Public Issues (Demma Book 2)

The Heir of Slytherin

Dateline: May 29th, 1993

They were standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.

They pulled out their wands and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. They kept their eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following them. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, they thought they saw one stir.

As they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.

It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's stepping stone robes, where two enourmous grey feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor.

"Hello, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger," said a soft voice.

A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though they were looking at him through a misted window. Bu there was no mistaking him.

"Tom -- Tom Riddle?" asked Hermione as Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off of their faces.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.

"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

"You've got to help me, Tom," Harry said. "There's a Basilisk."

"It won't come until it's called," said Riddle calmly. "You see, as poor Romilda grows weaker, I grow stronger. Yes, Harry and Hermione, it was Romilda Vane who opened the Chamber of Secrets. It was Romilda who set the basilisk on the Mudbloods and Filch's cat, Romilda who wrote the threatening messages on the walls."

"But why?" asked Hermione.

"Because I told her to," said Riddle in a calm manner. "You'll find I can be very persuasive. Not that she knew what she was doing. She was, shall we say, in a kind of trance. But, still, the power of the diary began to scare her. And she tried to dispose of it in the girl's bathroom. And then, who should find it but you two? The very people I was most anxious to meet."

"And why did you want to meet us?" said Harry. Anger was coursing through him, and it was an effort to keep his voice steady.

"I knew I had to talk to you two, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my capture of that brainless oaf Hagrid to gain your trust --"

"Hagrid's our friend," said Hermione. "And you framed him, didn't you?"

Riddle laughed his high laugh again.

"It was my word against Hagrid's. But, unfortunately, only Dumbledore seemed to think he was innocent."

"I'll bet Dumbledore saw right through you," grinned Harry.

"He certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after that," said Riddle carelessly. "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," said Hermione triumphantly. "In a few hours, the Mandrake Draught will be ready, and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again."

"Haven't I told you," said Riddle quietly. "Killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore. For many months now, my new target has been you two."

They stared at him.