Harry and I walked cautiously to a circular door. The door had snakes coming from one side.
"You ready?" Harry asked me as I stared uncomfortably at the door.
I sighed, and looked to him. Nope. I don't want to go and risk dying. I don't want to die in a pitiful way. All those thoughts came into my head at once, but all I could say was, "I guess so."
He grabbed onto both of my hands and looked me dead in the eyes, "Bridget, I won't let anything happen to you. As long as you listen to me. And close your eyes. Okay?"
I smiled a little, "Okay."
"Okay," he took a deep breath, "let's go."
He turned to the door and started to speak the gibberish again. A snake-like metallic thing slithered out of its hole in the door. It went through the outer side of the door, and vanished back in its spot. As it opened, my mind went wild. Say good-bye to life, Bridget. There's nothing you can do now. You won't be alive after this.
When it was finally all the way open, I saw this short tunnel shaped opening. Harry went first. At the end of the opening, Harry looked down. He turned to me and started to descend downwards. I stepped up into the place, and noticed there was a ladder. That makes sense.
I turned and walked my way down. I stepped onto the floor. It was went with-what I hope was-water. Harry led the way down the huge entrance. There were snake heads there ajar, letting their cement tongues out onto the floor.
Wow, I thought to myself, you'd never guess it was a Slytherin that made this.
As we got more towards the center, I saw a body lying on the floor. My instinct kicked in over anything else, "Ginny?!" I yelled and ran after the body. Harry was straight after me. I fell onto the floor beside the ginger, and gripped her hand. She was practically ice cold. I got up towards her face, and she was so pale. Paler than usual. I grabbed her face in my hands. No flutter of the eyes. I placed to fingers on her neck. After a few seconds, I felt a pulse. It was a slow pulse, but it was a pulse.
"Please be awake Ginny!" Harry yelled.
I fell backwards onto my knees and legs.
"She won't wake up," a voice behind us said loud and clear.
We both turned towards the voice. There was a male. I'd guess he was about 18. I looked in confusion at him.
"Tom Riddle," Harry spoke. "What do you mean that she won't wake up?"
"If we give her enough CPR I'm sure we can-" I started.
"No," the boy walked nearer, "she is still alive, yes. But it won't last."
"Are you...?" Harry's question trailed off.
"A ghost? No, only a memory," He answered with a slight chuckle.
For a moment, I got a cramp in my stomach. I clutched onto my abdomen. I gritted my teeth as the pain started to slightly increase. I doubled over onto my back shins more. I closed my eyes, and tried to control my breathing.
"Ah," I heard the so called 'Tom Riddle' say, "you're a Mudblood."
"Don't call her that!" Harry stood up for me.
I heard footsteps walk around me, "Mudbloods aren't supposed to be down here. Bad things could happen. I could only imagine what would happen to you if you gazed at the snake."
"I told you not to call her that!" Harry yelled.
"Anyways," He continued, "I had been preserved inside that book for 50 years now."
"You-you," I tried to get my words out.
"I what?" He asked.
"You...are...the," the pain kept getting worse.
"The more you're down here," Riddle said in a little tune, "the more likely you are to die."
"You're the heir!" I gasped out.
"Ah! You're a very smart girl," He laughed.
"What are you talking about?" I heard Harry adjust. "Give me back my wand Tom."
"I cannot do that," I slowly looked up and saw Tom towering over Harry. I, painfully, stretched to grab my wand; which was lying on the floor beside me.
"But we have to save them," Harry pleaded.
Poor, innocent Harry, I thought. I groaned and gripped my wand.
"I cannot do that either," Tom fiddled with Harry's wand.
"Why not?" Harry asked.
"Because," the boy told Harry, "while she grows weaker, I become stronger."
"You...monster..." I huffed. I could feel the drops of sweat drip down my neck.
He laughed, "I am not the monster. Ginny was the one that opened the Chamber."
"No," I groaned.
"Yes. It was Ginny Weasley who put the snake onto the Mudbloods and the cat."
"No," I said a little bit louder.
"Ginny wrote those bloody messages on the walls," He continued.
"No!" I nearly yelled. "You did!"
"Shut up, Mudblood!"
"I said, don't call her that!" Harry was getting redder by the minute. "And what does she mean, 'you did'?"
"I told Ginny to do all those things," he told him. "I can be highly persuasive."
"You," I took a deep breath. The pain was almost unbearable. "You possessed her!"
"Not really," Tom looked down at me, "but you might want to save your breath. You won't survive any longer with all the talking."
I growled and a sharper pain shot up through making me bend over on my hands and knees.
"Anyways," Tom cleared his throat, "she was in a sort of trance really. Slowly the diary began to scare her. So, she tried to get rid of it. Then you come along. The very person I was so excited to meet."
