Difficulties of Avoidance
by dead2self
A/N: Ground out another chapter! This one is a bit of a breather after all that excitement, but I hope you enjoy it! Thank you again for the reviews! I love seeing people's reactions to what I write! And I would love if you could review again - as I said, it's pretty much why I've managed to write these all so fast. You guys are awesome.
Riddle's moan signaled that he was awake again. Ginny flinched at the noise, but only leaned closer over the Mediwitch manual, attempting to replicate the wand movement in the moving diagram.
"What do you think you're doing," Riddle snarled, the words coming out in a pained hiss.
It took every ounce of Gryffindor courage that Ginny had to steel her voice. "Your arm is broken and the bone is exposed. How is your head? Do you feel like you have a concussion? You haven't thrown up at all…"
She watched Riddle sit up gingerly, one arm hanging useless at his side. His good hand went to his torso. "Ribs," he said. He had made it to the bed at least. There were still books strewn about the room, so he likely had not left it in several days.
"That looks like the same concept as the arm," Ginny said, frowning as she paged through the book. She could not believe she was doing this; it was completely beyond her level. Riddle looked at her in equal horror to what she was feeling.
"You aren't trying to heal me are you? Surely there is someone else!"
"You saw everything," Ginny snapped. "There is no one else. Luna might be better at this, but I'd rather mess up your arm than risk you jumping Luna as soon as it's mended. I'm better at Defense. I'm doing this."
Riddle's mouth set in a firm line, though from pain or determination Ginny was unsure. He studied her, eyes narrow, and then said, "Put that book away and come here. I will tell you the incantations and show you the wand movement until I am satisfied you won't remove the bone entirely."
She gaped at him, and the only reaction she could think of was to laugh. It came out more like a dry cough. "Riddle, I just spent the better part of an hour trying to find a spell that would let me heal you from at least three meters away, but it doesn't seem to exist. I'm not coming anywhere near you until I'm actually healing you."
"My arm is broken and you have that thrice-damned stick of a wand anyways. What can I do to you?" He was not actually trying to scare her – the usual gleam in his eyes was missing – but nonetheless, Ginny could not help picturing any number of things he could do to her. Pushing away those violent thoughts, she focused on the first part of what he had said.
"Stick?" Her stomach turned at the thought of the black wand nestled at the bottom of her trunk. She and Luna still had not an inkling of how he had gotten it.
"Don't flatter yourself to think that you beat me in a duel on your skill alone. I have never held a more useless wand in my life."
"Maybe if you want your arm fixed you should think about cutting back on the snarky comments," Ginny shot back. "You're lucky I'm helping you at all." But it was true; this spell was well beyond her, and a misused Healing spell could be more dangerous than a curse. She immobilized Riddle's legs and approached, keeping her wand trained on him while she palmed the book.
There were hallows like bruises beneath his eyes and a slick sheen on his forehead. Ginny stood before him and her vision dropped before she realized: what else could he take? It was something of a relief to look him straight in the eye. As things were, she was tired of ducking her head when her first instinct was always to face a problem with eyes blazing. He matched her gaze, but a flicker in his dark eyes betrayed that it was a response he did not often encounter.
"Alright, show me, then," she challenged.
"Give me your hand," he snapped. His good hand shot out and curled around her wand hand, but she jerked back, out of his reach.
"Mime it Riddle," she said. "Do you think I'm completely helpless?"
His eyes said yes, but she stared back for all she was worth until he had no choice but to lift his hand and run through the wand movements. Settling beside him, a safe distance back, Ginny began to copy him. He repeated this over and over, correcting her shaky mimic with staccato insults. He seemed to never be satisfied with this, but eventually he also said, "Brackium Emendo," repeating it for her until she had the perfect inflection.
"This will set the bones in my arm and my ribs," he said with an air of resignation when she had progressed as far as he thought possible. "You must visualize the bone you are aiming to fix. That book has pictures, does it not? I will show you the spell to heal the skin after."
Ginny nearly closed her eyes when she tried the spell until Riddle snapped at her to look at what she was doing. To her utter shock, it worked perfectly. Riddle heaved a low moan of relief, and she did his ribs as well. The wand movements for healing his cuts were much easier, if far more uncomfortable; all she had to do was trace her wand along his open wound, but this required closer proximity. The songlike incantation took the better part of twenty minutes for Ginny to learn correctly, but she needed the time to steel herself against being so close to the boy who had just days earlier tried to kill her.
