Riddle growled.
"Your bird may have blinded the Basilisk-but it can still hear you!"
Harry realized this when he stepped back, the serpent zoning in on his every move before it charged.
"Split up!"
John called as he ducked, quickly running past the snake and back towards the main area, Harry on the other side.
As the snake struggled to turn, Harry decided to become reckless.
"John!"
He called over, gaining his attention.
"I'll lead it away!"
What?!
"Are you out of your mind?! Did you hit on the way down back there?!"
Harry shook his head, brushing past his half-insults as they met back up and continued to run, ignoring Tom's smirking glances.
"You need to help Ginny! Tom said the diary was killing her as it made him stronger!"
They slowed and watched as the snake made its way back towards them.
"You're so much better at magic than I am...league's better. If anyone can figure out how to stop Riddle-it's you. I will draw it away-"
"-Harry-"
"-No John! I have to do this!"
He grew antsy as it grew closer.
"Stay here, and don't make a sound."
"Harry!"
It was too late.
That stupid, reckless, brave ass kid took off without hesitation or a second glance.
Shit.
Hie eyes glanced between the even paler form of Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister, and Harry making his way down the walkway and leading the Basilisk into a pipeline system.
He wanted to do something-
He should've done something!
John looked back to the dying child.
Harry sacrificed himself for a chance for John to save Ginny....and he was given a job to do.
No longer wasting time he rushed back down to Ginny, checking what he could to identify the curse's source-his eyes launching to the diary she held dearly to her chest.
But that's just it, wasn't it?
It all came back to that damn book.
"'John', hm?"
His eye twitched.
"John what, exactly."
Riddle begun to walk around them in slow, analyzing circles, taking his time to examine him fully.
"Dear Ginny had mentioned Potter and his measly friends were commonly seen with a Slytherin boy. One on friendly terms as well...she didn't write down a name, but I assume that he must be you."
"Yeah?"
John snorted, patting down his uniform a bit.
"And what, prey tell, gave that away?"
Riddle scowled again.
"You have quite a tongue on you. Both slick and foul."
"Gee."
He made a point of not giving the other a lot of his attention.
"Thanks."
Carefully taking the diary from Ginny's arm, the dark magic that has been plaguing him for months finally had a cause.
A chill ran up his arms when it made contact.
"This...this is black magic."
He looked at the book closer with an experienced eye.
"One of the darkest kinds..."
He felt it leeching off of the child's life source.
"Even if you're nothing but an echo, an afterthought of the real man you once were-you're still a real sick freak you know that?"
"What did you say to me?"
"Did you go deaf when you broke off this part of yourself? Sealing it away inside these pages like a tripwired time capsule?"
John looked back at the mirage of a man.
"You're nothing but a sad little boy who wasn't loved enough as a child. Deciding that one day you would make the world hurt just as much as it hurt you."
"How dare you speak to me in such a manner! I am LORD VOLDEMORT! THE GREATEST SORCERER OF OUR TIME, AND CENTURIES TO COME-"
"-oh piss off."
The mage rolled his eyes.
"Please. I've exorcized hundreds of demons 10x more a threat than poor old you and that sorry little wind-up toy of yours."
He placed a hand on Ginny's chest(making sure it was centered for modesty's sake), and begun unwinding the darkened threads tying her down from fighting back.
"What are you doing?!"
Riddle startled.
"How are you doing that?! Stop it! Stop it this instant!"
John just closed his eyes, focusing that much harder in cleansing her soul from the sickness that sucked away at her life force.
Thread after thread was snapping under his hand, slowly freeing her from Riddle and his cursed diary's influence.
He had never exorcized like before.
Well, it was never too late to try new things.
John grabbed at the last black thread he saw, pulling at it with as much strength his tired, small, sleep deprived body could muster up.
"NO!"
John panted as he was brought back up. The first thing that came to him was the absolutely infuriated apparition of the former Dark Lord.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
"John!"
Harry ran out from one of the openings, sliding onto the opposite side of Ginny, seeing how they were both panting from different kinds of exhaustion.
"Did you do it?!"
"Yeah, mate..."
John wiped his brow before pushing back the dirty blond locks obstructing his field of vision.
"She's gonna be jus' fine."
"YOU!"
Riddle shook was rage-seemingly fed up, both with the his actions and their continuing habit of completing disregarding his words.
"YOU WILL REGRET THE DAY YOU WERE BORN!"
He pointed Harry's wand at John as he seethed.
"AVADA-"
Instinct made John throw up his hand faster than even he could react.
He felt a pool of dark magic gathering as Riddle was about to cast the spell.
While his magic wasn't exactly the same at theirs-John's been here long enough to discover that they're more alike than they seem.
He knew a cursing spell when he saw one.
A fatal one at that.
Tom Riddle's afterimage flew back, dropping Harry's wand and interesting enough losing a bit of color.
"I already do, mate."
If he had continued to drain Ginny's life, then he would have been stronger.
Once he grew strength from her weakness-but now he had no source of power besides what he had.
He needed to-
The Basilisk burst from the body of water, screeching in rage as it had been blinded, deceived, and left behind in the sewer's maze.
Something had grabbed Harry's attention, making him quickly reach for the hat and pull out a fucking sword-
"-what the hell?!"
Shit-that was a mistake.
