After the Crooked Crone closed the following Tuesday, Ginny and Severus sat together at the bar stand with steaming cups of coffee—their eyes shifted over the various images and scribbles from Severus' notebooks on possible suspects.

"It's very unusual that this Obscurial is alive. I've heard of their type before—unusual beasts—but rarely do they live past childhood. Very powerful. Albus Dumbledore's own sister Ariana had been one and she did not make it past fourteen." Severus scratched his chin. "Although I've been reading the works of a certain Newt Scamander in America who claimed he studied an Obscurial that lived into its twenties-"

"-Marcia."

Severus turned his head. "Marcia?"

"That's the Obscurial's name. The one you were with." She turned to the page with her information. "That night at the Silver Fox we had a little heart-to-heart in the lavatory. She said we were quite alike."

Severus' eyes didn't leave Ginny as she spoke; he watched her so intently, as though she herself might suddenly transform into an Obscurial. In the end, he said, "That is…remarkable."

"Well," Ginny shrugged her shoulders. "People open up to me."

"You have managed to accomplish what I have been trying to do for a few weeks now through…careful plotting and manipulation," Severus said. "Ginevra, how would you like to do a mission into the nest yourself? I understand it would be asking a lot from you-"

"-kidding? I'd love to!" Ginny's mind raced. "I'd talk to Marcia and get information from her."

"Patience," Severus said, rolling his sleeves up and pacing before her. "Yes. It would be- rather helpful. An Obscurial is quick to sense fear and transform into its chaotic state, but you managed to make this particular one trust you. If you play your cards correctly, you could very well be invited to attend a meeting with Riddle himself-"

"-I could?" Ginny crossed her arms.

"Again, it would depend on your level of comfort."

"Wouldn't Voldemort and his followers recognize me?"

"Riddle keeps his enemies very close," Severus said. "I believe he would be honored if you confessed your allegiance to his mission. With your close contact to Potter and members of the Order of the Phoenix, you would be an invaluable asset to have."

"But that would mean I'd have to take the Dark Mark," Ginny said slowly. She had promised Harry she wouldn't do anything too bold—too Gryffindor and this was beginning to sound more dangerous than what she had bargained for. "Voldemort would see right through me. I'm not a true believer."

"You are young and vulnerable, which makes you an easy target to convince and manipulate," Severus said. "However, you have the advantage of having that sort of brain plasticity that would make it easy for me to plant ideas into your mind that would convince Riddle of your allegiance."

"That sounds like an operation that could go wrong," Ginny muttered to herself.

Severus leaned in close. "Do you trust me to prepare you for this mission?"

Ginny had gone this far and she was not about to back out now that they were this close to discovering Voldemort's machinations. Looking back at him, she nodded.

"I don't get myself into a fight I can't handle," Ginny said, grinning.

-xxx-

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a wizard who has been 'cancelled on' for a few dates in a row becomes much more attracted to the witch in question. Harry's interest in Ginny spiked after she, night after night, told him that she was too busy working to go out.

The truth was, Ginny had taken on longer shifts that week because she needed an excuse to meet up with Severus to prepare her for her entry to the warehouse where Voldemort and his followers were gathering. Severus had taken on the exhausting work of entering Ginny's mind via Legilimency in order to view the mental landscape of her thoughts. It was important to amplify her doubts with the current political system of the Wizengamot and amplify her allegiance to Dark matter.

"It is extraordinary that your encounter with Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets—your communication with him through the diary—left a variety of thoughts for me to work with."

At first, Ginny was frightened to go 'under the cap' of being Legilimized. Harry had told her of his horrible Occlumency training with Snape during fifth year had been nothing short of stomach churning. Snape had him locked up for hours during the night, shifting through his most intimate thoughts as though he were shuffling a book and stopping at the most upsetting and unpleasant moments deliberately. Harry would sometimes go to bed afraid to close his eyes in fear the nightmares of seeing Voldemort or Snape invading his mind would resurface. Thankfully, Ginny's own Legilimency had been far less extreme.

She wondered if perhaps the fact that she was a girl and looked nothing like James Potter (whom Severus was said to loathe) played a role in his treatment towards her. He was, plainly put, very gentle.

Talia's chairs at the back of the bar—the ones for the patrons on a date—were plush and very comfortable. Ginny leaned her back into one, throwing her legs into the other as Severus polished his wand and pointed it to her. He'd always do it on the count of three and would enter in slowly increasing increments of time: ten minutes, then twenty and then fourty.

For Ginny it felt like diving head first into a bathtub. At first, her mind would want her to swim back up to the surface, pushing Severus out, but slowly allowed him to calmly shift through her thoughts.

Ginny heard voices: her mum and dad's, Fred and George's and Charlie and Bill's. She'd see Ron's face beaming at her when she first learned to fly, she'd see Percy teaching her to properly Levitate a feather into the air again and again during the hols after her first year of Hogwarts. She'd see Fred and George take her swimming to the pond, taking turns magically lifting her into the air and letting her cannonball into the pond, bum first, before mum came out screaming for them to stop playing with their sister as though she was a rag doll.

But other times, the memories got darker: Percy and her dad fighting over Ministry issues at the dinner table; Charlie hugging her before taking the Portkey to Romania; Ginny losing her favorite plush horse on a trip to Diagon Alley; Fred in the hospital telling her to take care of George if anything happened to him. That last memory made her wake up crying, and Severus called the training off for that day.

One evening, he approached her with a stern look in his eyes. "I believe today is the day to go into the deepest corners of your mind."

