'Hello? Who's there?'
Harry eyed the Diary below him, a feeling of dread rising in his gut, glancing back at the now sleeping Ginny. Innumerable thoughts raced through his mind, endless theories on what the Diary was and where it came from. Dismissing his rapidly panicking thoughts he glanced down at the Diary, the words that had appeared rapidly faded, fresh ink rising up to replace them.
'I know you're there.'
Eyes widening he slammed the diary shut and immediately thrust it into a drawer in his potions' desk, instantly casting the most advanced locking charm he was aware of on it. He slumped to the floor, his heart pounding erratically in his chest. He didn't like this at all. He didn't think that Ginny would outright attack him, not outside of the training room at least, even if she was angry for him being late it just wasn't like her. He knew she was a bit of a hothead at times simply from spending so much time around her, but some of those curses were ones she shouldn't have even known, he had recognised several as pretty severe, capable of permanent damage in fact.
The words the diary had wrote to him also further complicated matters; the book obviously had a degree of sentience to it.
He looked over at Ginny's now prone form once again and began pacing. It was pretty likely that the diary might be holding some sort of sway over the girl's actions. The potential for manipulation with something as private as a diary was vast, diaries were something one opened their hearts to; it was an extremely worrying thought that someone may have had complete access to Ginny's heart for any period of time.
He growled slightly at his own thoughts. There was an article coming out tomorrow and Ginny seemed to have been talking to a sentient book, it was possible the two could be related. The possibilities for further sullying his reputation would be endless if all the actions he'd taken since the start of term came to light, especially with the sheer number of potential spins they could put on the information.
He paused in his pacing looking back at the girl. He had his doubts that the book had been planted by a reporter, the chances of a reporter attempting to get Ginny to outright harm him were significantly lower than those it having been planted by someone with a more malicious purpose. There were plenty of people who would be more than willing to try and pin something on the members of the Weasley family, pretty much any past or present death eater held some shreds of resentment against the light oriented family, whether it be personal or simply in out of principle.
Of course if it had been planted by someone with malicious intentions they might go to reporters anyway about whatever they discovered, the fact that Harry Potter had been teaching what some could consider dark arts to the sole daughter of the Weasleys would have certainly been interesting information to earn someone a decent amount of galleons.
There was of course always the possibility that she had simply purchased the diary herself to use totally unaware of the fact it may be sentient or capable of facilitating communications with another and this was all a terrible accident.
Deciding that pondering the various possibilities to himself was not going to result in anything positive for the time being, he decided that he better wake the girl and ask her directly. Deciding that it would be best to avoid a potentially violent situation he picked up her new wand and pocketed it before casting 'Incarcerous' upon her, causing a number of thick ropes to bind her in place. Deciding it was likely to be safe enough he pointed his wand at her again and muttered 'Rennervate'.
"Tom?" Her words came out panicked and fearful.
"Easy there Gin" Harry put a hand on her shoulder causing her to flinch slightly, "Harry?" She blinked owlishly "What was I doing..?" She paused frowning upon recognising the fact that she was bound "Why am I tied up?"
Harry frowned at the girl; loss of memory was not a good sign. At least she was coherent enough to ask about the ropes. "Ginny, what's the last thing remember?"
She grimaced at his question "Getting back here." She paused, hesitant to continue. It took but a glance at the sombre expression on Harry's face to get her talking again. "I was angry, angry that you were taking so long. So I started writing in my diary about you." She tore her eyes from his and spoke the last words in a low tone "…writing to Tom."
My diary. Writing to Tom. Harry did not like the way this was sounding at all. "Ginny, how long have you had Tom, the diary?"
She glared at him "What do you know about Tom?" he matched her glare with one of his own, triggering her into continuing, apparently realising the seriousness of the situation "The diary was in one of my defence textbooks, the Lockhart ones I got second hand." She rolled her head on her shoulders stiffly, uncomfortable in her bindings. "I thought it was just a blank diary, so I started writing in it. And well, it wrote back." She looked up at him a vulnerable expression "I started writing in mid-August, he was so nice! I wrote about my worries about being sorted and he constantly tried to boost my confidence, kept telling me my family would love me no matter what…" She trailed off staring at Harry with an unreadable expression.
"He's always written back? No matter what time you wrote?" She thought about it briefly and nodded. Harry's eyes briefly flicked to the drawer he had placed the diary in, it seemed likely the book itself held the sentience rather than acting to enable communication with another. He wasn't sure if that was better or worse than the other option. "Do you remember what the last thing he said to you was?" He asked.
She looked thoughtful "We were talking about you, I was… I was complaining about you taking so long." She blushed feeling rather childish for her admission. She frowned remembering something. "He seemed angry that I hadn't written to him in so long, I think the last time I wrote was the day before the train, I've been so busy." She trailed off. "I told him about you teaching me extra defence." She looked up at him a fearful expression "He just kept writing about how I was a fool – I swear I could hear his voice – and that I should have been going to him for power."
Harry nodded. He felt like he may be poking a snake nest with a stick with his next question but asked it regardless. "Do you remember the diary telling you to 'hurt him'?" he put emphasis on the final two words and found that Ginny looked thoroughly confused, which he assumed meant she didn't remember it happening. He gave her a few moments and was rewarded for his patience when a look of comprehension grew on her face.
"I remember, he told me to hurt you for ignoring me, multiple times. I felt like I had to do it." She shifted within her binds shivering and Harry took that moment to release them, feeling relatively sure that she wouldn't immediately try and kill him at the very least, instantly she moved into a position in which she could hug her knees tightly "It was like, I felt really happy. And there was a whispering in the back of my mind, telling me that Tom was right, to do what he told me." She curled closer into herself and Harry found himself automatically wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders as she sobbed and shivered.
