Old Blood at Hogwarts

Aaron, Harry, and Ginny walked up the tunnel for a few minutes when they heard the sound of slowly moving rocks in the distance.

"Hermione! Ron!" Harry shouted, speeding up on his feet, "Ginny is okay! We found her!"

Aaron heard a dull cheer from Ron and Hermione.They turned another corner and saw the faces of Ron and Hermione looking eagerly through a large gap that they had managed to dig out from the falling rubble.

"Ginny!" Ron stretched out his hand from the gap and pulled Ginny over first, "You're still alive! I can't believe it! What's going on?"

He wanted to hug Ginny, but she cried and wouldn't let him get close to her.

"You're all right, Ginny," Hermione said to her with a smile. "It's all over - where did that bird come from?"

Fawkes followed Ginny and flew across the gap.

"It belongs to Dumbledore," Harry said, squeezing through the gap himself.

"How come you have a sword?" Ron asked in surprise, staring at the shining silver weapon in Harry's hand.

"I'll explain it to you slowly after we leave here." Harry glanced at Ginny and said.

"But……"

"We'll talk about it later," Harry said quickly.He thought it best not to tell Ron who had opened the Chamber of Secrets, at least not in front of Ginny.

Aaron also squeezed out of the gap at this time. He looked around and asked, "Where is Lockhart?"

"He's over there," said Ron, grinning, and tilting his head toward where the tunnel led to the water pipes. "He's in a bad way. Come over and have a look."

Fox's broad, bright red wings emitted a soft golden light in the darkness.They followed it all the way back to the entrance to the water pipe.Gilderoy Lockhart sat there, humming to himself.

"His memory is gone," Hermione said. "The Oblivion Charm was fired backwards, not hitting us, but hitting himself. He has no memory of who he is, where he is, and he doesn't recognize us. We told him to come up here and wait. It's not safe for him to stay there."

Rohat looked up at them kindly.

"Hello," he said, "it's a strange place, isn't it? Do you live here?"

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

Harry bent down and looked up through the long, dark water pipe, then turned back and asked, "Have you ever thought about how we can follow the water pipe back up there?"

Ron shook his head.

Aaron shrugged and said, "That's a problem."

Hermione looked at Fawkes and said, "Maybe we can send this bird to deliver a message to Dumbledore and ask him to pick us up."

Phoenix Fox flew past Harry with a "whoosh", flapping its wings in front of him.It swung the long golden feathers behind its tail, and its bright eyes looked particularly bright in the dark.

Harry looked at it hesitantly.

"It seems to want you to grab it..." Ron said, looking a little confused, "but you are too heavy, and a bird can't pull you up."

"Fox is no ordinary bird," said Harry.He quickly turned to the others, "We have to hold on one at a time. Ginny, you grab Ron's hand. Hermione, you grab Ginny's hand. Aaron, you grab Hermione's hand. Lockhart professor……"

"He's talking about you -" Ron said rudely to Lockhart, "you grabbed Aaron's other hand."

Harry stuffed his sword and Sorting Hat into his belt, Ron grabbed the back of Harry's robe, and Ginny, Hermione, Aaron, and Lockhart also stood up one by one.Harry reached out and grabbed Fawkes' tail.

As soon as Harry's hand touched the feathers on Fawkes' tail, Aaron felt a strange sense of relief quickly pass through his body along the hand held by Hermione.Then, with a "whoosh", they all flew upward along the water pipe.Aaron could hear Lockhart hanging below him, shouting, "It's amazing! It's amazing! It's like magic!"

The cold air blew Aaron's hair.He was still enjoying the pleasure of the flight when the journey ended - the six of them landed on the damp floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and just as Lockhart straightened his hat, the The pool automatically slid back to its original place.

Myrtle stared at them.

"You're alive," she said to Harry disappointedly.

"There's no need to speak in such a disappointed tone." Harry said sternly, wiping away the specks of blood and mucus from his glasses.

"Oh, that's right... I've been thinking, if you die, you're welcome to share this toilet with me," said Myrtle, her face turning silvery white with embarrassment.

"Haha!" Ron said as they left the bathroom and walked towards the empty corridor outside, "Harry! I think Myrtle likes you! Ginny, you have a competitor!"

However, tears still rolled down Ginny's cheeks silently like broken pearls.

Ron glanced at Ginny anxiously and asked, "Where to go now?"

Harry pointed ahead.Fox led the way, shining golden light all the way down the corridor.They followed it in stride, and a moment later found themselves standing outside Professor McGonagall's office.Harry knocked on the door and pushed it open.

Aaron, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in mud and slime, and Harry's robes still stained with blood.For a moment, there was silence.Suddenly, there was a scream - "Ginny!"

The voice came from a short, fat woman who had been sitting in front of the fire crying.She jumped up suddenly, followed by a thin man, slightly bald.The two men stretched out their arms at the same time and hugged Ginny.They were the Weasleys that Aaron had met at Flourish and Blotts Bookstore.

Aaron looked past them toward the house.Professor Dumbledore stood in front of the mantelpiece with a smile on his face. Next to him was Professor McGonagall. She clutched her chest with her hands and gasped for air.Fawkes flew past Harry's ear and landed on Dumbledore's shoulder.

At this time, Mrs. Weasley walked up to Aaron, Harry, Ron and Hermione, and hugged them one after another: "You saved her! You saved her! What did you do?"

"That's what we all want to know," said Professor McGonagall feebly.

Harry hesitated for a moment, then walked to the desk and placed the Sorting Hat and the silver sword set with rubies on the table.Then he began to tell them everything exactly.He spoke for about a quarter of an hour. Everyone listened very attentively and the room was completely silent.He said that after he learned that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened in 50 and that Hagrid was considered the murderer, he went to Hagrid for confirmation.But before he could ask for the answer, Hagrid was taken away by people from the Ministry of Magic.Before leaving, Hagrid told him that he could find the answer by following the spider, so he, Hermione, and Ron followed the spider into the Forbidden Forest and found Hagrid's Acromantula Aragog.Aragog told them that the last victim of the basilisk 50 years ago was killed in the girls' bathroom on the second floor, so he guessed that Moaning Myrtle was the victim, and the entrance to the secret room was probably in her. In the bathroom...

"Very good." When Harry paused, Professor McGonagall encouraged him to continue, "So you discovered where the entrance is - and I might add, you broke more than 100 school rules along the way - But how did you escape from there, Potter?"

So Harry went on, his voice hoarse from talking all the time.He told them how Fawkes had arrived in time and how the Sorting Hat had given him the sword.But then, his voice became hesitant.When everyone heard that Harry suddenly stopped talking, they couldn't help but look at him in confusion.

When Aaron saw Harry's eyes glance at Ginny who was crying silently with her head on Mrs. Weasley's shoulder from time to time, he immediately understood what he was worried about - he was afraid that Ginny would be expelled.

After all, in the secret room below, Riddle made it clear that it was Ginny who opened the secret room and released the basilisk to attack Filch's cat, Colin and others.Although she did those things under Riddle's control, and she didn't even know what she had done, but if Ginny hadn't gotten Riddle's diary from somewhere and kept writing in it, all of this would have been impossible. will not happen.

Aaron suddenly realized at this moment that in Harry's previous narration, he had always avoided mentioning Riddle's diary - mentioning Ginny.

Aaron could tell that Harry was thinking nervously.He seemed to be trying to think of a way not to involve Ginny, or to portray her as a mere victim.

Dumbledore also seemed to know what Harry was thinking.His blue eyes hidden behind half-moon lenses seemed to see through everything.

He smiled faintly and said gently: "What I am most interested in is how Voldemort used to confuse Ginny, because according to my sources, he is currently hiding in the forest of Albania."

Aaron breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Harry's visible relief.

"Wha-what?" Mrs. Weasley said in a startled voice, "Mysterious man? Confused Ginny? But Ginny didn't... Ginny didn't... did she?"

"It's all the fault of this diary." Aaron interjected at this time. He showed the remains of Riddle's diary to Dumbledore. "It was written by Riddle when he was 16 years old."

Dumbledore took the diary from Aaron's hand, his eyes shot down from his long aquiline nose, and he stared intently at the wet and burnt pages.