Hello people,
Below is another passage of my Harry Potter fanfiction, from ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’. I really loved rewriting this story and I hope I can share this passion with you all. I personally think that it allows you to express your imagination and could also make you wonder how YOU would react at this specific moment or chapter. I’m a big Harry Potter fan and I’ve always wanted to try to write a fanfiction, and if there are people who like what I do, I can only be thrilled to show them my work.
The passage is from Chapter 17: The Heir of Slytherin
By Saphia Peten
Harry and Nessy stared at him, then they finally exchanged an untrusting look - something was going on here.
“How did Ginny get like this?” Nessy finally asked slowly.
“Well, that’s an interesting question, Nessy,” 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,” Nessy said knowingly, looking back the small black book, her eyes wide with comprehension.
“Yes, Nessy,” 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 second-hand robes and books, how –” Riddle’s eyes glinted “a – how she didn’t think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her, or how famous, kind, great Nessy Jinx would ever be her friend…”
All the time he spoke, Riddle’s eyes never left their faces. There was an almost hungry look at 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 round in my pocket…”
Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn’t suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry’s neck, and Nessy’s eyes widen; she knew that laugh, she’d heard it somewhere…
“If I say it myself, Harry, Nessy, 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…”
“What d’you mean?” said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry. Nessy’s eyes widened even more.
“It was Ginny…” Nessy spluttered. “Ginny opened the Chamber of Secrets.”
“Correct,” said Riddle softly. “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. Of course, she didn’t know what she was doing at first.” Riddle said, calmly.” It was very amusing. I wish you two could have seen her new diary entries… Far more interesting, they became… Dear Tom,” he recited, watching Harry and Nessy’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 Hallowe’en, 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… I found myself late at night and I don’t how I got there, crying and my hair is all over the place… 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.”
Harry and Nessy realised they had been clutching each other’s hands tightly.
“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 where you two came in, Harry, Nessy. You two found it, and I couldn’t have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you two, the very people I was most anxious to meet…”
“And why did you want to meet us?” said Harry. Anger was coursing through him, and it was an effort for Nessy to keep herself calm.
“Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you two, Harry, Nessy,” said Riddle. “Your whole fascinating intertwined history.” His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry’s forehead and to Nessy’s side, and his expression grew angrier. “I knew I must find out more about you both, talk to you two, meet you two if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust.”
“Hagrid’s our friend!” said Harry, his voice now shaking.
“And you framed him…” Nessy said knowingly. “It wasn’t a mistake; it was to cover yourself!”
Riddle laughed his high laugh again, and Nessy’s eyes shone.
“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 realise 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 Nessy, knowingly.
“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 of Secrets 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, looking at them both, “that killing Mudbloods doesn’t matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been – you two.”
Harry and Nessy stared at him, clutching their hands even more.
“Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you two. She saw you two with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you two found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you both? What if, even worse, I told you both who’d been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until both your dormitories were deserted and stole it back, having rummaged in both of them all over the place. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you two were on the trail of Slytherin’s heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you two, I knew you would go to any length to solve the mystery – particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you two could speak Paseltongue…
“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 both to appear since we arrived here. I knew you two would come. I have many questions for you two, Harry Potter and Nessy Jinx.”
“Like what?” Harry spat, his and Nessy’s hands clenching into fists and clutching their already white grip.
“Well,” said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, “how is it that two babies with no extraordinary magical talent managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you two escaped with nothing but scars, while Lord Voldemort’s powers were destroyed?”
There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now, and Nessy forced Harry to back away two steps from Tom Riddle. Nessy was eyeing Riddle strangely.
“Why do you care how we escaped?” said Harry slowly, unsure about Nessy’s reaction. “Voldemort was after your time.”
Riddle let out his high, cold laugh reasoning throughout the whole Chamber, and realisation hit Nessy.
“Tom Marvolo Riddle!” she said, her voice shaking. “I would recognise that laugh and that red gleam anywhere…I am Lord Voldemort!”
A heavy silence followed Nessy’s words, which Riddle smiled even more broadly.
