This is a short chapter. Read the Author's Note at the end to see why.

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Chapter Forty-Four

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Harry could sense that Ginny was pressing her face into his shoulder just so that she wouldn't let out a scream. Harry had been attempted to let out a yell, himself, as he wasn't quite used to the stomach-dropping sensation of falling without a broomstick. Despite the fact that their backs were to the steep chute of the tunnel, it felt as though it were little use to prevent that falling-sensation they both felt.

Especially for this length of time.

Just as Harry remembered, it took quite a bit of time until they finally reached the bottom. The chute suddenly tilted sideways and they both separated from their embrace as they landed.

Harry rolled a few feet from the impact, until he finally stopped, landing on his back.

Groaning at the jostling feeling Harry knew he could have lived without, he forced himself to stand after a moment and took some time to brush off the dust from his clothing.

He looked all around him for Ginny, expecting her to be still on the floor or just getting up herself.

But he was surprised to see her standing several feet away. Her back was to him, her posture tense as she was stared at all of the broken carcasses and bones of dead animals littered across the stone floor.

Harry swallowed heavily as he surveyed the sight, himself. He couldn't even imagine what was going through her mind at the moment.

Harry didn't waste another moment to linger. Instead, he went the several paces forward to stand by her side. She didn't make any indication of her noticing his presence. Harry stared at the side of her face, wondering at the depth of emotion he saw in her eyes.

Silently, Harry reached over to grab her hand in his, and the action seemed to break her from her trance.

She looked down at their clasped hands and Harry squeezed them in response, before her eyes traveled up to his worried gaze.

"You know, it's not too late to turn back." Harry pointed out, an offering in his tone. Telling her without the words that there was no shame in turning back and he surely wouldn't judge her for it.

Ginny's eyes hardened and without saying anything more, she let go of his hand and trudged forward, stepping on the chips of shattered bone.

Harry sighed and warily followed her.

They were silent as they made their way to the chamber doors. And upon arriving to the grand door of carved snakes, Harry broke that silence by speaking in parseltongue, getting the door to open.

The snakes on the door started to move around in a slither, the cobwebs breaking apart with their movement. Until, the door unlocked with a groan, and opened with a reverberating creak… revealing the open space of the Chamber of Secrets.

Ginny was visibly panting with great effort, and Harry was about to suggest that they turn back again, but she walked forward. Harry followed silently. She kept walking until she was standing in the middle of the chamber… Staring across the way at the giant carcass that belonged to the long-dead basilisk.

"Ginny?" Harry asked, his voice beyond worried and concern. He felt an emotion closer to fear for her. He reached out a hand to rest on her shoulder. She jumped, turning to look at him with a gleam of terrified craze in the watering of her eyes.

Harry immediately stepped forward and gathered her into his arms. "Perhaps this wasn't a good idea…"

He felt her shake her head from where it was pressed against his shoulder. "No… it's just that… in a sense, in this very spot, I had died. At least a part of me had."

She pulled away from his arms and turned, kneeling slowly to caress the floor with the pads of her fingers. There was a notable stain on the stone floor. The ink from the stab wound Harry had inflicted onto Tom Riddle's diary. "I had lost my innocence in this spot… my childhood. He had been in my head for so long, Harry… and I had witness so many terrible things that he had purposefully planted there."

All he could do was stare, at a loss of what to do or say… He supposed that wasn't the point of his presence right then. He was meant to comfort her without words. To merely listen as she worked out her past demons.

She looked back at him with tears in her eyes. "I-I saw them die… His grandparents - His father. It was all so senseless, I couldn't understand the need for why he had felt he had to kill his own family. But then he made me kill. It started with the chickens, but he had forced me to try and kill muggleborn students. I-I could've killed Hermione, or Collin, or-or-"

Harry knelt next to her, sitting firmly onto the cold ground as he pulled her onto his lap, holding her tight as he rocked them back and forth. Trying to force the horrible memories from her head by his mere touch… though he knew that the intention was impossible. "But you didn't. You are no murderer, Ginevera Molly Weasley. And even if you had, it wouldn't have been your fault."

