Chapter 19

"Quickly!" Harry told everyone, "Do Annie's spell!" I performed my spell as the others did the same. Then I closed my eyes. I detected the snake moving out of the statue. Neville was the first to lift his wand and point it at the snake. Neville, Ron and I immediately followed his lead. Fawkes charged forward and started clawing madly at the basilisk's eyes. It let out a horrible hiss of pain.

"NOOO!" Screamed Riddle. "Your bird may have blinded the basilisk, but it can still smell you." I opened my eyes. The basilisk was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen . It was three times more frightening than Fluffy and that was saying something. What I wouldn't give to be able to transfigure a rooster right now, I thought.

Riddle hissed at it and it charged at Harry. I fired an weak cutting curse at it but that simply bounced off it's scaly snake skin. Harry dived out of the way as it lunged at him. I looked around and picked up a sharp rock off the floor. I ran forward and plunged it as hard as I could into the tale. Stupid, I know. It barely penetrated the skin but it did divert the basilisk's attention away from Harry, who was currently putting on the sorting hat. The giant serpent jerked forward towards me. Neville tried to pull me out of the way but the basilisk managed to sink one of it's fangs into my side. Blood started to pour rapidly from the wound. Why am I always the one who gets badly injured? I wined in my head.

Harry finally pulled the sword of Gryffindor out of the hat. He charged at the basilisk, who's attention was still on me, and swung the sword as hard as he could at the basilisk's neck. The powerful sword cut clean through the basilisk, beheading it. "NOOO!" Screamed riddle again. I spotted the diary a few meters away. I painfully crawled towards it, pulled the fang out of my side and plunged it into the diary. Riddle let out an unearthly, deafening, scream and he was gone in a flash of light.

Harry and Neville rushed towards me. Ron was still at his sister's side, who was starting to stir. I felt my vision start to blur. Blood was soaking my robes. Luckily Fawkes quickly flew towards me. He bent his head over my wound and let a few tears fall on it. I felt myself regaining strength. I looked down and saw that the wound was closing. "Thanks, Fawkes." I said with a smile. I quickly stuffed the fang in my pocket. Luckily no one saw me. I would need it to destroy the diadem.

"Cool." Harry muttered. Ginny was now fully conscious and she and Ron had come over to us.

"I-I'm so so s-sorry!" Ginny was sobbing. "I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't. It was me 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 th-that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary-"

"It's okay Ginny." Harry assured her. "Riddle's gone. Nothing but a memory." I smiled bitterly at his choice of words.

"We should get out of here." Ron said. I stood up shakily and we made our was back through to the entrance.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but how are we going to get back up?" Neville asked.

"I didn't think of that." Harry admitted with a slight blush.

"Why does Salazar Slytherin have to have an aversion to stairs?" I asked aloud. Fawkes then flew in front of Harry face.

"I think he wants you to grab him." Said Ron.

"A bird can't possibly lift us." Neville said in confusion.

"Fawkes is no ordinary bird." Harry and I both said at the same time. We all held onto each other and Harry took hold of Fawkes.

Fawkes stretched out his wings and with one fluid motion, was in the air. It didn't seem to take much effort for him to start dragging us along behind him. We soon were back in the girls bathroom. We quickly decided to go to professor McGonagall's office.

...

We soon found her door and Harry opened it. Mr and Mrs Weasley were in there as well as Dumbledore. They all just stared at us for a moment. I suppose we would be quite a sight to see. We were all covered in dirt. Harry was holding the sorting hat and the bloody sword of Gryffindor. I was still covered in blood and clutching the diary, which now had a huge hole in the middle.

"We tried to tell you we figured out how to get into the chamber." I said, breaking the silence. Mrs Weasley then rushed forward and embraced her son and daughter fiercely. Then she hugged the rest of us in turn.

"What on earth did you do?" Spluttered professor McGonagall angrily.

"Well, we couldn't very well let Ginny die and you weren't listening to us!" I snapped.

"Please tell us what happened." Said Dumbledore in a calm voice.

We started from the beginning. We told them about Dobby and how Harry is a parselmouth. We explained how he was hearing the monster. We didn't want to mention Ravenclaw library so we said that we figured out the monster was some kind of snake because Harry could hear it. Then we said that Hermione found out about basilisks before she was petrified. We said we figured out where the entrance was because of Moaning Myrtle. Harry then went into a lengthy explanation of the Diary and Tom Riddle.

Then he explained the conversation he had with Riddle. He decided to leave out the part where I was mocking Riddle. He probably thought I was a little nuts. I then continued the story. "After I found out that the monster was a basilisk, I tried to find a spell that would enable us to umm...see without seeing, if that makes sense." I explained. "Unfortunately, there was no such spell so I invented one."

