"The Ravenclaw who's reading that upside down tabloid?" Tom Riddle sits across from Ginny at one of the Hogwarts library's most secluded tables. He is staring at Luna Lovegood as Ginny feigns reading Hogwarts: a History.
"Yes," Ginny mutter under her breath; her lips barely move as she speaks. "Luna described you perfectly: where you were standing, what you were doing, and what you looked like. I was so shocked I scarcely knew what to say to her, so I just said some nonsense about Hermione needing me and dashed off."
"How, though?" Tom seems so intense that Ginny can scarcely look at him. "No one else can see or hear me. The fraction of my soul is clinging to yours, it shouldn't be projecting images or anything like that to anyone but you; and wasn't she in that compartment on the train? She never said a word."
"Luna's always been more… eccentric than anyone I know. And I'm more concerned with if she'll tell anyone about seeing you than how she is seeing you. I know she wouldn't do it to be malicious, but she's been known to let things slip whilst talking to her self."
"Well, just put a memory charm on her and you won't have this dilemma." Tom hisses.
"I can't," Ginny returns sharply. "Not only is magic not allowed outside of class, especially that kind, but Luna's my friend and a good person. I'm sure if I ask her not to mention it; she won't- without inquiring as to why- then tell me to be weary of Flying Jibble Worms."
Tom sits back in his chair, his face changing from the scrunched up position it had been in for the past quarter hour to one of mild amusement. With a slight smile on his face, he asks, "What in Salazar's name is a Flying Jibble-Worm?"
"I don't know," Ginny explains. "She wrote about them to me a few summers ago. I think they're supposed to be really rare creatures that make you sneeze when you're angry." Ginny almost feels the need to crack a smile as she sees Tom chuckle, but fights to keep her composure.
"Ginny," a voice calls. She looks from Tom, who is still shaking with chuckles, to see Hermione standing over her.
"Oh, Hermione… Hello." Ginny gives her a weak smile; she doesn't really want her to be here, not when Tom is.
"Ginny, who were you talking to just now?" Ginny wonders if it's just her imagination that implanted a suspicious tone in Hermione's voice.
"Oh, no one," Ginny says automatically. The phrase is engrained in her mind, it seems. Out of instinct, she looks to the seat in front of her; he's gone, "Just jabbering to myself."
"Oh," Hermione leans in closer to Ginny in an almost conspiratorial way. "Look, Ginny, I just wanted to ask you if something was, uh, happening."
Ginny's face scrunches in confusion. "Like what?"
"Well, for example, too much stress over exams, or-"
"Hermione, it's only the third day of school; how on earth could exams be affecting me?"
"It was just an example!" Hermione retorts. "And it doesn't have to be pertaining to school; are you having boy trouble? Are you having a spat with a frien-" Oh. That's what this is about. She's been sent to check on me.
Ginny listens as politely as she can, but anger builds up in her with every word that flies from Hermione's incredibly assuming, incredibly large mouth.
"Hermione!" Ginny slams the thick, leather bound book on the table and stands abruptly, her chair scraping the floor. "I. Am. Fine. I'm not worried about failing an exam that is six months from now, I don't have any "boy problems", I'm not in a row with anyone of my friends. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go." And as Ginny storms out of the library, she hears Hermione utter a bewildered "I was only trying to help," to no one in particular.
Later, Ginny has it in her mind that she needs a night alone.
"Hello, Ginny." Someone calls from behind her, making her whip around in surprise.
"Luna!" Ginny exclaims. "You gave me a fright. What are you doing here?" Ginny knows it's peculiar to ask; after all, what is she doing here, in the middle of the seventh floor corridor, only twenty minutes from curfew? But they both know why they're here.
"I needed a place to read the Quibbler. It's gotten rather rowdy in the common room; two boys were fighting about the origin of the Subnecto potion." Luna admits first.
"I just needed a place; somewhere where I don't 'accidently' bump into Hermione, Harry, or Ron." Ginny relates.
"Oh, yes. I've noticed that they're sitting with you at mealtimes, now. They didn't really do that before, did they?"
"No. No, not before. Because if they don't suspect me to be in moral peril, I'm just another fan in the crowd, watching their perfect little circle do magic tricks and save the world." Ginny says, hearing the bitterness in her voice.
"Oh. Does that have something to do with that boy?" Luna looks a Ginny with sweetly.
Ginny sees Tom slowly appearing at her side. "Luna? Can you see that boy, now?"
Tom leans forward, inspecting Luna, his cold mask firmly in place.
"Oh, no." replies Luna. "I've only seen him once or twice. I suppose I can't always see him. Is he here now?"
"Can't…? Luna, can we talk in the Room, please? This is important, and I don't want to be overheard."
Luna makes no argument as the door to the Room of Requirement appears and Ginny steps through.
Inside, the Room looks much the same as any common room; a medium sized table in the corner for studying, a window overlooking the Black Lake, and a sofa and two large, rather comfortable looking chairs circled around a blazing fire.
Ginny hears the door close behind her as she takes a seat on the maroon sofa.
"Luna, I need you to do something for me," Ginny spies Tom on the armchair to her right. "I need you never, ever to tell anyone about the boy you've seen."
"So you've seen him too?" Luna asks. "I thought, at first, that he was a Garble Hawk in disguise. They love playing tricks on people who can see them, you know."
Ginny gives a mirthless laugh. "No, Luna. He's no Garble Hawk. He's…" she hesitates. What is Tom? An enemy, trying to break her sanity and rule the world? A friend to comfort her when her fellow classmates whispered about her behind their hands? An ally through this strange experience of being attached to another? Ginny isn't sure her self. "He's a boy who went to school here. But he died a long, long time ago…"
Luna smiled. "So he's like a ghost no one can see?"
Ginny smiled. "Yes, Luna, somewhat like that. But he's not really an imprint like ghosts are. You see…" Ginny stops once more. Does she want to tell Luna this? Of course she does, she's wanted to tell everybody. She's wanted to scream it from the top of the world; she's not crazy. Someone's there, right there, can't you see? Ginny Weasley is not loony, insane; she hasn't gone round the bend, because he is standing right….there.
But, no. No one would understand. No one would believe.
Except maybe Luna.
"Luna, his soul has gripped mine. We're attached, and no one else is supposed to see him but me. And you can."
"Oh, a boy. I've never known a boy ghost who went here. What was his name?" Luna asks, veering off topic, as was expected of her.
"His name's Tom. I've been seeing him since around the end of the Summer hols. He hasn't always been nice, but he…" Ginny gives him a scant glance. Tom's eyes are on Ginny, only Ginny, not even daring to glance toward the girl who he was so eager to meet. "He has his useful moments."
And Ginny and Luna sit in the Room long into the night as Ginny tells Luna everything. Well, almost everything.
"What's is name, Ginny?" Luna's eyes, sparkling a curiously cloudy blue, connect with Ginny's.
"His name is Tom Randall," are the first words out of Ginny's mouth; that is one detail she can never tell.
"Why do you think I can see him as well, Ginny?"
"I don't know, Luna. I really don't. Perhaps it was all the experimental magic you've been around all your life. Or, maybe, your brain is just different from everyone else's… People aren't like you Luna- no, don't laugh. You're a very different sort of person, and not in the way others think. They see what they want to see, but you…you see what's really there."
From the corner of the room- when had he moved there? - Tom whispers something inaudible. His gaze is still locked on Ginny.
My God, it's been so long. I'm so, so sorry. I would like to make excuses, but once again...they'd only be half valid. I know, I'm terrible to you. Forgive me (And review)?