Difficulties of Avoidance
by dead2self
A/N: Another quick and easy to write chapter. I think I should mention again that this story, and particularly this chapter, will have spoilers from HBP and DH. But I think if you've read this far I've probably already spoiled a number of things for you anyways, so it probably don't matter. Just a heads. Also, funny story, I glanced over the last chapter and realized I had accidentally made it summer. Whoops! That's left over from reading the books while I was writing - the parallel HBP scenes take place at the beginning of summer. I corrected it and the last chapter is back in winter where it belongs.
To all of you who have been reviewing, thank you so much! I really appreciate it and I try to respond to all of my reviewers. To those of you who are looking for more Tom/Ginny interaction, hold on to your hats. It's well on its way. To those of you who are enjoying my story without reviewing, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy this chapter too.
Last note: 10 page paper and finals over the next few weeks. Might slow me down... might not. Inspiration has been hitting a lot lately and now that Ginny and Tom are finally in a position to, you know, actually talk... We'll see...
Enjoy and review if you like it please!
"Snape killed Dumbledore."
Ginny closed her eyes. It was the second time she had heard it. She had seen it and she still had a hard time believing it. Professor McGonagall swayed uneasily at Harry's news and sat heavily in a chair Madame Pomfrey summoned for her. There was a second swirl of voices as the room exploded with questions and disbelief, but the Hospital Wing faded around Ginny.
She remembered dashing into the thick of it. Lupin, Emmeline Vance, and Bill had already been there with Ron, Hermione, and Luna and the first thing she had done was cast a Disarming Spell at the big blonde raining the Killing Curse like hellfire. He had blocked it and then dueled her in earnest.
She had seen Bill go down under the weight of Fenrir, could not have helped him if she tried, and then Lupin had descended upon the pair so ferociously that Greyback staggered away from her brother's prone body. All she had thought was He's dead. He's dead and I was here.
Snape had run past sometime. Snape, who she had defended at Christmas.
The Death Eater had born down on her and her misfired Stinging Hex had left her open, she was surely going to die, but Emmeline Vance had been beside her with a Shield Charm in an instant. As she took on the large blonde, a lumpy wizard was upon Ginny and it had taken all of her reflexes to avoid his Crucio Curse.
Harry had appeared from nowhere, cursing the wizard she was dueling, and Ginny had called for him, but he tore off as soon as he had gotten there. They had the Death Eaters on the run, but instead of following, Ginny tripped over Luna's Stunned body in her haste to get to Bill. She had screamed for Lupin, who had broken off his pursuit to kneel next to her.
Bill was not dead. But Snape had killed Dumbledore.
Ginny pulled herself back into the present, forcing herself to listen to the lament that drifted over the grounds. She had kept a clear head all night, even leading Harry up to the Hospital Wing. It would not do to lose it now.
"I don't know exactly how it happened," Professor McGonagall was saying distractedly. "It's all so confusing… Dumbledore had told us that he would be leaving the school for a few hours and that we were to patrol the corridors just in case… Remus, Bill, and Emmeline were to join us… and so we patrolled. All seemed quiet. Every secret passageway out of the school was covered. We knew nobody could fly in. There were powerful enchantments on every entrance into the castle. I still don't know how the Death Eaters can possibly have entered…"
"I do. Malfoy connected two Vanishing Cabinets," Harry supplied, briefly describing what he had overheard from Malfoy. "So, one was hidden in the Room of Requirements—"
Whatever else he said fell on deaf ears as Ginny's head shot up with sudden dread. "Luna!" she shrieked, and shot out of the room. Her legs burned against the movement – she felt she had been running all night – but she ignored the discomfort. All the she could think of was that the only thing that could make this night worse was if Tom Riddle was no longer behind the ticklish tapestry.
"Ginny, what is it?" Luna's breathy voice was nearly frantic. "Why are we running?"
