Chapter fourteen - The Heir of Slytherin

He was standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long black shadows through the odd, greenish light that filled the place. Hollow eye sockets of stoned snakes seemed to dart around the room and a statue stood as high as the chamber itself was at the other side. Harry had to crane his neck up to look at the giant, ancient and monkey-like face of a wizard with a beard, a wizard whom Harry recognised as Salazar Slytherin himself. The Chamber looked beautiful.

At the other end of the chamber, near the statue, Harry saw as he took a step inside, was where the Weasleyette was, lying passed out on the floor beside a diary and a teenage wizard.

When Harry first stepped into the Chamber, the boy had not spotted him, but after a moment or two Harry stepped in a puddle of water which made a splash, he turned.

The boy looked remarkably like Harry supposed he might do in several years time. He had black hair and a very similar facial structure and build. The boy looked shocked to have been followed.

"Who are you?" the boy asked suspiciously. "How did you get down here?"

Harry could have smiled then and there. The boy was obviously doing something that was illegal, otherwise he wouldn't have let his nervousness show through. The boy was wearing Slytherin colours, after all.

"I could ask you the same question, since you seem to be the one that would suffer most from the consequences, should anyone find out," Harry said coolly whilst his mind seemed to be working at one hundred miles per hour. Before, having read a couple of books and having seen pretty much all the evidence he would ever need, Harry concluded that this place was definitely the Chamber of Secrets. Now, he thought, if only the heir could open the chamber, and the only people down there besides himself were Ginevra Weasley and that boy, he concluded that the boy was the heir of Slytherin, as the chances of it being a Weasley were slim to none.

"I asked first," the boy snarled, his eyes darting all over the chamber.

"Very well," said Harry. The boy was unlikely to be a threat. He hadn't come down here with Ginevra, as far as he could see, so he wasn't, in all probability, a threat. "I am Harry Potter. I got down here by the same way you did. You really should have closed that entrance you know. And you are?"

"Harry Potter?" the boy asked, not having heard a word Harry had said after his name. "You are the Harry Potter? The Boy Who Lived? The defeater of the Dark Lord? Aren't you kind of puny for that?"

Harry bristled. The boy had managed to switch from nervousness and fear to overconfidence within a matter of seconds.

"You still haven't said who you are," hissed Harry, eyes narrowed. The boy switched back to nervousness all of a sudden, and he glanced down at the unconscious form of Ginevra.

"Why should I tell you? You may run off and tell Dumbledore immediately that someone was planning on killing all the mudbloods and muggle-lovers in the school if I did."

"Why would I do a thing like that?" replied Harry. "I hate muggles and mudbloods. There's far too many of them and they do nothing worthy of any notice. The world would be better off without them all."

"Very well," the boy said, not fully convinced, but had decided that if Harry hadn't already run off to Dumbledore he was unlikely to. "My name is Tom Riddle."

Later that night, Harry got back to the Common Room; he had just sat down to read when the entrance to the commons burst open and a multitude of people came through.

"Potter!"

"How in Merlin's name did you do it?!"

"You are completely unbelievable!"

"Filch's cat I can kind of understand, but why did you leave that message? Now everyone thinks you're the Heir!"

"Are you?"

"What... are you all talking about?" Harry asked clamly, appearing clueless at the same time, though he completely understood what they were talking about.

"The Chamber of Secrets," Draco said, managing to fight his way to the front of the crowd. "It had been opened."

"Has it?" Harry feigned confusion. "Since when?"

"Quit playing the part of an imbecile, Potter," Nott pushed his way past the assorted Slytherins. "The Chamber of Secrets was opened tonight during the feast, and the monster inside petrified Filch's cat. You were the only student not present at the feast, so you must be the heir of Slytherin."

Harry's eyebrows rose. That was not true. He hadn't been the only student away from the feast. The Weasley hadn't been there either. Just because she was a Ravenclaw she didn't get accused. Could the school get much more prejudiced?

"I can assure you I had no idea that the Chamber had been opened. What message were you talking about though?"

