Chapter Two- Ginny Weasley

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Fifth year had just ended for Ginevra Weasley and she was very excited to see her parents again. She loved Hogwarts as a second home but nothing compared to living in the Burrow. She loved her mothers cooking and loved being able to see all of her brothers. But the thing she loved the most about being home in the Burrow was the absence of the two separate beliefs that incensed so much violence in the hallways of Hogwarts.

The Slytherins believed in Salazar Slytherin and the truth that has been passed down for years in their families. She had been told of the story that the Slytherins believed in during her first year at Hogwarts. Tom Riddle had tried to impress on her the fact that Gryffindor was wrong the entire time he had possessed her. Riddle had explained that the only reason she was forced the strangle chickens and petrify students was because the rest of the world would expect it. Once Dumbledore knew that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, he would expect the children to be attacked because that is what had happened in the stories.

In Tom's words, "that old fool Dumbledore expects trouble from the Slytherins. If we don't give him that trouble he may start looking deeper into our actions. The last thing we want is for Dumbledore to realize that we do not blindly follow the biased rules forced upon us by the Ministry. Nor do we want him to see the hidden things we do behind the façade of Slytherin cruelty. It does no harm to us to go out of our way and give the old man what he is looking for when it keeps him out of our deeper business." That was why Slytherins would live up to the image the world presented them as until the world realized Gryffindor's folly.

The Gryffindors and the rest of the school all believed in the tale that Godric Gryffindor wove. Her family was one of the staunch believers in Godric Gryffindor. Since she had been very young her mother had told her the story of how Godric Gryffindor had single handedly removed Salazar Slytherin from Hogwarts and attempted to erase all Dark Magic from the world. Ginevra had been told about the Death Eaters and how they killed people for fun and, while she had been sitting on her father's knee, Ginevra had learned about the Malfoys. She learned about how evil they were and how they enjoyed death and torture. The Malfoys were the perfect example of a Death Eater family.

"Stay away from the Slytherins and especially from the Malfoys."

But the diary, with Tom Riddle's memories written into it, had told her that Lucius Malfoy had given the diary to her. Tom had told Ginny about why she had been the one to receive the knowledge locked away inside of the dusty pages.

She was a Weasley and Kertos Weasley had been one of the original four Slytherins. Kertos's grandson, Ronaldus Weasley had abandoned the loyalty held in such rapport by all Slytherins and had turned himself over to the lies in Gryffindor house. Ginny had balked at the idea of one of her ancestors belonging to Slytherin house and had rushed to the library to check her old family records. Kertos Weasley was not in the books. Ronaldus Weasley was the first Weasley to attend Hogwarts and he had been sorted into Gryffindor from the first moment. He had never even thought of becoming a Slytherin. Tom Riddle was finally showing his true Slytherin colors by lying to her. Her father had told Ginny that Slytherins had a penchant for lying.

When Riddle had politely asked to control her body for a half hour so he could sneak her into the restricted section where the true records were kept, she had complied, believing that her parents were always right and that no one would dare tamper with the Hogwarts school records.

When Tom let Ginny have control of her body once again, she had found herself holding a dusty tome that was slowly deteriorating. It was open to the page describing the lineage of the Weasley house. She looked to the founding of Hogwarts and found exactly what Tom had told her to exist. Her ancestor, Kertos, had been one of the four original Slytherins and his grandson Ronaldus had been a turncoat. She had been so shocked that she had not resisted when Tom had forced her to call up the Basilisk and tell it to petrify Mrs. Norris.

Rowena Ravenclaw herself had written the book therefore it had to be the truth But why did her family not know?

Ginny remembered asking Tom why had she been given the diary? He had given his usual smirk and told her that the Slytherins wanted to bring a Weasley back into their fold and she was the only one they could obtain. Ron was friends with Harry Potter and would not believe anything the diary told him. They had been worried that the twins might destroy the diary in one of their experiments. Percy was immovable in his beliefs on what was right and good. The rest of the family had already graduated from Hogwarts so were inaccessible. She had been their only choice.

Ginevra was sorted into Gryffindor house in her first year because of her will alone. The sorting hat had begged to place her in Slytherin, explaining that she was loyal and Slytherins were loyal.

"You are very much like the first of the Weasleys my dear," the hat whispered into her head as she sat on the small three-legged stool. "You have loyalty and you have a stain on your soul that speaks of the torture that all Slytherins have been forced to endure." She had told the hat to place her in Gryffindor and the hat had allowed it on the condition that she keep in mind that she would be better served in Slytherin.

Now, every day in school was a reminder of what Tom Riddle had told her. She could see herself as a proud Slytherin, holding her beliefs tight to her body as a shield that kept out the rest of the world's hatred. But she was a Gryffindor, sorted into Gryffindor house by her own choice and by her family's beliefs. Could she turn her back on her family?

Harry had destroyed the diary and Ginny had kept her mouth closed about what she had learned. As far as everyone else was concerned, Tom had used her body to get into the Chamber but had not left any knowledge inside of her mind.

