Bella stared into Ginny, with eyes full of curiosity, while the red haired girl just stared back with a blank, confused look. As the silence dragged on, she eventually replied -
"What do you mean I sneaked out last night? I slept like a bear the whole night, did not even dream of anything!"
Now it was Isabella's turn to be confused - "I did not tell you before, but I have… insomnia - it's a condition which basically makes it harder for me to fall asleep. And as I lay in bed like a log every night… I could hear you wake up at around midnight, practically every night - then you went to the bathroom, yet tonight and the night before - I heard you using our dorm door to go out.."
Ginny looked a bit horrified, yet having prank loving brothers, her first thought was… that this was a prank - "You are not pulling my leg, are you?"
Bella slightly raised her voice, as if agitated by this lack of trust - "Of course not! Have I ever pranked anyone during our stay here?"
Ginny dropped her head low - "I`m sorry, I got my temper get the better of me" - She raised her head back up and was thoughtful for a minute, before breaking the silence once again - "Though thinking about it…. I did have a few weird dreams recently, like I was in a bathroom of all places…. Practising spells at that, and somehow after waking up I found it easier to cast those spells, I could even cast them silently…. Have I been walking in my sleep? I am used to sneaking out at midnight back at home…" - she saw her friends judging look and slightly blushed while explaining - "My parents just wouldn't let me fly around with brooms, so I… grabbed my brother's brooms to fly around at night… alone"
Bella sighed - "You were young when you started sneaking out?"
"Seven? No, perhaps eight?... I now realise I could have gotten hurt, my parents, they were just looking out for me… Still they could have let me fly around with their supervision"
"Still, sleepwalking while casting spells seems quite dangerous, you should consult with the teachers about this"
"Or I could visit hospital wing, in fact why don't we visit hospital wing, I think magic might help with your insomnia as well"
"Of course! I never thought of that, thanks Ginny, let's hit the hospital after breakfast?"
Ginny gave her a cheeky smile - "And after some flying around, can't miss some fun today! What if we get hospitalised for the rest of the day?"
A small smile broke out in Bellas face as she nodded - "fine, now hurry up or we will miss the meal!"
It was another regular day for the school nurse Poppy Pompfrey. It was Halloween so she had to fix countless pranks and other 'accidents', even more than usual. Students with broken bones, vomiting slugs, changed hair colours or features - all kinds of ailments, only for her to fix. She loved her job.
Just as she had enough time for a small break she saw a pair of girls coming in. One with a familiar Weasley red hair - Ginny she concluded and another which she never saw before. Curious she went over to welcome the girls - as they looked fine outside she wondered what this was about.
The girls shyly bowed and greeted her - "Hello madam Pomfrey"
She chuckled, at least they were polite, unlike most of the inhabitants of this school. "Hello for you too sweethearts, please just call me Poppy. What troubles have brought you here? Or perhaps you just came for a chat over a cup of tea?"
The girls exchanged glances, and the redhead took the lead - "Madam Pom…" - Ginny quickly corrected herself - "Madame Poppy, we are having some issues… sleeping. My friend Isabella here has had insomnia since she was a child. As she's muggleborn she was never checked if there was some way to resolve this… in a magical way as muggles did not find a way to fix her lack of sleep"
"As for my friend Ginny here, she is sleepwalking during the night, can you check us over and perhaps there's any treatment for those things available?"
The girls blushed as they voiced their concerns. Poppy was intrigued, it was not the usual things young girls trouble her with, which was usually puberty or pranks… Getting some actual interesting cases was quite rare. Her eyes sparkled as she glanced over the girls.
"Come in for some tea, dears, as I cast some diagnostic spells over to you, the elves also brought over some pumpkin pies and cookies so enjoy yourselves!"
Ginny just nodded while Bella glanced back at the school nurse with a puzzled look - "What do you mean by the elves?"
"Ah, its a type of magical creatures we employ here in hogwarts, in exchange for some magic they do all the cooking and cleaning in hogwarts, well most of cleaning as that grumpy caretaker also enjoys it so they leave a manageable chunk of dust and dirt for him. I am sure you will cover them in future classes, especially if you pick care of magical creatures during the third year"
"Thank you for explaining, madam Poppy."
They walked inside and as the nurse told them, there was a teapot with one cup of tea and a lot of pies and cookies awaiting them. Seeing as there's no extra cups, Poppy reached for her wand, yet stopped mid-way as the red-head girl reached hers first. She looked first in curiosity and later in shock and amazement as the first year Weasley transfigured a pair of nearby napkins into beautiful ceramic cups with red flowers - matching the cup she used for herself.
"I see, so you're the talented first year the teachers were mentioning"
Ginny just blushed, not used to receiving compliments, then the trio sat down and ate for a while, while chatting. Both girls were curious about what the daily life of the school nurse was at Hogwarts and the nurse was curious about the girls daily life.
Eventually the talks slowed down as the nurse picked up her wand and started casting various diagnostic spells, first non-verbally, then as her smile dropped, even more complex incantations which required chanting even for her, even after decades of practice - it was just not spells she used often.
After what felt like hours - perhaps it was she finally stopped. She smiled and said - "well, that was… complicated. For you Isabella, it looks like some neural pathways were not properly connected, hence your body is always thinking it's the day - which causes you to only fall asleep once you become so tired from being awake… you simply pass out. But have no fear, this can get fixed quite easily, in fact I can do this now"
The girls looked dumbfounded - not understanding half of what she said. What followed was another long long incantation, during which Isabella's head was shining in a pale blue light. When it was over the girl looked very tired, then yawned… and fell asleep.