Harry glared across at the drawer now containing the diary, it sounded like it was using the imperius curse on her but that was unlikely, there was every chance however that it was enchanted with some variant that acted upon anyone writing in diary. What better way to violate one's privacy than for them to let you do it of their own free will?
He shook his head in disgust. "You're not using the Diary again." He shot her a firm look, which instantly put her in mind of McGonagall.
Ginny sniffled and shuddered involuntarily. She pushed herself closer to Harry and murmured into his chest. "Yea, I don't want that to happen again." Her voice lowered to but a whisper. "I don't want Tom controlling me".
-=S-S=-
They ended up spending a long while in the same position, no real conversation was carried out between them, Ginny needing only the reassurance that Harry was there for her. After about an hour Harry roused Ginny from the light sleep she had drifted into in order to discuss plans for the Diary with her.
"I'm going to show Snape the diary." He noticed immediately that she was giving him a dubious look and shook his head chuckling at her. "Your family really have you convinced Snape's the devil, huh?" he grinned wickedly at her.
She blushed slightly and responded in kind. "Well in their defence, he is pretty terrible to the Gryffindors." She paused "Not quite as bad as he was made out to be I suppose, but still." She shrugged slightly.
Harry nodded conceding her point, "Yea, he really seems to enjoy taking house rivalry to the extreme at times." He shook his head remembering the various times Snape had specifically target Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom in his own classes, granted they were the two worst students outside of Crabbe and Goyle, but it still was a pretty poor reason for borderline bullying.
Dismissing the idle tangent, Harry steered the conversation towards the Diary once again. "Snape's an expert on the Dark Arts. He may be a certified potions master too, but his true passion lies in Defence and the Dark Arts themselves." He paused, glancing over Ginny briefly to ensure he could move on to the subject of what had happened to her. "The feeling you had sounds a lot like the Imperius Curse. The problem is you can't tie the Imperius to inanimate objects, so it's either a variant I've never heard of or something else entirely."
Ginny nodded feeling somewhat overwhelmed, she vaguely knew that the Imperius was an unforgivable but she was not entirely sure on what it did. She felt rather unsettled about the fact that Harry was seemingly able to instantly identify one of the unforgivable curses from just a few symptoms.
"Why do you know so much about the Imperius?" Ginny's voice betrayed her worry to Harry quite clearly.
"I've researched quite a bit into most of the unforgivable. They're the favourite spells of quite a few of our housemates' parents," He paused a look of disgust briefly crossing his face, "I wouldn't like to be caught unawares by one of our housemates mimicking their parents if they thought they could get away with it." There was an undertone of disappointment in his voice that Ginny totally missed.
"Oh, ok." Said Ginny, finding she felt rather silly for asking at all.
"Anyway, I've had some news." Harry steered the conversation towards more important subjects. "Did you read the 'news' about me last year in the Daily Prophet?"
Ginny frowned, there'd been a period where every other day there had been an article decrying everything Potter. It had been believable enough at the time, and had certainly prompted her to reassess her blind obsession with Harry Potter. In the end she had wrote a number of letters to the various Weasleys in the school and asking their opinions of the boy.
The response she had received had been surprisingly varied between each of her brothers. Ron was convinced he was the next Dark Lord, she couldn't help but suspect he might have been one of the anonymous interviews that had apparently been carried out with students in Harry's year for the various articles.
The twins had opened with jokes about her still harbouring a crush despite him turning out evil, but had rapidly grown serious. They believed there was some serious bullying going on across all the houses, Harry had taken a rather extreme reaction to one of their pranks and had fired off numerous curses at them before collapsing in what looked to be a panic attack.
She had never brought up the fact she knew this with Harry, the twins had implied it was a highly private thing between them that was never really brought up, they had even had her promise to only mention it if she felt she really needed to, they didn't want to breach his limited trust. They had spun it off at an angle to try and imply they were simply glad to have some help with pranking the Slytherins, but the fact they had clearly grown attached to the boy was quite obvious to her regardless.
Percy had been the least useful. He had simply fired off a number of facts about him. He was Slytherin but he didn't get along with his house, most of the other houses seemed to at least hold a distant resentment towards him, and the boy had spent a startling amount of time in the hospital wing compared to most first years.
She assumed that the twins and Percy had the more accurate answers and in the end she had started questioning what she had been reading in the papers. Something that hadn't sat well with her mother when she mentioned not being sure of how accurate the articles were; her mother had convinced herself to believe the worst of the articles and had warned her to be careful when she got to Hogwarts at least once daily during the months when the articles were being published. It had god old rather fast.
Ironically enough it had been her time spent writing to Tom that had cemented the idea of making up her own mind on him in her skull, whenever she brought up the subject of Harry Potter or the Hogwarts houses Tom had simply told her that there was always more to people than their House traits. He had regaled her with stories of his own friendships with every house, the fact he had eventually revealed he was a Slytherin himself after so many hours talking to him made her hold hope of Harry being as 'nice' as Tom was.
She felt rather sickened at the fact all her interactions with him had apparently been little more than a set up towards a stereotypically Slytherin backstab, she feared what he may have had planned for her if he had managed to control her without being interrupted.
She shuddered remembering the feeling of him taking control; it had been disturbingly pleasant, almost peaceful. She grimaced internally, she imagined if she hadn't been interrupted by Harry she could have ended up writing to Tom himself about her odd feelings. Something told her she didn't want to know where that course of action would have taken her.
