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"Yes my boy! Now finish it while it is stunned!" The Sorting Hat said, as Harry ran forward and attempted to stab the sword into the head of the Basilisk.
The Basilisk however, had other plans, and opened its mouth, forcing Harry's momentum to carry him into one of its fangs.
Harry screamed in pain as the fang pierced all the way through his arm, and a burning sensation wracked his entire body.
"You've got no time Harry! Do it!" The Sorting Hat said.
Pooling all of his remaining strength, Harry stabbed the Sword of Gryffindor through the roof of the Basilisk's mouth, the tip poking out of the other side covered in unsightly goo.
"No! My creature!" Tom Riddle said, as he came over and attempted to pull the sword from the beast. He seemed unable to touch it though, as when he clasped his hand around it, it burned him. "No matter. Soon I will have a body again, and you will be dead to the Basilisk venom. I'll burn the hat for daring to oppose me, and begin my conquest of the world.
Harry weakly tried to punch Tom's form, only to realize that he had no corporeal form as his hand simply went through him. He was invincible.
Then Harry got an idea. Pooling what little strength remaining, Harry moved over to where the Diary lay next to Susan, and stabbed it with the Basilisk fang that had broken off in his arm. Inky black fluid began to pour from the pages as nightmarish screams erupted. Tom simply looked over to where Harry was and wordlessly screamed "No!" as he faded from existence.
Harry awarded himself a small smile at his pyrrhic victory, as he tried to shake Susan awake.
"Susan, come on. Wake up." Harry said weakly, his vision growing darker by the second.
"Mmm. Harry?" Susan said, as she started to come to. "You.. you saved me." she said blankly.
"Of course I did. I couldn't let anything happen to you." Harry said, as he lied down next to her body as she managed to pull herself to a sitting position. "I… don't think I'm making it though. Basilisk venom doesn't have a known cure… and It's been about thirty seconds. I don't think I've got long."
"Oh, Harry no! Stay with me." Susan cried, clutching his hand.
"Padma went to get help, they should be here before too long. You'll make it out okay." Harry said, as he started to close his eyes.
"No, you can't leave. Not yet." Susan said as she cried deeply into his chest.
A small chirping noise caught her attention, as a baby phoenix rose from the pile of ashes and feathers on the floor. "Miss Bones, quickly, grab Fawkes and bring him to Harry." The Sorting Hat said.
With no time to ask questions, Susan did as instructed and brought the baby bird to Harry's side, where it leaned over his arm and shed a few tears, filling the wound with the most potent magical healing poultice of all: Phoenix Tears.
Harry slowly felt warmth returning to his own body, not knowing he had lost it in the first place. Looking down, he saw Susan holding the small bird over his arm, and a smile cross her face when she saw him look.
"You're going to be okay Harry. We're both going to get out of here." Susan said, taking her hand and squeezing his.
"Harry! Susan! Can you hear me?" The voice of Padma came from one of the hallways.
"Yes Padma! We're here! Harry did it!" Susan said, her voice becoming weak. She had held out for while Harry needed her, but she was tired, and began to slump.
"Mr. Potter, Ms. Bones, oh I'm so glad you are alright." Filius Flitwick said as the pair of them entered the central chamber, he stared in shock for a moment at the large deceased snake taht was pinned under the rubble of a great statue, but reassessed his priorities. "Come Ms. Patil, we must get them to the hospital wing immediately. Levicorpus Duo" Flitwick incanted, as he lifted the two bodies from the ground magically. Harry could feel himself lift into the air shortly before falling unconscious.
Harry awoke to find himself once more in one of the beds in Madame Pomfrey's hospital wing, a sight he was quickly becoming both familiar and disgusted with. Not to say that Pomfrey kept the place anything short of immaculate, it was spotless and sanitized from floor to ceiling, but that sanitization gave it a maddening quality. It made the place seem almost inhospitable to life of all kinds, perhaps on purpose to discourage students from creating injuries and maladies to escape from class. Harry was stirred from his thoughts however, by a hand squeezing his.
"Are you awake Harry?" An accented voice asked, looking up, Harry saw Padma, a look of obvious concern, and simultaneous relief on her face.
"I think so. How long was I out?" Harry asked, aware that he had been unconscious. It wouldn't be the first time such a situation had left him missing gaps of time. He could only hope her perhaps missed an hour or so.
"About three days." Padma said. There went that hope out the window. Three days? That was longer than he had been in the hospital wing after his encounter last year with…
Voldemort. He had done this, or at least some shadow of his past self had. The man had cheated death, that much was certain last year, although Harry held on to the hope that perhaps he had managed to vanquish him for good in the room with that mirror. This shade though? The memory, locked in a diary? It didn't give him hope that Voldemort was gone. He could create something like that, something capable of controlling someone, nearly fifty years from it's creation. Something that had enough power to cast its own spells, and command the great Basilisk that Harry noticed had given him a scar on his arm. The shape was not unlike the fang of the snake itself, roughly triangular, and longer than it was wide.