A Broken Slytherin : Serpent Secrets (Book 2)

The Monster of the Chamber

y/n gawked at the words in astonishment. Before her stood Voldemort. Still not completely in the flesh, but the boy who would soon grow up to be a genocidal murderer was now watching her and Harry with a cunning smirk playing on his lips.

"You see?" he whispered, "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name for ever? 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 before I was even born, simply because he discovered my mother was a witch? No. I fashioned myself a new name. A name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak. When I became the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

y/n only stood to the side, tense and fearful. She could see Tom's appearance becoming less like a projection and more life like with every word he spoke. She stared at an orphaned boy who had lost his family and wondered what exactly caused him to become so hateful. There was a tense silence, both parties were eying the other off, waiting for their next move. Then Harry spoke, only in a whisper.

"You're not," he mumbled, his quiet voice seething.

"Not what?" Riddle snapped.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," Harry repeated, becoming worked up, "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, where ever you're hiding these days."

Riddle's face had contorted into an ugly expression.

"Dumbledore was driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.

"He'll never be gone! Not as long as those that remain are loyal to him!" Harry boomed back speaking spontaneously, only trying to scare Riddle.

Just then, a loud eerie and spine-tingling song rang throughout the Chamber. It made the hair on y/n's neck stand up and her heart grow warm. The melody grew louder and louder until y/n could feel the notes vibrating in her ribs. A loud screech echoed behind her and she whipped around to see a beautiful crimson bird with glittering golden tail feathers soaring towards them, holding a bundle of ragged cloth in its talons.

The bird dropped the bundle at Harry's feet and circled around the Chamber once before landing gracefully on y/n's shoulder, its gaze trained on Riddle. It had stopped singing and was leaning against y/n's cheek.

"That's a phoenix..." Riddle stated staring back at the bird.

"Fawkes?" y/n breathed out and she felt the bird's golden talons squeeze her shoulder gently.

"And that... that's the old sorting hat," said Riddle now eying and pointing at the ragged object Fawkes had delivered. It was indeed the sorting hat, all patched and frayed. Riddle began to laugh, a laugh that was high and cold and loud, it didn't suit him. "So this is what Dumbledore sends his great defenders. A song bird, and a mangy old hat."

y/n didn't understand. What were a hat and a bird going to do to help them? But, for some insane reason, y/n trusted Dumbledore. And that would either be the reason for her downfall, or her victory.

Tom walked over to the massive Slytherin statue behind them and aimed Harry's wand at it and hissed, but y/n understood him.

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four." he then turned back to Harry and y/n as Slytherin's mouth began to open wider and wider until there was only a giant gaping hole, "Let's match the power of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against the famous Harry Potter,"