And so the tale continues … !

Ginny opened her eyes, and she was lying on the sofa in the Gryffindor common room. It was late at night, she could see the night sky behind the curtains, but everything inside was blindingly bright, loud, and rowdy. She shut her eyes tightly shut again and pressed her hands to her ears.

"Ginny! Where've you been?" shouted a Gryffindor boy with springy brown hair, giving her what he thought was a welcoming slap on the back. She swotted him away angrily.

"No! Stop it!" she wailed in outrage. He looked affronted at her, and looked to his friend, who was behind him. She felt her cheeks flush violently.

"Hey hey!" he moaned, amongst the shouting and gossiping all around them. "Sorry if I woke you!" She pushed him away and ran for the stairs to the dormitory. Several Gryffindors saw her running, and watched her in confusion. "Ginny!" he called after her in exasperation.

But she was not listening. All she wanted to do was get away from everyone. But she bumped into an obstruction along the way.

"Ginny! Slow down, there," came the voice of Lavender Brown. She peered closely at Ginny. "What's wrong? Are you ill? Do you want me to take you down to Madame Pom--"

"I'm fine. I - I'm just tired. I - I - I need to go," she stammered, forcing her out of the way and rushing up the stone steps, almost losing her footing and stumbling down the first step.

She heard Lavender sigh, and mutter something about "She misses her brother," but she did not care. She did not care about anyone down in the common room smothering her and dictating ailments and treatments. She just needed to be on her own and escape from the chaos. For once, she needed to be alone, in the dark and calm.

Once she found her dormitory door, she flung it open, ran to her bed, and collapsed on to it. Her eyes stung with tears. She viciously wiped them away, ashamed that she was still scared of yet stirred by Riddle, and feeling foolish for going in the first place.

She rummaged under her pillow to pull out the note she had found stuck between the window pane the night before, and unfolded it to reread it. She rushed her fingers along his swirling, looping handwriting, sniffing, then crumpled the note and tore it into pieces. It had told her to go through the room of requirements, and told her to come alone. He had told her it was important, and that he had needed to see her. 'I am a fool' she thought to herself, sadly.

Suddenly she felt the pendant, the portal pendant, slide further down past her neck under her nightdress, icy cold against her chest. She pulled it out, and balanced it on her fingers, stroking along the intricate detail of the snake, and looking closely into its black eyes. She did not dare open its mouth; she simply lay on her back on the bed, and analysed it carefully. Considering it was supposed to be ancient, the only signs of use were on the tarnishing chain; the snake's head itself was completely clean and shiny. She felt confused and conflicted - Tom Riddle had haunted her dreams for years now - so why had she gone along to see him? Did she still believe all the things he said?

Ginny rolled on to her side, clasped the snake's head tightly in her hands, and held it to her chest. She swore she could feel a heart beat coming from it, despite the fact it was not even a full body and just a head. She knew full well that it was dangerous to get involved with him again, particularly since she now knew he was Voldemort and the Death eaters were back in action beyond the walls of Hogwarts. So what was it about him that was so … alluring? Why did she not want to lose the connection she had felt four years ago? Was she feeling so insecure - or quite likely hormonal - that she believed she had nothing else in her life to hold on to or to make her feel special?

"You have blossomed from a little girl into a beautiful young woman," he had said. Well, he had not changed. Despite never seeing him in real life until now, he was exactly the same as how she had seen him in her dreams. In her nightmares. The same dark brown hair in the same style, the same high cheekbones, the same silver eyes. And the exact same voice. Sinister but soft.

Ginny sat up and vigorously shook her head, causing her flaming red hair to fly about her face. She gave the pendant a firm yank, and the chain fell away from her neck. She gave the snake a last look of suspicion and curiosity, before trickling the chain into the top drawer of her bed-side cabinet and dropping the snake's head in, and clambering under the covers.

"Stop it. You'll feel better in the morning," she told herself. She did not bother to shut her eyes, because she really was not tired, and would not sleep easily even if she was tired. She lay on her back again and stared up at the roof of her canopy bed and sighed.

This was a dangerous game she was playing. It was one she did not want to lose. Especially not to Tom Riddle. So why was she suddenly so drawn to him? After all these long, empty years? What had she been thinking? Ginny cast her mind back to the day before; there had been more than just the note in the window frame.

There was one which had been written on the bathroom mirror of all surfaces, in what looked suspiciously like blood, in his own calligraphic handwriting. It had read "Your heart of secrets has been opened" right above that tap in that dreaded girls' bathroom. The other one was on the back page of her history of magic textbook. "The secrets of your heart have been opened" it had said, scratched into the very back page.

Ginny sat up in bed and reached to the floor to pick up a handful of paper scraps from the floor. Trying to piece them together in the faltering moonlight, she managed to make out "I see into your heart," and three other pieces formed "turn the handle two times to the left, then three to the right."

She flung them off the bed with a tired swing of the arm, and lay down again. Promising herself that she would have a good night's sleep and understand everything in the morning, she shuffled right under the covers, so that only the top of her red head could be seen, and resigning to an uneasy sleep. But, to her surprise, she slept soundly and dreamlessly.