Tom did not lay down when Ginny closed the door behind her.
First, he made a spell to clean up the room, then cleaned the rest of the potion that he had been working on, losing some time trying to find the paper he had been writing on before the cauldron exploded and reviewed what he had written, adding a few paragraphs about what had happened.
When he finally laid down, leaning back on the pillows he had rested against the wall, he flipped through the diary's pages that contained his Horcrux. Giving in to an impulse, he got out of the bed again, sat down at his desk with the notebook opened in front of him and let a few drops of ink drip on one of the empty pages, which were quickly absorbed by the magic contained in the paper.
Now that he had the feather in is hand, he didn't know what to do, what to write, something very unusual for him. He took a deep breath and placed the tip of the feather against the paper, leaving the paint blot while deciding what to write.
'A witch held you in her hands, did she found out what you are?' His sentence disappeared and beneath a new one appeared with the same handwriting.
'She does not need to find what she already knows.'
"What she already knows?" Tom repeated aloud getting up from his chair abruptly, resting his hands on both sides of the notebook and watching the phrase disappear. He wetted the feather in the ink again and stared at the paper again.
'What does she know?' The question seemed to remain on the page for a moment longer than necessary and Tom clenched his teeth, starting to feel angry. The ink disappeared again, but the Horcrux didn't answer, Tom wrote the same question again, insisting, but received no reply. How could his own Horcrux not answer him? Tom threw the notebook against the wall and punched the wood, frustrated.
Taking a deep breath, he straightened up and went to get his diary from the floor, then headed to the bed and laid down, staring at the ceiling thoughtfully.
Something was going on with that new assistant of his, and the fact that he didn't know what it was, filled him with a deep sense of unease.
Eventually, he fell asleep, still holding the notebook to his chest.
When Tom walked downstairs, he found Ginny in front of the stove, a spatula in one hand pointing to the ceiling and the other hand on her back. "Good morning, Tom," she said, looking over her shoulder. "I thought you would enjoy a heartier breakfast after what happened last night. Are you feeling better?" She asked, turning her attention to the stove and shaking the pan over the fire.
Tom pulled the chair closer to him and sat down slowly. "A bit sore, but I'll survive." He expected Ginny to ask him what potion had he been working on and what had happened for it to blow up.
Now that he was a few hours away from the event, he was actually upset about what happened, especially after re-reading the notes he had made after she left and realized how stupid he had been, how that little explosion could have been a disastrous event, if he had turned the liquid again, the potion would pass to a gaseous state and therefore develop into a potent poison.
However, Ginny didn't ask him anything, instead, she kept talking, telling him how two of her brothers were constantly blowing things on their room and kept the house on a permanent state of alert.
Taking advantage of the fact that Ginny was turned away from him on the other side of the room, Tom took his time to observe her. Her red hair was pulled back in a braid, she was wearing a grey sweater and a black skirt that accentuated her curves.
She looked plain boring, and didn't seem to be anything different from all the other people with whom he had crossed, but there had to be something behind it. All those coincidences, the way she looked at him, which started as a gaze of horror and was one of curiosity, how the atmosphere in the store was changing and it no longer was tense but sometimes kind of intimate, and now the Horcrux was being oddly enigmatic and refusing to answer the pressing questions he put forth about how could she know about the nature of the notebook.
"How many siblings do you have?" Tom asked after Ginny placed the plate in front of him and they started to eat.
"I have six brothers," Ginny said. "Five..." she corrected herself. "One died during the war."
"Growing up with six brothers couldn't have been easy," Tom said, ignoring the last part Ginny said to avoid a delicate conversation.
"Well, I can tell you I've seen enough naked guys to last me several years, I learned to fight, and I am an excellent Quidditch player." Tom rested the tips of his silverware on the plate and looked at Ginny, amused.
"What?" She asked.
"Nothing." He said, putting a piece of pancake into his mouth. "How's your hand?" He asked after swallowing.
"Much better, I think..." Tom pulled the chair closer to Ginny, stretching a hand towards her.
"Let me have a look." Ginny looked at him, surprised, and hesitantly put her hand, still wrapped in the bandage, on his. Tom slowly removed the cloth and ran his fingers over the red welts that contrasted with Ginny's white skin, all that remained of the strong bite she had received the day before.
"How is it?" She asked in a whisper because he was too close, far too close, and Ginny didn't feel like there was enough air between them to breath.
When Tom looked up, Ginny's gaze fixed on his eyes, he couldn't help but lean in. The flames in the fireplace suddenly roared and Tom straightened his back, pushing the chair with him to its original place and picked up the silverware, dropping her hand as if he'd been burnt. Ginny took in sudden gulps of air, tried to hide that her breath had hitched, and also grabbed hers, attacking her pancakes ravenously, feeling her face flush, half from shame and the other half from anger for allowing him to get so close.
'Did they had a 'moment' or something? This was not ok' She thought angry.
Burke came out of the fireplace, brushing the ashes off his clothes and sank down onto the nearest chair, putting his arms on the table and burying his face between of them, immediately starting to snore.
"Mr Burke?" Ginny called him, stretching a hand toward the other wizard, feeling somewhat worried, but Tom raised his hand, calling her attention and made her stop with a nod. After a few seconds the wizard across the table rose and slumped against the back of the chair, still asleep, his head tilted back at an angle that couldn't be comfortable.
Tom stood up slowly, picked up his plate, his mug of tea and motioned for Ginny to follow him. She followed him into the hallway, also taking her things, putting everything on the counter next to Tom. "What was that?" She finally asked, still surprised by what she had just seen.
Ginny didn't remember seeing someone drunk like that on her whole life.
"One or two very long nights," Tom said between bites, completely serene, obviously at ease with the debacle they'd both just witnessed.
Ginny felt in that moment that she could relate to Burke, not being extremely drunk, but rather the feeling of severe exhaustion.
Her room had seemed claustrophobically small last night and after what had happened with Tom, she couldn't help but pace for hours, riddled with anxiety. From the moment she had closed the door behind her and turned the key on the lock, the words from the diary swam in her head and now, Ginny felt like she could rip her own eyes out if it would help her forget what she had seen. But Ginny knew there was nothing she could do to forget what she had read on those pages, and what she had felt when she had to hold it in her hands; she could only try to understand what had happened.
How could he have recognised her when they would only meet in fifty years in the future? Ginny didn't even have written her name...
All that came to her mind was the old Muggle concept of soul mates; two souls that would recognise each other, in a hundred worlds, in a hundred lifetimes, across the realms of time and space. But these were just tales of fancy, of childhood fairy tales, of bedtime stories.
It couldn't be that, but it was what came to her in that moment.
Tom Riddle stood at her side, unaware of who or what she was – but there was a part of him, separated and divided from the entity that knew her, that had memories of her. How could this be, if it hadn't flouted the rules of time?
Ginny looked at him then. Tom had finished eating and was now blowing his tea, reading the newspaper that rested on the counter.
What she would not give to be able to ask him about it, probably not even he himself was aware that his Horcrux could do that.
Letting herself go back to the day that Harry had saved her, and she was safe in her mother's arms in Dumbledore's office, hearing the headmaster's theory about what had happened, and now she wondered about what he had said, questioned whether the Horcrux, had left a more lasting impression on her that didn't fade away.
The idea of any kind of bond between her and the wizard sitting next to her was truly horrifying.
