They were standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber.
Towering stone pillarsentwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, castinglong, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.
Her heart beating very fast, Kai stood listening to the chill silence.
Could the basilisk be lurkingin a shadowy corner, behind a pillar?
And where was Ginny?
Harry and Kai lowered their wands into a defensive stance and moved forward between the serpentine columns.
Everycareful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls.
Harry reminded Kai to keep their eyes narrowed, readyto clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement.
The hollow eye sockets of thestone snakes seemed to be following them.
More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, they thought they saw one stir.
Then, as he drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itselfloomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Harry and Kai had to crane their necks to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient andmonkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard'ssweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamberfloor.
"I think that's-" Harry began.
"Salazar Slytherin." Kai finished, and was about to continue when she noticed something on the floor under it.
Between the feet, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-redhair.
"Ginny!" Harry glanced at Kai, before both sprinted to her and dropping to their knees.
"Ginny — don't bedead — please don't be dead —" Harry flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders,and turned her over.
Kai wiped her hair out of her face, willing her not to be dead.
Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes wereclosed, so she wasn't Petrified.
But then she must be...
"Ginny, please wake up," Kai muttered desperately, shaking her.
Ginny's head lolledhopelessly from side to side.
"She won't wake," said a soft voice. The Potters jumped and spun around on their knees.
Kai whipped out her wand and pointed it at the voice.
A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching.
He wasstrangely blurred around the edges, as though they were looking at him through amisted window.
But there was no mistaking him.
"Tom — Tom Riddle?" Harry asked, confused.
Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off the Potter's faces.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Kai asked desperately. "She's not — she's not —?"
"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."
Harry stared at him, while Kai glared.
Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here hestood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.
"Are you a ghost?" Harry asked 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 littleblack diary they had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
For a second, they wondered how it had got there — 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 gether out of here. There's a basilisk... I don't know where it is, but it could be along anymoment... Please, help me."
Riddle didn't move.
Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bentto 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 longfingers.
"Thanks," said Harry, stretching out his hand for it.
A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth.
He continued to stare at them, twirling thewand idly.
"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got togo! If the basilisk comes —"
"Give. Harry. His. Wand. Or. Else." Kai hissed, wand still pointed at his chest.
Something wasn't right here, and she could feel it.
She simply glared at Tom, not letting her eyes off him.
"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.
"What d'you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it —"
Riddle's smile broadened. "You won't be needing it," he said.
Harry stared at him. "What d'you mean, I won't be —?"
"I've waited a long time for this, Harry, Kai Potter," said Riddle. "For the chance to see you two.To speak to you."
"Look," said Kai, losing patience, "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber ofSecrets. We can talk later —"
"We're going to talk now," said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry'swand.
Harry stared at him.
Harry too could feel that there was something very funny going on here.
"How did Ginny get like this?" he asked slowly.
"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly. "And quite a long story. Isuppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart andspilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
"What are you talking about?" Kai asked.
"The diary," said Riddle. "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months andmonths, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes — how her brothers tease her, howshe had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how —" Riddle's eyesglinted "— how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her..."
"I knew it!" Kai congratulated herself.
"Not the time, Kai." Harry whispered, he was getting a very iffy feeling in his stomach and he didn't like it.
"Sorry." Kai whispered back, not taking her eyes off Riddle.
All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left their faces.
There was an almost hungrylook in them.
"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," hewent on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simplyloved me. No one's ever understood me like you, Tom... I'm so glad I've got this diary toconfide in... It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket..." Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him.
It made the hairs stand up on theback of Kai's neck.
"If I say it myself, Harry,Kai, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginnypoured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grewstronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grewpowerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feedingMiss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..."
"What d'you mean?" said Kai, whose mouth had gone very dry.
"Haven't you guessed yet, Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny Weasley opened theChamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messageson thewalls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."
"No," Harry whispered.
"Yes," said Riddle, calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It wasvery amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries... far more interesting,they became... Dear Tom," he recited, watching Harry and Kai's horrified face, "'I think I'm losingmy memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they gotthere. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat wasattacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm paleand I'm not myself. I think he suspects me... There was another attack today and I don'tknow where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad... I think I'm theone attacking everyone, Tom!'"