Harry held up the sword, a combination of exhaustion, nerves, and the sword's new weight making his arm tremble.
His outburst and Harry's movements drew the serpent to their location, making the ebony run to the side in order to divert its attention.
Then the fool began to climb the wall's statue.
What the hell was he doing?!
Harry made his way up towards the top, batting away at the blind Basilisk whenever it managed to get close to him.
Growling in frustration he hurriedly turned back to the book in his hands.
Riddled looked back over towards him, keeping his new distance, and laughed.
"Simple magic won't kill me. Even if it's wandless. Once once the Basilisk is done with Potter, he will feast upon you as well!"
John then realized his mistake earlier.
While Riddle's black magic was weakened, very much of it was ingrained physically to the book-the entire object felt dark front to back.
A simple item exorcism wasn't going to work!
It might help-but the diary wasn't just cursed.
It was created for a singular purpose.
Maintaining, and eventually bringing Tom Riddle back to life.
Every cover, page and indent was Tom.
He needed something to destroy it physically!
John stilled as Ginny's body moved.
Shit, she had started to stir from the noise.
But he couldn't linger on her long as Harry yelled out, being knocked back and losing the sword.
"Harry!"
Shit!
"Hey you ugly ass slime ball! Over here!"
The mage yelled out, not caring as it drew the serpent's attention-long enough for the other to grab the sword again.
"HEY!"
Harry called it back, stilling as it launched forwards-only to stab it through the roof of its mouth and out its head.
The beast yelled and whined as Harry withdrew the sword with a yank, leaving it failing as it recoiled.
It's been stabbed through the brain, bleeding out and suffering irreparable damages.
It was no surprise at all when it at last dropped dead to the sewer floor.
"Harry!"
The boy made fast work getting back down, but his energy was failing quickly as he returned to their side.
"Are you alright, mate? What's wrong?!"
John sprang to his side, looking at the only major injury on him-the puncture in his arm.
Riddle grinned as Harry collapsed.
"Impressive isn't it...just how quickly a Basilisk's venom courses it's victim's veins."
"He has minutes to live. If I can't have one, then I'll have the other~"
He boasted.
"Don't you worry, 'John'. Potter will reunite with his filthy mudblood of a mother soon enough."
"Easy, mate, easy."
John laid the other down, purposely ignoring both Riddle's taunts and his racing heart.
"Deeps breaths, nice an' slow."
As much as it pained him-he couldn't do much for Harry right now except comfort him.
John had never been much of a healer.
The only healing magic, some of the only light sided magic he normally used was slight spells for minor injuries-not for fatal ones like fast actings venoms.
No.
He couldn't help Harry-but he could do this.
With a heavy heart, he delicately removed the Basilisk fang from the boy's hand.
John looked Tom Riddle dead in the eye as he opened the diary's pages with one hand, rising the tooth high in the other.
"What are you doing-NO!"
He stabbed the book in his anger, taking in Riddle's form as he screamed out of pain.
Spots tore through him, light emerging as his source of existences was mercilessly assaulted.
John made sure to dig the dang deep into every page he turned to, twisting and pulling along every scrape and tear he manufactured.
Every student that feared for their very lives.
Every victim that had been paralyzed.
His friends that have been hurt and scarred both mentally and physically-never to be the same way again!
He closed the book, gripping the fang with both hands and putting weight into the descending attack.
John Constantine made sure his enemy looked back at him as he dissolved down and died.
When his work was finally done we was left panting heavily, physically worked up and emotionally on high.
Without care he wiped his face, smearing ink, blood and remnants of venom along it.
"...is it....over?"
Harry called, eyes droopy and glossy as he struggled to sit up.
John didn't hesitate to help him.
"Yeah mate...it's over with."
He kept a hand on his shoulder.
"You did good, Harry."
They looked on as Ginny Weasley finally awoke, gasping when realizing where she was-and who she was with.
"Harry!"
"Ginny..."
"Are you alright, Harry-"
"I'm fine-I'm ok."
John shot him a silent look for that.
Soon she began to tear up, pained and in grief.
"I'm so sorry-I did it Harry! I opened the Chamber of Secrets!-"
"-it's ok! We know, Ginny..."
He interrupted.
"You needed to follow John...he'll show you the way back out-Ron is on the other side and-"
The family cry of Fawkes pierced John's ears a third time that night, making him think that the bird never actually flew away whenever it exited stage left.
It landed in between the three and looked over them carefully before hopping close to Harry's injured arm to stand over it.
The mage watched on as the phoenix did what John could not, leaking tears over the wound and healing it shut.
"Of course..."
Harry smiled.
"Phoenix tears have healing powers."
Of course they did.
John sighed with a slightly fond exasperation.
Why wouldn't it do that?
"Thank you."
Harry backed at the traumatized first year.
"It'll be ok. It's nothing more than a memory now, Ginny."
John took this as his cue.
"Right-now, how, exactly, are we getting out of here again?"
Ron yelped as John held on tighter, the force of his grip felt through the other's shoes.
"OUCH! Bloody-ease up, John!"
"Hell no!"
Flying in anything but a plane or helicopter was just not his ballpark.
"This is amazing!"
Amnesia-hart exclaimed with joy.
"THIS IS JUST LIKE MAGIC!"
"WHY COULDN'T WE LEAVE HIM THERE!"