry asked. "How did Ginny get like this?"

Riddle smiled, yet there was nothing charming about it. "Well, that's an interesting question. And quite a long story. 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." He said pleasantly, and Susanna narrowed her eyes.

"The diary. Your diary."

"What?" Harry asked, eyes on the back of his cousin's head, but she didn't look away from the Slytherin in front of him.

"Why do people write in diaries, Harry?" Susanna asked. Riddle began to smirk. "Remember Nancy? The girl I bullied? How she journaled everything she felt, every secret she didn't want shared, until I read it outloud for the whole school to hear?"

"You really are as clever as Ginny gushed."

The redhead shook her head at the long-dead student. "No, or I'd have figured it out already."

Riddle hummed, then his eyes flicked over to Harry's. "Your cousin's right. 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 didn't want to be a nuisance to her brother's best friend, how -" his eyes glinted, "how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her."

Guilt churned in Susanna's gut as she briefly glanced down at the frozen redhead. Had she done something to make Ginny think she was a bother? She should have tried harder, she should've focused less on the Chamber and more on the girl. Maybe she could have stopped her.

"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl, but I was patient. I wrote back." He practically hissed. "I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. 'No one's 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 in my pocket.'" Riddle's laugh was high and cold, setting Susanna on edge. "If I say it myself, 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 d'you mean?" Harry asked.

"Haven't you guessed it yet, Harry Potter? I can see your Mudblood cousin has." Riddle moved his gaze to Susanna. "Tell him what you think you know." He dared.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Susanna's eyes stayed on the Slytherin's while she spoke to Harry. "Ginny opened the chamber. The dead roosters, the messages on the walls, the basilisk, it was all her."

"No." Harry whispered, and Susanna swallowed when Riddle's smile became smug.

"I don't think she knew, though. It was like she was - no, she was possessed. By Riddle. The more she wrote, the easier it was for him to control her. To charm her into doing his bidding."

"Top marks, Dursley. Your cousin's right, Harry, she didn't know what she was doing. Not at first, at least. It was very amusing. I wish you both could have seen her new diary entries. Far more interesting, they became. 'Dear Tom, I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a car was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. 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. I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!'"

Susanna's grip tightened around her wand, but she kept it hidden in her sleeve.

Riddle cleared his throat before continuing. "It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary. But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. 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 meet me?" Harry asked angrily, lunging forward to stand beside his cousin.

"Well, you see, Ginny, told me all about you, Harry. Your whole fascinating history." Susanna followed his gaze to her cousin's forehead - to the lightning bolt scar. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I coils. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust -"

"Hagrid's our friend!" Harry shouted. "And you framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but -"

Riddle laughed again, Susanna clenching her teeth as the high pitched sound echoed in her ears. "It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. Well you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the 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 into the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls… but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone might realize 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!" Then Riddle's face became sour. "Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed. He never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did."

"I can't imagine why." Susanna snarked, refusing to flinch when Riddle glowered at her.

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you." Harry said, gaining the Slytherin's attention.

The older boy scoffed. "Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled. 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 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."

"There's nothing noble in killing people because you don't like where they came from." Susanna responded. "In the end, we all bleed the same blood. Muddy or not."

Harry nodded. "You haven't finished it, either. No one's died this time, not even a cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be right again -"

"Haven't I already told you," Riddle spoke quietly, "that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months, now, my new target has been you. Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you and your cousin with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until her," he spat out as he glared at Susanna, "dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. Of course, Ginny had also said the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue. That certainly grabbed my attention. From everything she 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. It was by luck that your cousin was spared. I couldn't risk harming a pure-blood, or yourself before we could meet." He smirked at Harry, who stepped protectively in front of his cousin. "So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried at became very boring -"

"Psychopath." Susanna spat.

Riddle ignored her. "But there wasn't much life left in her. She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last. I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."

"Like what?" Harry asked, hands balling into tight fists.

Riddle smiled coldly. "Well, 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?"

