Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and to be honest, I really don't want him... You can keep the wimp, JK! I've got Draco and Blaise... :smirk:
And now for the real disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter or associated trademarks! Don't sue me!
Summary: all of her years at Hogwarts were unlike any other student's. By choice, not through force. This is Ginevra's story... Evil!Ginny, evil!everyone, except the Golden Trio of course.
A quick note about this story. It follows the events and timelines of the Harry Potter books (Chamber of Secrets onwards), but it is from a different perspective... Read and you will understand! I hope you enjoy it!
Read on, oh faithful ones!
.-.-.-.
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
Mary Wollstonecraft
.-.-.-.
Chapter One
Draco looked at his father, who nodded curtly. He nodded in return, dipped the quill into the ink and wrote in the diary.
Hello, Draco Malfoy... Your father tells me that you already know who I am... Are you ready? the diary asked.
'Yes.'
Excellent... Tom said and Draco was sucked into the diary in a swirl of colour.
Dobby stopped watching and left quickly. He had to warn Harry Potter...
.-.-.-.
Draco spent nearly every day of his holidays within the diary. He informed Tom of things that were happening in the outside worlds, both wizarding and in briefer detail, Muggle. He reluctantly told him about Harry Potter, and his defeat of Tom's older self at only age one. Then he went into detail about who he was now, his friends; the Mudblood and Weasel.
In return, Tom told Draco things about Hogwarts that he would have never learnt on his own. He told him about Salazar Slytherin's past and the Chamber of Secrets he had built. However, Tom refused to tell him how to get into it, telling him that he would have to wait until he was at Hogwarts to learn of that...
Tom told him about secret passageways in the castle, providing detailed maps on the pages of his diary. He told him about the Room of Requirement and how to get into it.
On the day before Draco went to get his school supplies, Tom talked to both Lucius and Draco...
"Draco is ready... However I would rather have access to someone that is closer to Potter and his friends," Tom said. "Then Draco can instruct them on the things I want to be done."
"Of course, my Dark Lord... We will find someone for you," Lucius said with a low bow.
"Good..."
Father and son disappeared from the diary in swirls of colour.
.-.-.-.
Ginny was annoyed. Very annoyed. Just because she'd talked about Harry over the holidays everyone immediately assumed that she liked him! He'd avoided her for most of the holidays and the only time he'd seen her was when she'd been daydreaming and her elbow had slipped in to the stupid butter dish!
She did not like him at all! She just wondered how on earth his magical ability had survived in the Muggle world. When Ginevra's elbow slipped into the butter she had just been daydreaming about going in to the forest with Fred and George... When she'd knocked the porridge bowl on to the ground she had been thinking about Quidditch and if she would have a chance to steal their brooms again when Harry came in suddenly, surprising her... She had no feelings other than mild interest for Mr. Harry-I-think-everyone-loves-me-Potter!
Ginny looked around, wondering where everyone had gone without her. She saw Harry coming over with a large pile of books and she gave him a weak smile to show him that she wasn't as stupid as everyone assumed. He didn't see her look or her smile...
Harry dumped Lockhart's books in her cauldron, mumbling about buying his own.
Ginny tried not to feel too shocked or upset. Harry was so proud that he couldn't even accept a charitable gift! Not even her mother gave away gifts!
"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" a voice drawled behind them.
Harry and Ginny turned around.
"Famous Harry Potter... Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page," Draco Malfoy sneered.
"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" she said, glaring at him, her eyes flashing with much more than anger.
Emotions poured through her veins and as Ginevra saw the surprise on Draco's face, she realised that she felt alive; she was finally free after being trapped for so long...
The look of surprise on Draco's face faded as quickly as it had arrived and he smirked, recognising the look in her eyes.
"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" he drawled.
The feeling of elation and freedom left her swiftly and Ginny went red in disgust and embarrassment, wishing that she hadn't even opened her mouth.
Ron and Hermione made their way over, Ron looking down his nose at Draco.
"Oh, it's you," Ron said. "I bet you're surprised to see Harry, eh?"
"Not as surprised to see you in a shop, Weasley," Draco drawled in response.
Ginny held back a laugh. It was a good comeback, she had to admit. Draco's eyes flitted to her just before her smile was replaced with a frown and she went red again, knowing that he'd caught her smile.
