บท 9: I have a 'basilisk' in MY chamber of secrets, how about you? Pt.6
A silhouette with a mocking smile gradually phased into existence next to the shivering body of the youngest Weasley.
"WHO? WHO ARE YOU?" The frown was gone, replaced with a burning rage that threatened to consume everything it could find.
"This will be our first meeting. It will also be our last. Remember this, Tom, I am the true heir of Slytherin." Ares responded with a grin as he spotted a certain diary near his feet.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Harry and Tom could only watch as a killing curse lept from the older man's hand towards Ginny.
Both of them cried out, "NO!" simultaneously for different reasons.
The book in Ginny's arms was struck head-on, and after a flash of sickly green, everything returned to normal.
Except Tom Riddle started turning to ash in front of Harry's eyes.
"Voldemort will have his revenge! I swear-" He cried out as he became part of the dust layering the floor of the ancient Chamber.
Harry just watched… incredulous that events had taken such a drastic turn.
"Wh-who are you?" He stuttered, turning to look at the wizard responsible.
"Your worst nightmare…."
Harry backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall, and as he shut his eyes tight, he heard a peal of laughter fill the Chamber. It was much warmer than Riddle and seemed almost elegant.
"I'm sorry! I really am! Oh god! That was hilarious. The way you stumbled backwards into the wall… pure comedy."
When he opened his eyes again, Harry was greeted by the sight of the initially fearsome wizard gripping his sides in laughter.
"Are you going to hurt Ginny?"
"Oh! That's very protective of you. No, I won't hurt her since you're here. But, my dear Harry, you have no idea how close we will be. I'll be the father figure you needed, not some bullshit, Weasley."
"What? Who are you? Do I know you?"
"Now isn't the time to have this conversation. So in the words of a certain professor, you first, Mr Potter. Say goodbye... to your memories. Obliviate!"
Ares smiled benignly, having summoned the Elder wand in its physical form to ensure nothing went wrong with the delicate process of rewriting the young boy's mind.
His gaze turned cold when he looked at the phoenix, the little Weasley girl and a particular professor hidden behind the chamber door.
"Fawkes, if you want the student to survive, you'll have to let me edit your memories. Otherwise, I'll kill her. And you! Lockhart. Get out here, or I'll finish the job and actually wipe your brain clean."
The phoenix submitted unwillingly but had a duty to care for the students. It also told Dumbledore to ensure Harry Potter's survival at all costs.
The sorting hat was even more manageable as it couldn't fight back.
Instead, it was Gilderoy Lockhart who left Ares curious.
"I don't know how you survived with your memory intact this time, but as recognition of that, I'll let you go after you swear a magical oath. It'll be amusing watching you flounder in the coming period as you try to explain what you've seen."
The former Dark Lord subsequently rewrote the memories of everyone there except Lockhart. He used his own second year as a basis and built a plausible and almost identical copy.
The aim of this endeavour had been accomplished. The Basilisk was still alive, and after Harry told others he had killed it, Ares would have a secret weapon within Hogwarts walls.
Lockhart had sworn an oath on the power of the Deathly Hallows. But, in reality, he could only survive for Ares's amusement. Perhaps he would become a puppet for the former Dark Lord to exercise other plans, but that was for the future.
'Dark Lord Gilderoy Lockhart… Can you imagine?'
With slight magical turbulence, he disappeared.
As Harry recovered consciousness, he heard a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Although Harry looked fine, she still broke down crying.
"Harry — oh, Harry — I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy — it was me, Harry — but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over — and — did you kill that — that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I remember is him coming out of the diary —"
"It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny how it was burned up on the inside, "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. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came, and n-now I'll have to leave and — what'll Mum and Dad say?"
Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Harry urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead Basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.
After a few minutes of progressing up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of a slowly shifting rock reached Harry's ears.
"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!"
He 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 have that dirty sorting hat?" said Ron, even more confused.
"I'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's Lockhart?"
"Behind you," said Ron, still puzzled but jerking his head toward the blank-faced professor who had just followed Harry through the hole with incredible difficulty.
"Jolly small exit, isn't it? Designed especially for you small people, I suppose. An odd place indeed." Gilderoy muttered with a frown, humming to himself.
"His memory's gone," said Harry. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. He hasn't got a clue who he is, where he is, or who we are. I told him to wait while I found Ginny. He must have stayed there the whole time. 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.
Harry bent down and looked up at 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," 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 —"
"He means you," said Ron sharply to Lockhart.
"You hold Ginny's other hand —"
Harry tucked 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 — 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 found themselves outside Professor McGonagall's office moments later.
Harry knocked and pushed the door open.
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