She had used almost all of her willpower to leave her bedroom that morning, a voice screamed at her to stay away from Tom, but Ginny decided not only to ignore it but to cook for him. When she tied the apron around her waist, she felt like she was tying back the nagging conscience in her mind that told her she was insane for even talking to Tom Riddle.
Nevertheless, Ginny couldn't find the strength to do so, even though who he was, or maybe exactly because of who he was.
No matter how much she tried to deny what she felt after her first year ended, and even now, every time she thought about it, of how betrayed she felt during those summer holidays before returning to Hogwarts for the second year, there were days when she had missed the diary, because she knew deep within, he had been her first best friend, the one that would never share her secrets and make fun of her.
She had told him everything, even if they were insignificant things from someone with 11 years, they were important for her at the time. Now the problem began again; she became too used to him, dangerously fond of his presence. And she knew the risk associated with that from experience.
When Ginny finished eating, Tom made the dishes disappear into the sink upstairs, and began the process of opening the store. As Ginny watched him, she frowned. He was quieter than Ginny had grown to get used, and she began to feel anxious. 'Does he know? Did the Horcrux tell him anything?' She thought, feeling her throat tighten, constricting with fear.
The sound of the orders of the day exiting the fire made her jump on her sit. Tom made them float to the counter with a shift of his wand, placing them beside her and smiled, letting her know that now she would be responsible for the registration of the articles.
Ginny was relieved to see him smile.
If he thought something strange was going on, that there was something different about her and the story she had shared, he didn't show, making Ginny assume his silence had something to do with the accident he had during the night, or what had just happened in the kitchen.
The morning went by rather quickly because of the new task division, for Ginny it was doing something new and different, and for Tom because he could check more carefully some of the books that had arrived and think about what had happened before Burke came out of the fireplace.
It started with the fact that he had wanted to verify what had been the result of the healing potion whose recipe he had changed, to make its action faster, but the situation got out of hand. Now he was starting to feel uncomfortable when they touched as well, maybe not so much like her, but enough to annoy him. He was not the type of man to lose control, especially around a woman. But that moment had been different, with her so close that he had realised that she had sustained her breath.
Tom had never been so happy to see Burke as he had in that morning.
Trying to put the issue aside and failing again and again, even when he had to concentrate to reset the vampire's jaw to the rest of its skull without being bitten, his thought always went to the same place, and when lunch time came, Tom was almost convinced that the only solution he had was to use Legilimency on Ginny, because she would never voluntarily tell him anything.
Tom was about to block the fireplace from the customers when the fire changed its colour and a wizard came out of the flames. He was dressed in black, which emphasised his pallid skin, aristocratic features and blonde hair.
"Tom! I finally managed to come!" Said the wizard, walking Tom with an outstretched hand that Tom shook. "Abraxas... what brings you here? We're about to close."
"You, of course, I came to pick you up for lunch. We need to talk about this weekend." He said putting his hands in his pockets in a relaxed way and a big smile on his face obviously pleased to have lunch with Tom and the plans he had made for them.
"This weekend?" Tom repeated frowning in confusion, he didn't remember having planned anything with Abraxas in recent weeks.
"Yes, you're coming with me and I won't accept any other thing?" Malfoy said, towering over Tom and looking intimidating. "My mother will hate you forever if you refuse." He added.
"Well, fine then; let me just close the door." While Tom moved toward the door to close it and officially begin lunchtime. Behind him, Malfoy walk towards the counter when he noticed Ginny. "I didn't know someone new was hired." He said leaning on the countertop.
Tom approached the fireplace and picked up the pot with Floo powder. "Borgin hired her a few weeks ago, her name is Ginevra. Ginevra, Abraxas Malfoy." Tom said introducing them. Malfoy reached for Ginny and when she put her hand on his, he gently kissed it. "My pleasure." He said with a brief smile and turned his back to her, walking towards Tom and the fireplace.
Abraxas was the first to enter the flames, leaving Tom behind, who put the pot back in place after taking a handful of the powder. "Abraxas Malfoy... I don't think I'll ever forget him," snorted Ginny behind the counter, eliciting an amused smirk from Tom. When he disappeared, Ginny wiped the back of her hand on her skirt, trying to erase the sense of Abraxas' lips from her skin and feeling like she would surely develop some kind of rash from being touched by a Malfoy.
Taking a deep breath, Ginny stood up and started to walk up the stairs toward the kitchen, opening the door with more force than necessary, making Burke, still sitting in the chair where he had dropped hours before, wake to the sudden noise and almost toppling from his seat. "What!?" He asked with a growl, straightening and rubbing his eyes with both hands.
"I just opened the door too hard, I apologise." Ginny started walking towards the counter where they kept the bread.
"Where is Riddle?"
"He went to have lunch with a friend."
"Oh..."
Ginny decided, based on that sound, that it wouldn't be wise to be alone with him in the same room so she quickly prepared something to eat and disappeared into her bedroom, giving short and succinct responses to the small talk Burke was trying with her.
Sitting at a table next to a window with a view to the Muggle street, Malfoy shared with Tom how his work at the Ministry was going, the way he was again promoted, his distaste for the growing number of wizards with Muggle blood who were joining the workforce and rising into management positions, even in insignificant departments. Apparently, a wizard with two muggles parents and no single ancestor with identifiable magic on his line had managed to enter the Department of Mysteries, one of the most important ones of the Ministry.
Tom listened thoughtfully, Abraxas Malfoy, as the latest member of the Malfoy Family was quickly rising through the ranks of the Ministry, and the more he rose, the better the quality of the information he shared, either through the occasional meals they shared, or the constant letters they exchanged, always about how the wizard society would never be able to sustain itself if Muggle borns and half-bloods would keep being accepted.
Like Malfoy and him, there were more, much more, thinking like them. Tom's name circulated among them, drawing the attention of former Grindelwald supporters with his ideas and opinions, and other wizards that didn't see their interests reflected in the inclusive policies of the Ministry. Lately, his group had begun to call itself the Death Eaters, a name that made them feel united under a cause that would rejoice with death and the supremacy of the pureblood wizards, over inferior wizards and even Muggles. For Tom, it was a name that represented the set of wizards that could help him live forever in the perfect utopia he had imagined for the world.
They really only needed someone to guide them.
When they finished eating, the conversation dramatically changed its direction. "Your new co-worker, she seems to be quite friendly. What's her last name?" Abraxas asked, truly curious.
"I don't know." Tom answered, watching the Muggles across the glass, feeling bored.
"You don't know?" Malfoy was dumbfounded. There was rarely a thing Tom Riddle didn't know. "Then, from where did she come from?"
Tom began to feel strangely possessive about all the information he had about her, it didn't even seem like a good idea to share with Abraxas how he'd met Ginny. "Burke hired her to attract more customers or something like that, I think she will not stay for long, eventually his wife will find out... or she will just go away."
Malfoy started laughing. One of the witches he worked with was a friend of a friend of Mrs Burke and kept the room abreast on the latest stories involving the woman, who harnessed an explosive personality and temper, alas it was not daunting enough to keep her husband under control. "Well, if I had to guess I would say she was a Weasley."
"I also thought that!" Tom said, amused, raising his cup to his lips. "But though they were many, I think we should remember seeing her at Hogwarts, don't you think? But she also said she didn't attend to Hogwarts"
"I suppose so. Anyway, will she go with you to my Christmas dinner?" Abraxas asked, raising an eyebrow, a lurid smile lingering on his features. "Keep you company until lunch the next day?"