Many of the Slytherins exchanged glances. It didn't seem as if Harry was lying. In truth he wasn't, technically. He hadn't had any idea the Chamber had been opened. He just didn't mention when he hadn't known it had been opened. He had known it had been opened when it had been openeed, but he hadn't known that it had been opened fifty years before.

"'The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware'," Draco said, not appearing the buy into Harry's act of not knowing that the Chamber had been opened.

"Hmm, interesting," Harry said, and there were several skeptical glances at him by the more suspicious Slytherins. "What? You all don't seriously believe that I am the heir? Both of my parents of Gryffindors! My mother was a mudblood! Do you honestly think that Salazar's heir would have married a mudblood, let along have been in Gryffindor?!"

Harry had put on quite a performance, convincing every that he had no known about the Chamber being opened, and convincing people that he wasn't the heir. He knew he wasn't the heir, that was certain, but he certainly had known about the Chamber opening before anyone else in the school did this time around.

Several minutes later, many Slytherins were still asking questions, though thankfully to one another, not Harry. Still, it was getting on Harry's nerves, so finally having enough, he got up and made his way to his dorm, hoping against hope that there would be no one in there to ask him about the Chamber. Unfortunately, these hopes were not realised.

Ed was there.

Ignorant mudblood, Harry mentally snarled. Why couldn't Gein stay in the common room like everyone else? Not he would probably be asking questions.

He didn't though. Ed just stared at Harry with an unreadable expression on his face. The staring was unnerning, but no more than staring was every single day. Taking on the same attitude as he usually did, Harry just got changed and lay down to sleep, knowing that the next morning would be a problem in the form of all of the school with the exception of Slytherin.

A/N: Dammit! I'm sorry this chapter's so short everyone! For some reason I had loads of trouble with the first part in the chamber. I still hate what I put, but I'm glad that bit's over. And you'll have noticed that Tom Riddle appears severely OOC in this chapter. The next time I introduce him (in the very near future) he will hopefully be IC.

Lap: Harry knew it was the Chamber because he read about it, and he didn't understand Ginny when she spoke Parseltongue because (and I had to actually consult CoS for this) in the actual books when Harry goes down into the Chamber, when he says open in parsel to open up thesink, it says that the open came out as a low hiss. I'm interpreting it as meaning that though you have to use parselmouth to open the sinks up, what you say doesn't necessarily sound like parseltongue. And yes, I have decided whether or not this story will include some slash, I'm just not revealing it yet.

Virginia Riddle-Malfoy: You will find out eventually.

Crystal Moon Dragon: The pairing has yet to be decided. As for Harry/Tom slash, that's the best.

crazy-lil-nae-nae: Thanks!

Shadowface: Ew! I did not want to know that milkmen used to pick up urine! But if it's for making explosives... I think I'll try and find the recipe.

Homocidal Virgin: Like I told Lap, in the actual books when Harry opens up the sinks to go down to the Chamber of Secrets with Ron and Lockhart, it says what he said came out as a low hiss. I'm interpreting as meaning that you have to speak parseltongue to get down there, you can't understand what is being said by anyone when they open up the sinks.

hm: Harry isn't becoming more and more Gryffindor every chapter. You are just looking at his actions, and actions can be widely interpreted by different people. To one person what may seem like stupidity may seem like genius to another, what may seem like Gryffindor actions to one person mightn't to someone else. Also, Harry does have some Gryffindor traits, as does everyone. Everyone has various traits, they are what make you up, it's just how strong they are in you that determines which house you would be sorted into. As to whatyou've said about how I've written things, that's my writing style. I'll try and go into more detail about what happens, but it's hard to do. If you're a writer then ou'd understand that.

Serpent of Light: Sure you can borrow it! I think I borrowed it off someone else, but I can't remember who... So far I have very few plans for the basilisk, but I'll try and keep it alive. Thanks!

Shannon: Ah, when I introduce Sirius, I'm going to have lots and los of fun.

No longer a member: I'll try.