The rest of September flew by for me. After a somewhat shaky start, I was settling in really well at Hogwarts. I was getting good marks in classes, Quidditch practice was progressing brilliantly, everyone on my team was showing continuous improvements in every session, Tom was helping me a lot in whatever I asked for, Luna was becoming a closer friend with every passing day, and I felt happier than I ever had before. All that though, was about to change, and drastically.
As October arrived, things began to take a strange turn for me. I started to feel very lightheaded, awkward and stressed at random moments. It wasn't enough for me to feel scared, but it was certainly unsettling. Around the 14th, I started to notice that I was having temporary blackouts of a few minutes at a time, and that I would feel heavier and lighter, like someone or something was entering and leaving my body. When Percy noticed the small changes in my behaviour, including my apparently now pale face, he thought I was simply unwell, and he forced me to take some PepperUp Potion. While the nice warmth this provided inside did help me feel better, it was only temporary, and I went back to my strange cycle of feelings the very next day.
Tom didn't try and dissuade me from the notion that I was just ill, even when I told him that I wasn't dizzy or feeling like vomiting, coughing, sneezing etc. He said that this was something most young girls go through at some point, that it shouldn't worry me and that it would all be over soon. So, I simply tried to take my mind off it and focus on my work and Quidditch. I did enough at least to not show that I was experiencing anything unusual to anyone else, but I could not shake the tense feeling away no matter what I did. I noticed that it seemed to get particularly bad whenever I had been talking to Tom, but I didn't know how this could be possible. It was just a diary after all.
October 30th was when things really started to take a turn for the worse though. Demelza, Amy and I were walking down the corridor away from our final class, when we turned into a first floor corridor, the one that Moaning Myrtle's bathroom is on. We were about halfway along, when we heard a disturbance coming from a storage room. We stopped as quietly as we could outside the door, and I opened it by the tiniest of margins. It was a horrible sight.
On the floor, cowering, at the far side of the room, was our dormmate Daniela Pattinson, and towering over her were Avery, Mulciber and Yaxley.
"Please, leave me alone, i'll do anything, anything honestly" cried Daniela
"Why should we, it's the work of the noble Salazar Slytherin that we need to do tonight, there is no place in this world for Mudbloods like you!" said Avery savagely.
I turned back to Demelza and Amy, put my finger to my lips, and flicked my head slightly to the right. They got the message. Enter as quietly as possible. We slipped into the room and stood along the opposite wall. I nodded to Daniela when she saw us.
"You won't do anything" she said, with renewed confidence.
"Why?" sneered Yaxley
"Because of us!" I said
The evil trio turned, and to my surprise, Avery laughed when she saw me.
"Oh boy, the irony of this, it's Weasley who's about to save her little scumbag housemate here! Have you not worked it out yet, it's either us or you, you know!" she told me.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?!" I shouted back, pulling out my wand.
"Oh, has Lucius's little present not taken effect yet? Clearly not, we were expecting it to start by now, that's why we were going to do the Heir of Slytherins job for him!"
I had no idea what this meant, but I knew I had to save Daniela, who was clearly in grave danger. Before they could do anything else, all 3 of us raised our wands simultaneously and yelled "Petrificus Totalus!"
The dark trio all instantly froze and crashed to the floor.
Daniela stood up and ran over to us, and we started walking down to the Great Hall.
"Oh my god guys I cannot thank you enough. I don't know what they were about to do to me or why, but you came at exactly the right moment!"
"I'm guessing that this is why you weren't in class just now" said Demelza.
"Yeah, they cornered me after lunch, then I blacked out, I woke up here about 10 minutes ago, and I couldn't move, then they came in, and you followed in the nick of time".
"Any clue what Avery meant by what she said to Ginny?" asked Amy
"Not at all"
"Whatever it is, it's nothing good" I said.
I bit my lip and started thinking hard. Avery seemed to know something was up with me, and what disturbed me the most was, she was implying that I was going to do harm to Muggle Borns! This was seriously worrying, but I really wanted to keep this to myself, and not cause concern to my best friends, the last thing I needed was them fussing over me! I knew I could take care of myself!
"You ok Gin?" said Demelza as we sat down to eat.
"I'm fine mate. I'm just bothered about what those cunts will say once they can move again". It was a convincing lie.
"Oh I'm sure that'll be ok, they don't have any proof we attacked them, and even if they try to say something, they'll have to answer why they weren't in class themselves anyway"
I bit my lip and nodded, not really wanting to continue this subject.
Thankfully Amy decided to bring up Quidditch at that point, and we were able to eat in relative happiness.
The next day was Halloween. Halloween has always been one of my favourite days of the year, going around trick or treating in Ottery St Catchpole was one of the best parts of growing up. We would go to Muggle houses as well as wizarding ones, and it was always fun eating both types of chocolates. Muggles actually make some really nice ones to be fair, Bounty Bars are my favourite, although for some reason there seems to be a bit of a stigma around those in the non magical community.
This Halloween though, would be the most memorable of my lifetime, and sadly, for all the wrong reasons.
When I got into bed the night before, and closed my eyes, I felt something that I never had before, in my entire lifetime. Bliss. Absolute Bliss, it was wonderful, I could do nothing wrong, and life was perfect. When I opened them though, I found that reality was the complete opposite. I found myself not in my bed, but lying on the floor outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I was bewildered, how did I get here? Was I sleepwalking? I couldn't have been, I never had before that night, and anyway, sleepwalkers didn't tend to come around lying on the ground, they usually do so standing up when someone else wakes them up. When I got up onto my feet though, I knew I hadn't been sleepwalking, I knew this was much, much worse.
I saw massive red words written on the wall next to me.
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware".
Looking down at my body, I felt fear like I never had before. I was covered in rooster feathers, for some reason, and my hands were coated in blood, the same shade as the words on the wall. I then saw Filch's cat, Mrs's Norris, hanging completely stiff and still, from a torch bracket.
Terrified, I quickly looked at my watch. 4:37am. If I could just get back to bed without being caught, then I would avoid any trouble with the teachers, but I felt massive internal trouble. I had written those words, it appeared I had killed Mrs. Norris, how and why, I didn't know. I couldn't remember a single thing that had happened in the hours that had passed since I went to bed. I rushed away from the scene as quickly as I could, and thankfully I got back to the dormitory undetected.
It seemed as if Avery was right. Enemies of the Heir of Slytherin would be Muggle Borns. I'd killed a cat, would people be next? Was I about to kill Daniela, or Hermione, or any other muggle born in the school? Was I a danger now? And why was all of this happening?
The day passed far too quickly for my liking. I maintained my usual energetic demeanour around Amy, Luna and Demelza though. It was a Saturday, and we'd hung out together after Quidditch practice before going to the Halloween feast, which I'd been told was a spectacular occasion, so I used it to temporarily take my mind off my horrific actions of the previous night.
The feast was certainly very enjoyable, and I found out that the rumours of Dumbledore booking dancing skeletons was actually true, and it was highly entertaining and amusing to watch. The food was even better than usual, and I especially enjoyed the pie and juice made from Hagrid's massive pumpkins. It was such a good time that I forgot all about having to pass the scene of last nights crime on the way back to Gryffindor Tower. When we got there though, to my horror, we saw Harry, Ron and Hermione standing there, with everyone in shock at what was in front of them. Malfoy, however, looked delighted.
"Enemies of the heir, beware? You'll be next Mudbloods"
Avery suddenly turned from where she was stood about 10 feet away, and gave me a very dark smile. Oh she knew alright. This was bloody disturbing. What was I to do?
Then the answer came to me. Tom. He could surely help.
