A Lion's Honor & Pride (Harry Potter) (Under Editing)

Chapter Eight: The Heir of Slytherin

They were standing in the Chamber of Secrets together, but Ariana felt herself become tensed. She soon realized that the basilisk was missing from the Chamber and felt as if they were being watched from something.
Where was that basilisk? Where was Ginny?
Harry pulled out his wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. Their eyes were 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 Ariana's stomach, she thought she saw one stir.
Between the feet of the statue face down, laid a small, black-robed figure with flaming red hair next to Jaxon's still figure.
"Ginny!" Harry muttered, they sprinted to her and dropping to his knees. "Ginny! Don't be dead! Please don't be dead!"
He flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders and turned her over.
Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be... Ariana felt herself gulped and glanced at Jaxon, who seemed to be reliving a nightmare.
"Ginny please wake up," Harry muttered desperately, shaking her.
Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side, making Ariana frowned in concern as they looked at the girl.
"She won't wake," said a soft voice.
They jumped and spun around to look at the newcomer.
A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching.
He was strangely blurred round the edges, as though Ariana was looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him.
"Tom — Tom Riddle?" Ariana felt herself stiffened as she remembered what happened to the guy. Riddle had disappeared and You-Know-Who had appeared, she has a good guess who this scumbag is. Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.
"What d'you mean she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not— she's not—?"
"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."
Harry stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.
"Are you a ghost?" Harry asked uncertainly.
"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."
He pointed towards the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary. Diana saw the diary not too far away from them, she could guess what that is.
"You've got to help me, Tom," Harry said, raising Ginny's head again. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a Basilisk... I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment. Please, help me..."
Ariana swallowed a nervous growl, she has a terrible feeling about this. She started stepping back and she felt herself become instinctively tensed. Jaxon had scratched the ground determined and scowled with a deadly glare.
Riddle didn't move. Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again.
But his wand had gone.
"Did you see—?"
He looked up. Riddle was still watching him — twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers.
"Thanks," said Harry, stretching out his hand for it.
A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Harry, twirling the wand idly.
"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the Basilisk comes..."
"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly, making Diana and Jason both growl together.
Harry lowered Ginny back to the floor, unable to hold her up any longer.
"What d'you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it."
Riddle's smile broadened.
"You won't be needing it," he said.
Harry stared at him.
"What d'you mean, I won't be-?"
"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle. "For the chance to see you. To speak to you."
"Look," said Harry, clearly losing patience, "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later."
"We're going to talk now," said Riddle, smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry's wand.
Harry stared at him. Ariana felt her haunches rise and her snarling had started to louder by the minute. Jaxon tensed and started snarling loud as Ariana. Ariana felt as if they were stepping in hot water.
"How did Ginny get like this?" he asked slowly, making Ariana's curiosity show through.
"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly. "Quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
"What are you talking about?" said Harry.
"The diary," said Riddle. "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes: how her bothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, how—" Riddle's eyes glinted. "—how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her..."
All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them, it resembles the expression of a hungry snake.
"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," he went on. "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 round in my pocket'..."
Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made her want to feed Riddle to the monster.
"If I say it myself, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. 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 d'you mean?" said Harry, his voice dry.
"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed the threatening messages on the walls. She set the serpent of Slytherin on the four Mudbloods, the blood traitor, and the Squib's cat."
"No," Harry whispered.
"Yes," said Riddle, calmly. "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, watching Harry's horrified face. "'I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. 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... 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!'"
"That is so sick," snarled Ariana.
"Remind me to curse him and that stupid snake later," Jaxon said angrily, looking ready to kill Riddle himself and the Basilisk.
Harry's fists were clenched, his emerald green eyes blazed with such fury that Ariana was surprised to see that Riddle hasn't been set ablaze to dust.
"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," said Riddle. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. That's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet..."
"Why did you want to meet me?" said Harry, he seemed to be struggling of keeping his anger in check.
Ariana could feel her anger coursing through her and was ready to give Riddle a piece of her mind. By Jaxon's expression, she could guess that he wants to do that too.
"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and his expression grew hungrier. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust."
"Hagrid's my friend," said Harry, his voice now shaking. "You framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but—"
Riddle laughed his high laugh again.
"It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. One 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 possible 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, or the power!"
"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed. Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did..."
"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Harry, his teeth gritted.
"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly.
"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 haven't finished it," said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again."
"Haven't I already told you," said Riddle quietly. "That killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me any more? For many months now, my new target has been — you."
Harry stared at him. Ariana wasn't how sure of how long they should keep listening to Riddle before she could kill him.
"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery — particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue... So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. But there isn't much life left in her: She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last. I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."
"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched.
"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly. "How is it that a baby with no extraordinary magical talent managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"
There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now that made Diana feel uneasy now.
"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time."
"Voldemort," said Riddle softly. "Is my past, present and future, Harry Potter..."
He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE.
Then he waved the once once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.
Oh sweet Merlin, Ariana thought as she felt the horror go through her.
"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother'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? No, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"
"More like Dumbledore or Merlin had both already won that title," muttered Jaxon, keeping his predatory gaze on Riddle.
