Here is the long awaited update!
Into the Serpent's Lair: Chapter four
"Tom, please! I need you!" Ginny fell against the bed, clasping her shaking hands together so tightly, the knuckles turned white.
The mirror rippled as if a stone had been dropped into the middle of it and Tom appeared.
"Ginny, dearest," he said soothingly. "All you have to do is ask."
He reached down for her and Ginny leaped forward, stretching her hand as far up as it would go. Damn her for putting the mirror so high. She feared she wouldn't be able to reach Tom's hand. But their fingertips met and suddenly an iron grasp was pulling her into the mirror.
She was dizzy a few moments and closed her eyes, struggling to keep her nausea in check. Finally regaining her equilibrium, she looked up to see Tom's smiling face. One glance from him and the world righted itself.
"How have you been, Ginny? It's been too long," he said silkily, gray eyes dark with concern.
"Oh Tom!" She said, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shirt. He stiffened at first, then awkwardly patted her on the back until she loosened her grip.
"I thought I had lost you, Tom. Harry...and the basilisk fang...I thought he had killed you! How are you here?"
Only then did she realize where exactly here was. She was in her room, but everything was off and colorless. Intrigued, she lowered herself back onto her toes and looked around.
"Everything is backwards," she said in wonder, looking at the writing on her boxes with interest.
"Now you know how I have lived these last years," Tom said, his voice growing sad. "It's a lonely existence, Ginny. I haven't been able to be in the real world, in real time. I still am trapped here."
"You shouldn't be alive at all! How is this possible?"
"Ginny...you wouldn't wish me dead, would you?" Tom sounded hurt and Ginny turned to face him.
"No! Of course not. I...Harry just said that he had killed you...that all of the Horcruxes were gone."
"Harry Potter will never be able to kill me because I cannot die, Ginny." Tom spoke slowly as if explaining something complex to an exceptionally slow child. "The diary was not a Horcrux."
"So You-Know-Who is still alive?" Ginny felt a bolt of fear run down her spine.
"No no, shh," Tom said. "You silly girl, don't you see? None of that matters. I am here to protect you. I would never let him hurt you."
Ginny's mind, in its confusion, didn't see the glaring error in this statement. Tom Riddle was Lord Voldemort.
But none of that mattered to her now, for she was tucked away safely with Tom. Nothing could happen.
Dimly, she was aware of the idea that she was supposed to finish unpacking, but that seemed unimportant.
"You look tired, Ginny."
She laughed wearily. "You have no idea. Planning a wedding and moving just sucks the life right out of you."
Tom stilled suddenly, turning his head to the side like a snake tasting for prey.
"Wedding?"
Ginny smiled ruefully. "Well, Harry and I are engaged. Have been for the last year."
Tom was painfully silent, his face filling with shadows, and Ginny was afraid she might have offended him. But he glanced at her and smiled apologetically.
"I'm happy for you Ginny. Really, I am. It's just been so long since I've seen you, I guess I was expecting to see the little girl I left behind." He stepped closer to her. "But even I can see you've grown into a woman - a beautiful woman. Harry is a lucky man."
Ginny flushed happily. "Oh Tom!" What a stroke of good luck! Here was her old friend back to visit and just in time for the wedding.
"Your bed is over there, Ginny. Go and sleep," Tom said, placing his hand on the small of her back and guiding her to her bed.
"Tom, I can't. I have to make dinner. Harry's coming back," she said, resisting the siren call of her full, plush bed.
"You can sleep. Time passes differently here. Sleep as long as you wish. I will wake you when it is time for you to go."
Smiling, Ginny curled up into her bed, tossing until she had found the right spot. "You won't leave, will you Tom?"
"I will be right here."
Satisfied, she quickly succumbed to sleep. Almost immediately, the change in Tom's demeanor was evident.
"Wedding? Ginny, this simply will not do," he whispered softly, drawing out the 's' sound. "You are mine to have, not Harry Potter's. This simply will not do," he said, reaching out one gray finger to brush her cheek.
"Such color. Such...life," Tom said, admiring the vibrancy of her red hair against the gray of the bed sheets, wall, and his hand.
Ginny frowned in her sleep as Tom continued to trace circles on her face. "You have such life in you, Ginny. All I ask is a little taste."
Stepping back from her, the gray man turned and moved down a gray corridor. Everything on this side of the mirror was dull and lifeless. The only change now was the addition of two very bright green eyes on an otherwise unremarkable male face.
And now I finally know where I'm going with this, so expect about weekly updates!