"Firstly, Harry was a baby when he killed your so-called 'greatest wizard'." Susanna corrected the Slytherin. "Secondly, why do you care?"

"Voldemort was after your time. Fifty years after your time." Her cousin reminded Riddle, who hummed.

"Voldemort," he spoke softly, "is my past, present, and future." Riddle pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, his back to the cousins. Susanna watched his movements closely, itching to see if her magic would hurt him, but three shimmering words distracted her, floating in the air:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Then Riddle waved the wand once, the letters of his name rearranging themselves. An anagram, Susanna thought as terror rose in her throat.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

"You see?" Riddle - Voldemort - turned to face the two Gryffindors, whispering. "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, Harry, Dursley - 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!"

Susanna snorted, then covered the sound. "Sorry, I'm sorry. You… you're a half-blood, then?" She ignored the red gleam in Voldemort's hungry eyes. "Hmm. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but not everyone's afraid to say your name, Voldemort."

The Slytherin began to raise Harry's wand at Susanna, but her cousin spoke up. "You're not."

"Not what?" Voldemort snapped, his attention now on the Boy Who Lived.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world. 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 -"

The smile had gone from Riddle's face, an ugly expression taking its place. "Dumbledore's been driven out of the castle by the mere memory of me!"

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry shouted back.

Before Voldemort could respond, music began to fill the echoey Chamber, growing louder. The Slytherin turned to stare down at the empty chamber and Susanna let her wand slip out of her sleeve, hand now around the hilt.

The music reached a pitch high enough that Susanna could feel the notes vibrating inside her. Then, in the blink of an eye, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar. A crimson bird as large as a swan appeared, singing to the ceiling. Its tail was a glittering gold as long as a peacock's, with gold talons to match. It gripped a ragged bundle, dropping it at Harry's feet as it flew above him before circling the Gryffindors. The magnificent bird landed on the boy's shoulder, folding its wings so it wouldn't hit Susanna.

"Fawkes?" She whispered, the bird turning his head so his black eyes could blink back in confirmation.

"That's a phoenix…" Voldemort frowned. "And that -" his gaze lowered to the ground, at the ragged bundle at Harry's feet, "that's the old school Sorting Hat." The patched, frayed, dirty hat lay motionless at the boy's feet. Voldemort began to laugh, the sound ringing through the dark Chamber. "This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now? How about you, Susanna Dursley?" The cousins stayed silent as the Slytherin teen smiled broadly. "To business, then. Twice - in your past, in my future - we have met, Harry. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk, the long you and your precious cousin stay alive." He'd yet to see the wand in Susanna's left hand, for it was well hidden behind Harry.

"No one knows." Susanna was the first to speak, Harry nodding subtly back at her in thanks. If he could trust his cousin to do one thing, it would be to talk them out of a situation. "Not even Harry, or Dumbledore. But we do know why you couldn't kill him. It was his mother. His Muggle-born mother, how odd is that?" She hissed. "She stopped you from killing him."

"I've seen the real you." Harry added, shaking with visible rage. "I saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul -"

"You don't have a nose." Susanna cut in, remembering her cousin's description of Voldemort.

The Slytherin's face contorted. Desperate for a semblance of control, he put on an awful smile. "So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful counter-charm. I can see now… there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike. But, after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to - ah!"

"Expelliarmus!" Susanna had practically roared, her wand pointed at Voldemort's chest. He flew backwards, and she wasted little time in rushing to Ginny. "Harry, help me!"

"How did… I mean, he's -" Her cousin stammered as they struggled to lift the first year girl. It took both of them to carry her between them, cradled in their arms, Fawkes swooping down to grab the Hat.

"If he can touch, he can hurt." She grunted, both of them stumbling quickly down the Chamber. "I should've hit him earlier. We need to be fast, Ginny's not -"

This time, it was Susanna's turn to shout, the red-haired girl knocked over by a crimson streak. Green light blew through the place she'd just been standing, shattering a pillar behind her. Fawkes sang above her, Harry setting Ginny down as gently as he could while he checked on his cousin. She stared at the destroyed pillar in shock, distantly watching her wand roll away. It stopped at a sleek black shoe only a handful of steps away, Voldemort glaring down at the three Gryffindors with the utmost disdain.

