Paternal Instincts

Chapter 32

"I'm going down there." James determinedly stood up from his seat with both Arthur and Molly following suit. "If they're not there, I'll search the whole castle if I have to."

"Dad"

They all turned around to see Harry at the doorway with Ron, Ginny and Lockhart behind him. He was covered in blood and his hair looked messier than usual.

James and Harry ran towards each other before Harry buried himself in his father's cloak. "It was scary," he began sobbing.

He had been resilient throughout his ordeal with the basilisk but when he saw his father, it sunk in to him how terrifying the whole thing was and how much he wanted comfort and feeling safe in James's arms.

James tightly wrapped his arms around Harry and stroked his hair. "Son, it's alright. You're safe now".

From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Molly was comforting Ginny and Arthur was comforting Ron.

"Harry, Ron, Ginny, are you ready to tell us what happened?" asked Dumbledore gently.

"It was all my fault," Ginny cried as she began her side of the tale.

Harry finished the tale with his side of the story with Ron occasionally jumping in when Harry was stuck while Dumbledore and McGonagall occasionally asked questions in between. All the adults were pale when they had finished their tale and James held Harry tighter.

Dumbledore took the diary that Harry gave him with interest and explained that not many people knew Voldemort was once Tom Riddle.

"You saved her" Mrs. Weasley came over to give Harry a hug and kiss. "And you too," she hugged and kissed Ron. She then gave Ginny a mild rebuke for interacting with something that had a mind of its own and the youngest Weasley apologized again.

"Ginny, you mustn't blame yourself. It is not your fault that Tom possessed you," Dumbledore pacified her.

"But I was silly enough to write in the diary," she said.

"You did what most girls your age would have done. Now, you must rest," said Dumbledore.

"It's a good thing I told James not to get Ron a new wand for Christmas. Imagine if he had a working wand and this wretched Lockhart used it to wipe out their memories," said Molly, horrified.

"Good thing we broke the rules to fly to Hogwarts, or I would still have had a working wand for Lockhart to use," Ron pointed out.

"Well, you wouldn't be in this situation if you had just gone to Professor McGongall instead of Lockhart," said Mrs. Weasley.

"There, there. The children could certainly have made wiser choices, but they did save the day at the end. Let's no longer rebuke them," said their Headmaster.

After Dumbledore assured them that he would owl the Ministry to release Hagrid and that the petrified students would be woken up soon, he sent the Weasleys and Lockhart off to the Hospital Wing and Professor McGonagall off to arrange for the feast while Harry and James stayed back as Dumbledore wanted to have a word with him.

Dumbledore thanked Harry and said he must have showed him true loyalty for the hat to find him. Furthermore, he explained that Voldemort left a part of himself in Harry the night that he tried to kill Harry and that's why he could speak Parseltongue. This reignited Harry's fear about about being in the wrong house. However, Dumbledore made him realize that he was true Gryffindor because he had pulled out the Gryffindor sword from the hat and that even if he had certain Slytherin traits, his choice and value of Gryffindor traits were what mattered.

As James and Harry were leaving, Mr. Malfoy burst into the room nearly knocking them over. James pulled Harry out of the way just in time. Dumebloedre explained to Mr. Malfoy that they had found the culprit and it was the same person the last time. Harry could tell that Mr. Malfoy was doing his best to maintain a neutral reaction. The Headmaster went on to state the repercussions on the Weasley family if Ginny had been found to be the one responsible for the attacks while Mr. Malfoy continued to play dumb. Harry couldn't take it any longer and indirectly accused Lucius for slipping the diary in her cauldron. Lucius denied it and asked him to "prove it".