Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter
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Hogwarts- First Year
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Ginny was so excited to be going on the Hogwarts Express with four of her brothers this year. She'd waited for this day for as long as she could remember. She was positively bouncing with anticipation and almost forgot to kiss and hug her parents goodbye before running to find a compartment and hopefully some friends!
She'd been hearing all of the amazing stories over the years and was eager to start her own adventures. Ron had his two best friends, and they'd gotten up to some really crazy stuff in their first year; Fighting a Mountain Troll, escaping a Dragon, and then saving the Philosophers Stone! She doubted her first year would be as exciting as all that.
The twins always had great stories too. She was looking forward to seeing the Poltergeist, and all of the other Hogwarts ghosts. Maybe if she was smooth enough about it, they'd let her in on some of their pranks. She could be really good at pranking too. She knew she could.
Ginny found a lone compartment and took a seat, waiting and hoping that someone her age would come in and then they could become friends.
In an effort not to look so eager, she pulled out her Diary. She'd found it in with her school books and suspected that her mother had put it there as a surprise for her. Her wand was second hand, her clothes were second hand, and this Diary was second hand. But the amazing thing about this second hand item is that it wrote back.
Ginny had been amazed when she'd written in it a few days before they were due to leave for the school and it corresponded back. The writer was named Tom and he had been to Hogwarts himself. He told her all about the teachers and his classes. He seemed like such good fun. She really felt like she already had a friend.
So now she would write to him while she waited to see who she would be sitting with. Maybe he could tell her some more stories about Hogwarts too!
'I am so excited to be going to Hogwarts! I've been waiting for this day forever! Having to watch all of my brothers going off and having great adventures while I was stuck at home was the worst. I really hope that I will get included in all of their fun now that I'm eleven and old enough for everything.'
'Do you want to show them just how old and mature you are now? I think you and I should play a prank on them. It will be one for the ages. What do you say?'
She hoped he would be able to teach her some fun tricks! This was going to be great. 'Oh absolutely. Tom, you and I are going to have so much fun this year! What did you have in mind?'
'I will teach you a spell. First, place your hand on the diary and you will need to completely relax. Do you trust me?'
'I do. Just tell me what to do next.' She put her left hand on as much of the next page as she could and let out a sigh, shaking her shoulders to relieve any tension.
'Ok. Hand placed, completely relaxed. Now you will need to close your eyes and breathe deeply and count to ten.'
She wasn't sure what kind of spell this could possibly be. She had her wand on her, but he hadn't written down any spell to say and her wand wasn't in her hand. She shook her head, closed her eyes and relaxed. There was an abrupt whooshing sensation and her head lolled back, as though she had instantly fallen asleep.
She jerked her head back forwards.
When Ginny opened her eyes she was in a room sitting cross legged on the floor. The train was gone and there was no noise. She looked around to try and figure out what was going on. This room was so plush and fancy. Was this part of the prank? How did this happen?
The room had a big four poster bed and deep red armchairs. There were books completely covering one wall and no artwork anywhere. There were no windows and no doors. Panic was starting to set in. She checked her arms and legs for any lacerations or bruises, anything that could indicate some kind of trauma had occurred. She closed her eyes and breathed deep for another ten seconds and opened them to find herself still in the room.
Ginny stood and went to one of the bare walls and placed her hand against it. It wasn't wallpapered, it wasn't stone. It was soft. A soft red material of some sort. She pushed against it and it accepted her hand. She pulled her hand back and it came out, completely unharmed.
The last she could remember she was writing in the diary. Maybe the diary was on the bookshelf, and she could write in it again and it would take her back out of this room!
She sprinted over to the bookshelf and started pulling all of the books down. She recognized all of them, none of them however were the diary. Flipping open some of the pages the books seemed to be only half filled. The printing was there, but the books only contained the parts that she remembered of them.
She thought that maybe if she screamed someone might hear her. So, she let loose several loud cries and pleads for help for what felt like hours. Nothing. The room didn't even echo. She was getting ever so tired. The bed was there. For an unknown reason she hadn't been hungry or thirsty, or in need of a bathroom, she was just tired. And she had no idea how long she'd been in the room so far. There were no time pieces.
She went over to the bed and laid down. Perhaps when she awoke she would be able to figure this out, or someone will have come to find her, but she could think of nothing but sleep right then.
"Rise and shine Ginevra," said a calm and beautiful voice.
Ginny opened her eyes and saw a handsome boy was sitting on the edge of the bed. He had dark hair and a sharp jawline with a soft smile. His face was kind, but there was something about his dark eyes that made him slightly unsettling. He was wearing a Hogwarts uniform though.
