The following day was a Saturday, and Ginny was serving it spending detention with Snape. It irked her so much because she desperately wanted to go and visit Harry in the hospital wing. Ron and Hermione had visited him first thing and then gone down to Hogsmeade together. Harry couldn't attend that anyway as he didn't have a permission form signed by his awful relatives.

So Ginny spent her Saturday morning wiping the desks in Snape's classroom clean with some muggle cleaning liquid and a sponge. When she had finished all fifty desks, she was sweating and she rubbed her forehead with her aching palm. She stood up and knocked on his door, "Professor? I'm finished." The professor looked up and squinted his tiny, black beady eyes at her. Ginny felt like she was looking at her through a microscope. She knew about those because her father had somehow obtained one once and allowed her to look through it. It felt like she was under scrutiny.

He nodded stiffly and looked at the time, "Fine. You may be dismissed Miss Weasley. I don't want to hear cheek from you again in my class." Ginny nodded in understanding, as he gave her back her wand and she fled from the dungeons. She hurried up to the hospital wing, taking several flights of stairs at a time.

Once Ginny arrived at the big double doors, she caught her breath and then headed slowly towards Harry. He was sitting up against the pillow, but he had his eyes closed and his glasses off. When she arrived at the side of his bed and sat down, Madame Pomfrey poked her head around the door and said, "He took some sleeping draught about two hours ago. He should be waking up soon." Ginny nodded and said thanks, then she fell asleep in the chair beside him.

When she woke up, it was because she had had a nightmare. It was a Riddle nightmare of during the time he had been fully possessing her in the chamber. She had been aware of what was going on around her, but it was almost as if she was paralyzed and she couldn't move anything-like she was under water and couldn't reach the surface, but she could see fuzzy images. The part where Harry killed the Basilisk was an image she thankfully hadn't even been aware of, because by that time she was sinking further and further in unconsciousness. That feeling though, of no self control, of having your life drained out of you against your own free will, was a feeling of dread and despair. And this was this feeling that caused her to sit up panic-stricken and gasping sharply for breath.

Ginny looked around the room frantically and the heavy breathing continued until her eyes fell upon Harry. He moved his hand worriedly towards her but she jumped at the movement. He pulled it back carefully and asked concernedly, "Are you okay, Ginny?" Ginny swallowed and tried to calm her rapid breathing. When she managed to she muttered, "You're asking me if I'm okay, yet you're the one in the hospital bed!" This caused Harry to chuckle but he still looked worried, "Seriously what's the matter?" She sighed as she turned to face his emerald eyes, which she hadn't looked into like this in so long and just shook her head, "Riddle…" Harry nodded in understanding, because it was enough for him to understand. He sighed and searched her eyes with his own before asking hesitantly, "Do…do you want to talk about it?" She grimaced and replied, "There was something…something I wrote in the diary a lot, which allowed Riddle to take complete control of me and you probably have a right to know." Harry's eyes widened slightly, but otherwise his expression remained neutral as he whispered, "You don't have to tell…" Ginny interrupted him quickly before saying quickly, "No, if I don't get this out now, I never will."
Ginny tried to look at his face as she bit her lip and tried to control her heavy breathing. She inhaled sharply before replying, "I think it's pretty obvious that…uh…last year I was a bit besotted with you." Harry's eyes widened greatly, but he didn't interrupt her as she continued, almost spitting out the words together, "I wrote about it obsessively in my diary. How Ron, Fred and George teased me about it and how it was a 'silly little crush.' The truth is they were right, because it wasn't you I had a crush on. I had a crush on the idea of you."

