Attack of the Invisible Psychic Vampire.
Harry rolled over in his sleep, and his usually comfortable bed seemed to feel quite odd. In fact, for some reason, he didn't seem to be able to roll over at all. Harry squirmed for a bit and his hand flailed into a fleshy object. A face to be precise, as the hit person cried out in pain.
"Ouch!"
That woke them both up.
"Ginny!"
"Harry!"
"What are you doing here?" They both asked. "What am I doing here?"
Harry looked down. They had been lying on some sort of netting strung between the tops of four trees. They were so high up that in the darkness, they couldn't see the ground.
"Where are we?" The confused duo asked each other.
Ginny pulled herself onto one of the trees and climbed up. Hanging on, she could see in all directions over the forest canopy.
"We're in the Forbidden Forest." Ginny said. "The castle is that way." Ginny pointed.
"Hmm." Harry mused, helping her down. "I'm very confused here. I can't remember how I got here."
"You can't?" Ginny looked extremely worried. "Neither can I."
It was then, after they got over their initial shock of being in the Forbidden Forest with no idea how they got there, they realised just how cold it was, being the end of Winter.
"We'll have to solve the mystery at some other time. Right now we need to get somewhere warm." Harry advised. Ginny nodded, and checked her overcoat for her wand. Harry found his as well.
Harry climbed onto a tree first, and Ginny followed. They began a descent to the ground.
Harry was secretly amazed at how nimble Ginny was being. She was normally utterly clumsy, yet here she was, fluidly moving from branch to branch as though she were a natural at it.
Ginny was the first person down on the ground, and Harry dropped down next to her a second later. It was far darker down on the forest floor, so they cast lighting charms.
Eyes darting in every direction at every second, Harry and Ginny kept their charms as dim as they could to avoid attracting unwanted attentions. Firenze and Hagrid were the only beings he wanted to find them; Hagrid was probably asleep in his hut, and in a Forest this large, who knew where the Centaurs were.
The walk was nervy, yet largely uneventful for awhile. Then, as Harry was pushing his way through some underbrush, he turned and realised Ginny wasn't right behind him.
"Ginny? You okay?" Harry asked, as Ginny had stopped about seven metres behind him.
Ginny swayed on the spot and steadied herself against a nearby tree. Her lit wand, which had been pointing in no particular direction, started to move to aim at Harry. The light dimmed, and vanished.
Harry strengthened the output of his Lumos Charm and trotted towards Ginny, who looked disoriented.
Then Ginny's face seemed to change slightly, as if she, for one second, was no longer confused.
"HAAAAAAAAARRRRRRY! RUN!" Ginny screamed at the top of her voice.
Harry spun on the spot, half expecting a snarling beast to come charging out of the darkness. He then pelted towards Ginny, but she had already taken off away from him.
Ginny turned her head while still running - she was fast, and aimed a spell over her shoulder. It smashed into the base of a tree trunk, and the tree toppled over right in front of where Harry was running.
That didn't make any sense to Harry. Ginny was looking at him when she told him to run, so whatever they were running from must have been somewhere behind him. Why would she cut him off like that? Glancing behind him, Harry couldn't see anything coming though. What was happening?
Harry ran around the tree, but Ginny had already gotten away. Harry slowed down as he searched for her.
Treading as softly as he could, Harry strained his senses to detect any sign of Ginny's whereabouts. After what seemed to him like hours – but must have only been a few minutes, Harry found her, on the ground, sobbing and babbling about how 'she wouldn't do it.'
"Ginny!" Harry knelt next to her and pulled her shoulders up. "It's okay. I'm here." Harry didn't know what help he could bring though. He couldn't comprehend what was happening – let alone stop it.
Ginny then let out a tormented, soul-wrenching scream, before falling absolutely, horribly silent and still.
Then she stopped breathing. Harry reached into her mouth – it was clear.
Then, she took in a great, heaving breath, and began to breathe again.
"Ginny. Ginny, wake up."
But for some reason, she wouldn't wake.
Harry needed to get her away from here. With great effort, he picked her up and carried her out of the forest.
It was a hard task, as he was a stringy boy, and her dead weight made him stumble and struggle through the forest. He couldn't use his wand to light the way. All the way, he felt certain that he'd collapse and fail Ginny, but somehow he made it out next to Hagrid's hut.
Harry placed Ginny next to him and smashed on Hagrid's door.
"HAGRID!"
Hagrid opened the door, took one look at Ginny then swept her up in his arms and laid her on the bed.
"What are you two doin' out here?" Hagrid asked. "At this 'our of the night."
Harry explained what had happened as best he could. He realised he had an idea of what might've happened to Ginny.
"In Voyages with Vampires, Lockhart described a Vampire who went around draining people of psychic energy and causing nightmares. Do you think a Psychic Vampire could've attacked Ginny?" Harry asked.
"Lockhart's a great buffoon." Hagrid said. Harry totally agreed. "Psychic Vampires don't go around causing nightmares. They feed off magical force, which they convert into sustenance, much like Vampires with drinkin' blood. They don't want to kill you. They make you feel as though you've cast a difficult charm or summat. No, something else did this to lil' Ginny, that I can be sure of."
