CHAPTER 12: THY RIDDLE CONSUMED

THE BOY-WHO-SLEW

By Martin McKenzie

Dementors, our greatest nightmares comes surfacing at their presence alone, we fear them and with good reason, they deliver a fate worse than death to the prisoners on death row on Azkaban, magic does little to stop them, and those who dare to face them hand-to-hand succumb to their fears.

But this wasn't the case of Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived once again defies the odds like he did last year and the day he stopped the dark lord he-who-must-not-be-named by actually battling two dementors and killing them both.

The feat alone of surviving a Dementor makes anyone a hero, but to kill two? Beings that are considered immortals fell at the hand, the wand and the whip of the boy-who-lived; many wonder how he did it? But the real question here is why two dementors who serial numbers match two dementors dispatched to apprehend a criminal that escaped custody ended up trying to kiss the hero of the wizarding world?

No announcements have been made by Minster Cornelius Fudge, but head of the DMLE Amelia Bones stated the following:

"We shall not rest until the truth of this treacherous attack on Mr. Potter and to the Weasley family, and the one responsible for it is brought to justice…I also hold no mercy or sympathy if Mr. Potter were to get a hand on the responsible of the attack, I pity the poor fool"

Here at the Daily Prophet we want to express our indignation for such lowly attack and our support to Mr. Potter in his future endeavors and possible victory on his duel"

"…Okay Harry, spit it"

"Eh…what do you mean Hermione?" Harry asked nervously, looking around and trying to find some supports from his friends and quasi-friends from the form Hermione Granger holding the edition of the Daily Prophet which detailed his encounter with the pair of dementors.

"Don't look at me" Cedric mumbled.

"I'm not as crazy as you" Seamus stated.

"You're on your own dude" Dean added.

"Don't even think about it" Astoria and Daphne stated.

"Escape is futile" Cho mumbled.

"…I'm not getting between you and the crazy Muggleborn" Draco said.

"…Uh…no mate" Neville stammered.

"I haven't reached the chapter of subsiding determined girls" Ron stated.

"You brought it upon yourself" Ginny mumbled.

Harry turned then to Luna, his last hope, his last glimmer of freedom and salvation…

"…Did you have the Dementors cloak?"

"Oh yeah…oh bloody hell" Harry said the wrong thing there, Hermione immediately lost it and tried to choke Harry to death, all while Luna observed with that dreamy look on her eyes.

"I heard Dementor cloaks are good to scare Nargles, can I borrow one?"

"Uh…Lovegood…I doubt he can answer you?" Cho muttered, "Why? He is still alive and breathing"

"Not for long you crazy daredevil blockhead!" Hermione swore as she kept chocking Harry.

That continued for a whole minute until Hermione grew bored and let Harry of her chokehold, Harry gasped sweet air while keeping is distance of the bushy haired witch, not that it helped much in the train compartment.

As Hermione calmed down (if slightly) the environment of the compartment was once again shattered by Draco's random (yet well funded question)

"Have you already decided the rules for your duel?"

Harry considered Draco's question, truth to be told with all that happened during the past holidays and after recovering of the Dementor attack and aftershock, he didn't had much of a time to think about the small timer Nott and the duel, but Draco had a valid point, he had a blatant advantage against Nott, he had to capitalize that chance the moron gave him.

"Well no considering that I had too much fun in the holidays" Harry began, making all cringe at that, being attacked by a Dementor was bad enough, but two?

Of course only Ron and Ginny knew about Harry's little adventure to the island of fates and subsequent destruction, and of course what Harry saw when the dementors came in contact with him, they swore secrecy because this was a very personal thing for Harry, he had relived his mother last moment and was perhaps the only person who had seen the face of the dark lord before his fall and lived to tell the tale.

"But you do have a point there" Harry said, "I have an advantage over Nott, I can make the field of combat MY field of combat, to submit to MY will, to make Nott move at the pace I set on him, of course I will make sure that the unforgivable curses are not used and that the match ends once the opponent is unconscious, not disarmed" Harry stated to the group.

"Is a…" Draco failed to find a proper answer, being raised as a pureblood and look down Muggle strategies; including the ones of warfare he didn't find the logic behind Harry's obsession with the combat field overall state, after all wizard wars were more like 'shoot all you got and pray you hit the bad guys' kind of war.

Seeing that Draco was about to melt his brain wondering that about, Hermione decided to enlighten him in the ways of Muggle warfare.

"Muggle wars, unlike Wizard wars are determined not by the size of the army, but of the battlefield and the generals that command the troops, one example is the battle of Thermopylae, the combined forces of the Greeks, spearheaded by the Spartans stood their ground against the numerical superior Persian army, they held two whole days with minimal loses and inflicting a brutal defeat to any wave of the Persian army send to them including the immortals due to the fact they position themselves on a narrowed rock passage that countered the large number of the Persian army and allowed the Greek to inflict heavy loses to the Persian army…albeit they got betrayed by one of their own and got butchered in the end" Hermione mussed, much to the shocked look of the purebloods in the compartment.

"The point is that Harry is thinking like a Muggle when it comes to combat, the army who knows the field beforehand and holds and advantageous position usually has half the battle won, things like the opposing army preparation, superior training and equipment…"

"Hermione enough you're going to fry his brain" Ron droned off, seeing Draco blink owlish at the information the Muggleborn girl relayed to him and everyone with a will to hear.

"Uh…just out of morbid curiosity…how bad Muggle wars are?" Daphne asked, Harry and Hermione looked at each other, like trying to decide to either broke the truth nicely or be brutally honest with them.

"…Bloody and brutal, cities are leveled, men die by the hundreds, weapons are made by the thousand, there is no rules in war, is kill or to be killed, win by any means necessary, the streets run red with the blood of soldiers and citizens alike, the dead cries of the fallen are lullabies for those who live to see another day, there is no good or evil in wars, the winner always have the right to write history as he sees fit…it is the ambrosia for the gods of war" Hermione concluded, making all stare at her.

"Just saying that they butcher each other like animals would have sufficed" Cho muttered with a bored tone, "You seem surprised Chang" Harry droned, "And that means'" the girl asked.

"Well considering we saw you with a samurai armor last Halloween I supposed you were a half-blood" Harry said.

"I am a pureblood Harry, my mother is Japanese, my father is Chinese, the armor belonged to one of my ancestors who lived during the Meiji era and was lucky enough to live off that era, unlike many other samurais of his time…the fact that a dark lord arose at that time there kinda put the nail in the coffin to the samurai" Cho muttered.

"Oh…I never realized how wizards and Muggle wars intertwined so intimately" Harry said, "And speaking of ancestors, did you know I was related to Blackbeard?" Hermione's head whipped so fast to face Harry all swore they heard some bones in her neck snap.

"Did you just say Blackbeard? As Blackbeard the famed werewolf hunter?" he nodded, "Apparently he was named after the Muggle pirate with the same nickname, hell did you know I'm related to the black knight and Vlad the impaler?" Hermione shook her head slowly.

"Vlad the impaler? How the hell…" Dean muttered, "Who is Vlad the impaler?" Cedric asked, "Muggle Romanian hero, he led an army to repel the ottoman army from conquering Romania an in extension Wallachia, he is known as the impaler for his unique method of execution, impaling the surviving enemies on stakes as a way to lower the morale of his opponents, he is one of the first people who used physiological warfare with success" Hermione said with a slight revering tone, "He was also the inspiration of Bram Stoker to create Dracula" she added.

"…Did you also know that he was a famous vampire hunter?" Luna muttered with a dreamy look, all turned their heads to her, "Since vampires are in essence immune to damage he stuck them on pikes and let them burn when the sun rose…kinda sadist, but effective" she added.

"…Potter…your ancestors are sick" was all Draco muttered as he pulled a book of his trunk and tossed it at Hermione, the Muggleborn girl glared at Draco for the obvious disregard of the sacred books (in her way of seeing them) then she smiled slightly when she saw the contents of the book.

"So…the idea of a duel association still stands?"

Severus Snape is and always will be a very complicated man who holds grudges beyond the necessary time which is something all knows, he is still considering on sending a Boggart to Sirius for his little stun back in their school years involving Lupin and a full moon.

He is also know as a man who is forged the old fashioned way, meaning his brain can't process the image of Slytherin consorting with Ravenclaws, or Slytherin actually dating Hufflepuffs, or the worse of them all, Slytherin befriending Gryffindors.

It was madness, utter madness, a radical change that no one was getting used to so easily, he for one part wanted to hex the next Hufflepuff git that dared to kiss one of the Slytherin flowers.

Pomona seemed ill at the concept of her 'Puffs dating Slytherin students, she was positively ill, but she hid it quite well it seemed, after all the once 'outcast' house was consorting with other house, when before the houses would stick with their own.

Flitwick didn't knew what to think when he saw the cunning Slytherin actually sharing tips with his fellow ravens, or working with the 'Puffs and Gryffindor, it was a startling visage to see such unity since…well ever!

