Chapter Fifteen: In the Wake
"...life is not the plans you make, but what happens to you instead."
- Unknown
The room broke into chaos almost immediately, every voice raised in inquiry, until Dumbledore motioned for them to quiet and the room fell into silence.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
"He's fine, that's not his blood-" Ron started to reply, then muttered anxiously to Harry, "it isn't, is it?"
"Yes, I'm fine, and no, it isn't my blood." Harry answered calmly.
"Tell us what happened, please, Mr. Potter."
Harry shrugged. "Ron and I were investigating a clue Hagrid gave us last week, and we ran into a psycho and his pet basilisk as we were coming back into the hallway. Guy by the name of Riddle. He got away while I was busy with the basilisk."
Almost everyone in the room gasped at some time or other during this statement, except for Tracey, who looked rather amused, Ron, who already knew what had happened to them, and Dumbledore.
"And how did you escape the basilisk, Mr. Potter? And am I, or am I not mistaken in the impression that you knew what it was ahead of time?"
Harry withdrew the torn book page from his robe pocket and handed it to Dumbledore, who passed it around.
"I found that clutched in Hermione's hand when McGonagall took us up to the hospital wing," Harry told them, "and as for escaping the basilisk, I killed it. It's still almost blocking that hallway, as a matter of fact."
Snape snorted.
"I was wondering if I could have it. I was thinking it probably has some parts that could have magical uses."
"Of course. What happened next?" asked Dumbledore.
"We came up here," answered Ron.
Dumbledore sighed, looking older than any of the students had ever seen him. "You haven't seen any sign of Miss Ginny Weasley, then?"
Ron gasped, "Ginny?"
"No, we haven't seen her," Harry answered quietly, "But Silas might be able to trace the basilisk's scent so we could find where it came from, if you think…?"
"There was another message on the wall: "Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever. Ginny is the only girl missing. The only person missing, now that we've found you too… besides Lockhart, that is, but I'm fairly sure he ran off. Your idea probably would be the most likely. Even if it's too late, as I fear, we could at least give her a proper funeral."
When Harry returned with Silas, it was a somber group he found waiting for him. He led the group back to where they'd left the basilisk, Ron just behind him. The adults simply stared at the thing for a moment, and then turned to stare at Harry, who shrugged.
He turned to Silas, "Can you trace its scent?"
"Of course," the snake replied, sounding almost insulted, and he sent him down on the floor. Silas slithered quickly down the hall in the direction from which the basilisk had come, and the rest followed.
Much to the surprise of pretty much everyone, Silas led them to a girls' bathroom. Yeah, it was near where Mrs. Norris had been found, and yes, last time the chamber had been opened a dead girl had been found in a bathroom… but it was hardly a location most people would expect. Tracey had to bite her lip to stifle her laughter.
Walking inside, it was immediately obvious that this was the right place. Not because of the fierce storm that didn't start when they walked inside, or because of the dramatic spooky music that didn't start playing, or because it was haunted, or because the floor was covered in an inch of water, or even because it looked like the sort of bathroom you'd find in a building that had been abandoned for years… it was obvious that they'd come to the right place because Riddle had left the entrance to the chamber of secrets wide open.
Idiot. I suppose he was in a hurry, and had no intention of coming back this way…
"Alright, I'm going down, who's coming with me?"
"Me," said Ron immediately, staring anxiously at the gaping pipe.
"I am." Tracey insisted eagerly, a slight smirk on her lips now.
"I'd like to see Slytherin's chamber as well," Snape added.
"Alright then," concluded Dumbledore, "I'll wait here with Minerva, Arthur, and Molly. I'm a bit too old for slides, but I'll send Fawkes with you.
The "slide" was long, steep, winding, and grimy. Harry landed with a crunch at the bottom, jumped to the side to give the others room to land, and pulled out his wand. "Lumos!"
The ground was littered with the bones of small animals, the air damp and musty.
"That was fun." Tracey commented mildly after landing and moving to stand to the side by Harry. Ron didn't quite manage to land on his feet, and barely managed to roll out of the way in time to avoid being landed on by Snape. Tracey laughed. The sound echoed eerily in the darkness. Fawkes came last, flying gracefully down the pipe to land on Harry's shoulder. Silas hissed in annoyance from around Harry's neck. The odd group made its way down the passage. The light from Harry's wand allowed them to see only a limited distance ahead, and there was a constant crunching from the bones under their feet. Then they saw something up ahead- a huge scaly shape-
"You don't think there could have been more than one-" Snape began apprehensively.
Tracey ran forward and kicked it. "Nope," she announced, grinning nastily at her head of house.
"If that had been-"
"I knew it wasn't."
"How?"
"I just did."
"And if you'd been wrong?"
Her grin widened. "It would have been worth it, just to see the look on your face."
"You little-"
"Quiet down, children." Harry interrupted.
"Did you hear that, Professor? You're multiple people now."
Snape glared at her, and then turned to stare at the thing ahead. "Basilisk skin…" he muttered. "Potter, do you have dibs on that too?"
"Yep," Harry replied, smirking.
"Brat."
They continued on past the basilisk skin. Everyone was silent now. There was the feeling, we're getting close, soon we'll know…
They stopped by a door, serpent statues on either side.
"Open." Harry hissed, and they walked inside.
Ginny was lying on the floor a little ways in. Ron shouted her name, running forward and throwing himself to his knees by her side.
Her red hair streamed about her, contrasting sharply with deathly pale skin and clouded eyes, her form already stiff and cold.
"Ginny," Ron whispered hoarsely, reaching out to touch her hand, "Ginny…"
There was a small, leather-bound black book next to her. Harry reached down and picked it up.
