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

Chapter Dedication Okay I've never had one of these before, but this chapter is dedicated to Caffeine who reminded me of a character that I introduced but kind of forgot about. She helped me out so much by giving me ideas as to how to bring them back so I dedicate this to her with a huge thank you!

A/N I am well aware that the past couple of chapters have been strange with a lot of people of character, I don't really feel like explaining stuff right now because it would be pointless, just read this chapter and keep an open mind and I'll have a note explaining things at the end of the chapter.

A/N 2- I know that I said that I was going to finish this story before I read book five but once I had the book I couldn't help myself so I read it and finished it yesterday. And let me say that I have a newfound appreciation for the words alternate universe, lol! The book of course has no affect on my story.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Illusion

The sun rises to another day
My constitution keeps changing
'Til it slips away
So I lie awake and stare
My mind thinking, just wandering
Is anybody there? Creed

Have you ever had a headache that is so bad that you can actually feel and hear your head pounding? I woke up with one of those. I looked around the dark room groggily as I kept one hand on my head.

There was someone sitting next to the bed but I couldn't make out whom it was. "Where am I?"

"Ah, good you're awake." That didn't really answer my question.

"Where am I?" I asked again.

"Tell me Virginia, what is the last thing that you remember?"

I sat up in the unfamiliar bed and tried to ignore the dizziness that overcame me, "who are you?" I demanded.

"Don't you recognize me Virginia, it's only been about twenty-four hours since I saw you last, is your memory that short?"

"Tom Riddle?"

"I prefer Lord Voldemort."

I tried to get out of the bed but found that I couldn't, "how did I get here?"

A light suddenly came on in the room and I saw Riddle staring at me with a malicious glint in his eyes. "What is the last thing that your remember?"

I glared at him but racked my memory anyway. I could remember being in Dumbledore's office and then…I couldn't think of anything, it was just a blank space. "What did you do? The last thing that I remember was being in the headmaster's office."

He smiled, "I did not do a thing against your own will. Do you remember going anywhere with the werewolf?"

"Werewolf?" I repeated with confusion, "there are no werewolves even around here."

He laughed, "so I see that you do not know your dear little friend's secret then?"

"Stop it, what are you talking about?"

He sighed in impatience, "Remus Lupin."

"Remus? How do you know?"

"Honestly Virginia I'm growing tired of having to explain things to you I did hope that you would be more clever than this." He stared at me for a moment, "figure it out on your own, I have more important things to do. Now tell me, do you remember going anywhere with the werewolf?"

I closed my eyes and felt my headache growing worse as new memories forced their way into my mind. "He, he took me to a room. He said that he had to talk to me alone so I sent the others ahead. He took me," I looked around the room with confusion, "he took me here."

"Yes he took you here out of your own free will."

"But why would Remus take me to you?"

He just continued to smile as I heard the door open and a new voice joined the conversation, "I believe that I can explain that."

I looked into the cold eyes of Lucius Malfoy and glared, "what do you mean?"

Riddle smiled, "by all means then Lucius, tell her."

Lucius gave a cold smile and stared at me intently, "have you heard of Polyjuice Potion Virginia?"

I gripped the pillow tightly and tried to restrain myself from being childish and throwing it at him. "Of course I have Lucius. Where are Remus and Draco, what did you do to them?"

"I assure you Virginia that my son is quite well, as for the werewolf, well lets just say that he's seen better days."

Tom signaled for Lucius to stop talking and began his conversation with me again, "if you want them to remain alive and fine then I suggest that you start cooperating with me."

I glared in defiance, "do not forget that I am not some gullible noble Gryffindor, I don't even know if you have them and you shouldn't be so sure that I care if you do."

He smiled, "I rather did hope that you wouldn't care, it does not prove helpful to have feelings of loyalty and warmth. Lucius go get Virginia's aunt, I do believe that she wishes to speak with her." Lucius nodded and left he room as Tom continued to smile at me, "tell me Virginia how have things been for you for the past few months?"

I rolled my eyes, "oh they've been just wonderful what with you killing Sally and kidnapping me."

He ignored my comment, "things have been going pretty much exactly the way that you have wanted them to, have they not? Besides the Chamber your life has been looking up lately, hasn't it?"

"What are you playing at Riddle?"

He held up a hand, "you may call me Lord Voldemort, my lord, or even just Voldemort but I do not want to hear the name Riddle come out of your mouth. Now, what I'm 'playing at' Virginia is that you owe me."

My mouth almost dropped in shock, "what do you mean I owe you? I owe you for what, making my life hell?"

He drummed his fingers along the bed in impatience, "no Virginia, you owe me for granting your deepest wishes."

