A/N: Unmotivated-nessis awesome... Who here thought that Percy would get the diary? I did, but I wrote this, so I guess I don't count. Still not J.K. Rowling.
Title because I'm probably crazy at this point- Ravenclaws make Gryffindor stuff Ravenclaw and outrun cool snake thing before going off on headmaster
Ginny rolled her eyes, though it wouldn't be visible beneath her blindfold. She turned to the general direction of Luna and said, "That's cringey. Can you tell I'm cringing? I'm cringing now."
"I agree," Luna stated, "I mean, it's like the cliche where the villain is like, you know, scared that the heroes will overtake them and decide to try to kill them, but the heroes are winning, and then the villain is winning, and then the heroes win again, and drama. That's like, every action movie ever." Suddenly, she heard Voldemort hiss something. She had only covered the basics of Parseltounge so far, but she could clearly hear him hiss, "Kill."
Luna grabbed Ginny's arm to alert her to this, but she had heard the basilisk slithering also. Luna made a rude gesture with her hand towards Voldemort before running with Ginny blindly around like headless chickens.
"We can't just leave Percy there," Ginny murmured to Luna, trying to talk and run as quietly as possible, as to not arise the attention of the giant killer snake.
"Yeah, I'm aware of that," Luna muttered, "We won't." Ginny heard the underlying tone, though, that clearly stated that the fact that they were being chased by a murderous snake that could kill you with it's eyes was the more pressing matter at the moment. They had reached the doorway (or what felt like the doorway they had come through) but it was blocked with solid rock by now. Luna mumbled, "Oh, I hate my life so much," before a tweeting sound was heard.
"Raven," Ginny said, before realizing that she should have lowered her voice, "I bird watch when I'm bored or whatever." Then, something dropped into her hand. It felt very odd, sort of like a tiara, and clearly embedded with many stones, but Ginny was getting weird vibes from it. She could hear the snake slithering closer and Luna drawing her wand.
"This probably won't do anything, but Stupefy!" Luna yelled. That seemed to only make the basilisk more angry, though Ginny could hear it slow for half a second before speeding up. It was very close now and she could hear Voldemort laughing in the background. Figuring that she had nothing to lose, she shoved the tiara thing onto her head.
A warm feeling suddenly filled Ginny's bones and she felt as though she could see all around her, though her blindfold was still clearly on. Ginny now had a clear idea of what to do to defeat the basilisk. She raised her wand and shouted, "Mutatiogallus!" Ginny could hear the basilisk roar in rage, but could also detect a familiar sound: roosters crowing. The basilisk dropped and didn't move again. It was dead. Ginny got another sudden urge to rush over to where Percy was, and drive one of the teeth she had picked up from the basilisk's mouth into a book that she just discovered was beside him. Ginny heard another scream, but she knew that it wasn't Luna. And then there was silence. Ginny knew that she could remove her blindfold now, so she did.
Percy had just begun to wake up. He was still incredibly pale and cold, but he was definitely more alive than he was before. Luna had taken her blindfold off also at this point and had rushed over to Percy and Ginny. She looked at Ginny's head in shock, and Ginny took off the tiara.
"Nice crown, Gin," Percy mumbled sleepily, before getting up in a panic, "I swear, I never meant to petrify-"
"That's the diadem of Ravenclaw," Luna whispered in awe, "It hasn't been seen in a thousand years. Holy crap, what do we do with it? Oh, nice to see you awake Percy." Percy gave her an awkward nod of acknowledgement and went back to silently fretting about his punishment for his actions that were beyond his control. Ginny put back on the tiara and saw that they needed to destroy it, or it would play a critical and evil role in the future.
"We need to destroy it," Ginny said. Luna nodded automatically, trusting Ginny's judgement more than she did her own wish to explore the diadem's capabilities. Ginny brought down a basilisk fang onto the diadem and it essentially exploded in their faces. At least Percy and Luna had the sense to cover their faces, but Ginny got a full blast of the thousand year old metal. She could feel several new cuts open up on her face and flinched in pain.