The Potter's fists were clenched, the nails digging deep into their palms. Kai was ready to kill this boy on the spot, but something was holding her back.
"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," said Riddle."But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you come in, Potters. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people whocould have picked it up, it was you, the very people I was most anxious to meet..."
"And why did you want to meet us?" Kai asked.
Anger was coursing through her, andit was an effort to keep her voice steady.
"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry, Kai," said Riddle. "Your whole fascinatinghistory."
His eyes roved over the lightning scars on their foreheads, and their expressiongrew hungrier.
"I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could.So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust—"
"Hagrid's our friend," Kai hissed, her voice now shaking with rage. "And you framed him, didn'tyou? I thought you made a mistake, but —"
Riddle laughed his high laugh again.
"It was my word against Hagrid's, Kai. Well, you can imagine how it looked to oldArmando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but sobrave, school prefect, model student... on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, introuble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off tothe Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls... but I admit, even I was surprised how well theplan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heirof Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about theChamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance... as though Hagrid had the brains,or the power! Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent.He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I thinkDumbledore might have guessed... Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much asthe other teachers did..."
"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," Harry hissed, his teeth gritted.
"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled,"said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I wasstill at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. Idecided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so thatone day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish SalazarSlytherin's noble work."
"Well, you haven't finished it," said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died this time, noteven the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who wasPetrified will be all right again —"
"Haven't I already told you," said Riddle quietly, "that killing Mudbloods doesn't matterto me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been — you."
Harry and Kai glared at him.
"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny whowas writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What ifyou found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse,I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until yourdormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to methat you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny had told me aboutyou, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery — particularly if one ofyour best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzingbecause you could speak Parseltongue... So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. Shestruggled and cried and became very boring. But there isn't much life left in her... Sheput too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last... I havebeen waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have manyquestions for you Potters."
"Like what?" Kai spat, fists still clenched.
"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you — a skinny babies with noextraordinary magical talent — managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? Howdid you escape with nothing but a scar each, while Lord Voldemort's powers weredestroyed?"
There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.
"Why do you care how we escaped?" said Harry slowly.
"Voldemort was after your time..."
"Voldemort," said Riddle softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter..."
He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writingthree shimmering words: TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves: I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my mostintimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father'sname forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through mymother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me evenbefore I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry, Kai,— Ifashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear tospeak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"
Harry's brain seemed to have jammed. He stared numbly at Riddle, at the orphaned boywho had grown up to murder Harry's own parents, and so many others... At last heforced himself to speak.
"You're not," he said, his quiet voice full of hatred.
"Not what?" snapped Riddle.
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," Kai continued for her brother, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappointyou and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyoneknows that. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts.Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now,wherever you're hiding these days —"
The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.
"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.
"You were driven out by two mere babies!" Kai yelled. Her wand was ready and she wanted to hex him, but something was holding her back.
"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted.
Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.
Music was coming from somewhere.
Riddle whirled around to stare down the emptyChamber.
The music was growing louder.
It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it liftedthe hair on Kai's scalp and made her heart feel as though it was swelling to twice itsnormal size.
Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Kai felt it vibrating inside her own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.
A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaultedceiling.
It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons,which were gripping a ragged bundle.
A second later, the bird was flying straight at the Potters. It dropped the ragged thing it wascarrying in Harry's arms, then landed heavily on Kai's shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Kai, looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eye, for once breaking eye contact with Riddle.
The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Kai's cheek, gazing steadily atRiddle.
"That's a phoenix." said Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.
"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, and Kai felt the bird's golden claws squeeze his shouldergently.
"And that —" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing in Harry's arms,"that's the old school Sorting Hat —"
So it was.
Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless in Harry's arms. Harry unfolded it, staring at it in confusion.
Riddle began to laugh again.
He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, asthough ten Riddles were laughing at once.
"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feelbrave, Harry and Kai Potter? Do you feel safe now?"
Neither of the answered.
They might not see what use Fawkes or the Sorting Hat were, but they was no longer alone, and in silence, they waited for Riddle to stop laughing with his couragemounting.
