Title: She Wasn't Crying Anymore
Author: NauticalAcronym
Universe: Harry Potter
Summary: A short snippet after the ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets. Implied rape.
She Wasn't Crying Anymore
She wasn't crying anymore; just shaking. She was shaking and shaking and trying to forget why she was sitting in the hospital wing, why she was waiting for Madam Pomfrey to come back and not leave her in the shadowed infirmary feeling so alone; so awfully alone.
It's okay Ginny, everything will be okay…
That's what he would have said, but he wasn't here now; never would be. She should have been thankful for his absence after having him constantly there throughout the whole year. She should be glad to be alone.
Tom had been different at first: Nice. He had listened when she cried and wrote her back such sweet and lovely things. She almost fell in love with him.
Almost.
Then he asked her all sorts of things that didn't make her feel loved or wanted or even good. He asked her for everything and she couldn't help but give it to him. Not even when he dug his hand into her thigh leaving fingertip bruises on her goose-bumped skin.
Professor Snape had performed a few medic spells before taking her to the infirmary; before he noticed the marred skin of her legs; before he retrieved Madam Pomfrey and gave the mediwitch a look Ginny couldn't fathom. And that's when she had stopped crying, but try as she might she couldn't stop shaking. She couldn't stop shaking and shaking and trying to forget.
"Do you think he took advantage of the girl, Severus?" The headmaster asked with a distinct lack of twinkle behind his eyes. His voice was soft, but strained.
"He touched her, Albus, but how far it went, well…" he broke off looking about the room with a sort of stoic discomfiture. He quickly turned it to a look of apathy, "I'm uncertain."
Albus removed his glasses and rubbed his tired wrinkles trying to find some sort of ease from their stretch and release. The Gryffindor head of house spoke up. Her worry was evident in every syllable.
"She's eleven, Severus! Just a girl yet! A quiet and shy girl, at that. Do you really think…?" They were all quiet. He would never have mentioned it if he didn't think it were a possibility.
"And Harry?" Albus asked just as much to break the quiet as to find out how the young boy was fairing.
"Asleep and recuperating from his adventure." Snape sneered, letting his disgust with the boy drip into every syllable
"That is good," the headmaster nodded, "that is good."
"But… Miss Weasley," Minerva began again, "this whole ordeal must have been terrifying for her. He made her do terrible things, Albus, things that I very much doubt she agreed to."
"And yet she will most likely believe that they are somehow her own failings." Dumbledore supplied keeping his eyes on the strange objects that littered his desk-top. "Tom was always capable of making even the strongest of people do terrible things. Miss Weasley is not the first to be manipulated by him and, as we know, will not be the last."
"Headmaster?" A quiet voice from the door snatched away the attention from the conversation. Poppy Pomfrey stood in the doorway with a rare timid look creasing her brows.
"Yes, Poppy?"
"If I may have Severus for a moment? I fear the girl is going to need some dreamless sleep tonight." The Headmaster nodded to the younger man, signaling that he may go. Severus rose from his chair swiftly and exited the room with Poppy. She issued a quiet "thank you" as they departed.
With the Potions Master gone the two sat in tense silence. They touched their quite forgotten, cold tea to their lips, but made no complaint.
"Young Miss Weasley will most likely require dreamless sleep for more than tonight." Albus stated. Minerva let her head fall into her upturned hands and, for the first time throughout this ordeal, allowed herself to cry.
END