A/N: Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
…
James and the other Marauders were running down the hall at full speed. They had Defence right after a free period in the afternoon, and had run late in planning a new prank for the new professors. James was curious as to what they had planned for their class. The young professors seemed a lot more competent than the other teachers they had had in the subject. James had no time to wonder, though, because he and his friends were late for class. They ran breathless into the classroom minutes after the bell had rung and doubled over gasping for breath.
"Sorry - we're late - professors," James managed to choke out. Harry merely smiled at them.
"Take your seats, boys. I'm sure you'll get your punishment before the day is through." As they took the only empty seats at the back of the room, James heard Sirius grumbling about not being close enough to Ginny. Harry turned back to the rest of the class before speaking. "I hope you've all done your homework." He waved his wand and 11 pieces of parchment flew into his outstretched hand. "Ah, Macnair? I assume you thought it was below you to do your homework?" Macnair sneered at Harry, but didn't say anything. "20 points from Slytherin." Harry started flipping through their papers. James saw him stop at one, smirk, and show it to Ginny. She started smiling too.
"I suppose you thought it would be funny, Mr. Snape, to put werewolves on your sheet?" James felt Remus stiffen beside him and saw a smirk appear of Snape's face. "I'm curious as to why you put that." James saw the smile slip off of Snape's face.
"I thought that would be obvious; they're dark creatures." Ginny stepped forward.
"That's the thing, Mr. Snape. We have seen no evidence to suggest that werewolves are dark." Everyone looked shocked, but no one more than Remus.
"But professor," said the Hufflepuff girl, "the werewolves sided with You-Know-Who! They kill innocent people every full moon!" James knew that Remus was getting angry; he could feel him shaking. He wanted to throttle Snape. Of course he would do something as awful as that. Harry stepped in.
"Can anyone tell me," he said, "what the difference between an animagus and a werewolf is?" The room was quiet. Harry tapped his wand on the pensieve and a young girl with bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth rose from its depths. James thought she looked to be about 13. She had her hand stretched as far as it would go into the air. She reminded him of Lily.
"Please, sir. An Animagus is a wizard who elects to turn into an animal. A werewolf has no choice. With each full moon he no longer remembers who he is. He'd kill his best friend."
Then she dissolved into the basin.
"That was my good friend, Hermione Granger; the smartest witch of her age. She probably knew more in her third year than some of you do now," said Harry, thoughtfully. "Now; do you all understand why werewolves aren't dark creatures? When they transform, they have no say in the matter; there is no stopping it. With each full moon the person transforms and no longer remembers who he or she is, and would kill even their best friend given the opportunity. As for siding with Voldemort," everyone flinched at the name, "I don't blame them. I mean, look how everyone treats them! Werewolves are regarded with fear and disgust by wizarding society. Known werewolves are shunned by society and discriminated against within the wizarding world. It's nearly impossible for a werewolf to get a job in the wizarding community. And then there's Voldemort, who is promising them freedom. A man makes a choice to become a death eater. He has no one to blame but himself. It takes a lot of courage to fight for what is right. As a great man once said, 'It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.'
"I knew a man who was good, and kind, and brave. He was the best Defence teacher I ever had; actually, he was the one to teach me the Patronus Charm that I showed you yesterday. He fought in the Final Battle so that his son could live a life without Voldemort. He was one of the bravest men I ever knew, and I'll have you know that he was a werewolf." He paused, and it seemed to James that he was reliving a horrible memory.
"Now, with that settled, I think we should find a more appropriate subject to learn about in this class." James watched him flip through a few more sheets before settling on one. "Mr. Pettigrew? You've never learned how to defeat a Boggart? I learned that in my third year!" James turned around to look at Peter. He looked embarrassed. "Well, I suppose that's as good a place to start as any. We just so happen to have a Boggart on hand." Ginny headed towards their office. "I was going to show it to my third years. Can anyone tell me what a Boggart is? Miss Evans?"