To McGonagall it was a new, fresh start, ever since she has been in Hogwarts it has always been fights, points gathering and an almost endless competition that has created a conflict among the houses, true she respected the four founder wishes of creating four houses for children who showed certain traits, but surely they didn't saw the conflict stem for this…or did they?

But the headmaster was the one who was having the kicks out of this situation, for many years the sorting hat has been singing about unity and companionship, it was mostly ignored due because most people only saw the sorting hat as that, the sorting hat, an artifact that helped in sorting students into the four houses, not as the object that once belonged to Godric Gryffindor and was imbued with the shadow consciousness of the four founders, hence the reason it was able to sort students into the four houses easily and served as a link to the deceased founders, even if it was for a moment.

As the traditional welcoming banquet followed it course, Albus had his sight focused on Harry, the events of the holiday let him with a lot to think, Harry now knew the prophecy, thanks to the island and Harry's fate construct.

Truth to be told, the fate construct that reflected a default Harry, a Harry without the intervention of a man who gave Harry a reason to fight back was a little…dark, its eyes reflected a lot of pain and suffering, the kind of suffering that would break a man's mind and soul.

Comparing that Harry with the current Harry, it was obvious that the current Harry was far more prepared to fight that the default Harry, the fact remained in what he saw, the default Harry didn't had his holly wand, or determination, he seemed more driven in ending the battle for the sake of stopping the horror and saving what was left of his sanity than anything else.

The current Harry would fight, keep fighting even against the odds, would not stop at nothing that was certain, he blamed himself for the life Harry endured, but that harsh life made him the boy he is, different, with a strong will, of course he was still human and could be affected by strong happenings around him, losing a dear friend, a familiar, his heart was not made of stone so he could endure that, he could hide it well however.

But there were some positive things that came out of it; Harry had unintentionally made what other headmasters, headmistress, students, teachers and the head board was unable to do ever since the founding of Hogwarts, he had united the four houses.

It was a change that was brought also by the formation of the fifth house, Dolores, a house which pureblood ways were borderline to the ones of the Death Eaters Voldemort employed during the last war.

Now that he gave it a good thinking about it, he owed this unity not only to Harry, but to Dolores Umbridge obsession with pureblood and irrational fear to half-breeds and to Voldemort scheme back in Harry's first year that basically showed all a truth that many tried to hide or ignored.

Alone they would fall against the dark lord, united the dark lord would stand no chance.

But there was something troubling him, where were the members of the house of Dolores? They have been missing ever since they entered Hogwarts, they did come in the train as confirmed by Hagrid and McGonagall, and something was up.

But what?

Any train of thought about the scheming members of the house of Dolores died out when he saw several students of several years gather on what used to be the Gryffindor table, now filled with Slytherins, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs of all ages and years, hearing something that Harry was telling them.

"Oh yes, surely another plot of Harry to make sure the Dolores house life a living hell"

He surveyed his…subjects, for what he had learned of Dolores, he had once the biggest, most fearsome group of wizard and witches at his command, all commanding the most fearsome dark arts ever, doing what every self-respected wizard or witch should do.

Kill Muggles like the little bugs they were and making sure muggleborns were eradicated of the face of the world like the trash they were, showing who the superior species in the world was.

Yes he knows that the overall extinction of the human race and replacement for a community of pureblood wizards was almost impossible when non-magical beings outnumbered wizard 100 to 1, and every day their numbers grew larger while theirs diminished.

He stared at the assembled students of the house of Dolores, sons and daughters of the ones that followed him…well his older self, he could clearly see that the house of Dolores was the smallest of them all; even Ravenclaw had more students than them, which was a downright insult.

He stared at Nott, like he expected the boy was no match against Harry Potter in any way possible, the brat had killed two dementors, alone, without the need of a patronus, that was enough to make him rethink his observations about the boy, Harry Potter could easily overpower him in his current form, physically Harry was stronger than him, and seemed to enjoy and relish in inflicting horrible bodily harm onto his enemies without regard for their welfare, a tactic that he didn't employed often.

Harry would maul him and any other wizard that attacked him, also he seemed to be a duelist of an old breed, meaning the duelist who used weapons and their fists along with their wands to defeat their opponents, he always thought they were an extinct breed, but it seemed that Harry Potter was the last…

"No…the Weasley boy and the mudblood are also of that breed" he thought with some apprehension, how many dark lords have fell at the hand of a duelist wielding a sword, their skulls getting crushed by a morning star, or stabbed with a dagger, or burned alive with acid, or having their necks snapped with just a flick of a pair of hands.

He had to think a way to make sure that the Potter boy could be defeated in the duel against Nott.

"Polyjuice…nah, I'm not going to turn into that pathetic boy, albeit he has potential, but against Potter he would be putting a Nundu against a goblin, the goblin would be trashed, mauled, gutted and stomped away…taking one of his friends…" that idea died as soon as it came, last person who used one of Harry's friends, so he heard, lost a hand, his leg was shattered and ended kissed by a Dementor.

But that was the most solid idea ever…unless…

"Yes…HE could do it…"

Tom Marvollo Riddle was as every bit as evil as his older self; this was proven true when he turned to the gathered students of Dolores, a creepy smile on his face, well creepy to the guys because the girls were drawn to it like moths to the fire.

"My friends…I have an idea to bring the Potter boy down"

January 23rd…

"So…you want to form a dueling club?" McGonagall at first glance at this motley crew thought it was a practical joke, hell she still believes it, several students of all years, mostly second and third years, the oldest being the fifth year Cedric, and she is not surprised, leading the crew was no other than Harry Potter, already in his second year and stirring the wasp hive even more.

"Yet again…" she thought with some bitterness, the attacks on the four houses seemed to intensify even more, despite the warning of the headmaster, but unlike last time, now there was no real culprit to apprehend, several students were stunned or petrified before they could even act, then beaten and left unconscious on the halls, never being able to identify their aggressors, but all knew that their aggressors where the members of the house of Dolores.

"I hope you have the activity list for this club" McGonagall had her answer when Hermione slipped her the sheet of paper holding the number of activities the club would undertake.

"Hmm…spell recognition, counter-spells, mock war duels…Mr. Potter why there is hand-to-hand curriculum here?" the Scottish professor asked, "That ain't mine, my recommendation is in fact the last two" McGonagall focused her sight then on the last two items of the list.

'The floor and your opponent, how to use it to break your opponent' and of course 'blunt inflicted concussions, don't knock it until you try it'

McGonagall right eye twitched and her mouth narrowed to a fine line, trust Harry 'blunt as a troll club in the nads' Potter to put that on a dueling club, but yet again that was how he worked.

"Then I pray ask who put this?" she asked, "I did" Ron said, "Is that so…why?" the transfiguration professor asked.

"Well, Hermione kinda theorized that if we are faster with our fists then we are faster with our wands, besides we will sometimes lack our wands, and most wizards have fallen because they were disarmed and had other means to fight back" Ron said, "Besides most wizards believe that when you lose your wand you lose your will to fight, so they will lower their defenses…is the perfect moment to strike" Ron added with a smirk, McGonagall had to admit, seeing Ron smirk was like seeing Snape dressing in pink, utterly disturbing.

McGonagall surveyed each student with a critical eye, knowing full well that they waited for a positive response, and truth to be told she was growing tired of seeing Poppy stressed out by the attacks and attending half of Hogwarts in the infirmary, it was her job true, but no nurse is suited to attend the needs of half a wounded school alone.

"Okay then, I will supervise your dueling club, I believe you already have a place to host the meetings I believe" she said, there Harry and Hermione joined Ron on their slight evil smile.

"Sure…follow us" Harry said as he guided the student procession towards the seventh floor, once they reached the hall where the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy who was still trying to teach trolls ballet hung, once they arrived to a dead end, Harry began to pace in front of a wall three times, to the surprise of those who didn't knew the location of the room or how to summon the door it was a surprise to see a door materialize out of thin air.

Harry opened the door to let them all in, once inside all saw a massive room that could pass as the Hogwarts Great Hall in height, pillars held the ceiling while a polished marble like floor, the room was littered with actual dummies for practice, and a dueling ring, along with chairs so people could sit.

"Welcome to the room of requirement professor McGonagall" Harry proclaimed, making McGonagall smile, when she believed that Harry would stop surprising her she was proven wrong again and again.

"We will do all the meetings here" Hermione declared, "You have already seen our activity sheet and our limitation of members" Hermione said, "Yes…I have seen you will not accept any Dolores student in this dueling club, may I inquire why?" McGonagall asked, she was wary of their answer, this could either sink them or keep them afloat literally speaking.

"Simple, according to Hogwarts: a history"

"Here we go again" Harry muttered to Ron, making Hermione shoot a dirty glance at Harry, "There is a clause under law 66 that allow us to 'ignore' members of another house if there is backing of at least two of the four houses; this is to prevent conflicts inside clubs, now the four houses have unanimously vetoed the house of Dolores of not only this club but of all clubs for their actions against the four houses and the students welfare" Hermione said calmly, but McGonagall could detect a little of malice and satisfaction on her voice for what she had done.

