Disclaimer: Anything that's from the Harry potter world, belongs to JKR. I
only own the plot.
Chapter 10- And the truth comes out.
Ginny had promised herself that she would talk to Dumbledore as soon as she saw him. The thing was she didn't see him at all for the following days.
The Death Eaters were attacking, in what seemed a random way, all the muggle antique shops in Britain.
Dumbledore, who had been appointed temporary Minister of Magic until there are new elections, was hardly ever seen. Ginny thought about asking Harry where his office was, but she didn't want him to suspect anything. The only one who she was going to talk to was Dumbledore.
She was in the library, sitting alone in the corner and looking down at her arithmancy homework. But in fact she wasn't seeing anything at all. She
had entered a schedule of sleeping little or nothing at all, and off getting really tired to bed to try to avoid Tom getting in to her dreams. She had asked for Madam Pomfrey for some dreamless sleep, which seemed to help too. When Madam Pomfrey had asked her why she needed it, she found her excuse in Fudge's death. She lied and said that she had been having nightmares lately about it. In a way she wished she did. If she was dreaming about his death she wasn't dreaming about Tom...
But all this effort not to sleep was taking its toll on her. She was loosing her attention in class, and getting behind on her homework. And on top of it all, she had to hide what Tom had left behind after their last meeting. It wasn't a visible mark, and only those who really knew her could tell the difference. But the fact was that since that kiss she had noticed a change in her magic. It seemed stronger, more powerful, and more dangerous. More then once in transfiguration, while she was supposed to be vanishing a mouse, she ended up vanishing the entire table. She had taken on the habit of sitting in the back of the class, so that she could make another table appear to replace the other one.
She looked again at her homework and tried to concentrate. The numbers and shapes seemed to dance in front of her, as she tried to solve the complex equations.
The equations seemed to become more and more complex instead of simpler. The numbers seemed to come out of the paper, that was now too small for them. And the coulors around her danced and moved in strange circles. There was nothing but a twirl of coulor in front of her now, and she seemed to be plunging right in to it, at an amazing speed. She had seen this before, when she had travelled through that strange portal. There was a light ahead and it was coming closer.
A big sound, as if something heavy had just landed on the table woke her up.
She had let herself fall asleep on the table, and an ink stain had ruined her homework. She looked up and saw Draco Malfoy looking down on her with a smirk. He had thrown a ton of books on the table, and woke her up.
'This isn't a good place to fall asleep. You never know what you might dream of...'-he said with a sneer.
Ginny grabbed her things in a haste and got up from her chair.
'What do you know about dreams?'-she responded while swinging her bag on to her shoulder as she left.
She wasn't sure. Maybe she was still dreaming, but she could swear that she had heard him say 'more then you think..'.
It was two in the morning and Ginny was still in the common room, awake.
She wanted to get really tired before she went to bed, since that would lessen her chances of dreaming. Why? Why had she not told Dumbledore about what was happening when she had the chance? Now she didn't know when she would see him. It seemed like every time she saw him in school that he was running due to the news of more attacks. And off course he would dismiss her with a quick 'I'm sorry Miss Weasley, but I'm in a hurry right now. Maybe later...'
Maybe next time she saw him she should just scream at him that Tom Riddle had been near the castle a few nights ago. That would get his attention.
The thing was, as he would probably be surrounded by busy professors and nosy students the whole school would know about Riddle in a matter of minutes.
She leaned back to the wall and looked down on grounds. Heavy rain was pouring down, matching her mood, and the cold stone she was sitting on was getting discomfortable. But she didn't mind. The more discomfortable she was, the less chance there was that she would fall asleep.
A light on the grounds got her attention. There wasn't supposed to be anyone outside. It couldn't be Hagrid. She saw him enter his cabin an hour ago, and put out the lights a little later. The light was getting closer to the castle. If it was somebody, he sure was in a lot of hurry. A minute later it vanished.
She put her head against the glass and thought about the mess in her life. It seemed that all her secrets seemed to be spilling out. Now all that she needed was for Tom to let out her worst secret. And then the world would really crash in on her. But could things possibly get any worse?
The portrait opened, and Ginny was surprised to see McGonagall stepping in to the common room. And McGonagall seemed also surprised to see her.
'Miss Weasley, why are you up at this hour?'
