Chapter 5
The day grew more into the hour, and the four Gryffindor's deepened in their discussion.
"Alright, Hermione. I understand what visions are now, but what does it mean? It's impossible for Tom to actually come back. He's dead. How does that tell the future when the person in the vision doesn't seem to be alive anymore?" Ginny questioned, a tint of sarcasm trailing in her voice.
"I don't know. That's the strange part. It's not like he can.come back." She began to look deeply concerned and glanced towards Ginny. She wasn't talking the news very lightly either.
Ginny gulped. A lump seemed to be caught in her throat. Her heart seemed to be racing a mile a minute. 'This can't be good.'
"T-there's no way he c-can come back, right Harry?" she gave Harry a pleaded look, but he simply shook his head.
"I don't know Gin'. I really have no idea now."
"Wait," Ron exclaimed. "Where is the diary?"
"In Dumbledore's office, I think. That's where you put it last, right Harry?" Hermione replied.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But Dumbledore had to use it to prove Ginny's innocence during the court case with the Ministry. It might not be there anymore."
"Then we'll have to go there ourselves and ask him for it." Ginny said with much determination in her voice.
"But, that means, your going to have to exclaim to Dumbledore the visions you've been having." Harry replied. They all began to give Ginny worried looks. There might be a chance she didn't want to. With the little mishap they had that morning, the stakes didn't look too high.
Ginny gave them a reassured glance and sighed. "Alright, I'll do it. But let's wait until tomorrow. I have detention with Snape again, and I figure I'm going to be there all night."
"What did you do now, Gin?" Ron questioned. He seemed a bit annoyed. Ginny had been getting detentions with Snape for quite a while now. But, he wasn't entirely mad, for he knew that getting detention with Snape was as easy as taking candy from a baby.
"I don't know, something about insubordination and disturbing the peace." And with that, she was off to the dungeons.
* * *
"Knock, knock." Ginny drawled as she opened the large wooden door leading into his office. "Miss. Weasley, so glad you could join me." Snape replied. He was sitting at his desk rearranging a messy pile of papers.
Ginny gave him a fake smile. "It's not like I have a choice."
"Miss. Weasley, when are you going to learn to respect your elders? This is getting entirely out of hands."
"I don't know, but I definitely won't start today." She trailed off as she began to pick up random papers from his desk and read them.
Professor Snape handed Ginny a filthy looking rag, and pointed to the Potions cabinet behind him. In its shelves contained bottles and bottles of colorful looking potions, each glass had it's own shape. Most of the bottles contained dark looking potions, and it would be no surprise to Ginny if at least half of them were poison.
"Clean it, Virginia. All of it. And no magic." And with that, he stormed out of his office, and out to the corridor.
Ginny examined the wall-length cabinet. 'God, this could take hours'. She quickly whipped out her wand and whirled it in mid-air. "Cleaotia." The dust which blanketed the cabinet had simply fallen too the floor and vanished, and the bottles began to shine as if they were each hand washed. Ginny quickly put her wand back in her robe. "Tisk, tisk. Breaking the rules, again I see, Weasley?"
Ginny cursed under her breath and quickly spun around towards the intruder. None other than Draco of course.
"What are you doing here?" she questioned with annoyance.
"Dropping of papers for Snape. I can see you've done a quick clean job in tidying up the cabinets for your detention."
"Sod off, I've been annoyed by enough gits today, thank you."
The smirk upon Malfoy's face gradually began to grow.
"That attitude of yours is going to send you into even bigger trouble. I have half a mind right now to report you to Snape."
"Then go. No one's stopping you." Ginny didn't mind getting into trouble with Snape, anymore. It seemed that she was always getting scolded at for one thing or another, and she had grown used to the fact that he was completely self absorbed and unjust.
Draco's smirk began to disappear. It wasn't much fun tormenting and teasing people when they practically ignored you as a response. Ginny, for some odd reason, was one of the extraordinary people who had the power to do that. 'Most likely because she lives with 6 other Weasleys.'
"I would tell, but I won't. I've decided to let the guilt plague your mind, first." He drawled, trying to sound evil.
"Oh, right. I'm feeling so sorry for Snape, the plague of guilt is rushing through my veins." She replied in a sarcastic manner.
