Hi everybody! It's time to wrap up Chamber of Secrets! I'm really excited for what comes next - Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favorite books, and I hope you enjoy it. There are a few hints to what's coming next book, so see if you can find anything.

(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)

Chapter 25:

How to Explain

"'Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away,' Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. 'This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort.' He strode over to the door and opened it. 'Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up,' he added, twinkling kindly down at her. 'You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice - I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment.'"

Stella and Jonah stood behind Harry, their mouths open, as he drew the Basilisk fang from the diary. Riddle was gone. The day had been saved.

Suddenly, a faint moan could be heard from the end of the Chamber.

"Ginny," all three of them said at once, and they ran over to her as she began to wake. Her skin was ice-cold, but slowly growing warmer and less pale. Her eyes opened - deep brown, soft yet piercing, kind yet stern. She definitely got that from her mother, Stella thought.

Her eyes darted from the Basilisk to Harry to the diary, and she let out a gasp as she realized what had happened.

"Harry - Stella - Jonah - I tried to tell you, but I - I couldn't - not in front of Percy - it was me - but I swear - I - I didn't mean to -"

"It's okay," Stella said, wrapping Ginny in a hug. "Riddle's gone. It wasn't your fault."

"I'm going - to - to be expelled!" she said, sobbing as Jonah and Harry joined the hug. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts forever - and now - now I'll have to leave and - what'll Mum and Dad say?"

"You don't have to worry," Jonah said. "Everything's going to be fine. You did great, Ginny."

Fawkes swooped over, gesturing as though it was time to leave.

"Once Dumbledore knows the story," Harry said, "he'll know that you were innocent. He shouldn't punish you."

"He won't," Stella said. "And if he does, we will challenge him."

"And thanks to Stella's scene at the Duelling Club, we now know how to do that," Jonah said. Ginny smiled through her tears - a small sign that everything would be okay.

They broke the hug, and Harry helped Ginny to her feet. They walked through the tunnel, Jonah carrying Madison's Petrified body and Stella carrying her hand, using the ladder as a bridge to the wall of rocks.

"Ron!" Harry called. "Ginny's okay! We've got her!"

Ron let out a strangled cry as Stella and Jonah climbed through the hole in the rock wall. Ginny followed, Harry spotting her. Finally, Harry jumped through and landed on the rocks below. Jonah drew his wand and cried, "Accio Ladder!"

"Now duck," Stella warned. Jonah obeyed, and the ladder soared over his head.

"So what happened?" Ron said.

"We'll tell you later," Jonah responded. "What happened to Lockhart?"

"He's lost all his memory," Ron said. "Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. He's a danger to himself."

"Well, we need to get him - and ourselves - up there," Stella said. "I'll set up the ladder."

She grabbed the ladder and climbed up. "I can always Accio you guys up here," she said. "It might be hard for you to climb with so much in your hands."

"Sounds good," Harry said. "You're going to have to teach me that spell."

"In a year or two, maybe," Stella said. She pointed her wand at each person, waiting below her, and called out the spell. They floated up and landed lightly on the ledge of where the sink used to be. Once the last person arrived on top, the marble spewed around the room began to reform into the grand sink.

Harry turned to see Moaning Myrtle goggling at them.

"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said, wiping the blood off his glasses.

"Where now?" Ron said. Harry gestured to Fawkes, glowing gold along the corridor.

"We'll bring Madison to the hospital room," Jonah said. "Good luck!"

Harry waved at the two and then ran, following Fawkes to McGonagall's office.

Jonah and Stella watched him, and then looked at each other. For the first time, it seemed like they could let out their breath.

"NO!" she cried, watching, floating next to the window. It had all gone wrong. Somehow, those brats had kept the story from escalating out of control. Molly and Madison would be revived by the Mandrake juice, and everything would return to normal.

And then she remembered. This was only second year. The children still had five years to mess it all up - and undoubtedly, they would. Someone would find the books lying around, or their presence would cause a House to get extra points, or something would happen.

She just had to wait.

Madam Pomfrey gave the Mandrake juice to Madison first. Slowly, the grey tinge of Madison's body disappeared, and she returned to normal. Once the stone was completely gone, Madison seemed to almost continue to lunge, as if her brain had also been frozen in time.

"Madison, Madison, it's alright," Jonah said. "You're safe now - well, almost."

"What do you mean?" Madison said. Then she looked down at her hand - well, what used to be her hand.

"Oh, come on!" she cried. "Why does this always happen to me?"

She grabbed her severed hand in her other hand, shaking it - and then she gasped.

For as Madison touched her hand, it began to lose its stony appearance, too. She let go of it, and in a flash, it had reattached itself to her arm.

"Whoa," Stella said. "I was not expecting that."

"Me, either," Madison said. "So what happened after I was Petrified?"

