What Really Happened in the Chamber of Secrets

            My name is Virginia Weasley, but you can call me Ginny. Three years ago, I graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. No less than five months later, I was admitted into St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Everyone thought I was crazy.

            It all went back to my first year at Hogwarts. I had no friends. I was all alone. Then, I found a diary. I wrote in it, and it told me it was a book of memories from a boy named Tom.

            I began telling Tom, who wrote back and listened very well, everything. I told him how my brothers always picked on me; how Harry Potter, who I really liked, would never like me back; how I had no friends except for Tom.

            There were times in my memory that were completely blacked out. I couldn’t remember parts of days. I thought maybe I had fallen asleep during these times. I became confused when I woke up covered in rooster feathers.

            I told Tom about that morning. He didn’t write back that time. I figured that he was trying to think about what happened to me.

            Once, I woke up in a big, stone chamber. It looked like it was underground. Tom was there, but it wasn’t the Tom I had known to grow and love so well. This was a Tom who had a murderous look in his eye. I was really scared.

            Tom told me that I had opened the Chamber of Secrets. I knew it was open, but I didn’t think that I could do that. He said he would have opened it himself, but he was too weak. He needed help.

            He explained that he had possessed my body. In my body, he had killed Hagrid’s roosters. That’s why I woke up covered in feathers. Then, he told me that he didn’t need me anymore. My work was done.

He knocked me out with a spell that I wasn’t familiar to me. I though Tom was my friend. I still had a vague idea about what was going on. Harry had come to save me! Maybe he did like me. I heard Harry gasp after Tom told him he was Lord Voldemort. So Tom was evil! I saw, through dazed eyes, a snake approach Harry. Tom said that if the snake bit him, he would die. I saw the snake bite Harry. My mind was screaming “NO!”, but I couldn’t say anything. A beautiful phoenix came in and started crying on the wound. I remembered being told by someone that a phoenix’s tears heal. Harry wouldn’t die.

            Harry defeated Tom and I felt myself being lifted. Harry carried me out of the chamber and I saw my brother Ron waiting for us. Neither Harry nor Ron could tell if I was alive or not. I saw Professor Lockhart looking like a memory spell had been put on him.

            We traveled through a tunnel and appeared in a bathroom. Ron was now holding me and carried me to Professor Dumbledore, while Harry was leading Professor Lockhart. Professor Dumbledore told Ron to take me to the hospital wing. I was there for at least two weeks.

            Harry kept telling me what happened after I was aware enough to speak. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’d seen the whole thing. I was glad he was talking to me. I thought maybe he really would like me.

            Over my next six years at Hogwarts, I often felt like Tom was imbedded in my mind. I think that when Tom knocked me out with that spell, a little bit of him was planted in me. Because of this, people thought I was crazy.

            About one month ago, I was released from St. Mungo’s. I still feel like a little bit of Tom is in my mind. While I was in the hospital during the first few months, Tom still possessed me and made me do things that I didn’t want to.

            Now I am mostly free of those bonds that made me do those things. Tom is still in me, but he is quiet. Sometimes he will possess me, but that has become rare.

            I’m telling this story because people don’t knows the whole story. People only know Harry’s half. There are gaps in his story, though. Those gaps are my story. Maybe I was crazy for a while. Maybe I never was. The doctors never could figure out what was wrong with me.

            I recently found out that Harry married Cho Chang. They’re very happy together. Harry is now one of my closest friends. Ron married Hermione Granger. All of my friends are happy. I’m still lonely, but I’m trying to meet new people.

            That’s the whole story. You’ve heard Harry’s story. This is mine. I hope you won’t be scared of me. I wrote this to free my mind. I think Tom will never haunt me again.