AN: one shot written for the QLFC week 5
Position prompt: Beater 1: (Dream Sequence Dimension) Write about a dream that continued happening even after the character woke up.
Additional prompts used:
Prompt 4:(Emotion) Determination
Prompt 6:(Pairing) Tom Riddle/Voldemort x Ginny Weasley
Thanks to my fellow Puddlemere united team members for beta-ing. (i will edit in names later, when i figure out who has, as a lot of you did)
word count 2717
Ginny looked around. For the first time since starting Hogwarts, she felt safe. The grass was nice and green, and best of all, it still smelled freshly cut. The sun was shining, making it warm outside, but not too hot. The cool breeze helped with that. She wasn't sure when she had come outside, but Ginny was sure that she needed to go back inside soon. With a huff, she stood up from the grass and slowly made her way to the castle. After all, there was no reason to rush.
When she arrived at the castle, she immediately noticed how quiet it was. That wasn't normal. Usually, the castle would be alive with chatter from other students. This time she could not hear a single thing, not even a whisper.
Ginny slowly made her way to the Great Hall. When she opened the door, the room was empty with the exception of one boy. The boy was seated at the Slytherin table, and looked to be around fifteen years old. At first, Ginny dismissed him. After all, he was just a mere boy. She walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down ready for food to arrive, or other people, either would be fine with her. She was almost glad when the Slytherin boy started to move. It wasn't until the boy turned around that Ginny recognized him. It was Tom Riddle. A person she had hoped to never have to see again.
Ginny turned towards the door, hoping someone else would walk in, but no one did. Ginny was on her own, with the boy that had ruined her first year at Hogwarts. She was rooted to the spot, unsure of what to do. How could he be here? This didn't make sense.
"Hello, little Gryff. Surprised to see me?"
No, it couldn't be him. The diary had been destroyed. They had gotten rid of him. Ginny was starting to panic. She had to get away. She had to find help.
Ginny had never gotten out of the Great Hall as fast as she did this time, but no matter where she went Tom seemed to have arrived there before her. The common room, the lake, the library, even the Room of Requirement. As soon as she arrived at a location, Tom was there, smirking at her. How dare he. How dare he show up and just laugh at her. Ginny kept running, trying to find a location without Tom.
In fact, she was so busy looking around trying to avoid him, that she didn't see the stairs in front of her until it was too late. With a loud scream Ginny tripped and went rolling down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she couldn't move. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Tom's face.
It took Ginny a few minutes to realise that she was in the hospital wing when she woke. She looked around in panic until she saw Madam Pomfrey. "Good morning Ms. Weasley, did you sleep well?"
Ginny wasn't sure whether to shake her head or not; after all, it was just a dream. There was no need to worry Madam Pomfrey. She just hoped that time would heal. After all, that was why she was going home early—so that she could recover in peace. She would be missing the exams, but Dumbledore assured her that she would be fine to continue onto her second year.
"If you're sure," Madam Pomfrey replied, sounding unsure. "You had a pretty rough night. Anyway, your parents will be here to collect you just before lunchtime, so try to rest before then."
Once again Ginny nodded, relief on her face that the matron didn't ask any more questions.
Ginny leaned back into her pillows, happy that it was over. She would be going home soon. Next year would be a new year, a new start. Just as Ginny was about to close her eyes and see if she could sleep some more, a voice appeared in her head, "Good morning, little Gryff."
Ginny could have screamed. It couldn't be, he couldn't be here.
"No, we got rid of you. You're dead!" Ginny yelled inside her head. "You can't be here anymore." But he was: even though the diary had been destroyed, Tom Riddle hadn't.
By the time her parents arrived, Ginny was exhausted from her argument with Tom. She flew into her mother's arms, crying. "He's still here, I slept badly because of him, and even now he's still talking to me."
Her mother gave her a big hug, and tried to comfort her, but there wasn't a lot she could say. After all, having nightmares was normal. "Let's get you home. You'll probably be more relaxed there."
Ginny hoped her mum was right, that it was just her not being able to relax. Maybe at home, she would stop hearing him.
