Chapter Text
Harry ran as the rocks came crashing down, tripping over the rubble scattered on floor, and slammed into a wall. His ears rang as dust settled all around him.
“Harry?” Ron’s voice was muffled but this at least told Harry that he was alive. He felt his heart beating against the confined of his ribs.
“Ron! Are you okay what happened?” He shouted so Ron could hear him.
“The idiot cast his memory charm, but my wand backfired and I can’t find a way to get through” muffled clattering noises suggested to Harry that Ron was trying to shift the rock.
“Fuck, Ron I’ll have to keep going I have to find her” Harry’s head was swimming and nerves writhed in the pit of his stomach.
“Yeah, go Harry, I’ll try and dig a hole out of here for when you, you both come back” his voice lacked certainty and Harry thought it might have cracked. Harry felt a wave of nerves course through him at the thought of heading down through the tunnel on his own.
Harry turned and followed the path along the tunnel. There was nowhere else to go. The disturbing crunching of bones soon gave way to the sound of slight splashes as he jogged along. His wand was out, and he was casting light along the tunnel until he could see a different light up ahead. This light was warmer, and Harry could tell it must be lanterns. He briefly felt like he might be sick. He reminded himself that he was doing this for Ron who was as close to being a brother as it was possible to be.
“Nox” he whispered and the light at the tip of his wand flickered out.
He slowed down as he came to end of the tunnel and then he saw her. Lying on the ground red hair splayed around her. It was then his pace turned into a run. He flung himself down next to her barely noticing as his wand clattered away from him.
“Ginny” he was shaking her shoulders trying to wake her up. Her eyes were closed so Harry assumed she must be asleep “Ginny!” her skin was cold and grey.
“That won’t work” a delicate voice came from behind him.
Harry jumped and stood up. He hadn’t noticed that there was anyone else in this larger secondary chamber. He immediately recognised him as Tom Riddle from the diary, from the memory. He was almost unbearably handsome with dark brown hair and eyes, pale skin and perfectly defined cheek and jaw bones.
“Tom? You have to help me. We have to get her out of here the last time someone was down here they died. Please.”
“I don’t think so Harry. I’m sorry” but there was no remorse in his voice or evident on his handsome face. Tom was looking at him with great interest but certainly no remorse. It was then that Harry noticed his hand. His hand that was holding Harry’s wand.
“Tom, give me my wand back.” A smile flickered across Tom’s face and then left almost as quickly as it had come. Harry was struggling to interpret what his facial expressions meant.
“No, I don’t think you will be needing it.” Tom’s voice was polite but clipped.
“Why wouldn’t I need my wand?” Harry felt unease take over him.
“Because Ginny here isn’t the only one who is going to die in here today” a cruel smile this time. His face was markedly less handsome when he allowed his cruel thoughts to show. Harry felt his stomach flip at his words.
“I must say it’s a shame our time has been so short Harry. I would truly have loved to chat to you about all that you have done to vanquish The Dark Lord. Ginny told the stories so magically, but one has to wonder how much of it she has made up in her silly girlish mind” he tilted his head and looked down at Ginny.
“But why? Tom, I don’t understand. Look we have to go there’s a basilisk down here” he felt panic rising up inside him “we all need to get out of here” Harry could feel the frustration run up his neck and pulse in his head.
“It won’t come until it is called” he looked down at the wand in his hand “so similar to my own” he said this almost to himself.
“What? Tom…” Harry felt confusion rolling in on him.
Harry bent back down to Ginny and shook her again, but it was clear it was pointless. He tried to check her pockets for her wand. It was too obvious and a sharp kick to his side sent him flying across the floor.
“No, no Harry. That won’t do” Tom looked down at him “tell me how many pupils are petrified upstairs, how many did it take before Albus Dumbledore got so scared he fled?”
“Albus Dumbledore didn’t flee. He’s the greatest wizard of our time and he does not run!”
“Cruc – “
A loud squawk came from overhead. Fawkes was flying through the air and dropped the dirty, old Sorting Hat at Harry’s feet. Tom just watched in surprise and then let out laugh that even in spite of his situation Harry found himself being mesmerised by the sound. Tom’s eyes were glittering when he looked down at Harry on the floor.
“So, this is what Dumbledore sends you? A bird and a hat. Well let’s make this more interesting shall we after all I have the time…” Tom glanced back down at Ginny’s body.
Harry heard the parceltongue come from Tom but it was cut off by the noise of the rock movement from the wall behind him. The next thing Harry saw was the largest snake he had ever seen in his life. The basilisk.
“Stop” he tried.
“It only obeys me, Harry.” Tom sneered.
Harry turned and ran. The water on the floor splashed around him and he slipped skidding along the floor. He felt rather than heard the great snake readying itself to bite. Harry waited his heart pulsing in his ears and then came the same squawking noise. He glanced up and saw Fawkes attacking the Basilisk’s face.