“Yes, Nessy, very clever of you,” he whispered. “You see? It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You both 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, Nessy. 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!”
They couldn’t feel their hands anymore. They were both feeling numb, staring wide-eyed at Riddle, at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder Harry and Nessy’s own parents, and so many others…
“You’re not the greatest sorcerer in the world,” Harry said, his quiet voice full of hatred.
“What?” snapped Riddle.
“Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer in the world!” Nessy snapped, breathing fast. “Even when you were strong, you never dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Everyone says so. Dumbledore saw right through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you’re hiding these days, because Albus Dumbledore was and is still, the only one you’ve ever feared.”
The smile had gone through 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'll never be gone!” Harry retorted loudly.
“Not as long as those who remain are loyal to him!” Nessy added.
Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.
Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; made Harry and Nessy’s heart feel as though they were swelling to twice their normal size. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Harry and Nessy felt it vibrating inside their ribs, 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 raged bundle.
A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry and Nessy. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at their feet, then flew around the chamber. Harry and Nessy looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and beady black eyes.
“This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and an old hat!” Riddle said mockingly. “Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Nessy Jinx? Do you two feel safe now?”
Harry and Nessy exchanged a look, courage spreading through their veins, they had each other, and they didn’t feel as alone as they thought.
“To business,” said Riddle, still smiling broadly. “Twice – in your past, in my future – we have met. And twice I failed to kill you both. How did you both survive? Tell me everything. The longer you two talk,” he added softly, “the longer you two stay alive.”
Harry and Nessy exchanged another look. Riddle had their wands, and they had Fawkes and the Sorting Hat. It looked bad, all right. But the long Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny… and in the meantime, Harry and Nessy could see that Riddle’s outline was becoming clearer, more solid by the second. If it had to be a fight between them and Riddle, better sooner than later.
“No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked us,” said Harry abruptly. “We don’t even know ourselves. But we know why you couldn’t kill us. Because, our mothers, Lily Potter and Cassia Jinx, died to save us. Our common Muggle-born mothers,” he added, shaking with supressed rage.
“They stopped you killing us,” Nessy added, her eyes were icy now, “And we’ve seen the real you, we saw you last year. You’re a wreck. You’re barely alive. Nothing more but shadow and vapour. That’s where all your power got you. You’re in hiding, powerless and weak!”
Riddle’s face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile.
“So. Cassia Jinx and Lily Potter, died to save you both. Yes, that’s a powerful counter-charm. I can see now – there is nothing special about you two, after all. I wondered, you see. Because there are strange likeness between us all, Harry Potter and Nessy Jinx. Even you two must have noticed. Half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only three Paselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. But after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you both from me. That’s all I wanted to know.”
Harry and Nessy stood, tense, clutching each other’s hand tighter than ever, waiting for Riddle to raise a wand. But Riddle’s twisted smile was widening again.
“Now, Harry, Nessy, I’m going to teach you both a little lesson. Let’s match the powers of Lord Voldemort, heir of Salazar Slytherin, against the famous Harry Potter and Nessy Jinx, both united by fate, and with the best weapons Dumbledore can give them.”
He cast an amused eye over the Sorting Hat at their feet and walked away. Harry and Nessy 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 – but Harry and Nessy understood what he was saying.
“Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four.”
Harry and Nessy wheeled around to look up at the statue.
Slytherin’s gigantic stone face was moving. Horror-struck, Harry and Nessy saw 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.
Harry and Nessy looked at each other fearfully, then they both bolted around and started running as fast as they could. Hearing something huge hit the floor of the chamber, Harry and Nessy felt it shudder under their feet.
“Kill them!” they heard Riddle hissing. “Paseltongue won’t help you this time! He listens to me!”
Harry and Nessy were running as fast as their legs could carry them, but they felt the Basilisk behind them, coming nearer and nearer. They could see its shadow on the high wall. They both saw the Basilisk rise, ready to strike. It was going to kill them both, no matter how fast they ran. In one split second, Nessy made up her mind. She pushed Harry sideways, sending him crashing against the wall, just as the Basilisk struck right at her.