Chapter 23

Riddle was seething but managed to calm down. "To business, Harry" said Riddle. "In your past and in my future, we have met. And I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk, the longer you stay alive."

Harry thought about it. He had no problem with revealing how brilliant his mother had been; it was a fact that made him swell with pride to have been privileged enough to be born as her son. But he needed to know what that diary was. It was important.

"Alright, I'll tell you. But first, why don't you tell me what that diary really is?" asked Harry slowly.

Riddle smiled widely. "That is something I don't mind since you won't be leaving the chamber alive anyway. After all, I'm very proud of its creation. That, my dear Harry, is a Horcrux" he boasted.

When Riddle uttered the word 'Horcrux', many memories suddenly rammed into Harry's conscious mind. Harry winced in pain as he did his best to push those memories under his mental shields. That was probably the most important information of all, and he couldn't watch them now. Thankfully, Riddle hadn't noticed Harry's sudden pain, as he was still basking in the glory of what he had achieved.

"Fine, I'll tell you the story of how I survived. The fact of the matter is that my mother saved my life" said Harry quietly.

"Ah, so your mother died to save you. A mother's love" spat Riddle. "That defeated - "

"Oh please!" said Harry, rolling his eyes and interrupting Riddle. "What are you, Albus Dumbledore? Do you think that by a mother loving and dying for her child could save the baby from certain death? Think, you idiot! You might as well believe in the tales of Beedle the Bard, the way you're going!" said Harry exasperated.

"My mother was a parselmouth" said Harry as he watched Riddle's eyes go wide. "She created a ritual based on sacrificial magic in order to save my life. This ritual had to be performed in parseltongue, and in advance. So unless you know that the person's life is in imminent danger, the ritual is useless and you can't use it to save your own life either. It can only be used to protect another person who you share your blood with. That scar you spoke of? The one on my forehead was just the one of many runes carved all over my body by my mother with her blood. She then laid a trap for you, and you walked right into it. For the ritual to be completed, my mother had to sacrifice her life; that was the only way to save mine. And your counterpart killed her, finishing the ritual. So when Voldemort tried to kill me, the Killing Curse which should have killed me, backfired and hit Voldemort instead. Poetic justice don't you agree? Ironic, that a – what was the word again? Oh yes, a filthy mudblood was able to device a way to stop the Avada Kedavra curse that eluded witches and wizards for thousands of years! And the saviour of the pureblood cause and the so-called most powerful wizard in the world was defeated by a mere muggleborn!" said Harry, and laughed a loud, mocking laugh. It was unnerving.

"You know what I think? You really don't care about purebloods at all. I'm pretty sure you're hatred of muggles was due to you having a bad childhood. You were an orphan were you not? That means you probably grew up in an orphanage, and the muggles there didn't treat you well. And you took that hatred and let it consume you, making you hate muggleborns as well. I can see that your robes are Slytherin, so when you were sorted there, you were ridiculed by the rest of your housemates for being a muggleborn. So you decided to attack and intimidate them to rise to the top of the food chain, didn't you? That's why you changed your name as well. Several years later, you came back as Voldemort and started killing everyone, purebloods, halfbloods and muggleborns alike. You couldn't gain the Slytherin Lordship as it wasn't passed on to you, and unless you get the family ring and its magic accepts you, you can't get a permanent seat on the Wizengamot. You didn't like contesting in elections because I'm pretty sure you don't like begging people for votes. So in order to reach the top of the ladder, you killed everyone that stood in your way! Your own supporters were treated like slaves, but that was your revenge against the purebloods, wasn't it? I'm shocked that you even managed to get as much power as you did! What did you finally achieve in the end? Nothing! You're counterpart is hiding somewhere too weak to carry on. What kind of life is that?" asked Harry, his magic swirling around him as he spoke.

