A Note to the Reader: This is the first piece of fanfiction I've ever written, although I have been reading fanfiction for several years now. I'm writing this because I finally came up with something which feels like an original, interesting idea that I'd like to explore, although you will see several ideas from other authors.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used in this story; they belong to J.K. Rowling and whomever she has chosen to assign those rights to.

Summary: After dealing with Tom Riddle in her first year, Ginerva Weasley realized that she needed to learn how to protect herself.

This story will provide snapshots of Ginerva's life from the end of The Chamber of Secrets until the end of The Half-Blood Prince. After that, it will continue in a sequel, tentatively titled Burning in the Dark. I have an outline of the plot for both of these, and will post chapters as I write them. While I will attempt to stay true to the canon as much as possible, some facts from canon will be altered for the sake of the storyline.


The Path from Darkness to Fire

Chapter 1: A Resolution


It had been four weeks since she woke up in the hospital wing. The last thing she remembered was drinking the Dreamless Sleep potion Madame Pomfrey had handed her, while her mum scolded her for not telling anyone when the diary appeared in her book. Ginerva could still hear her mother going on.

"I thought that we'd raised you better than that, Ginny! What were you thinking, taking something from a stranger! And not even telling us when you found it!"

Her mother had started ranting as soon as they left Professor McGonagall's office, and hadn't stopped until the potion had finally taken hold.

Now she was stuck at home, staring out her window at the boys playing Quidditch. She'd only been home for a little over a week, and she was already counting the days until school started up again. At least the professors let her go outside by herself, and didn't feel the need to check up on her at least once an hour. Sure, Ron would be doing his best to supervise her, but she could always avoid him. Fred and George were generally busy with some prank, and Percy could be distracted when you told him you saw a student slipping into a broom closet.

Until then, she was stuck at home with a mother who refused to let her out of the house, and would fret if Ginny was late getting down to breakfast in the morning. Every time she spoke, she could see them analyzing it to death, in case there might be lingering traces from Tom.

Before she could think about Tom any further, her mother opened the door and stuck her head in.

"What are you up to, dear?" Molly asked.

"Just thinking, Mum." Ginny replied.

"Why don't you get up and do something? You've been staring out that window for hours now. I'm sure you've got an essays to write, and if you've finished those you could come help me with the laundry."

Anything was better than the laundry; Fred and George had managed to develop a new potion which made anything with green dye smell like rotten cabbage, while anything red smelled like sage.

"I've still got some work to do on my Herbology essay, Mum. Do you know which phase of the moon it's best to harvest fluxweed during?"

"No, dear. Why don't you try looking in some of your brother's old books? They're all on the bookcase up in the attic."

"Yes, Mum."

With that, Ginny got up from her bed, and trudged up the two flights of stairs into the attic. Fortunately, it was a sunny day, so the ghoul was probably hiding behind a pile of boxes in the back corner. The bookcase was just to the right of the stairs, and it had several generations of Hogwarts books stored on it. Her mother saved all of them, in case the same book was assigned for two of her children.

She headed for the shelf at about the height of Ron's arms. When Molly had badgered him into unpacking his trunk, she'd heard him run up the stairs to get rid of his books, hoping that he'd never need to look at them again. Ginny's copy of One Thousand and One Magical Herbs and Fungi had ink from a previous owner soaking a couple of pages, including the section on fluxweed. While Ron didn't exactly take care of his books, the entry on fluxweed was probably still legible in his copy.

The book was right where she'd expected it to be, sitting on top of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 and last year's defense textbook. The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection certainly sounded more useful than Lockheart's books had been. Perhaps it even had a section on how to keep nasty things out of your head, or how to fend off concerned parents after they left.

Ginny pulled it out of the pile, and opened it to the first page.

There are many things in the world which are considered dark. The best way to defend yourself against them is to be able to recognize and avoid them. Lacking that, you should try more specific approaches; this book . . .