Author's Note: I am not, will not, nor have ever claimed to be the owner of Harry Potter. That right solely belongs to J.K Rowling. I only own the characters and plot points that you don't recognize.

Chapter 12 The Truth Revealed

Alex helped straighten up the boy's dormitory. It was dark by the time they were finished, so Alex went to bed. She slept fitfully, her dreams filled with a large snake chasing her. She woke with a start after one particular chase and saw the other girls dressed and ready to go.

"You all right Alex? You were moaning and twitching in you sleep a lot," said Lavender, putting her hair in a braid.

"Yeah, just a nightmare, that's all," said Alex, rolling out of bed.

"You better hurry and eat breakfast before the match starts," said Parvati.

Alex nodded and looked at Hermione. She had bags under her eyes too and Alex knew she hadn't sleep well either. Hermione waited for Alex to get ready and they went down to eat. Alex sat down next to Harry and Ron, rubbing her eyes.

"Blimey, you look terrible! Did you sleep at all last night?" asked Ron.

"Thanks Ron. Word of advice, never tell a girl she looks terrible, especially if it's because of lack of sleep," snapped Alex.

Alex and Hermione ate breakfast quickly and stood up.

"We'll meet you at the match," said Hermione, "Alex and I need to do something first."

They waved good-bye and ran to the library. After they looked through all the books in the library on snakes, their suspicions were confirmed: the monster was indeed a Basilisk. Hermione looked up from the last book in the pile, her face pale. Then, she tore out a page from the book and wrote the word "pipes" on it, just to remind her of how the snake was getting around.

"Do you think Dumbledore's in his office now?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"Can't hurt to check, I know the password…I think," said Alex, her heart pounding. They walked out of the library, when a voice called out to them.

"Hey, what are you two doing here? Why aren't you at the match?" A girl wearing a Prefect's badge came walking over to them, a mirror in her hand.

"We…We need to see the Headmaster, right away," said Hermione bravely.

"Whatever you can tell the Headmaster, you can tell me," said the girl.

"We know what the monster is, it's a Basilisk," said Alex and she started explaining everything, about the dead roasters, the pipes, and about how everyone had not looked directly into the snake's eyes. The girl seemed convinced and nodded.

"I'll take you there now. Even if he's not there, at least we'll be safe. The rest of the school is outside so they'll be safe too if your theory is correct." She pulled out her mirror and started walking.

Suddenly, Alex heard something that made her stomach drop. Time to kill…so long since I have killed…let me rip you. It was the Basilisk. It was hungry and, judging by the volume of the voice, very close. Alex was about to say something, when she watched the Prefect use her mirror to look around the corner. As Alex's eyes met a large yellow one, she felt her entire body freeze up and she fell to the ground, petrified.

…...

Alex felt a tingling sensation throughout her body. She groaned and felt sore everywhere. She could hear voices all around her, but couldn't understand what they were saying. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was in the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey was giving spoonfuls of brown liquid to a figure next to Alex's bed, Professor Sprout holding the cauldron. Alex realized the figure next to her was Hermione.

"What's going on?" croaked Alex weakly.

"Oh good, you up!" said Madame Pomfrey, smiling at Alex, "You're the first one awake, the others are sleeping. How do you feel?"

"Like someone ran me over with a truck," muttered Alex under her breath, but answered, "All right, just sore and tired."

Suddenly, everything came flooding back, the monster, the Prefect, the eye. She had been petrified! Alex ran her hands through her long black hair and lay down. How long had she been here? Was the monster still out there, waiting to strike again? She looked over and saw Hermione sit up slowly and turn to her.

"Alex! What's going on here? Where are we?" said Hermione in a panicky voice.

"We're in the Hospital Wing Hermione, remember? We saw the eye through that girl's mirror and became petrified," said Alex.

Hermione asked Madame Pomfrey a lot of questions about what had happened. From what the matron said, they had been out for almost three months and the monster had been found and killed.