Of course despite her best efforts she had ended up somewhat fearful of the boy, despite reassessing him she found her mind still asked 'what if the articles are right?' when thinking about him. Regardless of her initial doubts he had quickly managed to help her feel at ease in his presence, the fact he had instantly acted to help her from the second she was sorted had went a great deal to helping with this. As it stood, she found she felt safer with him than even her brothers; it was an almost startling realisation, especially considering that he had proven several articles correct with his willingness to perform and teach her the 'Dark Arts'.
She turned to face the boy she had found herself dependant on. "They called you all sorts, basically branded you as the next You-Know-Who."
Harry chuckled "Precisely." He'd assumed she'd have seen them, but he did have most of the articles on hand, souvenirs of a sort. "I've been told there's a new one being published in the morning, an article about both of us."
She gave him a fearful look "What are they going to say about me?"
Harry frowned, truth be told he wasn't positive on what the exact contents of the article would be. "There's a number of ways they can spin it. They can make your family out as trying to sell their daughter to the next Dark Lord for some money or influence." He paused considering "They can make it seem like I'm manipulating you, a good and proper Weasley girl, into being my servant or whore or some such nonsense."
He paused and gave her a pointed look. "It depends on who they talked to really, chances are that it's Malfoy and his 'friends' as it so frequently was last year, you might want to warn your family that you are about to be collectively painted as immoral dark wizard sympathisers willing to do anything for money." His eyes bored into hers for several seconds before he asked the question he felt he desperately needed to, "Have you actually told the rest of your family you're a Slytherin yet?"
She winced at his directness, she had been putting it off for quite some time, the fact that her brothers had simply told her mother that her sorting had 'gone well' simply encouraging her to delay the inevitable.
"No, I've not told my parents, or my older brothers." She grimaced at her situation, she needed to contact them as soon as possible. She doubted that her mother reading about her being a snake and a whore in the papers would do much good for their relationship, especially after she had spent so much time warning her of Slytherin entrapment. She shuddered imagining the howlers she would receive.
Harry shook his head at her reaction to the idea of writing to her family, he knew her mother could be vicious with her words but she was still her daughter. "Write them a letter, my owl Hedwig should manage to get them to your parents before the paper goes out."
She pouted, doubtful at the idea of her managing to explain everything in a letter in a way that would not result in a howler, but nodded anyway. "Ok" She pulled herself up off the seat, blushing deeply, suddenly intimately aware of the fact she had woke up using Harry as a pillow.
She grabbed a piece of paper and a quill from her supplies and began writing, trying to emphasise that the twins and Percy were being supportive and that the articles were simply wrong about Harry. It took her a long while to finish what she considered a relatively mediocre letter but she supposed it would have to do, anything would likely be better than what the Prophet would be publishing. She read it through and prayed that her mother would listen to her pleadings to not send a howler, she assumed that the public and the student population's reactions would be bad enough without her mother adding fuel to the fire.
"I'm ready." Her words caused Harry to jump, he had been poring over a tome which didn't seem to bear a name, slipping in a torn piece of parchment as an impromptu bookmark he nodded at the girl. He briefly checked the time and was pleased to see they still had a few hours until curfew.
"Right then, let's head to the Owlery." Harry made for the exit and held open the painting of Derleth for Ginny allowing her to pass.
They passed undisturbed through the suddenly silent common room, not one of their housemates went to greet or disturb them, Ginny was consistently impressed with how much they seemed to fear Harry's control over the dorms with parseltongue.
-=S-S=-
The journey to the Owlery itself was mostly silent; Harry was in an odd mood and seemed to spend his time in a half daze pondering something unknown to her. She supposed that it was likely about the diary, she felt rather depressed about current events. Her presence had brought with it the diary which was currently causing problems and a resurgence in the press that had died down almost a year ago.
She wondered how comfortable Harry really was with the idea of another article going out, he hadn't given much away with his reactions so far and she wasn't sure how much of that was because of him focusing on her problems before his own and how much was him coping with the idea.
Upon arriving at the Owlery Harry was immediately greeted by a rather large Snowy Owl swooping down upon him and landing on his shoulder before beginning to peck him fervently. Harry simply started laughing and calling out placations to the bird while Ginny stood by watching bemusedly.
"Calm down girl, I've missed you too!" A huge grin had overtaken Harry's face upon the owl landing on him. He turned to Ginny, freshly calmed owl perching on him elegantly. "Ginny, I'd like you to meet Hedwig."
Ginny tilted her head at the owl, who was giving her reproachful look and she ridiculously found herself feeling nervous for the creature's approval. "Hello Hedwig, you're a beautiful owl."
Hedwig hopped along Harry's shoulder to stare at her and after a few seconds let out a hoot of approval.
Harry grinned widely at Ginny "Seems she approves of you, count yourself lucky." He gestured for her to come closer while idly feeding Hedwig a treat.
Harry turned to Hedwig, "Do you feel up to delivering a letter?" At her hooted response Harry smiled and gestured for Ginny to come attach her letter.
Hedwig looked expectantly at Ginny who passed across her letter. "Take it to the Burrow girl." She almost whispered, stroking the owl gently.
Harry smiled, overjoyed to see that his first real friends seemed to approve of each other. "Let's head back; we never did get around to training." Suddenly remembering the wand he had earlier pocketed, he pulled it out and handed it back to the girl "Here, I think I can trust you with this again."
"Thanks." She smiled graciously and took back the wand. She hadn't asked him about its absence upon noticing it on the way to the Owlery, fearful of him refusing to return it, she was glad to see that he trusted her again despite their earlier ordeal.
