When Ginny left the pensive, she found Harry and Nova asleep on the sofa. Harry, as per usual, held Nova in his arms tightly, almost as if expecting her to disappear.

They both looked beyond peaceful. They looked as though they didn't have the weight of the world on their shoulders for the past seven years. They looked like normal teenagers.

Ginny rolled her eyes and moved to cover them in the sewn quilt on the back of the worn armrest.

***

The group watched as the trio decided to tell Lockheart what they knew. They viewed as Lockheart admitted to being a fraud. They watched as he prepared to use the memory charm on them.

"That mother fucking bast-"

"Shhhh," Ron shushed Remus. "You'll miss Nova kicking him into a hole."

They watched as Harry preformed the disarming spell.

"What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."

"You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

Moaning Mrytle told them the story of how she died. Harry spoke in pasteltongue, opening the Chamber.

"I'm going down there," Harry declared, looking down the pipe.

"Me too," Ron said.

"Nova," Harry turned to her. "Stay here-"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm going. You go, I go. Get that through your thick fucking skull, Potter." She stopped and raised her head, composing herself from her fit of emotion. "Besides, you'll die without me there."

Harry looked at her in wonder. Ron smiled.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me,"  Lockhart said. "I'll just-"

The three second-year Gryffindors raised their wands.

"No you will not," Nova growled. "You don't get to be a coward now. Not when Ron's little sister and my friend are in danger. Not when my best friend is petrified."

Lockhart tried flashing her a charming smile and move to open the door as he spoke. "Miss Black, such a charming young woman you are-"

"Yes, and the charming young woman will gut you with a flick of her wrist," Nova growled. "I'm a Black heiress after all. I am well versed in all sorts of magic, no matter how evil."

"She's bluffing, right?" James asked.

"Perhaps at first," Theo shrugged. "She only knew a couple of dark spells so she would know how to defend herself. As the war became more brutal, so did she."

"Not to mention after-"

"Shut up, ferret!"

"You can go first," Ron snarled.

"Boys," Lockhart moved toward the opening. "What good will this do?"

"And girl, you idiot. I do not identify as a male," Nova declared. "And to answer your question, my humor."

"What-?"

Nova kicked Lockhart into the pipe.

Ron and Harry both sent her a look.

"What?" she asked them. "If he dies, he dies. My sympathy for him is long gone."

"Merlin, she truly is lethal!" Marlene exclaimed. "I'm loving it!"

"She scares me sometimes," George shrugged.

And the three jumped through the pipe.

"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.

"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.

All four of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.

"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. "C'mon," he said to the other three, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.

The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.

"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away . ....."

"Yes, that is to be expected with the monster being a basilisk and all," Nova grumbled.

"The sarcasm is not appreciated," Harry told her.

"And neither is Lockhart's stench, but it's here anyways," Nova countered.

"I can't wait until Hermione is with us so I don't have to hear the two of you bicker," Ron mumbled.

"We figured we compensate for the lack of bickering between you and Hermione," Harry remarked.

"Awe, look!" Nova said, teasing him in a baby voice. "Wonder Boy used a big word!"

"I hate you, love."

"I hate you too, darlin."

"The early days of Harry and Nova," Fred announced. "Bickering like a married couple since '92!"

The tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones.

"Guys - there's something up there -" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder.

They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt. 

"I hope it's dead," Nova whispered.

Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Harry edged forward, his wand held high.

The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.

"Blimey," said Ron weakly.

There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.

"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.

Lockhart got to his feet - then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground.

Harry jumped forward, but too late - Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.

Nova stood behind Lockhart with her own wand raised.

"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 good-bye to your memories!" He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Harry flung his arms over his head and ran towards Nova, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. He knocked her to the ground, covering her from the falling debris.

It was a tangle of limps and cloaks as the two rolled across the ground from impacted. It was an awkwardly intimate position with Nova laying directly ontop of Harry.

"I swear to Merlin, Potter, if you try and save my life one more time I will skin you alive," Nova growled.

"Noted," Harry nodded. "Can you please get off of me now? I'd like to stand."

Nova blushed a deep scarlet and jumped to her feet before offering him a hand. He took it, and she pulled him up.

"Ron!" Harry shouted. "Are you okay? Ron!"

"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm okay - this git's not, though - he got blasted by the wand -"

There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.

"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through - it'll take ages ......"

"Wait there," Nova declared. "Harry and I will go on. You babysit the fraud."

"I'll try to shift some of this rock while I wait," Ron stated.

"See you in a bit then," Harry nodded before he and Nova made their way down the pipes.

Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. 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.

Nova's fear was spiking. It wasn't often she had let even an ounce of fear show, but it was becoming hard.

"Uh," Dorcas stated. "It would appear, against contrary belief, Nova does actually expierence fear."

"Who would've thought," Lily rolled her eyes sarcastically. Ron noticed it was a the exact same expression Harry had.

Harry approached, his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive. He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.

"Open, "said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside. They was 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.

Nova's heart beating very fast, she stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny?

Harry pulled out his wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls.

Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: It was 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!" Nova whispered faintly. She didn't hesitate to sprint towards the young red head. "Don't be dead, don't be dead, please don't be dead."

Harry and Nova both dropped down to their knees beside her.

"Come on," Nova muttered as Harry shook her body desperately. "Wake up."

"Harry, move," Nova ordered. She placed her head on Ginny's forhead and the other delicately on her chin, tilting her head back. She lowered her head, checking for any signs of breathing as her hand that recently was on Ginny's chin, moved to the side of her neck, checking for a pulse. "She's not breathing, but she has a pulse."

"What are you doing?" Harry asked in shock as Nova pinched Ginny's nose, and tilted her head back again. "If she can't breath, why the hell are you covering her nose?"

"It's called rescued breaths, dipshit," Nova said. "Muggle healing thing."

Nova lowered her mouth to Ginny's, pressing her lips against Ginny's and breathing for her.

Harry watched in shock as Ginny's chest rose, and fell.

Nova did the same thing again.

Ginny's chest rose and fell once more.

Nova pulled away and saw that Ginny started breathing again, but barely. She removed her cloak, and covered the unconcious ginger with it, hoping to provide some sort of warmth.

"She won't wake," said a soft voice.

Nova and Harry spun around.

A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him

"Tom - Tom Riddle?"

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.

Nova let out a low whistle. "You, sir, are very attractive."

Theo was in tears from laughter.

"She did not just-" Remus said, completely flaberghasted.

"She's got a point though," Lily pointed out.

"Flower!" James protested in a scandalized tone.

"I agree with Flower and Nova," Sirius agreed. "He is attractive."

"I literally can't you with you people anymore," Hermione facepalmed.

Harry was looking at Nova in complete shock and a hint of betrayal at her statement.

"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately, turning back to Riddle. "She's not - she's not -?"

"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."

Harry stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.

"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.

"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Harry wondered how it had got there - but there were more pressing matters to deal with.

"You've got to help us, Tom," Harry said, raising Ginny's head again. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk ... I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment .... Please, help me."

Riddle didn't move. Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again. But his wand had gone.

"Did you see -?"

He looked up. Riddle was still watching him - twirling Harry's wand between his fingers.

"Thanks," said Harry, stretching out his hand for it.

A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Harry, twirling the wand idly.

"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. "We've got to go! If the basilisk comes -"

"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly

Nova stood. Her Gryffindor tie hung lazily around her throat. The sleeves of her white button up shirt were rolled up. Her grey pleated skirt hung from her hips until a few inches above her knee. Her black converses were becoming dirtier. Her golden caramel hair fell messily down her back.

"What d'you mean?" Harry said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it -"

Riddle's smile broadened.

"You won't be needing it," he said.

Harry stared at him. "What d'you mean, I won't be -?"

"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle. "For the chance to see you. To speak to you."

"Look," said Harry, losing patience, "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later -"

"We're going to talk now," said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry's wand. Harry stared at him. There was something very funny going on here ....

"How did Ginny get like this?" he asked slowly.

"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."

"What are you talking about?" said Harry.

Nova carefully made to withdraw her wand, but found it missing.

"The diary," said Riddle. "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 265 didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her . . . ."

All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.

"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an elevenyear-old girl," he went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply 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 . . . . "

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Nova's neck.

"If I say it myself, Harry, 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. . ."

"What d'you mean?" said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry.

