Disclaimer: None of the characters or places that are found in the first five Harry Potter books belong to me. The plot is mine and I might introduce some of my own characters.

Chapter one: Painful Memories

"What? The essay on giants that Professor Binns told us to do last week is for tomorrow?" cried Ginny, jumping to her feet.

"Yeah," replied Colin Creevey, who was sitting beside her in the common room. "Remember, he said it would be the last work to count in this term's report card. You've started it, haven't you?" he asked.

"No, I haven't," replied Ginny, panicking. "I've completely forgotten. How could I? And I promised my mom I'd have good marks in history this year. I can't believe I've forgotten this paper," she repeated.

"Probably because Hallowe'en approaching, you know, it must have slipped out of your mind."

"I should have done it this week-end instead of going to Hogsmeade with Luna."

"Well, didn't you go to buy your costume for the Hallowe'en ball?" asked Colin. He didn't want Ginny to feel too guilty.

"That's not the point right now," answered Ginny, pacing up and down in front of Colin. "How long has the paper got to be?"

"Between three and four feet of parchment," he replied.

Ginny swore under her breath. "That bloody paper is going to make me fail history. And since I'm not that good in potions either.this report card is going to be disastrous, unless."

"Unless?" asked Colin.

"I'm going to work all night, until I've finished my essay. I won't sleep 'til I'm done with it," she replied firmly. And she headed to her dormitory.

"Wait!" cried Colin, running after her after grabbing his books he had been studying in the common room. Ginny stopped at once and looked at him, wondering what he wanted. "I don't usually do this, but I can't let you work during the whole night once more. Here's my essay," he said, taking a roll of parchment out of one of his books. "You can copy but put the sentences in your own words."

"You're an angel," said Ginny, hugging him. She really wasn't expecting Colin to let her copy. Then she added, taking the essay, "Well, I think I should get started right now."

"Good night, Ginny, and take care," said Colin. "I'm worried about you. Last week you spent two sleepless nights because of homework you hadn't done."

"Don't worry I'm just really stressed because of my results. Good night," she added before climbing the stairs that lead to her dormitory.

'What a great friend', thought Ginny as she entered her dormitory. The other girls were in a deep sleep. 'He is a bit weird with Harry but he is a great friend'.

Colin Creevey had good reasons to be worried about Ginny; since the beginning of her fifth year in Hogwarts she was always tired and without any energy. Sometimes she would just stare at the air until someone called her. Colin was right on one point: Ginny was not sleeping enough. But it was not only because she did her homework at the last minute instead of sleeping. It was also because when she got to sleep, she kept making the same nightmare. Each time she was alone in the common room. Then suddenly the Basilisk would appear and start coiling up on her. She would call Harry as loud as her lungs would permit her to, but Harry wouldn't come and save her. And then a creepy voice would start ringing in her head saying 'I love you Ginny, I love you!' Then she would hear a cruel laugh and the Basilisk would approach his face and stare at her with its freaky eyes. She always woke up at this point in her nightmare, and was to shaken to fall back asleep.

Ginny did not know why she was making these nightmares. All she knew was that they had started when she had come back to Hogwarts to start her fifth year. When she had made this nightmare for the first time, she had told Luna Lovegood about it, but Luna had told her not to worry. Ginny did not want to tell her the nightmare was coming back each and every night. She knew that Luna would make a whole fuss about it.

And there was also her rupture with Mikael at the end of her fourth year at Hogwarts. She still felt emptiness in her heart that nothing could fill, not even her dear friends who were always there when she needed them. This emptiness was like a black hole that was slowly sucking all of the happiness out of her teenage heart.

Ginny sat in front of her desk and turned a little light on. She took a roll of parchment out of a drawer and placed it beside Colin's essay. She took a bottle of ink out of her backpack but could not find her quill. 'Where is that damned quill?' she thought, checking in all of the pockets of her backpack. Then she remembered she had lent it to Colin in the common room. She was about to go ask her quill back when she remembered that she kept a spare one in her wooden chest. She put all her gear in that chest. She opened it quietly and started going through it. Five minutes later, she found her spare pink quill. She was about to close the chest when her eye fell on a blank piece of paper. Wondering what it was, she grabbed it. As soon as she touched it, she remembered.

