IV. Nocturne ( )

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Ginny stepped onto the Hogwarts Express for the fourth time, this time not much different from the three before. Her twin older brothers were already heading for another compartment, her other brother Ron and his loyal friends going the other way. She trailed Ron like a forgotten puppy while her mother waved a tearful goodbye.

As she followed her brothers reluctantly, Ginny wondered why she felt so unattached from the scene. She ought to be glad to be going back to Hogwarts or worried about the upcoming year. She felt none of that, wishing only to be elsewhere.

Many would say it had happened at the end of her first year. Ginny knew better. She had always been different from the rest of her family. Always.

She was an unexpected child. No, her mum wasn't surprised to learn she was with child again. Ginny supposed she had learned to expect it. It was her gender that got their goat. She had been the first Weasley girl since her great-aunt Melinda.

All through her life, Ginny had been looked on as the odd one out, so it came as no surprise that she grew up to be just that.

But yes, if she had to be frank about it, it had started in her first year. It had started, in fact, with Draco Malfoy. The Slytherin second-year had insulted Ginny's very being without even knowing her name, only know that she was a fucking Weasley. And it hadn't stopped there. Every second at Hogwarts, she was judged for her flaming red hair, her shabby faded robes and her freckles. Just another bloody Weasley. Not the black sheep that she had always been.

This gave Tom Riddle the perfect oppurtunity. Preteen Ginny, suffering from preteen angst, needed someone to tell her she wasn't just another Weasley, that she was special. And Tom Riddle needed a body.

It struck present-day Ginny as hilarious that Harry the Hero and Dumbledore the Daft knew so little about what really happened in the Chamber of Secrets. Yes, the Chamber had been rightly named, for only she and Tom knew what had transpired behind its doors.

It had not taken the sixteen-year-old hallucination long to figure out that Ginny was as ambitious, proud and cunning as any Slyther. Within ten days, he had discovered her insatiable appetite for love, power and maple syrup. Likewise, it took Ginny only a week to guess at Tom's true identity and even less time to confirm it. After all, she had been hearing about Voldemort all her life.

She remembered the moment Tom told her better than anything else. It was a soggy Saturday in early October and the majority of the school huddled pathetically around their common room fires. Ginny, however, was out in the rain. She was stretched out behind the Herbology tents, writing in her beloved diary, her red hair dripping unattractively and her quill sopping wet. She knew anyone watching would see a light blue bubble surrounding the diary, keeping rain from hitting it.

Ginny, Tom said, I think I have a solution to all your problems.

Ginny, who had been rambling pointlessly about how much she hated Defense Against the Dark Arts, paused, placing her quill between her teeth. She knew how dangerous Tom Riddle could be. He was a Dark Lord, after all. She had to consider his motives.

I doubt that, she wrote, playing the innocent teen, my problems will never be solved.

She could almost hear Tom's laughter as he responded, It's simple, really, but I can't tell you. I have to show you.

The next thing she knew, she wass standing in the Hogwarts library, Tom's ghost-self by her side. Madame Pince was nowhere to be seen.

"It's in the Restricted Section." Tom urged, taking her pale and freckled hand in his insubstantial one. His voice was just as she'd imagined, she noted absently as he led her past rows of spell books to a shelf in the back and pointed to a book on the top. Ginny pulled the book off the shelf and Tom took it from her gently, flipping past a few Dark curses. He landed on a page entitled The Body-Sharing Spell. Ginny leaned over the book curiously. A spell for lonely wizards, the subtitle announced.

"What does it do?" Ginny asked quietly, looking at the older boy.

"It would let me share your body." Tom explained. "Two minds, one body."

Ginny blinked. "How would that solve my problems?"

"Well, you do want to be different from the other Weasleys." Tom smiled benignly. And then he had told her about the Chamber.

When she looked back on it, Ginny wasn't sure why she had agreed to the spell, but she'd never regretted it. And she certainly wouldn't take it back now.

"Ginny?" said Neville Longbottom's voice, snapping Ginny out of her reverie. "Yes, Neville?" she replied sweetly, grinding her back teeth.

"Would you--d'you think we could--" Neville paused, looking terrified. "D'you want to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?"

Great, Ginny thought. Another date with Lardbottom.

"I'll have to think about it," she said aloud. "I might have some studying to do."

"Great!" said Neville cheerfully, assuming the best and walking away whistling.

It was too quiet. She could feel Harry, Ron and Hermione's eyes on her back.

Gin, said a voice softly, rising from the back of her mind. Are you alright?

Fine. Ginny replied tensely. It's just that I don't like having to keep this secret.

You want to flaunt our relationship? Tom questioned skeptically.

Well, maybe not, Ginny admitted, but I don't want to date Longbottom because of it.

So don't, Tom said reasonably. People will just assume you're gay.

Ginny laughed. Oh, shut up.

"Ginny, are you alright?" Hermione said, repeating Tom's question. Ginny got up and looked at her brother and his posse.

"I'm just overwhelmed that Neville asked me out." she admitted, staring at the floor. "I mean, who would ever like someone like me?"

In the background, Tom laughed evilly.

***

I dreamt I was running that night. Running and running and running, through nondescript nothingness. I cried when I woke.

***