Lucy Potter: Harry's little sister

Chapter 24: The Chamber of Secrets

Harry's POV:

I left Ron and Lockart behind and went to the tunnel. I had no idea what to expect in there, so I was still careful, just in case the basilisk came lurking about.

I came to the end of the tunnel, which, I now saw, led the chamber. It was a huge, majestic place, more like a chamber in a palace then anything else.

It was still cold here, and I also felt water at my feet. In the centre was a beautiful statue of a snake and all of the chamber was green.

But at the foot of the statue lay something. No, someone. I walked closer, already dreading who it might be.

"Ginny!" I sprinted to her when I recognized her. "Please Ginny, don't be dead!" She felt unnaturally cold.

"She's alive."

I spun around to the voice. It was a teenage guy, staring at me intently. Tom Riddle.

"Tom, you have to help me!" I said, sighing in relief. "Ginny, we have to get her out of here. There's a basilisk somewhere here..."

"It won't come unless it's called."

"You don't understand, she's-"

"-alive, like I just said," he repeated, still looking at me with that deep look in his eyes. "But only barely."

"We need to get her out of here!"

"You were going to leave your own little sister here to save your best friend's sister?" He asked, which caught my attention. What was he talking about? "How noble and pathetic."

"Where's Lucy?" I turned to him again. "Why is she here?"

Tom rolled his eyes. I swear, for someone who was supposed to have saved this school, he was extremely slow. And he was getting on my nerves.

"Well of course, she came here to do the same thing you're here for now."

"She found this place too?!" I looked around for Lucy, but I didn't see her. "Where is she then?"

"Somewhere in the tunnels around here," he said, way too calm for my liking. Was she with the basilisk already? Had it killed her?

"No, you don't understand!" I said. I was getting more stressed with the second. Not Lucy. "We need to find her! Right now! And get out of here!"

Tom chuckled. "You're in a hurry. But the basilisk won't come. And I was hoping to get a little talk with you, Harry Potter."

I heard something behind me and Tom and I both turned to look. Nothing. No snake yet, but that meant it could still be with Lucy.

"How is it," Tom continued calmly, like we were having a simple chat over a cup of tea. "That a mere baby, only one year old, can defeat someone as magnificant and great as the Dark Lord?"

I frowned at him. What did this all have to do with Voldemort? How did he even know that, or Voldemort even? He was definitely a young ghost and I didn't think Tom was still alive. We would've heard of him earlier.

Turned out the tunnels echoed a lot, because somewhere further away, probably in the tunnels all around this chamber, I heard a gasp: Lucy.

"Lucy!" I yelled, but no answer came. "Are you alright?!"

"She's fine," Tom said, but why did he sound so bitter saying that? "Back to the conver- sation. How did you do it?"

"How do you even know all these things?" I asked him, still very confused.