-Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling
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-The Eighth Year

-Chapter 9

-Something Wicked This Way Comes

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Part One: Bloody Pages
"Ginny, are you sure your okay?" Harry asked for the fifth time in the past hour. Ginny looked up from her book and gave Harry "The Look"

"Yes Father Harry, I am just as fine as I was ten minutes ago. Now may I do my school work so I don't have a heap of make up work to do over the holidays?"

"Well, excuse me for being worried." the look on his face was extremely hurt. He got up from his desk and headed for the door.

"Harry..."

"No, do your work. Don't let an annoying little thing like my concern get in your way." He stormed out of the office, shutting the door roughly behind him, and headed for the gymnasium, pulling off his shirt and tie as he went. He pushed open the locker room door and ducked into the office where he kept his work out clothes.

Already he felt like shit, it wasn't Ginny's fault and he had no business taking it out on her because he was feeling like he was strung on his last nerve. Every since he had flown through her window (with McGonagall's permission of course) and seen Ginny, unconcious with that blood covered diary next to her...since he had read those words...

Hello once again, Ginny Weasley

The time has come around again

are you ready

To again open the Chamber of Secrets

and set free my beast

To Kill and Destroy?

Tom Riddle

Voldemort was dead, his horcruxes destroyed. Harry had no doubt about that. But what about Tom Riddle, the young Riddle before he had become that heinous thing that the wizarding world knew as Voldemort? Could he have been experimenting with horcruxes even then? He obviously had, or Ginny wouldn't have been possessed by the first diary.

But did Tom Riddle make two diaries? Did the second find it's way to Ginny? And if so...how the hell did it do it?

"Harry, you in here?"

Harry shook his head to clear it.

"Yeah Ron, in the office. I'll be right out."

"It's okay, I'll change up too. I need to build up if were going to keep Slytherin from taking back the cup this year. Malfoy's not playing, least there won't be any cheating."

"I heard that Weasley." Draco Malfoy stepped in from the hallway as Harry was stepping out of the office.

"Yeah so?" Ron smirked and Draco rolled his eyes and turned to Harry.

"Potter, I talked to my mother."

"And?"

"As far as she knows there was only one diary. She asked my father too, and he says same thing. Only one."

"I don't know how to take that." Ron crossed his arms over his chest.

"Mother said that Voldemort wasn't big on sharing, even within his inner circle. So it's possible there was another that mother and father knew nothing about."

"So this really doesn't mean much after all." Harry leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling.

"Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't" Draco shrugged "But how often did you see Voldemort, or Riddle for that matter, use the same tool twice?"

"Use the same tool..." Ron echoed

"Right..."Harry answered "He never used two alike items for horcruxes, they would be too easy to find that way"

"Right" Ron's eyes widened with understanding "That's why everything was so different and hidden in such varied spots. So the chances that he made two diaries is..."

"I'd bet pretty small." Draco nodded. "Did you find out anything about the blood yet?"

Ron snorted "Yeah. Just a bit."

"What do you mean?"

"Someone knows plenty on the last time the chamber was opened. It was basilisk blood."

"Basilisk? Where the hell do you even get basilisk blood?"

"According to McGonagall there are only three or four known basilisk still in existence. The blood, you can't even get it in Knockturn Alley, it has to be special ordered, and then it take's 6 months to a year to get because you have to wait for when the basilisk sheds it's skin when its eyes are covered and it is blind and is the weakest, the harvesters can drug it and bleed it enough to fill their orders without being killed."

"And it wasn't ordered in Knockturn alley, we already checked it out."

Draco grinned a little "Hell Potty, if I had known it was so valuable, I'd have come with you second year and put a few jars out."

Ron and Harry smirked.

"Is she acting strange or anything?"

"My sister has a name Malfoy, wouldn't kill you to muster up the respect to use it." Ron gave him a dirty look.

Draco shrugged "is Ginny acting strange?"

"Yeah, she's ready to take my head off." Harry pushed away from the wall and started walking towards the gym entrance.

"But that's because your being annoying, always asking her if she's okay."

"Ron, when the hell is Hermione going to be back from visiting her father? I mean...Look who's talking." Ron just grinned

" Anyway, we've been down in the chamber, nothing down there but a basilisk skeleton."

"Maybe it was just someone's idea of a sick joke." Malfoy kicked his shoes off and took off his coat.

"Not changing up?"

