Ginny Weasley and the Riddle Diary

By Starwin


Chapter 4 – Forgotten


What little remained of summer raced by. Before Ginny knew it, she was packing away her things into an old beat-up trunk that had once belonged to her mother. It was hard to believe that in only a few more hours she would be leaving for Hogwarts, where she would learn proper magic. And where she would be with Harry Potter… Well, not with him, they would both be there, a year apart, but in the same place. Ginny was sure she could find the courage to talk to him, to say something, anything, to him!

As she packed away her belongings Ginny paused when she lifted one of the Lockhart books. Harry had given it to her, and she hadn't even bothered to open it, she hadn't opened any of them. The books were brand new and had only one previous, if brief, owner, however, Ginny did not mind. This was partly because of the books themselves, partly because of Lockhart but mostly because they had come from Harry. It was the only interest he had ever shown in her.

They had bumped into each other more than once over the summer, with little more than a passing apology. In the Burrow, colliding with other people on the stairway was common. Every time she had been too embarrassed to strike up a conversation with him. The one time she had jumped to his defense, in Diagon Alley, it had not ended well at all.

Her eyes wandered to the diary sitting on her desk. She had just started packing her robes on top of the Lockhart books when a strange sensation overtook her. It felt like the diary was calling to her in some silent voice. She dropped the robes haphazardly on the floor and moved closer to her desk, her eyes locked on the small diary.

She put her hand on the well worn leather cover. Then, in one motion she flipped the book open, sat before it and lifted her quill, glistening with ink. She was hardly aware of what she was doing until she started to scrawl the words across the empty page.

'I'm frightened Tom,' Ginny wrote in the diary. The words sunk into the paper, vanishing almost instantly. Then new words emerged.

'Why are you frightened Gin?' the book asked. The diary had insisted that Ginny call it Tom. She was fine with that, it made the person writing back more real to her. But it had started calling her Gin all on its own. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

It was her diary now, right? She could tell it to call her Ginny, or master, or whatever she wanted… couldn't she? The strange thing was, she didn't feel like she could, and she didn't even knew if she wanted it to stop.

'Tomorrow, I leave for Hogwarts,' Ginny replied. 'And through the whole train ride I'll be sitting only a few feet from Harry! What do I say to him!'

Talk about Harry was one of her most common topics with Tom. One of the things she liked the best about the diary was that it listened to everything she had to say. Tom never interrupted or told her she was boring or foolish. He just listened and replied.

'Boys are not as hard to talk to as you have built them up to be,' replied Tom. 'Harry is just another boy, you have six brothers, just imagine him as a seventh.' Ginny stuck her tongue out, an expression that clearly said 'yuck' upon her face, at the thought of Harry as her brother.

'Tom!' she wrote back. 'I was dreaming I was snogging him last night! I don't want to think of him like a brother!'

'All right,' wrote the diary, its tone ever-cool and collected. 'Ask about him. Talk about his interests. Find out what he likes and what he doesn't.'

'How do I do that?' Ginny asked.

'It's easy Gin, start with a common point of interest. Ask how his first year at school went.' suggested Tom.

'I… I can't talk to him about that!' Ginny wrote back. 'Last year you-know-who tried to kill him!'

There was a slight pause before the book wrote back this time. 'The Dark Lord? Why would such a powerful wizard have any interest in attacking an eleven-year-old-boy?' Ginny's response took more time than usual as well.

Up until this point, the past of Harry Potter had not come up. Most of her entries had been feelings about him, or questions for Tom about how best to approach Harry, none of which she had the courage to follow through with.

'He defeated you-know-who when he was just a baby,' Ginny wrote back. 'He is really famous and…'

'What?' Tom wrote. It was the first time he had ever interrupted her. 'How could a baby possibly defeat the Dark Lord?'

'I don't know,' Ginny answered.

Her words faded away, and still Tom had not responded. Then at last, 'Show him to me.'

