Love at First Sight (Harry Potter)

Dobby's Reward

|ALEXANDRIA WEASLEY'S P.O.V|

Fawkes, Dumbledore's magnificent phoenix, led the four of us straight to Professor McGonagall's office.

I walked carefully, my eyes darting around the dark corridors as though expecting to see some sort of serpent. I already felt better, the pain completely gone from the pit of my stomach but the chill still rattling my bones. And so, I shivered, completely sure of only one thing:

I now absolutely loathed snakes.

When we reached the door to her office, Harry pushed it open without bothering to knock. Before I could say something about manners, a scream as loud as a banshee nearly shredded my eardrums.

"Alex!"

It was my mother. She had been curled up in a plush, maroon armchair in front of the roaring fireplace. Sat beside her on a loveseat was my father, who had Ginny tucked safely beneath his arm. I smiled in content at the sight. But my mother, upon seeing us in the doorway, — covered from head to foot in slime — jumped to her feet and rushed toward us. In a moment, I was enclosed in her comforting embrace which I cherished dearly. In another moment, my father had joined us.

I stood there for awhile, wrapped in their arms. I am not quite sure exactly how long, but I loved every second of it. Eventually, my mother pulled away to hug Harry and Ron, exclaiming, "You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

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

I popped my head up from where it had been against my father's chest, looking toward the back of the room where I saw McGonagall stood with Dumbledore by the mantelpiece. While Dumbledore beamed with pride, the tired woman took gasping breaths and clutched at her chest. Fawkes was resting on Dumbledore's shoulder now, watching as Harry pulled himself away from my mother and walked toward the wooden desk situated in the middle of the office.

Everyone stared as he laid down the Sorting Hat, ruby-encrusted sword, and what remained of Tom Riddle's diary. Still stood, my father's arms wrapped around me, I listened to Harry tell the entire story. He started with the voice he had heard in the corridors after Dueling Club, then about Hermione figuring out the pipes, then our rendezvous through the Forbidden Forest to see the spiders, then his realization about Moaning Myrtle being killed by Riddle, and then his discovery of the entrance to the Chamber being in her bathroom.

"Very well," said Professor McGonagall with a nod, after he had finished a quarter of an hour later, "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's voice began to grow hoarse as he continued, explaining Fawkes's arrival with the Sorting Hat and his fight with the basilisk. After a few minutes, he reached the tale of the diary and paused; I followed his uncertain gaze to Ginny, who was staring at all of us from the couch and trembling with fear.

"Miss Weasley has told us what happened," assured McGonagall. "She told us about how she had been writing in the diary, what she did, and how she assumed that Alexandria must have sacrificed herself for her. Alexandria —"

And now everyone was looking at me. I stared back at McGonagall for a moment, and she gleamed starts me from behind her spectacles. In her eyes I saw not only curiosity, but also pride. My heart swelled.

"I found the diary in Gin's dorm," I explained slowly, glancing repeatedly at my sister. She was very pale, obviously nervous; I wasn't sure if it was fear for me being hurt or fear of being punished, but I didn't blame her if it was the latter. "I recognized it from when Harry had had it, so I wrote in it and Riddle told me his plan. I was going to find a teacher, I swear, but then he said that he was going to kill Ginny. I couldn't let that happen," I looked toward my mother now, who was staring at me with glistening eyes. "I'm so sorry, Mum."