The Day Our Paths Crossed (And The Things That Came Of IT)
Chapter Six – Of Snakes And, Well, More Snakes
Something was wrong with Ginny.
Harry wasn't quite sure how he knew – he had never had a very good sense of what others were thinking – but she had started to drift away from him. The extreme closeness seemed to fade as October wore on, and she spent less time with him. At first, he was afraid she had found other friends, but after a few people came up to him and asked him what was wrong with her, he changed his mind. She was distant, moody, and always distracted. Worst of all, she had gotten less competitive, and she had lost the top spot in Charms to Gala Ruggenspore, of all people!
In short, she wasn't his Ginny.
"You're right," Cleo mused as they sat together in a cloister he and Ginny had discovered on the fourth floor. "She's definitely been acting strange."
Harry looked at her with worried eyes. "Do you know anything about it?" he demanded, and she shook her head and sighed.
"I'm Slytherin but I don't know everything, Harry. I can ask around, but you're closer to her than I am." She leaned back on the mossy marble, tracing the clouds in the sky. "You should talk to her. You two are best friends, she'll listen to you."
Harry groaned, but he resolved to take Cleo up on her advice.
The next morning, when Ginny got up early from the breakfast table and announced she was going to study, he followed her. Her red hair swayed behind her as she hurried from the Great Hall. Harry stared mournfully at the bacon left on his plate, then pushed it aside and ran after her. She disappeared around a corner and he dashed after her, nearly tripping as Peeves floated out of the wall.
"What's this? An ickle firsty, running in the halls? Better tell Filch!" the ghost cackled.
"Go away, Peeves! This is important!" Harry shouted, turning the corner only to careen straight into Ginny. They staggered away from each other, the redhead staring at him in dazed confusion.
"Harry? What are you doing?" she asked.
Harry put his hands on his knees, fighting to catch his breath. What am I doing? "I… You've been acting weird, lately," he huffed, pulling his hair back out of his face. "I asked Cleo, and she should said I should talk to you."
Ginny stared at him. "Weird? What are you talking about? You were the one running after me," she said, an accusatory tone creeping into her voice. "I was just going to the library to study."
Harry furrowed his brow. "But the library is on the other side of the castle."
Ginny shrugged. For the first time, Harry noticed a small black book held carefully between her arm and her chest. It looked old yet untouched, with no markings on the cover. "I had to get some books from the common room."
That made sense to Harry. "Oh, okay." I knew she was just studying! "I guess we do have to get back at Gala, right? Can I come too?"
Shifting her weight to her other foot, he face lit up with sudden uncharacteristic anger. "You know I don't have to do everything with you, Harry!" she yelled. "Maybe I just want to go to the library alone for once. You're worse than Mum, so stop clinging to me all the time!"
Harry gaped at her, cringing at her words. He hadn't been shouted at since arriving at Hogwarts, but the memories of Uncle Verson still rose fresh and unbidden in his mind. Did he really cling to her? Did she really not want him around? Hanging his head, he began slowly trodding to the Great Hall before he stopped.
No. That wasn't Ginny. Ginny would never be so mean to anyone, especially not him.
Something was really wrong with his best friend.
Hermione Granger sat in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, surrounded by a pile of books. One opened scroll and two sealed ones laid at her feet, and her nose was stuck seven hundred and fifty-six pages deep into Hogwarts, A History. The bushy-haired witch was busy plotting out her History of Magic essay when a timid voice interrupted her. "Um, Hermione?"
She looked up to see Harry Potter standing in front of her and frowned. Hermione hadn't really know what she had expected of the Boy-Who-Lived, but it certainly wasn't the frail, clearly malnourished boy before her. She had never really talked to him beyond small talk, so she was taken aback by him approaching her. Nobody approached her, really, just Ron and sometimes Neville. "Hi, Harry. Need something?" she asked cautiously.
