Soon, the Christmas holidays arrived, and Melody and Tom obviously signed up to stay. But this time around, Tom actually had something planned. He'd told the Basilisk that he'd come by in December, so now was the time. Only four other Slytherins stayed, two girls, and one other boy. And five Gryffindors stayed (excluding Melody).
Cheryl and Katie went home for the holidays, and so did Charlus and Fleamont. The Head Boy also left to visit home, so only the Head Girl, Melody, Tom, and Henry Abbott stayed (from the Prefects).
Melody was strolling through the corridors, humming happily, when she saw Tom walk by in the distance. Melody shrugged and just assumed he was acting odd as usual, and continued on her way.
That was, until she saw him enter the girls bathroom (they were on the second floor). The message in front of that bathroom had been scrubbed off, so there wasn't anything odd there anymore.
Anyways, back to Melody.
'Why on earth is that guy going into the girls bathroom?' Melody stayed glued to her spot, watching as he closed the door behind him. She crept to the door and pressed her ear against it.
*Footsteps*
Then...
A hissing sound???
It took a moment for Melody to actually understand anything. Wait..doesn't Parsletongue sound like hissing?
Melody facepalmed. How could she have forgotten? All those times Tom sat by the bushes in the courtyard as children. That time a snake came after Emma, then Tom being punished for 'smuggling' in a poisonous snake.
He was a Parsletongue.
Her of all people should've known! Should've remembered! She spent eight years with him, and didn't notice!
But hang on..
Everything suddenly clicked together. Tom was in the second floor girls bathroom. The same bathroom with the Serpent engraving on one of the taps. And he was speaking Parsletongue.
The Chamber of Secrets had been right in front of her! But then..wouldn't that mean that he was the Heir of Slytherin? The attacks stopped after only the first one.
Right after Melody made the revelation of Salazar Slytherin's true motives.
So...if Tom stopped then, why was he opening the Chamber again?
Melody ran back to Gryffindor Tower. She really needed some space to think right now.
____________________________________
Tom got to the Chamber's official entrance after going down the tunnel.
"Open," he hissed at it. The snakes moved, one by one, with a few clicks. After a few seconds, it flung open gently, admitting Tom in.
Tom went to the front of the huge Chamber, to the statue of Salazar Slytherin.
"Come, I have returned, and have a few questionss to asssk you."
The Basilisk slithered out of the hole it stayed in. "Yesss, oh Heir. How may I be of ssservice?"
"Does Ssalazar Ssslytherin have a portrait of himself down here?"
The Basilisk slithered back inside its hole, and at first, Tom thought it wasn't going to answer him, until it slithered back out. "Yesss, he iss in here. He requesstss to ssspeak to you."
Tom thanked the Basilisk and went into where it directed him into, and was met by a portrait of none other than Salazar Slytherin himself.
"So, you're Tom Riddle. One of my descendants," Salazar hummed.
"Yes."
"Now, is it my understanding that you came here for answers about my true motives of the Chamber?"
Tom was taken aback. "How?"
Salazar smirked. "I have my ways..anyway, the Basilisk has reported to me about a new recent revelation from a girl. Regarding my true motives."
"Yes, Melody, a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff. Was she right?" Tom was dying to find out the truth.
Salazar paused dramatically before answering. "Yes."
...
"So you don't hate Muggleborns?" Tom didn't use the term, 'Mudblood' this time.
"Of course not! I just merely thought that it was risky for them to attend Hogwarts during the witch burning period."
"But everyone thinks you do and built this Chamber to rid Hogwarts of Muggleborns and 'enemies of the Heir,'" Tom said, shocked.
"Well then, they all lied! I've tried telling everyone, every Slytherin who comes by my other portrait in the Slytherin Head of House's office, yet nobody bothers to listen. It disgusts me on how everyone in my house is obsessed with blood purity and 'blood supremacy!'" Salazar growled at the last part.