Draco's smirk soon appeared, and he began to pace slowly around the room.
"So, has anything strange going on this year? Anything unusual been happening so far? Anything at all out of the ordinary?" he began, a tint of cunning and slyness in his voice.
Ginny eyed him suspiciously. 'Does he know about the dreams?'
"I don't know what your talking about, Malfoy. And if you'll excuse me, I have a teacher to lie to." And with that last desperate comment, she stormed out of the office, leaving behind a smirking Draco watching her retreating figure.
'She's lying, anyone with eyes can see that.' Draco watched as she shut the classroom door behind her, and within a few minutes, he was gone as well. He retreated back to the Slytherin common room and began to get ready for bed.
* * *
Ginny made her way to her common room instead. She figured she would inform Snape tomorrow, otherwise, he would suspect her of doing magic considering she had finished so quickly. The corridors seemed awfully dark. Only one light appeared to be on, and that was leading towards Dumbledore's office. Luckily, Ginny knew her way around the halls like the back of her hand, so she didn't require light.
What was strange though, is that she could hear a faint mumbling coming from his office. She hadn't expected any teachers to be up this late besides Snape everyone was usually in bed by 7:00pm considering the short winter days at Hogwarts. Ginny decided to take the long way. She was curious as to what was going on. She walked slowly up the stairs and stopped as soon as she saw the protecting gargoyle statues guarding the passageway through his doors.
The mumbling was much clearer now, and Ginny could tell by the sound of the other man's low dull voice that it was none other than Snape.
"Are you sure Severus? Because it isn't here anymore." Asked a desperate sounding Dumbledore.
"Yes, head master, I am. You know I would tell you if it burned. What are you going to do about Weasley?"
"I don't know. The most we can do now is just keep a close eye on her."
"Maybe you just misplaced it sir, with all do respect, you aren't the cleanest person I know." Ginny snickered at his comment, remembering the state of Snape's desk when she did her detention.
"No, Severus. The diary, is most certainly missing."
Ginny silently gasped. 'Oh my god, now I know this can't be good.' She thought. She leaned against the wall as millions of ideas and questions flew in and out of her head. The door knob slowly began to turn, and Ginny flew down the stairs and down the corridor.
"Gryndylow eggs." She called to the portrait of the fat lady. The picture immediately swung open and in she walked, only to be welcomed by the emptiness of a large luxurious common room and the faint glow of the fire underneath the ashes.
Ginny quietly walked up the stairs to the door which read "6th Years" and began to change into her sleepwear. 'I'm definitely going to deal with this whole mess tomorrow.'
And little after over 2 minutes, Ginny was deep in slumber.
Ginny was standing feet away from a black luxurious fence, leading into a gigantic sized mansion. It wasn't old and dusty like when she was in her last vision. This time, the house looked very Victorian and seemed to be more like a castle than a mansion. But, engraved on a humongous sign in front of the ajar gate said, "Malfoy Manor", indicating that it wasn't just any manor, it was Malfoy's manor. 'Does Draco live here? Probably, how many Malfoy's do you know you brainless git.' She thought to herself as she squeezed herself in through the opened gate.
The door, for some strange reason, seemed to be ajar as well. Making no sudden thoughts, she stepped inside. She knew Luscious Malfoy as a mean, snobby man. It was because of him that she was almost killed by Tom Riddle back in her first year. Hopefully, no one would be home, and she could go off and do her exploring without the fear of being caught. Her vision had taken her to this particular spot for some reason, and she wasn't going to linger anywhere else. Plus, if possible, she would have to talk to Tom if he was actually encountered again.
It seemed as though he was getting stronger within each vision. At first, he appeared as no more than a diary. It was still just as frightening, but none the less, he was in his weak zone. Then, a day later, he was able to appear in human form. 'Your so stupid Ginny! You should've talked to Tom before, then maybe you wouldn't of been in this mess. You would've realized what was going on and you would've found out how to stop all this!' he brain scolded. God, who knew what kind of form Tom would be in. Would he be stronger? It seemed as though he would.
