Disclaimer: I, Meihi Rei, hold no claim to any characters or registered trademarks in this story. (And if you were going to sue, don't bother. I'm in high school and the only things I own are this lap top, books, and some clothes)

Thanks to my sister Riv, for being my editor and to my one reviewer! I love reviews, so if you are reading this, put some thing that passes as a review (something equals anything! I'm truly not picky. It doesn't even have to be nice! Feel free to flame away). Please and thank you.

Ginny placed her tentative hands on the open book. Beneath her rough palms the book heated until it was hot enough to burn copper pots. Blackness flooded her mind as tendrils of the glowing warmth snaked up her arms and into her veins. Ink oozed from the pages, staining her hands, and then she was in.

The red head opened her eyes to a dimly lit room, a flickering fire and floating candles the sun and stars in this heavenly room. Shelves of books stretched to the ceiling, and even more were piled in neat stacks on an unadorned oak desk. Her breath caught as she turned slowly, staring wide-eyed at everything.

Tom, seeing the whole thing, could not suppress a chuckle. The sound startled the fiery red head out of her shock as she spun towards the noise. A boy, about seventeen years stood before her. He had wavy chocolate brown hair framing a heart shaped face, and dark eyes that shone with an eerie light under thick eyebrows. Furthermore, the boy was tall, towering over her own meager four feet and eleven inches.

"Who are you?" she asked, voice creaking.

He smiled and gave a large bow a cat-like grace, "I am Tom Riddle, Ginny dear"

"Oh," Ginny ran her fingers through her hair, "I guess… I mean, you don't look like I thought you would"

Tom mimicked her movement, "Well neither do you"

The girl frowned slightly, "How did you think I would look?"

"Hmmm… short and a bit round, with ordinary brown eyes and hair, maybe a pug nose" Tom strode to the fire, and picked up a fancy cut glass bottle. He poured the amber liquid into two glasses and offered one to his guest, "but I like this better. You look like Queen Elizabeth as a young maiden – thin and willowy like a dancer, beautiful vermillion hair spilling from your head"

"Well, I thought you would have blond hair and blue eyes" Ginny giggled and sipped from the glass Tom had provided. The liquor smelled like the brandy her father used to give her sips of before her mum found out and stopped buying it. It tasted a bit different, but in a good way.

"Why?" Tom asked her, "I'm glad you like the brandy, few people do"

"A girl in my dorm had this test from Witch Weekly that she was giving everyone one night. You had to answer all of these questions then cast a simple charm and you would find out what your perfect guy would look like" she said, "My father used to have a of brandy every night at dinner. I was the youngest so I sat next to him. He would always give me sips."

"And yours was blond hair and blue eyes" Tom caught on, "Does your father still let you have sips?"

Ginny shock her head sadly, "He got demoted so there was less money…well, that's what Mum said but my brother George told me that Mum didn't like me getting sips of brandy so she refused to buy it anymore"

"I see" Tom turned to the simple desk, "I found some books on omniscience papers, since you seemed so interested in it"

"Really?"

Tom Riddle opened Ginny's eyes and smiled. The girl was as trusting as a lamb, even drinking the brandy! Once she had started to look at the books, Tom faded into the background and into her body. He looked down at the young girl's body he had possessed for the moment. Nothing special, but maybe it would be. At the moment she was too thin for anything save bones to jut out from her body. In a couple of years, puberty would take care of everything. Tom grinned at the thought – in a couple years, all of the wizarding world would be brought under his command. With a pureblood as attractive and cunning as Ginny would be at his side, the filthy muggle world would crumble and fall.

Sliding out of the bed, Tom glanced at a mirror for the first time. Sure, he had seen her in the book, but the lighting there was dim and more her perception of what she looked like then what she really did. The girly was clearly out of her skull for thinking she was that mousey girl he had seen in the book. Bright, vibrant, vermillion hair framed warm cinnamon eyes set in a heart shaped face a bit more rounded off then his own. If the pasty skin was more golden, and her lips a deeper color she would have been perfection, priestess among the acolytes Spell bound to the image in the silver disk on the wall, Tom caressed Ginny's face, trying to see if it was real. It was.

"See? I've been trying to tell you you're beautiful for weeks!" The mirror said, "Now here you are, stroking your face like it was the first time you've seen it!"

"I haven't" Tom replied softly, forgetting who he was masquerading as.

"Nonsense, and rubbish, "The mirror said stubbornly, "you just think that because you are finally seeing the beauty that you are. Now, go to the feast and have a good time."

Tom grinned impishly, "don't worry, I will have loads of fun"

The students were just beginning to amble down to the Great Hall when Tom exited the common room. Quietly, he made his way down twisting corridors to the girl's toilet.

"Who's there?" a girl's voice said. It sounded watery and annoying, reminding Tom of the mudblood that died the last time. A ghost swooped down from the ceiling. "I asked you a question!"

It was the girl, and Tom couldn't help grinning, "It's just me you filthy mudblood"

"Oh you are so horrible!" the ghost wailed. The sinks all started to run and the toilets bubbled in the stalls. The whinny spirit zoomed around the room before splashing into the last toilet. The water stopped.

"How annoying! There's a ghost here." Tom said a loud, "she'll go blabbing off to the next mortal she sees unless…"

After clearing his head of thoughts by shaking it, Tom walked over to the broken sink. His calloused fingers almost missed the little snake carved into the soft copper pipe. It's still there, after all these years they still have not found it Tom thought to him self. "Open up" he hissed in parsletouge – the forgotten langue of the snakes.

The sinks groaned as the stones shifted and changed. Dim light illuminated a stair case spiraling down into blackness. The grin on Tom's face widened, he was home!

Water dripped from the ceiling onto rapidly eroding limestone. Stone snakes slithered on the slimy walls. He walked the familiar halls that twisted and turned like worms in rich soil until Tom came upon a large empty room.

"Come my beauty, child of Syltherin" Tom hissed, "your master comes to feed you"