Chapter 10: The Heir of Slytherin
"You?!"Diana choked out as she regarded the person in front of her with disbelief. "You're the Heir of Slytherin?"
"Me," drawled the cold, unsympathetic voice of Ginny Weasley who had a superior smirk carved on her young face.
The red haired Weasley wasted no time in pulling out her wand and shouting "NOX!" and the room was engulfed in darkness once more.
"Expeliarmus!" cried Diana pointing her wand in the direction she had last seen the Weasley girl.
"Stupefy!"
A jet of red light came hurtling at Diana with frightened accuracy, and she barely managed to jump out of the way.
That seemed to break Neville back into action, and he two jumped out from behind his rock and shouted "LUMOS!" The two stared wildly around, wands bared and ready to strike upon sight.
"There!" shouted Diana. Neville turned to see the Weasley girl running down the tunnel towards the chamber. "Come one!" prompted Diana and the two set of in pursuit of the first year.
"Expeliarmus!" they both cried, hoping to catch her at lest with one of the spells, but the girl cast a shield which rendered their attacks useless.
"Stupefy!" she snarled at them and dove behind a corner.
The two sidestepped the curs and dashed after her, just in time to see the first year disappear inside one of the small tunnels which were adorning the main tunnel's walls. They both ran after her without a second's thought, blood pounding in their ears and adrenaline rushing through their veins.
Neville for one didn't want to believe it one bit that the sweet shy first year was responsible for setting the Basilisk on the students. But he couldn't deny the fact that she was here, and hadn't denounced the accusations which Diana had thrown her way, but had chose to run instead, looking even more guilty then she already seemed.
The tunnel broke up in two a short while away, and the duo weren't exactly sure which way the first year had gone, so Diana shouted: "You take the left!" and ran pass him and through the right turn, while Neville dashed for the left one, praying with all his might that he'd be able to find Ginny first and get the chance to ask her why she had done all of this.
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"Albus! Albus!" Minerva came sprinting down the hall, looking positively dejected and didn't stop up until she was right in front of the old headmaster, where she allowed herself a moment's rest in order to catch her breath.
"Minerva what has happened?" asked a concerned looking Dumbledore, after all, there wasn't much that could put the Transfiguration's teacher in such a desperate state.
"Ginevra - Weasley," she said between pants. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself and muttered in a slightly more composed voice. "Her brothers came to me and said that she had gone missing not long after I had locked the students in their common room, Merlin only knows how those three got out."
Dumbledore looked grimly at his two teachers. "Is anyone else missing?" he asked anxiously.
"No, not from Gryffindor tower," Minerva answered.
"Minerva, have Filius and Pomona check the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs," he told McGonagall, then he turned to the Potions master and said. "Severus, check the dungeons and see if any of your students are missing," he instructed. Dumbledore needn't have bothered to say anything, for Snape was already making his way towards the dungeon's staircase, without a back glare.
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Diana came sprinting out of the tunnel and nearly knocked into the wall on the other side. She looked around desperately, trying to determine whether the Weasley girl was anywhere nearby, when she came across a strand of long red hair which turned sharply around a corner and out of sight.
"Hey, you!" she rushed after the girl, like a raging Hippogriff and nearly got hit with a stunner for her trouble.
"That's cheating," she accused, to which the red haired girl just gave a light snigger and proceeded to throw a fast succession of stunners her way before resuming her dash down the tunnel.
Diana thanked the heavens for Augusta Longbottom and her winter training, which had taught her more then just how to cast a proper shielding charm, as she blocked the oncoming curses and countered with a stunner of her own.
"Stupefy!"
The first year turned to cast a lazy Protego charm at it, and was unpleasantly surprised when the shield crumbled under the power of the spell, forcing the red head to duck out of the way.
"How troublesome," the Weasley girl said as she picked herself off the floor. "I thought you were just a useless little sidekick that the two geeks hung around out of pity, like the fat kid."
"What?" asked Diana incredulously.
