Carina Malfoy//h.potter

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

They were standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. There were towering stone pillars with carved serpents rose to support a ceiling that was lost in darkness, though there was an odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. Carina tried to calm herself, she kept her wand up with a steady hand, something that she applauded herself for in this situation, as they moved forward between the columns carefully. She kept her eyes narrowed, ready to shut that at any moment. The chamber was silent, but she could hear her heart beating loudly above the sound of her feet. She was sure that the monster would be able to hear her heart at this rate.

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. It was an ancient wizard with a giant face, a long thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the stone robes and two enormous feet on the Chamber's floor. Between the feet, face down, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming red hair, Ginny Weasley. 

"Ginny!" muttered Harry and they sprinted to her and dropped to their knees.

"Come on, now female Weasley! Don't be dead!" Carina harshly demanded as she turned Ginny over. Her face was white as marble and cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. 

"No! Don't be dead!" Carina growled as she carefully checked to find a pulse from her wrist to her neck. When she did she sighed in relief and looked over at Harry "She is not dead." 

"Come one, Ginny, please wake up," muttered Harry as he began to shake her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.

"She won't wake," said a soft voice.

Harry jumped and spun around on his knees as Carina looked up from Ginny. A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, but there was no mistaking that he was about sixteen with strange Hogwarts robes that must have been made years and years ago. He wore a Slytherin tie and had a prefect badge pinned to his robes. There was no denying that he was handsome in a sort of old fashioned way with a thin face and dark eyes. But with all his good looks, there was something strange and off about him that made Carina want to shrink away, as she tighten her hold of Ginny's hand, her eyes turned ice cold eyeing the unknown boy. 

"Who is he?" Carina thought as she studied the boy. 

"Tom? Tom Riddle?" Harry wondered outloud. The boy nodded not taking his eyes off Harry. 

"Tom Riddle?" asked Carina standing up "As in the Diary Tom Riddle?" 

Tom Riddle then for the first time turned towards Carina. He stood there watching her, studying her features "A Malfoy? What's a Malfoy doing here?" he questioned her in a curious tone. 

"What do you mean, she won't wake?" Harry asked desperately. "She's not, she's not –?"

"She's still alive," said Tom Riddle. "But only just."

Carina walked around Ginny, standing before her protecting from this boy who held a powerful aura around him. It was faint but it was still there. She held her wand tightly into her fist with narrowed eyes as she watched Tom Riddle who grinned at her his dark eyes shining dangerously that made her want to cower away, but she did not. 

"Are you a ghost?" wondered Harry uncertainly.

"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 lost black Diary that Carina saw Ginny carrying it.

"You've got to help us, Tom," said Harry. "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 –"