Pennelope and the Chamber (Harry Potter love story) book 2

Tom Riddle

I'm standing at a very long chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support the ceiling.

My heart beating extremely fast. I stand listening to the chilling silence.

I wonder if the basilisk is lurking behind some pillars. And where is Penny and Ginny.

I took out my wand and moved between the serpent pillars. I keep my eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at any sight of movement. The hollow sockets of the stone snakes seem to follow me. I keep thinking I see them stir.

Then, when I reached the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.

I looked up at the statues long face; it had a beard and cold grey eyes. As my eyes traveled down, I see two figures; one with flaming red hair, the other with hair as dark as chocolate.

"Penny! Ginny!" I muttered, I started sprinting towards them. I dropped to my knees in front of Penny. "Penny - don't be dead - please don't dead -"

I flung my wand aside, grabbed Penny's shoulders, and turned her over.

Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, same as Ginny's, but they aren't petrified. But then that means she must be -

"Penny, please wake up," I muttered, shaking her. Her head lolled hopelessly from side to side.

I tried to hold back the tears as I hugged her body to me. I pulled back and slammed my lips to hers.

I never forgot the feeling she gave me when she kissed me in the trapdoor. I know it was probably just a 'you're leaving single, here's a kiss before you die' kinda one. Not a romantic one. Or could it be.

But the feeling she gives me still stays. It always makes butterflies go off in my stomach as fireworks burst around me.

I'm savoring the moment cause I may never get it again.

I pulled back with a gasp and pressed my forehead against hers. "Please wake up," I whispered as I shed a tear.

"She won't wake, neither of them will," a soft voice said.

I jumped and spun around on my knees.

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

"Tom - Tom Riddle?"

I recognize him from the diary.

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off my face.

"What d'you mean she - they won't wake?" I asked desperately, still holding on to Penny. "She's not - they're not-?"

"They're still alive," Riddle said. "But only just."

I stared at him. Tom has been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet he stand here, a weird, misty light shining about him' not a day older than sixteen.

"Are you a ghost?" I asked uncertain.

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

He pointed towards the statue behind me. I turned and saw the diary I found in Myrtle's bathroom, lay open on the stone floor. I wonder how it got there.

"You've got to help me, Tom," I said, I motioned towards Ginny and Penny, who was still in my arms. "We've got to get them out of here. There's a basilisk . . . I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment . . . Please help me-"