Ariana's brain seemed to have been jammed. She stared numbly at Riddle, the orphaned boy who had sent Dark Wizards and Witches to force her family to become Death Eaters, and so many others...
Harry seemed to be too stunned to speak, but he finally said in a quiet and hateful voice. "You're not."
"Not what?" snapped Riddle.
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days."
The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.
"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.
"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted. Diana knew he was speaking at random, trying to scare Riddle pretty good.
Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.
Music was coming from somewhere.
Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Harry's scalp and made his heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size.
Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Diana felt it vibrating inside her own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.
A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming gold talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle.
Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the spirits in Ariana and made her heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size.
A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, and then landed heavily on his shoulder.
As it folded its great wings, Ariana looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and beady black eyes.
The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm on next to Harry's cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle.
"That's a phoenix..." said Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.
"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, and the firebird's golden claws squeeze his shoulder gently.
"And that—" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped. "That's the old school Sorting Hat."
So it was. Patched, frayed and dirty, the Hat lay motionless at Harry's feet.
Riddle began to laugh again.
He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once.
"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?"
"Is it strange that he didn't noticed us?" whispered Ariana warily.
"Maybe he can't see us, being a blasted a memory from a diary and all." Jaxon observed Riddle. Jaxon's eyes were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if he were analyzing the best way to take Riddle down in a fight.
Harry didn't answer. Ariana might not see what use Fawkes or the Sorting Hat were, but they no longer alone, and she waited with mounting courage for Riddle to stop laughing.
"To business, Harry," said Riddle, still smiling broadly. "Twice — in your past, in my future — we have met. Twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly. "The longer you stay alive."
Harry was thinking fast, weighing his chances. Riddle had the wand. They had Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, neither of which would be much good in a duel. It looked bad, all right. But the longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny... and in the meantime, they noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becoming clearer, more solid. If it had to be a fight between them and Riddle, better sooner than later.
"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me," said Harry abruptly. "I don't know myself. But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle-born mother," he added, shaking with suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. I've seen the real you, I saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your powers got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul!"
Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile.
"So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful counter-charm. I can see now — there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. Because there are strange likenesses between us, Harry Potter. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike... But after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."
"I'm going to help you with your living situation, Harry," said Ariana as she looked at Harry with a determined expression.
Harry stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again.
"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him."
"Harry's one of the long-lost heirs of Godric Gryffindor," whispered Jaxon to Ariana's ear. "Though, the Potter family had kept it a secret for a long time for safety reasons."
Riddle cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away. They watched as Riddle stopped between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed.
They wheeled around to look up at the statue, Fawkes swaying on Harry's shoulder.
Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horror-struck, Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole.
Something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.
Harry backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall, and as he shut his eyes tight, Fawkes soon took flight and watched the scene from the scene.
"I'm not sure if can we take on that monster," said Ariana. "I mean we're spirits. What harm can we do?"
"We're about to find out little sister." Jaxon's reply startled Ariana, but she smiled at his brotherly care for her as she cares for him as a sister.
Ariana noticed that Harry has covered his eyes and was trying his best to back away from the Basilisk. Harry soon tripped over a stone and the Basilisk slithered upon him. Before she could she stop herself, Ariana towards the serpent and jumped onto the basilisk's tail, she pulled out her wand and zapped a stinging her into her scales. The scales tasted very hard and rotted fish. Jason joined her and started sending spells onto the snake too. But unfortunately for them, it wasn't doing any damage and they both ended up being tossed in midair, but they had managed to catch themselves by floating on top of the water.
Ariana looked up to see Fawkes was soaring around its head, and the Basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers.
Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Harry, and before Harry could shut his eyes, it turned.
Harry accidentally looked straight into its face, and saw that its eyes, both its great bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor and the snake was spitting in agony.
"No!" Ariana heard Riddle screaming. "Leave the bird! Leave the bird! The boy is behind you! You can still smell him! Kill him!"
The serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at the Basilisk's scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.
The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Ariana ducked. The Basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. Harry seized it. He rammed it onto his head and threw himself flat onto the floor as the Basilisk's tail swung over him again.
Harry grabbed the top of the Hat to pull it off and had pulled a gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the Hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.
"Godric's blade!" Ariana looked at the blade with amazement before she returned to chasing after the oversized snake.
"Kill the boy! Leave the bird and spirits! The boy is behind you! Sniff— smell him!"
Harry was on his feet. The Basilisk's head was falling, it's body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him.
It lunged blindly, it had made Ariana and Jaxon both collided into each other by each other by the sudden movement. Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands. The Basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true. Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.
Ariana almost cried out when she saw a long, poisonous fang had sank above his elbow. It splintered as the Basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching to the floor and splashing water everywhere, it finally stopped twitching.
Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang and wrenched it out of his arm. But Ariana knew it was too late. Harry now has poison spreading through his body. Ariana almost felt sick when she saw Harry's own blood soaking his robes.
Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes soared back overhead and something fell into Harry's lap — the diary.
For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then, without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the Basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.
There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor.
Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then...
He was gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The Basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.
Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he'd just traveled miles by Floo powder. Slowly, he gathered together his wand and the Sorting Hat, and, with a huge tug, retrieved the glittering sword from the roof of the Basilisk's mouth.
Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring.
As Harry hurried towards her, she sat up. Her bemused and terrified eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead Basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hands. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Harry— oh, Harry— I tried to tell you at breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy. It was me, Harry— but I— I s-swear I d-didn't mean to— R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over— and— how did you kill that— that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary—" Ginny soon noticed Harry's injury. "Harry... you're hurt."
"It's all right," Harry said firmly, covering his bloody injury with his hand, as he looked at Ginny. "Riddle's finished. Him and the Basilisk. Ginny, you need to get yourself out. Follow the Chamber, and you'll find Ron and Elijah."
A patch of scarlet flew past and Harry heard a soft clatter of claws beside him. Ariana and Jaxon both exchanged solemn glances before looking back at Harry.
"Fawkes," said Harry thickly. "You were brilliant, Fawkes..." He felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced him.
Harry blinked with surprise. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers of the phoenix. Harry seemed to have waken up as he shook his head and Fawkes, was still resting his head on Harry's arm. A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound — except that there was no wound.
"Thank you Fawkes," whispered Harry to the phoenix. "That was brilliant." Harry smiled as he watched as Ariana and Jaxon had came towards him.
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept, as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet and carefully picked Jaxon's petrified body with the help of Fawkes. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and — w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"
Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. They urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead Basilisk, through the echoing gloom and back into the tunnel. Ariana heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.
After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached their ears.
"Ron! Elijah!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! We've got her!"
Ariana heard Ron give a strangled cheer and they turned the next bend to see Ron's eager face staring through the sizable gap he, Finn, and Elena had managed to make in the rock fall.
"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?" He tried to hug her, but Ginny held him off, sobbing.
"But you're okay, Ginny," said Elijah, beaming at her. "It's over now, it's— where did that bird come from?"
Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny. Ariana and Jaxon both came after the phoenix.
"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, squeezing through himself and with Jaxon's body.
"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand.
"Who's that?" Elijah asked carefully, looking at Jaxon's petrified body.
"That's my petrified body," responded Jaxon quietly.
"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry, with a sideways glance at Ginny.
"But—" started Elijah.
"Later," Harry said quickly. Ariana figured that Harry thinks it was a good idea to tell Ron and Elijah who'd been opening the Chamber, but not in front of Ginny, anyway. "Where's Lockhart?"
"Back there," said Ron, grinning and jerking his head up the tunnel towards the pipe. "He's in a bad shape. Come and see."
Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, they walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.
"His memory's gone," explained Ron. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself."
Ariana snorted. "That's an understatement if I've ever heard one."
All of their friends all bursted out laughing at Ariana's sarcastic comment. Ariana gave an playful smirk. Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all.
"Hello," he said. "Odd sort of place, isn't it? Do you live here?"
"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrow at Harry.
Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.
"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" he asked them.
"Me and Ariana can't really do much," admitted Jaxon sheepishly. "You already know what happened in there."
Ron and Elijah shook their heads, but Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past Harry and was now fluttering in front of him, his beady eyes bright in the dark.
"He looks like he wants you to grab hold..." said Ron, looking perplexed. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there."
"Fawkes," said Harry. "Isn't an ordinary bird." He turned quickly to the others.
"We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Professor Lockhart—"
"He means you," said Ron sharply to Lockhart.
"You hold Jaxon's other hand."
Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt, Ron took hold of the back of Harry's robes, and Harry reached out and took hold of the back of Fawkes' strangely hot tail feathers.
An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through her whole body, and next second, with a whoosh, they were flying upwards through the pipe, both Ariana and Jaxon both ran after the phoenix and her friends. Ariana could hear Lockhart dangling below him, saying, "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!"
The chilly air was whipping through Ariana's hair, it was over — all eight of them were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's floor, and as Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.
Myrtle goggled at them.
"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses.
"Oh, well... I'd just been thinking. If you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver.
Ariana almost bursted out laughing at the sound of that. Even girl ghosts were having crushes on Harry. Though, Jaxon looked a little creeped out about the thought.
"Urgh!" said Ron, as they left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's gotten fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!" But tears were still flooding silently down Ginny's face. "Where now?" Ron gave an anxious look at Ginny. Harry pointed.
Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor.
"And here I thought meeting a giant snake wasn't exciting enough," Jaxon muttered to Ariana, making her bark out a laugh.
They strode after him, and moments later, found themselves outside Professor McGonagall's office. Harry knocked and pushed the door open. But as the door opened, a sudden force had just pushed them out of the room and had sent them flying back into the Hospital Wing and onto the floor.
"Are you alright?" asked Jaxon quietly as he stood up.
"Yes, I'm fine." Ariana had also got up and looked at her friend in concern. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Jaxon's eyes lit up when he saw his petrified body being placed in a cot next to Ariana by Professor Snape. Instead of looking angry, he seemed to be thinking about something as he left the Hospital Wing.
"I hope Draco and Mother won't be too angry at me," whimpered Ariana.
"Don't worry, I bet he's more worried than angry about you," Jaxon said reassuringly. "I've seen it happened before."