"Wishes?" I repeated dumbly.

"Think Virginia, has anything happened lately that you always wished for subconsciously?" I said nothing so he continued, "What happened at Christmas?"

"My subconscious wanted my aunt to slap me?"

He growled and I got a certain amount of satisfaction out of knowing that I was annoying him. "Think before that."

"I wanted Lucius to hit on me?" I asked innocently.

He stood up and got very close to my face, "where were you before you were at the Malfoy's?" He asked in a dangerously low voice.

My eyes grew wide and I stopped the game that I was playing with him, "The Burrow. What did you have to do with my Christmas?"

His usual calm returned to him as he sat back down in the chair, "I had a lot to do with your Christmas Virginia. Have you ever heard of the rêves profonds spell?"

I looked at him solemnly, "yes, it's extremely dark magic that ties the receiver to the one who cast the spell by granting unseen wishes and dreams."

He smiled and nodded, "yes and who would have thought that your deepest dreams were to be accepted by the Weasleys and be 'normal'."

I gave him a superior smirk; "well then you don't have anything on me because I left the Weasleys so therefore I did not accept the wishes."

"Before you left though you accepted a gift from them and gave one in return, thus sealing the bond, it is to no matter to me that you chose to leave your dream." I closed my eyes and laid back down on the bed, this was too confusing to even try and think about.

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

I woke up for the second time that day and to my disappointment I found that I was still in the strange bed, it wasn't just some horribly weird dream. Thankfully Tom Riddle wasn't waiting for me to awake this time; in fact I was alone in the room.

Thoughts of escape drifted through my mind as I attempted to get out of the bed but found that the invisible shield was still in place. So much for escape, I didn't even have my wand.

The door opened and I jerked to attention as a boy around the same age as me with dark hair walked into the room carrying a tray full of food. He came over to my bedside and sat the tray down with a sneer before turning to leave again.

"Wait!" I called out to him.

He turned back around, "you know, just because I brought you food does not mean that I am a servant here, if you have a command to give I suggest that you give it to someone else."

I looked into his blue eyes, I knew this person! I just had to figure out who it was. He was leaving again so I thought quickly, the eyes were what gave him away to me, not the looks so I must have known him from a while ago, before he looked like he does now. But, whom did I know when I was little that was the same age as me? The only person that came to mind was Pansy and… "Blaise?"

He came back over to the bed with a hint of a smile playing on his lips, "nice to see that you remember me."

"What are you doing here, how come you aren't at Hogwarts?"

"I was at Hogwarts up until the holiday break, my mother thought that my time could be better well spent so voila I am here in the house of evil."

I let out a small sigh of relief, if he didn't want to be here then I could persuade him to help me, I just had to keep the conversation going. "So, you were at Hogwarts? I don't remember seeing you."

He gave a bitter smile, "yes well when it is your 'assignment' to become invisible then most people don't see you. Plus I was in Ravenclaw and a year above you, we didn't exactly have classes together or anything."

I placed a hand on the shield that surrounded my bed, "do you happen to know how to get this thing off?"

He shook his head, "don't even try it, I can't help you."

"You can't, or you won't?"

"Is there really a difference? I can not help you escape so don't even ask."

I glared and resisted the urge to pout, "fine then." He rolled his eyes and left the room, taking with him my hope for escape.

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

I was left alone in the room for a few hours with too much to think about. I needed to figure out how I got here if I had any chance of leaving again. Lucius had mentioned Polyjuice Potion right after I asked about Remus so logically that meant the it wasn't really Remus that helped me, but an imposter. Terrific, now I can chalk up not being able to recognize the few people that I trust to my list of stupid things that I have done.

Fake Remus had taken me to this room, but this couldn't be Hogwarts, Riddle was not that dumb. He had grabbed my hand before opening the door to the room that he wanted me to see. Why would he have grabbed my hand? Of course, a portkey. Well, that didn't do a lot of help, a portkey would be deactivated by now and I could be anywhere in the world. Maybe I shouldn't try and figure out how I got here, it was only making my headache return.

The door opened again and Tom Riddle returned. He didn't say a word until he reached his chair from the morning that still sat beside my bed. "Hello Virginia, sleep well?"

"The sleep was okay but as for where I woke up, well that's a different story."

"Still confused?"

I glared, "I'm fine, your whole evil scheme isn't that complex."

He smiled, "well I do enjoy the simple things in life, world domination, manipulation, obedient servants, things of this nature." I rolled my eyes and gave no response. "I see that you have met the young Zabini. Attempting to make a friend to help you Virginia?"

