Disclaimer: I hope that what's said in this Disclaimer is pretty redundant by now, but you never can tell people that you aren't the owner of the Harry Potter series enough times.

Harry didn't do as he was told. He waited in the Hospital Wing for them to bring in the latest victim. The one he hadn't been quick enough to save. He'd figured out what was behind the attacks, but not before another fellow student had been hurt. He wanted to know who it was.

But nobody came.

He had been sitting in the chair next to Hermione's bed for ten minutes before he came to the conclusion that they weren't going to be bringing someone in to the Hospital. Something was different this time.

So he got up, and started to make his way back to the common room. As he was walking, he noticed how empty the corridors were. It seemed everyone else had followed McGonagall's command and headed back to the perceived safety of their rooms. Even at the height of people's fear of the Heir, the corridors had never been this quiet. When he'd been walking around there had always been the echo of voices around a corner, or the quiet thumps as people ran late for class. It was eery seeing the castle this way.

He came upon the entrance to the Common Room before he had realised it. The Fat Lady didn't even stop to ask him the password before opening up for him. As he passed through the doorway, he saw that everyone was staring at him and then saw a family of gingers fall back into their seats, their faces pale.

"Where have you been all this time?", an older girl he didn't know, but wearing a prefects badge on her chest, said to him. "People have been worrying".

"I was in the Hospital Wing when-"

Percy Weasley had gotten out of his chair and ran to Harry when he heard what he said. "The Hospital Wing? Was Ginny there?"

"No she wasn't", Harry replied. A thought clicked into gear in his brain, and he understood why the Weasley's had looked disappointed to see him come into the room. "I'm sorry".

"She's probably still in the Library, that's where Ron saw her last".

Harry's head spun round to look at his roommate. "The Library?"

Ron looked up, all the colour from his face gone. It was clear that his mindset wasn't as positive as his older brother. He spoke as Harry walked towards him. "She was studying with us. After you ran off Madam Pince walked us all back here, but she wasn't with us when we got back".

Harry sat down opposite and started to think. It couldn't be a coincidence it happened just as Harry made his breakthrough. The Heir must have been in the Library too, and heard him shouting. If he thought he was about to be caught he'd try and add one more person to his list of victims, and who better than the daughter of the man who was bringing pro-muggle legislation into the Wizengamot. He hated to agree with Ron, but it made perfect sense. It was Ginny who had been attacked. But why hadn't they brought her up to the Hospital Wing?

His thoughts drifted to what Hermione had discovered. Pipes.

The Basilisk travelled through the pipes, but how did it leave them? It couldn't stare at you through a wall? The only places with access to the pipes would be a bathroom. But nobody was ever attacked in a bathroom, so it would have to be one which was never used. He couldn't think of a men's room that fitted the bill though.

He turned to the other second years sitting behind him. "Hey Lavender. This is going to seem like an odd question, but are there any girl's bathrooms that never get used?"

"What the hell Harry?".

"Answer him!".

Harry looked back around and saw Ron standing straight with his fists clenched by his side, his eyes quickly passing over all the girls. Briefly, his eyes met Harry's and Harry saw something he did not see very often in the eyes of his peers at Hogwarts: trust.

"Well, there's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom", Parvati said hesitantly. "We never go in there unless we can't help it".

"Moaning Myrtle?"

"She's a ghost", Lavender said. "She's always in there, crying her eyes out, so we call her Moaning Myrtle".

Harry's eyes lit up. "A ghost? Where is this bathroom?"

"Oh it's on the first floor", Parvati said, before her mouth dropped in shock. "Opposite the message about the Chamber. What's this about Harry?"

But Harry hadn't stayed to hear Parvati's question. He'd jumped from his chair and before Ron could shout at him to wait he was already halfway up the stairs to their room.

Ron ran after him, and as he burst through the door into their bedroom he saw Harry strapping a holster to his leg. "I'd like it if you didn't tell Professor McGonagall that I still have this", he said as he sheathed his Goblin knife into the holster and pulled his trouser down over it. "It's been eighteen months but I think she'd still be mad at me for disobeying her".