Tom looked at Abraxas frowning, processing what the other wizard was saying. "I'm not sleeping with her, Abraxas." he hissed.
Abraxas looked genuinely surprised, and a little shocked by Tom to be sharing a house with someone with Ginny's looks, who had left such an impression on him, and not be doing anything. "Odd." concluded Abraxas, making Tom roll his eyes. "Why?"
Tom raised his eyebrows and looked at Abraxas for a moment. "It's none of your business!"
"What!? Come on! What's going on between you two? Please tell me it's nothing so that I can invite her for dinner!" Malfoy blurted.
"Nothing is going on Malfoy; I'm just trying to keep a professional environment with her." Tom answered, completely in vain.
"Really?" Malfoy insisted
"Yes, Abraxas, really!" Tom stopped for a moment and looked at the floor, thinking. "Also, it doesn't feel quite right thinking about that, with her."
Malfoy frowned, looking at him curious, vaguely surprised for him to actually share something private. "Well, if you don't find her attractive, it's your bad. I'm inviting her to dinner, what do you think?"
Tom wanted to say that he would not allow him, that he didn't want him near her, that he would kill him if he laid a finger on her skin. "I don't really care."
"Alright then, well, anyway, I will be waiting for you at the manor around nine in the morning, I made arrangements with some of our friends and we're going to meet them on a new site in Oxford for brunch…"
Once they finished their plans to the weekend, Tom realised he was a few minutes late to open the store, hoping that Burke would have taken care of that by now. When he exited the fireplace of Borgin & Burke's kitchen, he found the division empty. There were dishes to wash in the sink, and Burke was no longer sleeping in the chair he had been sitting that morning, has he expected, so he started to walk downstairs.
"Mr Borgin, you're being extremely inappropriate!" Those words were the first thing he heard when he entered the store, followed by a laugh from Burke. Looking around, he could see the top of Ginny's red hair over a shelf. "If you don't leave me alone, I will be forced to defend myself!"
"I don't understand why I'm being inappropriate after I did you the favour of accepting you as my employee. I don't believe this is unreasonable of me at all," Burke replied, his voice husky with drink and anticipation. Tom wasn't sure if he should go to her side, or if he should head back up the stairs and wait for the result that would undoubtedly end with Ginny leaving the store, and end all his problems. But before he could decide, Ginny met his gaze, surprised to see him there, and made the decision for him.
"It is unreasonable because I'm in a relationship with Tom." She said turning her attention to Burke.
The wizard suddenly stopped smirking, and when Ginny looked at Tom, he looked at her incredulously, like he couldn't believe she had just dragged him into that mess, and in such a dramatically way.
Suddenly the store environment changed and an atmosphere of embarrassment and fury settled in: Ginny lowered the wand she had been holding at her side and Borgin lost interest in touching Ginny's skirt, the action that started all the trouble and led him to insinuate that he wanted more than to just touch her leg. He was not counting on what Ginny had just said, and he didn't want to risk offending the best employee that Borgin & Burkes had had since they opened the store.
Tom Riddle's help was synonymous with money, and if he went away, Borgin would kill him.
Tom, who had begun to slowly walk toward Ginny and Borgin, bypassing the shelves and showcases in order to take as much time as possible to reach the back of the store, didn't feel prepared for the role he would play when he reached them. He had only slept a couple of hours that night, Abraxas's news from the Ministry had left him a bit grumpy and now he had this mess on his hands, courtesy of his unruly assistant.
Meanwhile Ginny, still trying to balance herself on the stairs and stay away from Borgin, was blushing as she had not blushed since the first year at Hogwarts and the infamous Valentine's Day incident. She had just inadvertently placed herself in a relationship with Tom Riddle in the eyes of Burke, and probably of all with whom he would speak about it, she didn't even know who those people could be! On one hand, she did not feel much safer in a pseudo-relationship with Tom, than within Burke's clutches, but on the other hand what if this would compromise something in the future?
Ginny immediately began to think about the photograph that Borgin had been looking at with Kevedo, how Tom was accompanied by a girl... and Ginny suddenly felt paralysed. Was is it her?
Was she the girl in that photograph? It couldn't be her, it had to be someone else.
"Are you alright?" Ginny almost fell down the ladder when Tom's careful words broke the reverie she had been under.
Borgin was still holding the hem of her skirt when she started to get down the steps, almost failing one in the middle of a sudden nervous outbreak. When both feet settled on the ground, Tom pulled her against him, and they both looked at Burke. Ginny was still half lost in her thoughts, part of her attention focused on that morning where she heard the story from Borgin, and the other dimly focused on Tom's hand, pressed against her waist.
Ginny took a deep breath and focused on the present, she moved even closer to Tom, resting her head on his shoulder, put an arm around him and rested her hand on his chest, letting her fingers dive inside his vest, casually holding the black fabric.
"Yes, everything is alright Riddle." Borgin said, clearing his throat before exiting the store. Ginny took a deep breath and turned away from Tom, standing before him so she could look into his eyes, which were frustratingly blank.
Taking a deep breath, Ginny grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and began to shake him. "What the hell is wrong with that man!? Why did he do that?!"
Tom carefully detached her hands from his coat, holding them in his loosely, a cruel smile on his lips. "Ginevra, the question is not why did he do it, but why he hadn't done it sooner." Ginny raised her eyebrows, remembering that she had realised the fact that Burke would hire her for her looks, to get this job. "Thanks for your help, Tom." She said bitterly, but Tom was already walking back to the front of the store.
It was with some trepidation that Ginny received what Tom told her, that he would be away for the weekend. After what happened with Burke, she didn't particularly like the idea of being alone in the store.
It was true that she had spent the last weekends alone because Tom preferred to isolate himself in the attic and she had barely seen him outside the work hours. But that didn't stop her from feeling that way. She also doubted that Burke would approach her, now that he believed she was in a relationship with Tom.
Next day Ginny heard movements in the kitchen, and when she entered the room, hoping to find Burke doing something, she meets a man with brown hair elegantly slicked back, opening and closing the kitchen cabinets. Sitting at the table was an extraordinarily pregnant woman reading the newspaper and absentmindedly rubbing her swollen stomach. "Good morning." Ginny said, hoping to cause a good impression with who she assumed were the Borgins.
Mr Borgin stopped what he was doing and looked at her with piercing green eyes, transpiring authority and an attitude of whom was used to having what he wanted. He looked her up and down and turned his attention to the cabinets muttering something about Burke being an ass and ignored her. Mrs Borgin looked at Ginny over her newspaper displeased with what she was seeing, and with a click of her tongue she folded the newspaper and pressed it against her stomach. "You are the one called Ginevra, am I correct?"
Ginny raised one eyebrow, the tone revealing that the witch was starting a conversation that Ginny would not like to have.
"Yes." She answered politely.
"Well, Ginevra what? Or your parents did not give you any more names?" Ginny smiled at the other witch, an attitude that seemed to annoy her.
"Only Ginevra." She said, sitting down slowly in the chair closest to her and taking an apple from the fruit basket.
"Only Ginevra? So what is the "only Ginevra", doing at the moment? Let me guess! It's certainly not travelling in Germany to meet customers!" She said sarcastically, referring to the objectives that the store had with the advertisement for a new employee.
