Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

46 - Goodbye, Year Four

I let out a heavy sigh, deciding I needed to be doing something right now or else I'd truly go mad. I stood to my feet, beginning to head over towards the rocks with the intent of starting to work on trying to move them again.

However, I'd only just made it a few feet towards the wall when I suddenly started to feel light-headed. Thinking I'd just gotten up too fast, I shook my head and tried to compose myself. I continued walking but the feeling only worsened with each step. Soon my head began to spin and my surroundings blurred until everything just went dark.

My vision faded in from black and I quickly realized I was no longer standing in the tunnel with Ron and Professor Lockheart— I was experiencing another one of my episodes. Right now, in this moment, for the first time since Halloween.

I immediately picked my head up, remembering I was now some place entirely different than I'd just been before. I needed to quickly compose myself, needed to see where I'd been taken to.

Instantly my eyes widened at the sight before me. I was standing at the very end of a long, dimly lit, gloomy-looking chamber. Along the sides of it were towering stone pillars carved into the shape of serpents that rose high into the darkness of the ceiling.

At the other end of the chamber, I saw an enormous face—long, billowing hair framing it—of a man carved into the far wall. Given the history of the Chamber of Secrets, I assumed it must be Salazar Slytherin himself, the creator of this secret place underneath Hogwarts. I didn't have much time to linger on this massive Salazar because when my eyes flickered down to the floor in front of him, I immediately gasped.

There Harry was with two unusual things with him tonight, things he didn't have when I'd seen him last. In his hand was the school Sorting Hat and sat perched on his shoulder was this beautiful crimson phoenix, a very unique bird in the Wizarding World. At Harry's feet on the damp ground laid Ginny, limp and almost dead-looking except for the fact that her chest was just barely rising and falling with slow, deep breaths.

However, what was even more strange, confusing, and shocking about this situation than all of those things was the fact that there was a third person here in the Chamber tonight— a boy I didn't recognize at all, speaking to Harry. Whoever it was had dark curly hair, was maybe about the age of sixteen, had on old-fashioned Slytherin robes, and had this fascinating glow to him, almost like his figure was blurred around the edges.

I had no idea what I'd just walked in on, but, eager to figure it out, my feet suddenly moved before I knew what was happening. I walked down the long chamber, passing by the serpent statues, until I was closer to the three of them and able to hear what was being said.

Given that my episodes—or my visions, or whatever they happened to be—were still unclear to me, I decided to keep my distance from the three people I was standing with right now. I didn't know what my episodes truly were, how they happened to me, or what I could fully do when I was in them, and for that reason, I wasn't sure about what would happen if I got too close to real life people in my current state.

"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson." the strange boy suddenly said, a devilish gleam in his eyes as a smirk danced along his lips. "Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter..."

Hold on. Was this boy implying he was Lord Voldemort?

The strange boy—or, Voldemort, rather, cast an amused eye over Harry, the phoenix, and the Sorting Hat, just before turning and walking away. I watched as he stopped right in front of the massive face of Slytherin carved into the wall and tilted his head back to look up at it. He then opened his mouth and let out a hissing noise that could only have been Parseltongue.