Ginny Weasley:

The Lion-Snake Prophecies

Chapter One

The sun was warm and the green grass cool. Ginny Weasley lay stretched out under the great oak tree that grew behind the Burrow, nestled securely into the small paddock where the Weasley children used to play Quidditch. They were older and had all but moved on by now - Ginny herself was the youngest, and almost fifteen at that - but the paddock had always been, and would always be, a favourite hiding place of hers. The only place better was the Chamber of Secrets, because no one would ever enter but her. Yet Ginny still had nightmares of the terrible battle she faced daily in that place, her brown eyes and soul struggling against Tom's crushing, green-eyed spirit. The nightmares could be so real, Ginny would often wake unsure of who or where she was, and she would dread opening her eyes to find the Chamber ceiling staring back at her as it had so many times before. Because of these dreams, Ginny seldom visited the Chamber when at school. No, this place – this paddock -was definitely her favourite hideaway and today, like most other summer days, Ginny had crept towards her comfy place under the oak tree after completing her minimum number of chores. Her afternoon's schedule consisted of a healthy dose of 'doing nothing', coupled with the brilliant feeling only home could bring.

Her plan would have been succeeding too, had not Hiss spent the entire morning complaining.

"How can you ssstand sssuch heat?" he groused, for what seemed the tenth time that morning, "could we not find a more ssshaded ssspot? And to be ssso completely exposssed ..." beady eyes surveyed the grove as his long tongue flickered nervously in and out of his lipless mouth.

Unwilling to open her eyes and completely ruin the moment, Ginny tried to throw a handful of leaves in the general direction of the slippery voice but a short hiss silkily informed her the shot had gone wide. Sticking out her tongue instead, Ginny merely replied, "Professor Dumbledore installed the house-wards personally and I, for one, have complete confidence in my headmaster's ability."

She could hear Hiss slither a moment in the grass, and knew her friend had maneuvered himself around the great oak. The movement was so slow and cautious that Ginny would have bet a hundred galleons no one else would be able to detect it.

That was, she would have bet if she had had a hundred galleons, which of course she didn't. The Weasley family, though pure-bloods, had never been wealthy. A brat like Malfoy might have money to melt, but Ginny would have had plenty of other uses for a hundred galleons other than betting on some stupid, self-suffering snake.

"I am neither ssstupid nor ssself-sssuffering," Hiss replied to her unspoken thought with a particular rumble of indignity, "I am sssimply commenting that sssuch locationsss are not sssafe."

Ginny grumbled in annoyance and turned onto her stomach, allowing the cool green grasses to tickle at her nose.

"How do you always do that? Know exactly what I'm thinking?"

Hiss gave the snake's equivalent to a chuckle, a sort of low hiss coupled with quick in-and-out tongue lashings one could barley detect unless waiting for them.

"You are not a difficult one to read, little sssnake," his voice called out to her from behind the oak tree, and Ginny grimaced at the annoying nickname. "One barely hasss to sssenssse your emtionsss, ssso dissstinct isss your sssmell."

"Yeah, well, stop sniffing in my direction. You're ruining the mood."

Hiss slithered out from behind the trunk, giving Ginny a fresh glimpse of her reptilian friend. At first glance he seemed a normal Gardner snake, dark green and easily hidden in the tall summer grass, but on closer inspection she could see the slightly iridescent glimmer to his smooth underbelly, and his silver-green eyes were too intelligent for any normal snake.

Hiss flashed a vision of his bright pink-red tongue, an obvious movement that highlighted his species-driven desire to deny orders. "And what mood isss that, little sssnake?"

Ginny ignored the absurd nickname, making a show of closing her eyes and flopping once more onto her back. Snuggling down into the warm earth, she sighed in comfort before replying, "You know what I mean. It's my last day of freedom - hell, yours too."

"And what particular insssurance do you posssesss that I will do asss I am told?"

Ginny cracked one eye open and gave him a don't-you-dare expression, "Approach Harry Potter and you'll be putting both our futures at risk."

Hiss circled around her petite form, settling himself comfortably on her midsection. Closing his own eyes, he said, "I do not ssshare your apprassial of the sssituation. I recssieved quite a good sssnif off the boy two sssummersss passst, and he sssmelled trussstworthy."

Ginny sighed, reluctant to have to explain. "It's not him that I don't trust … well, maybe it is. He's such a blind idiot sometimes, though I know better than most how well he can keep a secret. It's more the fact that anything he learns he tells Ron and Hermione, and those two I can't depend on; Hermione because she's got too much heart and Ron because he's just an arse. Before he even knew what he was doing he'd have spilt the whole story to half the wizarding world - how many times I have found out what was really going on just by sitting next to him at dinner? My darling brother couldn't keep something quiet if he was Imperious­-ed too."

Hiss seemed to consider this for a moment, and then said, "You are probably correct. Ssstill, it would be niccce to finally meet the boy . I have heard ssso much about him over the yearsss."

Ginny closed her eyes again and grinned, "To the best of my knowledge Harry has only used his parseltongue once, and that was in a life-or-death situation. I doubt very much he'd like a reminder as to that particular ability."

"You do not mind reminding."

"I don't have quite the same scars he does."

"But you do have ssscarss, little sssnake."

"Yes, but my burdens are not the same."

