THE DESCENDANT OF SLYTHERIN

CHAPTER 19 : YOU SOLVED IT

LAIA POV

I opened my eyes, Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, above my face is crying, cut in my throat was healed, yaeh, I remember, tears of phoenix heal wounds,

"Thanks, Fawkes" I get up and look around, there my brother, Harry with misty Tom Riddle, near Ginny, Tom said,

"But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter . . . you and me...."

But Fawkes, get away from me, took diary and dropped into Harry's lap,

For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book. There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor.

Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then — He had gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.

I get near him, "Harry, you okay?"

"Laia, you- your neck"

"Fawkes" I smiled, Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As we hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then on me, then to the diary in Harry's hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.

"Harry — oh, Harry — I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy — it was me, Harry — but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over, I am sorry Laia, I hurt you, I don't mean it, — and — how did you kill that — that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary —"

I sat next to her, side hugged her, "It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here —" "I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and — w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"

Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. We leave the chamber of secrets, After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock,

"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's and Laia's okay! I've got them!"

"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! Laia, you okay? What happened? How — what — where did that bird come from?"

"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry,

"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand.

"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry with a sideways glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever.

"But —"

"Later," Harry said shortly. "Where's Lockhart?"

"Back there," said Ron, still looking puzzled but jerking his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."

Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, we walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.