Y/N's POV

I sighed in relief when Tom had disappeared. I was sitting down, staring at the ceiling, thankful that I had made it out alive.

Then came a faint groan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As I hurried toward her, she sat up. Her eyes travelled from the dead basilisk, over me, in my blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in my hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.

"Y/N, I tried to tell you, it was me, Y/N. But I s-swear I d-didn't mean to, R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over, and- how did you kill t-that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary-"

"Gin, it's ok. Tom's gone, his diary's destroyed. It's ok. You're safe now." I said reassuringly.

Ginny kept on weeping so I opened my arms out, offering her a hug. She accepted my offer and hugged me.

"It's all over Ginny." I said, whilst Ginny was crying into my chest. "Let's go, Ron and Harry are both waiting for us,"

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as I helped her 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?" 

"They'll be glad you're safe Ginny." I said as I lead her to the exit of this chamber.

After a few minutes in the dark tunnel, with Fawkes by our side, we reached where Ron and Harry were.

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

I heard Ron cheer, and then we turned the next bend to see his eager face and Harry's staring through the sizable gap Ron 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? How, what, where did that bird come from?"

Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.

"He's Dumbledore's," I said, squeezing through the gap.

"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in my hand.

"I'll explain when we get out of here," I said with a sideways glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever.

"Lockhart's back there." Harry stated as the four of us walked.

"His memory's gone," said Ron, "the Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself."

Lockhart peered up at us.

"Hello," he said, "odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"

"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows at me.

I bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.

"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" I said to Ron and Harry.

Ron shook his head, but Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past and was now fluttering in front of me. He was waving his long golden tail feathers. I looked uncertainly at him.

"He looks like he wants you to grab hold..." said Harry, looking perplexed, "but you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there-"

"Fawkes," I said, "isn't an ordinary bird." I turned quickly to the others, "we've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Professor Lockhart-"

"He means you," said Ron sharply to Lockhart.

"You hold Ginny's other hand-"

I tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into my belt, Ron took hold of the back of my robes, and I reached out and took hold of Fawkes's tail feathers.

When we arrived back in Myrtle's bathroom, she looked quite disappointed that me and Harry were alive. None of the others knew where to go, so I lead them to the only place I felt logicial, Dumbledore's office.

When we arrived, I knocked and pushed the door open.

For a moment there was silence as we stood in the doorway. 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.

Mrs Weasley then looked at me and Harry. "You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly.

Then I started telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour I spoke, I told them about me and Harry heard the voice, how Hermione had finally realised that we were hearing a Basilisk in the pipes, how me, Harry and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died, how I 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 me as I 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 earth did you all get out of there alive, L/N?"

So I told them about Fawkes's timely arrival and about the Sorting Hat giving me the sword. But then I faltered. I had so far avoided mentioning Riddle's diary, or Ginny. She was standing with her head against Mrs Weasley's shoulder, and tears were still falling down her cheeks. What if they expelled her? I thought in panic. Riddle's diary didn't work anymore...How could I prove it had been he who'd made her do it all? 

Instinctively, I looked at Dumbledore.

"What interests me most," said Dumbledore gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

I was filled with relief.

"W-what's that?" said Mr Weasley in a stunned voice. "You-Know-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not...Ginny hasn't been...has she?"

"It was this diary," I said quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore, "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen..."

Dumbledore took the diary from me.

"Brilliant," he said softly, "of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen." he turned around to the Weasleys, who were looking utterly bewildered.

"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving school...travelled far and wide...sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognisable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."

"But, Ginny," said Mrs Weasley, "what's our Ginny got to do with, with him?"

"His d-diary!" Ginny sobbed. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year-"

"Ginny!" said Mr Weasley, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything. What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can 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, it was 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-"

Ginny was then sent to the Hospital Wing, we also learnt the news that the petrified victims were due to wake up.

"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall, "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door, "I'll leave you to deal with L/N, Potter and Weasley, shall I?"

"Certainly." said Dumbledore, when McGonagall left, he looked at all three of us.

"It seems fitting to expel you all-" Dumbledore said.

Ron looked mortified.

"-but in these circumstances, all three of you receive Special Awards for Services to the School and I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."

All three of us smiled. We then explained the situation involving Lockhart to Dumbledore and then finally it was just me and Dumbledore.

"Did you know I was his grandson sir?" I asked.

Dumbledore nodded. "I thought it would be healthy to not let you know at such a young age."

"I saw similarities between us..." I started but Dumbledore cut me off and pointed to the sword which I had used to kill the Basilisk.

At the bottom were letters engraved.

GODRIC GRYFFINDOR.

"Only a true Gryffindor would've been able to pull this out." Dumbledore smiled. "You are nothing like him."