"You do realize that you are basically fanning the flames?" she asked, and it was truth, a truth all in the room knew, and had been exposed more than once to Hermione when she proposed to vetoed the house of Dolores.

"They brought this upon themselves" and she answered in the same way she answered the rest, karma some might say, others that this was just retribution for all those wounded by the house members of the house of Dolores, to Hermione it was just a way to show that even they, pureblood elitist morons were unable to stop a determined woman like her, it helped too that she had a bone to pick with them, no one touched her Ron, no one.

McGonagall sighed in apprehension, they were right in a way, just like Umbridge had used the rules to her favor, now those same rules would be used against her own students, and she was even more apprehensive to see the outcome of the match between Harry and Theodore, either way the school loses a lot.

"Okay…when the club activities start?" she asked once again, "Past-tomorrow, we will pass along the word with the people gathered here; we want to have a club formed by the four houses and to learn self-defense, we both know that is just time that things will require all the available hands to fight" Harry replied to the deputy headmistress, looking her dead in the eye, she knew what he was referring to, the Horcruxes, as long those blasted things remained around Voldemort would keep on living, that was a harsh truth, worse of it the man had used one of the relic of the founders to create the dark artifact, an insult to what Hogwarts stood for, and insult to the houses, especially to Ravenclaw, Flitwick was out for blood for that little stun.

"I hope you all know what you are doing" Harry nodded solemnly to the deputy headmistress, he knew what she was referring to, this sole action was a escalation in the conflict between the four houses and the house of Dolores, an escalation that would not be left unanswered, repercussions would follow and the little house war would end in February 28th.

Of course the days separating them would stretch longer than anyone would desire once 'it' began to happen.

Many called it 'Dolores last desperate offensive'

January 27th…

"I tell you Malfoy you hit like a girl" Ron said with a smirk, the fact the four houses were united by a common goal and foe didn't meant that some old fights had died out, example of this was the Malfoy-Weasley bickering, more ancient than the Granger-Weasley bickering, and less fun than the latter, true the unity the houses had had mellowed those fights, but it would never die out.

"I do not!" Draco exclaimed with an indignant huff, is not his fault his father had taught him the fine pointers of how to properly duel with a wand and not how to fight with his fists, unlike Potter he doesn't find beating an opponent with a metal chair or slamming their heads to the ground a fitting way to defeat them.

Satisfying yes, but not befitting.

"Oh yes you…" the moment both rounded the corner of one of the many halls of Hogwarts, they stopped dead on their tracks when they saw a person on the ground, decked in the colors of the Slytherin house, one Draco recognized.

"Pansy?" Draco called, approaching the fallen girl, when he reached her he fell to his knees when he saw her current state.

Pansy Parkinson lay on the ground, her body on a position hard to maintain while laying on the ground, when Draco poked her he found with horror that Pansy's body was as hard as a rock, her right hand held a single handheld mirror, her books lay tossed all over the ground, her face held a perpetual expression of shock.

"No…" Draco then turned to Ron who seemed to have paled when he saw one of the walls of the hall, he turned as well to see what had Ron so spooked, and he got scared himself as well.

On the wall lay written in blood a single blood chilling message.

The chamber of secrets has been re-opened, enemies of the heir beware.

"Oh Merlin no" Draco moaned in fright, and with good reason he did, things were just going to get ugly, really ugly.

January 29th…

"Petrified?" Harry asked to Hermione, "She shows all the classic symptoms of a forceful petrification, most seen with creatures that can cause such thing to living beings" Hermione stated, staring at the still pale Draco, two days and he was still in shock for the message and what had happened to Pansy.

"It has no sense…only…" Draco measured his words as well, especially the one most pureblood elitist used, "Muggleborns were suppose to be attacked once the chamber was opened, it has no sense at all" Draco racked his head, trying to find an explanation for what had happened.

"This Chamber of Secrets, what got inside that has you so spooked?" Cedric asked, "History tells that Salazar Slytherin was not too fond of accepting Muggleborns into Hogwarts once it was founded, he had a row with Godric Gryffindor, at that time great friends, because of the topic they broke their friendship and parted ways…but before he left Hogwarts he built a secret room, a room no one knows it's true location, a room that contained a beast, some call it Salazar's most faithful pet, an ancient dragon, some say an Alpha Nundu, an Acromantula" Draco seemed very edgy in that moment.

"No one knows for certain, but all knew what would happen when the true heir of Salazar Slytherin returned to Hogwarts…he would carry the mission Salazar failed to fulfill…cleanse the halls of Muggleborns" Draco finished with a scared look.

"Mum always told me that the chamber was rubbish" Daphne stated, "It doesn't sound rubbish to me Greengrass" Harry said with crossed arms, "Indeed, from what I could gather from Draco, this 'beast' must have petrification properties so it can attack its victims…a medusa might fit the bill" Hermione began.

"No dice, Gorgons petrify their victims, as in turn them in stone, maybe cockatrices, but they also turn people in stone with a glance, and sometimes their glance can actually kill, the weasel being the only animal immune to its stare" Cho summarized.

"Hear that weasel, you are immune to being glared to death" Draco attempt of joke was empty considering he was scared out of his bones and Ron would not fall for the bait, albeit it helped to lighten the mood slightly.

"Then coming to the library was a waste because only a basilisk would fit the bill of what we look, but they are a real bitch to breed, let alone feed one, they are not know for leaving people alive you know" Cedric said with a exasperated look, standing up and grabbing his books he left the library.

Harry stared at the retreating Hufflepuff, and then sighed, "This is starting to affect a lot of people" he mentioned, "Indeed this tension will have consequences on the long run, and its already starting to show…people are cautious, edgy…one false move, one bad commentary will set them off like a Muggle bomb" Ron replied with a narrowed gaze on the group.

"I believe the same, question is when?" Harry wondered, "This will only end once Harry wins his duel of that I'm certain…have you already decided what kind of rules you will apply?" Cho asked, Harry was about to answer when he hear it.

Kill…let me kill…rip, shred…kill, so hungry…kill…

"Did you guys hear that?" Harry asked, the group looked at Harry oddly, "Hear what Potter, we heard nothing, and we would have heard it with the silence in this place" Draco snapped.

Kill…

"Guys I'm not joking, I'm hearing some weird stuff" Harry said, "Is just nerves Harry, breathe, find your center and you'll be fine" Ron assured.

Found one…

"Oh god" Harry suddenly shot away of the library, panic etched on his face, he ran along the halls, seeing with some shock how spiders crawled away of the cracks of the walls, fleeing something.

Then he reached someone, someone who just stood there, he recognized the person as Colin Creevey, a first year like Ginny, Gryffindor as well, and avid photographer, you could see him taking a picture of something or someone, he had basically photographer half of Hogwarts and half of the student body, and in most pictures Harry appeared in them, not that Harry was angry at Colin for doing this, but at least he could ask.

"Colin, are you okay?" Colin didn't answer or moved, in fact he seemed…

"Petrified…no" Harry rushed at Colin, when he touched him he confirmed his suspicious, Colin had been petrified, his camera on his face, looking around, Harry spotted two students of Dolores who looked rather smug, all while accompanied by a Slytherin he had never seen before.

Harry gritted his teeth together in slight pain, that face he had seen it before, long ago…

"No" the two Dolores students and the unknown Slytherin were gone before Harry could attack him, now he knew who was behind the attacks.

"Harry?" he turned when he heard the voice of Dumbledore, he looked stricken by another petrified student, like any headmaster would, and Harry by his part looked at the headmaster grimly.

"Headmaster…we got a big problem"

February 1st…

The 'big problem' as Harry called it was just the tip of the iceberg for many, even when Harry had identified the strange Slytherin as no one else as Tom Marvollo Riddle, a student that had graduated of Hogwarts fifty years ago when the chamber was last opened, a model student whenever you looked at him, charismatic, charming, strong in magic, prefect and head boy, also an orphan, yet that seemed unimportant to Harry once he learned from the headmaster who Tom would turn into.

Lord Voldemort.

Harry still had a hard time believing that the boy he saw would in time turn into the monster that nearly brought Europe to its knees, it was mind fogging to think someone would turn into something like that, especially considering that most orphans would rather try to form a family and get a life than to try to take over the world, what had motivated Tom to become Lord Voldemort?

Any train of thought died out as he entered the infirmary wing, Madam Pomfrey looked slightly overworked, and seemed to have skipped several hours of sleep, "Madam Pomfrey?" the medi-witch turned to see Harry, standing near one of the beds.

"Hello Mr. Potter, I trust you're not here to be attended" she asked, "Nah, scraps on the knees and knuckles are not something worth of your time and patience" he said teasingly, she slightly smiled at that, at least one student was not in the infirmary moaning in pain for slight scarps.

