CHAPTER NINE:

Third Person P.O.V.:

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps.

Charlie knocked twice and suddenly, there was nothing to be heard on the other side of the door.

Then, the door opened slightly and one of Lockhart's eyes peeked through the opening, "Oh — Mr. Hawthorne — Mr. Potter — Mr. Weasley —"

Gilderoy shook his head slightly as he opened the door wider, "I'm rather busy at the moment..."

"It'll only take a minute, Professor," Harry explained as the author tried to close the door, "We've got some information that we think will help you."

The side of Lockhart's face that Charlie could see looked very uncomfortable, "I mean — w-well — alright."

Professor Lockhart opened the door completely, and Ron, Harry, Charlie walked in reluctantly. His office was almost completely empty. Robes of every colour had been hastily folded into a trunk while the other one seemed to filled the brim of books and photographs that were once on the wall.

Charlie scoffed as he took in the sight, "Are you going somewhere, Professor?"

"Er, well, yes," Lockhart said hastily as he tore more photos of himself off of the wall, "Urgent call — unavoidable — got to go —"

"What about my sister?!" screamed Ron.

"Well, as to that — most unfortunate — " said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I — "

Charlie was taken aback, "'Most unfortunate?' You're joking, right?!"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Harry angrily, "You can't go now!"

"Well — I must say — when I took the job — " Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "Nothing in the job description — said anything about — "

"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books — "

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You wrote them!" Charlie shouted.

"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Charlie. "Do use your common sense? My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things."

The three boys looked at one another in complete disbelief. They knew Lockhart was a cocky prat, but they didn't seriously believe he was capable of leaving them when they needed him most. He was still their teacher.

"You're a fraud," Charlie spat, "You've just been taking credit for what other wizards have done! How do you live with yourself knowing that you make a fortune off of other people?!"

Ron was aghast, "Is there anything you can do?"

"Yes," Lockhart said with a newfound confidence, "Now that you mention it, I'm rather gifted with memory charms. Otherwise, all those wizards would have gone blabbing and I'd never had sold another book —"

He then moved towards his trunk and reached for something. The three boys looked at one another. They all knew what he was going to do.

"— In fact, I'm going to have to do the same to you."

As Lockhart turned around to face them once again, all three boys had their wands pointed at him.

"Don't even think about it," Charlie spat with anger, and then, almost immediately, Lockhart dropped his wand.

————————————

They dragged Gilderoy Lockhart across the castle towards the second-floor bathroom. He was going to confront the monster in the Chamber whether he liked it or not.

As the four of them arrived, Myrtle was flying around the room to keep herself occupied. When she heard the door open, her head snapped in their direction, "Who's there?"

Harry and Ron kept their wands focused on Lockhart while the brown eyed boy moved to reveal himself to the ghost.

When Myrtle took in the appearance of Charlie's face, she quickly batted her eyes and smile flirtatiously, "Oh, hello Charlie. What can I do for you?"

The brown eyed boy raised a brow at her. He was going to question her tone, but decided against it. Now, was not the time. "Myrtle, I actually was w-wondering about h-how you died..."

"Oh, it was dreadful!" She said as she flew closer to him, "It happened right there in that very cubicle. 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, something I couldn't understand; 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 —"

Charlie urged her to continue but she just shook her head. Her eyes swelling up with tears, "I died."

"Just like that? How?" asked Harry from the other side of the room.

"No idea," Myrtle said in a whisper, "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes over there by that sink. Then suddenly, my whole body sort of seized up, and I was floating away..."

The three boys hurried over to the sink that Myrtle mentioned. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face.

It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. That's when Harry saw it. Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake, "This is it. I think this is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."

"Say something," Charlie said quickly as he admired the sink, "Harry, say something in Parseltongue."

Ron nodded in agreement as Harry stepped forward.

"Open up," he said.

Except that the words weren't what they heard; a strange hissing had escaped Harry, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.

Charlie heard Ron gasp and looked up again to see Harry staring at the sink in awe. He had clearly made up his mind what he was going to do.

"I'm going down there," Harry said.

He couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive.

"Me too," said Charlie, quickly.

He wasn't going to let his best friend go down their alone. Not to mention, he made a promise to Hermione and he had absolutely no intention of breaking that promise.

"Me three," added Ron as he stepped forward.

It was obvious that Ron wanted to go. His little sister was down there, and there was no chance in hell that he wasn't going to do everything in his power to save her.

