For a moment there was silence as Harry, Kai, Ron, Ginny, and Lockhart stood in thedoorway, covered in muck and slime and (in Harry and Kai's case) blood.
Then there was ascream.
"Ginny!" It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire.
She leapt to herfeet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on theirdaughter.
Harry and Kai, however, was looking past them.
Professor Dumbledore was standing by themantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadyinggasps, clutching her chest.
Fawkes went whooshing past Kai's ear and settled onDumbledore's shoulder, just as Kai found herself, Harry and Ron being swept into Mrs.Weasley's 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 and Kai, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the deskand laid upon it the Sorting Hat, the ruby-encrusted sword, and what remained ofRiddle's diary.
Then they began telling them everything.
For nearly a quarter of an hour they spoke intothe rapt silence: They told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione and Kai had finally realized that he was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how Harry, Kai and Ron had followedthe spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of thebasilisk had died; how Harry had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, andthat the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom...
"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him as he paused, "so you found outwhere the entrance was — breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, Imight add — but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potters?"
So Harry and Kai, their voice now growing hoarse from all this talking, told them about Fawkes'stimely arrival and about the Sorting Hat giving Harry the sword.
But then they faltered.
They had so far avoided mentioning Riddle's diary — or Ginny.
She was standing with herhead against Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, and tears were still coursing silently down hercheeks.
What if they expelled her?
Harry and Kai thought in panic.
Riddle's diary didn't workanymore... How could they prove it had been he who'd made her do it all?
Instinctively, they looked at Dumbledore, who smiled faintly, the firelight glancing offhis halfmoon spectacles.
"What interests me most," said Dumbledore gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed toenchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests ofAlbania."
Relief — warm, sweeping, glorious relief – swept over the Potters.
"W-what's that?" said Mr.Weasley in a stunned voice. "You-Know-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not...Ginny hasn't been... has she?"
"It was this diary," said Kai quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore."Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen..."
Dumbledore took the diary from Kai and peered keenly down his long, crooked noseat its burnt and soggy pages.
"Brilliant," he said softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant studentHogwarts 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 allyear —"
"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!"
"Mr. Weasley, I don't blame her-" Kai tried defending her friend.
"I d-didn't know," sobbed Ginny. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it —"
"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. "This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment.Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort."
He strode over to the door and opened it.
"Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, twinkling kindly down at her. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice — I dare say the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."
"So Hermione's okay!" said Ron brightly.
"There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny," said Dumbledore.
Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken.
"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall,"I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"
"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you todeal with Potter, Potter and Weasley, shall I?"
"Certainly," said Dumbledore.
She left, and Harry, Kai and Ron gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore.
What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with them? Surely — surely — they weren't about to be punished?
"I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke anymore school rules," said Dumbledore.
Ron opened his mouth in horror.
"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling. "You will all receive Special Awards for Services to the School and —let me see — yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."
"That's 600 points!" Kai cried out in joy.
Ron went as brightly pink as Lockhart's valentine flowers and closed his mouth again.
"But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure," Dumbledore added. "Why so modest, Gilderoy?"
Harry gave a start.
He had completely forgotten about Lockhart.
He turned and saw that Lockhart was standing in a corner of the room, still wearing his vague smile.
When Dumbledore addressed him, Lockhart looked over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.
"Professor Dumbledore," Ron said quickly, "there was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart —"
"Am I a professor?" said Lockhart in mild surprise. "Goodness. I expect I was hopeless,was I?"
Kai snorted.
"He tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired," Ron explained quietly to Dumbledore.
"Dear me," said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long silver mustache quivering."Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!"
"Sword?" said Lockhart dimly. "Haven't got a sword. That boy has, though."
He pointed at Harry. "He'll lend you one."
"Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?" Dumbledore said to Ron. "I'd like a few more words with Harry and Kai..."
Lockhart ambled out.
Ron cast a curious look back at Dumbledore, Kai and Harry as he closed the door.
Dumbledore crossed to one of the chairs by the fire. "Sit down, Harry, Kai," he said, and they sat, feeling unaccountably nervous.