"A Boggart is a shape-shifting creature that takes on the form of a person's worst fear. Because of their shape-shifting ability, no one knows what a Boggart looks like when it is alone, as it instantly changes into your worst fear when you first see it."
"Excellent, Lily. Now, the charm that repels a Boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a Boggart is laughter. What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing. We will practice the charm without wands first. Repeat after me. Riddikulus!"
"Riddikulus!" echoed the class. James saw Ginny come back into the room levitating a large trunk that shook violently.
"Now comes the hard part," said Harry. "I want all of you to think of the thing that frightens you most in this world. Then I want you to think of some way to make it comical. You will picture it in your mind, what you want to happen. Mr. Black, would you like to go first?" James saw Sirius go pale and slowly walk up to the front of the room. This was very unusual for him; normally he would be bouncing and joking around. James wondered what his greatest fear was. He watched as Sirius drew his wand and pointed at the chest. Ginny lifted the top and out walked… himself?
Standing at the front of the room was none other than Sirius Black. But this one was different. He wore Slytherin robes and he had a sneer on his face as he looked the real Sirius in the eye and hissed, "Blood traitor! Siding with muggles and mudbloods and half-breeds! The Dark Lord will win this war and I will be rewarded! You are nothing but a –"
"RIDDIKULUS!"
Then with a bang, the Slytherin Sirius was gone and replaced by the Gryffindor Sirius who acted as if he had swallowed a love potion.
"Oh, Sirius! My great love! You are the most handsome lad I have ever met! If I was not your reflection I would marry you!" The Boggart-Sirius was on his knees looking up at Sirius with puppy-dog eyes. The class started laughing.
"Who's next?" asked Ginny. James stood and walked to the front. He figured he may as well get it over with. Immediately, Sirius turned into Lily, except she was lying on the floor, covered in blood and staring with lifeless eyes. James heard a gasp from behind him and could only assume that it was Lily. He took one look at Boggart-Lily and quickly cast the charm.
"Riddikulus!"
Suddenly, Lily picked herself off the floor and began scolding him.
"Honestly, James. Did you really think I was dead? How stupid could you be? I mean, I know you're a pig-headed git, but are you really that thick? Do you not see me standing here? Well?" she ranted, souding very much like his mother. The whole class was laughing by that point, other than Lily, who had her face buried in her hands. The rest of the students each took a turn with the Boggart, and faced more normal fears like spiders and snakes, until Remus was the only person left to go. James saw the teachers exchange a glance, and Ginny stepped forward.
"I want to show you all my greatest fear," she said, and then paused. "It's time for a history lesson." She stepped in front of the Boggart and it turned into a handsome teenage boy in Slytherin robes. James thought he looked familiar, but he couldn't figure out where he'd seen him before. "Hello Tom," Ginny said bravely.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't little Ginny Weasley. Been writing in any diaries lately? I doubt any of them were as friendly as mine."
"Riddikulus!" The boy tripped on his now too long Gryffindor robes. James could see Ginny's mask slipping. She was genuinely afraid of this boy. He saw Harry step forward to face the Boggart and it turned into a Dementor. Harry didn't even use the same spell. Instead he shouted, "Expecto Patronum!" and his silvery stag chased the Boggart back into the trunk. Then he turned to face the class.
"Can anyone tell me who that was?" he asked. The class was silent. "His name is Tom Riddle." The class remained quiet. "No one's heard of him?" Finally Sirius spoke up.
"He won an award for special services to the school! I must have cleaned it a hundred times!"
"Very good, Mr. Black. Tom Riddle is also known by another name, one much more famous," he said. "Ginny?" James noticed that she had gone extremely pale. Nevertheless, she nodded and brought her wand to her temple with a shaking hand, extracting the memories and placing them in the pensieve. Harry did the same. Then Harry gestured for them all to enter the pensieve.
Upon entering, the first thing James saw was a tiny red-haired girl that could only be Ginny. She was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, writing in a diary. In shock, James watched as the words she had put on the page disappeared and new writing took its place. He looked around and saw the real Ginny standing next to him.
