The aftermath of Hermione's Petrification.

GINNY VIII

She waited in the common room, out of breath. She ran to arrive there before the others. Ever since Valentine's Day, Ginny had been looking for an occasion to get Tom's diary back. She had tried to watch Harry more closely than usual, for all the good it did. She still barely managed to look at him. She was afraid he might notice she was giving him more attention, and was afraid that if she was too much in contact with him, he might end up asking her about what she wrote to Tom.

It was a nightmare. Ginny was afraid at all times of what Tom might have told Harry. But Harry didn't seem to notice her more than usual. She didn't know what was worse, whether Harry kept ignoring her despite the feelings she revealed to Tom, or whether he was laughing behind her back. She heard him more than once laugh with Ron, Hermione, Fred or George about something, she couldn't hear what they laughed about. Her worst fear was that they were laughing about her. Ginny was hoping that Tom told nothing to Harry, but her hopes were not high. She tried to get rid of the diary. Surely Tom took his revenge on her and used the first opportunity to tell Harry everything. Unless Harry had not found about the real nature of the diary, but she highly doubted it.

So Ginny looked for an opportunity to steal the diary, but if what she saw on Valentine's Day was in any way representative, Harry was carrying the diary with him most of the time, just like she did before she got rid of it. She had to wait for a moment when Harry's bag would be far away from him, or when he wouldn't be carrying it on him. Today seemed like the only good moment. The match against Hufflepuff would mean that the whole House of Gryffindor would be attending, far away from their common room and their dormitories. Harry could not carry the diary on him while playing. Surely it would be in the dormitory where he was sleeping. She only had to wait until everyone was out to the field, and then she would climb the stairs and look through Harry's stuff until she found the diary. She had no choice. She couldn't take the risk of Tom telling something to Harry or telling him anything more than he already did.

She remained in the darkest and most isolated place in the common room, sitting in a lonely chair, a book in hand, feigning to read it. Harry walked into the common room with the rest of the team, including Fred and George. Ginny raised the book, hiding her face behind it, praying that none of them would notice her presence. Luckily enough, they were too busy talking about Quidditch and went to their dormitories without seeing her. Ginny had run from the Great Hall when she saw Harry, her brothers and the other players of Gryffindor heading to the common room to get their equipment for the game. She wanted to be there to see them enter then leave the dormitories. And that's what she saw. The players walked into, then out of their dormitories. She allowed herself to look up from her book when Harry headed out of the common room. He seemed a little under stress. Nothing in him betrayed any knowledge of what Ginny wrote in Tom's diary. Her heart was racing as always when she found herself in the same room as Harry. He left quite quickly, heading for the Quidditch pitch. Ginny watched all the players, Fred, George, Oliver, Angelina, Alicia and Katie leaving. Then she watched the students who remained behind leaving as well. Soon, Ginny was alone. She looked at her watch. The game was only supposed to begin at eleven o'clock.

She waited impatiently for her watch to finally indicate that hour. The common room was empty. The whole school was attending the game. Taking a deep breath, Ginny laid down her book and ran towards the dormitory of the boys in second year. She looked behind her a few times to make sure no one saw her, but even Percy wasn't in the common room right now. She rushed in the boys' dormitory and slammed the door shut behind her.

The boys' dormitory wasn't that different from the girls'. Same beds, same decorations, same colors. There were five four-poster beds. Ginny wondered which one belonged to Harry. There were no names on the beds. She looked around, searching for a clue that might indicate which was Harry's bed. Finally, she saw it. She recognized the old trunk Harry was using and that she saw on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters a few times. It was strange how she noticed so many details about Harry, down to the trunk he was using to carry his things. Furthermore, it was the only trunk that was open. Harry probably left it open when he took his equipment for today's match. Ginny seized one of the books inside, a brand new edition of one of Lockhart's works, and looked inside. Harry had written his name on the first page. That was his bed, no doubt about it.

There was no time to lose. Someone might still walk into the room, or the match might end early. Last time, it took only a few minutes to complete it. Ginny removed each book, each robe from the trunk, one by one. She also browsed the pages of each book, in case Tom's diary would be hidden inside. That was how she found it in the first place, hidden in one of her books. But there was nothing. She looked into the pockets of his robes, without any result either. She seized the trunk, heavy despite its emptiness, and turned it down. Nothing fell. She searched every corner of it. The diary was not there.

