Chapter 09

"Three weeks later to the day, it's the twenty eighth of May," continued Memory-Harry. "Ron and I had just managed to work out what was going on from all the various clues."

With a snort he corrected himself, "Well, not really. I figured it out, with Ron still trying to drag me off to play chess and otherwise skive off doing homework.

"The main one was that very day finding a torn page from a book in petrified Hermione's hand that described basilisks. Under that, in her own neat script, was written one word - Pipes.

"Ron had also just discovered his little sister, Ginny, had gone missing; and he was frantic to get my help in finding her. We were down on that same second floor corridor outside that same bathroom when we saw another message had been written below the Heir of Slytherin message, 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever'.

"Ron panicked, of course. So would you if you'd just discovered something like that about your own baby sister. At least he'd finally decided to put in some effort to figure out what was going on. He'd found his motivation. To me, it was far too little; far too late.

"However, just like the previous year, we were determined to take the matter to an adult witch of wizard. I wanted to give McGonagall the benefit of the doubt and get her help. Maybe this time she'd do the right thing. However, Ron forced on me the choice of Gilderoy 'The Fraud' Lockhart.

"When we ran to and burst into the office of The Fraud, he was in the process of packing with the intention of running away as fast as he could. So, yes, The Fraud could now be known as The Cowardly Fraud.

"However, since he claimed to be this all-powerful vanquisher of dark creatures, as written in his novels - sorry, texts - we were having none of that. We forced him to come down to the Chamber with us. And I had a pretty good idea where it was.

"The final clue that gave me the probable location was that, when the Chamber was last opened in the early 1940s, a student was killed. Her name was Myrtle. You know her today as the ghost, Moaning Myrtle.

"We then headed for the very same girls' bathroom, once again. Once inside I found a carving of a snake on one of the taps in the circle of sinks in the middle of the floor.

"A quick whisper of parseltongue, and I had the entrance open.

"With The Cowardly Fraud going first - whether he liked it or not - we slid down the pipe entrance all the way to the bottom. We were now deep under the school and likely under the lake.

"With wand tips lit we walked from the bottom of the pipe in the only direction we could; through a long cave.

"Partway along, we came across a shed snake skin. It was about fifty feet long.

"While hurriedly discussing what to do next, The Cowardly Fraud had a moment of bravery and lunged at Ron stripping him of his wand. How about that. For the past twenty minutes, The Cowardly Fraud couldn't even take hold of his bollocks enough to jump a twelve year old until then.

"Fraudhart them had us both at wand point and began bragging about how he was going to claim he would write a new book about this, claim he was unable to save Ginny from the basilisk, but had rescued the two of us. Then he attempted to cast the only charm upon us he was quite the expert at - the Obliviation charm.

"The trouble for him was, Ron's wand was broken and held together with Spellotape. The Obliviation charm backfired on him, and threw him across the cave. However, the attempt also managed to bring down the roof of the cave on us.

"After Ron and I dived in opposite directions to avoid all the falling rocks we ended up on different sides of the cave-in that now filled the cave at that point.

"Only I could go on, while Ron would work at clearing some of the rocks away enough for me to get out once I got Ginny. Fraudhart was barely lucid and didn't even remember his own name; so, he was no help.

"And that brings us to the next important memory. This one is going to have quite a number of shocks. If you have a poor constitution I suggest you quickly, but quietly, leave right now. Once I start the memory I have no intention of stopping, restarting or pausing it. If you miss anything, too bad. You should have been paying attention in the first place.

"Right. Here we go."

Memory-Harry faded out and the memory opened with twelve-year-old Harry walking up to the massive stone door protecting the Chamber of Secrets. Him opening it, and walking inside. Having a look about as we walked deeper within. Finally seeing and rushing up to the unconscious form of Ginny Weasley lying on the floor at the base of the very large statue of who everyone assumed was Salazaar Slytherin and foolishly dropping his wand on the way. Him trying to wake her. The nearly corporeal form of Tom Riddle walking out of the shadows and picking up his wand.

Then the whole discussion, where 'Tom' reveals himself to be both Tom Marvolo Riddle and Voldemort - which had many in the audience gasping in shock or try to cry out in disbelief. Riddle's true bloodline. More outcries of disbelief.

Real-Harry, once he felt the audience had become noisy enough, glared at the general audience, put his book down and stood.

He roared out, "Who's magic am I getting the Goblet to strip?"

That silenced the audience again.

He glared about for a few moments longer, and retook his seat on the sun lounge, picking up his book as he did so.

Meanwhile, the memory went through Riddle's bragging, how the diary was leeching Ginny's life force, and Harry's defiance.

Finally, Riddle called forth the basilisk.

That had just about everyone in the audience scream out in fearful shock.

Real-Harry, again, surged to his feet to glare about, this time with his wand in hand. And, again, he got almost immediate silence.

Memory-Harry's running to avoid the basilisk. The arrival of Fawkes with the Sorting Hat in his claws that he then dropped in to Harry's arms; and who then attacked the eyes of the basilisk. The blinding of the basilisk.

Harry finding the Sword of Gryffindor in the Sorting Hat. Harry fighting the blinded basilisk with the sword. Harry killing the basilisk while also being bitten by it. And the basilisk thrashing its head about in its death throes before finally dying.

The return of Fawkes, a dying Harry being saved by Fawkes's tears and Riddle trying to blast the bird away with Harry's wand. Harry then using the broken fang of the basilisk he pulled out of his arm to repeatedly stab the diary. Near-corporeal Riddle being blasted apart. Ginny waking. And the two of them leaving.

When the memory ended, Memory-Harry returned and quietly said, "I told you it would be shocking."

Giving that a long moment to settle, he continued, "Before I give you the highlights you should know that wasn't the last time that evening my life was in peril."

After he knew there'd be a few more gasps, and were, he continued, "After I helped Ginny out of the Chamber, we returned to the cave-in. Ron had managed to clear away enough rocks for the two of us to scramble through.

"Once on the other side, Ron and his sister had a bit of a heartfelt reunion while I checked out Lockhart. He was still out to it and seemed to only have memories up to when he was a small child. He thought he was still a small child.

"Fawkes returned to us and, using his flame-travel powers, soon saw the four of us back up in the girls' bathroom on the second floor.

"Now, instead of taking us direct to the Infirmary, Fawkes took us back to Minerva McGonagall's office. Inside were McGonagall, Dumbledore and the Weasley parents.

"At this point, the adults should have thought to themselves, 'They could be injured. We should see to their health, first.' But, no. No, we started to get questions barked at us about everything; as if their getting information was more important than our health.

"For those who don't yet understand, that's known as 'child neglect' and is a crime. At least, it's a crime in the muggle world.

"By now I'd become pretty inured to just how stupid the magical-raised could be. They just... don't... think.

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