"…How is he?" Harry asked, Madam Pomfrey grew serious at that moment, moving aside to expose another petrified student, Justin Finch-Fletchey, another petrified student, and somehow another person near his bed as well, Nearly-headless Nick, not a person, more like a ghost, also petrified.

"How a ghost can be petrified?" Harry asked, hell he was more wondering how they were able to set Nick on a bed without him passing trough it due to his ghostly nature.

"His petrification has make him rather solid Harry, this attacks must stop" she muttered with some apprehension, Justin and Nick were not the only victims so far, besides Pansy, Colin and them, Mrs. Norris, Cho and most recently Severus were petrified as well, the last one being found near a set of well polished armors that acted as make-shift mirrors and with wand in hand, recently fired, and a pool of blood and something that seemed like an eye.

"Think Harry, these attacks are not exactly random, they look more like attacks for fun, purebloods, muggleborns and half-bloods have been attacks, Snape has been the only one to show signs of defending himself, whatever he did actually wounded the attacker, now what they have in common?" Harry thought with some apprehension, this was something unique, all petrified, none as died as of yet, and the Mandrakes needed for the draught that would undo the petrification was still brewing, even more it was Snape who was brewing it, with him petrified the draught was delayed a lot until they could find a certified potion master that could brew it.

"What they have in common?" Harry wondered out loud, Pansy was found with a broken mirror in hand, Colin had his camera on his face, Mrs. Norris was found near a water pool, Cho had been found near the stairs with a fallen axe reflecting her face, Snape was found near a set of armors that acted as mirrors due to their well polished surfaces, and Justin had been petrified while staring at the ghost of the Gryffindor house, while this one had been petrified because his eyelids were transparent…

"That's it" he said in a gasp, turning to the medi-witch, "Each victim was found near a reflective surface, something that reflected the attacker…" any train of thought died when the doors of the infirmary were open wide and Remus entered, carrying on his arms a petrified Hermione, her right arm poised to stare at her watch reflective surface, her left hand had a lot of books tucked in, she held surprise on her face, Ron was trailing behind, looking between worried sick and murderous.

"I found her near the library" Remus said with a grimace, Harry now had an identical look like Ron, instead of worry mixed with rage Harry had just untamed rage and bloodlust for whoever did this to his friend.

"The clock saved her" Harry growled out, Remus stared at Harry with a raised eyebrow, "Every victim had something that reflected or lessened the effects of this petrification" Harry said with a snarl, "I see…so we are dealing with a creature that petrifies if its gaze is reflected, that rules the gorgons and a cockatrice out, their reflected gaze is harmless" Remus said.

Ron kept looking at Hermione, then noticing something tucked on her right hand, reaching for her hand he found she held a paper firmly on her hand, with a mighty effort he was able to open her hand and take the paper, then narrowed his eyes.

"Is a basilisk" was all Ron said with a snarl as he tossed the paper to Harry, there he saw that Hermione had clued it before him and had actually figured it out the creature's true nature and why there were so many petrified people.

"The reflected gaze of the basilisk petrifies instead of kill, when facing one is recommended to stray out of the gaze of the basilisk then attempt to blind the creature, the gaze of the basilisk must be focused on you so the killing effect takes place" Harry said out-loud, after he ended reading he turned to the petrified bushy-haired girl.

"Smartest witch indeed, she had it all puzzled up before we could even think what was attacking us…and someone decided to silence her before she could spill the beans…I'm going to carve my name in the skull of whoever did this to her" Harry snarled.

"Not before I carve their still beating heart out of their chest and squeeze the life out of it" Ron added with such malice that Remus and Pomfrey took several steps back of Ron, Harry by his part looked at his friend with an amazed gaze, "I think I said it once but remind me never to piss you off"

February 8th…

Harry trek to the girl's bathroom on the second floor was not for fun or to peek the older girls, no he was not suicidal despite what others say, no he was going to that bathroom for a particular reason, he believed there was a connection to that bathroom to the chamber of secrets.

Apparently the only victim of the basilisk had been a Ravenclaw by the name of Myrtle, her body had been found in one of the stalls of the bathroom by a fellow student who mocked her, instead finding her body, quite an impression.

Harry suspected that her death was a mere casualty, being on the wrong place at the wrong time, the basilisk didn't chase her to the stall because Myrtle would have know, second she was not petrified because she didn't had her glasses on, which might have saved her, third, the basilisk was lured by the sobs of Myrtle, the thing didn't knew Myrtle was in the bathroom until it hear her sob, true all this was speculation, but it was well based speculation that could be confirmed if Myrtle's ghost answer his questions.

As he entered the bathroom, he heard someone sob, that was odd itself, until he remember who had died in this bathroom, "Okay girl come out and stop crying, ghosts don't cry" Harry said out loud, the moment he said that one of the stall began to gush water and a spectral form appeared out of it in a spectacular fashion, a female he noted with Piggy tails and glasses on, looking rather…disheveled.

"What do you want? is not enough girls come here to mock me, to scream at me?" the girl snarled angrily, "Hey relax Casper, I'm not here to mock ya, I'm here for answers" Harry declared.

"Answers, and who the bloody hell is Casper?" she asked, "You know, Casper the Friendly ghost?" she raised an eyebrow, "Never mind, anyway what can you tell me about the day you died?" he asked bluntly, true to a ghost to be asked how he or she died is a touchy subject, but he needed to confirm his suspicious.

"No much" the girl in a slight teasing tone, "Myrtle I'm not on the mood to be toyed with, there are lives in danger and I bet you don't want a life lost on your conscience because you decided to play a game" Harry said seriously, immediately the ghost sobered, but she looked at Harry with narrowed eyes.

"I sat in that stool" she pointed at the stall she had exited, "I was mocked by one of the students, I had no friends you know, I cried and cried…I removed my glasses so I could dry my tears, then I heard it" she paused, "Something had entered the room, I believe it was her again, trying to mock me again, so I opened the door, the next thing I knew was that I was staring at a pair of amber eyes, and I died" she said with such calm that it surprised Harry greatly.

"Is that so…I was right all along" Harry said to himself, "Myrtle the thing that killed you is a basilisk, its stare can kill you, if you had put your glasses on then you would have been petrified instead of being killed" Harry said, "Anyway you can't fix the past, this confirmed what I thought all along, the basilisk came here, it heard you and killed you, meaning the entrance to the chamber must be around here" Harry said, surprising Myrtle greatly.

"It is, although the question what part of the bathroom is the door that connect to the chamber, there must be a clue about it" Harry wondered out loud, giving his back to the lavatory, Myrtle just stared at Harry, then grew eye wide at something behind it.

"Myrtle you are a ghost, why don't you check the room for any hidden room…Myrtle?" Harry asked, looking at the shock looking Myrtle, much to his surprise there Myrtle collapsed to the ground, rigid as a 2X4 board; there he grew concerned himself, even more when he felt a shadow looming over him.

Against his better judgment he looked at one of the mirrors at his side attached to the lavatory, there he saw the basilisk reflection in all its frightening glory, from what he could see, the basilisk right eye was missing, it was a recent blow because the wound was still to heal properly, even more he could see some burn marks on the eye.

"Snape aim is as good as his ability to look intimidating" Harry thought with some apprehension, his left hand slowly reaching for his whip grip, something the basilisk seemed not to notice with his robes on.

"Okay Potter, you have one change, blind the thing and then you can kill it safely with Heca" Harry thought, his hand reached for his whip grip, grasping it, there all went silent and rigid, Harry had his eyes focused on the reflection, measuring the possible distance of the basilisk behind him, licking his lips Harry tried to calm his nerves and anxiety, feelings surely Ginny would feel trough their blood bond.

Harry waited for the right moment, moment that came once the basilisk opened its mouth, exposing two massive fangs that dripped with something akin to venom he assumed, and rows of smaller fang shaped teeth lined up like a shark teeth.

"Rip this!" Harry snarled, not knowing he had talked a foreign tongue, turning around fast, he let his momentum carry him and his whip, his whip cracker aimed truthfully at the remaining eye of the basilisk, all while Harry had his eyes closed.

The cracked met the eye and sliced it cleanly along with enough flesh on the ocular section of the basilisk, making it hiss and trash in pain, once he heard the all familiar sound of pain Harry opened his eyes, spotting the now blind basilisk flicking his tongue like crazy, tasting the air.

"Damn I forgot snakes have a very wicked thermal like sensor to track their preys" Harry thought angrily, overlooking the fact that the basilisk surely knew his position, he decided to take a gamble, at least the reaction time of the basilisk was not as fast as the one of an average snake, especially of a King Cobra, now that would have been bad.

Flicking his whip to the ground, his voice along with the sound attracted the attention of the basilisk that even blind turned to 'stare' at Harry with its damaged eyes.

"Come get some!"

And the basilisk rushed at Harry, he had to admit, to the colossal size of the snake, it moved fast, even more in the small bathroom.