Ron's face went bright red and he dropped his books in her cauldron.
"Oof!" Ginny said, the cauldron dropping to the ground.
Ron went towards Draco, but Harry and Hermione held him back. Ginny struggled to hold the cauldron up with the weight of all of the books.
"Ron! What are you doing? It's mad in here, let's go outside," Arthur said, coming over with Fred and George.
The twins saw their sister's struggle and quietly took out a few books, adding them to their own piles instead. Ginny was grateful for their quick and light hands. Thanks to them, no one would notice what they were doing and say that she was weak.
"Well, well, well - Arthur Weasley," Lucius said, putting a hand on Draco's shoulder.
He'd seen everything that had been happening from the upstairs balcony; from Draco's smoothly delivered insult to Potter, to the look in the youngest Weasley's eyes and the smile she'd had at his son's next insult. Then that oaf of a Weasley had made to hurt his son.
The boy was extremely lucky that Potter and the Mudblood had held him back...
Lucius had made it down in time to see Ginevra's twin brothers taking a few books out of her cauldron due to the weight her oaf brother had forced her to handle.
"Lucius," Arthur replied, attempting to act cold, but not suceeding.
"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear. All those raids... I hope they're paying you overtime?" Lucius said.
He reached in to Ginevra's cauldron and took out a book that Potter and her brother hadn't just shoved in her cauldron, A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. Ginevra looked down, knowing that he'd seen everything.
"Obviously not..." he drawled. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of a wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?" he asked, giving Ginevra a very brief smirk.
She recognised what the look meant immediately. We can give you so much more...
Arthur went dark red and Ginny heard him taking a lot of deep breaths.
"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of a wizard, Malfoy," he said.
"Clearly," Lucius drawled, his eyes roaming over the Mudblood's Muggle parents, then back to Ginevra fleetingly. "The company you keep, Weasley ... and I thought your family could sink no lower -" he said, addressing the first part of the sentence to Ginevra, and they both knew it.
"Ow!" Ginevra yelped as her father knocked past her, her cauldron flying away from her.
Fred and George quickly stopped the flying cauldron and stood behind her books so she could pick them up safely. When she'd finished in a few seconds, they both gave her a knowing smile and the three of them turned to watch the fight.
"Get him, Dad!" Fred and George called.
"No, Arthur, no!" Molly admonished, shrieking loudly.
"Gentlemen, please - please!" the assistant was shouting.
Ginny saw Hagrid wading through the books and nudged the twins lightly. Fred and George both nodded, groaning in disappointment that the fight was going to end so soon after it had begun.
Lucius looked at Ginny and thrust the book out to her.
"Here, girl - take your book - it's the best your father can give you-" he said.
But if you follow the feeling you had earlier, you could get anything you wanted... his eyes said.
Ginny took the book from him, putting it in her cauldron immediately, watching as he and Draco swept out of the shop.
"Let's get outta here," Hagrid finished saying and Ginny went red, having not heard a thing he'd said before.
As her mother ushered them all out of the shop, admonishing her father along the way, Ginny looked back only to meet the cool, knowing stare of four silver eyes. Father and son smirked at her, then left down the street, Lucius' face already healed and immaculate again.
"He was pleased," Fred was saying. "Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report - said it was all publicity," he said.
"Yeah, that's right... Lockhart's just an attention seeker," George muttered to Ginny, winking at her.
She grinned and waited as everyone Flooed back to the Burrow, wondering about the feeling she'd had earlier.
.-.-.-.
Ginny packed her things early, not too eager to see Harry - he kept looking at her like she had dragonpox. Going through her cauldron, she found her Transfiguration book and set it beside the pile of her other school books. Turning back, Ginny saw another book inside of it. Wondering what subject it was for, she pulled it out to look at the cover.
Seeing it was a diary, Ginny wondered who it belonged to. There were no words written on the front, only the year from fifty years ago and on the back was the newsagent and the road it was located on. Looking inside, she saw the words T. M. Riddle scrawled on the front, but all of the pages were blank.
Grabbing her ink bottle and a quill, Ginny sat down with the diary on her bed. She carefully inked her quill and wrote her name in it, watching in surprise as the ink disappeared into the page.
