Ok, first of all, English is not my first language, and this is a present
for a friend. So positive criticism will be well received. All of this
belongs to J.K. Rowling. I don't want to steal her, I only want to put on
words what she showed me. Thank You! Second thing... I know most of you
really believe Ginny's name is Virginia. OK, I won't discuss that, just...
how world would be if it really were Ginger? This story takes no much sense
after the events of OotP, so... Hope you all like this.
For Silverfox, about being my Mistress of Darkness... hope you forgive this little clumsiness.
GINGER IN THE WINDOW
Ginny Weasley awoke abruptly with a soft scream
"What's the matter?" asked a dreamy voice from the nearest bed.
"That's... nothing... you can sleep again"
Ginny waited until the four soft breathings were regular again to get up.
She put on slowly her dress robe and slippers and left the bedroom. She climbed the stairs to the higher place in the Gryffindor tower without a noise.
Ginny sat down in the windowsill. There's cold up there. The nightdress and dress robe weren't protection enough towards the Scottish night's cold halfway in June.
She looked down her feet, hanging on in midair, with the soft red hair fugitive from her plaits crossing her face as bloody scars.
Mostly as her heart felt.
Minutes passed on as she gazed the school's grounds, the Quidditch's pitch, the black Lake, Hagrid's hut, the Forbidden Forest.
'You've been wondering, haven't you?' Ginny rolled her eyes at hearing the soft voice. That soft voice.
'Leave me alone' claimed her own mind, once again.
'You've been wondering why I chose you, of all people...'
'Forget about me. I've overcame you... I don't need you anymore, Tom. I have friends now.'
'Oh! You've never need me... that's because I chose you... that's because I insisted on you... Little cute Ginny Weasley. Who would ever say, hum? Who would ever say that you're not... you're not a Weasley'
"Leave me alone!" shouted the angry girl, out loud at the night's wind. But that couldn't shut up the voice that had been silent inside her mind for five long years. The voice had been recovering its strength.
'Ginny, Ginny. Ginger. Why Ginny? It's a redheaded family! Ginger is just too cruel. You said it far too usually... I always thought it was a girlish foolishness... low price for so high reward... But then I met your brothers... some tall, scrawny as daddy... some short and plump as mummy... but all of then have blue-oceanic eyes, my darling... all of them.'
"Shut up!" cried the girl.
'Not you. You, my dearest brown eyed Mudblood, you're adopted. I know, I know... that's not important... not at all... unless for a little detail... something you...you! Discovered.'
'This is not real... that was not real...'
'You're right... you weren't alone... not really. The truth... the undeniable truth was discovered by another Mudblood... your best friend, as you believed... but she had no doubts... she had no doubts about discovering your secret! About loving Harry and receive his love! Without remember you were there first... And though she knew all about you... even your feelings...'
'Shut up! Hermione's my best friend! She only took Harry's love when I told her I was in love with Draco! You know nothing about me. You don't meet me anymore.'
'I meet you better that you do yourself. I know what the Hat told you... he should had sent you to Slytherin... but you were so scared, so ashamed of being different. Anyway, you're a Slytherin, Ginny. And the fact that young Malfoy has seen something in you, only confirms it...'
'Draco loves me. And I love him'
'No... He wants you, he fancies you, he loves you. But you... you're still obsessed with Harry. And you'll always be, because where you go, he'll be there, inside your mind. It's your destiny, you'll never forget him, hard as you'll try, but not for love as you had so simply assumed. You're even more united than you would want to believe. Really, you have identical destinies, after all... you're my heir, little one.'
Ginny let the tears fall down her cheeks. What Tom was saying wasn't new for her.