"Oh dear, I fixed it, but she was constantly tired, I guess I should let her sleep over there tonight. Perhaps tomorrow as well, good thing it's the weekend, you will come to check up on her, won't you, Ginny?"
"Of course Madam Poppy! But how about my… sleepwalking issue?"
The nurse's complexion darkened, "This is more complicated, have you felt that you are doing something against your will recently? Did you have any weird dreams?" - Poppy was now gazing quite intensely into Ginny's eyes, noting they were somewhat darker than last time she saw the girl - she was the one who helped Molly birth her after all.
"No, although I did have a few weird dreams… where I was practising magic in the bathroom, and according to Bella I really was doing that, that was the reason I came here with my sleepwalking problem"
Her gaze slightly softened - "I see, unfortunately I could not find what is wrong with you, but I will consult some other text and will get back to you when you come for Bella… so tomorrow or the day after. In the meantime, there's a couple of dreamless sleep potion vials. They should keep you asleep and not walk during upcoming nights."
Ginny just sighted and nodded. "Ok, thank you Poppy"
The medi-witch just smiled - "you're welcome, dear. You're always welcome there, even if just to chat and some tea with snacks"
"Thank you, so I will be on my way, see you tomorrow, Madam Poppy!"
"See you again, Ginny"
As the door closed the red-head girl did not notice the smile disappearing from her face and her expression getting graver. Poppy quietly muttered under her nose as if speaking with herself - "Another year, another possession, oh poor girl, I hope you do not end up like Querell, I noticed his possession too late so it was beyond me to save him…"
She grabbed her coat and summoned a house elf to keep watch and pop her over in serious cases - for most harmless pranks students could just come the next day, most of them would be too drunk to communicate after the feast anyway.
She quickened her steps towards the direction of the headmaster's office while thinking 'surely Albus would know how to best approach this… '
It's me, yes Tom, the diary. Today started with quite the shock - imagine some random roommate you thought was in deep sleep was secretly spying on you…. Every single night you snuck out.
Horrible. Yet I only have myself to blame. During the second week at Hogwarts I did learn the silencing charm - I could always just quietly cast that while still in bed before sneaking out… How could I have been so stupid.
I had some time to organise my thoughts - while the girls were eating and flying on brooms. I remembered a saying - 'The truth hurts, but lies are worse', I contemplated for a long time, and eventually decided to just tell her the truth… however painful it would be. Of course bit by bit - saying 'hey I am accidentally possessing you during night' would just cause her to burn the book or flush it down the toilet… Not that I was certain the whole 'horcrux indestructible with ordinary means' thing was still true for me…
Then the hospital visit came… and I received severe shock for a second time that day - it seems like Poppy knows, or at least suspects something. I sure hope it's the latter if she is certain she would get the headmaster involved… Then it's probably the end for me… Unless… Perhaps I am not a 'dark' object now? I don't even know how they detect if an object is dark… Even if he does not know how to destroy horcruxes yet… I do not want my last days to be spent as a book locked in some vault or something… Perhaps I should change hosts? But Ginny would look for the diary… damn, it's like I'm trapped.
Ginny spent the rest of her day in the library, then the great feast, which she spent by Luna's side - as her other friends were somehow not in the feast, Harry and Ron were missing as well - she wondered if something had happened as Luna did not know where they were.
After the feast the girls split apart, walking towards their common rooms. Then I heard something - the pipes clanging, and I could hear some distant voice - I think it was saying 'masster' or something? I could not make other words, but it was clear, basilisk was doing something, which was weird, why had it stayed put all those years and only acted now? Perhaps I should visit the chamber of secrets, or at least lead others to finding it - it was not safe for that overgrown snake to roam free in the pipes.
My thoughts were interrupted as I realised Ginny had quickened her pace, not towards the common room, but towards the source of the sound.
A few corridors later Ginny saw a shocking scene - the floor was flooded with water, leaking from a nearby wall. And inside the puddle stood a stone like sculpture of Miss Norris. Surrounding it were the famous golden trio, as Ginny stepped nearer she overheard their speech.
"..have you really not heard any voice? I followed the angry voice, it was saying master or something"
"No Harry, for the millionth time, all I heard was some pipes clanging, perhaps you should visit the medical wing to check your hearing?"
"I heard it too, the voice" - Ginny just jumped into conversation, taking Harry's side. She was still shocked by the sculpture, but was happy to take her crush's side.
The trio turned towards the newcomer - "Hello Ginny" "Ginny!" "Hello"
"Hello for you too"
Harry looked somewhat relieved that someone believed him, that he was not the crazy one - "so you have heard it too?"
"Yes, it said masster, whatever that means, I was curious so I came here. By the way, what did you do to the cat? It looks like a stunner charm, yet it somehow looks as if made out of stone… "
"We do not know, it was like this once we got there"
Their conversation was interrupted as a screaming Filch came in, broom in hand - "Ms Norris! My cat! What have you done to my cat!?"
His shouting attracted more students to the scene as they all wondered what this was about. As there were no blood writings on the wall, they just assumed the annoying cat got pranked, then secretly gave thumbs up to the four students still receiving Filch's monologue and scattered away.
Eventually the four students managed to convince the caretaker that they only came here by chance - the alibi of headless Nick certainly helped. The caretaker hated the students, but not the ghosts, as they even helped him catch troublemakers at times.
The four students went together to Gryffindor common rooms, still busy processing the day's events. I too prepared my thoughts as it was the time that Ginny usually writes to me. We had a lot to discuss and I should start revealing the truth - even just a bit of it.
The girl picked the diary and dipped her quill in ink as I summoned the familiar black ballpoint pen in the mindscape. Soon words appeared on the screen.
*Hello Tom! You would not believe what a day I had*