'Show you? Show you how?' Ginny's expression was puzzled. Did Tom want her to try and draw Harry in the diary? She could try that, but Ginny wasn't sure how accurate a stick figure of Harry would be for Tom.

'A picture will do for now,' responded the diary. Ginny did not have any pictures of Harry, until she remembered the news clipping she had cut out of the Daily Prophet. She had already packed the picture away to take with her to school. After a minute or two of rummaging through her trunk, she found it. Ginny brought the clipping back to her desk, unsure what to do with it.

As if the book had heard her unasked question, words scrawled across the paper. 'Place the picture in the diary, as if it were a page.'

It wasn't difficult to wiggle the picture into place between the other pages. The moment she had it in place, the pages suddenly began to spin wildly. Ginny snapped her hand back, as if the diary might pull it off. After a few moments, the pages came to rest, but the picture Ginny had put in the book was gone. She inked her quill again, and wrote to Tom.

'Isn't he handsome!'

'Very. I can see why you are so taken with him.' Ginny felt her checks go slightly red. 'Do you have anything else about him? More pictures or maybe a book?'

'I'm not sure,' wrote Ginny as she tried to think if Harry might be in any of her textbooks. Even if he was, Ginny wasn't sure she wanted to tell Tom. The diary might devour her other books and she had no idea how she would explain that away!

She had been able to convince her mother to get her another bottle of ink after lying that she had accidentally vanished it while playing with her wand. Ginny wasn't sure what had compelled her to do it, but she had gotten the idea from Tom.

All-in-all, her mother was not as angry as she could have been. She had already walked in on Ginny practicing with her wand once before. Technically, she wasn't supposed to start using her wand until she got to school, and then, only while in class. It was a rule that few, if any, ever seemed to follow.

Ginny had been scolded but luckily Fred and George had picked that exact moment to set off some kind of mini-explosion that drew her mother's wrath away. Although, Ginny did feel slightly guilty about lying to her mother, there just wasn't any other way! She needed ink to keep writing to Tom.

A loud knock interrupted her thoughts. She hadn't even had time to say "come in" before her mother opened the door and stuck her head in. Quickly Ginny shoved the diary under some loose papers on her desk and turned to face her mother, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Ginny, dinner is…" her mother started to say, but then her eyes narrowed, flicking to the trunk, which now looked like it was more unpacked than packed. "I thought you were almost done packing."

"I was—I mean—I am!" Ginny stammered, trying not to sound intimidated. 'Don't look guilty, don't look guilty, don't look…'

"What are you hiding?" snapped her mother.

"Nothing!" Ginny replied much too quickly.

"That nothing better not be more magic on ink bottles. Those are not cheap and I already spent more on your wand than…" her mother cut herself off. "Come down for dinner, and afterwards, finish packing. And no more magic until you're at school!"

Her mother vanished, closing the door a little more forcefully than she had probably meant. Ginny let out a sigh and got up from her desk. She strode over to the half-unpacked trunk on the floor, looked at the mess and then abandoned it for dinner.


Ginny was not certain how she had gotten to Hogwarts. The morning frenzy of departure, the train ride, even the trek up to the castle all seemed like a distant blur of memory. Yet she was here, this was definitely Hogwarts. Although she wasn't entirely sure how she knew that.

Looking at her surroundings, Ginny found herself in one of the many long stone hallways. If she wasn't mistaken this passage was very near Ravenclaw. There were suits of shining armor gleaming up and down the corridor. Tapestries showed different colored coats of arms. But most prominent among the wall hangings were the blue and gold of Ravenclaw house.

She couldn't clearly remember how she had gotten here because she wasn't in Ravenclaw, she was in... Slytherin… that couldn't be right… yet, she felt it, knew it… Slytherin was where she really belonged. An odd sensation tickled the back of Ginny's brain. Something… something was wrong. Actually, many things were wrong but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what they were.

Before she had any more time to ponder it, she heard voices approaching. Dimly, Ginny became aware that it was night time and that most of the students were down in the Great Hall. The voices got closer and she could make out some of the words.

