Chapter Eight: Mysteries of Stone

Author's Note: This is kind of where I have to warn, this contains some slightly more mature themes, nothing too hardcore, but I want to warn everyone even then.

It had started with the Butterbeers, but as the bottle of Firewhiskey slipped from Ginny's fingers she realized that maybe she had finally found her limit. A numb heat ebbed through her body and her entire being felt as if it were a heartbeat. She reclined back into the plush leather of the couch as the sounds of the part thundered around her and through her.

The whole room blurred when she made an attempt to look around and she figured that moving might not be in her best interest. Through half closed eyes she watched as the blurs of Slytherins drank and shouted and sang along with the radio. She smiled, feeling her face grow warmer. Suddenly those traitorous feelings washed over her and Ginny remembered where she was.

Ginny Weasley was laughing and drinking in the middle of the snake's den.

It wouldn't have made any more sense how she could have come to this if she had been completely sober and perhaps if she remembered this in the morning she would feel worse about. Currently she just felt like something had gone wrong inside of her, that warm numb feeling was punctuated by a nagging regret and remorse.

And with what the Doctor had told her, about Harry and how they were meant to be together in the near future she couldn't help but miss him now. Far too often her thoughts were drifting back to Harry's distinct green eyes and smiling face. The memory of him comforting her in the Chamber of Secrets had been something that she drifted back to time and time again over the years. Now that she was living through the first opening of the Chamber it seemed more vivid than ever.

She could hear her own stammering words between sobbing breaths echoing through the cavernous Chamber of Secrets. "Harry—oh, Harry—I tried to tell you at breakfast…" she sounded so much smaller in her own memory and she remembered Harry bigger than he had actually been. He'd told her that Tom Riddle was finished and that she was okay. Oddly, she remembered him hugging her, though it could have just been him guiding her along. Maybe her girlish crush on him was causing her to embellish things a bit.

Her memories of the Battle of the Ministry were so different, she and Harry and the others fighting side. In the end only she, Neville and Luna had really been there for most of it and all she remembered from that was the panic and fighting to move on a broken leg while beating back the Death Eaters.

Ginny's eyes had fallen closed and she felt something cold against her inner thigh. Her head lulled to the side and she spied a blonde pudgy boy running his hand against her leg. Her eyes flicked upward and despite her fatigue and inebriation she could see the twist of nervousness in his face. The other celebratory going-ons distracted the rest of the room from them. She parted her lips to speak but found that it came out only as a murmur.

The boy placed his knee between her legs on the couch and advanced on her. Ginny let out a short sound that might have been taken as a "no" if the boy had cared. Sensing that she was trying to say something he smiled and ran the back of his hand down the side of her face. "I wanted to tell you that—Ginny—I thought you're really pretty and…" his hand moved down the side of her neck and onto her breast. Ginny felt her trepidation grow and her heart's pounding reverberated through her entire body. "…I guess this is the only way I could do this, Ginny."

She threw her arm up between them, to block his hand from her breast but he pinned her hand back to the plush couch. In the background she heard the soft clink of glasses and the sound of someone popping a cork out of a bottle.

Now the boy used his knee to press her leg back into the couch and he wrenched at the front of her shirt open. His fingers traced along the edge of her bra and stared down at the freshly revealed pale skin with a frightening hunger in his eyes. His chubby tongue parted his lips as he began to lean down.

A muffled word thundered through the air and there was a tremendous explosion of light the marred everything else in Ginny's field of vision. She was tumbling over and darkness engulfed her and she remembered something else. Perhaps it was just a dream—but it felt real and that was all that mattered. Tom Riddle was holding her against a bed in a nondescript room, then he was kissing her neck. How could he do this? She was so young? Even in her mind, how could he manage to do something like this?

"I can't believe him," came the sneering tone from a woman who, despite sounding younger, Ginny recognized as her mother's aunt, Lucretia Black. "This bastard's at it again…"

Someone yelled from across the room. "He's lower than the Mudbloods, curse the day that hat put him in here…"

The darkness broke away and Tom Riddle was staring down at her with his wand out, next to him was a man who looked suspiciously familiar. "You okay, Ginny?" asked Riddle.

She nodded, staring nervously at pale face. The other man helped pull her up to his side. "Victor here has a bit of knack for trying to force himself on unsuspecting girls," he said.

"Thanks…" Ginny said lightly. "I guess the couch tipping…"

"…sobered you up?" asked the boy who had helped her. He shook his head. "That was my sister's doing, she's the House tosspot," he said pointing to Lucretia. It was then that Ginny realized why this person looked familiar—he was Sirius Black's father and they had the same eyes and dark hair. "Tom and I hit him with a stunner curse," he added.

Ginny nodded.

"This is going to be the last time that he does something of this type though," Tom said walking over to where Victor lay on his side cowering. "First I catch wind of you trying to corner that Myrtle girl in the bathroom and now you're trying to assault someone in your own House? I'll see you expelled for this," Riddle said, his wand clenched tight at his side.

"You can't do that!"

Riddle gave a short laugh. "Watch me. When Dippet finds out you tried to rape a student he'll be breaking your wand himself and sending you home a disgrace," he said.

Sirius's father stepped in over Victor and gave him a dark glance, she could tell that if he could have he would have hurt this kid further. Victor crawled up and got to his feet in a panic, but no one reacted. He whirled around looking at everyone with tears streaming down his face and for the first time since she'd been in this time Ginny felt a unity with everyone in Slytherin House.