"Potter was at it again, came in here with some nasty wounds, but he left about two weeks ago. Once the others are up and feel better, all of you are to go to the Great Hall. Everyone's waiting for you."

Alex was pacing around by the time everyone was awake. She and Hermione practically ran out the door and to the Entrance Hall. They opened the large doors and walked inside. Everyone stared as they came in and Harry and Ron stood up. Alex smiled widely and ran over to them. She gave both Ron and Harry hugs and Hermione gave Harry one too, but shook hands with Ron. They had just sat down, when Ginny came over to them, tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" she sobbed into Hermione's robes.

"What, why?" asked Alex, looking at Harry and Ron.

"It was me who wrote the stuff on the walls and killed the roasters, but it wasn't my fault. Tom Riddle made me do it, the guy from the diary," said Ginny in a muffled voice, her face still in Hermione's robes.

"You see," said Ron quietly, "Ginny found the diary in her school things and started writing in it. Every time she put at piece of herself in the diary, Tom started getting stronger."

"How did you figure everything out?" asked Alex.

"Thanks to you two, really," said Harry, "After we took the paper from Hermione's hand, we figured out where the Chamber was. Lockhart was supposed to go down to the Chamber to rescue Ginny, but when we went to tell him what we knew, he was packing his bags. We, er…forced him to come with us. Turns out all the things he did in his books were fake. He was taking the credit for what other witches and wizards had done."

"Later, down in the Chamber, he grabbed my wand and did a memory charm…which backfired," said Ron smiling, "He totally lost his memory, can't even remember his own name."

"So I went down into the Chamber and fought the Basilisk, with some help from the Sorting Hat and Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes," said Harry, "Riddle told me what he did to Ginny and I learned that Lord Voldemort's real name is Tom Riddle. He had opened the Chamber while he was at school and did it again this time, except through Ginny."

"After I woke up," said Ginny as she wiped her eyes, "Harry and Ron took me back here. I thought I was going to be expelled, but Dumbledore believed it wasn't actually me who wrote on the wall and stuff, it was You-Know-Who working through me. When I heard that you two were attacked, I tried to tell the others but Riddle found out what I was up to and sent me down to the Chamber. Can you forgive me?"

"Of course!" said Alex, "Ginny, it wasn't even your fault so stop apologizing."

"Anything else happen while we were gone?" asked Hermione.

"I freed a house elf named Dobby," said Harry.

Alex smiled as she remembered the little creature. She was glad he was away from the Malfoys.

"Hagrid got sent to Azkaban," said Ron, counting things off with his fingers, "Mr. Malfoy blackmailed the School Board into forcing Dumbledore to resign…oh and there's a huge spider in the Forbidden Forrest."

"I can see this is going to be a long story," said Alex with a frown.

Just then, the doors banged open and in came a large figure. Alex let out a scream of delight and ran over to the large man.

"Hagrid, you're back!" she cried, hugging him.

The others ran up and hugged Hagrid too while the whole room applauded loudly, that is except for the Slytherins. Finally, the group diminished and Alex let go, looking up at her tall friend.

"What happened? Why were you sent away?" she asked.

"Those people up at the Ministry thought I was the one killin' the students again. The same thing happened fifty years o' go," said Hagrid, turning to Harry and Ron, "Did yeh find Aragog all righ'?"

"Oh yeah, just fine Hagrid," said Ron sarcastically, "He tried to eat us!"

But Hagrid didn't hear the last part, he was looking up at the staff table. He let out a great sigh of relief that made Alex's hair fly in her face.

"Dumbledore's back, that's the way things're supposed ta be," he said smiling.

After giving the four of them a huge, back-breaking hug, he went up and sat at the staff table. Then Dumbledore stood up and the four ran to their seats.

"Another year almost finished. I see that you have all noticed the return of our students and our staff," he said, looking at Alex and the others. "It has been a very trying year so I do not want to stress you any further…all end-of-the-year examinations have been cancelled as a celebration!"

