“What do we do now” Ron asked once we landed firmly in the bathroom.
“We need to go to Dumbledore and tell him what happened.” Harry said looking at the sink while it slid back into place.
“Harry, what happened?” I asked glancing around at the bathroom. “Last thing I remember Tom, had knocked my wand out of my hand then everything went blank.”
“It’s ok everything is fine now. Does anyone know how to get to Dumbledore’s office?” Harry looked around at all of us as we shook our heads no and Lockhart was too far gone to care what we were talking about.
“Is that Dumbledore’s bird? He can show us the way.” I said noticing Fawkes still floating near my shoulder.
Fawkes gave a short nod and started to fly out of the room. We quickly followed him down the corridors and around corners until we were in front of a gargoyle statue but not knowing the password, we were stumped as to how to get in. As if knowing we needed in, the Gargoyle sprang to the left and a moving spiral staircase appeared out of the floor like a screw being unscrewed. We went forward and climbed to the first couple of stairs, waiting for it to stop at his door.
We knocked on the door and waited to be allowed entrance. We heard Dumbledore call for us to enter and we were surrounded by an office full of people. All at once we were bombarded by red hair mixed with black. The whole Weasley family were here hugging us and my parents were also in the midst hugging us.
Finally we were able to breathe, once everyone had been hugged at least three times. Dumbledore addressed us, “I’m glad you are all right, care to explain what happened down there or how you found the opening to the Chamber?”
Harry started recounting the story from the beginning, how a house elf appeared in his bedroom, getting a letter from the Ministry of Magic about use of magic outside of school even though it was the elf who did it just before he disappeared. Then Ron chimed in with how they couldn’t gain entry to Platform 9 ¾ which is why they had to fly the car in. Harry confessed to hearing voices which turned out to be the basilisk, and we later found out he was a Parselmouth at the dueling club. Harry described how he found the diary in a corridor after someone dropped it. He explained that when he started writing in it, it started writing back. The diary explained that Tom Riddle had captured the man who opened the Chamber 50 years before, “only he had pointed the finger at Hagrid and had him expelled. When they took Hagrid, he said to follow the spiders and they would lead us to the truth.” We explained how we talked to Aragog, Hagrid’s giant pet spider, were almost eaten by the spider’s children and only made it out of the forest because the car saved us.
I explained how Hermione figured out what the monster was just before she was petrified, and we figured out that Myrtle was the girl who was killed in the bathroom. We had overheard the teachers talking that Ginny had been taken down into the chamber and decided we needed to go after her. Lockhart was going down anyway but did not know where the entry was. “When we went to speak with him, he was packing to leave and threatened to erase our memories. We are sorry but we pulled our wands on him and took him down into the chamber by force we admit.” He explained how we went to see Myrtle and she told us how she died, we found the door to the Chamber and went in. “Once down there, Lockhart stole Ron’s wand and tried to erase our memories again. The spell backfired because of the broken wand causing part of the ceiling to fall separating Ron and Lockhart from me and Loretta. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Loretta, no offense Ron, I do not think we would have made it out of there. Loretta pushed me aside so I did not get hit by the rocks, as Ron had run forward.”
From there Harry and I went back and forth explaining what had happened in the chamber. I had to let him tell most of it as I did not remember anything past losing my wand. I was surprised to learn that I had indeed done a lot of things while down there. “That’s it professor, after Loretta stabbed the diary and we rejoined Ron, Fawkes flew us out and we came here.”
The room had remained silent from beginning to end, there had been a few gasps oh my’s throughout the story but everyone was stunned beyond words about everything we had been through. “That is quite a story how did the diary get here?” Dumbledore asked.
Ginny, who was quiet for most of the retelling, spoke up timidly “It was me, I found the diary in the stack of books mum bought me. I thought it was a gift, so I brought it with me to write in. When I realized it was controlling me I tried to think of a way to get rid of it but couldn’t think of a way. I then lost it in a hallway where Harry found it. When it went missing I was happy at first, I thought it was over. Then the attacks kept happening, I thought someone else had gotten a hold of it. Then I was taken and brought down into the Chamber. I am sorry, I didn’t know until it was too late. I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.”
“Ginny, how many times have we told you not to trust things, if you cannot see where their brain is?” Mrs. Weasley asked her meant as a reprimand, but you could see she was just happy to have her children back safely.
