The Parselmouth and the Basilisk {Jade Book 2}

Chapter 8

Instead of mending Harry's broken bone, he removed it.

So Harry ended up having to go to the hospital wing anyway.

Just then, I felt a voice whispering in my head.

"Come to the Chamber...come to the Chamber..."

I looked around. Ginny Weasley was nowhere to be seen.

"I have to go," I told Anja.

She sighed. "Not this again. Where are you going?"

"The Chamber of Secrets," I replied calmly, then, before she could reply, I dashed off into the castle.

Finally I reached Myrtle's bathroom. "Hello," she said. "I suppose you're just going to run past me like last time..."

She began sobbing loudly.

"No, Myrtle," I tried to explain. "It's just that...well...there's somewhere I need to be, right now. So, I'm sorry, but I have to go."

I opened the Chamber and walked down to where, as always, Ginny was waiting for me.

"I got your message."

Ginny nodded. "Good. Well, it's your turn."

"What?"

"Your turn to release the basilisk. And just so you know, I have no preference as to who you kill," 'Ginny' told me. "So long as it's a Mudblood."

I had half been expecting this, I had to admit.

But I hoped that I would not be the cause of any deaths.

Or, as in Mrs Norris' case, anyone being Petrified.

I guessed that she had been Petrified instead of killed because of the water on the ground.

"Hurry up!" 'Ginny' urged me.

I turned to face Slytherin's face as 'Ginny' had done, then hissed in Parseltongue, "Come...Slytherin's monster...come..."

The basilisk slid from Slytherin's mouth. It slid off. "How does it get around without being seen?" I asked interestedly.

"It uses the plumbing," came the response.

I nodded. That made sense. It would be easy to get around the school using the pipes in the walls.

I decided to ask a dangerous question.

Especially dangerous considering that this person was perfectly happy to kill people.

"I know you aren't really Ginny Weasley, you're just possessing her. Who are you really?"

'Ginny' turned to me. "You want to know my real name? I am Tom."

He said his name with disregard, and possibly even hate towards it.

Why?

"Well, okay, Tom. I have to go now," I told him and then walked slowly back though the tunnels until I was back in the girls' bathroom.

"Myrtle..." I began hesitantly. "Was there a Tom here when you were at school?"

She nodded. "Oh, yes, there were a few, but I only really knew one of them. Tom Riddle."

"Yes?" I asked.

I thought that maybe, somehow, the person who'd killed Myrtle – the Heir of Slytherin from her time – had managed to possess Ginny and open the Chamber again.

But all I had to go on was what I'd worked out about Tom.

"Tom Riddle was a Slytherin. He was one of the sixth-year Prefects when I died. He was very popular and all the teachers liked him except for Professor Dumbledore. Nobody knew much about his past, but I think he lived at an orphanage," she told me.