Chapter 22: Ginny Finally Speaks Out
" Please turn in your essays about vampires to Professor McClay." Willow said while writing stuff on the chalkboard behind her. She loved teaching, it was something she's always wanted to do ever since she was in high school. " Ok today we're going to go from vampires to present day occurances. Such as He-who-must-not-be-named and his followers."
Tara started grading papers and looked up she loved watching Willow teach she was always so good at it. If there was one bet Tara would of ever taken it was that Willow would eventually go into teaching. Willow looked over at Tara when she felt someone staring at her. " Tara how's the papers so far? Are they all up to NEWT level or do we need to work more on that?" Willow asked trying to bring Tara back to the present
" Huh? Oh yeah, so far the papers are great. There are one or two mistakes but they can be easily fixed." Tara started to blush she didn't mean to stare but since she started helping Willow she just couldn't shake the feelings that we're bottling up inside her.
" That's great! If the majority of the class gets better than average on the homework this week, then there won't be homework given next week, how does that sound?" Willow asked the class. She knew that Tara and herself would be boggled down with homework this week anyways.
"Professor Rosenburg does that count for homework that's late?" Ginny Weasley asked. She didn't want to get homework next week, but due to everything that went on she had a hard time trying to get all her homework done and still find time to study for tests that were coming up.
" Yes that goes for the homework that's turned in late. That reminds me due to current events if a problem arises that clashes with your studying or homework, and your really really tight fit if you want to talk to Tara or I outside of class, or during your free time about pushing assignments back or needing alternate assignments, and such then please don't hesitate to ask." With that Willow went back to walking around the class to see if any of the students needed help.
Willow couldn't stop looking out of the corner of her eye at Tara. She always loved Tara and always would, yet being this close to her and not being able to kiss her was just tearing Willow apart. 'How could Tara ever forgive me?' she asked herself. She hated thinking about the past but couldn't help it. She had blown her chance with Tara along time ago when she was abusing her magic. Tara told her that if she went a week with out magic then Tara would think about getting back together with her, but she couldn't even do that. Willow shook her head, the image of Tara's disappointed and upset face appeared in her mind. She still wanted to make it right some how.
" Professor are you ok?" One of the students in the front row asked her.
" Yeah, I'm fine can I help you with something?" Willow forgot she was in class for a minute.
" No, you just looked a little upset about something." The student went back to her assignment.
" Ok, please put your work away. Open your books to page 210, to chapter 31 Dark Arts in the New Age. Since we are getting into a sensitive subject for many of you, please do not feel afraid. There is nothing that can hurt you inside these walls, you are perfectly safe at Hogwarts. Ok now lets see what you know so far about Lord Voldemort." Willow watched the students flinch at his name.
" Um, Professor. People aren't use to saying his name, or hearing it. We usually call him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Ginny Weasley squeaked. She hated it when Harry and Hermione said his name also but she was to embarrased to tell them.
" I'm sorry I'll try not to do that again." Willow looked over at Tara once she saw the horrorible look on Ginny's face.
A couple of the students raised their hands. Since this was a recent subject and they were still living in fear of him, many people knew alot about him. " How about you." Williow picked a short, stumpy boy from the back of the room.
" H.W.M.N.B.N gathered alot of followers when he was younger, he used curses and blackmail to get people to follow him. He killed alot of people mostly muggles, and muggle-born witches and wizards. Though he did kill anyone who got in the way of his followers or himself. If you were killed by H.W.M.N.B.N you had probably done something extremely bad like betraying him, or went against him more than once, such as Aurors did. That's all I know." The boy sat down.
" Well that's more than I thought most of you would know. How about someone else. How about you miss Lovegood." Willow said, Luna was standing up on her tippy toes with both of her hands in the air.
" His name use to be Tom Marvolo Riddle, and he use to be a Slytherin at this school. He's afraid of Professor Dumbledore, but then again who wouldn't be if you were evil. He's a master at mind control, and is a power hungery gint! His followers also known as Death Eaters, call him Dark Lord. The Death Eaters have some ugly tattoo thing on their wrists called a Dark Mark. I read the book ahead of time." Luna finally calmed down.
" I-I have something to add." Ginny Weasley stood up.with a nervous look on her face, she was also slightly shaking.