Riddle's face was red with anger. But again, Harry interrupted him and said "What do you know about a hard life anyway, Riddle? You looked very healthy when you were sixteen. You were probably bullied by the older kids in the orphanage. Is that all? Do you know how many muggleborns all over the world are treated by muggles for being magical? They die in thousands! What do you know about abuse? I was treated worse a slave! I was forced to clean the house and weed the gardens when I was three years old. I was beaten up every day for as long as I can remember. I was not given food to eat for days, sometimes weeks at a time! I was locked in a boot cupboard under the stairs, which was where my room was. My aunt used to hit me on the head with a hot frying pan! I was almost raped by my uncle when I was just six years old! He hit me with red hot iron rods and finally stabbed me with the intention of killing me! I was seven years old when I finally escaped their torture! What have you faced Riddle? Tell me!" shouted Harry. His hair was once again pure white, his skin and eyes were glowing and bolts of lightning surrounded his body.

"Then join me, Harry and together we can - "said Riddle but Harry again cut him off.

" – kill all the muggles? Are you by any chance insane Riddle? Wait, don't answer that. You clearly are. There are more than five billion muggles populating the planet. Do I hold a grudge against each one of them? I'm not you Riddle. I'm not an insane megalomaniac bent on world conquest who takes his ire on the rest of the world because he has daddy issues. Right now, my only enemy is you. You killed my parents and grandparents. It was because of you that I've had to suffer as I did. You're the reason for the current state of stagnation which permeates Magical Britain. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a waste, and yet you, in your infinite wisdom brought about the near destruction of our world" said Harry.

Riddle's face was ugly with rage. Both boys started moving, circling each other, ready to pounce and tear the other into pieces at any second. After several seconds, Riddle forced an awful smile. "So, your mother died to save you" he said. "Ergo, there's nothing special about you after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us after all; both half-bloods, orphans, raised by muggles. We even look similar, attracting attention with our astonishingly good looks. But now I know it that it was merely luck that saved you from me."

Harry breathed deeply. Almost there . . .

"Now, Harry I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin against the famous Harry Pot - "

But that was all he said before Harry took his cue and slashed his wand in the air. A dark blue jet of light flew from his wand towards Riddle who dodged it, looking thoroughly surprised. Riddle smirked and sent a dark curse towards Harry and said "A Bone Breaking Curse? My, oh my, looks like somebody isn't Dumbledore's golden boy."

Harry snarled internally; that old goat's golden boy? He upped his attack and threw a wide range of curses at Riddle while dodging spells sent his way as well. A smirk slowly formed its way on Harry's lips as jets of light flew from both wands. He was actually enjoying this. While the Duelling Tournament was good, it didn't challenge him, while Riddle did. They were both using curses and jinxes; okay, time to switch tactics.

Harry flicked his wand at the pool of water to his right. The water flew up into the air; Harry quickly spun his wand in a small round motion and the water immediately flew to Riddle, trapping him in a large sphere of water. The tip of Harry's wand was glowing bright blue while he was using his off hand to steer the sphere of water to the other side. Suddenly, Riddle broke free and banished huge gallons of water back at Harry. Harry charmed it to solidify into ice and transfigured it into tiny, razor sharp ice crystals and flung them back at Riddle. The other boy slashed his wand in the air and transfigured the ice crystals into grains of sand. He then moved his wand in a circular motion many times, while pointing it up. The sand formed a mini tornado which was fast approaching Harry.

Harry then pointed his wand at one of the ancient torches in the chamber which flew off its hold; the fire disintegrated the sand tornado, but it turned into a giant fire eagle which launched itself at Riddle. But it no longer was an eagle, but a large black serpent moving towards Harry who blasted it to smoke, which solidified within seconds to form several daggers which moved towards Riddle. The older boy conjured marble to impact the daggers, but some of them escaped and hit him in the head and chest.

Harry had just dodged the block of marble which had headed his way when he saw the daggers impact Riddle. "It's over Tom. You - " said Harry, but stopped mid-sentence with his jaw hanging open.

