Harry Potter and the Room of Things no one Knows About

Chapter 9

So what were Ginny's "trances" actually like?

By

Jason Richard

Harry Potter finally had to report for that detention with Gilderoy Lockhart, which meant spending hours and hours answering fan mail. From wizards who wanted advice on how to defeat cornish pixies and garden gnomes to witches who wanted to go out with and/or marry him, it was painful to read so many letters praising someone else.

Harry sighed, wishing he were anywhere else.

…

From within the diary, the memory of Tom Riddle sighed, wishing he were anywhere else. He was currently in the hands of Ginny Weasley, and she was naturally talking about her favorite subject, Harry Potter, which had become Riddle's least favorite subject.

"And another thing I love about Harry?" she said dreamily. "That smile."

Good grief, Thought Riddle. How can one person love four hundred and ninety-two things about someone? How did a smile not show up sooner than four hundred and ninety-two? And why in Voldemort's name do I care enough to keep count of this!?

We're here, wrote Ginny. What is it you wanted to do?

Oh, Riddle wrote back. I need you to walk my pet. It's an ancient magical creature and he hasn't been walked in over a decade.

Oh! Ginny wrote. Like a magical dog or cat? That sounds lovely! Just so long as it's not something with scales. I never get why people have those as pets and think they're totally gross.

Riddle: And of course my pet is a giant snake. Doggone it Lucius Malfoy, was this really the best you could do?!

…

Harry: "Just how much fan mail do you have?"

Lockhart had brought in what must have been the twentieth bag of mail that night.

"As much as I deserve," said Lockhart, flashing that annoyingly charming smile. "No more, no less. You're so lucky this is what you get to do in detention."

"Lucky huh?" asked Harry, sighing. Could this night get any worse?

Suddenly, through the walls, Harry heard a voice, saying, "Kill, maim, destroy, rip open the stomach and eat the juicy intestines…I want to eat!"

Harry: "And I've officially gone insane from all this fan mail. Lucky...lucky...me…"

…

Riddle knew he'd have to resort to this. He would have preferred to get put in the hands of a Slytherin, one who would share his loyalties, but he'd been placed in the hands of a Gryffindor. He had been forced to put Ginny Weasley in a sort of trance. Fortunately, it was easy. All he had to do to get her in a trance was get her to open up to him, and she'd be under his power.

Now if only opening up to him didn't mean telling him the sixth hundredth thing she loved about Harry Potter. Riddle was going to murder Harry Potter by the time the year was over!

As Ginny walked down the halls in a trance, mumbling to herself about the six hundred and first thing she loved about Harry, Riddle used her to guide his loyal beast, the giant snake-like basilisk, through Hogwarts to kill mudbloods.

Now if only the snake would cooperate.

"Master," said the Basilisk in Parseltongue, "Can I eat the girl now?"

"No!" said Riddle by manipulating Ginny's mouth. "You stupid...look. I can't give you commands without a mouth. I'm a memory in a diary after all. You want to receive my commands don't you?" And Ginny went back to mumbling about Harry.

Basilisk: "Oh yes master!"

Riddle: "Then my first command is to find a mudblood and kill them."

Basilisk: "Then eat them?"

Riddle: "If you must."

Basilisk: "And then the girl?"

Riddle: "NO!"

…

Harry finally got out of Lockhart's office and followed the sound of that voice. What was it? Why did it want to kill? What girl was it talking about and who was it talking to? This couldn't be a good thing.

…

"But I wanted to eat it!" said the basilisk over a petrified cat.

"Then why did you look it in its reflection eyes?" said Riddle through Ginny, between her trancelike whisperings about how much she loved Harry. "You would have killed it if you'd looked at it directly. Don't blame me if you can't it eat petrified."

"But master," said the Basilisk. "You told me to look it in the eyes, then said not to kill it."

"Did I?" asked Riddle. Though he was talking through Ginny in her trancelike state he was still in the diary, so he could just barely control the girl. She must have slipped that second command in. This little girl has more willpower than he'd thought.

"Curses," said Riddle. "This will make things harder. Well, best get going before people show up."

Basilisk: "But I'm hungry!

Riddle: "Get in your hole already!"

…

Harry Potter found the petrified cat and wondered what was going on. He clearly recognized Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, and wondered what how she'd gotten like that. Furthermore, someone had written on the wall, in blood, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened."

He was just wondered what that meant when Filch came upon that very scene. He saw Harry standing next to his cat and that writing on the wall and both of their eyes went wide.

Harry: "I didn't do it."

Filch. "That just makes me think you did it. And I know why. You know I'm a squib, don't you?!"

Harry: "What the heck is a squib?"

Filch was about to snap at him, but then slowly closed his mouth and thought about what he was going to say before deciding on, "Nothing. A squib is nothing."

Harry sniggered and said, "Well, I already knew you were nothing."

…

Harry, hanging upside down from his ankles in the dungeon, shouting up the stairs.

Harry: "Oh come on Filch! You walked right into that!"