Sleeping Beauty

Summary: T/G One-shot "She knew she would once again be plagued with dreams of him. She always would, after all you never forgot your first love."

Disclaimer: I owled J.K. Rowling, asking for the rights to Harry Potter. Unfortunately I'm still awaiting her reply. Maybe the owl got lost? …

Another one-shot for you all. This one is a Tom/Ginny. I've read a couple Tom/Ginny's on another site and I fell in love with this tragic couple. So I hope you enjoy this fic I have spent a couple of nights working on. Honestly, the world needs more of this couple and those other odd couples out there. I really like this fic a lot. It gives Tom a more human side which I truley believe he had, hidden somewhere in the depths of his soul.

Sleeping beauty. Yet her beautiful hair had lost its vividness and was tangled, and slightly damp. Her pallid eyelids were closed over what he knew to be dull brown eyes. Her eyes had once been ordinary. Just an ordinary muddy brown, but yet sometimes ordinary was beautiful. Those eyes had sparkled with unshed tears upon there first meeting. She was lonely, just another member in a very large family. And she was just another redheaded shadow in the halls of Hogwarts. And yet when he told her stories or showed her his lonely existence at Hogwarts her eyes would sparkle in delight. She was delighted to have someone to call a friend even if he came in the form of an old diary. She often told him her problems, and he would be able to relate. She enjoyed having someone who could understand her problems. He even enjoyed it, just a little bit.

He looked at her, a sad look playing across handsome features. He watched as the life slowly drained from her slight form, lying crumpled upon the wet, stone-cold floor. He watched as he chest rose and fell with every shallow breath she took. And as he watched her, a foreign feeling stirred within his body. A feeling he knew was called guilt. But he wasn't supposed to be feeling guilty. It shouldn't bother him that he was the reason that the beauty in front of him slept. He shouldn't care that he was the one who trapped her in the nightmarish world of her unconscious horror-filled existence. He should be troubled by the fact that he was draining her life, little by little from her comatose form, and leading her into her premature death. He shouldn't care one single bit that he was betraying her trust in him. He shouldn't feel guilty but strangely enough he did. This pale child in front of him had once been a vibrant witch. Now she was only a shell of that former life, though no less endearing.

He shook his head slightly, trying to rid himself of those bothersome thoughts. The girl really was more trouble than she was worth. With a last glance at her, he quickly strode off into a wing in this hidden chamber. Soon, very soon he would be full and alive again. Her life force would soon give him life. He took another step than stopped. For the first time in his life he was afraid to kill someone. It was just the way, the way her eyes shone when she cried over that miserable boy. It made his insides clench and it made him feel uneasy and uncomfortable. She was beautiful, tragically beautiful and somehow, someway it hurt him deeply to know that she gave her heart away to a boy who didn't see the amazing witch in front of him. She was strong, beautiful and proud. He caused her so much pain, made her cry so many tears, and yet he was oblivious to her love for him and all the heartbreak he had subjected her to. If anything, the boys obliviousness to this girl's loved fueled his hate and anger even more. He didn't know why.

And he didn't want to know why. Some things were just better left unknown, as some things were better off left unsaid. Yet he couldn't get her out his mind. He constantly thought of her as he wasted away in the blasted journal he was trapped in. He could almost hate himself for making her do such horrid things. Almost, but deep down he knew that if he ever wanted to breathe freely again those things had to be done. He had to betray her, his only friend. It was quite funny how his only friend would come to him in the form of an eleven-year-old witch.

He slowly made his way back into the large chamber. There she was. She lay there, looking so pale and so fragile and innocent. He would regret this, killing her, but then again it had to be done. There were some things he just couldn't change, like his feelings for this young girl. Slowly he bent down beside her. Her skin looked so soft, but as he slowly trailed his fingers down her cheek, he felt the icy coldness of it all. Her freckles stood out harshly against such pallid skin. He sighed quietly, thinking of how warm her body had once been. And he remembered how willingly she gave into him; her will to fight had already been extinguished long before. She scared him. It scared him how easily she accepted her fate. Her willingness and almost eagerness as she gave into her impending death frightened him greatly. No one her age should ever wish for death. An eleven-year-old girl wished for death and he, a sixteen-year-old boy wished for life. In the end they would grant each other's wishes.

