A/N: Some SR-GAP action here. And lots of angst and fluff. YAY!
ATTENTION: This is ANGST coming up here. Lots and lots of it.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Though I wish it was.
The Letter P
Chapter Ten: P is for Pitiably Stunted Conversation Input
Riddle's jaw tensed, and Ginny almost felt guilty for having an attack in front of him. "I don't know! I was writing, and I wasn't really paying attention… and then you started muttering, really fast, to yourself. I just thought that you were re-reading your letter or something! But then there was a massive thump, and I looked around, and you were on the floor, twitching and shaking like mad with your eyes rolled back inside your head. I came over to see if you were joking and then you started screaming…"
Ginny's heart plummeted. She'd never had an attack like that. She'd never made her eyes roll back inside her head. Suddenly she realized who she was talking to, and skidded backwards on the carpet, away from Riddle. She simply stared up at him with wide, fearful eyes, heart pounding in her chest. He killed them. He killed them all.
"What the-?" she heard behind her as she slammed through the portrait of a very affronted Robin the Rich, and before it swung closed, she heard bellows of, "Peregrine!" She did not stop. Nor did she respond, or even acknowledge that she had heard. Heart beating a tattoo on the inside of her chest, feet eating up the stone-cobbled floor, she sprinted faster. Away. Away from him.
…
She skidded around a corner, barrelled through a group of frightened-looking first-years, and continued to sprint forwards. Tears were threatening to consume her, and then she slammed through the door of the nearest girls' bathroom.
It was not the same bathroom as last, the one that she had broken the door to. A cluster of make-up-applying third-years were leaning into the mirror with their pastel lipsticks, but they all turned to her, astonished. Their shock grew more intense as they saw her, and tripled in size when she screamed at them, "Get out!"
They scurried away, whispering among each other as they departed. Ginny stared after them, heart battering her ribcage. Then the door closed, separating her from them, and she turned away. The sixteen-year-old looked in the mirror for the first time in a year.
Ohmigod. Is that… me?
Staring back at her was a devastating figure. Ginny had been withered by depression and anxiety. She had always been small but was smaller than ever, and skinny with it, as the bereavement of everyone she loved had been taking its toll on her stomach, making her feel full when she had not eaten much. Her normally-rounded face was snow-white, thin and her cheekbones were angled, as opposed to soft curves. Her round hazel eyes were wider than was usual, as they were emphasised by her lean face. Her hair had not been brushed today and was in a wild state of disarray, and it wasn't quite the vibrant red it had always been. Her uniform was bedraggled, forming a crude oxymoron against the proud Prefect badge on her chest, and her eyes were swollen with tears.
No wonder the third-years ran away.
…I hate this. I hate this world, and I hate 1958, and I hate Riddle, and I hate myself for not being able to save them, or even to avenge them.
Feeling her shoulders to shake, Ginny screwed up her face, fighting back a combination of a scream and sob.
Don't. Don't. Don't.
"Flipendo!" Ginny shouted, flinging her hand forwards sharply.
For a moment nothing happened, and then purple light flashed, burning an image of a glowing wand onto hazel retinas. Then the mirror exploded outwards.
The redhead closed her eyes to protect them from flying glass, but did not fling her arms up. She felt glass glide over her cheeks, and felt blood turning her face sticky. She remained still for a moment, breathing hard, her eyes still closed, before swallowing past the lump in her throat and cleaning her face with a simple spell. She checked her appearance in a shard of mirror; twisted the ends of her messy red hair, and then brushed it backwards over her skinny shoulders with her fingers.
"Grace'll send me to Madam Royce for sure this time if she sees me like this," she muttered to herself. She combed her hair with her fingers and pulled it up into a messy bun, sponged at her eyes with toilet roll until the swelling went down, and then officially vowed to eat more, even if she felt as though she would be sick.
Deciding that her appearance was as good as she could make it at such short notice, Ginny left the bathroom. The urge to break everything that she saw, to scream out loud, or to start sobbing on the floor was almost drowning her, but she kicked her way to the surface of it and fought it back.
I will get past this if it kills me.
"Ginny!" someone fell into step with her.
Looking up and seeing Scott, a genuine smile flickered onto Ginny's lips. Maybe not everything about 1958 was so bad. "Hello," she said softly.
Scott peered down into her face. "Gin, are you okay?" he asked. "You don't look too good. D'you want me to take you to Madam Royce?"
The sixteen-year-old girl shook her head. "No, I'm fine." Suddenly feeling brazen and confident, she grinned up at him, fluttered her cinnamon eyelashes, and said cheekily, "However, I could do with an escort to dinner…"
Holding out his arm in a gentlemanly way, Scott said, "There is no way I could refuse, m'lady."
Blushing profusely, Ginny shyly put her hand on his arm. He set his other hand on top of hers, and shivers ran up her body, started from her very warm left hand. Then, together, they walked down the Great Hall, chatting amiably, though Ginny's input in the conversation was rather pitiably stunted due to the fact that all of her being was focused on the feel of his hand on hers.
"So, d'you like Hogwarts, then, Lady Peregrine?" asked Scott formally, with a grin on his face, still pretending to be a proper ceremonial escort.
"Very much, Sir Reeve," replied Ginny with a giggle that was slightly higher pitched than normal (Scott gave her an odd look that made an embarrassed flush deepen the colour of red on her cheeks). "I only wish I could have began to attend sooner."
