A/N: YAY FOR PREDICTABLENESS! AND YAY FOR CLICHÉNESS! Thanks for all of the B-E-A-Yootiful reviews…. By the way, Morning-Sunset, thatanaphobia is a phobia of death… WHICH I HAVE! Yeah, not as cool as a phobia of mirrors but still. I have 900-something reviews! WOOOP! Anyway. ENJOY
Disclaimer: Get the idea into your head. I don't own it. Now move on.
The Letter P
Chapter Sixty-Two: P is for Phobia
"Roll, indeed," Ginny agreed, and, linking elbows, they marched out of the Three Broomsticks, leaving their money behind them to pay for their drinks. And as they chatted amiably about the weather and Quidditch and homework, both were wondering quietly if that conversation would be the last they ever had.
xxx
The Slytherin common room was quieter than usual. Everyone was at class except for the sixth- and seventh-years, who always had a free period just before lunch on a Tuesday. However, the seventh-years had the mocks for their NEWT exams, so the sixth-year Slytherins had basically taken over the common room.
"Hey, check it out," called Ilivan Yaxley, an obnoxious dark-skinned boy, from across the room. He pointed to leaflet on the notice-board that Ginny hadn't noticed before. "Apparation lessons are starting soon!"
There was an immediate scramble to see when the class dates were.
"Wow!"
"Aw, that's ages away!"
"Not really. It's only in April."
"I'm already seventeen, I should learn now, I think."
"Malfoy, no-one cares about your opinion."
"Shut it, Hartwin!"
"Hey! Break it up!" Ginny yelled, standing between the two fighting Slytherins. "Immaturesville?"
Grace grumbled. "He started it."
Ginny raised her eyebrow. Actually, you did. She kept quiet, and instead turned her attention back towards the Apparation notice. April the tenth. That was only a few weeks from now. She made a note to write it somewhere… on a calendar or something.
"I'm bored," declared Grace loudly, as the crowd of sixth-years was disintegrating, to return to their old places. "I want to spy on the NEWT people."
"Or we could always spy on the SALAMANDER people," said Ginny jokingly.
Grace stared at her. "Ginny. That was so unfunny that it's making my left eye burn."
"Screw you."
Ginny and Grace stood still for a moment, glaring at each other, before simultaneously heading for the door to spy on the seventh-years doing their NEWT mock-exams.
xxx
"Where are the Slytherins?" Ginny whispered to Grace as they crept down the examination corridor.
"Oh, I get it…" Grace whispered back, with a wink. "Slytherin seventh-years… of course you came along."
"Shut up," Ginny hissed, scowling.
Grace chuckled. "I'm so evil."
Ginny slapped her lightly on the arm. There came a crash from a nearby classroom. The two sixth-years scurried to the door and peered through.
A seventh-year called Electra Racquel was heading towards the door that the two sixth-years were hidden behind, followed by Devin calling through another doorway, "Next please – Mr. Riddle?"
Ginny squealed before she could stop herself. Then she clapped her hands over her mouth. Grace lapsed into silent roars of laughter. The redhead glared at her. "Not a word," she hissed fiercely.
They ducked out of the way as Raquel came through and then moved back to the door. Cross with herself for squealing, Ginny stood on tiptoe to continue looking through the glass window.
Tom stood in the center of the room, standing tall and looking forwards coolly, seeming to not notice the audience of two clustered at the door. Then, so fast that Ginny thought that if she'd blinked, she'd have missed it, spells were firing out from all directions.
A blue shield – ducking - a green counter-curse – weaving - a yellow shield – spinning - an explosion of sparks – dodging – red streaks – like a strange, colourful dance –
Then it was over. And Tom stood in the same position he'd started in, not even bothered. Then it started again, and he was moving backwards, and sparks were colliding and ricocheting around the room. Red, yellow, blue, green, white, purple, silver, pink, red again, and back to blue…
Stillness followed, and then various creatures were crawling across the floor, and the classroom had been transformed into something dark and dank and strange, where the animals were in their element and people weren't.
However, Ginny thought quietly to herself, this isn't a normal person. This is someone who can disappear in the shadows when there are none. This is someone who can hide in an empty room. This is someone who can stand in a crowded corridor and not be seen by anyone. This is someone who would go on to invent spells, and, later, to rule the world. This is the Head Boy, the cleverest male in his year. This… is Tom Marvolo Riddle.
She beamed. This is my boyfriend.
