Just A Girl
Chapter Three: Even Now
The boy shouted but stayed calm, and he and his friend went to save the girl.
Tom had known they would.
Tom was laughing even now.
Ginny was dying even now.
They left their empty glasses that once held chilled pumpkin juice there on the long wooden table in the Hall, empty like the girl's body.
Like Tom's mind, once upon a time.
They came in a rush of clammy air that followed their descent into the Chamber.
The snake heard them come. Although it was not actually alive.
So did Tom.
Ginny did not. Ginny was barely alive. Ginny was dying, even now.
Tom was laughing, even now.
In a flash of black hair and a hiss of words the boy entered to find the girl lying on the floor. He saw her pale face and her red hair, spread about the floor like a bower. Like a boat that would bear her down a tranquil river towards her death.
"No," he whispered. " – no, Ginny, wake up…please wake up…"
She did not wake.
In a last attempt at waking her he bent over her and no one saw, but he kissed her ashen lips. Even though he was twelve, and she was eleven, and neither of them really knew what love was. Even though she was dying. Even now.
He jerked upright as he felt someone else enter, someone with a presence that smelled of smoke and death.
Someone who smelled of smoke and death should not be allowed near Ginny.
He did not know that the someone had been nearer Ginny than anyone would have allowed, had they known. Near enough to choke the life out of her small still body.
He heard the someone speak.
"She won't wake."
He turned mutely to face him and saw in shock that it was the boy who he had written to, once upon a time.
He knew that he was not on his side.
He had never killed anyone before.
He might have to now.