Chapter Twenty-Six: Not Quite Wrapped Up

For a moment there was silence as Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lockhart, and Daphne stood in the doorway, covered in muck and, in Harry's case, blood.

Then there was a scream.

"Ginny!"

It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leapt to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter.

Daphne looked at them with a smile — though her own eyes were also still teary — and then looked further into the room.

To her surprise, she saw Professor Dumbledore standing by the mantelpiece, beaming at them. Next to him, Professor McGonagall was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest.

Before she could say or do anything, she, Harry, and Ron were swept into Mrs. Weasley's tight embrace.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," Professor McGonagall said weakly.

Harry walked over to the desk and placed the Sorting Hat, the sword, and the remains of the diary on it, and then began telling them everything, occasionally helped by Daphne, about the voices in the walls, their conversation with Hagrid, how Daphne had gone to Myrtle's bathroom and learned the location of the Chamber and the nature of the monster…but they soon reached the moment where they would have to mention the diary, and though Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall knew about it, the Weasleys did not, and neither Daphne nor Harry were sure on how to bring it up. Fortunately, Dumbledore stepped in to help them.

"What is most extraordinary about this is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, despite currently hiding out in the forests of Albania, according to my sources," he said.

"W-what's that?" Mr. Weasley said in a stunned voice. "You-Know-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not…Ginny hasn't been…has she?"

"It was done by an ingenious method, which Daphne here managed to discover," Dumbledore said, holding up the diary. "She, Harry, and Ron found this diary, owned by a certain Tom Riddle. It claimed to know who had opened the Chamber, but she wisely mistrusted it and intended to report it to the staff…but alas, it was stolen back from them before it could be turned in."

"But…what does that have to do with Ginny?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"I-I've been writing in the diary, and h-he's been writing back all year…" Ginny sobbed.

"Ginny!" Mr. Weasley said, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. Why didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic!"

"I-I didn't know," Ginny sobbed. "I found it inside my cauldron. I thought someone had just dropped it in accidentally…"

"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. You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. It will be some time still before the Mandrake juice can be administered, but no lasting harm has been done, Ginny."

Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken.

"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall. "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right," Professor McGonagall said crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter, Weasley, and Greengrass, shall I?"

"Certainly," Dumbledore said.

Daphne, Harry, and Ron gave each other uncertain glances. What had Professor McGonagall meant with 'deal with them'?

"I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules," Dumbledore said to Harry and Ron.

Ron and Daphne both opened their mouths to speak, but Dumbledore went on, "Which goes to show that even the best of us must sometimes eat their words. All three of you will receive Special Awards for Services to the School and…let me see…two hundred points each for Gryffindor, and of course, two hundred points to Slytherin."

Then, Dumbledore focused on Lockhart, who had been standing in a corner, smiling vacantly. Ron quickly explained what had happened to him, and Dumbledore addressed Ron, saying, "Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart to the infirmary, too? I'd like a few more words with Harry and Daphne…"

Lockhart ambled out. Ron cast a curious look back at Dumbledore, Harry, and Daphne as he closed the door.

"Sit down," Dumbledore said to Harry and Daphne.

"First of all, Harry, I want to thank you," Dumbledore said with twinkling eyes. "You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you."

Fawkes landed on Harry's knee, and Harry stroked him, grinning awkwardly at both Daphne and Dumbledore.

"And so, both of you met Tom Riddle," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "I imagine he was interested in both of you, though — I suspect — mainly in you, Harry."

"Professor Dumbledore…Riddle said I'm like him. Strange likenesses, he said," Harry said softly.

"Did he, now?" Dumbledore said. "And what do you think, Harry?"

Harry hesitated for a moment. Daphne nudged him and gave a small nod.

"Professor…" Harry said after a moment. "The Sorting Hat told me I'd…I'd have done well in Slytherin. So many people thought I was the heir…because I can speak Parseltongue."

"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry, because Lord Voldemort, the last remaining descendent of Salazar Slytherin, can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure…"

Harry and Daphne exchanged a glance. Daphne couldn't suppress a small grin.

"Daphne said the same thing, after the dueling club," Harry said.

"Did she, now?" Dumbledore asked, looking wholly unconcerned and even amused by that revelation. "You are very perceptive then, Miss Greengrass," he said.

Daphne shrugged. "I know a bit about genealogy, being a Slytherin pureblood," she said. "So the only thing I could think of was that the failed curse had some kind of side effect."