"What are you talking about? What are you doing?", he shouted as Harry took off his school robes and shirt and started to put on a clean black vest.

"I think I know where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is. I definitely know what Slytherin's monster is. I'm going to see if I'm right, and then if I am right I'll tell Dumbledore and any adult who will listen". He tested that his wand holster was working perfectly and then grabbed his father's invisibility cloak, the one he promised Sirius only to use at important moments, and shoved it into the inside pocket of his dragon-hide jacket. "I won't sit here when there's something I can do to help. I won't let them hurt anyone else Ron".

He zipped up the jacket and went to leave the room, but his way was blocked. "I'm coming too".

"Are you sure Ron?"

"It's my sister".

Harry nodded. He went to leave, but paused midstride. "If you hear any slithering, close your eyes".

Ron gulped.

Ignoring the shouts of protest, Harry and Ron quickly left the common room. For the third time that day, Harry thought that the Staircases understood what he was doing as once again they were nicely lined up for him to get down to the first floor as quickly as possible. They walked in silence, and Harry had his eyes stuck to the floor. Despite this, he did see the figure of their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher scurrying down the staircases in front of them, carrying a suitcase whose packing was clearly rushed.

"Should we ask for his help?".

"I'm not going for a haircut, so I can't see how he'd be any help", Harry responded without breaking stride. "He's running away anyway".

Ron scowled. "Coward".

They carried on down to the first floor, moving at quite the pace, but Harry was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "What Ron?"

"Look". Ron had his arm outstretched, pointing at the wall.

Harry slowly raised his eyes from the floor, and saw the Heir of Slytherin's message. The old and the new.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE

HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER

"Shit", Harry couldn't help himself from saying. He looked over at Ron and saw despair, and a hint of hope. "She's not dead Ron". His friend's gaze snapped around to look at him, and this time it was hope mixed with anger. "They've never done that before, so you have to ask why. I think it's because he hasn't killed her". He waited for Ron to reply, but he didn't look like he had anything to say. "Come on, let's keep going".

Harry started to walk around the corner, and he heard Ron's footsteps following him. He pushed open the door to the bathroom, and could immediately tell that it was one which saw very little use. It looked abandoned. The paint was flaking off the stall doors, and there was a tile missing on the floor. The large mirror that hung above the row of sinks was smashed in the corner, and the cracks danced across it's surface.

"What are you doing in here? This is a girl's bathroom!".

Harry turned and saw the pale shade of what appeared to be a sixteen year old girl sitting on top of one of the stalls, kicking her legs back and forth. "Myrtle, is it?"

"Yes, what do you want?".

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but how long have you been a ghost Myrtle?".

The corner of Myrtle's mouth creeped upwards, as if she was remembering a happy moment in her life. "Oh, nearly fifty years now. I remember the very day..."

She kept on speaking, but Harry was no longer paying attention. Sixty years meant that she must have been the girl who died when Voldemort was opening the chamber. Harry was sure this was no coincidence, this had to be the right place.

He walked over to the middle of the room, Salazar Slytherin wouldn't have made you stand in a toilet to get to his Chamber, that was too undignified. It was more likely to be by the sinks. "Look for something out of place, something to do with Slytherins", he said to Ron as he started to search himself.

It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for. Scratched into the side of one of the taps was the image of a snake. It was clear, but very small. If this was the entrance, Harry could see why it had gone undiscovered. He peered closer, and searched around the bowl for any other hints, but it was obvious what he had to do to open the door.

Ron's head snapped around as he heard the hiss, his heart momentarily in his mouth before he realised it was Harry making the sound. Hearing Parseltongue for the second time in his life sent shivers down his back, but when he saw the sink collapse into the floor and the open pipe it left behind all he could think was that they had done it. That was the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry stared at the pipe. It had to six feet wide. His mind sped as he thought what to do next. He had told Ron that he was going to find the entrance and then go get Dumbledore, but now something was stopping him and it was the message on the wall outside. Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever. But that was an incredibly bad idea, look how big the pipe was. It was Slytherin's monster, it was over a thousand years old. But, her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever. Then Harry remembered what was in his pocket, and suddenly the incredibly bad idea became an idea that was just plain bad.