" Ok miss Weasley, we'd love to hear what you've got to say." Willow remembered that during one of the meetings of the Order of the Phoenix that Lupin told her that Ginny's body was taken over by Voldemort in Ginny's first year.
" Voldemort is excellent at Occulmency and mind control. He'll go through any measure to make sure that his victims aren't aware of what's going on until it's too late. Espically if you could be a key element in him getting what he needs." Ginny sat down shaking more now than she did before she started saying everything.
" How about you go with Tara into my office and calm down a little." Willow suggest to Ginny once the class ended. Ginny followed Tara into the office while Willow started her next class.
" I'm sorry about that. Are you going to be ok?" Tara asked concerned she had never seen Ginny so upset before.
" Yeah, I had to get that off my chest."
" What do you mean get it off your chest?" Tara looked at her instead of out the window facing the class.
" You mean you don't know?" Ginny looked up and met Tara's gaze.
" Well no, but you don't have to tell me if you don't want." Tara knew it must of been pretty bad for the girl to get shaken up and she only loosly told the story.
" No it's ok, maybe I'll feel better if I told someone.Lucious Malfoy slipped Tom Riddle's diary into my stuff at Diagon alley when we were getting my school supplies. When I got to Hogwarts I figured out that when you wrote in the diary it responded back to you. Tom Riddle was able to control my mind through the diary and made me do terrible things. No one figured out and I got scared when I started realizing that I couldn't remember what I did hours at a time. When I finally figured everything out I threw the diary in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. By that time Tom Riddle didn't need the diary to control my mind and I went unconcious and started dying slowly. I was pulled into the Chamber of Secrets. Harry Potter got a hold of the diary and pieced everything together slowly. Luckily he saved me from dieing but I'll never forget what it felt like, and how horrible it was.I've never really spoke about it because I didn't want to believe it really happened." Ginny started to cry. She felt a little better than she had but she knew it would take time for her to get completely over it.
" I'm so sorry. That sounds horrible. I know what it must of felt like though. When I lived in Sunnydale there was this Goddess named Glory she tried to figure out whom the key was. So she stuck her finger in my brain to try and torture me into telling. I didn't tell and she messed with my brain, and memories. I couldn't do anything but be frightened. She messed with my head so bad that nothing could fix it. I heard people screaming and felt everyone's pain. I hated that feeling, and it took me a long time to get over it." Tara felt her eyes start to water.
" What do you mean she was trying to figure out who the key was?"
" There's this key that opens hell dimensons and such. It was a ball of green smoke but these monks decided to put it into human form so it was easier for Buffy to watch over, because so many people wanted to get their hands on it and use it for evil."
" You mean Dawn right?" Ginny was a smart girl and Dawn looked nothing like Buffy. She also remembered that Zoe mentioned that Dawn and Buffy had a very strained relationship growing up.
" Yeah, wow I don't think anyone has figured that out so fast." Tara started staring out of the office window again. " How about you go back to the dormitory, I'll tell your teachers what happened. I'm sure they'll excuse you."
"Ok, thanks." Ginny got up and left the room. Willow watched her go and felt a little sorry for her,she knew that Tara could relate a little more to Ginny than anyone else could.
" So where you able to help her?" Willow turned to Tara as she went back to grading papers.
" Yeah, a little bit. I thought I had it bad, that Voldemort guy violated Ginny more than Glory and others did to me. It's going to take her a very long time to get over what happened to her. Hopefully she has a great support system of friends like I did. " Tara looked up and smiled at Willow. Though she still loved Willow it was going to take her a while until she was going to trust her again.
Willow's smile faded a little when Tara mentioned other's. Willow knew she was the other in that sentence. She hated that she was but she couldn't fix that. The bell rang signaling the end of class. Once all the students left Willow cleaned up what little mess they had made and turned to Tara. " I love you! I know that your mad at me and everything, but I still love you!"
" Willow, I love you too, and I'm not mad at you just a little disappointed. I'm willing to look past that though if you just give me time to be able to trust you. I've had along time to think about what happened but I think both of us need a little more time to think things over, and if we still feel the same way when that time's up then I'll consider being with you again." With that Tara left the class and headed to Ginny's next class to talk to the Professor.
