s-swear I d-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 –'

'It's all right,' said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, 'Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the Basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here –'

'I'm going to be expelled!' Ginny wept, as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. '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?'

'It's ok, Ginny, you aren't going to get expelled. It wasn't your fault. You were tricked. You had no way of knowing. I will fight the mystery tooth and nail to keep you here and safe if I have to. Ok?'

Ginny let out a sob and leaned against Amelia, who wrapped her up in her robes. 'You're going to be ok, don't worry,' 

Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Harry urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead Basilisk, through the echoing gloom and back into the tunnel. Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.

After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached Harry's ears.

'Ron!' Harry yelled, speeding up. 'Ginny's OK! I've got her!'

'Your brothers have been worried sick, you know,' Amelia said, walking to the noise.

They heard Ron give a strangled cheer and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizeable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall.

'Ginny!' Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. 'You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?'

He tried to hug her but Ginny held him off, sobbing.

'But you're okay, Ginny,' said Ron, beaming at her. 'It's over now, it's – where did that bird come from?'

'That's the question you ask?' muttered Amelia with her hands on her hips.

Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.

'He's Dumbledore's,' said Harry, squeezing through himself and Amelia after him. 'And how come you've got a sword?' said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand.

'I'll explain when we get out of here,' said Harry, with a sideways glance at Ginny. 'But –'

'Later,' Harry said quickly. He didn't think it was a good idea to tell Ron yet who'd been opening the Chamber, not in front of Ginny, anyway. 'Where's Lockhart?'

'Back there,' said Ron, grinning and jerking his head up the tunnel towards the pipe. 'He's in a bad way. Come and see.'

Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, they walked all the way back to the mouth