"Do you remember, little Ginevra, the day I took you down into the Chamber?" he asks her, the ghost of a reminiscent smile upon his face.
"Bits and pieces," Ginny answers faintly. She looks down at her hands and fiddles with a loose thread on her sheets. "I…I don't remember going to the Chamber, but I remember just before and after. One moment I'm in the first year Dormitories, the next I'm lying in a cold, wet chamber with a blood-soaked Harry Potter standing over me, already half dead. No one's ever told me what happened, really."
"Well," Tom says. "I shall." Ginny moves to sit cross-legged, still partly under the sheets. When Tom walks over and sits on the edge of her bed, her body tenses and she moves back, ever so slightly. Tom pays her no mind, and begins to spin his tale.
"After you left the staff at Hogwarts the message of your imminent death and you were down in the chamber, I began to, for lack of words, suck the life right out of you. Bit by bit your soul was fading from you, to me," Ginny scoots back even more, and her back hits the headboard of her bed. Again, Tom pays no attention to her discomfort and continues. "Just as you were reaching the brink of death, who should stumble into my sanctum but your precious boy wonder, Harry Potter. He didn't see me at first, as I was looming in the shadows. Oh, I remember his face. Ran straight for you and shook you very hard, it was really rather rude. At this time I revealed myself to him. His wand was long discarded, and I just happened to pick it up. When I refused to give it back, all became revealed. Then Dumbledore's silly song bird…Filks or Forks or something, came in and dropped the Sorting Hat, yes the Sorting Hat, right there. Of course I found it ridiculous. Then Potter, he said some rather obnoxious things about Dumbledore being a better Wizard than I and I set the Basilisk on him. Oh, and that dreaded bird of Dumbledore's just had to come in and blind my poor basilisk. Not much after that for a bit really. A bit of cat and mouse between Potter and the basilisk. You were still on the ground, oblivious to everything around you and getting paler by the minute. Anyway, by some amount of enormous luck, Gryffindor's sword pops right out of the Sorting hat when Potter was in a tight scrape. He killed my basilisk. I was, I admit, a bit over confident, even after that, and didn't notice the phoenix. I thought I had won because he had a rather fatal wound. My ego blinded my memory, and I had forgotten until it was too late that phoenix tears could heal virtually any wound. Potter took the basilisk fang that gave him that fatal injury and stabbed the diary. So I lost.
"But that is not where the tale ends, dear Ginevra. You see, by some wisp of a miracle, a small bit of the already fraction of soul that was within the diary somehow survived. Even I do not know how, but it did. Then, as was its natural instinct, it looked for something to attach to. I'm not completely sure how or why, but it attached itself to you. It could have been our previous connection, or it could have been how weak you were, or maybe even because you were already absorbing the lost bits of your soul, so mine would be able to slip in unnoticed. I don't know. But slip in it did, and there I sat. I think I couldn't absorb anything from you anymore, because your energy was crucial for me to "live", so if you became weak there was a chance of me ceasing to exist. So, and this is just hypothesis, mind you, I built up my own energy. It took years for me just to be able to be aware of your surroundings. I believe it was your late fourth year I was first, ah, conscious."
Ginny stares at his face, her eyes wide. So he was inside her? The very thought sickens her. "And… and there's no way to reverse this?" she says in a faint whisper. Already visions of a future with Tom Riddle inside her forever dance through her head. She pales. The distinct taste of vomit sits at the back of her throat.
At this Tom's face…didn't brighten exactly, but was lit with a strange expression that wasn't quite glee. "Ah, and here is the part we've all been waiting for. The answer, Ginevra, is this: possibly. You see, while I sat idle in your mind, there wasn't much to do. I either observed you or thought. Mostly I thought, though. Funny, how when one has little else to do but think, they seem to go over every memory they posses. And one memory, in particular, stuck out to me. When reading through the Restricted Section one day, in the very book, in fact, that taught me about transferring my soul to the diary, I remember reading something about soul and body reformation. What," he laughs at look of slight relief on Ginny's face. "do you think I want to be here, stuck in the mind of a little girl, while Lord Voldemort, or rather, I, should be conquering the Wizarding world? Oh, no, little Ginevra, I am just as anxious to be free of you as you are of me."
"Well then, where can we find another copy of this book?" Ginny asks, her voice trimmed with bits of exhaustion, anger, and fear.
"'Another copy'?" Tom looks at her, his lips pulled back in a condescending sneer. "Ginevra, that text was as Dark as it comes, there are no copies. It rests solely in the Restricted Section of Hogwarts Library, where you shall be returning very soon, I understand."
Hogwarts. Yes. She'd almost forgotten that she'll be returning there in only a month and a half for her sixth year, as the schools repairs had been finished. Her brother, Harry, and Hermione would be going as well for their final year, seeing as the previous year they were off defeating Lord Voldemort and more than half the school didn't attend Hogwarts because of their heritage. Those who did attend either didn't stay very long, or didn't learn very much.
"When you return to Hogwarts, you will get a teacher- one of the more incompetent ones- to sign a note allowing you into the restricted section. I, of course, will assist you with that. After we have located the text, we will simply carry out the spell or potion needed and then you will be rid of me and I shall have my own body back."
Ginny's head snaps up. "And what makes you think I'll do it, Tom? I'd have to be insane to bring another Dark Lord into the world!" she glares at him, her fear forgotten for the time being.
"Really, Ginevra, you're scared witless of me. You'll do anything I tell you to, and we both know why. You're scared to live with the evil Lord Voldemort whispering in your ear for the rest of your life; scared that they'll throw you in the Mental Ward in St. Mungo's and leave you there forever. Because they'll forget about you, won't they? Then you'll have no one but me. Oh, I'm sure they'll visit for a while, bring you presents and such, but the visits will become few and far in between as time goes on, and then they'll cease completely. No one will remember you, not even that Potter of yours," her glare falters at this. He knows about her and Harry? " Didn't think I knew that you still hold feelings for him did you, or that he may hold some for you, still? Well, Ginevra, I know everything about you. And don't think I won't use that to my full advantage." his confident smirk is spread broadly across his handsome features, and Ginny wishes she could punch him.
She looks down in defeat. "Alright. Fine. I'll do it. But you must promise you'll never bother me again, Tom, you have to-" but Tom is gone, now. He is somewhere in the dark recesses of Ginny's mind, planning and laughing to himself at poor little Ginny's sorrow.
She lays back down, and cries silently to sleep.
A/N: Oh, JEEBUS! Sorry its been so long, I'm in a bit of a slump, as you can tell… anyway, guess what? I finally have a Twitter and Face book that I USE. Whoa! Anyway, I'm putting the links to said Face books and Twitters in my home page, so if anyone wants to friend/follow me or visa versa, they CAN now! YAY! : - )
PS: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY ON THE FIFTH OF MARCH! :D