Remi Casandra Lupin

McGonagall's Office

Remi's POV

For a moment there was silence as Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lockhart and I stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime and in Harry's case blood. Then there was a scream "Ginny!". 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.

Harry, 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 Harry's ear and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder, just as Harry found himself and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasleys tight embrace. While I go stand beside my godmother who wraps an arm around my shoulder smiling.

"You saved her! You saved them both! How did you do it?" Mrs Weasley asks the pair.

"I think we'd all like to know that" Professor McGonagall said. Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it the ruby-encrusted sword. While I put the sorting hat and what remained of Riddle's diary beside it.

Then Harry 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 and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how he had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom.

"I'd gone with Hermione to the library to find the book. We told the Ravenclaw prefect and were using her mirror to look around corners. I got an uneasy feeling and stopped. That's when the other two fell to the ground petrified and I closed my eyes. The Basilisk took me to the chamber, where Harry found me. With Ginny" I explain before Professor McGonagall spoke.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him as he 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, Potter?" she asks.

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 - 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? Harry thought in panic. Riddle's diary didn't work anymore. How could they prove it had been he who'd made her do it all?

Instinctively, Harry and I 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 Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania" he states.

"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?"  she asks shocked.

"It was this diary" I say quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen" I state. Dumbledore took the diary from me 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 states. He turned around to the Weasleys, who were looking utterly bewildered.

"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle" I tell them.

"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" Dumbledore explains.

"But, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley. "What's our Ginny got to do with - with - him?" she asks.

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

"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!" he tells her.

"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..." she tries to explain.

"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 - I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment" he states.

"So Hermione's okay!" said Ron brightly.

"There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny," said Dumbledore. Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken. "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?"  he asks.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Lupin, Potter and Weasley, shall I?" she asks. Dumbledore nods his head and she leaves.

"Miss Lupin, there is someone in my office waiting for you. Do you remember the password?" Dumbledore asks me. I nod my head and hug the other two thanking them before leaving. I enter Dumbledore's office to see my dad and jump into his arms crying.

"Daddy, I missed you so much" I mumble into his chest.

"I'm glad you're safe my pup, I missed you also" he says stroking my hair. I then tell him what happened this year. Before he had to leave and he sent me off to the hospital wing. After kissing my forehead and hugging me goodbye.

A/N

Picture above of Mr Arthur and Mrs Molly Weasley.