Tom Riddle smiled at Harry widely. The holes that had formed in his chest and head had disappeared as if they had never existed. "Did you think you could defeat me, Harry? I am Lord Voldemort! The greatest wizard of them all; one that was able to drive Dumbledore away from this castle! Did you think I would lose to a mere twelve-year-old boy?" he sneered.

Harry stood silently, breathing hard. This was not a regular body; it was a magical construct so conventional means would not work. How else was he supposed to kill him?

"Do you feel safe now, Harry Potter? You were foolish to come here alone" said Riddle. "There's no one here to help you. What's going to stop you from dying now?"

"That's where you're wrong Tommy boy" smirked Harry. "I'm never alone. I always have a friend who has my back. Want to meet him? Aquila!" he said.

Riddle narrowed his eyes. Just then, there was an almighty clap of thunder and a there was a bright flash of lightning above as an enormous bird appeared from bolts of lightning. The bird flew over and landed next to Harry, who smirked at Riddle.

"A thunderbird; I've never seen one before" whispered Riddle.

"Meet Aquila" said Harry. "My oldest friend and familiar; I'm not alone, Riddle."

Riddle smirked. "Very good, Harry. But what can an overgrown eagle do against the King of Serpents? Besides, I really thought Albus Dumbledore would help you. Looks like you're not on his list of priorities."

"I don't need - " began Harry but was cut off by a flash of fire and a song. The song was melodious, and it lifted Harry's spirit. A red and gold phoenix came over, tossed Harry an old hot and flew over to rest on his shoulder.

"Fawkes?" asked Harry bewildered.

Riddle laughed loudly. "Are you happy now, Harry? Is this what Dumbledore sends his great champion? A song bird and the old sorting hat; how pathetic"

Harry looked down, and indeed, it was the school sorting hat, old and battered as always. There was no way whatsoever Dumbledore could have sent Fawkes; the old man would have rejoiced at seeing Harry dead. But why did Fawkes bring him the hat?

Riddle turned away and addressed the giant statue and said, "Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four"

Harry wheeled around to look up at the giant face of the statue. Horror-struck, Harry watched as the mouth opened to make an enormous black hole, just as he heard a hiss. Something was stirring inside the mouth.

"Sweet Merlin, the Basilisk" whispered Harry.

Fawkes flew off his shoulder and he heard Aquila say "Harry, we'll take care of the snake; you deal with that evil wizard"; saying that, the thunderbird too took off into the air. Harry heard something massive hit the stone floor of the chamber. He then heard Riddle hissing "Kill him"

Harry closed his eyes and extended his senses. He then twirled his wand and started attacking Riddle with several curses. He could feel the Basilisk moving towards him. He took the Sorting Hat and placed it on his head for all the help it could do. Why did Salazar keep a Basilisk in a school? It made no sense! He founded Hogwarts to protect magical children from the muggles. So there was no way he would use it to kill the students of the castle, muggleborn or not. It was his job to protect the students –

Protect. That was it! Salazar did not raise this Basilisk to kill the students, but rather to protect the students in case the muggles ever invaded the castle. It was probably the final backup plan, in case all was lost. The snake had been here for more than a thousand years; it must be confused as to who really was the enemy.

Harry heard Aquila and Fawkes shriek so he knew they were battling the Basilisk. Wanting to help them, while at the same time dodging curses from Riddle, he conjured a rooster and hit it with a sonorous charm. The rooster crowed loudly. The Basilisk shrieked, so Harry finally couldn't take it anymore and opened his eyes a bit.

The sight before him was astounding. Fawkes and Aquila were surrounding the Basilisk, a snake so massive that it was probably more than seventy feet long, with Fawkes distracting it and Aquila hitting it with bolts of lightning, which was clearly weakening it, but not by much.

"Harry, we have destroyed its eyes. It can't kill with its eyes anymore. You can see!" said Aquila.

Harry looked and saw Aquila send bolts of lightning at the basilisk's eyes, making it shriek with agony. But the moment in which Harry had turned was his undoing; a blasting curse impacted the floor in front of him and he was thrown back and painfully collided with one of the snake statues. He crumpled to the ground, just as a trail of blood smeared on the statue behind, clearly from his head.

"NO! LEAVE THOSE BIRDS! LEAVE THE BIRDS!" screamed Riddle. "THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN SMELL HIM! KILL HIM!"

Harry looked to see Aquila waging a losing battle. Clearly, using so many bolts of lightning when there wasn't a storm around to rejuvenate him had its toll on the massive thunderbird.

What was shocking to the bone was that the Basilisk didn't seem to have been killed by the rooster. It screeched and probably injured the mighty seventy-foot long snake, but it didn't kill it as it was supposed to.

"Oh Salazar, your effort into protecting the school turned out to be your undoing. What was supposed to protect the castle is now the cause of its destruction" thought Harry. He slowly got up, his body shaking. Several bones all over his body were clearly broken, so he quickly used a numbing charm on them so that it couldn't distract him.

"Thank you for believing in the true legacy of Salazar Slytherin, Lord Potter and not believing in the twisted version of history. You are truly worthy of being the Heir of Gryffindor. Godric would be proud of you" said the Sorting Hat in Harry's mind. The next second, Harry felt something very hard and heavy hitting him on the head, which almost knocked him out. He pulled the hat away from his head, only to grab a handle. He pulled on it to grab a gleaming silver sword probably four feet long, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.

The Basilisk approached him. Harry quickly raised the sword, but what was the use? He had learnt martial arts, but not fencing! The Basilisk lunged blindly. It missed Harry, but it struck the giant snake statue, sending stone everywhere. Harry tried to strike it back, but the great tail of the snake struck him instead, throwing him across the chamber.

Harry screamed in pain as he impacted another statue. He immediately got up, though badly injured. Aquila screeched in anger. The thunderbird attacked the basilisk with an almighty dive and tried to rip its skin off, but it didn't work, even though Fawkes tried the same from the opposite side. The basilisk opened its mouth wide, intending to bite or swallow the bird. The thunderbird threw a powerful bolt of lightning at its mouth. It definitely injured the giant snake, but severely weakened the majestic bird. Aquila crumpled to the ground with a whimper.

"AQUILA!" shouted Harry in concern. He flicked his wand to conjure a ladder and climbed on top of one of the snake statues. "I'm here, you dirty piece of shit! Take me instead!" shouted Harry angrily to the basilisk.

The basilisk turned and lunged at Harry, its mouth open. Harry, expecting this, took the hilt with both hands and struck it at the roof of its mouth. The long sword pierced the creature's brain, killing it. But Harry didn't escape unaffected. Harry screamed loudly in pain as blood splattered all over him and one long poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into Harry's arm. The basilisk gave one hiss, and it spun around and fell the ground dead. But when it fell down, it also grabbed Harry who was suffering from the pain from on top of the statue to throw him back to the stone floor.

Harry fell with a thud on the smooth stone floor of the chamber. White hot pain, more than anything he had ever experienced was spreading from his arm to other parts of his body. He did his best to control his tears, but he couldn't stop them from falling as he heaved a sob. "Aquila" he said to the thunderbird. "I'm so sorry buddy. Please forgive me. I'm so terribly sorry" he said crying.

His crying stopped when he heard mocking laughter. He looked up with his blurred vision to see Riddle coming closer to him. "Your dead, Harry Potter" said Riddle. "Dead. See? Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. He's crying, just like you are. Pathetic."

"And so ends the great and mighty Potter family" said Riddle, his voice sounding distant. "After almost 2500 years, you found your match at the hands of Lord Voldemort. The last Lord Potter, alone in the Chamber of Secrets, defeated by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear mudblood mother soon, Harry. She bought you twelve years of borrowed time . . . but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you know he must."