A Blast-Ended Skrewt was up-ended and a Dugbog was cast against the wall. An Acromantula's legs fell off, and a small dragon roared in pain. A cluster of Doxies exploded into silver glitter. A Red Cap was stunned and then thrown to the side. A Dementor whooshed from the darkness – and Ginny panicked.
He can't do Patronuses! He can't do Patronuses! He can't do Patr-!
Silver-white light burst out.
Ginny frowned.
A wild-cat had landed, and, had Tom been an animal, was doing what he would have been doing for the past seventeen years of his life – spine curved, claws out, ears flattened, and hissing get the hell away from me at the Dementor as though their was no tomorrow.
He can do a Patronus.?
It was both a question and a statement. She was confused.
Then there was a rattling noise, and with a swirl of black smoke that was evidently a Boggart, a large floor-length mirror appeared.
Ginny looked over in confusion at Tom; his face was screwed up in a wince, his eyes narrowed so that he didn't have to see it properly. He whirled his wand; red flew out; bang – and the mirror transformed-
Come on, you can do it…!
Ginny's eyes flashed back to the Boggart.
And then back to Tom.
And then back to the Boggart.
Huh?
There was a Tom whose face held a mixture of a wince and a glare… and another Tom, whose head was slightly tilted to the left in his famous sarcastic-arrogant-disbelieving look, and smirking, lips twisted into the cruellest of smiles. There was something about the second Tom's cold face that wasn't quite human-
Grace snorted.
Ginny looked over at her. "What?"
"Nothing." Grace straightened her face into a solemn look. Then laughed again.
"What?" Ginny demanded.
"Come on, your boyfriend's scared of his reflection," said Grace, laughing. Ginny didn't answer. She stared with narrowed eyes at her brunette friend. "I mean, seriousl- … okay, shutting up now."
Bang. The second Tom disappeared, and so did the dark, frightening landscape around him.
"Well done, Mr. Riddle. Next – Ms. Sullivan!" Devin called.
"Meh. I suppose you're going to ditch me, then, for him?" Grace suggested as the Head Boy moved towards the door where they stood.
Ginny put a finger to her chin and considered it. "Mm… yeah."
Grace huffed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to try and distract Harold Tanner when it's his turn so that he fails. He threw a bagel at me last week. See you later."
"Okay," Ginny agreed, deciding not to question the other sixth-year's reasoning. The door opened. "Hello!" she said brightly.
Tom frowned. "Why are you behind a door?"
"Because me and Grace were spying on you," replied Ginny cheerfully.
Tom looked over at Grace; she beamed and waved at him. He turned back to Ginny. "Thanks," he muttered sarcastically, and began to walk away.
Ginny hurried after him. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked. "I mean, I know you must be kind of pissed that me and Grace were watching your mocks, but it doesn't matter because you were really good!"
He gave the smallest twitch of his shoulder – a Tom-Riddle shrug. Didn't answer.
The red-haired Prefect studied what little of his face she could see from her height. She pieced things together, and guessed the last few pieces. "It was just a Boggart," she said softly.
Instantly, he gave her a sharp look, his jaw tightening. "I know that," he said stiffly, but he looked away, back down the corridor, and continued walking.
Ginny tried to fall into step with him, but his legs were too long, and she ended up doing a funny shuffle-hop in order to keep up. "So," she said. "Two things. Firstly, you're being very stubborn about the fact that someone else saw that you can, in fact, be scared of things-"
Tom stopped dead and stared at her. Jackpot.
"-and," she blundered ahead regardless of the look he was giving her, "secondly…" she looked up at him curiously. "The second thing that your Boggart turned into, I can understand… but why the mirror?"
He didn't respond. He kept walking.
"I haven't been bothered by anything else that you've told me - does it look like I'm going to bothered by your phobia of mirrors or any explanation behind it?" Ginny said exasperatedly.
"Someone dropped a mirror on me when I was four years old," Tom replied coolly.
"Okay…" said Ginny, nodding. "Now tell me the truth."
Tom glanced down at her and saw the obstinate expression in her hazel eyes. He gave a short exhalation that was close to a sigh, and asked, "Do you have a mirror with you?"
"Er." Ginny looked around, and quickly tore the mouthpiece off of a nearby suit of armour. "I do now."
The young Heir of Slytherin looked around warily before moving into a more secluded corridor. Then, noticeable uneasiness glinting in his eyes, he held the mouthpiece across from his face and tilted it so that Ginny could see his reflection.
