The Hospital Wing, expanded to over a hundred times its original size, was now divided into two rooms. Nearly all the boys in the school lay in one, while the girls lay in the other.
In the girls' ward, Ginny, who had been lying quietly in bed, suddenly began convulsing violently. An unmistakable expression of pain appeared on her pretty little face.
But Ginny made no sound of pain. Instead, she gritted her teeth, struggling not to make the slightest noise.
Madam Pomfrey, who was making her rounds through the Hospital Wing, did not notice her small movements. She continued walking back and forth, occasionally resting off to one side.
After a long while, her taut body relaxed slightly. Ginny was drenched in sweat, and her breathing had grown a little rapid.
She opened her golden-brown eyes. One looked no different than usual, but a black light flickered in the other. A faint smile of relief appeared on her face.
It was over. She had finally escaped that thing's shackles.
From this moment on, she was no longer the Tom Riddle she had once been. Nor was she the Dark Lord who had later become almost neurotic and deranged.
Now she was simply herself, Black Ginny.
Although the soul power she had worked so hard to increase had just been cut by nearly a third, she still thought this was a wonderful thing.
She had completely freed herself of her greatest vulnerability: the vessel of her Horcrux.
While Black Ginny secretly rejoiced at escaping her shackles and gaining a new life, Harry lay sprawled on the floor of the Headmaster's Office in a Hogwarts tower, grimacing and silently crying out in pain.
Just moments earlier, he had used the Sword of Gryffindor, which had absorbed basilisk venom, to pierce