Ginny expressed her worries in words, writing paragraph after paragraph of text, finally finishing with the story of a cat that was turned to stone statue, now awaiting my response. I decided first to address the latter problems - so that even if Ginny decided to throw me away, I must warn her about the snake in school, in some roundabout way atleast, I sighed and quickly wrote my reply in an elegant cursive.

*Turning to stone… There is a muggle legend about Merlin, that he apparently turned to stone once, perhaps there is some truth to that, a spell perhaps or perhaps even a magical beast - not sure if they exist, but there are legends of Gorgons who turn people to stone on sight, even legends of basilisks who kill on eye contact and even turn to stone on indirect contact, like a puddle of water*

The girl looked surprised, seemingly in thought, perhaps she recalled the mess on the floor where Ms Norris was found ? after a few minutes she picked up her quill again

*thank you Tom, I will be sure to check out the library, how about my sleep walking issue, have you ever heard of anything like that?*

I steeled my heart and decide to reveal a little of my nightly activities

*I must confess, I might know a thing about this. I did not mention this before as I somehow keep forgetting this, but lately I have been having strange dreams… Very strange. I would wake up in something I could only describe as Hogwarts bedroom - the same one you described. Then I would go to the bathroom to practise the magic and it worked! It was such a wonderful experience, the body I had in the dream was also weird, definitely not the same one I had before I was put into the book, I remember seeing a beautiful red haired girl reflected in the mirror, but I focused on magic most of the time, I fear this could be another mischief by the entity who locked me in there, say do you have red hair by any chance?*

The text slowly appeared on the page as if to convey my hesitation in opening up like this - Ginny's eyes widened as her eyes ran over the paragraph multiple times. With a shaking hand she wrote back to me.

*Yes… All Weasleys are red haired. But what does this mean? Have you been just using my body while I sleep?*

I tried replying in a way to guide the blame to the third party, which was kind of a truth - yes I wished to reincarnate to this world, but no I never wanted to be some dark artefact thing.

*I think the one who put me into this… book is at fault. I am sorry I did not mention this before Ginny, it is as if my dreams… disappeared quickly in the morning. I can only remember now that you wrote this to me…*

The redhead needed a few minutes to read that as her eyes were watery, eventually her hands stopped trembling and she wiped a tear from her eye. Then her gaze turned inquisitive as she quickly wrote what's on her mind

*What did you even do going outside with my body?*

I rolled my eyes - well at least she did not throw me to the fireplace yet - which was a good sign.

*As I said, I was just practising magic and just the day before I sneaked out to explore the castle… I even found a nice secret room on the seventh floor*

Ginny's usual look returned as she now got curious about the secret room as well.

*What secret room?*

*It's to the right of the dancing trolls poster, you need to walk across that spot in the wall while thinking what you want to find inside, then after a third time it would appear. Of course it is quite limiting with what you want to find inside, If you ask for a broom you would probably find some, yet if you ask for a person, or for Nimbus 2001, it would likely be empty*

The girl's eyes sparkled, surely thinking of all the cool things to try asking the room for, but soon she dipped her quill in a nearby ink bottle and wrote again.

*It is still worrying that you are using my body while I am asleep, you must never meet with anyone while doing that! Also be sure to tell me in detail about your 'dreams' every single day from now on*

I grinned, she seemed to buy my excuse, perhaps our friendship was not so fragile? Or perhaps the lie with half-truths was just that good - the only thing I lied about is forgetting things… Perhaps I also omitted some of the details.

*Of course, remember to ask me as I keep forgetting those… 'dreams'*

As the tension settled down, our casual chat continued, the girl went back to trying to get me out of the book somehow once again, and I agreed to look for it in books in that fancy room and whatever she bought from the library - it was something I truly wished for anyways. Ginny also set up some… experiments to try. As it was around midnight she decided to sleep later today,

Our chat continued till midnight and then her eyes froze as if in shock. I myself never experienced possession while she was awake - it was weird seeing it from her eyes - something rose from the diary - which I assume was…me? My soul? Then it merged with her body as her eyes darkened. Then I found myself in control of her… but something seemed… different.

"Ginny, are you there?" - I asked with concern as my body somehow jumped in shock - that was quite a jumpscare for me, but I somehow took control and prevented the body from falling. It was a weird feeling as my mouth opened and words came out, words I had no intention of speaking.

"Tom is that you? My body feels so weird - as if I am not fully in control"

"Yes Ginny, it is me. Believe me the feeling is mutual, in dreams it did not feel so…. Weird"

My… Our body tumbled to the bathroom - it was still weird as hell as sometimes I was in control, sometimes Ginny. Gazing in the mirror we tried chatting for a bit to familiarise with this feeling. We even had a laugh when we tried speaking at the same time and words just came out as weird gibberish.

After some more experimentation it was clear that whoever wanted to be in control was in control - perhaps the stronger mind would overpower the weaker one, but as we both did not know any mind arts our minds' strengths were equal somehow.

Only an hour passed and Ginny decided it was time to sneak out to check the secret room. We decided that I would sneak out of the common room part and let her take over if we do encounter anything.

The journey was quite easy - somehow the common room was empty, perhaps mischievous students were still celebrating Halloween, so going up to the seventh floor did not take much time.

Near the poster I let Ginny take over and she excitedly walked over three times and a door appeared. Seeing the inside I was shocked - it was a quidditch stadium where 13 puppets were seemingly flying around and ready to play quidditch. 7 of them were made of dark wood and 6 of light one, there was also a broom collection nearby, from which Ginny picked up Comet 125 - the best broom probably, I was not a broom expert. Then she grinned and took off - it was quite a game to experience, I of course just let her have her fun - it was one her dreams to play this game after all, and I was happy to just feel the wind blowing in my face, yes I let her have full control, but all the sensations were still shared.

