Handsome Guys Can't Be Trusted
"You've improved?" Mark asked, looking at Lockhart with little interest. "Then show me."
Mark closed one hand around one of the vials and, before anyone could react, he'd already thrown it directly at Lockhart's face.
The professor, noticing it, quickly moved his wand.
"Reducto!"
The vial exploded into pieces, but at that same instant, whatever had been inside was sent flying toward Lockhart. A green, slime-like liquid shot toward him, threatening to cover him.
"Diffindo!" Lockhart reacted in time, cutting the liquid in half and making it splash only to his sides.
He merely gave it a disgusted look before looking back at Mark.
"Pff, that's what the supposed descendant of Merlin is capable of? Throwing snot?" Lockhart mocked him arrogantly. "You still need to fill your pockets with vials to pretend you're a wizard. I remember you always used to say that once the magical world discovered who you were, you'd be treated like its king," he added disdainfully.
"You're still as arrogant as ever. Just because you never saw me using magic, you think I can't use it?" Mark said calmly as he looked at the different vials between his fingers.
Lockhart frowned for a moment, but immediately shook his head, not believing Mark's words.
"Stupefy!" he shouted at once.
Mark barely moved, simply shifting his body aside as the spell passed beside his shoulder and exploded against the wall behind him.
But Lockhart had already moved his wand again.
"Confringo!"
Mark didn't stay still either. The moment he saw the reddish flash flying toward him, he slipped his hand inside his sleeve, pulled out another vial filled with a white liquid, and without hesitation threw it toward the spell flying at him with incredible precision.
The instant the spell and vial made contact, an explosion erupted, but instead of an explosion of flames, it was an explosion of white foam that spread throughout the corridor, even covering Ron and Hermione.
Hermione touched the foam and looked confused for a moment, since it felt a lot like that fire-retardant foam, but normally there was no way that much could fit inside such a small vial.
Lockhart, meanwhile, frowned, unable to understand why his Confringo hadn't exploded, but immediately raised his wand again to cast his next spell.
But the moment he did, he realized that a vial filled with reddish liquid was already flying directly toward his face.
BOOM!
…
Harry and Percy walked through the enormous door, entering a massive, barely lit chamber. Towering stone columns carved with intertwined serpents rose to support a ceiling that disappeared into the darkness.
Both of them walked carefully between the columns, fully on guard and ready to close their eyes at any strange movement from the shadows, with Harry's wand lighting the way.
It seemed as if the snakes carved into the columns were watching them as they walked between them, making the atmosphere feel more and more ominous and sinister.
For a moment, Percy stopped and looked toward the ceiling with a confused expression.
"What is it?" Harry asked, on guard, knowing that since Percy had better senses, he might have picked up on something.
"No, I just thought I heard an explosion in the distance," Percy said, deciding it wasn't worth worrying about before focusing his senses back on their surroundings.
Harry raised an eyebrow at his words, but it was still better to stay prepared in case the basilisk appeared in front of them at any moment and, above all, to try to find Tyson.
When they reached the final pair of columns, both of them stopped, because in front of them stood an enormous statue almost as tall as the Chamber itself, rising imposingly against the far wall.
The statue carved into the rock looked quite ancient. Its face seemed to belong to a sinister old man with a beard that reached almost all the way down his wizard robes.
For a moment, Harry stared at that face, which for some reason looked really familiar to him, making him frown.
But Percy, who had been looking around, suddenly interrupted his thoughts.
"Harry, look," he said, pointing toward the enormous feet of the statue, where two people could be seen lying on the floor. One wore dark robes and had striking reddish hair, while the other was much larger.
One of them was obviously Tyson.
But the other one...
"Ginny?" Harry said, recognizing the smaller figure as his friend Ron's sister, the youngest of the Weasleys.
Percy and Harry ran toward them.
"Please don't be dead, please," Percy said as soon as he reached Tyson and put his hand near his nose to feel if he was still breathing.
Harry did the same with Ginny.
When they felt that both of them were still breathing, although weakly, Harry and Percy let out a sigh of relief.
"Tyson, wake up, hey," Percy said as he tried to shake the Cyclops, but Tyson, pale as snow just like Ginny, had his eyes tightly shut and wasn't moving a single muscle. His body simply moved with Percy's shaking without showing any reaction.
"You finally made it," a soft voice said.
The brothers jumped upright and, instantly, Harry raised his wand, ready to cast a spell, while Percy raised his sword, both pointing toward where the voice had come from.
There, leaning against one of the columns, was a tall, black-haired young man looking at them. The strangest thing was that his outline was blurry, as if he were being seen through fogged-up glass, but neither of them had any doubt who it was.
"You're Tom Riddle?" Harry asked cautiously, while Percy became even more guarded at seeing that guy there.
Riddle slowly nodded, calmly, without taking his eyes off them.
"What do you mean, 'you finally made it'?" Percy asked with a frown. If this guy already seemed suspicious before, now he seemed even more suspicious than ever.
"That I was waiting for you, obviously. Although, to be honest, I expected you to take a little longer," Riddle answered.
Harry stared at him for a second and immediately opened his mouth.
"We'd better get Ginny and Tyson out of here before the basilisk attacks us. We'll have time to talk to Riddle later," Harry said to his brother.
Although for a brief moment, the two exchanged a look only they understood.
Harry moved closer to Ginny and Tyson, preparing to cast something to carry them both. Percy, meanwhile, kept looking at Tom.
"Are you some kind of ghost or something?" he asked.
"I'm a memory," Riddle answered calmly. "From fifty years ago, living inside that diary," Tom said as he pointed toward the same diary that had been stolen from Harry's room not long ago and was now lying not far from Tyson and Ginny, near the fingers of the gigantic statue.
"Aren't you going to help him?" Tom asked, seeing Percy still standing there staring at him instead of helping Harry carry Tyson and Ginny out of there.
"Harry doesn't need help. He's a really good wizard. He can easily handle carrying two unconscious people," Percy answered confidently. "Now, do you know why Tyson and Ginny ended up like this?" Percy asked without missing a beat.
"Well, yes. The girl ended up like this because she opened her heart to an ancient magical object she shouldn't have even gone near. Surely her parents never taught her that some objects can feed on your life force to become stronger. Fears, jealousy, anger... an eleven-year-old girl has plenty to offer. Especially when she has someone she adores," Riddle said, shifting his gaze toward Harry with a hint of mockery.
Harry glanced toward Tom for a moment, but continued with what he was doing.
"And as for the other one, not many people get the chance to study a legendary creature like a Cyclops. Even more so when he can be used to lure in supposed demigods from myth, especially when they're two who went all the way to the Underworld and came back," Tom added as his smile widened, making surprise flash across Percy's face for a moment.
But that surprise didn't last long when, suddenly and out of nowhere, Percy moved his head to the side.
A crimson flash shot past him directly toward Tom, who briefly showed a hint of surprise before the spell passed straight through his blurry body.
An explosion erupted immediately afterward, shattering part of the column Tom had been leaning against.
Smoke covered the spot where the young man had been standing.
Meanwhile, Harry stood behind Percy with his wand in hand, pointing in Tom's direction.
"Looks like we were right after all, Percy. This guy was completely suspicious," Harry said with a serious expression, looking toward the cloud of dust that had risen, where Tom's silhouette could slowly be seen emerging through it.
"Told you. Handsome guys can't be trusted," Percy said disdainfully as he readied his sword to fight.