They sat in silence for a long moment. With Ginny calming her breath, while Harry held onto her as tight as was comfortable.

"I-I think that part of the problem is that the entire situation is still wrapped in mystery for me." Ginny finally said as she broke the silence. She backed away from him slightly so that she could look at his face. "I never really found out what had happened that night. I-I think that it would put some things into perspective, answer some questions."

"You want me to tell you about what happened in the Chamber that night?" Harry asked, surprise heavy in his voice.

Ginny bit her lip and nodded.

Harry debated with himself, warring internally as he weighed to pros and cons of telling her the details of that horrible night in the Chamber of Secrets.

Until, he looked down into Ginny's eyes and he saw how much she needed to hear this.

So, with a heavy breath, Harry recounted everything for her. Not sparing a single detail. Ginny listened attentively, not once interrupting his account to clarify anything that he said.

Just merely sat and listened.

When he had finished, it was to the silence of the room once again. He didn't dare say anything more as he waited for her to absorb all that he said.

Until, finally, Ginny let out a breath, and the tension he felt in her body vanished as she exhaled.

"Better?" He found himself asking.

Ginny nodded. "Yes. Very much so."

"Want to talk about it?"

"There's not much to say, really. Just that, now that I've faced my fears, by coming down here and realizing that nothing horrible was going to happen to me when I did, it just - I don't know, gives me peace of mind. It still doesn't change what had happened… but now I can use my experience with Tom Riddle to make me stronger rather than let it keep me tethered down."

She looked straight at him, deep into his eyes. "I know that there are some things in your past that are holding you back, Harry. And I'm not saying that you have to hash them all out in this very moment with me. But I do think that you need to start working through them. Because if you hold on to all of the bad memories, it will keep you from your full potential and hurt you in the war."

Her words hit him like a freight train and quite literally sucked the air from his lungs.

"You're right." Harry said, quiet as he ducked his head. Why did he suddenly feel ashamed?

Ginny lifted his head by tucking her fingers under his chin. "Hey, none of that… You need to stop feeling ashamed for things that are completely out of your control." How in the name of Merlin was she able to read him so well? "No one is perfect, Harry, but you tend to blame yourself for things that aren't even remotely your fault."

Thinking this over, Harry didn't respond. Merely hummed to let her know that he was absorbing her words. He felt that dealing with these emotions that Ginny was trying to draw out were too much to deal with in that moment. He would start the process to hashing them out, just as Ginny said, but he could only handle so much for one day.

He had everything that he had been dealing with before they came down to the chamber, but he found that there were still wounds that he felt from his own experience from the Chamber of Secrets, as well. Sure, they weren't as deep or traumatic as Ginny's, but it had still been a terrifying experience for a twelve year old boy to go through.

And he had never talked to anyone about it.

Ginny nodded once at the noise he made, before she scrambled off of his lap and stood. "Now, I think that there is just one more thing that I want to do before we leave… And I think that it will be good for the both of us."

Harry looked at her curiously, and she held out her hand to him. He took it and she helped him stand. She took his hand, and guided him further down the chamber until they were standing in front of the bones of the dead basilisk.

"Let's destroy it." Ginny said with conviction.

And together, they do. Unaware, he was, that he would be cursing this very action months down the line…

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A/N: I was sad to see that I didn't get as many reviews or views on my last chapter, and I was wondering if any of you out there even got an email notification of the newly posted chapter?

I was curious, so I posted a short chapter for you guys because I needed so badly to know!

Please leave me reviews for this chapter! I promise that the next one will be longer. But I figured you guys wouldn't get too mad at me about it since I only posted the last chapter a few days ago.

I am still working on the rest of what was supposed to be this chapter and will be posting it soon! Love you all!