There was a pause.

"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just — "

He turned to leave, but Ron, Charlie and Harry pointed their wands at him.

"You can go first," Ron snarled.

White faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.

"Boys," he said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?"

"Better you than us," said Harry with a smirk.

As Lockhart went to plead for mercy, Charlie jabbed him in the back with his wand. Just like that, Gilderoy slid his legs into the pipe.

"I really don't think — " he started to say, but Charlie was beyond annoyed at his stalling so he gave him another push, and he slid out of sight.

Harry followed quickly. He lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go. Charlie went next followed by Ron closely behind.

The pipe seemed to go on forever. It was like rushing down an endless, dirty, and dark slide.

Just as Charlie 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.

In the distance, Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry rushed to help his friend to his feet. As Charlie stood up, Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too. He quickly got his feet.

When they were all together at the bottom of the pipe, the brown eyed boy narrowed his eyes as much as as he could, but all he could see was a very dark tunnel. Charlie edged forward, holding his wand high, "Lumos."

As the four of them began to walk forward down the tunnel, it didn't take long to realize that it was littered with small animal bones as their feet kept crunching down on them.

Suddenly, the light from Charlie's wand 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 sixty feet long at least.

"Ugh," grunted Ron.

Charlie shrugged it off. He knew they were getting closer to their final destination. Whatever left this behind, must not be that far.

"Careful," he reminded them, "If you see any sign of movement, close your eyes."

There was a sudden movement behind them, which startled the three boys. They turned to see Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.

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

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

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

"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 three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body — say good bye to your memories!"

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

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb.
Charlie flung his arms over his heads and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor.

Before Charlie even realized, he was standing alone on a random corner of the room, "Harry! Ron! Are you guys okay?"

"All good," Harry said relieved, as he approached Charlie, who still had hit wand lit in his hand.

It didn't take long to realize the solid wall of broken rock that now blocked Harry and Charlie's way back.

"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall, to which Charlie sighed in relief, "I'm okay! This git's not, though — he got blasted by the wand — The memory charm backfired!"

Charlie could hear the silent whispers of Lockhart, "Odd place this is. Where are we? Is this your house?"

The brown eyed boy couldn't help but chuckle slightly, "That's what he gets for being stupid."

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

They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours... Harry and Charlie both looked to one another, they knew there was only one thing to do. They had to see this through. For Ginny. For Hagrid. For Dumbledore. For Hermione...

"Wait there," Charlie called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. Harry and I will go on... If we're not back in an hour..."

There was a very hesitant pause. Charlie didn't even want to think about what would happen if they weren't back in an hour...

"I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you guys can — can get back through. And, guys —"

"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.

Charlie smiled nervously before turning and continuing down the tunnel with Harry. Every single nerve in Charlie's body tingled unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. And then, at last, as they 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.

Harry approached the stone snakes reluctantly. He was just as nervous as Charlie was.

"Open," Harry said in a low voice which just sounded like a faint hiss to Charlie.

The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight. Charlie stepped forward beside his best friend. The two looked at one another, shaking from head to toe, but still, gave one another a reassuring nod as they walked inside together.

—————————————

They were standing at the end of a very dim lit Chamber...this was it. The Chamber of Secrets.

The brown eyed boy's heart was beating rapidly out of his chest. He didn't like the bone-chilling silence that surrounded them. But still, the two walked forward towards a large portrait statue of Salazar Slytherin that encompassed the entire back wall.

As they moved closer, they spotted Ginny Weasley's flaming red hair —

"Ginny!" Charlie muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees. "Ginny — don't be dead — please don't be dead — "

Harry ran after him, kneeled down, flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and helped turn her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't petrified.
But then she must be —

"Ginny, please wake up," Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head rolled hopelessly from side to side.

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

The two boys jumped and spun around on their knees.

A tall, black haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was peering out of the shadows, but there was no way Harry could mistake him —

"Tom — Tom Riddle?"

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face. Charlie thought back to what he had been previously told about Tom Riddle. He remembered what Harry had said about Tom's memories within the diary. He always did think it was strange —

"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Charlie said desperately, "She's not — she's not — ?"

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

The two boys stared at him with so much curiosity. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet there he stood, a handsome lad that was 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 towards the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary they had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"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... we don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment... Please, help me."