-=S-S=-
Several hours of training later Ginny found that she felt extraordinarily glad to have her new dragon-hide robes, Harry was going all out on her and she found herself dodging and taking hits from everything from pain and cutting curses to outright elemental magic. She was thoroughly singed, drenched, pummelled and windswept by the time their session was through. She felt even more exhausted and dirty than she had in any of their previous sessions, she found it far from pleasant experience, especially as they weren't even finished yet.
"You never take it easy do you?" She grumbled to him as he undid a particularly violent outburst of boils on her wrist.
He simply shook his head smiling sadly. "Do you think anyone who actually attacks you will take it easy on you?"
Ginny simply sighed, she knew the logic behind it but that didn't mean she had to like it. "Still, you don't need to be a bastard every time."
He smirked at her "You're right, I don't, but what'd be the fun in that?"
She scowled and hit him lightly with her good arm. "Git."
An unprovoked memory came to her of Diagon Alley, he had yet to explain the cryptic remark Mr Ollivander had made in regards to his wand having a brother. "Hey," Harry looked at her expectantly, having finished clearing up his spell damage to her "You said you'd tell me about your wand."
Harry sighed and swore under his breath, he had been hoping she'd forgotten about that in the rush of events since Diagon. Slowly and carefully Harry began his story "When I got my wand Ollivander kept saying how it was very 'curious' that the wand ad chosen me." He paused handing across his wand to Ginny, she was shocked by the show of trust but took it gratefully. "Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches." He paused searching his memories for the exact specifications and smiled to himself upon remembering, looking at his wand fondly "Nice and supple."
Ginny idly gave it wave and was both amazed and startled into letting out a brief 'eep' when a small number of red and gold sparks shot out the end of the wand. Harry raised his eyebrows at her quizzically, mentally filing away the anomaly of his wand seemingly accepting her before holding out his hand for it and taking it back from her.
"Apparently, the Phoenix that gave the feather for the wand gave one other, just one. It ended up in a wand of Yew at thirteen-and-a-half inches." He waved his wand lazily, sending forth the same sparks he once had in Ollivanders some twelve months ago, mentally comparing them to the ones Ginny had fired seconds prior.
"Mr Ollivander told me that he would be expecting great things from me. Apparently the brother wand belongs to Voldemort," Ginny shivered at the name but didn't protest its use as many would "He told me that he expected great things from me. Because after all Voldemort did - as Ollivander phrased it – great yet terrible things."
"You-Know-Who's brother wand," Her eyes were quite wide "I see." Ginny's look of shock quickly transformed into a pensive expression. "Would having the brother wand mean anything? I mean, he's gone right? What difference does it make if he's dead?"
Harry snorted at her words, "He's not dead, Gin. Dumbledore told me that much last year, he believes he's out there severely weakened from attacking me and biding his time until he can return to power." He paused taking in Ginny's horror-struck face, he felt someone bad for shattering her illusions on the matter but it had to be done. "Did anyone tell you about Professor Quirrell?"
Her face briefly scrunched up in concentration and after a second she nodded "The defence teacher off last year? The twins and Ron told me he was crap."
He smirked at the bluntness of her statement, "Pretty much."
"Apparently he managed to get himself killed while seeking a 'rare artefact' that was hidden within Hogwarts last year." He stopped running his hands through his messier than usual hair, the result of the intense training he'd been putting Ginny through. "I'm not sure why Dumbledore felt the need to tell me, I guess he was worried Quirrell had been corrupting me or something. He pulled me aside on the first day of classes and told me that he believed Voldemort had agents within the castle and that Quirrell was believed to be one. He also asked me if I'd had any private contact with Quirrell outside of lessons."
He snorted at the idea, the noise saying everything that needed to be said. "He told me that he'd been killed whilst trying to gain access to a certain artefact within the school, one that could have rapidly sped up Voldemort's recovery." He shook his head at the idea of keeping an artefact of that much importance in a school full of children. "He assured me it had been destroyed and then wished me luck in the coming year." He shook his head at the odd behaviour of the old man.
Ginny had stayed silent for the duration of Harry's brief tale, she looked at him with fearful eyes, "So is that why you're doing so much learning? In case Voldemort comes back?" The very idea of Voldemort returning struck her with terror, she'd seen the looks in her parents' eyes when they talked about the 'old days', when they talked about how they had spent every waking moment fearing for the lives of all their loved ones.
Harry gave her an appraising look before speaking. "Yes and no." He idly spun his wand around his fingers and looked at her seriously "Last year? It was really just self-defence. I'm not going to go into the specifics, but I probably spent more time in the hospital wing last year than most do their entire time at Hogwarts." He paused, his eyes burning with anger and sorrow. "Now? Well, I still need to defend myself in Hogwarts, naturally," He smiled bitterly at her, "but if Voldemort comes back I need to be ready, the chances are that he'll want to take revenge on the kid who did him in at the age of one." He chuckled somewhat bitterly.
Ginny frowned by nodded at his words, she could certainly understand wanting to stave off Voldemort. She looked at him thoughtfully, "Couldn't you just, you know, flee?"
He tilted his head at her quizzically "You mean if Voldemort came back?" She nodded in response and he continued, "I could, I would, actually. I'm just not sure how much good it would do. I'm pretty sure if he really wanted to find me he could." He shook his head at the path the conversation was taking and quickly acted to bring it under control, "Anyway, that's something for the future, he might not even manage to come back at all after all." An evil smile appeared on Harry's face "Anyway, I think we should get back to your training."
