Together [HP]

It was Mrs Weasley, who had been sitting in front of the fire crying.She jumped up, followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them threw their arms around their precious daughter at the same time.

Harry looked past them and into the room.Professor Dumbledore stood in front of the mantelpiece with a smile on his face, and beside him was Professor McGonagall, clutching her chest with her hands, gasping for air.Fawkes whizzed past Harry's ear and landed on Dumbledore's shoulder.At this moment, Harry found himself and Ron both being held tightly in Mrs. Weasley's arms.

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

"That's what we all want to know," said Professor McGonagall feebly.Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry. After a moment's hesitation, Harry went to the desk and placed the Sorting Hat, the silver sword studded with rubies, and the remains of Riddle's diary.Then he began to tell them exactly what happened.He spoke for about a quarter of an hour, and everyone listened so intently that the room was completely silent.He told how he kept hearing that disembodied, ghostly voice, and that Hermione, after much effort, had discovered that what he was hearing was the sound of a basilisk lurking in a water pipe; Ron had followed the spider into the Forbidden Forest, and Aragog had told them where the Basilisk's last victim had been killed, and how Jacqueline had dragged them into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall encouraged him to continue when he paused, "so you found out where the entrance is. I should add that you broke more than 100 school rules along the way. But are you How did you narrowly escape from there, Potter."

So Harry went on, his voice hoarse from talking all the time.He told them how Fox had arrived in time.But then, his voice became hesitant.He'd been avoiding mentioning Riddle's diary, mentioning Ginny.At this moment, Ginny was standing there with her head resting on Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, tears still rolling down her cheeks silently.What if they fired her? Harry thought nervously.Riddle's diary is out of order.How could they prove that Riddle forced her to do those things? Harry instinctively cast his eyes on Dumbledore, only to see the headmaster smiling faintly, and the firelight flashed quickly on his half-moon-shaped glasses.

"What interests me most," said Dumbledore mildly, "is how Voldemort managed to confuse Ginny, since, according to my sources, he is currently hiding in the forests of Albania."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, a big, heavy sigh of relief, feeling light all over and warm inside.

"What, what?" said Mrs. Weasley in a startled voice, "mystery got Ginny but Ginny didn't, Ginny didn't, did she?"

"It's all about this diary," Harry said quickly, grabbing the diary and showing it to Dumbledore. "It was written when Riddle was sixteen."

Dumbledore took the diary from Harry's hand, his eyes shot down his long hooked nose, gazing intently at the damp, charred pages.

"Remarkable," he said softly. "Needless to say, he's probably the best student Hogwarts has ever seen." He turned to face Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, both of whom looked very confused .

"Few people know that Voldemort used to be called Tom Riddle. I taught him at Hogwarts 50 years ago. He disappeared after leaving school. Deeper and deeper, hanging out with the most evil fellows in the wizarding world, undergoing many dangerous magical transformations, and finally reappearing as Voldemort, people can hardly recognize him. Hardly anyone compares Voldemort with the one who studied here. Smart, handsome boy student body president."

"But what about Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley, "what does our Ginny have to do with him?"

"His day, diary!" sobbed Ginny. "I've been, writing in it, for a whole year, and he, he's been writing me back."

"Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley, dumbfounded, "didn't I teach you how I always told you to never trust anything that can think for itself unless you see that it hides its mind in the Where. Why didn't you show the diary to me or your mother to see something suspicious like that, obviously full of black magic tricks!"

"I, I don't know," Ginny was still weeping bitterly, "I found it in a book my mother gave me. I, I thought someone had it in there and forgot."

"Miss Weasley should go to the school hospital at once," interjected Dumbledore involuntarily. "It will be a painful ordeal for her. The school will not punish her. Many older than her, Wizards more resourceful than her have been fooled by Voldemort." He strode to the door and opened it. "Bed rest, maybe, and a big cup of steaming chocolate milk, I always think it's good for my mood," he said, winking kindly at Ginny with his head bowed. "You'll find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She was just distributing a mandrake potion, and I dare say the Basilisk's victims could wake up at any moment."

"So Hermione's all right!" said Ron happily.

"No lasting harm done," said Dumbledore.

Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, followed by Mr. Weasley, still looking very shocked.

"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said to Professor McGonagall thoughtfully, "I think that these things are worth celebrating with a banquet. May I ask you to inform Where's the kitchen?"

"Okay," Mrs. McGonagall said bluntly, and also started to walk towards the door, "I'll leave Potter and Weasley to you, won't I?"

"Of course," said Dumbledore.

She was gone, and Harry and Ron stared at Dumbledore uneasily.What did Professor McGonagall mean by what he said just now? Deal with them? Shouldn't they be punished? Could it be that Jacqueline did it because of this. . .

