The Mandrake Restorative Draught
For a moment, there was silence as Harry, Ron, Lily, Ginny, and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime and (in Harry's case) blood. Then there was a scream.
"Ginny!"
It was Molly who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leapt to her feet, closely followed by Arthur, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter.
Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Fawkes flew to Dumbledore's shoulder. Lily felt herself being swept into Molly's tight embrace, along with Ron and Harry.
"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"
"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly.
Molly let go of them. Harry walked to Dumbledore's desk and laid a few things over it. The sorting hat, the sword and, out of the hat, he pulled something that had been a book at some point. It took a moment for Lily to understand it was Tom Riddle's diary.
Harry began telling everything about hearing the disembodied voice, and how it matched Lily's pendant behaviour. He told them about how He; Ron; Lily and Megan had followed the spiders into the Forbidden Forest, where Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died, and how he had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom….
"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him as he paused, "so you found out where the entrance was - breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add - but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"
Harry started speaking again, his voice growing hoarse, and told them about how the Basilisk had appeared and about Fawkes bliding the snake to prevent it from using its deadly stare; and about the sword that came out of the Sorting Hat. He told them that Fawkes used his tears to cure Harry of the wound caused by the Basilisk. But then he suddenly stopped talking, as if he remembered something he shouldn't say out loud.
Dumbledore smiled faintly, the firelight glancing off his half-moon spectacles.
"What interests me most," said Dumbledore gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."
Lily frowned and glanced at Ginny, who still had tears running down her face. Voldemort? And all this time, she had thought Ginny was simply suffering from heartache!
"W- what's that?" said Arthur in a stunned voice. "YouKnow-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not ... Ginny hasn't been ... has she?"
"It was this diary," said Harry quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen . . . ."
Dumbledore took the diary from Harry and peered keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages.
"Brilliant," he said softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen." He turned around to the Weasleys, who were looking utterly bewildered.
"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school... traveled far and wide... sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."
"But, Ginny," said Molly. "What's our Ginny got to do with - with - him?"
"H-his diary!" Ginny sobbed. "I've b-been writing in it, and it's been write back all year -"
"Ginny!" said Arthur. "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 d-didn't know," sobbed Ginny. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it -"
"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," he added, twinkling kindly down at her. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice - I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."
"So Hermione's okay!" said Ron brightly.
"And Hector!"
"There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny," said Dumbledore.
Molly led Ginny out, and Arthur followed. They all seemed deeply shaken. Lily cursed herself one more time for mistaken Ginny's lack of color on her cheeks by something other than dying.
"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," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with these three, shall I?"
"Certainly," said Dumbledore.
She left, and Lily looked uncertain at Snape. Certainly they weren't going to be punished? They had obviously broken many school rules, but ultimately they had solved the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry had saved Ginny!
"I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules", said Dumbledore, looking at Harry and Ron.
Lily opened her mouth to protest. Ron looked horrified.
"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling. "The three of you will, as well as Miss Jones, receive Special Awards for Services to the School and - let me see - yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor and Hufflepuff."
They all grinned, and Lily felt her face get brightly pink as Ron's.
"But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure," Dumbledore added. "Why so modest, Gilderoy?"
Lockhart was standing in a corner of the room, still wearing his vague smile. When Dumbledore addressed him, Lockhart looked over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.
"Professor Dumbledore," Ron said quickly, "there was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart -"
"Am I a professor?" said Lockhart in mild surprise. "Goodness. I expect I was hopeless, was I?"
"He tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired," Ron explained quietly to Dumbledore.
"Dear me," said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long silver mustache quivering. "Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!"
"Sword?" said Lockhart dimly. "Haven't got a sword. That boy has, though." He pointed at Harry. "He'll lend you one"
"Would you two mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?" Dumbledore said and looked at both Ron and Lily. "I'd like a few more words with Harry ...
Ron pulled Lockhart's robe, guiding him out of the office. Lily followed, and closed the door behind her.
When they arrived at the infirmary, Ron sat Lockhart on a chair and presented the case to Madam Pomfrey. The victims of the Basilisk's petrifying gaze were sitting on their beds, looking confused and scared. Madam Pomfrey was giving each one of them a dose of a potion unknown to Lily.
Ginny was sitting on another bed at the corner, drinking a mug of hot chocolate just like Dumbledore had recommended. Her parents were at each of her sides, looking at her. Ron ran towards them, but Lily's eyes deviated to another spot.
On the bed at the corner of the infirmary, sat Hector. He was looking at her, grinning. Lily's heart was filled with a warmth she hadn't known for what seemed like ages, and she grinned too. Lily ran towards him and jumped over him, knocking him down onto the bed.
"Careful!" Scolded Madam Pomfrey, but Lily didn't care.
"You are back, you are back!"
"Lils!" Hector pushed her off and looked at her with a concerned face. "Lils, there was a Basilisk! I was hanging posters with Penelope and we met Hermione. She warned us, and Penelope used her mirror to check the corners before we turned. We were heading to Dumbledore's office to warn him, but the Basilisk was waiting for us! We have to tell everyone!"
"I know! It's over. We found the Chamber of Secrets. Harry killed the Basilisk. It's over!"
Hector's whole body relaxed and he hugged her again, tighter this time.
