Thanks again to the package deal of Alcarcalime and Coffeebean. Kudos also to the other one-fourth of the Unholy Quartet, Galena; our Three Towers and the Hobbit for the inspiration (yeah right); and Headmistress Cherie.
Below thirteen years old? Why are you reading this?!
Chapter Five
Michael was making his way towards her slowly, deliberately. There was a glint in his eyes she had never seen before, but the way they were narrowed and the way he smiled made a thrill of undisguised excitement course through her entire body.
"I've been watching you all day," he said huskily.
"I know," Ginny whispered, smiling. "You did nothing but remark on the way I flew throughout the match."
Michael grinned; Ginny's stomach did a little cartwheel as he did. "I know. I couldn't take my eyes off you."
Ginny remained still on her spot. There was but one torch in this unfamiliar corridor, but the darkness rather made the moment more enticing.... In fact, the shadows cast by the torchlight on Michael's handsome face made him all the more mysterious, alluring, tempting...
Ginny took a step backwards and her foot hit a wall. Good, she thought. She licked her lips, not taking her eyes off him. "What about the secret Malfoy let out after the match?"
Something seemed to pass before Michael's eyes—another glint—and his smile widened. He was now right before her, his face only inches away.
"It only made you more...attractive."
Ginny's body sagged against the wall. Michael's statement didn't make any sense. How could the whole Chamber of Secrets incident have made her more attractive to him? But the feel of Michael's breath on her cheek blocked the question from her consciousness. Did it matter?
Michael's hands found her wrists and pinned them to the wall just above her head. "I've been waiting so long to do this again," he breathed.
Ginny half-closed her eyes and tilted her chin up so that her lips brushed his as she spoke. "Me too."
Ginny's hands lolled in surrender against Michael's as he kissed her. Ginny groaned; she had been right in anticipating this moment. He explored unreservedly, his body pressed against hers, his hands not letting go of her wrists. He had never been like this before. He had never kissed her like this. And she could let him go on and on. She didn't want him to stop...
And yes, how good it felt to let go and melt into him.
Michael kissed her harder. Yes. Ginny moaned the word into his mouth. Yes. She wouldn't let him stop.
Michael pressed his chest against hers, pushing the air out of her lungs.
Ginny suddenly found herself gasping for breath.
She struggled, against her stronger desire, to turn her lips away from his. "M-Michael," she whispered. "Michael...I-I can't..."
Michael didn't seem to hear. He caught her mouth again and pressed hard, hard—
"Michael," Ginny whimpered with more urgency, gasping for air, "Michael, stop, you're hurting—"
"Are you arguing with me now, Virginia?" Michael growled roughly into her mouth. "What's the matter?"
"Michael—!"
Michael suddenly released her—but he wasn't Michael anymore. His hair had darkened and lengthened—his jaw had become more prominent—his nose had lengthened—his eyes were now a cold, hard, dark gray—
He was now Tom Riddle.
No.
"Tom," Ginny gasped. No. It couldn't be. It just couldn't be.
"What's the matter, Virginia? I thought you had given yourself to me..."
"No," Ginny gasped, backing away, "I haven't—"
She let out a small cry as she felt the heels of her feet hover over nothingness. She was suddenly standing before a huge gaping hole with her back on it. She knew that hole. She knew it all too well.
She didn't want to go there.
Tom grinned before her. "I'll see you down there, Virginia."
Before Ginny could react, Tom grasped her shoulders and pushed, and Ginny fell, screaming, into the dark abyss that was the Chamber of Secrets—
"NOOOOOOOO!!!"
Ginny's eyes flew open, her heart racing. She had sat up. She looked wildly around her. Scarlet velvet hangings, purple sheets, white pillows—she was on her bed in her dormitory, not in any dark corridor, and certainly not in the Chamber of Secrets—
Someone suddenly parted the hangings of her four-poster from outside and poked her head in. "Ginny?"
Ginny nearly screamed again until she realized that it was Jane.
"Ginny—you okay?" Jane asked, looking frightened.
Ginny stared at her, still panting. After a while she said, "Y-yes...I just had a nightmare...just a dream..."
Jane's expression of fright made way for one of suspicion. It was then that reality hit Ginny hard.
It was a November Monday. She was in her fifth year. There was no Tom Riddle. There were only her schoolmates believing that he still resided within her—and that she could still release the basilisk on them.
Ginny glanced at the clock on her bedside table. It was a few minutes after four in the morning. She parted the hangings wider and found Agnes and Cathy staring at her from their beds.
"Go back to bed," Ginny said wearily. "It was nothing."
Trying her best to ignore her friends' dubious looks, Ginny made her way towards the window. It was still dark outside. She took the pitcher on the sill and poured herself water on a tumbler.
