"This is it?" Dumbledore asked, reaching for the diary, as Padfoot glanced at the hat and shot Dumbledore a bewildered look. "Tom's… hiding place?"
"Yes, sir," Harry said.
"And how-"
There was a sharp knock on the office door, and Mr Malfoy strode in. He nodded at Scrimgeour, barely looked at Harry and Padfoot, and turned to Dumbledore.
"It seems the rumours of your return were true after all, Dumbledore," he said, curling his lip. "Odd, that; I seem to recall you being asked to leave."
"I remember it as well," Dumbledore said, not seeming bothered. Mr Malfoy glanced at Scrimgeour, who had his arms folded, and seemed to realise he wouldn't be getting any help from him.
"Then might I ask what, precisely, you think you're doing here?"
"He's here because he was helping me," Harry said, smiling at Mr Malfoy, who wasn't going to get away with being a git today if Harry could help it. This was all his fault – he, after all, had given Ginny the diary in the first place – but Harry couldn't say that; Draco wasn't impressed with his father at the moment, but Harry didn't think he'd like to wake up to his father in Azkaban, no matter how much Mr Malfoy might deserve it. Harry could feel Padfoot's eyes on him, and Scrimgeour's. "Even when he was away from the school, he did more than the people that were here," Harry added, giving Mr Malfoy a pointed look.
"I, like the staff and other Board and Ministry members, wasn't aware of the situation until it was too late to help," Mr Malfoy said smoothly. "My thoughts were with you, though-"
"Not being aware of the situation's probably the problem," Padfoot said arching his eyebrows, and Mr Malfoy scowled at him. "Thank goodness the Headmaster was." This was followed by a curious look at Dumbledore from Padfoot. Harry wondered what he was thinking.
"Indeed," Mr Malfoy said curtly. His eyes had landed on the sword on the desk. "And might I ask what this little meeting is about?"
"Potter's filling us in on the last few hours. Sit, if you want to hear," Scrimgeour said. Padfoot didn't look pleased with that, and Dumbledore didn't look annoyed, but he smelled it. Malfoy conjured himself a chair and sat, while Scrimgeour waved a hand at Harry. "Tell us about the book, Potter."
"It's a diary," Harry said, lifting it up again, and was pleased when Mr Malfoy froze. His knuckles were very white on his cane. "Riddle used it to possess Ginny-"
"The Weasley girl?" Scrimgeour asked, and Harry nodded.
"She didn't know what was happening," Harry said, and looked at everyone's faces to make sure they believed him. They all seemed to. "He made her open the Chamber, and tell the monster which targets to go for, and he was going to use her to bring himself back, somehow." He glanced at Padfoot and Dumbledore, and both seemed content with that as an explanation; they knew about horcruxes, but Scrimgeour didn't need to and Mr Malfoy might already, but if he didn't know, Harry wasn't going to be the one to tell him.
"And how did you find this?" Dumbledore asked, reaching forward to take the diary from Harry. He turned it over, eyes thoughtful behind his half-moon glasses.
"It was down in the Chamber," Harry said. "Riddle said something that made me think it was important so I-"
"Attacked it, apparently," Scrimgeour said, peering at the large hole in the diary's cover.
"With the sword," Harry lied. He caught Padfoot's eye for a moment, and Padfoot inclined his head; Harry would explain the rest to him and Dumbledore later.
"Before or after you dealt with the snake?" Scrimgeour asked.
"After," Harry said.
"Snake?" Mr Malfoy asked.
"Slytherin's monster," Harry said. Mr Malfoy arched an eyebrow, but said nothing more.
"And the sword? Gryffindor's sword?" This time, it was Padfoot that spoke. "Where in Merlin's name did you pull that from?"
"The Hat," Harry said. "Fawkes brought it to me." He nodded at the bird, who was on his usual perch, looking quite pleased with himself.
"And how did you find the Chamber?" Dumbledore asked.
"Percy was in the bathroom," Harry said, shrugging. "It seemed odd, so we talked to Myrtle. She died there, fifty years ago, when the Chamber was opened the first time. She showed us the sink that covered the entrance." Based on what he'd heard about Slytherin, Harry didn't have a very high opinion on the man. He felt bad, though, for being the one to give up a secret that had been kept for thousands of years.
"And the man?" Scrimgeour asked.
"He came in, just as we worked out how to get in," Harry said. "He- said 'Dark Lord', so I thought- Ron and I jumped, and I closed the entrance behind us."
"He said Dark Lord?" Scrimgeour asked sharply. He opened his mouth to say something to Padfoot – since that's who he was looking at – but then he glanced at Mr Malfoy and pursed his lips. Harry – who liked Scrimgeour reasonably well after all he'd done for Padfoot during the trial – felt his estimation of the man rise again. "Did he say how he gained access to the school, Potter?" Harry shook his head.
"More to the point, do you know where Ginny got the diary?" Padfoot asked. "Whether she was given it, or just found it-"
"If she was given it, our bathroom man seems a likely candidate," Scrimgeour said.
"I quite agree," Mr Malfoy said, and Harry felt anger stir in his stomach. "I trust, Auror Scrimgeour, that you're doing your best to find him?" Scrimgeour nodded curtly.
"He'll be sent straight to Azkaban if he's caught, won't he?" Harry asked, looking at Padfoot, wide-eyed. "I mean, whoever gave Ginny the diary nearly got all of the basilisk's victims killed and Ginny as well. And then Riddle would have been back." He held Mr Malfoy's eyes for a long moment, and Mr Malfoy looked uncertain.
