𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝟐 & 𝐇𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭

𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙎𝙤𝙘𝙠

    FOR A MOMENT, THERE WAS SILENCE as Beomgyu, Arlo, Jake, Jisung, and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime and (in Beomgyu's case) blood. Then there was a scream.

"Lo!"

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

"Wh-What about Wendy?" Arlo stuttered with her dried tears still stained in her face.

"Oh, those sweet boys took her and Yeji to the Hospital Wing quickly and getting Albus," Mrs. Sim answered, her eyes were shining with tears, also bringing Jake into the hug.

Beomgyu, however, was looking 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 Beomgyu's ear and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder, just as Beomgyu found himself and Jungwon being swept into Mrs. Sim's tight embrace.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

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

Mrs. Sim let go of Beomgyu, 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.

Then he, Jisung, and Jake started telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence: The three told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Rio had finally realized that Beomgyu was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how they and the rest of the friends 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 them as they 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?"

So Beomgyu, 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. But then he faltered. He had so far avoided mentioning Riddle's diary, Arlo being the one who kidnapped and used force on two students into the Chamber - or about Wendy and Yeji. Arlo was standing with her head against Mrs. Sim's shoulder, and tears were still coursing silently down her cheeks.

'What if they expelled her?' Beomgyu thought in panic. 'Riddle's diary didn't work anymore. . .How could they prove it had been he who'd made the girls do it all?'

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

"What interests me most," said Dumbledore gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Miss Wendy, Yeji – and I believe as well – Sigrid, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

Relief - warm, sweeping, glorious relief - swept over Beomgyu.

"W-what's that?" said Mr. Sim in a stunned voice. "You-Know-Who? En-enchant two of my daughters? But Wendy's not—Lo hasn't been. . .have they?"

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

Dumbledore took the diary from Jungwon 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 Sims, who were looking utterly bewildered.