For a moment, there was absolute silence as the five of us stood in the doorway, dusty and slimy.

Then a woman who looked considerably like Ron and Ginny – Mrs Weasley, I guessed – screamed, “Ginny!”

She leapt to her feet, followed by her husband, and they flung themselves on Ginny.

Meanwhile, Professor Dumbledore was beaming and Professor McGonagall was gasping. Fawkes flew to land on Dumbledore’s shoulder.

Mrs Weasley ran forward and embraced both Harry and Ron.

“You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it? And, er, who is this?”

This last part was directed at me, as she took in my Slytherin robes.

“Well, uh, Mrs Weasley –” I began.

“How did you know who I am?” she asked suspiciously.

“I can tell because you look like both Ron and Ginny,” I explained.

She nodded. “That’s normal. Anyway, what was your name?”

“I’m Jade. Jade Evans. Harry’s half-sister,” I told her.

She looked at me again and did a double take. “You do look so much like Lily.”

She smiled, then turned back to the others. “How did you save her?”

“I think we’d all like to know that,” Professor McGonagall commented weakly.

Harry explained everything. It took almost fifteen minutes, and he’d somehow managed to avoid mentioning Ginny.

“Very well,” Professor McGonagall said, “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, Potter?”

So Harry kept talking. He told them everything about what had happened in the Chamber, and then paused. I had the feeling he was trying not to mention Ginny, but that was now impossible.

“What interests me most is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when his sources tell me he is currently hiding in the forests of Albania,” Dumbledore asked gently.

“W-what’s that?” asked Mr Weasley, sounding shocked. “You-Know-Who? Enchant Ginny? But Ginny’s not…Ginny hasn’t been…has she?”

“It was this diary,” Harry explained quickly. “Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen.”

Dumbledore took the diary from Harry and peered at it closely. “Brilliant. Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. 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 the 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.”

He had explained this to me two years ago, but I had forgotten until just recently, in the Chamber of Secrets.

“But Ginny,” Mrs Weasley asked, frowning, “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 b-been w-writing back all year –”

“Ginny!” Mr Weasley exclaimed. “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 had no idea what I would have done if I’d picked up a diary that could think, but I got the feeling I wouldn’t have shown it to Father.

“I d-didn’t know! 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…”

But before Mr Weasley could continue reprimanding his daughter, Dumbledore stepped in.

“Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing straight away. 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 walked 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. You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She’s just giving out Mandrake Juice – I daresay the basilisk’s victims will be waking up any moment.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone was alright, despite what I had done.

“So Hermione’s OK!” Ron said.

Dumbledore nodded. “There has been no lasting harm done.”

Ginny was led out of the room.

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

“Right,” Professor McGonagall said, and moved towards the door. “I’ll leave you to deal with Potter, Weasley and Evans, shall I?”

“Certainly,” Dumbledore agreed.

When McGonagall had left, he turned to Harry and Ron. “I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any school rules.”

Ron looked horrified while Harry stared at the ground and said nothing.

“Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words,” he continued, smiling. “You will both receive Special Awards for Services to the School, as well as you, Miss Evans, and – let me see – yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor and Slytherin, respectively.”

Ron went bright pink.

200 points?

For doing nothing more than distracting Tom from killing Harry?

“But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure. Why so modest, Gilderoy?”

Lockhart looked over his shoulder, not realising that Dumbledore was addressing him.

Ron began explaining. “Professor Dumbledore, there was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart –”

“Am I a Professor?” Lockhart asked. “Goodness, I expect I was hopeless, was I?”

“He tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired,” Ron finished quickly.

“Dear me, impaled on your own sword, Gilderoy!” Dumbledore exclaimed, shaking his head.

“Sword?” Lockhart asked stupidly. “Haven’t got a sword. That boy has, though. He’ll lend you one.”

He pointed to Harry.

“Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the hospital wing? I’d like a few more words with Harry and Jade…”

Ron and Lockhart left.

Dumbledore first turned to me. “Now, I am very much aware that you were not with Harry when you went into the Chamber this evening, but were already there. How, may I ask, did you get there?”

I didn’t want to tell; I was afraid of expulsion.

But something made me do it. I told Dumbledore about finding out that I was the Heir of Slytherin before school had even started, and about the voice that led me to the Chamber, and Ginny being in the Chamber, my conversations with her when she was possessed and when she wasn’t, my setting the basilisk on Colin Creevey, Hermione Granger and Penelope Clearwater, my realisation that it was Tom Riddle that was possessing Ginny, through the diary, and my telling her to throw it away. Then I told him about going to the Chamber tonight and Tom having come out of the diary and Ginny being near-dead. Then I retold what had happened when Harry came along, and then I was finished.

Professor Dumbledore studied me curiously. “And you told this to…?”

“Only my closest friends, Professor – Blaise Zabini, Alex Johnson and Anja Pansé,” I replied nervously.

He nodded. “You, like Miss Weasley, have suffered great stress this year. But you told people, and that does not make you weak, it makes you strong. Lord Voldemort let himself rely on no-one, and look where he is now. Almost dead, in a forest in Albania.”

I managed a weak smile. “Thankyou, Professor. I expect you want to talk to Harry now?”

“Yes, Jade. Thankyou,” he agreed, and I got up and left.

***

The Hogwarts Feast that Professor Dumbledore had sent Professor McGonagall to prepare was amazing.

We all went in our pyjamas because it was late night.

As soon as I arrived, Blaise, Anja and Alex embraced me simultaneously.

Professor McGonagall announced that all exams had been cancelled as a school treat, and this was greeted with a huge amount of cheering.

Later on during the night, the Petrified people came back, including Hermione Granger, Penelope Clearwater and Colin Creevey.

I went to first apologise to Penelope and Colin, because I didn’t know them, so it would be easier.

Penelope was understanding and said it was alright.

Colin asked if I could get him Harry Potter’s autograph.

Then I went over to Hermione.

“Hermione,” I told her quietly, “I need to talk to you.”

I explained what I had done. “…and I know it was still my fault for doing what Tom told me. So I just want to apologise for Petrifying you.”

Hermione looked hard at me for a few seconds, then her body relaxed and she managed a small smile. “It’s okay.”

She seemed to be considering something for a few seconds, and then she added, “Funny, isn’t it? There are two Heirs of Slytherin. One of them is the younger version of – well, You-Know-Who, and the other is his worst enemy’s sister.”

I smiled slightly. “I suppose…but I had better go back to my friends now.”

She nodded and waved as I walked away.

That was easily the worst part of the night.

Later on, Professor Dumbledore announced that, ‘unfortunately’, Gilderoy Lockhart would be unable to continue teaching at Hogwarts, because he needed to go and get his memory back. Almost everyone, including the teachers, cheered loudly at this news.

When dawn began to show itself, Professor Dumbledore proclaimed that Gryffindor had won the House Cup again, probably due to Harry and Ron’s winning 400 points for their house.

My 200 points gave Slytherin a clear second place, but I found that I didn’t really mind us not winning.

There were more important things than winning – that was one lesson I had learnt this year.

I had learnt to value safety and not take things for granted.

And I had realised that it didn’t matter who I was – second-year or Minister for Magic, I had helped to save the school.

All it had taken was a bit of courage.

Courage wasn’t restricted to Gryffindors.

I knew that, because I was a Slytherin.

And I wasn’t selling short my house for anything.