The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|17| Secrets

For a moment there was silence as Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lockhart, and I stood in the doorway of Professor McGonagall's office, covered in muck and slime and (in Harry's case) blood. Then there was a scream.

"Ginny!"

It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leapt to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, 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 went whooshing past Harry's ear and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder, just as I found myself, Harry, and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasley's tight embrace.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry and me allowing us to walk over to the desk and Harry laid upon it the Sorting Hat and the ruby-encrusted sword as I hid what remained of Riddle's diary.

Together, Harry and I told them everything. for nearly a quarter of an hour, we spoke into the rapt silence from the disembodied voices all the way until we found the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted us as we 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 explained about Fawke's timely arrival with the Sorting Hat and the battle under the school but didn't say anything about Riddle's diary.

"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."

"W-what's that?" said Mr. Weasley in a stunned voice. "You-Know-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not... Ginny hasn't been... has she?"

"It was this diary," I said softly. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen..."

Dumbledore took the diary from me 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.

Dumbledore continued to talk about Tom Riddle's disappearance and its connection with Ginny. Before Mrs. Weasley could scold Ginny any more, Dumbledore suggested for the three of them to go to the Hospital Wing so Ginny could be checked. Harry and I sighed in relief as Dumbledore said there would be no punishment for Ginny.

"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter, Weasley, and Miss Howell, shall I?"

"Certainly," said Dumbledore.

She left, and Harry, Ron, and I gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore. What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with us? Surely— surely— we weren't about to be punished?

"I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules," said Dumbledore to Harry and Ron.

Ron and I opened our mouths in horror.

"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling. "You three will receive Special Awards for Services to the School and— let me see— yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."