Y/n and Harry 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. His heart beating very fast, Y/n stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny?
He and Harry pulled out their wands and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement.
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.
Y/n had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above, It was ancient and monkey like, 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 getting Y/n's attention again and the two began sprinting to her and dropping to their knees. "Ginny...don't be dead...please don't be dead..." Y/n heard Harry plead.
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.
Y/n crouched down to try help but nothing they did garnered a response from Ginny.
"She won't wake." said a soft voice.
Harry jumped and spun around on his knees.
A tall, black haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Y/n were looking at him through a misted window.
"Tom? Tom Riddle?" Harry called out surprising Y/n, This was the boy who owned the diary from 50 years ago?
The boy just nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not...she's not?"
"She's still alive." said Riddle. "But only just."
Y/n 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.
"What are you?" Y/n asked cautiously now getting back to his feet.
"A memory." said Riddle quietly as his eyes flickered to look at Y/n with interest now. "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 Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Y/n wondered how it had got there 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... We 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.
But his wand had gone.
"Did you see..."
He looked up. Riddle was still watching him...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.
A smile that Y/n didn't like.
"Listen." said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes..."
"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 are you talking about Riddle?" Y/n said. "Return Harry's wand to him..."
Riddle's smile broadened. "He won't be needing it," he said.
Harry stared at him. "What d'you mean, I won't be..."
"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter, Y/n Grindelwald." said Riddle. "For the chance to see you both. To speak to you both."
Y/n stepped back slightly in shock. How did Riddle know his name?
"Look." said Harry. "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later..."
"We're going to talk now." said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry's wand.
Y/n stared at Riddle now. "How did Ginny get like this?" he asked slowly.
"Well, that's an interesting question." said Riddle pleasantly. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
"What are you talking about?" said Harry.
"The diary." said Riddle. "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes...how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how a descendant of the famous Grindelwald had to give her family money to be able to afford her wand." Riddle's eyes glinted now. "How she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her..."
All the time he spoke, Y/n noticed that Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.
"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven year old girl." he went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one's ever understood me like you, Tom... I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in... It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket..."
Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him One that made Y/n uncomfortable.
"If I say it myself, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..."
"It was you..." Y/n said angrily now.
"Very good Y/n. You are quick to understand, I'd of expected nothing less of a Grindelwald." Riddle said.
"What d'you mean?" said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry.
"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."
"No." Harry whispered.
"Yes." said Riddle, calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries... far more interesting, they became... Dear Tom." he recited, watching Y/n and Harry's horrified faces. "I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me... There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad... I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!"
Y/n's fists were clenched, the nails digging deep into his palms.
"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary." said Riddle. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, one of the three people I was most anxious to meet..."
"Three?" Y/n questioned.
"Harry Potter, Y/n Grindelwald and Atticus Grindelwald." Riddle named.
"What do you want with Atticus?" Y/n asked trying to stay calm.
"The Grindelwald of my time is revered as the great dark lord. Of course I'd want to meet his descendants, learn everything I can about them." Riddle said. "See if they lived up to their family name."
"And why did you want to meet me?" said Harry. Anger was coursing through him, and it took an effort to keep his voice steady.
"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry." said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier. "I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust..."
"Hagrid's my friend." said Harry, his voice now shaking. "And you framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but..."
Riddle laughed his high laugh again. "It was my word against Hagrid's. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student... on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls... but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance... as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!"
"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed... Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did..."
"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you." said Harry, his teeth gritted.
"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled." said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen year old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."
"Well, you haven't finished it." said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again..."
"Haven't I already told you." said Riddle quietly. "That killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been you, Y/n and Atticus..."
Y/n and Harry just stared at him.
"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery, particularly if one of your best friends was attacked."
Y/n face scrunched up now.
Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue...So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. But there isn't much life left in her... She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last... I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."
"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched.
"Well." said Riddle, smiling pleasantly. "How is it that you a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent, managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?" There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.
"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time..."
"Voldemort." said Riddle softly. "Is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter..."
He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words.
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves.
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
"You see?" he whispered. "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...I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"
Y/n body froze as he stared numbly at Riddle, at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder Harry's parents, and so many others...to convince his own parents to join his cause in their purist for power and purity.
"You're not." Harry said, his quiet voice full of hatred snapping Y/n out of his state of shock.
"Not what?" snapped Riddle.
"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world." said Harry, breathing fast. "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 at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days..."
The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look. "Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.
"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted.
Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.
Music was coming from somewhere. Y/n, Harry and Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine tingling, unearthly, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.
A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle.
A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, then landed heavily on his shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Y/n looked to his side and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and beady black eyes.
'A phoenix...' Y/n thought to himself surprised.
The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Harry's cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle.
"That's a phoenix." said Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.
"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, as the bird's golden claws squeezed his shoulder gently.
"And that..." said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped. "That's the old school Sorting Hat."
So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Harry's feet.
Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once. "This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave? Do you feel safe now?"