But Harry didn't feel worse. In fact, he was feeling better. The chamber was sliding back into focus as he saw Fawkes cry into his wound. Phoenix tears! He wasn't dying, he was being healed!

Just as the wound closed, Riddle realised the same thing. "Get away, bird! Get away from him" shouted Riddle blasting a curse at the spot Fawkes had until then occupied.

"Phoenix tears . . . healing powers" said Riddle quietly. "Of course, I forgot. Very well. I prefer it this way. You're in no state to duel and I want to make this quick."

He raised his wand, but just then Harry wandlessly summoned the diary and slammed the basilisk fang into it. There was a long, dreadful scream and ink poured out of the wound. Riddle screamed in agony and was suddenly gone. The chamber was silent.

"Fawkes, you were amazing. Thank you so much. I owe you my life" whispered Harry, looking at the phoenix. The bird trilled happily and Harry chuckled. "If you ever get bored listening to the lemon drop sucking old goat talking about the greater good, just come to my place. I own a large beach house in Hawaii. Warm climate, crystalline beaches, beautiful witches willing to feed you your favourite food, now isn't that a vacation?" asked Harry grinning slightly.

The red and gold bird trilled happily again, bobbing his head. Harry smiled, got up and went over to his friend. Aquila looked very tired indeed. Harry looked into his eyes, and hugged the bird. "I'm so sorry" he said as he broke down crying again. "I never meant to put you in danger, buddy. You've done so much for me, saving me from the Dursleys, taking care of me; and now I put you in danger. I'm so sorry" he wailed.

Aquila nuzzled his beak on Harry's shoulder. "Don't feel guilty little one. Didn't you say that we are brothers? That's what brothers do, isn't it? Help each other at the time of need? I will never leave you, Harry. You are as precious to me as I am to you. I don't blame you. That snake was a lot more powerful that I realised, but you killed it. I'm so proud of you Harry" said the thunderbird.

Harry smiled, kissed his feathers and said, "Why don't you go recover from this battle? I'll see you after the school year is done. Take care of yourself."

Aquila nodded. He bowed to Fawkes who bowed back to him. With that, Aquila with some effort flew to the end of the chamber, and with a flash of lightning, disappeared.

Harry went over to the basilisk and removed the sword which was still lodged in its mouth. Even though the sword was four feet long, it didn't feel as heavy. It definitely looked richly decorated, looking like the sword of a king. Harry looked at the blade and gasped when he saw the inscription.

GODRIC GRYFFINDOR

"When Geraldine Gryffindor and Alan Potter had a son, Godric was in a dilemma" said the Sorting Hat, suddenly. "He didn't know whether to pass on the Gryffindor family titles and fortune to his grandson. He knew that gold really did not matter much to the Potters as they had so much of it themselves, so he finally decided that he would not give it immediately. It would only pass on to a child of the Potter family who embodied what Hogwarts represented."

The hat continued "The only way for any Potter to claim the Gryffindor title and fortune, as you know, is to find his legendary sword. That much is known to the Potters, considering they have been searching for it for the last thousand years; but what you didn't know was that it wasn't a game of hide and seek. Godric entrusted me with the sword and told me to present it to someone of his blood who I felt was worthy. I have sorted generations of Potters into all four houses of Hogwarts. Many of them were exceptional, but I waited, until you came to the castle. You're immensely loyal to your family and to your familiar; you're very intelligent and think logically to solve a problem to arrive at a solution that could help everyone; you're very brave and honourable to have accepted the destiny of your life and enter the chamber knowing that you might not make it out alive; you're cunning and ambitious, and while you use opportunities which are presented for your own gain, you deeply care about your magical brethren and use those opportunities to help them. You truly believed that Salazar could not have been evil, and that was what made me finally choose you. You are unique, Hadrian Potter. I have never encountered anyone like you before. You are truly worthy of bearing Godric's family name. Welcome back, Lord Gryffindor."