I took a huge breath, and sat back on my two legs again. I could feel all the sweat and tears dripping from my face. I didn't even realize I was crying until I shakily wiped off the wet substances.
"Why did you want to meet me so bad?" Harry got in Tom's face. Tom had Harry's wand against Harry's chest.
"I needed to talk to you, even meet you. So I came up with a plan to gain your trust and show you my capture of that daft dimbo Hagrid."
"Hagrid is our friend," Harry defended him.
"I knew," I took a deep breath, "that you weren't good."
Tom ignored my comment, "Dumbledore was on the only one who viewed him as innocent."
And Dumbledore was right.
"Afterwards, Dumbledore watched my every move. I knew I would be able to open the Chamber of Secrets and get away with it while I was in school," Tom continued. "So, I left a diary here with my sixteen-year-old self within the pages. Hoping that one day, I will...hypnotize another into opening it for me."
"Possessing," I corrected.
"Well, your plan did work out so well," Harry told him. "In a few more hours, the mandrake solution will be ready, and those who've been petrified will be okay once more."
"I've already told you, I don't care about killing Mudbloods. For a while now, you have been my new goal."
My stomach dropped, and I could feel my sadness over whelming me. In this shape, I won't be able to help or save Harry.
"How could you, a little baby with nothing, destroy one of the greatest wizards alive?" Tom asked.
"Dumbledore hasn't been destroyed," I croaked.
"Voldemort was much higher than Dumbledore and will always be!" Tom yelled.
"Why would you care anyways?" Harry asked. "Isn't Voldemort younger than you?"
"Voldemort is my future, present, and past," Tom turned around and started to write out his name.
I knew it! Why do we always have to fight Voldemort?!
Once he was done, he switched his letters around. Surely, they spelled out, I am lord Voldemort. I rolled my eyes, That's too extra.
"You-You're Voldemort?" Harry was finally getting it.
"Did you actually think, that I was going to keep my Mudblood of a father's name?" He laughed. "I knew that one day, people were going to fear to speak of it. When I would be the greatest wizard in the world!"
"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest!" Harry argued.
"A wizard who is feared is different that a wizard who is great," I spoke up.
"Silence," Tom hissed, "you stupid girl!"
"She is anything but stupid," Harry fired back.
"Dumbledore was taken away from this castle by the memory of me, anyway," Tom lowered his voice slightly.
I took a deep breath, and a very sharp pain went through my back. This caused me to fall onto my side, on top of Ginny.
"He'll never really leave," Harry argued. "Not as long as some stay loyal and protect the castle along side him."
Right after Harry finished his sentence, there was a caw-like sound coming from the entrance. I glanced up. Fawks was flying down the walkway. I noticed he was carrying something, but I was hurting too much to figure it out.
Fawks flew over Harry and dropped the brown thing into his arms. I watched as Fawks came over to me. He kept nudging me with his head and beak. I reached my hand up to pet him. His feathers seemed to have gotten softer.
The pain grew with every stroke of my fingers. I groaned and Fawkes cuddled next to me. He laid his upon my opposite hand as I continued to listen to Harry and Riddle.
"This is what that oaf brings his greatest defense," Riddle laughed, "an old hat, and bird."
I listened to Riddle's footsteps as I watched Harry's reaction to the process. I heard Riddle talk in Parsteltongue. Then Riddle spoke plainly to us, "Let's see how the power of Lord Voldemort to the very famous Harry Potter."
Harry's eyes went wide so I knew what that meant. I closed my eyes, "Run Harry."
"But-"
"Go!" I argued. I heard as he ran and the snake slithered. I put my face into Ginny's cold body.
"Don't bother with Parsteltongue, Potter. It only obeys I," Riddle taunted Harry.
Through the darkness, I heard a thud from a distance away. My heart stopped when I couldn't hear Harry running anymore. No...No, No, NO! He can't be. He's not. I know he's not. I started to heave and huff. Not being able to breath properly. I could tell I didn't have much time left before who know what could happen.
I felt as Fawkes moves away from me. His warrior cry rang out, destroying the sound of the Basilisk's growls. Before long, the snake started to cry out in pain. Thank the lord for Fawkes! Oh thank you Fawkes! Thank you!
"Ugh!" I heard Riddle yell out in fury. "Even though your bird blinded my Basilisk, it can still hear!"
I heard Fawks' wings get closer to me, and sure enough, he landed beside me once more. I groaned as the pain shot all around me. It felt like I was having cramps everywhere.
I focused my ears to the sound of Harry (or what I hoped was Harry). The footsteps grew further away, and soon I could not hear them. I reached up to check my pulse to make sure I was still breathing, and I was. I was still alive despite all the pain I was going through.
