The Heir of Slytherin
He entered the chamber, and his eyes found the vibrant, Weasley hair.
Ginny's tiny body was prone and pale. She surely couldn't have been petrified, for her eyes were closed.
In fact, she appeared to be sleeping.
"GINNY", he ran towards her, panicking.
"Please don't be dead", Harry muttered, searching for a pulse, sighing in relief when he found one, though it was rather faint.
"She's not dead, but she won't be waking up soon", came a voice, and Harry turned around.
It was Tom Riddle. Slightly translucent, like a ghost but appearing to be much more solid and still sixteen.
"YOU! I was right. You opened the Chamber of Secrets!"
"Not quite", Tom laughed. "The last time yes, but this time, I was only a guide.
Ginny Weasley has been opening the Chamber of Secrets."
Harry gaped. Ginny, Ron's sister, was the reason behind something so, so vile.
"No..."
"Yes, but she had little say in it. She's been writing in my diary for an entire year.
At first it was quite tedious, listening to the woes of an eleven year old, but I was charming and compassionate.
She wrote to me all about how her brothers would tease her, how she had to go to school with second hand things, how the great Harry Potter would never like her...
She poured enough of her soul in me, so I began pouring some of mine in her.
Things began getting so much more interesting.
'Oh Tom, there are times where I can't remember what I've been doing. There's blood down my robes.
Tom, I think I'm the one who's been opening the Chamber of Secrets!'
It took stupid little Ginny a long time to stop trusting my diary.
She then tried to get rid of it by flushing it in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, but the diary, of course, just bounced and went strait through Myrtle's chest."
"Y-y-you you're-"
"Then Harry Potter, I was picked up by the person I was most excited to meet. You."
"Why, why me?"
"Your past is so utterly fascinating, shrouded in mystery. Surviving an encounter with the Dark Lord, when you were merely an infant.
And then you turn out to be completely the opposite of what I had expected. I wanted to know more, but then stupid little Ginny saw my diary with you. She then followed you all to you room in the Slytherin common room and stole my diary. I had punished her for both that and trying to get rid of the diary. She was obedient from then on."
"You, you're disgusting and besides, why does it matter to you. Voldemort was before your time", Harry asked, warily.
"Voldemort, is my past, present and future", he hissed.
Harry's eyes widened, as he understood the implication.
Tom raised a wand, which Harry recognised as Ginny's, and shot out snake-like flames.
They morphed and twisted, forming the words, Tom Marvolo Riddle.
Riddle flicked his wand once more, and the letters rearranged themselves, to be :
i aM loRd voldemort.
His suspicions were confirmed. Tom Riddle was Voldemort.
"We're peculiarly similar Harry Potter. Both of us are half-blood orphans, Slytherins. We even look similar, with pale skin and dark hair."
"No. I'm nothing like you! You're sadistic, homicidal, a murderer!"
"You're telling me that you wouldn't seek retribution from those who hurt, if not you then your friends, or do the names Hermione Granger, Crystalline Gray and Ronald Weasley hold no importance to you", Tom Riddle laughed, as Harry paled.
"That's why you petrified them, wasn't it, to get me to come here. They were specifically targeted, weren't they", he quietly said.
"Correct. And now, I'm going to do to you what I failed to do with your friends.
You won't be leaving the chamber alive Harry Potter."
"Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four", Riddle hissed in parseltongue, and a cave that Harry hadn't paid attention to opened.
Harry swiftly shut his eyes. He knew what was coming, as he heard a familiar hissing "Rip, tear, kill. I SMELL BLOOD........"
Harry, now completely reliant on his hearing, dodges an attack clumsily.
He backs away, not knowing what to do, until his back hits a wall.
He rolled around, springing forward, before he heard a beautiful trill.
It filled his heart with a strange sense of confidence and courage. Not being able to resist, he opened his eyes, and the vision before him was probably one of the weirdest things he's ever seen.
Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, had blinded the huge basilisk, and the basilisk was relentlessly trying to swat (or eat?) the bird.
He also recognises the sorting hat laying on his feet, but what was it doing there.
***
"AEL, GINNY", a voice yelled out to him, and Ronald Weasley ran into the Chamber, which Harry had left open, just in case.
"What in the name of Merlin's saggy left buttock is going on here!"
"I'll explain later", while they could hear Riddle yell in the background "Kill him, you can still smell him! Leave the bird!"
The basilisk turned to them, and tried to strike them with his poisonous fangs, but they dodged at just the right moment.
"The basilisk!"
"I know, and he's the one responsible for all of this. He's been possessing Ginny, and making her open the Chamber of Secrets!", Harry cried out.
"WHAT! We'll talk later. And what's the sorting hat doing here", Ron picked it up.
"Fawkes brought it. I think Dumbledore sent them here."
Ron pulled Harry aside just as the basilisk struck once again.
