Disclaimer: Is telling literally no one besides your double agent about your secret plan to kill the bad guy a good idea? No? Then I am not JK Rowling and do not own Harry Potter.

Credit to Mad Library Scientist for the idea of showing Moody and Tonks searching the castle.

Credit to troyguffey and bookaddict19 for Ron mentioning the acromantula nest.

Credit to mwinter1 for Harry mentioning facing Voldemort in first year.

A/N: Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night! I finally had some time to catch up on my writing with the holidays, so enjoy the next chapter of Petrification Proliferation. The story is still on track with three chapters to go.

Chapter 4

The Offices of the Chief Warlock at the Ministry of Magic went unused most of the time. Today, however, they were bustling with activity. By mid-afternoon, Albus Dumbledore had set up a remote command centre for the search of Hogwarts and the investigation into the basilisk. In addition to the DMLE search, Dumbledore and McGonagall had also started their own internal investigation to reconstruct the basilisk's and Ginny's movements and figure out how neither of them were detected. They stood around a large blueprint of the castle on a table that Dumbledore had drawn up with X's and lines drawn across it.

"Miss Granger was attacked here, outside the library," Minerva said, pointing to the blueprint. "However, Mr. Potter indicated that he heard the basilisk before she ran to the library here, at the base of the Grand Staircase—clear on the other side of the castle."

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed. "Now, this was immediately after breakfast, which indicates that 'Tom', in possession of Miss Weasley, left breakfast early to summon the basilisk and attack his next target while the students were on the way to the match." He drew a line from Myrtle's bathroom to the Grand Staircase, making it a dotted line towards the end, since they weren't exactly sure where Ginny had gone.

"But Mr. Potter reported that 'Tom' was already after Miss Granger, even before she figured out that the monster was a basilisk," McGonagall said.

"And so he was. I suspect that Tom moved towards where Miss Weasley knew Miss Granger would be after breakfast and then either witnessed the entire exchange, or at least saw Miss Granger rushing to the library, deduced that she had discovered the nature of the monster, and pursued her more intently." He traced Hermione's and Ginny's likely paths in different colours and then began tracing the plumbing system of the castle along the route wherever the pipes were large enough for a basilisk as large as Harry described to slip through.

"Excuse me, Chief Warlock," one of the DMLE interns interrupted from the door. "There's a Remus Lupin here to see you. He says he has information for the investigation."

"Alright, send him in," Dumbledore said, and a scruffy-looking man was ushered in the door. "Ah, Remus, it's good to see you again," he greeted him warmly.

"You as well, Albus, Minerva," he replied wearily. "I'm guessing you aren't having any better days than I am."

"The worst day of teaching of my career," McGonagall said bitterly. "And I taught you."

Remus gave a weak smile. "I've just been to see Sirius and Harry," he said.

"Excellent. And how are they doing?" Dumbledore asked.

"Sirius is still pretty out of it, honestly. Harry's fine. It looks like he'll be with the Weasleys the rest of the summer. Anyway, I wanted to see you because I have some information—I talked it over with Sirius, and we weren't sure we wanted to give away our secret, but it's for a good cause. You see, when we were students, we created a map of Hogwarts that shows where everyone in the castle is in real time."

"You did what?" McGonagall exclaimed. "No wonder you never got caught out at anything after your third year! You could always see us coming!"

"Ah, the resourcefulness of determined children," Dumbledore said with a smile. "And you think that this map will help us."

"Not as it is now," said Remus. "I thought maybe between the two of us, we could figure out how to get it to show magical creatures. It's tied into the wards, so it can't lie, but it'll need some work to do what we need."

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Yes…yes…" he said. "I think I see the principles you were working from. I believe it could be useful. Let's see this map, Remus."

"Well, that's the other problem, Albus. I don't actually have it. Filch confiscated it from us in our seventh year."

Mad-Eye Moody, Gawain Robards, and Auror Trainee Don't-Call-Me-Nymphadora Tonks climbed up from the dungeons, casting detection spells as they went. Hogwarts Castle was still filled with fog, and the search would easily take days to come. The dorms were the simplest part to search. No hidden doors, moving staircases, or shifting rooms there. The main body of the castle had far more nooks and crannies to search.

"Alright, that's the Slytherin dorms clear. Now comes the hard part," Moody said. They had a bag full of contraband and a couple more cats to carry out, but they'd finished the job. They were making good time, considering Moody had been pulled away to deal with Pettigrew this morning.

"Yeah, because the Slytherin dorms were easy," Tonks said, rolling her eyes. "I've never seen trained attack cats before."