"You've found me!" she sat up excitedly. It had taken her a moment to remember what had happened before she drifted off to sleep.
His smile went wider. "Yes, I've found you. And you have been very helpful to me. Thank you for trusting me so much."
Ginny was confused. Who was this boy, and when had she trusted him? "What do you mean? Have you come to get me out of here?"
"Oh no, this is your home for the not too distant future. This is your mind. I've taken over most of you, but I can't do away with you completely just yet, so this will be your space," he said as though she was supposed to know what he meant.
"But. But I was on my way to Hogwarts. What do you mean I'm in my mind?"
"Don't fret about the details Ginevra. I was trapped in that diary for over forty years. This is much nicer. You should be pleased. You are so very special."
The bottom dropped out of Ginny's stomach. He could be only one person. No one else had ever called her special. But it was impossible. How could the person she'd been corresponding with for only a few days possibly have taken her over? "Tom?"
He slid closer to her and cupped her cheek. "Oh no, don't cry little one." His thumb wiped away a tear that she hadn't realized had escaped from her eye. She was cold with horror. "Maybe some good news would cheer you up?"
She swallowed in response. Was this all a dream? Was that the good news? This horrible nightmare was going to go away? She had simply fallen asleep in the train car and she would wake up at Hogsmeade station and take the boats to the castle with all of the other first year students.
"The prank that we talked about went marvelously," he spoke to her patronizingly with a forced grin on his face.
"What-what prank was that?" She was terrified. Her whole body had run cold, though there was no cold or hot in the room. It was just the horror seeping through her blood.
"You were sorted into Slytherin," he beamed. "Isn't that hilarious? Your brothers certainly had a lot to say to you after the sorting feast." His smile dropped to one of obviously false concern. "Why, you almost missed how to get down to the Slytherin common room. That would have been bad."
Ginny launched herself at him with everything she had. "What did you do to me? Why are you doing this? Let me out of here!" She kicked and punched as hard as she could. Tom being twice the size of her easily pinned her to the mattress and held her there until she went slack. "What do you want from me?" she finally cried out, sobbing.
"I needed your body." He watched as her horror reflected on her face. "Ugh, not like that, you stupid girl. I required a body in order to get my life back. Any body would have done. You were just the doe eyed trusting girl fortunate enough to allow me to take over." He pushed off of her and strode over to the disarrayed bookshelf. "The conversations with your brothers were interesting. They all seemed to think that the sorting hat had made a mistake and were eager to have it rectified. I informed them otherwise. Told them all about how you hated coming from a family of blood traitors and now it was time to blaze your own path. It was quite helpful that the second we sat down at the Slytherin table we were instantly harassed by the older students. Gave me quite the fodder for getting those imbecilic morons to back off. They are quite angry with you right now."
"Why would you do that?" She sat up and gripped on to one of the four posters like a lifeline.
"I can't have them pestering me incessantly. I have things to do." He gazed down at his nails in a pompous fashion.
"How is it that you are here right now?"
"Ah my dear. Sleep is the only time we'll meet. Your body is currently tucked nicely into bed. I was sure to make the other girls love you." A flash of malice twinkled in his eye.
"I want out of here! Give me my body back!" She jumped off the bed and grabbed book after book to throw at him. He deflected every one of the books and made his way over to her and slapped her right across the face.
Pain reverberated through her skull and she cupped her cheek as she fell to the floor. She looked over at him in shock to see that he too was cupping his cheek. It appeared that any pain he inflicted on her, he felt it too. She made to lunge at him and tackle him to the floor, but he disappeared. She went flying through the air and landed on the book covered floor.
She lay there sobbing for a long time, then pulled herself over to the bed and curled up in a ball to cry herself to sleep.
Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, Ginny had no concept of time stuck in the room. Her 'waking' periods were filled with half written books and screaming herself hoarse in the hope that she would give her body a headache. When she herself found her own head was pounding she grinned in satisfaction and kept going until it felt like her head was going to split open. If she was in this much pain, then so was Tom.
He did not come back to visit her. She tried to figure out the difference between night and day, but there was nothing to indicate it. She gave herself paper cuts with the book pages, but anything more damaging than that seemed impossible, she'd tried.
Finally, Ginny tried something that seemed completely insane.
She flew at the wall.
It had allowed her to sink her hand into it before, perhaps it would take her whole body. Fear had stopped her from trying it earlier. She felt sure she would suffocate. And if she died in here, she didn't know if that would mean that he too died, or would he just take full possession of her body?
At this point, she was up for trying anything. She stood at the far end of the room and hopped up and down, trying to get momentum, then went for it. She barreled across the room and dove at the wall. Her hands went through, her head went through, then her 'body' followed. It was like being born again. Squeezed tight from all sides until suddenly she was standing in some kind of dungeon.