'I wasn't sleepy professor.'-Ginny quickly lied.
'Just as well, since it was you I was looking for.'
She gave McGonagall a politely puzzled look, though her insides were freezing. A thousand reasons why McGonagall would want to talk to her at this hour ran through her mind, each new one worse then the last.
'Please follow me Miss Weasley, the headmaster wants to see you.'
Ginny didn't know if she should be happy or afraid. She would finally speak to the headmaster, but she couldn't help but wonder what he wanted with her at this time of the night.
She followed McGonagall through the empty corridors, closing her wool jacket more closely around her, now that she was out of the common room warmth.
They came to a halt as they reached a stone gargoyle.
'Liquorice wand.'-McGonagall said to the lifeless statue. The gargoyle sprang aside, and let them through to a stone staircase. A few moments later McGonagall was opening the office door, and with a hand on Ginny's shoulder, led her in to the room.
As they walked in she noticed that Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk. But to her surprise he was not alone. A very wet and muddy Snape was beside Dumbledore's desk, walking back and forth, spreading mud on the polished wood floor.
He looked up when he heard them come in, and looked at her with a look in his eyes that made her feel guilty, even though she knew that she had not done anything.
'Miss Weasley, please sit down.'-said Dumbledore pointing to a chair in front of his desk.
She sat down on the chair, and waited for Dumbledore to say something, hoping that she wasn't as pale as she felt. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong, and she grabbed the edge of the chair praying that it wasn't what she thought it was.
'Miss Weasley... Ginny. Professor Snape has retuned from a meeting with Lucius Malfoy with the most disturbing news. News related with Tom Riddle, and Lord Voldemort.'
So much for prayer...
'I will ask you once again Ginny, is there anything that you would like to tell me?'
Ginny whimpered a barely audible yes, but she didn't want to talk to Dumbledore in front of Snape. Snape must have realised that because he gave her a very nasty look.
'I'm quite sure that whatever it is that you will tell the Headmaster will not be news to me Miss Weasley. And I'm sure that it won't be news to the Headmaster either.'-he said with a sneer.
McGonagall grabbed Ginny's shoulder in a reassuring way, and whispered a -'Come now dear, don't be afraid.'
So Ginny finally confessed everything that had happened that summer. The dreams, the sights in the mirror that she had thought were hallucinations, the things Tom had told her. As she spoke her cheeks got more and more red and she kept staring at her feet, afraid to see the disappointed look on Dumbledore's face. When she got to the part of the kiss, and that Tom had been on the school grounds a few nights ago, she heard Snape make a strange sound that she didn't recognise.
When Ginny stopped talking she kept looking at her feet, waiting for Dumbledore to say something. She knew that he wouldn't yell at her. That was her mother's job later when she found out. But she expected him to say something. Yet the room remained quiet. She ventured a look at Dumbledore, expecting to find him with a very disappointed look on his face. But when she looked at him, she saw that Dumbledore was looking very surprised. Looking at Snape and McGonagall she saw that they too looked dumbstruck.
This was not what she had expected. Not at all. If they didn't know about all of what she had told them, then why had they called her here?
'It seems that this is even more serious that I thought. Why didn't you say anything before?'-the Headmaster asked.
'Because I was ashamed sir. And I was afraid that people would find out.'
'Well, the reason why I summoned you here with such urgency was because of a conversation Lucius Malfoy had with Professor Snape this evening concerning you. He told the professor that somehow Lord Voldemort was maintaining a link to you. But I had not expected anything of this kind. I thought that he might try to control you as he once did by his diary. The diary was stolen from Gringotts a few weeks after his return. I did not know what he could possibly want with it since it was ruined, but now I fear that he might be using it once again to control you. It might have also been the way he used to rejuvenate himself.'
'If he's not using the diary to make a connection to Miss Weasley, then what can he be using Albus? We should break this connection, before it gets worse.'-McGonagall said with her voice shaking. Ginny could tell that she was quite disturbed.
'It could be a potion. I doubt that it is a spell, those are far too weak to breach the Hogwarts' wards. I will have to do some research.'-Snape said.
'But what troubles me the most is what he could want with a sixteen year old child? What does he hope to accomplish with Miss Weasley?'
