第 36 页

year-old girl," he went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back. I was

sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one's ever

understood me like you, Tom .... I'm so glad I've got this diary to

*309*

confide in .... It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket . . . .

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs

stand up on the back of Harry's neck.

"If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I

needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to

be exactly what I wanted .... I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of

her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more

powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding

Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul

back into her. . ."

"What d'you mean?" said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry.

" Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny

Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school

roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the

Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat.

"No," Harry whispered.

"Yes," said Riddle, calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was

doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her

new diary entries ... far more interesting, they became .... Dear Tom,"

he recited, watching Harry's horrified face, `I think I'm losing my

memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and 1 don't know how

they got there. Dear Tom, l can't remember what 1 did on the night of

Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front.

Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he

265

suspects me... There was another attack today

*310

and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm

going mad... I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!"

Harry's fists were clenched, the nails digging deep into his Palms.

"it took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her

diary," said Riddle. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to

dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I

couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have

picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet . .

. ."

"And why did you want to meet me?" said Harry. Anger was coursing

through him, and it was an effort to keep his voice steady.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Riddle. "Your

whole fascinating history. " His eyes roved over the lightning scar on

Harry's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier. "I knew I must

find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided

to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your

trust -"

"Hagrid's my friend," said Harry, his voice now shaking. "And you

framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but -"

Riddle laughed his high laugh again.

"It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. Well, you can imagine how

it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor

but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student ...

on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week,

trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the

Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls ... but I

* 31:L *

admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought

someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of

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Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I

could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance

... as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!

"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think

Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dipper to keep Hagrid and train

him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed ....

Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers

did ......

"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Harry, his teeth gritted.

"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid

was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to

open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going

to waste those long years Id spent searching for it. I decided to leave

behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that

one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and

finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"Well, you haven't finished it," said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died

this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will

be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again -"

"Haven't I already told you," said Riddle quietly, "that killing Mudbloods

doesn't matter to me anymore? For many months now, my new target

has been -you."

Harry stared at him.

"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was

*312*

opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you

with the diary, you see, and panicked. "What if you found out how to

work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I

told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited

until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I

must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's

heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would

go to any lengths to solve the mystery -

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particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had

told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak

Parseltongue ....

"So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down

here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. But

there isn't much life left in her .... She put too much into the diary, into

me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last .... I have been waiting for

you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many

questions for you, Harry Potter."

"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched.

"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you a skinny boy

with no extraordinary magical talent - managed to defeat the greatest

wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while

Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.

"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was

after your time ......

"Voldemort," said Riddle softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry

Potter . . . ."

He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it

through the air, writing three shimmering words:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name

rearranged themselves:

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at

Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I

was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose

veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my

mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who

268

abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his

wife was a witch? No, Harry - I fashioned myself a new name, a

name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak,

when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

Harry's brain seemed to have jammed. He stared numbly at Riddle,

at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder Harry's own

parents, and so many others .... At last he forced himself to -,peak.

"You're not," he said, his quiet voice full of hatred.

"Not what?" snapped Riddle.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast.

"Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the

world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were

strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore

saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you

now, wherever you're hiding these days -"

The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly

look.

*31-4*

"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of

me!" he hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted. He was

speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle, wishing rather than

believing it to be true

Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.

Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare

down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was

eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Harry's scalp and

made his heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size.

Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Harry felt it vibrating

inside his own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar.

A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music

269

to the vaulted ceiling. It had a glittering golden tail as long as a

peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged

bundle.

A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the

ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, then landed heavily on his

shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Harry looked up and saw it had a

long, sharp golden beak and a beady black eye.

The bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Harry's cheek,

gazing steadily at Riddle.

"That's a phoenix said Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.

"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, and he felt the bird's golden claws

squeeze his shoulder gently

"And that -" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had

dropped, "that's the old school Sorting Hat -"

So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Harry's

feet.

Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark

chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once

"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old

hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?"

Harry didn't answer. He might not see what use Fawkes or the

Sorting Hat were, but he was no longer alone, and he waited for

Riddle to stop laughing with his courage mounting.

"To business, Harry," said Riddle, still smiling broadly. "Twice - in your

past, in my future - we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How

did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added

softly, "the longer you stay alive."

Harry was thinking fast, weighing his chances. Riddle had the wand.

He, Harry, had Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, neither of which would

be much good in a duel. It looked bad, all right ... but the longer Riddle

stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny ... and in the

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meantime, Harry noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becoming

clearer, more solid .... If it had to be a fight between him and Riddle,

better sooner than later.

"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me,"

said Harry abruptly. "I don't know myself But I know why you

couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. My common

Muggle-born mother," he added, shaking with suppressed rage. "She

stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you, I saw you last

year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your

power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul -"

*%16*

Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile. "So.

Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I

can see now ... there is nothing special about you, after all. I

wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, after all.

Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by

Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts

since the great Slytherin himself We even look something alike ... but

after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's

all I wanted to know."

Harry stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand. But Riddle's

twisted smile was widening again.

"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the

powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous

Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him . . . ."

He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked

away. Harry, fear spreading up his numb legs, watched Ridthe stop

between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin,

high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and

hissed - but Harry understood what he was saying ....

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four. "

Harry wheeled around to look up at the statue, Fawkes swaying on his

shoulder.

271

Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horrorstruck, Harry saw

his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole.

And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something