Chapter 55

Harry and Percy slumped forward onto Tom Riddle's diary, the venom in their system eating away at lives. The white snake fang clenched in their left hand sunk deep into the little black book beneath them. Their brother watched in horror, spotting the dark wet blood seeping out the circular hole in the back of their robes.

Looking up at a terrible scream, Charles saw that Tom had a massive hole in his chest that was slowly growing bigger as he was blown into dust, cursing the existence of the Potter twins and swearing revenge. Charles couldn't bring himself to care however, as he looked back down at the limp form of his twin. It looked as if Tom already had his revenge. Ron's sister, Ginny was now safe, but his own siblings were on the edge of death.

A flash of red and gold feathers flew through the air and a large phoenix landed on Charles' shoulder. Charles sent him a despairing look, his normally bright eyes full of tears for his brothers. Then he returned his watery gaze to his twin.

"You have to save them! Please!" Charles pleaded the large bird on his shoulder. Dumbledore's familiar had come to save them, hadn't he? So surely, somehow, the phoenix could save Harry and Percy?

Fawkes sent Charles an intense look. Charles couldn't understand the look, but didn't interfere as Fawkes hoped to the blood-stained stone beside Harry and Percy, leaning over the fang wound. The magical bird tilted his head to the side, and let a large fat tear slowly roll down his cheek to fall on the gaping wound.

The wound hissed, steam rising from where the phoenix tears touched the raw flesh. Fawkes didn't stop crying over the wound, not until the steam stopped rising and the flesh and skin had knitted back together and he knew that the healing tears were in the boys' blood stream to battle with the deadly basilisk venom.

Meanwhile, Charles was distracted as Ginny waking up, looking around her in confusion. Fear and confusion lit up in her eyes when she noticed Harry and Percy and Charles. Then her gaze fell upon the black corner of Tom Riddle's diary only just sticking out from under Harry and Percy, and she seemed to understand.

"Charles, you have to believe me, I didn't mean to. I mean... It was me. I ordered the attacks, but I didn't want to. Tom made me, he got into my head somehow..." Ginny tried to explain. "I... I wanted to tell you at breakfast, but Percy... I didn't want him to... to..."

Charles placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, remembering how she had wanted to tell Ron and him something important at breakfast before Percy run her off. Ron and he had been certain that it had been about the Chamber of Secrets, but Percy had thought otherwise for some strange reason.

"I understand. But... what was it Percy didn't want you to tell us then?" Charles asked, side-tracked as he wondered what on earth the so very proper Weasley would have to hide.

Ginny let out a small snigger. "Oh, that. I walked in on him and his new girlfriend Penelope. I had been going to tell him but... well. He didn't take being interrupted to well, and then... I didn't want him to judge me..."

Charles nodded, understanding perfectly. He didn't exactly have an older sibling who he wanted to impress, but Harry and Percy were pretty much his equivalent. Charles was supposed to be the Hero. The saviour of the Wizarding World. But Harry and Percy really were heroes by blood – being half-bloods and all – and (for the second time now) seemed to manage to save the day before he could even reach the place where it was all happening! Was it any wonder he didn't want them to think he was useless? To think he was a useless child who needed saving all the time?

"Ginny. It wasn't your fault, alright? You were possessed. Nobody is going to blame you for any of this. You're a first year for crying out loud!"

Ginny and Charles looked at each other for a moment before Ginny started looking around them, desperately looking for something to help her change the subject.

"How are we going to get out?" She asked, her voice quiet.

Charles swallowed. He hadn't thought of that. He glanced at Fawkes and his brother, then at the blind basilisk, who was hanging back, hissing miserably. His eyes narrowed. How dare the serpent hurt his brothers! Then had trusted her.

"I'll think of something." Charles said, his voice tight. "But first there is a certain snake I need to destroy."

Charles looked round for a weapon. The glowing bronze sword that Percy had fought with earlier had disappeared. Then a silver glint caught his eye. It was something inside the sorting hat, glinting in the faint light of the cave. He stood, and picked up the hat before drawing out a long silver blade. It was a gorgeous weapon, the blade crafted of silver with a leather handle and a red ruby as a pommel stone. Well, Charles thought with a wry smile. Percy would describe it as gorgeous. Personally, he didn't care. Just so long as he could kill the monster that had hurt his brothers with it.