That thought had stalled her in front of the Room of Requirements for nearly ten whole minutes, shaking and constantly waving off Luna's offers to go in herself. She had opened the door by remembering that nothing had changed, not really. He had tried to kill her before, and it should make no difference that this was more immediate.
She trailed her wand over his arm and fumbled the incantation as she watched goose bumps rise under her touch. If she could see that, she was too close. It did not help that Riddle got progressively more impatient.
"I can leave it open and you can die from infection, or you can shut up and let me concentrate," she finally snapped. "You've got no reason to complain. I'm taking ten potions a day thanks to you." She nudged at her tender ribs.
"Don't be so ungrateful. That curse is meant to kill you." Ginny sucked in a gulp of air, but Riddle was not finished. "You can thank that measly wand that you are still walking."
"What do you mean?" she breathed.
"I told you I needed a wand, Weasley. I needed one that would obey me. Wandlore myth says that if one kills another wizard in a duel, their wand will then change allegiance to the victor. I could not very well face Dumbledore with that dingy stick you disarmed from one of my Death Eaters." The name curled deliciously on his tongue, and Ginny saw in his eyes that he was pleased his Death Eaters had breached the castle. The gleam only grew as his eyes alighted on her wand. "It matters little now, with the old fool dead."
Ginny got the terrible feeling that if his legs were not immobilized, he would already be on top of her trying to wrestle away her wand. Despite his cavalier attitude, she could tell he was furious beneath the surface. Half a year of taking care of him and the fact that she could finally look him in the eye meant that she was plumbing new depths of Riddle's emotions.
"Why do you feel the need to tell me this?" she asked, just to say something with false bravado. "If you're trying to remind me that you'd like to kill me, that's rather old news. About six years old, in fact."
"I would like to be sure you know where we stand," said Riddle coolly, but his hackles were rising.
"Where we stand is that I just beat Lord Voldemort in a duel and you missed your big chance again!" Ginny hissed.
This was the wrong thing to say. Snarling, Riddle lunged for her and she was forced to scramble away as he tumbled to the floor. Ginny swallowed a biting comment, reminding herself that they did still have a mission. He swiped for her feet, teeth gnashing, and she felt a pang of emotion that she refused to acknowledge while she danced out of his reach.
"When you're done acting like an animal, perhaps we can have an honest conversation," she said. Perhaps only a little biting. "You know everything now, and I'd like to know where you stand on it."
"I should think that would be obvious," he sneered. His whole body shuddered, and she was reminded of the first time that she had met Tom Riddle in this room, staring up at her with pure distain and a strain of curiosity. The curiosity was long gone.
"There's not a lot that is obvious with you. We'll talk once you have a chance to settle down."
Riddle let out a string of curses, but Ginny ignored him and collected the things from the room that she had left behind after their fight, most notably the Marauder's Map. She emerged from the Room, shaking, and Luna quietly pocketed her wand. Her knuckles stayed white from the tight grip she'd had on it.
"Let's get you to the hospital wing for your potions," she said, putting her hand on Ginny's back. Ginny shrugged it off. Luna made no reference to this and continued, "Did it work?"
"Yes, and I left a few meals' worth of food."
It was midday on a Hogsmeade weekend, and the castle was somewhat empty. This was perfect, as neither Ginny nor Luna wanted to clash with Harper over their escapades again. Harper had been incensed at McGonagall's decision to sweep the whole incident under the rug. It would have been endearing, had Ginny not argued fervently for this decision when she woke up. McGonagall had been tricky. Ginny did know how much the older witch knew about Riddle, but knowing Dumbledore, probably nothing. She suspected the professor would have protested two students playing caretaker to the Dark Lord. Nonetheless, she had convinced McGonagall that it was an incident best not looked into. Such advanced Dark Magic in Hogwarts would probably be ground for her instant removal. Harper clearly agreed, itching for her resignation, but the Headmistress bound him to reluctant silence
Worst of all, Ginny had caught Harper staring at her as though she might fall apart at any moment. Harper had reason to stare at her like that – Ginny had been stuck in the hospital wing for several days, and she had barely lifted her head from the pillow the first day. Despite this, she outright refused to let Luna go into the Room of Requirement to check Riddle, even while he was injured. It meant he had not eaten in several days, but Ginny did not feel nearly as sorry as she should about it.
