The first thing Ginny became conscious of was how cold she was. She wondered if someone had left a dormitory window open. She would have to get up and close it.
She let out a tired moan as her exhausted body resisted any form of movement. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a tall, green ceiling.
There was the sound of hurried footsteps. Ginny sat up and was completely confused by what she saw.
There was a humongous, dead snake lying on the ground. Harry's Potter standing by her, covered in blood as she looked down at him. And there, in his hand, was Tom Riddles diary.
Ginny took a deep, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face. She couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Harry - oh, Harry," she sobbed. "I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I couldn't say it in front of Percy - it was me, Harry - but I - I s-swear I didn't mean to - R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over -and- how did you kill that - that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary -"
Harry looked slightly alarmed at the words spewing from her uncontrollably.
He held up Tom's diary. There was a large hole going through it.
"Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here-"
Harry held out a hand to her. Still crying, she took it and Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet.
"I'm going to be expelled," Ginny wept. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and - w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"
Ginny didn't say anything more as they approached the Chamber entrance. There was a red and gold bird hovering in the air but Ginny was too upset to give it any thought.
Harry motioned for Ginny to go forward, giving her a kind smile.
Ginny stepped over the the dead snake while wiping tears and snots off her face.
The doors behind them closed with a faint hiss.
They walked up a dark tunnel until there was the distant sound of moving rocks.
"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. Ginny followed him. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!"
There was a distant strangled cry. They turned the next bend to see Ron's eager face staring through a sizable gap in a huge wall of fallen rocks.
Ginny didn't understand what was going on. She didn't know why her brother was here, but he cried "Ginny!" and thrust out an arm to pull her through the the gap in the rocks. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How - what- where'd that bird come from?"
The bird had followed Ginny through the gap.
"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, squeezing himself through.
Being in the presence of her brother reminded Ginny of how angry her parents would be, and she started to cry harder.
"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron gaping at Harry.
"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry, with a sideways glance at her.
For Ginny, who couldn't stop crying, everything that happened was a blur. A very disoriented Professor Lockhart was waiting through the next tunnel. Then next thing Ginny knew Harry was telling her to grab onto Ron's hand and Professor Lockhart to grab onto hers, and soon they were flying through the air. They ended up in the out of order bathroom in front of the ghost of a girl with glasses and a miserable expression. She goggled at them.
"You're alive," said the ghost to Harry blankly.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed," said Harry, grimly.
"Oh, well . . . I'd just been thinking . . . If you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, while proving that ghosts can blush.
"Urgh!" said Ron as they left the bathroom for the dark deserted corridor outside. "Harry, I think Myrtles grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!"
Ginny was too upset even to be embarrassed. The tears just flooded silently down her face. Ron's expression became concerned.
"Where now?" He anxiously.
Harry pointed.
With the strange bird leading the way by glowing gold, they hurried after him and found themselves outside Professor McGonagall' office.
Harry knocked and pushed open the door. For a moment there was silence as the four stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime; Harry, dripping in blood, and Ginny shivering and still crying. Then Ginny recognized her mothers scream.
"Ginny!"
Mrs Weasley had been sitting by the fire crying. She now leapt to her feet and pulled Ginny into a bone crushing hug. She was closely followed by Ginny's father who also threw his arms around her. Ginny started to sob as she was pressed into her mother. She wanted to stay wrapped in her parents warmth and love, and never think about the Chamber of Secretes ever again.
Ginny was left with her father as Mrs Weasley rushed to hug Harry and Ron as well.
"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?" cried Mrs Weasley.
"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly. The woman looked greatly shaken. Ginny only just then noticed that her and Professor Dumbledore were both in the room.
Ginny's mother let go of Harry and the boy, after hesitating a moment, walked over to McGonagall's desk and laid upon it the Sorting hat, the ruby encrusted sword, and what remained of Riddle's diary.
Ginny stood with her head against her mothers shoulder as Harry told them everything.
It took a good fifteen minutes for Harry to explain that he had been hearing a strange, disembodied voice almost all year, then Hermione had realized he was hearing a basilisk in the pipes and was in the library reading about the basilisk when she was attacked; he and Ron had followed spiders into the forest, the leader spider had had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how he had guessed the ghost Moaning Myrtle had been the victim and that the entrance to the Chamber of the Secretes might be in her bathroom.
There Harry stopped, his voice sounding slightly hoarse.
"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him, "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 all get out of here alive, Potter?"
So Harry told them how the bird, he called him Fawkes, brought him the sorting hat and the sword just when he had to fight off the huge snake called the Basilisk. That was where Harry stopped. He glanced at Ginny, who was still crying, nervously and she knew why. So far he hadn't told them anything about her or the diary. Then Dumbledore spoke.
"What interests me most," he said gently. "Is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently hiding in the forests of Albania."
Ginny stared at Dumbledore, hope rising inside. He smiled at her kindly.
"W-what's that?" said Mr Weasley in a stunned voice. "But Ginny's not . . . Ginny hasn't been . . . Has she?"
"It was the diary," said Harry quickly, picking up Tom's diary and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote in it when he was sixteen . . . ."
Dumbledore took the diary from Harry and examined it closely from behind the half-moon spectacles he always wore.
"Brilliant," said Dumbledore softly, although Ginny privately disagreed. There was nothing "brilliant" about Tom's horrid diary. "Of course he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen."
Dumbledore turned to Ginny and her parents.
"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort -" Ginny felt her mother wince at the name. "- was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago. 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 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," explained Dumbledore.
"But, Ginny," said Mrs Weasley. "What's our Ginny got to do with - with - him?"
It was there Ginny burst into uncontrollable sobbing. She knew it was over. Soon she'd be expelled and heading home, alone, on the Hogwarts express.
"His d-diary!" Ginny choked out. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year-"
Her father turned to her with a flabbergasted expression.
"Ginny!" He said. "Haven't I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can't 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, is clearly full of dark magic -"
"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," interrupted Dumbledore firmly. "There will be no punishment. Older and wiser witches than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort."
Ginny hiccuped in shock. She stared at Dumbledore as he crossed the room and opened the door.
"Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up." said Dumbledore, smiling down at Ginny kindly. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out the Mandrake juice. I daresay he basilisk' victims will be waking up at any moment."
"So Hermione's okay!" said Ron happily.
"There had been no lasting harm done, Ginny," said Dumbledore.
Ginny didn't know what to say as her mother guided her out the door and her father followed.
Ginny had to endure a long lecture, which was the joint effort of both her parents, on the way to the hospital wing. But Ginny knew she deserved it after everything she had done this year. She was still exhausted and tearful, but her spirits had lifted greatly in the last few minutes because she was not going to be expelled. Ginny could stay at Hogwarts.