"Occupational hazard, kid," Moody said. "Come on."

They crossed the Entrance Hall to get back to the Floo to check in when they saw shadowy shapes moving in the fog.

"Who goes there?" Moody said, raising his wand.

"Team Badger reporting in," a weary voice replied. Williamson, Dawlish, and Crickerly met them going into Great Hall. "The Hufflepuff dorms are clear."

"And are you sure you checked them thoroughly?" Moody growled.

"We can't check the whole place ourselves, Mad-Eye," Robards reminded him.

"Fine. We just got done with Slytherin."

"Good. We got a priority request from Dumbledore," Williamson said. "Someone needs to search Filch's office. Apparently, there's a confiscated map of the school in there that shows where everybody is."

"We'll take that," Moody said. "Pinkie here knows that office better than anybody."

"And proud of it," Tonks quipped.

"We just need to drop this stuff off first," Robards told them. "You start sweeping the rest of the ground floor. We're leaving the rest of the dungeons for the end."

"Got it. Here's the info on the map."

Team Snake took the information, connected with Madam Bones, and dropped off their confiscated loot and then proceeded to Filch's office.

"It's a good thing that nutter keeps everything organised," Tonks said. "Looks like he's got a whole drawer for those four." She started going through the filing cabinets, checking each folder for enchantments.

"You sure it'll be in there?" asked Moody.

"No, but it should be in with their files…" She looked around the office again. "Could be in that drawer than says 'Confiscated and Extremely Dangerous', though."

"Aye. Good thinking, kid. Empty, though." Of course, he'd already checked it.

"Seriously? Woulda thought old Filchy would actually have something confiscated and extremely dangerous in there."

"Not today, looks like. Unless he already took it with him—or it's a clever misdirection."

"Nah, Filch isn't that clever," Tonks said, still riffling through folders. "If he labels something that, he means it."

"Better be thorough, just in case," Moody insisted.

They were very thorough. They turned Filch's entire office upside-down, no doubt giving some hapless student with detention plenty to do next autumn. But even with Moody's eye, they couldn't find the Marauder's Map anywhere.

"You think I remember everything I ever confiscated from you hooligans?" Filch said to Remus upon being questioned by him and Dumbledore. "All I know is if I took it from you, I woulda filed it 'Confiscated and Extremely Dangerous'. I wasn't about to take any chances with you lot."

"Then why isn't it there, Argus?" Dumbledore asked. "The Aurors searched your entire office."

"Why do you think, Albus? The Weasley twins raided that drawer three years ago."

"Who are you again?" demanded Fred Weasley.

"And how do you know about the alleged Marauder's Map?" George enquired. They really didn't want to bring this up in front of McGonagall.

"Because I'm Moony, and I helped make that map," Remus growled.

Fred and George stared at each other with wide eyes, and George withdrew a blank piece of parchment from his robes. "If you can open it, you can have it," he said.

Remus tapped his wand to the parchment and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The map of Hogwarts appeared at once.

"Whoa…" the Twins said in unison.

"Thank you, boys. This will be very helpful."

"You know that doesn't show the Chamber of Secrets, right?" Fred checked.

"Yeah," George agreed. "We couldn't find Ginny on it when she went missing."

"I know, but hopefully, Professor Dumbledore and I will be able to rectify that," Remus told him.

Remus went off to see Dumbledore, but Professor McGonagall stopped the Twins before they could get away.

"Now, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasley," she said sternly, "Auror Shacklebolt informed me that he found a rather large amount of contraband in your dormitory."

Fred and George grinned nervously.

"There wasn't anything illegal in there, was there, Professor?" George asked.

"No, there wasn't, fortunately for you," she said. Which is more than I can say for some of the Slytherins, she added to herself. "However, there were quite a few items that are not allowed in the school, so—"

"Ah ah ah, Professor," Fred interrupted. "Term ended early. You can't give us detention now."

"No, but I can tell your mother everything they found."

Fred's and George's faces fell. "Can we take the detention instead?" they asked in unison.

"I'm calling off the search of the castle for the night," Amelia Bones told Dumbledore as the light was fading for the day. "It'll be that much harder to deal with that magical fog at night."

"Quite understandable," Dumbledore agreed. There was really no rush since the school was officially closed for the summer.

"Since the dorms are clear, you can send some house elves in to get the students' possessions. We'll set up a claim area tomorrow for them to pick them up. Just be sure to order the elves very clearly not to stray outside the dorms."

"I'll see to it right away, Amelia."