"I do not underssstand thessse burdensss. One doesss what one hasss to do, correct?"

Ginny sighed, "But it's not always that easy. Harry doesn't know what he has to do, he doesn't know about the prophecy, and even if he did - he would try and reject its truth. Its hard to force someone to do something they don't want to do, though our little jaunt into the Department of Mysteries might have convinced him to start killing," she ended bitterly.

Hiss caressed her neck with his tail, a comforting snake gesture. After a time he said, "The way of humansss isss ssstrange to me."

"And just think, you've spent the last - what, four? - years studying us."

"I have spent them studying you, and you are not as they are."

"I'm exactly as they are."

"But you can ssspeak out language."

"The only gift Tom ever gave me."

"You ssspeak again of hisss name, but it wasss not he who taught you thisss. No human can learn our tongue. It mussst be born."

Ginny's voice turned cold. "Hiss; you have absolutely no idea what he did to me. You can not imagine how close he was, how deep inside my mind. Harry has the same ability from him, and that was inflicted by a killing curse. Tom and I were linked in ways he and Harry never were. What he knew, I knew. Parseltongue is just one of his too many stolen thoughts."

Hiss was again silent. Ginny knew he wouldn't believe her, that he was incapable of understanding what she meant, but that was fine with her. She just wanted the subject dropped.

For a moment, the green fog appeared in her mind once more, and Ginny could see the myriad of interests that had appealed to young Tom Riddle. The basic formula's for invincibility, immortality; curses that could be performed - legally and il- - to gather whatever one wished from an encounter: pain, pleasure. They made Ginny sick to the stomach, but they were there, forever scarred in her mind, as was parseltongue.

It hadn't taken long for her younger self to realize the ability was there to stay. Hiss himself had been the first snake since the basilisk to talk to her, and the basilisk hadn't exactly talked; only kind of mumbled on about killing people. Ginny had immediately decided to keep her garnered ability a secret and spoke of it only in the secluded safeness of this paddock. Here, for the past four years, Ginny had learned the secret world of the snakes, their true abilities and passions, so often different from the twisted basilisk. She understood now why the wizarding world thought the parseltongued a threat - there was much knowledge here to be gained.

Ginny also understood that from the snakes had Tom learned most of his immortality-seeking secrets; snakes had always been masters of transformation and wisdom. Half the formulas in her head were in parseltongue, along with scraps of other bits of information he had doubtlessly pursued over the years.

Except for the one about a prophecy - a prophecy she understood only because she knew was Voldemort truly was. It was an ancient tale, one of death and rebirth, the telling of two great spirits who would fight for the domination of the world. Of course Harry didn't want the world, but the ancient's must have seen it that way, because the two it so often spoke of had to mean Harry and Voldemort.

They would be of different suns, but equal in power. Different heritages, but equal in strength. One would represent the forces of chaos, and the other those of order. On the day to decide all days would they battle, and no one could predict who would win.

Ginny had stumbled upon the link two years ago, while exploring late one night in bed the memories Tom had forced upon her. Curious, she had questioned Hiss upon it the next day, and had received the full extent of the tale. It was known to all snakes, as it had once been to all humans in ancient times.

When Ginny learned that Voldemort had lured Harry to the Department of Mysteries in order to discover a prophecy about the two of them, she realized the Tom had never followed that link to conclusion, and was relieved when the glass ball containing condemning words had shattered. She did not want to impose that burden on Harry, who had lost his godfather in that fight, and she was relieved that Voldemort had not yet learnt of it. Ginny had debated sending word of her knowledge to Dumbledore, but had wisely regarded the skies as unsafe. Even when the Professor had been at the Burrow earlier in the summer to install the wards, had she decided to wait until school to tell him, wishing to spare Harry at least a few more months of ignorance. He'd have to learn, one day, of his destiny, so he could fully prepare for the match, but she wanted him to have one last summer as just any other boy.

Well, any other boy who was already the Boy Who Lived. Ginny sighed, she wouldn't change places with Harry for all the magic in Baghdad.

Noticing the light around her growing low, Ginny opened her eyes to see Hiss staring at her, his forked tongue slowly tasting the air.

"I apologize, little sssnake," he said quietly, "I did not mean to cassst you ssso far away with my thoughtsss."

Ginny smiled tenderly at her closest friend, "You didn't Hiss, they're just … thoughts I'll have to contend with some day, anyway. Come on, let's head back to the Burrow. I bet mum's got a bang-up lunch on the table."

Hiss flicked his tongue once in-and-out in acceptance, and carefully slithered down her midsection and over her thigh, tucking himself under her pant leg and settling on her right calf. Ginny felt him tighten himself securely into place as she rose carefully from the tree, glancing once more at the sun to see it had slipped off another inch towards the west, sloping down towards the tree line as the late morning warmed over to early afternoon.

Half a day left until Harry arrived. Ginny sighed to herself and resolved to make it memorable, for the rest of the summer would surely be.

That's all for now . will probably have next chapter out after or during Reading week!

Bells: thanks for the offer .. will totally take you up on that if you've got the time . do you? And yeah, the grammar is supposed to be like that . I hope this chapter explained a bit more. More will be revealed as the plot runs on, of course, but your right, I don't want to leave my readers in the complete dark!

Remember: read and REVIEW!!

(pretty, pretty please? I'll give you a cookie ...)