" Please turn in your essays about vampires to Professor McClay." Willow said while writing stuff on the chalkboard behind her. She loved teaching, it was something she's always wanted to do ever since she was in high school. " Ok today we're going to go from vampires to present day occurances. Such as He-who-must-not-be-named and his followers."
Tara started grading papers and looked up she loved watching Willow teach she was always so good at it. If there was one bet Tara would of ever taken it was that Willow would eventually go into teaching. Willow looked over at Tara when she felt someone staring at her. " Tara how's the papers so far? Are they all up to NEWT level or do we need to work more on that?" Willow asked trying to bring Tara back to the present
" Huh? Oh yeah, so far the papers are great. There are one or two mistakes but they can be easily fixed." Tara started to blush she didn't mean to stare but since she started helping Willow she just couldn't shake the feelings that we're bottling up inside her.
" That's great! If the majority of the class gets better than average on the homework this week, then there won't be homework given next week, how does that sound?" Willow asked the class. She knew that Tara and herself would be boggled down with homework this week anyways.
"Professor Rosenburg does that count for homework that's late?" Ginny Weasley asked. She didn't want to get homework next week, but due to everything that went on she had a hard time trying to get all her homework done and still find time to study for tests that were coming up.
" Yes that goes for the homework that's turned in late. That reminds me due to current events if a problem arises that clashes with your studying or homework, and your really really tight fit if you want to talk to Tara or I outside of class, or during your free time about pushing assignments back or needing alternate assignments, and such then please don't hesitate to ask." With that Willow went back to walking around the class to see if any of the students needed help.
Willow couldn't stop looking out of the corner of her eye at Tara. She always loved Tara and always would, yet being this close to her and not being able to kiss her was just tearing Willow apart. 'How could Tara ever forgive me?' she asked herself. She hated thinking about the past but couldn't help it. She had blown her chance with Tara along time ago when she was abusing her magic. Tara told her that if she went a week with out magic then Tara would think about getting back together with her, but she couldn't even do that. Willow shook her head, the image of Tara's disappointed and upset face appeared in her mind. She still wanted to make it right some how.
" Professor are you ok?" One of the students in the front row asked her.
" Yeah, I'm fine can I help you with something?" Willow forgot she was in class for a minute.
" No, you just looked a little upset about something." The student went back to her assignment.
" Ok, please put your work away. Open your books to page 210, to chapter 31 Dark Arts in the New Age. Since we are getting into a sensitive subject for many of you, please do not feel afraid. There is nothing that can hurt you inside these walls, you are perfectly safe at Hogwarts. Ok now lets see what you know so far about Lord Voldemort." Willow watched the students flinch at his name.
" Um, Professor. People aren't use to saying his name, or hearing it. We usually call him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Ginny Weasley squeaked. She hated it when Harry and Hermione said his name also but she was to embarrased to tell them.
" I'm sorry I'll try not to do that again." Willow looked over at Tara once she saw the horrorible look on Ginny's face.
A couple of the students raised their hands. Since this was a recent subject and they were still living in fear of him, many people knew alot about him. " How about you." Williow picked a short, stumpy boy from the back of the room.
" H.W.M.N.B.N gathered alot of followers when he was younger, he used curses and blackmail to get people to follow him. He killed alot of people mostly muggles, and muggle-born witches and wizards. Though he did kill anyone who got in the way of his followers or himself. If you were killed by H.W.M.N.B.N you had probably done something extremely bad like betraying him, or went against him more than once, such as Aurors did. That's all I know." The boy sat down.
" Well that's more than I thought most of you would know. How about someone else. How about you miss Lovegood." Willow said, Luna was standing up on her tippy toes with both of her hands in the air.
" His name use to be Tom Marvolo Riddle, and he use to be a Slytherin at this school. He's afraid of Professor Dumbledore, but then again who wouldn't be if you were evil. He's a master at mind control, and is a power hungery gint! His followers also known as Death Eaters, call him Dark Lord. The Death Eaters have some ugly tattoo thing on their wrists called a Dark Mark. I read the book ahead of time." Luna finally calmed down.
" I-I have something to add." Ginny Weasley stood up.with a nervous look on her face, she was also slightly shaking.