"This is getting out of hand Dumbledore, at least six petrified students, just like fifty years ago" Fudge all but snarled to the headmaster of Ho

gwarts, Albus was not intimidated by Fudge, his fears or the three Aurors behind him, but Hagrid was and with good reason.

"I will not allow you to take Hagrid without solid accusations" Albus stated firmly, his wand held firmly on his hand, Fudge and of course the aurors were not too keen on dueling the strongest light aligned wizard of this time, they had grown with his legend, and they were not too fond of finding out how strong his stunners really are, considering they all say his stunners were enough to stun a dragon, to them it would be like a kick of a giant on the balls.

"Dumbledore he was apprehended once for…"

"The possession of a rare and dangerous animal, an Acromantula I assume correct, not for the petrification of several students and the death of one Myrtle Rosemary, in fact it was proven that her death was not by an injection of Acromantula venom, but instead a basilisk stare" Albus sole mention of a basilisk had the entire room on disarray.

"…We can't fight one!" one of the aurors stated, it was a well know fact that only a blind wizard that trained himself to duel by sound alone was able to effectively face a basilisk, and the fact remained that there were very few blind wizards, as barely two.

"I don't care what kind of monster you try to put the blame onto, the public demands a face to blame on" Fudge snarled, "And Hagrid being related to the incident by just a mere coincidence has to take the blame? You have gone low Fudge, very low, haven't you learned nothing of your experience with Sirius Black?"

"Don't mention that name Dumbledore, you are on thin ice" Fudge threatened, "NO…you should remember in which grounds you stand upon, this is MY school, MY rules, MINE" Dumbledore boomed, making Fudge to take several steps back, "Don't try to bully me with petty threats, you are already out of the seat Fudge, the public rarely forgets, especially when it comes to politics, you deliberately turned a blind eye when Peter Pettigrew escaped, something that nearly cost the lives of the Weasley clan and Harry Potter, you send that woman who has put my school in disarray, you have tried to cover the return of Voldemort by printing false news about Harry, calling him a liar, but everyone knows that Voldemort is back, and your actions have helped in his escape and recovery" Dumbledore stated seriously and firmly.

"Don't take me for a fool, all that has transpired so far has been your fault somehow, and you sending an innocent man for false accusations will be the final nail in your coffin" Dumbledore all but stated to Fudge.

"I don't care what you believe, this…man" Dumbledore narrowed his eyes at the way Fudge referred to Hagrid, "Will come with us to Azkaban unless there is solid proof of what you say, I will eat my own hat once I see this bloody basilisk!"

In that precise moment Pomona all but busted into the office, looking panicked, "Headmaster! Harry is fighting a bloody basilisk in the corridors of the second floor!" she screamed.

Dumbledore processed what she just told him, then that thought died when he heard a great explosion, followed with the usual sound of rubble raining down and of course Harry screaming.

"Die you overgrown purse die!" looking from outside his window, the headmaster and every occupant of the room could see Harry wildly stabbing his sharp whip cracker at the body of perhaps the biggest basilisk ever seen, a blind one mind you, but still a big one, trashing in pain and missing a fang, then as soon as it came it left by the same hole that now the ceiling of possibly the seventh floor had.

Slowly the headmaster turned to the shocked minister of magic, his eyes twinkling like mad despise the fact he saw the savior of the wizard world fighting a beast one thousand times his size with just a whip.

"Would you like mustard with your hat?" Fudge didn't answer, and with reason, he just got owned in the span of five seconds and learned one valuable lesson.

Albus Dumbledore always, ALWAYS, has the last word.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH! OFFF!" Harry skidded and rolled on the dirt that surrounded the forbidden forest, his glasses were cracked after the basilisk had decided to become the first living elevator and try to squeeze him on the roof of the seventh floor of Hogwarts, ending actually in breaking the ceiling.

Harry slowly crawled to his knees, glaring at the basilisk, just after trying to crush him with the roof, the basilisk had decided that an open space was a far better approach that the narrowed corridors of Hogwarts, and somehow lacking sight was able to slither its massive frame outside of the castle and into the forest outskirts were Harry currently was.

Flicking his whip hard, Harry got sure to drawn the attention of the basilisk, as he expected the basilisk arrived to his position rather fast, and like he expected, the exterior gave them both a tactical advantage, in the case of the massive snake it was the ability to move easily instead of trying to squeeze its way into narrowed spaces, to Harry it was the ability to hit now soft spot of the beast and move even better without being stalled by the narrowed halls.

The basilisk reared its massive body back, then lunged at Harry with great speed, the green eyed boy rolled to his right, ducking the lunge, then he flicked his whip and slammed it at the basilisk exposed side, the sharp cracker slicing cleanly on the skin of the beast, unlike trolls, the basilisk skin was not as thick and therefore the cracker sliced even deeper than with the troll.

The snake trashed in pain momentarily, then turned to Harry again, Harry again rolled, this time to the left side, the flicked his wand at the basilisk, "Heca!" the black spell hit the snake dead on the face, making the basilisk rear again in pain, even more considering that most of the wounds Harry inflicted on the castle were on the face, thus the impact of Heca on the face was far more painful than on other not wounded part.

I will eat you slowly you brat!

And now Harry knew who the voice he heard in the library belonged to, and who had petrified all those people with the intention of killing them.

"I'm going to make you pay for what you did to Hermione" anyone who might have been around there might had heard Harry hiss something, whatever it was it was something that denoted Harry's rage against the basilisk, and also put rather bluntly that Harry could speak to snakes.

The basilisk understood rather clearly what Harry said and didn't care a bit about, his master, his true master order was clear and the fact it he had met another speaker didn't make the orders cloudy, his master, the true heir of the house of Slytherin had gave him a command and he was going to carry it out.

CRACK!

As soon he disposes of the annoying other speaker that is slicing his flesh like his teeth slices the flesh of those he eats alive.

Harry panted as he kept using his whip and casting Heca on the basilisk, always keeping his distance of the head of the basilisk, the true danger, Harry realized after seeing Hermione's notes of the beast was not its stare, but its bite, a very corrosive and deadly venom that made a Black Mamba, Black Scorpion, Black Widow and Jellyfish venom and neurotoxin look like kid drinks, also basilisk venom was in fact one of the few substances that could destroy a Horcrux without adverse effects, although getting the venom is the tricky part.

Harry furrowed his brow as he attested the situation; the basilisk was still standing after such punishment, the many lacerations seemed to be unimportant to the beast, even being blind was unimportant, it was still standing.

He alone could not stand against such beast, not alone…

His train of thought was cut off as he was suddenly slammed to a tree trunk by the tail of the basilisk, the hit was followed by a crunch of several bones, his bones, groaning in pain Harry glared at the beast, his wand still in hand, the thing was getting close to him, ready to eat him whole.

"I'm going to blast you from the inside out" Harry called weakly as he began to fire several Hecas as the beast, each spell failing to hit its mark, there Harry realized that he was lacking his glasses as well, with a growl of frustration Harry kept shooting, hoping to hit the basilisk as it got closer, but each spell didn't hit the beast.

When all seemed lost for Harry, a stream of flames hit the basilisk on the face, the beast roared in pain and trashed as the flames licked the wounds on its face, Harry, without his glasses could not make who had shot that spell…

"Stay away of our friend!"

"Cedric?" Harry questioned, that question was followed by at least several stunners that hit the beast wounds, while the hide was thick enough to deflect spells of fourth grades, the open wounds were direct pathways to the softer flesh, and therefore more sought targets, and since most of the wounds where on the face and the body of the beast, then it was obvious that the basilisk was receiving a barrage of spells on the face and body exposed wounds.

"Good Merlin Potter how do you get into this situations?"

"Draco?" Harry asked again, "No I'm the Tooth Fairy"

"I told you Forge! Now you owe me one galleon"

"Stuff it Gred!"

"Guys…" Harry called weakly, he recognized the voices of Draco, Fred, George, and on the cacophony of spell shouts he recognized the voices of Cho, Luna, Pansy, Ron, of the professors and several more students who had assisted the dueling association.

Harry's cloudy sight soon focused on a red blur with a silver straight object in hand, climbing the basilisk and then stabbing the silver object on the head of the beast, the blurry basilisk trashed and tossed the red blur, but it seemed the damage was done as the beast died painfully.

"…Bloody hell that Weasley boy is crazier than you" he heard Draco mutter, and then Harry knew no more as he fainted, glad to know that his best mate had come for him.

"How is he Poppy" Dumbledore asked to the matron, "He will be okay, thankfully, the worse wounds on his body where his broken ribs and broken left arm, nothing some night of sleep, potions and some care can't fix, he will be up and running past tomorrow" Poppy Pomfrey stated seriously as she stared as the unconscious Gryffindor, laying on the bed of the infirmary wing, the only reason he was not on St. Mungos was because everyone would heard what he did, and what Fudge had done in order to stop the petrifications, absolutely nothing.

It still surprised Pomfrey to how lengths Cornelius Fudge was willing to go to protect what was left of his image and reputation, all at the expenses of others, especially at the ones of Harry.

