They was standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place.

Harrys heart beating very fast, Harry stood listening to the chill silence. Could the Basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny?

He pulled out his wand and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, he thought he saw one stir.

'Don't worry, I got your back,' Amelia turned into a rooster and flew up perching on Harry's head.

'You are such a dork, you know that, right?' he muttered. Amelia ruffled her feathers before flying down and turning back to normal.

Then, as they drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.

Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: it was ancient and monkey-like, with a long thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth chamber floor. And between the feet, face down, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming red hair.

'Ginny!' Harry muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees. 'Ginny! Don't be dead! Please don't be dead!' He flung his wand aside, grabbed Ginny's shoulders and turned her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be ...

Amelia dropped down next to Harry she pressed her finger to Ginny's wrist and held the back of her free hand to Ginny's forehead. Amelia breathed out in relief. Ginny was alive but just barely, and she was freezing. Amelia took off her robe and draped it over Ginny in a desperate attempt to keep her warm.

'Ginny, please wake up,' Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.

'She won't wake,' said a soft voice.