"No, I've been cleaning and re-arranging the showcases." Said Ginny starting to eat the apple, not looking particularly interested. After all, it was not her fault that Burke had hired her, and she was not going to let whatever Mrs Borgin was about to say affect her in any way.
"Cleaning." Mrs Borgin gasped "Cleaning? That's what we send out our elf four times a week to do! He can handle it! I can see what happened here! Unbelievable! That partner of yours is absolutely unbelievable!" She said turning to her husband.
Borgin turned back and shrugged. "Apparently, his plan did not go well." He jerked his head towards Ginny. "She's dating Riddle."
'Rude!' Ginny thought, seeing how easily Borgin ignored that she was less than two meters from him, and kind of scared about how that story travelled so quickly.
"That's a relief, anyhow!" The witch took a deep breath and rubbed her stomach. "I do not know if his poor wife could endure another affair! I hope that at least he has the barest trace of decency and stays away from her. I doubt that Mr Riddle would accept to continue to work here if he did such a thing... but even so, it is quite improper that you're living here." She said returning her attention to Ginny. "When are you thinking about finding your own place?"
Ginny looked at her uncomfortable with the suggestion, especially when there was nothing going on between her and Tom. "My own house? I do not know if I will work here long enough to need my own house, Mrs Borgin." said Ginny, finishing eating.
"I hope not! You can go downstairs and start your cleanings, we will be down soon." Ginny stood up slowly and started to exit the room. When she was leaving, an owl began to knock on the window, but Ginny was already downstairs when Borgin let it in.
Ginny was determined to have a good and pleasant day, even if the Borgins decided to try to force the contrary, Ginny would organize the most distant shelves from the front of the store, as far away from them as possible, and when it was time for lunch, she would go to the Cauldron to eat and then pass the rest of the afternoon at the Flourish & Blots reading. Perhaps dine again in the Cauldron, and then she would draft a letter to Dumbledore, asking how her pocket watch was doing.
She was standing in the warehouse, putting the leather gloves on when Borgin jumped the last few steps of the stairs, Ginny stepped backwards until her back hit the nearest wall. "Help my wife down!" He said running to unlock the door as he sent a spell against the fireplace making fire explode over the previous wood and new trunks floated to feed new flames.
"What's going on Mr Borgin?" Ginny asked taking the gloves off and leaning over the counter, had Tom done something?
"The Grimmts were arrested," Borgin said crossing the store, bypassing the counter and disappearing inside the warehouse. "Who?" Ginny asked loudly, to be heard inside.
Borgin suddenly appeared in the doorway, frowning and quite angry. "The Grimmts! One of those families who managed to withdraw from Grindelwald circles before he was arrested, but were accused of being among the main supporters of it anyway!" He said looking at her as if she was stupid. "The Ministry decided to review some of the cases around some families after they arrested Grindelwald and found parts that were not conducted according to the law. Tonight they sent an Auror squad to their home and apparently found a secret room full of correspondence with Grindelwald, pictures, books with his manifesto and a number of highly illegal objects." Burkes breathed deeply. "The Grimmts were the first, the Aurors should be starting to visit other wizards very soon, and that means that a lot of them will want to get rid of their most incriminating possessions before they arrive, they will sell everything for a third of the value!"
They heard Burke laughing from the stairs. "My little birds never fail me, Borgin!" He shouted from inside the stairwell. "I can smell the galleons we're going to make today!" The wizard emerged from the stairs, holding Mrs Borgin, who was smiling from ear-to-ear.
Ginny put the gloves on a shelf inside the counter, and at that moment the first customer came out of the fire, then another, and then another one. Suddenly Ginny found herself going up and down the stairs to the kitchen to prepare tea for the customers who were waiting to be served. Borgin and Burkes were working has fast has possible, buying most of the things that were brought to them, sending others to more specialized stores in the alley, no one left the store unsatisfied.
Ginny wondered if this had been the store's environment after the two deaths of Lord Voldemort.
The sun was already gone when they were able to close up the store.
Mrs. Borgin had given up shortly after lunch, her huge stomach requiring the body to rest even if the mind was not tired, and Ginny had replaced her, recording the new items under the guidance of the two wizards.
Ginny felt completely exhausted by the end of the day, disappointed that her plans for a comfortable afternoon at the Flourish & Blots had been ruined, and all she only had to show for it was some back pain. She practically crawled to her room and decided that at least she was going to eat out for dinner. Ginny was only a few pages away from finishing Frankenstein and it would make the perfect company for the meal.
The Borgins were sitting in the kitchen, a house-elf busy making dinner for his masters, and they ignored her when she passed by the table to enter the fireplace.
When Ginny emerged on the Cauldron, and entered the dining room, a large group was occupying a table and to her surprise, Tom sat at the head of it. It was a peculiar group, with wizards and witches of all ages and some with a questionable look. Malfoy was the first that noticed Ginny and got up from the table to go to her, calling Tom's attention to her presence. Abraxas put his arm around her and pulled her until they were next to Tom, who smiled at her. "Ginevra, I heard that you had quite a busy day in the store."
"A little, we just closed. You missed all the fun!" said Ginny smiling back while wrenching her grip free from Malfoy, crossing her arms over her chest and carefully observing the wizards sitting around the table. "Everything went well, but I'm completely exhausted!" She turned her attention back to Tom.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Let me introduce you to my friends." Tom said smoothly, rising from his chair and pulling her hand to rest in the crook of his arm.
As they walked around the table, and Tom introduced her to all those wizards and witches, Ginny felt increasingly tense and nervous.
She recognized some of the names, knew who they were, some who should be their age and had been Tom's schoolmates at Hogwarts, were in Azkaban since he killed Harry's parents, or their children were. Ginny realized with ice running through her blood, that she was being introduced to the first Death Eaters.
"Are you feeling alright?" Tom asked, watching her grow progressively paler. "Maybe it's better if you sit down." He said holding her tightly to make sure she wasn't going to pass out on him.
"Ginevra, do you want to have dinner with us?" Abraxas asked as he approached them.
"You can call me Ginny," she said, flashing him an insincere smile, "and I cannot accept the invitation... I don't know what's going on, I must be more tired than I was thinking." Ginny said putting her hand to her face, trying to be friendly, and ignoring what was going on in front of her. "I think I'll take the food with me and eat at the store."
"Are you sure? You can sit down here with me and Tom, I'll get you a chair." Malfoy turned on his heels to try to find an employee. Ginny put her hand on his arm to stop him. "No seriously, it's better if I go to the store." Ginny said goodbye to everyone but Malfoy gallantly insisted on going with her to help her search for a waiter to order dinner.
Tom informed her that he was going to return on the next day after dinner and turned his attention to the wizard who now Ginny knew was Goyle's grandfather, Draco's former bodyguard.
Ginny and Abraxas found a waiter and sat on the high stools by the counter, Abraxas asked for a firewhisky and watched Ginny over the rim of the glass. "So, Ginny, how is it to work at the Borgin & Burkes?" He asked, placing the glass on the counter.
"Until today, it has been pretty calm." Ginny said straightening on her bench to get away from Malfoy, who had a leg too close to hers. Ginny wanted to be friendly, but did not want to be friendly to the point where he would think it was okay to touch her, especially since she continued to be sure that the slightest touch from him would give her some horrible disease that would condemn her to live forever as an outcast from society.
