Truth
Ginny, Hannah and Cora huddled together with their blankets on the dark stone floor of their dormitory. It was little past midnight, and almost half of their stolen sweets from the Hogwarts kitchen had been eaten in the many hours run up to Christmas Day. Chocolate frogs, Every Flavour Beans - you name it, and it had been smuggled to the sixth year dorm. A few muggle chocolates, like Cadbury's, had been sent from Cora's mother also, after several letters of Cora begging and pleading for some of the lovely chocolate.
Moonlight glistened through a gap in the curtains, lightening the faces of the Slytherin girls like a spotlight. A few candles had been lit on the wooden dresser, flickering and fading every so often, but burning brightly after a couple of muttered incantations.
"Merry Christmas, everyone," Ginny toasted, clinking her bottle of firewhiskey with Hannah's.
"And a Happy New Year to come!" giggled Hannah, taking a swig of her drink.
Half hour later, and the three had an empty bottle on the floor in front of them, with a goofy smile on Cora's face. They'd all agreed on a game of 'truth or dare', so they'd used Hannah's finished drink as a spinner to decide on which girl was receive either a Verutaserum interrogation or unusual, magical dare. So far, Cora had, unwillingly, snuck into the boy's dorm and taken a number of different clothing items, and Hannah had spilled on her obvious infatuation with Alexander Clearwater.
Now, the bottle landed on Ginny.
She prayed they'd ask nothing harmless. Under the affects of Verutaserum, she'd tell all without a second thought, and she wasn't strong enough, mentally, to fight it off. And she didn't want to do a dare, because that firewhiskey was beginning to make her feel just a smidgen dizzy.
"Truth, please," Ginny said, pulling her blanket around her tighter.
Cora reached forwards and whispered something in Hannah's ear. Hannah seemed to want to disagree, but ended up rolling her eyes and letting Cora continue.
"What's going on between you and Riddle?"
In what context?
They mean romantically, Ginerva; they're teenage girls, for Merlin's sake.
There's nothing wrong with teenage girls.
"Noth-" Ginny went to lie, but choked up a little before the potion took over and began to speak, "I'm trying to destroy him. I travelled back in time so I could kill him-"
Suddenly there was a hand covering her mouth and Ginny stopped speaking. The two friends opposite her exchanged glances warily.
"She's joking, Cora, isn't she?" Hannah said, still making sure Ginny remained silent.
"The potion never lies..." Cora frowned, eyes burrowed. She whispered, "Maybe I brewed it wrong?" but Hannah shook her head.
"You couldn't have, Cora, you're amazing at potions."
Thinking she could perhaps take advantage of the truth telling serum, Cora turned back to Ginny and began to ask questions rapidly, like a gun shot attacking a defenceless, weaponless innocent.
"Where did you live in the future?"
"The Burrow."
"Where did you attend school?"
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Who does Tom Riddle turn out to be?"
Ginny knew it was a bad idea to tell Cora this, but, nevertheless, the answer had escaped her lips within seconds and it was too late.
"Tom Riddle grew up a feared and powerful dark wizard, creating a new name for himself - Lord Voldemort, forged out from the phrase 'I am Lord Voldemort', a rearrangement of Tom Marvolo Riddle.
"When I was in my first year at Hogwarts in 1992, I began writing to a diary, which later turned out to be a horcrux, a piece of Voldemort's soul. It opened the Chamber of Secrets through my body, and I didn't know I was being possessed until it was too late; I'd already let him in.
"Later on, he tried acting upon the prophecy about him and Harry Potter once more, trying to kill him like he did when he was only one years old. Like before, he failed every time, and Harry still managed to deflect the Avada Kedavra curse effortlessly. Then, the war truly began, with more muggle and muggleborn deaths and disappearances, just like the first war."
The information seemed to roll off of poor Ginny's tongue. Nevertheless, it felt, in a way, quite good to let her past ooze and mix with her current. Keeping things in never worked.
"So why did you come here, then?" Hannah queried.
"Harry died, and I panicked. I spoke a spell my Head of House had invented, which sent me here, and I knew what I had to do."
There was silence, a pregnant pause, an awkward moment of nothingness, until Hannah asked another question.
"Why would you kill him?"
"Because he's an evil man who cares for no one but himself. But I'm not going to anymore. I'm going to kill his emotion. I'm going to break his heart," Ginny grimaced. "Then he'll know what it's like to feel pain and trauma, and he won't ever wish it on another."
Never, ever, ever again will Tom Riddle hurt someone innocent.
Cora's face screwed up in disdain, "Ginny - this makes you just as bad as him; you're wishing pain on him, exactly what you want to get him to stop. Maybe if-"
"You don't understand," Ginny growled. "He ruined my life, and he killed hundreds. This is just pain for one person. It's my job to bring justice onto him. No one else will."
"But it's not this Tom who ruined your life!"
Hannah grabbed Cora's arm and spoke in a calm voice, "As soon as the Chamber of Secrets was opened last year, Ginny's life was ruined. That single event. And it's already happened. That means Hagrid is innocent, and Tom is guilty. Let him suffer for that if nothing at all."
Cora looked at the floor. She couldn't meet her friend's eye.
"Fine. I'm going to bed."
"Goodnight, Cora," chorused the other two.
They received no goodnight back.
As the other two clambered into bed little under an hour later, Hannah looked at Ginny curiously.
"I don't want to make you see fault, but perhaps you'd think about how it might work if you show him love and let him keep it, rather than taking it away."
"What do you mean?" Ginny asked softly.
"If he's in pain, he may continue the plans for his future just to spite you. I know you would hate that. 'Night."