Other people were there.
She was in a dark corridor and there were other people around her! She looked down at herself. She was wearing a Hogwarts uniform. She wanted to jump up and down with glee, but she was suddenly knocked to the floor by a force from behind.
"Watch where you're going Weaslette," said a deep male voice. "You don't know when something might happen that could hurt you," the voice said threateningly.
She looked up at the person. He was much older than her and also wearing a uniform, but she didn't have a clue who he was. Her books had strewn across the floor and her immediate impulse was the put them back in her bag. She reached for them, but the second her hand touched the diary she was suddenly back in the room.
Standing in the room again, Ginny had to remind herself to breathe.
She had done it.
She had figured out how to get out of there. Now she knew it was possible. She just couldn't touch the Diary again. She was going to get out!
But right then she was completely drained, despite figuring out how to gain control of her body back, she had no energy whatsoever to try it again at that moment and sank into the bed instantly. The comfort of the blankets and pillows drew her in and she closed her eyes.
When she awoke, he was there, and he was shaking her. "How did you do it? You shouldn't have been able to force me out like that. How did you do it?"
Tom was leaning over her with his hands on her shoulders, his nails digging into her. She managed to blink the sleep out of her eyes and looked at him with all the hatred she felt for him. "You are going to burn in hell. I am going to make sure of it."
He slapped her again. This time it was stronger than the last. They both moaned in pain, but she leapt from the bed and went to the wall opposite her exit and ran once more, diving into it. She fell through the wall and back into her body, the force of her taking over again launched her out of her bed and onto the floor. In the course of it she knocked her head on the side table with a crack.
"Keep it down, you fucking idiot." Something was thrown at her.
Ginny barely noticed the hit from the unknown object due to the shivers that were running down her spine. She was back in her body and something warm and wet was rolling down her face. She stumbled to her feet and swayed slightly, trying to adjust to the nauseating feeling overtaking her.
She saw a doorway and went towards it, grasping on to every surface available on the way to try and keep herself upright. The doorway led to a bathroom. It was a standard bathroom, one tub with shower and a toilet and a sink. She was freezing and her teeth were chattering. Ginny turned on the shower and stepped into it fully clothed. The sensation of hot water cascading down her skin was a dream unto itself. While trapped in the room there were no sensations. Just numbness and pain. The hot jets streaming out of the shower head massaged her skin and she pressed her face against the cool tile.
She was back. This was her body.
Now she just had to get her life back in order. Undo all the things that Tom had done.
She stepped out of the shower and picked up all the wet clothes that she had peeled off herself. She put them in the sink and wrapped a towel around her. The mirror showed her the face of a pale girl, she had a horizontal gash on her forehead that had a little blood still dripping out of it. There were only a few freckles gracing her nose, and this girl was rather skinny.
Ginny was shocked. The last time she'd looked in a mirror had been the day she got on the Hogwarts Express. She had brushed her hair shiny and was covered in freckles from playing out in the sun all summer. Her face had been lit up in excitement. This girl looking back at her in the mirror now though, that was Tom's Ginny and she was a whole other person.
Ginny retreated back from the mirror and went back into the dorm room. There were six beds. Ginny couldn't remember which one she'd fallen out of. She squinted in the darkness and made out the form of sleeping girls in all but one of the beds, hers obviously. Quickly she rushed over and opened the drawers in the nightstand to find her clothes. Her feet were freezing on the stone floor but she was still happy to feel the cold.
After dressing she carefully lifted up her pillows. If there was anything that Ginny herself would cherish, she would stick it under her pillow. And there she found the diary. And her wand! It was still so new to her that she'd almost forgotten about it. She was a witch and had magic coursing through her veins. How had she forgotten about her wand? She snatched it up and held it to her heart with her eyes closed. Tears were running down her face with the relief.
But what to do about the diary? She couldn't touch it but she had to get rid of it. Very carefully she picked up her towel and covered the diary with it, making sure to fold the cotton material over it as many times as possible. She held it in both hand, and stayed where she was. The room didn't change, and Tom didn't come out to shake her shoulders again.
She lit up her wand and found her way out of the room. She had to find someone. Dumbledore probably would be best. He would know what to do. He would also be able to explain what had happened to her and get her re-sorted into Gryffindor. Patch up whatever happened between her and her brothers. Surely her parents would have tried to find out why their daughter was no longer behaving like herself.