Hello, Ginevra Weasley. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary? Came the scrawled response.
'I don't know... I found it in my cauldron,' Ginny wrote back.
Interesting... Would you allow me to see how you came by it? Tom asked.
'How could you do that?' Ginny asked with a frown.
You would come into the diary and we will both see your memory of how you came by my diary... Tom said with a smile. Would you allow me to see?
"Hey Ginevra... What're you doing?" Fred and George asked, coming into her room.
"Writing in a diary," she said. "Shouldn't you be preparing for tonight?" she asked, knowing that they were preparing Filibuster fireworks for that evening.
"We've already got it done," they replied grinning. "Mum wanted us to start packing for tomorrow, but we don't feel like it, so we came here instead," Fred and George said, grinning at each other.
Tom's question still waited on the page. Looking to her brothers, Ginny took a deep breath.
"If I do something bad, will you tell me off?" she asked.
"Well... It depends how bad it is," they said with identical smirks.
"I don't know..." Ginny said, looking to the diary again.
"Then we'll come with you to see how bad it is," they said decisively with nods.
'Can two of my brothers come too?' Ginny wrote.
... Yes, Tom wrote after a moment.
"Can you close the door? I don't want anyone to see in case something bad does happen," Ginny said quietly.
Fred and George nodded and shut the door. They walked behind her, to see the word 'yes' fading in to the page.
"What was that?" George asked in shock.
"How did that happen?" Fred asked, just as shocked as George.
"I don't know," Ginny said nervously.
The pages of the diary started to blow and flip, going right to the end of the book. Miniscule words started to scrawl under the 'notes' section of the diary. As the three siblings looked down at it, they found themselves tilting forwards, the words becoming larger and they fell through a swirl of colour and shadow.
"Hello Ginevra," a voice said and they turned to see a young boy, much like Harry, standing there. "Won't you introduce me to your brothers?" Tom asked with a charming smile.
"We can introduce ourselves, you know," Fred and George muttered.
"These are my brothers. This one here is George, and the one on my left is Fred," Ginny introduced them politely.
"It is a pleasure to meet you George and Fred," Tom said smoothly.
"How'd we get in here?" they asked in response.
"It was my diary that was given to your sister. How you got in here was just a bit of Advanced magic that you may learn while you are at Hogwarts, if you know where to look..." Tom said with a smirk.
"Will you teach me?" Ginny asked in excitement, eager to learn any kind of magic that wasn't to do with household work.
"With your brothers permission, that is what I intended to do," Tom said giving her a charming smile. "But first I would like to see how you received this diary, rather than the person it was meant for," he said.
"You're not going to hurt her, are you?" Fred and George asked, moving Ginevra behind them slightly when Tom pulled a wand out of his robe pocket.
"Do not be ridiculous... I have agreed for her to learn from me and you think I would hurt her before the lessons have even begun?" Tom asked with a laugh.
Before the twins could protest to that, Tom pointed his wand directly at Ginevra and the black background disappeared.
.-.-.-.
Fred and George looked around in wonder, seeing the events that had happened at Flourish and Blotts earlier that month. They realised that Ginevra wasn't with them and wondered where she was, then returned their attention to her memory.
At one point, everything froze and Tom looked very pleased about something, but then it started again and Fred and George got to watch the fight between Arthur and Lucius again.
As Ginny Flooed back to the Burrow, the memory faded and they were back in the place with the black background, Ginevra sitting on the floor looking exhausted.
Fred and George immediately rushed over to her, worried for their sister.
"Do not worry, she is not hurt... The spell I performed on Ginevra is an exhausting one, unless you are used to its effects. She will be fine after a good night's rest," Tom said.
"Take us back... We've got to get her to her room before someone finds out that we're missing," Fred said, George picking Ginevra up in his arms.
"Very well... Do tell Ginevra that I will speak to her again soon... Enjoy your year at Hogwarts. It will be interesting for everyone," Tom said with an evil smirk as he waved his wand.
Colours swirled around them quickly and it felt as if they were flying backwards...
.-.-.-.
Fred and George landed on the floor, quickly moving to catch their falling sister. They caught her in their arms and gently stood up, laying her on the bed.