All had began when she finally had the guts to tell another living soul her childish fear... Hermione had been so comprehensive. And against any logic she felt much better when Hermione told her she already suspected Ginny had been adopted. That made sure she wasn't mad, nor paranoid... The two of them began a consciously search. They found the parchments in the Burrow's attic, protected by the family's ghost. Her mother had been a teenager called Melanie Lestrange, and Ginny was a girl nobody wanted. Melanie was only daughter for the Lestranges, Death Eaters who had been caught and put in Azkaban after Voldemort's fall. Before that, her daughter had been attacked by an unknown and was in San Mungo's as consequence. There her parents forget about her and her stolen sanity, and never knew her daughter was pregnant. So, when the child was born, she was led to an orphanage. Where Molly and Arthur Weasley, adopted her as Ginger (her mother's only wish) Weasley. The mysterious thing was that the Lestranges always swore her daughter (a squib) had been attacked by a muggle, so, when Ginny began to show her powers the authorities wanted to begin the investigation again. Molly didn't want to hurt her child, so it was she who stopped the investigations, once the grandparents and the mother were out of use.
That dark point was what assured Ginny's dreadful suspicions about her father... Hermione tried so hard to convince her that it wasn't impossible... being daughter of a muggle and a squib and having powers...
But Ginny had always knew it. She had always knew that Tom, inside her... his diary had been her best brother, the only one really listening to her. And then, while she was looking at him into her dreams... the nightmares that haunted her that summer... she knew it Tom Riddle had her eyes. That was just what most frightened and (hard as it was admit it) captivated her. For her it was like seeing Harry, her beloved Harry with her eyes... a long time dreamed child born to them both.
Still, returning to school for her third year, nightmares vanished. And, together with them Tom Riddle flew away as well. And as much as it surprised Ginny, the feelings about Harry did the same. Because she saw the truth, to believe her reality was so different from Harry's and his friends.
And she moved away from him. She only kept the friendship with Hermione, discovering what was love... through the love Hermione always felt for Harry. Her fourth year she felt it herself... falling in love with the forbidden. Discovering Draco... learning from experience that things aren't as they look.
Nobody could take easily the Malfoy-Weasley romance, when they finally surpassed their own taboo, now, into her sixth year. And it was the earthshaking that made her recover her past fear...
But now, they weren't fears, they were hopes... if finally Juliet wasn't a Capulet, Romeo wouldn't die.
'You know nothing about me, Tom. When you met me I was just a girl... I silly girl with a stupid crush for an unreal image. Now I'm a woman, and the person... the real person with faults and gifts... I love, loves me too. He's not a mirror's reflection... like you are.'
'Oh! You're offending me, darling! And you're disappointing me as web. I'm not a vulgar mirror's reflection, not even a image into your nightmares. I'm real, my child, and while you are living, I'll be alive... It's your destiny. I'm old, and had believed that I hadn't achieved immortality. But I had forgot that the greatest of perpetuity is given by your legacy, those you left behind. Of course, I had taken my cautions, but I thought I had failed there too.... Sorely mistaken! Yeah... I'm old, now... I haven't the lesser of opportunities of defeating Godric's heir! Not even with your invaluable help, but you... you've got time, you're young, and really, really powerful. Much more that those gullible wanted to believe. You're invincible... because I gift you your life.'
'Only for taking away another's' life! What kind of life is that? My parents have always been Molly and Arthur Weasley. They gift me all what I am: a Gryffindor.'
'Ah... but you're a Slytherin inside your heart... like Harry. You're siblings after all. Of course, he, my real heir was mistake. I didn't chose the correct muggle... She was Gryffindor's heir, not her brutish husband as everybody assumed. But you... your mother was a Slytherin squib! Not mistaking here... The perfect combination: A girl raised in a Death Eaters house, being the lower they could ever have...'
'My mother wasn't anything low! And Harry's mother wasn't a muggle... She was a witch, powerful, intelligent, she defeated you, she knew how to keep her son away from you, and...'
