Snakeskin (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

Chapter 17: It All Comes Together

Chapter 17: It All Comes Together

End of school and back to home. Reggie will be attending next year and we'll be allowed to visit Hogsmeade. It should be interesting.

**

For a moment there was silence as Harry, Ron, Ginny, Leo, and a floating 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 leaped to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter.

Leo, however, was looking past them. Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. She moved quickly and, a second later, Leo found himself wrapped in a tight hug. Both Ron's and Harry's expressions mimicked his surprise.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?" Mrs. Weasley cried, wrapping Harry and Ron into a tight embrace.

"I think we'd all like to know that," said McGonagall weakly as she released a bewildered Leo Black.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it the Sorting Hat and what remained of Riddle's diary. He then turned to Leo, raising an eyebrow at the boy who scowled, dropped Lockhart unceremoniously to the floor, and walked over to the desk, setting the sword upon 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, Leo, 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... 

Leo had to bite his tongue to keep from saying 'I told you so' over and over again.

"Very well," 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?"

Leo, spotting Harry's exhausted look, took over the story. He told them about the conversation with Riddle and the subsequent duel that followed. He hesitated for a moment before telling them about the Cruciatus Curse, prompting Mrs. Weasley to rush over and hug him, sobbing loudly. From there, Harry told his side. He told them about Fawkes' timely arrival and about the Sorting Hat giving him the sword. But then he faltered. He 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."

"That's a rather odd place to be," Leo remarked over Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, not having a clue where Albania was but assuming it was somewhere exotic.

"W-what's that?" said Mr. Weasley in a stunned voice as Mrs. Weasley finally released Leo. "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.