Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, and under no circumstance do I claim ownership to the series.

Chapter 36: Ending the Year on a High Note

A/N: YAY THE LAST CHAPTER IN BOOK TWO! It's a shorter one, but the next should be longer. I was just trying to finish up CoS you know.

Also, my poll will still be open for a bit longer if you want to vote. So far, Cedric and Astoria are tied in first, so I think they'll both get it, so yeah. Unless there's a shift. I think that I'll close the poll once I post the next chapter. So soonish.

Anyways, thank you all so much for reading, I love you!

When Evanna finally arrived at the feast, Fred and George bombarded her with questions about what Dumbledore had talked to her about. She told them all about the Sword of Gryffindor, and how that meant she was a true Gryffindor, and how Voldemort, or Tom Riddle as she had started to insist on calling him, had put a bit of his soul into her when she killed him as a baby, and how she had helped free Dobby the house-elf. They were awestruck when she had finished.

But then they were distracted by the doors of the Great Hall opening and all of those who had been petrified running into the room. Ron and Hermione made a beeline towards Evanna, hugging her so tightly that the twins thought she made break. She hugged them back, and they could hear her sniffing back tears.

"You did it, you figured it out," Ron whispered. "I mean, I didn't have any doubt you would but, you did it!"

"How did you kill the Basilisk though?" Hermione asked in awe.

And so, Evanna retold the story of how she and the twins had gone into the forest and learned that the girl was killed in a bathroom, and how Ginny had helped her deduce that Moaning Myrtle was the one who had been killed, and how they made it into the Chamber of Secrets, and how Lockhart had lost his memory ("Oh no!" Hermione cried, then went red when they all gave her a look), and how it had been Tom Riddle controlling Ginny all along, and how Fawkes had arrived with the Sorting Hat, and how she had been able to pull the Sword of Gryffindor from its depths, and how she had killed both the Basilisk and the diary. By the end of her story, everyone who had been listening were staring at her wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

Justin Finch-Fletchley, who had been listening to her adventure as well, began to apologize profusely for ever believing that she was the Heir. She grinned, forgiving him immediately, and saying how suspicious she had been at any rate, and how she was just happy that they could still be friends.

Then, a little while afterwards, Hagrid came back, giving Evanna, Ron, Hermione and the twins a large hug, thanking them for getting him out of Azkaban, McGonagall canceled the exams, much to Hermione's dismay, and Dumbledore announced that Lockhart wouldn't be able to return the next year, due to the priority of getting his memory back, earning applause from a large portion of the school.

As she grinned and chatted with her friends, Evanna thought that overall this had been a pretty good outcome for the year that Tom Riddle had almost returned.

Ginny sat with her best friends, Neville, Tracey, and Luna, under a tree by the lake. It had been a while since the whole 'Chamber of Secrets' incident. She was happy that they still were her friends, even after everything she had done. They said the same sort of thing that Evanna had, that it hadn't really been her fault and that they still loved her just the same.

"You should've given me the diary," Tracey was saying. "I would've been able to kill it for you."

"How?" Neville asked nervously.

"I have connections," was all Tracey said in reply, only making Neville more nervous. He needn't have been, Tracey would never harm him or Luna or Ginny or anyone who wasn't a villain.

Ginny grinned. She was considerably more happy than she had been the rest of the year (and yet, at the same time, more nervous). "I think it's kind of good that I did what I did though, or else Evanna might never have solved the mystery."

"I think she might've," Luna disagreed. "She seems really smart."

"Eh, you're probably right," Ginny said. "But it's too late now. Tom is finally dead, and so's the Basilisk. If I'm honest," she lowered her voice, leaning towards her friends, "I wasn't as scared of the Basilisk as I was of Tom Riddle."

"I'd be more scared of him too," Neville said, shivering with memories. None of the girls pressed on what he was thinking of, making him extremely grateful.

"Me too," Tracey agreed, and Luna bobbed her head along as well. Ginny was glad for the support, and smiled softly.

"Ginny, have you been having any symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?" Luna asked, hoping that she hadn't. "Or any problems at all? It was a rather traumatic experience, I'm sure."