'And she not even could distinguish the differences between her husband and me! Well, I can't blame her, here. I've always been really good in transfigurations, and pretending be James Potter was so easy... it wasn't that easy that the child would resemble him, but... I had the best Potions Master working for me, by then. Not even he knew why the potion was... You dearly mummy was much easier...it not even was planned. I just wanted her when I saw her. And her parents... your grandparents... were so proud when they gift her to me. I not even knew that you were the result of that. I only knew about you thanks to your Mudblood friend ...'
'So... without me, you'll have nothing left. You'll disappear... If I fall from this window...'
'Don't even keep considering it, Ginger. If you disappear, I'll have Harry left... I have world's time. If he keeps resisting, if Gryffindor keeps the battle his side... I can always try with his coming son... the prospect is amazing... another mummy muggle born!'
'I won't let you destroy them, Tom. You've already done too much harm to Harry... I'll resist. And your won't defeat me. I'll fight as Harry's always done.'
'Harry? Harry is fighting just now... and, thanks to you... he's losing.'
With a great effort Ginny opened her eyes, breaking the control Tom was taking over her, recovering the powers he was stealing her. A great sparkle into the depths of the Forbidden Forest make her got up and leave the room all in a hurry. She climbed the boys stairs to the seventh year bedroom. Harry and Ron weren't there.
With her last hope she led her steps through the Fat Lady's hole, into the corridors and Head Girl's room. Not a sing of Hermione, none the boys.
It was then when she felt it. A great ache in the middle of her chest, just like each year, arrived those dates. Just like each time her only brother was in danger.
She ran as she had never done. She ran to the Forest. And once arrived the sparse, she saw it. Ron was kneeled down in the ground, crying... and laughing same time. Next to him, Hermione had on her thighs the cute head of a Phoenix, golden and scarlet... with green emerald eyes and a silvered ray in the forehead: Harry's animagus. The creature was harmed, but it was not a mortal wound and Hermione was already healing it.
Next to all them lied an enormous snake, almost a basilisk, blind, death. Its black blood dyed the forest's grass.
Ginny felt two soft, thin arms coming around her waist, and warm velvet breath next to her ear. She moved her head enough to look Draco's sad grey eyes.
"All is finished, now. Voldemort is death."
Ginny moved her lips without pronouncing a word. Only Tom Riddle, inside her mind, knew what she meant:
'I fear it's not'
THE END
For Silverfox, about being my Mistress of Darkness... hope you forgive this little clumsiness.
GINGER IN THE WINDOW
Ginny Weasley awoke abruptly with a soft scream
"What's the matter?" asked a dreamy voice from the nearest bed.
"That's... nothing... you can sleep again"
Ginny waited until the four soft breathings were regular again to get up.
She put on slowly her dress robe and slippers and left the bedroom. She climbed the stairs to the higher place in the Gryffindor tower without a noise.
Ginny sat down in the windowsill. There's cold up there. The nightdress and dress robe weren't protection enough towards the Scottish night's cold halfway in June.
She looked down her feet, hanging on in midair, with the soft red hair fugitive from her plaits crossing her face as bloody scars.
Mostly as her heart felt.
Minutes passed on as she gazed the school's grounds, the Quidditch's pitch, the black Lake, Hagrid's hut, the Forbidden Forest.
'You've been wondering, haven't you?' Ginny rolled her eyes at hearing the soft voice. That soft voice.
'Leave me alone' claimed her own mind, once again.
'You've been wondering why I chose you, of all people...'
'Forget about me. I've overcame you... I don't need you anymore, Tom. I have friends now.'
'Oh! You've never need me... that's because I chose you... that's because I insisted on you... Little cute Ginny Weasley. Who would ever say, hum? Who would ever say that you're not... you're not a Weasley'
"Leave me alone!" shouted the angry girl, out loud at the night's wind. But that couldn't shut up the voice that had been silent inside her mind for five long years. The voice had been recovering its strength.
'Ginny, Ginny. Ginger. Why Ginny? It's a redheaded family! Ginger is just too cruel. You said it far too usually... I always thought it was a girlish foolishness... low price for so high reward... But then I met your brothers... some tall, scrawny as daddy... some short and plump as mummy... but all of then have blue-oceanic eyes, my darling... all of them.'