The whole room erupted in cheers. Alex stood up and punched the air. She looked at Hermione and smiled.

"Aren't you happy?" she shouted over the noise.

"Of course, but I wasted all that time studying!" she yelled back.

Alex laughed and hugged her friend, glad that things had returned to normal…at least for a while.

…...

Alex sat on the train reading a book while the others played Exploding Snap. It was Fred, George, and Ginny verses Ron, Harry, and Hermione. She watched with interest as Ron put the card on top. CRACK! The whole deck exploded leaving Ron's face covered in soot. Alex laughed along with Fred and George, and continued even harder when Ron tackled the twins in his anger. She looked out the window at the green trees whizzing by. She got up, stretched, and announced she was going to walk around the train for a while. Fred and George looked up at her and grinned mischievously, knowing it was time for payback.

"We'll come with you!" they said together, leaping to their feet and dragging Alex behind them before the others could say anything.

The three of them walked down the hallway, whispering quietly. They received a few curious looks from some students while the older ones rolled their eyes and ran the other way. They knew better than to get between the Weasley twins and their victim. Finally, the three reached the Prefect compartment and Alex became invisible, poking her head to look through the window. Percy was sitting with his arm around a girl, the girl with the mirror that Alex had met before becoming petrified. Grinning, Alex turned back to the twins and became visible.

"Scratch our original plan, I've got a way better one," she whispered, eyes dancing with merriment, "One of you come with me while the other distracts him."

Fred looked at his brother, who nodded and drew his wand. Alex elongated the chain of her necklace and threw it around Fred's neck, becoming invisible while whispering her plan to the twin. Fred contained his laughter well and nodded in agreement. George winked at the space he thought they were before muttering a spell that sent fireworks zooming all along the hallway. In seconds, Percy had his head out the compartment door.

"What the bloody hell…get back here!"

"Come and catch me, Mr. Prefect!" shouted George over his shoulder as he took off, his older brother following him.

Alex chuckled and became visible, taking the chain off Fred as they entered the compartment. The girl looked up and smiled at them.

"You're that Gryffindor who was with your friend when we got attacked," she said, "I'm Penelope Clearwater, Ravenclaw. Glad to see your feeling normal too. And you must be Percy's brother, he's told me about you. Sorry, I don't know which one you are…"

"It's all right, we get that a lot," replied Fred, holding out his hand, "I'm Gred and my brother is Forge. I'm sure my brother's told you a lot of stuff about us, but has he ever told you the trouble he used to get into?"

"No, never," said Penelope, sitting up straighter and looking eager, "I was under the impression that Percy was a pretty calm kid."

"Calm? Oh Penny, you don't know the half of it. Did he ever tell you the story about how our mother found him dancing on the kitchen table in his birthday suit when our dad brought company home?"

Alex managed to keep a straight face as Fred made up stories about his brother, doing his best to make them as embarrassing as possible. Penelope found them hilarious and adorable, but Alex knew Percy wouldn't think so. After Fred told Percy's girlfriend about how he "apparently" sings opera in the shower, the Prefect himself walked in looking slightly disheveled.

"Hi Percy!" said Penelope merrily, "I was just talking to Gred about your childhood. You never told me you liked to sing opera in the shower."

Percy looked confused for a moment before blushing violently while shaking with anger. He glared at his brother before seeing Alex and his eyes widened. She waved at him mischievously and rose to her feet with Fred.

"I told you I had resources and that I would use them to my full advantage," she whispered to him as she walked by and said over her shoulder, "It was a pleasure to meet you, Penelope. Have a good summer!"

They slipped out while Percy was still frozen in shock and bolted down the corridor, laughing hysterically. Once they stopped for breath, Fred said he was going back to the compartment while Alex wanted to walk around a little more. On her walk, she stopped in to say hello to Parvati, Lavender, and Neville. The girls were looking at a book with extremely bored expressions while Neville was explaining something to them animatedly.