"Ron, I need you to go to Professor McGonagall's office as quickly as you can and tell her to owl the Headmaster. Tell her that he needs to get here as quickly as he can. Tell her where the entrance is, and that Slytherin's monster is a basilisk. The reason nobody has died yet is because their view of it's gaze has always been obscured". Harry walked over to the mirror & jabbed it quickly with his elbow, smashing it again, and picked a fragment from the floor and put it in his pocket. "I'm going to sneak down and see if I can rescue your sister without anybody seeing me. Tell her the Headmaster knows I can be tricky to spot".

Before Ron could say a word in response Harry had jumped down the pipe. He walked over to the pipe and stood over the rim. That was his sister down there. But before he could make up his mind, the choice was taken away from him. The sink shot back up into position, and it was like nothing had even happened.

"Please be okay", he muttered before turning to run out of the room.

As Harry hit the damp floor at the end of the pipe, he immediately closed his eyes. Without opening them, he reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out the invisibility cloak. He quickly rolled over and threw it over himself. Slowly standing up, he put his hand in his pocket and grabbed the shard of mirror. He took his hand out from under the cloak, and slowly opened one eye whilst looking at himself. Immediately seeing nothing but the wall behind him, he was happy that he was fully covered by the cloak. As he stood still, he tried to listen for any sounds at all, but heard nothing. Satisfied he was completely alone, he let out a breath that he didn't realise he had been holding in. At that moment he realised something: he was completely terrified.

He couldn't see more than two feet in front of him and he didn't dare light up the passageway for fear of alerting someone to his prescence, but he knew he had to carry on.

So, he creeped forward, inch by inch.

Led forward by the curve of the wall, trying to ignore the crunch as animal bones snapped beneath his feet, he moved forward. He was starting to feel confident that he wouldn't be disturbed until he found the entrance to the true Chamber of Secrets. This couldn't be it yet after all, it was dark and dank.

Suddenly, Harry's heart rate tripled and he tripped over his own feet as he tried to backpedal away, landing on his back. Another look at what shocked him and he saw that he hadn't found the basilisk, just a shed skin. He breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down, but he couldn't take his eyes away from the sharp green skin that went on down the tunnel, further than Harry could see. He got to his feet, and started to walk along the length of the remains, the pit at the bottom of his stomach ever expanding. The creature which left this behind was easily twenty feet long.

He tried to put it out of his mind for now, and carried on along the passageway. If everything went to plan, the Heir and the Basilisk would never even know he was there after all. He followed the turns of the corridor, gradually regaining his confidence until he saw two gleaming emeralds on the wall up ahead. As he got closer he could make out the outline of two carved serpents, of which the gems were the eyes. It felt like a lifetime had passed since he was sitting in the library trying to discover what Hermione had learnt, but now he was standing outside the Chamber of Secrets.

"Open".

A gap appeared in the wall between the two snakes, and smoothly the two halves of the door separated. As Harry crossed through the hole left in the wall, he could see immediately that he was in the right place. Columns of stone that ran up to a ceiling obscured by darkness were wrapped by more stone snakes. The floor was a deep black polished rock, but Harry could see shades of green as the small amount of light present in the Chamber bounced off the floor. He looked around and could see no-one, and the way forward was slightly obscured by a thin fog, so he started making his way into the centre of the Chamber.

The slow, considered steps he was taking were still echoing around the room, and Harry cursed the fact that he did not yet know the Silencing Charm. As he passed the final serpentine column, he entered the main room and his eyes were drawn to the large statue that was the centerpiece. For a second a thought crossed Harry's mind, one had to have an incredible ego to build a statue of yourself that was four stories tall in a room only you could enter.

