Cruel Beauty

Rating: PG-13

Summery: Alternate Universe. When Ginny was six years old her parents died and she was left in the care of her mother's beautiful yet cruel sister. She raises Ginny with misguided views on love, will Ginny be able to love or is she too late to save?

Disclaimer: Anything that you recognize is not mine

A/N I had a lot of people tell me last chapter that they thought that Virginia following Sally to the Chamber of Secrets was out of character for her. I agree with all you to an extent, but remember that she been growing softer and with that comes the loss of some of her coldness and immediate suspicions. Thank you to all of you who pointed this out to me and I hope that it didn't seem way off for her to trust Sally.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Losing Grip

Why should I care
'Cuz you weren't there when I was scared
I was so alone
You, you need to listen
I'm starting to trip, I'm losing my grip
And I'm in this thing alone Avril Lavigne

I looked around the room in a panic, I was alone. Well I wasn't completely alone, I had Sally. Oh God Sally! I ran over to her body and searched for a pulse, a heartbeat, anything to tell me that she was alive. But all I found was silence. This was all my fault, if I had paid more attention to her then I would have noticed something but I was too concerned with my damn aunt and my own problems to even care.

I had to save her, but how? The diary. It had all started with the diary. Tom Riddle was using her soul to live so if he died then she would come back to life. But how do you kill a memory?

I had to get help; I had to get out of here. I started to pick up her lifeless body but found that it was too heavy for me to carry a long distance. Besides how far could I get when people saw me carrying the dead body of a Slytherin first year?

I gave Sally one last glance before leaving the room and walking down the same dreary hallway that it seemed like I had been in ages ago. I eventually got to the place that I had entered from but I had no idea how I was supposed to get back up.

I squinted and looked at the tunnel that led almost straight up, how had Tom gotten out of here? How could I get out of here? Climb, no I couldn't even reach where the tunnel started. Well that was all that I could think of it wasn't as though I could just…fly! That was it, I could fly out! I got my wand out and began to picture Draco's broomstick very clearly in my head. Once I had to picture I stuck my wand out and yelled, "accio broomstick!" After a few minutes I heard a whooshing sound getting louder as it came nearer. Suddenly Draco's new firebolt appeared in front of me and I grabbed it as quickly as I could. I mounted the broomstick shakily and closed my eyes as I aimed it upwards; I hated flying.

Finally I found myself back in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom with a new appreciation for the solid ground. I threw the broomstick to the side and ran out of the restroom with no particular plan in mind.

After I reached a staircase I stopped, I needed to figure out where I was going first. I needed to get help, but who could help me? I could find Draco but he would probably end up being more concerned that I had stupidly left the room with a demented Sally than the fact that she was no dead. Who could actually help me? I ran a list through my head: Hermione? No, she would ask too many questions. Ron? No, he knew nothing about the situation and he didn't seem to like me that much anyway. I needed someone that was levelheaded and trustworthy. Then a certain Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher popped into my head. Remus, of course he would be able to help me!

I ran to the Great Hall, as I knew that dinner would still be going on. I threw open the double doors and ignored the stares that I was receiving from my entrance. I staggered my way to the head table as I was out of breath from running so much; I really needed more exercise.

Breathing hard I walked up to Remus who was in an animate conversation with the Charms professor. When he saw me approaching he rose from his seat in concern, in fact most of the teachers were either on their feet with him or staring at me with interest. Well, I didn't need that. I attempted to wipe the panicked look off of my face and walked closely towards Remus so the other professors wouldn't hear me, "I need to talk to you."

"Are you all right Virginia? You don't look well."

I gritted my teeth together and tried not to get angry, he had no idea of what had been going on. "I need to talk to you," I repeated slowly and with more force. He nodded and began to follow me out of the Great Hall.

We didn't get very far before I felt a hand on my shoulder, "Virginia, are you okay?"

I looked at Hermione, Ron, and Harry who had rose from the Gryffindor table when we walked by. "I'm fine." They began to protest but Remus silenced them and we continued our walk.

Once we out of the Great Hall and away from the crowds Remus turned me around to face him, "Virginia what happened to you? My dear child, you look the living dead."

