HARRY POTTER and the Chamber of Secrets Chapter Eighteen
Chapters 1-18
Chapter Eighteen
THE HEIR OF SLYTHERIN
Harry is standing in a large chamber. There is a strange green light in the chamber. Harry can see many stone pillars. There are stone serpents climbing the stone pillars. Harry is very scared. His heart is beating very fast. Where is the Basilisk? Where is Ginny?
Harry moves forward down the chamber. His wand is ready in his hand. Against the back wall of the chamber there is an enormous statue. Harry looks up at the giant face of the statue. The face has a long beard. The stone beard almost touches the floor. Harry can see the giant stone feet of the statue.
And there, between the feet, Harry sees someone. They are lying face down. Harry can see bright red hair. “Ginny!” yells Harry. He runs to her. “Ginny, please don’t be dead! Don’t be dead!” He throws his wand to the ground and turns Ginny over. Her face is as white as marble, and as cold. Her eyes are closed. She is not petrified! Then she must be…
“Ginny, please wake up,” says Harry. He shakes her. She does not move. “She won’t wake up,” says a quiet voice. Harry jumps with surprise. He looks up. There is a tall boy with black hair. There is something very strange about the boy. He is blurry! But Harry recognizes him immediately. “Tom, Tom Riddle?” asks Harry.
Tom nods his head up and down, yes. He continues looking at Harry. “What do you mean she won’t wake up?” Harry says. “Is she… is she…?” “She’s still alive,” says Riddle. “But only barely.” Harry looks closely at him. Tom Riddle was at Hogwarts fifty years ago. But the boy in front of him is not older than sixteen.
“Are you a ghost?’ Harry says. “No, I’m not a ghost. I’m a memory,” says Riddle. “A memory preserved in a diary for fifty years.” He points his finger towards one of the statue’s toes. There, on the ground, is the diary Harry found in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. Harry wonders how it got here. But he remembers Ginny.
“Tom, you’ve got to help me,” Harry says, trying to pick up Ginny. “We have got to get her out of here. The Basilisk may come. I don’t know where it is. Please, help me…” Riddle does not move. Harry reaches for his wand, to have more light. But his wand is gone. He looks up. Riddle is holding Harry’s wand in his hand.