"And you also discovered how the diary worked, or so I'm told," Dumbledore said.

Daphne nodded. "Yes. I thought that, since it was a diary, any powers it might possess would have something to do with writing in it, so that's what I tried. Riddle seemed…off to me. He wanted to know if I was a pureblood, and he seemed to be…checking to see how I thought. He accused Hagrid of opening the Chamber, fifty years ago, and that's when I knew he was lying."

She frowned. "But if I'd come to you sooner…"

"Daphne," Harry said warningly.

Daphne looked at him, and was surprised by the look in Harry's eyes. It was exasperated with her for tearing herself down yet again, but also…supportive. It was a look that said that Harry would have her back in anything. Her face heated up a little.

"Signs of possession are easy to recognize only if you know what to look for, Miss Greengrass," Dumbledore said. "It is not something I would expect a second-year student to think of. And if I have heard correctly earlier, it was you who found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, in the end. But something I do wonder about is what you thought of Riddle's rhetoric. As a pureblood Slytherin you are his…target audience, so to speak."

Daphne shook her head. "It was off-putting. A lot about Slytherin is off-putting to me. That's why I've been trying to improve its reputation, to show that not every Slytherin is a blood purist who wants to kill all Muggleborns. All of this…certainly didn't help."

She smiled. "It's funny. Where Harry was afraid the Sorting Hat would put him in Slytherin, I was afraid it might put me in Gryffindor. I asked it not to, because I didn't want to cause problems for my parents, but now…now I think that I might actually be able to do at least some good in Slytherin."

"I should say so," Dumbledore agreed. "Professor Snape has had a much reduced workload when it came to giving detentions, this year."

"Does Professor Snape ever give detentions to his own House?" Daphne asked.

Dumbledore smiled, not at all concerned that Daphne had accused a teacher of favoritism. "I wasn't talking about students from his own House. Because Slytherin students have had fewer conflicts with other Houses, Professor Snape has been bereft of many moments to hand out punishments."

"Sir, what about Neville?" Harry suddenly asked. "Before everything went wrong, Neville and Malfoy got into a fight, and Snape–"

"Professor Snape, Harry. And yes, I'm aware. Mr. Longbottom will serve detention for the rest of the school year, but he will not be expelled. In the interest of fairness — though Professor Snape will no doubt want me to withhold this from you — he never intended to expel Mr. Longbottom. No, Harry, I think I'm being rather accurate when I say that you, and possibly Mr. Weasley, are the only people he would truly like to expel — and I think he would soon find himself bored if he did."

Daphne doubted that Snape was truly so benign, but it was still good to hear that Neville wouldn't be expelled.

Before she could say anything else, however, the door to Dumbledore's office was roughly thrown open. Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face, and, cowering behind him, heavily wrapped in bandages, was a House-Elf. Judging by the look on Harry's face, that was Dobby.

"Good evening, Lucius," Dumbledore said pleasantly.

Malfoy swept into the room, entirely ignoring Harry and Daphne. Dobby scurried in after him, desperately attempting to polish Malfoy's shoes.

"So! You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts," Malfoy said.

"Well, you see, Lucius," Dumbledore said, smiling serenely. "The other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owl, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too… Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place."

Daphne was shocked. Those kinds of threats happened in the political world too? She thought that all of it was done through veiled words and lots of money, not outright threats. No wonder Draco was such a lunatic.

"So…have you stopped the attacks yet? Have you caught the culprit?" Malfoy demanded.

"We have," Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Well? Who is it?" Malfoy said sharply.

"The same person as last time, Lucius, but this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary."

Dumbledore held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Malfoy closely.

"A clever plan," Dumbledore said in a level voice, staring Malfoy straight in the eye. "Because if Harry and Daphne here–"

Malfoy shot Daphne and Harry a swift, sharp look.

"–and their friend Ron hadn't discovered this book, why…Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever be able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will…"

Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly masklike.

"And imagine what might have happened then…The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pureblood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and killing Muggleborns. Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise…"

Malfoy forced himself to speak. "Very fortunate," he said stiffly.

Daphne noticed Harry looking at odd gestures Dobby was making, pointing first at the diary, then at Malfoy, and then hitting himself in the head.

Pure rage built up inside her, the moment she realized what Dobby meant. "You put that diary in the cauldron when we were at Flourish and Blotts," she said coldly.

It seemed like Malfoy was only really seeing her for the first time now.

