Harry pushed the door open. For a moment, there was silence as Harry, Ron, Draco, the twins, Lockhart, Terry, and I stood in the doorway, covered in muck, slime, and in my case, ink and blood.

Then there was a scream.

"DAISY!" Aunt Petunia, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire, leapt to her feet, followed closely by Dudley.

Uncle Vernon gave one last glance of disgust around at all the magical artefacts and jumped up too.

Terry set me down on my feet gently. I swayed slightly, then my three family members flung themselves on me.

Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Fawkes went whooshing past us and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder.

"How did you do it?" Dudley asked, astounded. "I don't even fully understand the Chamber of Thingy story, how you got out of there alive is a whole different thing."

Harry started telling them all about his side of the story, leaving out about the diary. He explained to us about hearing the voices, about Hermione realising that it was a Basilisk, how he and Ron had followed the spiders into the Forest, how we worked out the mystery ...

"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him as he paused, "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 told them all about Fawkes and I about the sword coming out of the Sorting Hat. 

Harry and I glanced nervously at each other. With the diary destroyed, how could we prove that it was Riddle who made me do all those things?

"What interests ME most," Dumbledore said gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Daisy, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

Relief - warm, sweeping, glorious relief - swept over me. But I felt the tears running down my cheeks. I was KIDNAPPED by him. I was USED by him. I was CONTROLLED by him. I felt violated ... dirty.

"W-what's that?" Aunt Petunia said in a stunned voice. "That wizard terrorist? En-enchant DAISY? But Daisy's not ... Daisy hasn't been ... has she?"

"It was this diary." Harry said quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen."

Dumbledore took the diary from Harry and peered keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages.

"Brilliant." He said softly. "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."

"But Daisy," Uncle Vernon said, "what's our Daisy got to do with - with - HIM?"

"His d-diary!" I sobbed. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year -"

"But Daisy!" George said. "We told you that you shouldn't talk to it anymore, that it was clearly full of Dark Magic!"

"Told you so!" Fred said, and stuck his tongue out at me.

"I - he just s-seemed so nice." I laughed and wiped my eyes. "I found it in my trunk after I had v-visited my friends over the h-holidays."

"I know what shall cheer you up, Daisy. Madam Pomfrey is giving out Mandrake Juice - I dare say the Basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment." Dumbledore said.

"So Hermione's okay!" Ron said brightly.

"There has been no lasting harm done." Dumbledore said. "You will all receive Special Awards for Services to the School - yes, you too, Miss Potter, don't look so shocked - and two hundred points apiece for each of your houses."

Us Insurgent's high-fived, me swaying slightly. Terry caught me.

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

Lockhart looked over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.

"Yeah, how did he get like that?" I questioned the guys.

"Um, there was an accident. He tried to do a Memory Charm on us, and it backfired." Draco said, giving a look that said, 'We'll tell you in detail later, not here in front of Dumbledore!' 

"Dear me," said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long silver moustache quivering. "Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!"

"Sword?" Lockhart said dimly. "Haven't got a sword. That girl has, though." He pointed at me. "She'll lend you one." 

Fred, George, Terry, and I sniggered.

"Could all of you take Professor Lockhart up to the hospital wing?" Dumbledore queried. "I'd like a few more words with the Potter twins ..."

They all ambled out. Terry lay me down gently on a chair, then walked out. It was just us three now. 

"First of all, Daisy, Harry, I want to thank you." Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you.

"And so you met Tom Riddle. I imagine he was MOST interested in you ... especially you, Daisy ..."

"Professor Dumbledore ... Riddle once said that I'm like him. Strange likenesses, he said ... he said that a part of my mind is identical to his, when I was talking to him ..." I said.

"DID he, now?" Dumbledore said, looking thoughtfully under his thick silver eyebrows at me. "And what do you think, Daisy?"

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

But I fell silent. A lurking doubt was surfacing in my mind.

"Professor," I started again after a moment, "the Sorting Hat told me I'd - I'd have done well in Slytherin. Everyone thought Harry and I were Slytherin's heirs for a while ... because we can speak Parseltongue ... and, and I can TORTURE people ... I sometimes get these dark thoughts where I really want to kill people ... torture them ... murder their loved ones ... make them PAY." I looked desperately at my brother and Dumbledore. "I think I really am like Tom Riddle!"

"You can speak Parseltongue, Daisy," said Dumbledore calmly, "because Lord Voldemort - who is the last remaining descendant 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 those scars. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure ..."

"Voldemort put a bit of himself in US?" I said, thunderstruck.

"It certainly seems so." 

"So we SHOULD be in Slytherin - the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in there too - the Sorting Hat could see Slytherin's power in us, and it -" Harry said.

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

"Because I asked it to." We said simultaneously, defeated.

"Exactly!" Dumbledore said, beaming once more. "Which makes you very DIFFERENT from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Daisy, Harry, that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities." We sat, stunned and motionless. "If you want proof, twins, that you belong in Gryffindor, I suggest you look more closely at THIS."

Dumbledore reached across to Professor McGonagall's desk, picked up the blood-stained silver sword and handed it to us. I turned it over, the rubies blazing in the firelight. And then I saw the name engraved just below the hilt.

'Godric Gryffindor'

"Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the Hat, twins." Dumbledore said simply.

"But what about the thing where I can torture people? And those dark thoughts?" I said.

"The pain you can cause to people is only a part of your powers, Daisy. And as for the thoughts, Lord Voldemort happened to put a bit more of himself into you than your brother. Remember when you were doing detention in the Forbbiden Forest last year and you felt a presence in your mind?" 