Good.
Scrimgeour asked a few more questions, and then excused himself to return to the Ministry. Mr Malfoy stayed where he was, but Dumbledore got rid of him, saying that he wanted to talk to Harry about an appropriate reward for his services to the school.
"Perhaps, while we do that, you could call together the Board," Dumbledore said pleasantly. Harry rather enjoyed the way Mr Malfoy's expression soured. "As Harry has said, my aid through Fawkes played a role that – whilst small – was more use to Harry than that of anyone else here tonight, at least until the Aurors arrived to extract him." He nodded at Padfoot. "I will be down to join that meeting when I am finished here, to discuss my return to the school." His tone didn't change, but there was something hard in his expression.
Mr Malfoy, with no good excuse to stay, was forced to leave. He gave Harry one sharp, slightly nervous look as he left, and Harry arched an eyebrow at him. As soon as the door closed, Harry turned to Dumbledore.
"I don't want a reward, I don't think-"
"I just needed to rid us of Lucius Malfoy," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "Now, how did you know to use the sword on the diary?"
"I didn't," Harry said. He pulled the basilisk fang out of his pocket and unwrapped the scrap of robe from it, so that Padfoot and Dumbledore could see it. "I used this."
"Basilisk venom is highly potent," Dumbledore said, nodding slowly. "And very few cures exist."
"Phoenix tears work well enough," Harry said, and Padfoot gave him a very sharp look. Harry cringed, just knowing there'd be words about that later. "Riddle said something about magic not being able to fix it, so I thought I'd-"
"Take a stab at it?" Padfoot asked, mouth twitching.
"Something like that." Harry couldn't help his grin.
When Ginny awoke, she had no idea where she was. It took her a moment to remember everything; bits and pieces from the Chamber, and Tom, and Ron and Harry, and the Entrance Hall, and she thought she'd been with McGonagall and Fred and George, but she couldn't be certain.
The next thing she noticed was that she could wriggle her fingers and toes on her own, and that her head was… hers. She couldn't feel Tom anywhere, and, though she felt like she'd been hit by the Hogwarts Express, she felt better… lighter… than she had in weeks.
Was it possible? She sat up and looked around the dark hospital wing. Fred was asleep with his head on George's shoulder in a chair between her bed and Percy's, and Ron was slumped in a chair next to hers, looking no worse for wear. She reached for his arm, hesitated for a moment, and then summoned her Gryffindor courage and shook him awake.
He'll hate you, Tom's voice whispered, but it wasn't actually Tom; Ginny couldn't feel him, anyway.
Ron blinked himself awake, and then his eyes widened when he saw who it was that had woken him. Before Ginny could really start to worry about what he might think of her, he'd wrapped her in a tight hug.
"Bloody hell, you had us all worried for a bit there," he said. "How do you feel? Do you- I could wake Madam Pomfrey if you want-" Ginny shook her head against his shoulder, and Ron seemed to understand. He pushed her over and came to sit by her on the bed.
"I'm so sorry," she said miserably. "I just- he was so nice and then when he wasn't, it was too late. I tried, but then Percy-"
"It's not your fault," Ron said, and Ginny swallowed. Nice as it was to hear he didn't think that, she knew it wasn't right. She should have realised sooner, fought harder, done something. If she had, then maybe Ron and Harry wouldn't have had to risk everything to come and help-
"Harry?" she gasped. "Oh, Ron, is Harry- Did the Aurors get there-?"
"He's fine," Ron said. "Killed the snake, and Riddle. Sirius took him home a few hours ago, to rest, but he was all right. Said he'll come over tomorrow night, when we're home too; Mum and Dad were here before, and they'll be back in the morning to get us."
"You didn't go home?" Ginny asked. And neither had Fred and George. Ron shook his head, and knocked his shoulder against hers. Ginny gave him a tremulous smile. "But you'll come home tomorrow, right?"
"'Course," Ron said gruffly.
Moony and Tonks arrived on the front doorstep just after dinner, holding the old cork that must have been their portkey. Harry had insisted that he'd be all right on his own, but Padfoot had needed to see Marlene and said he'd feel better if Harry had company, and Harry was secretly glad they'd come.
"You're here too?" he asked Tonks, as Moony steadied her; she'd tripped over the doorstep.
"Of course I am," she said, stepping forward to hug him. "Not every day you almost die, is it?" She was making light of the situation, but Harry could smell how worried she'd been, and watched how her eyes skimmed over him in a way he was getting very familiar with; people seemed to do it to him all the time.
"Every second day," Moony corrected, pulling Harry into a hug. "How's Marlene, have you heard?"
"I talked to Padfoot about an hour ago," Harry said. "They've fixed her back, and she woke up for a bit and was able to walk around but she's asleep again now."
They made their way down to the kitchen, where Kreacher was waiting with treacle tart. Harry was reasonably distracted by that, but even he couldn't miss the looks Moony and Tonks were exchanging.
"What?" he asked, lowering his spoon.
Tonks, it seemed, had been waiting for this; she positively beamed at him, and held out her hand. On it, glimmered a silver ring, set with some sort of pearly blue stone.
"It's nice," he said, and Moony's mouth twitched, but his cheeks were pink and he wasn't meeting Harry's eyes. Harry suddenly got the impression he was missing something. "What?" he asked again, and watched Tonks' smile widen.