Ginevra's eyes fluttered open and she smiled at them.
"I heard you in my mind," she said with a yawn.
"Rest now, Ginevra..." they said, smiling and putting the blanket over her.
"Wake me for dinner," she murmured, rolling over and falling asleep.
Glancing to each other, Fred and George left her room quietly, closing the door behind them and going up to their own room to talk and pack their things.
.-.-.-.
"Ginevra... You have to wake up," Fred and George said quietly, shaking their sister awake.
"What time is it?" she mumbled, opening her eyes wearily.
"Dinner's not for another two hours... Come on, we want to talk to you," they said, opening her window.
Ginevra blinked her eyes in an effort to wake herself up properly, then followed the twins out of her window and on to the roof. They scrambled up the roof in sync with the ghoul's noise, so that their mother wouldn't find out and ban them.
"What's going on? Why'd you wake me up?" Ginny asked, sitting between her favourite brothers.
"We want to talk to you about that diary you found," George said.
"What about it? You're not going to make me throw it away, are you?" Ginevra asked desperately.
Fred and George put their arms around her.
"Calm down, Ginevra... We were just going to warn you to be careful... Nothing overboard like Mum or Ronnie-kins though, don't worry," they added grinning at her.
"We trust you to make your own decisions and learn from them..." Fred said.
"So you'll let me keep the diary then?" Ginevra asked.
Fred and George nodded.
"What's the catch?" she asked suspiciously, knowing her brothers far too well.
"We want you to tell us every time that you go into the diary..." George said.
"We also want to go in a few more times before you learn anything from him," Fred added.
"And if you think we'll like it, then ask Tom if he'll teach us too," George said, winking at her.
"Thank you," Ginevra said happily, hugging them tightly.
"You're welcome, Ginevra," they said, then grinned at her. "Now on to more important things... Do you think we could sneak off to the forest before dinner without anyone knowing that we're gone?"
"We can always try," Ginny said, grinning at them.
Now that the ghoul was quiet, they silently made their way along the rooftop and back into Ginny's room. After sneaking downstairs with the twins, Ginevra distracted her parents with meaningless talk of how great Hogwarts was going to be as Fred and George went outside.
"I'm going to go outside and feed the chickens now... I'll be back in time for dinner," she said with a grin, quickly leaving before her mother could get her to help with anything.
Ginny headed to the chicken coop, knowing that Molly would check up on her out of the window. She threw them their grains for dinner slowly and waited for a few minutes after her mother's face had left the kitchen window before running down to the forest.
Slipping in between the trees, Ginevra quickly and skilfully made her way along a hidden path to a large clearing where Fred and George were waiting for her.
"Fed the chickens?" they asked, guessing her excuse immediately, the feathers on her skirt a dead giveaway.
Ginevra nodded. "Gods, I hate them... They're just feather-brained idiots who only care where their next grain's coming from," she muttered, flicking the feathers off her skirt.
"You shouldn't talk about Mother and Father like that," Fred and George said grinning at her.
"Oh, shut up! You know I was talking about the chickens!" Ginny muttered, glaring at them playfully.
"Sure you were, Ginevra," they drawled, grinning cheekily.
Ginevra pulled a face at them then sat down next to them, leaning against George tiredly.
"Did Tom say anything to you before?" she asked with a yawn.
"He said that he'd speak to you again," George said.
"Then he said for us to enjoy our year at Hogwarts and that is was going to be interesting," Fred finished with a shrug.
"Why do you think he said that?" Ginny asked with a frown, curling up and resting her head on Fred's lap.
"He could know something that we don't," George suggested.
"Something's going to happen," the twins said decisively.
"Think we'll be a part of it?" Ginny asked.
"We might be..." they replied.
"Ginevra Molly Weasley! Where are you?!" Molly's voice rang out.
"Broomshed," the twins said.
Ginny sighed and nodded, standing up and running out of the forest, but along another path this time. She came out of the side of the forest, slowed her breathing back to normal, then walked over to her mother.
"You wanted me, Mum?" she asked, smiling innocently.
"Yes, I did... Where were you?" Molly asked looking at her daughter pointedly, unaware that her look didn't scare Ginny.
"I was by the pond, getting all of the chicken feathers off my skirt," Ginny lied easily, not even blinking an eyelid.