But it would mean a lifetime of pretence, and I'd never see Harry again.
Other than the plan, Ginerva, when have you actually thought about that boy hero?
The Tom in her head was, regretfully, right.
Early in Christmas morning, Ginny awoke to find Hannah and Cora somewhere that, well, wasn't in the dorm. She presumed they were up in the common room, so put on a cloak over her pyjamas so she could go upstairs. In the common room, Cora, Hannah, Abraxas and a number of tiny, excited looking first years all sat by the fire. Cora and Hannah had taken one sofa, so Abraxas moved over on his to let Ginny sit down, with a warm grin on his pale face.
"Hey, Conwy! Merry Christmas!" he enthused.
"Merry Christmas, Abraxas."
Plonking herself onto the sofa in an unladylike manner, Ginny looked fondly at the first years currently digging into their stockings of sweets with sparkles in their eyes like Christmas lights. She'd been like that once; young and over enthusiastic about every darn thing. Bless.
"We thought we'd wait for you before we open our presents," Cora said quietly.
"Thanks," Ginny replied gratefully, looking at Cora pointedly. Please don't think me evil, especially not on Christmas Day.
Hannah, bouncing out her seat like a hyper elf, collected the presents and sat in front of her three housemates, and began distributing them. Once everyone had one present each, they all opened their own together. These were all Hannah's presents, and she'd gotten each Slytherin a small box of tricks and treats from Zonko's in Hogsmeade. Cora got small birth stones for the other three, and Abraxas a set of expensive chess pieces so he could challenge them all to games.
Last, it came to Ginny's presents. For Hannah, she'd gotten a number of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour products that she'd seen, knowing Hannah was very much like Ron; she loved food (and Quidditch, mind). Cora would soon receive a mirror, the twin to which remained in the hands of Cora's mother. Ginny had sent the twin over owl post to Mrs Smith, so now the mother and daughter would be able to communicate in any need to immediate contact, so neither would ever worry about losing each other due to war ever again. Although much simpler, Abraxas had received the newest copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, for lack of knowing him deeply enough to get a meaningful present.
Seeing her friends' faces light up like the fire before them brought a very warm feeling of pride to Ginny's heart and she remembered how she did so love giving presents.
Ah. Thinking of remembering things, Ginny realised she really ought to seek out Tom Riddle and Alexander Clearwater to give them their gifts. So, after breakfast, that was exactly what she did.
It was Alexander she saw first, sitting at the Ravenclaw table with a few of his friends, so she approached him first. It was also a bonus, she supposed, because then Tom wouldn't see that she got Alexander a present as well. No one wants a jealous Dark Lord.
As she headed over to the table, Ginny caught Clearwater's eye, and smiled happily.
"Hey, Clearwater!" she yelled, praying she was coming off as friendly rather than flirty. She didn't exactly want a rerun of the mistletoe event, whether it was by choice or not. She couldn't afford to have some silly love triangle messing up her plans. Ginny was pretty sure she'd read that once in a muggle novel, and it didn't end well.
"Hey, Ginny! Merry Christmas," he chuckled. "How are you?"
"I'm good, thank you, Alex," she replied, holding the present behind her back. "You?"
"Very well, thank you."
"Good, because I've gotten you a present," grinned Ginny. "I think you'll love it."
Passing over the carefully wrapped parcel, Ginny looked up at the tall Ravenclaw. As he saw a small part of the book of Quidditch Through the Ages (Ginny hoped Abraxas and Alexander wouldn't realise they'd received the same gift), his eyes lit up, and his mouth spread out into a large smile.
"I'm sorry to say I didn't get you anything, Gin," began Alexander, "but I'll treat you to a cup of tea at Madam Puddifoot's next Hogsmeade trip, if you'd like."
Ginny tried not to wrinkle her nose in disgust. It appeared that most Hogwarts boys saw the tea shop as the easiest and most obvious date, and, as cute as it was the first time you went, it got incredibly tiring when the waitress has seen you there with several different dates.
"You don't have to - I'm quite busy - I need to catch up with studying," she panicked. "Ask Hannah instead! I'm sure she'd love to go with you!"
"Okay," hesitated Alexander. "I'll see you around. Have a good Christmas."
"You too."
-
It took a little longer to find Tom Riddle, whom she'd gotten a book of magical history and the difference between Light and Dark magic. The book had been a suggestion from her Tom, the Tom in Ginny's brain, that, apparently, Tom had read before, but the librarian had seen him take it from the Restricted Section several times, and confiscated it. This was in his fifth year.
Or so that Tom told her.
I'm going to love it, Ginerva. Don't fret.
Thank you, Tom.
When Ginny found Tom, he was, surprise surprise, reading a very in depth book. Approaching from behind, Ginny placed a hand on the back of his chair, the other burrowing in her satchel for the seventh year's present. There it was.
"Merry Christmas, Riddle," smiled Ginny, sitting beside him.
"Oh," he jumped a little, "hello, Conwy. Yes, Merry Christmas." Sounding slightly agitated, he slammed the book closed and faced the girl beside him.
"I got you a present, Tom."
Before she could place the parcel on the table, he had snatched it a little too hastily for it to be an impulse and mumbled a thank you as he stood up and walked almost nervously out of the library. It appeared the book before him was the last thing on his mind.
But then Ginny saw the old and tattered book Tom had been reading, and her heart stopped. It was starting to happen. She had to stop him. You see, the book contained the very information that caused Ginny's friends to spend almost a year away from everything before the final battle; the book was about the very things that could have stopped the war before it began.
Horcruxes.