“It can still hear you even if your bird has blinded her” Tom was saying in a sing song voice.
Harry noticed several different tunnels to the left and right of the chamber. He picked one and ran. His heart was thundering in his chest. Down a tunnel, then another until a dead end. Fuck, his thought rang across his mind he looked down and saw rocks he grabbed one and threw it down the tunnel. Don’t move, don’t move, don’t breathe. The snake slithered past him and he held his breath. Once he couldn’t see it anymore, he ran back the way he came.
He ran to Ginny, her face so pale now. She might have had a greyish tinge to her face before but that was nothing to the colour her skin had now taken on.
CRASH.
The floor felt like it was vibrating under him as the huge snake came tearing through the floor rubble was sent flying past him. A glint caught his eye. The hat which lay next to Ginny had something inside it. He thrust his hand in and pulled out an ornate, silver sword.
Up, up, up, I need to get up.
He turned toward the uneven wall at the end of the chamber, it looked as though it had once been a carving but now the stone was jaggy and uneven. He didn’t care the only thoughts of getting to higher ground ran through him.
He was climbing. The snake was lunging but it kept missing as it didn’t have the sound of water to follow. The sound of the rocks falling were distracting it. It lunged and lunged and then Harry inexpertly swung the sword. He threw it upwards as the snakes’ head crashed down. He felt the slicing of flesh as the sword delved deep into the snakes’ mouth and its scream reverberated around him.
The next thing all Harry could feel was pain. It was blistering. He felt himself fall and then become weightless. When his eyes fluttered open, he was on the ground next to Ginny and Fawkes was next to him. When he looked down at his arm he gasped. To his horror a large basilisk tooth was piercing into his flesh and the pain surrounding it was mind numbing. Without pausing to think it through he grabbed at the tooth and pulled it clean out his arm and then heard his own screams echoing around him.
“Full of surprises Harry” Tom murmured, he was close, but Harry could barely see him he was clinging onto Ginny and trying desperately not to pass out. Black was tinging the edge of his field of vision.
The little trill of sound made Harry look down to see Fawkes’ head against his arm. His head inclined and a large shimmering tear fell onto his arm. It felt like stepping into a bath at the end of a hard day. The pain simply washed away. Tom was so dumbstruck he didn’t notice the birds next move; it was on him in a second and the wand he was clutching loosely was suddenly gone. Harry saw the anger flash in his eyes, a memory was trying to press in on him but it was fuzzy.
As soon as his wand was back in his hand, he pointed it straight at Tom.
“I tell you what I’ll make you a deal” his voice was like honey, smiles showing dimples.
“What kind of deal?” Harry was shaking his head ignoring the pain blistering behind his eyes. Fawkes’ tears had healed his arm but his head was throbbing from the multiple bashes and bumps.
“One where we both make it out of here alive.”
“And Ginny?”
“You were too late Harry and she’s already dead.”
“No!” He fell to the ground feeling her face, searching for a pulse in her neck.
Then his eyes fell on the diary in her hand His eyes flicked up to Tom and he lunged for the basilisk fang.
“Go right ahead Harry, that is now nothing but a useless notebook” Tom’s face broke into a truly beautiful smile.
Harry slammed the basilisk tooth into the diary. Nothing happened.
“I don’t understand Tom.” Harry looked at the objects in his hand. He was trying to work out what it all meant.
“I’ve always hated that name you know and yet when you say it so earnestly, so sincerely, it’s almost bearable.”
“Well, what should I call you?” Although even saying it Harry had an awful feeling swell in his stomach.
“It depends I suppose” he knelt next to Harry, ignoring Ginny’s body completely, and cupped a warm hand around Harry’s face the contact made Harry’s heart feel like it was stuttering over it’s next beat “if you want to be my servant you can call me My Lord and if you want to be part of my inner circle you’ll get to call me Lord Voldemort. You could hardly expect me to keep the name of my dirty muggle father” he sneered and pushed Harry so suddenly he fell back onto his ass “Tom Marvolo Riddle, I don’t think so”.
“You’re Voldemort” it came out as a whisper.
“Yes Harry, now I want to leave, and I imagine you want to take poor Ginny’s body back to her adoring family” his beautiful brown eyes were flitting around the chamber.
“Why her? Why is she even down here?”
“Because Harry, it was Ginny that opened the chamber. Ginny who ordered the attacks. Ginny who left the messages in her own blood and now it is Ginny who is dead after facilitating my return” Tom looked like he was trying not to smile but the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned.
“You’re not leaving Tom. I have the wand now remember” Harry pushed himself up to a standing position. Tom mirrored him.
“And just what exactly will you do with it hmm?” he gave a gentle laugh “you won’t kill me you don’t know how and even if you did you couldn’t.”
