Hermione felt her arms hit the bed with a thump. She ached all over; it wasn't painful, just uncomfortable. She wondered why, and then a memory came back to her like a bolt of lightning, a pair of huge of bulbous yellow eyes, reflected in a tiny hand mirror. She yelled out loud at sat up quickly. Her head rushed and pounded with the speed she'd risen and her vision swam in front of her.
"Miss Granger, it's all right, you're safe," said a voice as someone laid a hand on her arm.
Hermione turned to see Madam Pomfrey leaning over her. She set up a few pillows so Hermione could sit back comfortably and gently pushed her back into them.
"I was petrified?" Hermione asked, rubbing her stiff neck.
"Yes my dear," Madam Pomfrey said, pouring her some water and handing it to her. "Now drink this in very small sips."
Hermione brought the glass to her lips. Her brain felt slowed and everything was muddled but she felt like there was something important she had to do. Suddenly it came to her and she sat bolt upright again, spilling some of the water over herself.
"Madam Pomfrey where's Professor McGonogall! I have to see her – I know what the monster is!" Hermione shrieked frantically.
"Miss Granger calm down, tell me what you mean." Madam Pomfrey said, attempting to push her back into bed.
"I worked it out, it's a Basilisk! Please get Professor McGonogall or Dumbledore or someone please!" Hermione's voice grew shriller – why couldn't she understand?
Just as Madam Pomfrey opened her mouth the hospital wing doors opened and Ginny entered, accompanied by Mr and Mrs Weasley.
"Miss Weasley!" Madam Pomfrey yelled, jumping up and hurrying over to her. "You're alive! Oh thank heavens! Come and sit down … come, come"
Hermione was left alone and utterly confused. Why on earth were Mr and Mrs Weasley here and why would Ginny have been dead. Hermione turned to look in the beds beside her. Justin Finch-Fletchly, Colin Creevey and the prefect Hermione had stopped were in beds next to her, sipping water and looking slightly bewildered.
"Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione called across the room. She and the Weasley party looked at her. "Please I have to see Professor McGonogall! You're not understanding!" tears began to leak out of Hermione's eyes.
Mrs Weasley looked like she wanted to come over but Ginny was nuzzled tightly against her looking pale and terrified. "Miss Granger you've got to try to calm down, everything's going to be … Oh thank Merlin, Minerva!"
Hermione whipped her head around to see Professor McGonogall striding into the hospital wing. Hermione swung her legs out of bed.
"Professor!" she called, wiping the tears on her face.
"Miss Granger get back into bed this second!" scolded Professor McGonogall, walking over to her.
"Please Professor I know what the monster is – it's a Basilisk!" Hermione shouted.
Professor McGonogall stopped, staring at her. Hermione suddenly felt dizzy and although she didn't want to she sat back against her pillows, putting her feet back into the bed.
"How did you know?" asked Professor McGonogall, walking over to her and sitting on the edge of her bed.
"It's Harry, he's been hearing a voice all year. But Ron and I haven't been able to hear it. Then I realised Harry can speak Parseltonge so he could be hearing a snake that Ron and I couldn't understand. So I went to the library and I…" Hermione paused, looking down at her right hand. It was empty. "They solved it! They found the page in my hand! You know it's a basilisk." She yelped.
Professor McGonogall continued to look at her in amazement. Then she said "Miss Granger I want you to explain everything you know slower to me."
Hermione took a deep breathe. "I went to the library and I found out about a Basilisk. They can live for hundreds of years and can kill with their eyes. But I realised no one had looked at it directly – Mrs Norris saw a reflection, Colin saw it through his camera and Justin saw it through Nearly Headless Nick. It all fitted. Then I wondered how it was getting around the school and I remembered Harry has been hearing the voice from the walls – it had been using the pipes! I ripped the page out the book and wrote pipes on it then I knew I needed to find you so I started to go down to the Quidditch pitch but I realised that Harry had heard the voice today … that day … and that I could get attacked because I'm Muggle-born so I used this little mirror I had to look around corners. I stopped the girl I found, the prefect, and we looked round the next corner with the mirror and…" Hermione took a great shuddering breathe, tears spilling from eyes again. "But Professor did Harry and Ron find it all out, the note in my hand has gone! What's happened?"
Professor McGonogall leaned forwards and took hold of Hermione's arms, trying to calm her. "Miss Granger you have been so brave. You need to calm down. The Basilisk is dead. I let Mr Weasley and Mr Potter visit you for the first time earlier today and they must have found your note."
"It's d-dead?" Hermione asked in a hushed voice.
"Yes, Potter and Weasley just arrived back – they went into the chamber."
"The entrance! Was it Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, I didn't write that down but I guessed but it was a bit of a wild leap…" Hermione said quickly. "Wait why did they go into to chamber, are they okay?"
"Yes the entrance was Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and they're absolutely fine amazingly. They went in to save Ginny Weasley."
Hermione looked over at the little girl. Her face was still pale and traced with tear tracks. She held her mother's hand whilst she drank a mug of something steaming.
"But why would Ginny have been in the chamber?" Hermione asked quietly. "She's pure-blood."
Professor McGonogall moved slightly closer to her and lowered her voice.
"Now this is for your ears and yours only," She said softly. "I'm only telling you because you know so much already and because Mr Potter and Mr Weasley would tell you anyway. Ginny had been writing in a diary, a diary which slowly began to possess her,"
"Not Tom Riddle's diary?" Hermione asked, shocked.
Professor McGonogall stared at her. "How exactly is it that you know everything Miss Granger! I take it you didn't manage to work out who Tom Riddle is?"
Hermione shook her head.
"Tom Riddle was You-Know-Who's name when he was a pupil at this school."
