For a moment, there was silence as Harry, Ron, Amelia, Ginny and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime and (in Harry's and Amelia's case) blood. Then there was a scream.

'Ginny!'

It was Mrs Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leapt to her feet, closely followed by Mr Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter.

Harry, however, was looking past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Fawkes went whooshing past Harry's ear and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder, just as Harry found himself 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.

'Before we get into that, I need to know how long you knew we were gone. That way, I can adapt the story to make it sound like we didn't break as many rules.' Harry pinched Amelia.

Mrs Weasley let go of Harry(and quickly latched onto Amelia), who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it the Sorting Hat, the ruby-encrusted sword and what remained of Riddle's diary.

Then he started telling them everything, Amelia filling in on different parts he missed or adding sound effects to the amusement of the others('And then Fawkes clawed its eyes out! The bloody things were the size of soccer balls! I mean footballs' Ginny let out a giggle). For nearly a quarter of an hour they spoke into the rapt silence: he told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione had finally realised that he was hearing a Basilisk in the pipes; how he, Ron, and Amelia had followed the spiders into the Forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the Basilisk had died; how he had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom ...

'Very well,' Professor McGonagall prompted him, as he paused, 'so you found out where the entrance was – breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add – but how on