The Slytherin Potter

Chapter 10

Summary: Harry, Ron and Ginny successfully exit the chamber. End of Emma's first year.

Half an hour after I arrive in the common room Snape returns to call me. I'm taken to Professor McGonagall's office, where I see Fred, George, Percy, Mr and Mrs Weasley. She immediately hugs me when she sees me. We stand there in anguish, waiting for Harry, Ron and Ginny to return.

The silence in the room is broken when the door opens and the three walk in, accompanied by Lockhart. Ginny, Ron and Lockhart are covered in dirt, while Harry is covered in blood. I don't care at the moment, I run to hug my brother, who has got himself into trouble again.

"Ginny!" I hear Mrs Weasley's voice.

Dumbledore's phoenix flies across McGonagall's office and lands on the headmaster's shoulder. I run and hug my brother, relieved to see that Harry is okay. The second Harry and I pull away from the hug, Mrs Weasley takes my place and hugs my brother.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?" says Mrs Weasley.

"I think we'd all like to know that," says McGonagall.

It's then that Mrs Weasley releases Harry from her embrace and my brother walks over to the desk and leaves the Sorting Hat, a ruby sword and an old black diary on the table, which I instantly recognise as the one Malfoy Senior put inside Ginny's cauldron in Diagon Alley.

We all listen in silence as Harry tells us everything. How he found out about the basilisk, how he discovered where the chamber was, about him and Ron following spiders through the forest, that Myrtle was the basilisk's last victim...

"Very well," says Professor McGonagall. "but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"

Then Harry tells him about Dumbledore's phoenix that arrived with the Sorting Hat (with the sword inside) in the chamber.

"What interests me most," Dumbledore speaks. "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

"W-what's that?" says Mr Weasley. "You Know Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not... Ginny hasn't been... has she?"

"It was this diary," Harry replies, picking up the diary from the table. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen."

Dumbledore takes the diary from Harry's hands and examines it carefully.

"Brilliant," he says softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen." he then turns to Mr and Mrs Weasley. "Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school... travelled far and wide... sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognisable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."

"But Ginny," says Mrs Weasley. "what's our Ginny got to do with– with – him?"

"His d-diary!" Ginny begins to sob. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year..."

"Ginny!" exclaims Mr Weasley. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. Why didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic!"

"I d-didn't know," sobs Ginny. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it..."

"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing straight away," Dumbledore interrupts her. "This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." he heads for the door and opens it. "Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he adds. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice – I dare say the Basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."

This means that...

"So Hermione's OK!" Ron exclaims, as if reading my thoughts.

Mr and Mrs Weasley leave with Ginny.

"You know, Minerva," says Dumbledore thoughtfully. "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right," says the professor, heading for the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter and Weasley, shall I?"

"Certainly,"

Before she leaves, the professor looks at me. "Come on, Miss Potter. I think the headmaster still has a lot to discuss with your brother. I'll take you back to the Slytherin common room myself."

The party was huge. All the students were in their pyjamas and the celebration was great. The Defence Against the Dark Arts classes were cancelled because the teacher was hit by a memory spell cast by himself (a true genius) and Malfoy senior was dismissed from his position on the Hogwarts council. The journey home was uneventful. Despite everything that happened, I'm excited for next year.