Hermione's eyes grew round as galleons and her mouth opened into a little oh.
"Yes! The diary had been possessing Miss Weasley and making her open the Chamber, she didn't know she was doing this." Professor McGonogall said sadly.
"So Tom Riddle opened the Chamber originally and blamed it on Hagrid!" Hermione breathed, understanding coming to her.
"That's right. The diary made Miss Weasley go into the Chamber and when Potter and Weasley found out they used what they had learnt from the note you had to go after her. They'll tell you the full story of what happened down there I'm sure but they made it out alive and Mr Potter killed the snake."
Hermione sat back in her pillows, relief – warm and glorious – flooding over her. A few more tears leaked out of her eyes in happiness.
"So it's all over?" she asked tentatively.
"It's all over. Your parents came and saw you, the day after you were petrified by the way," Professor McGonogall said, she too sitting back slightly.
"They did? Wait how long has it been since I was petrified?" Hermione asked, her head reeling slightly again.
"It's been nearly two months. Yes I wrote to your parents and they came." Professor McGonogall said nodding. "You should probably know that your father asked whether the attack was intended or random. I told him it was completely random."
Hermione felt thankful and touched. Her parents would be so upset if they thought they were the reason she's been petrified. "Thank you," Hermione whispered.
"Not at all. Now I must go back to the Great Hall, there is a feast just starting which I'm sure you will all come and join soon." Professor McGonogall stood up and began to walk away, then she turned back around to face Hermione. "As I said, you were incredibly brave and clever to work out about the basilisk. I'll repeat what I said last year, I'm extremely proud to have you in my house."
Hermione's heart seemed to swell with pride as she watched Professor McGonogall's retreating form. She closed her eyes for a few seconds.
"Hermione?" said a voice from next to her. Hermione turned to see the curly haired prefect. "I think … I think I owe you a thank you. By the sound of what you were saying to Professor McGonogall if you handed stopped me I'd be dead. My name's Penelope by the way."
Hermione smiled and thanked her. After this Madam Pomfrey bustled over. She made all four of the students who'd been petrified and Nearly Headless Nick stand up slowly and one at a time she helped them wander around the room. At first they all stumbled slightly but after a short while Hermione could walk absolutely fine. However it took a further half an hour for Madam Pomfrey to deem them all well enough to go to the feast. Leaving Ginny and Mr and Mrs Weasley alone the group of them walked through the quiet castle towards the Great Hall, Madam Pomfrey clutching a perfectly revived Mrs Norris. All of them stood slightly nervously outside the huge doors before Madam Pomfrey pushed them open.
For a short second, silence greeted them before an explosion of clapping and cheering began. Many students began to stand up but Hermione's eyes were searching for only two people. She spotted Harry and Ron quickly as they stood up before most of the Gryffindor table, their faces alight with happiness as they clapped. Hermione didn't plan it but one second she was standing in the doorway and the next she was flying towards them, screaming "You solved it! You solved it!" She sprinted up to them and threw her arms around their necks, drinking in Harry's warm bread smell and Ron's smoky, earthy smell. She had never felt so happy in her entire life and she kept repeating "You solved it!" whilst hugging them. They were alive and had worked it all out, saving Ginny and killing the Basilisk in the process. They laughed as she finally let go of them but before she could say anything else many arms enveloped her from behind. Parvati, Lavender, Lucy and Julie were all hugging her, their words of how glad they were she was okay mixing together making it difficult to understand. Then Seamus, Dean and Neville were patting her arms and rubbing her head, still whooping and cheering. All around them the friends of Colin, Justin and Penelope were also hugging and shouting.
"You did it, I'm so proud of you!" Hermione squealed as she finally sat down between Harry and Ron.
"Couldn't have done it without you though!" Harry said, loading her plate full of food for her. "You gave us all the answers with that book page."
Ron nodded along with Harry. "We're glad you're OK though!" he said, tipping peas onto both of their plates.
Hogwarts feasts were always enjoyable but Hermione had never experienced one like this. Most of the students were in the pyjamas, the food stayed at the table for hours and people ran between the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw houses to chat and hug. The atmosphere was one of high spirits which were only raised when Hagrid turned up at half past three. Hermione had no idea where he had been – she had a lot to catch up on but he gave her a rib-crushing hug before cuffing Ron and Harry hard on the shoulders and sending them both into their plates of trifle. At around four in the morning Professor Dumbledore announced the results of the house cup. To her complete joy Ron and Harry had won an incredible 200 points apiece meaning Gryffindor had won the cup by a clear mile. Hermione had hugged the boys again as the Gryffindor table erupted in cheers and screams, many people leaning over to shake Harry and Ron's hands or ruffle their hair. A little while later Professor McGonogall stood up to say that all exams had been cancelled as a school treat. Hermione exclaimed 'Oh no!" out loud, she had revised so hard and had been looking forward to seeing how well she could have done. Finally to yet more cheers in a night already saturated with them Professor Dumbledore announced that Professor Lockhart would not be returning next year owing to the need to go away and get his memory back. Hermione watched as Professor Mcgonogall cheered along with many of the pupils.
"Shame," said Ron as he helped himself to a jam doughnut. "He was starting to grow on me."
Hermione's brow furrowed. "What do you mean? What happened to his memory?"
The boys laughed heartily. Puddings continued to appear well into the early hours of the morning and the entire hall felt like it was in a bubble of laughter and fun. All in all Hermione couldn't remember a better evening in her entire life.
AN: It's when Jo writes bits like this feast that I think I would give up everything to go to Hogwarts haha! So Hermione's awake and our story's coming to a close - just one more chapter to go! What did you think of this chapter? Did it all make sense? Please review, it's the only encouragement fanfic writers get! Love you all x