Ginny nodded hesitantly, she didn't like the look on his face. "So, are we going back to shielding practice?" She couldn't keep a quaver out of her voice, attempting to block and dodge endless spells was a pretty harrowing ordeal.
Harry chuckled at her reaction. "Nah, I think you've had enough practice with that. Let us teach you..." He tilted his head in thought. "Expulso, the first spell I ever showed you in fact." He wandered over to her "It's a pretty powerful blasting curse, reacts differently to different materials, we'll go over that later. Anyway, the wand movements are like this…"
-=S-S=-
Morning rolled around and Harry woke Ginny earlier than usual, she replied with growls and unintelligible half-vocalised threats of bodily harm. He briefly chuckled but felt somewhat bad about the fact he was about to instantly shit all over her morning.
"Get up Ginny, we need to be ready to flee the Great Hall when the papers arrive remember?"
She groaned the discussions from yesterday suddenly rushing to the forefront of her mind. She forced her eyes open and began to ponder about how the day was going to play out. She found she wasn't really dreading the papers, most of her school mates had been acting like wankers since day one anyway.
She decided that her mother's reaction to her being sorted in Slytherin had so much more potential to hurt her. She prayed she would hold an open mind about things, but the simple fact of the matter was her mother was rather closed minded in regards to Slytherins, Ginny had many memories that reinforced the idea that her mother firmly believed that Slytherin was synonymous with Evil.
Shoving her bedding off herself and folding it into a neat pile she looked pleadingly at Harry "Can't we just stay here?" He raised an eyebrow at her and she pressed on, "Come on! It's Sunday, no one would mind!"
Harry simply chuckled, he'd felt the same many times last year, but had found it was better to let people get the name calling and pointing out of their systems on day one, allowing it to build up just resulted in longer to formulate more hurtful insults and more time to plan attacks.
"It's going to be fine Ginny, the article's not going to be just about you." He frowned slightly remembering the other issue, "If we get any howlers we can just cast Smothering Charms on them, Flitwick decided to teach me it last year when I started getting them daily." He grimaced slightly at the admission, but smirked slightly and continued "His ears are apparently pretty sensitive. The twins really appreciated learning it too."
She chuckled at that, she knew the twins had been subject to a number of howlers in their brief time at Hogwarts. She wondered if her mother even knew there were ways to counter a howler, she doubted it; she had seen her use them as a cure-all for any number of problems.
"I'm just… I'm not used to this stuff, you know?" Ginny admitted quietly. "I'm just uncomfortable thinking that everyone's going to be talking about me, about us."
Harry simply let out a brief snort at her words. "You think I'm used to the attention?" He looked over at her an amused expression on his face, "Do I look like Gilderoy bloody Lockhart?"
She smirked at this and leant over towards him squinting somewhat. "Oh my, you do! And you're already even more famous than he is! You should probably take up carrying around a quill for autographs too, maybe a stack of signed photos!" She paused leaning back, placing a finger against her lips as if thinking. "Yes, in fact it shouldn't be long before you get your own most charming smile award!"
Harry laughed cheerfully, glad that she was still capable of joking. "If I ever get to be as big of an arse as dear old Gilderoy, I give you permission to curse me."
"Of course," she grinned mischievously at him "though I don't really need your permission."
He grinned back "True, you are quite the handful." He slumped down in a seat opposite her makeshift sofa bed and gestured with a hand towards the bathroom. "Go get washed and dressed, we should be leaving soon."
Nodding she went to ready herself for what could be a very long day.
-=S-S=-
The Great Hall was completely empty when they arrived and Ginny was rather glad of Harry warning her to grab something to read while they waited, it would be quite a while before both breakfast and the post arrived.
As the hall filled up she noticed that several of the Slytherins were eying the two of them oddly, she brought this immediately to Harry's attention.
He gave the table a cursory scan and tutted in disgust "'The House of Cunning' indeed." He shook his head at the actions of his housemates. "Half of our housemates wouldn't know subtlety if it bit them in the arse."
Ginny let out a quiet giggle and continued looking around the hall, she caught eyes with the twins momentarily and gave them a brief wave before leaning over to ask harry a question. "Do the twins know about the article?"
He shook his head in response "I was told about it by Daphne Greengrass, I doubt she told anyone but me."
Ginny shot him an odd look recognising the name as a Slytherin girl in his year. "A Slytherin? I didn't think you got along with any of your year."
"Daphne's alright." He said shooting the mentioned girl a brief glance and finding her eyes upon him nodded just enough to acknowledge her, he supposed she was waiting for the fireworks. "She helped me a lot last year. She isn't really a friend per se, it's more that she's an actual Slytherin rather than the farces that most of the others are." He gestured in the direction of Malfoy idly.
Seeing that confusion evident on Ginny's face he elaborated "She helps me so that I owe her a favour." He stated bluntly "That or she just wanted to help the pathetic excuse for the Boy-Who-Lived that I was last year and doesn't want to tarnish her reputation of being callous." He paused, "I doubt that's it though."
Ginny shook her head at his words, frowning slightly and returned to the previous discussion, "So I get to witness my brothers' reactions to me being ousted as Harry Potter's evil whore, fantastic." she said dryly.
"'Harry Potter's Evil whore', eh? Sounds classy." Harry grinned at her and she rolled her eyes. "At least you already know how the twins are going to react."
She groaned at this and put her head in her hands, she had already had quite enough of their joking in the brief time they had escorted her. "This is going to be terrible isn't it?" He patted her on the head like one would a small child and she batted him off in annoyance, just in time for the food to appear on the plates before them.