He nodded uncertainly. "I, um… Something's wrong with Ginny and I don't know what to do," he blurted out after a moment.
"Ginny?" Hermione repeated, searching for anything wrong with Ron's sister and drawing a blank. She knew Ron's sister and Harry were close, but had never given it much thought. "Why are you telling me?"
Harry shrugged. "I told Cleo and she told me I knew her best, and I tried to talk to her and she yelled at me. It's not… Ginny. I'm worried something bad is happening."
Hermione shivered at his tone. Something bad… "You should tell a teacher," she said immediately, thinking of Professor McGonnagal. To her surprise, Harry seemed to recoil at the suggestion, with drawing back into his shell. She waited for a long moment for him to respond, then frowned at the scared eleven-year-old. I guess that's a no then. Changing tack, she carefully asked, "Why are you talking to me?"
"I..." Harry stared at his feet. "I don't know. Cleo and Luna don't know what to do, and adults… adults don't like me very much. I mean, you're you, right?" He looked up at her hopefully. "You're the Gryffindor Lioness, everybody talks about how you and Ginny's brother got the Special Awards last year. I thought maybe you could help Ginny."
He looked up at her earnestly, and she stared back at him. Harry Potter was asking her for help. She narrowed her eyes determinedly; just because she hated the title her house gave to her didn't mean she wouldn't help someone who really needed it. "If you don't want to tell a teacher, I suppose you know her better than me," she said. "But if you need me for something, come to me and I'll see what I can do."
Halloween was Harry's least favorite day of the year.
For starters, it was the day his parents had died. The annual reminder that he existed never failed to rile his aunt and uncle up, and he often found himself simply locked in his cupboard for the entire day. To make matters worse, it was also his birthday. Dudley gets tons of presents, he used to think, lying in his cupboard staring at the spiders, and I get dead parents.
All of that was before he discovered that Halloween seemed to be National Boy-Who-Lived day as well.
In the week leading up to Halloween, he was accosted by kids he had never met in his entire life. He got presents from random people, including some hexed ones from ill-meaning Slytherins. It was rather overwhelming, and he found himself trying to hide in the tower as much as possible. That didn't really work, as Colin was one of his worst fans. Every so often, he would hear the click of a camera's shutters and groan, cursing his bad luck for getting the world's most annoying eleven-year-old as his only roommate.
Cleo wasn't sympathetic to his plight. "Honestly, I don't understand why you're so upset about this," she grumbled. "I mean, it sucks about your parents, but I would kill for that attention – do you have any idea how hard it is to make friends as a Slytherin?"
"That's why you're a Slytherin," he grumbled, looking away.
In the chaos, Ginny drew even more distant.
Finally, Halloween arrived. Harry wandered through the day in a haze, ignoring well-wishers. Luckily, he didn't have Snape that day, and the rest of his teachers all seemed to sense his discomfort and tactfully didn't breach the subject. He and Ginny barely spoke in Charms – they both had mastered Leviosa and Lumos weeks ago, so they were practicing Incendio in the corner on targets Flitwick had conjured. Before long, it was time for the feast.
The Great Hall was beautifully decorated, candles spiraling around the magicked sky and floating jack-o-lanturns. Food covered the tables, and many of the students were already jovially eating and talking. As much as Harry wished he could be anywhere else, the sight still took his breath away. He sat down next to Ginny, who was blankly poking at her turkey. Cleo waved at him from Slytherin and he could see Luna eating at the end of the Ravenclaw table, the seats on either side of her empty. Ron and Hermione were conspicuously absent, and he could only wonder what sort of nonsense they had gotten themselves into.
Sighing, he looked back at Ginny. "You're not eating," he said in concern, loading up his own plate and getting a glass of pumpkin juice. "Ginny, you have to eat..."
She nodded jerkily, mechanically shoveling a bit of food into her mouth then setting her fork down.
Harry frowned, placing a hand on Ginny's arm and leaning towards her. "Do you need me to tell someone something?" he whispered.