Ginny graced her with a taunting smirk.
"Well, that was my first impression of you," she replied smoothly. "I mean, honestly, why would they keep you around? You were clearly not smart enough to hang out with them! You're lazy, brash, and have quite a big mouth – not the ideal friend, now, are you?"
"Ideal friend?" Diana asked sounding skeptical. "You, have the nerve to brag to me about the ideal friend? You who've terrorized the entire school up until now, including your friends – if you even have any that is! You dare to come and brag about friendship to me? You really have a lot of nerve you know that."
The first curse came hurtling at Ginny like a hammer and the girl barely had time to jump to safety before another one flew her way.
"What about you?" asked Diana as she charged at the red-haired. "Why such disregard towards your friends?"
"My friends?" the girl gave a humorous laugh. "They're not friends! They're puppets, little mindless toys the whole bunch of them," she spat in disgust. "Stupefy!" she shot another stunner at Diana and, taking advantage of the girl's temporary distraction, she dashed forward.
"Protego!" Diana brushed aside the hastily shot spell and cried: "Flipendo!" which actually hit, throwing the red-head first-year up against a wall.
"My friends," Diana said while making her way up to the other girl, "like me, despite the fact that I'm not as smart as they are; they like me for who I am – something that you'll never have if you keep on going the way you are now."
Ginny slowly picked herself off the floor, rubbing at her aching back, and turned to give Diana a questioned look.
"But you don't like it...that fact that you're not as smart as they are? Makes you feel slightly inferior, doesn't it?"
Diana's mouth twitched ever so slightly, but it was enough to bring a sly smile on Ginny's face.
"Tell me, girl," she began as she straightened herself up. Diana pointed her wand threateningly at her.
"You better not move or I'll-"
"Does it hurt," Ginny asked in a baby-like voice, "when you look at them and realize that you're never gonna reach up to their level? That for the rest of your life, you'll be looked upon as nothing more then that unsuccessful twin, the one who wasn't blessed with as much talent as her sister?" The red haired strolled confidently closer to the now silent second year.
Diana had an unreadable expression on her face, and her wand was now lowered to the ground, as if in surrender; her eyes were turned away from the first year, and seemed like they had been glued to spot down her right, and her poise was as rigid as Hermione's had been the night when the kids has found her on the marble ground of the second floor corridor.
The first year drew closer till she was mere inches from her face; a wicked smile adorned her young visage as she leaned in to whisper quietly in her ear:
"Do your parents ever say that they wished you would be just a little bit more like your sister?"
Something snapped inside Diana the instant she hear those words, and in the next moment, the first year found herself knocked backwards as a fist collided painfully with her right cheek.
The red-haired found herself hyperventilating as she continued to deliver two more blows at the first year's face. Ginny stumbled backwards, and fell hard on the concrete floor, nearly smacking her head on the tunnel wall.
"My parents," Diana practically spat with rage, "HAVE NEVER ONCE COMPARED ME TO MY SISTER!"
No, they hadn't compared her to her sister, but she had. She'd always know that Heidi was the better one of the two, after all, she was smart, she was athletic, a good cook, she was less of a troublemaker then Diana was, and of course, she was the prettiest out of the two. Diana sometimes wondered why was it that, despite the fact that they were twins, she had red hair and hazel eyes and her sister had black hair and green eyes. Well, she didn't actually mind the hair, but the eyes she hated, and even the name, not to mention the fact that her sister had the largest chest out of the two (she'd asked).
The sudden outburst and the fact that the second year was advancing towards her like a mad bull, wand bared threateningly at her, scared Ginny more then she'd like to admit, and in a rush of panic, she pulled out her wand and shot the first curs that came to her mind: "STUPEFY!"
"Stupefy!" snarled Diana, still overcome by anger.
The two beams of red light collided in the air and blew up in a shower of sparks, while Ginny hastily jumped to her feat and pointed her wand towards the ceiling.
"BOMBARDA!"
