Potter47
Part One
Living Inside
"In reality, we are still children.
We want to find a playmate for our thoughts and feelings."
Wilhelm Stekel
Chapter One
Hide and Seek
The air in the Burrow was more than tense that warm summer morning--it could almost be mistaken for mere humidity. Almost.
Ron had expected to make an unobtrusive entrance as he stepped into the kitchen, and that was very nearly an accurate prediction. He smiled to himself as he closed the door behind him--no one seemed to be awake yet.
Then he spotted the plates on the table--they were left with the remains of half-eaten eggs. Ron narrowed his eyes--Mum would never let plates stay half-empty on the table, they would either be cleaned up, or, more likely, she would force them bodily down the throat of the attempted food-shunner.
Where was everyone?
And, for that matter... why weren't they asleep?
Ron was getting a little worried now, and so he took out his wand.
He crossed the kitchen, half on tip-toes. He leaned into the stairwell with an arm on the rail, and looked up the stairs. Cautiously, he began to ascend, step by careful step...
And all of a sudden, two red-haired wildebeests stampeded down the stairs.
They very nearly collided with Ron, then came to a screeching halt.
"Ronniekins, get out of the way," said Fred.
"You ought to be more careful," said George. "We could have knocked you down the stairs."
"Nice hat," said Fred, grinning for a moment before he sobered once again. Ron reached up and felt Luna's lion hat on his head--he had forgotten it was there.
"Get out of the way, Ron, we've got to inspect the kitchen."
"What?" said Ron. "You mean you've got to find something to eat--"
"No," said George. "We've got to inspect the kitchen."
"For what?"
"For whatever it was that knocked Ginny out."
"WHAT?"
The twins blinked.
"Oh, yes."
"I'd forgot."
"You didn't know."
Ron looked from one to the other. "What happened to Ginny?"
The twins shrugged.
"Nobody has any idea. One second she was all right, and then mum and Harry said that her chair just blew over backwards like there was a big gust of wind--"
"Harry? Harry's here? When did Harry get here?"
"Yesterday," said Fred, and the word hung in the air for a minute. Then: "Boy, you've missed a lot."
"Like what?"
"You'll find out," said George. "But for now, help us comb the kitchen."
"No," said Ron, "I'm gonna go see Ginny. She's in her room?"
"Yeah."
And so, now that the wildebeests had cleared out, Ron made his way up the stairs, taking off his hat and leaving it on the step.
He shook his head: What on earth did I miss...?
Cold. Very, very cold. Freezing. Stone. Hard stone. Cold, hard stone.
Her eyes opened. Had they been closed? She couldn't remember. Something felt odd.
Ginny looked round–no, no, no, no, no, no, not now. Not again.
Everywhere she looked, there was the cold–the cold, tall, stone pillars that were the very pillars that held her up and forced her downwards again.
An enormous statue rose at the back, she knew, and she did not have to actually look to see it was there. It was there. She knew it was there. Just where it always was, at the back of the chamber.
The Chamber.
The Chamber of Secrets.
"Do you want to play hide and seek?" came a familiar voice, so familiar that it was sickening. It was her self–not herself, but her self–the self that belonged to her.
"Hello, Ginevra," said another voice, very smooth, very cold, like the floor.
"Do you? Do you?" said the first, and Ginny felt her vision clearing. Had it been blurred? She couldn't remember. Something felt odd.
Ginny saw her selves, the selves that belonged to her, the selves that she had created, the selves just before her eyes–the selves with her eyes...
"Why am I here?" Ginny asked finally. "Again? Why am I here again?"
"You hit your head hard, Ginny," said the boy, the image of Tom Riddle, the evil inside. "Very hard. In fact–"
"Who cares about that?" said the girl, the eleven-year-old Ginny, the picture of innocence. "Let's play hide and seek!"
"Will you shut up?" said the boy. "This is no time for games." His expression changed slightly, to a small smirk. "Or is it? Is not this whole thing a game? A struggle between opposing forces? Now is the time for games, but not for children's games–for the most important game of all."
"What are you on about?" said Ginny, and her head was hurting. Aching. When had it started aching? She couldn't remember. Something felt odd.
"Don't you see it, Ginny?" said the boy. "Don't you feel it?"
"Feel what?" said Ginny, and she did feel something, she did feel the unbearable silence of the Chamber, she felt an ache in her head, and she felt precisely what words her self was going to say next:
"It is...beginning."
Ginny blinked, and then, she felt it. Something different. She felt it in her toes, that little feeling where they curled up upon themselves and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"What is beginning?" asked Ginny.
The boy smiled Tom's smile.
"The final act," he said. "The last, glorious movement of this symphony of ours... Can't you see it? Can't you hear it? That change in the beat of your heart, in all of your hearts?" Ginny shivered. "That shiver right there, I saw that." He smiled.
"What are you talking about?"
Tom ignored her question.
The girl spoke again, Little Ginny, and she sounded different: "Please, Ginny. Let's play hide and seek."
Ginny found herself nodding, and her self grinned.
"Close your eyes and count to thirty," said Little Ginny. "Come on," she said to the boy, to Tom, and he followed, his eyes on Ginny as he disappeared into the darkness.
Ginny put her hands over her eyes and started to count.
"One... two... three..."
What was that?
"Four... five..."
A rustling.
"Six..."
"Oh, my Ginevra..." said the smallest voice, at her ear.
"Seven... eight..." She tried to ignore the voice, but she shivered again.
"Play nice," said the voice at "ten," and she thought it must have been Tom's, so she peaked--but he was nowhere to be found. Whose was it, then?
"Eleven, twelve, thirteen..." she sped up, wanting to be done with this. She didn't like that voice one bit. It had seemed so foreign. Wasn't this whole Chamber in her mind, and so everything in it was just different parts of herself? Wasn't that how it worked...?
That voice was no part of her, she knew that for sure.
"Twenty-nine... thirty!"
She swallowed.
"Ready or not, here I... come..." she said, rather more limply than she'd intended.
And she began to seek.
Come Out, Come Out!
"Oh love, look at you now
You've got yourself stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it."
Paul David Hewson
Coming Soon
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.