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Chapter 100- Chamber of Fear...
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"Gilderoy, good of you to finally join us." I hear as I walk through the door, Riddle standing there at the end of the chamber, Ginny on the ground next to him, and Gemma standing to the side, her wand in her hand. "To be honest, I thought that you would perhaps not come, fearing my wrath. But good for you, you came, though I don't see my pages anywhere. I can't feel them either. But I know you wouldn't dare wander down here without them, which leaves me to applaud your ingenuity and prowess, managing to hide parts of me from me. I am impressed." I hear him talk, and I just continue to walk forward with a blank face, not showing anything.
"Well, it was quite troublesome to find something that worked on them. A lot of trial and error, I have to say, they are very... unique. Never seen anything quite like them. I am glad you can appreciate the effort I put into it." I speak, laying out some false facts. Such as the fact that I didn't know what his pages were and had to do a lot of trial and error to contain them. It's true that a lot of trial and error had occurred when I was trying to find a container for the diadem and a spell to track the pages down, but I lied about not knowing that he was a Horcrux. I am sure he has a false sense of security right now, thinking I don't know how to hurt him, and that will help in a bit.
Riddle begins to laugh. "Appreciate?" He says with derision, looking at me sardonically, and he stops his laughter, his eyes now glowing red. "Make no mistake, I do not appreciate it. I am impressed, however I am not amused. I am the furthest thing from amused, and I am seconds away from ending your miserable little existence if you do not hand over what you took from me. Do so with haste, and you will live, though I will have to relieve this frustration, so you will have to suffer some light torture, but at least you will be alive." With that, he stretches out his open hand, waiting for me to comply.
"But master, you promised that you would leave him for me to keep. If you torture him, he might stop working, and then he'll be of no use to me." Gemma whines like a little girl, something I am surprised to see since she always was competent and seductive in front of me. Still, this gives me a little time to think. "Don't worry, my dear. You are loyal, and I always reward loyalty. I said light torture for a reason; he will still work enough to serve your purposes." Riddle replies, and I try to ignore the implication that I was only being allowed to live to serve to satisfy Gemma's sexual desires. The silver lining, though, is that I am indeed that good at my craft now, which is something I suppose.
I subtly look around the room, trying to identify as much as I can as I continue to slowly advance towards my enemies. I recall the information that Myrtle had supplies, and if she is correct, then there should be five other students hidden around here, each behind a different statue on the sides. Harry was concerned that these students were being controlled, but I had reassured him that it didn't matter, as we would have to take them down either way, so it was best not to worry about it; after all, countless lives were depending on us. Still, Harry is a good kid, which is why I came up with a plan that would help me as well as not offend the boy's delicate sensibilities.
Looking around the room, I try to spot any hint of Harry or Myrtle, but there is nothing, and when I focus my hearing, I can't hear them either; good. Before we entered, I laid out the particulars of my plan, and then Harry hissed and opened the door, and I entered, both him and Myrtle coming in behind me, but of course, they could not be seen. Myrtle had obviously gone ghost mode, while for Harry, I had applied my own disillusionment charm to him, being much better than his own, and not only that, but I applied a sound charm version that would contain the sound around him to a max of 1 meter.
This sound charm was special as all sounds out of that 1 meter could not be heard inside, and all sounds in that one meter could not be heard outside. This means that even though Harry was in this room right now, carrying out my orders, he couldn't hear anything that was being talked about, and I much preferred it to be like that. Myrtle could listen to everything, but for some strange reason, I trusted her, and I knew she was pretty much under my control. Also, I have come to find out that ghosts don't really care about the affairs of the living; after all, they've moved on from it.
Finally, though, I have reached Riddle. Well, close enough to him, actually closer than I am comfortable with, but still a bit of distance to stay safe. From here, I am close enough to see Ginny, and to my surprise, she doesn't actually look too bad. I mean, she is unconscious, but she isn't paling or anything and is actually quite flushed in the face. So that is one less thing to worry about, but it doesn't really matter because either way, I am on a time limit. At this point, Gemma has quietened down, and so has Riddle, and they are both looking at me expectantly, with Riddle still having his pal stretched out.
