“All the students are accounted for except Alec Snape from my house but I believe he was visiting with his father and may not have made it back to the common room yet. No students from Slytherin or Hufflepuff are missing. The only Gryffindor student missing is Miss Granger.” Professor Flitwick stated.

Professor McGonagall gasped. “Poor dear. She’s only a first year too,” she murmured.

“Is there anything we will be able to do to save her?” another professor wondered.

“Unless we are able to find the culprit or the entrance to the Chamber, there is nothing further to do,” McGonagall concluded sadly. “I’m afraid the school will be closed for sure now.”

Alec gasped quietly and dashed away from the lounge. He headed to the second floor to find Moaning Myrtle.

“Myrtle? Are you in here?” Alec called out cautiously. She could be a bit creepy at times.

“What do you want?” she sniffled. “Have you come to make fun of me?”

“No. I um wanted to ask you how you died,” the Ravenclaw replied.

“Ooooh. It was dreadful, absolutely dreadful. “I was crying in the bathroom because Olive Hornbee made fun of me earlier that day. I heard a boy’s voice and I asked him what he was doing here. When I came out, I died.”

“Just like that? Did you see anything?” he inquired.

“I remember seeing large yellow eyes over there.” She pointed towards the bathroom sinks. Alec walked over and looked at the sinks. They looked ordinary. He remembered Lisa’s clue about the pipes and decided to test each sink. When he came across one that didn’t work, he knew it was likely to be the entrance. As he looked closer, he discovered a small snake engraved on the spout.

“Alohomora,” he tried. Nothing happened.

“I think the boy hissed,” Myrtle added helpfully.

“Open,” Alec hissed. Suddenly a rumbling sound was heard as the sinks shifted apart and revealed a dark and dirty hole. “Wow.” Myrtle shrieked when the sinks rearranged and dove head first into a toilet, disappearing.

“Do not make any sudden movements Mr. Snape,” Alec looked into the mirror and saw Gilderoy Lockhart standing behind him. He groaned and slowly turned around.

“So it was you attacking students?” Lockhart assumed.

“No!” Alec denied vehemently. “In case you’ve forgotten, my two best friends are currently in the infirmary.”

“Yes, yes and so is your father. Trying to get rid of your family and friends then?”

“That’s not true! I don’t know what is wrong with my father and I did not attack anyone!” Alec swore.

“Let’s see then. It appears I came across you while you were attempting to enter the chamber. I guess we’d have to duel then mysteriously you’ll lose you mind,” Lockhart murmured his plan out loud.

“You think anyone will buy that story? I’m not crazy and you can’t make me no matter what spell you use.” Alec didn’t know of any spells that could make someone go crazy and hoped that if there were any, then that Lockhart wouldn’t know how to do it.

“That happens to be my specialty spell,” Lockhart said pompously.

“That’s how you did it,” the Ravenclaw said with sudden realization. “You wrote your books based on things that other people did and removed their memories afterwards.”

“Yes and I always got away with it. A simple Obliviate works wonders,” the defense professor replied haughtily. “You know boy, that you remind me of someone.” He thought for a minute. “Lily Evans! That’s who. She was a nice young girl. I taught her everything I knew.” Alec snorted. Like he could teach anyone anything useful. “The only son she had though was Harry Potter, who I was really looking forward to meeting this year. What a shame he’s not here this year.”

Alec had paled dramatically at his last statement and reached his hand up to flatten his hair over his partially concealed scar but stopped it midway as Lockhart pointed his wand at him again. He knew his scar was hidden, but Sirius had seen through the disguise and hopefully Lockhart wouldn’t. The man wasn’t too bright but he then again, he did manage to get away with stealing other people’s heroic stories.

Lockhart stepped closer to him. He looked intently at Alec’s forehead. He knew he shouldn’t have lifted his hand because now Lockhart was looking intently at him.

“Oh Merlin!” he exclaimed. “You are him! Harry Potter!” Alec winced.

“I’ve got it,” Lockhart mumbled. “Instead of that Snape boy opening the chamber, Harry Potter and I managed to find the chamber together. Yes, that sounds good. We will make the front page for sure with this story!” he said excitedly. “Now to take care of that bit of information you found out earlier. Obliviate!”

Alec ducked as the spell came towards him and pulled out his wand. The spell hit the mirror, ricocheted off it and was now heading back towards Lockhart. The man was too stumped to move and the spell hit him. It knocked him backwards and into the wall.