"Shut up!" cried the girl.
'Not you. You, my dearest brown eyed Mudblood, you're adopted. I know, I know... that's not important... not at all... unless for a little detail... something you...you! Discovered.'
'This is not real... that was not real...'
'You're right... you weren't alone... not really. The truth... the undeniable truth was discovered by another Mudblood... your best friend, as you believed... but she had no doubts... she had no doubts about discovering your secret! About loving Harry and receive his love! Without remember you were there first... And though she knew all about you... even your feelings...'
'Shut up! Hermione's my best friend! She only took Harry's love when I told her I was in love with Draco! You know nothing about me. You don't meet me anymore.'
'I meet you better that you do yourself. I know what the Hat told you... he should had sent you to Slytherin... but you were so scared, so ashamed of being different. Anyway, you're a Slytherin, Ginny. And the fact that young Malfoy has seen something in you, only confirms it...'
'Draco loves me. And I love him'
'No... He wants you, he fancies you, he loves you. But you... you're still obsessed with Harry. And you'll always be, because where you go, he'll be there, inside your mind. It's your destiny, you'll never forget him, hard as you'll try, but not for love as you had so simply assumed. You're even more united than you would want to believe. Really, you have identical destinies, after all... you're my heir, little one.'
Ginny let the tears fall down her cheeks. What Tom was saying wasn't new for her.
All had began when she finally had the guts to tell another living soul her childish fear... Hermione had been so comprehensive. And against any logic she felt much better when Hermione told her she already suspected Ginny had been adopted. That made sure she wasn't mad, nor paranoid... The two of them began a consciously search. They found the parchments in the Burrow's attic, protected by the family's ghost. Her mother had been a teenager called Melanie Lestrange, and Ginny was a girl nobody wanted. Melanie was only daughter for the Lestranges, Death Eaters who had been caught and put in Azkaban after Voldemort's fall. Before that, her daughter had been attacked by an unknown and was in San Mungo's as consequence. There her parents forget about her and her stolen sanity, and never knew her daughter was pregnant. So, when the child was born, she was led to an orphanage. Where Molly and Arthur Weasley, adopted her as Ginger (her mother's only wish) Weasley. The mysterious thing was that the Lestranges always swore her daughter (a squib) had been attacked by a muggle, so, when Ginny began to show her powers the authorities wanted to begin the investigation again. Molly didn't want to hurt her child, so it was she who stopped the investigations, once the grandparents and the mother were out of use.
That dark point was what assured Ginny's dreadful suspicions about her father... Hermione tried so hard to convince her that it wasn't impossible... being daughter of a muggle and a squib and having powers...
But Ginny had always knew it. She had always knew that Tom, inside her... his diary had been her best brother, the only one really listening to her. And then, while she was looking at him into her dreams... the nightmares that haunted her that summer... she knew it Tom Riddle had her eyes. That was just what most frightened and (hard as it was admit it) captivated her. For her it was like seeing Harry, her beloved Harry with her eyes... a long time dreamed child born to them both.
Still, returning to school for her third year, nightmares vanished. And, together with them Tom Riddle flew away as well. And as much as it surprised Ginny, the feelings about Harry did the same. Because she saw the truth, to believe her reality was so different from Harry's and his friends.
And she moved away from him. She only kept the friendship with Hermione, discovering what was love... through the love Hermione always felt for Harry. Her fourth year she felt it herself... falling in love with the forbidden. Discovering Draco... learning from experience that things aren't as they look.
Nobody could take easily the Malfoy-Weasley romance, when they finally surpassed their own taboo, now, into her sixth year. And it was the earthshaking that made her recover her past fear...
But now, they weren't fears, they were hopes... if finally Juliet wasn't a Capulet, Romeo wouldn't die.