"Oh yes, I heard about what happened to the Grimmts. A pity. Felix, the eldest son, and our friend." Abraxas pointed in Tom's direction with his glass. "Spent the day at the Ministry trying to figure out what happened and trying to get his parents' home before the night fall, but unfortunately they are still in Azkaban. They say the Aurors are still working, but we don't know yet if they arrested any other wizards."
"Surely we shall know soon enough." Ginny said, not feeling particularly sad by the Ministry to lock down that kind of wizards. Ginny had a vague idea that Abraxas had died by the time of the last war, but she didn't remember at all if he had lived long enough to see his home and son subjected to the same things the Grimmts were, she was sure he wouldn't be indifferent to that.
Abraxas finished his drink and ordered another glass. "Are you going to visit your family this Christmas?"
Ginny looked at him in silence. She would certainly spend Christmas with her family, if Abraxas knew how to work miracles. "I don't know. Why?"
"My family always organizes a dinner party on the 24th, Tom has been coming for years, and since you live with him, I thought you would like to make him company..." He murmured, hiding a smirk behind his glass.
Ginny looked at him, half-incredulous. It seemed that today everyone had taken their time to say the most ridiculous things to her. "Are you trying to ask if I'm in some kind of relationship with your friend that's less than professional?" She asked amused.
Abraxas lowered the glass. "Are you?" He asked raising an eyebrow. "He told me he wasn't, but now that I actually had a chance to have a g..." Abraxas cleared his throat. "I'm a little hesitant as to whether if he was telling the truth."
Ginny couldn't help but start laughing. She was surprised, Draco was an annoying idiot, Lucius was absolutely despicable, but Abraxas Malfoy? Ginny did not know what to think, but it explained a lot. "Then I can tell you Abraxas, it's true." Malfoy looked at her with raised eyebrows, and placed his glass down on the counter. "Really?" He asked leaning closer to her.
"Yes!" Ginny laughed again. "We had a fantastic romance for about two minutes in that day when you came by to take him for lunch." Abraxas rolled his eyes and looked at her sceptically. "Our boss was being kind of nasty and Tom arrived at the right time to save him from being hexed."
Abraxas finished the rest of the contents of the glass and asked for a re-fill. Ginny looked at the clock on the wall behind the counter, hoping they would bring her food fast because she was beginning to worry about the amount of firewhisky Malfoy was having.
"I see." He said sipping on the new glass. "But what about Christmas? The invitation still stands; you will be more than welcome." He said with a wink.
Ginny's dinner arrived at that moment and she got up from the bench and away from Malfoy, without giving him an answer.
"I will see you another day, Abraxas."
"I will include you on the guest list anyway, Ginny." Abraxas raised his glass and got up as well, beginning to walk back to his table, calling after her. "See you at Christmas."
Ginny gave a deep breath, and behind Abraxas she noticed Tom looking at her and Ginny waved, before taking a handful of Floo powder and disappearing into the green flames.
The next day, when she entered the kitchen to make breakfast, she found the Borgins at the table. They were nicer to her, probably enjoying the help she had given them the day before that had made her somehow look less useless in their eyes.
Their elf prepared her breakfast and they discussed the day before, letting them know they were going to have to revise the inventory during that day, to make sure everything was in order and organized to open the store the next day, because they expected again to have more customers than usual.
During the lunch hour, a customer arrived to eat with them, he was an important wizard with a good amount of items to sell. Ginny quickly realized that this was the wizard who kept a collection of Grindelwald personal items that Borgin had talked about several days ago, and as he was speaking, Ginny realized it was not a small collection with a few dozen objects, but that he had rented a house for the dark wizard and after his arrest he had kept everything, from his books to his hairbrush.
His interest in selling, was tied to the fact that the house was a secondary residence and the Aurors had recently found out about it.
Ms. Borgin asked Ginny to help her down the stairs to help her finish the store's inventory review, and let the other two wizards establish the terms of the deal. The witch didn't talk to Ginny more than necessary, continuing to look at her with some discontentment, but apart from that, she had made no unpleasant remarks about her being there.
Overall, the day went very well, and as it should be expected, it was not that way it ends. When Ginny finished helping Mrs. Borgin up the narrow stairs to the first floor and sit at the kitchen's table, the house elf had just served a small snack, and Ginny had to sat near Burke, which also had arrived, summoned by Borgin to help him complete the deal.
There, Ginny was informed that the customer would have to stay in the store for several nights, that they didn't know which or how many, but that she would have to abdicate the guest room to him.
"But... But then where am I going to sleep?" She asked scared, regretting that question when she got her answer.
"Given that you keep a relationship with Riddle, you might as well sleep in his bed in the attic." Mr. Borgin said, and Ginny, appalled, was at a loss for words. "You will move tonight."
Burke stood up and touched her on the shoulder for her to follow him.
Ginny followed him to the door of the guest bedroom and he opened it, stopped in the center of the room and looked around.
Ginny walked to her wardrobe, she still had the silly paper bag where she had carried her clothes from the Cauldron to the store. She didn't want to share the same room with Tom Riddle, and now that she finally had money, she decided that it would be wise to rent a room on the Cauldron until she could find a room or small apartment on the Diagon Alley.
She was preparing to open her wardrobe's door and begin to empty its contents with a spell when Borgin suddenly pinned her against it, his hands beside her head and leaning down so that he could look her in the eyes. "I couldn't help but notice that you don't seem to like the idea of staying in the attic with Mr. Riddle, which I find strange." He said with a smile straightening a little, but didn't take his hands off the closet, keeping Ginny stuck in the same place. "Are you sure that Riddle and you aren't just friends?"
Ginny put her hands on Burke's chest and pushed him forcefully away, "You're being inappropriate again, Mr. Burkin." Ginny said stiffly, gritting her teeth, as she reached for her wand on the back of her skirt.
"Inappropriate? I just want to enjoy my investment." Burke turned, approaching Ginny, but this time she did not move, she would put Burke in his place, even if it cost her the job and she had to join the Death Eaters to be able to keep an eye on Tom.
"I do not mind investing a little more to rent you a stylish place with a good view over London." Burke put his hands in his pockets and turned aside, watching over his shoulder to the bed Ginny had left undone that morning. "But perhaps I was mistaken about my impression, about you and Riddle, but I don't recommend that you stay anywhere else but the attic." Burke turned back to Ginny, an evil smile in his lips, raising his hand to touch her face, but before he did, Borgin called him from the kitchen.
Burke turned away from Ginny and left the room, looking at her with a smirk before closing the door behind him.
Ginny gave a deep breath to calm herself down and hit her wand on the palm of the other hand, making a stream of sparks come out of the tip. He was lucky Borgin had called him when he did, or else they'd have been picking up pieces of him off the floor when she was done with him. How dare he? Who did he think he was?
Ginny opened the wardrobe and took the paper bag that she had folded and store of the bottom, placing it on the floor. She tapped her wand on the clothes and they started to fly to the bag, disappearing on the inside, and she repeated the spell on the rest of her things.
A knock on the door caught her attention and she walked across the room opening the door with a jerk, making Mrs. Borgin jump with the sudden movement and rest a hand over her heart. "Oh... I'm sorry!" Said Ginny moving away from the door to let the pregnant witch, who was definitely not Burke, walk in.