"To business, kids," said Riddle, still smiling broadly. "Twice — in your past, in myfuture — we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell meeverything. The longer you talk," he added softly, "the longer you stay alive."
Harry was thinking fast, weighing his chances.
Riddle had the wand. But so did Kai.
They, Harry ad Kai, hadFawkes and the Sorting Hat, neither of which would be much good in a duel.
Kai did have a wand, but against Voldemort...
They were also two, making the chances more or less even.
It looked bad though... but the longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out ofGinny... and in the meantime, Harry noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becomingclearer, more solid... If it had to be a fight between the Potters and Riddle, better sooner thanlater.
"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked us," said Harry abruptly. "Idon't know myself. But I know why you couldn't kill us. Because our mother died to saveus."
"Our common Muggle-born mother," Kai added, catching onto her brother's idea, while still shaking with suppressed rage.
"Shestopped you killing us. And I've seen the real you, I saw you last year. You're a wreck.You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly,you're foul —"
Riddle's face contorted.
Then he forced it into an awful smile.
"So. Your mother died tosave you. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I can see now... there is nothing specialabout you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, afterall. Even you must have noticed. All three of us are half-bloods, orphans, raised by idiots. Probablythe only Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. Weeven look something alike, not Kai, of course... but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved youfrom me. That's all I wanted to know."
Harry and Kai stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand.
But Riddle's twisted smile waswidening again.
"Now, Harry, Kai, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of LordVoldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry and Kai Potter, and the best weaponsDumbledore can give them..."
He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away.
Kai, fearspreading up her numb legs, watched Riddle stop between the high pillars and look upinto the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness.
Riddle opened hismouth wide and hissed — but the Potters understood what he was saying... "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
Kai wheeled around to look up at the statue, Fawkes swaying on her shoulder.
Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving.
Horrorstruck, Kai saw his mouth opening,wider and wider, to make a huge black hole.
Harry dropped the hat, horrorstruck.
And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth.
Something was slithering up fromits depths.
The two backed away until they hit the dark Chamber wall, and as they shut their eyes tight Kai felt Fawkes' wing sweep her cheek as he took flight.
Kai wanted to shout, "Don't leave!" but what chance did a phoenix have against the King of Serpents?
Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber.
Harry and Kai felt it shudder — they knewwhat was happening, they could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoilingitself from Slytherin's mouth.
Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice: "Kill them."
The basilisk was moving toward Harry and Kai; she could hear its heavy body slithering heavilyacross the dusty floor.
Eyes still tightly shut, Kai grabbed Harry and began to run blindly sideways, her hands outstretched, feeling her way — Voldemort was laughing.
Harry tripped. He fell hard onto the stone and tasted blood the serpent was barely feetfrom him, he could hear it coming.
Kai spun 'round, and could suddenly smell Harry's scent.
Kai ran to him, pulled him up, but stopped.
There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above them, and then something heavyhit them so hard that they were smashed into the wall.
Waiting for fangs to sink through their body they heard more mad hissing, something thrashing wildly off the pillars.
Harry couldn't help it — he opened his eyes wide enough to squint at what was going on.
Kai did the same.
The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itselfhigh in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars.
As Kai trembled, ready to close her eyes if it turned, she saw what had distracted the snake.
Fawkes was soaring around its head, and the basilisk was snapping furiously at him withfangs long and thin as sabers Fawkes dived.
His long golden beak sank out of sight anda sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor.
The snake's tail thrashed, Kai pulled Harry towards her as the tail narrowlymissed Harry, and before either of them could shut their eyes, it turned — they looked straightinto its face and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had beenpunctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spittingin agony.
"NO!" they heard Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE POTTERS ARE BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL SMELL THEM. KILL THEM!"
The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly.
Fawkes was circling its head, pipinghis eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from itsruined eyes.
"Help us, help us," Harry muttered wildly, "someone — anyone..."
The snake's tail whipped across the floor again.
Harry ducked pulling Kai with him.
Something soft hit Harry's face.
The basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms.
Harry seized it.
It was all they had left, their only chance — he rammed it onto his head and threw himself flat onto thefloor as the basilisk's tail swung over them again.
"Come on Harry. Quickly please." Kai pleaded, ducking her head as the tail swung over their heads again.