Ron put the hat on his head, an expression on his face that told Harry that he was hoping for something to happen, and, much to his shock, a sword dropped on Ron's head.
It was a Rapier with a golden handle.
Harry stifled a gasp when he read out what was carved on it. Godric Gryffindor.
This was Gryffindor's sword. Only a true Gryffindor or someone who was related to Godric Gryffindor somehow could pull it out.
Harry took a deep breath and knew that instant what he should do.
"HEY! Basilisk, I'm here", he yelled out in parseltongue.
He could tell Ron was perplexed, but a look of understanding dawned on his face as the basilisk came after them.
It opened its mouth wide and just then Harry yelled, "NOW!"
Ron lifted the heavy sword and just then stuck it through the ginormous snake's mouth.
Blood was pouring out of the beasts' mouth. It was coughing, till it collapsed.
It was dead.
Tom Riddle raised Ginny's wand, threateningly. Harry and Ron looked back at him, and suddenly, Harry pulled out one of the basilisk's fang and stabbed the diary.
Riddle started screaming a blood-curdling scream. Ink was pouring out of the diary like blood, and Riddle vanished.
"Wh-what, what's going on", a weak, quavering voice called out.
"GINNY! You're awake!"
Ron ran to his sister and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.
Harry though, was examining the sorting hat as though he'd never seen it before.
How could a hat hold the Sword of Gryffindor. Frowning, Harry put his hand into it, and much to his surprise, something else fell out.
It was a dagger. A Kris Knife with a silver handle, and carved on the shining silver blade was Salazar Slytherin.
Harry made his way to the hugging siblings. Ron finally let go of Ginny and turned to Harry.
"Harry, why do you look so serious. Everything's okay now."
"Can Ron and I have a minute, Ginny", Harry turned to the small redhead, who nodded nervously.
Harry levitated the sword and the dagger to Ron.
"Wait, there wasn't a dagger before. I thought it was only a sword", he said, confusedly.
"Delph, I was just examining the hat when I put my hand in and the dagger fell out. But that's not why I wanted to talk to you.
"Look", he pointed at the blades of the sword and dagger, and Ron gasped.
"Merlin", he whispered, reverently.
He reached out for the sword and as soon as he held it, it glowed and vanished.
"Wait, where is it", Harry asked.
"Ael, look", Ron said and the sword reappeared in his hand.
"I can do it at will. You should try it with the dagger", he grinned.
"Why?"
"I just know, Do it", Harry gently wrapped his fingers around the dagger.
It was thrumming with power, and felt right somehow, in his grasp.
Then, as though instinctively, he wished for the sword to vanish, and it did.
"Are you two done with whatever you're doing. Can we please get out of here", they heard Ginny's voice call out, begging.
"Oh, getting right there sis", Ron shouted back.
Harry wondered who was the wielder of Hufflepuff's spear and Ravenclaw's trident.
"You already know them, even consider them sisters, though first they must prove their worth", a voice in his head whispered. It seemed to be coming from the dagger.
"Ron, Sci and Cat are the wielders of Hufflepuff's spear and Ravenclaw's trident.
But they must prove their worth or something to wield them", Harry muttered.
Ron grinned.
"I knew the four of us were different", he shrugged.
They walked back to Ginny, who was obviously struggling to lift herself up, weakened by Riddle's Diary.
They helped her up, Ron giving her support as she limped out of the chamber.
"Oh, by the way, Lockhart's spell backfired. His memories are removed. He'll probably spend the rest of his life in The Janus Thickney ward at St Mungos."
"Serves him right", Harry scowled.
They made their way through the tunnel and where Ron had cleared the rocks.
Fawkes was flying behind them, the sorting hat securely in his clutches. His soft trills seemed to be soothing Ginny, who was slowly regaining blood in her paled, frightened face.
***
"Hello", Lockhart's voice called out. Harry wanted to kick him in the shins, but restrained himself.
Ron didn't seem to have any such restrain, as he heard a loud "Ow" from said man.
"This is weird place. Do you live here", Lockhart asked.
"No, Professor Lockhart."
"He's talking to you", Ron said sharply.
"Oh, me! I was a Professor! God I must have been hopeless OW", it seemed Ron had kicked Lockhart again.
"How will we get out of here", Ron asked frantically.
Just then, Fawkes dropped the sorting hat in Harry's hand and trilled.
"Will you carry us, boy?", Harry asked.
"But, how will a bird carry all of us", Ginny asked, worriedly.
"Gin, just relax. Fawkes is no ordinary bird", Ron grinned.
Ron took a hold of Fawkes' offered talon, his other hand holding onto one of Ginny's.
After a nudge, Lockhart held Ginny's other hand in one of his own, and Harry grabbed on tightly to other, Harry right hand holding the sorting hat firmly.
Fawkes flew them all up, out of the chamber and setting them down on the floor of Myrtle's bathroom.