What if...

It's not Hogwarts without you

The mouth of the statue slowly opened, and a horribly menacing slithering sound was heard as the mouth slowly ascended. Harry quickly shut his eyes and tried to think of a plan. A plan for defeating sixty feet snakes that can kill you on sight. Harry only knew a few offensive curses and hexes, but he didn't know how he was going to hit the mouth or the tiny eyes when he was basically blind.

"Do you really think you can escape me a third time?" Riddle asked cockily. His words reverberated around the chamber.
"Well, you know what they say." Harry was mentally preparing himself. "Third time's a charm. ACCIO!" Harry shouted, his hand outstretched towards Riddle. This time, his wand flew into his hand obediently. Wasting no time, Harry jumped back, facing the basilisk, and slammed his eyes shut.

Harry heard Riddle speaking to the basilisk, ordering it to attack him. Then, Harry remembered a spell he had read in a book. Yet again, he made a mental note to hug Hermione if he didn't die.

"Point me." He whispered, thinking about the basilisk's eyes. Normally, the charm told you which way north was, but it could potentially be modified to aim your own hand towards the enemy. Since there was no movement, the basilisk was most likely staring him down, wondering if he would even touch the sides.

Then, Harry heard a hiss and movement.
"Diffindo!" An orange beam hit the basilisk in its right eye, causing it to scream in pain. "Diffindo!" This time, Harry hit its left eye. He only knew this as the charm faded. It wouldn't fade if he hadn't hit his target. He opened his eyes excitedly, only to find the very much alive basilisk somehow staring him down with no eyes.

Harry looked at the Sorting Hat.
"Please help me." He whispered. Unfortunately, the giant snake heard him, and hissed, before recoiling and striking, missing Harry by a metre.

Then, a screech was heard as Fawkes dive bombed the basilisk, clawing at its flesh. Seeing a tiny hole emerge, Harry took his chance while the basilisk was writhing, squirming, shrieking and hissing.

"Diffindo! Diffindo! Confringo! Expulso! Stupefy! Stupefy! Diffindo!" Harry hadn't even realised he had stopped saying the spells out loud.

On the last cutting curse, the basilisk let out a scream of rage, and Harry noticed something shimmering inside the Sorting Hat. He pulled it out to reveal a glimmering, silver, ruby-encrusted sword that felt light as a feather. Grinning, Harry brandished the sword, but the basilisk wasn't having any of that.

The gigantic snake screamed in rage, striking out at Harry, but the young wizard stabbed the sword forwards. The already weakened basilisk couldn't dodge the sword in time, due to a sizeable dent in the side of its head. The sword pierced straight through the roof of the basilisk's mouth, killing it slowly as it wriggled and hissed out in pain, before slumping over, dead.

Harry gave his own hiss as he felt a stabbing pain in that arm. He watched in horror as he found a basilisk fang stuck inside his arm. With a pained yell, he ripped it out as Riddle watched in satisfaction.

"Depsite your fatal efforts, Ginny Weasley will die anyway. And it's your fault, Harry Potter." Riddle mocked. The weak, nauseous Harry slumped down next to Ginny, his wound facing the open air as he realised that he only had a few moments to live.

Fawkes trilled, landing next to Harry's injured arm, nuzzling his outstretched hand.

"You were brilliant, Fawkes." He stroked the side of the phoenix's head. "I just wasn't quick enough." He looked at his wound sadly.

"Do you see what the bird is doing? It's crying. It knows you've lost, and so do you." Riddle snarled, but stopped in his tracks as he noticed Fawkes' tears falling on Harry's wound.