Courage

-26-

Book: Courage
Chapter 26
Word Count: 2906

A quiet gasp escaped Layla's cold lips. She began to stir awake, sitting up and scanning her surroundings. Tom was nowhere to be seen, the basilisk lay dead not too far away, and Harry was sat beside her in his blood-soaked robes, the destroyed diary in his hand. Layla was wondering what the hell had happened. She drew a great, shuddering gasp, holding back tears as she suddenly began to feel very overwhelmed and frightened.

She couldn't help it as she dove into Harry's arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly, burying her head in his shoulder. Harry didn't hesitate at all as he immediately hugged Layla back tightly. and tears began to pour down her face.

"Harry, I'm so sorry — I tried to tell you at breakfast, but I couldn't say it in front of Percy — it was me, Harry — but I swear I didn't mean to — Riddle made me, he took me over — and — how did you kill the basilisk? Where's Riddle? The last thing I remember is him coming out of the diary as I was trying to get rid of it—"

"It's all right, you're safe now," said Harry, holding up the diary, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Lay, let's get out of here—"

"Harry... am I going to be expelled?" whispered Layla sadly. She couldn't lose her second home. She didn't want to. "What'll my dad say?"

"I won't let that happen," Harry reassured.

Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet phoenix, was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Harry urged Layla forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. CksLayla heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.

After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnelr, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached Layla's ears. She stepped closer to Harry in fear, not knowing who else was in the chamber, but Harry seemed to know who it was as he grabbed Layla's hand and began walking faster.

"Ron! Layla's okay! I've got her!"

Ron gave a strangled cheer from nearby. Layla and Harry turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in a pile of rocks.

"Layla!" Ron thrust 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?"

Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Layla.

"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, squeezing through himself.

"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand that Layla had also just noticed.

"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry "Where's Lockhart?"

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

Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, they walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.

"His memory's gone," said Ron. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself"

Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all.

"Hello," he said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"

"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows at Harry.

Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.

"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" he said to Ron and then turned to a still-traumatized Layla. "How did you get back up when Tom Riddle used to bring you down?"