"This boy just can't have some peace can't he?" she asked to Dumbledore, "Sadly not, it seems that Potters can't have some semblance of peace, is a sad reality that haunts them" Albus replied, "Especially Harry, the burden he shoulders is greater than any adult would dare to bear"

"(Sigh) I'm just glad his friends came to his aid, and those aurors also helped, I can't believe they abandoned Fudge in order to help a boy they barely know" she said with an amused smile, "Oh Poppy Harry is right on some things relating him, his name alone moves people, especially when he set an example to follow, the aurors that followed Fudge were Hufflepuffs, they didn't had many offensive spells or a will to fight, they joined the Auror corps for their family pressure, yet today they fought like men possessed for a boy who inspired them to fight" Albus said with a proud look on his eyes.

"Hopefully the petrifications will stop now, with the thing doing that dead thanks to Mr. Weasley and Slughorn helping with the draught we will have normality in a matter of days" she said, "Sadly that will not happen, remember that Harry still has a duel to fight, and I dare say that Harry and the others just stopped the object, not the wielder" with that the headmaster turned his gaze of Harry to his belongings, the wand that shared a core with the one of Voldemort's, quite a coincidence he believes, the odds of Harry possessing such wand was astronomical, yet it was a good coincidence, then there was the whip of Beriadan, the whip was strong he admits, with a Reducto curse and a Patronus charm imbued in it made harry a force to be recon with, but Harry needed a little more, the cracker did little to hurt the basilisk to kill it, so he supposed that he adding Snape's favorite and homemade cutting hex to the list of spells in the whip would help Harry in the long run, after all he did fought a basilisk and provided them with valuable material and the sword of Gryffindor now had basilisk venom added to the goblin steel blade, so he earned it.

That night…

The hospital wing looked downright scary in the darkness, not that the students lying there could actually say something about it, most of them were either petrified or were on a potion induced slumber, all but Harry, he seemed to be rather resilient to potions that forced the mind to do things, or magic of any sort for that matter.

The green eyed boy stared at the ceiling of the infirmary in contemplation, reminiscing of what had happened, he had been lucky, of that there was no doubt, hadn't been for the people on the DA he would be dead, albeit he would make himself sure that the basilisk would not enjoy its meal.

Harry meditated more on what he knew so far of the memories of Voldemort…the sole mention of him knowing what Voldemort knew and did up to that point made him sick, and his mind being the complex and wonderful thing had blocked all those memories until something triggered a specific portion, for example possessions that had come in contact with the madman, the diadem was one of those things that had triggered a particular memory regarding its transformation to Horcrux.

And when he learned about the basilisk, and of course his encounter with that unknown Slytherin that no one knew another memory was triggered, one that came with junction with the memory of the Horcrux diary Nott and Dolores had.

Now the thing was to get that Horcrux and destroy it, the destruction was the easy part, getting it would be the hard part…

"…Ginny? What are you doing here?" Harry's thoughts died when he saw Ginny looming over him, he easily recognized her for her red hair and the fact his blood link to her made it easier to recognize each other, even if disguised, although he wondered why he felt Ginny's feelings so messed up, she felt fear, but also rage and submission, albeit that one was forced.

"…Ginny?" Harry asked again, his answer came in the form of a stunner that hit him point-blank; his last conscious thought was why he felt such remorse of her even as she carried such a boring looking face.

At least one hour later…

"Ugh…bloody hell" Harry groaned, opening his eyes he was surprised to see that the white ceiling of the infirmary was replaced by a damp looking rock ceiling of a cave.

"Welcome Harry Potter, welcome" Harry eyes opened in an instant after hearing THAT voice, he would recognize it everywhere, after all some memories he had belonged to the boy who in a future would become…

"Voldemort" Harry hissed, slowly standing up, seeing that he still had his clothes on, how he kept his school robes and how Madam Pomfrey was able to heal him with those clothes on and without the need to change to the embarrassing hospital robes that expose your backside eludes him greatly, but he was thankful, he is not going to fight the dark lord in training with those robes on.

Harry spotted the young dark lord just meters of him, the appearance of the young Tom Riddle was a far cry of what he would look at least forty years in the future, for instance the young Riddle had actually hair, nose and lips, and was not deadly pale like its counter-part.

Slowly standing up, Harry spotted his whip and wand at his sides, in an instant he had both on his hands, and glared at the young dark lord in defiance, Riddle just smiled.

"How?" Harry asked, the question was not lost to Tom Riddle, "Is quite a history Harry I must say, when I created the diary I thought that I would need a spirit of a fool to completely become me once again, let's face it a spiritual version of myself does little damage compared to tone of flesh and bone" Tom said.

"Fortunately my diary fell on the hands of a woman who is quite sadist, and quite fond of blood quills" Tom said with a smirk, "Umbridge" Harry hissed, "Yeah, that one, even though I had some power thanks to Nott writing in my diary, and I saw his loyalties were to me I decided not to kill him, a pawn like him had better uses" Tom explained.

"…The duel was your idea" Harry said, "My you're smart, indeed it was mine, I suggested it to Nott who brought it to Dolores and you know the rest, but while I admit that giving you free reign on the rules was a tactical mistake I made on a rush it made of little consequence on the end…then Dolores suggested something on holidays when I realized that Nott would be your…how the Americans call it…ah yes, your bitch"

"…The Dementor attack, she used her influences on the Ministry of Magic to issue those two things to attack me" Harry called.

"Right! Now I realize why Nott and Dolores fear you, you are too sharp, you get it on the first beat" Tom Riddle said with a excited smirk, Harry noted how the area behind him was obscured by some sort of spell, nothing Tombe couldn't fix.

"Yet I have to still grasp how you, at the tender and pathetic age of one was able to thwart the greatest wizard of all times, how a mudblood was able to cast a spell so powerful that even acts today!" Tom said angrily, "What Riddle? Frustrated?" Harry said with a smirk, but one forced out, he wanted to punch Tom's teeth out for that comment on his mom.

"Don't act so smug Potter, I made a mistake of sending the basilisk after you in the grounds of Hogwarts knowing that you would fight the beast so you could get help, but now you are alone, and you're on my turf" Riddle said with a smirk, the black mist disappearing behind him, revealing a very big face carved on the stone of a bald bearded guy, right behind Riddle stood Ginny as well, her eyes glassed, like in a trance.

"Welcome Potter! Welcome to the chamber of Secrets!" Riddle said with a flourish, Harry just scowled, "…So this is the hole Salazar made so his pitiful dream of superiority of blood could come true…pathetic" Harry snarled, totally insulting the memory of one of the four founders.

"You see to enjoy insulting proper ideals Potter" Riddle said with a snarl, "People like Salazar have died in more gruesome ways, check human history and you will see that" Harry snapped, flicking his whip.

"Tch, you're not worth speaking Potter, so close minded" Riddle trailed off, "The so called purebloods are dying Riddle, the last war just caused their numbers to shorten even more, you think you can boost their numbers with them alone and killing everyone else? You're the one I waste my breath trying to reason with" Harry snapped.

"Oh but I won't kill everyone" Riddle then turned to Ginny, "For instance her…oh she will give me powerful heirs…"

BOOM!

Riddle jumped away as Ginny fell on her butt, the glassed look on her eyes dying out, her brown eyes returning to their normal luster, and when they did, she looked rather sick and pissed.

"GET YOUR HANDS OF HER BASTARD!" Harry snarled as he flicked his whip back, a deep hole/gash separated Riddle of an enraged Ginny, all courtesy of Harry's whip and the magic inside it.

"My you have a soft spot on her, and of course Ginny was able to break of the imperious curse…again" Riddle said, "I must say she is a strong one, she has broken down the curse as many times I have casted it, the only reason she held so much was because she was weakened and angered with me" Riddle said with a smirk, pulling a wand out.

"You were the reason I couldn't feel Ginny completely…why I just felt flickers of her emotions" Harry said with a snarl, seeing how Ginny stood up and pulled her own wand out, "Indeed, I must say that you two having a blood bond was surprising…so tell me Ginevra, how does it feel to know you will die with your beloved Harry Potter at your side?"

"I'm going to blow your head off!" Ginny screamed, the tip of her wand shooting sparks out, the magic around her fluctuating angrily, Tom just scoffed, "Such a waste of potential, pity you will die here" Riddle said, turning to the statue on the bottom of the room.

"Speak to me, greatest of the founders; speak to your heir Salazar the great! Help me cleanse the filth of your school!" Ginny eyes widened as she heard Riddle hiss, actually hiss like a snake at the statue, and the statue opening its mouth.

"You were naïve to think that Salazar, greatest of the four founders would leave just one basilisk to do the job" with that a second basilisk emerged out of the mouth of the statue, it was not as massive as the one Harry fought, and was also blind, its yellow eyes lacking its luster.

"It's blind" Harry simply stated, "defect of birth, yet it is as deadly as the one you fought, even more" Riddle said as he turned to the massive snake "Kill him, kill the one who is responsible of your father's demise" the blind snake hissed angrily at Harry, flicking its forked tongue at him.