"Tom Riddle… this," Harry muttered, "we'd best bring this along as well. Come on; let's get her out of here."
Hogwarts had a very strange sort of atmosphere the next day. Most of the school was delighted by the end of the time of danger. Most of the Slytherins were no longer quite sure how to treat Harry, though some of the first years simply continued to trail after him in a sort of grateful awe.
The Weasley twins, however, were depressingly lacking in cheer. Percy seemed rather lost. Ron continued to be rather out of it, and kept as close to Harry as possible. Neville seemed rather stunned, and Dean remained quiet and solemn. Even Tracey was lacking in sarcastic comments- until Malfoy made a nasty comment about Ginny's death, at which she snapped, "Yeah, we're all grief-torn that it wasn't you." It was in the middle of Potions, and Snape was walking by. To everyone's surprise, he simply gave Malfoy detention.
Luckily, there was a bit of brightness in store for them that day. The petrified people were to be revived, and so that afternoon Harry, Fred, George, Ron, Percy, Tracey, Nott, Dean, Lee, and Neville trooped up to the hospital wing.
Hermione was just sitting up. There were several exclaims of "Hermione!"- including from Tracey. Hermione looked up from Neville's embrace and raised an eyebrow at the slytherin girl.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you'd been worried," Hermione told her.
"Shh, it's a secret," Tracey replied in a solemn fake-whisper, and then her mouth twitched into a smile and she added, "it's good to have you back, Hermione."
Hermione smiled, then looking around and seeing the still rather somber faces around her asked, "What happed? Since I've been out, I mean."
"Our little sister-" George began.
"She's- dead." Fred finished.
Hermione just stared for a moment, open-mouthed. "Ginny?"
Ron nodded. He'd barely said a word all day.
"The basilisk is dead as well," Tracey added, "Harry got your note."
Hermione nodded, still looking shocked. "So it's over then."
"The heir got away," Harry told her, "the ordeal of the chamber may be over, but something else has begun."
Padfoot returned later that day carrying, to Harry's surprise, the familiar form of a certain stunned rat. When they finally got a moment alone, Sirius transformed.
"I decided it should be your choice," the convict told him quietly, "you've suffered because of him as well." The man was watching Harry anxiously to see how he reacted to this latest bid for trust. Harry looked at the rat consideringly.
"I'll sneak out to Hogsmeade and get him a metal collar and leash later to keep him from transforming. We'll keep him around for a while." Harry paused for a moment and then continued, "I've acquired some basilisk parts for which the properties are unknown. I could use a lab-rat."
Sirius's face split into a grin, and he gave Harry an admiring look.
The funeral was to be the following day. Tracey helped the others spell a few temporary changes into their robes to make them closer to traditional funeral robes, and then they set out to meet Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at the gates. Of all the students, just Harry, the Weasley children, Tracey, Nott, Neville, Dean, Lee Jordan, Hermione, and two of the first year Slytherins who had been frequently tagging along, Sage Capper and Derek Harper, had decided to attend the funeral. Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore would, of course, would be attending as well.
Both Weasley parents had dark circles under their eyes. Mrs. Weasley's face was covered in tearstains, and Mr. Weasley looked shocked and at a loss, trailing after his wife like a lost puppy.
There was a portkey waiting for them- an old quill. They landed by an open casket containing Ginny's body, then moved, as instructed, to help carry in down a path to the place where she was to be buried.
The hole was already dug. They set down the casket, and allowed the crowd of mourners to take their turn with their goodbyes. Then Dumbledore dropped something into the casket, and the lid was placed on top. Everyone put on a shovelful of dirt. Then the crowd moved back, forming a circle around the mound, waiting. What are they waiting for…?
Dumbledore stepped forward, waved his wand, and muttered an incantation Harry didn't catch. Then there were flames coming forth from the ground where the casket had been buried are they burning the body now, then? and then, as the flames died down, something began to sprout rapidly from the ground. A little tree.
The guests took turns coming up and saying a few words about Ginny, and their memories of her into some sort of microphone. Harry wondered at first, what it was for, but then, looking over at the tree, he realized. As people spoke, the tiny sapling continued to grow, very slowly now, and the bark darkened in places, forming words- the words spoken into the microphone. A dappled tree of memories…
By the end of the speeches, the sapling had sprouted little flowers- it was a red bud tree.
"It's a fine little tree," Arthur commented as people were beginning to leave, "and with all the protection spells around it, it will have many long years to grow." But there were words that hung unspoken in the air: it will have time to grow up, like Ginny never did.
Later that day, Harry cornered the twins for a quick word.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't mourn her," he told them quietly, "but she wouldn't want you to give up on your dreams, or spend too much of the time you've got to live in grief." He took a deep breath, then continued, "with troubled times likely not too far off, the world will need laughter more than ever."
Fred nodded solemnly, "we'll try our best, Harry."
"I'm afraid," George added, "that our family is already in great need of some cheer."
"You must think us very silly, moping so much, when you've lost five family members and-"
"No," Harry replied firmly, "I don't even remember my parents, and I never liked the Dursleys much anyway. Besides, I'm use to getting along on my own. You have every right to grieve. Just remember, you have every right to live as well."
A/N: Comments, questions, opinions? I'd love to hear them.
Many thanks to:
FroBoy, nam, jbfritz, firmin, Aqua Mage, Dark-Angelic-Goddess, Shiruba Fokkusu, Shadow Lighthawk, ranma hibiki, GoddessMoonLady, Whitetree-Nimloth, MarauderinglyMagical, Raiyevern, albert87, thsunami, The Sleeping Creature, Batsutousai, Shadow Eclipse, azntgr01, I-Y-T-Y, Nights Silhouette, NamelessHeretic,