"Because, as many people told me in the past, I'm a young fool who wants to be a hero. And yet, I find myself turning into something else. Truth be told, you were killed, Myrtle, and while the two of us are far from being friends… I still want to help you, so please, for the sake of my friends, help me help you."
It took her a few seconds to realize that I wasn't lying to her before she reluctantly agreed.
"Fine. I think you want to know how I died, right?"
Thomas didn't say anything, but he did nod at her. Seeing that, Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.
"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So, I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then …" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."
"I'm sorry … Do you know how? Or was it too sudden?"
"No idea, or was sudden that I can confirm…" Myrtle said in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away…" She looked dreamily at Thomas. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."
"You were a victim of the Basilisk, Myrtle. Do you perhaps remember where have you seen the eyes?"
"Somewhere there," Myrtle said, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet. " Wait a minute, you said a Basilisk?"
"From what little I could find out about the creature, it seems that a Basilisk was sealed inside the school by Slytherin himself."
"That… might explain why… why I lost control over my body…"
Letting Myrtle make peace with how she died, Thomas rushed over to the sink and sadly, it looked like an ordinary sink. He examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then when he took a closer look at it, Thomas saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.
"That tap's never worked," Myrtle mentioned brightly as he tried to turn it.
"Strange, no?"
"It is. I don't remember what the boy said, but he was talking in a strange language."
A strange language that could open the Chamber of Secrets. And the only strange language, Thomas knew that might work was Parseltongue. Even though there might be some kind of password to open the chamber, Thomas couldn't think of anything other than a simple open-up, so that's exactly what he did.
Thought, instead of hearing open up, Myrtle heard the same strange noise that boy made fifty years ago. At once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move, well better said was that the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a rather big man to slide into.
Myrtle gasped as she saw the pipe revealed. "Are you going to go down there?" she asked him. "You don't know what you might find. It could be dangerous. Or worse, it could be boring." She shuddered at the thought of spending eternity in a dull place.
"I have to go, Myrtle. The Basilisk is down there. Besides, maybe I can find a way to help you too. You deserve to be happy, you know." He reached out his hand and touched her cheek gently and for the first time in over fifty years, Myrtle felt some warmth on her cheek making her blush.
"Thank you, Thomas. You're very kind. But be careful, okay? I don't want you to end up like me." She paused for a second before smiling at him. "Forget about that, maybe it would be fun if you end up like me." She then moved aside and gestured to the pipe. "Go on then. I'll wait for you here."
Not even a second later, Thomas jumped down the pipe. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as the one he jumped into, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Maybe it was true what they said about Slytherin and his madness—that and the fact that he built a bloody underground base for himself and his pet.
And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in.
'Strange, I was expecting something else.'
[The Snake? Or worse?]
'Both Bahamut, both. Any idea how deep we are?'
[Under the lake most likely, I can feel the Kraken above us, albeit it is quite a distance between us and him.]
Not being all keen on waiting at the entrance for the basilisk, Thomas grabbed his wand and cast out a "Lumos" before he slowly walked forward. But the tunnel was as quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound he heard was a loud crunch that he did when he put his foot on a rat's skull. When Thomas lowered his wand to look at the floor, he saw that it was littered with small animal bones. At least these were animals and not students…
And then, he saw it, a massive outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel, seemly dead or better said unmoving. Whatever that was, Thomas didn't want to find, but Ginny was in the chamber for hours, and no matter how much he tried not to think about it, Ginny might die if she hadn't already. So rather than doing the sensible thing of going back and informing the teachers of this, Thomas decided to move forward and to his relief, the outline was just the skin of the Basilisk.
Leaving behind this chamber, Thomas headed onwards through the tunnel as it turned and turned again. And at each turn, it made him uncomfortable almost as if something was watching him, but no matter where he looked or how he looked, there was nothing but skeletons and darkness. And then, at last, as he crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.
[An enchanted door. Be careful, Thomas. I can't feel anything beyond the door.]
Hearing Bahamut's warning, Thomas was just one thought away from retreating before he remembered once again that one of his friend's sister was beyond that door.