Just a dream, she told herself, taking large gulps. Just a dream. But just as she wiped her lips with the back of her hand, she remembered how Michael's lips had pressed on hers in her dream, and how it turned out that she was kissing Tom Riddle instead.
Ginny swallowed hard. She wouldn't fool herself by saying that she hadn't been attracted to Tom Riddle when she was still eleven years old. He had been understanding, sympathetic...she remembered wishing Tom was a real person, and he'd be tall and have black hair...
Ginny poured herself more water. She could almost feel Agnes's, Cathy's and Jane's eyes boring onto her back. It was like first year all over again—Tom Riddle, strange dreams, the three of them throwing her suspicious looks whenever she returned to their dormitory looking out-of-ways, like when she had chicken feathers all over her robes.
First year never really left her.
Still shuddering slightly, Ginny climbed back to her bed and pulled the hangings around her shut. Once plunged into darkness, she found that she could barely close her eyes for fear of seeing a pair of dark gray ones closing on her.
"Silencio!"
The crow in front of Ginny immediately stopped its squawking.
"Very good, Miss Weasley!" said Professor Flitwick, clapping his little hands and beaming at her. "Five points for Gryffindor!"
Ginny tried smiling back, but the look on her classmates' faces stopped her. They were either looking away from her or watching her warily, as though she could do other spells much, much worse than the Silencing Charm.
Colin Creevey sat beside her, waving his wand at his crow and muttering the spell. He was swishing the wand in the wrong way.
Ginny couldn't stop herself. "Would you like help with that?"
Colin looked up at her, jumping a little. "Oh...n-no thanks, Ginny," he stuttered, taking a few steps away from her, "I-I can do this."
Ginny stared at him, and then mentally slapped herself. Of all the people in this class, Colin was probably the one most terrified of her.
His arm was broken and then Lockhart removed all the bones in his arm, Tom, but Colin was still taking his pictures, she had written in a childish script. Colin shouldn't have done that, Harry was embarrassed enough already—
Who is this Colin again, Virginia? The diary had written back.
Colin Creevey? He's my classmate. He carries this camera with him all the time. He tells me his mum works in this Muggle shop where they get their pictures taken—
His parents are Muggles?
Yes, and he says he's really glad he's in Hogwarts, this is much better than Muggle school....
"Er, right, I better get back to this," Colin presently mumbled, turning back to his crow.
Ginny shook herself. "Oh...right. Um, if you need any help..."
Ginny knew fully well, however, that Colin wouldn't be asking for it anytime soon. And why would he? She had almost killed him in their first year. All this time, Colin and everyone else had believed that it had only been a ghost of Voldemort that had almost killed him, and that Ginny was another random victim but one who was taken down the Chamber of Secrets. They never realized why she was taken down there...
The bell finally rang. The students scrambled to put their animals away while Professor Flitwick squeaked instructions from the front of the classroom. Ginny slowly put her now quiet crow back to its cage, placed it in front, and looked around for Jane, Agnes and Cathy.
Her three friends were already gone.
Sighing, Ginny gathered her things and got out of the room.
Several students skirted her and hissed among themselves as Ginny made her way through the corridors. Pretending not to be bothered, she looked straight ahead, not really looking at anyone in particular. She vaguely considered not going to lunch anymore—until she saw someone waving frantically at her at the entrance hall.
"Ginny!" It was Hermione, with Ron and Harry by her side.
Ginny let out a relieved smile, the first time one since Saturday, as she almost ran towards the three of them.
"Are you eating with anyone?" asked Hermione.
"No, not really."
"Oh, that's good!" Hermione breathed, seemingly oblivious to how tactless those words sounded. "You can have lunch with us."
Ginny was only too relieved to have friendly company for lunch. "That will be great," she said, smiling.
She followed the three to the Great Hall. Heads turned and whispers broke out as they passed, but the other three didn't seem to notice, or they were doing a pretty good job of looking unaffected. They took their place at the end of the Gryffindor table, the one near the professors' table. Ginny had noticed that they took more or less the same places since her first year. She slid beside Hermione, facing Ron and Harry, the Ravenclaw table behind them.
Ginny couldn't help but search for Michael Corner, and when she did see the back of his head, she looked away, shuddering.
"Saw the Daily Prophet this morning?"
Ginny glanced at Hermione. "No...what's it about?"
Hermione loaded her plate with vegetables. "Well, apparently Cornelius Fudge says they're getting a pretty good idea of what the Death Eaters are up to."
Ginny had to smile at the sarcasm in Hermione's voice. "And they're taking necessary precautions, aren't they?"