Charles approached Alyssa slowly, taking careful steps to reduce both the sound of his footsteps and the vibrations he would send across the floor. Of course, it was futile really, as Alyssa smelt both him and the metal sword before he got very far. Charles raised the sword above his head, and then slashed wildly at the snake, slicing a thin, shallow cut down her side.

Alyssa hissed in pain, instinctively drawing back her head to strike at the one that had hurt her. Charles dodged however and raised his weapon to strike again. Before his blade had fallen upon Alyssa, however, it struck something else, and the harsh sound of metal hitting metal rang out and echoed in the large rocky chamber.

Percy's point of view

Waking up occurred slowly. I was aware of a throbbing in our head, and a very obvious lack of pain in our right shoulder and insides. The poison was gone, our wound healed. But how?

I opened our eyes warily, expected to be abused by the harsh white of the hospital wing. Instead I was met by a soft gloom. Suddenly I became aware of everything else; the cold, wet stone floor stealing our body heat; our left hand curled uncomfortably underneath us, still clutching the fang that was pushed all the way though Riddle's diary; the whistle of a sword flying through the air; the defensive hissing of Alyssa; the sharp intake of breath from Ginny, who was still sitting where she had been lying.

"Di Immortales! Please gods, if you're listening, don't tell me that is Charles fighting Alyssa. Please, please!" I muttered under our breath, hardly daring to sit up and turn around. Needless to say, the sight he saw wasn't pretty at all.

Charles was quickly dodging Alyssa as she struck at him, thick red blood dripping down from a shallow cut down her side. She missed, and Charles raised his sword to strike her again. I froze. Sword? Hades, this was bad!

I lept up, vaguely aware of Harry waking and protesting at the movement. Running over to stop our brother I pulled Riptide out our pocket again, uncapping it and bracing it to stop Charles' slopping strike.

The clash of metal on metal rang out loudly, echoing. It was suddenly strangely silent as the sound faded away, and nobody moved. Charles was staring at us in amazement, and Alyssa was flicking out her tongue, tasting our scent.

"Don't hurt Alyssa." We warned. "It's not her fault."

Charles turned his head to glare at the ground. "But she hurt you."

"Tom Riddle hurt us. Alyssa was forced to obey him, but she was not at fault, not for any of this. You don't blame Ginny do you?"

Charles reluctantly agreed and so seeing as he was no longer a risk to our scaly friend's health, we turned to face her. $You alright, Alyssa?$

Alyssa let out a sad little hiss. $I bit you...$

$We're fine now.$ I promised. $But are you ok?$

$Apart from the false-master forcing me to attack you? Or the fire-bird destroying my eyes?$ Alyssa let out a dry hiss of humourless laughter. $I will live, little Lords.$

I hummed disapprovingly. She was in pain. 'Harry, how would you say your energy levels are?'

'Low. Very, very low.' Harry sighed. 'The venom took a lot out of us. We can't heal her, Percy. It would be a death wish.'

'Just a little. To stop the pain?' I begged. Harry sighed, but nodded. We couldn't just leave her in pain, after all. I placed our hands on either side of our friend's face, and leant our forehead against hers, ignoring the large fangs lurking in her mouth. Our hands grew warm as we sent a little magic to heal Alyssa's wounds to stop them hurting. Even with our eyes shut, the silver light from our hands filtered through.

Alyssa hissed in confusion, then in thanks as she understood what we had done.

$Keep safe, our friend.$ We smiled at Alyssa, ignoring the fact that she couldn't see us at the moment. $We'll come to visiting as soon as possible, ok?$

Alyssa nodded, the butted her head into our side to get us moving. We laughed, but walked back to where our brother and Ginny were standing. Ginny looked slightly horrified by our interaction with Alyssa, but Charles just looked resigned.

"You never could do things the easy way, could you?"

I burst out laughing, and waved our hand as if to ward the question off. "You can't talk, Charles. You're the one who always comes charging along after us, don't you?"

Charles looked down, as if the question meant more to him than the gentle teasing I had meant. Harry put a hand on his shoulder, and met his eyes as he looked up.

"Ignore Percy," advised Harry. "You did a brilliant job."

Charles grinned, and started to lead the way back to the pipe from Myrtle's bathroom. We followed behind, letting Ginny walk between us. After a while, the sound of someone shifting rocks could be heard, as well as the heavy cursing I knew to associate with one Ronald Weasley. I sniggered.

"Ow! Bloody hell!" Ron cursed. We could see him now, hopping on one foot, holding his other, which it appeared he had managed to drop a rock on. It seemed as though the ceiling had collapsed. We sighed, shaking our head.

