And Who Are You?

And Who Are You?

'The adventure ends here, boys!' he said. 'I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. Say goodbye to your memories!'

He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, 'Obliviate!'

And for the first time since the accident, Ron's wand worked.

Harry threw himself to the ground, and a beam of light struck a piece of rock that was behind his head seconds before he had moved out of the way. Ron ran in front of Harry, and in that split second, when Ron was directly before Harry, Lockhart fired his second shot.

Ron just moved out of the way in time, but Harry, who was just getting up, did not. The force of the spell knocked him against the slime-covered walls, and his wand rolled away. Harry fell to the floor with a sickening crunch.

Ron grabbed Harry's fallen wand and yelled, 'Stupefy!' at Lockhart. A burst of red light hit Lockhart square in the chest, and he froze and fell to the floor.

Ron stumbled on a particularly slippery patch of slime, straightened up, and looked around, checking if anyone had seen. 'How can anyone have seen?' he asked himself out loud, 'Lockhart's been stunned, and Harry--Harry!' He had almost forgotten about him.

He ran over to the spot where Harry had fallen, and found him slumped against the wall, humming a pretty little tune with a slightly dazed look in his eyes.

'Erm, Harry?' Ron asked nervously. 'Are you OK?'

Harry seemed to notice him for the first time. 'Oh, hello! Didn't see you there ... sorry, but, who are you?'

Ron stared, dumbstruck. He saw a movement out of the corner of his eye; Lockhart was moving again.

Ron turned around, wand raised. 'Oh, you are going to pay for what you've done to Harry! Petrificus Totalus!' There was another flash, and Lockhart was back on the floor, eyes wide.

Ron gasped. 'Oh, Merlin, I completely forgot about Ginny!' He jumped up and retrieved his wand from Lockhart. Ron grabbed Harry's fallen wand, whispered, 'Lumos,' and the wand lit up. He pocketed his own, and he and Harry walked on, into the gloom.

The tunnel twisted and turned, and finally they came across a wall depicting two entwined snakes. Their eyes sparkled in the wand-light, and Ron suspected they must be gem-stones.

'Ooh, that's pretty,' said Harry as he moved closer to them. 'What's behind this door? Oh, I wish it would open.'

The last word came out as a hiss, and the door slowly and obediently opened.

'Oh, Harry, you've lost all your memories, and you're still a genius,' Ron murmured admiringly.

Harry's eyes widened. 'Wha-what did I-?'

'It's OK, Harry, just walk through here with me, alright? Don't worry, it'll be OK ...' Ron whispered.

They walked for a while, down a huge hallway, with water covering its floor. Presently, they saw a small dark-clad figure lying on the sodden stone.

'Ginny!' Ron cried, and dragging Harry forward with him, ran to his sister's side.

'Oh,' said a soft voice, 'there's another.'

The boys looked up. Standing there, wearing an old Hogwarts uniform, was a tall, dark-haired boy. Ron saw that he was twirling Harry's wand between his fingers. 'You were so desperate to reach her that you didn't notice this wand falling out of your pocket.'

Ron reached into his pocket, and found, indeed, that Harry's wand had gone. 'Who-who are you? And what have you done to Ginny?'

'She did this to herself. She found my diary, and quite literally, poured her heart and soul into it. Into me. She told me her worries, her worst nightmares, and her darkest secrets. I grew strong on her soul. So, in return, I fed her a little of my soul,' he smirked, looking at Ginny.

'What?' Ron exclaimed. He looked at Harry, who smiled pleasantly back.

'Oh dear, you are rather stupid, for the famous Harry Potter's friend,' (Ron flushed, angrily) 'it was Ginny all along! She wrote on the walls, killed the roosters, opened the Chamber of Secrets and set Slytherin's servant on those--' the dark-haired boy paused slightly, '--people and the cat.' Harry, even though he had no idea what was going on, looked suitably shocked.

'Of course,' he continued, 'she had no idea what she was doing to begin with. Then she tried to get rid of the diary, afraid I expect, and who should pick it up, but Harry Potter. You.'

He looked at Harry, who looked utterly confused. 'Did I?'

The young man was getting angry. 'And then Ginny stole it back, ripped everything apart until she found it; I believe she was worried that I had told you all her secrets. So, I made her write on the wall, one final time, and come down here. She will die soon. Her life force is mainly in me. But, now the question is, how, Harry Potter, are you still alive? You should have died eleven years ago!'

There was silence in the chamber for the first time.

Then Harry suddenly raised his eyebrows, and said, 'Oh! I'm sorry, are you talking to me?'