"He told me how he got the wand," she told Luna. "He must have caught it in the corridor when the Death Eaters were attacking. I do remember disarming someone."
"He's had a wand since then?" Luna gasped. "Why—?"
Luna did not need to finish the question. Ginny too was filled with a new sort of horror as she thought of all the times Riddle could have cursed her in the past month. "He said the wand wasn't working properly for him and that he needed to—to kill me in a duel to get a wand that worked." To her surprise, Luna nodded knowingly.
"I suspect he learned that from the wandlore book you gave him," she said.
Ginny's stomach bottomed out and she gawked openly at her friend. "You knew about the book?" she asked in a voice too small to be her own.
Luna cocked her head. "I got Riddle most of his books, Ginny." She giggled, which did not feel appropriate to the moment to Ginny. "You thought I wouldn't notice an extra?"
"But Riddle—Wait, so you didn't know why he wanted it?" Luna bit her lip and shook her head. Ginny's head went dizzy, trying not to be surprised that Riddle had lied. Before she could think, the whole story tumbled from her mouth. Luna listened, her lips barely moving from a straight line until Ginny finished.
"He called me an unabashed liar," she confessed at the end.
"Sometimes you are, Ginny Weasley," said Luna, surprising Ginny with her raw honesty. Then her eyes softened. "Most of the time, though, I would call you a good actress."
"But he's… he's right. This is all my fault. I'm so sorry Luna. I thought if it was like first year—if we had some sort of secret, I'd be able to, I don't know… connect again. Look how well that turned out."
"I think it might have worked better than you think. We had to tell him about Voldemort eventually. Perhaps now that we are on equal footing, it will be easier to broach the conversation."
Ginny thought of Riddle hunched on the ground, clawing for her, and shuddered. Easier to broach the conversation, or the most dangerous and unbridled Riddle had ever been? The thought followed her to bed and it was no surprise that she could not sleep. But in the tight-eyed grey of the morning, stomach rolling from exhaustion, she was forced to recognize that horror was not her reigning emotion. She felt betrayed. She frowned against the prick of unwanted tears.
They had built an uneasy comfort. She'd had a chair next to his that she'd curled up in. They had sat with shoulders nearly touching while he bored her to tears with inverse poison equations and he had not reached for her wand. She had bossed him around like a right little brat of a sister. He conspired against Slughorn with her, albeit against his knowledge. For the briefest instant, she had thought he had a terrible, wonderful sense of humor and so much potential to be brilliant. She had been the butt of his jokes; he had almost smiled at her own humor. Merlin, she had started thinking of him as Tom. It was not fair that he had done this to her again, not when she knew so much about him.
Before she could help it, her cheeks were wet. She buried her nose in her pillow, squeezing her eyes shut, when a thought needled at her: she knew so much about him. Was it really betrayal if she had always known it was coming? There was a reason she had held her wand close and tried to guard the map. And who said that she could not trade witty insults with Riddle while still appreciating that he would certainly attempt to steal her wand and destroy her? He was beyond terrible, but so very clever. By Merlin's beard, she had mended bones that afternoon!
She could be reasonably fond of Riddle if she damn well wanted to be, and she refused to let him have any say in it. At that, her thoughts drifted into an easy sleep.
The lack of sleep meant that Ginny woke up nauseous. Her chest hurt like someone had sliced her from shoulder to hip, something that Madam Pomfrey had warned would happen. She had also instructed Ginny to come straight to the hospital wing when it did, but Ginny had no desire to do that. What she needed to do was see Riddle again. She did not know what she was going to say, nor could she piece together exactly what she had been thinking before she fell asleep, but she threw on robes without consideration.
The hour was still uncommonly early for a Sunday at Hogwarts, so Ginny did not expect to encounter any other students in the corridors. That being said, it was not entirely a shock to find Harper running his hands over the wall opposite the tapestry.