Ginny could not spare breath to answer until they came to a stop in front of the tapestry, using what little energy she had to shout "Impedimenta!" at the fleeing witch, tickle her, and tug the door open. Relief flooded over her.
"He's still here," she breathed, sighting the vine-wrapped figure in the alcove. She stepped into the alcove to retrieve him, and was greeted with a howl of rage.
"Blood-traitor filth!" Riddle spat, his dark eyes showing white. His lips were pulled back from his teeth in an animalistic growl. "I swear, the minute I touch a wand, I will kill you. I will burn my mark in the skies above your families and if a single hair off a Weasley head exists when I am done, I will not be satisfied. Your precious Harry Potter will—" He cut off with a sharp hiss of pain when Ginny stomped hard on his exposed fingers, bound uselessly at his side. A flash of Bill in a pool of his own blood brought her heel down again with a nasty crunch.
"Ginny!" Luna cried, pushing her out of the way and kneeling over Riddle. "Tergeo," she said gently, fist clearing the blood from his face, and then pointing first to his hand and then his lip, she said "Episkey."
"Do you think I want your sympathy, you stupid girl?" Riddle snarled up at her, spittle flecking onto Luna's cheek. "Do you want me to thank you for healing the minor injuries you inflicted upon me yourself? No. No, this changes nothing. I'll take your father before you. You will not recognize him by the time he dies, and you will watch, just like before."
Ginny tried to push past Luna with a cry of rage, but Luna stood to her full height and threw out an arm to stop her. She stared down at Riddle, eyes wide and unreadable. "No, Tom," she said. "I understand you have suffered a major disappointment tonight, but that does not allow you to threaten us nor our families. Tonight you are the one acting like a fool, not me."
"Allow me—fool—" Riddle seethed, but he had barely gotten the words out when Ginny said, "Silencio." The small space now sounded oddly muted, for Riddle's mouth was still screaming expressively and his eyes bulged with effort.
"I suppose we should just put him back," Ginny muttered.
Luna did not answer right away. She was staring off into space, her brow slightly furrowed. Then she looked down at Riddle and said, "Muffliato." With a frown directed at Tom, she said, "I do hope this spell works; I remember Harry quite liked it last year. Ginny do you think the Room of Requirements has been acting a little strange lately?"
"Strange how?" Ginny asked. She kept her voice low just in case the spell was wrong.
"Do you remember the Room of Requirements when we used it during the DA? Whenever you needed a certain book or another cushion to set out, there it was. But the past few months, I've needed cleaning supplies and Wrackspurt wards countless times and I've gotten nothing. I've been thinking this for several weeks now, but didn't it seem frozen to you?"
Ginny thought over the many times she needed a book to shove her nose in while Cho made eyes at Harry during all those DA meetings and realized quite rapidly that surely Tom had felt he needed something besides a bed, a chair, a table, and a toilet in the half year since he had been imprisoned in the room. "You think Dumbledore did something to it?" she asked.
"Yes, but whatever it was won't be there anymore now that he's dead, will it?" Luna continued. "We're going to have to remake the Room ourselves."
"Okay," Ginny said slowly. "Okay… We can do this. We'll just have to think specifics when we walk past the room, that's all." Turning on Riddle, she said, "Petrificus Totalus," and he stiffened like a wax figure in apocalyptic rage. This time, Luna levitated him (not surprisingly, Ginny's Sticking Charms didn't hold well) and Ginny noticed she took care not to knock him against the floor or the doorway. The marched towards the corridor and passed the entrance to the Room, once, twice, three times, thinking furiously about the Room they needed.
I need a place to keep Tom Riddle, a place he can't escape… she thought. A place that only me and Luna can enter… that he can't control… with a door that opens with our Patronuses and no one else's.
A non-descript door had appeared on the wall and Luna took Riddle inside alone. Her Patronus flashed through the door a moment later and when Ginny answered it, Luna slipped out of the room looking satisfied, if somewhat sick. "It's the same, although the enchantments when you enter are gone."
