The three people walked through the Chamber, realizing they had to have been underground. After a while they saw a long thick layer of skin across the whole section they were in.

“This is something else.” Harry muttered.

“Yeah, it’s at least eight feet long, probably more.” Ron said, nervousness frosting his voice.

Harry nodded. He got why Ron was so nervous, and Harry felt the same way too. This wasn’t just “René Weasley”, “Rey”, or “The Girl Who Lived”. This was Ron’s family. This was their friend. They had to save her one way or the other. And if it was too late because their teacher was too scared to just do this then curse him. Curse whoever opened the Chamber in the first place.

Lockhart fainted and Ron and Harry jerked their heads over to look at him.

“He’s helpless, that one.” Ron muttered bending down. Harry nodded. Just as Harry nodded Lockhart snatched the wand out of Ron’s hand and chuckled.

“Helpless still am I? There’s one spell I’m gifted at. The memory charm. And you both are about to experience it. You both will have seemed to have lost your minds. I’ll return to the others and say tragically the girl was already long gone when we reached her and you two lost your minds at the sight of her. Say bye to your lives.” Lockhart said with a smirk. Harry gritted his teeth and felt the urge to just attack Lockhart. This wasn’t fair. “Obliviate!” Lockhart yelled, but having stolen Ron’s wand the spell backfired and sent Lockhart flying to the ceiling. He fell back down and an avalanche separated Ron and Lockhart from Harry.

“Are you alright over there Ron?” Harry asked urgently.

“Y-yeah I’m fine! Lockhart seemed to have taken the spell though.” Ron replied with a groan.

“This is a bizarre place. Do you live here?” Lockhart asked Ron.

“No.” Ron said with a face of disgust as he took a rock and hit Lockhart with it. “Anyway Harry, this is all on you. Good luck and please, please, please save her.”

“I’ll try my best.” Harry said and sighed before walking farther. He knew he had no choice but to save her now. Ron was depending on him. Renè was depending on him. He kept going until he reached a sort of vault thing. He spoke the same words he did to the sink and the door opened. He immediately saw who he was looking for. She was sprawled out on the ground looking completely lifeless.

“René!” Harry yelled as he ran over, the water splashing up his robes. When she didn’t respond, Harry’s heart dropped. Was he too late? He knelt down beside her and went to check if she was still alive. She was ice cold and-

“Well hello, Harry Potter.” Someone said as they stepped out of the shadows.

Harry looked over to see none other than the boy he saw from the encounter in the diary. Tom Riddle. “Is she still alive? You got to help her!” Harry said urgently.

Riddle laughed coldly and shook his head. “Just barely. And if I help her then I’m killing myself. So I’ll pass.” He said with a smirk.

“Are you alive?” Harry asked.

“No, I’m merely a memory. But soon I will be. With the help of this girl. Soon she will be dead and I will be very much so alive. All those kids that were attacked, all the messages that were on the walls, all the things that were suspicious. That was all this girl. Through the works of my diary. She wrote all about how everything was wrong and I would always write back. I wouldn’t just write back, though. I would make her do my dirty work. But soon enough she caught on and tried to dispose of the diary, but she failed. Then none other than you stumbled across it. I knew at that moment I was giving up on the Mudbloods and going on to you. I wondered how a boy so young could defeat a powerful wizard. And how he could escape with nothing but a scar. So I thought of how I would lure you in. When the girl stole the diary back I knew from that moment my plan. I made her write her farewell and then had her come down here. I knew you and your little friend would come running to save the day. And here we are now.” Riddle explained, pacing. “And now I am going to let you join your girlfriend here. You can die holding hands for all I care. And you won’t have the help from Dumbledore either.”

“Why do you even care about how I survived Voldemort? He was after your time.” Harry said after a few minutes of silence.

“Dear boy, Voldemort has every little thing to do with me. Voldemort is my past, present, and future.” Riddle said as he took Harry’s wand swiftly and wrote “Tom Marvalo Riddle”. The letters rearranged themselves to spell “I am Lord Voldemort”. Harry gasps.

“I had to get rid of my filthy muggle father’s name. Now you have no defenses and no help. Let’s see how well Harry Potter will actually stand against the Dark Lord, Heir of Slytherin, Tom Riddle.” Riddle said as he started speaking snake to the wall of stone, that resembled Salazar Slytherin. At that moment Fawkes, the phoenix, swopped in along with the sorting hat. He dropped the hat in front of Harry before circling the ceiling.

“Help will always be given to those at Hogwarts who remain loyal.” Harry muttered quietly.

Just then the huge snake was let out. Harry knew all he could do was not look it in the eyes and hope not to get bitten. This was the start of a fight and he was going to see the end of it. And he was going to save René. No matter what it took.