"So then why did you build the Chamber, sir?"
"Just Salazar. I built this Chamber as a dwelling for my Basilisk after my demise. Even when you commanded the Basilisk to rid of Muggleborns, I only told it to slither through the pipes to exercise, that way, it would trick you! But I guess that student must have accidentally seen it's eyes through some shiny torch that acted as a mirror."
"So you mean, the petrification was only an accident?" Tom echoed, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes, what else would you have gathered from my explanation?" Salazar asked sarcastically.
Tom didn't retort. Instead, he took all the new information in. "What about the Dark Arts? What is your opinion on them?"
"I absolutely despise them. My wife died because of them!"
Tom didn't know what to say. Was Melody right all this time? She never talked about how her parents died. Could it have been from Dark Magic?
"So...should I quit practicing them?"
Salazar stared at him incredulously. "Y-you practice them?!"
"Since fourth year. Melody and I argued a lot about it."
"And did you ever listen to her?"
"No," Tom said slowly, feeling an ounce of shame, though he'd never admit it.
"How many times were you warned to quit them?" Salazar asked.
"More than I can count. During the holidays, and during Hogwarts."
"Well, I'm here to add to that, quit them. They never have a great outcome. I lost the one person I loved because of it."
"I don't love or care about anyone."
Salazar started at this. "What?"
"I've never really felt emotion like empathy or normal happiness. And I haven't tried feeling it. Just the mention of 'love'...."
"What do you mean by normal happiness exactly?"
Tom sighed. He really hated this topic. But he'd answer. "Whenever I feel happy, it's because of something twisted."
"Well, this happens when you are born under a love potion. I have been working on a ritual and spell to reverse this, let me go get them. They're our only hope," and with that, Salazar disappeared further into his portrait. A few minutes later, he returned with a very ancient looking book, although it didn't seem crumbled or anything.
"Test these on yourself," Salazar passed the book to Tom, who took the now physical book and got out his wand. The incantations might have looked like complete gibberish to anyone else (god forbid Melody saw them, she'd go nuts), but of course, this was Tom Riddle we're talking about. He carefully recited the spell, and waved his wand around himself. No light surrounded him like other spells.
"It isn't supposed to have light when casted. I made it so," Salazar said, seeing Tom looking from his wand, and to the air around him, free of light of course.
Tom has expected a sudden burst of emotion after the spell took place, but nothing happened.
"I am not sure if it worked or not, you should return tomorrow so we can try fixing the problem," Salazar said, frowning.
"Alright, Salazar, I'll try. You see, it's rather hard to come here because the entrance to here is in a girls bathroom," Tom smirked. Salazar laughed. "I thought it would've been unpredictable."
____________________________________
Melody's been pacing the corridors for two hours while Tom, unknown to her, was in the Chamber. She was seriously beginning to wonder where he went. She didn't exactly know why she wanted to know, it wasn't like it was any of her business, as Tom had so 'kindly' told her during their arguments they had at the orphanage, but still..!
Unknown too, to Melody, her feet were bringing her to the second floor, where she last saw Tom. Too busy wondering and thinking about her Arithmancy and Ancient Runes work to create her Time Turner that were back in her dormitory, safely inside her warded drawer, she didn't realize that she could run into anyone passing by. Which she didn't—
"Ouch!" She stumbled backwards. "Oh."
Yep, her guts were right, she actually did end up running into someone. And who should that someone be, none other than Tom Riddle.
"Where've you been?" She suddenly asked. She was half expecting him to just brush her off again and kindly remind her that it was nothing that should concern her, but, much to her surprise, he actually answered.
"Figuring out the truth."
Okay, well, his answer was still mysterious and like an actual riddle (PUN INTENDED), but still, he actually answered her for once!
Her surprise must have shown in her face, because Tom smirked. "What? Were you not expecting an answer at all?"
"Well, you've gotta admit, after eight years, I quit trying to get an answer out of you, soo..." she shrugged.
