Harry and Amelia Potter

2.20

We scream as we slide down the tunnel. Finally, landing in a pile of old bones. Lockhart was right, it's filthy down here.

"Now remember, any sign of movement, close your eyes straightaway." Harry tells us.

"No, I thought I'd have a staring contest with the basilisk!" I say sarcastically. He glares at me. "Sorry, I'm terrified."

"I won't let anything happen to you, Mia." Harry says, taking my hand in his and squeezing it lightly. I smile up at my brother.

"Go on." Ron instructs Lockhart to go first through the tunnels.

"This way." Harry says.

"What's this?" Ron asks as we come across a massive snake shaped, thing.

"It looks like a... snake." Lockhart states.

"It's a snakeskin." I inform them.

"Bloody hell. Whatever shed this must be sixty feet long-- or more!" Ron finishes his statement and then Lockhart faints.

"Heart of a lion, this one." I mutter under my breath and the boys agree. But then, Lockhart stands back up, grabbing Ron's wand.

"The adventure ends here, boys." He says and I clear my throat.

"Ahem."

"And, girl." He says apologetically. "But don't fret. The world will know our story. How I was too late to save the girl. How you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. So, you first, Mr. Potter. Say good-bye to your memories. Obliviate!"

As he casts the spell, he is thrown back because of Ron's broken wand. The blast causes multiple boulders to come crashing down. I grab Harry and shove him to the ground, trying to shield him from any impact of the rocks.

"Harry! Mia!" We hear Ron, but don't see him. My brother and I get up and try to look for him.

"Ron! Ron, are you ok?" Harry questions.

"I'm fine!" We realize he's on the other side of the pile of boulders. "Lockhart's memory charm backfired. He hasn't got a clue who he is!"

"What do we do now?" Harry asks me.

"Ron! You wait here and try and shift some of this rock so we can get back through. Harry and I will go on and find Ginny!"

"OK." He shouts. Then Harry and I make our way deeper into the Chamber of Secrets.

We come across a vault door, with a head, surrounded by snakes.

"Hesha- Hassah." Harry and I mutter and it opens up.

We walk through and see a long Chamber inside. A cement pathway leads us to a large statue of who I assume to be the face of Salazar Slytherin. Large serpent statues stand on either side of us and there is two streams on the sides of the pathway, leading to a pool of water near the statue head.

Just before the pool, I notice a red headed girl lying on the ground, unconscious.

"Ginny... Ginny! Oh, Ginny, please don't be dead. Wake up. Wake up! Please, wake up!" I say, trying to shake her.

"She won't wake." A boy we recognize as Tom Riddle from the diary memory walks up to us.

"Tom. Tom Riddle! What do you mean, 'she won't wake?' She's not...?" Harry trails off.

"She's still alive, but only just."

"Are you a ghost?" I ask.

"A memory, preserved in a diary for fifty years."

"She's cold as ice." Harry tells me. "Ginny, please don't be dead. Wake up! You've got to help us, Tom. There's a basilisk."

"It won't come until it's called." I look up at Tom and see he just picked up Harry and I's wands.

"Give me our wands, Tom." I say, standing up with my hand extended.

"You won't be needing them."

"Listen, we've got to go! We've got to save her!" Harry says.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Harry. You see, as poor Ginny grows weaker, I grow stronger. Yes Harry, Amelia, it was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets."

"No. She couldn't. She wouldn't!" Harry stammers. He looks to me but I keep my eyes glued to Riddle.

"It was Ginny who set the basilisk on the Mudbloods and Filch's cat, Ginny who wrote the threatening messages on the walls."

"But why?" Harry asks.

"Don't you see, Harry. Tom isn't the good guy in this scenario." I tell my brother.

"Very good, Mia. Ginny did it all because I told her to. You'll find that I can be very persuasive. Not that she knew what she was doing. She was, shall we say, in a kind of trance. Still, the power of the diary began to scare her. And she tried to dispose of it in the girl's bathroom. And then, who should find it, but you two? The two persons I was most anxious to meet."

"But, why did you want to meet us?" Harry asks.

"I knew I had to talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my capture of that brainless oaf, Hagrid, to gain both of your trusts."

"Hagrid's our friend! And you framed him, didn't you?" Harry questions in anger.

"It was my word against Hagrid's. Only Dumbledore seemed to think he was innocent."

"I'll bet Dumbledore saw right through you." I told him coldly.

"He certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after that. I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school, so I decided to leave behind a diary preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day I would be able to lead another to finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"Well, you haven't finished it this time. In a few hours, the Mandrake Draught will be ready, and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again." Harry tells him.

"Haven't I told you? Killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore. For many months now, my new target... has been you. How is it that two babies, with no extraordinary magical talent, were able to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you both escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

"Why do you care how we escaped? Voldemort was after your time." Harry says, not able to piece it all together.

"You..." I say through gritted teeth. "Don't you see, Harry? Tom Marvolo Riddle." As I say his full name, he uses my wand and writes it out in the air for a visual presentation for Harry.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE.

And then waves the wand around. As the new words form, I say, "He is Voldemort."

The letters in the air read out: I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.

"Voldemort is my past, present, and future." He says with an evil smirk. "Surely, you didn't think I was going to keep my filthy Muggle father's name? No. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I became the greatest sorcerer in the world."

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer in the world!" Harry yells and I nod in agreement.

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!"

"He'll never be gone! Not as long as those who remain are loyal to him!" I spit at him. Just then I hear the Phoenix squeak above us. "Fawkes?"

He drops the sorting hat down next to us and lands on one of the statues.

"So, this is what Dumbledore sends his great defenders, a songbird and an old hat." Tom turns to the statue of Salazar Slytherin and extends his arm. "Shearhas- Samnathas- Sélithaeine."

The mouth opens, and out slithers the basilisk.