Hey all! I'm back once again, and I'm writing for Hogwarts School right now. This is term 3 Myths and Legends fic. The task was to write a story set aboard a ship, and for extra credit, to write it aboard a ghost ship. I must say, this is a great story that I think will be one of my best… but I will let the teachers and you readers decide.
Anyway, have a great day and enjoy my fics!
*I got this idea from the movie Ghost Ship. If you want, check it out!
Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, Aboard The Merlin, 2037
Ginny sat tiredly on the bunk of her bed, which had been in disrepair for the last forty years. Ever since the night she and her shipmates had all been murdered, she had been trapped aboard The Merlin. It had been over forty years since that night, and she still felt as powerless to escape as she had when the men had slipped the rope over her neck and hung her in her cabin.
It had been years since Ginny had thought of that night, but if it hadn't happened, she wouldn't be here, in this prison, as she liked to call it, waiting for whatever happened next.
She thought over the events of the night she had been killed…
Somewhere off the coast of France, Aboard The Merlin, 1991
A hand extended to her. Ginny looked up at the smiling Captain Dumbledore as he offered his hand for a dance. This night was a night of celebration, although Ginny didn't understand why. They had come across a shipwreck, and had managed to only save one man. Ginny had caught a glimpse of him around the ship, and he was quite handsome. She'd overheard some of the other passengers call him Tom Riddle.
"Would you care to dance, my dear?" the captain asked her. "I would covet a dance with the prettiest girl aboard The Merlin."
Ginny blushed at the compliment as she accepted his gloved hand. They walked out onto the open-air dance floor on the top deck of the ship. She caught glimpse of several of the witches and wizards' wands as the dresses and men twirled around the deck.
Captain Dumbledore began a slow waltz as Ginny stood on his feet. She laughed happily as her dress joined the dozens of others. They lost themselves in the music softly floating across the deck and getting lost in the swells of the Atlantic. The moment was absolutely perfect, one that Ginny would recall every moment of her entrapment.
A sickening SNAP broke everyone out of their dancing reverie. A cord zoomed across the deck, leaving a path of unknown destruction. Captain Dumbledore crouched protectively over Ginny as it advanced. Within a second, it was over. The dancers stared around the deck confusedly, not understanding what had happened. Slowly, they all began to notice little trails of blood trickling from their waists, wrists, wherever the cord had sliced through. Almost in synchronicity, the other passengers collapsed onto the deck, quickling forming a pool of blood around Ginny's feet. She stared up at Captain Dumbledore for some source of comfort, but watched in horror as the top half of his head slid forward where the cord had ended his life also. Ginny stared for a moment, before she burst into a blood-curdling scream.
She picked her way across the bodies and ran through the corridors of the interior ship, trying to find help. But everyone was sick somehow. Some were groaning something about food poisoning. She heard wandfire from somewhere nearby. Stopping for a rest, Ginny's eyes landed upon the charming young ship's purser, Harry Potter. Earlier that evening he'd given her a block thing, helping her to spell "I am so bored." He was now being held hostage at wandpoint by two older men. As they noticed her, Harry said, "Ginevra,-"
He didn't finish. The biggest man said, "Avada Kedavra." A flash of green light enveloped Harry's head, and he collapsed, also dead. Ginny screamed again and resumed her flight. Oh, how she wished she were older and had a wand, so she wasn't so defenseless. She was quickly caught and dragged through the corridors. They finally stoppeed at her own cabin and shut the door. Ginny sobbed as the men tied a thick rope around her neck.
"Please, don't do this," Ginny pleaded. "Let me go, and I won't tell anyone. You can get what you want. Put me ashore in America to go to my family, I'll never mention anything. Please!"
The men were oblivious to her pleading. The dragged her over to the closet, where they tied the rope to the pole and pulled tightly. Ginny choked as the men tightened the ropes. Tying it off, the men closed the closet, leaving Ginny suffocating…
The other passengers and crew had been killed in similarly gruesome ways. Some of the senior officers had used the Killing Curse on a multitude of passengers, who toppled lifelessly into the swimming pool. Another man had killed the rest of his accomplices, but met a singularly gruesome end by falling down a false elevator. The ships singer had gotten a hook to the face. Later, Ginny had found out that the whole thing had been orchestrated by the survivor they had saved, Tom Riddle. He was a "spirit collector", which he'd become after a lifetime of bad deeds. He had to fill a quota of souls to bring back to Hell, and this ship had been the perfect target.
Riddle could control the trapped spirits with something called the Mark. He could only mark those sould who had sinned, however. Ginny, being young and innocent, had never committed a heinous sin, and as such was free of the mark.
All Ginny could do was sit here and wait until whatever happened next.
But she then heard footsteps. Someone was aboard, they were! Someone living! Perhaps Ginny could warn them, save them even if it cost her soul. She would save them if it was the last thing she ever did.