"You're that Greengrass girl," he said. "Hasn't Snape taught you by now not to make accusations you can't prove?"

"Oh, no one will be able to do that," Dumbledore said, smiling at Harry and Daphne. "Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you, Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Lord Voldemort's old school things. If any more of them find their way into innocent hands, I think Arthur Weasley, for one, will make sure they are traced back to you…"

Lucius Malfoy stood for a moment, and for a split second Daphne thought he was going to draw his wand.

Instead, however, he turned to Dobby. "We're going, Dobby!"

He wrenched open the door, and immediately kicked Dobby through it. Daphne was again shocked at how violent Malfoy was. She could never imagine her parents treating Finny like that.

"Professor Dumbledore," Harry said. "Can I give that diary back to Mr. Malfoy, please?"

"Certainly, Harry," Dumbledore said calmly. "But hurry. The feast, remember…"

Harry grabbed the diary, leaving Daphne alone with Dumbledore. She considered asking if she could go after Harry, but then she realized there was someone else she needed to speak to.

"Professor Dumbledore, is Professor Snape in his office?" she asked.

Dumbledore smiled at her. "I daresay he will be. Incidentally, if you intend to go to him, do let him know that Lucius Malfoy is no longer on the Hogwarts board of governors," he said.

Daphne smiled at him. "Yes, sir."

She left the office and hurried down to the dungeons, taking a different route so as not to interfere with whatever Harry was doing. She'd explain everything to him later. She knocked on Snape's door.

"Enter," his voice said from within.

Daphne went inside and took a seat in front of Snape's desk.

"Miss Greengrass?" he said. His expression was inscrutable as ever.

"I…had a few questions, sir," Daphne said.

"Ask, then," Snape said.

Daphne thought for a moment about how she wanted to phrase her question. When Malfoy had provoked Neville in the Potions class, Neville had been the only one to suffer the consequences, despite being a member of a Noble House. Of course, he wasn't a Slytherin, but within Slytherin, most Noble Houses weren't in open conflict…except her and Malfoy.

"The rule about not fighting people from Noble Houses…was it meant solely to keep Malfoy and me from constantly going after each other because Lucius Malfoy was essentially holding the board of governors hostage?" she asked.

Snape didn't seem curious as to how she knew that.

"Miss Greengrass, I occupy myself with what goes on in Slytherin. It is of no concern to me if a member of a Noble House in another House, like Longbottom, gets in trouble," Snape said, guessing what she was hinting at.

"Draco Malfoy is an arrogant, aggravating, provocative git," Daphne said.

Snape remained expressionless. "That wasn't a question, Miss Greengrass," he said.

Daphne grinned. "No, but you did answer it just now."

If Snape had reacted with any form of anger for badmouthing Malfoy, his favoritism was probably genuine. Given that she hadn't even been lightly admonished, Daphne figured that Snape didn't actually like Malfoy that much, and had some kind of appearance to uphold instead.

"By the way, Professor Dumbledore asked me to tell you that Lucius Malfoy is no longer on the board of governors."

"Then I believe there are no more powerful Noble Houses on the board, which will make it much less likely that anyone will be able to interfere at Hogwarts without help from another Noble House," Snape said. "Yet Lucius Malfoy remains an…influential man, regardless."

Again, Daphne nodded. If he'd been able to coerce the board of governors like he had and all but admit he'd given Ginny the diary, and still evade any backlash apart from losing his spot as a governor, he was certainly dangerous.

"Then I suppose it would be useful for Professor Dumbledore if there was someone at Hogwarts that Malfoy trusted, wouldn't it, sir?"

"Indeed it would be, Miss Greengrass."

So, Snape had to be seen to be on Malfoy's side. Yet he was aware that Malfoy didn't like Daphne, and would likely provoke her whenever he could. He also knew that Daphne wouldn't just take it, but fight back, which could have drawn Lucius's attention to Hogwarts. When Malfoy bullied anyone from another House, like Neville, Snape could simply put all the blame on the other party and no one would bat an eye, even if they didn't like it; Snape favored his Slytherins, after all.

But within Slytherin, he couldn't be quite so partial to one single student without the other traditional pureblood families taking note, which might lead them to work together to limit Snape's influence, thus making him less useful to Lucius Malfoy and, by extension, Dumbledore. And so, he had to come up with a rule to keep Daphne and Malfoy from fighting, that seemed to be somewhat impartial on the surface, but really wasn't.

"At the dueling club…why did you tell Malfoy to conjure a snake?" Daphne asked. "Did you know Harry was a Parseltongue?"