"Funny you should say that I look like the living dead," I mumbled under my breath. Once I made sure that he wasn't able to make out what I said I spoke more clearly, "we can't talk here but I have a place." I led him into the dungeons until we reached the room of the sinned. I stood in front of the portrait and cleared my throat, "oscuridad cae."

"Spanish," Remus mused. "What does it mean?"

"Darkness falls."

Remus shook his head, "strange password."

Remus watched me walk into the room but looked at the entrance apprehensively. I turned back and snapped at him, "are you coming in or what? The room isn't evil or anything." He looked slightly embarrassed as he shook himself and followed me into the room.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked around the room and saw a very distressed looking Draco lying on the couch staring up at the ceiling. I walked over to him but he didn't notice me until I tapped him on the shoulder.

As soon as he realized that he wasn't alone he jumped out off of the couch. "What the hell…Virginia!" He grabbed my arm and looked at me as though he had just seen someone raise the dead, but once he got over his amazement anger took over. "Where have you been?! I have been around this whole damn school looking for you, I only got back here a few minutes ago!"

"It's a long story."

"I have time."

I sighed, "Well sit back down, because I have to explain the whole thing to Remus as well."

It was only then that Draco noticed that we weren't alone in the room. He leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Why is he here?"

"Because I asked him to come," I whispered back. I could tell that he didn't like the idea of anyone else even knowing about this room but he went along with it anyway. I invited Remus to sit with us on the couch and as soon as he accepted I told the whole lengthy tale in a record amount of time. "So now we have to find a way to kill Tom Riddle, it's the only way to save Sally."

Remus looked at me wearily, "why didn't you tell me about this before?"

"I don't know. Look, that's not important now, Sally is dead and we have to save her."

Draco clenched and unclenched his fingers several times before speaking to me. "All right for now I'll let go of the fact the you were thick enough to leave this room with Sally, but what I want to know is how she got in here in the first place."

"She told me that she had run into you, asked about me and you told her the password to get in here."

Draco looked at Remus, "could you excuse us for just one minute please?" When Remus nodded Draco pulled me to my feet and dragged me over to a corner of the room where we wouldn't be heard. "What the hell is the matter with you Virginia?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked sharply.

"I'm talking about why on earth you have been so stupid! My God, you were sharper than this when you were eleven! What is wrong with you? You should have known that I would never give anyone the password to this room, that should have been your first clue that something was wrong!"

He was right; I should have known that something was up. "I don't know, all right? I just, I don't know, how else would she have gotten the password?"

He backed away from me and gave a bitter laugh, "darkness falls."

"Why are you laughing, how is that funny?"

"My father told me to change the password to darkness falls, don't you see Virginia the son of a bitch set this whole thing up!"

It all fell into place for me, "the plan. He and Velena were discussing the emergency plan to bring back their lord that night, this must have been it."

Remus cleared his throat in the distance, "is this something that the two of you would like to fill me in on?"

I took Draco back over to him and then led them both to the door, "we have to get back to Sally." We all went quickly to the haunted bathroom but to my dismay the tunnel had shut itself. "Damn it!"

Draco looked at me strangely, "are you sure that the tunnel thing was in here?"

"Yes! It must have closed automatically or something, how can we get down there?"

Remus circled around the sink, "how did Sally open it to begin with?"

"She spoke parseltounge, she hissed at it and it opened."

Remus bent down and looked at the snake that was etched into the sink, "we need someone who can speak parseltounge then."

Suddenly there was a whoosh and Harry, Hermione, and Ron appeared out of nowhere. "I can help," Harry said quickly.

Remus jumped a few feet in the air, Draco looked livid, and I merely stared in interest and asked "how?"

Draco grabbed the invisibility cloak that had landed on the floor, "how long have the three of you been spying on us?"

They dream team looked at each other and Hermione answered, "we ran and got the cloak after Virginia and Professor Lupin left the Great Hall, then we followed them down to the dungeons. But that's not important, what is important is that Harry can speak parseltounge."

Draco just continued to glare at them, "I should have known that the three of you would pull something like this! You were in the room with us too weren't you? Now I'm going to have to get it sanitized and put memory charms on all of you."

I put a hand on Draco's shoulder, "Draco stop, I'm sure that they don't care about salle du péché." I walked over to Harry, "do you think that you can open it?"

He nodded and I led him over to the facet. We all watched in wonder as Harry hissed at the snake and the tunnel appeared. I didn't wait another second before jumping in and taking the now familiar slide down the tunnel.

