Daughter of a Criminal

Goodbye Second Year

For a moment there was silence as Harry, Ann, Ron, Ginny, and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime and, in 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. 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 Ann found herself, Harry, and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasley'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. Weasley let go of Harry, and Ann, who both hesitated for a moment, then Harry 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 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, Ann, and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how Ann 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 â€" breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add â€" but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter, Black?" 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. But then he faltered. He had so far avoided mentioning Riddle's diary â€" 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? Ann thought in panic, ready to silence Harry.
"What interests me most," said Dumbledore gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently hiding in the forests of Albania." Relief â€" warm, sweeping, glorious relief â€" swept over Ann.
"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?"
"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. "Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school… traveled far and wide… sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."
"But, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley. "What's our Ginny got to do with â€" with â€" him?"
"His d-diary" Ginny sobbed. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year â€""
"Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything. What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain? Why didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic!'
"I d-didn't know," sobbed Ginny. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it â€""
"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. "This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." He strode over to the door and opened it. "Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, twinkling kindly down at her. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice â€" I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."
"So Hermione's okay!" said Ron brightly.
"Thank Merlin's beard," Ann whispered so only Harry and Ron could hear.
"There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny," said Dumbledore. Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken. Ann stood by Ron beaming about Hermione's recovery.
"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall, "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"
"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter, Black, and Weasley, shall I?"
"Certainly," said Dumbledore. She left, and Harry, Ann, and Ron gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore. What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with them? Surely â€" surely â€" they weren't about to be punished?
"I seem to remember telling you two boys that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules," said Dumbledore. Ron opened his mouth in horror.
"Wait would-," said Ann
"Of course Miss Black was exempt from this but still..,"
"You can-," Ann started
"But all this goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling. "You will all receive Special Awards for Services to the School and â€" let me see â€" yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor." Ron went as brightly pink as Lockhart's valentine flowers and closed his mouth again, as Ann sighed relieved. "But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure," Dumbledore added. "Why so modest, Gilderoy?" Ann gave a start. She had completely forgotten about Lockhart. She turned and saw that Lockhart was standing in a corner of the room, still wearing his vague smile. When Dumbledore addressed him, Lockhart looked over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.
"Professor Dumbledore," Ron said quickly, "there was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart â€""
"Am I a professor?" said Lockhart in mild surprise. "Goodness. I expect I was hopeless, was I?"
"He tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired," Ron explained quietly to Dumbledore.
"Dear me," said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long silver mustache quivering. "Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!"
"Sword?" said Lockhart dimly. "Haven't got a sword. That boy has, though." He pointed at Harry. "He'll lend you one."
"Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?" Dumbledore said to Ron and Ann. "I'd like a few more words with Harry…" Lockhart ambled out. Ron and Ann both cast a curious look back at Dumbledore and Harry as he closed the door. The two walked out barely talking. They reached the infirmary and passed Lockheart off to Madam Pomfrey. Then they sat beside Hermione's bed for a while until they were shooed away for the feast. Ann had been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never one quite like this. Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night. Ann didn't know whether the best bit was Hermione running toward her and Harry, screaming
"You solved it! You solved it!", or Hagrid turning up at half past three, cuffing Ann, Harry and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle, or his Ann, and Ron's six hundred points for Gryffindor securing the House Cup for the second year running, or Professor McGonagall standing up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat ("Oh, no!" said Hermione), or Dumbledore announcing that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away and get his memory back. Quite a few of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted this news.
"Shame," said Ron, helping himself to a jam doughnut. "He has started to grow on me."
"Real shame bud," Ann joked, stealing his dougnought. Ron pouted and grabbed a new one careful to keep it away from Ann for the rest of the feast. The rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences â€" Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled ("but we've had plenty of practice at that anyway," Ron told a disgruntled Hermione) and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky. On the other hand, Ginny Weasley was perfectly happy again. Too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. Ann, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny got a compartment to themselves. They made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays. They played Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George's Filibuster fireworks, and practiced disarming each other by magic. Harry and Ann were getting very good at it. They were almost at King's Cross when Harry remembered something.
"Ginny â€" what did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?" "Oh, that," said Ginny, giggling.
"Well â€" Percy's got a girlfriend." Fred dropped a stack of books on George's head.
"What?" they shouted as Anns chocolate frog jumped out of her gapping month
"No way," she gasped.
"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," said Ginny. "That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was â€" you know â€" attacked. You won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.
"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early. "Definitely not," said George, sniggering.
"Nothing to tease," Ann lied sniggering with George, and Harry saw how Ann was like a family member in every regard to the Weasleys but blood. The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped. Harry pulled out his quill and a bit of parchment and turned to Ann, Ron and Hermione.
"This is called a telephone number," he told Ron and Ann ,scribbling it three times, tearing the parchment in three, and handing it to them. "I told your dad how to use a telephone last summer â€" he'll know. Call me at the Dursleys', okay? I can't stand another two months with only Dudley to talk to…"
"And my uncle has a muggle phone," Ann said
"Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they?" said Hermione as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. "When they hear what you did this year?"
"Proud?" said Harry. "Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious…" And together they walked back through the gateway to the Muggle world.