She cried and briskly ran in the opposite direction, while the floor of the chamber gave a violent shake and millions of tiny bits and pieces of the ceiling came crumbling down, effectively creating a wall between the two red-heads.
When the ground stopped shaking, Diana pulled herself to her feet and turned to throw a dejected glare at the mount of rocks which had now covered up the path towards the chamber.
"WEASLEY!" she shouted, but no sound came from the other side. "I'LL GET YOU!" she promised and turned to study the walls.
There were about thousands, if not millions of ways in and out of the main tunnel's walls, and she wasn't sure which one to take. Her best chance was if she took a path which led her around the pile of rocks and back onto the main track, but god only knew where half of those tunnels lead, after all, they hadn't had the time to check them out. But she couldn't stay here and wait for the culprit to get to her sister, or Neville, she had to do something!
So, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then marched up to the tunnel which was right in front of her, hoping for the best.
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Neville had been running for over ten minutes with no sigh of his target or an exit whatsoever.
Contrary to the main tunnel, this small one had absolutely no openings in the wall, it was like one small little passageway in the center of the mountain, dark as the moonless night, and cold as the cells of Azkaban. The only thing that kept Neville from panicking was the small light which was coming from the tip of his wand, and a steal determination to get to the bottom of this whole Chamber mystery, and maybe clear up Ginny's name.
His foot suddenly splashed against cold water, making his steps echo in the eerie silence of the tunnel. His breath caught in his throat, his heart started racing at 100 miles/hour and his ears squinted around for the faintest of sounds.
His eyes narrowed as he suddenly caught sight of a faint glow from ahead. It was no bigger then the light of a candle, which's fire, seemed to be on the verge of running out, but it was still there!
A sudden feeling of hope burst up in Neville's chest as he began sprinting towards the faint glow of the candle which suddenly began growing larger and larger, up until it became an opening of emerald light. An opening which led right to the imposing figure of Salazar Slytherin, and his massive Chamber, bedecked with statues of snakes with narrowed silver eyes and sharp bared fangs.
"Neville!" Heidi called out to him from besides the final pillar. "How did you get here?"
"Heidi, is she hear?" Neville asked anxiously.
"She?" questioned Heidi confused.
"Ginny Weasley!" Neville said in a haste. "She's the Heir of Slytherin! We waited at the entrance to the tunnel like you said, and she came down! We had her, but she tricked us, and then ran into a tunnel and we chased her, and the tunnel split in two and Diana took the right side and I took the left and I've been running like mad for the past ten minutes and I ended up here!" he finished sounding slightly confused.
"Ok," Heidi nodded. "I got it. Well, as long as you're here, you might as well help me ambush her."
"Right," Neville nodded fervently. "But, what are we gonna do with here?" he asked worriedly.
"Why, we take her to Dumbledore of course," answered Heidi. "Isn't that what we agreed on doing?"
"Ok," Neville nodded. "So, what do we do?"
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At long last Ginny Weasley managed to reach the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and stopped in front of the massive door in order to catch her breath.
The Potter girl proved to be a tad more troublesome then he had anticipated. But, then again, it was clear from the start that the whole thing was a trap, he had deduced as much, what he hadn't thought of was the fact that the blasted trio had actually planed on ambushing him in the chamber. He had expected them to try and catch him in the bathroom, but instead two of them were waiting for him at the entrance of the chamber, while Heidi (the boss of the operation, he was sure of that) was nowhere in sight.
Could she be waiting for him at the other side of the door? No, she couldn't be that dumb as to expect to be able to catch him with the Basilisk rooming around, now could she? Or maybe she didn't know where the basilisk was, although it was painfully obvious, and he knew for a fact that the girl was smart.
A sudden stir from within interrupted his mussing, as the host of his spirit slowly opened her eyes to gaze right into the green gems of the serpents which concealed the entrance to the chamber.
"Where am I?" asked the baffled voice of Ginny Weasley.
"Go back to sleep you useless girl," snapped a cold unsympathetic voice.
