Phoenix

Elaine Riddle

     Ginny did not stop crying after she woke up.  Even as they approached the Headmaster's office, Harry holding her on one side and Elaine on the other, the tears flowed ceaselessly down her cheeks.  Elaine saw the tracks they made through the dirt.  

     There was still enough adrenaline in Elaine that as she stepped into the office, her limp was nearly nonexistent.  They were met with a shout.

     "Ginny!"

     Mrs. Weasley jumped up from where she sat by the fire, obviously crying,  followed closely behind by the person Elaine knew must be Mr. Weasley.  They both grabbed onto their daughter.

     Professor McGonagall was there, looking shocked beyond words.  Professor Dumbledore sat coolly at his desk, even as Fawkes drifted over their heads and landed on a perch next to him.

     Harry walked up to Dumbledore's desk; everyone watched keenly as he placed upon it the bloody sword, the Sorting Hat, and the diary.

     He told them everything — he made sure to be clear that Ginny was completely innocent, and Elaine nodded eagerly along.  It was quite a long story, from Hermione's clue about the basilisk, to finding the entrance, to Riddle, to the sword.  As everyone stood in the Headmaster's office, enraptured, Elaine's ankle slowly began to pain her again.

     When Harry had finally finished, Dumbledore spoke through the heavy silence.

     "Miss. Weasley should go up to the hospital wing immediately.  This has been quite an ordeal.  Bed rest, and a steaming mug of hot chocolate — I find that always cheers me up."

     He smiled warmly to the distraught first year.  Then he turned his smile to Elaine.

     "Perhaps you'd like to accompany her, Miss. LaChance?  I'm sure she could use a friend at this time."

     Elaine nodded.  As Mrs. Weasley ushered both girls out the door, she cast a quick glance back — she noticed Harry, smiling at her as she left.  She smiled back in the brief moment before the door closed.  Then, she laced her fingers around Ginny's.

     Madam Pomfrey was in a right state when they walked into the hospital wing.  At the sight of Ginny, she was all atwitter.  She had a thorough tongue-lashing prepared for Elaine.

     'You should have known better than to go waltzing out of here on that ankle before I gave my permission,' and 'you'll be lucky if I can heal it, now...'

     Ginny asked about it, but it was another story for another time.

     Elaine sat with Ginny on her bed, and hot chocolate was passed all around.  Even Mrs. Weasley enjoyed a mug, sitting close by in a chair.

     Elaine placed a hand on her friend's back.

     "I wish you would have told me what was going on."

     "I–I couldn't... I thought you'd hate me terribly if you knew..."

     "I could never hate you terribly."

     For the first time, Ginny smiled.

     Elaine continued, "Everything's alright, now, just like I told you it'd be."

     "And," Mr. Weasley interjected as he joined them — he pulled up a second chair, sitting with his own hot chocolate — "I hear there's going to be a feast."

     Once all the hot chocolate had been drunk, and the petrified students had risen, and Ginny was sufficiently calm, Madam Pomfrey allowed them to attend the feast.