"No, I told Luna I would go into Hogsmeade with her. She doesn't like to go alone anymore since things got so ugly between her and..." he glanced over at Ron "No offense"

"Hell, I wish I understood what was going on with him just as much as she does." Ron frowned. "Something doesn't seem right, when he sends her those messages... it's not at all like him to keep being mean to her just for the sake of being mean. Even if she did hurt him when he saw her on his birthday."

"What I don't believe" Harry frowned "Is that he has more or less chucked us all aside for Marietta Edgecombe, she almost gets us all expelled and now he's involved with that...that... ..."

"Think bitch is the word your looking for" Ginny stood in the doorway behind him

Harry grinned back at her and bowed "Yes, thank you my dearest love"

"Holy shit, I think I am going to vomit." Draco rolled his eyes when Ginny kissed Harry "Their so sickeningly sweet."

"You should see them fight...its like watching two Godzilla's with wands."

"Very funny." Ginny looked from Harry to Draco "Anyway,I'm really worried. Luna was here when you were all holed up in the locker room, she asked me to tell you that she was leaving and you should meet her there when you are done. But I think you better hurry, she looked quite upset, I think she might have gotten another of those letters from George."

Draco didn't stop to put on his shoes before he ran out the door.


-Part Two: Such a Tangled Web We Weave
George sat in a cozy squishy chair behind the counter of the shop, Luna's latest letter still open in his hands. As much as they hurt to read, still he couldn't make himself stop. They were from her, it was still a kind of connection between them. Even if this latest letter did refer to him as a weak drunk who was wasting his life when he could be doing so much more than running a joke shop in a putrid little town.

George closed his eyes and his memory slipped back again as it always did when he closed his eyes, to the night they danced in the London club.

In that first breathless kiss

Young hearts intertwine

It's love for both

for the first and last time

He felt the parchment slide from his fingers but just let it fall. If this was the only way he had to be with her...

this is the one that

they've been waiting for..

Softly

She'll love him forever...

Truly forever..

and it was...she had made it quite clear over the past week, despite his constant letters apologizing over and over again for that morning a week before. He'd never thought that she would refuse to see him again...not even for the project...but she had.

Gently...

He'll Love her forever

Forever and ever...

Closely...

Luna... Damn ...he missed her.

In beloved arms...

Forever...

George felt the gentle press of Luna's lips against his and he sighed softly, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close to his chest.

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Luna was furious. It was one thing to make comment's about her. Let George Weasley call her an idiot and a tease and even a tramp all he wanted. But this time he had gone too far. Insulting her father, knowing that she was still totally torn up over his death. That he would do all of this to hurt her, to get back at her because she wouldn't go out with him...he certainly wasn't the person she had thought he was during their time in London.

London...

What a wonderful and uncomplicated time that was. She should have known, there was no way things could ever stay that way, certainly not that simple. She had turned George away to protect him from her, to keep him from the same horrible fate that had befallen her grandparents and parents. She didn't want anyone else to be hurt because of her.

Luna stopped, something coming into focus inside her mind that had always seemed just out of reach before. George had been trying to show her all this time... but she hadn't understood. It all made so much sense now. She was afraid of something happening to George, that was true. But she was pushing him away to protect not him, but herself! She didn't want to risk going through that loss again, so she was shutting herself off from the only person she had ever had feelings beyond friendship for.

Luna smiled. Now that she understood, it didn't seem as huge an obstacle. Or at least she thought, it was enough that...with help from George, she could live with it.

Luna began to run towards Hogsmeade. She ran up the three steps that went to the door of the shop but stopped abruptly outside the door.

George sat on the counter with his arms around Marietta Edgecombe, kissing her.

Luna turned without a word and walked away.


Part Three: When First We Practice To Deceive
George heard footsteps light on the wooden stairs outside and opened his eyes in time to catch a flash of blonde hair out of the corner of his eye, a stark contrast to the dark hair that was so close to his face.

What the hell was he doing?

The last thing he remembered was thinking about Luna, that night in London then his eyes had gotten heavy and...

He pushed the woman in front of him away, the woman he disliked so much, the one who still bore traces of the word Sneak on her face from when she had ratted out the DA.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Me?" She laughed "I just came in to bring you these fliers that need to be charmed and then posted at the school and around town. Your the one who grabbed me and started snogging me Weasley."

