Harry Potter 02 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

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 with mounting courage for Riddle to stop laughing.
    ‘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 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!’
    Riddle’s face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile.
    ‘So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that’s a powerful counter-charm. I can see now – there is nothing special about you, after all. I wondered, you see. Because there are strange likenesses between us, Harry Potter. 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 Riddle 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.
    Slytherin’s gigantic stone face was moving. Horror-struck, Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black hole.
    And something was stirring inside the statue’s mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.
    Harry backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall, and as he shut his eyes tight he felt Fawkes’s wing sweep his cheek as he took flight. Harry wanted to shout, ‘Don’t leave me!’ but what chance did a phoenix have against the king of serpents?
    Something huge hit the stone floor of the chamber, Harry felt it shudder. He knew what was happening, he could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin’s mouth. Then he heard Riddle’s hissing voice: ‘Kill him.’
    The basilisk was moving towards Harry, he could hear its heavy body slithering ponderously across the dusty floor. Eyes still tightly shut, Harry began to run blindly sideways, his hands outstretched, feeling his way. Riddle was laughing …
    Harry tripped. He fell hard onto the stone and tasted blood. The serpent was barely feet from him, he could hear it coming.
    There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above him and then something heavy hit Harry so hard that he was smashed against the wall. Waiting for fangs to sink through his body he heard more mad hissing, something thrashing wildly off the pillars.
    He couldn’t help it. He opened his eyes wide enough to squint at what was going on.
    The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. As Harry trembled,