Cassius watched Harry and Ron retreat back through the serpent gate—beaten, exhausted, and too overwhelmed to argue further.
They never noticed the faint glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes.
Only when the echoes of their footsteps finally faded did the chamber settle back into silence.
Daphne wrung out the cloth she'd been using on Ginny's forehead.
"Her pulse is steady. She'll be fine once we get her to the hospital wing."
Cho nodded, brushing a strand of hair from the unconscious girl's face.
"She looks pale… but it doesn't feel like a curse. More like magical exhaustion."
Cassius hummed.
They were correct.
The diary's grip had been severed the moment Ginny collapsed.
The protocol he'd triggered had forced the artifact to overexert itself, leaving Ginny drained—but alive.
A clean break.
He knelt beside her, laying a hand gently against her cheek.
The girl stirred faintly, murmuring something incoherent.
"She'll recover quickly," Cassius confirmed.
Daphne stood, straightening her robes. "Then let us take her now."
Cassius didn't move.
Both girls noticed immediately.
Cho hesitated. "Cassius…?"
His gaze slid past them, toward the base of Slytherin's statue.
Toward the cocoon-like mass of pale green and white—glistening faintly as if something pulsed deep within.
"I'm not leaving yet," he said quietly.
Cho and Daphne exchanged a look—concerned but trusting.
"You should take Ginny," Cassius continued, rising smoothly to his feet. "She'll be safest in the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey knows how to treat magical drain."
"And you?" Daphne asked.
He turned back toward the statue, shadows curling around his figure in the dim emerald light.
"There's something here I need to… address."
Cho bit her lip. "You mean the thing in that… cocoon?"
Cassius only tilted his head as if to may perhaps.
Daphne's eyes narrowed. "Is it dangerous?"
"Probably," he said honestly.
Then, with a faint curl of a smile: "But not to me."
Daphne exhaled slowly, then nodded. "Very well."
The two girls exchanged another quiet glance, then set to work.
They conjured a levitating stretcher beneath Ginny, securing her carefully.
A soft glow enveloped the unconscious girl as Cho murmured a stabilizing charm.
Cassius stepped back, watching them rise into the air on their brooms with Ginny between them suspended on a simply fabric stretcher.
Their silhouettes looked strangely graceful in the cavernous chamber, lit by green firelight.
Just before they departed, Daphne turned one last time.
"If something goes wrong," she said, "call for us."
Cassius's lips twitched. "No need to worry about that."
The serpent gate was open thanks to Harry and Ron's entrance and the pair zipped out of the chamber quickly rising up through the open fissure disappearing into the night sky once more.
Cassius exhaled—finally alone.
Or that's how his stalker wanted him to think.
The chamber's stillness pressed in from all sides, the ancient air tinged with cold magic and dust and something older.
~
The moment Cassius reached the foot of Slytherin's statue once more where Ginny had previously lain prone, a faint rustle echoed behind him—paper sliding against stone.
He didn't turn.
For he knew the script, the sound was the pages of the diary rustling as the book itself had thrown itself open and was flipping through the pages until a specific one was reached.
Cracking open.
Bleeding ink.
Cassius smirked faintly.
Right on cue.
A burst of shadow spilled out—inky black smoke coiling upward like serpents made of darkness.
Then the smoke sharpened.
Shaped.
Formed.
Until a tall, thin figure emerged from the swirling ink—half-transparent, half-real, a ghostly projection anchored to the book.
Tom Marvolo Riddle.
Or at least the imprint of him.
The one Cassius created based on his memories of how Tom looked from the movie at this moment in time.
His face sharpened into existence, handsome but cold, eyes gleaming with malice as he surveyed the chamber.
When his gaze found Cassius, it flickered—first in confusion, then recognition.
"…You."
Cassius folded his arms. "A pleasure."
Riddle's expression soured.
"You're not him... Where is Harry Potter."
Riddle took a step forward, the illusion solidifying with each moment.
"The boy i so longed to meet and he can't be bothered to show up."
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Cassius replied.
Riddle's eyes narrowed. "Seems your an ignorant one as well, very well my name is Tom Marvelo Riddle."
Cassius tilted his head. "Are you a ghost?"
His form grew sharper, more defined—magic siphoning from the diary to fuel his manifestation.
"A memory, preserved in a diary for fifty years"
Cassius took a single step forward.
"You've got to help me tom, there's a monster."
"It wont come until it's called." Tom cut in, interrupted Cassius.
"Besides why should i help when the one i need to defeat is before me now."
"What?" Cassius stated stumbling back a few paces raising his wand up in defence.
"You robbed me of my vessel, it was Ginny who opened the chamber of secrets, ginny who wrote the threatening messages on the wall, she was in a sort of trance you might say, you'll find i can be very persuasive." Tom continued to monologue "Set the basilisk on the mudbloods and filch's cat. Not that she knew what she was doing of course simple minded as she is. She was supposed to lead Potter down here though, and now i find not only is she not here, but she failed to get potter here as well."
"Why do you care so much about potter? What are you in love?" Cassius taunted.
Causing Riddle to sneer before turning round and using a wand in hand to write letters in the air as if scaring the very space itself, with his full name written out before doing a swishing motion causing them to rearrange, into the sentence: "I am Lord Voldemort."
"You... you're the heir of Sytherin? You're Voldemort?" Cassius questioned, already knowing the answer but continuing the act for their audience.
"Surely you didn't think i'd keep my filthy muggle father's name, No... instead i fashioned myself a new name, one that wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak when i became the greatest sorceror in the world."
"heh. Greatest, dont kid me you couldnt even assassinate a baby, the only greatest you are, is the greatest joke."
Riddle hissed and lunged—dark bolts of cursed energy streaking across the chamber.
Cassius raised a shield—smooth, practiced, effortless.
The spells shattered against it like glass.
Riddle's face contorted.
Cassius was already moving.
A twist of his wrist sent arcs of silver magic slicing through the air—detonating with precise force. Riddle's half-formed body wavered, flickering violently.
Riddle snarled and retaliated, shadows weaving into serpents that snapped and coiled.
Cassius didn't flinch.
With a silent incantation, he struck—hard—aiming directly at the diary.
Riddle's eyes widened. "No—DON'T—"
The spell hit the book dead-center.
Ink exploded outward.
The projection screamed—high, distorted—as cracks of white light shredded through his form.
Then—
Silence.
The diary fell to the stone floor with a soft thud.
Burned.
Empty.
Dead.
Cassius exhaled slowly, the faint echo of magic dissipating around him.
Then acting as if he had only finally noticed the other presence, he on high alert turned to the other.
A presence watching having lingered in the shadows for minutes watching everything that happened.
knowing he'd been discovered the figure removed the cloak hiding them.
Harry stood near the entrance of the Chamber, eyes wide, frozen in shock.
He must've doubled back after dragging Ronald away.
And he had witnessed everything, seen the man who'd caused his grand parents deaths, who'd tried to kill him, only to be destroyed by another.
Harry swallowed hard.
"…What did you do?"
Cassius didn't look away.
"Exactly what was necessary."