Without realizing it, Ginny was walking through the corridors of the over-sized mansion as if she knew exactly which way to go. She had stopped walking when she realized that the hallway was brought to a dead end. A door stood in front of her, and it seemed to be locked. Remembering she had her wand with her, Ginny quickly whirled it in mid-air and said, "Alohomora." And with that, the door made a loud "click" noise. She turned the door handle, only to realize she wasn't wearing what she had worn to bed, she was actually wearing a pair of jeans and a pheasant top. 'That's strange. I could've sworn I was wearing something else when I went to bed.' She quickly realized that there were voices inside the room, and she peered inside. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she saw two figures appear into view. One appeared to be Luscious Malfoy, but the other, Ginny had never seemed before. Ginny knew that old, evil wrinkled old face from somewhere, but where? 'Who is that? Oh my god! It's Voldemort!' They were both standing behind a table, filled with candles and potion bottles. And, in the middle of the table, stood a familiar looking object. The diary of Tom Riddle!
Ginny gasped and shut the door with a loud bang. She began to breath rather heavily as she leaned against the door. 'Oh my god, oh my god! What were they doing? How could they not hear me? They didn't even see me!' Ginny had a strong urge to open the door again and try to see what they were doing. She couldn't chicken out, she didn't want to be stuck in another vision clueless. She let out a breath of air, and slowly began to turn the knob. She cracked the door open only a few inches, and peered inside.
They both seemed to be murmuring a chant, whatever it was, it sounded evil. Like Arabic or Chinese, and she also noticed that the candles were giving out colorful smoke! There must have been at least 50 different types of candles on that desk, and each one had it's own individual dark color. This picture seemed all to familiar to Ginny. 'Where have I seen this before?' she asked herself. Just then, Ginny heard a few light foot steps behind her, and before she could slowly turn around, the person spoke.
"Weasley?" it asked, an all to familiar drawl appeared in her mind.
"What are you doing here?" she quickly spun around and accidentally slammed the large ajar door. Draco and Ginny suddenly jolted, and looked hesitantly at the door. Nothing happened. For some odd reason, Voldemort and Luscious couldn't see or hear anything else that was going around them.
Ginny looked at Draco. He was wearing a very elegant suit, which was quite weird in this sort of predicament. He didn't seemed to notice.
"I think I should be asking you that question!" he shot back, looking quite worried himself.
"I'm in a vision. How did you get in here?!"
Draco began to stare at her as though he didn't know what to say, do, or even think.
"I fell asleep and just popped here.."
Ginny looked hesitantly around as if she knew someone was coming. The corridors seemed vacant, and Draco seemed as confused as ever. "How do we get out of here?" he asked as though this place was prohibited. It was his own home, yet he felt that he shouldn't be there. He wanted to leave immediately.
"I don't know! You live here, do you have any type of portal we can fall through?"
"Portal?! Are you mad? This isn't the twilight zone, Weasley, it's my house!"
Ginny sighed with annoyance. Of all the people that had to invade her dreams, Malfoy had to be the one. She quickly grabbed his wrist and stormed down the opposite end of the corridor, looking in every direction for a way out.
Draco looked as if he had just been insulted. "If I can't find my way out of here, what makes you think you can?" But Ginny decided to ignore him. She wasn't going to start an argument now. This wasn't the place or time.
In her last vision, she had actually sunk through the walls, which meant that maybe there would be some kind of escape route there. She let go of Draco's wrist and began to place her palms gently on the walls. Draco looked as though she had just sprouted two heads.
"What the bloody hell do you think your doing, Weasley?" he asked.
"I am looking for a way out of here. There must be a portal around her somewhere.." she trailed off.
"For the last time, Weasley, I don't have a po---" he was quickly silenced as Ginny's hand fell gently through the wall. A black circular portal began to grow and she threw a glance at Malfoy. His face was in complete shock. She quickly gave him a fake smile and walked through the portal. She immediately realized there was no floor, and she began to plummet down into the blackness. She let out a quick scream and Draco looked down. She was no longer in sight.
Draco stared down the corridor. The door knob leading into the room his father was in was now opening! He gave a second glance at the door and dove into the portal.
// A/N - Ok, here's the deal, right now I only have 2 reviews, which is really sad considering this is the 5th chapter, lol. So, in order to post the 6th chapter (which I know you're all dying to read), I'm going to need 5 reviews. Please r/r, I'm begging you! I can't be that bad, can I? \\
The day grew more into the hour, and the four Gryffindor's deepened in their discussion.
