— — — — — —
"Tom Riddle! If you've got any balls, put down that diary and fight me fair and square!"
Voldemort snarled, his face twisting with rage as he jabbed a finger at Tom. "Pathetic! Always my weakness… always! Can you do nothing else? I'm dueling you! Defeat me with your own magic if you dare!"
"Oh, Little Voldy, you're hilarious. Tell me, who was it that attacked Harry Potter as a baby and got killed instead?"
Tom's voice was quick, almost mocking, while the sound of something massive scraping closer echoed through the chamber. "And what right do you even have to challenge me now? You're just a shade, a scrap of soul clinging to a diary. Why should I waste my time on a shadow?"
"The real you—I'll deal with him when the day comes. But this copy of you? Your show is over."
"Crucio."
Voldemort's face twisted instantly, and he clutched his head, screaming in raw agony.
"Kill him! Kill him now! Use your eyes!"
The serpent that had been slithering unseen finally emerged from Salazar Slytherin's open mouth.
It wasn't just any serpent—it was the legendary Basilisk, the thousand-year-old King of Serpents itself. A XXXXX creature, nearly a hundred feet long and thicker than an oak, its emerald scales gleamed with an unnatural brilliance. Two swollen horns jutted from its broad, flat skull.
At Voldemort's order, the Basilisk hissed and flicked its tongue, its massive body weaving between the stone pillars as it lunged closer.
Tom kept one hand pressed firmly against the diary while raising the other, slow but unshakable.
"Cavea Fulminis!" (Lightning Cage)
The pillars shuddered violently before wrenching free of the ground. Sparks of lightning raced across them as they boxed the Basilisk in from all sides. Crackling paralysis surged through its massive body, locking the serpent in place—for now.
Voldemort, still writhing under the Cruciatus Curse, shrieked spell after spell at Tom.
Tom, with enormous wings of black and white light, caught Harry—who had his eyes closed tightly against the Basilisk's deadly gaze—and lifted him effortlessly into the air.
Tom chuckled. "You really went out of your way to remember that little detail? Not bad. You even knew not to look it in the eye. But relax, Harry—I brought you here knowing that already. We are safe now."
"...Professor Binns only finished lecturing about Herpo the Foul last week. My memory isn't that bad," Harry muttered, still cautious even as he cracked his eyes open. He stubbornly avoided looking at the Basilisk, which was still bound and writhing.
Every curse Voldemort flung either missed or shattered harmlessly against Tom's glowing wings. Even the ones that pierced through were instantly restored by Tom's overwhelming magic.
Voldemort, on the other hand, was fading fast.
"TOM RIDDLE… you won't end well," he rasped, his form already growing faint. Harry's wand slipped from his grasp.
"You've inherited everything I once had. You'll either hoard it without using it, or you'll dive into reckless experiments, pushing Dumbledore's patience to its limits."
"Hehe... Riddle, do you know why I wanted you to bring Harry Potter here? So he could witness it himself."
"So~ Kill him… Blame it all on me. That way no one will ever know what you've really taken."
His final words twisted into a vicious smile before he dissolved into a piercing scream. Then, his shadowy figure scattered into smoke and vanished.
It wasn't destruction—Cruciatus couldn't obliterate a soul fragment. He had simply abandoned the fight, retreating back into the diary to escape the pain.
Harry's expression darkened. He hadn't expected Voldemort to be that devious, dangling the lure of Slytherin's secrets right in front of Tom.
A naked trap. A scheme so blatant it didn't even try to hide itself. What exactly lay within Slytherin's legacy that Dumbledore could never accept?
Harry glanced uneasily at Tom's unreadable face.
"What, are you worried I'll kill you?" Tom tucked away the diary and smiled.
"Don't joke like that, Tom." Harry forced a laugh. His wand was gone; if Tom chose to kill him, the only choice left was how fast he died.
Not that the wand would've made a difference anyway.