Help us— help us— Harry thought, his eyes screwed tight under the hat. Please helpus.
There was no answering voice.
Instead, the hat contracted, as though an invisible handwas squeezing it very tightly.
Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head, almost knockinghim out.
Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed the top of the hat to pull it offand felt something long and hard beneath it. A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubiesthe size of eggs.
"KILL THEM! LEAVE THE BIRD! THEY ARE BEHIND YOU. SNIFF — SMELL THEM."
"I have a plan." Harry and Kai said at the same time, staring at each other.
Harry nodded, and both were on their feet, ready.
Harry and Kai ran to the big statue, and Kai began climbing it.
Harry ran around the Chamber, distracting the snake as Kai climbed higher and higher.
Running back to the statue, Harry stopped.
Kai lunged at the snake, landing on it's head.
The snake thrashed shaking his head to get Kai off.
Kai clinged on with all her might.
"Good, snakey, it's ok, calm now." Kai tried to sooth the snake in Parseltoung, but it did nothing.
The snake suddenly lifted it head up high, bringing it down at a high speed.
Kai was sent flying across the Chamber.
Harry his chance, jabbing the sword up into the snake's open mouth.
He pushed the hilt all the way in, and just as he felt warm blood rush over him, he felt a sharp, searing pain, just above his elbow.
One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm and it splinteredas the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.
Harry slid down the wall.
He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through hisbody and wrenched it out of his arm.
But he knew it was too late.
White-hot pain wasspreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang andwatched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy.
The Chamber wasdissolving in a whirl of dull color.
"Harry!" Kai ran over to him.
Fawkes had caught her when she was flug off and tried his best to get her the floor safley, but her weight was unbarable.
They fell fast, but remained. relatively unhurt,
A patch of scarlet swam past, and Harry heard a soft clatter of claws beside him.
"Fawkes," said Harry thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes..."
"Harry!" Kai dropped to her knees, "Harry it'll be alright, you can't die now. Please don't leave me!"
Harry gave her his hand, smiling weakly.
"Aha!" Kai whispered, smiling, "You're truly awsome, Fawkes."
Harry felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had piercedhim.
He could hear echoing footsteps and then a dark shadow moved in front of him.
"You're dead, Harry Potter," said Riddle's voice above him. "Dead. Even Dumbledore'sbird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying."
Kai stood up, pointing her wand at the boy.
"Yes, indeed he's crying, Tom." Kai grinned.
"You stupid girl, your dear dear brother is dying and and you don't care. And I thought you were smart."
Kai grinned.
Harry blinked. F
awke's head slid in and out of focus.
Thick, pearly tears were tricklingdown the glossy feathers.
"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry. I'll deal with you after, Kai."
Harry felt drowsy.
Everything around him seemed to be spinning.
"So ends the famous Harry Potter," said Riddle's distant voice. "Alone in the Chamber ofSecrets, forsaken by his friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwiselychallenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry, don't think I'm forgetting about you, Kai... She boughtyou twelve years of borrowed time... but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as youknew he must..."
If this is dying, thought Harry, it's not so bad.
Even the pain was leaving him... But was this dying?
Kai sat back down next to him.
"Pheonix tears have magic healing powers, Harold. Do you really think I would be happy that you were dying and not do anything to help you?" Kai whispered in his ear, smilling from ear to ear.
Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming backinto focus.
Harry gave his head a little shake and there was Fawkes, still resting his headon Harry's arm.
Harry smiled, Kai was righr.
A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound — except thatthere was no wound.
"Get away, bird," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him — I said, get away —"
Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Fawkes; there was a bang likea gun, and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet.
"Phoenix tears..." said Riddle quietly, staring at Harry's arm. "Of course... healing powers... I forgot..."
"Get away, Riddle. Just because you have a wand and an over confident arse, doesn't mean you can never loose." Kai pointed her wand at him.
Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell intoHarry's lap — the diary.
For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it.
Kai kicked the fang back at Harry, and withoutthinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seizedthe basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of thebook.
There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream.
Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents,streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor.
Riddle was writhing and twisting,screaming and flailing and then — He had gone.
Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence.
Silenceexcept for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom hadburned a sizzling hole right through it.
