'-ella... Bella'
Bella's head was pounding as she was shaken awake. The faces of Fred and George came swimming into her vision, worried looks on their faces. She pushed up onto her forearms, rubbing at her aching forehead. Fred and George were crouched down beside her and Percy was hovering around them.
"Are you okay?" asked Fred, pulling Bella up from the floor.
"Yeah - yeah I'm okay." sighed Bella.
"Come on." said George softly, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her into his side.
They followed after McGonagall in silence through the deserted corridors. McGonagall stopped in front of the large statue of a gargoyle that Bella knew guarded Professor Dumbledore's office. She whispered the password to the gargoyle and it sprang to the side, much like it had the first time Bella had been there, the spiral staircase emerging from the ground to carry them to Dumbledore's door. McGonagall rapped the door sharply and it swung open. Bella pulled out of George's embrace and rushed into her mother's the second she laid eyes on her.
"Oh Bella dear, are you alright?" asked Molly, smoothing her hand over Bella's hair and placing kisses to the top of her head.
"I'm okay." Bella's voice was muffled as she held tightly onto her mother.
There was an eerie silence in Dumbledore's office, save for the sniffles from Bella and Molly. Molly was standing in front of the fire, Arthur rubbing comforting circles on her back. Bella sat between Fred and George, snuggled under Fred's arm while he ran his fingers through her hair comfortingly. Percy was pacing behind Dumbledore's desk while Dumbledore and McGonagall whispered quietly. All heads turned towards the door as a knock echoed loudly through the silent office and Bella gasped at the sight that greeted them when the door was pushed open. Ron, Ginny, Harry, Freya and Emily stood in the doorway, with Lockhart at their back, covered in an array of disgusting substances. Ginny was soaked to the skin and Harry was covered in blood.
"Ginny!" Molly rushed to the doorway and threw herself on Ginny, Arthur following after.
Bella pulled away from Fred and got to her feet, closing the gap between her and Ron and throwing her arms around him.
"I'm so happy you're okay." She whispered in his ear.
"I'm happy to see you in one piece. I thought you were a goner when Snape caught you." He whispered back.
'Later' she mouthed as she pulled back.
Before they could blink, Harry, Ron, Freya and Emily were swept up in Molly's arms. Bella stepped around them and pulled Ginny's small, shaking frame into her arms.
"You saved her! You did it! How did you do it?" Molly gushed.
"That - is something we would all like to know." said Professor Dumbledore slowly.
Harry was released from Molly's embrace and he walked timidly to Dumbledore's desk and set upon it three objects: the Sorting Hat, a ruby-encrusted sword Bella had never seen before and the tattered remains of the diary Harry had kept close to him all year. Bella stood with her arm wrapped around Ginny's shoulder as Harry recounted the tale of what had gone on in the chamber and the events leading up to it. He told them of the disembodied voice within the walls that Bella could also hear, he told them of the discovery of the Basilisk and the pipes from Hermione, how the five of them had followed the spiders into the forbidden forest, that Aragog had told them where the Basilisk victim had died last time, how they had come to the conclusion that Moaning Myrtle was the Basilisk's last victim and how they figured the entrance to the chamber was in her bathroom.
"Well - you found the entrance to the chamber - breaking every school rule in the process - but how in Merlin's name did you get out of there alive, Potter?" asked McGonagall.
So Harry then told them everything that had gone on in the chamber, about how Fawkes had saved them, bringing the sorting Hat with him. Bella's grip tightened on Ginny's shoulders the more Harry spoke, too scared to let her go.
"What is most interesting to me." said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling in the firelight. "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant poor Ginny here, when my sources tell me he is currently hiding out in Albania." A choking sob ripped from Ginny's throat and she turned fully into Bella's arms, squeezing Bella tightly around the middle as her tears soaked her jumper.
"Come again?" asked Arthur in a quiet voice. "You know who? En-enchant Ginny? But - But how?"
"It was the diary." answered Harry hurriedly, holding up its charred remains. "Riddle wrote in it when he was sixteen."
Dumbledore plucked the black and soggy book from Harry's hand and peered over his spectacles at it.
"Quite brilliant." He muttered, turning it over in his hands. " Well he was the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever had."
He raised his head, as if only realising he was in a room full of people. "Only a handful of people know that Lord Voldemort was once a student at Hogwarts named Tom Riddle. I actually taught him myself all those years ago. He disappeared once he left Hogwarts - travelled all over the world - delved deeper and deeper into the dark arts that when he resurfaced years later as Lord Voldemort, he was unrecognizable. No one made the connection between him now and the handsome, clever boy who used to be Head Boy."
"But - But what does Ginny have to do with, with him?" asked Molly, aghast.
"The d-diary!" cried Ginny, tears flowing freely down her face. "I've been writing in it and he-he's been writing back all year."
"Ginny!" gasped Arthur. "have I taught you nothing? What I always told you? Don't trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain! Why didn't you show me the diary? Or your mother? An object like that, its clearly full of dark magic."
"I d-didn't know!" She sobbed. "I found it in one of the books mum got me, I just thought someone left it there and forgot about it."
"Miss Weasley ought to go to the Hospital Wing now." Dumbledore cut in before their argument could get more heated. "This has been a traumatic ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." He strode forward and opened the door of his office. "A lot of bed rest and perhaps, a steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that makes me feel better. You'll find Madam Pomfrey still awake, she'll be administering the Mandrake potions as we speak."
"So Hermione's okay?" asked Ron cheerily.
"There will be no lasting damage." smiled Dumbledore.
With her arm still wrapped around her shoulders, Bella led Ginny from the room followed by their parents and brothers.
"Fred, George, can you take Bella back to the common room for me?" Molly asked them quietly as they reached the bottom of the staircase.
"I want to come with Ginny." insisted Bella, clinging tightly to her sister.
"Bella dear, it's been a traumatic night for us all, you need to get some rest." said Arthur softly.
"Come on sis." said Fred, prying her arm from around Ginny.
"Please." begged Bella.
"You'll see her tomorrow, I promise." said Molly quietly.
"I'll be okay Bella." sniffled Ginny.
Bella stood helpless, watching her parents lead Ginny up the corridor as Fred held her arm loosely at his side.
"Let's go to bed." whispered Fred, steering Bella the opposite way down the corridor.
Bella was numb, allowing the twins to steer her down corridors and up stairs. She didn't even register where she was when they reached her dorm room.
"Put these on and go to sleep." said George, handing her what he knew to be her favourite pair of pajamas. They both kissed her forehead and bid her goodnight, pulling the door shut behind them.
She pulled off her school uniform and pulled on her pajamas, dumping the uniform in a pile at the bottom of the bed. She crawled under the covers and lay on her back staring at the ceiling. She lay like that for a while, thinking about nothing and everything at once. Like a wave, exhaustion washed over her and pulled her under, filling her dreams with visions of her loved ones, dead or injured all around her, and her powerless to do a thing.
