Chapter 10

The Chamber Again

It was just as he remembered it. Cold and full of slime. He landed on the bottom and pulled out his wand and tried a new spell that gave him fire on the end of it.

"Ginny?"

"In the corner," Sally said.

Ginny sat in the corner hugging her knees. "She'sss frightened, but not really."

"Gin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," but she couldn't look him in the eye.

He sat down next to her. Sally didn't seem to know what to do. "Sal," he hissed, "I don't want to scare her more, but I don't know how to get out of here, go try to figure it out, okay?"

"Gottcha."

"What's wrong Ginny?"

"It's just, this place. It brings back a lot of unhappy memories."

"Sure, but you know, this whole school brings back a bunch of unhappy memories, and I'd still rather be here then at home."

Ginny smiled slightly. "We should go look around, see what's changed."

"Yeah, but we don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, I do."

They set off and reached the rock pile from last time. At some point it had re-collapsed, making it easy to climb over. On the other side was the snake skin, still there. Ginny started to breathe rather hard.

"You know, this place needs a little house keeping. I wish your mom were here."

Ginny laughed rather forced and pulled out her wand. "I know a spell mom uses a lot. It does pretty much everything. Trishlip!" The snake skin disappeared, and some of the grime around that area went away.

"Well, that'll work for that sort of thing, but we need to get down here and use some Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover."

"Yeah," she started onward.

They moved through the tunnel, using the fire on Harry's wand as light. Harry had to quicken his pace to match Ginny's. "Why do you want to get down there so bad?"

This question caused her to slow down slightly, and she took her time answering. "I guess in a way, it's just closure. This place is in my nightmares, and it's haunted me. I just need to prove to myself that I can over come it."

Harry didn't respond to this, and they kept going though the twisting tunnel. When they reached the end, the serpents on the wall gave Ginny a fright, which caused her to fall backwards into Harry. Harry caught her and she didn't move for a moment. Then she stood and turned. She started to run, but Harry caught her again. She buried her face in his shoulder.

"I can't do it Harry, I just can't."

"Yes you can. I'm right here."

"No I can't. They look so alive, so real."

"They needed to be, so Tom could open it. Before I had practice, I couldn't speak Parseltounge unless I was face to face with a real snake."

"I can't do it. Tom. The Basilisk. The diary."

"Tom is as good as dead. The Basilisk is dead. The diary has been destroyed. Nothing can happen. You can do this."

"Okay, your right, I can." She turned and walked foreword very slowly, her hands trembling. Harry grabbed her one hand to stop the tremble, and she didn't let go. He didn't mind.

When they reached the wall, Harry hissed "open" again. The smell that reached them was horrid. The chamber was already dimly lit, so there was no reason for his wand fire. Seeing the stone pillars, Ginny's hand squeezed harder. Harry squeezed back reassuringly. They moved foreword slowly, approaching the large mound.

When the rotting body of the Basilisk came in to view, Ginny fell on her knees on the floor. She cried, and Harry did his best to comfort her.

"Oh, Harry. Were you scared?"

"Yes and no. I was scared that I was to late to save you. I was scared that Riddle would keep me from getting to you. He tried to keep me talking, so he could keep sucking your life away. But I never had time to be scared of the Basilisk. And I was too angry at Riddle to be afraid of him. The scariest part, I guess, was when I shook you and you wouldn't wake up."

"I didn't know about that.'

"Of course you didn't silly, you wouldn't wake up."

She didn't smile this time. He sighed. "I don't know what to do with this thing. I mean, it just doesn't seem right to get rid of it. But it stinks."

"We can get rid of it later, but you know, it's not everyday you have a chance to harvest basilisk venom, or blood, or crushed bone. I bet all it's parts can be used in different potions."

"I never thought about that."

"Filled with all it's horrors, we should go see Snape. He could help us."

"That's scarier then the Basilisk."

Ginny laughed slightly, then stopped, going quite. "Harry, tell me what happened that night, completely. Don't hold anything out. I need to know, so I can put it behind me."

"Alright..." They both sat down and he told her the whole story, how they found out what it was, where it was, and how to get there. How Lockhart hit himself with the spell, the rocks that separated him and Ron. Then everything that Riddle had told him, and fighting the Basilisk.

Ginny's face didn't change for the whole time. Then when he finished the story, she didn't move. That was about when Sally showed up.

"Harry, I- Dear God what'sss wrong with Ginny?"

Ginny just sat there. Harry didn't know that anything was wrong. "She looks fine to me."