They ate quickly, carrying out the barest of muted conversation. Ginny was curious about Harry's interactions with Daphne in the past, she was surprised that anyone within Slytherin was actually willing to risk the ire of most of their collective by helping him. Apparently Daphne had taken to warning him when an article was going out or when his housemates were planning something particularly vicious, he claimed he owed her a great deal already.
Ginny had to admit she was somewhat worried about what she would want when she eventually went to cash in a favour.
Roughly five minutes after they had finished eating the swarm of owls carrying the daily papers arrived, the last year had saw the subscription rates for the Daily Prophet soar, they had literally opened a 'Potter Post' service which only delivered papers when there was an article based around him. It was a shame that the articles were almost always negative; the service to existing would have been quite the honour otherwise.
Harry himself had naturally subscribed, it was always better to get the news from the paper directly rather than to hear the mocking second-hand recollections from classmates. He flipped open his own copy and frowned upon seeing the headline.
THE NEXT GENERATION OF DARKNESS
Following last year's disturbing revelation of Harry Potter being a Slytherin with his hands in the Dark Arts by the Daily Prophet last year, Rita Skeeter, Special Corrspsondent is horrified to report that the Dark Boy is already dipping his fingers into the next generation of witches.
This September one 'Virginia Weasley' was sorted into the noble house of Slytherin and the Daily Prophet regretfully reports has subsequently fallen given in to the temptations of Harry Potter, a known active practitioner of the Dark Arts and the only known living Parselmouth.
Alarmingly enough Virginia comes from the Weasley family, previously known as being staunch supporters of Dumbledore, Muggle rights and all things light. It seems not even the purest of families is free from the touch of darkness lurking within Hogwarts' walls.
"Harry Potter has attacked me several times, he often attacks using snakes and parseltongue with no provocation," says one Draco Malfoy, a second-year student. "He terrorises the entire school with these snakes and the teachers don't do anything, he even has his own chambers that only he can access by using parseltongue."
It should come as no surprise to past readers that the suspected heir of Slytherin has access to his own private chambers, but the more shocking revelation is that he has apparently taken Virginia Weasley girl as his live-in partner. "She can get into his chambers with her own personal password. She even sleeps in there with him." Says Pansy Parkinson another second-year. "There are rumours that the Weasleys may have sold her to Potter."
The Weasley family are known for their pureblood heritage and it is entirely within the realm of possibility they have decided to embrace the older customs many pureblood families do by arranging a traditional betrothal agreement. We at the Daily Prophet find ourselves concerned for the future of Virginia Weasley and wish her the best of luck in her future endeavours.
Harry was pleasantly surprised upon finishing the article. "It's not that bad," he handed the paper over to Ginny and she immediately started skimming the article on them. "You're painted as an innocent little girl that I've either tempted into following my evil ways or one that I've outright purchased."
He chuckled to himself. "Your mother is probably going to be receiving some howlers. The public aren't going to like you being sold off to Harry Potter."
Ginny looked at him looking quite horrified at her mother receiving howlers on her behalf. "This isn't going to end well." Her face then twisted into a scowl, "'Virginia'? They didn't even get my name right!"
Harry simply grinned at her for a moment before asking "Are we going to wait here for the post or go somewhere it will be easier to handle?"
Ginny looked around the hall and saw that numerous people were pointing or staring at her or Harry all while whispering to their neighbours and others at their tables. "Let's go somewhere else, I don't want everyone to be watching if I get attacked by howlers." She paused and added, "Even if you can get rid of them."
Harry nodded completely understanding and led her towards an empty section of the dungeons. It was a simple stone room that looked as if it had once been a class room, it was completely devoid of furniture and had but a single entrance.
"Welcome to my mail room." Said harry with an extravagant bow. "This is where I came last year whenever I heard an article was being published, at least whenever I could. The room's owl accessible, but they all have to fly through the same door we used to get in here." He gestured with a brief nod "It makes it pretty easy to pick off the Howlers. I generally just burn all the other letters, I've had a few that were cursed and I just don't bother trying to read them anymore. Sadly we can only use this on weekends, during the week we'll just have to cut losses as best we can." He paused before adding "I'll teach you the Smothering Charm tonight." as an afterthought.
It didn't take long for a horde of owls to descend into the dungeons, Harry expertly picked off any and all Howlers that headed for them and she heard muted cries of 'chauvinist' and 'fiend' as the howlers died mid-flight. Ginny was surprised when instead of the howler she expected she got a normal looking letter from her father.
Dear Ginny,
We're very glad to hear from you, your mother was somewhat distressed at hearing what house you had been sorted into but I have managed to calm her down. Thank you for the warning of the article, we shall be sure to take everything within with a grain of salt.
Your mother insists I remind you to still be careful around Harry Potter. I will try and personally ensure she doesn't send the poor lad any howlers, the twins spoke highly of the boy over the summer so I can't see him being all that bad.
It does not matter what your house is, you're a Weasley and our daughter. It doesn't matter what house that silly old hat put you in, nothing will change what you are. Always remember that we will love you no matter what.
Love Dad
Ginny felt herself sag with relief against the wall she had chosen to lean against, her father at least didn't care that she was a Slytherin. The fact that he had had to take over from her Mother spoke volumes of her real reaction however, she suddenly found herself thinking that staying at Hogwarts over Christmas would be a good idea. She found herself simply feeling immensely glad that she hadn't been disowned because of the paper.
She looked around and noticed that Harry had had finished dealing with the swarms of letters for him and that there was now a small pile of charred paper in the middle of the room. He headed over to her and attempted to read her letter over her shoulder and received a slap for his efforts.