"Burke told us you accepted to move in to the attic, because that's what you two were planning to do anyway." Mrs. Borgin said with an affable smile.
Ginny looked at her confused, the movement behind her stopped, which meant that the spell was over and the clothes were inside the bag and ready to be transported to the Cauldron.
"What?"
"You and Tom!" She said with a smile. "In a way I'm glad, he spends too much time alone in that attic, with his nose always stuck in those horrible books." Borgin walked around Ginny, grabbed her bag from the floor and returned to her side, putting an arm on her back to encourage her to walk. "Can you believe I once caught him reading about Inferis?"
"Oh... but I was plan-" The other witch didn't let her finish and instead took her hand and placed it on her enormous belly. Ginny took a deep breath when she felt the baby kick inside, completely disarmed with the moment Mrs. Borgin had decided to share with her.
"But as I was saying!" She continued after releasing Ginny's hand. "It's not natural for someone so young to spend so much time studying..."
Among complaints about Tom's lifestyle and stops to feel the baby kicking, Ginny decided she would never have children, it was obvious that Mrs. Borgin suffered from some severe hormonal fluctuations, because it wasn't normal that she had so abruptly stopped despising her.
Ginny was sure she would never be able to handle that kind of stuff.
They stopped at the top of the stairs, with the witch trying to open the attic door and complaining about the absurd spells Tom had used to lock the room. She was quite offended by the time she took a bunch of keys from her pocket and opened the door, complaining about his distrust, did he thought this was a house of thieves or something?
Ginny followed the witch into the attic, the night was clear and the moonlight streaming through the window created a vague colourful reflection on the floor. The room was impeccably tidy, it no longer had any trace of the explosion that had awakened her a few nights ago and Tom probably had gotten what he wanted, because a cauldron full of a silver potion bubbled gently on the desk.
Mrs. Burkes put the bag on Tom's bed and went back to Ginny, took her by the hand, leaning on her arm as they walked down the stairs. The rest of the evening ran smoothly, the house-elf got the guest room ready for its new occupant, made dinner that Ginny could not eat very well, and eventually Mrs. Borgin announced that she was very tired, which put an end to the night.
The Borgins decided to go home, Burkin invited the client to accompany him so that he could show him the guest room where he could stay whenever necessary until they completed the deal, and Ginny climbed the stairs resigned, not wanting to be in the kitchen when Borgin returned, and let him start his handsy nonsense all over again.
Morbid thoughts followed Ginny as she climbed the stairs to the attic that Mrs. Borgin had left open. The weather had changed and there was no light coming through the round stained glass window, leaving the interior dark and the door looking like a big open mouth, waiting to devour her.
Ginny entered the room and left the door open, walked across the floor and held her paper bag, which contained all her worldly belongings. She looked down the window and tried to think of what would happen if she decided to jump, and took a deep breath. She would probably break both her legs, which would greatly help Tom's life, because she would not be able to run when he decided to kill her after he found out what was going on, and that Mrs. Burke had been able to break his spell with a simple master key.
Turning away from the window, Ginny looked back to the room. She crossed the distance that separated her from the couch and heavily plopped down on the cushions, tightly holding the bag to her chest. She looked at the cauldron on the desk, and let herself get lost in the sounds of the potion slowly boiling in the inside.
Ginny would rather get out of there as soon as possible, Burke's threats did not frighten her and her did not care to let the expectations of Mrs. Borgin fall in relation to changing Tom Riddle's lifestyle, but she decided to wait for Tom, she knew he was not particularly fan of surprises, and would probably prefer that she was the one to announce it to him, that everyone in the store had taken seriously the micro-romance they pretended to have to dodge Burke, and that there was now another layer to the lie.
Hours went by until she heard Tom's footsteps in the hall. Ginny stood up and waited for him at the door, but Tom only realized that Ginny was there when he almost collided with her. "What..." Tom looked at her alarmed, then noticed the open door behind her. "How?" He asked frowning and looking at her suspiciously.
"Oh... it's a funny story..." Ginny said, grinning. "You're going to love it."
Tom put his suitcase on the foot of his desk and took off his cloak, resting against the wood while crossing his arms over his chest, and impatiently asking Ginny to start at the part of how she had gotten into the attic.
Ginny walked anxiously in front of him, as she told him what had happened during the day, still holding her paper bag to her chest, it didn't take long, but when she finished and looked at Tom, she was surprised to see him with a worried look, precisely the opposite of what she expected.
"What is it?" She muttered, starting to get worried about his reaction because she expected to see him angry or annoyed, not this.
"The other day, when you asked me if we used violence, I admit that I was not honest with you." Ginny waited, preparing for what Tom was going to say next. "Both the Borgin and I do not approve, but when sometimes things do not go as we want, Burke usually brings his Lethifold out to play." Ginny gasped loudly.
"What? He has one of those things?" She asked with a lump in her throat, mentally reviewing what she had learned about that Dementor's "cousin" that lived in the tropics.
"Yes, he has." Tom rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. "So, I do not think it is a good idea to try to go and upset him. I'm not sure, but I would bet a good few galleons that he would not hesitate to make you disappear just because you have refused the attention he wants. It wouldn't be the first time."
Ginny leaned forward, letting her head fall on to her knees. "But I don't want to do this." She said in a hushed tone against her legs.
"Don't worry, I don't really mind if you sleep on my couch." Tom lowered himself in front of her, trying to see her face, with little results. "After the New Year we break up, say that we we're not ready to share the same room and you can go look for a place to live in the Diagon Alley, without running the risk of being devoured by a Lethifold in the middle of the night."
"It seems like a good plan." Ginny said, looking up. "A month is nothing." Tom got up and walked away, giving her room to pull her legs up and lie down on the small sofa, her back to him, facing the cushion. "I owe you one, Tom." She said before putting the bag over her head upright and crossing her arms over her chest, pulling her knees up higher.
"I'll let you know how you can repay me." He said as he leaned over the cauldron to observe the potion.
"Awesome..." she mumbled.
Tom took off his coat and vest, putting them in the back of the chair and looked at Ginny, who was still looking completely ridiculous balancing the paper bag over her head.
It would be a very long month, and with what was going on in the Ministry, it would also be very busy. Putting the suitcase on his desk, Tom took the new book he had bought to read after dinner and charmed the rest of the contents and the suitcase to find their places. With a sigh, Tom started to close the curtains, dividing the two areas of the room and took one last look at Ginny before letting the fabric fall.
The sound of someone loudly banging on the door woke the two. Tom looked around him, it was still night and too early to start working. "What is it?" He heard Ginny talk on the other side of the room, hidden by the curtains, but he couldn't understand what the other voice was saying. "What do you mean?" Tom got out of bed, pulling the sweater he used to sleep forward by the collar and crossed the curtains, pulling its long sleeves to his elbows. "What happened, Ginevra?" He asked rubbing his face and blinking his eyes to try and focus on the wizard holding the wand with an active Lumos spell, stronger than necessary, behind Ginny.
"There are Aurors on the door." She said looking at him over her shoulder, confusion written on her face.
Tom looked from Ginny to the wizard who had occupied the guest room, and passed between them.
"It's best if you stay here." Ginny said to the wizard before following in Tom's footsteps to the ground floor.
When she caught him he had opened the door and was talking to one of the four Aurors, the one that looked like he was commanding the mission, with an authoritarian and assertive voice.
