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Celeste gasped out in shock as her vision returned to normal and her face paled as she looked at Tom- the once small attraction to him was now gone and replaced itself with fear.
"How- why would you do that?!" Celeste whispered
"It's what I had to do-"
"SHE LOVED YOU!" Celeste snapped, her eyes were brimming with tears- she had just seen such a pure, innocent- normal girl get killed.
The curse of beauty- Celeste would say, but that didn't make any sense
"I knew she did- did you not hear anything I said there?" Tom hissed
"She would never leave you- she even got the dark mark for you" Celeste says
"Yes well- you can never be so sure of that" Tom says.
"I don't know how she fell inlove with a monster like you~!" She says and Tom chuckled
"Nobody could- they didn't know who killed her. She was always a Hogwarts mystery- found dead in the boy's empty dormitories." Tom hummed before looking over at Ginny.
"And now that I found her-"
"I'm not her! I'm Celeste Potter! Not Adhara" Celeste hissed angrily
"Yes well- you look exactly like her. I can see how you grow- I know you will be cursed with her beauty! And nobody can have that except for me!" Tom looked back at her and reached to grab her cloak before she ducked away
"Now come here-"
"Ginny!" The two turned to see Harry running over to Ginny's pale body "Don't be dead- please don't be dead"
"She won't wake up" Tom's soft voice cracked through the tension.
"Tom-" Harry stuttered as he looked at Tom before he realized Celeste was there
"Celeste!" Harry exclaimed running over to the girl and tackled her to the ground.
"Have you missed me that much Har?" Celeste tries to smile after everything that happened.
"Ron was terrified- I can't believe your okay- you met Tom?!" Harry stammered before he realized Tom then he saw the pale Ginny Weasley lying in the middle
"Tom- you got to help Ginny- she can't be dead" Harry says
"Yes but only just" Tom says
"Are-are you a ghost?" Harry asked but Tom shook his head
"No he's not!" Celeste hissed
"A memory preserved in a diary for 50 years" Tom says pointing at the black book that lied near him.
"You've got to help me here Tom-" Harry says lifting Ginny and Celeste soon came to help. Harry was about to reach for his wand before he realized it was in Tom's hand as he twiddled with it.
"There's a basilisk here- Celeste you're a genius by the way" Harry looked over to the girl who smiled faintly at him "And it's going to come here soon"
"It won't come until it's called" Tom says simply before pocketing the wand.
"I've been meaning to talk to you Harry Potter"
"We can't not now!-"
"Harry!" Celeste snapped "Tom isn't a good guy- he tried to kill me just moments ago"
"W-What" Harry stuttered
"How did Ginny get like this?" Harry asks
"Well that's an interesting question" Tom says and Celeste looked at him, interested at what he's got to say "It all started with little Ginny here spilling all her heart to me"
"The diary" Tom says "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes — how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second hand robes and books, how— how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her"
Celeste winced, she heard Ginny's ranting before- but for Tom to know about it. That was worse
"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl, but I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one's ever understood me like you, Tom... I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in... It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket"
"If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed- like Adhara" Tom's eyes shot to Celeste who seemed like she was going to pounce at him in any moment ."So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her"
"What do you mean?" Harry asks
"Haven't you got an ounce of reason in you Harry?" Tom asks and Celeste clenched her fist before Harry held her hands comfortingly- despite his dry throat "Ginny Weasley opened the Chmaber of Secrets- she's the one who strangled the chickens and wrote the messages on the walls, set the serpent of Slytherin to petrify the mudbloods and the squib's cat"
"Observe and kidnap Celeste Potter" He added and Celeste frowned.
"No.."
"Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries... far more interesting, they became... Dear Tom" he recited, Celeste had a horrified look plastered on that seemed to amuse Tom "'I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got here. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me... Dear Tom, Celeste keeps asking why I was staring at her- I don't remember staring at her. She asked why my eyes became darker- I looked in the mirror, I'm just fine! There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad... I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!"