Y/n raised his wand now. If Dumbledore had sent them aid then perhaps they were capable. Perhaps it was not too late to stop this incantation of Voldemort. "Expelliarmus!" He chanted in the hopes of winning Harry's wand back at least.
But Riddle showed great skill as he wordlessly deflected Y/n's spell.
Y/n tried to cast again but Riddle had been quicker this time.
"Crucio!" Riddle cried as pain shot through Y/n's body and he fell to the ground screaming in agony. "It is undignified to attack a wizard as great as I, thinking I would not notice." He said cruelly as Y/n rolled involuntarily on the floor. It carried on for a minute as Riddle smirked and finally stopped.
"To business, Harry." said Riddle, still smiling broadly as he turned his attention away from Y/n now. "Twice...in your past, in my future, we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk." he added softly. "The longer you both stay alive."
Harry was thinking fast, weighing his chances. Riddle had his wand. Y/n was on the floor breathless. He, Harry, had Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, neither of which would be much good in a duel. It looked bad, all right... but the longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny... and in the meantime, Harry noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becoming clearer, more solid... If it had to be a fight between him and Riddle, better sooner than later.
"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me." said Harry abruptly. "I don't know myself. But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle-born mother," he added, shaking with suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you, I saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul..."
Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced 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, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two 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 saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."
"Harry is nothing like you..." Y/n strained out.
"Crucio!" Riddle cried out as pain rushed through Y/n body again and he let a strained scream of pain.
Harry stood, tense and helpless, as Riddle kept Harry's wand pointed at Y/n. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again now and his gaze turned to him.
"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, Y/n Grindelwald and the best weapons Dumbledore can give them..."
He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away. Harry, fear spreading up his numb legs, watched Riddle stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed.
Y/n pushed himself up weakly from the floor now as he turned his head to see Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving, his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.
"It is the Basilisk..." Y/n said to Harry now back on his feet, wand clutched in his hand. "Quickly shut your eyes!" He warned closing his own eyes.
Y/n and Harry started to back away until both hit the dark Chamber wall, Harry felt Fawkes' wing sweep his cheek as he took flight. Harry wanted to shout, "Don't leave me!" but what chance did a phoenix have against the king of serpents?
Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Y/n could feel it shudder and he could only guess that the giant serpent was uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. Then he heard Riddle's voice hissing again.
The basilisk was now moving toward himself and Harry, he could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. Eyes still tightly shut, The boys began to run blindly sideways, hands outstretched, feeling the way while Voldemort was laughing...
But Harry soon tripped as he fell hard onto the stone and tasted blood. Y/n following Harry then tripped over Harry himself the serpent was barely feet from them now, Y/n could hear it coming.
There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above him, and then something heavy hit the pair so hard that they were smashed into the wall.
Y/n groaned as he sat up waiting for fangs to sink through his body but instead he heard mad hissing, something thrashing wildly off the pillars.
Harry couldn't help it...he opened his eyes wide enough to squint at what was going on.
The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. He saw what had distracted the snake.
It was Fawkes who was soaring around its head, and the basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers.
Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Y/n as Harry dragged him out the way.
"Y/n look..." Harry started.
"Do not look at the eyes Harry!" Y/n reminded him.
"No Y/n Look!" Harry pointed now and Y/n opened his eye and turned his head towards the large serpent.
Y/n looked straight at its face and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix. Blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting in agony.
"NO!" Y/n heard Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOYS ARE BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL SMELL THEM. KILL THEM!"
The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.
"Help us, help us." Harry muttered wildly. "Someone...anyone!"
The snake's tail whipped across the floor again and both Y/n and Harry ducked as something soft hit Harry's face. The basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. Harry seized it.
It was all they had left, their only chance...he rammed it onto his head before Y/n pushed Harry and himself flat onto the floor as the basilisk's tail swung over them again.
Y/n looked to see Harry had his eyes screwed tight under the hat.
'Is there's nothing we can do to win here? Can I not at least buy Harry and Ginny some time...' Y/n began to hopelessly wonder as he looked at his wand in his hand.
The hat on Harry's head contracted, as though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly. Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head, almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed the top of the hat to pull it off and felt something long and hard beneath it.
Y/n stood up, his wand clutched tight now as he tried to search his brain for any spell that would help them no matter how weak it was.
Harry was still looking inside that hat were a gleaming silver sword had appeared inside of it, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.
"Y/n...I think I can deal with the basilisk...can you distract Riddle?" Harry asked. Y/n was shocked and quickly turned to look at him. But truly Y/n had no plan that would work, for now all he could do was trust in Harry's own.
"I will do what I can." Y/n said raising his wand and preparing himself.
"KILL THE BOYS! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOYS ARE BEHIND YOU. SNIFF....SMELL THEM." Riddle angrily shouted but he quickly found himself being bombarded with quick fired spells and moved just as quickly to avoid them. As he turned his head he saw a shaky Y/n stood in front of him, A gash in his head cut open and clearly tired. His eyes however were filled with determination
"You are proving to be quite tiresome young Grindelwald..." Riddle said annoyed as he raised Harry's wand toward Y/n. "Avada..."