After I landed I heard Remus calling down to me, "how are we supposed to get out?"

I had forgotten about that again. I called back up, "Draco's broom is on the ground of the bathroom, tell him to bring it down with him."

Draco came down next and quickly stood up and examined his Firebolt for damages, "I am not letting Potter ride my broomstick."

I grabbed it from him and kept it out of his reach, "that's not really you choice anymore." He pouted until the rest came down and I took them all to the main room where Sally was still in the middle of the floor.

Remus and Hermione rushed over to try and help her, Harry and Ron walked around the room staring in wonder, and Draco kept trying to steal his broom back from me. "She's dead," Remus announced solemnly.

"I'm aware of that Remus. The whole point is that for her to be alive we have to kill Tom Riddle."

Remus sighed and ran a frustrated hand through his shaggy hair, "we need more help, we need to talk to Dumbledore."

"No." Draco and I said in unison.

The others in the room looked at us in disbelief. "No?" Harry repeated dumbly. "He can help us for sure, in fact he may be the only one that can."

Draco looked at me and waited for me to take it. I walked closer to the group, "he will inform her father."

"Don't you think that her family has a right to know?" Harry tossed back at me.

"Her father is the Minister of Magic Harry, don't you see how that could be very bad!"

He obviously didn't because he went to argue back but Remus interrupted him, "they would probably shut down the school."

"Dumbledore wouldn't tell him then. He would only try to help us, in fact he has been at this school for a long time I bet that he would be able to tell us about Tom Riddle." Hermione said with conviction.

"No," Draco said stubbornly. "That old fool would help you three," he pointed to Ron, Harry, and Hermione, "but he would gladly leave Virginia and I out to dry."

"Shut up Malfoy, Dumbledore is a great man, he would not discriminate like that, he helps all of the students."

"Wrong Potter, he helps good little Gryffindors like yourselves."

"Enough all of you!" Remus yelled. "Now is not the time or place for your petty little fights." He turned to me, "Virginia, I know that you don't want to involve the headmaster but I feel that it's needed. I would like it if you and Draco came with us to inform him of what's been going on but I will go without you."

I let out a frustrated sigh, "I suppose that there is really no choice, we'll go with you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Let me get this straight, Sally Fudge was overtaken by a possessed diary that held the memory of Tom Riddle. He is now loose upon the world and he wishes for Miss Evansole to become is partner in taking over the world."

I looked into Dumbledore's eyes that were missing their usual twinkle of amusement, "yeah, that's pretty much all of it."

"And where is Miss Fudge now?"

"She is still in the chamber, I put preservation spells over the body though," Remus answered. Dumbledore closed his eyes and began to rub his temples.

"Sir?" Harry asked. Dumbledore turned to him in acknowledgment. "I know that Tom Riddle is the memory of Voldemort, but why did he preserve himself in a diary?"

"I do not know for sure Harry. Voldemort went to great lengths to make sure that he would never die, I fear that this is merely one of them."

Everyone sat around the headmaster's office in an uncomfortable silence. Draco, who was sitting beside of me and kept a constant glare on Dumbledore so he wasn't much of a reassurance to me. Finally I grew tired of hearing stupid questions being asked and said the only one that mattered, "how can I kill him?"

"Kill Riddle, Miss Evansole?" Dumbledore asked.

"He's using Sally's soul to live, how do I get it back to her?"

"I believe, that you would need to destroy the diary for that to happen."

"But how do I get the diary?"

He sighed and got up from his chair, "that I do not know. He will keep it guarded with him so I suppose that you will need to find him." I got out of my chair and started to leave the room. "Where are you going Virginia?"

I turned to face Dumbledore, "I'm going after Tom Riddle headmaster, I thought that should be obvious."

Draco broke his glare on Dumbledore and jumped out of his seat, "you are not going after that insane freak Virginia."

"I have to agree with Mr. Malfoy, it is not wise for you to attempt this alone, especially when he wants something from you." Like it really mattered to me what Dumbledore thought.

Harry then stood up and walked over beside me, "I'm going with her."

Draco fixed his death stare on Harry, "if you're going then I'm going."

Ron and Hermione looked at each other before walking over to Harry, "we're in too."

Remus began to look panicked, "Albus, do something."