"All right then dear," Molly said, now all smiles again. "Do you know where Fred and George have gotten to? I'm sure they're up to something," she said with a frown.
"I think I saw them out by the broomshed," Ginny said.
"Very well... I had better go get them myself. The Gods know they won't come when I call them," Molly said with a smile. "Will you be a dear and set the table for dinner?" she called over her shoulder as she went down to the broomshed.
It's not like you've given me much choice now, have you Mother? Ginny drawled in her mind, quickly going inside to do her mother's bidding.
Ginny set the table quickly and quietly, trying not to distract Ron or Harry, who were playing wizard's chess. As her thoughts drifted to Tom and the diary, Ginny gave a secret smile. Percy walked in and saw her smiling.
"Hello Ginny... Thinking about someone in particular?" he asked, glancing over in Harry's direction with a grin.
Ginny tried not to grimace and just nodded her head. Percy was distracted quickly as the twins came inside loudly, Molly behind them muttering and complaining about the mess they were making.
"Well if you'd let us land properly then we wouldn't be this muddy now would we, Mother?" they teased smirking at her.
"That is not the point! Now both of you upstairs and get changed! I want you down here in ten minutes helping Ginny to set the table!" Molly said, shooing them up the staircase.
"I've finished setting the table," Ginny said quietly.
Molly turned quickly, as if surprised to see her daughter there and gave her a smile.
"Thank you, dear. Better not tell the twins that. They'll never come downstairs," she said in a whispered tone.
"Do you mind if I go upstairs and get ready for dinner now? I still have a few feathers on my skirt," Ginny said.
"Of course, dear. You want to look your best when we have company," Molly said, giving a look in Harry's direction.
Ginny ran upstairs, rolling her eyes. Once in her room, she changed into comfortable clothes before grabbing the diary and hurrying up to the twins room. She knocked three times, then another two times before waiting.
Fred and George opened the door, ushering Ginny inside before they looked around suspiciously and closed the door. They quickly threw on shirts that weren't muddy and sat on the bed, looking at her.
"I want to go in again," Ginny said.
"Already?" they asked, not really surprised.
"Yes. I can handle it now," she said confidently.
"You should wait until after dinner... Mother expects us downstairs in a few minutes and she's going to need you to do some menial task for her. Besides, you should really get some food into you before you try anything again," they said practically.
Ginny sighed and nodded.
"I guess you're right. I'll just tell Tom that I'll talk to him after dinner," she said, grabbing a quill from their desk.
"You won't want to use that quill, Ginevra... Exploding Quill," they said smirking at her look.
"Thanks for the warning. Which one is an ink-quill?" she asked looking at the small assortment of quills on their messy and untidy desk.
"That black one should be fine," Fred and George said.
Grabbing the quill, Ginevra opened the diary and quickly scribbled a message for Tom.
"Fred! George! Your ten minutes are up!" Molly yelled from downstairs.
"It's only been eight... She's going senile," they said with nods to each other. "You better leave before she comes up here," they whispered to Ginny, ushering her out the window.
Clutching the diary, Ginny quietly made her way across the roof and slipped into her room just as her mother's footsteps sounded on their landing. Molly started banging on Fred and George's door loudly, yelling at them to hurry up.
Ginny shook her head and put the diary under her pillow before leaving her room and going downstairs, past her oblivious mother.
.-.-.-.
Dinner was filled with every one of Harry's favourite dishes. Luckily for Ron, he liked anything that was edible so he was almost drooling over the treacle pudding that was brought out for dessert. Ginny however, didn't like much of the food on the table and she hated treacle pudding, a fact that her mother knew.
After eating as much as she could handle of the foods she liked, Ginny tried to get excused from the table to no avail. Molly hushed her and Ginny was forced to sit at the table while Harry and Ron had their third, fourth and fifth helpings of dessert.
"Tonight we will be doing a lovely show for you," Fred and George announced when everyone was seated around the cosy kitchen.
Harry watched them eagerly, while Molly gave them warning glares to make them behave. Ignoring everyone, Fred and George grinned at Ginny, knowing how desperate she was to leave.