There was no one to tell her which story was right or wrong either. If she asked her family she would be told only about Gryffindor. The facts that she had discovered that night deep in the restricted section of Rowena Ravenclaw's library spoke against all that her family told her.

Ginevra could not go to a Slytherin for help because they would only tell her the story they knew. She could not tell if the Slytherins knew the truth either.

Ginny stepped off the train, collected her trunk, and walked up to the barrier between platform nine and three quarters. She stopped at the other end and looked around for her parents and her brothers. They were at the far end of the station so she grabbed a trolley and began to wheel her belongings over to her parents. As she passed her fellow students she could not help smiling. They were all jumping into their parent's arms, getting hugged and kissed and smiled at.

Ginevra passed the two Malfoys and her smile dimmed. Draco Malfoy looked up at his mother and nodded regally. Ginny could almost see Draco's hidden need to smile and hug his mother. It was almost as if they felt that they must hide their true feelings from the rest of the world.

She could not think on that any longer because her mother grabbed her in a big hug.

The summer passed quietly and Ginny was not given any answers to her questions. All she could truly think about were questions her parents did not need to know about.

Questions about which story was right and whether the Malfoys were really evil. After all, the last time she had talked to a Malfoy, Lucius had been cordial and very polite.

It had been during the ordeal in the Department of Mysteries. She had been separated from the rest of the DA members and was in a dark room by herself. A Death Eater had been chasing her and she had ducked into this room, hoping for another exit. There was only one door in the room and that was the door she had just gone through.

She turned and started to cautiously walk back out of the room. Before she could get through the doorway a tall man, his face hidden by his white Death Eater mask, pushed her back into the room. He hissed at her and pointed his wand at her head. Ginny had her own wand trained on the Death Eaters chest but she was very aware that she was alone and was not nearly as strong as the man in front of her.

The Death Eater laughed cruelly at her frightened squeak and preformed expelliarmus before she could do anything. Her wand flew out of her hand and landed on the floor behind her.

The Death Eater laughed again with an empty, hollow sound in his voice and pulled off his mask. She gasped. Lucius Malfoy was standing in front of her, a grimace running across his cold features. He stepped towards her and she took a quick step back.

"Why me?" She asked, looking up at the blond man standing in front of her. His angry face softened into a small frown.

Malfoy seemed to understand that she was not asking why he had his wand trained at her face with the clear intent to murder her. She was asking why the diary and the information held within it had been given to her. Lucius slowly lowered his wand.

"You were chosen because you are the last Weasley of this generation who has any possibility of understanding what the non Gryffindor believers are suffering through. Our intentions and methods may not be pure but our cause is. We kill to make a point, Ginevra, not for fun." He grimaced. "Not ever for fun." He looked back towards the door, gauging how much time he had left before they were discovered. "You never get used to the killing, not really." He sighed. "After a while your body becomes numb to the idea."

"Then why do you kill?" Ginevra asked in a small voice.

He turned to look at her, piercing her in place with his hard gray gaze. "What would your family think if suddenly the Death Eaters began to help people? If Voldemort could be seen planting roses and smiling at all of his friends? What would you think of us?" He shook his head sadly.

"You have been told of the horrors of Slytherin house, Ginevra. You know the stories. Since the founding of Hogwarts every one who had graduated from Slytherin house has gone on to hurt people and take advantage of people all of their lives, right? We are all the evil creatures who crawl out of Hogwarts to harm others!

"If we were to suddenly turn around and let all of our feelings show, not just our anger, you would believe that we were plotting something. Even if I saved your life at my expense, your brothers would never believe that I had not hurt you in some way. Don't you understand? We are simply living the way the rest of the world tells us to. We cannot be nice and happy like your family, not in the public eye. We are Slytherin and we know the truth. If the rest of the world wishes to continue with their lie, so be it. There is nothing we can do to erase a lie that has festered as the truth for centuries." He smiled slightly and pulled his Death Eater mask back on. "I expect to be in Azkaban by tonight and I will have broken out of the prison by the end of the summer." He turned and began to walk out of the room. "It is the life I am supposed to love." He whispered. "Why do I hate it so much?" He was gone, back into the fight between good and evil, but which side was really good or evil anymore?

That is what Ginevra wanted to know so badly.

Towards the end of the summer she made her first slip. Her parents had been proudly boasting that the Weasley family had been members of Gryffindor forever. There had never been a member of their family who had not been in Gryffindor.

Ginny had been sleeping peacefully on the couch, happy that she could let her parents debate about the turmoil inside of her mind for a few minutes. He mind was slowed with sleep and her reactions dulled by her peace of mind.

"What about Kertos Weasley?" She sighed. Her parents turned to look at her with a strange look in their eyes.

"I've never heard of him before. Ginny dear, where did you find this name?" Her father asked with a confused look crossing his aging face.

Ginevra's mind finally began to catch up with her mouth. She quickly began to cover for herself. "Oh, I just read about him in History of Magic class. He was a Weasley who pretended to befriend a Slytherin to help his family survive a harsh winter."