"Speaking of which, if all purebloods are related in a way, how come you had to live in an orphanage?"
Melody did think that was strange too. "I actually don't know. I could've lived with the Blacks or Greengrasses, but I guess since not all of them are blood related to me...I don't really know.."
"Are there any other families you're related to?"
"Well, there's.....the Princes, if I'm not mistaken..I've never really bothered memorizing my entire family tree."
"Well, you never exactly said how you came to be at Wool's Orphanage of all orphanages," Tom pressed on. Melody, half realizing that he was using that Slytherin charm thing which makes you want to answer their question, and half actually not minding to answer, answered. "I don't know."
"Couldn't you have lived with a Godparent?"
'When did Tom become so interested in my family?'
"My family don't assign random people as their child's guardian. It's usually a blood related family member, but even then..."
"What ever happened to your family anyway? You could've possibly lived with your grandparents."
"They were killed by Dark Magic," Melody said quietly, with a hint of bitterness in her voice. "When do you care anyway? All you do is break people's hearts or twist something so it benefits you."
Silence fell upon the two of them after her claim. She was right. Salazar was right.
He had to quit practicing Dark Magic. And judging by Melody's outbursts in the past, so as his 'player' act.
"You know..nobody actually brought me to the orphanage. I fled the house when I found them dead. I must have Apparated or something, because next thing I knew, I was at the door of Wool's Orphanage. You might not remember this, because it was after midnight. Mrs Cole told you all someone brought me there. Not the fact that I literally came staggering up the front steps in the middle of the night."
Melody's voice had gone gradually quieter during her revelation. Tom had never seen Melody so..what do you even call it? He had brought back bad memories, she was reciting them.
BANG!
"PEEVES, I SWEAR—!" Melody suddenly yelled, after many things began falling. Tom snapped out of his thoughts and watched as Melody began threatening to get the Bloody Baron if Peeves didn't quit it. It was only when Peeves spilled something on Tom, which turned his hair pink, was when Melody froze, staring incredulously at Tom.
"What—Peeves!" Tom bellowed. This caused Melody to burst out laughing, clutching her sides with laughter. "Oh Merlin...Tom Riddle.....with pink hair! I never thought I'd live to.....see it!" She managed to get out. Tom just glared at her, which she ignored. Melody was the only person who ever dismissed Tom's glare. It was annoying, the fact that if she every annoyed him, his glare never worked.
Then Peeves turned her hair bright blue. Tom laughed at her. Melody looked shocked for a second, then smirked, closed her eyes, and the colour went back to her normal dark brown.
"What the Merlin is going on—Oh my gosh..." it was the Hufflepuff Prefect, Henry Abbott. But he wasn't shocked about the mess, he was shocked that Tom Riddle was laughing.
"PEEVES! I WILL GET THE BLOODY BARON IF YOU DO NOT QUIT IT!"
"Someone mention me?" A familiar voice droned. It was the Bloody Baron.
Peeves suddenly paled. (Err, if poltergeists can even pale, they are sort of already like ghosts..)
Peeves flew away, screaming like a girl, which caused Melody to burst out laughing again. The Bloody Baron shrugged and glided away. Tom cleaned up the mess and with a wave of his hand, fixed his hair colour.
"Aw, I was hoping the colour would stay..." Melody trailed off, seeing Tom's disbelieving look. Then suddenly, Tom raised his wand. "Run."
Henry was watching the exchange with wide eyes.
"It's fine, he's just joking—" (Wait what, where am I, Tom Marvolo Riddle, JOKING?) Yet still, Melody, still laughing, ran as Tom ran after her.
"Catch me if you can!" She called over her shoulder.
Which left a very confused Henry Abbott behind.
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A / N : Very long chapter, you know the drill, next chapter either comes out in the same day, or the day after, it all depends on when writer's block will break through the door—
CRASH!
Whoops, GET OUT WRITER'S BLOCK!
Till next time!