The Mysterious Heir

Chapter 15, Book 2, "The heirs of Slytherin"

(TW: stabbing, near death experience, blood, mentions of SA)

Harry is standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwine with more carved serpents rise to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that fills the place.

Harry sees Polaris a metre away, lying on his back, not moving an inch. "Polaris!" says Harry, running over to Polaris. Harry looks into Polaris's purple eyes, and a thought in Polaris's voice speaks to him: Use finite, Harry.

Harry is startled for a moment, but he follows Polaris's request, he pulls out his wand and says "Finite Incantatem!" Instantly, Polaris gets up, and hugs Harry "I thought I was gonna be stuck there forever. Thanks, Harry." Harry awkwardly hugs Polaris back. A moment later, Polaris lets go of Harry and says "Ginny's over there, but I gotta warn you, she's nearly dead and there's someone over there." Polaris points to the opposite end of the chamber.

Harry looks over to where Polaris is pointing, and sees Ginny's flaming red hair. "Ginny!" Harry mutters, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees, Polaris runs behind him, but clearly alert. "Ginny - don't be dead - please don't be dead -" Harry flings his wand aside, grabs Ginny's shoulders, and turns her over. Her face is white as marble, and cold, yet her eyes are closed, she isn't Petrified. But then she must be -

"Ginny, please wake up," Harry mutters desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.

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

Harry jumps and spins around on his knees.

A tall, black-haired boy is leaning against a nearby pillar, watching. He is strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry is looking at him through a misted window. But there is no mistaking him -

"Tom - Tom Riddle?"

Riddle nods, not taking his eyes off of Harry's face.

"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry says desperately. "She's not - she's not -?"

"She's still alive," says Riddle. "Barely." says Polaris, who is staring at Riddle with hatred in his eyes.

Harry stares at Riddle. Tom Riddle was at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stands, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry says uncertainly.

"A memory," says Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

He points towards the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there is the little black diary Harry found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Harry wonders how it got there - but there are more pressing matters to deal with.

"You've got to help me, Tom," Harry says, raising Ginny's head again. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk...I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment.... Please, help me -"

Riddle doesn't move. Harry, sweating, manages to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bends over to pick up his wand again.

But his wand is gone.