"Alright, Hermione. I understand what visions are now, but what does it mean? It's impossible for Tom to actually come back. He's dead. How does that tell the future when the person in the vision doesn't seem to be alive anymore?" Ginny questioned, a tint of sarcasm trailing in her voice.
"I don't know. That's the strange part. It's not like he can.come back." She began to look deeply concerned and glanced towards Ginny. She wasn't talking the news very lightly either.
Ginny gulped. A lump seemed to be caught in her throat. Her heart seemed to be racing a mile a minute. 'This can't be good.'
"T-there's no way he c-can come back, right Harry?" she gave Harry a pleaded look, but he simply shook his head.
"I don't know Gin'. I really have no idea now."
"Wait," Ron exclaimed. "Where is the diary?"
"In Dumbledore's office, I think. That's where you put it last, right Harry?" Hermione replied.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But Dumbledore had to use it to prove Ginny's innocence during the court case with the Ministry. It might not be there anymore."
"Then we'll have to go there ourselves and ask him for it." Ginny said with much determination in her voice.
"But, that means, your going to have to exclaim to Dumbledore the visions you've been having." Harry replied. They all began to give Ginny worried looks. There might be a chance she didn't want to. With the little mishap they had that morning, the stakes didn't look too high.
Ginny gave them a reassured glance and sighed. "Alright, I'll do it. But let's wait until tomorrow. I have detention with Snape again, and I figure I'm going to be there all night."
"What did you do now, Gin?" Ron questioned. He seemed a bit annoyed. Ginny had been getting detentions with Snape for quite a while now. But, he wasn't entirely mad, for he knew that getting detention with Snape was as easy as taking candy from a baby.
"I don't know, something about insubordination and disturbing the peace." And with that, she was off to the dungeons.
* * *
"Knock, knock." Ginny drawled as she opened the large wooden door leading into his office. "Miss. Weasley, so glad you could join me." Snape replied. He was sitting at his desk rearranging a messy pile of papers.
Ginny gave him a fake smile. "It's not like I have a choice."
"Miss. Weasley, when are you going to learn to respect your elders? This is getting entirely out of hands."
"I don't know, but I definitely won't start today." She trailed off as she began to pick up random papers from his desk and read them.
Professor Snape handed Ginny a filthy looking rag, and pointed to the Potions cabinet behind him. In its shelves contained bottles and bottles of colorful looking potions, each glass had it's own shape. Most of the bottles contained dark looking potions, and it would be no surprise to Ginny if at least half of them were poison.
"Clean it, Virginia. All of it. And no magic." And with that, he stormed out of his office, and out to the corridor.
Ginny examined the wall-length cabinet. 'God, this could take hours'. She quickly whipped out her wand and whirled it in mid-air. "Cleaotia." The dust which blanketed the cabinet had simply fallen too the floor and vanished, and the bottles began to shine as if they were each hand washed. Ginny quickly put her wand back in her robe. "Tisk, tisk. Breaking the rules, again I see, Weasley?"
Ginny cursed under her breath and quickly spun around towards the intruder. None other than Draco of course.
"What are you doing here?" she questioned with annoyance.
"Dropping of papers for Snape. I can see you've done a quick clean job in tidying up the cabinets for your detention."
"Sod off, I've been annoyed by enough gits today, thank you."
The smirk upon Malfoy's face gradually began to grow.
"That attitude of yours is going to send you into even bigger trouble. I have half a mind right now to report you to Snape."
"Then go. No one's stopping you." Ginny didn't mind getting into trouble with Snape, anymore. It seemed that she was always getting scolded at for one thing or another, and she had grown used to the fact that he was completely self absorbed and unjust.
Draco's smirk began to disappear. It wasn't much fun tormenting and teasing people when they practically ignored you as a response. Ginny, for some odd reason, was one of the extraordinary people who had the power to do that. 'Most likely because she lives with 6 other Weasleys.'
"I would tell, but I won't. I've decided to let the guilt plague your mind, first." He drawled, trying to sound evil.
"Oh, right. I'm feeling so sorry for Snape, the plague of guilt is rushing through my veins." She replied in a sarcastic manner.