"Well, I am waiting." Riddle says, and I can see the growing irritation on his face, so I hasten in my action. It is an action which many would probably not like and would most likely want me lynched for, but it is an action I take nonetheless, and it is for good reason. I waved my wand, and the latch of my soul cage opened, and with a swish, the pages I had painstakingly caught and imprisoned came shooting out, floating in the air between myself and Riddle. I quickly moved my cage to the side, out of harm's reach, as it actually took me a bit of effort to make it, and I didn't want to have it broken in the ensuing battle.
Again, people would probably call me an idiot for this and an asshole and all sorts of other insulting things, but I have a reason for this, one that is about to make itself apparent. I watch as Riddle gets a grin filled with glee on his face, and after a moment, all of the pages begin to swirl in the air and then shoot towards him; I see it as his body flickers an eerie green, and the opacity of his body lowers, and he turns transparent and inside of him the diary is revealed, flipping continuously as more and more pages begin to insert themselves back into it. With that, I now know the location of the thing I need to destroy with absolute one hundred percent certainty.
If I actually had the time, I would have definitely boobytrapped those pages and had them implode once they were inserted, maybe even with Fiendfire, but I was literally accosted in my office less than half an hour ago, so I am making do with what I have. What I have is a barely put-together plan, a boy, a ghost and reckless behaviour. Gemma is looking at Riddle with glee, and Riddle himself is basking in his own aura, feeling complete once more. I take the opportunity for what it is.
"Fiendfire!" I roar, thrusting my wand forth with all of my might and letting the vile flames spew from my wand and head directly for Riddle, the spread of it covering nearly the whole room in front of me. I didn't care that the flames might consume Gemma as well or that the flames might get dangerously close to Ginny because right now, my only goal in life was to kill the monster in front of me before it killed me, and their lives didn't seem to hold enough weight to influence my actions much.
"You're not as stupid as you look." I hear come through the flames crystal clear, and even with the overwhelming heat surrounding me, I am drenched in cold, icy fear as a chuckle rings out. "Still, you are as weak as you look." And with that, a whoosh of air fills the room, and the fearsome, all terrifying flames I produced are squashed into nothing, little embers slowly fading after it had been extinguished. Mocking laughter sounds out as I can only stare dumbstruck at Riddle, who is grinning at me.
"Haha, look at my overwhelming power. I have so much magic that even a simple wind charm is enough to put out Fiendfire. And I haven't even finished fully taking all of the student's magic." Riddle doesn't even glance at me as he basks in his own power, and I find it hard to believe the process isn't even finished, and he can already just trample on my magic like it's nothing. I glance at Gemma, who notices and glares at me for my actions before looking back to her lord in glee. They aren't even taking me seriously now that I've given over my only leverage; I'm not a problem in their eyes.
"Ah, don't think I've forgotten about you. Now, you shouldn't have done that. I gave you a chance, again. And you've wasted it. Oh, how I will play with you. I am sorry, my dear, but there might not be enough left for you to have fun with." Riddle then raises his wand, and I quickly ready myself to dodge or a shield, but somewhere deep down, I feel hopeless. He is so powerful right now that I doubt even Dumbledore would be able to stop him. Once the process is complete, he will be unstoppable; nothing will be able to stop him. I would need a miracle now if I want to survive this.
"Ah." Riddle grunts, his arm suddenly lowering. For a minute, I gain hope that maybe he isn't able to function properly with such an overwhelming amount of power inside of him, but his next words clear that up for me. "Tch, the old man is back. And somehow, he is slowing and even reversing the process. All of you, deal with this miscreant while I focus." Riddle calls out, moving to kneel on the concrete and spreading his arms out, but he stops when only Gemma moves towards me, and nobody else reveals themselves.
"Reveal yourselves!" Riddle shouts, demanding the students he had hidden to make an appearance, but nobody shows up. I smirked; things were actually working out for me here, even though my part of the plan, prongs two and three, worked. With Dumbledore actually back and doing something topside, apparently interrupting the draining and trying to reverse it, then Riddle is vulnerable. He has to concentrate on resuming the process and defying Dumbledore. However, if I am enough of a nuisance, then he won't be able to do that, and he will get continuously weaker, and with my two sneaky helpers, I should be able to last long enough that he gets weak enough for me to Fiendfire him.
And then I watch as the anger and frustration on Riddle's face drains, and he is left with confusion, which confuses me. Then I look at Gemma, and I notice she also looks confused, and then I notice they are not looking at me, but something past me. I move to the side and turn so I can still react to the two enemies, and I look back to see what has them so confused. Harry is there, having undone the disillusionment I had put on him and he is talking. Except, my sound charm is still on him and no one can hear him. With a sigh, I wave my hand and get rid of the charm, letting everybody hear the boy.