"Don't. Please." Ginny squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them and gave him a faded smile. "I'm fine, Harry. See?" She grabbed a roll and took a big bite, and Harry just stared at her. Her face was too pale, the rings under her eyes too deep.
"I guess so..."
Ginny got to her feet and stepped away from the table, the bread crumpling in her grip. "I… I'm not feeling well," she announced, giving Harry a slightly guilty look. "I need to use the restroom." Picking the black book from her seat and slipping it under her arm, she left the hall.
As soon as she left the Great Hall, Harry stood up and stealthily followed her. Something told her she wasn't going to the bathroom – maybe it was how weird she had been acting, or the book, or maybe the tingling in his scar. Either way, he speed-walked out of the hall, just catching the ends of her robes as she turned down a corridor.
Ginny led him up a stairwell through a series of corridors he had never been in before on the second floor. When did she have time to explore this part of the castle? We never came here, and we always explore together. Ginny disappeared into an old room with an old wooden door, and Harry skidded to a stop as he read the sign on the door: Women.
Harry was paralyzed. Ginny was going to the bathroom! Maybe he shouldn't have followed her after all. Disheartened, he was turning around to try and find his way back to the hall when a horrible grinding noise came from inside the bathroom.
I suppose I'm checking on her after all. The tingling in Harry's scar grew worse, and he cautiously drew his wand before going inside.
The bathroom clearly was not used. The stalls were falling apart, mold coating the sides. The only part that caught his attention was the sinks, where one of them was slowly covering up a gaping dark hole. He dashed forwards, trying to get there before it closed entirely. With barely a wide enough gap to fit through, he ignored his fear of getting crushed and threw himself down the dark chute.
Ginny, what are you doing?
The chute was slimy. Harry spun and slid uncontrollable down the abyss, clinging to his wand desperately. Before he could properly panic, though, he popped out into open air and fell to the hard ground. Wincing, he painfully picked himself up, pushing his glasses back up his nose. The dark was cloying. With a trembling voice, he picked up his wand and said, "Lumos!"
Gentle light illuminated the stone tunnel. Animal bones littered the floor, but Harry did his best to ignore his surroundings. All he knew was that Ginny would never come down to a place like this alone, not in a million years. Wasting no more time, he quickly walked down the tunnel and took a turn.
Ginny stood with her back to Harry, inspecting an ornately carved round door with snakes on it. When his light turned the corner, she turned around and stared at him. Ginny considered him, casually playing with her wand, then smirked. "Potter."
"You're not Ginny." Harry clutched his wand before him, trembling. He had come this far, but he hadn't been so scared in his entire life. Violent pain shot through his scar, nearly forcing him to double over. Recovering, he asked, "Who are you?"
Ginny laughed, a cold harsh laugh, and shrugged her robes off her back. "Honestly, I didn't think you would figure it out," she said. The dissonance of hearing Ginny's voice so cruel hurt Harry, and he wanted more than anything for the whole day, month, to just be a dream. "When I learned that Ginny's lovely best friend was Harry Potter, I so looked forward to getting to know you. Imagine my… disappointment when you were just a frail boy who could barely hold a wand. Although, I must commend your bravery on following Weasley down here. Rather Gryffindor of you, really."
Harry shook his head. "I don't understand."
"Of course you don't. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more important things to do that deal with a first-year who knows nothing of magic." Turning away from Harry, Ginny returned her attention to the door.
Moments later, Harry dashed towards her and made a wild grab for her wand.
Sighing, Ginny idly stepped out of the way. "I was hoping you would surprise me," she said. "Clearly, I have to deal with you first. Have you even learned spells yet?"
"I know enough," Harry said angrily. "I'm fourth in our charms class!"
"Of course, your little competition. All Ginny ever talks about, really. She was so upset when that Ravenclaw overtook her." Ginny held her wand out to one side. "I ought to give you credit, you did manage to defeat me once. I hope you're ready to duel, Harry Potter."