Ginny looked down at her feet again. She had not told them everything. There were some things they didn't need to know.
'I don't know Minerva. Do you know what he might want from you Miss Weasley?'
Ginny could feel Dumbledore's gaze upon her, and she felt as if he could see right through her. But she knew he couldn't. And there was no way she was telling them the rest.
'I'm sorry Headmaster, but I don't.'-she lied.
'Well then, in that case you better go back to your dorm. I'll take precautions to prevent Lord Voldemort from entering your dreams again tomorrow. By now I think that a bottle of dreamless sleep will suffice.'
And with that McGonagall led Ginny out of the office. As soon as the door closed behind them she could hear Snape talking rapidly to the Headmaster, but unfortunately she couldn't understand a word of what he was saying.
A few days later Ginny was sitting near the fireplace of the common room, doing her late homework.
She had to admit that talking to the Headmaster had lifted a weight from her shoulders. She could sleep normally now with the extra wards that Dumbledore had placed on the Gryffindor tower, without fear that Tom would slip in to her dreams. She hoped that Tom would knock with his head on a wall every time he tried to enter her dreams, and that it really hurt. After all if he could hurt her in her dreams, maybe he could get hurt too. And in that case she wished the wards took the form of a very solid stone wall.
Lord Voldemort woke up with an enormous head ache. Every time he tried to enter Ginny's dreams he came face to face with a ward. And when he finally took that ward down a new one came to take its place. His mirror couldn't find her either. It only showed him black images, as it was not able to enter Hogwarts at all.
He was getting tired of this game. Every time he managed to strengthen the link, something came between them. He thought that after the kiss nothing would be able to come between him and her. But this was powerful magic he was fighting against now, and he knew that Ginny didn't have that kind of power yet.
So only one conclusion came to his mind.
Dumbledore.
He was the one who placed the wards, and he couldn't figth against his magic. At least not from where he was now. He needed to be closer. He would have to visit Hogwarts once more. And this time it was to bring Ginny to him.
The silence of the hallways was broken by a silent figure walking barefoot in a pair of green pyjamas. A girl was walking slowly, with her eyes half open, through the corridors, and making her way to the entrance hall.
When she reached the entrance hall, the doors for the grounds opened before her and she stepped out into the cold of the night.
Ginny wasn't sure of what was happening. She thought she was dreaming. A really weird dream by the look of it. She was walking on the grounds, and everything around her looked too real to be a dream. And yet it could only be a dream since she felt no cold, even though she was bare foot on the wet grass. She kept making her way towards the forbidden forest, one small step after the other.
There was something there she wanted, she thought vaguely. Something that was calling to her. And the call was irresistible. it went through every cell in her body, like a whisper on her skin. It pulled her and she could not fight it. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to fight it. She could hear her name on the wind. Someone wanted her as much as she wanted to find the source of this calling.
She could see someone on the edge of the forest, waiting for her, and somehow she knew who it was. Why wasn't she afraid? Why wasn't she fighting against this? Why did she want to meet him?
She knew it was Tom there, calling to her, and patiently waiting for her to reach him. She saw him retreat in to the forest, and she followed. He was getting deeper and deeper in to the woods. and Ginny was being guided by him. When she reached a clearing, she saw him standing on the other side, an arm stretched out in her direction, waiting for her to take it.
She walked to him, with her mind half asleep but her body fully awake, feeling the connection between them getting stronger with each step. She couldn't think straight. It seemed all very natural that she was in the forbidden forest walking straight in to Tom's arms. She was so close to him now that she could see his wicked smile under his hood.
She reached out her hand ready to take his, feeling his call in every inch of her body, her mind numb with the desire to join him.
Suddenly a white form stepped between them, and she heard him curse. Her mind was still in a haze, and she fell on her knees. She didn't know what was happening, but somehow he was gone. Still, she couldn't wake up from her state, and her mind drifted back to sleep.
First of all I would like to thank all of those who have reviewed. Thank you for taking the time to do so. I'm sorry I couldn't update this sooner, but college is in that tons of work faze, and I can't seem to find the time for anything.
If you find any spelling mistakes in this chapter, blame it on my beta reader Phoenix. She may not be perfect finding the spelling mistakes but at least she's the best at giving me the mood to write. Thank you Phoenix!!!!
