Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

29. Dobby's Reward

For a moment there was silence as Harry, Y/n, Ron, Ginny, and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime and in Y/n and Harry's case blood. Then there was a scream.

"Ginny!"

It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leapt to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter.

Y/n watched them happily for a moment before he looked past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Fawkes went whooshing past Harry's ear and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder, just as Y/n and Harry found themselves and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasleys tight embrace.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?" Mrs Weasley cried in her shock and delight.

"I think we'd all like to know that." said Professor McGonagall weakly.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Y/n and then Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it the Sorting Hat, the ruby encrusted sword, and what remained of Riddle's diary.

Harry turned to look at Y/n who just closed his eyes and nodded at Harry signalling he thought they would have to tell the truth of what happened.

So Harry, started telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence. He told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione had finally realized that he was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how he, Y/n and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died, how they had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom...

"Very well." Professor McGonagall prompted him as he paused. "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 out of there alive, Potter?"

So Harry, his voice now growing hoarse from all this talking, told them about Fawkes's timely arrival and about the Sorting Hat giving him the sword. Of Y/n duelling Riddle much to everyone else's shock and amazement.

But then Harry faltered. Y/n noticed he had so far avoided mentioning Riddle's diary...or Ginny.

She was standing with her head against Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, and tears were still coursing silently down her cheeks. What if they expelled her? Y/n slightly worried. Riddle's diary didn't work anymore... How could they prove it had been he who'd made her do it all?

Instinctively, Harry looked at Dumbledore, who smiled faintly, the firelight glancing off his half moon spectacles.

"What interests me." said Dumbledore gently. "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?" said Mr. Weasley in a stunned voice. "You-Know-Who? En...enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not... Ginny hasn't been... has she?"

"I'm afraid she was Mr Weasley." Y/n said now trying to give Ginny some small form of back up.

"It was this diary." said Harry quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen..."

Dumbledore took the diary from Harry and peered keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages.

"Brilliant." he said softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen." He turned around to the Weasleys, who were looking utterly bewildered.