a/n: In this chapter I rip myself off again, but since it's my writing I'm stealing, it's not plagiarism...right?
The writing here isn't amazing in the slightest. I was going to take more time and make this longer, but I'm afraid if I wait too long I won't update at all. So. Here we go!
Ginny woke to the sound of a stream rushing by her, and birds chirping over her. She was lying on a bed of soft green grass and the world smelled sweet and fresh...
She was outside.
Her eyes opened suddenly, and she leapt to her feet. It wasn't a dream! She was outside, somewhere unfamiliar. She was still dressed in what she'd been wearing to bed, but at her feet was her broom and the folders containing Lord Voldemort's records.
"What did you do?" she spat. "You...you..." she couldn't speak. Being possessed had been her worst fear since her first year at Hogwarts, when Tom Riddle had possessed her through the diary.
I summoned the records and your broom to your hands, and then I made you apparate. You won't find your way home unless I guide you. I won't guide you until you read.
She looked at the stack. "But that'll take all day!"
Start reading, he suggested.
Ginny walked over to the stream and knelt beside it, then splashed cold water on her face. It didn't wake her up. Still, it felt nice, so she splashed some on her arms, too, and then behind her neck. "How am I going to explain this to my family?" she wondered.
The very least of your problems. He seemed more impatient then ever. What was the urgency in her reading those records? What was it he wanted to happen from that? Now, more then ever, she felt like she was falling into a trap.
"I could find my way home on my own, I don- ahhh!" she gasped as the sudden pain in her head returned. She splashed her face with the cold water again and again, and when that didn't work she submerged her head in the water. Nothing. She pulled her head out, caught her breath and sighed. "Okay! Okay. I'll read them."
The pain disappeared instantly. Ginny crawled to where the records lay in the grass. She wiped her face dry with her sleeve, and then reached for one of the folders. Flicking a bug off the edge of it, she opened the folder and pulled out the papers inside. The top was some sort of coversheet reading 'TOP SECRET – RECORDS of THE DARK LORD'S DIARY'. She turned the page.
These were handwritten accounts, with the date on one side (the first reading SEPTEMBER 1993) and paragraphs on the other. Some of the paragraphs were long and detailed, some a couple lines long stating only basic facts. But it was immediately obvious that this was a day-to-day account of what Tom Riddle's memory had experienced through the diary. How Lord Voldemort knew any of it, she did not understand.
Ginny took a deep breath to steel herself, and began reading.
SEPTEMBER 1993 – A girl began to write in the diary. Ginevra Weasley, called Ginny by her family and friends. She complained that she had no friends, and that she thought her brothers would ignore her and Harry Potter wouldn't notice her. My sixteen-year-old memory found this opportunity to learn more about this time and his future self's fate, as well as perhaps gain power. He introduced himself and became Weaseley's confidant.
Ginny closed her eyes tight. She did not want to do this. She did not, she did not...she did not want to have to go back and relive all that awful time. Her first year had scarred her more than anyone really understood. She'd been possessed! And now to have to relive it through her possessor was...a nightmare.
But she had no choice. She opened her eyes and skimmed what lie ahead of her, and realized that Voldemort had changed pretenses a lot while recording. It went from talking about his memory to talking about himself a lot. He was probably too wrapped up in the memories to recognize...
She swallowed hard and continued reading, skipping the few she'd already skimmed, hoping the Riddle in her head wouldn't mind.
Weasely writes in the diary about how she has to come to school with secondhand books and robes because her family is poor and has many children, and she is the youngest. I am sympathetic and charming as usual...
Ginny skimmed forward again, knowing there was no way she'd finish all this before sunset if she read every word. Mostly because she'd get too angry and throw the records into the stream.
Weasely talks more about Harry Potter, my memory requests more information about Potter and why he is so famous. She tells him that Potter defeated 'You-Know-Who' (after pushing hard for clarification, she explains, 'The Dark Lord', and after more pushing, 'Lord Voldemort') as a baby. She tells the story...
Most of the entries she remembered, her complaining about how Harry ignored her or her brothers teased her (the bits about Fred making her blood run cold) or how afraid she was she wouldn't make any friends or be bad in her classes. But some were insights...
Still the Weasely girl, complaining about her life. Attempting to figure out a way for her to hand the diary over to Potter while attempting to draw out her secrets to feed off of.
There was more, her talking about her jealousy of Hermione being so close to Harry though at the same time Ginny had wanted to be friends with her. Little secrets, like how she was just as afraid of spiders as Ron was, though she'd never admit it to anyone else. And then came the darker things.
Another secret, one that I could actually feed off of. Weasely's worst fear is to be abandoned by her family, by everyone she cares for, left alone to suffer alone, perhaps falling into madness. How delicious this fear is!
