Emma Potter

47: United Duo Once Again

We were standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long,black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. My heart beating very fast, Harry and I stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny? We pulled out our wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns.

 Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. I kept my eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following us. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, I thought I saw one stir.Then, as we drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.

I  had to crane my neck to look up into the giant face above:It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, face down, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair."Ginny!" Harry muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees, me right behind. "Ginny — don't be dead — please don't be dead —" I muttered, Harry flung his wand aside (which was a stupid thing to do, I held onto mine), grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned he rover. 

Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be —"Ginny, please wake up," I muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side."She won't wake," said a soft voice.Harry and I jumped and spun around on our knees.

 A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar,watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though we were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him —"Tom — Tom Riddle?"Harry and I whispered, neither of us wondered how the other knew him. We had made the connection.  Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off our faces. 

"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately."She's not — she's not — ?""She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."Harry stared at him, I narrowed my eyes. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him,not a day older than sixteen.

 "Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.

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

He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary I had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, I wondered how it had gotten here — but there were more pressing matters to deal with. 

"You've got to help us, Tom," Harry said, raising Ginny's head again. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk . . .we don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment. . . .Please, help me —"Riddle didn't move. Something was off. 

Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again.But his wand had gone."Did you see — ?"He looked up. Riddle was still watching him — twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers."Thanks," said Harry, stretching out his hand for it.A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Harry, twirling the wand idly. 

"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes —"

 "It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly.Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer.