Harry Potter - {1} Memories

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We set off along the snake skin. Walking in silence but everything seemed to be loud around us. Our feet, breathing and even a lone rat running along sent shivers down our spines.

The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in my body was tingling. I wanted the tunnel to end, yet I didn't know what was on the other side. If I want to see what was on the other side. At last, as we crept around another bend we saw a solid wall ahead. The wall had two entwine serpents carved into it. Their eyes set with a great, glinting emeralds. I looked over to Harry.

"You wanna?" I asked.

"Open." Said Harry.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the haves slits smoothly out of sight. Harry and I shaking from head to foot, walked inside. We were standing at the very end of a long, dimly lit chamber. Towering Stone pillars intertwined with more carved serpents rose to support the ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.

I could hear Harry's heart beating very fast along with my own. We stood there listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in the shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny?

Harry pulled out his wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns. I already had my wand out so carefully I followed his footsteps. They echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. My eyes scanned around the room, ready to clamp them shot at the smallest sign of movement.

We came to the last pair of pillars. A statue high as the chamber itself loomed into view. Standing against the back wall. Me and Harry looked up at the giant face above. It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long thin beard that fell almost at the bottom of the wizards sweeping Stone robes, where to enormous gray feet stood on the smooth chamber floor. Between the feet, face down, lay a small black robed figure with flaming red hair.

"Ginny!" Yelled me and Harry.

Harry muttered under his breath as we dropped to our knees beside her. I kept my wand tight in my hand as Harry threw his onto the ground next to Ginny. Grabbing her shoulders and turning her over. Her face was white as marvel, and cold, yet her eyes were closed. So she wasn't petrified, but then she must be...

"Ginny please wake up." Said Harry.

Harry shook her and Ginny's head lulled hopelessly from side to side.

"She won't wake." Said a soft voice behind us.

I jumped up and turned to face him. A tall, black haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching he was strangely blurred around the edges, as though I was looking at him through a misted window.

"Tom..... Tom Riddle." Said Harry.

I glanced behind me at Harry then back to the boy. Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.

"What do you mean, she won't wake? She's not..... She's not...." Said Harry.

"She still alive, but only just." Said Riddle.

I stared at him. So this was the boy in that book. The one Harry told me about a couple of weeks ago. It was so weird he didn't look a day older than 16.

"Are you a ghost?" Asked Harry uncertainly.

"A memory. Preserved in a diary for 50 years." Said Riddle.

He pointed towards the floor near the statues giant toes. Laying open there with a little black diary Harry had found and moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I knew that book was evil.

"You got to help me, tom. We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk.... I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment... Please help me." Said Harry.

His eyes never moved from Harry's face. And he didn't move when Harry asked him to help. Hairy hoisted Ginny up half off the floor and went to pick up his wand again. But it wasn't there I went to the other side of ginny holding her up as well.

"Did you see?" Asked Harry.

Riddle was still watching him, twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers. When did he get that? I didn't even see him come near.

"Thanks." Said Harry.

A smile curled the corners of riddles mouth. He continued to stare and twirl the wand idly.

"Listen, we've got to go! If the basilisk comes..." Said Harry.

"It won't come until it's called." Said Riddle.

"Harry, let's just go. We can get you a new wand. Whoever he is. He's not our friend." I said.

"Smart girl. I would expect as much from you. The way your brother talks about you I mean." Said Riddle.

His eyes moved to mine. A sense of cold and dread rushed over me. Once this boy might have been good but right now this fragment of a memory. Was not going to help us, and he was not going to let us get free. Harry lower Ginny back onto the floor. I had let go sometime ago.

"What do you mean? Look, give me my wand, I might need it." Said Harry.

His eyes turned back to Harry. His smile broadened.

"You won't be needing it." Said Riddle.

"What do you mean, I won't be...?" Asked Harry.

"I've waited a long time for this, Harry potter. For the chance to see you. To speak to you." Said Riddle.

"Harry forget the goddamn wand. We can take Ginny and leave." I said.

Harry wasn't listening to me. He was staring back at Tom.

"Look, I don't think you get it. We're in the chamber of secrets. We can talk later." Said Harry.

"We're going to talk now." Said Riddle.

He pocketed Harry's wand, still smiling broadly.

"How did Ginny get like this?" Asked Harry.

"Well, that's an interesting question, and quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger." Said riddle.

"What are you talking about?" Said Harry.

"The diary, my diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes. How her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, how.... how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her...." Said Riddle.

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

"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an 11-year-old girl. But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. 'no one's ever understood me like you, Tom.. I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in.. it's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket...'" Said Riddle.

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I stepped back holding my wand firmly in front of me. Would I be able to shoot a spell at something that wasn't really alive?

"If I say it myself, harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her's so happened to be exactly what I wanted..... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than Little Miss weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Ms Weasley a few of my secrets to start pouring a little of my soul back into her...." Said Riddle.

"What do you mean?" Asked Harry.

"You didn't." I said.

I had gotten it. Ginny Weasley had opened the chamber of secrets. But not because she wanted to but because she was forced to. Just like what I saw.