Speak Up - Female Deaf Harry Potter AU

Diary and Dobby

Hari quickly made her way to Professor McGonagall's office, the rest following her. She knocked, then pushed the door open.

For a moment the people inside were frozen in shock, staring at Hari, Ron, Ginny, and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime and (in Harry's case) a ton of ink. The Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire, leapt to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter.

Hari, however, was looking past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Then Hari found herself and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasleys tight embrace.

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

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

Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then started signing. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence: He told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione had finally realized that she was hearing a basilisk in the pipes. How she had entered the chamber ahead of time, dealing with the basilisk... she didn't say how, implying that she had killed it. How she had arrived back, and looking for McGonagall had found that Ginny had been taken. The how she and Ron had taken Lockheart with them to go rescue Ginny. But then she faltered. She had so far avoided mentioning Voldemort's diary. She was standing with her head against Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, and tears were still coursing down her cheeks. What if they expelled her? Hari thought in panic. Voldemort's diary didn't work anymore .... How could they prove it had been he who'd made her do it all?

Instinctively, Harry looked at Dumbledore, who smiled faintly, the firelight glancing off his half-moon spectacles.

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

Relief -- warm, sweeping, glorious relief -- swept over Hari. "W- what's that?" said Mr. Weasley. "YouKnow-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not ... Ginny hasn't been ... has she?"

'It was this diary,' signed Hari quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore. "Voldemort also known as Tom Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen . . . ."
Dumbledore took the diary from Hari and peered keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages.

"Brilliant," he said softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen." He turned around to the Weasleys, who were looking utterly bewildered.

"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school ... traveled far and wide ... sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."

"But, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley. "What's our Ginny got to do with - with -- him?"

"His d-diary" Ginny sobbed. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year --"

"Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. "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 me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic."

"I d-didn't know," sobbed Ginny.