"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

"No," Harry whispered.

"Yes," said Riddle, calmly. "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," he recited, watching Harry's horrified face, 'I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and 1 don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, l can't remember what 1 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!"

"it took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," said Riddle. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet . . . ."

"And why did you want to meet me?" said Harry. Anger was coursing through him, and it was an effort to keep his voice steady.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating history. "

His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier.

"I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust -"

"Hagrid's my friend," said Harry, his voice now shaking. "And you framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but -"

Riddle laughed his high laugh again. "It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. 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 267 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!

"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dipper to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed .... Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did ...... "

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Harry, his teeth gritted.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years Id spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"Well, you haven't finished it," said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again -"

"Haven't I already told you," said Riddle quietly, "that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target has been -you."

Nova stood in front of Harry, blocking him from Riddle's sight. Yet, it didn't appear to matter to him.

"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. 'What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue ....

"So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. But there isn't much life left in her .... She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last .... I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."

"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched.

Nova would truly wish Harry would shut up.

"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent - managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.

"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time ......

"Voldemort," said Riddle softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter . . . ."

He pulled Harry's 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

"I must say, Tom," Nova spoke alas. "You've had the biggest glow down in history."

"Didn't you say I was attractive?" Tom asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"Yes, but that's how glow downs work. You start off attractive, then you turn into an ugly bastard like your currect self," she explained. "Besides, it's a major turn off for the homicidal maniac to try and repeatedly kill my best friend."

Riddle turned back to Harry, completely disregarding Nova's statement.

"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, Harry - 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!"

Harry's brain seemed to have jammed. He stared numbly at Riddle, at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder Harry's own parents, and so many others .....

"You're not," he said, his quiet voice full of hatred.

"Not what?" snapped Riddle.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days -"

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted. He was speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle, wishing rather than believing it to be true

Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.

Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Harry's scalp and made his heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Harry felt it vibrating inside his own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.

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.

A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, then landed heavily on his shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Harry looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eye.

The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Harry's cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle.

"That's a phoenix said Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.

"No," Nova said sarcastically. "I thought it was a bloody rabit."

"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, and he felt the bird's golden claws squeeze his shoulder gently

"And that -" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped, "that's the old school Sorting Hat -"

So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Harry's feet. Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once

"Oh Merlin," Nova groaned to Harry. "What the hell are we meant to do with a fucking hat?"

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?"

Harry didn't answer. He might not see what use Fawkes or the Sorting Hat were, but he and Nova were no longer alone, and he waited for Riddle to stop laughing with his courage mounting.

"To business, Harry," said Riddle, still smiling broadly. "Twice - in your past, in my future - we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly, "the longer you stay alive."

Riddle's figure was becoming stronger.

Nova considered just sacking him his annoyingly perfect nose.

"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me," said Harry abruptly. "I don't know myself But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common Muggle-born mother," he added, shaking with suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you, I saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul -"

Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile. "So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I can see now ... there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself We even look something alike ... but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."

Harry stood, tense, beside Nova waiting for Riddle to raise his wand. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again.

"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him . . . ."

He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away. Harry, fear spreading up his numb legs, watched Ridthe stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed - but Harry understood what he was saying ....

Nova tackled Riddle to the floor. She tried wrestling Harry's wand from his grip, figuring hers was lost in the tunnels.

"Nova!" Harry shouted.

"For the record," Nova groaned, twisting Riddle's wrist. "Godric Gryffindor is much better."

"You fool!" Riddle shouted, shoving her off of him. It wasn't hard considering she was much smaller than him. He pointed his wand at her, lifting her off of the ground. "The thoughtlessly brave personality of the Gryffindor House runs true through your veins."

Nova's eyes flickered toward Harry with a clear message. He got it, and did the exact opposite of what she said.

"Perhaps," Nova said, squirming in the air. "But it is not my only trait"

"What other trait is there?"

"My unfailing ability to distract," she grinned.

Riddle flung her aside as Harry jumped on Riddle.

Nova hit one of the pillars. She tried to stand, but couldn't.

It didn't take Riddle long to get Harry off of him. He turned back to the statues.

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four. "

Harry wheeled around to look up at the statue. Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horrorstruck, Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole.