Ginny shivered reading this. Her life now was that fear come to life. Her family may not have purposefully abandoned her, but not one had noticed that something was terribly wrong. And she'd felt herself going mad, before she'd realized it really was the ghost of Tom Riddle in her head.
A ghost is one who is dead...have I ever claimed to be among the dead?
Ginny silenced him by continuing reading, though now she skimmed through as quickly as she could.
The Weasely girl's best secret seems to be how powerful she is. Talking to her about some of her classes she seems much more advanced than a first year...
...Little Weasely admitted that when she was younger she'd sneak into her brother's rooms and read their textbooks in eager anticipation for when she'd go to Hogwarts. My memory kept thinking of his own short wait before going Hogwarts and how impatiently...
...Ginevra
HE'D USED HER FIRST NAME.
That bastard had used her name! As though they were friends! Why would he do that? Why would Lord Voldemort use her name, when –
Read! Tom commanded, and she had no choice but to obey.
Ginevra and I talked about our favorite stories today. Her's is a muggle fairytale called Cinderella, where...Ginny decided to skip the story, and instead wonder why he bothered to record it...I didn't have one to tell, so she began telling me a new story each night so I – my memory- could find a favorite. My memory is not so annoyed by this, since it stops her from complaining about her own life...and perhaps one or two of the stories are interesting.
Ginny fought her gag reflex and continued.
Ginevra told me about her day as usual, only this day seemed more centered on that Potter boy than usual...I can't wait until I can get my hands on him...I feel more anger at the thought of him...
Ginny skipped forward, skimming the next few pages without them really registering.
Ginny –
"Ginny?" she exclaimed aloud. "Why the hell-"
READ.
Ginny tells me her favorite memories of childhood, such as learning to play Quidditch with her brothers and her father showing her his collection of mudblood items. She seems fascinated with those filthy mudblood things, the way they do things without magic. Foolish girl, doesn't she realize how precious her pure blood is? She wants me to tell her what it was like growing up in the muggle orphanage. I weave some lie about...
Ginny remembered the lie well enough and skipped over it, as well as the next few entries into the record. She passed quickly by his first explanation of his possession of her, turning a page or two forward quickly.
As mudbloods fall prey to the 'monster in the Chamber', Ginny is becoming more and more frightened. Though I am amused, something about it bothers me. Likely the fact that she doesn't understand what noble work is happening.
Ginny continued flipping through the pages, wanting to get away from the possession. Tom doesn't seem to mind this, as anxious as he is for her to read these records.
Just as my memory realizes the possessiveness he feels for Ginny Weasely, the fact that if he still had a soul he would likely fall in love with her –
The next thing Ginny knew, she was on her feet with the records flung as far from her as possible. The papers slowly drift down through the air, spread across the grass in front of her.
Ginny stood staring at them drifting downward, trying to catch her breath though she couldn't remember losing it.
"No," she gasped.
Pick them up.
"No," she insisted. "I won't. I don't believe it. It's a trick."
Pick them up and finish reading them.
Ginny swallowed hard, and shook her head. Her heart was racing. "I can't do it."
You can and you will. You must. Finish them!
Ginny was shaking, but she managed to slowly walk over to the largest pile of papers and fall to her knees. She slowly collected them all, then found the last few pages.
My memory refocuses his priorities, and sends Ginny into the Chamber. As he gains his body and she slowly dies, he talks to her of little nonsense things, pretty magic he knows and how the world will be better when the muggles are...
Ginny didn't want to read this part, but she forced herself to anyway. It told the story of how Harry came to rescue her, Tom revealed himself as the young Lord Voldemort, then the subsequent fight and defeat of Riddle. But nothing is listed that seems to reveal anything about her current situation.
My memory self is destroyed by Harry Potter. Once I am resurrected in the graveyard where my mudblood father lies, I remember the whole of the event as though it had happened to my actual sixteen-year-old self. Something compels me to be certain Ginny Weasely still exists...and then I decide to write these records and forget.
Ginny closes the written account and glances at the other records – containing a drawing of the Chamber of Secrets, instructions for how to enter it, how he'd created the diary – but doesn't pay much attention. Riddle doesn't seem to feel the drive for her to continue reading anymore.
"...Is that it?" she asks. "I thought the answer was in the Chamber of Secrets. I don't understand."
But I do.
Ginny sighed as she gathered the records against her. Then, struck by inspiration, she let them fall into the stream and watched as they flowed far away from her.
"Can I go home now?"
There's no answer, but there's also no voice stopping her as she picks up her broom. When she takes to the air, Riddle only gives her basic directions back to the Burrow. And Ginny is grateful for this small blessing; she doesn't want to think about those certain lines in the records more then she has to now.
Artificial: Please review!