“I know enough. I can make you come with me” he cursed himself for his shaky voice.
“Let me leave and I’ll make you an oath you can’t refuse” he raised an eyebrow, cocky.
“You killed my friend; you’ve tried to kill me three times now. Why would I trust you?” Harry almost spat at him.
“A magical oath. I want to leave here and find out where I went wrong on my path. Ginny told me some alarming things about my older counterpart. I need to fix some things”.
“Like what?”
Tom looked at Harry. His robes were filthy, torn and covered in blood. His green eyes were soft, so soft, so easy to manipulate.
“I never wanted to become evil Harry. I wanted to ensure the protection of magic and magical children. I never wanted any child to end up like me in a muggle orphanage with no clue about their heritage. All I ever wanted was to ensure the safety of magical children. The things Ginny said I had done, the obsession with survival and murders of so many including magical people. That was not the plan and I know how to fix it, but I need to get out of here to do so and I need Albus Dumbledore not to know”.
“But how do you know it won’t just repeat itself and how will I know you won’t just continue to hurt people?”
“Because Harry, the damage has already been done I am here to fix it”.
“What do I get in this oath?” Tom smiled. He was winning.
“You let me leave and don’t tell Dumbledore, you say you got here and the basilisk was waiting and attacked you, and you won, but Ginny was already dead and you didn’t see me but tried nonetheless to stop me” he nodded to the diary with the basilisk fang still stuck in it “and I offer you the greatest gift in return”.
“What?”
“Your life.”
“I am not dying anytime soon down here Tom”.
“Oh no, I don’t mean today. I promise I will save your life once in the future”.
“Once?”
“Okay, twice then”.
“How about you promise you will always save my life and what about my friends?” Harry countered, and Tom laughed. It was a lovely sound.
“Don’t be ridiculous Harry” but he was smiling. Harry was interesting. Interesting but annoying “okay, okay, I will save your life three times at some point in the future and I don’t care about your friends.” He shrugged.
“What happens if I die because you didn’t save me?”
“Then I’ll die” Tom could see Harry thinking this through obviously not knowing that he could never die, not really.
“I don’t want to lie to Dumbledore, to her parents” he gestured at Ginny. A wave of anger and annoyance engulfed Tom but it would not do let Harry see this. He tried to look understanding.
“Nothing will be fixed by taking me to him. Ginny will still be dead”.
“But you’ll be dealt with. Dumbledore will make sure you pay for what you’ve done.”
“Oh Harry, Dumbledore would have me killed” he cocked his head to the side “surely you realise that, and you’d be responsible for two deaths.”
Harry rubbed at his head and pushed his thumbs into his temple.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“I’ll make your deal” Harry shrugged and noted Tom’s smile, his dimples, his big brown eyes.
“Thank you, Harry Potter” Tom breathed and again Harry felt his stomach do a flip.
Tom stretched out his hand for Harry to shake. Harry’s eyes looked to Tom’s hand and then his eyes, he sighed, rolled his eyes, and took Tom’s hand.
“You swear to keep this conversation private. You swear not to tell Dumbledore you saw me, spoke to me, and know what I look like. You swear the basilisk was waiting here for your arrival and you fought it and won. You swear by the time you got to Ginny she was already dead but holding the diary and you thought maybe you could still save her by stabbing it with the basilisk fang, but nothing happened. Do you swear this?”
“I swear” Harry felt the magic swirl around him even though Tom didn’t have a wand in his hand he felt like warm water was washing over him. Tom squeezed Harry’s hand which jolted him into thinking he must need to say Tom’s part of the deal “you swear to save my life no less than three times and if you don’t you will die.”
“I swear” at those words the magic seemed to pulse around him. Before he knew what was happening Tom had pulled Harry by his hand till he was flush against him and kissed him gently on the mouth. The magic swirled and tangled around them as Tom kissed him and then it stopped, and Tom was stepping away from him.
“What the fuck was that?”
“An oath” Tom shrugged.
“You fucking kissed me!” Harry was looking up at Tom wide eyed with shock.
“You enjoyed it didn’t you? I don’t have a wand yet and we needed to seal our magic together” Tom shrugged but he couldn’t held take some joy from the way Harry was looking at him.
“Excuse me?” It was dawning on Harry that he had almost definitely made a very very big mistake.
“How else will I know when to come save your life? How will I know if you haven’t kept your side of the deal?” he smirked at Harry.
Harry said nothing. He just stared at Tom feeling incredibly stupid.
“Don’t worry Harry, I’ll be keeping my eye on you” he took a step towards Harry who immediately took a step back “you had better get going now Harry. The spell you want to use to carry her body back along the tunnel is mobilicorpus a flick of the wand should do it” and then he was walking off down one of the tunnels. Harry stared after him dread and guilt coursing through his body.