Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

46 - Goodbye, Year Four

I'd completely forgotten about my fall, having tuned out the throbbing pain I was feeling because I'd been so worked up and focused on other things. With the reminder of it, the pain suddenly resurfaced and I winced a bit. But now wasn't the time to deal with it.

"H-how'd you know to be here?" I asked Jasper and George, looking back and forth between the both of them.

"Had a terrible feeling something was wrong with you." Jasper mumbled. "I told George about it and we decided to come here to let the teachers know. I ended up being right, didn't I?"

I didn't have a chance to reply to him or even greet George for the first time because suddenly Mrs. Weasley was shuffling over and pulling Ron, Harry, and I into a big embrace.

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

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

Mrs. Weasley let go of us and Harry walked over to McGonagall's desk, setting down the Sorting Hat, the ruby-encrusted sword, and what remained of Tom Riddle's diary on top of it.

He collapsed into a seat with a deep breath, making us all follow suit, and then he, Ron, and I embarked on an extremely long recounting of everything that had happened. For nearly a quarter of an hour, the three of us spoke into the rapt silence as everyone around us listened intently. We told the adults all of our discoveries throughout this past semester, then dived into how we found out Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was the entrance.

All while explaining the entire situation, George and I kept stealing glances at each other and I could just tell he was upset and would be letting me know that after. I wasn't looking forward to it, yet I knew he had every right to be hurt over my behavior tonight. If he'd run off and done something as stupid as I'd done without telling me and letting me join, I'd be angry too. But, still, I didn't regret what I'd done tonight. In the end, we saved Ginny and stopped the basilisk that was terrorizing this school, and that was a huge thing.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall said to Harry who'd just been talking most recently, pulling me out of my thoughts. "So you found out where the entrance was—breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, might I add—but how on earth did you manage to get out of there alive?"

Harry, his voice growing hoarse from talking so much, then told her exactly what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, how Fawkes had arrived timely, and about how the Sorting Hat gave him the sword. But then he faltered, glancing awkwardly back and forth between Riddle's diary on the desk and Ginny for a reason I didn't understand.

"What interests me most," Dumbledore suddenly said, filling the brief pause, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when all my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

"What?!" all of us kids spluttered, completely shocked as we looked over at the young red-headed girl who had tear-stained cheeks.

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

"It was this diary," Harry said quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote in it when he was sixteen..."

Dumbledore took it, peering keenly down at the burnt and soggy pages.

"Brilliant," he said softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen."