Disclaimer--Still the property of JK Rowling, Steve Kloves, Scholastic and WB...darn it. Also still intended only as flattery...

Author's Notes--

Strawberries and Blueberries-I can't promise I'll always be this prompt, but here's the update. ;-)

EEDOE--Venomously charming is the PERFECT way to describe Tom! I hope I really have managed to paint a vivid picture--thanks so much for saying so! It's nice to watch Ginny grow and develop across the page (the depth of experience Ginny has was what first inspired this story!)...for me the best thing about reading--or writing--is discovering the characters, and sharing that with someone like you is an amazing feeling. It makes my day you would be interested in my version of Ginny's experience in OTP!! :-D I've actually been considering carrying her all the way through PoA and GoF as well as OTP IF--big "if"--I can create enough events to make it interesting, but maybe I should just skip to OTP and hope invention and the muse will stick around that long. What do you think? I'd welcome the input...anybody?

Bill--The promised cameo from Luna is in this chapter. I'm a little surprised at the speed myself. Momentum, I guess, but I suspect it will slow down soon...but hopefully they'll continue regularly and without absence. *crosses fingers* Tom's appearance at the end of the last chapter was a bit of a surprise to me, so I don't have it completely figured out myself...his face-to-face meeting with Ginny is some sort of physical manifestation of Ginny's dawning awareness of his presence inside her...I suspect he kissed her because it was a dramatic and sadistic flourish with which he could exert more direct control. Other than that...*grins and shrugs* Ask Tom. *winks* Interesting point about the obliviousness...Part of Ginny's awareness and compassion is that she is a girl, and introspective, but Bill and Charlie may have had a lot to do with its development. Her relationships with them, as well as the repercussions of her experience with the diary are some of the things I would like to explore in writing any further stories, particularly her second year. Can't wait to hear what you think. Cheers!

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Ginny jerked awake, panting. She waited, half-sitting, half-laying across the bed, until her heart gave up its mad race. Sweat trickled cold down her back, making her shiver. She reached for the water pitcher, kept cool and full for any student with the sudden urge for a late night drink, but her hand was shaking so badly she could barely lift it, let alone pour. Water splashed across the floor, forming a slowly expanding puddle. Ginny ignored it, sipping desperately at the water as if it could wash away her sense of defilement.

She snapped her head around to look back over her shoulder-the diary was laying in the center of bed, blank and unthreatening. Panic swelled in her throat, blocking air, but she could still hear herself making sounds, faint whimpers that sounded alien to her ears. She dropped the cup, heedless of where it landed, of whether or not it was even empty, and ran.

"Ginny!" Ron said.

She paused, shifting nervously from foot to foot, desperate to stay in motion, anxious to be gone.

"Fred and George start a fire?"

For a split second, Ginny forgot her fear. "No," she said, even as it crashed over her again, "At least...I don't think so."

"Are...you okay?" Harry asked, looking uncertain.

The darkness coiled through her surged, and Ginny nearly laughed with the bitterness in her mouth. /If only he noticed me some other time...any other time. Or had any thought about me at all...other than that Fred and George have upset me joking about the Chamber of Secrets./ She barely managed to keep from rolling her eyes.

"Sure," Ginny said, trying to ignore her voice, stretched and thin, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Looked like you were running as if your life depended on it," Ron said curiously, his eyes on her as he moved his pawn.

"I just woke up and...remembered I had a Potions assignment," Ginny said. "Snape'll kill me if it's not done."

"Horrible git," Ron said.

Harry, scowling at the board in concentration, nodded as if he agreed.

"We'd help, but we probably wouldn't even be passing if it weren't for Hermione."

Ginny stared for so long she began to wonder if she'd lost the ability to form coherent thoughts. "Where...is Hermione?"

"Hospital wing," Ron said conversationally.

Ginny could feel the floor drop away. /I've just killed Ron's best friend-one of them, anyway. How can he take it so calmly?/

She hadn't said anything, but even Ron noticed the look on her face. "No!" he said quickly, so loud his pieces turned around to see what he was talking about. "No-it's not like that...It wasn't the Chamber of Secrets."

Ginny's knees tried to buckle. She dropped hastily onto the nearest ottoman. "Then what--?"

Harry and Ron exchanged quick looks that normally would have annoyed her. Now she was just impatient for them to finish.

"She...had a bit of an accident," Harry said vaguely.

"Oh," Ginny said in a temporary return of sarcasm. "That clears that up."

The boys exchanged looks again, the chess game forgotten.

"She was researching something...for extra credit," Ron said in a rush, "and made a bit of a mistake."

"Madam Pomfrey says she'll be up in no time," Harry added hurriedly.

Ginny let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Oh...good," she said in an attempt at unconcern. "In that case, I best get on with my assignment." She all but sprinted for the library, made straight for the shadowy concealment of a hidden study niche without so much as a glance for the books, and proceeded to shake uncontrollably. She cowered there for the rest of the break, thinking, barely pausing to sleep or to eat.

Whether Hermione had been attacked or not, she knew she was somehow connected to the attacks...and now she knew Tom was connected as well. If she didn't tell someone...But what would happen if she told Professor Dumbledore? How would she be able to convince him she didn't know how or why she had done what she thought she had done...when she wasn't even completely sure she had done it at all? And if he made her leave Hogwarts...Every time she thought about it, she wanted to cry. But who else was there to tell? Harry? He already looked at her as if she were something a little bizarre and possibly dangerous...if she told him, how would he look at her then? Would she ever be able to be his friend like Ron? Ron-she could tell him...but even if he managed to sit through the explanation, what then? What could he do about it? What if he got hurt? But...

Harry and Ron said Hermione hadn't been attacked...no one had since Justin...and now that she knew the diary was part of the problem, maybe it would get better if she just didn't use it...and once the mandrakes were ready, there would be no harm done...

She almost had herself convinced...

Term began and days passed with no sign of Hermione...

"Zacharias says Hermione Granger was attacked," Luna Lovegood told her in Potions one day. "Zacharias says she must have been petrified like all the rest-they'd have told us if she were dead. Zacharias says it's awfully strange that almost everyone here were Harry's friends, and that no one saw what attacked. He thinks Harry attacked her and they're protecting him--"

Ginny opened her mouth indignantly, but Luna was already continuing, "but I told him that was nuts. Why would Harry attack Hermione? She's one of his best friends. I told him Harry's a hero and he's just jealous."

"That's great, Luna." Ginny forced a rather sickly smile, but Luna didn't seem to notice her lack of enthusiasm.

"My dad always knew the Chamber of Secrets existed," Luna said.

"Does he know how to close it?" Ginny asked a trifle acerbically.

Luna screwed up her face in intense concentration. "Umm...I'm not sure...I don't really remember...he hasn't talked about in a long time..."

"You didn't talk about it when you went home for Christmas?" Bion asked in disbelief.

Luna shrugged. "It never came up really?"

Bion looked at Ginny in wild bemusement, clearly desperate to ask how it could fail to come up. Ginny raised her eyebrows vaguely, worrying all over again...what if Hermione had been attacked and Ron was just trying to protect her-with Harry's help? A warm drop of happiness trickled through the dark mud of her worry. If Harry is helping Ron protect me, he must care about me a little.

"If you care to talk," Professor Snape interjected silkily, "Perhaps I could arrange a meeting for you-in detention."

Luna stared at him blankly, but turned back to his cauldron as he walked away. Bion eyed Ginny as if he wanted to continue the conversation, but didn't say anything. Ginny barely noticed, mired in her own distant thoughts.