George felt intense disgust with himself, yet he knew when someone was up to no good, and this little sneak had been tailing him since she came into town days before, trying to be so nice and acting like they had been friends forever, truth be told he didn't think they had ever exchanged a single word up until that week. When Luna had refused to follow through and help him charm and post fliers, she had been right there offering to fill in, but George refused her help. He didn't want her anywhere near him, but she didn't seem to get the hint, and George had more than had it with her unwanted attention.

"Don't get excited, I was asleep and thought you were someone else." he spat, going into the bathroom to gargle her out of his mouth.

"Oh? How nice. You don't seem to have any girls around town though. So, what's his name?"

"Nah, I just happen to like women who are loyal. Something you know nothing about sneak."

"You know, it's too bad your brother died, he must have been the one with the manners."

George came out of the bathroom, seriously starting to get pissed now that she had upped the ante by bringing up Fred.

"You delivered the fliers, you can get out of my shop now."

"Rumor has it you've got a thing for that crazy Loony Lovegood." she laughed unkindly "Loony Lovegood, really George, is that the best you can do or did your brother Fred have the good taste as well?"

"You can leave, now."

"Ohh hit a nerve, did I?"

"I said, leave, before I forget that you are something resembling a female."

Marietta laughed cruelly but her next retort was cut off when Draco Malfoy opened the door to the shop and without a word walked straight to George and punched him in the jaw. He spun around and landed face down. The door slammed, signaling that Marietta had run out, and Draco kicked George over with his foot, leaving his sharp heel in Georges throat.

"I'm warning you Weasley, leave Luna alone. She gets one more of those damn letters I'm coming back, and next time I'll be bringing my wand. "

Luna ran into the shop next. "Draco! No! Stop it. Please." She tugged on his arm "Let's just go back to school."

Draco nodded and took his foot off of Georges neck. "You remember what I said Weasley."

George jumped up off the floor. "Luna...what's...are you...you and Malfoy?"

Luna turned around "Draco, give me a minute okay?"

"Luna.."

"Please."

Draco nodded and stepped outside, just barely outside.

"Luna..."George began but Luna cut him off

"I think everybody must be possessed with wiggling winklies the way that everybody has seemed to go so loony around here. When Voldemort died, everything was suppose to be better. But for most of us who were involved in the battle it's just gotten worse. So I think Voldemort must have been using spells with hidden wiggling winklies in them."

"Luna..I.." George tried to take her hand but she pulled it away

"Please don't touch me ever again George Weasley. I realized today that I was wrong to push you away before, because I was being selfish, I didn't want to be hurt again if something happened and you died. So I came to tell you, to see if we could find a way to get past all this ugliness the past few weeks and find a way. You said you would never stop wanting to be with me, but you did, and now you want to be with someone else."

"Luna no..you don't understand...I"

"I saw you! Don't lie when I saw you kissing her! I saw you kissing her the way you kissed me once." Luna wiped the tears away from her face and pulled a bag out from inside her cloak.

"This is everything you've given me, I'm giving it back to you." She reached in another pocket and pulled out a heavy binder of parchment and set in on the counter by the bag.

"This is every word you've ever written. I'm giving that back too...every word. I don't need meaningless words from you. And I don't ever want to see or hear from you again." she turned toward the door and began to open it.

"Wait, Luna..." George carefully pushed the door shut again "You have to listen, you'll see the truth if you just let me..."

"See the truth?" Luna laughed a sad bitter little laugh "All I can see is you kissing that...that...sneak."

"I hope you will be happy George I really cared about you very much."She pulled the door open and her eyes flitted up to his a final time, a torrent of tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Goodbye."

Luna stepped out into the snow and pulled the door shut behind her. George in a daze picked up the bag and scroll and turned the open sign to closed and locked the doors. He stepped into his storage room and went for a bottle of firewhiskey and pulled open the bottle.

"Shit" he chastised himself bitterly "isn't this part of why she left? Because I've turned into a fucking drunk?"

He threw the bottle into the sink, the sound of the smashing glass was so oddly pleasing that he tossed the remaining six bottles of firewhiskey in as well.

He picked up a large bottle of butterbeer and found the taste to be even better than he had remembered.

George untied the ribbon on the scroll and shifted through the letters. He smiled at first, remembering the first days he was in Hogsmeade, when she felt like she was so close, he only needed to figure out just that one little key that would unlock her heart and Luna would be his forever.