That thought soon passed though as he noticed the black robes and scarlet hair of Ginny Weasley lying at it's feet. He stopped himself from immediately running across to her, fearing a trap. He looked around, to see if he could see the Heir hiding behind one of the columns waiting for him, but he could see no-one. He was about to take his first step into the Chamber when a voice echoed around the Chamber.

"I know you're there Harry".

Harry threw himself back behind the column he was standing beside, and held his breath. He didn't recognise the voice, soft spoken but mature.

"Who else could open the door after all?".

Harry slowly let out a breath, and looked down to check he was still covered completely by the cloak.

"I am pleased you managed to figure it out though. Even if your mudblood whore did most of the work".

Harry slowly peered out into the main room, and saw that now the Heir was kneeling down by Ginny's body. It was odd though, Harry couldn't focus his eyes on him properly. It was similar to how his vision had been before he had his eyes fixed. Why call him out, but obscure himself?

"She's still alive Harry. If you keep ignoring me though, maybe I might have to change that".

The breath caught in Harry's throat. He watched as the boy's hand stroked Ginny's hair, before he placed it on her throat. They had to be almost forty yards away, he wouldn't be able to stop him in time.

"It'd be so easy, to just squeeze the life out"

"STOP!"

Harry had thrown the cloak to the ground and stepped out from behind the column. He stood with his hands by his sides as the kneeling figure slowly stood and turned to face him.

"Ahh, there you are". He beckoned Harry over with a wave of his arms, and as Harry didn't move his anger visibly rose, but it did not show in his voice. "How are we meant to talk if you are all the way over there. Come here".

Harry bit back his frustration, and started to walk towards the boy. As he got closer, he did not come into any more focus. His hands were clasped behind his back, and he stood straight, not moving the entire time. Harry purposefully walked so Ginny ended up lying between them.

"I expected you to be taller. Although I suppose you are only twelve".

Not taking his eyes from the man, Harry knelt down and felt for a pulse in Ginny's neck. It was there, but it was faint.

"I told you she was still alive, I wouldn't lie to you".

"Who are you", Harry asked bluntly, rising to his feet.

The mask of indifference slipped from the boy's face, and a small grin replaced it. "You can call me, Tom".

Harry studied Tom. He had never seen him before at School, and that was a surprise. The school was not so large that you could go two years and not at least recognise the faces of everyone, even if you did not know all of their names.

"What have you done to Ginny?"

The grin on Tom's face became almost feral. "Me? Nothing. I'm afraid poor Ginny's wounds are entirely self inflicted".

Harry immediately looked down. That didn't make sense. Nothing he saw here painted that picture. His eyes quickly shot back up to Tom, and Harry studied him. Something wasn't right. Then he saw the crest on his robes. Slytherin, but it didn't look the same as the Slytherin's wore now. He had seen that style of badge before though, on Myrtle.

"You're a ghost".

"A memory. Preserved in a diary for fifty years", he whispered almost inaudibly. His voice sounded bitter. Suddenly, his mannerisms changed completely and he said in a much more forceful tone, "Tell me Harry, how is it that you managed to defeat Lord Voldemort?".

Completely shocked by this change, Harry replied "Why do you care?".

Anger erupted from within Tom. "Answer me!", he said striding forward towards Harry.

Harry backed off, and as he saw Tom's foot step on Ginny's arm he purposefully stumbled and fell on his back.

"How did a mere baby fight off the greatest wizard of all time?", Tom bellowed.

Harry grabbed the knife from his leg and went to plunge it into Tom's belly, but instead he fell right through him.

"Ahaha, not quite yet Harry. That girl's petty scribblings may be giving me life Mr Potter, but it will be a few short minutes before such a brutish method of attack could do me harm".

He calmly strode away from Harry, his hands once again clasped behind it's back. "It's a shame that you wouldn't play along Mr Potter, but frankly I expected more of you. Clearly it was through no skill of your own that I was unable to kill you, if you have to resort to that to try and end me. Just luck or perhaps misjudgement on my part". He was walking towards the statue, almost talking to himself at this point.