Ginny suddenly felt herself engulf by a blinding darkness, which pulled her back into the deepest oceans of her soul and tried to force her back into a sleep induced state.
"You won't get away with this Tom!" she screamed desperately trying to fight the darkness, but to no avail, in a matter of seconds, her eyes closed and the world became lost to her once more.
"I already have," a young man, with jet-black hair and cold black eyes said in a slight chuckling voice as he gazed upon the slumbering figure of the first year with malice.
The figure turned back towards the chamber's entrance and decided that he had wasted enough time mussing around, while the Potter and Longbottom spawn were still on his tail.
"Open," he hissed in a soft chilling voice, and watched entranced as the two serpents slowly parted to reveal the entrance to his beloved chamber.
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Heidi and Neville heard a sudden shriek as the chamber's doors parted in order to grant entrance to whoever was on the other side. The two readied themselves for and attack as they waited for the Weasley girl to make her appearance.
"Heidi Potter!" the child-like voice of the first year resounded throughout the whole Chamber. "Why don't you come out so we can speak," the voice drawled, "face-to-face?"
For a split second, Heidi considered ignoring the request, but then remembered that she had Neville with her, whose presence the first year wasn't aware of, and stepped out from behind the final pillar.
She saw the Weasley girl standing calmly in the middle of the road, while giving her a calculative look.
"I can't believe you're actually in here," the first year suddenly said.
"So, you thought I was bluffing when I threatened Malfoy?" Heidi asked unsure of what she meant.
"No, I thought you weren't as stupid as to choose this precise location as your final attempt at an ambush," she said sounding disappointed. "Honestly, I thought you were smarter then that!"
"Why?" questioned Heidi. "You thought I would be scared of the Basilisk?"
"What ever do you mean?" The girl asked doing a poor impression of playing the confused little girl.
"I know the Basilisk's hiding inside that statue over there," Heidi pointed at Slytherin's statue, "so quit playing dumb!"
"I shell confess that I find myself intrigued," the red-haired said. "Why did you let me come this far if you knew that the Basilisk was located here?"
"Because I'm a Parselmouth," said Heidi in a triumphant tone. "You summon your snake and he won't know who to listen to."
"Yes, that might be the case," Ginny agreed. "If I were to order him to attack you," she gave a malicious smile. "But the boy," she hissed in Parseltongue as her eyes trailed towards the pillar where Neville was hiding. "Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."
Heidi's breath caught in her throat as she turned desperately towards the place Neville was hiding and shouted "Neville RUN!"
"SILENCIO!"
A jet of energy collided with Heidi's back and made her stumble on her feet.
Neville, who had been patiently waiting for the right time to ambush the first year turned towards Slytherin's statue with a jolt and stared transfixed at the place, watching how the mouth of the sculpture parted slowly, up until it became a gigantic hole and something could be seen stirring inside.
He was snapped out of his trance by Heidi's sudden scream, and then he realized with a jolt that the thing emerging from the black hole was the Basilisk. He hastily backed up against the wall and darted through a tunnel.
"Kill him!" Ginny ordered the Basilisk then returned her attention towards Heidi, who was apparently shouting at him, though no sound seemed to be coming out of her mouth.
"I've cast a silencing charm on you," she informed her, though by the look in Heidi's eyes she could deduce that the other girl already knew this...that and the next thing that Ginny said, just to spite her. "And you can't de-spell it since you haven't learned to cast the spells wordlessly."
Heidi's features contorted into a nasty sneer as she brought her wand to her throat. Something silver shot out of its tip, and collided with the girl's neck.
"You really think so?" Heidi asked sounding smug.
"How...?" Ginny tried asking, but she was suddenly forced to duck out of the way, as a fast succession of stunners were hurtled at her.
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Neville ran as fast as he could throughout the vast tunnel, well aware of the hissing creature which was slowly closing in on him.
I have to get him away from Heidi! he through as he quickened his pace. I'm not gonna lose another friend!