"Good. Now, Pettigrew's trial date is set for as soon as we can spare the Aurors. He won't be getting away again. We found enough evidence to arrest the Harry's guardians, too. They're in custody now, and we sent the cousin to stay with his aunt. I'll have to speak to Mr. Potter again tomorrow to get the rest of his story."

"Unfortunate, but there's nothing we can do about that, now," Dumbledore said. He was still reeling from that revelation. He knew the Dursleys didn't like Harry, but he never imagined they'd be outright abusive. Sadly, the blood wards were a lost cause, but at least Harry would be happy and hopefully safe enough with the Weasleys.

"And the Mind Healers say they don't think Lockhart is getting out of St. Mungo's anytime soon, so that just leaves the investigation against Lucius Malfoy," Amelia concluded. "I interviewed the Grangers this afternoon, and I've asked the Weasleys to come back in tomorrow."

"Very good, Amelia. I hadn't thought we would have enough evidence to take action against him, but that's why you're the head of Head of Magical Law Enforcement, and I'm a lowly schoolteacher."

"You flatter me, Albus. You're far more than a lowly schoolteacher. However, there is still the matter of this cursed diary. What do you know about it?"

"I suspect you already know everything of importance," Dumbledore told her. "It was Voldemort's diary when he was a student. When his efforts at opening the Chamber of Secrets became untenable in 1943, he cursed it to possess anyone who wrote in it and finish his work. When Harry stabbed it with the basilisk fang, he destroyed the enchantments."

"And that's it?" Amelia asked shrewdly.

"Should there be anything more?" Albus said cagily. He had a bad feeling she was on to him.

"Albus, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is something both we and the ICW take very seriously. You know that," she reminded him. "A cursed artifact that unleashes a basilisk needs to be investigated very thoroughly. I spoke with Croaker in the Department of Mysteries, and he's concerned that it might have been a horcrux."

Albus froze, suddenly turning more serious than he had been since early that morning. With a wave of his hand, he closed the door and set Imperturbable Wards around the entire office. Amelia looked around suspiciously and raised her eyebrow at him. "You know about horcruxes?" he asked.

Amelia's jaw dropped. "Albus, I'm the Head of Magical Law Enforcement! You just said it yourself. It's my job to know about horcruxes. This is why you kept saying Voldemort isn't dead, isn't it? You knew the whole time! Did you think you were going to do all of this yourself?"

Albus held up a hand to calm her. "I had suspicions, no more," he said. "I knew he was alive, but there were many possibilities as to how. I had no evidence until I saw the diary."

"Hmph. You still should have told me. So is Voldemort gone for good now, or what?"

"Sadly, I think not. A horcrux is meant to cheat death. Voldemort would never have been so brazen as to turn his only path to immortality into a weapon and thus potentially put it in harm's way."

"So if he did that to the diary…" Amelia paled.

"He must have made more than one."

"Merlin help us. How many? How many horcruxes is it even possible to make?"

"I don't know. I suspect not many, though. And I have some leads on the subject that may be worth pursuing."

"Good. Get on those as soon as you have time…We'll have to keep this under wraps for now. Fudge has been furious all day. He won't go for an investigation into Voldemort."

"And there are still free Death Eaters out there," Albus added.

"Yes, there are. We'll keep it to the two of us, Croaker…and Moody to start with. I know he worked with you during the war. Write down everything you know or think you know and get it to me in the morning. I'll file it somewhere safe."

"Very well, Amelia. Perhaps, with a little luck, we can end the threat of Voldemort for good."

Sadly, even after that revelation, the next day's investigations were no less headache-inducing for Amelia Bones.

"So the school is seriously closed for the summer, ma'am?" asked a little-bit-too-excited Ronald Weasley.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley," she said. "We need to make sure there are no more dangerous creatures to worry about in the school."

The boy got a queer look on his face and thought for a minute. Then, he said, "Does the nest of giant talking spiders in the Forbidden Forest count?"

"WHAT?!"

Harry Potter's story was the longest, even after yesterday's interview, since he was nominally focusing on his muggle relatives. In retrospect, Amelia thought perhaps she should have interviewed him first. Or maybe last. Or maybe moved to Australia where things made sense.

It had started with an innocent comment from her: "You must be very brave, Mr. Potter. And very lucky. Not many people have ever faced Voldemort twice and lived."

Harry tilted his head and said, "Are you counting when I was a baby, ma'am? Because in that case, it's three."

"Three? What do you mean, three?"

