꧁☬⋆ᴺᴼ ᴼᴺᴱ'ˢ ᴾᴼᵛ⋆☬꧂

Ron slides silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside Harry, while Harry felt his heart drop hearing Y/N names.

'I should have gone with her and got her to her dorm safely; I am such a failure', Harry thought.

"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said..."

The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harry was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.

"So sorry - dozed off - what have I missed?"

He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

"Just the man," he said. "The very man. Two girls have been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last." Though he wants to save Y/N only, only her by his hand while the Weasley can be saved by Lockhart.

Lockhart blanched.

"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

"I - well, I -"sputtered Lockhart.

"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.

"D-did I? I don't recall--" by Lockhart.

"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled and that you should have been given free rein from the first?"

Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.

"I - I really never - you may have misunderstood--"

"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. First, we'll first, we'll make sure everyone's out of your way. Then, you'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."

Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.

"However..."

"Huh?"

"Some specialist will be taking care of Y/N; you can go save the Weasley girl," Snape said.

"V-very well," he said. "I'll - I'll be in my office, getting - getting ready." And he left the room.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories. And call the aurors for help."

The teachers rose and left, one by one.

It was probably the worst day of Harry's entire life. He, Ron, Fred, and George sat together in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr and Mrs Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.

"Y/N..."

"They knew something, Harry," said Ron, speaking for the first time since they had entered the wardrobe in the staff room. "That's why they were taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all., She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was -" Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was pure-blood. There can't be any other reason. But I think with Y/N, and maybe she was also taken because she saw them took Ginny, and they got no choice but to take her as well."

Harry could see the sun sinking, blood-red, below the skyline. This was the worst he had ever felt. If only there were something they could do. Anything.

"Harry," said Ron. "D'you think there's any chance at all she's not - you know--"

Harry didn't know what to say. He couldn't see how Ginny could still be alive.

"D'you know what?" said Ron. "I think we should go and see Lockhart. Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is and tell him it's a basilisk in there."

Because Harry couldn't think of anything else to do, he agreed because he wanted to be doing something. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable and felt so sorry for the Weasleys that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole.

Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps.

Harry knocked, and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack, and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.

"Oh - Mr Potter - Mr Weasley -" he said, opening the door a bit wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment -if you would be quick--"

"Professor, we've got some information for you," said Harry. "We think it'll help you."

"Er - well - it's not terribly -" The side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean - well - all right--" He opened the door, and they entered.

His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade-green, lilac, midnight blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.

"Are you going somewhere?" said Harry.

"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call - unavoidable - got to go--"

"What about my sister? What about Y/N?" said Ron jerkily.

"Well, as to that - most unfortunate -" said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I--"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Harry. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"

"Well - I must say - when I took the job -" Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "nothing in the job description - didn't expect--"

"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books--"

"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You wrote them!" Harry shouted.

"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Harry. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a harelip. I mean, come on--"

"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" said Harry incredulously.

"Y/N and Knight were right all along, and you are a fraud." Ron glared.

"Harry, Harry," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, and you have to be prepared for a long hard slog." He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.

"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left." He pulled out his wand and turned to them.

"Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. I can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book--"

Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his when Harry bellowed, " Expelliarmus!" Lockhart was blasted backwards, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it and flung it out of the open window.

"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," said Harry furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, feeble once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him.

"What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."

"You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."

꧁☬༒ᵞᴼᵁᴿ ᴾᴼᵛ༒☬꧂

"Y/N..."

"Tom..."

Tom and I point our wand on each others neck as we stand in front of each other, glaring at him while he gives me a soft look in his eyes.

"You betrayed me, my dear moonlight... why..." whispered Tom.

"I loved... and I loved then I lost you... and it hurts like hell... seeing you changed for immortality." Tears flow down my cheeks.

"I have loved then I lost you... and it hurts; I have no idea why. MY HEARTACHE knowing that you betrayed me even though I DID THIS ALL FOR YOU, FOR US TO BE TOGETHER FOREVER." He yelled as he gripped his chest.

"BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO KILL PEOPLE, TOM!"

"I can't help love you even though I tried not to... I can't help but want you, and I know that I'd die without you. I... was trying my best to ignore you and not fall in love. But, FEELING THE LOVE, I KNOW I AM A CHILD OF A LOVE POTION BUT YOU." He grits his teeth as his grip on his wand tighten.

"YOU MADE ME FEEL IT EVEN THOUGH I SHOULD NOT FEEL IT, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?! THIS IS YOUR FAULT, BUT THEN YOU DECIDED TO BETRAY AND LEAVE ME!?" he cast a spell, and I dodge it but making a shield spell.

"I DID NOT LEAVE YOU NOR BETREYAD YOU TOM, all I wanted is the old Tom to come back.. the old Tom who would wait in the same place where we met every night. The old Tom who gives me a warm welcome." I sob as I tried to protect myself from his spells.

"But you still chose to do it."

"Tom, we can go back from before, and I'll find a way instead, and both of us would stay happily and together." I pled.

I can not lie, but I did love him not until he began killing innocent people for power; I do not feel any sympathy for the people who have died due to the feeling that it seems like i did the same thing in the past.

However...

Seeing him change just because of me, wanting immortality not him even knowing I am not from his timeline. I can not take it anymore, he deserves someone else.

"Go back?! Y/N, it is too late to go back." he smirked but his expression was in pain, "I have to kill the child who is in the prophecy who will kill me." said Tom.

"IT'S JUST A CHILD! WHY ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF A MERE CHILD." I shouted as I hit him with an attack spell.

"Because that child will end me, and will stop me from all this masterpiece I have already created."

Stop him... from all the masterpiece he has created?

The story that uncle Hagrid said...

"I heard that child won't be just any child, it's a child with marvellous magic. No one knows if that child is a witch, wizard or even a human at all."

The child... is me...

"And... and that child is either reincarnation of someone diety..."

He stared at me "And knowing that I have to kill you even makes me believe that, the child is you.. Y/N." he said.

"Tom..." I whispered.

"I'm... sorry."

"Avada kedavra!" He shouted as he directly pointed his wand at me. I felt my body drop to the ground.

I know I can't die since I am not even from this reality... I think...

I just let my body there on the ground and not moving, pretending to be dead.

I heard him getting closer to me; as he went closer, he was looking down at my body. Tears flowing down his cheeks with a cold face.

"I am no longer Tom Riddle... I am..."

I couldn't understand him anymore as I am losing my concussion, meaning I am waking up from reality.

I gasp from the air, I looked around and it was the .

"You're finally awake..."