I groaned. The pain slowly was getting worse. Footsteps came up next to me. Thinking it was Harry, I opened my eyes and lifted my head. I was wrong.
"You know," Riddle grabbed my chin with his index finger and thumb, "pity your a mudblood. You would've survived. Could've lived happily ever after with me."
"I...wouldn't...even choose...between...staying with you...or death," I tried to tell him.
He snarled and released my head. With the pain, and laid my head back down. I watched as Riddle walked away.
Before long I heard rushing footsteps towards Ginny and I. Harry came up right to my side. "You look worse," Harry said to me. He grabbed my hand, and used the other to stroke my hair.
"You are right, Potter," Riddle's voice spoke out. "My process is almost complete. Soon both of them will be dead, and I will be more than a memory. Voldemort will return. As alive as he was before."
"You have to pull through," Harry held my hand tighter.
Within seconds of his saying that, I heard the Basilisk spring up out of the water area. Harry stood up as fast as humanly possible. I closed my eyes once more, and listened to the sound of Harry's steps. I heard an almost sword-like sling.
At least he's got a weapon, I thought to myself.
The running and slithering continued, as well as the slicing sound of the sword. I listened as I heard noises against the wall. What is he doing? Scaling the walls?
From above, I could hear the echoes of the sword flailing and monster cawing. Harry kept grunting, and I heard a thud echo through the chamber. He's okay, I reminded myself. He's okay.
A few seconds of silence had me on edge. Until I heard a grunt from Harry and a cry of pain from the Basilisk. I sighed and almost wanted to cry. It's over now. Almost all over.
But I soon realized the pain was not over. I felt a huge stinging sensation hit me like a bus when a huge boom shook the cement. I let out a cry of pain. It was terrible. Like as if someone hit me with a thousand knives at once. Like someone ran me over a thorn brush. It was nearly unexplainable. It was almost like...the unforgivable curse: Crucio.
Everything went silent, and I was pretty sure I was dead. But I was wrong, since I heard footsteps coming towards me. I opened my eyes slightly. I could still see. Riddle was smirking down at me.
I tried to sit up, but the pain...oh the pain. Harry came into my view. He groaned and held onto his arm. He didn't say anything, but I noticed his arm. He's bleeding! Did he...?
"Isn't it remarkable," Riddle walked closer, "how fast the venom can travel through the body?"
Well, that answers my question.
"You, along with your filthy friends only have a minute or so left. But don't fret. You'll be with your parents soon," Riddle taunted.
"No," I muttered.
"Excuse me?" Riddle asked.
I shook my head, and got onto my knees. Ignoring the pain, I spoke, "Harry won't be dying. You will though."
He started to laugh, "Your words won't effect-" he stopped.
I looked down at Fawkes, who looks to be crying on me. He's crying...his tears...they heal! I completely forgot!
I turned to Harry as the pain ceased to exist, "You can do it Harry."
He smiled as he flipped open the black notebook. Harry looked to Riddle, and raised the tooth.
"No! Stop!" Riddle warned Harry.
I smiled, as I watched Harry stab the books pages. I turned back to Riddle as he cried out in pain. I lifted my chin high, and stood up. A hole opened up in his chest. The lining of the hole began to light up.
"You know," I spoke up, "pity that you had to try and kill us. You have to die though, because you were supposed to be dead a while ago. I guess this is goodbye." I smiled as more holes started to appear. The one from before got bigger and engulfed his whole chest.
He tried to reach foreword to touch me, but he burst into ashes before he got within a foot from me. A gust of wind hit my face as I watched him disappear.
There was silence. Only for a little bit. Until Ginny took a huge breath and started to heave. I looked down. The poor girl seemed to be in a panic.
I gave her a soft smile as I got on my knees next to Harry. Ginny started to speak, "Harry. Bridget. I opened it. I didn't mean to though! I swear!"
"We know," I nodded. "Just breath. We know it was Riddle."
She sighed, and looked to Harry. Her gaze went to his arm and her eyes widened, "You're hurt!"
Oh my gosh! I forgot he had been attacked! I'm such a bad friend.
"Listen, you two. You both need to get yourselves out-"
"Fawkes!" I called out.
They both gave me weird looks, until the red bird flew into view. It came and approached Harry. Fawkes put his head over the wound, and began to cry.
I watched Harry glance up at me, "You didn't have to-"
"Stop trying to be the bloody hero all the time. You're going to get yourself killed," I explained.
He chuckled and shook his head. Ginny giggled as I helped her up, "She is right you know."
Harry stood up, joining Ginny and I. I sighed with relief, "It's all over now. For this year, at least."
"It's just a memory, now," Harry smiled at us.