"As I said, without a search warrant written by the judge I cannot let you enter the store at this time of night." Tom said, starting to get annoyed and letting it show in the ice in his voice. "It is 4 in the morning, Mr. Borgin and Mr. Burke are not in the store and only they can decide to cooperate with you, I can't do anything, I cannot make a decision that may ultimately put my job in jeopardy. If you want to search this store without the presence of any of the owners, you will have to bring me a court order."
"We know you started to receive illegal products since Grimmts was arrested!" Growled the Auror, pointing his wand at Tom threateningly.
"Nothing in this shop is illegal, all our transactions are under the law," Tom responded coolly. "all our businesses are legitimate. The same parameters established in the last inspection of the Ministry, remain, nothing has changed. This is insulting."
"Everyone knows that Borgin & Burkes..."
"Borgin & Burkes act in accordance to the law, apparently the same law that the Aurors believe to be above of by coming here in such a late hour and try force search this establishment without having all the documents they need to do so. If you need something else, we open at 9am." Tom closed the door and turned his back to the four angry looking wizards outside.
"What was that?" Ginny asked, following Tom back to the attic, standing behind him on the stairs. The other wizard had sat on the last step while waiting for the two to return. "They wanted to search the store. It's something they like to do from time to time." answered Tom.
"I thought they had come looking for me." Said the other wizard stepping down the stairs. "I almost had a heart attack!"
"They may have been, they never exactly said what they wanted." Tom climbed the last steps and held the door, waiting for Ginny to pass. "Let's see what happens tomorrow morning, but I recommend that you will be ready to leave at any given moment." The wizard, looking paler than the night before, nodded and disappeared in the hallway.
Ginny sat on the couch and looked at Tom, that rested against the door. "I guess I'm not sleepy anymore." He said looking up from the ground to look at her. "If you want, you can sleep in my bed until it's time to get up. The sofa is a little small, and tomorrow you won't be able to help me if your back hurts." Tom crossed the room to his closet and took some clothes off, then disappearing into the bathroom.
Ginny got up from the couch, not really feeling like he was giving a choice, she accepted, he probably wanted to work in the potion still bubbling in the cauldron on his desk or something, so she decided to cooperate and disappeared into the curtains and lay down, pulling the covers above her head.
The sheets had his smell, it was still the same as she remembered, and she took a deep breath. After a moment she was fast asleep, lulled by the sound of water running in the background.
"Ginevra!" Someone was shaking her shoulder to make her wake up, but Ginny was not feeling particularly willing to leave the comfort of the bed, it smelled good and familiar, and she was relaxed and comfortable.
He was going to have to pull her by the feet or pour a bucket of water on her to make her get up. "Ginevra!" The same voice insisted, making Ginny turn, facing the celling. "Let me sleep Harry, what are you doing awake?" She grumbles, stretching her arms upward to find the person who was upsetting her and then rising from the bed to embrace him, pulling him down tightly.
"What the hell, Ginevra! Let me go!" Tom tried to free himself from Ginny's arms, who had made him sit on the edge of the bed and pulled his face to the curve of her neck in an attempt to silence the Harry she was mistaking him with.
Tom had tried to wake her, because it was actually time to get up, and he also wanted to show her what was happening on the street, the Aurors, as they had not been able to get into the Borgin & Burges appeared to have followed for the next store on their list, and had managed to take advantage of the time remaining until sunrise to search the other store. The owner was yelling at one of the Aurors, while the others put box after box on the street and it thought it was quite funny.
However, he couldn't deny that what was happening wasn't good, and how vulnerable she was right now, even if it was he who was trapped in her arms.
Tom was not a wizard to waste an opportunity, and the fact that she was asleep, was the perfect time for him to use a little Legilimency without getting caught. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting the tendrils of his mind touch hers.
The first thing he saw was a wizard with hair as red as Ginny sitting in a kitchen, but her attention was focused on the man he spoke with, he was about their age, short hair and as black as his but quite messy, he had green eyes and wore round glasses, an easy smile framed his lips. He guessed this should be Harry.
Ginny started walking up the stairs, the house appeared to have several floors, and a small eternity passed before she reached her destination, Tom noticed that with each step they climbed she was becoming increasingly smaller and younger.
When he entered what Tom assumed to be her room, Ginny had clearly receded to a memory of when she was younger. Ginny almost ran to the desk and picked up a black notebook that looked like his diary and sat on the window seat, opening it and beginning to write with a smile.
Tom was about to step closer, feeling that this notebook was more than similar to his than she had told him, but he got distracted when she started to caress the back of his head, braking the spell.
Not knowing what to think and deciding to leave it for later, Tom decided that enough was enough. He hold her arms and forced her to open them so that he could rose, and opting to give up on waking her up and just exit the attic. Before he got up, he looked back at her, noticing how her long red haired was spilled on his pillow and how it framed her pale face, she didn't even move when he rose, still deep asleep, her lips slightly open.
She looked like she belonged there on his bed, she looked inviting. He touched her face with the back of his finger in a curious, almost detached kind of way. Just as his finger had settled upon the arch of her cheek, she exhaled softly, her breath unsettling a lock of his hair. His pupils suddenly dilated in response to her warm, heady scent like a shark tasting blood, and he was seized by a furious, feverish urge to press his lips upon her open mouth, to consume, to steal the very breath she had breathed.
He shivered suddenly, unsettled by the forcefulness of what he had just felt. With trembling fingers, he gingerly pulled himself away and walked into the kitchen, away from the room, away from his dangerous thoughts, away from her.
He was reading the newspaper when Ginny walked into the kitchen. "So, is my bed better than the couch?" He asked without looking up.
Ginny sat down beside him and pulled the teapot pouring herself a mug. "Much." She said dryly.
"Are you alright?" He slightly lowered the paper and looked at her. "Are you sure you slept well?"
"Yes, everything is fine." Ginny rubbed her eyes and groaned. "I dreamt about my family..."
"Well, I'm sure that you're going to see them again shortly." Tom returned to his newspaper, actually feeling relieved that she didn't remember what had happened between them a couple of hours before.
He passed that time thinking about what he had seen on her mind, Ginny writing in a notebook that looked so much like his Horcrux. He had not forgotten what she'd said that other night, about having a similar notebook when she was younger, and what the Horcrux had said about her knowing what it was. It really seemed too familiar.
Regardless, it was an old memory, that he had seen through her eyes, it could just be a memory mixed with something else.
"I hope so." Ginny said with a sigh, slowly slipping down the chair. Then she straightened up and let her head rest on Tom's arm, and sighed again. "You're my only friend for now."
Tom looked at Ginny amused and surprised by her action. "I'm awfully sorry for that."
Ginny couldn't contain a laugh and straightened up. "I'll wait for you in the store." She said getting up and out of the kitchen towards the stairs.
The day passed quickly, Ginny was put in charge of processing the orders that arrived that morning, few, because of what was happening in the Ministry had scared the wizards who often did business with the Borgin & Burkes, and then helping Tom.
Tom kept busy with a steady stream of customers, not as many as in the weekend when Ginny had been alone with the Burkes and Borgin. The customers were bringing in more and more rumours about wizards being investigated, not just those who had had some connection to Grindelwald, it looks like they only needed to have been sympathizers with his cause.