"I could make your death quick for that, Mudblood. But I'd rather teach you both a little lesson. Now, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, his filthy Mudblood cousin, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him." Voldemort spared an amused glance at Fawkes and the Sorting Hat. He then walked away, stopping between the high pillars that framed Salazar Slytherin's stone face. A familiar hissing escaped his lips, and Susanna turned to stare at her horrified cousin.

"Hide." He murmured. "Keep your eyes closed, and hide. Now!"

"Like hell I'm leaving you." She whispered harshly, grabbing her cousin's hand as they shakily rose to their feet, Ginny laying behind them. Ahead, the stone face began to move, its mouth opening wide, revealing a large black hole. Something slithered inside it, brushing against rock. The basilisk was coming, for both of them.

"C'mon, we have to hide." Susanna tugged Harry backwards until they hit the dark Chamber wall. "Harry, shut your eyes. Don't open them."

"You don't either." Harry pleaded, both of their voices shaking with fear. Feathers swept their cheeks, Fawkes cawing as he flew, a soft thud following his movement. It was echoed by a louder thump, like an entire row of desks had been knocked onto the ground. Voldemort hissed again, and something large began to slither closer, its scales splashing as it moved over the wet floor.

Harry moved beside Susanna, dragging his cousin so they were both running blind, feeling their way to safety - if it even existed in the dark Chamber. Voldemort's high-pitched laugh rang after them, taunting the Gryffindors as they were pursued by Slytherin's great serpent.

Harry suddenly cried out in pain, his hand slipping from Susanna's as he fell to the ground. Her own knees cracked in pain as she slammed down beside him, doing her best to check on her cousin. Her fingers touched the corner of his lip, coming away wet.

The hissing was even closer, and Susanna couldn't stop herself from opening her eyes as she stared down. A large shadow blocked out the nearest dim torches, a forked tongue poking out. She quickly shut her eyes, throwing herself over her cousin. No sooner had she landed on him did the basilisk begin to shriek. The pillars shook around them as something heavy knocked into them. Susanna felt around for Harry's face, making sure they were looking at each other before opening her eyes. His own bottle green were looking back at her. Knowing the risk, she turned her head slightly.

The enormous serpent - a bright, poisonous green - had raised itself high in the air, its blunt head weaving between the pillars with the same grace as her father when he had too much brandy. Thick as an oak trunk, it was no wonder the Chamber shook as it thrashed.

Wondering what could be distracting the basilisk, Susanna looked even higher, mouth dropping in awe.

Fawkes was circling above its head, the serpent snapping furiously as it kept missing the phoenix. Then, the firebird dove, his long golden beak sinking out of sight. A sudden shower of dark red spattered the floor, some of it reaching Susanna's legs. The basilisk's tail flicked madly - painfully - narrowly missing the cousins. Before either could shut their eyes, the giant snake turned its head.

Its great, bulbous yellow eyes had been punctured by Fawkes's talons, blood streaming onto the floor as the basilisk spat in agony. Voldemort's hissing grew louder, the Slytherin screaming out Parseltongue in panicked anger. The blinded snake only swayed, confused. But with its giant venomous fangs, it was still dangerous.

Fawkes continued his attack, piping his song as he scratched and jabbed at the basilisk. "What do we - Suze, what do we do?"

"Grab Ginny and run."

"What about Riddle?" Harry asked. "Our wands?"

Susanna cursed under her breath, then ducked as the snake's tail whipped across the floor. Harry grunted in shock, his cousin quickly turning to check on him. Aside from his already cut lip, he was uninjured. The basilisk hadn't touched him at all. Instead, the giant reptile had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. The cousins frowned as they stood up, Harry lifting it to place it on his head - it was a hat, after all - when something hard and shiny clattered onto the ground between them.

A gleaming silver sword had appeared from inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.