"I seem to remember saying to you both that if you violate the school rules again, I will have to expel you," said Dumbledore.

Ron opened his mouth in horror.

"It goes to show that even the best of us sometimes have to keep our mouths shut." Dumbledore continued with a smile, "You two, of course, and Miss Graham, if she can If you survived the reprimand of Professor Snape and Professor Graham, you both won the Special Contribution Award to the school, and, let me think about it, by the way, each of you won two hundred points for your own house." Luo Eun's face turned a bright pink, like the Valentine's flowers Lockhart had given everyone, and his mouth shut. "But one of us has remained astonishingly silent about this thrilling adventure." Dumbledore continued, "Why are you so humble, Gilderoy?"

Harry jumped in surprise.He had completely forgotten about Lockhart.He turned around and saw Lockhart standing in the corner of the room, still with that ambiguous smile on his face.When Dumbledore questioned him, Lockhart turned to see who Dumbledore was talking to.

"Professor Dumbledore," Ron said quickly, "there was an accident in the Chamber of Secrets below. Professor Lockhart,"

"Why, I'm a professor." Lockhart said slightly surprised, "God, I thought I wouldn't be very promising!"

"He tried to cast a Forgetting Charm and the wand fired backwards," Ron explained to Dumbledore in a low voice.

"My God," said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long, silver-white beard trembling slightly, "Ghideroy, you were stabbed by your own sword."

"Sword," said Lockhart, confused. "I don't have a sword. The boy does have one," he pointed at Harry, "and he'll lend you one."

"Excuse me, can you take Professor Lockhart to the hospital too?" Dumbledore said to Ron, "I want to talk to Harry a little more." Lockhart walked out with brisk steps.As Ron closed the door, he glanced back at Dumbledore and Harry curiously.Dumbledore walked to a chair by the fire. "Sit down, Harry," he said.Harry sat down, feeling unspeakably tense.

"First of all, Harry, I want to thank you," said Dumbledore, with the gleam in his eyes again, "you must have shown absolute loyalty to me in the Chamber of Secrets below. Only this kind of loyalty can summon Fawkes to your side."

The phoenix had already fluttered to Dumbledore's lap, and he stroked it gently.Harry smiled unnaturally under Dumbledore's gaze. "So you met Tom Riddle," said Dumbledore thoughtfully. "I can imagine that he is most interested in you." Suddenly, something that has been bothering Harry came out of his mouth. blurted out. "Professor Dumbledore, Riddle said I looked like him. There were some curious resemblances, he said..."

"That's what he said," said Dumbledore, looking at Harry thoughtfully from under his bushy silver brow. "What do you think, Harry?"

"I'm not like him!" said Harry, who hadn't wanted to speak so loudly. "I mean, I, I'm in Gryffindor, I'm..." But he fell silent. A trace of doubt resurfaced in his mind. "Professor," he said after a moment, "the Sorting Hat told me that I would do well in Slytherin. For a while, everyone thought I was the heir of Slytherin because I could speak Parseltongue." .”

"Harry, you speak Parseltongue," said Dumbledore quietly, "because Voldemort spoke Parseltongue. He was the last of Salazar Slytherin. If I'm not mistaken, He transferred some of his own spells to you the night he scarred you. He didn't mean to, I'm sure."

"Voldemort transferred a part of himself into me" Harry gaped in surprise.

"Obviously so."

"So I should be in Slytherin," said Harry, staring hopelessly into Dumbledore's face. "The Sorting Hat may have seen something of Slytherin in me, and it just..."

"Put you in Gryffindor," said Dumbledore flatly. "Listen, Harry. You happen to have a lot of things that Salazar Slytherin especially valued in his careful selection of students." Some of his own rare talents, Parseltongue, resourcefulness, strong will, and a certain disregard for the rules of the law." He said, his silvery white beard trembling slightly again, "but the Sorting Hat put you in Gryffindor, do you know why this happened? Think about it."

"The reason it put me in Gryffindor," Harry said in a disheartened tone, "is because I asked not to go to Slytherin."

"Exactly," said Dumbledore, smiling again. "That makes you very different from Tom Riddle. Harry, expressing our true selves is our own choice, which is more important than our abilities." Harry sat motionless in the chair, Completely stunned. "Harry, if you still need proof that you really belong to Gryffindor, I suggest you take a closer look at this."

Dumbledore leaned forward to pick up the blood-stained silver sword from Professor McGonagall's desk, and handed it to Harry.Harry turned it over blankly, the ruby ​​glistening in the firelight.Then he saw it, and there was a name engraved near the hilt.

Godric Gryffindor.

"Only a real Gryffindor can pull it out of the hat, Harry," said Dumbledore simply.

"But," Harry swallowed, "Professor, it was Jacqueline who drew the sword."