Draco's smirk soon appeared, and he began to pace slowly around the room.
"So, has anything strange going on this year? Anything unusual been happening so far? Anything at all out of the ordinary?" he began, a tint of cunning and slyness in his voice.
Ginny eyed him suspiciously. 'Does he know about the dreams?'
"I don't know what your talking about, Malfoy. And if you'll excuse me, I have a teacher to lie to." And with that last desperate comment, she stormed out of the office, leaving behind a smirking Draco watching her retreating figure.
'She's lying, anyone with eyes can see that.' Draco watched as she shut the classroom door behind her, and within a few minutes, he was gone as well. He retreated back to the Slytherin common room and began to get ready for bed.
* * *
Ginny made her way to her common room instead. She figured she would inform Snape tomorrow, otherwise, he would suspect her of doing magic considering she had finished so quickly. The corridors seemed awfully dark. Only one light appeared to be on, and that was leading towards Dumbledore's office. Luckily, Ginny knew her way around the halls like the back of her hand, so she didn't require light.
What was strange though, is that she could hear a faint mumbling coming from his office. She hadn't expected any teachers to be up this late besides Snape everyone was usually in bed by 7:00pm considering the short winter days at Hogwarts. Ginny decided to take the long way. She was curious as to what was going on. She walked slowly up the stairs and stopped as soon as she saw the protecting gargoyle statues guarding the passageway through his doors.
The mumbling was much clearer now, and Ginny could tell by the sound of the other man's low dull voice that it was none other than Snape.
"Are you sure Severus? Because it isn't here anymore." Asked a desperate sounding Dumbledore.
"Yes, head master, I am. You know I would tell you if it burned. What are you going to do about Weasley?"
"I don't know. The most we can do now is just keep a close eye on her."
"Maybe you just misplaced it sir, with all do respect, you aren't the cleanest person I know." Ginny snickered at his comment, remembering the state of Snape's desk when she did her detention.
"No, Severus. The diary, is most certainly missing."
Ginny silently gasped. 'Oh my god, now I know this can't be good.' She thought. She leaned against the wall as millions of ideas and questions flew in and out of her head. The door knob slowly began to turn, and Ginny flew down the stairs and down the corridor.
"Gryndylow eggs." She called to the portrait of the fat lady. The picture immediately swung open and in she walked, only to be welcomed by the emptiness of a large luxurious common room and the faint glow of the fire underneath the ashes.
Ginny quietly walked up the stairs to the door which read "6th Years" and began to change into her sleepwear. 'I'm definitely going to deal with this whole mess tomorrow.'
And little after over 2 minutes, Ginny was deep in slumber.
Ginny was standing feet away from a black luxurious fence, leading into a gigantic sized mansion. It wasn't old and dusty like when she was in her last vision. This time, the house looked very Victorian and seemed to be more like a castle than a mansion. But, engraved on a humongous sign in front of the ajar gate said, "Malfoy Manor", indicating that it wasn't just any manor, it was Malfoy's manor. 'Does Draco live here? Probably, how many Malfoy's do you know you brainless git.' She thought to herself as she squeezed herself in through the opened gate.
The door, for some strange reason, seemed to be ajar as well. Making no sudden thoughts, she stepped inside. She knew Luscious Malfoy as a mean, snobby man. It was because of him that she was almost killed by Tom Riddle back in her first year. Hopefully, no one would be home, and she could go off and do her exploring without the fear of being caught. Her vision had taken her to this particular spot for some reason, and she wasn't going to linger anywhere else. Plus, if possible, she would have to talk to Tom if he was actually encountered again.
It seemed as though he was getting stronger within each vision. At first, he appeared as no more than a diary. It was still just as frightening, but none the less, he was in his weak zone. Then, a day later, he was able to appear in human form. 'Your so stupid Ginny! You should've talked to Tom before, then maybe you wouldn't of been in this mess. You would've realized what was going on and you would've found out how to stop all this!' he brain scolded. God, who knew what kind of form Tom would be in. Would he be stronger? It seemed as though he would.