"Why did you come here, my Lady Peregrine?" Scott inquired as they descended the main stairs.
To kill the Head Boy.
"Um," said Ginny, concentrating hard on not saying her first line of thought. What was my cover story? "I was home-schooled, but when I had no-one to teach me any longer, I moved here."
"You were home-schooled?" asked Scott interestedly, dropping the official demeanour. "What was that like?"
"Um. Home-school-y?" Ginny guessed, having no idea. She desperately hoped that Scott would fall for it, and luckily he seemed to think it was a joke, and laughed uproariously.
And spectacularly saved, Ginevra.
"Ginny, you're so-" Scott said, laughing. Suddenly words seemed to fail him, and he turned to look directly into Ginny's eyes. It was a soft, studying gaze. "So… you."
"I suppose that's a compliment?" breathed Ginny. A smile dashed across her thin lips, but it was drowned by the beating of her heart and by her hurried breathing. Her lungs seemed to have halved in size, and her stomach was doing the salsa with her spleen.
"Probably," replied Scott, and a flustered tinge of pink grew on his tanned cheeks. He averted his gaze from her eyes, cleared his throat slightly, and then said, "So, should we… go and eat, then?"
What?
OH YEAH! Food! Great Hall! That's why we're here. Hehe. I knew that.
"Yes," said Ginny, very quickly. "I'll just. Go. Yeah. Thanks for bringing me. Yeah." She held up both of her hands, as though she was about to wave, before clenching them into fists, opening them, and then allowing them to move to the back of her head, nervously fixing her hair. "See you."
Scott leaned forwards, sort of hovering in an embarrassed way, before rocking backwards on his heels, apparently having deciding against whatever he had been thinking, scratched the back of his neck, said, "Yeah," and then hastened in the Great Hall.
Therefore leaving Ginny in a stunned, confused, and slightly giggly state in the Entrance Hall. Someone stormed angrily past her, but she did not pay any notice, as she was staring at the wall in a state of shock.
For a few seconds she stood stock-still, dazed. Then she burst into hysterical mirth. She hurriedly contained herself and entered the Great Hall; she found Grace and Alden easily.
"What's with you?" said Grace suspiciously.
Ginny helped herself to scrambled eggs; she was suddenly ravenous. Piling them onto her plate, she ground salt and pepper over it before starting to fork it into her mouth.
Grace's eyes narrowed. "You're acting odd," she informed her friend. "What's wrong?"
Desperately she tried not to, but before she could resist, Ginny turned her head to look at the Ravenclaw table. She located Scott quickly; he was watching her. He grinned, before returning to his food and conversation. Reddening, she turned away. "Nothing."
However, Grace had already followed her gaze. "Oh," she said, a beam spreading across her face. "I see. Nothing."
"Shut up," grumbled Ginny, feeling colour surge to her cheeks.
"So how is nothing these days?" inquired Grace mischievously, eyes sparkling.
Alden looked utterly confused. "Wait. What? I don't understand," he said flatly.
"No way!" gasped Ginny in mockery. "Alden doesn't understand something!"
"No, really," he insisted. "I'm confused! What's happening?" he was becoming more and more anxious, which only increased Ginny and Grace's hilarity.
"What happened?" asked Grace in a low voice. Alden craned in to hear, still trying to comprehend what the two Slytherin girls were talking about.
Ginny blushed. "He just walked with me to the Hall," she mumbled, selecting some nicely-browned sausages from a golden platter and starting to cut them up.
"And?"
"And that's all, Miss Nosy!"
"He walked you to Hall? That's all he did, and it gets you into a state of red-cheeked giggly girliness?" Grace said incredulously, her voice several amplitudes louder than Ginny would have preferred.
"Sssshhh!" the red-haired sixteen-year-old hissed frantically, glancing around. "Not so loud – genius!" she playfully smacked her friend upside the head.
"Ow!" Grace rubbed her head. "You must have it bad, Ginny, if that's all it takes," she said seriously.
"I do not have anything bad, thank you," Ginny responded, finishing her sausage and buttering a slice of toast.
"Are we talking about Scott?" asked Alden, his eyes widening slightly in understanding. At least he had the sense to say it quietly.
"Yes," chirped Grace. "And our little freckled-face friend here in is denniiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!" she sang loudly.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Try to draw a little more attention to yourself, Grace," she said sarcastically. "I think there's someone in Wales who didn't quite catch the end of your look-at-me-I'm-publicly-humiliating-myself charade."
"They'll find out soon enough," said Grace mysteriously. "Scott can tell them for us."
And, so happy and giddy in her emotions was Ginny, that she did not notice the burning glare fixed upon her by dark eyes glazed green.
…
A/N: Who do you think it is? Oooh. Thanks to my beta SilvanXan. Enjoy the rest of the fic!
Storm-brain: Aw, thanks!
SwirlyL: Well, actually, I've got ALL of the chapters written up, all the way to Chapter 31, I think it is. But I'm doing it slowly, so that its not like a big word-vomit that you can't understand. Well, sorry that you didn't really see any of Riddle's reaction, but we caught a glimpse of him. Try to work out where! It's sort of obvious, what whatever.
XxRandomHeartxX: Thanks! I love your reviews, they make me all hyper inside… aw. And I love your pen-name. I'm glad that you like Grace, as she's pretty much 99 based on MOI! I love, love, love, love YOUR REVIEWS! I know, I'm getting really good at these cliffies, aren't I? –grin-