Arthur Weasley seemed to believe her story since he moved on to another subject to discuss. However, the twins came to her room that night to talk with her.

"We don't know how you found out about that story." Fred said with a hard look.

"But it would be better if you didn't mention it to our parents." George finished with an equally strong stare.

"How do you know about it?" Ginny asked.

"We snuck into the Slytherin common room the first night back to Hogwarts one year." Fred said with a smile.

"Yea, we figured that their guard would be down since it was the first night back and all." George cut in.

"Anyway, they were just settling in to hear a story about a certain Salazar Slytherin when we got in. We heard the whole thing."

"How can you cope?" Ginny asked quietly. "I don't know which side is right and which side is not. I can't fight for the Order if they are really the one's that are wrong and I can't fight with the Death Eaters. I don't want to loose my family." She sank onto her bed and held her head in her shaking hands. "I don't know what to do with my life anymore."

Fred and George walked over to their sister and held her in their arms. "Whatever you decide," George whispered into her red hair.

"We will be with you the entire way," Fred finished.

"Follow your heart, sister of our blood." They both said in unison. "We will follow you with ours."

They left her then, knowing that they were not the ones who could wipe away her tears and confusion.

School had returned soon after and Ginevra had almost been glad that she could escape from her parents and their Order. The pressure to conform to their beliefs was almost overbearing. Ginny knew that she could never belong to the Order, not after the Chamber incident. Not with what she knew. Instead she just smiled and nodded at her mother and father, knowing inside that they would be disappointed in her once they found out about her indecision.

Ginevra sat at the Gryffindor table that night, knowing that she did not really belong in Gryffindor. She sat next to her bother and endured his talk about Order plans and his slurs against Slytherin. Ron finally went quiet when Dumbledore stood up and began his usual speech about the general rules of the castle. Dumbledore began outlining a plan where twice a week four children, one from each house, would get together to do homework. Dumbledore hoped that this would improve the strained relations between the four houses.

Then, Draco Malfoy had stood up. "If you believe that we will immediately forget the injustice done to Slytherin and fall on our knees asking for retribution, you are sorely mistaken. We will continue to hold onto our ideals until you see the truth, Professor. There is no possible scenario that will convince us that the lie you live is the truth we believe. Please, do not force us to pretend that we are like you and your beliefs. We are Slytherin and we know the truth."

Ron and Harry had started shouting at Malfoy as the boy turned and began to walk out of the room but had fallen silent in shock when the rest of the Slytherin table, even the bewildered first years, had stood up to show their support of their leader. Draco Malfoy may not have had the same views as the rest of the school but he had just shown the world that he was the leader of Slytherin house. Slytherin house stayed loyal to those of Slytherin.

Ron, Harry, Hermione and most of the other Gryffindors began to whisper and wonder. They had no idea of true loyalty. They only knew about friendship and bravery, Gryffindor's to the core. Ginny remained silent, choosing to keep her jaded views on the situation to herself; not that anyone would have listened to her anyway.

As soon as dinner was over she ran from the whispers and the talk to the one place that she was sure no one would believe she would return to. Moaning Myrtles bathroom and the old Slytherin common room was the one place that Ron and his friends would never think of searching for her.

Unfortunately she had only been there for a few minutes before she heard someone else pushing the door to the bathroom open. Ginny hid in a stall, hoping that whoever it was would leave quickly.

She waited for five minutes but the person refused to leave. Instead she tried to quietly open the stall door and sneak out of the bathroom.

The door squeaked. She froze and slowly peered around the door. Draco Malfoy was standing in front of her, wand out in one pale hand, waiting for her to come out of her hiding place.

He was smirking at her, almost as if he expected her to run screaming. She did not even think about leaving the bathroom. Instead she went to join the blond by the sink.

He lifted one sculpted eyebrow at her in surprise and she could not help smiling a little. "Your father does that too," she said quietly. He looked confused for a second but quickly hid his emotions behind a mask of indifference. "Your father lifts his eyebrow too." She explained.

Malfoy shrugged and turned away from the girl. "What are you doing here?" He asked gruffly.

Ginny giggled. "You are in a girls bathroom Malfoy. I think I should be the one asking you that question."

He sniffed and ignored her. "Malfoy," Ginny sighed. "What do you think I should do with my life? I know both sides of the story but I don't really know which is the truth."

"You are Ginevra Weasley," Draco said quietly. "You only have to be you. A story of the past should not effect how you live your life. This is the present. Live here and now, not in the past." He stood up and turned to face her. "Until you decide that you are ready to return to Slytherin, do not expect kindness from me." He walked out of the bathroom and let the door slam behind him.

"Return to Slytherin?" Ginny whispered, leaning heavily against the sink with a sad sigh. "No, I will not feel sorry for myself. Not anymore! I am Ginevra Weasley and I will show the world who I really am. No more Tom Riddle, no more Harry Potter. Their ideas will not influence my decisions any longer." She stood up and smiled brightly. "The past is over. I will live in the present and I will make sure that the present knows my name!"