Her smile was gone in an instant and Ginny shifted uncomfortably. She didn't want anybody worrying over her, especially her friends, but if she was going to tell anybody, it would be them. "Yes. I have nightmares, and insomnia too. But Madam Pomfrey said that sometimes symptoms of PTSD don't show until months afterwards, so." Ginny shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, but she was actually really nervous.

"Oh, Ginny," Tracey said sympathetically, "we'll help you through this."

Ginny smiled softly. "Thanks guys." She stood up and stretched. "I think I'm going to go back inside the castle, I'm really hungry. I'll be right back, okay?"

Ginny skipped up towards the castle. She actually was hungry, but she really just wanted to be alone for a few minutes. She didn't want to topic of her trauma to continue. Unfortunately, her plans of getting to the castle uninterrupted were foiled when someone bumped into her, falling over.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Ginny cried, immediately grabbing both his hands and helping the boy to his feet. Then she realized who he was.

She and Draco Malfoy stared at each other for a good minute before recoiling.

Draco didn't say anything mean, just looked at her as if he had never seen her before. Despite the fact that he was usually a horrible person, Ginny still picked up Draco's books from the ground and handed them it him. He took them gratefully.

"Er, thanks, Weasley," Draco said, in surprise and without malice.

"You're welcome, Malfoy," she said awkwardly, but also without contempt. "Er, I'll just be going then."

"Yeah, uh, bye," Draco agreed, and they each went their separate ways. But unbeknownst to the other, they snuck looks back at the other's retreating figure.

The year had ended too quickly, Evanna decided, as she sat down next to Ginny and Ron in their compartment in the Hogwarts Express, with Fred, Hermione and George across from them. After the whole 'Chamber of Secrets' incident, the rest of the year had been really fun and relaxing. Evanna was sad to see it end and have to go back to the Dursleys.

But they were making the most of their train ride back. They played a few dozen games of Exploding Snap, set off the last of Fred and George's Filibuster Fireworks, and practiced disarming each other. Evanna had become the best of all of them.

"Oh yeah, did you hear who Percy's girlfriend was?" Evanna asked with a grin.

"I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom earlier this year," Ginny giggled. "They're rather cute."

"What?!" Fred and George gasped in unison, their heads whipping towards the girls. Then George elbowed his twin, who had dropped a stack of books on his head from where he had been putting them away on the overhead compartment. Fred grinned sheepishly as George passed the books back up to him.

"Percy has a girlfriend?" Ron asked dubiously. Though it was hard to be too dubious when he was trying not to laugh at the twins.

"Penelope Clearwater, a Ravenclaw prefect," Ginny explained. "She was petrified with you guys."

"That's why Percy was so distraught about her being petrified, not because she was a prefect, but because they were dating," Evanna added. "That's how I figured it out, in fact." Evanna looked sternly at the twins, who had mischievous smirks on their faces. "You won't tease him, will you?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early. Hermione hit him with an equally stern glare.

"Definitely not," said George, sniggering at his twin who was now looking at the bookworm with a mix between shock, anger and something else.

"Keep those two in line," Evanna said, nudging Ginny and Ron.

"Of course," Ginny grinned, as Ron gave a salute and Fred and George gave a 'Hey!' of protest. Hermione giggled.

"Oh yeah, one more thing," Evanna said, as the train began to slow down. She pulled out her sketchbook and ripped out a piece of paper. She wrote the Dursleys' phone number down four times and ripped it to give each person a piece (except the twin, who shared everything anyways). "This is called a phone number. You can call me on the telephone."

"Oh, Katie taught us how to use one of those," Fred said.

"We'll probably still owl you though," George said. "Telephones are weird."

"They aren't that weird," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "Oh, but Evanna, I think my parents were planning for us to go to France this summer, so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to call . . ."

"That's fine, have fun if you do go," Evanna grinned as they all got off together.

"Will your family be proud that you saved the school?" Ginny asked.

"Nope," Evanna laughed. Then she pulled Fred, George and Ron to the side while Ginny and Hermione exchanged Hermione's phone number. "Look, I think that Ginny's going to have some troubles readjusting to life after everything that happened this year and, no offense to your parents, but I don't think they'll be much help to her. You guys need to be the ones who help her."