"First of all, Harry, I want to thank you," said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling again. "You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you. You too, Kai."
He stroked the phoenix, which had fluttered down onto his knee.
Kai grinned awkwardly as Dumbledore watched them.
"And so you met Tom Riddle," said Dumbledore thoughtfully. "I imagine he was most interested in you both..."
Suddenly, something that was nagging at Harry came tumbling out of his mouth.
"Professor Dumbledore... Riddle said Kai and I are like him. Strange likenesses, he said..."
"Did he, now?" said Dumbledore, looking thoughtfully at Harry from under his thick silver eyebrows. "And what do you think, Harry?"
"I don't think we're like him!" said Harry, more loudly than he'd intended. "I mean, I'm— we're in Gryffindor, we're..."
But he fell silent, a lurking doubt resurfacing in his mind.
"Professor," Kai added on after a moment. "The Sorting Hat told me I'd — I'd have done well in Slytherin. Harry too. Everyone thought I-we-were Slytherin's heir for a while... because I-we- can speak Parseltongue..."
"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry, Kai," said Dumbledore calmly, "because Lord Voldemort— who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin — can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you both the night he gave you those scars. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure..."
"Voldemort put a bit of himself in us?" Harry said, thunderstruck.
"It certainly seems so."
"So we should be in Slytherin," Kai said, looking desperately into Dumbledore's face."The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin's power in me, and it —"
"Put you in Gryffindor," said Dumbledore calmly. "Listen to me, both of you. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue — resourcefulness — determination, espectially you Kai, — and a certain disregard for rules," he added, his mustache quivering again. "Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think."
"It only put me in Gryffindor," said Harry in a defeated voice, "because I asked not to be in Slytherin..."
"Exactly, "said Dumbledore, beaming once more. "Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
Harry sat motionless in his chair, stunned, Kai a mirror of him in the chair to his right.
"If you want proof, Harry, that you belong in Gryffindor, I suggest you look more closely at this." Dumbledore reached across to Professor McGonagall's desk, picked up the bloodstained silver sword, and handed it to Harry.
Dully, Harry turned it over, the rubies blazing in the firelight. And then he saw the name engraved just below the hilt.
Godric Gryffindor
He passed it to Kai, who recognized it out of a picture of Godric Gryffindor in Hogwarts: A History.
"Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat, Harry," said Dumbledore simply.
For a minute, neither of them spoke.
Then Dumbledore pulled open one of the drawers in Professor McGonagall's desk and took out a quill and a bottle of ink.
"What you need, Harry and you too Kai, is some food and sleep. I suggest you go down to the feast, while I write to Azkaban —we need our gamekeeper back. And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too," he added thoughtfully. "We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?"
The Potters got up simultaneously and crossed to the door.
They had just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall.
Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face.
And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.
"Good evening, Lucius," said Dumbledore pleasantly.
Mr. Malfoy almost knocked Harry over as he swept into the room.
Dobby went scurrying in after him, crouching at the hem of his cloak, a look of abject terror on his face.
The elf was carrying a stained rag with which he was attempting to finish cleaning Mr. Malfoys shoes.
Apparently Mr. Malfoy had set out in a great hurry, for not only were his shoes half polished, but his usually sleek hair was disheveled.
Ignoring the elf bobbing apologetically around his ankles, he fixed his cold eyes upon Dumbledore.
"So!" he said "You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts."
"Well, you see, Lucius," said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, "the other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasleys daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place."
Kai and Harry snorted.
Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury.
"So — have you stopped the attacks yet?" he sneered. "Have you caught the culprit?"
"We have," said Dumbledore, with a smile.
"Well?" said Mr. Malfoy sharply. "Who is it?"
"The same person as last time, Lucius," said Dumbledore. "But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary." He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Mr. Malfoy closely.
Harry and Kai, however, were watching Dobby.
The elf was doing something very odd.
His great eyes fixed meaningfully on Harry and Kai, he kept pointing at the diary, then at Mr. Malfoy, and then hitting himself hard on the head with his fist.