It was about four years ago, when Ginny was starting her first year at Hogwarts. She had found a black diary in one of her schoolbooks. When her dormitory friends had fallen asleep, she had opened the diary on a random page and had started writing in it. But her words had disappeared and a boy named Tom Riddle had replied to her. Thinking only the page she was writing on was magic, Ginny had tore it out of the diary and hidden it in the bottom of her chest. Later, when she discovered that all the pages of the diary were magic, she had forgotten about the page she had kept just in case.

Ginny felt goosebumps all over her freckled body. Tom Riddle was not gone. She still had a page from her diary. Tom Riddle's memory was still alive.

Ginny checked her watch. It was half past ten. She remembered her essay. She crumpled the page and threw it in the wastepaper basket. She had already lived way too many adventures with that Tom Riddle and his diary.

She sat back down in front of her desk and started copying Colin's work, making sure to modify his sentences. As she was writing about how Merlin had stopped an army of giants to invade England, Ginny's eyes started to close by themselves. She checked her watch again. It was midnight and she was only half through her essay. 'I have to work faster', she thought. 'I. . . have. . . to. . .'

Ginny woke up at once. She had just had her usual nightmare, once more. Then she realized that if she had been dreaming, she must obviously have been sleeping.

« Oh no! » she cried. She clapped her hand on her mouth, remembering her friends her still sleeping. It was three in the morning and light was starting to come in the room through the blinds. She looked at her unfinished essay. The parchment was blank. 'What ?' she thought, panicking. 'Has my essay disappeared?' Then she noticed she wasn't looking at her essay. There was a blank paper on top of her essay, hiding what she had written. She was looking at the page from Tom Riddle's diary.

Ginny started breathing louder. 'I've crumpled this page and thrown it away, she thought. 'What is it doing here?'

She stood up to throw the page away when suddenly she sat back down, without knowing why. The blank page seemed to be telling her to write on it.

'I can't', thought Ginny. 'I nearly died because of Tom Riddle. He only wanted to use me. And he made me do awful things. And what will Harry think if he has to save me once more?'

But all the good reasons she had not to write on the piece of paper were not enough. She felt irresistibly attracted to the paper. Her conscience was telling her not to touch that paper, but it was tempting her just like the forbidden fruit had tempted Eve.

After a few seconds of mental struggle, her conscience lost. 'I only want to see if Tom Riddle is there. A little sentence won't put me in danger. And if he tries to possess me again, I'll put a stop to it.' She took her pink quill and dipped it in her bottle of ink. Slowly, she wrote on the page in her neat loopy writing.

'Good morning Tom. This is Ginny.'

Her words disappeared as if they had melted into the paper. She waited for an answer, holding her breath. A few moments later, other words appeared on the page.

'Good morning Ginny. I've missed you like crazy.'

Ginny was surprised by Tom's answer. 'What does he mean, "I miss you like crazy?" He misses the good old days when he made me kill chickens and write in blood on the walls?' As soon as Tom's untidy writing disappeared from the page, she wrote:

'What do you mean? You miss sucking the life out of me?'

An answer came instantly.

'No. I mean I love you, Ginny.'

This was the answer that Ginny was the least expecting in the whole world.

'Aren't you fifty years old or something, you bloody bastard?'

Ginny couldn't believe it. This guy had tried to kill her and to kill all of the muggle-borns in Hogwarts, and now he was telling her he loved her.

'No, Ginny. Remember, my memory is sixteen years old. Almost your age.'

Ginny's heart has pounding as if it wanted to burst out of her breast. She felt angry and at the same time insecure.

'Listen, I just wanted to see if you were still alive. If I were desperate to find a boyfriend, I'd contact a matchmaker agency, not a half-dead freak.'

Tom's answer appeared moments later.

'Careful, Ginny, you don't want to mess with me. Why don't you come and see your good old friend? We've got so much things to tell each other.'

Ginny found Tom's behaviour outrageous.

'Never! I'm burning this page. I think I should've done this before.'

As she was about to stand up, an answer appeared.

'I don't think so. I'm sorry Ginny.'

A hand popped out of the paper, and before Ginny could scream it had pulled her into the page from Tom Riddle's diary.