Another door that needs to be opened using the Parseltongue. Saying the same phrase he said to the sink, Thomas watched as the serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight before steeled himself and walking inside.
When he walked inside, Thomas found himself, standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. A proper Slytherin room, that's the only thing Thomas could think about. That and the fact that somewhere inside this very chamber, the basilisk could be resting or worse waiting to ambush him.
Holding tightly on his wand and dagger, Thomas moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, Thomas could swear that he saw the snakes moving in the corner of his eyes, yet every time he watched them, they stood still, almost as if everything was in his mind.
Then, as he drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Stopping in front of the statute, Thomas raised his head only to see a giant face that looked ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.
"Ginny!" Thomas shouted while gently shaking the little girl.
"She won't wake," said a soft voice, making Thomas turn around and prepare for a fight only to be shocked when he saw a tall, black-haired boy leaning against the nearest pillar, watching him. He was strangely blurred around the edges, almost like he wasn't real.
"Tom Riddle, I presume."
"You presume right, Thomas Grayson."
"You mentioned that she won't wake up. Does that mean that she is still alive for now?"
"She's still alive," Riddle smiled at him. "But only just."
"For a memory, you are a bastard, you know that?"
"I've been told that before. Alas, it is surprising that you have realized that I was a memory so fast. Most would have assumed I was a ghost. Then again considering your strength, it shouldn't have been a surprise."
"Yet, I didn't know that the diary disappeared from my room."
"That was little Ginny's work. She stole Harry Potter's invisible toy and sneaked inside your room, before replacing my diary with a fake one. The diary," Riddle continues while looking at Ginny "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 secondhand robes and books, how…" Riddle's eyes glinted." …how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her. Something that made me wonder what she could have seen at that pitiful excuse of a boy. Don't get me wrong, he can become someone great if guided properly, but between the two of us, other than you, there is no student in the whole of Hogwarts, prepared for the real world."
"Do I hear some jealousy?"
Riddle only glanced at him before continuing, ignoring Thomas's jab.
"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," he went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny 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. … And so on. I don't know if you know this, but little girls are nothing but an annoyance. If I say it myself, Thomas, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul 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 Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her …"
"A bloody leach that's what are you."
"Perhaps."
"You made a little girl open the chamber for god's sake."
"And here I thought you were an idiot. That I did and I'm proud of it! Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries … far more interesting, they became ... Dear Tom, I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me… There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad…. I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom! Please help me, Tom! I don't to become a monster, Tom!"
If Riddle were to be real, there was no doubt that Thomas would have killed him when he heard what the madman made an eleven-years old little girl do for his sick pleasure.
"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary. But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Thomas. You found it, and while I would have been more delighted to meet Harry Potter than you... You are far more suitable for my plans, despite lacking something that Harry Potter has."
"You killed Myrtle fifty years ago and blame Hagrid."
"That I did. It was my word against Hagrid's, Thomas. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. 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 … but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance … as though Hagrid had the brains or the power!"
"Yet there was someone that didn't believe you. Someone, that you feared, am I right?"
Riddle's smirk disappeared from his face and instead, an ugly expression took its place.
"Once again you impress me, muggle boy. Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as a gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed… Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did ..."
"I wonder why?"
"Well, truth be told, I didn't make myself likable to him, or so he says to this day."
"Why did you put Ginny to kill or attack the students?"
"Because it doesn't matter to me! Ever since I met you almost two years ago… I wanted to take over your body!"
Thomas felt a chill run down his spine as he heard Riddle's words. He realized that he was facing the most dangerous wizard of all time, the one who would become Lord Voldemort.
"You are the noseless bastard."
Rather than answering, he pulled a wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:
TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE
Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:
I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Thomas… I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!
"Luckily for all of us, you are far from being the greatest sorcerer in the whole world."
Before Thomas could even comprehend what happened, something hit his chest, sending him into the nearest pillar.
< Just change "3" with "e" Patr3on Link : https://patr3on.com/meatbunkun>