“It is quite all right Ginny, no one was seriously hurt. Professor Sprout is working on the mandrake potion now and those petrified should be waking up by tomorrow afternoon.” Dumbledore explained, letting her off the hook for the whole incident. “Now, my question is for Miss Saint, you seem to be awfully quite during that last part even though you had a big hand in saving Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley’s lives. Is there anything you would like to add?”
“I think it is time I said something professor. Since my first year I have been having weird black outs that I am apparently walking around and doing things, but do not remember them. You know when we went down to face Voldemort for the Sorcerer’s stone last year I blacked out, actually I thought I had passed out but learned differently after Harry woke up. What you do not know is a few months before that I had blacked out for a whole week or so. According to Harry, Ron and Hermione, I still went to classes and acted normal but not normal at the same time. I guess I did not sleep the entire time, then a couple of times this year I blacked out while I was talking to Professor Snape. Though at the time I thought he was a little crazy because it was only for short periods of time and I did not realize time had passed. I also blacked out when I talked to Hermione one time and again down in the Chamber.”
“Thank you for sharing that Miss Saint. I believe it is time for everyone to go to bed, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Mr. and Mrs. Saint, you four are welcome to stay the next two days here at the castle and have attend the end of the year feast with us if you wish.”
“Thank you Headmaster, Vladimir and I would love to.” My mum said hugging me tightly with one arm.
“Molly and I would like to stay as well, thank you.” Mr. Weasley said shaking Dumbledore’s hand and then turned to me and Harry, “Thank you two again for saving Ginny and bringing them back.” Mr. Weasley hugged us and then stood back as Mrs. Weasley also hugged us.
Then Fred came over, obviously as emotional as his parents but tried to hide it, and shook our hands. George grabbed me in a tight bear hug and whispered, “Thank you for keeping them safe as well as yourself.” He shook Harry’s hand then Ginny and Ron said goodbye and the Weasley’s departed for the Gryffindor common room. Harry and I were about to take off with my parents when Dumbledore called me to stay behind with my parents for a moment. Harry went on ahead as I turned back around, “Yes Professor?”
“I think we need to discuss your blackouts a little more. You said they began in your first year, do you know what causes them?”
“No I do not. Hermione and I have discussed it a little but have no idea why. I do not feel them coming on but afterwards I feel groggy and tired. The only thing I can think of has something to do with the school, no offense. The blackouts only happen when I am here at school, it started just being with Professor Snape. Then with Voldemort, and Hermione now with Harry but that could just be a byproduct of being in the room with Tom or Voldemort.”
“That is strange, it is possible…no it couldn’t be…” He mumbled to himself, but couldn’t quite seem to decide what was wrong.
“Do you know what could be the cause of this Headmaster?” My dad asked upset about hearing all this.
“I am not sure, I have an idea but am not quite sure. I will have to do some digging to find out. I do not think she is in any danger but it might be wise to take her to St Mungo’s for testing just to be on the safe side.”
“I will send word to make an appointment in the morning, thank you Headmaster. I think we ought to get Loretta to bed now it seems like she had a busy year.”
“A good night’s rest and everything will look better in the morning, I agree. Good night Saints” He said as we were dismissed.
The next day Harry told us about what happened as he was leaving Dumbledore’s office. “I ran into Malfoy’s father and Dobby, the house elf that came to my house during the summer. Dobby told me Mr. Malfoy was the one who gave the diary to Ginny. I was going to keep the diary, so nothing bad happened to it but after seeing the mistreatment Mr. Malfoy did to Dobby I decided to set him free.”
“But you are not his master you couldn’t have done that.” I said as I drank some orange juice while listening to him talk.
“Mr. Malfoy had turned to walk away, kicking Dobby down the hall and I took off one of my socks and placed the diary inside of it. As I called to Mr. Malfoy I tossed the book to him and he caught it. Not paying attention he took the diary out of the sock and threw it behind him. Dobby caught the sock and was freed. His master had given him an article of clothing and was free.”
“That was a brilliant plan Harry. I never would of thought of that.” Ron said between bites of his lunch.
The rest of the day and next were filled with fun touring the castle with my parents, spending evenings with friends in the common room and getting to know Mr. and Mrs. Weasley better. Instead of taking the train home, Mum shrank my luggage to fit into my bag and we walked down to Hogsmead. Once off the school grounds, they were able to apparate us back home before we went off to the hospital.