"That's me when I was eleven," she told the class. "And that," she said, pointing to the diary, "is Tom Riddle's diary." James watched as Ginny poured her heart out to the diary, telling Tom about how her brothers teased her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, and how she thought Harry would never like her.
The memory changed, and they saw a peaky looking Ginny waking up covered in rooster feathers. They saw her looking confused, and walking down the corridor to see a message on the wall, written in blood. The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware. James began to get a horrible feeling that this was the possession that Ginny had told them about. But that would mean…
The memory changed again, and this time it was a young Harry that they saw, along with another young boy who had red hair and freckles and looked similar to Ginny.
"All students are to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room immediately." Harry wheeled around to stare at Ron. """""Not another attack. Not now."
"What'll we do?""" asked Ron, aghast. ""Go back to the dormitory?"
""No,"" said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. ""In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."" They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived. ""It has happened,"" she told the silent staff room. ""A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."" Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, """How can you be sure?"
""The Heir of Slytherin,"" said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, """"left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.'" Professor Flitwick burst into tears. ""Who is it?"" asked Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"
"""Ginny Weasley,"" said Professor McGonagall.
Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him.
The memory shifted and a new one formed. Harry was in a strange room, running towards a figure lying at the other end.
He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, he thought he saw one stir. Then, as he drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall. Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkey-ish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. And between the feet, face-down, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair. ""Ginny!"" Harry muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees. ""Ginny - don't be dead - please don't be dead -"""
He flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be… """Ginny, please wake up,"" Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side. ""She won't wake,"" said a soft voice. Harry jumped and spun around on his knees. A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him.
""Tom - Tom Riddle."" Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face. """What d'you mean, she won't wake.?" Harry said desperately. "She's not - she's not -."
""She's still alive,"" said Riddle. ""But only just."" Harry stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen. ""Are you a ghost?"" Harry asked uncertainly. """A memory,": said Riddle quietly. ""Preserved in a diary for fifty years." He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Harry wondered how it had got there - but there were more pressing matters to deal with. """You've got to help me, Tom,"" Harry said, raising Ginny's head again." "We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk ... I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment ... Please, help me!" Riddle didn't move. Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again. But his wand had gone. ""Did you see -."" He looked up. Riddle was still watching him - twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers. ""Thanks,""" said Harry, stretching out his hand for it. A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Harry, twirling the wand idly. ""Listen,"" said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. """We've got to go! If the basilisk comes -"
""It won't come until it is called,"" said Riddle calmly. Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer. ""What d'you mean?"" he asked. """Look, give me my wand, I might need it -"" Riddle's smile broadened. ""You won't be needing it,"" he said. Harry stared at him. ""What d'you mean, I won't be -."
"""I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter,"" said Riddle. ""For the chance to see you. To speak to you."
""Look,"" said Harry, losing patience, """I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later -"
""We're going to talk now,"" said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry's wand. Harry stared at him. There was something very funny going on here. ""How did Ginny get like this?"" he asked slowly. ""Well, that's an interesting question,"" said Riddle pleasantly. ""And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."
""What are you talking about?"" asked Harry. ""The diary,"" said Riddle. "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes - how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, how"-" Riddle's eyes glinted, "-"how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her . . . .""" All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them. ""It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven- year-old girl,"" he went on. ""But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. 'No one's ever understood me like you, Tom ... I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in ... It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket . . . .'" Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry's neck. ""If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted. I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding her a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her. . ."
""What d'you mean?"" said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry. ""Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?"" said Riddle softly. ""Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat." ""No,"" Harry whispered. ""Yes,"" said Riddle, calmly. ""Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish you could have seen her new diary entries ... far more interesting, they became ... 'Dear Tom,'"" he recited, watching Harry's horrified face, "'I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and 1 don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, l can't remember what 1 did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he ""It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary,"" said Riddle. """But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet." ""And why did you want to meet me?" "asked Harry. Anger was coursing through him, and it was an effort to keep his voice steady. ""Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry,"" said Riddle. ""Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier. ""I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust -"
""Hagrid's my friend,"" said Harry, his voice now shaking. ""And you framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but -"" Riddle laughed his high laugh again. ""It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student ... on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls ... but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance ... as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power! Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed ... Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did."