"I faced him at the end of my first year, too. He was possessing Professor Quirrell."

Amelia sighed heavily: "Scrimgeour, we need to open another investigation file. And someone do me a favour and hex Dumbledore for me."

The Aurors searching the castle were having a somewhat better time of it, but even they were running into some surprises.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Moody said, stopping in front of a large, ornate cabinet with some obviously broken panels.

"What? It's an old, busted wardrobe," Tonks said. "Or that's what it looks like," she added quickly, knowing Mad-Eye had probably spotted something more than that.

"Wardrobe my arse," he growled. "This, here, is a vanishing cabinet, Pinkie."

"A what cabinet?"

"Vanishing cabinet. They're made in pairs. You put something in one, and it's instantly transported to the other. It could be an unauthorised way into the school."

"Ohhh…Still busted, though."

"Doesn't matter. Someone could fix it up and use it. We'll need to track down the other one and see where it comes out."

"Alright, how do we do that if it's busted?"

"Well, if we're lucky, it's not 'busted' badly enough…" Moody summoned a gauntlet from a nearby suit of armour and put a tracking charm on it before shutting it inside the cabinet. There was a loud pop accompanied by a sound like cracking wood. "There. Now, we just need to ask the Boss if she can find it again."

"Oh. That's simple."

The DMLE weren't the only ones investigating today, either. Minerva McGonagall was still working on the internal Hogwarts investigation. There were a lot of questions to be answered, such as how an eleven-year-old girl with four older brothers in the school could go around partially-possessed for months without them noticing.

"I realise this is a little unorthodox, Healer Nimue, but with a weapon of mass destruction involved, we have to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible. I hope you understand," McGonagall said.

Psyche Nimue, a highly-recommended Mind Healer from St. Mungo's who had joined McGonagall, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Ginny to discuss the events of the past year, scratched a little note on her notepad and nodded. "I'd prefer to do this kind of evaluation with just the family, of course, Professor, but school counselling is not unheard of. Now, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, I'd like to make today about listening and understanding why Ginny did what she did—without judging. Once we know the full story, we can decide what, if anything, needs to be done about it."

"Alright, then," Mrs. Weasley said. She still looked wiped out after yesterday and a little weepy, but she was doing much better than she was.

"Professor, is that acceptable to you?" Nimue asked McGonagall.

"Yes. That will probably be all I need."

"Good. Ginny, I'd like for you to tell me the story from the beginning, when you first found the diary. But if there's anything you don't want to talk about now, you can skip it, and we can talk about it later, okay."

"O-okay," Ginny said with a sniffle, and she haltingly began telling what happened last autumn. She'd found the diary in with her schoolbooks, so she'd assumed that it had been a surprise present from her parents, or even from Fred and George, since a talking diary sounded like something they'd come up with. Therefore, she hadn't been suspicious when it had started writing back to her. Tom had gone along with her theory and had acted nice and caring long enough for her to trust him before he tried anything malicious. And then, by the time she realised what was happening to her, she was too deep into it to get out again.

"I…I thought I'd done it…" she said softly when she got to the attack on Mrs. Norris. "I-it looked like I'd done it. I'd seen the feathers and the paint and everything. B-but I couldn't remember doing it. And I couldn't figure out how I could've done it, or why. 'Cause not even Dumbledore knew what'd happened to Mrs. Norris. But I was scared I'd be expelled if anyone found out—"

McGonagall started to say something, but Healer Nimue cut her off. "Why were you scared you'd be expelled, Ginny?" she asked.

"Well, Percy was talking about people being expelled. And Snape wanted Ron and Harry expelled when they crashed the car, and he wanted Harry off the Quidditch team. And later, Hagrid got arrested just because Fudge thought he'd done something…"

"If you were afraid you would be expelled," McGonagall said cautiously, "Did you consider going to Fred and George for help? They have a certain…disregard for the rules."

"I thought about it, but T-Tom said it would be safer if no one knew. Plus, I was scared Percy would find out and turn me in. He was always snooping around and yelling at Ron, Fred, and George when they were bad for making him look bad 'cause he wants to be Head Boy."

"Ginny—" Mrs. Weasley started.

"Miss Weasley—" McGonagall said.

"Please," Healer Nimue cut them off. "What makes you say that about Percy, Ginny? Did Percy say that?"

"No…It was Ron, Fred, and George, mostly. But Percy was talking about Ron getting expelled after Mrs. Norris…"

"Was he?" McGonagall said in surprise. "Ronald was never in danger of being expelled except for the car incident."