"It'll probably be better to see him the second we step into the room anyways," Ginny said. "I don't trust him farther than I could throw a troll." That done, Ginny turned away from the Room of Requirements, her mind already back with her brother in the Hospital Wing.
"Ginny."
The voice stopped Ginny. She had never heard a voice sound so small in her life. She glanced back and there was Luna, standing stock still in the middle of the corridor and looking more pale and terrified than anyone Ginny had ever encountered.
"This is all my fault," Luna whispered. "Malfoy got into the castle because of me."
"What? Luna no—"
"It's true. You heard Harry; he came out of a Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirements. He couldn't have used the Room until there was no one in it – until I let Tom Riddle escape. That's why he was here this week, checking the Room."
Unsettling though this was, Ginny persisted, "He tricked you Luna; you couldn't have known, really, what it would come to."
Then, in the quietest voice yet, Luna said, "I wasn't tricked. I haven't been putting the Full Body-Bind on him for about a week. I couldn't do it anymore."
It hit Ginny like a Stinging Hex to the face. She was speechless, but she felt that she should be angry.
"We've been treating him so terribly."
"No we haven't!" she gasped. First term was blossoming up in her face all over again and Ginny was stricken that Luna could ever forget what had come of that. Now her anger was coming back. "You just heard him – he wants to kill us!"
"I know I should have been more cautious," Luna said carefully, slowly. "But… But, I know what I was doing was still the right thing."
"Right?" she shrieked. "My brother is in the Hospital Wing with half a face. Dumbledore is dead!"
Luna's words now poured out fast as Ginny stalked toward her. "Ginny, if you were in his place – no, don't make excuses, I've already done that – if you were being held captive and your captors never talked to you and treated you like an animal, just Stunning you every time they gave you food, it would be terrible. We are only treating him this way because we are scared of him—"
"For good reason, I think," Ginny exploded.
"But if that fear leads us to torture, it is not okay. Ginny, Dumbledore is dead. He can't protect us from Tom anymore."
"Riddle doesn't need to know that. In fact, with Dumbledore gone, maybe we should start thinking about whether or not we should be taking care of him at all!"
"We are not murderers Ginny." Luna's voice came out hard, like a struck bell, and the contrast between her normally dreamy voice and this was so pronounced it stopped Ginny in her tracks. "That will never be an option. I will duel you before I allow you to kill Tom Riddle." There was a heavy sinking shame in her chest, and without wanting to admit it, Ginny knew Luna was right. Ginny now pacified, Luna continued, "I think he will find out about Dumbledore whether we like it or not – Tom is very smart. And then what if he escapes again? With Dumbledore gone, what if You-Know-Who gets into Hogwarts? We won't be able to stop him."
A silence drifted between them. Standing opposite in that moonlit corridor, the eerie green light from the Dark Mark penetrating even to there, Ginny felt there was more than the three feet of floor between them. It seemed they were on opposite sides of a gulf and the slightest movement would separate them forever. Ginny took a long breath and Luna dug her nails into her palms.
"We need to have Tom on our side. We have to convince him not to go to Voldemort. Without Dumbledore here, that must be our mission."
"That's impossible," Ginny said weakly.
"We have to try anyways."
Briefly Ginny realized she was afraid, not of pain or death, but of putting herself open before Tom Riddle once more – for she was sure this would be required. "I don't want to do this," she whispered.
"This is no longer about what we want. Will you be with me, or will I have to do this alone?" Ginny met Luna's gaze and was frightened to see the other girl shaking. Her eyes were strong, but she was terrified. Ginny crossed the gulf in three easy steps.
"No Luna, never alone."