Please review, you know I love reading your reviews as much as you enjoy reading my fic.
Chapter 10- And the truth comes out.
Ginny had promised herself that she would talk to Dumbledore as soon as she saw him. The thing was she didn't see him at all for the following days.
The Death Eaters were attacking, in what seemed a random way, all the muggle antique shops in Britain.
Dumbledore, who had been appointed temporary Minister of Magic until there are new elections, was hardly ever seen. Ginny thought about asking Harry where his office was, but she didn't want him to suspect anything. The only one who she was going to talk to was Dumbledore.
She was in the library, sitting alone in the corner and looking down at her arithmancy homework. But in fact she wasn't seeing anything at all. She
had entered a schedule of sleeping little or nothing at all, and off getting really tired to bed to try to avoid Tom getting in to her dreams. She had asked for Madam Pomfrey for some dreamless sleep, which seemed to help too. When Madam Pomfrey had asked her why she needed it, she found her excuse in Fudge's death. She lied and said that she had been having nightmares lately about it. In a way she wished she did. If she was dreaming about his death she wasn't dreaming about Tom...
But all this effort not to sleep was taking its toll on her. She was loosing her attention in class, and getting behind on her homework. And on top of it all, she had to hide what Tom had left behind after their last meeting. It wasn't a visible mark, and only those who really knew her could tell the difference. But the fact was that since that kiss she had noticed a change in her magic. It seemed stronger, more powerful, and more dangerous. More then once in transfiguration, while she was supposed to be vanishing a mouse, she ended up vanishing the entire table. She had taken on the habit of sitting in the back of the class, so that she could make another table appear to replace the other one.
She looked again at her homework and tried to concentrate. The numbers and shapes seemed to dance in front of her, as she tried to solve the complex equations.
The equations seemed to become more and more complex instead of simpler. The numbers seemed to come out of the paper, that was now too small for them. And the coulors around her danced and moved in strange circles. There was nothing but a twirl of coulor in front of her now, and she seemed to be plunging right in to it, at an amazing speed. She had seen this before, when she had travelled through that strange portal. There was a light ahead and it was coming closer.
A big sound, as if something heavy had just landed on the table woke her up.
She had let herself fall asleep on the table, and an ink stain had ruined her homework. She looked up and saw Draco Malfoy looking down on her with a smirk. He had thrown a ton of books on the table, and woke her up.
'This isn't a good place to fall asleep. You never know what you might dream of...'-he said with a sneer.
Ginny grabbed her things in a haste and got up from her chair.
'What do you know about dreams?'-she responded while swinging her bag on to her shoulder as she left.
She wasn't sure. Maybe she was still dreaming, but she could swear that she had heard him say 'more then you think..'.
It was two in the morning and Ginny was still in the common room, awake.
She wanted to get really tired before she went to bed, since that would lessen her chances of dreaming. Why? Why had she not told Dumbledore about what was happening when she had the chance? Now she didn't know when she would see him. It seemed like every time she saw him in school that he was running due to the news of more attacks. And off course he would dismiss her with a quick 'I'm sorry Miss Weasley, but I'm in a hurry right now. Maybe later...'
Maybe next time she saw him she should just scream at him that Tom Riddle had been near the castle a few nights ago. That would get his attention.
The thing was, as he would probably be surrounded by busy professors and nosy students the whole school would know about Riddle in a matter of minutes.
She leaned back to the wall and looked down on grounds. Heavy rain was pouring down, matching her mood, and the cold stone she was sitting on was getting discomfortable. But she didn't mind. The more discomfortable she was, the less chance there was that she would fall asleep.
A light on the grounds got her attention. There wasn't supposed to be anyone outside. It couldn't be Hagrid. She saw him enter his cabin an hour ago, and put out the lights a little later. The light was getting closer to the castle. If it was somebody, he sure was in a lot of hurry. A minute later it vanished.
She put her head against the glass and thought about the mess in her life. It seemed that all her secrets seemed to be spilling out. Now all that she needed was for Tom to let out her worst secret. And then the world would really crash in on her. But could things possibly get any worse?
The portrait opened, and Ginny was surprised to see McGonagall stepping in to the common room. And McGonagall seemed also surprised to see her.
'Miss Weasley, why are you up at this hour?'
