SuperPotterLock- The Chamber of Secrets

Dobby's Reward

For a moment they stood in the doorway and there was a shocked silence as four sets of eyes took in the muck, slime and blood that the five of them were covered in. Then there was a scream.

'Ginny!'

Mrs Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fireplace, leapt to her feet and, along with Mr Weasley, flung themselves on their daughter.

Fawkes flew off to sit on Dumbledore's shoulder, who was standing by the mantelpiece, smiling. Professor McGonagall next to him, clutching her chest. Harry and Ron were pulled into Mrs Weasley's embrace, leaving Sherlock to awkwardly fiddle with the Sorting Hat in his hands.

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

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

Mrs Weasley let go of Harry and he and Sherlock approached the desk, laying the sword and the Sorting Hat upon it. Harry then pulled out what was left of Riddle's diary and placed it down. He took a deep breath and began to tell the room everything that had transpired that year. Sherlock paid close attention, trying to fill in the blanks in his memory.

'Very well,' said Professor McGonagall, '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?'

So Harry, his voice growing hoarse, described Fawkes's and Sherlock's timely arrival and the Sorting Hat giving him the sword. He faltered and Sherlock glanced at him. So far he had avoided mentioning Ginny's role in these events.

'What interests me most,' Dumbledore said gently, 'is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania.'

'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,' Harry said quickly, holding it up to show them. 'Riddle wrote in it when he was sixteen.

'Brilliant,' Dumbledore said softly, taking the diary. 'Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen.'

He turned 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 school, travelling far and wide, sank deep into the Dark Arts, and consorted with the very worst of our kind. He underwent many magical transformations, so that when he finally resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognisable. Hardly anyone connected him with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here.'

'But Ginny,' said Mrs Weasley, 'what's our Ginny got to do with him?'

'His d-diary!' Ginny sobbed. 'I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year- '

'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 there and forgotten about it.'

'Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing straight away,' Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. 'This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort.'