ೃ⁀➷xvi. ᴀʀʀɪᴠɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴍʙᴇʀ
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THE TRIO slid down the pipes, yelling from all of the twists and turns. The entrance was dark and only had the moonlight from up above for them to see. When they fell down, they landed on piles of bones from who knows what, and saw Lockhart in a complete mess.
Harry, Ron and ( Y/N ) stood up, dusting themselves up from the fall. ( Y/N ) went eye wide after looking down after seeing all the bones on the floor.
"Now, remember, any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away," Harry told them as he and ( Y/N ) stepped up on the platform and walked through.
As they got deeper inside, the sight got worse. Ron and Lockhart paused after spotting something slimy and large lying on the rocky floor.
"What's this?" Ron questioned.
'It's looks like... a snake," Lockhart said.
"It's a snakeskin," Harry explained.
Ron gasped. "Bloody hell. Whatever she'd this must be 60 feet long."
Harry and ( Y/N ) climbed over some rocks while Lockhart and Ron stayed behind. Harry knelt down to feel the skin, but looked up when he saw Lockhart faint, falling down on the hard rocky floor that was the chamber. Ron rolled his eyes before turning to Harry.
"Heart of a lion, this one," Ron said.
Lockhart got up and grabbed Ron's wand, aiming it at the kids.
"The adventure ends here, kids," Lockhart spat. "But don't fret. The world will know our story. How I was too late to save the girl, how you two and the freak lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body."
"You first, Mr. Potter. Say goodbye to your memories,"
"Obliviate!" He yelled, but instead of firing it at Harry, he fired it at himself and flew back against the wall, causing the rocks to cave in. This separated Harry and ( Y/N ) from Ron and Lockhart.
Harry and ( Y/N ) got back up and headed to the rocks that was blocking them from Ron. There was a small whole so, Harry used this to yell to Ron.
"Ron, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Ron replied.
"Lockhart's memory charm backfired! He hadn't got a clue who he is!" Ron exclaimed.
"It's an odd sort of place, this, isn't it?" Lockhart chuckled.
Ron used the rock Lockhart had in his hand and knocked him out with it. Harry frowned, but then shrugged it off considering he did deserved for everything.
"What do I do now?" Ron questioned.
"You wait her and try and shift some of this rock so we can get back through," Harry replied. "( Y/N ) and I will go on and find Ginny."
Harry stepped off the rocks and helped ( Y/N ) up. They got the the opening of the chamber which was a round door and had snakes on it for the locks. The duo stepped up a little closer and Harry began speaking in Parseltongue and the Chamber door made a clanking noise, slowly opening for them.
As it opened Harry got out his wand and they had to take a big step down into the Chamber. It was slimy, green, dark and had a stone statue of Salazar Slytherin with a couple of snakes leading up to it. The floor was wet from the pipes and ( Y/N ) looked down, spotting a girl lying on the floor. She tapped on Harry's shoulder and he spotted Ginny near the statue.
"Ginny."
They ran over and knelt down.
"Ginny," Harry panted. "Oh, Ginny, please don't be dead. Wake up, wake up."
"She won't wake," A male's voice spoke from behind.
Harry perked up and saw the same teenage Tom Riddle he saw in the vision while reading the diary from the girls' lavatory. Not knowing how he got there, Harry and ( Y/N ) frowned in confusion as he started walking towards them, but Harry didn't want to waste anytime.
"Tom. Tom Riddle," Harry gasped. "What do you mean she won't wake? She's not..."
( Y/N ) gasped, muttering under her breathe, "Bad men."
"She's still alive, but only just," Tom replied.
"Are you a ghost?" Harry asked.
"A memory preserved in a diary for 50 years," He explained.
Harry felt her hand. "She's cold as ice."
From the corner of her eye, ( Y/N ) watched as Tom picked up Harry's wand up from the floor.
"You've got to help us, Tom," Harry panted. "There's a basilisk."
"It won't come until it's called,"
( Y/N ) tapped on Harry's shoulder. "Bad men."
Harry frowned in confusion, but then saw his wand in Tom's hand.
"Give me my wand, Tom,"
"You won't be needing it," Tom stated.
"Listen, we've got to go," Harry said. "We've got to save her."
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Harry," Tom continued. "You see, as poor Ginny grows weaker... I grow stronger."
Harry and ( Y/N ) had a flustered look on their faces.
"Yes, Harry, it was Ginny Weasley who opened the chamber of secrets,"
"No, she couldn't," Harry shook his head.
"It was Ginny Weasley who set the Basilisk on the Mudbloods and Filch's cat. Ginny who wrote the threatening messages on the walls,"
"Why?" ( Y/N ) asked softly.
"Because I told her to," Tom smirked. "You'll find I can be very persuasive. Not that she knew what she don't know. She was, shall we say, in a kind of trance."
"Still, the power of the diary began to scare her. And she tried to dispose of it in the girls' bathroom and then, who should find it but you? The very person I was most anxious to meet,"
"But why did you want to meet me?" Harry questioned.
"I knew I had to talk to you, meet you if I could so, I decided to show you my capture of that brainless oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust," Tom spat.
"Hagrid's our friend," Harry and ( Y/N ) raised their voices, and Harry wouldn't be lying when he was a bit shocked when he heard her voice raised like that for the first time since they met.
"And you framed him, didn't you?" Harry demanded.
"It was my word against Hagrid's," Tom said. "Only Dumbledore seemed to think he was innocent."
"I'll bet Dumbledore saw right through you,"
"He certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after me," Tom continued. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school, so I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen year old self in its pages so that one day, I would be able to lead another to finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."
"Well, you haven't finished it this time," Harry said. "In a few hours, the Mandrake draught will be ready and everyone who was petrified will be alright again."
Tom shook his head. "Haven't I told you? Killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore. For many months now, my new target had been you.
"How is that a baby with no extraordinary magical talent was able to defeat the greatest wizard of all time?" He lifted his wand to Harry's bangs, lifting it a little. "How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"
"Why do you care how I escaped? Voldemort was after your time,"
'Voldemort is my past, present and future."
He raised his wand he wrote some fiery letters that hovered in the air, spelling out his name. Tom twisted them around, and slowly they came into place spelling the name of someone Harry thought he'd never meet again: I am Lord Voldemort.
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