She removed the sheets and covers from Harry's bed, without any success in finding it either. Then it was the drawers' turn. There was no trace of a diary there either. When she was done, she looked at all the mess she created. Tom's diary was nowhere to be found. She began to cry and sat down on the empty bed, her face in her hands. Harry must have brought the diary with him. She would never recover it.

As she shifted, she felt something under her bottom. Something small. She recognized this sensation. She once hid the diary at the very same place. She got up and looked under the mattress. Her hand found the cover. That was it. She took it from under the mattress, and here she was, holding it in her hands again. Tom's diary. She found it. She laughed in relief. Hugging it tight against her, Ginny ran out of the boys' dormitory before someone could see her. The common room was still empty, so no one noticed her. She went into her own dormitory, opened a page and started writing.

"Tom, what did you tell Harry?"

She wrote so quickly, her hand was shaking so much that she herself could barely decipher what she wrote. The ink disappeared. It seemed to take an eternity for Tom to answer.

Ginny? Is that you?

"Yes. What did you tell Harry?" Another long pause was necessary for Tom to answer.

Nothing. I didn't understand why he was the one writing to me. I first thought you had given me to him, but it was quickly obvious it wasn't the case and that he didn't know we talked before. How did I end up with him?

Ginny thought very quickly. She couldn't tell the truth to Tom. She couldn't tell him that she dropped him in the toilets, tried to get rid of him. She was afraid.

"I lost you. You must have slipped from my robes and Harry found you." Another delay followed.

Well, poor me. I guess there's not much I can do as a diary. Are you okay?

"Yes, I am." Now she was. But she had to be sure. "Did you tell anything to Harry? Did you tell him what we discussed?"

No, Ginny. Like I said, when it became obvious Harry didn't know you wrote to me, I said nothing about you. For Harry, I was more of a toy than anything else.

Ginny sighed in relief. "Thank you, Tom."

She closed the little diary and put it into her pocket. She couldn't let it out of her sight again. She couldn't let anybody get his hands on it. Especially not Harry. She almost died of shame when she realized he had the diary, right after the dwarf delivered her Valentine and Harry, along with half of the school, laughed at it. What was she thinking about, sending him a Valentine too?

Feeling a little better, Ginny proceeded to leave the common room. She walked through the entrance and left the portrait of the Fat Lady behind. She was going to watch the rest of the Quidditch game. Outside, the sun was rising high. The day was finally looking sunny.

She found herself in a corridor she didn't remember walking in. Ginny stopped. She was walking, and somehow, all of a sudden, she found herself in a corridor that was completely different from the one she was walking through moments before. She looked around herself. The place was totally different. She had just left Gryffindor's common room. How did she find herself there?

Then the voice of Professor McGonagall echoed through the corridor.

"All students are to return to their house common rooms right away. Immediately, please. Their Heads of Houses will give them further information there."

Ginny looked in all directions. Where did the voice come from? It sounded like when Lee Jordan was commenting Quidditch games. Professor McGonagall was nowhere to be seen. Did she use a megaphone like Lee did? She told them to go back to their common room.

Ginny sprinted back to the Gryffindor Tower. On her way, she realized through the windows that darkness was falling on the castle. Was it already the evening? What was she doing for the last few hours?

Ginny almost glided in front of the Fat Lady, then she gave the password. The portrait opened, and she rushed inside. Ron, Fred, George, and even Percy were on her in no time.

"Ginny!" Ron hugged her tight. Ginny held him tight as well. She needed to be reassured.

"Where were you, Ginny? What were you doing outside?" Percy asked her, a point of accusation in his voice.

"Leave her alone, Percy," Fred said.

"She's here. It's all that matters," George added. For once, her twin brothers were serious, and she was glad for it.

"What happened? Why did Professor McGonagall order everyone back into their common rooms? What happened?" She was on the border of madness. What Ron told her next almost knocked her out.

"Hermione was Petrified."

Ginny let out a small scream that made some people around them turn to look at her. As she tried to assimilate the information Ron just gave her, she looked around, distraught. The common room was in a particular state of a mess. The last time it looked like this was when their team had defeated Slytherin in November. Did it mean that they won against Hufflepuff?

