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Aurora Areli
WE WERE 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.
My heart felt like it was about to burst from my chest. With Harry's hand clutched tightly with mine, we stood listening to the chill silence. I had no idea where the Basilisk could be lurking.
After a moment, we moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. I kept my eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. I tried not to focus on the hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes that somehow seemed to be following us.
As we drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Craning my neck, I looked up at the giant, monkey-like face; its long thin beard fell almost to the bottom of it's sweeping stone wizards robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth chamber floor. And between the feet, face down, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming red hair.
"Ginny!" I exclaimed quietly, tugging Harry along with me as I sprinted towards her. I let go of his hand and dropped to my knees in front of the pale girl. "Ginny! Don't be dead! Please don't be dead!" I grabbed Ginny's shoulders and turned 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," I muttered desperately, shaking her. Through my tears, I watched as Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.
"She won't wake," said a soft voice.
I jumped and spun around on my knees.
A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though I was looking at him through a misted window.
"Who are you?" I asked, at the same time Harry said, "Tom — Tom Riddle?"
Tom Riddle? The boy Harry saw through the diary, the one who had an award with the school?
Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off of Harry's face.
"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" I said desperately, shaking my head and blinking tears from my eyes. "She's not — she's not —"
"She's still alive," Riddle said. "But only just."
I watched in confusion as Harry stared at the blurry boy. Hadn't he been at Hogwarts fifty years ago? If he had, then why was he here, not looking a day over sixteen?
