Chapter 23:
I looked over at Hermione who was on my right, and I was extremely confused. "What happened?" I asked her. Everybody else in the hospital was babbling and talking all at once and I just felt confused. "Oh Arrington! It's so good to see you again! Although I felt like I went out and woke right up again." She chuckled. "What?" I said appalled, "I could hear everybody talking and stuff, you couldn't?" She shook her head and than shrugged. "What was the monster in the Chamber? What happened is everybody okay?" I asked. Hermione answered, "Well I found out what the monster was but I didn't get to tell Harry or Ron before it got to me. I hope that they caught it. It was a basilisk, or a giant snake thats why you and Harry could hear it because your Parselmouth, which means you can speak to snakes.
Then Harry got blamed for petrifiying Justin and Nearly Headless Nick, than I found out what the monster was when I went in the library to look for a book on it and I was using a mirror to get around but it got me." "Why did you need a mirror?" I asked confused. "Well because if it looks at you fully in the eyes you die, but if you see its reflections than it merely petrify's you." "Oh." I said. "How did a giant snake get around the castle?" "Pipes." Hermione answered she was about to say more when suddenly Madam Pomfrey came hustling in attending to her now living patients.
After a couple hours of inspection we were finally all released. By this time it was already time to go eat so me and Hermione walked to the great hall together. Everyone was talking excitedly and we could see Neville who noticed us first nudge Harry, and Ron. They both looked up, and then took off running at us. I instantly gave Harry a huge hug, "Welcome back." Harry said smiling. "Thanks." I said breathless. I could see Hermione and Ron shaking hands, I just rolled my eyes and gave Ron a big hug, and saw Hermione do the same to Harry. We all walked over to the table together, and I saw Fred and George. They both stood up and I hugged Fred, and than without hesitation I decided to hug George. After a few seconds he hugged me back because he was surprised I was suddenly being so friendly. He gave me a questioning look but I just smilies and shook my head, and mouthed "I'll tell you next year."
When I sat down Hermione, Ron, and Harry where all gaping at me in shock, and I hit Harry since he was closet and said to all of them, "Stop it. I thought you guys knew all along it would happen anyways."
The rest of the ending feast was a joyous occasion, with the best foods of all year. Justin came over and apologized for blaming Harry for the attacks. Seeing my confused face Harry laughed and explained, "After I spoke Parselmouth in front of everyone they all thought I was the heir of Syltherin." "We didn't." Fred said popping into our conversation. "Yup we didn't." George said. Everyone just laughed. "Yeah well I heard some interesting things while I was petrified too." George and Harry froze and than smiled guiltily at me. I just laughed and shook my head at them, while Hermione, Ron, and Fred looked at us confused.
"So Harry who was it that actually opened the Chamber?" I asked quietly. "So I found a diary in the bathroom that was Tom Riddles. It showed me that years ago Hagrid was blamed for opening the Chamber of Secrets and got expelled. We went to Hagrid for him to explain but he got taken to Azkaban, so we had to follow the spiders. There we met a giant spider named Aragog, who told us that a girl died in the bathroom 50 years ago, and that it wasn't Hagrid who opened it years ago. So we realized it was Myrtle who died in the Chamber. We heard Ginny was taken by the monster, and Lockhart was set with the task to retrieve her. So we went to tell him we knew where the Chamber of Secrets was and everything we knew about it. It turned out he was just running away, so we forced him to come with us into the Chamber. We got into the Chamber and I battled the Basilisk with the sword of Gryffindor, and then I stabbed the Book killing the memory of Tom Riddle. Ginny than woke up and she was okay." Everyone except Ron, who was just eating since he experienced all of it, had been listening in to Harry explaining the story and where looking awed.
"So I missed all the fun?" I complained. Everyone nodded and laughed at my pouty face. Soon Dumbledore's speech began and he told us given this crazy year final exams were canceled. He also announced that Professor Lockhart would not be returning next year. "What did you guys do to him?" I hissed when I heard this. "He tried to use Ron's wand to wipe my memory and instead wiped his own." Harry shrugged nonchalantly. I just shook my head at him and started listening to Dumbledore again.