Wait a minute, thought Ginny. What? She hadn't expected Draco to be the final victim at all; if anything, he was the only person she'd ruled out. The attacks had all been arranged by Voldemort; these last three weeks in advance. And Voldemort's plan, according to the Basilisk, who had read his mind, was to permanently occupy Draco's body, and to kill Harry and frame him for the attacks. How would Draco being petrified square with that?

Could another Parselmouth have ordered an attack? Ginny seriously doubted that Ron had done such a thing; he hated Draco, but he hated speaking in Parseltongue, too, and surely wouldn't have found or used the Chamber. Harry was another possibility, but he was such a supreme rationalist that it was doubtful he'd be violent in that way, and on top of that, Ginny couldn't think of a motive. A further possibility, which simply hadn't occurred to her at first, was that Voldemort had deliberately targeted the body he thought he would be in, so that he could foil the attack and add to his false heroic narrative. Without Voldemort in Draco's body planning a defense, the attack wouldn't be foiled, and would instead proceed as the Basilisk planned it.

"Narcissa Malfoy innut gon'ter be happy about this," said Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwarts' half-giant groundskeeper, who was carrying Draco out of the school, through the front door, towards a safe storage facility.

"Mr. Hagrid, the potions are nearly ready," said Professor Slughorn, who was trailing behind him. "Draco will be as good as new within a fortnight."

"There're whispers about the school might close," said Hagrid. "Most've the kids are already either transferred out or on a leave o' absence."

"When the summer's finally arrived, the Chamber will be located and dismantled," said Slughorn. "According to the Headmistress, Mr. Potter says he's finally found a lead-"

The door closed behind them, and Ginny, no longer able to eavesdrop, turned and walked away. Soon, another conversation walked into her vicinity.

"It's big news," said Tracey.

"No," said Lavender. "No, no, no no no." She was very nervous, and Ginny decided this conversation must be important. "You mean he's in the school right now?"

"Either that or he figured out how to Apparate in an area with anti-Apparition wards," said Tracey. "Oh! Ginny!" Aw, there's no point in eavesdropping if they notice you and tell you exactly what they're talking about anyway. "There you are! There's a nasty update on the Defense Professor story."

"What now?" said Ginny.

"They checked the wards' records," said Lavender, "and the Defense Professor never left the area that it's impossible to Apparate in."

"Theoretically he could have left without the wards detecting it by using a Portkey or the Floo Network," said Tracey, "but those are also recorded and checkable, and he didn't do that, either."

"Great," said Ginny. "More problems." She then ran off.

"Ginny!" called Lavender. "Where are you going?"

Looking for more conversations to eavesdrop on, idiot!

Ginny was interrupted, however, by the appearance of a solid white human; the famous Potter Patronus. It spoke to her in Harry's voice, which kept cracking, and sounded slightly crazed:

"Ginny! This is Harry Potter speaking! I need you to get here, A-S-A-P! I'm in an obscure washroom located behind the Owlery! When you get there, you'll see a note I left; follow the instructions at the bottom of it! Come alone and don't worry – you are in no danger, I repeat, you are in no danger! Everything I have jusst ssaid iss true. Harry Potter out."

Ginny was already walking in the direction of the Owlery by the time the Patronus disappeared. On her way there, she sent Patronus messages to every remaining member of the More Sane Squad, telling them to have the washroom behind the Owlery investigated if anything unusual happened in the next few hours. She got a few responses – Tracey was very concerned, and was disturbed by the possibility that Ginny was walking into danger; Ginny wound up needing to reassure her that no such thing was happening. Ginny wasn't walking into danger, after all; Harry had said so and confirmed in Parseltongue. The possibility sort of hit Ginny that she might have been False Memory Charmed into a dangerous situation, especially considering Gilderoy Lockhart's continued presence in the school, and his modus operandi – would he be waiting in the Owlery washroom, waiting to jump her? But worrying about delusions that might have been magically placed on you was no way to live, even if it was a more likely situation than being a randomly briefly-formed brain in the midst of high-entropy space. Hesitating because of the possibility of False Memory Charms would be like giving into blackmail – it might be the best decision in this case, but it would make the world in general worse. Ginny readied her wand in case of a surprise regardless.

Glug-glug, glug-glug, glug-glug, glug-glug...

When Ginny got to the Owlery, she saw Harry, his robes stained with sweat, his limbs shaking, and his eyes bloodshot, standing on the opposite side of it.

"Yes, Ginny!" said Harry, rather loudly from across the room. "It's this way!"

"Harry, wait!" said Ginny, but Harry had already disappeared, through a small door that was practically hidden in the wall.

Glug-glug, glug-glug, glug-glug, glug-glug...

Ginny approached the door Harry had gone through, and as she did, she suddenly detected a strong magical field – Amortentia, it was definitely Amortentia. It was much, much stronger than a single cup of the stuff, but it was absolutely Amortentia. It made Ginny wonder what that room in the Department of Mysteries really contained – Lockhart had said it was a fountain of Amortentia, but it didn't feel anything like what Ginny now felt.

Glug-glug, glug-glug, glug-glug, glug-glug...

When Ginny opened the door, what she saw was horrifying:

Owl feces and owl pellets entirely coating the floor and each wall. (Of course, that was probably always there.)

Four sinks, each on the floor, each decorated with the signature animal of a different founder, the fourth, the Slytherin sink, opened up into a chute that extended down further than Ginny could see – obviously leading to the Chamber of Secrets.

Leaning over that fourth sink, a smiling statue of Harry – it was Harry, he must have been Petrified recently. It, too, was covered in owl feces.

In Harry's petrified arms, a cauldron – a Tennant's Bottomless Cauldron, in fact – from which was pouring, with each second, a steady flow of Amortentia, straight down the chute to the Chamber of Secrets.

On Harry's back, a note (attached with Spellotape) in his (shaky) handwriting:

"OPERATION DOMESTICATION:

petrification == Legilimency 2.0. Confirmed with Acromantula study

basilisk survived attack from tom riddle. how?

MULTIPLE BASILISKS == SLYTHERIN'S MONSTER

PARSELTONGUE COMPUTERS

Amortentia+deliberate self-Petrification == C.oherent E.xtrapolated V.olition == real Yalizer

can't do it alone. am locked out for reasons. Ginny

cast Bubble-Head Charm on self to protect self from Amortentia

use Feather-Falling Potion on table to descend directly to Chamber entrance

open Chamber and speak with Monster

decide on best course of action with it"

Ginny gulped. Perhaps the rumor that everyone got an end-of-the-year adventure at Hogwarts were true. It was certainly turning out to be true for her. She stashed Harry's note in her pocket (she didn't understand every word, but she did at least understand the general gist of her directions), created a protective bubble around her head, swallowed the Feather-Falling Potion that Harry had left, and threw herself down into the unknown depths below...