'You know nothing about me, Tom. When you met me I was just a girl... I silly girl with a stupid crush for an unreal image. Now I'm a woman, and the person... the real person with faults and gifts... I love, loves me too. He's not a mirror's reflection... like you are.'
'Oh! You're offending me, darling! And you're disappointing me as web. I'm not a vulgar mirror's reflection, not even a image into your nightmares. I'm real, my child, and while you are living, I'll be alive... It's your destiny. I'm old, and had believed that I hadn't achieved immortality. But I had forgot that the greatest of perpetuity is given by your legacy, those you left behind. Of course, I had taken my cautions, but I thought I had failed there too.... Sorely mistaken! Yeah... I'm old, now... I haven't the lesser of opportunities of defeating Godric's heir! Not even with your invaluable help, but you... you've got time, you're young, and really, really powerful. Much more that those gullible wanted to believe. You're invincible... because I gift you your life.'
'Only for taking away another's' life! What kind of life is that? My parents have always been Molly and Arthur Weasley. They gift me all what I am: a Gryffindor.'
'Ah... but you're a Slytherin inside your heart... like Harry. You're siblings after all. Of course, he, my real heir was mistake. I didn't chose the correct muggle... She was Gryffindor's heir, not her brutish husband as everybody assumed. But you... your mother was a Slytherin squib! Not mistaking here... The perfect combination: A girl raised in a Death Eaters house, being the lower they could ever have...'
'My mother wasn't anything low! And Harry's mother wasn't a muggle... She was a witch, powerful, intelligent, she defeated you, she knew how to keep her son away from you, and...'
'And she not even could distinguish the differences between her husband and me! Well, I can't blame her, here. I've always been really good in transfigurations, and pretending be James Potter was so easy... it wasn't that easy that the child would resemble him, but... I had the best Potions Master working for me, by then. Not even he knew why the potion was... You dearly mummy was much easier...it not even was planned. I just wanted her when I saw her. And her parents... your grandparents... were so proud when they gift her to me. I not even knew that you were the result of that. I only knew about you thanks to your Mudblood friend ...'
'So... without me, you'll have nothing left. You'll disappear... If I fall from this window...'
'Don't even keep considering it, Ginger. If you disappear, I'll have Harry left... I have world's time. If he keeps resisting, if Gryffindor keeps the battle his side... I can always try with his coming son... the prospect is amazing... another mummy muggle born!'
'I won't let you destroy them, Tom. You've already done too much harm to Harry... I'll resist. And your won't defeat me. I'll fight as Harry's always done.'
'Harry? Harry is fighting just now... and, thanks to you... he's losing.'
With a great effort Ginny opened her eyes, breaking the control Tom was taking over her, recovering the powers he was stealing her. A great sparkle into the depths of the Forbidden Forest make her got up and leave the room all in a hurry. She climbed the boys stairs to the seventh year bedroom. Harry and Ron weren't there.
With her last hope she led her steps through the Fat Lady's hole, into the corridors and Head Girl's room. Not a sing of Hermione, none the boys.
It was then when she felt it. A great ache in the middle of her chest, just like each year, arrived those dates. Just like each time her only brother was in danger.
She ran as she had never done. She ran to the Forest. And once arrived the sparse, she saw it. Ron was kneeled down in the ground, crying... and laughing same time. Next to him, Hermione had on her thighs the cute head of a Phoenix, golden and scarlet... with green emerald eyes and a silvered ray in the forehead: Harry's animagus. The creature was harmed, but it was not a mortal wound and Hermione was already healing it.
Next to all them lied an enormous snake, almost a basilisk, blind, death. Its black blood dyed the forest's grass.
Ginny felt two soft, thin arms coming around her waist, and warm velvet breath next to her ear. She moved her head enough to look Draco's sad grey eyes.
"All is finished, now. Voldemort is death."
Ginny moved her lips without pronouncing a word. Only Tom Riddle, inside her mind, knew what she meant:
'I fear it's not'
THE END