Now, Snape did look a bit curious. "The Headmaster guessed it might be the case," he said eventually.

"Why reveal it so publicly? The backlash Harry got…"

"Was unintended," Snape said shortly. "Had Lockhart not intervened, I would have been able to keep the situation under control."

Daphne frowned. "You could've asked him in private," she said.

Then she thought of something else. "You still don't like Harry, do you, sir?"

Snape said nothing, which was all Daphne needed to know about that subject.

Still, hearing Snape say that Dumbledore guessed that Harry might be a Parseltongue… "Did you or Professor Dumbledore know the monster was some kind of snake?"

"Nothing more than a guess, based on what was known about Slytherin. But we did not know what we could do with that information, as we didn't know where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was," Snape said.

"Myrtle told me where it was as soon as I asked her," Daphne said. "Professor Dumbledore was a teacher here when she died; why didn't he just ask her how she died? He might not have been able to enter the Chamber of Secrets without speaking Parseltongue, but he would probably have been able to do something to prevent it from opening again, especially since he knew Hagrid was innocent."

Snape nodded slowly and angrily. "You can imagine my surprise when I learned that he hadn't done any of these things. Though I bear blame there, too. I had assumed that someone of Professor Dumbledore's intellect would have already taken those steps, and so did not suggest them," he said.

Daphne shook her head. "Fifty years," she said. "We figured it out in a few months. Given what Hermione was doing when she got Petrified, I'm pretty sure she figured it out as well."

She wasn't really sure what else to add to that, but she did know that she'd have to discuss this with her friends. If Dumbledore could make such a monumental oversight, it wasn't out of the question he made other mistakes that could turn out to be costly.

Daphne had thought, both in her first year and in this one, that handing things over to Dumbledore the moment they had something worth handing over would mean that the situation would be solved…but this revelation made her doubt that. What would that mean going forward?

"Well…thanks for answering my questions, sir," Daphne said. She wasn't able to keep a tone of disappointment out of her voice.

Though faith in the establishment was more Hermione's thing than hers, seeing it fail this badly was a bit of a nasty shock.

Snape's expression was unreadable, but his silence once again told her everything she needed to know.

Daphne entered the common room after the feast feeling completely beat. Harry had apparently managed to get Dobby freed from Lucius Malfoy, and Daphne hadn't had the heart to tell him about her conversation with Snape just yet. She'd save that for the morning, when Ron was back with them as well.

"You think you're a hero, don't you, Greengr–"

"Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus!"

Three quick spells, and Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle fell over like statues. They clearly hadn't expected her to start shooting curses immediately.

"Listen, Malfoy," Daphne said. "Tonight, I've stared down your father, a Basilisk, and Voldemort himself. The three of you don't even compare. Now, you just lie there and think about what you did. I'm sure someone will help you in a while. Maybe tomorrow morning."

Leaving Malfoy and his lackeys on the floor of the common room, Daphne went to her dorm.

So the main plot of book two is now done. Of course, there are four months left, but those will probably go by quite quickly. Closing statements for this year, then:

The 'Noble House' rule…The Watsonian reason is that Snape wanted to keep Malfoy and Daphne from fighting, like the chapter attempts to explain. The Doylist reason, of course, is that this year would've been a real pain in the ass if Daphne and Malfoy kept ambushing each other, so I had to make them stop somehow, and this was the first thing I could come up with on short order. Does it make a lot of sense, no, but a lot of the original story didn't, either, which brings me to…

How has Dumbledore never found the entrance to the Chamber?! He's had fifty years. He could've gone to Myrtle, whom he likely taught as a teacher, at any point and asked her what happened. He knows damn well that Myrtle came back as a ghost, because she had taken to haunting Olive Hornby, and because she has a habit of flooding the toilet she haunts. He had no excuse at all not to ask her about it. At least the dueling club thing could be a wrong interpretation of the book by me (in canon it also seems like Snape guessed Harry was a Parseltongue and told Malfoy to use a snake because of it) but for this particular oversight I have no excuses, hence why Daphne had none.

This chapter was a pain in the ass because I'd both written myself into a corner with that dumb rule, and because the canon was, as I said before, a hot mess at this point. Fortunately, Prisoner of Azkaban has always been one of my favorite books, while Chamber of Secrets was always my least favorite. I don't really know yet how I'm going to handle the main plot for that one, but I have a few ideas. For now, it's time to wrap up this year.