80 Explanation

As the heavens cried with Nova's mournful roar, many of the students and teachers started to return to the castle. Or rather what was left of it. When they approached castle ruins, the teachers got to work repairing the Great Hall so that the students could have some form of shelter since the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Towers had collapsed, Slytherin was flooded from the lake, and Hufflepuff was currently melted.

As they started repairs, Dumbledor showed up and sped up the pace. He looked over at the lake side where Nova was sitting. He didn't fully know what had happened but after speaking with McGonagall he had gained a fairly educated guess.

After a few hours of work, most of the damages had been repaired. Dumbledor was in his office, with the Weasley Family, who had appeared when they heard Ginny had been taken into the Chamber, Harry and Ron. Luna would have been there as well but she was still passed out on the Lake Shore with Hermione and Daphne, who had returned during the Christmas Holiday.

\"Now that we are all present, I would like to know what fully transpired.\" Dumbledore inquired.

Ginny, who was still a little weak from the near death experience, took out Tom Riddle's diary and explained how it had worked and what had happened.

\"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 --\"

\"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away,\" Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice. \"This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort.\" He strode over to the door and opened it. \"Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up,\" he added, twinkling kindly down at her.

Dumbledore then turned to Harry and Ron, and gestured for them to continue the explanation. Harry explained all what Ginny was missing and how they found the Chamber and the conversation with Riddle. Harry and Ron did say that they didn't know fully to what extent Nova was involved but they did see that Lockhart was turned to ash.

\"Yes indeed but until Mr. Void is in the talking mood. His side of things will need to remain a mystery. \"You both and Ms. Lovegood will receive Special Awards for Services to the School and -- let me see - yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.\"

Ron went as brightly pink as Lockhart's valentine flowers and closed his mouth again.

\"Now Mr. Weasley, if you could be so kind as to deliver these papers to the Ministry, I dare say we will be needing our Game Keeper back.\" Dumbledore said as he handed some to Ron, who immediately left to the Owlery.

\"Sit down, Harry,\" he said, and Harry sat, feeling unaccountably nervous.

\"And so you met Tom Riddle,\" said Dumbledore thoughtfully. \"I imagine he was most interested in you . . . . \"

Suddenly, something that was nagging at Harry came tumbling out of his mouth.

\"Professor Dumbledore ... Riddle said I'm like him. Strange likenesses, he said ...

\"Did he, now?\" said Dumbledore, looking thoughtfully at Harry from under his thick silver eyebrows. \"And what do you think, Harry?\"

\"I don't think I'm like him!\" said Harry, more loudly than he'd intended. \"I mean, I'm -- I'm in Gryffindor, I'm . . .\"

But he fell silent, a lurking doubt resurfacing in his mind.

\"Professor,\" he started again after a moment. \"The Sorting Hat told me Id -- Id have done well in Slytherin. Everyone thought I was Slytherin's heir for a while ... because I can speak Parseltongue ....

\"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry,\" said Dumbledore calmly, \"because Lord Voldemort -- who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin -- can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure ....

\"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?\" Harry said, thunderstruck.

\"It certainly seems so.\"

\"So I should be in Slytherin,\" Harry said, looking desperately into Dumbledore's face. \"The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin's power in me, and it --\"

\"Put you in Gryffindor,\" said Dumbledore calmly. \"Listen to me, Harry. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his handpicked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue - resourcefulness - determination -- a certain disregard for rules,\" he added, his mustache quivering again. \"Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think.\"

\"It only put me in Gryffindor,\" said Harry in a defeated voice, \"because I asked not to go in Slytherin . . . .\"

`Exactly, \"said Dumbledore, beaming once more. \"Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.\" Harry sat motionless in his chair, stunned.

\"And now Harry it seems that I am glad that I draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too,\" he added thoughtfully. \"We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?\"

Harry got up and crossed to the door. He had just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall.

Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face. And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.

\"Good Morning, Lucius,\" said Dumbledore pleasantly.

Mr. Malfoy almost knocked Harry over as he swept into the room. Dobby went scurrying in after him, crouching at the hem of his cloak, a look of abject terror on his face. The elf was carrying a stained rag with which he was attempting to finish cleaning Mr. Malfoy's shoes. Apparently Mr. Malfoy had set out in a great hurry, for not only were his shoes half-polished, but his usually sleek hair was disheveled. Ignoring the elf bobbing apologetically around his ankles, he fixed his cold eyes upon Dumbledore.

\"So!\" he said \"You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts.\"

\"Well, you see, Lucius,\" said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, \"the other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too .... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place.\"

Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury.

\"So -- have you stopped the attacks yet?\" he sneered. \"Have you caught the culprit?\"

\"We have,\" said Dumbledore, with a smile.

\"Well?\"said Mr. Malfoy sharply. \"Who is it?\"

\"The same person as last time, Lucius,\" said Dumbledore. \"But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary.\"

He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Mr. Malfoy closely. Harry, however, was watching Dobby.

The elf was doing something very odd. His great eyes fixed meaningfully on Harry, he kept pointing at the diary, then at Mr. Malfoy, and then hitting himself hard on the head with his fist.

\"I see. . . \" said Mr. Malfoy slowly to Dumbledore.

\"A clever plan,\" said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring Mr. Malfoy straight in the eye. \"Because if Harry here\" --Mr. Malfoy shot Harry a swift, sharp look -- \"and his friend Ron hadn't discovered this book, why -- Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will ...

Mr. Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly masklike.

\"And imagine,\" Dumbledore went on, \"what might have happened then .... The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pure-blood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and - killing Muggle-borns .... Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. \"Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise ...

Mr. Malfoy forced himself to speak.

\"Very fortunate,\" he said stiffly.

And still, behind his back, Dobby was pointing, first to the diary, then to Lucius Malfoy, then punching himself in the head. And Harry suddenly understood. He nodded at Dobby, and Dobby backed into a corner, now twisting his ears in punishment.

\"Don't you want to know how Ginny got hold of that diary, Mr. Malfoy?\" said Harry.

Lucius Malfoy rounded on him.

\"How should I know how the stupid little girl got hold of it?\" he said.

\"Because you gave it to her,\" said Harry. \"In Flourish and Blotts. You picked up her old Transfiguration book and slipped the diary inside it, didn't you?\"

He saw Mr. Malfoy's white hands clench and unclench.

\"Prove it,\" he hissed.

\"Oh, no one will be able to do that,\" said Dumbledore, smiling at Harry. \"Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you, Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Lord Voldemort's old school things. If any more of them find their way into innocent hands, I think Arthur Weasley, for one, will make sure they are traced back to you. And if you would be so kind as to look out the window. From here you can see our residential Dragon God, holding the corpse of his deceased wife's adopted daughter, who was the Basilisk of the Chamber. Imagine what he will do if he was to find out who the owner of the diary was, and though I won't say anything, I can't help but feel dread if a dragon was to unleash his full fury upon one person. After all Draco has already lost his mother since you sold her, I would pity the boy if his father was erased.\"

Harry and Dumbledore both watched as Lucius Malfoy turned white as a ghost.

\"We're going, Dobby!\"

He wrenched open the door and as the elf came hurrying up to him, he kicked him right through it. They could hear Dobby squealing with pain all the way along the corridor. Harry stood for a moment, thinking hard. Then it came to him -

\"Professor Dumbledore,\" he said hurriedly. \"Can I give that diary back to Mr. Malfoy, please?\"

\"Certainly, Harry,\" said Dumbledore calmly. \"But hurry. The feast, remember …\"

Dumbledore then looked out the window at Nova and out a small sigh.