"I won't go home, I won't!" Victor yelled and then he darted for the doors of the common room.

"Let the baby run, I'll alert Dippet," said Tom looking back at the other students. More so than normal, the other students listened to him and it seemed to be because of more than just him being prefect. "Are you okay Ginny?" asked Riddle.

She nodded again. "Really I am, I just…"

"Someone should tell that sister of hers or something," said Lucretia Black.

"That'll just…complicate things," Ginny said. "I'll talk to Professor Pond and my sister tomorrow," she said stumbling off toward the girls dormitories. She didn't know what scared her more, what had almost just occurred or the fact that Lord Voldemort had saved her from danger…

The Doctor and Amy stood between Slughorn and Dumbledore as they surveyed the body of the boy. The hallway was silent with the exception of them conversing in light tones. For effect Amy asked Dumbledore. "What does it all mean, sir? The Chamber of Secrets?" she said.

"It was told that when the school was first built, Salazar Slytherin had a Chamber built to house a type of monster that would root out the Muggle Borns at the school—the thing was only to be awakened when a suitable heir was found to open the Chamber," Dumbledore said. "By most it's regarded as superstition."

"But it would mean that someone here in the school released a monster into this school to prey on the students," said the Doctor.

Slughorn sighed. "We can't act until Dippet is here—but this could mean a great deal of danger if we can't find some kind of cure for this petrifaction. It would help to know what the monster actually is," he said.

Amy held a finger up in excitement. "Ah, a Gorgon, like Medusa!" she suggested.

"In England, Miss Potter?" asked Dumbledore raising one of his white eyebrows. "Highly unlikely."

Amy pouted and he shoulders slumped down. The Doctor grabbed her shoulder abruptly. "Of course—that's brilliant Amy," he said.

Slughorn shook his head. "Didn't you hear Dumbledore, it can't be a Gorgon…"

The Doctor proceeded to tug Amy off down the hall; she glanced back at the Professors. "You'll have to excuse us," she said.

He pulled her well out of earshot and stopped. "We missed it, it made sense and I even saw one briefly after the Quidditch game, but it wasn't until you mentioned Gorgon that I put things together. What do you see down there?" asked the Doctor.

"A statue of…a one eyed witch," said Amy.

"Exactly, and what do we know of statues?" the Doctor smiled.

Amy shrugged. "They're stone, they're sculpted, that one's gray—looks rather old, they don't move…"

"…they don't move when you look at them," the Doctor interrupted. "Do you know why the thing I saw after the game wasn't there when I looked back? Because I was glancing all around. It had to stop when my eyes passed over it and when I looked back it was gone."

"Incredibly fast—right so it's the Angels again. That's what drew us here," Amy said.

The Doctor nodded. "It explains a lot, the TARDIS is protecting itself because the Angels tried to steal it once," he said.

"What do they want? How do we stop them?" asked Amy.

The Doctor ran his hand down his face and let it come to a rest under his chin. "I can't tell yet—but something is preventing them from getting it," he said. "Otherwise they'd have it already," he added.

"Professor Pond. Miss Potter. Dippet's arrived," came Slughorn's voice. "You'll have to tell him all that you saw here," he said.

"Come along, Amy—we must keep up appearances for now," the Doctor said.

Ginny had been kissed before and she'd definitely dreamed about kissing. She had found that at the oddest of times she would think about kissing and the thoughts would roll around inside of her head until they became too distracting to ignore.

This time there was a tinge of fear mixed with the anticipation; Harry was holding her face in his hands. His green eyes searched her face, tracing their way over her skin and down her neck. Her own fingers jumped at the sound of her heart in her ears, she grasped her skirt in her hands, clenching it.

Dreams like this rarely had a setting that made sense, this time they were on an empty compartment of the Hogwarts Express. In fact the whole train seemed vacant. There were no signs of prefects patrolling the halls or the sounds of other students laughing. Nervously she raised her arms and put them across Harry's shoulders, crossing her wrists behind her back. A little devilish smile worked its way over her face.

Harry moved his hand to brush her hair back from the side of her neck and pulled her in. She wouldn't have expected this much excitement from him in real life. He was kissing at the crook of her neck, tracing a line slowly down to her shoulder and she let out a shocked yelp as he bit her lightly.

He pressed her back against the wall of the train compartment as reached for her hand and laced his fingers through hers. They were kissing now, her back flat against the wall and her hands pinned on either side by Harry's. His tongue and lips moved against hers and with her eyes shut, the whole world felt wet and warm.

The train let out a blast from its horn and Ginny's eyes sprung open. They were on the cusp of a tunnel and everything went dark. The dim lights at either side of the tunnel leaked into the train revealing flashes of them pressed together in the darkness.

Harry pulled back and with surprisingly blinding effects, the light flooded back into the train. Ginny blinked against the brightness, rubbing her thumb into Harry's hand and when her focus flooded back in she was staring at the face of Lord Voldemort sitting where Harry had been…holding her hand.

His snake-like, forked tongue wormed its way from his lipless maw and Ginny let out a terrible, piercing scream. She lay in between sweat soaked sheets staring up at the ceiling of the girl's dormitories. As her breathing normalized the dream slipped into obscurity.

"Are you okay, Potter?" one of the other girls asked, half asleep from her bunk.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah—yeah, I'm fine."