"Gryffindors. You always have to break something, don't you?"

Charles chuckled as Ron looked up with a startled expression. "Of course! What do you take us for – graceful swans?"

We swapped looks with our brother and Ginny before the three of us starting laughing. Ron pouted, glaring at us.

"What are you doing here? I bet you were the bloody heir all along, weren't you? Bloody snake-lover!"

Our mirth dissipated quickly, and we glared daggers at the red-haired boy that our brother was such close friends with. "Yes. Of course. Which is why yours sister is alive and well, not dead while the gods-forsaken Dark Lord gloats over her body."

Charles sighed. "Ron, we don't have time for this. If you don't trust them, then trust me. Harry and Percy had no part in the attacks or abduction of your sister."

Ron sighed, but didn't argue. He helped Charles and Ginny over the rocks, but pointedly offered us on assistance. Not that we needed it anyway. Upon scrambling over obstacle, we were met by the sight of Lockhart, looking for all the world as if he had just been confounded.

"Ok. Who cursed Lockhart?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. Ron and Charles swapped looks.

"Well, he was trying to obliviate us, except he was using Ron's wand..." Charles explained.

We sighed. Ron had failed to replace the wand he had broken upon his arrival at Hogwarts this school year, and ever since it had been backfiring spells at the caster, rather than the intended target. Then we grinned.

"Well, it doesn't look like we'll have to put up with Lockhart next year. Who knows, we might actually get a decent teacher."

Lockhart just nodded and smiled stupidly as we grinned in celebration. Ron took charge man-handling Lockhart down the corridor until we reached the pipe leading up to Myrtle's bathroom. We paused and Harry and I drew out our shrunken broom, then stared in confusion as nobody else did similarly.

"Please tell me you didn't honestly decide to jump down into a pipe that was god knows how long without bringing along some form of transport to get back up?" I slapped our forehead at our brother's lack of foresight.

"Well, Ginny was our priority!" Charles defended them.

Before anything else could be said Fawkes let out a low melody, and Harry grinned. I prodded him then grinned when I saw where his thoughts were headed.

"Luckily for us, we have a bit of help with us."

Charles followed our gaze to Fawkes and frowned for a moment before his expression cleared, and delight filled his expression.

"Of course! Phoenixes can carry extremely heavy loads!" Charles exclaimed, then held out an arm as a perch for the fiery bird. "Would you mind giving us a lift back up to the school, Fawkes?"

The bird chirped happily and they all formed a line. Charles held onto Fawkes claws, then Ron grasped his other hand. Ron also had Lockhart clinging to his waist, and finally Ginny held Lockhart's ankles. We flew on our broom behind them, ready to catch anyone should they slip.

Luckily nobody did, and we all made it up to Myrtle's bathroom in one piece. Myrtle flew over to us instantly, inspecting us. She tutted over our torn and dirty robes, especially where we had been bitten. We hurried to assure her we were ok, sending the occasional glares at Ron and Charles who were sniggering in the background.

A flicker of flames in the corner of our eye alerted us to Fawkes' disappearance. No doubt off to find McGonagall to bring her here to make sure we were all safe. Quickly, we hissed 'close' in Parseltongue under our breath, ensuring that McGonagall wouldn't gain access to the chamber and threaten Alyssa.

McGonagall came rushing into the bathroom a few minutes later, accompanied (much to our surprise) by no other than Professor Dumbledore, who we had been certain had definitely been in Azkaban when we had entered the Chamber looking for Ginny.

"What do you think you were doing?!" McGonagall exclaimed. "You all could have been killed or hurt!"

We sniggered. "Fear not, Professor, Ron and Charles brought a teacher along with us. The defence teacher, no less."

We indicated Lockhart, who was wandering around the bathroom with a dazed but delighted expression on his face. Professor McGonagall pulled a face. "Yes, well, Potter, please don't mind me if I don't find the fact you had Gilderoy along with you particularly reassuring."

We sniggered again, grinning at our brother, who rolled his eyes, but grinned back.

Dumbledore spoke up then, smiling down at Charles, his bright blue eyes sharp behind his half-moon spectacles. "I don't suppose you could tell me how exactly you found the chamber, could you?"

Charles looked between us and Dumbledore and we gave him a wide-eyed why-are-you-looking-at-us look. We weren't helping him out here. After all, we did find the chamber in a different way to them. Charles wrinkled his nose at us, annoyed by our lack of helplessness.