"Introducing... Filibuster fireworks!" they said with low bows, the red and blue fireworks exploding up from behind them and filling the kitchen up quickly.
Red and blue lights flashed throughout the small room and Ginny quickly ran out, Fred and George only a few seconds behind her as Molly and Arthur shouted and tried to get the fireworks to stop.
Running up to Ginevra's room, the twins shut the door behind her. Turning to their sister, they saw that she already had the diary out and was scribbling in it quickly.
'We don't have much time, Tom.'
Very well... was all he replied with and the three siblings were sucked into the diary.
.-.-.-.
"Hello again. Are you sure that you are up to this already, Ginevra?" Tom asked looking at her.
"I'm sure. I'll be fine," she replied confidently.
"Of course you will be," Tom said with a smile. "With the amount of limited time that you have, there are only a few things that I can teach you," he said, his wand appearing in his hand. "I presume that you know what deception is?" he asked, looking at the three siblings.
"We invented the word!" Fred and George said smirking.
"You only deceive when you think it is necessary," Tom stated. "You only deceive mildly to get out of trouble with your parents," he said. "True deception is being able to continue it over long periods of time and not breaking once. Your stories must all fit together and no one should be able to get you caught off guard," Tom said.
"We do that all the time!" Fred and George protested.
"How?"
"We deceive our mother nearly every day. We're not allowed in the forest, but every day we go in there and any time she asks where we've been we know exactly what to say," they replied.
"And if she asks another person of your whereabouts?" Tom asked pointedly.
"She only ever asks Ginevra..." Fred said.
"Ginevra's always with us so she knows what to say," George finished.
"Well that is all very well and good, but what if your mother asks another sibling?" Tom asked.
"They're not smart enough to say anything other than 'we don't know'," Fred and George muttered in distaste.
"Very well... What would your family think if they don't find you around for a few hours?" Tom asked Ginevra.
"They'll probably think that I'm trying to find Harry Potter," she said with a disgusted roll of her eyes.
"You can keep that up for a few weeks?" he asked.
"I don't have to. We're going to Hogwarts tomorrow," Ginevra said with a grin.
"So soon? Very well. Be sure to keep up with the facade of liking... Harry Potter," Tom snarled.
"What's with the hostility?" Fred and George asked, slightly surprised at the hatred in his tone.
"I will talk with Ginevra of it later. Now, you must return before anyone grows suspicious of your absence," Tom said.
"All right," Ginevra said nodding her head. "I'll talk to you later," she said giving the older boy a smile.
Tom nodded and with a wave of his hand, they fell through a swirl of colours and back into Ginevra's room.
"Fred! George! Get out here! Get those fireworks out of the kitchen right now!" Molly yelled.
"Ah, the blissful sounds of our return," Fred and George muttered sarcastically. "We're coming!" they yelled back, leaving Ginevra's room.
Ginny hid the book under her pillow again and went downstairs to help the twins.
.-.-.-.
Ginny said goodnight to everyone, yawning widely. Once out of earshot and their sight, she ran up the stairs quickly, shutting and locking her door behind her. She changed into her pyjamas and waited patiently. Not even five minutes later, there was a knock at her window and Fred and George climbed inside, sitting on her bed.
'Hello Tom.'
Hello Ginevra. Fred, George, a pleasure... (I presume that your brothers are with you.)
'Of course they are!' Ginny replied, grinning.
"Ask him about what was wrong before," Fred and George whispered in unison.
"All right. I'm getting to it," Ginny muttered, writing their question on the page.
My full name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. I was named after my both my Father and Grandfather, respectively. As I despise both of them, I changed the letters of my name to form another one soon after leaving Hogwarts.
The letters of Tom's name began to move, as if they were picked off the page and moved by an unseen hand.
I am Lord Voldemort...
"Voldemort?" Ginny hissed in surprise. "What do I do? This probably isn't good. Mother always said that he was a bad man," she said to Fred and George.
"We don't know... We can't tell Mother or Father about the diary. We'll get into trouble for talking to Lord Voldemort, no matter if he is in a diary or not. We don't know if Mother was right about him being a bad man anyway... Sure he killed those people, but..." Fred and George looked at each other, as if trying to decide something silently.
"What? But what?" Ginny asked.