"Ginny!" Harry yelled, "I'll deal with that bastard Harry! I have some scores to settle, you kill that thing!" Ginny screamed, rushing at the smirking Riddle, Ginny shot a powerful spell at Riddle, the boy in arrogance erected a shield, his arrogance would be squashed when her spell broke his shield and he felt part of the disarming spell power hit him, seeing him flying slightly.

"Hmm…I guess I will have to be a little…brutal with you" and with that he began to shoot spells at Ginny, the small red head began to zigzag, avoiding the spells with ease, launching her own at the young dark lord.

Harry had little time to admire how vicious Ginny dueled the man who would turn into a menace when the basilisk loomed over him, raising his hand he let an overpowered Heca fly at the exposed belly of the beast, the basilisk screamed in pain as Harry was able to move out of the way, then he flicked his whip at the beast, the basilisk seemed to stop in mid-lunge, only receiving a flesh wound instead of a deep gash, this surprised Harry.

He tried again and again, but every time the whip cracked, the basilisk dodged it with just flesh bounds, and it was getting rather annoying.

"This thing…" he said with a narrowed gaze, then inspiration struck him, quite literally, inspiration and some debris the basilisk somehow tossed to him with its tail hit him and the rocks made more noise that his whip and saw how the basilisk winced, the basilisk was naturally blind, it was not provoked like the other basilisk who never dodged the attacks like this basilisk, this one had grew with a natural blindness and therefore its other senses grew stronger to compensate the loss, meaning its hearing, taste and smell senses were completely overhauled compared to the other basilisk.

"Now I got you" Harry knew what allowed the beast to dodge his attacks was sound, he needed to stun the beast, raising his wand he shouted the only spell he knew it would cause enough sound to stun the hypersensitive ear of the basilisk.

"Bombarda!" the explosive spell was loud enough upon casting to even stun him, to the basilisk it must be like nails on a chalkboard, as he expected the loud sound stunned the beast, the spell however did a lot more of a job on the beats skin.

The spell blew a chunk of the basilisk exposed belly, not enough to kill it but enough to cause pain when it slithered, seizing the chance Harry ran to the beast the closest he could and swung his whip, noticing a little too late the red glow on his whip, and what it did later.

The whip passed the 'neck' of the basilisk easily, Harry blinked and for a second the basilisk stopped its movements of pain, then its massive head fell just behind Harry, blood of the head and the neck coating Harry head to toe with basilisk blood, the headless corpse collapsed in front of Harry, all while leaking blood and on the shocked boy-who-lived.

Harry just removed his glasses slowly, now that they were coated in blood, then stared at the basilisk in disbelieve and then at his whip.

"How come you didn't did this before?" he asked to his weapon, receiving no answer.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" a male scream broke his disbelieve, turning around and using a quick scourgify on his glasses so he could see, he witnessed a sight that would forever haunt him.

The man who would become the greatest dark wizard of all times was basically losing his ground against a very angry and very determined red-head, and him using the killing curse did little to deter her, every spell she casted met its mark, making him stagger in pain, Harry noted that she hasn't casted Heca or Tombe yet, only her small frame and speed seemed to keep her at par with the teenager Voldemort, then it happened.

Ginny let out a cutting curse if he remembered well, it is a rookie curse for those who use the cutting spells as favorite spell, but with Ginny basically overloaded in emotions and her magic responding in kind, the spell that would have let a small cut in the skin did more, the spell easily sliced the right arm of Tom from the shoulder, cauterizing the wound immediately and disarming him as well, he clutched the cauterized stump, making him scream in pain, that would be the last thing he would do in his life.

Ginny raised her wand at Tom and Harry recognized the wand pattern she was making, "You're not leaving this cave alive…Hecatombe!" the dark orb of energy sailed of Ginny's wand, just like his when in the island of fates, impacting on Tom's chest, from there all changed.

Tom would be the first person ever to be atomized and there was witnesses of the event, he was unable to scream, just to cease to exist, skin, muscle, blood and bone was atomized instantly, and all behind him was melted suddenly, leaving a massive glass gouge on the ground that stopped on the entrance of the chamber, and so said door being blown open.

All in all something ugly to suffer, but magnificent to see, anyone would remember such thing forever.

"Bloody hell" Harry whispered, seeing Ginny collapse on her knees, dropping her wand and her skin changing colors from the red anger it had to a more pale white.

"Ginny?" Harry asked, "I…I…I…" Harry kneeled in front of the pale girl, placing his hands on her shoulders, "I…I…I killed him…" she said in a whisper, "I know" Harry said gently, holding the girl by the shoulders, from there all went downhill as she shot to his arms and began to sob without control.

Harry held Ginny for at least five minutes, letting her sob and soak his already soaked clothes with her tears, then when he felt her stop crying he brought her face to his, to look at her.

"…You (sniff) need a bath" Ginny finally croaked out, "You would need one also if you got bathed in basilisk blood" Harry said, Ginny finally looked over Harry shoulder, seeing the beheaded basilisk, it was quite a gruesome sight, imposing and gruesome.

Harry and Ginny helped each other to stand up, one because he still had sore ribs and the other because she was drained.

"So…the fabled chamber of secrets…not so secret if you ask me" Harry mentioned off-handily, "Harry…" Ginny admonished, "What? You brought me here…by the way how the hell you get up tangled with teenage freak-O?" Harry asked, Ginny sobered at that.

"It was not by choice if you must know, Nott and two fifth years of Dolores ambushed me and stunned be before I could defend myself…I was alone so I kinda asked it myself…then next thing I know is that my body is doing things my mind doesn't command it, all while hearing him whisper his plans…to my ear…he touched me…he dared to KISS ME! He stole my first kiss!" she then turned to Harry, grabbing him by the cuff of his robes.

"Do you have any idea how humiliating it was for me to have my FIRST KISS to be stolen by that mockery of pretty boy instead of someone I wanted!" she began to shake him, "Do you? Do you? DO YOU?"

"…Err…no, we men are not that emotional" Harry said, "But see the bright side of it…you got even" he said, "…It still stole my first…just out of a whim…because he could" she hissed, Harry just sighed as he hugged her tightly, letting her know that while he didn't share her pain, he was here for her no matter what.

"…You are strong Ginny you know that?" Harry asked to the girl, "You just beaten the darkest lord of our time when he was just a teenager, you held your own against him, you even fought the imperious curse, there is a reason why I have my wand and whip with me, you actually fought the curse and brought them with you along with me, you are strong and you showed him why he shouldn't mess with ya" Harry said with pride.

"Besides you're the only person I have ever dueled to a standstill, I can say I dueled Ginny Weasley to a standstill and lived to tell the tale" he said with a grin.

"…And don't you forget it" she added quietly, a small grin on her lips, "Trust me, when you see a person being atomized and the ground behind that person along with the ground being glassed you can't forget" he said, leaving Ginny for a moment, moving himself to the head of the basilisk he forced the mouth open with a well placed Wingardium Leviosa, with the mouth open both kids saw the rows of sharp teeth on the basilisk mouth.

"Hey Gin…how about a little memento of your trip to the chamber" and with that he flicked his whip at one of the fangs, the cracker slicing the poisonous fang easily, and with deftly hands he clothed the fang and presented it to Ginny.

"Now let's bounce, I don't want to spend more time along with a beheaded carcass" with a nod Ginny followed Harry outside the chamber of secrets, or what was left of it after she was done with it, their steps echoed as their feet cracked the glass floor of the entrance.

Harry was so caught in making feel Ginny well after such experience that he didn't mind her hand linked to his, oddly it felt…right.

Then he stopped and faced Ginny.

"Uh…how you got in here in the first place?"

Twenty days later…

Harry paced in front of the ring that had been set for the duel he would had with Nott, his wand on his hand and whip tied neatly on his belt, his ever-present fedora hat placed over his head.

At his side stood Ron, the de-petrified Hermione, Cedric, Ginny, Cho, Luna, Neville, Dean, Draco and the Greengrass sisters, around them the whole school seated and chatting, waiting for the duel to begin, and Fred and George, true to their businessman like spirit were making it big on the event, selling a lot of their homemade pranks and fireworks to the students that waited the chance to light them up at the victory of Harry Potter over Theodore Nott.

The teachers were acting as buffers along with the prefects and the head boy and girl were making rounds around the ring to make sure there was no foul game on the ring, no trinkets besides the one placed per Harry's request and rules.

The thing was quite simple, the duel would be held on a standard boxing ring with double its size to allow more movement, on each corner there was, much to the shock of those who were wizards what seemed Muggle blunt artifacts that could be found everywhere such as wooden chairs, tables, bowls, trashcan and the most extreme a broom, well not extreme but to wizards to not see a broom floating or sweeping on its own was well in their eyes very rare.