Charlie narrowed his eyes at the dark haired boy as he walked ahead and picked up Harry's wand from the ground. This can't be good.

"It won't come until it's called," Tom said calmly.

"What d'you mean?" Harry spoke, puzzled, "Look, give me my wand, I might need it — "

Riddle's smile broadened. Charlie held onto Ginny's body on the floor while he watched the two interact. Suddenly, everything started to fall together like a puzzle in Charlie's head. This whole thing seemed way too easy, way too convenient. Almost like it was some sort of trap... oh my —

"You won't be needing it," Riddle 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. The both of you."

Tom's gaze now shifted to Charlie.

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

"Harry," Charlie whispered as he rose to his feet, clutching his wand in his hand, "I think you're the one who doesn't get it..."

Riddle smirked devilishly, "Of course! I expected nothing less from you, Charles! Your mother always was a quick one to figure things out. Good to know you've inherited her only useful quality."

The brown eyed boy felt anger rise within him. Without batting an eye, he raised his wand, "Stup-"

"Expelliarmus!" Tom countered, sending Charlie's wand flying into his hand.

"Now, now Charles," he laughed slightly, "Where are your manners? All I want to do is talk."

Charlie glared at Riddle while Harry stood there completely dumbfounded. He had no idea what was going on.

"You want to talk?" Charlie spat, "Tell Harry what happened to Ginny. Tell him who you actually are!"

Tom Riddle let out a subsisted laugh causing Harry to take a step back, but Charlie didn't move. He kept his eyes locked with anger on him.

"Well it is 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." Tom said, moving towards the girl unconscious on the floor.

"What are you talking about?" asked Harry.

"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 didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her..."

All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left the faces of the two boys in front of him. There was an almost hungry look in them.

"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 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 Harry's neck. Charlie was completely furious.

"I've always been able to charm the people I needed most. 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?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny opened the Chamber of Secrets. She wrote threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."

"No," Harry whispered, "It can't be..."

"But that's not the full story," accused Charlie. "I bet Ginny didn't even know what she was doing. You were manipulating and using her without her even realizing it, weren't you? She felt guilty for what was happening at school — that's why she was so distraught about Collin! She thought the whole thing was her fault, but my guess is she finally became suspicious of you, so she tried to dispose of the diary." — Charlie shifted his gaze back to his friend — "He set her up, Harry! He used her to do his dirty work! He's the Heir of Slytherin!"

Harry's mouth dropped to the floor with Charlie's accusation, he was not expecting that. He trusted Tom, he truly did...

"Right you are, Charles!" Tom spoke, amused, "It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary, but when she did, she tried to fix everything by throwing it away — 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 was our friend," said Charlie, his voice now shaking with anger, "And you framed him, didn't you?

"That I did," Riddle moved his gaze back to Charlie, "It was my word against Hagrid's. Only Dumbledore seemed to think he was innocent."

"I bet he saw right through you," Charlie smirked.

"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 while I was still at the school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd 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.  And when Ginny Weasley came crying to me, I saw an opportunity. I planned the whole thing. You see, with my newfound power, I was able to regain my connections to the Wizarding World in which I can still control. That's actually what your contribution is to this whole thing, Charles — and I bet you haven't even realized it..."

Charlie was taken aback. He thought he had figured it all out up until that point. The brown eyed boy turned to Harry who had a look on his face as though he'd been betrayed.

"No!" protested Charlie, "I had absolutely nothing to do with this. Believe me, Harry. Please!"

Harry didn't even get the chance to answer as Tom laughed sinisterly.

"Yes, well, maybe not you specifically," he said with an amused smile, "But your family was the key to this whole master plan!"

"I don't understand," Charlie said softly.

"Of course you don't," Riddle laughed, "That's what makes this whole thing so brilliant! It happened right under your nose. Similar thing happened twelve years ago... to your mother... poor Julia, she didn't see it coming either..."

Charlie gritted his teeth but yet had no response. What did that even mean? His mother killed herself. At least, that's what he believed. How was his family involved in this? Someone was deceiving him. What was he not being told?

The boy was snapped from his thoughts as Tom spoke again, "Never-mind that now, we're getting off topic! My whole masterplan which began as something to kill off the mudbloods that rot the school, quickly turned into something much more than that. My new target was none other than you, Harry Potter."

Harry gulped as Tom approached him, getting more and more angry as he spoke, "How is it that a baby with no extraordinary magical talent was able to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

"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..."

