Daughter of a Criminal

The Heir of Slytherin

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. Ann's heart beating very fast, Ann stood gripping Harry's arm as they listened to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny? They both pulled out their wands and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following them. Then, 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. Harry and Ann had to crane their necks to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.
"Ginny!" Harry muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees. Ann ran after him and dropped next to her.
"Ginny â€" don't be dead â€" please don't be dead â€"" Ann whispered. Harry 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…
"Ginny, please wake up," Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side. Tears began to fall from Ann's eyes,
"She won't wake," said a soft voice. Ann jumped and spun around on her knees. A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Ann were looking at him through a misted window.
"Who are you?" said Ann her wand raised
"Tom â€" Tom Riddle?" said Harry. Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face
"What d'you mean, she won't wake Riddle?" said Ann angrily.
"She's not â€" she's not â€"?" Harry asked desperately, getting to his feet.
"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just." Harry and Ann both 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 said uncertaintly.
"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years." He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary they had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Ann wondered how it had got there â€" but there were more pressing matters to deal with.
"You've got to help us, 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." Riddle didn't move. Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again, as Ann, stood her wand still facing Riddle. But his wand had gone.
"Did you see â€"?" He looked up. Riddle was still watching him â€" 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 â€""
"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly. Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer. "What d'you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it â€"" Riddle's smile broadened.
"You won't be needing it," he said. Harry stared at him.
"What d'you mean, I won't be â€"?" sensing danger Ann lifted her hand and began shouting exp-but Tom shot her with the killing curse. Ann being the quick thinker she threw up a shield charm turning the killing curse into a stupefy spell instead and she fainted.
"Ann!" Harry yelled watching as she fell to the ground.
"Oh don't worry she's only fainted, impressive shield charm I'll admit, she must be a McKinnon they always had a knack for defensive spells. And that blonde hair is a notable trait," Riddle muttered.
"So she'll live?"
"Oh probably," said Riddle
"Look I need my wand, we need to-"
"Like I said, you won't be needing it," said Riddle
Time skip to after the fightâ€" 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. Ann woke and Harry ran over helping her up.
"Ann, are you ok?" Harry asked
"Yeha, yeah-Ginny!" Ann yelled, a faint moan was coming from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry and Ann hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, to Ann, then over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Ann â€" oh, Annâ€" I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy â€" it was me, Harry â€" but I â€" I s-swear I d-didn't mean to â€" R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over â€" and â€" how did you kill that â€" that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I rremember is him coming out of the diary â€""
"It's all right," said Ann as Harry held up the diary, and showed Ginny the fang hole,
"Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here â€""
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Ann helped her awkwardly to her feet. Harry stood to the side "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and â€" w-what'll Mum and Dad say?" Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Harry and Ann urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Ann 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 Ann's ears. "Ron!" Ann yelled, speeding up, careful to make sure Ginny was with her. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!" She heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he 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? How â€" what â€" where did that bird come from?" Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.
"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, squeezing through himself. Ann went last and Harry helped her out.
"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand. "I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry with a sideways glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever into Ann's shoulder.
"But â€""
"Later," Harry said shortly. "Where's Lockhart?"
"Back there," said Ron, still looking puzzled but jerking his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. 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," said 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." Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all.
"Hello," he said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"
"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows at Harry and Ann who still had Ginny buried in her shoulders. Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.
"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" he said to Ron. Ron shook his head, but Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past Harry and was now fluttering in front of him, his beady eyes bright in the dark. He was waving his long golden tail feathers. Harry looked uncertaintly at him.
"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 â€""
"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 â€""
"He means you," said Ron sharply to Lockhart.
"You hold Ginny's other hand â€"" 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 Fawkes's strangely hot tail feathers. An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through his whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe. Harry could hear Lockhart dangling below him, saying, "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!" The chill air was whipping through Harry's hair, and before he'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over â€" all four of them were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, 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. "Urgh!" said Ron as they left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!" But tears were still flooding silently down Ginny's face. "Where now?" said Ron, with an anxious look at Ginny. Harry pointed. Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor. They strode after him, and moments later, found themselves outside Professor McGonagall's office. Harry knocked and pushed the door open.