"I have never told anyone Tom," came a woman's voice. She sounded distressed, as if the conversation at hand made her uncomfortable. Ginny's ears perked up. "And what makes you think I know anything about it!"

"Helena," replied a smooth male voice. Instantly Ginny recognized it. Tom, she was hearing Tom's voice. It was so odd not for it to be written. How did she know what it sounded like? The odd sensation she couldn't grasp returned. "You can trust me. I want the Diadem destroyed just as much as you do."

The two people came into view or rather the one person and one ghost. Quickly, so as not to be seen, Ginny scurried behind a pillar. The pair walked right past her, as if she were invisible but stopped a short distance away.

"I know Tom," the ghost named Helena replied. Ginny gasped, the boy, the handsome, dark haired boy talking to the ghost was Tom Riddle. Somehow, the voice had not connected to the body. "It's just that…" Tom stopped and smiled at her, a sly boyish grin that would have made Ginny's knees weak if she hadn't noticed that it did not touch his eyes.

"More than a thousand years you have been waiting for someone to finish what you started." Tom said coolly. "You said it yourself, no student and no teacher, could be trusted with your secret." She opened her mouth, but Tom continued. "In a few months I will not be a student anymore."

"But will you come back as a teacher, won't you Tom?" Helena asked. "Rumor is that Professor Flub is leaving after this year. I don't know what it is about the Defense Against the Dark Arts position that turns so many away." The two of them began to walk again, without considering it, Ginny left her hiding place and followed, eager to hear more.

Tom smiled again as he strode alongside the ghost. "Perhaps I might apply, but perhaps not. I would not want my teaching career to be cut so short." Helena returned his smile. "Either way, you have my word that I will find and destroy your mothers Diadem, easing the burden you have to bare."

Helena looked pensive, it was clear that she wanted to tell Tom what she knew. Ginny moved closer, sneaking up like a cat. A short distance away, armor rattled, the Ghost, Tom and Ginny all looked in the direction of the sound. There, standing against another pillar, just like Ginny, was another girl, with long golden colored hair. Also like Ginny she appeared to be listening in on the conversation. The Ghost and Tom looked at in that direction for a long while, at last Tom spoke.

"I'm sure it nothing," said Tom. His tone was convincing enough that Ginny might have believed him, had she not seen the girl standing only a few feet from her.

"Alright," Helena said at last, floating a little higher as she prepared to reveal the location. "But promise me Tom that when you find the cursed thing you will not hesitate! Promise me!"

"I will do everything in my power to make sure it never falls into the wrong hands ever again," said Tom a sinister smile in his voice.

Then he began to dissolve, the walls and the hallway too. Even the ghost shimmered away into nothingness and Ginny found herself standing alone in total darkness. Without warning she began to fall, tumbling down through infinite blackness. Down and down and down.


With a crash, she rolled out of her bed, dragging her blankets with her to the floor. Someone was shouting and pounding on her door.

"Ginny! Wake up! We need to hurry dear." It was her mother's voice. Ginny looked around trying to get her bearings. She was in her room, on the floor, blankets strewn about her in a tangled mess.

She just had the strangest dream about… about something… She tried to recall the facts. Something about a ghost and… stuff… It was no good, the thought slipped sideways from her head and was gone.

Then a wave of panic overtook her. It was morning! Her mother had been calling for her to get up! She had to finish packing, she had to get ready! She was going to Hogwarts, she was going to spend a full train ride with Harry Potter!

Rushing around her room, packing turned from mostly organized to slightly controlled chaos and finally descended into sheer panic. She stuffed object after object into her trunk. Twice she had packed her wand, only to grab it out again. Each time she put something in she tried to think what else she needed. A couple things, like her favorite pillow got packed and then taken out and then repacked, before she discovered it simply wouldn't fit and removed it completely.

"Time to go!" called her father's voice from downstairs. Ginny was working to close the trunk, shoving it down as hard as she could. For a girl with mostly secondhand items she certainly had acquired a lot of junk! Her door opened and her father entered, ready to help take her trunk down to the car. He was just about to lift it when he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Uh, you aren't dressed yet?" her father asked. With startled amazement, Ginny looked down at herself. She was still in her pink nightgown. Worse, she had packed all her clothing away in the trunk!