"We've met before, I was merely acknowledging an old acquaintance."

He looked skeptical, "even so be forewarned that he will not help you or anyone else for that matter. He is a boy after my own heart, he wishes to serve no one but himself."

"You sound almost proud, he doesn't serve you?"

"I am not fooled into believing that he does. He is here, but not willingly. I do not trust him but at the same time I do not care, he would betray no one because he does not care about anyone enough to betray. You could take lessons from him."

"I'd rather not."

He gave an indifferent shrug, "very well then, it makes no difference to me. He waited a minute before changing the subject, "how are you enjoying your new home?"

"It's absolutely wonderful," I said sarcastically. "Would you mind lifting the spell that you have over the bed it is rather annoying to be trapped in such a small space."

"I suppose that I could, it's not as though you can escape anyway."

"Then why did you put the spell on in the first place?"

He smirked, "I didn't want you to roll of the bed while you were asleep." He lifted the charm and I immediately stepped out of the bed, grateful to be able to stretch my legs once again.

He watched me with interest as I walked slowly around the room, "are you sure that you do not have any more questions to ask?"

I gave him a hard glare, "I'm fine Riddle."

I waited for him to yell or get angry but he did nothing other than just sit there with the same malicious smile that he always had. "Perhaps you should call me by my true name."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, "what, Voldemort?"

He just continued to grin as he looked at me, "no, Evansole."

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

A/N Confused I presume? You probably should be. First of all I'll start the explanation by saying I can't believe how much hate I got for the last chapter, did you really think that I didn't have a reason for all of that? Come on I wouldn't just put out a chapter full of useless stuff, everything in there had a reason and a purpose I just haven't made them all clear. Remus last chapter was not the true Remus, can you guess who was? I know that a lot of you must be confused, please ask questions because I'm not really sure what I need to clear up because I, of course as the writer, know exactly what's going on. Please review and I promise explanations and action next chapter!

Writing*-*Wonder- Preach it on Ohio weather! I hate our weather so much! It'll be like thirty in the morning and eighty in the afternoon. I don't hate Ohio completely; I was just being melodramatic, lol! I actually went to this Latino Festival this weekend with a group of my friends that was in Columbus and it was actually pretty cool. I love your parody song, it was really funny! Thanks for reviewing!

Katherine K- Do you still want the Ginny/Tom now that it looks like they are related? Lol, sorry that all of your ships just keep getting squashed. Don't worry about not reviewing for a while, no big deal. Probably no G/T but since you are so nice about everything, how about I sneak you in some G/R? Will that do? Thanks for reviewing!

Fallen Angel of Darkness- What, not an Avril fan? Lol, I love pretty much all types of music (as you can tell by my wide variety of lyrics) so I don't hate on pretty much anyone and I really like that song. As long as you do what you love I don't think that anyone should do anything less than commend you for it. Good catch on them being called by their first names, it wasn't a slip on my part, it was to give a hint about Remus. Thanks for reviewing! (Did you like book five? E-mail me if you want to talk about it!)

Ace of Spades- Lol, that's actually a reason that I put that in there (ride my broomstick.) I was going to have Virginia say something back but I ended up just leaving it because she was supposed to be sad or whatever. Anyway, I saw this urban myth show on MTV and they had this thing on there about that, is that where you heard it? Sorry that you're annoyed but we won't see any of them for a while. Finished with book five yet? I hope that you enjoyed it and thanks for reviewing!

BlackMage- No problem about reviewing, I really like your story! Thank you for reviewing mine and as for your question, of course I will be writing more after this is done, lol! I'm actually working on some original stuff too but I have a lot more HP ideas, especially after reading the new book!

Nalia- All right, so what do you think now? Does chapter twenty-five suck a little less? Don't worry though, I wasn't offended or anything, I really appreciate when people give there honest opinions so please continue to do so. And I tried to be strong and finish this before I read the book but I couldn't help myself so I read it over the weekend and loved it, lol! What did you think of it? Thanks for reviewing!

S.e.a- I totally agree with you on book five, it was by far the best yet! As soon as I finished it I was like all right, I am ready for book six! And then I got kind of sad because it is going to be a while before that comes out. Thanks for reviewing and don't worry, as soon as I got the OOTP I came to my senses and just read it, lol!

Krytonite- I'm glad that you were able to figure all of that out, it's good to know that people are following me on this story. I hope that you understand why I wrote the last chapter the way that I did a little better and thanks for reviewing!

Caffeine- Okay, so what do you think about Blaise? Did I do all right on him? I enjoyed your babble and I actually really liked your idea about Fudge and Molly, that would be a plot twist. I'm serious I really thought about changing my entire story line and adding that in but in the end I decided to just stick with the way that I was going with this story, but I really liked that idea! Thanks for reviewing!