"You have got to be kidding me," she breathed, turning quickly. Keep Harper out! she urged the Room. Fortunately, he forgot his search when he caught sight of her.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, falling in step beside her.
"Hospital wing," she grunted.
"This is nowhere close to the hospital wing," he answered. "You were coming back for—for whatever it is you've been up to!"
"I was going for a walk, and now my chest hurts, so I'm going to the hospital wing."
"Weasley, you nearly died!"
"Just going for a walk. I think I can handle that, Harper."
"I can't believe you almost died and you are still going to stubbornly ignore the rules. They have been implemented for a reason."
"I'm not breaking any rules. Curfew is about as far away as it can get."
"Dumbledore said this seventh floor corridor was off-limits, that whoever went here might face death. You and the Head Girl have flagrantly ignored that all year, and look where it's gotten you."
Ginny rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Honestly, no one but Harper would remember a rule that Dumbledore had mentioned once back in September. Ginny herself had completely forgotten about it, probably aided by the fact that she had disregarded it from the beginning.
"Who cursed you?" Harper prodded. "You said it was a Slytherin, but no on in my house knows anything about it. What really happened, Weasley?"
"Yeah, because anyone would confess to a curse that would get them expelled." Was he going to follow her all the way to the hospital wing? If that was the case…
Ginny let out a short yelp, cutting off Harper's response, and clutched at her side. He made a jerking movement halfway between lunging for her and recoiling in horror, asking, "What happened? What's wrong?"
"Pomfrey told me this might happen. I just need to get down to—" Then, to her horror, Harper caught her arm around his shoulders and lifted her from the ground, cradling her under her knees.
"Ow!" Ginny shrieked, because now her chest actually hurt. With each jarring step, she was sure she would need another ten potions. "Put me down! You're making it worse!"
Harper had the slight build of a Seeker, but he had a strong grip, too tight to let her kick free. He frowned at her down his nose, looking like a pretentious git even as he helped her. "I saw you when it happened. Even though you deserved it, I'm not taking any chances."
"I'm not taking the chance of someone seeing me being carried around like a baby!" Ginny struggled to untangle her wand from her robes with one hand. "Put me down or I swear I'll curse you – and it will be in self-defense!"
Harper ignored her, and Ginny succeeded in freeing her wand. He got five steps farther before she caught him with a Jelly-Legs Jinx and they both hit the floor. Ginny groaned as she untangled herself, though luckily she had landed mostly on top.
"You—Weasley, you're mad! Completely bonkers!" Harper started trying to haul himself upright using a tapestry, whose subject scrambled to the upper right corner and scolded him harshly.
"You're one to talk! You can't go around picking people up!" She groaned as she stumbled to her feet. "Look what you did now."
"I was trying to help."
"No one asked for your help!" With a wave of her wand, Ginny reversed the curse. Harper scrambled to his feet, altogether failing to look dignified, and swept past her. He left grumbling darkly, but finally allowed Ginny some peace. Unfortunately, visiting Riddle was no longer an option; their short tumble meant that Ginny's injuries were throbbing worse than before. She got an earful from Madam Pomfrey, and ended up on bed rest for the remainder of the day. Luckily, they had left enough food with Riddle to tide him over.
Thus, it was not until the next morning that Luna took her first turn with Riddle since his attack. Ginny leaned against the tapestry, ignoring the trolls that leered at her, and held her wand at the ready. However, almost as soon as Luna had entered the room, her Patronus burst out. Shooting to attention, Ginny sent her Patronus in return. Luna barreled from the Room.
Ginny expected Riddle to be on her heels, but instead Luna cried, "He's—I think Tom is sick!" Ginny dropped her wand arm, propelled forward by shock.
"What? Are you sure—"
"He's burning up and he won't stop shaking," said Luna. Her eyes had gone as wide as saucers and appeared to be frozen that way. She cast all about the corridor for some sort of direction, and Ginny stepped in, calm under pressure.
"Go fetch some water from the bathroom," she said, conjuring a crude pail. "I'll go in and stay with him. Was he awake?"
"I—I think his eyes were b-back in his head!"
"I'll try Enervate… If we can get him to talk, I'll bet he'll know what to do. If not… I suppose the Room can provide some books. Get the water for now."