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Ginny pushed on, "Let me finish, please?" He nodded silently and she tried to look at him, but she was mortified. She couldn't believe she was telling him this, and yet if they were to be friends, she couldn't keep this from him for much longer. So Ginny continued as she stared at the bed spread, "I poured all of that frustration out into the diary as I felt like I could confide in it. It gave me advice when nobody else could, but of course Riddle only wanted to know more about you. The more I fed into the diary, the more time passed by where I couldn't remember anything that had happened. Then when I was in the chamber and the life was being drained out of me…" Ginny swallowed and Harry interrupted her, "You don't have to…" She shook her head as a tear fell down her cheek and she hiccoughed, "I felt like I was drowning and that you were going to die and it would have be my entire fault. Riddle had convinced me that you had no chance of surviving and that I might as well give in to him and let him win. He also convinced me that it would be my fault, to use his words, 'If the great Harry Potter died.' I had basically let him win and if you had stabbed the diary a second later he would have."

Harry was silent as the tears dripped down her face and Harry whispered quietly, "What else did Riddle say to cause you to keep your distance from me so much?" Ginny swallowed hard and shook her head harshly. She wasn't about to tell Harry that. He took her hand and grasped it tightly, "Ginny please tell me. Whatever it is, I won't believe it, and you shouldn't either!" Ginny looked up at him with tear-stained cheeks and whispered, "I'm not good enough for you. I'm not worthy of your time. That's what he told me when I was at my weakest, and weak enough to believe it." Her voice cracked and she felt dry sobs wrack her body. She had never cried this much in front of anyone except her mother, let alone a boy.

Harry was stunned into silence and she couldn't blame him. What else was there to say, really? Nothing. She had just opened up to him completely and now she felt so exposed, like she had nowhere to hide. His excruciating silence said that he was shocked and she wouldn't have expected him to react any other way. Ginny nodded miserably and got up to leave, but Harry got out of the bed and grabbed her hand.
Ginny turned to face him an as she didn't he shook his head thoroughly from side to side in dismay before saying, "How could you think that, Ginny? You're one of the strongest people I know! You fought Riddle on your own for nine months! That's…that's indescribable! I probably couldn't have done that! And you can't let him make you think those things, Ginny. I can only imagine that you honestly believe those things he told you, about not being good enough as a result of you being weak. I know the real you would believe that. You're too strong to believe that!"

It sounded like he was protesting her but she shrugged as he took hold of his hand and pulled her chin up so that she was forced to look at him. Harry smiled shyly before saying, "I know you're probably not ready to hear this, and you probably won't believe me, but I do like you in that way, Ginny. I guess I'm too afraid to say something because of how Ron would react. But I think that's a pretty pathetic reason now after hearing everything you've just said. And I'm not saying it to make you feel any better. I don't go around holding girls hands just because I want to. I did that because I wanted to protect you from Malfoy, even if it meant a small gesture of comfort. I really hope you believe me." Ginny bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders dismally, "I don't believe you and I'm sorry it's not your fault at all. I just don't believe it. And it's not because I don't' want to." Harry's green eyes, which were usually sparkling with life, seemed sad dimmer than usual. She said quickly, "Maybe sometime in the future when I can trust more we can be more than friends. But right now, friends is enough for me. I'm sorry." Harry smiled glumly and replied, "It's okay. I didn't expect more."

Ginny felt terrible hearing that, but as she walked away from him, she also realized that it was going to take all of her willpower to override Riddle's knifing voice saying to her in the back of her mind, "You're worthless, Ginny Weasley. You don't deserve Potter. He doesn't deserve you, and you know it." The problem was, Riddle was right.

Author's note: In my mind, what's going on here is that Riddle had managed to brainwash Ginny when she was at her weakest. She's very uncertain of her own decisions and she truly believes that she isn't good enough for Harry. She always felt insecure around him anyway because of the power of her emotions for him. I think that is proven when she rescues him from falling in the previous chapter, regardless of her own life although she can't think like that anymore because of the brainwashing.

And now that insecurity of Ginny's feelings for Harry is amplified by the fact that she believes this untruth about her. The reason she decided to confide in Harry was because of the nightmare, which had bought back the memories and she decided that there and then if she was going to become good friends with Harry (the inevitable) she might as well tell him everything. She can bring herself to be friends with him but nothing more than that because of her trust issues. Anyway if you were a bit confused, I hope this cleared things up!