FicWad

Ron had been devastated by the loss of his sister, going so far as to consider it his own fault. He had sunk down on the floor of the rocky cave and cried for nearly half an hour. Harry had found himself annoyed at the slightly elder boy's behavior, although for what reason he could not fathom. Grief was normal for a person who had just lost a family member, although Harry found himself wondering whether he would feel any grief at all if his family members were murdered. He almost snorted at the prospect. Not likely.

In the meantime, he had sat down beside Ron and his unconscious defense professor and waited for someone to help him out of this dank hole in the ground. Slytherin certainly wasn't helping anyone's stereotypical opinion of him with the Chamber of Secrets. It wasn't long before a flash of fire announced Fawkes' arrival. In his talons he had the sorting hat clutched with a strength that made Harry wonder if the Sorting hat would have a few holes as an addition for the next sorting. The bird looked oddly at Harry, cocking its head to the size as if asking a question.

"Ginny was dead when I arrived. Her body is over there." He pointed to the other side of the rock pile, out of site of Ron and his field of view – nobody wanted to stare at her lifeless body while they waited for help. Fawkes trilled sadly at them, but nonetheless flapped over to them and picked them up in his enormous talons, dropping the sorting hat to the floor. What had he been doing with the hat anyway? It was unlikely that it would be of any help in a fight, unless it could sing the monster of Slytherin to death.

A flash of fire ended those thoughts as he and the others were transported directly to the hospital wing, although he was uninjured for the most part.

Madam Pomfrey looked startled and then alarmed as she saw the unconscious professor, two very dirty and tired looking boys, and Ginny's glassy-eyed body.

Rushing over, she cast a patronus and gave it a message to give to Dumbledore before throwing spells at a furious rate on the redhead, no doubt trying to resuscitate her.

"Damnit!" Harry had never heard the unflappable nurse swear before. Apparently the situation was getting to her. Harry knew that, unfortunately, Ginny was hopeless. There was a less than zero chance of saving someone who had looked into the eyes of a basilisk. Slinking over to a nearby bed, he hopped up and lay his head on a pillow, wondering at his callous behavior. Before tonight he certainly would have been much more distraught over her death, but all he could feel now was a numb sort of emptiness.

As soon as he had stepped into the chamber, he had rushed over to Ginny's body. It had been lying at an odd angle, with her knees bent underneath her body as if she had suddenly dropped boneless to the ground. Harry got the implications immediately, and had levitated her as quickly as possible back to the other two. Her body had been extremely cold, signifying that her death had been at least an hour before. He had been too late.

Too late. Of course he was too late. The message itself had been written at least an hour before anyone even found it, and then they had to go and round up Lockhart and find the Chamber itself, no mean task. All in all they had probably taken two hours in between the time she was kidnapped and the time they got to her. Certainly not fast enough.

"Harry." Startled out of his reverie, Harry turned his head to see the serious face of Albus Dumbledore.

"Yes?" Dumbledore pursed his lips for a moment before continuing.

"I am sorry to do this so soon, but I must ask you to divulge what happened in the Chamber. It is imperative that we catch the monster." An unknown force pushed Harry to look into the headmaster's eyes.

"There's really not much to divulge Professor. Ron and I saw the message and ran to get help from Professor Lockhart." Here he gave a look of disgust at the oblivious (literally) man lying on his own bed with a happy smile on his face. "We found him packing all of his things as fast as he could. When we asked him where he was going, he told us that he was going away, something about this not being part of the teaching deal. When we asked why he wasn't behaving as he portrayed himself in his books, he told us that it wasn't "really" him doing all of those heroic acts in his books, and that he had 'always prided himself on his memory charms'. Then he tried to obliviate Ron and me, but fortunately we got him first with an expelliarmus. We forced him to go with us to the chamber, which was in Myrtle's bathroom. I used parseltongue to open it and we headed slid down a really long pipe. As soon as we landed Lockhart grabbed Ron's wand from him and tried to obliviate us... again. Of course Ron's wand was messed up and so the spell backfired and hit him in the face." At this, a hint of the old cheery Dumbledore came back.

"Not something he anticipated I'm sure."

"No, I'd imagine not." There was silence for a moment before Dumbledore gestured to continue. "Well of course he flew back and hit the wall, bringing down tons of rocks and stuff on top of us. I dove one way and Ron dove the other, and we ended up with a huge mound of rocks in between us. I told Ron to get the rocks out of the way and then went on. I eventually came to the Chamber itself and had to open it again with parseltongue. Inside I saw Ginny lying under a huge statue of Salazar Slytherin, so I rushed over to her. I... she was dead. I levitated her back to Ron and Lockhart and then waited until your bird came and rescued us." Dumbledore reclined back into the chair looking immensely aged.

"You have done well, Harry. Few would have the courage to face Slytherin's monster, even with a professor of defense by his side. I am proud of you." Harry felt like the words should have meant more to him than they did, but he bowed his head out of faux embarrassment anyway.

"Thank you sir."

"There is one more thing – did you not see the monster itself?"

"No sir. We did see a fifty or sixty meter long snake skin though."

"A snake skin?" Dumbledore looked surprised for a moment before a look of understanding came over his face. "A basilisk."

"Yes sir. That's what Hermione thought."

"She is a remarkable young witch. And I'm sure you'll be happy to know that the mandrakes are nearly fully matured and ready to revive her." Harry smiled slightly at him.

"Thank you sir." The headmaster gave him one last penetrating look before nodding.

"Don't thank me, Harry. Thank Madam Pomfrey and Professor Snape." It was unlikely that he would ever thank the man who seemed to have a personal grudge against Harry for something he had never done, but he nodded anyway.

"And remember Harry; you are welcome in my office at any time. Do not hesitate to speak to me." He watched as Dumbledore stood up slowly and walked back towards Madam Pomfrey, no doubt asking her about his and the other's condition.

Bloody tired would be his own diagnosis.