A second later, Hagrid opened the door to the knocking of Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall.
McGonagall looked fretful as she took in Ginny's inert form and Harry's messy demeanour. Dumbledore, though, was far calmer, and he strode over and began waving his wand intricately over Ginny, whilst Harry explained to his disbelieving head of house what had transpired.
"I'm not saying I don't believe you, Potter, but it's all very extraordinary. Headmaster, should we be getting Miss Weasley to the Hospital Wing?"
"I'm afraid not, Minerva. There's nothing Poppy can do for her."
Professor McGonagall placed her hand on her mouth.
"Ginny's going to be okay?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore turned towards him. "I do not know. It is miraculous that she survived at all."
"But – she looks fine." Harry pointed out.
"It is not her body that was been attacked." Dumbledore said, looking sadly down at Ginny. "She may never wake at all."
Professor McGonagall gasped and placed her hand on her mouth again. "I'd best inform her family." She said thickly.
Dumbledore nodded, as the first rays of morning sunlight streamed through Hagrid's windows.
Dumbledore was frowning to himself, seemingly in deep concentration. Harry was miserable, his head between his pulled-up knees, sitting on one of Hagrid's barrels. Hagrid was cursing whatever foul entity could do such a thing to an innocent little girl.
"Hagrid….what am I doing here?"
Six words caused a hilarious series of events. Harry toppled off the barrel he was sitting on. Hagrid gasped and fell backwards, and for once in his life Dumbledore looked numbed.
"GINNY!" Harry pelted over to her side. "How're you feeling. Are you okay?"
"I'm a little confused." Ginny replied, her face a fetching shade of light pink. "I don't remember how I got here." Ginny then turned to the Headmaster. "Professor, is anyone hurt?"
"Amazingly, it would appear not, Miss Weasley." Dumbledore said, still in shock. "Why do you ask?"
"Because it happened before." Ginny said. "And I could never remember where I was."
"How many times has this happened?"
Ginny began counting off. "Twice tonight and four times before that."
Dumbledore looked thoughtfully at her.
"Did these occasions coincide with the Petrifactions?" Dumbledore asked gently.
Ginny nodded. "Yes sir. Except once – the first time."
"You should know; that just because you don't know where you were or what you were doing, it doesn't make you guilty."
Ginny's downcast face looked up, as Dumbledore addressed her fear.
"In this case, however, I know you are innocent, because I know who the culprit is. And I believe I am getting closer to unravelling how he is managing to unleash the Monster of Slytherin.
"You know who the Heir of Slytherin is?" Harry asked. "I knew Tom was wrong."
"Tom?" Dumbledore asked. "Tom Riddle?"
"Yes sir. I found his diary in…" Harry paused, then flushed and continued on. "Moaning Myrtle's bathroom – you know, where Mrs Norris was petrified. He told me that…" Harry paused. "Someone had been expelled for opening the Chamber of Secrets and that he'd been given a Special Services award for it. I thought he'd been mistaken, though."
"What was this Diary like?" Dumbledore asked Harry, while Ginny sat, white faced in the corner.
"Well, when you wrote in it, the ink would vanish and it would write back to you. It was completely blank."
"On the surface, a spell like that is harmless enough. It's similar to the ones we use on our paintings. But if I know Tom, and I do all too well, that's not where he would have left it."
"No sir, he showed me what happened the night he caught the supposed heir."
"How did he do that?"
"Well, it was like I was sucked into the book and I landed in Hogwarts when he was at School, but I couldn't interact with anything."
Dumbledore sagged and looked completely aged, instead of the majestic demeanour he usually conveyed.
"The charms we use for that don't allow the object to take control of the outside world. No memory should be able to manipulate itself like that."
Dumbledore sighed. "Do you have the diary, Harry?"
"It should be back in my dorm."
"We need to retrieve it with the greatest haste." Dumbledore made to strode out the door, and Harry and Ginny followed him.
They met the Weasleys in the entrance hall.
"It takes more than invisible ghosty attacks to keep a Weasley down!" The Twins cheered, pulling Ginny onto their shoulders and carrying her away.
"FRED! GEORGE!" Ginny squealed, while the twins began singing nonsensically at tops of their voices.
Harry and Dumbledore went up to Harry's dorm. But the Diary was no longer there.
EPILOGUE: ( A few minutes previously)
It is hard to describe the sensations a Horcrux feels. But having been strengthened through corresponding with Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter, Tom Riddle was able to do things with the diary that held him. He sensed the presence of something he could use to facilitate his return. Something he felt an odd connection with…as if Lord Voldemort, in his future, had linked himself with it.
Tom projected his consciousness into his target.
"I'm a rat?" Tom demanded, as he took in his new mind. "Lord Voldemort connected himself with a rat?" But Tom probed the mind… Then he made contact with the humanity in the rat. It was an Animagus. This changed everything. Tom laughed to himself; this wizard was weaker than that pathetic weakling Ginny Weasley. It had taken him months and she was giving him everything he needed to know and built up an emotional attachment to him.
Tom Riddle probed everything he needed to know in a few seconds. As a rat, Pettigrew's miserable defences were weaker still.
"Now Wormtail, your master has returned." Riddle thought.