"It took a very long time before Ginny realized to stop trusting the diary" Tom sighs "So she tried to dispose it- and when she did, you found it. What are the chances- it was the very person I was most anxious to meet"
"You bloody idiot- I told you not to trust the book" Celeste whispered and Harry sideway glanced at her with a glare
"and why'd you want to meet me?" Harry asks, anger coursing through his veins and Celeste tried to rub his palm comfortingly.
"Well you see- Ginny has told be all about your fascinating history of course." Tom grinned "So I had decided to show you the great capture of that oaf, Hagrid"
"Hagrid's our friend" Celeste snapped.
"Oh you don't need to add on darling" Tom says and Celeste tried to surpress the butterflies that emerged in her stomach- and replaced it with a scowl
"It was me against Hagrid" Tom says "Well you can see how it looked to ol' Armando Dippet, On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student... on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls... but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance... as though Hagrid had the brains"
"Hey-" Celeste snapped
"Only Albus Dumbledore, the Transfiguration teacher seemed to believe that Hagrid was innocent" Tom says "He persuaded Dippet to train him for gatekeeper, yes dear ol' Dumbledore might have guessed- never really liked me like the rest of the teachers"
"Dumbledore saw right through you" Harry says
"He kept an obnoxiously close eye on me- especially after the death of Adhara" He eyed Celeste "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work"
"Well you failed- no muggleborn are dead- not even the cat" Harry says and Celeste elbowed him
"Well can't you see?" Tom asks "The death of muggleborns don't matter to me anymore, it had been you"
"What" Harry breathed
"Can't you imagine the anger and annoyance I felt when it was Ginny writing back to me and not you? She was worried that I'd tell her about stranglin roosters- about all her secrets. But I knew- especially after Celeste had seemed more focused on things with your best friend gone that she'd go on lengths to save it" Tom says "So I stalked Celeste through her eyes- taking her to the chamber of secrets- to kill her off for personal reasons, but you came. I made Ginny write her farewell- and brought her here"
"Stupid girl cried and it was boring- weeping over Celeste's passed out body. Knowing she was the cause of this. Was boring- but there isn't much life of her left." Tom says "I knew you'd come and now I have many questions for you"
"Like what-?" Harry spat and Celeste looked down at Ginny- there wasn't much time left and they can't just keep bantering like this- IT'S WASTING TIME.
"Like how can a mere scrawny boy- who if it wasn't for the help of his friends would have never found out the location of the chamber of secrets, escaped Lord Voldemort with nothing more than a scar when he lost his powers?"
"Why would you want to know?" Harry asks "Voldemort was after your time"
"Voldemort is" Tom started "My past, present and future"
Tom pulled out Harry's wand out of his pocket and traced out
'TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE'
He waved his wand slightly and the letters rearranged itself
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
"Bloody hell" Celeste whispered
"I have been using this name since I was in school" Tom says "Of course only to my intimate friends- Ara refused to call me that- didn't care how disgusted I was to hold my muggle father's name. 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 even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? I wouldn't do that- no! I fashioned a name that would light fear if ever spoken of- in which people would know as the greatest sorcerer of all times"
"But you aren't" Celeste mumbled and Tom's head snapped to her
"Aren't what-?"
"I'm sorry to say but you aren't the greatest sorcerer of all times" Harry continued "It's Albus Dumbledore- whether you like it or not. "
"He isn't even frightened of you" Celeste adds
"Dumbledore has been driven out of this castle on the mere memory of me!" Tom's face curled up in frustration as he snapped at them
"It's not what you might think" Celeste says "He's not gone"
Tom opened his mouth before they all heard muisc echoing through
Celeste felt her heart pound as the music lit a fire in her heart like no other- the music wasn't like normal muggle ones- it was spine-tingling and high-pitched. Celeste felt her vibrations peak up as it got closer and her insides swelled up
That's when she turned and saw a crimson-bird that flew in majestically, it was the size of a swan and it was piping it's music all around. It's golden peacock-like tail and gleaming golden talons held onto something raggidy and old.
"Merlin" Celeste whispered