"I see..." said Mr. Malfoy slowly to Dumbledore.
"A clever plan," said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring Mr. Malfoy straight in the eye.
"Because if Harry and Kai here —" Mr. Malfoy shot them a swift, sharp look "and their friend Ron hadn't discovered this book, why — Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will..."
Mr. Malfoy said nothing.
His face was suddenly mask like.
"And imagine," Dumbledore went on, "what might have happened then... The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pure-blood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and — killing Muggleborns... Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise..."
Mr. Malfoy forced himself to speak.
"Very fortunate," he said stiffly.
And still, behind his back, Dobby was pointing, first to the diary, then to Lucius Malfoy, then punching himself in the head.
And Kai suddenly understood.
She nodded at Dobby, and Dobby backed into a corner, now twisting his ears in punishment.
"Don't you want to know how Ginny got hold of that diary, Mr. Malfoy?" Harry asked.
Lucius Malfoy rounded on him.
"How should I know how the stupid little girl got hold of it?" he said.
"Because you gave it to her," Kai added, grinning. "In Flourish and Blotts. You picked up her old Transfiguration book and slipped the diary inside it, didn't you?"
They saw Mr. Malfoy's white hands clench and un clench.
"Prove it," he hissed.
"Oh, no one will be able to do that," said Dumbledore, smiling at the Potters. "Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you, Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Lord Voldemort's old school things. If any more of them find their way into innocent hands, I think Arthur Weasley, for one, will make sure they are traced back to you..."
Lucius Malfoy stood for a moment, and Kai distinctly saw his right hand twitch as though he was longing to reach for his wand.
Instead, he turned to his house-elf.
"We're going, Dobby!"
He wrenched open the door and as the elf came hurrying up to him, he kicked him right through it.
They could hear Dobby squealing with pain all the way along the corridor.
The Potters stood for a moment, thinking hard.
Then it came to them, sharing a glance, they turned to Dumbledore.
"Professor Dumbledore," Harry said hurriedly. "Can we give that diary back to Mr. Malfoy, please?"
"Certainly, Harry," said Dumbledore calmly. "But hurry. The feast, remember..."
Harry grabbed the diary and they dashed out of the office.
They could hear Dobby's squeals of pain receding around the corner.
Quickly, wondering if this plan could possibly work, Harry took off one of his shoes, pulled off his slimy, filthy sock, and stuffed the diary into it.
Tossing the diary to Kai as he slid his shoe back on, they dashed down the dark corridor.
They caught up with them at the top of the stairs.
"Mr. Malfoy," Kai called, skidding to a halt, "I've got something for you —"
And she forced the smelly sock into Lucius Malfoy's hand.
"What the —?" Mr. Malfoy ripped the sock off the diary, threw it aside, then looked furiously from the ruined book to Harry to Kai.
"You'll meet the same sticky end as your parents one of these days, Potter," he said softly. "They were meddlesome fools, too."
He turned to go.
"Come, Dobby. I said, come!"
But Dobby didn't move.
He was holding up Harry's disgusting, slimy sock, and looking at it as though it were a priceless treasure.
"Master has given a sock," said the elf in wonderment. "Master gave it to Dobby."
"What's that?" spat Mr. Malfoy. "What did you say?"
"Got a sock," said Dobby in disbelief. "Master threw it, and Dobby caught it, and Dobby— Dobby is freeeeeeeeee."
Lucius Malfoy stood frozen, staring at the elf then he lunged at the Potters.
"You've lost me my servant, you foul children!"
But Dobby shouted, "You shall not harm Harry or Kai Potter!"
There was a loud bang, and Mr. Malfoy was thrown backward.
He crashed down the stairs, three at a time, landing in a crumpled heap on the landing below.
He got up, his face livid, and pulled out his wand, but Dobby raised a long, threatening finger.
"You shall go now," he said fiercely, pointing down at Mr. Malfoy. "You shall not touch either of the Potters. You shall go now."
Lucius Malfoy had no choice.
With a last, incensed stare at the pair of them, he swung his cloak around him and hurried out of sight.