"Expelliarmus!" Y/n instantly cried out as he gave Riddle no time to cast now and the two became locked in a duel of spells. Y/n knew Riddle was toying with him, this boy who was only a few years older than himself had not become feared without the power to show for it. If he let up for even a moment Y/n knew it would cost him his life.
As Y/n continued to Duel with the amused Riddle Harry had gotten to his feet ready. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous...
It lunged blindly. Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands.
The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true. Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth and it let out a might screech.
But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.
Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it was too late. White hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color.
A patch of scarlet swam past, and Harry heard a soft clatter of claws beside him.
"Fawkes..." said Harry thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes...you and Y/n..." Harry said as he watched Y/n still duelling Riddle through his hazing eyes. He felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced him.
Harry slowly looked down and blinked. Fawkes's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers.
Harry felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning.
If this is dying, thought Harry, it's not so bad.
Even the pain was leaving him...
But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. Harry gave his head a little shake and there was Fawkes, still resting his head on Harry's arm. A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound...except that there was no wound.
Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Fawkes; there was a bang like a gun, and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet.
Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Harry's lap...the diary.
For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then, without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.
'I cannot go on like this...I am running out of luck.' Y/n thought to himself as Riddle cackled and deflected another well aimed spell. It took all of Y/n's energy to cast a final shield charm but it was his last He had only the strength to lift his gaze and watch as Riddle finally killed him.
What he saw however was the look of anger and shock upon the boys face.
"NO!" Riddle cried and there was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Y/n looked to see Harry behind him as holding a fang in his hands as ink spurted out of Riddle's diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then...
He had gone. 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, Y/n felt his wand arm finally go limp as he dropped his own wand and collapsed to his knees.
"We survived..." Was all he could tiredly mutter out as he stared at the floor.
Y/n and Harry sat silent for a short while as they slowly gathered their thoughts together and realised what thy had done and how lucky they were to be alive. Y/n had just dueled a memory of the 16 year old Voldemort and Harry had killed a basilisk.
When a small amount of their energy had recovered the two got up.
"No one is going to believe this." Harry said to Y/n as he walked over to Y/n and helped him up.
"I was a part of it Harry, and I cannot believe it..." Y/n said truthfully picking up his wand.
Harry collected together his wand and the Sorting Hat, and, with a huge tug the two retrieved the glittering sword from the roof of the basilisk's mouth.
Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. Y/n and Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over to Y/n and Harry, in their blood soaked robes, then to the diary in Harry's hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Harry... Y/n...oh, I tried to tell you at b...breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy, it was me...but I...I s...swear I d...didn't mean to...R...Riddle made me, he t...took me over....and...how did you kill that...that thing? W...where's Riddle? The last thing I r...remember is him coming out of the diary..."
Y/n just collapsed to his knees in front of Ginny now as his hand cam to a stop on her shoulder.
"It is alright Ginny..." He told her and Ginny could hear how tired he was. "Harry and I know everything. It is not your fault okay. It is all over now." He tried to reassure her.
"See, It's all right." said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole. "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here..."
"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet and Y/n got up himself. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B...Bill came and n...now I'll have to leave and...w...what'll Mum and Dad say?"
Y/n just let out a small smile and shook his head. "They will be happy to see you before anything..."
Harry just nodded in agreement. Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Harry urged Ginny forward first and one by one they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Y/n 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 Y/n and Harry's ears.
"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up ahead. "Ginny's okay! We've got her!"
Y/n 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...what...where did that bird come from?" Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.
"He's Dumbledore's." said Harry, squeezing through himself.
"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand.
"And how come's you're covered in blood?" Ron pointed at Y/n's head.
"We'll explain when we get out of here." said Harry with a sideways glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever.
"But..."
"Later." Harry said shortly. He didn't think it was a good idea to tell Ron yet who'd been opening the Chamber, not in front of Ginny, anyway.
"Where is Lockhart?" Y/n asked changing the conversation.
"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?"
"I cannot say this is undeserved..." Y/n said with a small hint of satisfaction.
Harry just 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 uncertainly 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."
"Fawkes is a Phoenix Ron." said Y/n getting his and Harry's attention. "They can carry loads much heavier than themselves and their tears have healing properties."
"So that's why he was crying..." Harry said understanding what Fawkes had done earlier now. He turned quickly to the others now. "We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Professor Lockhart..."
"He means you." said Ron sharply to Lockhart.
"You hold Ginny's other hand..."
"Harry, we'd better see Professor McGonagall first thing to let her know what's happened." Y/n said to him quietly as the other got ready.
Harry just nodded as he tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt, Y/n grabbed onto his robes as Ron took hold of the back of Y/n's robes, and Harry reached out and took hold of Fawkes's strangely hot tail feathers.
An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through Y/n's whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe. Y/n could hear Lockhart dangling below him, saying, "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!" The chill air was whipping through Y/n's hair, and before he'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over. All five 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." Harry 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!
"I think You have got competition Ginny..." Y/n quietly said to her 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.