Marchione- I'm glad that your school is out! Are you excited for summer? Thanks for reviewing and I hope that you liked this chapter!

Eclipse- So, *drums fingers nervously* what did you think about this chapter? I hope that you like different because this story is pretty out there, lol! I agree with you on the calmness thing but remember, reasons for everything. Thanks for reviewing!

fantasy angel- I'm glad that you liked the plan! I'm sure that yours aren't lame, I normally think that mine are but other people seem to like them. I'll tell you who promised Virginia to Riddle next chapter, I think that I was supposed to do it this one but I didn't get around to it. Thanks for reviewing!

Cactuskitty- Thanks for the cookie, I needed it, lol! I was so nervous about putting out chapter twenty-five because I knew that it sucked, but it was supposed to suck. Luckily I didn't really get flamed, must of my reviewers were just like well it wasn't the best thing that you have ever wrote. Thank you for reviewing and I hope that my reviews go better this chapter because this one was not supposed to be bad.

JerseyPike- Lol, don't worry she had a good reason to be nice to the little trio, I don't like them that much either. And I'm sure that her aunt will be getting hurt soon, how do you think that I should do it? How did you like book five? I hope that you didn't hurt the poor stock boys too badly, lol! Thanks for reviewing!

ER- Really, good chapter? Thank you thank you thank you! *bows down and kisses feet* I really needed someone to tell me that I was starting to get depressed, lol! Thank you for reviewing and I hope that you liked this chapter!

Nirvana- Okay, so there has been no snogging lately, don't hurt me, lol! I promise that I will get some major action in soon and I will do it just for you! Thanks for reviewing and don't worry about missing a couple of chapters, no big deal.

Keeper of the Moon- Here's the update even though it took me a while to get this out. Lol, I'm just too lazy. Thanks for reviewing and I hope that you liked this chapter!

Darcel- Thank you so much for giving me your honest opinion on the last chapter, I hope that you liked this one more. Thanks for reviewing and I agree with you on Dumbledore.

Kinky Kiwi- Congrats on your record reading time on book five, lol! And I'm touched that you want Velena in the actual series, yes it would be wonderful if JK was giving me credit instead of the other way around, lol! Thanks for reviewing!

Frananddragon- Don't apologize so much, lol, I can take it. Really though, don't worry about it, I'm just really gullible and I after I read the whole review I thought that it was really funny. God now I feel bad because you feel bad, lol! I think that we need to stop before be both kill ourselves, lol! Thanks for reviewing and really don't worry about it!

Lyss- I'm really glad that you didn't mind the last chapter, I really appreciate that! I've finished book five and I agree with you on how she's changed her style. I was really surprised with Harry, he turned into a freaking brat, (it was me who defeated Voldemort like four times, I did everything so why is everyone not bowing down and telling me every little detail about what's going on.) Ugh, kind of annoyed me if you can't tell, lol! Thanks for reviewing!

ChampagneDav- Sorry that you didn't like Draco being all overprotective. He is a kind of complicated character to write but it's just always been my thinking that if he ever did really care about someone that he would be really possessive, you know that whole spoiled only child thing. Thanks for reviewing!

Lily of the Shadow- Wow, sorry that your life is falling apart, I hope that things are better now. Thanks for reviewing and sorry that you have to go to summer school, that sucks.

Sirius's Crazy Chick- *coughs nervously* So Sirius is your favorite character, read the fifth book yet? I won't say anything else in case you haven't. Thanks for reviewing and I'll think about bringing him into this story. I'm glad that you like how this is going!

Zainab- Stop putting dents in the wall, you might hurt the piping, lol! Really though, don't worry about forgetting to review, it's not a big deal. I'm glad that you liked last chapter and thanks for reviewing!

k00lgirl1808- I'm really glad that you liked the song again, we seem to be pretty lonely on the Avril fan thing, lol! Thanks for reviewing and I'm really jealous that you're on vacation, I wish that I was!

bordelos- Well, now that you know what happened to Riddle, what do you think? Thanks for agreeing to do the translations and definitely don't worry abut the great story ones. My e-mail is cashew86@yahoo.com if you want to send them there. Thanks for reviewing!

In case you wanted to know rêves profonds, the spell that Tom Riddle put on Virginia means deepest dreams. Or it was supposed to anyway, I'm not that great at translations. I'll try and get the next chapter out soon but I'm kind of busy right now and I have another story that I'm working on at fictionpress.com, and yes that was a shameless plug, lol!