"-let you hurt anybody! I'll stop you! Just like I stopped all those other students!" Harry shouts, looking very heroic and dashing, if not for the fact that nobody heard any of the first part. Harry stopped talking at that point and bared his wand, beginning to walk closer. This idiot child, if only he had stayed hidden, my plan could have worked. It's quite insulting, but Riddle probably sees Harry more as a threat now, as he knows he has been defeated twice by this kid before. Riddle is cautious, and he won't take any chances now.
"Gemma, I want the fop dead, but keep the boy alive if possible. I have questions for him. Otherwise, do not interrupt me." Riddle speaks, and I feel a smidgen of hope that he will be relying on just Gemma, but that is destroyed when he turns around and faces the statue. Riddle begins to hiss a menacing hiss, and from the look on Harry's face, I can tell it is nothing good, in fact I think it is something to the effect of, 'Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four', or maybe Riddle is just pissed and he is saying coming out and eat these fuckers for me.
Slytherin's gigantic stone face began to move. Horrorstruck, we watched the statue's mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole. Something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths. I noticed Harry out of the corner of my eye as he backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall, and he shut his eyes tight. He had the right idea, and I had to make sure he knew that. "Don't look it in the eyes, Harry. It is instant death, so avoid the eyes!" I shouted, and I saw him nod his head even with his eyes still closed.
Heeding my own advice, I forced my eyes to the ground, hoping my peripheral vision would be enough to help me avoid the beast. I caught something huge hit the stone floor of the chamber. I felt it shudder, and I could sense it, and in my peripherals, I could see the scaly green skin of the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. Then I heard Riddle's hissing voice again, no doubt issuing a command. And with that, the Basilisk was suddenly moving, and I found myself struck with indecision on what move to make.
But then, just as sudden as the Basilisk's move, there was music. Music was coming from somewhere. It was such a change that even the Basilisk seemed to stall and somehow even recoil from it, as if the melodic tunes were hurting it. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on the scalp and made the heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size, bolstering the listener. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that I could feel it vibrating inside my own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar. The flash of brilliance was such that I was unable to stop myself from looking at it, and I could see that Harry was much the same.
A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle. It seems that even though Dumbledore was preoccupied upstairs, he wasn't leaving us without support. The bird and the hat should definitely help out, but it would be best for the hat to go to Harry, as I sure as hell am not courageous enough to pull out the weapon inside of it.
A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, but it didn't stick around. As it flapped its great wings and sped away from Harry, I caught sight of its long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eye. It looked at me but ignored me in favour of the threat in the room. At this point, the bird stopped singing and instead looked as serious as a bird could look as it darted at the Basilisk.
"Fawkes?" Harry breathed out, and we both held our breath as it headed towards the big behemoth in front of it. Catching myself in the midst of making a mistake, I quickly looked down and urged Harry to do the same. "Don't look at it! Look away, Harry!" I shouted, though I didn't know if the boy listened. I just looked down, and I could see flashes of flames and hear the angry hisses of the Basilisk as a fight ensued. I could just about make it out, witnessing it out of the corner of my eye.
Fawkes was soaring around the Basilisk's head, and the Basilisk was snapping furiously at the phoenix with fangs as long and thin as sabres. Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight, and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. The snake's tail thrashed, breaking concrete and sending jagged rocks in every direction. "Stupefy!" Hearing that, I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the red jet of light. I had forgotten about Gemma, and that had nearly cost me.
I quickly scrambled back up to my feet and looked around to find my opponent, but instead, I found myself looking directly into the eyes of the Basilisk...
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Sorry for missing last week, it turns out the reason I went all blurry in my left eye was a cut on it. So yeah, had to heal that and stay away from screens a bit, which is why this happened. I'm also back at uni, and all my screen time was spent there mostly. Anyway, back to regular programming.
Upcoming Chapters:
Hero: Chapter 101- Gilderoy Lockhart and the Chamber of Secrets.
Super: Chapter 103- Freedom At Last!
Legendary: Chapter 105- Wizards Renovating Houses!
Galactic: Chapter 109- An Unexpected Friendship.
Mythic: Chapter 110- A New Journey?
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That is all for now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I will see you in the next one!
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