The Young Padfoot *Book One*

Consequences of our Actions

For a few seconds, the door remained closed and no one dared breathe too loud as we waited for someone to answer the door. I was about to knock on the door again but just as my hand reached it, the door flung open and with the movement, a scream followed it. At first, I thought it was cause someone had seen us standing here in our uniforms that were covered in water, slime, muck and in Harry's case blood and mine and Ginny's ink where we hadn't missed the bleeding of the diary quick enough. I was wrong though; the scream belonged to Molly Weasley as she launched herself onto Ginny, holding the young Weasley close to her as she sobbed loudly.

Arthur Weasley soon joined his wife and wrapped his arms around his only daughter. I glanced past the hugging couple to see Professor Dumbledore smiling down at us and Professor McGonagall looked like she was moments away from also bursting into tears.

I was about to say something to Harry before I found myself pulled into the arms of Molly, who now had not just me but also Harry and Ron in her arms. Ron's cheeks were burning a bright red as he muttered something about being fine and Harry, well, I had never seen someone so torn between being severely uncomfortable but also appreciative of the gesture.

"You saved her. You saved her," Molly repeated over and over as she placed a kiss on each of our heads before giving Ron another hug, much to his displeasure. "How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," McGonagall said, her voice sounding slightly breathless.

Harry and I shared a look before we walked into the office, Ron and Lockhart just behind us as Molly and Arthur led Ginny over to a chair, neither one of them letting her out of their sight for more than a second. Once the diary, the sorting hat and the sword were placed on McGonagall's desk, I allowed Harry the honour of explaining everything that had happened. It took almost half an hour for Harry to fully explain as rather than just talking about what had happened down in the chamber, he started from the beginning; this included the voices, the discovery of Aragog and the basilisk, how we had guessed who the victim last time was and how we had realised that the entrance to the chamber would be in Myrtle's bathroom. Overall, let's just say it sounded pretty badass when Harry explained it all.

"Very well," McGonagall began when Harry had finished. "So you found out where the entrance was—breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add—but how on earth did you all get of there alive, Potter, Black?"

Seeing that Harry's throat was probably hoarse from explaining it all at the beginning, I took over and told them all about Fawkes's arrival and how the Sorting Hat had produced the sword. Yet I never mentioned Ginny's involvement nor the diary that had been used. What if they expelled her or made her into less of the victim than she really was? Glancing over at Ginny, I saw that she was still sobbing into Molly's shoulder. No way could I bring Ginny into this.

As though he had sensed my hesitation, Dumbledore looked between us all and smiled faintly.

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

"W-what's that? You know who? En-enchant Ginny?" Arthur stuttered. "But Ginny's not ... Ginny hasn't been ... has she?"

"It was this diary," I said, making sure I didn't mention Ginny. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen."

"Brilliant. Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen," Dumbledore said, looking down at the diary. "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."