Without realizing it, Ginny was walking through the corridors of the over-sized mansion as if she knew exactly which way to go. She had stopped walking when she realized that the hallway was brought to a dead end. A door stood in front of her, and it seemed to be locked. Remembering she had her wand with her, Ginny quickly whirled it in mid-air and said, "Alohomora." And with that, the door made a loud "click" noise. She turned the door handle, only to realize she wasn't wearing what she had worn to bed, she was actually wearing a pair of jeans and a pheasant top. 'That's strange. I could've sworn I was wearing something else when I went to bed.' She quickly realized that there were voices inside the room, and she peered inside. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she saw two figures appear into view. One appeared to be Luscious Malfoy, but the other, Ginny had never seemed before. Ginny knew that old, evil wrinkled old face from somewhere, but where? 'Who is that? Oh my god! It's Voldemort!' They were both standing behind a table, filled with candles and potion bottles. And, in the middle of the table, stood a familiar looking object. The diary of Tom Riddle!
Ginny gasped and shut the door with a loud bang. She began to breath rather heavily as she leaned against the door. 'Oh my god, oh my god! What were they doing? How could they not hear me? They didn't even see me!' Ginny had a strong urge to open the door again and try to see what they were doing. She couldn't chicken out, she didn't want to be stuck in another vision clueless. She let out a breath of air, and slowly began to turn the knob. She cracked the door open only a few inches, and peered inside.
They both seemed to be murmuring a chant, whatever it was, it sounded evil. Like Arabic or Chinese, and she also noticed that the candles were giving out colorful smoke! There must have been at least 50 different types of candles on that desk, and each one had it's own individual dark color. This picture seemed all to familiar to Ginny. 'Where have I seen this before?' she asked herself. Just then, Ginny heard a few light foot steps behind her, and before she could slowly turn around, the person spoke.
"Weasley?" it asked, an all to familiar drawl appeared in her mind.
"What are you doing here?" she quickly spun around and accidentally slammed the large ajar door. Draco and Ginny suddenly jolted, and looked hesitantly at the door. Nothing happened. For some odd reason, Voldemort and Luscious couldn't see or hear anything else that was going around them.
Ginny looked at Draco. He was wearing a very elegant suit, which was quite weird in this sort of predicament. He didn't seemed to notice.
"I think I should be asking you that question!" he shot back, looking quite worried himself.
"I'm in a vision. How did you get in here?!"
Draco began to stare at her as though he didn't know what to say, do, or even think.
"I fell asleep and just popped here.."
Ginny looked hesitantly around as if she knew someone was coming. The corridors seemed vacant, and Draco seemed as confused as ever. "How do we get out of here?" he asked as though this place was prohibited. It was his own home, yet he felt that he shouldn't be there. He wanted to leave immediately.
"I don't know! You live here, do you have any type of portal we can fall through?"
"Portal?! Are you mad? This isn't the twilight zone, Weasley, it's my house!"
Ginny sighed with annoyance. Of all the people that had to invade her dreams, Malfoy had to be the one. She quickly grabbed his wrist and stormed down the opposite end of the corridor, looking in every direction for a way out.
Draco looked as if he had just been insulted. "If I can't find my way out of here, what makes you think you can?" But Ginny decided to ignore him. She wasn't going to start an argument now. This wasn't the place or time.
In her last vision, she had actually sunk through the walls, which meant that maybe there would be some kind of escape route there. She let go of Draco's wrist and began to place her palms gently on the walls. Draco looked as though she had just sprouted two heads.
"What the bloody hell do you think your doing, Weasley?" he asked.
"I am looking for a way out of here. There must be a portal around her somewhere.." she trailed off.
"For the last time, Weasley, I don't have a po---" he was quickly silenced as Ginny's hand fell gently through the wall. A black circular portal began to grow and she threw a glance at Malfoy. His face was in complete shock. She quickly gave him a fake smile and walked through the portal. She immediately realized there was no floor, and she began to plummet down into the blackness. She let out a quick scream and Draco looked down. She was no longer in sight.
Draco stared down the corridor. The door knob leading into the room his father was in was now opening! He gave a second glance at the door and dove into the portal.
// A/N - Ok, here's the deal, right now I only have 2 reviews, which is really sad considering this is the 5th chapter, lol. So, in order to post the 6th chapter (which I know you're all dying to read), I'm going to need 5 reviews. Please r/r, I'm begging you! I can't be that bad, can I? \\