"Ow!" He grumbled, rubbing his face. "Bit excessive there, Gin"
She growled at him and handed him the letter, "Ask next time you git; it could have been private!"
He chuckled and began reading, a serious expression overtaking him. "Your dad seems nice," he hesitated momentarily as if unsure to voice his thoughts "It sounds as if your Mother didn't take it quite as well as hoped."
Ginny grimaced and nodded in acknowledgement. "Yea, Dad only takes over if she's going off on one inappropriately." She sighed "I'm probably lucky I didn't get disowned."
Harry placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a brief squeeze, "So, what do you want to do today?"
Ginny smiled, glad of him steering the conversation away from her family, "Well first off I'd like to learn the Smothering Charm," she flashed him a brief grin "It looked like good target practice."
He chuckled in response, "That it is, the owls attack pretty sharpish if you miss." He rubbed the back of his head slightly. "Being attacked by a swarm of owls isn't something you soon forget."
Ginny laughed at the mental image of Harry being swarmed by owls and smirked at him "Is that how you're so accurate?"
He grinned at her "It certainly helped." He sobered slightly but still smiled at her "Anyway, do you want to start right away?"
Ginny smiled brightly at him. "Of course!" Smiling Harry led her back to their training room.
It was not until they went to retire for the night that Harry suddenly realised he hadn't delivered the Diary to Snape that day, shrugging mentally he promised himself that he would deliver it during potions the next day.
-=S-S=-
The morning passed without much of an incident, apparently the article hadn't generated as much of a buzz as the previous ones had – presumably due to it being mostly recycled information – and they managed to get by with only a single howler trying to scream at Harry, he had given Ginny the honours of dispatching it and was only mildly disappointed when she hadn't missed and hit the owl or another student.
They separated after breakfast and Harry immediately set out to DADA, he was not looking forward to his first session with Lockhart but contented himself with the fact that he would be disposing of the diary in potions immediately following it.
He arrived in his lesson to find that most of the Slytherins had extremely sullen looks on their faces, he could but imagine that their first session with Lockhart had been as bad as Ginny's if their attitudes were anything to go by. Lockhart arrived promptly at the start of the lesson, sweeping in with a grin on his face and one of his books under his arms.
"Hello class!" His grin didn't falter at the fact every student present completely ignored him "Today we're going to be continuing from where we left off last week! I believe we were on page 142 of 'Magical Me' he stood and started pacing the room expectantly as the students flipped open the book to the right page in the book and readied their quills. "Ah yes! This chapter covers how I prepared to see out the Wagga Wagga Werewolf! Dreadfully important preparation, imagine if I had forgotten to take any silver with me!" He smiled around the room, expertly ignoring the lack of laughter. "Anyway, I want you to make a list of everything I took with me and note down why it was genius of me to take those specific items!" He looked around the room briefly, grin firmly in place before clapping once with a proclamation of "Off you go then!"
Harry groaned at the work, finding himself incredibly depressed that Ginny hadn't been exaggerating about the contents of her lesson. He was onto the third item on the list, a 'magical tent' when Lockhart walked by him and was tripped by another student, sending him crashing into Harry's belongings and sending them scattering across the floor.
Lockhart quickly righted himself, using harry to support his weight "Oh my, how clumsy of me! Sorry about that Mr Potter!" Harry simply sighed and made to stand and grab his belongings when Lockhart rather forcefully pushed him back into his seat with his infuriating smile firmly fixed in place "Now, now, Harry! We wouldn't want you to get behind everyone else! Allow me to pick these things up!"
Harry found it bizarre that the man would lower himself to collecting his belongings for him but shrugged and muttered out a "Go right ahead." before returning to the ridiculous task the man had assigned the class.
Lockhart had returned most of his belongings before Harry heard a voice dripping with forced disappointment call out "Tut, tut, Mr Potter! Stealing a diary? Have you no shame?" Harry looked at the man's hand and was horrified to find that Tom Riddle's diary was firmly grasped in his hand.
"Sir that's -" He was instantly cut off by the man slamming his hand onto his desk with a loud bang.
"Mr Potter, if there's one thing I cannot abide it is a thief! I will return this diary to the rightful owner! And you, you shall serve detention with me this Wednesday evening!" His tone was firm and Harry found himself simultaneous furious at the fact the man must have been flicking through the Diary to discover it did not belong to Harry and genuinely surprised that he could pull off the disciplinarian act at all.
"Of course, Professor." He growled out. The man had complicated his plans for the diary quite a bit, he would have to try and get the Diary back at the end of the session or convince Snape to retrieve it himself to investigate it.
Lockhart glanced around the room, and upon noticing all eyes on him he instantly fixed his smile in place and cheerfully shouted out. "Back to work class!"
Harry sighed watching Lockhart head to his desk, diary in hand, and decided to wait out the session to see what he could do.
-=S-S=-
Lockhart smiled brightly at Harry as he approached the desk at the end of the session, Harry could see the diary placed amongst the numerous books and signed memorabilia the man seemed to keep on his desk. His nose turned up in mild disgust at the man's vanity, he really was amazingly full of himself for having displayed such little practical ability whilst teaching.
"Professor?" He put on his most charming tone, hoping to get the Diary back with the least amount of fuss in order to get it to Snape as soon as possible.
"Hello Mr Potter, what is it you want?" He said with his trademark smile plastered firmly in place.
Harry resisted the urge to hex the man for being insufferable and pressed on. "The Diary you took, it wasn't stolen. It was a gift off a friend, a muggle I knew before Hogwarts, sir." He shot the man his most charming smile, praying it would be enough. "It's the only thing I have off him and I'd really like it back. Would that be alright, sir?"