Dumbledore paced around the room a few times before speaking. "I cannot force any of you to stay, but I must advise you to do so. If you leave this school you will not be under my protection and something could very easily happen to all of you."

Draco rolled his eyes at the old man's advice, "how about Virginia and I go and the rest of you can stay."

Harry looked Draco in the eye, "not a chance Malfoy. Voldemort killed my parents and it is just as much my business as it is yours to go after him."

Remus looked at me in exasperation, "this is ridiculous! None of you even have any clue where to find this Tom Riddle and what are you going to do on the off chance that you do find him?"

I looked at the large group of people that had invited themselves on my solo journey; I did not need four little helpers. "Look, I know that I can find him but there is no reason for any of you to put yourselves in danger. Just let me go and do this alone." Draco gave me a look that told me that there was not a chance in hell that was happening and the other three were just as stubborn. I sighed, "fine. Riddle basically said that he would find me so why don't we all just prepare here and when he tries to contact me we can all go after him. Is that good for everyone?" Draco and the trio all agreed to it somewhat reluctantly. I looked at Remus who still looked very unhappy, "Remus, is that a good enough plan for you?"

"If you have to put yourselves in danger, I suppose that plan is sufficient."

Hermione took a few steps towards the door, "I'm going to the library to do some research for this."

I walked towards her, "I'll go with you."

Draco looked at Ron and Harry before quickly walking over to the door, "I'm coming too."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N You know what, I didn't really like that chapter that much. I had to set things up for the rest of the story so sorry if that was kind of pointless and boring. I'll have the next chapter out soon and I'm going to try and write fast because I'm not going to read the fifth book until I finish this story. I promise a lot more excitement in the next chapter and the writing will probably be better because I wrote most of this chapter from three in the morning till five in the morning. Insomnia doesn't help writing that much, lol! Please review!

Lindsay- Ha, you owe me ten dollars! Just kidding! Evansole secrets are coming soon but it'll probably be after Tom Riddle. Thanks for reviewing and I hope that you liked this chapter!

Cactuskitty- Thanks for pointing out to me that some of Virginia's coldness and cunning nature was getting lost. I agree with you but I hope that my explanation at the beginning of the chapter made things a little better. Don't worry about not knowing that it was Sally, no one could guess what was going on with her, so I think that most people were surprised. Thanks for reviewing!

Icefaery- I'm glad that you liked the Chamber of Secrets thing! As you saw Virginia was able to get out of there and good question about Velena. You'll find out soon what the deal is about Virginia being "promised" to Tom Riddle. Thanks for reviewing!

Frananddragon- That was so mean!!! I can't believe that you did that to me. Lol, I completely fell for too. I'm serious you had me so sad because I keep expecting for someone to read a chapter and just be like dude that sucked so when I read that part of your review I was like oh my god, I have to rewrite the chapter! Lol, I am so gullible. Thank you for pointing out my mistake last chapter even though I'm too lazy to go and fix it. Thank you so much for the long review, I really loved reading it!

Eclipse- I'm glad that you're interested in the prophecy because you will be hearing a lot more about that probably next chapter and it will clear up a lot of things, including most of the questions that you had. And there probably won't really be a "hero" in this story. I'm going to kind of try and stay away from having someone actually physically save Virginia because I think that it's important for her to save herself. Thanks for reviewing!

k00lgirl1808- I'm glad that I surprised you with who was behind the letters! And you are my kind of girl if you are an Eagles fan! I love the Eagles and Hotel California is one of my favorite songs of theirs! Long live 80's music! Thanks for reviewing!

Lyss- I'm glad that you liked the twist that I put on things, I tried to make it a little different so people wouldn't have to hear the same boring Chamber of Secrets story again. Thanks for reviewing!

Ace of Spades- Thank you and I'm glad that you liked the whole Tom thing, I tried to make it interesting! And good catch on Sally being how Ginny normally is, that's why I had her following around Virginia and wanting to be like her, because that's how Ginny was in the book. The prophecy will be revealed soon and thank God, it stopped raining! Although the sky is looking pretty black right now so maybe I shouldn't jinx it, lol! Thanks for reviewing!