She wandered around outside the dorm, the corridors all seemed to take turns to dead ends. Finally, she found what looked to be a common room, but it was empty. It clearly was the dead of night. There was what looked to be an exit at the back of the room, she strode towards it and the stone wall opened for her. For a second, she wondered if she would be able to get back in, but then shook her head at the thought. She would never have to come back here.
Ginny had heard that the Slytherin common room was underground, so she should have expected all of the stone passageways, but it went on and on forever. Finally, she came upon a set of stairs that led to a wider corridor. The next floor up seemed to be at ground level. At least the hall was wider and the ceiling higher. Ginny was freezing now.
"Are you lost?"
Ginny spun around to the voice. It was a young girl ghost. She had big eyes and droopy hair. Her clothing made it seem like she may have been from only a few decades ago.
"Yes, please! Can you tell me how to get to the hospital wing, or the headmasters office?" Ginny pleaded.
"You're that mean girl everyone is talking about, aren't you?" The morose girl eyed her up and down. "Why should I help you?"
"I'm mean? I have been mean to you?" Ginny didn't know what to think. Tom had made her be mean to the ghosts?
"You don't think you have? I heard that howler from you mum. Your parents don't seem to like you much anymore. Nobody liked me when I was alive. Nobody likes me now, but I was never mean." The girl seemed to pull some pride out of her statement.
"Please. I'm not actually a mean person. I've been… I don't know, trapped maybe. I've just come out of it. Please, I'm lost, and I'm cold, and I've a head wound. Please, just tell me where to go from here," she begged.
"Trapped?" The girl ghost sniffed. "I don't believe you." She floated through the wall.
"Girl, you shouldn't be out of bed at this hour!" A large man in a portrait of a study barked at her.
"Please, help me. I need to find the nurse," she was in tears now.
"Right then. Woman's troubles is it?" the portly man sniffed. "Follow me."
Ginny followed the man as he went from portrait to portrait, up stairs and down halls until they were at the entrance to the hospital wing.
Ginny thanked the man and pushed open the door. "Hello?" she whispered. There were several curtains drawn around beds. It was completely quiet though. She paused. It seemed so odd, but she couldn't quite figure out why. There wasn't even the sound of the occupants breathing. She pulled back one of the curtains carefully and saw that it was a boy about her age, and he was frozen like a statue.
She closed that curtain and went on to the next. Same thing there. The boy was frozen. And the next had a frozen girl, after that another frozen girl. It was like there had been some kind of epidemic. The last girl seemed familiar to her. She looked closer at the shocked expression on her face. She was the girl in Ron's photo from last year. This was Hermione Granger, his muggle-born friend.
Hermione had something clutched in her hand she noticed when she looked down. Ginny looked closely and saw it was a piece of parchment. She was curious, why had no one taken it out of her hand? She tugged at it a bit and managed to get it out. It was the definition for a Basilisk with 'pipes' written on it.
There was a Basilisk loose at the school? That is why there were frozen students? How many had died? Why didn't the professors just purchase a bunch of roosters to roam the school and kill the thing?
She pulled the last curtain closed and found the office. Knocking lightly, she pushed the door open, but there was no one there. The nurse must have gone to bed. Ginny sat in her chair and rested her head on the desk. She wanted to stay awake. She'd spent who knew how long asleep and trapped in her mind. She looked around the office and spotted the calendar. It was the middle of May.
May.
She'd been int here for more than eight months? Nausea hit her like a tidal wave. She ran over to the bin and threw up the contents of her stomach. Tom had used her and done God knows what for the last forty weeks. Would anyone believe her if she told them?
She sat in the corner and rocked back and forth. She was there until the sun came up and the nurse came in and screamed at the shock of her presence.
"Right, that's enough from you!" the nurse yelled at her. She yanked her up to her feet and pulled the bundle from her hands, unwrapping it and ignoring Ginny's protests. The nurse saw that it was just a book and wrapped it back up shoving it at her.
Ginny didn't know what she'd done. Had Tom brought her here several times?
"Off to the headmaster with you." She hauled her up by her ear and off to the headmaster's office.
Ginny couldn't find her voice as she was pulled along down the corridors. This castle was so large, she caught glimpses out the windows of the grounds and the forest beyond. This was her first time seeing what she had longed to see since she could remember and it was little more than half second glances whilst being pulled by the ear.
They came to a stop in front of a gargoyle that must have been guarding the headmaster's office. The nurse said the password and pulled her up the stairs. At this point she had mercifully removed her grip on Ginny's ear to pull her by the upper arm instead. They found themselves standing in an impressive office, waiting.
The nurse didn't so much as look at her while they stood there silently waiting for Dumbledore. He came in after a few minutes and he looked tired.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, I believe this girl was trying to steal some dreamless sleep potion again last night and got herself locked in my office. I will leave her here for you to deal with," the nurse admonished and turned on her heel, leaving the office.