"Hmm…" the Healer mused. "It looks as if there are quite a few misunderstandings regarding Percy here. It might be helpful to bring him into this session, if you're all fine with that."

"I said Ron would be expelled?" Percy said in surprise. "No! I thought you thought he'd be expelled because he was found with Mrs. Norris. You seemed so sensitive all year, I just thought you were overreacting, and I wanted Ron to spare your feelings. Plus I thought he really would be in trouble if he kept snooping around where the attacks were."

"Your brothers seemed to be under the impression that you resented them making you look bad because it would hurt your chances of becoming Head Boy," Healer Nimue said.

Percy sputtered a little. "Well…I wouldn't put it that way, ma'am," he said uneasily.

McGonagall raised an eyebrow at him: "Oh? And just how would you put it, Mr. Weasley?"

"Well, Professor, it's just that…what does it say about how I handle my house if I can't even control my own brothers?"

"Ha! Mr. Weasley, anyone who can control Fred and George deserves a medal, not a badge," she said. "And with as much trouble as Ronald gets into with Mr. Potter, I'm inclined to say the same about him. Unfortunately, I will have to take this into account when determining if you are suited for the Head Boy or Prefect positions next year."

Percy's jaw dropped in horror, but he couldn't seem to articulate a coherent protest.

"It's your own fault, Percy," Mrs. Weasley said before he could make a scene. "Even if most of what you did was innocent, if Ginny looked poorly for that long, you should have gone to Madam Pomfrey again. And you should have been more attentive to her instead of just assuming what she was thinking."

Percy hung his head. "I understand, Mum," he said.

"There's just one other thing, Mr. Weasley," McGonagall said. "Did you at any point suspect Ginny was behind the attacks?"

Percy's head snapped up. "Of course not, Professor," he said. "If I had, I would've come to you right away. And I wouldn't have let them expel you if you didn't know what you were doing, Ginny," he added to his sister.

Ginny stared at him, wide-eyed. "B-but…" she stammered. "I thought you were onto me. You were always following me around. I-I almost told Harry and Ron what was going on that day before you…"

The colour drained from Percy's face. "Me? Wait, that was what you were trying to tell them?" he said. "Oh, Merlin's pants! I had no idea, Ginny. I thought you were going to tell about me when I was—" He abruptly shut his mouth and went from white to red so fast that it couldn't be healthy.

"Oh, that?" Ginny said nonchalantly. "I barely even noticed that."

"What's all this about?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Er…I was embarrassed, Mum, and…" Percy muttered.

"I saw Percy kissing Penny while she was petrified," Ginny said.

"Ginny!"

"Percy!"

Minerva McGonagall groaned, shaking her head. She rubbed her temples and thought, Lord spare me from lovesick teenagers.

Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt returned from his Floo call to the suspect corridor on the seventh floor. After securing the dorms, Team Lion and Team Eagle had set out from their respective common rooms to begin searching the rest of the castle from the top down while the other teams set out from the bottom up. Some more teams had been brought in today to move out from Professor McGonagall's office, the Great Hall, the Headmaster's office, and so on. Team Lion had been stalled on this corridor for quite some time, however.

We need to see what's in here, Shaklebolt thought as he rejoined his team. It looked like a blank wall. The blueprints said it was a blank wall. But the magic clearly said there was something behind it. "Dumbledore says there's nothing here on his map," he reported, "but he also says Hogwarts has secrets even he doesn't know."

"Well, we already knew the Chamber of Secrets wasn't on the map," Auror Savage observed. "There's probably some kind of pass code to get in. We just need to figure out what it is." She did another pass down the corridor, casting detection spells. We need to see what's behind here, she thought.

"No serpents that I can see around here, so it's probably not Parseltonuge," Auror Li said. He tried some more of the basic cursebreaking techniques he knew, to no avail. "I don't suppose it'll just open to 'Open Sesame'?"

"I doubt it," Shaklebolt said. "There are so many kinds of trick doors around here, it could be anything."

"Hmm…" Li finished his pass of the blank stretch of wall and started back the other way. We need to see what's hidden here, he thought.

Suddenly, a large, ornate door appeared from nowhere in the blank wall.

"You did it!" Savage said. "Finally! What did you do?"

"I have no idea."

"Well, let's see what's inside," Shaklebolt said. "Wands at the ready…" He opened the door.

"Whoa…" all three of them said.

"We're gonna need backup," Auror Li said.

"A lot of backup," Auror Shacklebolt agreed.

"Like the entire Department of Mysteries kind of backup," Auror Savage chimed in.