"I'm so happy to see you," she said.
"Me too," he said. "But how did you figure it out?"
And Lily began telling him everything about Hagrid's arrest, Dumbledore's suspension, and of the trail of spiders that had led them to the lair of the Acromantulas. She told him of Aragog, and how terrifying it was to meet him and his children. And of the accidental recording she had made of the Basilisk's voice, which Harry had been hearing all year. And finally she explained that Moaning Myrtle had been killed by the Basilisk fifty years ago, when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened by Tom Riddle, whose alias was Lord Voldemort. She explained to him that Ginny had been possessed by him to re-open the Chamber and unleash the Basilisk, and then to get inside the Chamber to die, but that Harry had managed to kill the snake and save Ginny in time.
Hector remained silent for a while. "So, Voldemort again, uhm?" He finally said. "We were fighting against him all along, again."
"Yes."
"So… you went into the Chamber of Secrets? How was it? There must be loads of historically relevant stuff down there."
"Is that everything you can think of?" Lily laughed, and Hector laughed along with her.
They were interrupted, however, as the door to the infirmary burst open to reveal a very pale looking Snape. He walked toward them, his face twisted in an agonized expression. For a moment, Lily thought he was about to slap her, such was his nervousness. But he didn't. Instead, Snape pulled Lily away from the hammock was she was sitting next to Hector and embraced her, the dark cloth of his cloak almost swallowing her.
"I thought you had died," he whispered. "I thought Potter had died. I thought I had failed."
"We're all safe," said Lily, still unsure of what was happening.
Snape held her for a few more moments before letting her go and, as if nothing had happened, returning to his seat. Lily stood there for another minute, trying to make sense of that sudden demonstration of affection. From the other side of the infirmary, Ron looked like he could be sick at any moment.
A little later, Professor McGonagall came to the infirmary to announce that they were all to go to the Great Hall, where the end of that dreadful period would be celebrated with a feast.
Everyone in the hall was still on their pajamas, many of them looking sleepy. Hermione immediately ran toward Harry and Ron, screaming "you solved it! you solved it!". Mandy rose from the Ravenclaw table and hurried toward Hector and placed a kiss on his cheek, and then blushed.
Reluctantly, Lily let go of his arm and went to sit with her fellow Hufflepuffs, where Megan and Susan demanded to know everything. Apparently, they already knew Lily had been missing for a few hours, and wanted to know every little detail about the Chamber of Secrets.
Hogwarts had never seen food as great as the one they ate on that night, and Lily didn't restrain herself from stuffing her stomach with it.
At some point of the night, Justin came to her to announce that he would apologise to Harry for suspecting him. Lily almost cried when, at three in the morning, Hagrid arrived at the Great Hall. The four hundred points awarded to Lily and Megan got Hufflepuff to the second place on the House Cup, after Gryffindor. Everyone cheered when Professor McGonagall stood up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat. Finally, everyone – including most of the teachers – cheered when Dumbledore announced that , unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away and get his memory back.
The rest of the term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences - Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky. On the other hand, Ginny was no longer pale, and her troubles were back to being her unnilateral crush on Harry. Lily and Hector were again inseparable, except for the Mug Club meetings, which Hector decided to keep open even after the Heir of Slytherin was no longer an immediate threat. Violet, Remus and Rachel wrote to them tirelessly to make sure that they were truly safe again and, even though they indeed were furious for not being warned about the attacks, everything was definitely going to be well.
Soon it was the time for the journey back on the Hogwarts Express, and they were handed notes reminding them that underage students weren't allowed to do magic outside Hogwarts. Lily, Hector, Mandy, Susan and Megan got a compartment to themselves and spent the journey making the most of the last moments in which they could do magic before the holidays. Megan taught them a new spell she had crafted to find small animals ("in case we ever have to follow them again," she laughed). They played Exploding Snap and practiced disarming each other with magic – that had been very useful against Lockhart –.
The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped.
"Are you coming to spend summer with us again?" Lily asked Hector as they pulled their trunks and pet cages out of the train.
"Maybe," said Hector. "But I think my mom wants to travel with me, to do some research for her book."
They looked around the crowded platform. Violet, Rachel and Remus were there, waiting to take them home.
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A.N: YESSSSS! This is the end! This is it, guys! Thank you for reading this story until the end. I can't believe I made it this far. I've been working on Lily's story for the past four years, even though I have only first posted it last year. Just so you have an idea, I have written over 620 pages up until now, and I am only halfway through writting the book analogous to Prisoner of Azkaban. It is a lot of work, guys. Endless hours of research, listening and reading the books, checking forums and wikis for information... and all of this in a foreing language, which doubles the ammount of effort I put into it. I am so proud of making it this far! There were moments when I thought of quitting, because there weren't enough comments or views, but if I can get at least one person engaged to my story, I'm happy. However, if you want to make me extra happy (which I think I deserve after entertaining you for over 80 thousand words, LOL), please let me know what you thought, and share this story with a friend who you think might enjoy reading Lily's story.
Thank you very much for everything. I'll come back here and post an especial chapter when I get the next book ready, in case you haven't followed me as an author but want to keep reading the series. I can't make promises about how long it will take – might take months, might take until june next year – but it will come as soon as I can.