'I wasn't sleepy professor.'-Ginny quickly lied.
'Just as well, since it was you I was looking for.'
She gave McGonagall a politely puzzled look, though her insides were freezing. A thousand reasons why McGonagall would want to talk to her at this hour ran through her mind, each new one worse then the last.
'Please follow me Miss Weasley, the headmaster wants to see you.'
Ginny didn't know if she should be happy or afraid. She would finally speak to the headmaster, but she couldn't help but wonder what he wanted with her at this time of the night.
She followed McGonagall through the empty corridors, closing her wool jacket more closely around her, now that she was out of the common room warmth.
They came to a halt as they reached a stone gargoyle.
'Liquorice wand.'-McGonagall said to the lifeless statue. The gargoyle sprang aside, and let them through to a stone staircase. A few moments later McGonagall was opening the office door, and with a hand on Ginny's shoulder, led her in to the room.
As they walked in she noticed that Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk. But to her surprise he was not alone. A very wet and muddy Snape was beside Dumbledore's desk, walking back and forth, spreading mud on the polished wood floor.
He looked up when he heard them come in, and looked at her with a look in his eyes that made her feel guilty, even though she knew that she had not done anything.
'Miss Weasley, please sit down.'-said Dumbledore pointing to a chair in front of his desk.
She sat down on the chair, and waited for Dumbledore to say something, hoping that she wasn't as pale as she felt. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong, and she grabbed the edge of the chair praying that it wasn't what she thought it was.
'Miss Weasley... Ginny. Professor Snape has retuned from a meeting with Lucius Malfoy with the most disturbing news. News related with Tom Riddle, and Lord Voldemort.'
So much for prayer...
'I will ask you once again Ginny, is there anything that you would like to tell me?'
Ginny whimpered a barely audible yes, but she didn't want to talk to Dumbledore in front of Snape. Snape must have realised that because he gave her a very nasty look.
'I'm quite sure that whatever it is that you will tell the Headmaster will not be news to me Miss Weasley. And I'm sure that it won't be news to the Headmaster either.'-he said with a sneer.
McGonagall grabbed Ginny's shoulder in a reassuring way, and whispered a -'Come now dear, don't be afraid.'
So Ginny finally confessed everything that had happened that summer. The dreams, the sights in the mirror that she had thought were hallucinations, the things Tom had told her. As she spoke her cheeks got more and more red and she kept staring at her feet, afraid to see the disappointed look on Dumbledore's face. When she got to the part of the kiss, and that Tom had been on the school grounds a few nights ago, she heard Snape make a strange sound that she didn't recognise.
When Ginny stopped talking she kept looking at her feet, waiting for Dumbledore to say something. She knew that he wouldn't yell at her. That was her mother's job later when she found out. But she expected him to say something. Yet the room remained quiet. She ventured a look at Dumbledore, expecting to find him with a very disappointed look on his face. But when she looked at him, she saw that Dumbledore was looking very surprised. Looking at Snape and McGonagall she saw that they too looked dumbstruck.
This was not what she had expected. Not at all. If they didn't know about all of what she had told them, then why had they called her here?
'It seems that this is even more serious that I thought. Why didn't you say anything before?'-the Headmaster asked.
'Because I was ashamed sir. And I was afraid that people would find out.'
'Well, the reason why I summoned you here with such urgency was because of a conversation Lucius Malfoy had with Professor Snape this evening concerning you. He told the professor that somehow Lord Voldemort was maintaining a link to you. But I had not expected anything of this kind. I thought that he might try to control you as he once did by his diary. The diary was stolen from Gringotts a few weeks after his return. I did not know what he could possibly want with it since it was ruined, but now I fear that he might be using it once again to control you. It might have also been the way he used to rejuvenate himself.'
'If he's not using the diary to make a connection to Miss Weasley, then what can he be using Albus? We should break this connection, before it gets worse.'-McGonagall said with her voice shaking. Ginny could tell that she was quite disturbed.
'It could be a potion. I doubt that it is a spell, those are far too weak to breach the Hogwarts' wards. I will have to do some research.'-Snape said.
'But what troubles me the most is what he could want with a sixteen year old child? What does he hope to accomplish with Miss Weasley?'
Ginny looked down at her feet again. She had not told them everything. There were some things they didn't need to know.