"Shouldn't this interrogation be occurring in a more secure location?" Harry offered. "Your office, perhaps, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore met our eyes a moment before we felt a gentle brush against our shields. Fortunately, we knew what was going on this time, and didn't throw our Headmaster all the way across the room as we had on our first night in Hogwarts.

"Asking is a much more polite method of getting information." Harry told him, our face unreadable. Dumbledore winced.

"Forgive me, I –"

"Just attempted to see what we were thinking, and solve the question of how on earth we ended up in the Chamber with our brother?" Harry snorted. "As we said, an office is a much more suitable place for such a discussion, wouldn't you agree Professor McGonagall?"

Professor McGonagall gave us a startled look, but nodded all the same. She offered to take care of Lockhart while Dumbledore questioned Charles and us in his office.

The walk up to Dumbledore's office was kind of awkward. Charles and I felt as though we had broken just about every school rule there was, and now would have to endure the lecture of a lifetime. Dumbledore no doubt felt the tension, but he certainly made no efforts to dispel our worries.

Soon enough however we were sitting across from Dumbledore, with the head teacher beaming at us for whatever reason. Charles and I exchanged nervous glances. I mean, everyone knew that the Headmaster was slightly nutty, but he was pleased with us for stupidly running off and risking our necks? That was new.

"So." Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his eyes. "Tell me everything."

Charles started, explaining about the Polyjuice, and the diary and how Ron and he had first suspected Hagrid, before proving his innocence by talking to Aragog, the spider that had been named the monster fifty years ago. He then explained about finding the sheet of paper in Hermione's hand last week, and how they had put together the clues to realise that the entrance to the Chamber was in Myrtle's bathroom. He then explained what had happened to Lockhart and how he and found us talking to Riddle, and the following fight.

Then it was our turn. We sighed.

"Well... We found the Chamber back in November." I admitted, just to get it over and done with. "We're a Parselmouth see, and... well. We managed to put everything together after talking to Myrtle, and then we met Alyssa – the basilisk in the Chamber. She didn't like what Riddle was making her do, and we sort of just clicked as friends. We were trying to work out who was behind the attacks, but I guess it didn't really seem real until Annabeth and Luna were attacked at Christmas. We then found Riddle's diary and met the so very charming murderer himself and started putting two and two together..."

Dumbledore and Charles listened to our story in silence. We explained up to the point where Charles had found us in the Chamber. When we finished, we were met by stony silence for a minute as our audience digested our story. Charles knew us well enough to know that we really had tried to help, but had been torn between protecting our friend. Dumbledore wasn't as understanding.

"So why didn't you report what you found to a teacher? Professor Snape is your godfather is he not? Surely you could have at least talked to him."

We sighed. "Alyssa is our friend. We weren't going to risk her. Professor Snape is still a teacher at this institution and wouldn't have hesitated to report her to you, who we have little doubt would have had her killed."

"A basilisk is a dangerous animal!"

"She wants to protect the students at this school, not attack them!" I gritted out. "We explained this. Riddle forced her to obey him. Under normal situations, she is perfectly safe. Especially now Fawkes blinded her!"

Dumbledore wasn't impressed. I don't think our put out glare at Fawkes helped much, but what can I say? We won't forgive Fawkes for that. Before he could say anything further on the subject the floo activated and our parents came hurrying through. Upon spotting Charles and us Lily swept us up in one big hug.

"Oh thank Merlin you two are safe." She breathed a sigh of relief before pulling back and glaring at us. "You two are so grounded this summer."

"But Mum!" We protested. I pouted. "We have camp though!"

Charles huffed at our genuine excuse. "And you already organised for us to go visit the Weasley's for a week while you and Dad go away for a bit."

"No buts!" Lily pulled us into a huge hug again. "You had me so worried. Never ever again, understand? This cannot become a yearly occurrence. My poor heart will give out if it does."

We chuckled. "Sorry Mum, but you do have us three as sons. It's not looking up."

Charles chuckled too and James cracked a grin at us. "You alright?"

"Thanks to Fawkes." We grinned in gratitude at the magic bird, who chirped cheerily in reply.

"Mr Potters!" Dumbledore didn't raise his voice, but we were hard pressed to miss the exasperation in his voice. "Back to the matter of the Basilisk –"

Lily screeched. "Basilisk?!"

Yay! :) What do you think?