"This isn't a joke." Tom shook his head, deadly serious. "Honestly, I'm a little tempted. You know Dumbledore isn't here today."
Harry felt his throat lock up. He couldn't even get a word out.
Boom!
The Basilisk finally broke free of the paralysis. With sheer brute force it shattered the stone pillars pinning it down. Its master had vanished, but its command remained. The monster rose up, towering high, before lashing its massive body like a whip straight at Tom.
Tom waved his wand, compressing the air under him into an invisible hammer. It smashed the Basilisk's jaw, hurling the serpent skyward with a bone-shaking crash.
The ceiling split apart with a thunderous crack. Tom seized the opening, dragging Harry through the gaping hole above.
A quick sweep of his surroundings told Tom where they'd surfaced. Tom set Harry down.
"This is the east side of the castle's understructure. Take the stairs up on your right, keep going that way, and you'll reach the Potions classroom. From there, you know what to do. Find Professor Snape—or any professor you come across."
Harry blinked. "What about you?"
"I'll draw the Basilisk out. We can't fight here."
Even as he spoke, the serpent's bulk was already writhing up through the opening. Tom shoved Harry back with a surge of force, launching him a safe distance away.
"Don't argue, Harry. If the Basilisk eats me, Hermione and Daphne will kill you for sure."
"Be careful, Tom!" Harry shouted one last time before sprinting in the direction Tom had given him.
"Finally got rid of him."
Tom let out a breath of relief. If Harry's protagonist halo flared up and he suddenly rushed in trying to steal the kill, the entire trial would've been ruined.
"Come on then, sweetheart. Chase me."
He taunted the Basilisk with a string of sharp curses to the head, darting back and forth as he lured it out of the castle.
The Sixth Trial wasn't actually difficult anymore. Against his current power, the Basilisk was no real threat—especially with its deadliest weapon, the Deadly gaze, already neutralized. Without its ultimate skill, the Basilisk was nothing more than a toothless old beast.
But Tom wasn't satisfied with simply clearing the Sixth Trial. He wanted two wins with one snake.
Tonight, he wouldn't just finish the Sixth Trial—he'd also claim the long-delayed Fifth, and walk away with the Order of Merlin.
Hogwarts was his stage. He would show everyone how Tom Riddle had risked everything to protect their school, forcing them to live under the weight of his "generosity."
Boom!
The castle's stone walls burst apart as Tom shot out at incredible speed.
The Basilisk thundered after him, hissing furiously. Its head was now covered with far more than two horns—dozens of swollen lumps marred its scaly skull.
Hearing its angry hissing, Tom—who could understand every word of Parseltongue—nearly laughed out loud.
The Basilisk's language was painfully simple. When it cursed, all it managed were things like "Bad! Rat! Stop! Hate!" To anyone else it would sound almost like whining.
But the wreckage it left behind, along with the sprays of venom that melted stone where they landed, proved otherwise. The Basilisk wasn't whining—it genuinely wanted him dead.
As for how Tom could suddenly speak Parseltongue—well, that went back to when he'd received the system reward 'Heart of Dark Magic' long ago. But he didn't reveal it; he saw no gain in doing so.
...
"Perfect. About time."
Drawing it further, Tom led the monster out onto the school's open grounds. He pressed two fingers to his lips and blew a sharp, piercing whistle.
With a thunderous beat of wings, Usaki soared up from the Forbidden Forest, unleashing a resonant dragon's roar.
The roar rolled like a shockwave, shaking the trees. Its pressure was so immense that even the creatures deep within the forest panicked. The sound carried far and wide—Gryffindor and Ravenclaw in their towers, Slytherin and Hufflepuff down in their common rooms—every house heard it clearly.
At this hour no student was asleep, and Gryffindors, blessed with the best vantage point, were first to notice.
"What the hell is that? It's massive!"
"Someone's fighting it! Something came out of the Forbidden Forest!"