He turned back to Harry. "I would like you to know, before you die, that the girl you came down here to save has been your nemesis for the last year. I would love to take the credit, but she was far too good at it for me to do that. Shame none of the scum died though, but I had the same problems in my time too".

Harry rolled over and watched as Tom raised his arms to the statue. "Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four!".

Harry looked up and saw the mouth of the giant statue slowly opening. He closed his eyes with as much force as he could muster, and buried his head to the floor. As the slam of what had to be the Basilisk hit the floor of the Chamber, he heard Tom spit out "You're going to need a bigger knife".

Albus,

You need to come back, right now. Ginny Weasley has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, and as I was writing this to you her brother has come into my office and told me that Potter has managed to find the entrance and go down after her. What am I supposed to tell her parents, hope a twelve year old boy can rescue her where we cannot? What am I supposed to tell Black? Come back.

He said the monster is a basilisk.

Minerva

Dumbledore read the letter again, then crumpled it in his hand. He'd only been gone from the school for a day, but it appeared the Heir had used that time to his advantage. Luckily for him however, whilst he had been temporarily suspended the previous day the wards still recognised him as Headmaster, so he was still able to apparate directly into McGonagall's office. His sudden appearance had startled the youngest Weasley boy, who had been sitting at the side of his deputy's office but apparently it had been completely anticipated by said deputy.

"Come on then Mr Weasley, tell the Headmaster what you told me. Quickly now!"

"Harry told me to tell you that the monster is a Basilisk, and the reason that nobody died is because everybody's view has always been, err, obscured. He managed to figure out that the entrance was in the abandoned girl's bathroom on the first floor, and I think he said something snake to a sink to get it to open. He said he was going to sneak down and try and get Ginny without anyone seeing him, and that you knew he was often hard to spot. I think he assumed you would know what that meant".

Albus sighed. "I do".

"Good, I guess. I think that was everything, apart from that he wanted you to come and help him".

"I'd hope that he would. Where is this bathroom?"

"Near the messages, sir".

Albus nodded, and turned to McGonagall. "Are the Weasleys and Mr Black on their way?"

"I have owled the Weasleys".

"Owl Sirius too. Just tell him the truth. Bring them here, your office is closer to this bathroom I think". He turned back to Ron. "Are you willing to direct me, Mr Weasley?".

Ron nodded, and before he had a chance to say anything Dumbledore had grabbed his arm and apparated to the site of the messages. He saw the new addition and frowned. This was an evil deed.

"Come come Mr Weasley, lead the way", he said to the boy, who was gasping rather heavily after that abrupt change in location. He quickly forced himself forward and they quickly arrived at the bathroom. Ron led them over to the sinks, and pointed at the one which Harry had opened.

Peering at the basin and taps, Dumbledore soon spotted the engraving of the snake on the spout. "Harry spoke Parseltongue to open the entrance?"

"Yes sir".

Dumbledore frowned. "I fear Harry may have been led into a trap", he said, then stood in thought for a few moments. "Unfortunately, Parseltongue is not one of the languages I can speak so I am going to have to try brute force. It may be best if you leave the room".

Ron left as quickly as he could, and as the door to the bathroom closed behind him he immediately heard the unmistakable sounds of explosions and fire coming from within. The carnage seemed to last for hours, as Ron winced from the intense volume, but it was in fact over quite quickly. After a few seconds of silence, Ron plucked up the courage to peek back into the room, and what he saw shocked him.

The bathroom had been flattened. The wall of every stall had been obliterated, the porcelain toilets shattered and the windows no longer protecting them from the outside winds. Scorch marks painted the walls and the floor was covered in debris. But despite this, stood in front of the Headmaster who was now carefully moving his wand as if conducting an orchestra, stood the column of sinks, unblemished.