The usage of spells was limited to stunners, disarming and shield spells of all kind, the three unforgivable curses were as usual forbidden, and so the use of cutting spells and weapons that were not in the ring, physical contact was allowed unlike in other duels and the terms of defeat was until one of the two duelers was unconscious, not disarmed, that or gave up.

Harry slowly untied his whip of his belt and handed it to Ron, making sure the cracker was not on Ron's reach, then he walked towards the ring, there Nott was already waiting, and looked quite nervous and with reason.

Harry and Ginny's return of the chamber of secrets had been quite dramatic, the entrance was, like Harry expected on the lavatories of the second floor, problem was that there was no visible way to reach the top, after all the lavatory entrance to the chamber of secrets was a very long fall.

But not all was lost, Tom in his arrogance had showed Ginny a secondary entry and exit point to the chamber, one that was not so well hidden as the one in the bathroom, but damn it was quite a way to make an entrance.

That day, in the Great Hall, the headmaster was seen jumping in fright when a blood drenched Harry Potter and a dirty looking Ginny Weasley emerged right down of his throne all while a very repugnant smell littered the hall.

"…Well the snake had to go to the bathroom somewhere" Harry had said that day, their secondary entry and edit point was connected to the Great Hall, right under the throne of the headmaster, that tunnel in turn served as the…bathroom of the basilisk, you can only imagine the smell both kids came out with that day.

After they got cleaned (and in Harry's case got yelled because he somehow escaped the infirmary while still wounded) they recounted all that happened to the headmaster and the nurse, suffice to say that Harry slaying a basilisk in his state and Ginny using Hecatombe to basically atomize Tom Riddle, the sole name made the headmaster look grim at both kids, and somehow ashamed at himself.

The incident true nature was only know to Ginny's parents, the headmaster and Madam Pomfrey, no one else but them and those involved knew really why Harry and Ginny ended up in the Chamber of Secrets, to everyone else it was just two concerned students that wanted to make sure that there was no other basilisk in the chamber that could be used to petrify or kill students, and luckily stumbled onto a natural blind basilisk and ended up killing him, explaining why Harry was coated had to toe in dried blood which to all who learned suddenly was in fact basilisk blood, suffice to say that everyone had to respect Harry in a way, he survived two encounters with a basilisk and lived to tell the tale at the tender age of twelve.

So there was a reason Nott was so nervous of dueling Harry, while the Dolores students knew that Riddle had controlled the basilisk, they also knew he had been in the chamber in that moment, and it didn't take a genius to know what happened to him.

Harry and Ginny had defeated him and a basilisk, so Ginny also had a lot rep gained during this incident, and yes Ron did kill a basilisk as well, so he had the same rep as Harry and Ginny had now.

As Harry entered the ring he could hear the whispers of those who were to see the duel, it was quite interesting to hear if he would beat Nott with the trash can into submission or actually give him a wedgie of colossal proportions until he falls unconscious, either way Harry seemed to be the crowds favorite, yet he had the odds against him in bets, go figure why.

Slowly the selected referee for the match, meaning the guy who would make sure neither duelist would try to break rules walked in, former duelist champion and currently charms teacher of Hogwarts School, Filius Flitwick made his way to the center of the ring, to him this duel was going to be a challenge to even him, true he was a champion of duels once, but the old school duels, not this hardcore like duel, punching your opponent in a duel was disqualification or lost of honor in duels set to settle scores, this one actually encouraged contact and use of weapons to defeat your opponent, and it was not until your opponent was disarmed, but until he dropped unconscious, he had to admit that Harry and Ron's reasoning about wizards giving up without putting a fight was right, but damn Harry was going to use a student as a test subject and example of this!

"Are both duelists ready?" he asked, he observed Harry was like tempered steel, he didn't wavered with the audience or the cameras around him, but Nott was scared shitless of Harry alone.

"I am" Harry said.

"…I am" Theodore whispered, Filius pitied the poor zap, but he had it coming, in fact the whole house of Dolores had it coming.

"Okay then, you know the rules and what spells you can and can't use, this will end until one of you falls unconscious not before" Filius spoke with authority, Harry and Theo nodded, the latter with apprehension.

"Very well then, gentlemen draw your wands!" he commanded, both kids drew their wands and brought them to their faces following the protocol of ethic of the duels.

"Bow!" both students did as told, Harry however drifted his gaze to Dolores Umbridge seated among the teachers, she looked ready to spontaneously combust and the back of her hands sported several words carved into her flesh, barely legible due to the amount scribed and piled together, whatever she did to make sure Riddle came back of that diary had provoked that.

Harry mentally smirked at that, Ginny had told him before they left the chamber of secrets that Riddle had possessed the diary all the time once he returned to be a being of flesh and blood, to safeguard it because the diary still acted as a Horcrux, and if his body was destroyed then his soul would return to the diary, meaning he would live on, but when Ginny used Hecatombe on him she atomized his ass AND his diary along the way, ensuring that he would never return and also destroying another soul recipient.

Harry was certain that this event would not be overlooked by any servant of Voldemort, have they know about the Horcruxes, so it was good in the long run, yet he was worried about Umbridge, the crazy coot might try something.

"Ready?" the voice of Filius snapped Harry of his thoughts, steeling himself he got ready to face Nott, the boy is a pureblood supremacist, so that meant he was taught the old fashioned way, meaning…

"Begin!"

Harry immediately shot at Nott and launched a left hook at the boy, the Dolores student staggered and took several steps back when Harry's fist met his jaw, then recoiled as three flipendos met his chest and launched him to the ground, landing hard, Nott had little time to ponder what the hell just happened when Harry loomed over him, his left hand gripped a wooden chair, one that he swung to his fallen form, Nott cursed and rolled out of the way, hearing the familiar sound of wood breaking and being glad he was not caught in the hit.

As he slowly stood up he gasped in pain when Harry foot met his stomach, lifting him up slightly, but then landing roughly on his knees, grasping his offended stomach.

"I thought this was going to be more of a challenge, it seems you were slacking" Harry commented off-handily, Theo growled as he suddenly launched himself at Harry with the intention of shutting him up, all he got instead was Harry's wand and a word that petrified him to the core.

"Tombe" Nott rolled to the ground, shaking and convulsing in pain, all while feeling how his magic spilled of him.

"What…"

"I just make you a squib for the rest of the day" Harry declared, slowly pocketing his wand and going to one of the corners, "Tombe is the ultimate shield for one reason, is a shield that cancels magic by using the same concept of death fights death, it blocks everything magical, golems, Inferi, charmed objects and can block any spells, and I mean it, any spell, including the killing curse" Nott eyes widened as whispers began to flood the audience.

"Of course Tombe used on living beings, even more against magical beings causes them to temporally lose their magic, this is because unlike charmed objects their core pumps magic constantly, unlike a charmed object which has a predetermined amount of magic set in them, you can thank Hermione for that explanation Nott, you know, the smartest witch of our time…a Muggleborn, or how is you elitist trash call them…oh yeah" Harry said as he approached Nott, a trash can.

"Mudbloods" Harry snarled as he kicked Nott on the face, making the boy roll away and clutch his face in pain, "That pathetic philosophy and believe is so outdated is not even funny to poke jokes on it, I pity the fools who follow it and believe magic is strictly theirs" Harry said with a snarl on his face.

"Now Theo…I'm going to demonstrate you and those elitist trash how we Half-bloods and Muggleborns do things in the 20th century…and since you so kindly accepted to become my little test dummy…" Harry said with a vicious snarl, Nott looked up and saw Harry lifting the trash can over his head.

"Just like my hated aunt use to say…trash to the trash"

No one would forget how in five minutes Harry demonstrated why Muggles where so adept to warfare and combat, if they can do that kind of damage with a single trash can then they don't want to imagine how they fare with other objects.

Five minutes later after the match started, Nott was being already being carried away on a stretcher, unconscious and with both arms broken, Harry had been vicious against the Dolores student and the only reason he didn't used Hecatombe on the rest of the house of Dolores was because they had already packed and left Hogwarts as soon the match ended, Dolores following them with scorn on her face and hate in her heart against Harry.

The rest of the year compared to that was relatively calm, unless you ignore the pranks of the Weasley twins that sometimes upon the presence of Harry would bow and say they are now worthy, or the fact the headmaster wore a white Muggle gasmask for a week every time he seated on his chair on the Great Hall until Filius casted a very powerful deodorant charm on the hole that connected the chamber of secrets with the great hall and that hole was cleaned of all the things the basilisk was unable to digest.

On a higher note Severus Snape seemed really happy he got basilisk venom for several potion ingredients, and Ron got a belt made out of basilisk skin.

Quite a second year for Harry Potter, one that would go the books of Hogwarts…like the rest of his academic life.

there you have it people, another chapter done and gone, year two is done and i will take a month break of Harry Potter, focusing myself on the Rayeart knights stories, i do need to catch up with that one, i will startwritting The change of fates on the 20 of October, by that time i will have fresh ideas for the stories.

so until then read, review and enjoy, till a next time.