His head was spinning as though he'd justtraveled miles by Floo powder.
Kai ran over to him, helping him up and hugging him tightly.
"We did it, Harry. Can you believe it?" she was smiling even wider.
"Yes, we did it." Harry smiled, proud of both himself and his little sister.
He noticed she had a scratch across her cheek.
"Are you ok?" he asked concerned , pulling out a handkerchief and dabbing it to stop the bleeding.
Kai smiled, "I'm fine, Harry." she pushed his hand away gently.
Slowly, they gathered together Harry wand and the SortingHat, and, with a huge tug, retrieved the glittering sword from the roof of the basilisk'smouth.
Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber.
Ginny was stirring.
As they both hurried toward her, she sat up.
Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of thedead basilisk, over Harry and Kai, their blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in Harry's hand.
Shedrew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Harry —Kai-oh, Kai— I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front ofPercy — it was me, Kai— but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over — and — how did you kill that — that thing? W-where's Riddle? Thelast thing I rremember is him coming out of the diary —"
" It's all right, Gin, it's alright, Mommy's here, Ginny." said Kai smirked, embracing her best friend.
Harry glared at her with a 'not the right moment' glare.
Harry held up the diary and showed Ginny the fang hole,"Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here —"
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry and Kai helped her to her feet.
"I'velooked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have toleave and — wwhat'll Mum and Dad say?"
Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance.
Harry and Kai urged Ginnyforward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through theechoing gloom, and back into the tunnel.
Kai heard the stone doors close behindthem with a soft hiss.
After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rockreached their ears.
"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! We've got her!"
They heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to see his eagerface staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall.
"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first.
"You'realive! I don't believe it! What happened? How — what — where did that bird comefrom?"
Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.
"He's Dumbledore's," Kai explained, squeezing herself through.
"How come you've got a sword?" Ron asked, as Harry came through, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry'shand.
"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry with a sideways glance at Ginny, whowas crying harder than ever.
"But —"
"Later," Kai said shortly.
They didn't think it was a good idea to tell Ron yet who'd beenopening the Chamber, not in front of Ginny, anyway.
"Where's Lockhart?" Harry asked.
"Back there," said Ron, still looking puzzled but jerking his head up the tunnel towardthe pipe.
"He's in a bad way. Come and see."
Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness,they walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe.
Gilderoy Lockhart was sittingthere, humming placidly to himself.
"His memory's gone," said Ron. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us.Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and waithere. He's a danger to himself."
Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all.
"Hello," he said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"
"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows at Harry.
Kai bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.
"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" Harry asked Ron.
Ron shook his head, but Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past Kai and was nowfluttering in front of her, his beady eyes bright in the dark.
He was waving his longgolden tail feathers.
Kai looked uncertainly at him.
"He looks like he wants you to grab hold..." said Ron, looking perplexed. "But you'remuch too heavy for a bird to pull up there —"
"Fawkes," Kai smiled, "isn't an ordinary bird."
She turned quickly to the others. "We've gotto hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Professor Lockhart —"
"She means you," said Ron sharply to Lockhart.
"You hold Harry's hand —"
Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt, Ron took hold of the back ofHarry's robes, and Harry reached out and took hold Kai, who was holding Fawkes's strangely hot tailfeathers.
An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through her whole body and the nextsecond, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe.
Kai could hearLockhart dangling below him, saying, "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!"
Thechill air was whipping through Harry's hair, and before he'd stopped enjoying the ride, itwas over — all four of them were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom,and as Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back intoplace.
Myrtle goggled at them.
"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, wiping flecks of blood andslime off his glasses.
"Oh, well... I'd just been thinking... if you had died, you'd have been welcome to sharemy toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver.
"Urgh!" said Ron as they left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside.
"Harry! I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!"
But tears were still flooding silently down Ginny's face. Kai placed a comforting arm around her shoulder.
"Where now?" said Ron, with an anxious look at Ginny.
Harry pointed.
Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor.
They strode after him,and moments later, found themselves outside Professor McGonagall's office.
Harry knocked and pushed the door open.
Hey Guys,
Another long chapter (6000+ words (again!)). Anyways, hope you enjoyed. Dobby's famous hour will be out soon!
Cya!
-Kai