Whatever thoughts she had about Quidditch quickly vanished though, as the news of Hermione's Petrification finally reached her brain. The realization of what it meant was so overwhelming that she barely understood Fred when he told her about a student from Ravenclaw who got Petrified as well.

"How?" Ginny simply asked. All her brothers looked stunned by her question.

"How do you want us to know?" George asked.

"Oh, shut up, George," Percy said. "Look, Ginny. You don't have to be afraid. The professors sent us back in the common rooms for our safety. You have nothing to fear here."

But Ginny was afraid. She didn't remember what she did today, not after she recovered Tom's diary, which she could still feel inside her pocket. She could feel it weighing down on her and bringing her down through the floor. She felt that tears were coming to her eyes.

"Hey, Ginny." Apparently, George noticed that she was about to cry for he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, something he seldom did. "The Mandrakes are almost ready. Hermione will be revived very soon. She won't stay Petrified for long."

She knew he meant well by saying that, but while it reassured her in some way, she was also afraid of what the Petrified students might say when they would wake up.

"It's better if you go to sleep, Ginny," Percy said. "Come on. I'll accompany you."

Ginny's eyes threatened to betray her at any time. She struggled to keep the tears inside. As she climbed the stairs along with Percy, who was keeping his hand on her shoulder, perhaps in an attempt to comfort her, or to force her to go to her dormitory, she thought about something.

"Where is Harry?" she asked. She didn't see him in the common room. Did something happen to him too?

"I think he's talking with Professor McGonagall. He's one of the first people who found her after she was Petrified," Percy explained to her.

"What?"

"Yes. He's really not lucky. First Colin Creevey, then Justin Finch-Fletchley, then Hermione. He's got a bad habit of falling upon the Petrified people."

If Harry was close when Hermione was attacked, did that mean he was harmed as well? "Is he okay?"

Percy was about to answer when the passage to the common room opened. Harry entered. When Ginny looked at him, she gasped. She had never seen him like this. He looked... furious. Professor McGonagall was not far behind. Harry came to stand next to Ron, but he didn't seem to be talking to her brother. Ginny remained still, looking at Harry from where she stood over the stairs, while McGonagall gave them new rules that would apply from now on.

"All students will return to their house common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities." She then added in a strangled voice. "I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed. It is likely that the school will be closed unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught. I would urge anyone who thinks they might know anything about them to come forward."

Ginny wanted to say something. She wanted to say that she knew something. But the truth was, she knew nothing. All she knew was that somehow, she lost consciousness, she had no memories over periods during which the attacks took place. What could she tell the teachers? That she suffered from losses of memory? They would believe her to be mad, if they believed her at all.

Ginny watched Harry leave the common room in a hurry. Despite Ron calling him faintly, he climbed the stairs to the boys' dormitories and slammed the door shut behind him. She had never seen him like this.

Ginny felt the first tear breaking from its hold and falling down along her cheek. She rushed to her own dormitory and shut the door behind her. She let herself drop on her bed, buried her face into her pillow, and she cried there.

Everything was her fault. It had to be her. It had to be Ginny who did this. It couldn't be a coincidence. She experienced memory losses every time an attack happened. And now it was Hermione who was Petrified. Why did Ginny do that? Did she get jealous of Hermione because Harry spent more with her? Ginny never wished any ill to her. She was only Harry's friend, even if sometimes Ginny wished she could behave around Harry like Hermione did. Why did she attack her?

She felt the weight of the diary against her ribs again. She removed it from the pocket of her second-hand robe, lifted her mattress, dropped the diary under, then let the mattress fall back into place. Then Ginny buried her face again in the pillow. What could she do? What was she supposed to do? People were Petrified, Harry would most definitely hate her from now on after what happened today, and she was afraid of being expelled from Hogwarts. What was she going to do?

She barely gave any attention to the commotion outside the doors, as she heard Ron yelling that someone ransacked their dormitory, and Percy was yelling to know who did that. Ginny didn't care. She didn't care anymore about Tom's diary. All her trouble, all her problems, everything that went wrong this year started with it. She would never touch it ever again. It would remain hidden under her mattress forever, for no one to see.

I know there is not a lot of new material in this chapter. It is mainly following the evolution of Ginny's distress in this context.

Please review.

Next chapter: Lily