Neville reached into his pocket and hurriedly pulled out the sound generating device they had bought from Diagon Alley which was set on roster and switched it on.
The sound of a roster hooting proudly at the first ray of sunlight echoed throughout the whole chamber and soon after, the distressed hisses of the basilisk mingled in the air to create a dreaded symphony of despair.
Neville twirled around hoping that the mighty beast had closed his eyes even for a split second, and was met with the sight of the serpent trashing around in agony and banging his head on the chamber's walls, eyes shut tight in pain.
For a split second, Neville pitied the enormous creature and was tempted to just leave and let the creature be, but then he remembered the rigid for of Hermione lying stiffly in a hospital bed and all remorse for the creature vanished in the blink of an eye. He trusted his wand up in front of him and shouted "BOMBARDA!" right at the creatures face.
The serpent gave a pained hiss and lung forward in agony, determined to strike down the one which was causing it so much pain, and knocked head-first into Neville's surprised form, sending his flying into the wall, and knocking the device which reproduced animal voices out of his hand. The tiny gadget fell with a muffled thump on the ground, and suddenly, the chamber was engulfed in silence once more.
Neville hastily picked himself off the floor and watched as the great serpent swayed on the spot, its eyes were burned out of its face thanks to the blasting hex that Neville had fired earlier, and then it lifted its head high and brought out its tongue, tasting the air around.
It hissed, baring its fangs at Neville and lung at the boy who dove out of the way and rolled into a nearby tunnel.
Neville promptly jumped to his feet and ran through the tunnel, with the gigantic Basilisk at his heals.
What now? Neville asked sarcastically. He had managed to blind the Basilisk, but that had only brought upon the beast's rage and now he had no more devices to distract the bloody thing with...but he did have a wand!
Neville cursed his stupidity as he spun on the spot and bared his wand at the mighty creature.
"BOMBARDA!"
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"No other student is missing from the other houses," said Flitwick.
"So only the Potter twins, the Longbottom spawn and the Weasley girl, all Gryffindors" drawled Snape. "My, my, McGonagall, what an ideal house you have there, such a worth example for the other students it is."
"I would appreciate it if you held your opinions to yourself Severus," McGonagall snapped. "I have more pressing matters to deal with then your petty obsession with house rivalry!"
Snape glowered at the elder woman who sent him a pointed glare and turned her attention towards Dumbledore.
"We have searched the entire castle and not a single trace of the children," the elder man stroke his beard pensively.
"Albus!" a voice called out to him, grabbing his attention.
"Augusta?!" the old wizard asked mystified.
A stride away from the entrance door, dressed in dark-green robes with a matching hat and neon pink purse stood Augusta Longbottom, stiff as a statue and eyes blazing with anger. Hagrid, the groundkeeper was standing a little to her left, looking worried at the older witch.
"What brings you to our school on such a late hour?" asked Dumbledore curiously.
"How dare you not warn me about my grandson's hospitalization?! I had to find out from my own grandson about this incident!" the woman snapped not bothering to acknowledge Dumbledore's question. She began making her way towards the group of people, and bypassed them in one swift motion heading for the stairs. "I am disappointed in you!" she said before beginning her ascend.
The surrounding professors shared a bewildered look and proceeded to follow the woman up the stairs.
"Neville wrote to you?" asked McGonagall.
"He did," the woman confirmed. "And he asked me to bring him a few things. Now tell me Minerva, why did my grandson end up in the hospital wing? And most importantly, why would he need a restoration potion of all things?"
"A restoration potion?" asked McGonagall.
"Was I not clear enough?" snapped Augusta. "Never mind, I'll find out for myself," the elder witch said as she came to the third floor landing and entered the corridor.
"Wait Augusta! Neville isn't in the hospital wing!" McGonagall said chasing after the old woman.
Augusta stopped in her tracks and gave McGonagall a hard glare. "Then where is he?" she demanded.