Lockhart smiled brightly at Harry and stood up to slap his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Harry, Harry, Harry." He paused dramatically, smile widening "Of course you can have it back! I wouldn't dare keep you from the mementos of a friend!" He took a step around Harry seemingly headed for the exit and called out "Just grab it off my desk Harry, no harm done!"
Sighing with relief Harry headed around the desk and started searching through the books on the man's desk, slightly annoyed that it didn't seem to be where he thought he had saw it. Knocking a stack of signed photographs he groaned and while leaning to pick them up didn't even hear the whisper of "Obliviate" from behind him.
Lockhart gently maneuvered him towards the exit, before pushing him through the door and clicking his fingers in front of him until he came to. "Harry, Harry my boy!" Harry's gradually focused and he looked at the man in front of him confused. "Professor, what was I doing?"
Lockhart gently patted him on the shoulders "You were just leaving, Harry! You spaced out for a second, off you go!"
Harry blinked, feeling as if he was forgetting something but finding he had no clue what, he simply nodded at the man and headed for his next class. Lockhart watched him go, idly humming to himself before returning to his desk. Reaching it he sat down, grabbed a quill and flipped open the diary, beginning to write.
-=S-S=-
Author's Notes:
Well the chances of me finishing this are frankly so slim it's barely worth hoping for. The story itself was not really considered carefully enough while I was initially writing it and as such is rather far from the tone I actually desired. So, I figured I'd do a brief compilation of the ideas and plot lines I wished to explore within Serpentine Serenade rather than simply leave an unfinished story to rot like so many others.
Basic ideas I was going to explore:
The Diary – The diary was intended to be Tom's only Horcrux in this universe with significantly more power over a victim. It was intended to be more of a body snatcher in execution than the Diary in the actual novels. Possessing Lockhart rather than stealing his soul to recompose his teenage body. The main plot point would have been in it becoming obvious that the diary itself had ½ of Tom's soul with the shade of Voldemort being a fragmented shade of his past self after triggering the protections laid by Harry's mother.
Naturally this would also have scrapped the Harry as a Horcrux and the whole willing sacrifice shtick from the Deathly Hallows with the fragment having been dominated by Harry in his youth. This would have caused nothing but a slightly higher inclination towards Slytherin than canon Harry and much more affinity towards the mental arts due to the lack of a mental link to Voldemort.
Lockhart – Lockhart took the diary purely because of his ego, the negative press around Harry making him wearing of any attempts to shape him as he felt was his duty in the canon version of events. He interacted with the Diary simply by signing it in his usual flamboyant manner and finding himself immediately enthralled. Even with some impressive mental defences he would falter against an all-out attack from a Tom Riddle who's far more interested in claiming a body to manipulate than keeping his mental faculties functioning (As a fraud who specialises in mind manipulation to keep the fact he is one a secret, I simply did not want him to be the moronic character he was in the original books).
Of course the only reason the Diary would have the power to launch this attack would stem from Ginny's previous interactions giving it the strength required to pierce Lockhart's defences.
Lockhart's apparent charisma and desire for fame would affect Tom due to the more symbiotic relationship to the Diary they would have, resulting in a Voldemort grounded in reality and more disposed to political actions than outright violence and domination.
Harry – Harry was honestly meant to end up as a mash mash up of canon Harry, Snape and Lupin, reluctant to connect to others but knowledgeable and willing to protect those he had come to care for regardless of personal cost or the cost enforced on others. A darker but not dark take on the character who would eventually overcome Voldemort through strength stolen and gained over the years. Would have ended up shipped with either Daphne or Ginny, likely the latter due the very nature of the Ginny becoming a Slytherin set up.
Ginny – Ginny was to be shaped into a suitably powerful companion to Harry, somewhat similar to Unspeakable Things by one Darth Marrs. Her family would have acted as an easy source of drama and representation of various stances upon Harry early on. I was pretty much winging it on how she was going to turn out in the end.
Daphne – Daphne was around as a way of providing information to Harry that it was unreasonable for him to know himself. All of the information would come at a price likely reaching a crescendo post victory with the Greengrass family finding themselves in a rather Malfoy-esque position in regards to the magical power structure.
Overlying plot – Lockhart would shape up to be a better teacher with the influence of Voldemort eventually shaping up to actually be decent enough at it to get everyone passing grades without much problem. Harry would naturally have no recall of the Diary which would incite an investigation that Voldehart would simply defuse with more mental manipulation.
Voldehart would take an interest in Harry and Ginny, intrigued that both had ended up in Slytherin after their family ties and Harry's own apparent defeat of himself as a child. Most of the year would be normal with Dobby turning up at Christmas to confront Harry and finding himself simply ejected by the various defences that the Slytherin Dungeons have. Voldehart would take to the world seeking various sources of powers while ironically acting as a defusal mechanism for both the Weasley family's negativity and the press in general with public approval bursts as he would stay in contact with both Harry and Ginny.
Third year onwards was nothing but a cluster of ideas even while the story was my active focus. The Lockhart / Voldemort would end up as the true victor, becoming somewhat of a benevolent dictator who would lift the magical UK out of the hole they'd fallen into. Harry would naturally deal the coup de grace to Voldemort while sinking into the background as an unspeakable, along with whichever lady I ended up having him tied to.
-=S-S=-
I may one day get around to finishing this, but I'd much rather pursue other things for now. Feel free to use these ideas wherever you wish. Anyone who feels up to it can continue the base story I have established should they desire to, I simply ask you drop me a line to ask for my blessing to do so.