A/N: this is the final chapter. I chose to use Ginny's voice again, just 'cause I love writing her. Thanks once again to Owain82 for his generous donation to Stacie. I really enjoyed writing this from your prompt, even though I was originally scared of the plot :P

House Unity: Ginny

It was an amazing feeling to be back out into the real world. And even though the sunlight hurt our eyes, I think we were all relieved to be somewhere with fresh air and space. I didn't think I would ever underestimate the importance of space, ever again. I had begun to feel claustrophobic in there without even noticing, and now I tried to take huge gulps of the clean, fresh air.

However, there was one small something which stopped me from getting all the benefits of that air.

'Uh, Harry,' I managed to choke out, 'Could you ... let me down?'

'Oh,' was all he said, before quickly releasing me. I crumpled to the ground, but was on my feet before I'd hardly hit. I was just so exhilarated to be out of that place that I didn't even notice the thud I made as I fell. I threw my arms around Harry's neck and squeezed him tight, and while Parkinson sneered at us, she didn't say anything. Would wonders never cease? A little time together and she became … almost human.

Malfoy, of course, had to ruin the moment.

'Sorry to interrupt this party, but we're still not home. We need some kind of, I dunno, way out of this place before we can start celebrating properly.'

He was right, of course, damn him. Now that we were out of there, my old feelings towards the Slytherins were beginning to resurface. To tell the truth, working with them had really only gone skin deep, and I knew Harry felt the same. He was staring at Malfoy with the same reawakened loathing I felt. Beside me, Michael cleared his throat and we all looked at him in surprise.

'Let's not fall back into old habits, OK? Or at least, not before we get back to school.'

'There's another stone thing here,' said Susan, in a resigned tone. We all looked up, our animosity forgotten.

'OK, let's hear it then,' said Ernie.

'It's nothing like the others,' said Susan. 'This one just says there's a portkey here, somewhere.' She held it out for us to see. The words were succinct and unenlightening. I looked around, trying desperately to see what could possibly be the portkey. There was nothing; the landscape was as featureless as the maze inside had been. My heart sank. In my joy, I had thought that getting out of the maze had been the end of our struggle, but now it seemed our mysterious 'friend' had sprung another surprise on us.

Harry squeezed my shoulder as he, too, came to the same conclusion. Cho voiced what we were all thinking. 'I guess we need to go and find this portkey, then. The sooner we get home, the better.'

Dispiritedly, we all moved off. We had learned one important thing from our experiences. We may never be best of friends, but we had learned how to utilise all our House traits, and which ones might be useful in a given situation. We covered every inch of the ground, and kept our eye out for possible hidden holes or caverns. By the time we had gone right around the maze, however, we were all getting discouraged.

Nothing seemed to stand out enough to be a portkey home. I know portkeys are normally uninspiring objects that no Muggle would take a second glance at. But there wasn't even anything like that around. The rocks were all solidly planted in the ground (yes, I did check every bloody one I came across), and the only other thing around was the stone that said a portkey was nearby. That couldn't be what we needed, as it would have transported us already if it was. So we kept looking, even though it now seemed very unlikely that we would find anything.

Ernie had taken it on himself to examine every inch of the maze's walls. In his own blustery way, he was very diligent. People often dismissed him because he came off almost as pompous as Percy (and that's saying something), but he was a very nice person when you got to know him. Some of the things he did frustrated me, of course. I never enjoyed slowing down and focussing on minute details, and Ernie is the most frustratingly details-oriented person I've ever met. But I had to admit he'd gotten us out of a couple of sticky situations during this long day.

So, while what he was doing seemed pointless (after all we had looked at everything at least once in that endless circuit around the maze), I smiled at him as he did it and didn't even roll my eyes when Michael suggested we all join in. Or not too much, anyway. No, the eye rolling didn't turn up til Malfoy, of all people, spotted what we were looking for. On the sunniest side of the wall, there were more scratchings, and when that section of the wall was engorged, they showed a square which had been quartered and a fifth square placed over them in the middle. It meant nothing to us, but still caused a great deal of excitement, since it was obviously scratched by the same hand that scratched the picture onto the stones we had picked up.