She jumped.
It was Tom… but it wasn't. The eyes were solid black, with no pupils or irises, and rimmed with red. The face was almost solid white, waxen and blurry, like someone had smeared a crayon drawing. The hair was pitch-black, straight (unlike the real Tom's wavy tresses) and hanging into his face. And the not-Tom smirked, with the expression of a lion watching a deer squirm under its paw.
And it spoke.
"Look at me," he-it-not-Tom purred.
Ginny glanced up at Tom and saw that he was staring determinedly at the wall to his left, an expression on his face as though he was trying not to be sick.
"Look at me, damnit," his brother, Marvolo, snarled. "You have to!"
The mouthpiece of the suit of armour was starting to shake violently – not the mouthpiece, Ginny realised, but the hands of the person holding it. In one fluid movement, she swiped the curved piece of metal out of his fingers – it soared across the corridor and smashed against the brick wall on the other side.
Tom stared after it. "You're going to get in trouble for vandalising school property, you know," he said quietly.
"Oh well," responded Ginny cheerily. "Come on, then. Where are you headed next?"
"Nowhere. I'm just going back to my dormitory, I suppose."
Memory flashed back to her. "You have a mirror in your bedroom, though."
"Ninety-nine percent of that mirror's life is spent under a sheet so that I never have to look at it," said Tom coolly in reply. "The other one percent is when I think I absolutely must use it, in which case it is bewitched to temporarily shield it from any unknown presence before the sheet even comes off."
"Oh." Ginny understood. "Hm. Interesting."
"What's interesting?" asked Tom.
"Well, I always thought that to maintain that ever-present devilish charm and debonair, you'd have to practice it nightly in front of the mirror," said Ginny.
Tom lifted an eyebrow. "Devilish charm?"
"And debonair," Ginny added. She shrugged. "I guess it just comes naturally."
"That it does," said Tom, smirking. A nice smirk, though. Not the evil kind that the parasite gave.
Ginny's jaw dropped. "Was – was – was that a joke?" she gasped. "From the legendary Tom Riddle?"
"Am I legendary?"
"Indeed you are, Monsieur."
They linked hands and walked off into the distance.
xxx
A/N: Those last three lines were really weird… yeah… sorry that is so unpredictable now… and sorry that I'm not review-replying. It's just that I can't be bothered… I know that it sounds mean… but I'm so busy… I mean, my summer holidays just started! :O Honestly. MEH, I'm sorry though. I am writing a sequel, yarm, about Ginny though… and I won't say anything more about it… but I'm having writer's block, so it's kind of stuck. I have about three chapters typed up for what's going to happen in the middle… and then nothing else. It doesn't really have much of a plot yet… but I am writing something else! It doesn't have a title yet… and it's not an FF. It's an original. :D About vampires. Yay. I love supernatural-y stuff. Mm. I'm on a chocolate-high. Does anyone here read Twilight? I'm so obsessed with it… rawr. EdwardxBella reminds me of my version of TomxGinny… I love them so much… and I just got Eclispe today! YAY! Because I need to read Eclipse before Breaking Dawn comes out… yeah, I'm slow… sorry, I'm rambling. This is a long author's note. If you read this far, get a cyber-cookie, and tell me in a review that you got one. And then I'll know who cares enough to read my author notes… OH, my school-house won the Sport's Day thing… and I came second in 1500m, which is something to be proud of, because I can't run very far for very long… yay… I'm sort of musical-y now… learning to play a Kina Grannis song on guitar… beautiful, beautiful song. Search her on Youtube. Massive inspiration for stories. There are songs that describes my characters so nicely. Can't remember which they are right now… will try to remember… probably won't. OMG I watched this creepy music video… anyway, I'll probably get told off for writing all this… by FF or something… so I'll stop NOW.
BUT THERE'S MORE! Hehe. I forgot to say this: PLEASE REVIEW. :D
And this: thanks massively to the TV show series Heroes, as Nikki sort of inspired the idea of Tom having an alter-ego.
Next Time:
"Get off," Alden grumbled, pushing her away.
Ginny pouted. "Now who's being the mean one?" she complained. "I've professed my love for you and been rejected. Now what?"
There was a shallow breeze behind Ginny, and Grace pointed over her shoulder. "I don't know – maybe try coddling your boyfriend instead?" she said sarcastically.
XXX
Ooh, UnreasonablyJealous!Tom comin' up…