An hour or so later she was already exhausted - it was quite late after all. I also felt the familiar feeling of weakness overtook me,, so I took control of her mouth to voice my concerns.

"I feel as if my dream… is ending, good night Ginny"

The special feeling ended as I was back in the bookscape, still seeing the bright window and quidditch court on it, it's amazing how that fit inside a single room. I could see Ginny stumbling for a moment on her broom, yet quickly regained her balance - perhaps separation of souls froze her for a moment?

Then she landed, perhaps deciding it was time to hit the bed and grabbed the diary from her pocket - I told her to take it as I claimed to feel weaker even in the bathroom if it was not nearby.

She seemed to want to write something, yet had no ink or quill to write. As if answering her thoughts those items materialised besides her she smiled and verbally thanked the room, soon words appeared on my bookscape.

*Thank you Tom for finding such an amazing room for me, I will surely try to help you find a way to escape that book someday. You are still one of my precious friends, I am sure we will find a way to get you out of there. Today was quite a tumble of emotions for me - I still have a lot to digest, so for now… goodnight for you too.*

Honestly I was feeling quite touched - *Thank you Ginny, I am truly grateful you did not just toss me out of the window after all that, sweet dreams*

The girl smiled reading my antics, then murmured something about that actually crossing her mind earlier, still I was glad to still have some hope of freedom.

Ginny rushed back to the dorms and quickly fell asleep. It was quite a different day. Sure I did not have a body to control on my own and there was still Dumbledore to worry about, but somehow I was happy - I used to feel quite dirty for using someone's body without consent - now it seemed things would change. If only Dumbledore would be reasonable…

Well If Pompfrey could somehow find this out when there were no physical changes to Ginny, she would have noticed Quirrell as well - if the headmaster was fancy for using others to train his wonder-boy perhaps he would leave me be.. At least until the end of the term?

Basilisk roaming around was another pressing matter. Why did it have to go crazy now? Perhaps it could recognize the diary? It's aura? I had one less thing to worry about - Ginny finding out, yet my worries seemingly just increased - headmaster and basilisk were both ancient beasts to worry about…

With such thought I drifted to 'sleep' inside mindscape as well.

Dumbledore looked over at the cat with concern, casting various diagnostic spells, besides him Pompfey stood with crossed arms.

"Well?" - She broke the silence

Headmaster sighted and answered - "It is not any spell I know, perhaps it was a magical beast, yet not many can turn people to stone, but fortunately a simple fresh mandragora potion seems to be able to heal it, alas the magic I know cannot"

"Do you think it's related to.. Ginny?"

Albus' eyes seemed to darken, he was deep in thought, yet eventually shaked his head - "it could be, but I believe that is not the case, while I cannot cure this… ailment, I could determine the precise time the body changed - it was the time while she was still in the feast"

Mediwitch seemed more concerned for the girl, her roommate's problem was solved, yet the possession still weighed heavily on her mind.

"Are you sure about it Albus, to suspect possession and… do nothing once again?"

Dumbledore's glasses twinkled as he replied - "I would check it out myself just to be sure, but as I told you earlier today, I believe she might be the one from the prophecy, the one Trawelney had over the summer"

Pompey's gaze was accusing as she cornered the headmaster - "I am afraid I cannot trust your words Albus, first poor Querell and now this… At least tell me the prophecy!"

"Innocent lives would be in danger if its content gets leaked. I am sorry Poppy, yet your occlumency shields were always like an open book, you are not suited for keeping secrets, it's for the greater good"

Poppy cursed, Albus seemed to be saying that as his favourite excuse nowadays, especially preventing her from diagnosing the Potter boy. She just knew the boy was not well, that suspicious scar… clearly some sort of dark magic at work, the boy also looked quite abused - she did not need her diagnostic spells to tell that much. If the headmaster kept preventing her from her duties, she had no choice but to notify her acquaintances who had more… sway of the old fool.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and his tone sounded a bit menacing - "I am afraid I cannot let you do that Poppy"

"But I haven't said anything? Are you reading my thoughts again, Albus? That's the last drop, you are no longer fit to be a headmaster!" - Poppy wanted to say some more things, yet an uneasy feeling overcame her, she instinctively reached for her wand, yet Dumbledore already had his wand pointed at her, and her wand silently flew to his hand - was that silent expelliarmus?

"I am sorry, Poppy, it's for the greater good, I am sure I will find a way to spin this up more nicely next time" - obliviate.

Albus sighted, it was already fifth time reasoning with her today, well she only remembered two encounters, but still this was becoming quite problematic, perhaps he should remove some irrelevant memories? She did not really need to remember Quierell did she? He mused inwardly as he concentrated on the spell, he needed to be extra careful to not leave any traces - which was hardly a challenge for a master legilimens like him, especially not just erasing last conversation but dwelling deeper into the mind, tying up the loose end, placing fake memories and such - he needed to be careful.

Soon the job was over and a short discussion later, Poppy finally agreed to just monitor Ginny, not taking any actions for the time being, still in the end he had to share a line from the prophecy - *a freedom seeker, who is unwilling to completely possess*, but it did not matter, Dumbledore thought, that poor description would hardly give any hints of upcoming events to anyone - well not anything Poppy did not already know.

He considered erasing the memory altogether, but seemingly Isabella and Ginny hit off well with her, so she would be sure to notice possession again, even if he erased it. Even being master legilimens would leave traces for repeatedly erasing memories in the short term.

Feeling quite satisfied he popped a lemon drop into his mouth and went to sleep, as interesting things happened today he was looking forward to surfing students' minds the next day, especially Harry's and Ginnys - the girl he suspected was the one in the second prophecy and the boy was the first to arrive at the turned to stone scene…