Chapter Thirteen: The Best Worst Year Ever
Dumbledore didn't say anything, but motioned for them to follow him. He led them to Professor McGonagall's office. He went inside, but the three boys, one professor, and one traumatized girl stood in the doorway, dripping grime and (in Harish's case) ink until—
"Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. She had been crying by the fire, but at the sight of her daughter, she had leapt up, followed by Mr. Weasley, and the two of them had flung themselves on Ginny.
Harish looked past them to see Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore standing behind the desk. Then, he found himself being pulled into a hug.
"Hello, Mrs. Weasley. Long-time no see," he said, muffled through Fred's shoulder. The three boys were being squashed into a hug along with Ginny.
"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"
"I think we'd all like to know that," McGonagall said weakly.
Harish and the twins were finally released and all eyes turned to them. The twins looked at him, telling him silently that he should convey their story.
So he began telling everyone in the room all about hearing the voice every time someone had been attacked. He told them about how Hermione had figured out it was a basilisk, how he and the twins had followed the spiders into the forest, that Hagrid's spider told them that a girl had died in the bathroom, how they had guessed Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom…
"So you found the entrance," McGonagall said finally. "Breaking about a dozen school rules into pieces on the way—but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Blake?"
So Harish, who's throat was beginning to get a bit dry, told them all about how Fred's wand had broken, how Lockhart tried to Obliviate them but caused a cave-in instead, that Harish had used parseltongue to open the Chamber, how he had managed to get rid of the culprit, and once he was gone, the basilisk obeyed him because he was a parselmouth…He still hadn't mentioned the diary or how Ginny had been forced to attack everyone, afraid that she would be expelled.
Then Dumbledore said, "What interests me most is how Lord Voldemort managed to use Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently hiding in Albania."
Harish smiled. So Bellatrix's mission had gone well. Dumbledore did think his father was in Albania.
"Not You-Know-Who," he corrected. "It was his diary." He held up the destroyed diary. "From what I gathered, the person who had been possessing Ginny wasn't really a person at all—but a demon. It said that it had used You-Know-Who's diary to kill people. It said that it had possessed the diary fifty years ago and used You-Know-Who's memories to open the Chamber and kill a girl. Then it said You-Know-Who locked it away and that was all it could remember until Ginny started writing in the diary."
"And it opened the Chamber again," Dumbledore concluded for him.
Harish nodded.
"Ginny!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed at hearing that. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain! Why didn't you show the diary to your mother? Obviously it was full of horrible magic."
"I-I didn't know," Ginny sobbed. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had left it in there and forgotten about it—"
"Miss Weasley should be taken to the Hospital Wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted. "This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards have been hoodwinked like this before." He strode over to the door and opened it. "Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I find that always cheers me up. Madam Pomfrey will be in there. She is giving the Mandrake potion to those who have been petrified as we speak. There has not been any lasting damage done."
"So Hermione's okay?" Fred asked brightly.
Dumbledore nodded.
When the three had left, Dumbledore turned to the Slytherin boys.
"I expect that the three of you shall be receiving Special Awards for Services to the School and—let's see—one hundred points each for Slytherin." All three of them gaped. "Now I think the three of you and Professor Lockhart over there need to go to the Hospital Wing as well."
And they left in stunned silence. No one saying a word except for Lockhart.
"Am I a professor? Goodness, I expect I was hopeless, wasn't I?"
THREE-HUNDRED-POINTS—WE-HAVE-TO-WIN-NOW!
Harish had been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never had he experienced one quite like the one he did that night. Everyone were still in their pajamas and the celebration lasted nearly all night. Hermione had come running up, shouting, "You did it! You solved it!"
Then all of the girls in her year had hugged her and exclaimed, "How dare he!"
"How dare that demon try to kill you!"
"Imagine! The last Black dead!"
Hermione had looked really confused at that last statement and Harish raised an eyebrow at her, telling her to play along. Then Justin had come running up, and apologized profusely for suspecting him. Dean had then come over along with a couple of the girls from his Quidditch team, telling Harish that he knew he would solve it and the Gryffindor girls thanked him. Then at about half past three Hagrid had arrived, cuffing Harish so hard on the shoulders that his face was thrown into the table. After that, McGonagall had stood up and announced that all exams had been cancelled, earning loud cheers from every single student. Dumbledore announced that Slytherin won the House cup and that Professor Lockhart would not be returning as he needed to regain his memory, earning cheers from even some of the teachers.
"And he was beginning to grow on me!" Draco had shouted over the noise.
In that year alone, Harish found that he had established friends across the four houses. He now talked with Dean often, and some of the other Gryffindor girls would hang out with them. Both the Ravenclaw girl and Justin owed Harish, and let him know it. He enjoyed the feast immensely and the whole night was topped off by a kiss on the cheek from Daphne that caused both of them to blush bright red.
The rest of the term was spent outside in the sun. Hogwarts was back to normal with a few differences. Defence the Dark Arts classes were of course cancelled and Ginny was perfectly happy and normal. Egelbert was always seen sitting on Harish's shoulder when Kettleburn had told him he could keep him.
But all too soon, it was time to go home again. Harish, Fred, George, Hermione, Draco, Daphne, and Ginny all got a compartment together and they were later joined by Dean Thomas, Angelina Johnson, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and some Ravenclaw girl named Luna, who was friends with Ginny. They spent the last of their hours together playing Exploding Snap. The twins set off their last pack of fireworks and the younger students practiced disarming each other. Finally the Hogwarts Express slowed and came to a halt.
They said their final goodbyes and everyone promised to write with Harish.
When he approached his father to go home, he found that he was beaming from ear to ear. Though the year hadn't been all that great, its ending had been perfect