"Of course," Ron agreed, while the twins nodded their heads vigorously. "See you, Evanna."

"Yeah, we'll see you this summer hopefully!" Fred added.

Evanna grinned widely. "You guys are the best friends anyone could ever have!"

She hugged each person tightly, almost squishing poor Ginny, who had never been hugged so tightly before except maybe by her mother, and then, grasping the hands of Ron and Hermione, headed through the barrier to the Muggle world.

Only a week after school had let out for the summer, Ron excitedly dialed Evanna's number into the telephone that his dad had got. He had to tell her the good news! But he paused midway through dialing. How would they be able to hear him all the way in Surrey? Perhaps he needed to shout, yes that seemed right.

"Vernon Dursley speaking."

Ah yes, that was Evanna's uncle!

"HELLO? HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"Ron!" Ginny, who had been walking by, snatched the telephone from him. "That's not how you use a phone!" She began to speak into the phone. "Mr. Dursley? I'm sorry about my brother. He isn't the brightest. I'd like to speak to your niece please."

"What is this? Why do you want her?"

"We need to discuss her recent behavior," Ginny said confidently, making sure it sounded like Evanna was in trouble. She could almost hear the man smirk as he yelled for Evanna to come answer the phone.

"Hello?" Evanna asked nervously.

"Evanna!" Both Ginny and Ron were speaking into the phone now, holding it awkwardly between them.

"Ron! Ginny!" Evanna grinned. "It's so great to hear your voices!"

"Evanna, guess what?" Ron asked, remembering why he had originally called. "Dad won the Grand Prize Galleon Draw! We've got seven hundred galleons! We're going to all go visit Bill in Egypt over the summer. I just thought I should let you know before we go out of contact for a while."

"Ron, that's awesome!" Evanna cried. "And how have you been, Ginny?"

"Good."

Ginny scowled when Ron nudged her.

"Okay, okay, I might still have some nightmares. And insomnia. But that's all! I'm fine, really!"

"Ron, you and the twins are helping her?"

"Yeah."

Ginny huffed, crossing her arms angrily. She hated it when people talked about her as if she wasn't even there! Besides, she was honestly doing fine! She didn't want anyone worrying over her more than they needed to.

"Okay, good. Er, I think that my uncle's clued in to the fact that you guys aren't scolding me or anything, I should go. Owl me from Egypt?"

"Of course!"

"Okay, tell the twins I say hi!"

"Bye Evanna!"

Once they had hung up, Ron looked quizzically over at his younger sister. "How'd you know how to use the phone?"

"Tracey taught me," Ginny said. "She's a half-blood; her mother is Muggle-born, so she knows about a bunch of Muggle stuff, along with Wizarding stuff."

Ron opened his mouth to reply, but then the twins had come out of nowhere and cried, "You were talking to Evanna without us?!"

"Yeah, so?" Ron asked.

"We wanted to talk to her too!" Fred said.

"Well you shouldn't call her again, at least not today. I think her uncle got mad at her," Ginny said, taking the phone out of George's hand. "Besides, we're going to Egypt soon, you could just Owl her."

"Or if you're so intent on talking to her, send her a Howler."

Ron just grinned at the two identical glares sent his way.

The week after, Evanna had another phone call addressed to her. Luckily, this time, the Dursleys were out of the house, so she was the one who answered. "Hello?"

"Evanna!"

"Hermione! It is so great to hear your voice!"

"It's so amazing to hear you too! Oh, did Ron tell you?"

"That the Weasleys are going to Egypt? Yeah, he and Ginny called me last week."

"Well, I'm going to be in France for the same amount of time! I'm sorry, since I don't have an owl, it'll be harder for me to keep in touch . . ."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Mione! I just hope you have fun!"

"Oh, Evanna, you're too nice! But thank you. I hope your family treats you well. Or, at least, better than usual."

"I think that's a bit much to ask," Evanna sighed. "Anyways, I hear their car, so I should be going. See you at Hogwarts!"

A/N: WOO BOOK TWO IS OVER! READY TO START BOOK THREE! PoA and OotP were my favourite books, idk why, so I'm really excited :D

Please review and vote on the poll if you want to! ~Jayce