As Voldemort began to scream in Parseltongue again, Harry ducked to seize it, gently shoving Susanna behind him.

"Harry, no -"

"Stay back. I can't let it hurt you!" Harry pleaded before lunging forward, barely avoiding the snake's head as it blindly snapped in his direction. Susanna spared a glance at the delighted Voldemort, then at her cousin, struggling to avoid the basilisk's forked tongue.

Suddenly, Susanna was nine years old and watching her brother shove Harry off the roof. She was watching him fall, down, down, with nothing to cushion his landing. No one to save him. But she did, she did save him.

And she would do it again, a thousand different ways. Bravely, cleverly, stupidly -

With a grunt, Susanna shoved herself off of the Chamber wall, barreling straight for her cousin. As he dodged yet another blind attack, the redheaded girl shoved him over, the sword slipping from his grasp. Quick as lightning she snatched it by the hilt before it could land, putting her Quidditch training to good use.

"Susanna!" Harry shouted in terror as the serpent descended on his cousin. Voldemort's laughter followed as the red-haired girl threw all of her weight forward, driving the sword up into the roof of the basilisk's open mouth. Blood flowed down her arm like a river as the snake let out a final shriek of pain, but there was no cause to celebrate.

Not with a long, venomous fang piercing through Susanna's arm, splintering as the basilisk keeled over sideways, dead, the sword still embedded in its mouth. Harry caught his cousin as she staggered, numbly pulling out the fang. He helped her slide down the wall, sobbing as she stared blankly at the hole it left behind.

White-hot pain spread through her body, starting at the wound. Susanna's vision went foggy, colors dissolving around her. Tears began to spill down her cheeks as she realized this was it, her final moments. She wouldn't waste them staring at her own blood. Instead, her eyes met Harry's, the vibrant bottle green orbs dulled by her own failing senses. "Why? Suze, why -"

"You're my cousin. I love you." Susanna whispered. "I'm sorry."

A clatter of claws landed beside Harry, followed by a soft song and the brush of red feathers. Susanna smiled tiredly at Fawkes. "You were fantastic. Tha-thank you, Fawkes." The beautiful bird laid his head on her wound.

Footsteps echoed around them, the sound coming closer until a dark shadow loomed above the cousins and the phoenix. "I guess a Mudblood is dying again, after all." Voldemort's cruel words were muffled by the blood rushing in Susanna's ears, but she spared enough energy to flip him the bird. "You're dead, Susanna Dursley. Dead. And soon, your cousin will be, too. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing? He's crying." Susanna blinked confusedly over at Fawkes, his head sliding in and out of focus. Thick, pearly-white tears trickled down glossy feathers, splashing against her skin. Voldemort's and Harry's voices began to mix, her focus consumed by Fawkes. The more he cried, the less pain she felt.

At least her death would be painless, in the end. At least she wasn't alone. But Harry, Harry would be. What had she done? If she died, who was left to save him? Who was -

Susanna frowned, licking her lips. Her arm was tingling, the sounds around her becoming clearer. She opened her eyes to stare at her wound, blinking rapidly when she was met with smooth skin. The last of Fawkes's tears slid off her arm.

"What is it doing! Get away, bird. I said, get away!" Voldemort shrieked.

"Phoenix." Susanna mumbled, loud enough that Harry was able to hear over the Slytherin's threats. "Phoenix tears -"

A bang as loud as a gunshot interrupted her, Fawkes taking flight in a whirl of gold and scarlet. Voldemort lowered Susanna's wand in shock before staring down at the girl's healed arm in shock. "Phoenix tears. Of course, healing powers… I forgot." Then he cleared his throat, raising Susanna's wand once more. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way."

Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes soared back overhead, dropping something in Harry's lap - the diary. The cousins and Voldemort stared at it for a moment, all three still as stone. Susanna glowered at the wretched leather-bound journal, the source of everything terrible that had happened that year. Glancing up at Voldemort - who'd become less pale, a little more lively - she thrust the basilisk's fang at Harry. He grabbed it before the Slytherin above them could mutter a curse, plunging it into the heart of the book.