""I bet Dumbledore saw right through you,"" said Harry, his teeth gritted. ""Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled,"" said Riddle carelessly. ""I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."
""Well, you haven't finished it,"" said Harry triumphantly. ""No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again -"
""Haven't I already told you,"" said Riddle quietly, ""that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore. For many months now, my new target has been -you."" Harry stared at him. ""Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you. What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters. So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery – particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue ... "So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. But there isn't much life left in her... She put too much into the diary, into me. Enough to let me leave its pages at last... I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."
""Like what?"" Harry spat, fists still clenched. ""Well,"" said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, ""how is it that you a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"" There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now. ""Why do you care how I escaped?"" said Harry slowly. ""Voldemort was after your time..." """Voldemort,"" said Riddle softly, ""is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter . . . ."" He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words: TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE. Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves: I AM LORD VOLDEMORT. ""You see,"" he whispered. ""It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side. I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry - I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"
Harry's brain seemed to have jammed. He stared numbly at Riddle, at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder Harry's own parents, and so many others . At last he forced himself to speak. ""You're not,"" he said, his quiet voice full of hatred. ""Not what?"" snapped Riddle. ""Not the greatest sorcerer in the world,"" said Harry, breathing fast. ""Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days -""" The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look. ""Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!"" he hissed. ""He's not as gone as you might think!"" Harry retorted. He was speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle, wishing rather than believing it to be true Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.
The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, and venomous. It lunged blindly. Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands. The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true. Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth. But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor. Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it was too late. White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color. A patch of scarlet swam past, and Harry heard a soft clatter of claws beside him. ""Fawkes,"" said Harry thickly. ""You were fantastic, Fawkes . . . ."" He felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced him. ""You're dead, Harry Potter,"" said Riddle's voice above him. """Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying."" Harry blinked. Fawkes's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers. ""I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."" Harry felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning. ""So ends the famous Harry Potter,"" said Riddle's distant voice. """Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by his friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry. She bought you twelve years of borrowed time, but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must."
If this is dying, thought Harry, it's not so bad. Even the pain was leaving him. But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. Harry gave his head a little shake and there was Fawkes, still resting his head on Harry's arm. A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound - except that there was no wound.
""Get away, bird,"" said Riddle's voice suddenly. """Get away from him - I said, get away -"" Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Fawkes; there was a bang like a gun, and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet. ""Phoenix tears-" said Riddle quietly, staring at Harry's arm. """Of course ... healing powers ... I forgot…" He looked into Harry's face. """But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter ... you and me..." He raised the wand. Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Harry's lap - the diary. For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then, without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book. There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then he had gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady "drip, drip" of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it. Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he'd just traveled miles by Floo powder. Slowly, he gathered together his wand and the Sorting Hat, and, with a huge tug, retrieved the glittering sword from the roof of the basilisk's mouth. Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face. ""Harry - oh, Harry - I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy - it was me, Harry - but I - I s-swear I d-didn't mean to - R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over - and - how did you kill that - that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r- remember is him coming out of the diary—"
""It's all right,"" said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, "Riddle's finished. "Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here -"
""I'm going to be expelled!"" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. ""I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and - w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"
Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Harry urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss. After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached Harry's ears. ""Ron!"" Harry yelled, speeding up. """Ginny's okay! I've got her!"" He heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall. ""Ginny!"" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. ""You're alive!"
The whole class landed back in the classroom. Ginny stepped forward, still pale and shaky from reliving her worst memory.
"What - what was that?" asked the Hufflepuff girl, visibly shaken.
"That," Ginny said, "was me being possessed by Voldemort."