Chapter Thirty-Eight: A Shared Victory

Ginny started breathing heavily as she opened her eyes and slowly began to sit up and then turned around and looked at him. "Harry it was me." She confessed. "But I didn't mean to do it Riddle made me." She explained before she suddenly realized that there was a nasty gash on his knee that was oozing blood. "Oh Harry, you're hurt!" She cried out and that's when before Harry could say anything Fawkes let out another loud screech and then flew back in action and landed in front of Harry.

"You were brilliant Fawkes, I just wasn't quick enough." He told him but that's when a rather large tear rolled down his cheek and hit Harry's knee and instantly began to heal it. Ginny widened her eyes as another tear healed his wound completely. "That's right, phoenix tears have healing powers in them." He remembered before he turned over to look at Ginny and smiled. "It's alright Ginny, it's over. It's just a memory." He told her before he escaped the chamber with both her and his father by his side.

Once they were back in the castle Dumbledore called both Harry and his father to his office. "First of all I would just like to say that I have some rather unfortunate news." Dumbledore began. "Due to the fact that I find Professor Lockheart to be rather untrustworthy since it was recently discovered that he was taking credit for things that other wizards have done, I have spoken with Professor and headmistress McGonagall and we have both decided that it's for the best interest of this school to let him go." He replied as Severus just simply rolled his eyes.

"The only unfortunate part is that it wasn't done sooner." He muttered underneath his breath as Harry stifled a laugh and then he grinned at him.

"I beg your pardon Severus?" Dumbledore inquired.

"Nothing. Never mind." He told him as Harry grinned and tried to suppress his laughter even though his sides silently shook.

"Second of all Harry, I wished to speak to you because your father told me what happened down in the chamber." Dumbledore told him. "That must have taken a lot of bravery, loyalty, and especially,.. love." He added.

"Well I don't know about that sir. I mean wouldn't you do the same if one of your friends was in trouble?" He asked him.

"No Harry, I'm not talking about Ginny." Dumbledore began. "I'm talking about what you did for your father. Your father told you to run and you refused, and if I'm not mistaken it was his love and willing to protect you, and your love for him and willingness to do the exact same thing in return that called Fawkes to you." He explained as Harry just simply looked at him.

"Now, even though I don't have the ability of Legilimency,.." He began and Harry scrunched up his face in confusion. "that is the power to read minds,.." Dumbledore continued automatically seeing his confusion. "I sense that something is troubling you." He said.

"Yes sir, it's just that I couldn't help but notice certain similarities between Tom Riddle and me." He told him.

"Ah, I see." Dumbledore began. "Well, it is my own personal belief that you can speak parseltongue because Voldemort can speak parseltongue, and if I'm not mistaken, he transferred some of his powers to you the night he gave you that scar." He finished before pointing over at his forehead. "So then you may ask, why did the sorting hat place you in Gryffindor?" He wondered as Harry slowly turned his head and looked over at it.

"Cause I asked it to." He replied.

"Exactly Harry! Exactly! For it is not our abilities that make us who we are it is our choices that we make and even though all of us make poor choices from time to time, it's what we choose to act on the most that counts and if you want further proof that you belong in Gryffindor, then you might want to get a closer look at this." Dumbledore told him before handing him over the sword and Harry read the bold print on it aloud.

"Godric Gryffindor." He said.

"It would take a true Gryffindor to pull that out of the hat." Dumbledore told him as both he and Severus smiled rather warmly down at Harry and then Dumbledore glanced up at his father. "Now Severus, I do believe that there are several students down in the hospital wing that currently need to be unpetrified and whenever you find Dobby, please give him this."

He said before handing him over a box. "I sure hope that they will fit him as they are a pair of woolen socks that I knitted myself." He told him with a proud grin before Severus silently nodded at him and then left the room. "Oh and I better get these release papers to Azkaban as I do believe that it is time to get our gamekeeper back." He added as Harry turned his head and smiled at him and watched as he left the room.

Just as all of the students were filing into the Great Hall for the end of the year feast Neville turned his head and grinned as he saw who was at the entrance doors. "Hey look! It's Hermione!" He cried and Harry, Ron's, and Draco's heads all shot up and they smiled at her as she grinned and started racing towards them and went to go hug both Harry and Ron and then stopped a few inches in front of Draco and blushed as a nervous expression grew onto both of their faces and Draco blushed back at her before they grabbed each other's hand and shook it.

"Uhh,.. welcome back Granger." He told her.

"Thanks and I can't believe that you solved it!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly.

"Well, we had tons of help from you." Ron told her.

"Yeah, we couldn't have done it without you." Harry told her happily as Hermione thanked them again before they all sat down to eat. Then the room erupted in applause as soon as Dumbledore had made the announcement to congratulate Professor Sprout on getting all of the petrified students back to their original state and once, he announced that it was due to celebration of this that all school exams were cancelled, everybody was excited about this except for Hermione since she had spent a lot of time studying for them.

After that it was time to announce the winner of the house cup and Harry and his friends didn't actually mind sharing the victory with Slytherin for once as it ended in a tie with eight hundred and thirteen points each. That's when suddenly the doors opened up again and Hagrid walked in through them. "Sorry I'm late, but my release papers got lost and confused by some rutty old owl named Errol!" He snapped as Ron's cheeks started to go pink and that's when Hagrid stopped in front of the Gryffindor table.

"I would just like to say that if it wasn't for you Harry, Ron, and Hermione of course I would still be you know where so I would just like to say thanks." He said with a grin as all three of them smiled back at him and Harry got to his feet.

"It's not Hogwarts without you Hagrid." He told him before he embraced him tightly and that's when Dumbledore started to clap, then Professor McGonagall, followed by several students. Eventually the whole entire room started filling with applause except for Draco who sat at the Slytherin table looking rather hurt that Hagrid clearly forgot to thank him and glared up at him as Hagrid's eyes started filling up with joyful tears.

"This isn't over,.. not by a longshot." He told him with a look that could have been dangerous enough to kill.