finally, the end of Chamber of Secrets. Y'know we really need to get lives... we sit on the computer all day and read or write. gosh, whats happening. please read anyway. suggestions are always welcome.

It was pure silence when we pushed open the door, covered in grime.

"Ginny!" screamed Mum. She had been sitting in front of the fire. She and Dad flung themselves on me. Mum let go of me, long enough to hug Ron and Harry. "You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I believe most of us feel the same way, Molly," Professor McGonagall said, sinking into a chair.

I watched, still crying, as Harry laid the sword, sorting hat, and the remains of Riddle's diary.

"I heard a disembodied voice before all of the attacks, and on other occasions as well. Hermione realized it was a basilisk I was hearing. She tore a page out of a book and wrote the word pipes on it, which Ron and I found while visiting her, this afternoon. It was been getting through the school, using the plumbing. Ron and I followed spiders into the Forbidden Forest, where a spider called Aragog – the creature Hagrid was expelled for, everyone thought it was the monster attacking people – and Aragog told us the girl who died, died in a bathroom. So Ron and I surmised it was Moaning Myrtle who died, and the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was in that bathroom," he said. "That's basically what happened."

"Well," Professor McGonagall said. "You found the entrance, breaking about a hundred school rules in the process, but how on earth did you get out of there alive, Potter?"

Harry's voice was becoming hoarse, but he related to them a condensed version of what happened. "Professor Lockhart's memory charm backfired, and Ron and I got separated. I went on alone, with my wand only. I met Riddle in the Chamber, and he explained everything that had happened to the muggle- borns, and Ginny. Fawkes, exactly on time, brought the sorting hat, I pulled the sword out, and I was able to battle the basilisk and kill it," he faltered and looked at me. I was still crying, standing with my head on Mum's shoulder.

Harry glanced at Dumbledore.

"What interests me the most," he said slowly and gently, smiling at me, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to possess Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently hiding in Albania."

I looked up, a glimmer of hope had been kindled inside me. Maybe I won't be expelled after all! I thought.

"W-what's that?" Dad said, stunned. "You-know-who? Possess my Ginny? Ginny's not... she hasn't been... has she?"

I looked to Harry – he had had the diary. He knew how to work it. He could explain.

"It was this diary," Harry stated quickly, picking it up. "Riddle wrote it when he was 16..."

Dumbledore took it from Harry, and examined it at length.

"Not many know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. Fifty years ago, I taught him. He was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. He was not seen after he left school. When he came back as Lord Voldemort – after sinking and consorting with the worst, and burying himself in dark magic – no one would ever had out the two together."

"But, Ginny? What's she got to do with him?" Mum asked, bewildered.

"His d-diary!" I sobbed, the hope had been quenched. "I've been writing to him all year!"

"Ginny!" Dad was upset and shocked. "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain! Haven't I taught you anything? You should have shown your mother, or me!"

"I d-didn't know! I found it in one of the books Mum gave me. I thought someone had forgotten it or something..." I cried, feeling desolate. Dad opened his mouth, but Dumbledore intervened.

"Miss Weasley should go up to the Hospital Wing right away. This has been a terrible and horrific ordeal for her. There will be no punishment, for wiser wizards have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort. Rest and hot chocolate would be a good prescription I think," he opened the door, "I find that always cheers me up," he winked at me. I wiped the tears of my face and smiled. "Madam Pomfrey will be giving out mandrake juice at the moment, so she will still be awake."

"Hermione's ok!" Ron and Harry smiled and looked a great deal better than before.

"There has been no lasting damage done, Ginny," Dumbledore said consolingly.

Mum took me out, and Dad followed. I went up to the hospital wing where the victim's were sitting up and talking. They stopped when I came in, shocked by all the slime and junk on my robes, and the terrible state of my face. Colin grinned at me, and Hermione smiled. I changed into a nightgown and fell asleep immediately.

I did not attend the feast, due to pure exhaustion, but after I left the hospital wing, I felt fully rested and perfectly happy. Even more so when I found out that exams had been canceled, along with Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. I spent the remainder of my free time walking around Hogwart's grounds and talking to Mia, and the other girls in my dormitory. That and staring at Harry.

Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and I all got a compartment to ourselves on the way home. We played Exploding Snap, set off the last of Fred and George's Filibuster Fireworks, and practiced disarming each other. We were all getting good at it. We were almost to King's Cross, when Harry suddenly asked me a question.

"Ginny – what did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?"

"Oh, that!" I laughed, remembering the incident. "Well, Percy's got himself a girlfriend!"

There was a loud thud as Fred dropped a load of books on George's head. "What?" they said in unison.

"That Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," I said, smirking. "He'd been writing to her all last summer. He was meeting her all over the school secretly, and I walked in on them kissing in an empty Charm's classroom. Percy was really upset when she was attacked. It wasn't because she was a prefect – it was because she was his girlfriend. Please don't tease him!" I added anxiously, Percy would be mad at me, because I told them. I knew it was stupid to plead though. Fred looked like his birthday had come early.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Fred said.

"Definitely not!" George sniggered.

"How could you ever doubt us?" Fred said, laughing.

The Hogwarts Express slowed and stopped. I was gathering the belongings I had, when I overheard Harry talking to Ron and Hermione.

"This is what you call a telephone number. I told your Dad how to use it, so ask him. Call me at the Dursleys' ok? I don't have anyone to talk to."

I glanced over Ron's shoulder. It only took one look, and I had Harry's number memorized. I wouldn't call him of course, but I could probably fall asleep repeating his number.

sighs i'm adding PoA soon, so look out!

slytherinphoenix7

ps. just review, I'm getting tired of thinking of ways to entice you into doing it.