'I don't know Minerva. Do you know what he might want from you Miss Weasley?'
Ginny could feel Dumbledore's gaze upon her, and she felt as if he could see right through her. But she knew he couldn't. And there was no way she was telling them the rest.
'I'm sorry Headmaster, but I don't.'-she lied.
'Well then, in that case you better go back to your dorm. I'll take precautions to prevent Lord Voldemort from entering your dreams again tomorrow. By now I think that a bottle of dreamless sleep will suffice.'
And with that McGonagall led Ginny out of the office. As soon as the door closed behind them she could hear Snape talking rapidly to the Headmaster, but unfortunately she couldn't understand a word of what he was saying.
A few days later Ginny was sitting near the fireplace of the common room, doing her late homework.
She had to admit that talking to the Headmaster had lifted a weight from her shoulders. She could sleep normally now with the extra wards that Dumbledore had placed on the Gryffindor tower, without fear that Tom would slip in to her dreams. She hoped that Tom would knock with his head on a wall every time he tried to enter her dreams, and that it really hurt. After all if he could hurt her in her dreams, maybe he could get hurt too. And in that case she wished the wards took the form of a very solid stone wall.
Lord Voldemort woke up with an enormous head ache. Every time he tried to enter Ginny's dreams he came face to face with a ward. And when he finally took that ward down a new one came to take its place. His mirror couldn't find her either. It only showed him black images, as it was not able to enter Hogwarts at all.
He was getting tired of this game. Every time he managed to strengthen the link, something came between them. He thought that after the kiss nothing would be able to come between him and her. But this was powerful magic he was fighting against now, and he knew that Ginny didn't have that kind of power yet.
So only one conclusion came to his mind.
Dumbledore.
He was the one who placed the wards, and he couldn't figth against his magic. At least not from where he was now. He needed to be closer. He would have to visit Hogwarts once more. And this time it was to bring Ginny to him.
The silence of the hallways was broken by a silent figure walking barefoot in a pair of green pyjamas. A girl was walking slowly, with her eyes half open, through the corridors, and making her way to the entrance hall.
When she reached the entrance hall, the doors for the grounds opened before her and she stepped out into the cold of the night.
Ginny wasn't sure of what was happening. She thought she was dreaming. A really weird dream by the look of it. She was walking on the grounds, and everything around her looked too real to be a dream. And yet it could only be a dream since she felt no cold, even though she was bare foot on the wet grass. She kept making her way towards the forbidden forest, one small step after the other.
There was something there she wanted, she thought vaguely. Something that was calling to her. And the call was irresistible. it went through every cell in her body, like a whisper on her skin. It pulled her and she could not fight it. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to fight it. She could hear her name on the wind. Someone wanted her as much as she wanted to find the source of this calling.
She could see someone on the edge of the forest, waiting for her, and somehow she knew who it was. Why wasn't she afraid? Why wasn't she fighting against this? Why did she want to meet him?
She knew it was Tom there, calling to her, and patiently waiting for her to reach him. She saw him retreat in to the forest, and she followed. He was getting deeper and deeper in to the woods. and Ginny was being guided by him. When she reached a clearing, she saw him standing on the other side, an arm stretched out in her direction, waiting for her to take it.
She walked to him, with her mind half asleep but her body fully awake, feeling the connection between them getting stronger with each step. She couldn't think straight. It seemed all very natural that she was in the forbidden forest walking straight in to Tom's arms. She was so close to him now that she could see his wicked smile under his hood.
She reached out her hand ready to take his, feeling his call in every inch of her body, her mind numb with the desire to join him.
Suddenly a white form stepped between them, and she heard him curse. Her mind was still in a haze, and she fell on her knees. She didn't know what was happening, but somehow he was gone. Still, she couldn't wake up from her state, and her mind drifted back to sleep.
First of all I would like to thank all of those who have reviewed. Thank you for taking the time to do so. I'm sorry I couldn't update this sooner, but college is in that tons of work faze, and I can't seem to find the time for anything.
If you find any spelling mistakes in this chapter, blame it on my beta reader Phoenix. She may not be perfect finding the spelling mistakes but at least she's the best at giving me the mood to write. Thank you Phoenix!!!!
Please review, you know I love reading your reviews as much as you enjoy reading my fic.