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 rearranged themselves:

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

The two boys gasped as the Dark Lord turned and looked at the them with a devilish glare. They were truly dumbfounded. Charlie didn't even have to think hard to guess that Tom was the heir, but he didn't even think of the possibility of him being Lord Voldemort.

"Surely, you didn't think I was going to keep my filthy muggle father's name?" Riddle spat, "No. I fashioned myself a new name! A name that one day, wizards everywhere would fear to speak when I became the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer in the world." Charlie rebuttals with utter confidence, "Sorry to disappoint."

"Dumbledore was driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me! By my influence! By my suggestion!" Tom yelled in Charlie's face.

"No!" Charlie roared, "He'll never be gone! Not as long as those remain loyal to him!"

The brown eyed boy was speaking at random, in hopes of scaring Tom. Clearly it seemed to work, as Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.

"You seem upset, Tom," smirked Charlie, "What? Didn't think that part of your plan through, did you? You thought everyone would forget his name simply because you said so?"

Tom went to lunge towards the brown eyed boy to shut him up, when suddenly, a crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared. 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 towards the two young boys. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at their feet, then landed heavily on Charlie's shoulder. It sat still and warm next to his cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle.

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

"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, and Charlie nodded as 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. Frayed and dirty, the hat laid motionless at Harry's feet.

Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it.

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defenders! A bird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now, Charles Hawthorne? Well how about this —"

With that, Tom turned on his heel to face the giant portrait head of Salazar Slytherin. He raised his hand and hissed out a few words in Parseltongue. In an instant, the mouth of the statue opened and out came a giant basilisk slithering towards them.

"Let's match the powers of Lord  Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter and Charles Hawthorne, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give them..."

Charlie looked at Harry before the two of them turned and ran back down the way that they had entered. Due to the movement, Fawkes had lifted from Charlie's shoulder and flew above them. They could hear the hisses of the basilisk trailing behind them, so the two boys ran as though their life depended on it. Which ultimately, it did.

Charlie pulled ahead slightly only to come to a halt as he heard a thud behind him. As he turned around, he saw Harry on the floor.

Are you kidding me?!

Being the selfless person he was, he ran back to try and help his friend to his feet, but the basilisk was right there. As soon as Charlie reached Harry, the giant snake had reached him too. The enormous and poisonous snake had raised itself in the air and extended its fangs. The two boys closed their eyes to prepare for the fangs to sink through them, but they never did.

Instead, all that was heard was the sound of Fawkes' screeching and the scratching of his talons. Charlie opened his eyes and looked up at the sight before him. Fawkes had somehow latched onto the basilisk's head and was currently scratching out it's eyes with his long talons.

The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing the two boys on the ground, and before they could shut their eyes, it turned — both boys looked straight into its face and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting in agony.

"NO!" They heard Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THEY ARE BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL HEAR THEM. KILL THEM!"

Charlie quickly helped Harry to his feet before they continued to run down the path. When they reached the end, they took a hard left down one of the many pipes around the Chamber.

"We have to split up," Charlie yelled, out of breath.

Harry nodded and at the next intersection they came across, each boy took a different direction. Harry went left while Charlie went right.

As Charlie kept running, he could no longer hear the hissing coming from behind him. Maybe it went after Harry? He came to a halt and turned around quickly to be faced with an empty corridor. He was safe, but Harry and Ginny were still out there.

So, he circled back around and found his way back to the main room within the Chamber. He crept up the pathway slowly towards Ginny's body. There was absolutely no sign of Tom Riddle anywhere.

He kneeled down next to Ginny and checked her pulse. She was still breathing, but barely. He didn't know what to do. Ginny was going to die, he had no wand, no weapon, and Harry was nowhere to be found. He was completely helpless...

Suddenly, the Sorting Hat on the floor next to Ginny began to radiate with a bright silver glow. He crawled over to it and pulled out its contents;

The legendary Sword of Gryffindor.

There it was.

Charlie had only heard stories about it, but he knew enough to know what it looked like. It was a long gleaming silver sword with rubies on the handle the size of pearls. It was absolutely miraculous.

It was then that Charlie heard the approaching sound of heavy footsteps. He didn't know if it was Tom or Harry, but he had to act quick regardless of who it was. He turned around to face the Slytherin statue once again which caused an idea to form in his head.