The adults in the room gasped. "Really?" McGonagall asked.

"Umm, yeah. It enables you to know where things are while you have your eyes closed." I told them. "Anyway, we used this when the basilisk came out so that we would not be running around blindly and bumping into each other. Fawkes then blinded it so we could look again. Then, Harry put on the sorting hat and asked it for help. I saw the basilisk going for him so I picked up a sharp rock and stabbed it's tail to distract it. It then bit my side, which is why I'm covered in blood. It would have been lots worse if Neville hadn't pulled me to the side though."

There was some gasping. "How are you still alive?" Asked McGonagall.

"I'm getting there. Be patient." I said. She frowned at me but let me continue. "Harry then pulled the sword of Godric Gryffindor out of the sorting hat and beheaded the basilisk while it's attention was diverted. After that, I saw the diary and figured that once I destroyed it Riddle would go away, so I pulled the basilisk fang out of my side and stabbed the diary. Riddle then disappeared. The basilisk venom was quickly killing me but then Fawkes came and healed me with his tears." I then turned to the others. "Did I miss anything?"

"Nah, I think that covers it." Said Harry.

The adults were all gaping at us. I could see that McGonagall was extremely guilty for not listening to us. Mrs Weasley seemed to be deciding weather she should be grateful we were all alive or angry we could have died. I think angry one out. "You could have been killed! What on earth were you thinking?!" She practically yelled at us.

"If the teachers had listened to us, then we wouldn't have had to do all that." I defended. Then I felt really bad because Mrs Weasley directed her anger at professor McGonagall.

"Why did you not listen to them?!" She asked.

"Now now, Molly." Said Dumbledore in a calming voice. "Lets not start blaming each other. Lets just be happy everyone is okay." He turned to us. "You will each receive awards for special services to the school and one hundred points each. You were very brave and I am proud of all of you. Now, I expect Madame Pomfrey will be wanting to see all of you."

Everyone left the room but Dumbledore beckoned for Harry to stay behind so that they could have a word. We continued on to the hospital wing. After a quick assessment Madame Pomfrey determined that we were all extremely dirty but completely fine. The Weasley reluctantly went home and we traveled back to the common room.

...

We reached the portrait hole. "Where on earth have you been?" Scolded the fat lady. I couldn't be bothered explaining so I just said the password and she swung aside with an annoyed huff. We walked into the common room and immediately everyone stopped talking. I'd forgotten what we looked like. "You're alive!" Fred and George yelled in relief as they rushed forward with Percy on there tails. They hugged Ron and Ginny. You could see that they had been crying.

"Why are you covered in blood?!" Fred asked me in alarm when he noticed me. Everyone suddenly looked at me. I squirmed under there stares.

"Umm... Well..." I struggled for the right words.

"She got bit by a basilisk." Ron blurted. I saw Lavender Brown faint.

"Yeah right." Percy Snorted.

"What's a basilisk?" Asked George.

"The monster in the chamber of secrets is a basilisk." I explained. Everyone was staring in shock. "Its a giant snake that kills by looking people in the eye and has one of the fastest acting venomous in the world."

"Neville, Harry, Joanne and I went into the chamber of secrets to save Ginny because the teachers wouldn't listen to us when we tried to tell them what we knew." Ron said.

"Harry killed the monster with the sword of Godric Gryffindor, while Joanne was distracting it and it bit her." Said Neville.

"Then Dumbledore's pet Phoenix healed me." I said. Now people were just looking at us like we were out of our minds. I could tell no one believed a word we were saying.

"It's true." Ginny insisted. "They saved me." No one seemed to believe us. Then Dumbledore's amplified voice rang out so everyone could hear.

"We are all safe. The monster in the chamber of secrets has been killed and Ginny Weasley has been saved. I would like to acknowledge the intelligence and bravery of four students who found the chamber and killed the basilisk that was inside while saving Miss Weasley. Harry Potter, Joanne Rogers, Neville Longbottom, and Ron Weasley each receive one hundred points for their house and will be getting awards for special services to the school."

Now everyone was gaping at them just like the adults had done before. It was so embarrassing. Then someone started cheering and soon the whole common room had burst into cheers and applause. Ron seemed to be the only one who was loving the attention. Everyone then demanded the story and we found ourselves explaining again from the beginning.

After we were finished, Harry walked in with a huge smile on his face. He was greeted by massive applause, much to his embarrassment. "I freed Dobby!" He told us happily.

"That's great!" I said.

Hermione would be back tomorrow. I know I missed her terribly and I was sure the others did too. We all went to bed as soon as people stopped demanding we repeated the story.

...