"But we've always been interested in the things he did... He never killed them the same way twice. The only people that did that were his followers. He had such... ingenius ways of killing people," they said in a rush, as if to make it sound not as bad that they were intrigued by 'You-Know-Who'.
Ginny was slightly surprised and hurt that they hadn't told her any of this before. She watched as their eyes lit up with excitement as they continued talking about the various things Lord Voldemort had done, not even half of it sinking in.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Ginny asked, interrupting them.
"We thought that maybe you would have gone and told Mother... We didn't want to get into trouble like we did with Ronnie-kins and the Unbreakable Vow," they said; Fred moving his buttocks slightly, still haunted by the pain.
"You think I would tell Mother something that you are so passionate about? Even if it was something like this I would not have told her! I am not a silly little child," Ginevra said with a glare.
"We know that now, Ginevra. When we were first interested in this we weren't sure," they said, putting arms around her lovingly.
"When were you first interested?" she asked curiously. Surely they would have known that she wasn't a silly child, even at a younger age.
"After we got into trouble for the Unbreakable Vow," Fred and George said, grinning at each other broadly. "We knew if something could get us into that much trouble then it was definitely worth looking in to," they said. "We asked discreet questions about Voldemort and the Death Eaters until we went to Hogwarts," they said, still grinning.
Ginny looked at them in surprise.
"Even Mother and Father?" she asked.
"Of course not! Bill and Charlie informed us. While they were at Hogwarts, we asked for some chapters from particular books. Since those two didn't like reading textbooks back then, we were safe. They didn't ask what we wanted it for, they both just presumed that we looked up to Percy and wanted to be like him, since he was asking for information too."
Ginny scoffed at this, knowing how much the twins disliked their older brother.
"When we got to Hogwarts, that was a different matter. We excelled in Transfiguration, especially in transfiguring a book cover for another. Most of the joke and prank books we supposedly read were actually books on the Dark Arts from the library. Last year was the best though... We found out that Potter had an Invisibility Cloak. The Restricted books are even better to read than the stuff we'd been reading," Fred and George said wistfully.
The almost-forgotten diary in Ginny's hands shook and they looked to it again.
Is everything all right? Have you gone into shock? Tom had asked.
'Everything is fine. No, I have not gone into shock. I was just discussing with Fred and George whether to talk to you or not. They have liked your ... achievments for quite some time it seems,' Ginevra replied.
Excellent! And yourself? Will you continue to talk with me, even though you know who I am? Tom asked.
'You did promise not to hurt me before our lessons had begun. As I would like to learn from you, then I will continue to talk to you.'
A wise decision... Would you all like your first lesson now?
"Ginny! Lights out now, dear! Everyone's gone to bed!" Molly called.
"Not with you yelling they haven't," Ginevra muttered.
She nodded to the twins. They silently moved off the bed, going across the floor quietly, unlocking the door silently. They went over to Ginevra's cupboard and hid inside, shutting the door behind them. Ginny took her shoes off quickly and got into her bed, pulling the covers up.
'We can't tonight, Tom. Do you mind me calling you that? I will call you Voldemort if you would like," Ginny added.
You may call me Tom. I am aware that it is shorter for you to write, Tom said and Ginevra could almost see his smile.
'Thank you...'
Why are you not able to have your first lesson tonight?
'Mother is about to come in and she regularly checks our rooms to make sure that we are asleep," Ginny replied.
"Time for bed now, Ginny," Molly said, opening her door and looking inside.
"All right, Mother," Ginevra replied trying not to roll her eyes or groan.
"There's a good girl," she said, giving her a smile.
"Good night, Mother," Ginny said, dismissing her subtly.
"Good night, dear," Molly said, either oblivious or ignoring her daughter's dismissal.
Ginevra waited until her door had closed firmly and Molly's footsteps faded away. After Ginevra gave a slight cough, Fred and George opened the wardrobe door and came out quietly.
"You have a good sleep, all right Ginevra?" they said, hugging her. "We'll see you in the morning," Fred and George said, silently slipping out of her window and hurrying to their room.
Ginevra closed the window after them. She wrote a quick goodbye and goodnight to Tom, putting the diary on her bedside table before laying down and falling asleep easily.
.-.-.-.
(a/n: End of first chapter!)