Luna dashed off as Ginny slipped into the Room. She noticed the food, untouched, on the table and hurried to Riddle's bedside. She felt his forehead, but it was hardly necessary. Riddle's breath came in ragged gasps and his face was uncomfortably white, shining with sweat. He seemed to be asleep, his body being wracked with tremors despite a cocoon of blankets.
Wasting no time, she waved her wand over Riddle. "E-Enervate!" With a rush of air like he had been recently drowning, Riddle's eyes flew open. "Riddle, stay awake!" she said, grabbing his shoulder to catch his eye.
"A-About t-time, Weasley," he croaked.
"You're sick—" Riddle sucked air sharply through his teeth, glaring away strength he should have spared. "—Fine, obvious, but we want to help you. What do you need?"
It took the wheels in Tom's brain far too long to turn for comfort, but finally he grunted, "I need an Invigoration Draught and a Feverish Potion—to start." Slowly he drew his arm from the blankets. Where the break had been, his arm was now swollen and red. "The bone is—likely infected. I shall need a small—dose of Skele-gro—following the other potions."
Ginny was just beginning to ponder how she would manage to pilfer so many potions from the hospital wing at once, when a bottle of each clattered to the floor beside her. "This is the best room ever," she breathed, holding up the three vials for Riddle. "The green one is for fevers, right?"
Snarling, Riddle snatched a purple vial from her instead. She moved to help him sit up, but he recoiled from her, propped halfway upright against the wall as his hands trembled over the stopper.
"Give me that," she said, ripping the vial from him. She opened it easily and then nearly knocked Riddle's head against the wall in an attempt to haul him into a sitting position. The result had her perched on the edge of the bed, her shoulder propped under his arm and a hand steady on his back. Riddle had gone as rigid as a stake, spilling curses on her even as she handed him the opened vial. He downed it as she worked the next cork out with her teeth and spat it on the floor. When Riddle drank this one, a spasm of strength flooded through his muscles that Ginny felt like heat. She hastened to let go before he could attempt to strangle her, and handed him the Skele-gro from an arm's length.
"Madam Pomfrey would be appalled at my bedside manner," she quipped as he took a steeling breath. Skele-gro was notorious for being nasty stuff, but Riddle drank an entire portion without pause. His coughing turned into a growl and he turned on Ginny, hurling the empty vial at her. She shrieked as it narrowly missed her, shattering on the floor behind her. "Oh, that's nice," she said as Riddle crawled into the circle of his blankets and cradled his arm with his back to her. "You're a real grateful bastard."
She sent her Patronus through the door. "Luna will have brought you water by now. Drink every drop before you go to sleep." She was released swiftly, and let Luna go in with the water after updating her. "Watch out for the glass!" she called as the door swung shut.
Waiting in the corridor, Ginny slid down against the opposite wall, willing her heart to stop pounding like that for the sake of Tom Riddle. Everything would be fine; he was going to get better – and he had bloody thrown glass at her for her trouble! She stewed sourly over this until she realized that just the day before she had cursed Harper for carrying her to the hospital wing. She gasped out a laugh at the comparison, and dug the palms of her hands into her eyes. She was just like Riddle in sickness. How unflattering.
While waiting for Luna, Ginny realized they had missed breakfast, picking up her own potions, and the beginning of the first lesson. At least that was easily solved. By the time Luna emerged, she had calculated where she could best be found collapsed. Merlin only knew she'd had enough medical experience in the past few days to make it convincing.
A/N (part 2): Only one this bothered me while writing this chapter. I was torn between having the Room of Requirement supply the potions (which it did by stealing from the infirmary, since it is impossible to Conjure potions from nothing under my established rules for elemental transfiguration) or having the girls pull off the heist. I went with the former, since I thought Ginny leaving the Room might cut down on the urgency of Tom being sick, but I'm still not sure... Other ideas included Ginny brewing the potions under Tom's watch, or having to remove the bone entirely before growing a new one - but I already had a scene of teacher!Tom and Mediwitch!Ginny at the beginning so I held off. All that really needed to get across was that Tom doesn't like being weak or helped. Thoughts? Rewrite needed? Thanks!