And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.

Harry backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall, and as he shut his eyes tight.

Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Harry felt it shudder - he knew what was happening, he could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice:

"Kill him. "

The group watched as Harry tried desperately to fight the basilisk.

Nova drew herself off the ground at the sound of Riddle shouting for the snake to kill Harry. They weren't far from her.

She wasn't entire sure what she wanted to accomplish by jumping in front of a basilisk that could kill her with a mere look, but she did just that.

She held up her hands in front of her, almost as if they could protect her from the large serpent.

And they had.

The king of snakes was blasted across the Chamber.

Riddle turned to her viciously and angrily. He raised Harry's wand at her, but she had already blasted him backwards.

Fawkes swooped in, clawing at the eyes of the snake.

"How did you do that?" Harry shouted.

"Dunno," Nova shook her head.

Fawkes dropped something in her hands.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" she shouted.

Riddle had drawn himself off the group, pointing his want at Nova again.

She jumped to the side pulling Harry with her.

"Harry, you need to run," she declared. "I'll keep the waste of sperm and his scalely friend busy. You find some way to get Ginny out of here."

"But-"

"Go!" she ordered, ducking one of the spells sent their way. "Go before I deliver you myself to your parents!"

"She has an interesting way of saying things," Alex stated.

Harry ran towards Ginny, just Riddle saw him.

Nova threw a literal ball of water at Riddle, blasting him back.

Riddle didn't move.

Nova felt the hat grow heavy. She looked down. There was the gleaming hilt of the a sword. Without thinking, she grasped it and ran towards the snake.

Harry, weakened, jumped back as the basilisk stopped. He looked around the snake and saw Nova with the sword hilt-deep into the serpent's side.

Her teeth clenched and she yanked the weapon back.

The snake wheeled around to look at her. She drove the sword through the roof of its mouth.

The basilisk laid limp on the ground.

"Ah shit," Nova groaned, looking down at the fang that stuck her arm, and came out on the otherside.

"Nova?" Harry questioned as she began to stumble forward.

She yanked the fang out of her arm, and gave him a faint smile. Then she fell.

Harry lurched forward, preparing to stop her head from hitting the ground. One hand grasped the fang, and the other a sword.

"Nova?" Harry asked again, tears pooling in his green eyes.

Her eyes fluttered shut.

"She's dying," Riddle said, appearing. "The basilisk venom. Such a shame." He crouched down running a hand across her face. "She was truly very powerful-"

"Don't touch her," Harry said savagely, smacking his hand away, pulling her closer to him.

Riddle laughed evily.

"Even the bird knows that she's dying," Riddle pointed out as Fawkes began to cry. "It's crying."

Harry pushed one of the stray strands of hair off of her forehead.

"It's probably for the best," Riddle shrugged. "She would never join me. She would never help me. She'd be loyal to you. She'd die to save you, as she is now. It's best she die now, makes my task easier."

Nova began to cough.

"Get away, bird!" Riddle snapped as Fawkes's tears fell upon Nova's wound. "Get away from her!"

Fawkes was gone.

"Phoenix tears. - ." said Riddle quietly, staring at Nova's arm. "Of course ... healing powers ... I forgot. . ."

He looked into Harry's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter ... you and me...."

He raised the wand.

Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Harry's lap -- the diary.

For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then, without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.

There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then He had gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.

The Returners watched eagerly as Ginny shot awake. They watched as she confessed. They watched as she spotted Nova's limp body on the ground. They watched the horror in her eyes.

"She used to do the same thing as a child," Lily noted as Nova had a death grip on the Sword of Godric Gryffindor in her sleeping hand. "Whatever was in her hand while she fell asleep was there for good until she decided to release it."

They watched as Ginny found Nova's wand, and Fawkes carry her to the hospital wing before returning for the others. They watched as Ron showed immense care for his sister.

They watched the whole fiasco with Lucius Malfoy in Dumbledore's office. They watched as Harry tricked Malfoy into freeing Dobby. They watched the tearful reunion between the Golden Quartet.

When they came out of the pensive, Harry and Nova were asleep on the sofa, wrapped in eachother's arms. A blanket was drawn over them carefully.

"They look like normal teenagers," Lily noted with a soft smile.