There was a long, dreadful scream. Ink spurted out of the diary, gushing over Harry's hands and splashing onto Susanna's legs. Voldemort was writhing and twisting, Susanna watching the young future murderer dissolve into a blinding light. It left her blinking, stars bursting in her eyelids. When they finally vanished, she found herself staring at the empty spot Tom Riddle once stood. All that remained was her wand.

Susanna rose with shaking limbs, fumbling her way over to her wand before staring at the dead basilisk. Someone brushed up beside her, and then Harry's arms were around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. She ran her hands soothingly over his back as he sobbed into her neck, pulling back after a few breaths to stare at her. "You could've died."

"I know. I know, but I didn't. I'm here, I'm -" A soft moan cut her off, and Susanna turned towards the source. "Ginny?" She whispered, everything rushing back to her all at once, now that she could breathe again - now that the danger had passed. As the younger redhead sat up, glancing around in frantic confusion, Susanna moved out of Harry's hold and rushed to the youngest Weasley. "Ginny!" She cried, pulling her into her arms. "You're okay. You're alive."

"Annie? Annie, I tried. I tried to tell you at b-breakfast."

"I know." Susanna nodded, cupping Ginny's face. "It's over now. The monster's dead, Riddle - Voldemort - he's gone."

She went unheard by the terrified first year. "R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over - and - how did you kill that - that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary -"

"Ginny, he's gone!" Susanna shouted once more, Ginny pausing momentarily. "All he is now is a memory."

"It's true, Ginny." Harry whispered, having made his way over to the two girls. He held the destroyed diary in one hand, and the sword and Sorting Hat in the other. "Look! Him, and the basilisk." He gestured to the dead snake with the sword as he showed her the diary. Ginny gasped.

"Who? How?"

"Harry." Susanna was quick to say. "Harry destroyed it with one of the basilisk's fangs."

"After Suze stabbed it." Her cousin refused to take all the credit, glaring at her. "Of course, it -"

"Died quickly." The older redheaded girl shot Harry a warning look before smiling at Ginny, who's brow was furrowed in fear, tears still dripping down her face. "We're all okay. That's all that matters."

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wailed as Susanna helped her stand, Harry unable to offer assistance with his hands being full. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and - wh-what'll mum and dad say?"

As Ginny continued to cry, Harry and Susanna guided her towards the Chamber's entrance, only stopping for a few minutes when the cousins remembered Harry didn't have his wand. A quick search in the place Susanna had knocked Voldemort back was fruitful, as soon enough she was jogging back to Harry and Ginny, his wand next to hers in her robe pocket.

Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber's entrance. Harry urged the girls forward, the trio stepping carefully over the dead basilisk and back into the tunnel. The stone doors closed behind them with a soft hiss.

Met with darkness, Susanna pulled out her wand - feeling the snake carved around it and wincing briefly at the memory of the basilisk - before whispering "Lumos". With her wand pointed ahead, they were all able to safely make their way through the dark tunnel. A distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached their ears, and the trio picked up the pace, Ginny and Susanna's movements still shaky.

"Ron!" Harry shouted. "Ginny's okay, we've got her!"

There was a strangled cheer, and the three Gryffindors turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he'd made in the rockfall. "Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How - what - where did that bird come from?"

Fawkes had flown in through the gap after Ginny. He circled around them before landing on Susanna's shoulder as she stepped through the hole next.

"He's Dumbledore's." Harry explained, the last to squeeze in.

"How come you've got a sword?" Ron asked, gaping at the glittering weapon in the Boy Who Lived's hand.

"I'll explain when we get out of here." Harry's gaze flicked between Ginny and Susanna.

"But -"

"Later." He insisted. "Where's Lockhart?"

"Lockhart?" Ginny whispered in confusion.

Susanna snorted. "Fat lot of good he was, the fraud."

"Back there." Ron jerked his head up the tunnel, towards the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."