Harry took a step back, his mind whirling. Who have I defeated before? There's… Oh no. "Voldemort?" he asked weakly. "But I thought you were dead!"
Voldemort laughed again. "Do you honestly think an infant could kill me? Your mother's magic was a setback, of course, but hardly a fatal one."
Harry glared at the Dark Lord who had killed his parents, the one inhabiting Ginny's body. All of the pent up anger and emotion he had been holding back all day erupted, and he yelled, "Get out of her body!"
Voldemort's expression turned ugly. "This is becoming a nuisance." Lifting Ginny's wand, he sneered, "Defend yourself."
Harry flung himself out of the way as a jet of magic flew towards him. He was in a magical fight; he had never even cast a spell against another person! Plus, it was Ginny – how was he supposed to attack Ginny?
"Crucio!" Harry barely leaped out of the way as Voldemort's spell missed his mark. He didn't know it, but the incantation sounded sinister and he decided getting hit by a Dark Lord was a bad idea. Of course, he only knew three spells, so his chances of making it out of the corridor alive were low.
I can't keep dodging, he thought, his stomach angrily grumbling at the thought of his dinner left uneaten upstairs. A spark of inspiration hit him. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
A rock flew into the path of Voldemort's oncoming spell, and they both shattered. The dark wizard seemed surprised he had cast a spell at all, and Harry took the opportunity to clamber back to his feet. "Ginny, please, are you in there?" he called.
Hesitation seemed to cross Ginny's face, then for a brief moment, her expression turned back to normal. "Ha-" Then the sign of Ginny was gone, and Voldemort returned.
"You're ruining this, Potter," Voldemort snarled. His spare hand went to Ginny's pocket, where Harry could see the corner of the black book sticking out. It's the book! he realized. Before he could come up with a plan to grab it, Voldemort lifted his wand again. "Bombarda!"
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
This time, the spell exploded against Harry's rock, and he staggered backward. Exhaustion threatened to overtake him, and he knew he had to do something drastic if he wanted to save himself or Ginny. "Ginny, please, if you're in there you have to help me!" he yelled as the dust cleared.
"She can't help you no-" Voldemort started to say, then he stiffened. Ginny's face rapidly shifted through expressions as she fought the dark lord, her wand trembling in her hand.
I'm so sorry, Ginny. Not daring to give Voldemort the time to recover, Harry raised his wand and shouted, "Incendio!" Ginny screamed as her shoes were set on fire, and he wanted to kill Voldemort for forcing him to hurt his friend. Not wasting any time, he sprinted forwards, ducked under a sloppily cast curse, and yanked the wand out of her hand and the book from her pocket. Winding back, he chucked the diary as far down the corridor as he possibly could.
As soon as he did, Ginny collapsed to the ground. Harry stared at her body for a few moments – he had just fought Voldemort! - before registering that she was still on fire. He panicked for a long moment, then remembered what he had learned in school. "I need to get rid of the oxygen!" he exclaimed, proud of himself for remembering science class, then grabbed her robe and pressed it down over her smoldering feet for a moment. He waited a minute, then pulled it off to reveal that sure enough, the fire had gone out.
Harry checked that she was still alive, breathing a sigh of relief to hear her breath. Stepping back, his stomach twisted as he looked at her blackened shoes and ankles. I did that. Stumbling away, he had to be sick into the thin gutter lining the side of the hall. What little remained of his lunch came up, and he clenched his eyes shut and pressed his head against the wall.
He had just fought Voldemort and won.
Happy twelfth birthday?
Staggering back to his feet, he stared desolately at Ginny's feet. Had there been anything else he could have done, anything at all? No, and it was a miracle he had managed to beat him at all. If Ginny hadn't fought back... If he had known more spells, literally anything other than the fire spell and the levitation spell, he could have avoided hurting Ginny.
