Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Chapter 17 The Heir of Slytherin

Harry reaches the Chamber to find Ginny unconscious and Riddle there, looking strangely blurry. Tom Riddle reveals that he is the Heir of Slytherin, that he made Ginny do his bidding through the diary and that he is Voldemort as a young man. Fawkes helps Harry by plucking the basilisk's eye as it tries to attack Harry. Harry pulls a sword out of the Sorting Hat and defeats the basilisk with it. He also destroys the diary with a basilisk fang. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Lockhart are carried by Fawkes out of Chamber of Secrets.

"Ginny!" Harry muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees. "Ginny -- don't be dead -- please don't be dead --" He flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over.

OH NO HARRY POTTER. Keep that wand with you!

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him.

If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed.
Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student...

Yes! This is exactly how I pictured Tom Riddle. He was sly and sneaky on the inside but on the outside he seemed innocent and wonderfully charming. I think the actor for Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets movie did a fantastic job but I greatly disliked the actor's performance in Half-Blood Prince.

Instead, the hat contracted, as though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly. Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head, almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed the top of the hat to pull it off and felt something long and hard beneath it. A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.

Imagine if the sword fell the other way. We would no longer have Harry Potter, hmhm.

How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand. 

I can just imagine Ron's great confusion and awe at this moment.

While this chapter had a lot of dialogue I still found myself feeling tense as I read it. I was surprised since it's such an info-dump but it was kind of interesting to read these little snippets of information spoken by Riddle that will become important later on.