"The Potter twins and your grandson threatened Mister Malfoy to go and kill the Basilisk who is apparently residing in the Chamber of Secrets sometime around diner, and the three have been missing ever since," Snape answered.
"They've WHAT?" shrieked Augusta startling the other occupants of the corridor.
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Diana finally managed to find her way back to the main tunnel and sighed in relief.
Great, now all I have to do is find the entrance to the Chamber, kill the Basilisk and stun that first year bitch, she though morosely.
She ran forward, and in a few minutes top, she was standing in front of the gigantic door with serpent embroider.
Ready or not, here I come.
"Open!"
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"BOMBARDA!"
The snake hissed and dove out of the way while lunging at Neville with his fangs bared.
Neville panicked when he saw the gigantic fangs and shot a blasting hex at the creature which struck the beast's fangs and lung it backwards a few strides. The creature however recovered and made another wild dash towards him, throwing the boy backwards on the concrete floor. The impact nearly knocked him unconscious and his wand flew out of his hand, but luckily, the snake had managed to bangs its head against the walls, and was swaying on the spot befuddle, with its head spinning from one spot to the other.
Neville took advantage of the creature's distraction to jump into a nearby tunnel an out of sight, but, unfortunately, this tunnel was sealed with a thick metal bar.
Bullocks, he cursed as he slowly turned around to come face-to-face with the frightening sight of the Basilisk's blown up head and bared venomous fangs.
He sank to the floor cowering in fright, eyes haphazardly spinning and hands feeling around, searching for any kind of weapon which could help him defeat the monster. He spotted his wand laying a few strides away, at the entrance of the tunnel, but there was not enough space left between the wall and the Basilisk's massive form for him to reach up to it.
Just when he was about to give up and resign himself to his fate, his hand brushed against a cold edgy surface.
He looked down.
A gleaming silver sword with rubies the size of small eggs was lying neatly on the floor beside him.
Now where did that come from?
Neville took one look at the sword and then another at the face of the hideous Basilisk which was just inches away from him.
In a swift motion, he took a firm grip of the sword and trusted it upwards, straight in the mouth of the mighty beast. The blade cut right through the beast's scull and emerged on the other side of its head, covered in the thick blood of the creature.
The Basilisk gave on last agonizing shriek and slithered to the floor, nearly squashing Neville in the process, had it not been for the fact that its poisonous fangs scratched the surface of the metal bar and remained entangled in its thick surface, leaving the head of the beast suspended in midair.
Neville sighed in relief and took a few deep breaths to calm his erratic breathing, then he pulled the sword out of the beast's mouth and, careful as to not get scratched by the poisonous fangs, he exited the tunnel and took a hold of his wand and hastily made his way back through the tunnel.
There was still the perpetrator to be deal with, and he had left Heidi alone with her.
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"Stupefy!" cried Heidi as she ducked out of the way of a stunner.
"Just because you've learned a few spells doesn't mean you're strong enough to beat me little girl!" Ginny snapped as she conjured a shield to block the upcoming spell.
"A first year calling me little girl, don't you think that's a big giveaway for your cover?" Heidi asked a she tried to throw another stunner, but was forced to use a Protego instead as a full body bind was hurtled her way.
"Who are you?" Heidi asked as she shot another stunner.
"You haven't been able to figure that one out now have you?" The Weasley girl said in a taunting voice. "Though it really is not that hard."
The red haired fired a fast succession of spells at Heidi, forcing her to hide behind a pillar.
"Well, my first guess would be Voldemort," Heidi said and bent down to throw a rock towards her right.
Ginny smirked and fired a stunner towards the right side of the pillar, hoping to get Heidi, and was surprised when said girl emerged from the left and threw a stunner back at her.
"Come on, you'd actually fall for the oldest trick in the book," Heidi taunted as Ginny summoned a shield to counter the stunner.
"One can never be to precautions," Ginny said calmly, though the smile had dropped from her face.