In just over a week things had gone so terribly wrong, and Luna seemed like she was a million miles away...an unreachable dream.

He shuffled through a few more letters then stopped abruptly, the bottle of butterbeer slipping through his fingers and shattering on the floor.

"What the hell?"

He tore out of the shop, grabbing his broom on the way.

He had to get to Hogwarts.

He had to get there now.


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Part Four: Enter Assistant-Professor Cho The Ho
Harry was in the middle of a perfectly lovely treacle tart when Headmaster McGonagall called for quiet in the great hall. So oblivious was he that he hadn't noticed that someone was standing next to McGonagall until he felt Ginny go extremely rigid next to him.

He attempted to take her hand but she pulled it away from his, then, she took a deep breath, relaxed slightly and turned to him and whispered a soft apology in his ear and took his hand back in her own just in time for McGonagall to announce the proud return of former student, now Assistant Professor Cho Chang

who would be teaching transfiguration for the next term in years one through three.

Dinner at an end, Ginny practically sprinted out of the great hall dragging Harry behind her in an attempt to avoid running into Cho before their last session of DADA before the holiday.

"Ron! Ginny!" Luna ran up to them "Harry"

"What is it?" Ginny asked, anxious to get out of the building

"You've got to help. George is outside and he won't leave, Draco is getting very angry. Please, go get George to leave before he...someone gets hurt."

Ginny looked at her closely, her eyes clearly translated it to "before George gets hurt"

"We'll take care of it. You go to your commons okay? If your not there...maybe he'll be easier to convince." Ron said

"Ginny, why don't you go with her so she isn't alone?" Harry begged with his eyes.

Ginny nodded and led Luna off while Harry and Ron went out into the night and down into the snowy path. George and Draco were halfway down, Draco sitting on George's chest, his wand pointing at his face.

"I warned you Weasley. Get the hell out of here."

"Not until I talk to Luna, alone."

"What the hell..." Ron said shoving Draco off George.

"Ron..."Harry began

"He's the one who came flying up here like a crazy person and started making demands like he's lost his mind."

"Did you ask what he wanted?"

"We tried but..."

"It's none of your business Malfoy." George growled ready to tear Draco in half.

"See?"

"George, what's this about?"

"Harry, I swear if you don't let me go up and see Luna..."

"What?" Harry rose an eyebrow at George "You gonna beat me up? Hex me? Someone you've known since I was just a little kid?"

"You're still a little kid."

"I'm gonna marry your sister, be family."

"Your already family, have been since me and Fred lifted your trunk onto the train that day." George grunted

"The guy who gave you his tri wizard winnings to get started?"

"That's a low shot Potter."

"I'll take what I can get at this rate. Now tell us whats up."

"Someone's out to come between me and Luna."

"Give me a break." Draco snorted

"I got proof."


"I swear Potty, how do you work in that mess?"

Harry cleared the considerable mess off his desk with a simple swipe of his wand.

"What mess?" Harry smirked.

"Look at these." George unrolled the parchments on top of the desk. "These are scrolls I sent to Luna weeks ago. These are ones she got this past week."

"Yeah, we've seen them." Ron crossed his arms

"Yeah, only thing is I didn't write them."

"What do you mean?" Harry sat forward "Where did they come from then?"

"I don't know for sure,. But I have my suspicions"

"Or you just feel guilty about it now and want to pass the blame off on someone else." Draco sneered

"George wouldn't do that." Ron glared

"I've never seen those letters before in my life, Besides, like I said, I can prove it." George laid two letters next to each other "This is from the first week I was here. This is from this week. See any difference?"

"Not a bit." Draco said and sat back.

"Look closer."

"Wait," Harry said "I see it. Ron?"

"I saw it right away, he's my brother. It's probably what was bothering Ginny about them, but she couldn't put her finger on it because she didn't have them side by side."

Draco looked up suddenly "The slant is different. And the capitals, they face the wrong direction."

George reached into a pocket and pulled out a scroll of parchments. "Ever seen any of these before?"

They each took a sheaf of parchment and read, their eyes wide.

"You don't think..."

"Not anymore." George shook his head "I did though. I've never seen her hand writing more then a time or two, so, you tell me..."

He put the two sheafs of parchments together, his against the one Luna was suppose to have written.

"Bloody Hell." Ron exclaimed

"The slant and the capitals, they're identical." Draco looked up again.