Alec didn’t move, waiting to see if Lockhart would rise. The man groaned and Alec prepared to use his wand if necessary. He didn’t want to get in trouble for hexing a teacher but he didn’t want to lose his memories either.

Lockhart looked up. “Hullo. Who are you? What’re we doin’ in a bathroom?” he slurred and looked around dazedly.

The Ravenclaw smirked. It served the git right to lose his memory. “Stupefy.” Lockhart fell unconscious since Alec didn’t want him to run off anytime soon before he could explain to someone what happened.

Alec turned back to the chamber entrance. He didn’t know what he would do if the school closed. His father was in the hospital wing. The Headmaster had been kicked out of the school and he didn’t have any family left. He felt incredibly alone and this feeling caused him to take a deep breath before jumping down the hole.

He slid through the disgusting hole and finally landed at the bottom. He mumbled a quick cleaning charm to remove the grime from his clothes and stumbled forward. Looking down the boy noticed all the bones scattered throughout the chamber. There was even an incredibly large decaying snake skin on the ground.

Alec carefully walked forward until he reached a stone round door. “Open,” the boy hissed. The door slid open and he entered the chamber. There were large snake statues along the edge and a large statue directly in front of him of Salazar Slytherin. On the floor near Slytherin’s statue was a girl. He walked quickly towards her and dropped to his knees and checked for a pulse. It was very faint.

“Enervate,” the Ravenclaw tried unsuccessfully to wake her up.

“She won’t wake,” came a voice to his left. Alec jumped up and spun towards the voice with his wand in his hand.

“Who are you?” Alec demanded as he stood guard over the girl’s unconscious body.

“Tom Riddle and you are?” the tall black-haired boy responded.

“None of your business,” Alec snapped. “How did she end up like this?”

“Well, that’s an interesting question,” said Riddle pleasantly. “And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason she is like this is because she opened her heart to me and told me all of her secrets.”

“What do you mean?” Alec asked slowly.

“The diary,” Riddle pointed to the small black book off to the side that he hadn’t seen until now. “My diary. She’s been writing in it for months now. Telling me about her struggle to fit in here as a filthy little Mudblood. It was quite annoying at times to have to listen to her complain on and on. But I still wrote back and encouraged her to do well since that was what she strived for. She didn’t have any friends so I was perfect for her. I kept her company and listened to her ramble on and on about school assignments.

“I was sympathetic, I was kind. No one’s ever understood me like you, Tom… I’m so glad I’ve got this diary to confide in…It’s like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket…” Riddle then laughed a high, cold laugh that didn’t suit him. It made the hairs on the back of Alec’s neck stand up.

“It didn’t take long before I was able to grow stronger on a diet of her strongest fears, her deepest secrets. I grew powerful, more so then this Mudblood. Powerful enough to start feeding her a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her…”

“What do you mean?” Alec demanded.

“Haven’t you guessed it yet boy? She opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters. She left the messages on the walls and she sent the Serpent of Slytherin on Mudbloods just like herself, and the Squib’s cat too.”

“What?” Alec asked. “That’s not possible. Why would she do that?”

“She didn’t know she was doing it of course,” Riddle said. “She had no memory of those incidents. I’ve come back now to finish Salazar Slytherin’s noble work.”

“You won’t be able to. No one has died yet and the student’s that were petrified will be better in a couple of days as soon as the Mandrakes are ready.” Alec declared.

“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Riddle stated. “Soon I will have gained the full use of a body and I will become the most powerful sorcerer in the world!”

“No you won’t! Albus Dumbledore is still the greatest wizard of our time. You- you’re 16 years old! How do you think you will be able to defeat him?”

“You haven’t figured it out yet have you? I may have the body of a 16-year-old but I am Lord Voldemort and I will destroy Dumbledore!” Riddle spat.

Music suddenly sounded from somewhere. Both looked around until they spotted the crimson colored Fawkes flying towards them. He dropped a hat at Alec’s feet and landed on Alec’s shoulder.

Riddle laughed. “You were sent an old sorting hat and a song bird. Do you think you can defeat me or the Serpent of Slytherin? Let’s find out.” Riddle spun on his heel towards the statue of Salazar.

“Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four.” The stone face immediately began moving until a giant black hole opened. Something stirred from within the dark opening.