Ginny dropped into one of the armchairs in front of the fireplace turning her right wrist, to ward off the discomfort left by a day spent writing. "I'm too tired to cook today, I'm going to get something from the Cauldron, do you want me to bring anything for you?"
"You can bring the same you're going to have." Tom said, rising from the armchair and reaching out to Ginny, who accepted the help to get up without thinking a second time. He felt relieved for some reason, that she no longer felt uncomfortable touching him.
Ginny disappeared up the stairs toward the kitchen to use the fireplace and Tom followed her soon after, to the attic. He took off his coat and put it in the back of the chair in front of his desk in the attic, opened his book and looked into the cauldron, making some notes on the potion that was still bubbling inside. Then he got up and took some other volumes from the bookcase, along with a file of loose papers, and returned to the desk, ignoring his surroundings while re-reading his notes.
Tom was startled when a plate suddenly appeared in his field of vision as Ginny placed the plate on top of the papers and smiled. "All set, Mr. Riddle."
"I could easily get used to this." He said putting away the book he was reading.
"Well, you could, but you won't." Ginny said, slowly sitting on the couch, careful not to drop her food. "What are you reading?" She asked, starting to eat.
"Quite boring things, you don't want to know..." he answered avoiding her question without looking up from his plate.
"Right..." Ginny rolled her eyes. "You really don't mind if I stay here?"
"Hmm?" Tom was distractedly chewing as he read.
"I asked if... never mind." Ginny observed him, despite him being there with her, his mind was obviously elsewhere, he made her think about Hermione.
She sighed at the thought of her friend, and thought about what her family was doing at her time. To think that they could be desperately looking for her broke her heart, but there was no way of knowing what was happening in the future.
Again focusing her attention on Tom, he would probably like to talk with Hermione if he could ignore the fact that she was the daughter of Muggles, of course, but her friend was the best student Hogwarts had since Tom had finished school, they certainly had a lot to talk about.
When he finished eating, she got up and headed to Tom's desk, picking up his dish that was balancing on the edge of some books and placed it over her own, she went to the kitchen and washed the dishes.
Burke was sitting at the table with the wizard who had occupied her room, but apart from a brief greeting, they didn't exchange a word.
Ginny made tea, taking the two mugs to the attic, leaving one at Tom's seat, who absentmindedly muttered a thank you and put hers on the floor beside the couch.
She crossed the room and pulled a chair against an empty wall, transfiguring it into a small dresser, then proceeded to empty her paper bag on Tom's bed to short her clothes and store them in the new furniture. Opening the drawers to confirm that everything was in the right place, Ginny pulled out her clothes for the next day and decided she needed to shower. She left her clothes on the couch's arm, took her mug and closed the bathroom door, turning the key in the lock.
The room was bigger than the one that was adjacent to the guest room downstairs, but was not as elegantly decorated, it was in fact quite simple. Ginny pulled the grey curtain that was hiding the tub and turned on the hot water, dropping some bath salts to the bottom, she looked around for a place to put her towels, but the only one available was the small sink counter, and it had some of Tom's things on it.
Ginny moved the blade that he used to shave and his aftershave to the other side of the sink and put down her towels, then she couldn't resist but opening the small dark green glass bottle. It smelled good.
The tub was filled with water and Ginny slowly sat down, breathing hard when the almost boiling water surrounded her body. Small pieces of foam raised from the water and began to float around her, and Ginny almost felt at home while closing her eyes, sinking deeper into the tub. It was so comfortable…
The next thing she knew she found herself sitting in the tub, with Tom's hand resting on her back, choking on water. He patted her back to help her lungs to expel what was inside, and pulled a few strands of hair behind her ear, while watching her carefully.
"Ginevra, please try not to die in my bathtub." He said sarcastically, keeping a straight face as he stood up.
"What happened?" She managed to ask between coughs.
"I had a feeling you might've done something stupid."
"What?" She looked at him, confused.
"It's what I just said, you were in here for ages, I knocked on the door and you didn't answer, so I came in, sat you down and you started to cough out all the water you inhaled."
Ginny looked at him in horror, absorbing what he said, processing what is actions meant "I promise I will be more careful next time I take a bath." Ginny said hoarsely, holding the bathtub edges with trembling hands, feeling embarrassed and only wanting him to get out.
"I hope you do; I'm not feeling like researching what it means to have another wizard own you his life more than one time." He said, turning his back to her and walking off.
The door shut with a muffled sound behind Tom and Ginny took a deep breath.
She got up, shaking from being in the now freezing water, and wrapped herself in her towel holding to the cabinet, trying to calm down.
Tom Riddle had saved her life. She was indebted to Lord Voldemort. She was in debt over the stupidest thing ever.
Pulling her pants up her legs, and dressing the thick sweater she wore to sleep, Ginny opened the door to the other room. Tom had closed the curtains, dividing the attic in two areas, but raised the fabric for a moment to observe her, to make sure she was okay.
"Thanks." Ginny said.
"You are... welcome." Tom said letting the fabric fall.
Ginny walked to her couch where a thick dark green blanket waited for her, thanking the Universe for the fact that he was dead in the future.
Ginny groaned when Tom opened the curtains the next morning, leaving the light that lighted his side of the room enter hers, filling the division with colourful reflections. Tom put his hands on his hips and bent over her with a smile. "Good morning Ginevra, I am pleased to see that you also have survived the night."
"Tom, let me tell you that I consider all people who wake up in a good mood very creepy." Ginny mumbled groggily, rising from the couch, red hair pointing in all directions, looking at him with an eye half-closed and a frown.
"The day is too short for such things." Tom said, sitting on the couch, which forced her to draw up her legs, while he pulled his shoes, tying the laces with quick movements. "We have things to do, get up." Tom gave her a quick pat on the knee and rose, disappearing through the door.
The day may be in fact short to wake up slowly and properly, but it was why to long for a work day. The Ministry continued to review criminal processes, they said the Grindelwald itself was going to be judged again.
But more important than that, this was also the day that Ginny remembered again that she was in 1946.
They were a few minutes away from closing when a tall, thin wizard emerged from the fireplace. He was dressed in light colours and moved arrogantly, he had small blue eyes and a big nose, as if to make up for the difference.
"My client sent me to inquire whether this store would be interested in these objects." He said in a sharp tone approaching the counter, eventually putting a box on the top, not bothering to compliment them.
Tom left the warehouse, pulling down his sleeves and dressing back his coat, greeted the wizard and pulled the box to him.
Tom began removing the objects from inside the box: potions, smaller boxes, a notebook, among other things. Ginny looked at Tom, who watched every object with a raised eyebrow, impressed by what he was seeing.
"Who is your employer?" Tom asked, beginning to arrange the objects inside the box as he looked curious to the wizard.
"Madame Hepzibah Smith." He said with reverence. "And she would like that someone went to her estate, because she has some objects that she would like to have evaluated, which are too delicate to carry out outside the manor."
Ginny started to pull on her fingers, recognized the client's name, how could she not when she had spent a few fun minutes with Harry trying to pronounce her name properly, between kisses, when he was telling her about Tom Riddle's story.
There was no way she would ever forget it.
Hepzibah Smith owned Slytherin's locket, the locket that Tom would turn into a Horcrux with Smith's death, and it looked like it was going to happen soon.
Very soon.
A/N: Kudos to my beta Sinsinnatus from Tumblr!