Harry chuckled darkly. "He's not getting anywhere near them."
Ginny stole a glance at Harry. He looked intent on eating his lamb chops.
"No, but the Order is," Ron said with the faith of a kindergartener on his teacher.
"Sure they are," Hermione said absentmindedly. "Anyway, it's rather strange to read about Fudge talking about V-Voldemort"—Ginny stiffened, but not obvious enough for anyone to notice—"so openly, though it's quite a relief, too."
Ginny had the impression that Hermione was making small talk, but she was somewhat glad that Hermione had chosen to talk to her about it. It was something the four of them had shared not too long ago, after all.
"My father doesn't think Fudge is near to finding You-Know-Who's whereabouts, either."
The four of them jumped on their seats at the new dreamy voice. Ron and Harry whirled around on their bench to find Luna Lovegood standing behind them.
"You see, his heliopaths are not very good in following directions. When they get near a marker, they'd burn everything around it, so they'd lose track of whatever they're looking for."
Ron, Ginny, and Harry looked at each other.
"Yes...of course," Hermione said. Ginny saw that her patience was nearly giving out. "But the thing is—"
"I just came to tell you that I don't care if you got possessed by You-Know-Who in our first year," Luna interrupted, looking straight at Ginny with her large eyes. "You're the same person."
If Luna had not appeared so suddenly or talked about Fudge's heliopaths, Ginny could have cried with gratitude. "Why...thanks, Luna."
Luna gave her another one of her slow, dreamy smiles. "Well, I'll see you around. 'Bye, Ronald."
Ron just stared blankly at her. Hermione rolled her eyes. Ginny saw this simultaneously; her eyes caught Harry's for a second before she lowered them to her plate, biting back a grin.
"Well, you've got to admit she's got her heart in the right place," Harry said with an uncharacteristically teasing smile.
"Shut up, Harry," Ron snapped.
"No, he's right," Ginny said, not bothering to hide her grin anymore. "She just made our day, huh?"
The four of them looked back at Luna as she returned to the Ravenclaw table. Ginny, however, found her eyes straying towards the boy two seats beside Luna, the one whose arm was draped around the waist of a dark-haired girl.
Ginny blinked and returned to her food.
"So, er," Hermione began, as though attempting to change the topic of their conversation, "when's your next match?"
"February," said Ron between mouthfuls. "Against Ravenclaw."
Ravenclaw. Again, Ginny's eyes wandered towards their table, until she caught herself and placed them firmly on her plate.
"Well, you'd been in good shape by then, wouldn't you, Ginny?"
"What? Oh." Right then, Quidditch was the furthest thing on Ginny's mind. "Yeah. I hope so."
Ron was not looking at her direction. Harry, on the other hand, was looking at her intently—to which Ginny was completely oblivious.
They discussed Quidditch as they finished their lunch. Time flew, and it was not until the Great Hall began to empty did Ginny begin to dread her upcoming class—double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs—and the looks she was going to get from her classmates.
But just when they were leaving the Great Hall, Harry slowed down to walk beside her.
"Hey," he began, "did Madam Pomfrey tell you you'd need more flying practice after...after that Bludger incident?"
Ginny blinked and looked at Harry in surprise. "Actually...yes," she said. "But how did you know?"
Harry shrugged. "That's the first thing you'd think would cure you, isn't it?"
"Maybe," said Ginny slowly. She was wondering why Harry was asking her.
Harry nodded. "So...why don't you?"
"Why don't I...what?"
"Practice, of course," said Harry, vaguely motioning to the direction where the Quidditch pitch was. "You can always go to the Quidditch pitch when no one's practicing."
"Oh, Madam Pomfrey won't let me." Ginny rolled her eyes. "She told me not to fly till I get tired of Quidditch completely."
Harry looked at her disbelievingly. "She said that?"
Ginny nodded. Then, smiling, she added, "I won't do it, though."
Harry suddenly grinned. It was so sudden; Ginny was almost taken aback by it.
"I'm going tonight. Want to come?"
This statement shocked her even more that she stopped on her tracks. She didn't understand why, however; if it was the fact that he asked her or that he wanted someone to come with him that surprised her was still out of her comprehension.
"Why not?" Ginny managed to say after a while. "I could use a bit of air."
"Okay. Good," said Harry, grinning again. "So I guess I'll see you later."
"Yeah," Ginny said. Her calm voice surprised even herself. "Later."
Harry gave her a thumbs-up and ran after Ron and Hermione to the direction of the dungeons.
Ginny, meanwhile, turned left towards the doors of the castle. She smiled to herself as she went out into the November sunlight. For reasons that still escaped her, Herbology suddenly didn't seam so dreadful anymore.