Make Me.

Book 2 - Chapter 19

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley stood in silence as the door pushed open. 

Ellie was at the front of the group (covered in blood) holding Harry up on one shoulder and her other hand locked onto Lockhart's arm. Ron was standing next to Harry, Ginny clinging onto him, weeping silently. Fluttering in the air above them all, Fawkes the Phoenix. 

Then there was a scream. 

"Ginny!" 

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

Ellie took a few steps forward and deposited Harry into a chair, where she saw Professor Dumbledore standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Ellie's shoulders couldn't seem to catch a break, seeing as soon as Harry was off her right, Fawkes had whooshed into the room and re-landed on her left, next to her ear. 

From behind, Ellie was rushed into a sweeping embrace by Mrs. Weasley, who had dragged Ron across the room and smashed his face right next to hers and Harry's. 

"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. Weasley let go of Ellie, who hesitated for a moment, looking at all the adults in the room, then walked over to the desk and unloaded her robes contents. The Sorting Hat, the silver sword, and what remained of Riddle's diary were sitting in an odd pile on top of the desk. Last she handed Harry back his wand, and sat in one of the free chairs, an awkward silence falling over her. 

It didn't take long for Harry to jump into everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence. He told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Ellie and Hermione pieced together it was a basilisk in the pipes, how the three of them had followed the spiders into the forest and Aragog told them where the last victim of the serpent had died, how they were pretty sure Myrtle had been the victim, and how the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was in her bathroom. . .

"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted Harry as he paused. Ellie was wringing her hands together, picking at the flakes of dried blood around her fingernails. She hated being around this many adults. "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?" 

Harry, voice now grown hoarse, looked to Ellie to finish the story. After all she was the one covered in blood like a true warrior. Ellie swallowed thickly before leaning forward in her seat a little. A reassuring hand landed on her free shoulder, Mr. Weasley, as Fawkes gently nudged the side of her head. 

She told them about Fawkes' arrival with the Sorting Hat, and about her dodging the basilisks attacks, and about the lake of blood that now covered the Chamber floor thank's to Fawkes' quick thinking. She mentioned Harry and the Sword and then - she hesitated, she had yet to mention the diary. What if they really did expel Ginny? She was the one who opened the Chamber, Ellie thought. 

Ginny was standing with her head against Mrs. Weasley, tears coursing down her cheeks. Ellie didn't know what to say. She looked from the red-haired girl to 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 Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania." 

Ellie's lungs re-inflated. 

"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?"