"It's too far, too dark—I can't make it out. Anyone got their Quidditch Omnioculars?"
One finally pressed a brass telescope to the window. A jagged bolt of lightning tore through the clouds, lighting up the grounds below. His jaw dropped.
"It's a snake! A giant snake—Merlin's ass, I've never seen anything like it!"
And in the next flash of lightning: "It's Riddle! Riddle's fighting the giant snake!"
Chaos broke out. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students poured screaming from their common rooms. In the Slytherin dorms, Daphne recognized Usaki's dragon roar instantly and led half her house outside.
Only Hufflepuff remained mostly calm. The badgers were startled, of course, but after some muttering, most shrugged and stayed put. A handful went to check—but most stuck to their philosophy of doing absolutely nothing.
Meanwhile, Harry had found Professor McGonagall. He'd meant to get Snape, but Snape wasn't in his office, so he'd puffed and panted all the way up to the fourth floor instead.
When McGonagall heard the word "Basilisk," she nearly fainted on the spot. She smacked herself across the cheek to stay sharp.
"Rescue Riddle immediately!"
---
Crack! Crack!
Bolts of lightning rained down on the serpent, sparking across its enormous body. But the damage was pitiful.
The beast had survived for over a thousand years; its scales were tougher than a dragon skin. Even so, a few stray currents seeped into its flesh, slowing it down bit by bit.
Hovering in midair, Tom leveled his wand and unleashed a flurry of ten Sectumsempra curses, laced with a few ocular jinxes for good measure.
No scales were protecting the Basilisk's eyes. As expected, the blades of magic tore into them, leaving it thrashing blindly.
"Pestis Incendium!"
Fiendfyre flames erupted in a roaring ring around them, sealing boy and beast in a blazing arena. The moonlight tonight was pitifully dim—if he wanted a spotlight, he'd have to conjure it himself.
By now, students had gathered at the castle's central courtyard doors. Usaki landed in front of them, blocking the way.
"Stay inside! Stay inside!" McGonagall wheezed as she rushed to the front.
"It's dangerous out there. Not a single one of you is to move! Professors, with me!"
She flicked her wand. The armored knights decorating the hall creaked to life, stomping to the doorway to seal it off.
"Prefects, keep order!" Snape growled, already striding outside with a thunderous expression.
Boom!
A massive surge of energy struck the stone steps ahead of him.
"What's the meaning of this?" Snape snapped, whipping out his wand and eyeing Usaki warily. "Your master is out there fighting for his life—we're going to help him!"
Usaki's answer was to gather light into the telltale sphere of a Hyper Beam. One more step, and she'd fire.
"Professor, I think Usaki is following Tom's orders," Daphne cut in quickly. "He must want to handle the Basilisk on his own."
"Utter nonsense!" McGonagall raged. "That's a Basilisk—a XXXXX magical creature with a deadly gaze!"
Harry piped up timidly, "Professor, Tom knows a spell that lets him avoid looking into its eyes."
"That doesn't matter. Its fangs, its body, its venom—every part of that creature is lethal! Greengrass, can you command Usaki?"
The girl shook her head. "Sorry, Professor. She only listens to Tom."
McGonagall looked ready to hex the dragon out of her way when Tom's clear voice carried over the roar of the fire.
"Piertotum Locomotor!"
Inside the castle, suits of armor and stone statues stirred awake, marching toward the Animation Charm's caster.
At the headmaster's office on the seventh floor, the stone gargoyle guarding the door blinked its eyes open.
"At last! Someone actually remembered this spell—and of course it's that boy Riddle!"
"This time, I'll show him the strength of Hogwarts' greatest defender!"
The gargoyle didn't even bother guarding the entrance anymore. With a thunderous leap, it hurled straight through a stained-glass window, landing with earthshaking force in the courtyard below. Shards of glass and stone flew everywhere, yet the beastly statue stood unharmed.
"Woohoo! Riddle, lad, your favourite gargoyle has arrived!"
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