"Her emotionsss! Fear, regret, pain, hate, and an overwhelming sssence of guilt!"

"Guilt? Ginny, are you okay?"

She stared at him. "It was all my fault," she said simply, as though it were obvious. "I did it all, it was all my fault."

"No, Ginny! No! It wasn't your fault, you didn't do anything!"

"It was all my fault. All of it."

"No, it was Voldemort's fault Ginny. All of it was his fault. You didn't do anything." He pulled her into a hug and her tears started on his shoulder.

"It's my fault, it is, if it hadn't been for me-"

"Then Voldemort would have found somebody else who wasn't as strong, and would have been dead by the time I got here."

She was silent for a moment.

"You see Ginny? It's not your fault. If it hadn't been you, it would have been another. We're all lucky it was you, so we could stop it."

She just cried now. Sobbing and letting all of it out. Sally lingered beside her. As Ginny was slowly getting over it, Sally spoke.

"Come on girl, you know I hate to sssee you upssset."

"Sorry Sal-" Ginny stopped and stared at her in shock.

"Did you just understand her?" Harry asked, just as shocked.

"I- I think s-so."

"Ginny! Can you understand me? Please say yes."

"Yes! What happened?"

"I never thought it would work. I put it right out of my mind." Harry said shaking his head.

"What? What worked?"

"Let me try parseltounge, can you understand me?" She nodded. "Well, what I thought a long time ago was that since you were a Parseltongue in your first year, then maybe you might be able to understand Sally. But then I realized you had already heard me speak it and hadn't understood it, so it wouldn't work. I don't understand why it works now."

"I do," Sally put in.

"Sal, your voice is just like I imagined it."

"All thisss time Ginny hasss been blocking out thisss whole experience. That'sss why, when she was dissstracted, I ssseemed to be able to get to her. Like when I wanted out on the windowsssill. Now that she has confronted the experience, she's not unconsssciousssly blocking out the little bit of Voldemort left in her."

"You mean there's some of him left in me!"

"It's nothing to be afraid of Ginny, there's some of him left in me too."

"So, I could have done this before?"

"No, not quite. You were blocking it unconsssciousssly, ssso it would have taken Harry telling you the whole ssstory to bring it out."

"You can't speak it, can you?" Harry was slightly jealous that she could understand Sally too.

"No."

"Now Harry, you know you can't keep me to yourself forever."

"What?" Ginny asked. Harry looked from Sally to Ginny. He couldn't keep it a secret from her anymore.

"Gin, there's something I've been keeping from all of you. Every magical snake has an ability, and well, Sally's is reading emotions. Sometimes even ones you don't realize your feeling. It makes her an expert on the human mind."

Ginny shut her eyes. "This is so much to take in on one day."

"Welcome to my world." Harry said sighing.

"I am suddenly very tired."

"It is 12:30."

"I'm really sorry we didn't get to your problem."

"It's alright, I have until the first Quidditch game."

As they looked at the Basilisk, a silence fell between them. They stared at it for a few moments when Ginny turned and started to walk away. Harry turned and followed. They reached the pipe and Harry turned to Sally.

"Did you figure out how to get out of here?"

"It's really quite simple. Just yell at it. Say something nasty and it turns into a stair case."

Shrugging Harry did just that and a stair way formed in front of them. They quickly walked up and back into the bathroom. Myrtle wasn't around and they peeked around the corners as they made their way back to the common room.

Ron and Hermione still sat at the fire. "Where have you two been?" Ron questioned the moment they came in.

"Snape was around, we ended up going back down in the Chamber to get away."

"The Chamber of Secrets? You went back there!"

Harry and Ginny fell in to chairs. "I understand Parseltongue." Ginny said. The other two turned to her.

"You what?!"

"I do, I understand it. We went down in to the chamber, I faced my fears, and now I'm not- What was it?"

"Unconsciously blocking out the little bit of Voldemort in you."

"Don't say the name!"

"Shut up Ron, you'll wake people up." Ginny said with a yawn.

Harry switched to Parseltongue and looked at Ginny. "Please don't tell them about the emotions." She nodded.

"Can you speak it, Ginny?"

"No, just understand it. Look, I'm exhausted, I'm going to bed." Ginny rose and left. Harry also went up to his dorm. Hermione and Ron followed the suit.

When Ron walked in, Harry was laying down. "Harry, just what were you and my sister doing out there at all?"

"Talking," Harry replied, already half asleep.

"About?" But Harry was asleep.