"We ran out of the way and helped Harry do exactly what he was supposed to do," Jonah said. "Everything's back the way it was. You were pretty brilliant yourself, leaving your unicorn sock at Justin's Petrification."

"Thanks," Madison said quietly. "I'm sorry for all of that, by the way. I tried to get away from all of it, but he threatened to hurt you guys. I couldn't let that happen."

"We understand," Stella said. "Thank you."

Madison nodded. "Now let's get Molly un-Petrified and see if she feels the same way."

"Sounds good," Madam Pomfrey said; to be honest, Stella had forgotten she was in the room. She walked over to Molly and gave her the Mandrake juice.

Slowly, Molly's body returned to normal, and once the grey had completely disappeared, her mind reactivated. "Madison, I don't -" she said, before realizing that her surroundings had changed. "Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital wing," Jonah said. "You were Petrified."

Slowly, Molly put the pieces together. She looked over at Madison. For a second, Madison was worried that Molly didn't understand, that this would be the end.

But then Molly burst into tears. "Oh my God, I'm so glad you're okay!" she said. "I was so worried - I thought Riddle had you - I thought you were gone -"

She jumped up from the bed and ran over to give the solidified Madison a hug.

"I'm glad you're okay, too," Madison said. "Now let's wake up the others and keep history on track."

Molly smiled. She wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but she did know one thing:

They had won.

Molly got back to the common room to see Harry sitting on one of the plush red chairs near the fireplace. His face was pale, his hair was messy, and his eyes had large bags underneath them.

"Hey," she said, and Harry looked up.

"Hey," he said.

There was an awkward silence.

"Listen -" Molly said. "We've both been through a lot this year, and -"

"I know, I know," he said. "Truce?"

Molly smiled and reached out her hand. Harry shook it. They were quiet for a while.

"So you wanna get some food?" she asked.

Harry's eyes lit up. He nodded, almost frantically. "Food always helps."

Molly suppressed a laugh as she and Harry walked to the door of the common room.

It wasn't long after that Molly and the other time-travelers were stepping off the Hogwarts Express.

"Any Broadway musicals this year, Stella?" Molly asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I might try to win tickets for Lin's last show in Hamilton, but that's probably going to be impossible. There's a show called Waitress that Sara Bareilles wrote the music for, and I've heard that's good."

"Oh, that sounds cool!" Molly said. "I might have to see that one, too."

Madison was walking over to everyone, hugging goodbye. Molly had solidified her right before they left, and she was going to Hermione's house over the summer vacation.

"It'll be interesting," Madison said. "That Hocus Pocus movie comes out in July, and I love that one, so hopefully Hermione likes it, too."

"Nice," Molly said. "We watched that movie in 5th grade, on one of those old-time TVs in the corner of the classroom that we had to crane our necks to see. I was the only person who just wanted to read that day."

"Did you enjoy the movie?" Madison asked.

Molly shrugged. "Kinda."

"Good enough for me," Madison said, giving Molly one last hug. "See you in September."

She walked over to where Hermione was standing with her parents. "Madison, this is my mom and dad, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," Hermione said. "They're Muggles, so they might be a little uncomfortable with having a solidified dead person in their house at first, but they should be fine eventually."

"It's an honor," Mr. Granger said, shaking Madison's hand daintily. "Hermione's told us so much about you."

"Why, thank you," Madison said, shaking Mr. Granger's hand and then Mrs. Granger's. "It'll be a fun vacation, I can promise you that."

Molly smiled as she watched Madison's interaction with them. "Alright, whoever you are," she said. "It's time."

Almost instantly, it started to rain. "Huddle, everybody!" Ava called, and the group held onto each other. Stella let out a little cry - whoever's been transporting us must've touched her this time, Molly thought.

She wasn't sure if anyone else heard it, but Molly could hear a slight whisper from behind her.

"Disapparate."

Thanks for reading! Here's this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts.

1) As I was rereading Chamber of Secrets for this section, I knew there was one thing that needed to happen: Ginny needed a hug. (And I was able to fit in a callback to the whole "Ten Duel Commandments" thing.)

2) I actually got to see Waitress earlier this year! It was really good.

3) Madison's inspiration came up with the idea for both the thing with Madison's hand and her visiting the Grangers over break.

4) Molly's reaction to everything after being un-Petrified is kinda based on a moment in Season 2 of The Good Place involving Michael. See if you can spot it!

5) The scene with Harry was actually something I wrote a few months after I wrote the rest of the chapter. I realized I hadn't really tied up the Molly/Harry conflict, so I added the little scene (plus the callback to one of my favorite Stella lines from Philosopher's Stone) as kind of a reminder how ridiculous Molly's reaction was and how sometimes, all you need is time to heal wounds. And food always helps.

6) The Hocus Pocus story is actually something that happened to me in fifth grade. Do any of you guys remember those TVs that hung from the corner of the classroom and were so incredibly small? I hated those things.

Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!