" Ok miss Weasley, we'd love to hear what you've got to say." Willow remembered that during one of the meetings of the Order of the Phoenix that Lupin told her that Ginny's body was taken over by Voldemort in Ginny's first year.
" Voldemort is excellent at Occulmency and mind control. He'll go through any measure to make sure that his victims aren't aware of what's going on until it's too late. Espically if you could be a key element in him getting what he needs." Ginny sat down shaking more now than she did before she started saying everything.
" How about you go with Tara into my office and calm down a little." Willow suggest to Ginny once the class ended. Ginny followed Tara into the office while Willow started her next class.
" I'm sorry about that. Are you going to be ok?" Tara asked concerned she had never seen Ginny so upset before.
" Yeah, I had to get that off my chest."
" What do you mean get it off your chest?" Tara looked at her instead of out the window facing the class.
" You mean you don't know?" Ginny looked up and met Tara's gaze.
" Well no, but you don't have to tell me if you don't want." Tara knew it must of been pretty bad for the girl to get shaken up and she only loosly told the story.
" No it's ok, maybe I'll feel better if I told someone.Lucious Malfoy slipped Tom Riddle's diary into my stuff at Diagon alley when we were getting my school supplies. When I got to Hogwarts I figured out that when you wrote in the diary it responded back to you. Tom Riddle was able to control my mind through the diary and made me do terrible things. No one figured out and I got scared when I started realizing that I couldn't remember what I did hours at a time. When I finally figured everything out I threw the diary in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. By that time Tom Riddle didn't need the diary to control my mind and I went unconcious and started dying slowly. I was pulled into the Chamber of Secrets. Harry Potter got a hold of the diary and pieced everything together slowly. Luckily he saved me from dieing but I'll never forget what it felt like, and how horrible it was.I've never really spoke about it because I didn't want to believe it really happened." Ginny started to cry. She felt a little better than she had but she knew it would take time for her to get completely over it.
" I'm so sorry. That sounds horrible. I know what it must of felt like though. When I lived in Sunnydale there was this Goddess named Glory she tried to figure out whom the key was. So she stuck her finger in my brain to try and torture me into telling. I didn't tell and she messed with my brain, and memories. I couldn't do anything but be frightened. She messed with my head so bad that nothing could fix it. I heard people screaming and felt everyone's pain. I hated that feeling, and it took me a long time to get over it." Tara felt her eyes start to water.
" What do you mean she was trying to figure out who the key was?"
" There's this key that opens hell dimensons and such. It was a ball of green smoke but these monks decided to put it into human form so it was easier for Buffy to watch over, because so many people wanted to get their hands on it and use it for evil."
" You mean Dawn right?" Ginny was a smart girl and Dawn looked nothing like Buffy. She also remembered that Zoe mentioned that Dawn and Buffy had a very strained relationship growing up.
" Yeah, wow I don't think anyone has figured that out so fast." Tara started staring out of the office window again. " How about you go back to the dormitory, I'll tell your teachers what happened. I'm sure they'll excuse you."
"Ok, thanks." Ginny got up and left the room. Willow watched her go and felt a little sorry for her,she knew that Tara could relate a little more to Ginny than anyone else could.
" So where you able to help her?" Willow turned to Tara as she went back to grading papers.
" Yeah, a little bit. I thought I had it bad, that Voldemort guy violated Ginny more than Glory and others did to me. It's going to take her a very long time to get over what happened to her. Hopefully she has a great support system of friends like I did. " Tara looked up and smiled at Willow. Though she still loved Willow it was going to take her a while until she was going to trust her again.
Willow's smile faded a little when Tara mentioned other's. Willow knew she was the other in that sentence. She hated that she was but she couldn't fix that. The bell rang signaling the end of class. Once all the students left Willow cleaned up what little mess they had made and turned to Tara. " I love you! I know that your mad at me and everything, but I still love you!"
" Willow, I love you too, and I'm not mad at you just a little disappointed. I'm willing to look past that though if you just give me time to be able to trust you. I've had along time to think about what happened but I think both of us need a little more time to think things over, and if we still feel the same way when that time's up then I'll consider being with you again." With that Tara left the class and headed to Ginny's next class to talk to the Professor.