Malfoy, the insufferable git, was putting on airs because, unfortunately, once again it was he and Parkinson who found what our major clues. He was just getting my temper good and riled up with his sly suggestions of Slytherin's superiority, when Susan helped us find the final part of the puzzle. Malfoy was still drawling on, and Harry's hands were clenched. I knew it wouldn't be long before our delicate balance was shattered.

Susan had taken the stones out of her pocket and, as they were all roughly square, she had placed them into the configuration we had found that made them show the picture.

'Yes, it's quite easy, when you have real intelligence, to find the important clues …'

Malfoy trailed off as he realised he had lost all of our attention. We had gathered around Susan; even Parkinson was there. It was obvious when we looked from wall to stones on the ground that she had got it right. The square pattern on the wall even had the same slightly asymmetrical squares as our stones.

However, just having the stones in the shape wasn't doing anything.

'Maybe we need to cast a spell,' said Harry. Even Malfoy nodded thoughtfully. Harry pulled out his wand and began to send spell after spell at the stones. Connecting spells, enlivening spells, and even fire spells in the hopes that heating it to a high temperature would work. But nothing happened. The stones lay innocently on the ground, looking completely unlike a portkey.

'Can I see that new stone, Susan?' Cho asked when we had all gotten sick of staring at the unresponsive stones before us.

Susan handed it over, and Cho examined it carefully. 'Hmmmm, it doesn't look any different to the others. I wonder …' her voice trailed off and she bent down and carefully positioned the stone above the others, so it covered the picture of the wall from the inside of the maze.

I gripped Harry's hand tight as the pieces all glowed a bright blue and fused together. After a moment the bright colour disappeared and the stones had formed into a key shape.

'Haha, very funny, Mr Whoever-put-us-here!' Harry said, but without any heat in his voice. It was clear that this was it. We would finally be able to go home.

'It could be a Mrs Whoever-put-us-here, you know,' said Parkinson huffily. But she was smiling as she said it. The excitement of finally getting away from this place was infectious. We were all acting kind of giddy, if you want to know the truth. Of course that could be from lack of food, but still.

'OK, let's do it. Let's go home.' Susan sounded fervent in her desire. She reached out one finger and lightly touched the stone key. It glowed a slightly deeper blue but nothing happened. I slipped my finger onto it beside hers and the blue intensified again. I looked up into Harry's eyes. He nodded and placed his finger beside mine. Once again, the stone grew a deeper blue.

'It looks like it needs us all holding it to power it up,' said Cho, with a snigger. 'I tell you, whoever put us here is really beating that 'working together' drum.'

'Yup, sure seems to be,' Ernie agreed but they both placed their fingers on quickly. Michael, Malfoy and Parkinson all followed and as soon as Parkinson's finger touched the stone, I felt that familiar whisking sensation in my belly and my feet left the ground.

When my feet hit ground again, I opened my eyes, which had been squeezed tight shut, and saw that we were in the Entrance Hall of the castle. I dropped my finger off the stone, which clattered to the ground as everyone else followed suit. I flung my arms around Harry and buried my face in his shoulder.

'We're home!' I whispered. Around me, I could hear the others engaging in similar fervent exclamations of relief.

'What a dishevelled bunch of students we have here,' an amused voice said from behind me. I spun around, to find a pair of twinkling blue eyes staring at us over a pair of half-moon glasses. He winked at us knowingly as he walked past, and I frowned. I had a sudden, horrible suspicion that the wizarding world's most venerated wizard had been the one to set us up.

Thinking back to the way in which the maze maker had hammered home the idea of working together and of house unity, I wondered if this hadn't been Dumbledore's devious, not to mention manipulative, way of trying to get us to open our eyes a little more to the virtues of those around us, especially those we might have once shunned as incompetent or scorned as evil.

I shook my head to clear it, and took Harry's hand to drag him in the direction of the Great Hall. I could smell food, and that visceral reminder that I hadn't eaten in so long put any such philosophical thoughts out of my mind.