"Yeah, let's get out of here. Blindfolds on in case there's another basilisk," Luna stated, folding a blindfold for Percy. He accepted it with a thank you and the three felt their way out of the chamber, Ginny grabbing the book, which she now realized was the same book that she had seen in the bathroom but covered in blood. After the fact, Ginny had no clue how they actually got back upstairs, but the fact remained that they did. A few minutes later, they were knocking on the headmaster's door, Luna knowing where it was from prior experience.
The door opened and the three pulled up their blindfolds, knowing that there would be no basilisk in here. The sight that greeted them was rather emotional. Mum and Dad were crying by the fireplace and Professor McGonnagall was offering them words of comfort for their "lost" children. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, observing the scene as though waiting for someone. The four turned to the children at the door and Mum and Dad rushed out of their seats to hug Percy and then Ginny.
"Oh, we thought you were dead!" Mum sobbed. Percy awkwardly pried her arms off of him and pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up his nose.
"How about you explain what happened and how you are still alive?" Professor McGonnagall prompted. Ginny nudged Luna indicating that she really did not want to speak right now. Luna understood and started explaining their wonderful adventure.
"See, Ginny and I figured out that the thing in the chamber was a basilisk yesterday after thinking about the attacks and what we saw Hermione Granger looking up in the library right before she was attacked. We figured that she was attacked because she knew too much about what the monster was. We were making our way to the teacher's lounge to tell you guys about the basilisk, but we heard that Percy was taken into the chamber. We figured that he had been possessed because we saw him writing in a book earlier this year that was the same as the book we once saw in a bathroom with a ton of dark energy surrounding it," Luna said, indicating the book Ginny had placed on the table in front of the adults, "So we made wonderful blindfolds to protect us from the basilisk's stare and went down to the chamber, met You-Know-Who, though he was clearly still going through puberty, almost got eaten by a basilisk, a cute little raven dropped the diadem of Ravenclaw on Ginny, who used it to defeat the basilisk and You-Know-Who, destroyed the diadem of Ravenclaw, and got out of there." Luna finished her speed summary of the day's events and stared at the adults expectantly.
When nobody responded, Luna rolled her eyes and said, "Percy, care to expand on the book?" Percy nodded nervously and explained everything from how he found the diary to how he was writing in it constantly and forgetting the days that the attacks were on. Once he finished, Ginny's father opened his mouth as though to scold Percy, but Luna silenced him with a sharp look that clearly stated to save the scolding for later.
"Well," Dumbledore said cheerfully, "Mister Weasley will suffer no punishment for his actions, as he was not the one controlling his actions at the time. I think that a steaming cup of hot chocolate is in order along with a dreamless sleep potion is in order for you, so if you would escort your son to the hospital wing-" But Dumbledore was unable to finish the thought, as Ginny and Luna had both jumped to their feet in rage.
"REALLY?" Luna yelled at the headmaster, who was rather surprised, "'A steaming cup of hot chocolate'? 'A dreamless sleep potion'? That's all that's going to happen?"
"Well, if you wanted punishment for Mister Weasley-" Dumbledore started in confusion.
"No, that is not at all what I am talking about," Luna rolled her eyes, "I can't even... Ginny, please explain for me, I need to take my migraine medication."
"Okay, I get that you're trying to be nice, but my brother has been through a very traumatic experience this year. He befriended a book that slowly manipulated him into dropping all of his relationships and only spending time with the book before making him attack other students and literally forcing him into a dark chamber full of snakes and sucking away his life force! You think that a 'steaming cup of hot chocolate' can fix the emotional scars that experience leaves?" Ginny asked, making air quotes, "It can't. He needs counselling to at least help him work through his experiences. Come to think of it, why are there no counselors in this school full of depressed, puberty affected teenagers? Why?" Ginny looked at Dumbledore expectantly, who just awkwardly cleared his throat, not expecting to be put on the spot like that. Ginny then turned to Luna and said, "This is ridiculous. I need to study for finals. Care to join?" Luna nodded and the two walked out of the room, leaving four adults and one teenager standing there awkwardly.
Quite honestly, it felt good.