Charmolypi

Chapter 81

The happy moment was interrupted by a faint moan from the other end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. Thea hurried towards the young girl as she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the dead basilisk, over to Thea that stood in blood-soaked robes, and then the diary and Harry's wand in her hands.

"Thea — oh, Thea — I tried to tell Harry and Ron at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy — it was me, Thea — but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over — and — how did you kill that — that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary —"

Molly sighed in relief, not believing that her daughter was finally safe, alive, and well. Tears of joy covered her cheeks as she hugged James and his parents, profoundly thanking them for everything their child had done to protect Ginny.

"It's all right," Thea said softly, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here —"

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Thea helped her to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and — w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"

The little boy perked up when he heard his name, growing excited at the thought of going to Hogwarts.

Arthur and Molly looked heartbroken at the fact that their daughter was more worried about what they thought, more than her well-being.

Pyro was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Thea urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel, and they heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.

After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached the girls' ears.

Everyone was relieved knowing that the girls had escaped Voldemort's claws once again.

"Harry! Ron!" Thea yelled, walking faster. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!"

She heard a strangled cheer coming from the other side and saw Ron's eager face staring through a sizable gap they had made in the rockfall. "Ginny!" Ron thrusted an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How- what- where did that bird come from?"

Many smiled at the relationship between the siblings.

Pyro had swooped through the gap after Ginny. Harry looked at the bird then looked questionably at Thea. "Is that Fawkes?"

"Nope. That's Pyro. He's my phoenix," Thea said as she squeezed through the opening.

Dumbledore paled when she said that Pyro was her Phoenix. He knew the prophecy of the last phoenix. He knew that Thea was the one that would change all their fates.

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

"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Thea with a sideways glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever.

"But —"

"Later," she said sternly, shutting both boys up instantly. "Where's Lockhart?"

"They know better than to argue with Thea."

"She holds so much authority, it's amazing."

"Back there," said Ron, still looking puzzled but jerking his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."