Quickly, with the sword in hand, he got to his feet and ran over to the side of the statue. He secured the sword in his robes before beginning to climb. He figured that when the time was right, he would be able to appear with the sword from where no one would expect it; from above.

As he was settled on the top of Slytherin's head, he heard Harry's voice approaching, "Charlie! Where are you?! Oh god... Oh god..."

Harry had now stepped out from the pipes and ran over to Ginny.

Just as Charlie was about to reveal himself, Tom Riddle came strolling out of the shadows.

"You're too late, Potter," he spoke with a confident tone, "The process is nearly complete. In a few minutes, Ginny Weasley will be dead and I will cease to be a memory. Lord Voldemort will return.  Very. Much. ALIVE."

The Chamber shook as the basilisk had now emerged with a loud cry from a nearby pipe. Charlie held on tightly to the statue as he pulled the sword from his robes. His moment was coming.

The basilisk had Harry at its mercy. Even if the Chosen One wished to evade it, there was nowhere to go. What's worse? The basilisk was too far away for Charlie to do anything quite yet.

He needed Harry to move the large snake a little bit further towards the statue. But in order for him to do that, he needed to get him to notice him somehow without alerting the others.

As if on cue, Fawkes came barreling through the sky causing Harry to follow it as it soared. The bird circled around Charlie on the top of the statue before flying directly at Tom to stop him from notifying the basilisk. Now that Harry knew where Charlie was, he treaded hardly on the ground as he ran over towards the statue, alerting the snake of his location.

As the serpent moved, the back of it's head was now visible for Charlie, so he prepared himself for what would come next. He backed up slightly to give himself a running start. Then, just as the basilisk had raised its head and prepared itself to sink its teeth down on Harry, Charlie ran and leapt off of the statue, plunging the sword hard into the snake's head as he came down and grabbed onto its neck.

Charlie put all of his weight behind that sword and drove it repeatedly into the snake's head. As the basilisk realized what was happening, it began to try to bite behind it's ears with all the strength it had left. The brown eyed boy held on for dear life as blood drenched his arms. With one final bite before the basilisk kneeled sideways and collapsed to the floor, Charlie felt one of it's fangs pierce his left forearm.

As he landed on top of the snake as it hit the ground, he yelled out in pain. Harry came rushing over to him to help his friend up. They walked back near Ginny before Charlie collapsed beside her. He pulled out the fang from his arm as he heard the screeching of Fawkes come to a halt. The bird had given up on attacking Riddle and was now more concerned with the injured boy laying on the ground.

Burning pain was spreading slowly yet steadily from Charlie's arm to the rest of his body. As he dropped the fang to the ground, his eyesight began to go foggy. He couldn't make out Harry's face in front of him any longer. Nor could he hear his friend's cries for help.

A patch of scarlet moved into his blurry view, and Charlie felt a soft feathers of the bird beside him.

"Fawkes," whispered Charlie. "You were fantastic, Fawkes..."

He felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced him. The boy could barely hear the echoing footsteps as a dark shadow moved in front of him.

"The basilisk may be dead, but so are you, Charles," said Riddle's barely audible, angry voice above him. "Dead! The venom from the basilisk fang will kill you slowly. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Hawthorne? He's crying. So, is Harry. His best friend is going to die in front of him, just like his parents. How tragic."

Charlie blinked. Harry and Fawkes' heads slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down glossy feathers. While a single tear was falling down passed Harry's glasses.

"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Charles, before I kill your friend. Take your time. I'm in no hurry." Tom's voice echoed around him.

Charlie felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning. In that moment, he thought of everyone he hadn't got the chance to say goodbye to. Dumbledore, Hagrid, McGonagall, Ron, The Weasley's, and even his father.

Then a familiar memory of a bushy haired girl came to mind.

Hermione Granger.

God, all he wanted to do was hear her voice one last time. To know that she was okay. To see her smile. To tell her that he kept his promise. But it was too late...

"So ends the famous Charles Hawthorne," said Riddle's distant voice. "Dead in the Chamber of Secrets, self-sacrificed for his friends, defeated by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear blood-traitor mother soon, Charlie. As for your father, I'll be sure to tell him in person that his pathetic excuse of a son was willing to die for a bunch of mudbloods — Lord Voldemort got you in the end, and it's a pity you won't be there when the same happens to Harry."

Charlie simply ignored Riddle's clear heartfelt and touching eulogy.