In that moment, Harry resolved to get strong enough that nobody would ever be able to hurt him or his friends again.
His anger returning, he stalked down the corridor until he found where he had thrown the book. Lifting his wand, he yelled, "You made me hurt Ginny! Incendio!" Fire burst from his wand and hit the book, but for some reason, it refused to burn. It simply sat in the flames, unmoving.
Feeling his magic depleting, Harry stepped back and released the spell. The book stared back at him, unchanged. If Voldemort really possessed Ginny, he must still be in there. Returning to Ginny's side, he began to search for a way out, avoiding the book and the door Voldemort had tried to get into.
The tunnel they had slid down in seemed to stretch endlessly upwards. Looking up it with Lumos, Harry's heart sank. "How are we supposed to get back up that?" he asked the air. His voice echoed up the pipe, and his eyes lit up. "HELP!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. His voice reverberated up the pipe.
Hope sparking in his chest, Harry jogged back to where Ginny was. Lifting her into the air with Wingardium Leviosa, he carefully drew her over the book to the foot of the pipe, then started to scream again.
Five minutes later, he had run his voice raw and had begun to lose hope when a ghost poked her head out of the wall. She gasped when she saw the duo. "What are you two doing down here? I heard you from my bathroom, how did you get into the pipes?!"
Harry nearly cried in relief. "You found us! Please, you have to go get Professor Dumbledore to get us out of here! Ginny's been injured!"
The ghost gasped as she saw Ginny's burst feet. "Oh…" Just as fast her mood turned pouty. "Why me? Everyone keeps asking me to do everything today – Myrtle, go to Nick's Deathday! Myrtle, go find the headmaster!"
Harry gaped at Myrtle. "We could die down here!"
"Oh, yeah, let's remind the ghost she's dead!" Myrtle said hysterically. "Nobody ever visits me, anyways. Why should I help you?"
Gritting his teeth, Harry thought about strangling the ghost, then had a better idea. "I could visit you."
Like a switch, Myrtle's mood flipped once more. "Ooh, you can share my stall with me! Fine, I'll go and find Professor Dumbledore for you." The ghost spun up the pipe talking to herself, and Harry blinked.
No WAY am I visiting her in her awful bathroom.
It wasn't until he got back to Ginny's side that he realized just how tired he was. Sitting down at her side, he rested his head and arms on her stomach and drifted off to sleep.
The infirmary was bright and sunny in the morning light. Harry groaned as he slowly came to. He felt well-rested, any lingering exhaustion completely washed away. Suddenly he remembered the events of the night before. Ginny!
"Ah, Harry, my boy, you're awake."
Harry looked over to see Albus Dumbledore sitting at his bedside. His eyes widened. "Headmaster! Ginny-"
"Miss Weasley is perfectly safe," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye, gently directing Harry's gaze to the next bed over. "Madame Pomfery was able to deal with the burns easily enough. Unfortunately, your friend has suffered some mental trauma as a result of her interaction with that dark artifact, but she should be able to return to class by the end of the week."
"Trauma?" Harry repeated, not recognizing the word.
"Dark magic always leaves a mark, Harry," Dumbledore explained patiently. "Your scar is as good as proof of that as anything."
"So Ginny will have a scar too?" he asked concernedly.
Chuckling, Dumbledore shook his head, then grew more serious. "I'm afraid not. She will, however, most likely need therapy to recover from this incident. I hope I can rely on your help with that."
Harry flushed. "Of course, she's my best friend," he mumbled, worried whether that would still be true after all of this. I set her on fire!
"Now, why don't you tell me exactly what happened?" the headmaster asked.
"Ginny's been acting weird lately, and I was worried," Harry said. "She left during the feast and I followed her. She went into the bathroom on the second floor and I didn't want to follow but then I heard this weird grinding noise. I followed into the pipe and I found her standing at the weird snake door. And then..."