While Heidi's stunners were weaker then Diana's, the girl made up for it in speed and tactic, and Ginny's body was already tired, the useless girl didn't look like she'd last for much longer, so Tom had to act fast and win this duel before the first year fainted from magic exhaustion.
"Sectumsempra!" he snarled and then proceeded to shoot a nonverbal spell at her.
Heidi cast a Protego charm to block the spell, and was shocked speechless when the shield crumbled underneath the weight, canceling it, and she was hit with the full-body-bind which came right after the spell.
She fell to the floor rigid as a statue.
A few moments later, the smug face of Ginny Weasley came into her line of view.
"I declare myself disappointed by your performance tonight," Ginny said trailing her wand on her. "But you see, it's understandable," she assured, "because you were too emotionally involved for your own sake. You were too anxious to get revenge for the sake of your friend that you didn't actually consider all the factors at hand, nor the fact that you were too week to take me on by yourself."
Ginny began circling around her up until she reached her face, where she bent down on her knees and stared into her jaded eyes. Thant's when Heidi noticed the flicker of red amongst the ocean of brown, and knew for a fact that this was Voldemort she was dealing with.
"You see, that's why I came down here," Ginny said. "I knew you - all of you, weren't at your best tonight. You thought that by giving me less time to think I'd act rash and make a mistake," she slowly reached out and trailed her finger down Heidi's soft cheek. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe you didn't have enough time to think things over either? Because I most certainly did," Ginny assured smirking down at her. She leaned in closer to whisper in her ear "And you're not gonna get me."
A flicker of gold caught Ginny's eyes and she reached towards Heidi's neck and trailed her hand across the chain of a golden necklace.
"What have we here?" she asked intrigued and she smiled nastily when she saw Heidi's eyes widen.
"Let's have a look," she said and pulled on the golden chain which moved slowly out of her robes to reveal a golden necklace in the shape of a locket on which an "S" was imprinted in green ink.
Ginny's eyes grew comically wide as she gazed upon the small piece of jewelry. She knew what it was instantly, she could feel it, but how had Potter managed to obtain it?
"How did you-"
"Ger your hands off my sister!" a voice boomed from the other side of the room, and before Ginny could even process what was going on, a stunning spell hit her square in the chest, knocking her unconscious and throwing her a few good feet away from Heidi.
Heidi felt the spell lift off her, and she hastily made her way up to her feet.
"Diana, where have you been?" she asked, wand pointed at the fallen figure of Ginny Weasley.
"Trapped inside some tunnel or another. Have you seen Neville?" Diana asked.
"Oh, my GOD, NEVILLE," Heidi all but forgot about the Weasley girl and rushed off towards the tunnel in which she'd last seen the chubby boy, only to knock head first into him.
Heidi was hurtled backwards from the impact while Neville dropped his sword and wand in favor of grabbing a hold of the girl in front.
"Heidi! You're ok!" he cheered and pulled the girl into a bear hug.
"Look who's talking, I didn't have to face a wild Basilisk," Heidi countered.
Neville pulled back and smiled broadly at her. "I managed to kill the Basilisk," he said. "I don't know how I did it, but I did it, and-"
"And that's all that matters," Heidi said.
"Where's Diana?" Neville suddenly asked.
"Over here," Diana waved. The red-head was currently preoccupied with tying up the unconscious first year and pocketing her wand.
"Looks like everything went according to plan down here, let's hope everything's alright up there as well," Diana said.
Her words seemed to awaken a sudden spark of excitement in the other two, because they hastily picked up their wands and sword and made their way towards her in a swift motion, they then hurled the Weasley girl on Neville's back while Diana took the bloodied sword from Neville, and ran towards the exit of the Chamber, hearts beating loudly and a glimpse of hope and triumph echoing in their footsteps.
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READER'S CHOICE!!!
Who do you want Neville paired up with? It can be any girl except Hermione and the twins. My top candidates would be Ginny and Luna, but if you guys want someone else, I might give it try. (Just, no OC please! I don't feel like introducing any original character here.)