The Headmaster's hands dropped to his side, and he started talking again, almost to himself. "An incredibly impressive set of wards it seems. Hidden carefully, completely separate from the main castle's scheme but also tied in to the wards that render us invisible to the muggles. I feel I could sever that connection and take these down, but I would be more than an hour and that is time I do not have. I could not simply bypass the entrance either, as it seems there are dozens of wards in place to ensure the swift demise of any wizard who try to pass through the entrance when the passphrase has not been uttered. I would not be surprised if it was Salazar Slytherin himself who cast these wards".

"What are you going to do?", Ron said, slightly shocked to hear the Headmaster admit he had been bettered.

"I'm not sure Mr Weasley, but I will persevere".

At that moment, a song that was familiar to Dumbledore filled the air and Fawkes flew in through one of the broken windows, and landed on the Headmaster's shoulder. "Ahh, I think that would work. The wards are tuned to wizards only, not... I have another idea".

With a flash of fire the pair were gone, leaving Ron behind as shocked as he had been all day. A few seconds passed and another burst of flames signalled the re-entrance of the Headmaster and his phoenix, and this time the phoenix seemed to be holding the Sorting Hat in it's claws. "Ronald, did you see what lay behind the sink when Harry opened it? The entrance?"

It was all almost too much for Ron, but he managed to get out "It was a pipe in the floor going down, about this wide", while holding his arms out.

The phoenix squawked his appreciation then disappeared in yet another ball of fire, leaving Dumbledore and Ron in the remains of the bathroom. Ron fell back to the ground, exhausted with the shock of the day, and said "What now?".

"We wait, and we hope".

Before Harry had a chance to think about a plan of action, he heard the faint shrill of music coming from the entrance to the chamber, gradually getting louder. Seen as he couldn't hear any movement from the Basilisk, he hoped that the beast was focused on that too.

"What is this?", Harry heard Tom say, before he felt a burst of heat across his back and the dull thud of something falling down beside him. It was Fawkes!

The basilisk's roars were now overpowering the song of the phoenix, and Harry was straining to hear what was happening. He could hear the squirming of its body moving across the floor, the thumps of its tail beating against the walls of the chamber, the snapping of its jaws. In amongst all that, Harry finally made out some words. "My eyes".

Harry couldn't help but open his own upon hearing that, and looked across at the Basilisk and the sight filled him with courage. Fawkes was dancing in the air around the Basilisk's head, whose eyes were leaking blood.

Harry flicked out his wand, and threw a curse at Tom. "Flippendo".

Once again it passed straight through the boy's body, but it caught his attention. "Finished cowering have we? Leave the bird, kill the boy".

Harry eyes flicked across to the Basilisk who immediately stopped snapping it's jaws aimlessly at Fawkes and instead started visibly sniffing. It slowly moved it's head, until it was looking directly at Harry, then lunged at him.

Harry jumped to the side, and the Basilisk missed him by an inch. He started to run, partly to get away from the beast and partly to give him time to think. The basilisk was the main threat, but he had to stop Tom to save Ginny. He thought of what he said, 'preserved in a diary', 'scribbling giving him life' and realised that he was stealing Ginny's life to recreate his own. He had no idea what magic this was, but it had to be dark. But how could he stop him if he couldn't touch him, and spells went right through him?

There was a crash, and suddenly Harry was covered in dust as the Basilisk slammed through the pillar he was just running past. Harry changed trajectory and went back to the center of the room. Running wasn't working.

Suddenly Fawkes flew overhead and dropped something into his hands. Harry turned it over, and realised it was the Sorting Hat. He thought for a second about putting it on, before he noticed a glittering ruby embedded into a piece of silver lying within. He grabbed and pulled it from the hat, and as he did so realised it was a sword. He span and looked at the Basilisk, it once again trying to figure out where he stood. It slithered towards him and drew itself up, before lunging at him again.

Harry sank to one knee, and thrust the sword up at the Basilisk, driving it into the roof of the Basilisk's mouth.

