With dawning realisation, Harry said, "Fawkes isn't an ordinary bird."
He turned to the other two and said, "We've got to hold on to each other in a line. Miss Weasley, grab Neville's hand and hold tight."
Harry took the sword off Neville and tucked it, and the Sorting Hat, into his belt. He continued to hold the diary with it's venomous fang attachment in his hand. "Grab a fistful of my trailing robes, Nev," he instructed. Neville took hold of the back of Harry's robes, and Harry reached out and took hold of Fawkes's strangely hot tail feathers.
An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through his whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe. The chill air was whipping through Harry's hair; and before he'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over. The three of them hit the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. The sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.
From lying flat on his back on the floor, Harry looked up to see Professor McGonagall staring back down at him from an upside down perspective.
"Thank Merlin!" she said, clearly breathing an audible sigh of relief.
From where she was floating off to the side, Myrtle goggled at them. "You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly to the ghost, standing up and helping the others up.
"Oh, well - I'd just been thinking - if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver.
"Well, that's very nice of you, Myrtle. Thank you," he replied.
"While I'm sure you'd enjoy a chit-chat with Myrtle, I'm afraid there are some people waiting for us in my office."
"Too bad!" said Harry. "We're off to the infirmary. If anyone wants to talk to us, they can talk to us there. After we've endured the loving ministrations of Mistress Pomfrey." Turning to the other two, he said, "Right! Infirmary, you two - and me. Come along."
Professor McGonagall looked like she wanted to argue, but didn't. Instead, she stepped aside to let them pass, and followed until they were walking in the doors of the infirmary. She did not say a single word the whole - though, admittedly, short - trip.
As they were about to pass through the doors, she turned and walked away, muttering to herself.
Harry flung the doors opened and half-bellowed, "Madam Pomfrey!"
"Mister Potter!" the medi-witch bellowed back, from her desk just inside the door.
Harry yelped and leapt aside.
Neville snickered while leading Young Miss Weasley inside. Harry had demanded the girl be seen to first and was explaining about the possession. "She's going to need to see a pretty competent mind healer to help her through what she's been through," he said.
Madam Pomfrey set her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Are you trying to do my job for me, Mister Potter?"
"No, Ma'am!" replied Harry, backpedalling a little. "I just don't want to see dear old Albus try to tell her parents she's fine and they've got nothing to worry about.
She's not fine, at all."
Madam Pomfrey got more of the story out of the girl before the doors were, again, flung open.
"Ginny!" It was, apparently, Missus Weasley.
Of course, the girl immediately burst into tears. "Damn it!" barked Harry. "We're not ready to see anyone, just yet."
Behind her came Mister Weasley, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, the Greengrasses, Sirius, Madam Longbottom and - unsurprisingly - Albus Dumbledore.
Neville found himself being swept into the woman's tight embrace. "You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"
She then came bearing down on Harry, who held his hand out in a fending off gesture, and barked, "NO!"
Missus Weasley seemed to hesitate between shock and anger at being spoken to that way, but skidded to a stop.
"The reason why we're not ready to see anyone just yet is - for a start - I'm somewhat covered in the deadliest poison known to wizarding kind; I'm bearing, under my robes, a very sharp and very lethal weapon; and I have in my hand..." he said, waving around the diary, "... a combination of both. Any of which can kill you dead where you stand in seconds.
"Now, please; back off!"
"I think we'd all like to know how you saved Miss Weasley," said Professor McGonagall weakly.
"Later, Professor," said Harry. "Medical treatment first; explanations later. Miss Weasley, for starters, has been quite distressed and has gone through nine months of mental hell. She needs to spend time talking it through with a competent mind healer before you all distress her any further. In the mean time, she needs to spend time with Madam Pomfrey and noneof you will interfere with that." "Who do you think you are, young man?" Missus Weasley barked back. "I'm of a good mind..."
"Shut it!" barked Harry. "I happen to be one of two people who just saved your daughter's life! However, I will not consider it finished saving until she's been seen to by Madam Pomfrey and a mind healer."
"Molly!" growled Mister Weasley. "Back down! He's right."
"What do you mean 'poison', Mister Potter," asked Madam Pomfrey.
"Basilisk venom," said Harry. "And, if you want to know how big..." He lifted the diary in his left hand and pulled the fang out with his right holding it aloft. "... It was this big. This is the tip of one of it's fangs.
"And that's part of what I meant by having sharp and deadly weapons on my person. The fang will still have venom within it. One, even tiny, scratch and you'll be dead before you can get help."
That had some of the adults talking; and Missus Weasley turning white as a sheet.
Harry placed the diary and fang on a close by patient's wheeled table. "And here's another," he said, reaching into his robes and carefully drawing the sword back out through his belt before holding it aloft.
More talking. Missus Weasley had to put her hand on a bed rail to steady herself.
"From where I shoved this up through the roof of the basilisk's mouth, I suspect it punctured a venom sack and became coated in basilisk venom in the process," he said.
Missus Weasley promptly fainted. With a few tsk'ing sounds, Madam Pomfrey levitated the woman and placed her on the bed alongside her daughter. Harry then removed the Sorting Hat from his belt and placed it, brim down, on the same table. "It's about time, Mister Potter," said the Hat.
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