The next few days were a whirl of activity. Her parents had come with Phlegm in tow, and Ron had described in vivid detail the scene she had missed in the Hospital Wing. She nearly found herself taking a liking to the girl. Hogwarts had almost been closed, but violent protests to the contrary, not least of these coming from Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood, moved Professor McGonagall for the time being to take up the mantle of Acting Headmistress. Nonetheless, several parents showed up to take their children as early as the next morning. Eveline Knapper disappeared with her mother and Ginny witnessed Harper in a screaming match with his parents in the entrance hall (Ginny thought she heard the words "Head Boy and "duty in crisis" and almost liked him for a moment too). Preparations were underway for Dumbledore's funeral and in the midst of this Luna delivered all of Riddle's meals. Rage bubbled up at the thought of him and Ginny simply did not trust herself to not hex him upon sight.
Wind and snow howled on the grounds, but the funeral was held outdoors nonetheless. The Professors stood around the edge of the proceedings struggling to fight against the elements, but even as she cast a Warming Charm, Ginny was still cold. All around her people were wrapped in their warmest robes, most shaking more from tears then from the cold. There was an enormous crack from the direction of the lake, and Ginny looked over in time to see merpeople peeking up through holes in the ice before the terrible, beautiful song began. Harry, who had not said much to her at all for the past few days, looked confused until Ginny pointed them out to him. Letting her eyes rove back over the crowd – there was Neville looking slightly shabby and Ginny wondered what he had been up to this year, and there was the Minister of Magic trailed by Umbridge of all people. Her family was seated together closer to the front, although Percy was missing from the pack. Tonks, sitting with Remus, was now enormous but her cheeks shined red with tears.
Then Ginny saw him. She nudged Harry in the ribs and pointed soundlessly as Hagrid moved up the aisle, cradling a bundle of purple velvet that was surely Dumbledore's body. Everything welled up in her chest, and Ginny found all the tears she had stilled for the past few days falling at once. Hagrid placed the Headmaster on the table with the softest gentleness and stumbled back up the aisle, blowing his nose with the sound of a car horn. Ginny found herself wanting to laugh through her tears and immediately felt guilty. She turned her attention closely to the small, silver man giving Dumbledore's eulogy, but was taken unawares when he finished and white, dancing flames curled around Dumbledore's body. She let out a shout of terror before she realized it was magical fire, and before she had a chance to study it further, the flames had disappeared, leaving a long white tomb in its place.
Ginny blinked away the last of her tears as the centaurs fired their salute, holding tightly to Harry's hand. That was it, then. And Harry would be gone before she knew it, off fighting Voldemort. She turned a blazing look at Harry, knowing what she had to say, but unsure how to approach telling him that they needed to recruit his greatest enemy.
"Ginny, listen…" Harry was staring back with as much conviction as she felt, and Ginny felt her heart drop for she knew what was coming. "I don't think we can see each other anymore."
Ginny's first instinct was violent. She had not fought this off for nearly two years just to let him leave her now when she needed him the most. But the words were barely on her tongue when she realized he was right. Everything was different now. Dumbledore could not protect them and if Harry had reason to protect her from Voldemort, she certainly had reason to protect him too. With a faint shiver, she realized that constant close contact with Tom Riddle would mean she had to know as little as possible of Harry's life.
"It's some stupid, noble thing, isn't it?" she said with a small smile, staring solidly back at him.
"I can't…" he answered lamely. "We can't… Voldemort will go after and use the people I love, and I can't justify putting you in danger anymore… if this were your funeral…"
Ginny cut him off, willing him to see that she understood, that she was not fighting this time. "I think I knew I couldn't hold this off forever. You know how I feel, but I know what you have to do." Conversation buzzed around them as people were getting to their feet. She gave a half-laugh. "You just can't help saving the Wizarding World, can you?"
Harry quirked a miserable smile and moved as if to kiss her as he got up. Then thinking better of it, he stopped short and with one last solemn look, he hurried away.
Ginny took a deep, steeling breath and looked up to the castle, barely visible through the gale of snow. The Dark Mark was gone, but the castle had now lost all vestige of comfort for her. Now it was just Luna and Ginny, she thought. And Tom Riddle.