Fallen Angel of Darkness- Sorry that I didn't receive the other review that you left but thanks for taking the time to make another one! Also I apologize that Virginia is losing her touch but I feel that with emotions and happiness comes blindness and stupidity. I'll reveal the prophecy next chapter and update your story soon!!! Thanks for reviewing!

Writing*-*Wonder- One of the greatest AU fics ever? Wow, thank you so much, that is such a great compliment! I finished your story and I tried to review but every time that I did it just did that dumb site experiencing overload thing. It made me so mad that I swear I almost threw the computer out the window, lol! I'll try to review again though! And thank god that you don't like Britney Spears. Lol, she gets on my last nerve. And you should post the lyrics to the parody song. It's also kind of funny that you mentioned that you and your friends wrote one because me and my friends do that all the time and we wrote one that we changed the lyrics to I'm a Slave 4 U to I'm a Terrorist 4 U. Lol, it's our *ahem* tribute to those responsible for 911. (We threw a few cusswords in there and I believe that there is a point where the finger is given to Bin Laden, lol!) And small world about you living in Ohio! Tell me, do you hate it as much as I do? Thanks for reviewing!

S.e.a- Thank God that wasn't the end of your story, I was going to be sad! I hope that you update it soon! And Paul Walker is hot in pretty much every scene of every movie that he's in, but I agree with you on that particular one. And of course I agree with you on Orlando Bloom being hot! Have you seen ads for Pirates of the Caribbean? He looks good in that movie, I can't wait for it to come out! And you can drink with your parents at 14 and by yourself at 18? Damn, I'm moving to Britain, lol! Thanks for reviewing!

Darcel- You read 24 before 23? Lol, no wonder you were confused. That sounds like something that I would do. I hope that it made more sense for you after you read chapter 23! Thanks for reviewing!

fantasy angel- Well, I'm not going to say who promised Virginia to Tom Riddle but the answer isn't completely obvious. I'll give you a hint though, who would have something to gain by giving her to the dark lord? Thanks for reviewing and don't worry, I am the most blind person when it comes to other people's plots so you aren't alone, lol!

BlackMage- Thanks for the sympathy about being trapped inside my own home (or as I like to call it my own personal hell, lol!) I got out of the house yesterday though so I'm better now! Thanks for reviewing and I'll be revealing the prophecy next chapter!

Caffeine- You know I think that I truly love you! I had the Blaise thing kind of mapped out in my head but when I saw your idea for him being sorted into a different house I was like oh my god that is good, I have to use it! *dramatically bows and kisses Caffeine's feet* Thank you! And don't worry, it won't be the house of the brave! Which one would you pick? And nice try about Sally being Tom and Virginia's child, lol, I think that would be a bit too complicated. Thanks for reviewing!

Kinky Kiwi- You know I think that you are the only person that has requested more Velena (and you were close on the spelling!) I kind of like her myself, so it's nice to see that someone agrees with me! Well, here's your update I hope that you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!

Bordelos- I went through this whole story with people hating Velena and then bam two reviewers in row told me that they liked her! I enjoy characters that are completely evil, I think that they're cool, so I'm glad that you agree! And of course you can translate my story, I'm touched that you want to! Yeah, as long as you give me credit and I would really appreciate it if you would translate the reviews for me, I would love to know what different kinds of people think about the story! Thank you for reviewing!

Kryptonite- Remus was in this chapter! And I liked this Remus, he was kind of take chargeish and I was tempted to keep him yelling at everybody, lol! As for your other questions Sally did die, but she can be brought back to life. Draco did not give her the password, can you guess who did? She got out by flying and to destroy Tom Riddle you must destroy the diary. Better? Thanks for reviewing!

AnGeL*Of*MiNe- I'm glad that you got a chance to review and I thank you for doing so! I hope that you liked this chapter!

Marchione- Lots of questions to be answered this time, lol! Okay, Ron and Harry did not know about Virginia's letters, but they do now. I'm not exactly sure how long she stayed in Malfoy's room, we'll just say a while, lol! As for Tom knowing if she is a Weasley or not, you'll just have to wait and see and the title of the chapter (Hotel California) it is actually a song by the Eagles. Every chapter has song lyrics at the beginning of it and I name the chapter whatever the title is of that song, so hence the name of chapter twenty-four. Less confused? Hopefully. Thanks for reviewing!

I'm already working on the next chapter so it should be out soon! Enjoy book five everyone!