Her father set the trunk down at her panicked insistence before she shooed him out of the room to change. I did not take her long to pick out the Muggle clothing she was going to wear to the train. When she tried to close the trunk again, it simply wouldn't shut.

Breaking down into hysteria, Ginny nearly screamed for her father. He burst through the door, his face stricken with panic. It took him a minute to sort out Ginny's jumbled words.

"It won't close!" Ginny half-sobbed.

"It… what?" her father asked. Between hiccups he was finally able to discern what the problem was. Calmly, he used a bit of magic to make everything fit inside. Then it was down to the Ford Anglia that sat waiting in the yard. He nearly broke his neck when he tripped on a stray chicken that had decided to cross right in front of him.

Harry, Ron, Fred, George and Percy all squeeze into the back seat. Harry and Ron were squished into the middle, a twin on either side and Percy at the window seat. Ginny got to ride in the place of honor, where Ron had sat last year, and the twins had shared the year before, between her mother and father up in the front.

Then they were off but they hadn't gotten to even the edge of the property before George called a halt. He had forgotten his box of Filibusters Fireworks back at the house. They turned around and he rushed back inside. Once George returned they were off again but it wasn't more than five minutes latter before Fred exclaimed that he had left his broomstick behind.

Her father turned the car around and drove a little faster than he meant too back to the house. Now they were really running late. For the third time they were off again. The car bumping and bobbing as it sped down the uneven road towards the main highway.

Ginny couldn't shake the feeling that she was forgetting something too. Not for the first time she ran over the mental checklist of everything in her trunk. Books, robes, potions, caldron, pillow—no she had taken that out, hadn't she—books, she had already counted that one, diary… DIARY!

Her thoughts crashed to a halt. She had forgotten her diary! How could she have forgotten Tom! The memory of pushing it under the papers returned to her. Instinctively she had hidden if from her mother, although she could not have said why. When she had looked to see what else she needed to bring, the diary had been concealed on her desk.

"STOP!" Ginny shrieked, making her father jump in his seat. He had been looking for an opening to get onto the main road. "We have to go back! I left my diary!"

"Ginny, we can send it to you," her father protested. Ginny shot angry daggers at her father. With a heavy sigh, he put the car in reverse, made a sloppy twelve-point turn and sped back towards the house. More than once her mother protested about her father's speed along the dirt road, but he did not slow down.

When they pulled up to the house Ginny leapt over her mother and out of the car. She scrambled up the stairs to her room and threw open the door, dashing towards her desk and stopping right in front of it, slightly out of breath.

The diary was sitting right in the middle of the desk, its black leather cover closed and silent. It was almost like—the thought was silly—it was almost like it was waiting for her. For a long moment Ginny just looked at it, her uneven breathing the only sound in the room.

The oddest sensation washed over her. Ginny didn't know if she wanted to take the diary with her after all. In fact, now that Ginny thought about it, had she left the diary behind by accident? Of course she had. Having a friend by her side all year long was something she was looking forward too. Still, there was something she couldn't place. A feeling of unease…

The horn of the car honked from below and Ginny was snapped out of her musings. Without a second thought she snatched up the diary from her desk and ran back downstairs to the waiting car, her friend tucked away in her pocket.


Authors notes:

First and foremost, THANK YOU! To everyone who left a review last chapter! AnnaMariaNordlade and Hango! It really means a lot to me that you took the time to write me your thoughts! (and a couple more ! just to be safe)

Thank you to everyone who came through and read this chapter! Did you like? I hope you did!

This was one of the very early chapters I envisions while working on this project. Its so perfectly set up in the book, with Ginny shouting for her diary on the car ride out. A very small glimpse of the story behind the story.

Not much else for me to talk about in this chapter. Next one will be up two Mondays from now Feb 6th!

~Starwin