George took a deep breath, ashamed to admit what he knew he had to admit next. He still felt filthy and dirty because of it.

"Marietta Edgecombe came through town on my birthday, her uncle runs Honeydukes. They supposedly convinced her to stick around for the holidays and the ball on New Years Eve. She's been dogging me since, even though she has made it clear she hates anyone who was involved with Dumbledores Army, she is constantly on me...if you get my drift."

George took a deep breath.

"Today I fell asleep in the shop, and I... well, I was dreaming about Luna, a memory of her." His eyes darted to Draco quickly then back "When I woke up I was kissing that filthy sneak, that's when Luna saw us."

Harry let out his breath and sat back.

"You really do need to talk to Luna."

"No shit." Ron agreed

George was looking at Draco.

"Look, Luna is my friend. About the only one I've got in this place since no one wants to associate with a death eater."

"Ex" Harry added "Ex death eater."

Draco smirked a little " I care about her as a friend, like a little sister. You were hurting her plenty before any of this happened, I won't stand in your way, but I won't retract my promise to kick your ass if your hurt her again."

"That's fair I suppose."

"I think you should wait." Harry put in "Until we break for the Holiday. I think Ginny has Luna convinced that you won't be anywhere near the burrow, so it will be safe for her to stay over the holidays."

"No offense taken" George rolled his eyes

"No one said this was going to be easy" Harry shrugged "Besides, you and Lee will be swamped in Diagon Alley in the shop most of the time. That doesn't mean you can't sneak in from time to time."

"Speaking of which... what about the sneak?" Ron asked

"I'm thinking it is suspicious that she and Cho the Ho are around at the same time and trouble mysteriously arises." Draco mumbled

"I'm thinking I agree with you." Harry nodded "I'm also wondering if this has any connection with the diary that was planted in Ginny's room."

"What the hell are they playing at? Who would care so much about keeping me and Luna apart that they would go to such lengths? I mean, even if this is about Dumbledore's Army, why aren't they going after Harry or Hermione or even Ron? Why Luna and me? It makes no sense. "

They looked around the room at one another, grateful for the upcoming holidays and the break from the new worry that was just beginning to take hold. George was thankful that there was a chance he might be a conversation away from clearing the air with Luna, but worried at the same time about the lengths the sneak might go to in order to keep them apart.

"I don't know." Harry said, a nervous feeling of dread creeping into the pit of his stomach "But we better find out fast. Before someone ends up getting hurt."


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Part 10 Preview

Christmas at the Burrow!

Away from Hogsmeade, George and Luna

have a chance to patch things up...but will they only make things worse?

Something strange happens to Ginny, Harry NEEDS to know

the secrets of the diary...but where has it gone?

Everyone hustles to Hogsmeade for the

preparations begin for the Snowflake Ball,

Ginny, Hermione and Luna go dress shopping in the muggle

world and Luna meets up with an old acquaintance who just might have

the answers she needs


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Note:

Um, okay so...here comes another AR-- rant on reviews. As In...only two for the last chapter?? Come on! What happened to all the people who promised to review if I picked this fic back up? I'm gonna be honest, I'm tired of being disappointed when I spend days brainstorming, then typing away and working on a new chapter, post the new chapter, and people read but then can't be bothered to say a few words about the story. Right now I am in a position to end this fic in three chapters, this would mean scrapping all of the main plot , including the Diary Ginny found, her possession, the mystery of Hermione's father's memory loss, Cho's return,,Marietta's plot and comeuppance, the string puller who wanted to destroy all of them, including Draco, and the mystery surrounding the possibility of their being a ninth horcrux. I think I will be covering the mystery of Luna's past though, since I just finished George and Luna's back story, I am going to skip around a bit and bring them to resolution so there are no huge loose ends and then that will be the end of it, again, not in the way I had planned.

or I can go on and write it the way I intended, That's gonna depend on reviews. I don't mean to be a bitch, but we dont get paid for writing, all we get are the kudo's , and since a lot of the readers here are also writers, you should really know better than to not leave a review!!

I wrote a hilarious fic called snapes christmas carol and it is sitting at 2 reviews. Now I don' t even want to finish it because what's the point if it is just gonna be ignored??? No Kudos equals no inspiration equals no creativity equals no writing equals no updates. So, we all win if you review!


Merry Christmas! ---CJ
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