"And you see those branches there, they- oh, hi Alex! Want to see the Bolivian Frog Tree?" he asked excitedly.

"Why not?" she said smiling. Finally Neville had found something he was good at. She didn't want to tell him she found Herbology boring.

She spent a few minutes letting Neville explain how the tree captured its favorite food, frogs, and said good-bye while wishing them all a great summer. She walked down the train and stopped to let someone out of the compartment. She looked up and saw it was Malfoy.

"Ratcliff," he said with a cold nod.

"Nice to see you too, Malfoy," said Alex, rolling her eyes, "Glad to see you haven't changed much while I was gone."

"Glad to see that you haven't lost your sarcasm," Malfoy sneered, "Imagine a world without your oh-so-witty comments!"

Alex glared at him and opened her mouth to shout some nasty comment. However, at the last second, she held her tongue and instead said coolly, "Hey Malfoy, how's your house elf?"

He looked up at her and frowned, confused by her tone. He seemed to be expecting a series of angry, and perhaps dirty, comments. Then he realized what she was talking about and became angry.

"Why don't you and your little friends mind your own business?" he snapped.

"It becomes my business when I see an innocent creature being harmed by those who think they're better that the world," she said angrily, "You're a heartless, sorry excuse for a wizard that goes around treating others like dirt just because of their status! I don't even know how we can be the same species!"

"House elves are the property of those who they serve," said Malfoy coldly, "We own them so we can deal with them however we please."

"Then have a heart and treat them with some dignity," she said and turned on her heel and stormed away, calling over her shoulder sarcastically, "And have a great summer!"

By the time Alex came back to the compartment, the train was slowing down and pulling into the same station. She quickly changed into her Muggle clothes and got off the train. She followed her friends through the barrier and arrived in Kings Cross. There she managed to find her Uncle Monty. When he saw her, he ran to her and drew her in his arms. She felt the back of her shirt getting damp. When he let go, Alex looked away, giving him time to wipe away his tears.

"Alex, you're okay," he choked.

"I'm fine Uncle Monty," she said looking at him, "Professor Sprout and Madame Pomfrey took good care of me."

After reassuring her uncle she was perfectly fine, she said one last good-bye to all her friends. She followed her uncle out to the car and saw her friend Erin in the backseat.

"Alex, I've missed you terribly!" she said when Alex climbed in the back, "How was your school year?"

"Oh, you know," she said smiling as her uncle looked at her through the mirror, "The usual."

Her uncle and she started laughing, leaving a very confused Erin looking between the two of them in confusion the entire way home.

Author's Note:

Dear Readers,

We've reached the end of another story. I must admit that this is my least favorite in my series but I have definitely enjoyed sharing it with you and receiving your comments. The rest of the series, I personally believe, is much more in-depth and starts to veer away from the original canon, making it more AU. Don't worry though, I do stick to the storyline for the most part. However, this is when I start fiddling around with J.K Rowling's characters and make them more my own. :P

Like always, I want to take this time to thank my reviewers. Therefore, thank you to Amy aka Luke, madscientist128, Aileen Autarkeia, Lone Fairytale, Dustfire1954, EmberRee, SarcasticFucker, Artemis1922, StrawberriesAndCinnamon, Toshiba Sanders, and Ariauna. I was so happy to receive all of your reviews so thank you so much for that. And let's not forget those who put me on alert and in their favorites. You all are amazing as well so thank you!

Finally, I want to thank my amazing sister, missdavinci77. Without her, none of this would be possible. She was the one who convinced me to put my work on this website and was part of my inspiration for Alex. So thank you Em and I hope you've enjoyed this! :D

I plan on posting Book 3 this weekend and I'll be sure to put a note in this story for those of you who don't have me on author alert. Again, thank you all for your support and I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have! :)

With love,

silvermoony77