The boy snarled and said dangerously, 'Oh, how infuriating you both are. No matter, I will summon my faithful serpent soon.'

'Bu-but, who are you?' stammered Ron, trying to steer the conversation away from Harry, who was in no fit state to be answering questions, especially questions about his past. The dark-haired man glared at Ron, and began tracing three words in the air with Harry's wand.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

He waved the wand, and the letters scattered, forming new words.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

Ron gasped.

'Yes, it is I, the greatest wizard in the world, though from the past. I am but a memory, a shadow of what I become.'

'You are not,' said Harry unexpectedly.

Ron hoped for a second that his best friend had regained his memory, until Riddle said, 'What?'

Harry thought about it for a moment, and then said, 'I don't know, but there is definitely a better, erm, wizard than you. I just can't remember his name. D--'

'Dumbledore!' Ron exclaimed, 'Dumbledore is a better wizard than you will ever be!'

All three of them suddenly fell silent; a beautiful yet eerie song was echoing down the hall. Fawkes swooped down in front of them, holding ...

'The Sorting Hat?' Ron looked at the floppy hat in disbelief. But Riddle was now standing in front of a huge statue of Salazar Slytherin, and suddenly an enormous snake was sliding out of its mouth.

'What does this do?' Harry picked up the Sorting Hat, and put it on his head. Almost immediately, there was a loud thunk and Harry sat down dazedly, taking the hat off. Ron watched curiously as Harry proceeded to pull a glittering sword from the hat. 'Ooh, cool, it's bigger on the inside than the outside.'

Harry grinned, turning the sword over in his hands. They were so distracted by it, that the boys both started in horror when the Basilisk slithered around them, to face Harry.

'Don't look it in the eye! Harry!' Ron cried suddenly. Harry did as he was told, and kept his eyes lowered. Then Fawkes gave a fierce cry, and launched himself at the snake.

There was a shocking battle for a few minutes, but in the end Fawkes gouged the snake's yellow eyes out. The Basilisk screamed in agony, and Fawkes flew off, down the hallway. The Basilisk jabbed at Harry, but missed, and took one long sniff of the air.

It's trying to smell us out, Ron realised. It paused, and then went for Harry again, but at the last second Harry raised the sword and sliced the snake's head off. Its whole body went limp, and then the ugly head crashed to the floor. Ron turned around and grinned at Harry in surprise. But his expression soon turned to horror when he saw that Harry had collapsed on the floor, a Basilisk fang protruding from his right arm. Ron ran to him, and Harry slowly and painfully pulled the poisonous fang out of his arm.

'You have but minutes to live, Potter,' said a soft voice from behind them. Harry grimaced and turned around. Riddle was standing over Ginny, still holding his wand. 'You know, I'm surprised you both even got this far.' He glanced at the corpse of the Basilisk in disgust. 'No matter, you'll be with your filthy, Mudblood mother anytime now.'

Harry seemed to have caught on that Riddle was talking to him, and that what he was saying wasn't anything good, because he tried to attack him with the fang, but fell to the floor in pain. As he was falling, he put his left arm out to save himself; the hand with the fang in it.

His hand came into contact not with the hard, stone floor, but with something small and black. The diary. It started spitting and gurgling ink, and Riddle let out a sudden piercing cry. He faded, and disappeared entirely.

'See?' said Ron, looking at Harry. 'A complete genius.' There was a groan from behind them, and Ginny sat up, rubbing her eyes. 'Harry! Ron! Oh--I'm sorry! I-I didn't know--' She started to babble and sob uncontrollably.

'Ginny! Ginny! Calm down! We haven't got time! Harry doesn't have long; we need to get him to Dumbledore.' Ron picked Harry up, and carried him a short way, then said, 'Oh-Ginny, pick up those.' He pointed to the sword, the Sorting Hat, Harry's wand and the diary. The diary was all that was left of the memory that had been Tom Riddle.

They finally reached the place where they had left Lockhart, still under the Petrificus Totalus spell. His eyes, flickering in his frozen face, watched them warily.

'Did you do this?' Ginny asked indignantly, inspecting Lockhart.

'Only because he used a memory charm on Harry,' Ron replied viciously.

'What? He did what?'

'Not now, when we get back.'

'How are we going to get back?' Ginny asked quietly. As if in answer to her question, Fawkes appeared and stretched out his leg. Ginny grabbed Lockhart, then Ron and Harry, who in turn grabbed onto Fawkes. He flew them back up the tunnel, and they found themselves outside Dumbledore's office.

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