Alec grabbed the brown-haired girl and pulled her back to the edge of the chamber. The Ravenclaw was mentally going over every spell he knew, desperately trying to figure out what he could use on a full-grown Basilisk. The only thing he remembered was that the Rooster’s crow was fatal to a Basilisk. Where was a rooster when you needed one?!

“Kill him!” Riddle commanded the giant snake. The sound of Fawkes flying through the air gave Alec some hope. He wasn’t alone and hoped that the phoenix would be able to do something to help. Alec couldn’t help but peek open his eyes and glance towards the snake. Fawkes was attacking its eyes. The crimson bird was successful in blinding the beast which at least allowed him to look at the Basilisk without dying.

“LEAVE THE BIRD! GET THE BOY!! KILL HIM!!” Riddle shouted angrily.

Alec ran away from the oncoming serpent and grabbed the sorting hat as soon as he reached it. He jammed it on his head and continued to run quietly away from the blinded serpent. It could still hear his footsteps so he tried to stay as silent as possible.

‘I need something to help me!’ Alec thought frantically. The hat heard his silent call and something hard was deposited on his head. He ripped off the hat and quickly reached in and pulled the item out. It was a long silver sword.

He turned towards the snake that came closer to him. There wasn’t much space to move since he was against the wall. Alec stood in a defensive fighting mode as the snake opened its mouth, revealing many sharp fangs and bit blindly towards him. He jumped to the side, causing the snake’s mouth to snap closed on empty space. The snake tired to bite him again and he slashed the sword at it, barely nicking it. The Basilisk hide was very strong and even if he managed to hit it, it would hardly affect the creature. He had to aim for the inside of the mouth.

The next moment when the snake struck, he leaned forward and jammed the sword through the roof of its mouth. It began to make horrible shrieking hisses as it swayed around, finally falling down dead.

Alec then noticed the immense pain that he felt in his arm. He looked down at it and noticed one of the Basilisk’s fangs that had managed to bite him. He suddenly felt woozy and dizzily walked away from the dead carcass.

Riddle was scowling when Alec looked at him but once he caught sight of the tooth in Alec’s hand and the boy’s bleeding arm, he smiled viscously.

“You’re dead boy. That fang is poisonous and it won’t be long before you die.”

Alec slumped to the ground, no longer able to stand any further. On a sudden impulse, Alec stabbed the diary lying at his feet with the fang. Riddle shrieked and it appeared that he started to dissolve around the edges. Alec open the book, determined to take Riddle down with him if he was going to die down here. He stabbed the book several more times and watched as ink poured from the pages like blood. Riddle continued to wail until he finally disappeared completely.

A gasp was heard from the girl as she sat up and looked around. She saw Alec clutching his arm and rushed over to him.

“W-who are you?” she whispered.

“Alec Snape,” he replied tiredly. Fawkes then flew over towards them and landed next to him. “Please tell my dad-” Alec began weakly but stopped once Fawkes began crying on his wound.

“Tell him what?” she asked.

“Never mind. I guess I’ll live to tell him myself,” Alec muttered as he flexed his newly healed arm. “I’m sorry, but what is your name?”

“Hermione Granger. How’d you end up down here?” Hermione asked.

“Well that’s a story you can hear when I explain it to others. Let’s get out of here.”

Alec grabbed the diary, sorting hat and sword before they exited the chamber. They walked in silence until they reached the tunnel upwards.

“How are we going to get up there?” Hermione asked.

“I don’t know,” Alec replied before he suddenly turned to Fawkes, who had been flying beside them.

“Can you give us a lift?” The Ravenclaw said unsurely, hoping the phoenix would understand him. Fawkes trilled a soft note and fluttered in front of them.

“Could you hold this for me?” he gently handed her the sword and then stuffed the diary and hat into his robe pockets. “Now grab my hand.” Hermione did so and held on tightly as they were lifted in the air curtsey of Fawkes. They finally reached the top of the tunnel and the entrance of the chamber.

“Thanks Fawkes,” Alec said as he stroked the soft feathers. The bird landed on his shoulder and stayed there until they reached the headmaster’s office. The stone entrance was already open so they both walked up it and knocked on the door.

Alec slowly pushed open the door after hearing the enter command from Headmaster Dumbledore. He wasn’t too sure why the man was back but it wouldn’t be long before he knew why. There were several adults sitting around the room, all staring at the two students in shock. Alec looked around the room and stopped his stunned gaze on one person in particular.

“Dad…?”