He felt both his collarbones snap as he was quickly drenched in the creature's blood, then an intense pain in his shoulder as one of the creatures fangs sank in before snapping off as the beast fell to the side, twitching in the throes of death.

Harry was in so much pain he could barely think, but he forced himself to his feet, before immediately falling again. He looked across to Ginny, who was lying quite close now. "I'm sorry", he tried to say, but his thickening tongue wouldn't let him. He knew he was dying, and he knew that he hadn't stopped Tom too.

"I've killed you Harry Potter. You put up a good fight but you're still dead".

The taunt rang in his ears, and as Harry fought for breaths he saw a book sitting in Ginny's hand. He knew what he had to do. He crawled over to her, and with his last piece of strength he pulled the fang from his shoulder and drove it into the diary.

Harry heard a wild scream, before everything faded to black.

"Harry. You've got to wake up Harry".

Harry jolted upright and sucked in a breath. The light in the chamber immediately overwhelmed him, and he went to shield his eyes with his arm but felt the grinding of bones in his shoulder and recieved another jolt of pain. "Aahh".

"Harry, oh Harry! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean any of it. He took me over, oh Merlin, I thought you were dead".

Harry slowly opened his eyes and saw Ginny sitting next to him with her hands clasped together, tear stains running down her face. Fawkes was sitting on his legs. He looked around and saw the now stationary corpse of the Basilisk, and the diary which now had a hole burned through it's centre. He couldn't stop a smile from erupting on his face, he was alive and he'd done it. That was quickly dispelled by another jolt of pain as he tried to get to his feet.

"Ginny, it's fine. Everything's going to be ok".

Harry was almost stunned by the pain he felt as Ginny jumped at him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, but managed to keep it silent as he tried to return it. "Come on, we've got to get out of here. Can you help me up?".

She helped him to his feet, and he managed to steady himself. He looked around and his eyes caught Fawkes' and he saw similar tear stains as to the ones on Ginny's face. Phoenix tears. That's why he wasn't dead.

"My wand", he said, pointing to it on the floor, and Ginny quickly handed it to him. He couldn't see hie knife anywhere and he wasn't in any condition to get that sword back, so Harry realised he'd probably have to make a return trip. "Let's go".

So, they slowly staggered towards the entrance. Harry's jaw clamped down, trying to fight the pain that flooded through his body at every step. Ginny, unable to stop the tears that kept pouring down her face. Eventually they reached the pipe through which Harry had entered the chamber. "How the fuck are we going to get back up?", Harry shouted, the restrained frustration at the pain he was feeling bubbling to the surface, but immediately regretted it as Ginny broke into fresh whimpers. "I'm sorry Ginny".

She wiped her eyes. "No, I'm sorry Harry".

Harry sighed. Now wasn't the time to try and reassure her. At that point though Fawkes, who had been following behind them, flew in front of them and started waving his tail feathers. "I can't Fawkes. You'll have to grab me".

If Harry wasn't mistaken, the phoenix had given him a look of pure incredulity before he grabbed his jacket's shoulders with his claws and started to lift him up. Ginny wrapped her arms around his knees, and the phoenix immediately started to fly up the shaft. They sped up, and as Harry began to see the roof he whispered "Open", and light flooded the pipe. Shooting from the exit that had appeared, Harry felt himself deposited on the floor of the bathroom and couldn't help himself from releasing an exclamation of pain.

"Harry, Ginny, are you alright?", Harry heard the Headmaster say in an urgent tone.

"No. I'm hurt".

A/N: I made an error in the last chapter, but this one is correct. The events in this chapter occur the day after Hermione and Neville were petrified and Dumbledore was expelled from the school.

Obviously that was quite similar to how events transpired in the original, but I promise, the small changes will become important.

And no, I haven't figured out a way that a sixty feet long, 7 ton basilisk could sneak around a school during the day without being spotted. That problem is being conveniently ignored. 'Pipes' is not a real answer.

Please point out any mistakes, or problems.