"Harry and Kai Potter freed Dobby!" said the elf shrilly, gazing up at the pair, moonlight from the nearest window reflected in his orb-like eyes. "Harry and Kai Potter set Dobby free!"
"Least we could do, Dobby," Kai grined. "Just promise never to try and save our life again."
The elf's ugly brown face split suddenly into a wide, toothy smile.
"I've just got one question, Dobby," Harry stated as Dobby pulled on Harry's sock with shaking hands. "You told me all this had nothing to do with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, remember? Well —"
"It was a clue, sir," said Dobby, his eyes widening, as though this was obvious. "Was giving you a clue. The Dark Lord, before he changed his name, could be freely named,you see?"
"Right," Harry nodded weakly. "Well, we'd better go. There's a feast, and our friend Hermione should be awake by now..."
Dobby threw his arms around Harry and Kai's middles and hugged them.
"Harry and Kai Potter are greater by far than Dobby knew!" he sobbed. "Farewell, Harry Potter! Farewell Kai Potter!"
And with a final loud crack, Dobby disappeared.
Harry had been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never one quite like this.
Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night.
Kai didn't know whether the best bit was Hermione running toward them, screaming "You solved it! You solved it!" or Justin hurrying over from the Hufflepuff table to wring her and Harry's hand and apologize endlessly for suspecting them, or Hagrid turning up at half past three, cuffing Harry, Kai and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle, or hers, Harry's and Ron's six hundred points to Gryffindor, securing the House Cup for the second year running, or Professor McGonagall standing up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat ("Oh, no!" Hermione whined), or Dumbledore announcing that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away and get his memory back.
Quite a few of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted this news.
"Shame," said Ron, helping himself to a jam doughnut. "He has starting to grow on me."
The rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine.
Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences — Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled ("but we've had plenty of practice at that anyway," Ron told a disgruntled Hermione) and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor.
Draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place.
On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky, though to some he seemed slightly pleased.
On the other hand, Ginny Weasley was perfectly happy again.
Too soon, it was time for the journey home on the Hogwarts Express. Harry, Kai, Ara, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny got a compartment to themselves.
They made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays.
Together they played Exploding Snap, set off the very last of Fred and George's Filibuster fireworks, and practiced disarming each other by magic.
Harry was getting very good at it.
They were almost at King's Cross when Harry remembered something. "Ginny – what did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?"
"Oh, that," said Ginny, giggling. "Well — Percy's got a girlfriend."
Fred dropped a stack of books on George's head.
Kai snorted.
"Who?" Fred, grinned evily, joined soon by his twin and Kai.
"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," said Ginny. "That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was —you know — attacked. You won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.
"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early.
"Definitely not," said George, sniggering.
"For sure," Kai grinned even more, if that was even possible, "So, you said I could come over some time?"
The compartment filled with laughter as the Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped.
Ara hugged both Kai and Ginny and said goodbye before hurrying off to her mother and brother, who stood waiting for her.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye, for now." Hermione smiled at the two Weasleys and Potters.
"Yep." Ron grinned.
"We had a fun year." Kai grinned, hugging Hermione tightly.
"Keep in touch, will you. With no Dobby there to stop things, I want to hear lots. Also, come and visit a lot will you?"
"'course we will." Ron smiled, hugging Hermione goodbye.
After everyone had said their goodbyes, the 5 made their way to Mr. Weasley, who was talking to Hermione's parents, Sirius and Remus.
"Hello." Remus smiled, "Fun year?"
"Mhm, totally." Kai grinned.
Traveling back, through the wall, into the Muggle World, the three families parted.
"I wonder what will happen next year. Who do you think will try to kill us this time, Sirius?" Kai grinned.
"Can't we have just one normal year? Is that too much to ask for?" Harry groaned.
"Way too much, Harold. We're the Potters, remember? There's no such thing as a normal Hogwarts year." Kai sighed dramatically, as if it were obvious.
Remus chuckled, as Harry groaned.
"Have a little rest, Harold Potter. You'll need it. I have a feeling next year will be especially fun. Buckle up, 'cause it's gonna be a bumpy ride!"