I nodded.

"Well, remember when you fought it back?" Dumbledore asked. "You can do it. You can fight him."

I nodded again. I can fight him. I'll get rid of him.

"And Daisy?" He said. "I think that you are in terrible danger with your powers out in the open. Try and conceal them, Miss Potter. Use them subtly."

I nodded.

"You are dismissed." Dumbledore smiled at us.

We strode over to the door, but it burst open and in strode Mr Malfoy. And cowering under his arm, heavily wrapped in bandages, was DOBBY.

"Good evening, Lucius." Dumbledore said pleasantly.

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

"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 the Girl Who Lived 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."

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." Dumbledore said with a smile.

"WELL?" Malfoy said sharply. "Who is it?"

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

He held up the small black book with the large hole through the centre, watching Malfoy closely. Harry and I, however, were watching Dobby.

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

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

"A clever plan," said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring Malfoy straight in the eye. "Because if Harry here -" Malfoy shot Harry a swift, sharp look, "and the twin's friends hadn't discovered this book, why - Daisy Potter -" he shot me a look this time, "might have taken all the blame. No one would ever had been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will ..."

"Very fortunate." Malfoy 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 I suddenly understood. I nodded at Dobby, and Dobby backed into a corner, now twisting his ears in punishment. I turned to Harry and sent him a message, 'Malfoy put the diary in my trunk when I visited their house!'

Harry looked stunned. 

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

Malfoy rounded on me. "How should I know how you got hold of it?"

"Because you gave it to her." Harry spat with anger. "When she visited your son. You sneaked it into her trunk, didn't you?"

I saw Malfoy's white hands clench and unclench.

"Prove it." He hissed.

"Oh, no one will be able to do that." Dumbledore said, smiling at Harry and I. "Not now 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 ..."

Lucius Malfoy stood for a moment, and I distinctly saw his right hand twitch as though he was longing to reach for his wand. Instead, he turned to his house-elf.

"We're going, Dobby!"

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

"Professor Dumbledore," I said hurriedly, "can we give that diary BACK to Mr Malfoy, please?"

"Certainly, Daisy." He said. "But make sure you go up to the hospital wing afterwards, to patch up that cut you have there and to check if you have all your life back."

I took the diary, and sprinted out of the office, Harry following. I took off my sock and put the diary in it. We caught up with Malfoy and Dobby at the top of the stairs.

"Mr Malfoy." I gasped, skidding to a halt. "I've got something for you." 

And I gave him the sock.

"What the-"

Malfoy ripped the sock off the diary, threw it aside, then looked furiously from the ruined book to me.

"Let's hope that you'll always be around to save the day, Potters." He said.

I looked him in the eye and said, "Don't worry. We will be."

He turned to go. "Come, Dobby. I said, COME!"

But Dobby didn't move. He was holding up my sock, and looking at it as though it was a priceless treasure.

"Master has given Dobby a sock." The elf said in wonderment. "Master gave it to Dobby."

"What's that?" Malfoy spat. "What did you say?"

"Dobby has got a sock." Dobby said in disbelief. "Master threw it, and Dobby caught it, and Dobby - Dobby is FREE."

Malfoy stood frozen, staring at the elf. Then he lunged at me.

"You've lost me my servant, girl!"

But Dobby shouted, "You shall not harm Daisy Potter!"

There was a loud bang, and Malfoy flew down the stairs. He got up, his face livid, and pulled out his wand, but Dobby raised a long, threatening finger.

"You shall go now." He said fiercely, pointing down at Malfoy. "You shall not touch Daisy Potter. You shall go now."

Malfoy had no choice, and he left. 

YES! Goal accomplished!

~~~

Terry and I were sitting against a tree beside the Lake. We sat in companionable silence, staring across the black waters, the stars twinkling above us.

"I thought you were going to die." Terry said.

"When? There were loads of times when I could have died." I sniggered.

"All those times." He said. "When I first heard you had been kidnapped, when I saw you unconscious at the end of the Chamber, when Riddle took you from Malfoy, when he started trying to take your powers out of you, when we were running from the Basilisk, when you and it had that showdown, when you got stabbed by the fang and there was nothing I could do, when Riddle decided to kill you by wand ..."

I put a hand on his arm. He rubbed his eyes furiously.

"It - you have no idea what it was like to watch the person you love die." Terry said, blinking away a tear.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Person ... you love?"

Terry stiffened, his face draining of colour. He glanced quickly at me.

"I meant - uh, in a best friend-y way -"

"Oh, did you really, now?" I grinned at him, moving slowly closer to him.

"Yeah - I - oh, to hell with it - no. I meant what I said. I love you, Daisy Lily Potter." Terry said, staring into my eyes.

"You know what, Terry Aaron Boot? I love you too." I said. And in that moment, I knew, really knew, that I loved him with all my heart and soul.

We leaned closer, and Terry's arms slipped around my neck and waist as mine slid around his back and tangled in his hair. Our lips connected, and I had never felt happier.

Just as Terry nibbled on my lip, asking for entrance, someone behind us said, "Damn, now I have to pay you!"

We broke apart. Fred and George were standing behind us, Fred pouring coins into George's hands.

"Guys, you just ruined my first kiss." I huffed at them.

They laughed at us. "Nice catch, Terry!"

"Do not refer to me as a 'catch'!" I shrilled at them.

"She's right, guys, go away!" Terry told them.

They laughed again and headed back up to the castle, saying things like, "Use protection!" and "That's adorable!"

"Be my girlfriend?" Terry asked once they were gone.

"Definitely." I grinned at him.