But it was wishful thinking. That night he reappeared in her dreams.
As Ginny was walking towards the lake, she could see a figure already sitting there. That was weird, she was sure that she and her mum were home alone. Her father had gone to work, and her brothers were either at school or in a different country. She had left her mum in the kitchen when she went out for some fresh air. As she got closer, she could see that the boy was older than Fred and George, but younger than Percy. It wasn't until the boy turned around that she could tell that it was Tom Riddle.
It couldn't be, not at home. This is where she was supposed to be safe. Ginny was about to turn around and leave when Tom spoke. "You don't have to leave because of me, you know. This is your house."
Ginny wanted to walk away, but she was so annoyed and angry at Tom that she couldn't help but reply. "Why would I want to stay here? You are here! I want to be somewhere alone, where I feel safe. And that isn't here, because of you."
Tom laughed. "I'll be wherever you are, little Gryff. That is part of the deal now. We're stuck together."
Ginny couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. Harry had destroyed the diary. Tom was supposed to be gone. "No, Harry destroyed your diary," Ginny replied. "You came back because of the diary. The diary is now gone, so you should be gone too." Once again Tom laughed. Ginny hated his laugh. It was a 'you are so stupid' laugh. And Ginny wasn't stupid.
"Well, Harry obviously didn't do a good enough job, did he? He may have destroyed the diary, but he didn't destroy me. I'm here to stay, little Gryff. You better get used to it."
Ginny woke up with a scream. It couldn't be true. She couldn't be stuck with him forever. She had to find a way to get rid of him. As it was late enough that her mum would be up by now, Ginny decided to get up and start her day. the sooner she started, the sooner she would find a way to get rid of Tom.
It wasn't until Ginny started looking through the books that the family owned that Tom started to insert himself into her thoughts.
"You really think these books will help you?" The laughing voice of Tom appeared in her head as she stood looking at the bookshelf. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Tom was probably right. The Weasleys didn't own a lot of books. Most of the books they owned were either presents that they had received or books that were on the prescribed booklist for Hogwarts from when her parents had attended the school
Even with the sinking feeling that Tom was right, she wouldn't give up. If she didn't try, she wouldn't succeed. And she was determined to succeed. She refused to have him in her head for the rest of her life.
Even though he tried to convince her that it was pointless to look through the books, Ginny still went through them. No one was going to stop her.
At first Ginny sat on the sofa to read, but after her mum took away her book and kicked her out to get fresh air one too many times, Ginny took to taking her book outside and reading under a tree. At that point her only distraction was Tom complaining in her head.
Ginny quickly got into a routine. She would get up, have breakfast and go outside to read. The nights were also getting consistent. Every night she would be joined in her dreams by Tom; at first they just argued, but now, they occasionally just sat next to each other. Tom wouldn't leave her alone, but Ginny kept trying to ignore him.
By the end of June, Ginny had managed to read through all the books in the Burrow, but hadn't found anything. Combined with the nerves of her brothers coming back home, the next day kept Ginny on edge that night, and it showed in her dreams.
Ginny was sitting next to the lake, staring into the distance. She hadn't even realized that Tom had joined her next to the lake.
"Can I say told you so?" he asked sounding smug. Ginny hated the sound of it.
"No, you can't. The answer might not be in one of those books, but the answer will be in a book."
Tom sighed. Why did Ginny have to be so stubborn?
Ginny looked over at Tom. "Why is this such a big thing for you? I'm reading my books. It's not my fault that you're in my head."
Ginny was actually interested in the answer—it might help her work out how to get him to stop bugging her. The answer did surprise her, however. "I already know everything that you are reading. This stuff is boring for me."
Ginny nodded, understanding, mulling the answer over. It might be boring for him, but at the end of the day, it was new to her. Hopefully she would find something in her brothers' books.
There was excitement in the air the next day as Ginny was getting ready to go to the train station with her mum. She wasn't sure if she was more excited to see her brothers, or the fact that it would mean more books to read. Ginny managed to give everyone the vibes of everything being okay, even through the comments from Tom, "And you are happy for them to be home why? They seem like annoying people. Wow, they are loud." But Ginny just ignored him, she was too happy.