The headmaster looked Ginny over. "It would appear that you injured your head last night."
"I did. But sir, I haven't stolen anything."
He held up his hand to stop her. "Miss Weasley, please do not play the innocent act with me. Over these last several months it has become increasingly apparent that you have no respect for authority figures. Your parents are at their wits end with the number of letters that have been sent home about you, and your brothers have all given up."
"But sir."
He raised his hand to stop her again. "I and the other professors have plenty to deal with outside of your antics. I was going to call you in here regardless. This is the last chance that you will be given. If you break any more rules, or disrespect any more teachers. If you get anymore detentions, or so much as wave your wand drawn in the corridors I will have to expel you."
Ginny was in shock. Tom had completely derailed her life.
"Do you understand?"
Ginny nodded. She was numb again. She stood there trying to find a way to tell him what had been going on, but as she clutched to the towel wrapped diary, she couldn't find her voice.
She was ever so tired again.
The door opened behind her, and she felt the new persons presence move closer to her.
"Ah, Professor Snape, please escort your student back to her room. She has been given her final chance, and I believe she best take the day to contemplate how she wants to behave for the rest of her educational career."
Ginny looked up at the stern face of Hogwarts most notoriously hated professor. He ignored her gaze and nodded at the Headmaster before swiftly turning around and leading her back down to the dungeons to the Slytherin Common Room.
Ginny gave one last look at the Headmaster and scurried off after Professor Snape. She managed to pay attention to the path he was leading, remaining silent the whole way.
They stopped at the door to her dorm room.
"I would expect that you will actually take this time to rearrange your attitude. You've made only enemies at this school, and though your marks are exceptional, you have been a nightmare. Get in this room and do not come out until you've decided to change," he snarled and opened her door.
She walked through it and was grateful that the other five girls seemed to have left for breakfast or class already. Professor Snape closed the door quickly and loudly. Ginny winced at the noise and took a few wobbly steps forward before she fell to the floor weeping.
She didn't bother to wipe away the tears as they streamed down her face. She didn't bother to try and muffle the sound of her sobs either. It didn't matter that she was outside of the room in her mind she'd been locked in. There was still no one to see her or hear her.
Hours later she had a pain in her stomach. Hunger. She hadn't felt hunger or any other bodily need in months. Lifting herself up from the floor she headed to the bathroom and drank greedily from the tap. That would have to tide her over for now.
Desperate for answers about what Tom had made her do that was so awful she found her bed and opened all of her drawers. There were only clothes. Her trunk she found marked essays and tests that showed grades beyond her capability. Underneath that however, letters.
Reprimands from her professors and hate letters from other students, some of them signed by multiple students all along the lines of how they didn't like her and wanted her to die. There were letters from her parents that, at the earliest, started with asking how she could have wound up in Slytherin, then got progressively worse until it was at the point of them saying she was not the daughter they raised. There were letters from all of her brothers that were basically along the same lines, except the one's from Fred and George that said she would be their new guinea pig.
All that time the Tom had spent wreaking havoc over the school he also spent severing all past and future relationships she had.
Ginny hung her head in her hands. She thought back to what she had wanted her school life to look like; It was going to be the time of her life. She was going to have fun, get friends, make Harry Potter notice her, all of that. Now, that was all gone.
She sat on the floor leaning back against her bed and looked over at that damned towel wrapped book. It had to be destroyed. There must be some way to destroy it. Surely Dumbledore would know how but she couldn't face him again. What if she froze up again and couldn't get a word out? What if she accidentally touched it and Tom took over again?
Owl it, she decided.
There must be a school owl she could use to mail it to him with an explanation. But he wouldn't trust her now, not after threatening to expel her and her apparent disregard for the rules of society.
Ginny decided not to tell him who it was from. Just that it was dangerous and had belonged to Tom Riddle and to tell him to buy some fucking roosters. She managed to slip the diary onto parchment paper and tie it up. She wrote out her letter, trying to obscure the handwriting as best she could. She tied it onto the package, including the note about the Basilisk from Hermione Granger.
Her first opportunity she would find the owlery and send it to him. And until then she was determined to buck up on her studies and try to catch up on what she'd missed. Her family… well she didn't know what to do about that. They seemed to hate her now, but for what Tom had made her do she couldn't fault them for that.
She would just have to prove herself changed. She would be nice again. She would be Ginny again. They would forgive her in time, surely? Then maybe she could explain properly what happened. Then she can get re-sorted into Gryffindor and all would be right again.
Yes, that is what is going to happen.
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