Fawkes led them back to the mouth of the pipe, his wide scarlet wings glowing in Susanna's wandlight. They found Gilderoy Lockhart sitting there, humming placidly to himself.

"His memory's gone." Ron told them. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself."

"Hello." Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at him, a warm smile on his face. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"

"No." Ron responded, then gestured to the blank-slate of a man with raised eyebrows. Harry snorted and crouched down in front of the pipe, looking inside. Susanna spared a glance at her left arm, where the mortal wound once was. Her eyes flicked up, and she noticed Ron staring at the blood covered limb with narrowed eyes.

Any questions or comments were stopped by Harry, who glanced back at his best friend. "Have you thought about how we're going to get back up?"

Ron shook his head, looking over at Susanna. She shrugged in response, her focus quickly shifting to Ginny. She stretched out her arm, inviting the girl to slip into her hold. After a moment's hesitation, Ginny accepted the gesture.

"He looks like he wants us to grab hold." Ron suddenly said, and Susanna looked at him in confusion.

Fawkes was now fluttering in front of the redheaded boy and Harry, waving his long golden tail fathers.

"But we're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there -"

"Fawkes is a phoenix." Susanna told her best friend, who glanced back at her with an open mouth. "Aside from his healing tears, he's immensely strong."

Harry nodded. "We've got to hold onto each other. Susanna, grab Ron's hand. Professor Lockhart -"

"He means you." Ron informed Lockhart sharply.

"Right. You hold my hand. Ginny, I've got your other, just give me a moment -" Harry said to the now blushing girl, unaware of her bashfulness as he was focused on tucking the sword and Hat in his belt, and the diary in his robe pocket. He then nodded at Ron, who took hold of Fawkes's tail feathers. Susanna took his free hand in turn, her wand back in her robe pocket as Ginny reached out to grab her other. An extraordinary lightness spread through her body, not dissimilar to the sensation of Fawkes's healing tears. The next second - in a rush of wings - they were flying upward through the flight, Susanna gasping out a soft laugh.

"Amazing! Amazing!" Lockhart shouted from below. "This is just like magic!"

Soon enough, the ride was over. All five were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. As Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.

Myrtle goggled at them. "You're alive." She sounded upset, especially when her gaze landed on Harry.

"There's no need to be so disappointed." He responded grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses. Susanna rushed over to a nearby sink - not the one to the Chamber - to wash the blood off her left arm. Some remained behind, needing a longer scrubbing, but for now that would do.

"Oh, well, I'd just been thinking… if you died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet." Myrtle cooed.

"Nope, c'mon." Ron groaned in disgust, grabbing Susanna and his sister and hurrying them out of the bathroom and into the dark, deserted corridor. "Harry!" He turned to his best friend - the last one to leave the bathroom. "I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!"

"Ronald!" Susanna shouted at her tactless best friend while Ginny began to cry once more.

"Where now?" Ron asked, staring anxiously and apologetically at his little sister. Harry pointed ahead, at Fawkes, who was flying further down the corridor. Lockhart was already following the phoenix, clearly enamored by his glowing feathers. They strode after them, and moments later found themselves outside of Professor McGonagall's office.

Susanna licked her lips as Harry knocked and pushed open the door.


Expect conversations about Susanna's decision in the next chapter (it isn't going unmentioned). It will also have lasting effects on the cousins, particularly Harry, who wasn't old enough to remember his mother's sacrifice but will definitely remember Susanna's brush with death.

Hopefully no one thinks this, but I didn't have Susanna almost die because she's the OC and I want her to be the center of attention. Susanna didn't experience what happened in the first book because she had her own side-quest. By being directly in the climax of the Chamber of Secrets, she fully understands how much danger her cousin is in when it comes to Voldemort, rather than only hearing about it. To add, Susanna has spent multiple chapters wrestling with the fear that she hasn't left her past self behind, that she's still a terrible person. I'm not in any way saying that being willing to sacrifice yourself for a loved one dictates how good a person you are, but her own actions - driven by her heart - make Susanna see that regardless of who she was, she loves Harry (as much as Lily did).