Ginny swallowed. "I'm ready-"

"-you cannot possibly be ready." Severus prepared her seating area, Levitating the chairs together. "I will enter memories that will likely bring about a great deal of pain. Your encounters with Riddle during the Chamber of Secrets."

Ginny had always felt it was a blessing she had not been traumatized after being possessed during her first year by the Dark Lord. Her parents said it was due to some therapy sessions they had booked down in Diagon Alley with a well known wizard, but Ginny very vaguely remembered going to any sessions in her childhood.

"Honestly, it is all very blurry in my memory. Very foggy. Like an old book that I've read and forgotten," Ginny said, climbing into the chair. Severus sat beside her.

"I haven't been fully honest with you. During my time working for the Order of the Phoenix, your mother asked me in private. She was deeply worried about your health after the Dark Lord possessed your mind in the Chamber of Secrets and they couldn't afford the kind of- She wanted me to place Occlumency shields inside your mind to keep your fears of the Dark Lord under control and I had. For that very reason, you remember very little of Tom Riddle. Your father didn't know a thing—your mother didn't think he would take it well. Arthur already distrusted me and the financial aspect- You understand."

Ginny paled. "You Occluded my mind?"

"It was an invasive procedure, yes, but it was for your own good." Severus sighed. "It is a lot of information to take in, if you don't want to proceed-"

"-I want to proceed," Ginny said. After a few deep breaths, she lay her head back in the chair. She wasn't going to abandon a mission she already committed to halfway. "I want to do this."

Closing her eyes, Severus' voice murmured in a hypnotic tone above her head. "The technique I am about to do involves unlocking deep past memories and pairing them with positive stimuli. It is a Pavlovian technique. By reactivating them over and over again, each time adding a pleasure-inducing memory, I hope to weave a pleasant picture of your experience being possessed by the Dark Lord."

Ginny frowned. "Like quilting?"

She heard his lips form into a smile. "Precisely.

"It is important you do not try to push me out of your mind. You must remain perfectly still and subdued. Because the memories I am accessing are very far in the past, any interference on your end might cause me to accidentally alter surrounding memories. I will submerge you into a trance to keep you from waking too rapidly."

Ginny felt something bump against her hand. Opening her eyes, she saw a flask appear in Severus' hand.

"Lucid Dream. My own personal recipe."

No going back now. "Bottoms up," Ginny said, downing the potion.

-xxx-

Ginny saw herself in a lavatory stall at Hogwarts. She was eating a sandwich here—alone again- because she didn't want to face the rest of her Gryffindor peers. She thought growing up in a large family would make her comfortable in large crowds, but the Great Hall was suffocating. The egg sandwich was mushy and dripped on her shirt. She wiped her cheeks, stinging with tears. She turned her head to take some tissues from her bag, when she saw a notebook tucked away into the side pocket.

The voice of a boy whispered to her. "Ginny, I know what it's like to be alone."

Her memories took her to the Hogwarts library now, writing in the blank diary she found in her bag, when words began to appear on the page—words that were not her own. "I was watching you. You need a friend. Let me be your friend, Ginny."

Ginny was walking down the corridors now. Everyone was watching her, smiling, and everyone wanted to be her friend. She looked at her hands, smeared with blood. But whose blood? Ginny didn't know. Suddenly the faces of the students in the hall contorted and twisted.

"You're a murderer!" they cried, pointing at her.

"It was just a cat. A stupid cat," said the boy's voice. "Let's go to the kitchens while no one is watching— eat some biscuits. You like those."

The next memory was when Ginny stood with her feet deep in water. She was in the Black Lake. Around her, giant spiders — Hagrid's Acromantula—watched from the shore, pitter-pattering their feet in the water, but not daring to come closer.

"Wicked child, wicked girl," they called her. "She killed Mrs Norris. Our littles ones saw it when they crawled up and down the walls."

Then the boy appeared. He was tall and had dark hair down to his jaw.

"You spiders leave her alone, or I'll tell Hagrid you're attacking one of his greatest friends."

Slowly the spiders moved away and Ginny looked at the boy—no Tom Riddle's face—in awe. This was young Voldemort—the Dark Lord—but here, he was only an eighth year boy.

"You saved me," she said, feeling herself light up.

"I am your friend," said Tom.

Ginny's eyes blinked again as Tom's smile grew even wider. He held her hands in his. "You're my greatest friend, Ginny."

"And you're mine Tom," Ginny said. "Will you always be there for me when I grow up?"

"Always." Tom thumped his chest. "Cross my heart."

Ginny smiled and blinked her eyes, the room growing wider and warmer and sunnier. Each time, she opened her lids to see Tom staring back at her.

"Always?"

"Always Ginny. Just don't forget about me."

"I'll never forget about you Tom. Not even when I'm old and wrinkly."

Ginny's vision began to blur, but the words, soft and comforting enveloped her like a cocoon. Always. I'll always be there for you. Just stay with me Ginny. They repeated again and again like a record, until they became deeper and she heard them said in Severus' tone. Don't be frightened, Ginny. Stay with me. Don't drift away.

Ginny woke up with her head buried in one of the pillows and the sunlight was streaming through the window. Severus stood to the side, downing a whiskey.

"Isn't it too early to drink?" Ginny said, yawning.

Severus harrumphed. "It's noon somewhere in the world. You did brilliantly last night. I might say, much better than I had anticipated."

Ginny grinned. "So I'm ready to face the Dark Lord now?"

"As ready as you will ever be."