A/N: Shortest. Stupidest. Chapter. Ever. But if I'm going to move forward, I need to get SOMETHING uploaded. So instead of the full chapter I'd planned for you all, I offer this. Better writing will be found in the next chapter, I promise.

Ginny was still on the couch hours later. She'd fallen asleep to the sound of the rain outside shortly after her father had left. All she seemed to do lately was sleep, but rarely could she remember her dreams. Maybe that had something to do with Tom.

She was still half-asleep when she heard steps coming down the stairs. She rolled onto her side and opened her eyes into small slits, and saw the blurred form of Harry, standing on the stairs. He saw her on the couch and hesitated. She yawned, stretched her arms over her head and sat up, forcing a smile for him.

"Hey, Harry."

"Hey Ginny," Harry said, waving awkwardly at her. "How are you?"

She shrugged. "Okay, I guess. Want to sit down?"

Harry nodded, stepping off the last stair and walking over to her, sitting beside her. Neither looked at the other. "You know you scared us yesterday."

Ginny nodded, frowning. "Sorry."

"What happened?"

"I just..."she swallowed hard. "Needed some time away. You know?"

Harry squeezed his hands into fists. "I know. Still...you should have told someone."

"I know."

"And at least changed into some robes."

"I know."

Silence descended on them.

"Hey, Harry..." began Ginny, turning her head towards him slightly though her eyes were still locked on his feet.

"Yeah?"

"There's something I've been wondering about..."

Harry turned to Ginny, now trying to meet her eyes. "What is it?"

"About – about what happened in the Chamber."

Silence now, the heavy kind that weighs down on you, makes it difficult to breathe.

"Why?" asked Harry slowly.

"I – I've been having nightmares," she lied. "About what happened. But I don't know what's memory and what I'm just making up."

She looked up in time to see Harry's lips purse together and his green eyes turn to the ceiling. "Why do you need to know?"

Ginny sighed. This wasn't going well. She wasn't sure what to say in response – why did she need to know?

"Maybe if I know what's real and what isn't, the nightmares will stop."

The heavy silence descended again. Harry sighed and leaned back against the cushions of the couch. As though she wasn't acting suspicious enough...

"Fine," sighed Harry. "How much do you want to know?"

"All of it," she said instantly. "Every detail."

As Harry began to speak, talking about how Ron and he had found the writing on the wall, Ginny's mind began to wander a bit. She listened for any hint of what might help her, but at the same time she tried to process everything.

Tom Riddle, somehow, lived in her head. And Lord Voldemort remembered everything she'd experienced with the diary. And Tom had said he might have…could have…fallen in love with her. Oh God, was that hard to think about.

"So wait…" she said suddenly. It took her a moment to realize it was because something Harry had said confused her.

"What?" asked Harry.

"You and Tom talked before he attacked you?"

"Yeah."

"What could you possibly have talked about? Me?"

"A little," shrugged Harry. "He just told me how he'd used you through the diary, something about putting his soul into you. Mostly he just wanted to gloat about his being Lord Voldemort."

Ginny nodded and let Harry keep talking, though she'd grown pale. He'd put his soul into her. To Harry that just meant that he had possessed her…but to Ginny...

Could he have left some of his soul inside her? Was that what had happened? Could this be the answer?

But then…if this was the answer, then what was the solution? How was she going to get rid of Tom?

You can't be rid of me, Ginny darling.

Artificial: Please review, it keeps me going!