Her happiness lasted, but the excitement didn't. She quickly discovered that the books belonging to her brothers, just like Tom had predicted, didn't help.
She was really annoyed that she couldn't get to a library to do more research, and was close to begging her mum for books.
Luckily for her, before she mentioned it, her parents told all of them that they would be going to Egypt with money from the Daily Prophet raffle. Ginny was relieved. Bill worked with cursed items, he must have books for her to look through. The hope that she was starting to lose came back. She would find a way to get rid of Tom. She had to. Bill would know the answer. Bill was her big brother, the one who was there for her every single time.
Ginny couldn't wait for the trip, and luckily she didn't need to wait long. Before she knew it, the whole family was ready and leaving for Egypt. The relief that Ginny felt was massive; Bill would help her. He would fix it. He always did.
Unfortunately for Ginny there wasn't a lot of time to read or look for books. The days were spent exploring and sightseeing. The scariest moment of the trip was when they went into a pyramid, and Ginny was so busy looking at everything that she missed the group going on. She followed the only path she could, until she came to a split in paths. She didn't know where to go. She was stuck in this pyramid. What if they didn't find her? She would die in here. No, she couldn't. Left or right? Left or right? Right. She took a step forward. "STOP!" Ginny froze. "What, why?"
"It's a trap. Slowly go back." Ginny backed up. She wasn't sure if she could trust him, but she wasn't going to risk it.
"Ginny! Ginny!" That sounded like Bill. "Bill?"
Bill came around the corner. Relief flooded over Ginny. "Oh, Bill, I was so scared. I got left behind, and didn't know which route to take and…"
"Shush, now. You're safe. It's a good thing you didn't go off on your own. That other path still has a trap in it." The tears left Ginny's eyes. She couldn't believe that Tom saved her. She was crying so hard that Bill had to carry her out of the pyramid.
That evening, Ginny went to find Bill. "Do you have any books about cursed objects?"
Bill gave her a weird look, but before he could answer their mum came into the room and dragged Ginny to bed.
"Why did you save me?" she asked Tom. He didn't have to save her. She felt so relieved that she had nearly hugged him as a thanks. He was the only reason that she was still alive.
"If you die, I die," was the simple reply. "I have done a lot to try and live, and that hasn't changed. I do still want to live. It isn't what I imagined, but if I can keep you alive long enough for you to find a way to solve this then that is what I'll do."
It was partly reassuring to Ginny, but at the same time not. At least she knew he wouldn't do anything that would get her killed. As much as Ginny didn't want to, she was starting to trust him again—not as much as with the diary, but still a little.
Ginny didn't get around to looking through Bill's books, but she did get a book on cursed items from Bill for her birthday. She didn't get any further to finding out how to get rid of him, but she did enjoy her holiday. Bill made sure of that. Her dreams improved now that it wasn't hostile with Tom anymore. The last day of the holidays, the Weasleys left for England. They stayed in the Leaky Cauldron for the night, but for the first time since the chambers incident she felt safe.
Ginny was sitting at the lake at the Burrow again, the place where she always met with Tom. "So, back to Hogwarts tomorrow." It wasn't a question, but a statement. Still Ginny nodded. Hogwarts meant she could get back to research. The hard part would be combining it with the normal school work.
"You know I could help you?" Tom said from next to her, as if he could read her mind. Ginny guessed he could, he was stuck in her mind after all.
"Oh, how and why?" She might trust him, but not enough to just take everything at face value.
"I help you with your homework, saving you time. Instead you can spend the time on research. Finding a way to end this without you killing me."
Ginny nodded—it wasn't a bad deal. After all, she needed time to research how to get rid of him. And when she's researching she doesn't know what she'll find, but the first method that would and up not killing her she would do. If that meant keeping Tom alive, she didn't care. As long as he was out of her mind. She would search, but she couldn't promise to find a solution. But it would help both of them. And at this point that was the most important thing. The rest of the dream was spent just sitting next to each other next to the lake. Both of them were enjoying the moment. They didn't know what the future held, but they were in it together.