A/N: For the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
Team: Holyhead Harpies
Position: Chaser 1
Prompts: Notebook, Pretence, Dialogue: "But would you have it any other way?"
Loosely based on the Lyrics:
"I give up, I give in
To the whole of your skin
(I give up, I give in Am I doing this again?)"
- This Heart, Mary Lambert
People ask her all the time what was it really like to be possessed by Lord Voldemort?
But to tell you the truth, Ginny didn't really know. It was like jotting her feelings down in a notebook. Except for one crucial detail, getting replies back.
She fell in love with Tom Riddle. What wasn't to love about him? He was charming and made Ginny feel like she wasn't just the freaky girl who had a crush on Harry Potter.
Ginny didn't remember much from her first year. She'd made a few good friends near the start of the year. Colin Creevey with his camera and obsession and Poppy Kent who also liked Harry.
She'd heard Ron's jokes about the Harry Potter Fan Club. It hurt her more than she ever let on. Ginny wanted to be taken seriously for once. She wasn't just another Weasley, she had her own personality but people just ignored her. After Bill and Percy the Head Boys and Charlie the Quidditch Captain who would give her a look in. Even Fred and George who had more detentions than the rest of the fourth year put together and Ron, who's the best friend of Harry freaking Potter, the boy who lived, had all made more of a name for themselves than Ginny.
She'd almost given up pretending that Harry liked her. He was obviously more interested in popular girls who had long pretty hair and skinny figures than Ginny with her bright red hair and chubby build.
She was saved by Tom Riddle the night she found the diary. It was just there in her Transfiguration book the night she'd first read it.
It was blank of course and she was confused for a while before she tried to write in it. Just like Harry would be a few months later, she was shocked at what Tom could do.
He opened up a new world to her where she could escape the worry and misery of the outside world. Mrs Weasley would probably have called it an unhealthy addiction but Ginny had found love at last.
She started to confide in Tom Riddle's memory, writing about how her brothers teased her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, and how she thought that Harry would never like her. She poured her heart out to the diary, and told Tom's memory all about Harry's story.
Tom listened to her not like everyone else. He was happy to let her pour out her thoughts and feelings to him. But of course he was.
Her love for Tom, some people might have found weird. He was a ghost after all. That's why she told no one. She probably would've confided in Bill, her favourite brother, if it wasn't for the glee she felt at finally having a secret of her own that she could keep to herself. Having six brothers who all shared secrets and when Ginny asked them what it was ,telling her it was "boy's stuff Gin" had made her feel left out as a child, so she leaped at the chance to have a secret of her own.
By the start of October, the signs of the influence began to show on Ginny. She started to look peaky, but a spate of colds in the school covered up the true nature of her condition. Her brother Percy forced her to take Pepperup Potion to get her over it.
By 31 October, the memory of Tom Riddle was able to take full control of Ginny and used her to open the Chamber of Secrets, releasing the basilisk, which then petrified Mrs Norris. Ginny was in his power and she was powerless to resist his charms.
Following the attack, Ginny seemed upset over Mrs Norris, and her brothers put it down to the fact that she was a cat-lover.
She opened the Chamber of Secrets another two times, resulting in the petrification of Colin Creevey and Justin Finch-Fletchley.
She became more visibly upset, and again, her brothers put it down to other causes - she sat next to Colin in Charms, and that she was worried that Ron might be expelled if he got in trouble.
Fred and George attempted to cheer her up, but went about it the wrong way by leaping out at her from behind statues covered in fur or boils which annoyed her to no end (and scared her too, but she would never admit that to her brothers)
Ginny thought she was going mad as she woke up with rooster feathers all over her and she couldn't remember where she had been for long periods of time. Big blank black, patches in her memory that she couldn't figure out.
So of course she tried to dispose of the diary. She was scared and frightened of it so she flushed it in the girl's bathroom. No one would no she had been involved and everything would blow over after a while. Of course it would, no one could find that diary, could they?
But then Harry claimed the diary, as Ginny found out when his bag split open on Valentine's Day. She was so scared that he would find out about her dark secret that she ransacked his dormitory and got the diary back.
Ginny then opened the chamber, once again under Tom's control and this time petrified Hermione Granger one of Harry's friends
Becoming terrified, Ginny tried to tell Harry and Ron what was going on but could not get the words out and she was interrupted by Percy who gave her the excuse not to.
Tom made Ginny write a farewell on a corridor wall, and then enter the Chamber of Secrets to die after he knew that Harry would come to save her.
She had poured so much of her life into the diary that she could not fight Tom's control of her, and the last thing she remembered as she lay down on the floor of the Chamber was Tom coming out of the diary.
The memory of Tom Riddle had fed off her, gaining enough strength to become corporeal. As Tom grew stronger, the life in Ginny faded away until she slipped into an unconscious state.
She nearly lost her life in the chamber that night, before she woke up to Harry shaking her and saying her name. The floor of the chamber covered in some inky dark stuff that clung to her hair and robes.
She revealed what had happened terrified and scared as Harry tried his best to comfort her as Fawkes cleaned his wound. What would her Mother say? Dad had told her "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain!" Ginny was in so much trouble.
They headed back to the entrance of the Chamber and that was where the story ended.
Ginny tried her best to forget about Tom Riddle. He was patient, kind, understanding, like a friend she could carry around in her pocket. But most of all her cared about her enough to write back, even if it was only for a while.
She dated a few other men after that, Dean, Michael and finally married Harry Potter five years later after seven years of pretence, lies and giving up at school.
A year later she retired from her successful job as Chaser for the Harpies (A/N: Go Harpies!) where she was finally noticed as a person and not just one of seven kids.
She had three children James, Albus and Lily. James and Al were mini Harry's in the making. But Lily Luna Potter was just like Ginny in every way. Except maybe a little fiercer.
As she grew old she never forgot her first love Tom Marvolo Riddle. In a way she still harboured feelings for him, the first that listened and understood her better than anyone.
She sometimes regretted her first year and relationship with Tom but one sentence from Harry always changed her mind.
"But would you have it any other way?"
A/N: Thanks for reading this! I really appreciate all the help I received from my teammates and especially ReadingStar who betaed this for me.
So Review please I'd be really glad as a review makes my day!
Thanks xx to everyone!
GO HARPIES!