Chapter 94: Housemate

If you want to read more chapters ahead from here you can visit my Patre-on.

[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]

https://patreon.com/kelly_over

____________

It's a shame that Lord Voldemort would never even consider sparing someone who brought about his fall. And to have gotten into this chamber… I heard you speak the Parseltongue near the door… Such a waste."

Harry stared at him. There was something very funny going on here. "You speak like you aren't Voldemort?"

Riddle chuckled, "That would be because I am not. I am a memory Harry, of my younger self, stored in a container that I broke free from. Your dear housemate, whom I presume you wished to save when you came running down here, really helped me with that."

A memory… so that was why Riddle hadn't known about his wandless magic before. Harry spirits lightened a bit.

That meant that this Riddle had no idea what else he could do! He had gotten the element of surprise back! And his plan of getting him to talk about Lisa was working too!

"What are you talking about?" he asked, "Lisa helped you?"

"She did indeed," said Riddle, "Although not quite willingly. My container, my diary, was something that she quite loved. She has been writing in it for months, telling me all her pitiful worries… And I've been writing back."

All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.

"It's amazing how far sympathy gets you isn't it…" Riddle laughed, a high cold laugh, that didn't suit him. A chill ran down Harry's back. "Lisa poured out her soul to me, and I took all that I needed.

Her magic, her body, her soul. She belongs to me. And now, with her body and magic, I finally will have my own body back."

"It was Lisa," Harry whispered out with wide eyes as he made the connection, "She opened the Chamber of Secrets."

"Very smart of you Harry," Tom said with the delighted tone of a teacher whose student had solved a particularly difficult question, "Much like how I did half a century ago, she opened the chamber.

Of course, she didn't know what she was doing. I took great care of that. I made her mind impenetrable. Made her obedient ."

Anger coursed through Harry's body as his nails dug into the palms of his clenched fists. Voldemort had ruined yet another life. Yet another innocent future… destroyed.

No, he told himself, halting that train of thought. He couldn't give up on Lisa now, not after he had come this far. He had to save her. No matter how.

"You framed Hagrid didn't you?"

Riddle laughed his high laugh again. "It was my word against Hagrid's. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student… on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls. The plan worked well."

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Harry, his teeth gritted. If only that stupid Fidelius wouldn't have still been on the Basilisk, he would have gotten Hedwig to flame the entire staff in here, and it would have all been over in minutes.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school.

So I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"And now what?" he asked, fighting to keep his voice steady, "You've lost haven't you? The school is closing down. The petrified people will be awake soon. The chamber will be discovered. And what was all this for? Your sick pleasure?"

Riddle's smile turned into a chilling grin, "I suppose you are not so smart after all Harry. There is always an endgame to a plan as brilliant as mine. Can you not guess what a disembodied spirit wants the most? Can you not figure it out Harry? You've met my future self after all."

And it was then that it hit Harry.

"You want a body."

Two Voldemorts… that was the endgame. This… memory wanted to get a body himself, and then help the real Voldemort get a body too.

"Indeed. My spirit and Lisa's now reside together in her body, and she will help me regain mine. In fact, right now, as you pathetically try to wriggle out her location from me, the potion for the creation of my body is being brewed through its final step."

Harry blood chilled. Riddle had seen right through his attempts at manipulation.

"Wh-Why," he stuttered, "Why are you telling me all this then?"

"Why stalling of course," Riddle exclaimed, much to Harry shock, "You see, I can't cast magic through my host's body directly before being dipped the Draught of Restoration. So I created a little illusion that I can control. A mirage in the Chamber through whose eyes I can see, if you will."

Riddle's blurry outline started to blur and flicker even more.

"While it can't cast magic, it can stall just fine until my Beast, which I had sent on a little errand, comes back.

I can hear him in the pipes above now, although you will not quite be able to sense him. A rather nifty little spellwork on my part if I do say so myself. But don't worry. Your death will be quick and painless. That I promise you."

Riddle… No. The illusion smiled at him one last time before it turned and looked up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above it in the half-darkness.

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four!"

There was the sound of stone grinding against stone, and Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving, his mouth opening, wider and wider to make a huge black hole.

And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.

_____________

If you want to read more chapters ahead from here you can visit my Patre-on.

[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]

https://patreon.com/kelly_over