He stared at her motionless body, and silently brought his head down to hers. His actions surprised himself and if she had been conscious he knew she would have also been surprised and flustered. He could almost see the blush that would creep up onto her face, coloring it the color of her hair. A shadow of a smile appeared on his face, playing softly against her frozen lips, at the thought of the flush he knew would have come. Would have. Their moment, he knew not how long it had lasted but for him it felt like multiple lifetimes. It felt like eternity and then some. Yet all to soon he had to leave her frozen side. He gave an icy hand one last squeeze before disappearing. Waiting for the boy he knew was coming. After all he heard the echoing footsteps reverberating through the once-silent chamber. Soon the precious girl would be dead and he would be very much alive. She would no longer exist as a mere shadow; walking through these stonewalls that chained them both to their lonely lives. In a matter of moments she would be dead, and that moment between them, for it was only a moment, would never come again...

Ginny woke from her slumber with a start. Her common brown eyes were wide with surprise and her fiery hair cascaded down her shoulders in soft waves as she hastily sat up. She quickly tried to quiet her heavy, not to mention loud, breathing as not to wake her dorm mates, at this ungodly hour of night. After all it was only 3:27 in the bloody morning. She knew her dorm mates would kill her if she woke them up. So she tried to calm her irregular breathing and slow her rapidly beating heart.

But in all honesty it worried and even scared her that she was still having dreams- yes dreams, not nightmares- about him, even after six years. Dreams about him: her Tom. It was most decidedly not healthy for her to harbor any feelings for the boy who had broken her fragile young heart when he betrayed her.

In her dreams she would remember his soft, caressing touch as he wiped away he near-always present tears. She remembered his low murmurs; the promises that everything would be okay and her pain would soon be over. Even now she wished to give into the memory of those words, to finally allow this constant pain to be over. But she couldn't give in, not now, because now she knew those words he had fed her, they were lies. If anything those promises of healing brought quite the opposite. They only brought more pain.

But even as she wanted to hate him for breaking her heart, for falsely leading her down a trail to fabricated happiness, she couldn't find it in her heart to do so. Because he dreams include the feeling of his body as he held her tightly, as if letting go would allow her to disappear. He dreams included him running long fingers through her silky curtain of fiery hair, softly placing his warm lips on her, pale, freezing ones. Ginny had no recollection of these events ever happening. Yet still she knew they did occur once, even if it were her unconscious mind that remembered them. These seconds of physical contact with Tom were far from make-believe. They had to be!

It scared slightly how desperately she needed to know those memories were real. She treasured these dreamt memories as the few moments when Tom showed his real human side. But even as she remembered this black-haired beauty another raven-haired hero entered her mind. She remembered how she had endlessly rambled on and on about that boy to Tom. She had loved him. She had kissed him, well at least last year they had kissed. And now in her mind she could see who was superior and who was inferior. She had loved Harry Potter- at least with her mind. She loved what they could become together. But it was Tom Marvolo Riddle who so easily stole her heart. Harry's long passionate kisses could never compare to Tom's single bittersweet kiss that lasted mere seconds. If she had ever loved Harry she loved Tom one hundred times more. If Harry had caught her eye, then Tom had caught her heart. She had always thought Harry Potter had broken her heart that year but know Ginny realized that it was the mysterious, lonely, and handsome Tom Riddle who had caused that heartbreak. But for some reason she had the odd sensation that he had truly cared for her. She had a feeling that if her Tom were still alive today he would deeply regret all the pain he had caused her. She knew he would.

And with the bittersweet knowledge, that even after all the boys she had dated, the one that managed to still hold her heart captive was the one boy who she was prematurely deprived of, she lay her head to rest. At least she had told Tom she loved him. Loved him as she still, sadly enough, did. She had done so everyday, in every entry in that little black book, beginning with 'Dear Diary' and ending with 'Love, Ginny'. And so Ginny Weasley slept peacefully the rest of the night. She knew she would once again be plagued with dreams of him. She always would, after all you never forgot your first love. And once again, during her serene slumber, she filled Tom's image of Sleeping Beauty.

Well I hope you enjoyed this fic and please review as it would be greatly appreciated.

-Frozen-Passion-