The Potter Twins and the Chamber of Secrets {2}

28. Basilisk Venom *

"Isn't this exactly where you like me, I'm exactly where you want me, you know" ~ But It's Better If You Do, Panic! At The Disco

"You see?" Riddle whispers, following his reveal to Harry. "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 and Haylee, I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one say fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

"You're not," I say quietly, my voice full of hatred for the man that killed our parents.

"Not what?" Riddle snaps, and for a spilt second, I'm scared he'll use that spell on me again.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," I say with a sudden burst of confidence. "Sorry to disappoint you, and all that, but the greatest sorcerer in the world is, and always will be, Albus Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" Riddle hisses, an ugly look on his face.

Wait, when did Dumbledore leave?

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorts.

Riddle opens his mouth to respond, but he suddenly freezes.

Music is coming from somewhere within the Chamber, and it's growing louder and more unearthly by the second, making the hair stand up on my arms.

Suddenly, flames erupt on the top of a nearby pillar, and a crimson bird, the size of a swam, appears, still playing it's weird music.

The bird flies towards Harry and I, and drops a strange, ragged thing on my lap, before landing heavily on Harry's shoulder.

"That's a phoenix..." Riddle says, starting shrewdly at it.

"Fawkes?" I whisper.

"And that -" Riddle says, eyeing the ragged thing on my lap, "that's the old school Sorting Hat."

Riddle begins laughing darkly, so loud that it echoes throughout the Chamber.

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and an old hat! So you feel brave, Harry and Haylee Potter? Do you feel safe now?"

We both stay silent, not knowing what to say.

"To business, Harry and Haylee," Riddle says, smiling yet again. "Twice - in your past, in my future - we have met. And twice, I failed to kill you two. How did you survive? Tell me everything? The longer you talk, the longer you stay alive."

I think fast - Riddle is slowly becoming more solid, Ginny and Asher are getting closer to death and I'm not going to last much longer without medical attention. The time to duel is now.

"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked us," I say abruptly. "We don't know ourselves. But I know why you couldn't kill us. Because our mother died to save us. Our common Muggleborn mother."

"She stopped you killing us. And we've seen the real you, we saw you last year. You're wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power for you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul!"

Riddle's face contorts, but he forces 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 two, after all. I wondered, you see. Because there are strange likenesses between us three, Harry and Haylee Potter. You must have noticed. We're all Halfbloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only three 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 saves you from me. That's all I wanted to know."