Instead, he grabbed ahold of Harry's hand with a tight squeeze and looked at him, "It's o-okay. Th-thank y-you f-for b-being t-there... a-always."

Harry shook his head as more tears began to fall from his face. None of this was okay. Harry had already lost so many people to the hands of this monster, he didn't want to lose his best friend too.

Charlie heard the cries of Harry get louder as he shut his eyes as he waited for death to overcome him...

But to his surprise, it never did.

Instead, the pain in his body began to subside and as he opened his eyes, the Chamber came back into focus as well as Harry's shocked expression looking down on him.

Charlie gave his head a little shake and there was Fawkes, still resting his head on Charlie's arm.
A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound — except that there was no wound.

"Get away, bird," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him — I said, get away!"

But Fawkes remained still.

Harry gasped, "Charlie... Phoenix tears... The healing powers you told me about..."

The brown eyed boy was relieved. He surely thought he was dead. Thank god he wasn't. He gave Fawkes a pat on the head as a way of thanking him.

Tom looked down at Charlie in disgust, "It doesn't matter, I guess I'll just have to kill you both myself."

He raised a wand towards the two boys.

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

For a split second, Harry, Charlie 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 Charlie 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.

Both, Harry and Charlie's wands has fallen to the floor with a clatter. The entire room had gone silent, except for the drips of the ink oozing from the diary.

Charlie and Harry looked at one another. They had no idea what the hell just happened, but they did it.

Tom Riddle was gone.

Harry helped Charlie to his feet. As he stood, the brown eyed boy's head was spinning wildly. He had lost quite a bit of blood.

His friend tried to help steady him on the ground as they both heard a faint groan from the ground next to them.

As they kneeled back down toward Ginny, she sat up. Her wandering eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over to Charlie, in his blood soaked robes, then to the diary in Harry's hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.

"Charlie — Harry — oh, Harry — it was me, guys — but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over — and — how did you kill that — that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary — "

"It's all right," said Harry calmly, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here — "

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and — w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"

"Don't worry," Charlie spoke with a soft smile as he gathered their wands and the sword from the floor, "No one's getting expelled. I'll make sure of it. I promise."

Ginny smiled softly as Harry urged her forward. Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Charlie approached him and he instantly clung onto his shoulder once again.

The four of them walked their way back to where the entrance to the Chamber was. Both, Charlie and Harry were relieved to hear the grunts and groans of Ron moving rocks out of the way in the near distance.

"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay!
We've got her!"

He heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next corner to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall.

"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How — what — where did that bird come from?"

Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.

"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, squeezing through himself.

"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Charlie's hand as he climbed through the gap, "And why are you covered in blood?! What the bloody hell happened in there?!"

Charlie took notice of Ginny's fragile state, "We'll explain everything, just not now. I just want to get the hell out of here. Grab Lockhart, let's go."

Ron nodded without hesitation and moved to collect Lockhart from the corner of the room, where he seemed to be staring aimlessly up at the stone ceiling.

The five of them climbed back through the pipe and found themselves back in Myrtle's bathroom.

"You're alive?!" Myrtle was shocked.

"Nice to see you too, Myrtle." Charlie smiled sarcastically, while Fawkes had clung to his shoulder once again. That damn bird really did love him.

"Oh, no, no ... I'd just been thinking... if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver.

Everyone laughed at Charlie and Myrtle's interaction. But before it could get any weirder, Ginny, Harry, Ron, Lockhart, and Charlie left the bathroom.

"So, what now?" Ron asked, grabbing ahold of Lockhart's robes to make sure he didn't wander.

Charlie shrugged.

He honestly didn't care.

All the mattered was that he and all of his friends were alive. Not to mention, they solved another Hogwarts mystery, Tom Riddle was gone, his grandfather would be able to return, Hagrid was innocent, and Hermione was going to be out of the hospital wing very soon.

Everything was okay in that moment.

Not perfect, but okay.

And that was good enough for Charlie.

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Author's Note:
*this chapter was not proof read*

Longest chapter yet! I really wanted to get this over with ahaha. Hope you enjoyed, this may be one of my favourites I've written!

Also,
Fawkes and Charlie >>>>> Hermione and Charlie

Lol, if you enjoyed, you know what to do!

One last chapter left of CoS!

Much love to you all! Thanks for 500+ views! Until next time!

xo, Selena