"And then?" Dumbledore asked as he trailed off.
Harry gulped. "She… she was possessed by Voldemort." Dumbledore's eyes widened. "I tried to steal her wand before he could use it, but he attacked me. He used some curses I had never heard of, um..." He thought hard, trying to remember the incantations. "I think he said Crucio and Bombardi, maybe? Then he also made spells without saying anything – I didn't even know that was possible."
He looked up, and the Headmaster's face was grave. "Bombarda is the explosion charm. We don't teach it until fourth year. And you must never, ever try to use the other curse."
"Why?"
Dumbledore sighed. "You are far too young to have faced such a horrifying curse, Harry. I wish you did not need to know this. Crucio is one of the three Unforgivable curses. It causes unbearable pain, and using it is enough to earn a life sentence in prison." His eyes softened. "We are lucky you are still here with us, if Voldemort was willing to resort to such means on a twelve-year-old. How did you defeat him?"
Harry bit his lip, digesting everything he had just been told. "I used Wingardium Leviosa to block his curses," he whispered. "And Ginny was fighting him too. I- She got control for a second, so I- I set her shoes on fire with Incendio and stole her wand and the book. Once I threw the book away, she just collapsed." A panicked realization crossed his mind. "Is it still down there?!"
"No, it has been safely secured for study before we destroy it." Dumbledore shook his head. "Such courage and quick thinking is all we can ask of a Gryffindor. I will be sure to discuss this withand the rest of the staff, but I would appreciate it if you could keep this matter relatively private. Seventy points to Gryffindor for you, Harry."
Harry's face fell, and he looked away from Dumbledore. "But I hurt Ginny."
"You may have hurt Miss Weasley, but in the process, you managed to save both of your lives," Dumbledore said, kindly resting an arm on Harry's shoulder. "You shouldn't blame yourself. You did the best thing possible, even though perhaps you ought to notify the staff next time you run after a dark wizard. I'm sure Ginny will forgive you."
Harry let himself fall back into the bed, tired again. "I guess so..."
Dumbledore gave him a smile. "You've had a long twenty-four hours. Rest. You may stay here as long as you or Miss Weasley needs. You've certainly given me plenty to think about."
Nodding tiredly, Harry fell back asleep before he could thank the professor. Albus watched over his sleeping form for a long while, then nodded to himself and left the Hospital Wing undisturbed.
"Harry!"
Harry was awoken suddenly in the middle of the night by Ginny. She was crying as she threw her arms around him, squeezing tightly, red hair cascading down her back. "Ginny?"
"I'm so sorry, I was so awful to you!" she bawled into his shirt. "He was in my head and I was losing control and I was so worried that he would push you away and then you came and you saved me thank you thank you thank you!"
He hugged her back, not knowing what to think. "I was afraid you were going to leave me alone," he whispered. "I'm just glad that was him and not you. You're my best friend, of course I followed you."
"Harry-" Ginny broke down again, and he started to cry as well.
"I hurt you. I had to hurt you to beat him. I-"
"I don't care," Ginny said fiercely through her tears. "You saved me and you beat him. I thought I was going to die."
"I couldn't let you die," Harry whispered. "You're my first best friend. I could never let you die."
After that night, something unbreakable grew between Harry and Ginny – not magical, just the deep trust that could only be found by saving each other's lives. By an unspoken agreement, the topic of Voldemort and the book was simply dropped altogether. They both had had enough evil in their lives to last the rest of the year.
[A/N] Been a while, but my plot bunnies led me back to this story :) I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I promise the fluff will return in full force next chapter. Just need to sprinkle a little plot in to keep it interesting.
Thank you to JD4320, GinnyPotter6891, triggbc, Scrappy8, TheWateringWizard, SilverRockets, Gin110881, TimeShifter, RAVENCLAWDISTRICT1, and a guest for reviewing!
Much love,
Allie