I could tell you the story of why I didn't upload for so long, the trials and tribulations, the sunder and crisis, the love and loss, but instead here is chapter 11.

Something had gone terribly wrong. Harry was dating Granger! It was inconceivable! How could the saviour of the wizarding world have fallen for that buck-toothed, mudblood instead of a stunning Pureblood like her? Ginny was at her wits end, she had to do something to save Harry from whatever dark charm the bint had put on him!

When she brought the issue to her mother, she was finally vindicated. Molly Weaselly, just as outraged as her daughter, contacted Albus Dumbledore in all haste.

As it turned out, the situation was worse than Ginny had thought. Indeed, this wasn't just about love but the fate of all of Wizarding Britain: there was a prophecy, kept secret by Dumbledore for years, that foretold Ginny and Harry's union without which the Light would lose the next war against Voldemort.

So her mother and the headmaster hatched a devious plot. Ginny would slip a powerful love potion to Harry and Ron would do the same for Granger to make sure she would not get in the way of destiny (and because Ron had been crying and stuffing himself day and night since Harry and Granger had stated dating).

The moment had come at last. The Gryffindors were having a party in their common room after the latest Quiddich victory and there was plenty of distraction to act tonight. Ginny approached Harry's unattended butterbeer bottle, and when she saw the coast was clear, she slipped a small vial from her sleeve, uncorked it and brought it right above the open bottle.

Out of nowhere, quick as only a world class seeker could be, a hand closed like a vice around her wrist!

The precious potion vial shattered into a thousand pieces on the stone floor, the sound of breaking glass seemed unnaturally loud and the silence that followed seemed even louder.

Ginny turned around slowly to see who the strong, manly hand belonged to, but she already knew. The aura of magical power that pressed down on her whole being, making her whimper in fear and arousal, could only belong to one wizard. She lifted her gaze towards the face of the imposing figure, his hand still firmly clamped on her wrist, and immediately regretted it! But it was too late, she could not avert her eyes from those glowing, Avada-Kedavra-green orbs, that were now piercing her down to her soul. All she could do was shake in terror as Harry Potter read her mind like an open book.

Ginny shot upright, gasping for breath, shivering and drenched in cold sweat, her wand already clasped in a white knuckled fist. She tried taking a couple of deep calming breaths to no avail. Her hearth and mind kept racing madly. Then without bothering to chick if she was alone, she conjured a small ball of Fiendfire.

Her prodigious display of power and the malevolent glow of the cursed flames where enough to ground her in reality, where she was her own awesome self and not the poor creature who lived in the forsaken chasm of the multiverse she had just visited in dream.

Once the nausea waned and she stopped shaking she dispelled the Fiendfire, before it could get a mind of it's own and refuse to be quenched. While she got ready for the day, Ginny decided it was high time she found a way to stop having those trice cursed nightmares.

As Ginny made her way down, she bilnked trough the eyes of her new, far humbler but sustainable, serpentine security system. If Tom or OG had had more experience with the modern muggle world, she might have compared it to zapping trough TV channels. She looked trough eyes in various places in the Gryffindor tower and even saw herself leaving through the portrait hole. Finally she found the eyes she'd been looking for, Harry Potter and his invisible snake security detail were already down in the great hall for breakfast.

She got the -now familiar- sensation of foggy parts of her memory clearing up as soon as she saw Sally-Anne trough the snakes eyes. Not wanting her memories to fog up again, she kept a small fraction of her attention on one of the snakes down in the hall. After the stunt she had pulled the other week, seeing only two places at ones was quite easy.

Of course, the downside of keeping an eye on Sally-Anne now, was that when she eventually lost sight of the girl, there would be a longer stretch of memory that went weird and blurry. It would be easier not to fight the damned jinx and let any trace of Sally-Anne be seamlessly removed from memory like she had done before she knew there was a jinx, and like everyone else did. But to stop fighting the jinx now, would be like admitting defeat and that was simply unacceptable.

"Oi, mom is in me 'ed, lads! Pretend like we was doin' our job," said a voice in her head, interrupting her train of thoughts, "Nah, I'm messin' with ya, so don't be worryin'. We wasn't slackin', I swear! And look, the boy ain't been offed by Black yet, so it's all sweet, mate."

"Merlin, must you speak in such an undignified way, even with mother? And if you're going to do an accent, at least be consistent!" said a second mental voice that made her think of Hermione.

Mother? Oh Mordred! What did I do this time?

"I'm a free snake, honey. I'll talk however the hell I damn well please!"

"Enough with your bickering, the two of you! Good morning mother, I trust you slept well, hmm?" said a third voice, that sounded disturbingly like he brother Percy's.

"Yes, I did, thank you. Look… hum… we haven't talked much, but I don't think you called me mother before now, did you?"

The snake with Percy's voice answered, "No, indeed, but since our birth we've discussed it and well… I suppose that's just what sounds most natural to us. You did give us life, after all."

In the private part of her mind, the weirdness of what she had done downed on Ginny. Somehow she had created people, not mere magical constructs, not simple summoned creatures who could exist for a few days at most, but fully sentient people! Though she was loath to admit it, this incredible achievement had been completely accidental and she wouldn't know how to repeat it if she wanted to.

Part of her felt it should have come with more of an emotional impact, like creating life should mean something, but instead her feeling towards the whole thing could be summarised as "I guess this is a thing now." And perhaps, maybe, possibly she might feel some degree of responsibility for them. Though, she did feel awfully young to be a mother, and the fact that she used her "children" to try and catch a dangerous criminal did not speak highly of her parenting.

"Fine, why not. You can call me whatever you want, I guess. What should I call you then? Do you have names or do I need to give you names?" She couldn't actually start calling them Percy, Hermione and… Fred or George.

"Muuuum! You don't even know our names?" cried the Fred/George snake in mock offence.

"Indeed Mother, we have chosen names for ourselves. I am called Percival." said Percy.
Oh Azethoth, I really have given life to my mental image of Percy… as a snake.

"And my name is Guinevere and I was hoping you could talk some sense into our brothers who chose absolutely ridiculous names!", said the second snake who thankfully hadn't named herself Hermione.

"Your name is ridiculous! And I did play along with your naming scheme like you wanted, so I don't know what you're complaining about, love!"

"So what is your name?" Ginny cut in before the others could continue bickering.

"Merlin!" said Merlin, as if he was swearing in Merlin's name, then he chuckled at his own joke.

"Merlin! That's the name you chose?" said Ginny, almost without thinking.

Percival and Guinevere groaned in the telepathic voicechat, as Ginny and Merlin chuckled.

"But it's so pretentious! Mum, pleas tell him he has to pick another name!" complained Guinevere.

"Hey, I chose a name out of the Wizards of the Round Table, like you nerds wanted! And at least I picked one of the good guys."

"But you're not even a wizard, it's ridiculous!"

"You don't know what I am! You don't know what I can do! Mordred said he managed to cancel his Disilusionement charm for a few seconds, so maybe we can do magic!"

"Mordred is just as -"

"Wait, Mordred? Like the dark lord?"

"Yep."

"Merlin's mortal enemy?"

"Yep."

"One of you named themselves Mordred?"

"Yep."

"You see now, mother? Our brothers aren't being serious. Mordred and Merlin! For Merl-uh- for goodness' sake, what will people think?" said Percival indignantly.

"We're not supposed to be Sirius, we're supposed to catch him, dingus!" retorted Merlin, "And what people? The only people who know we exist are mum and the other invisible snakes and I'm pretty sure they're not even sentient... the other snakes I mean."

"Look, I don't have a problem with Merlin and Mordred naming themselves…uh... Merlin and Mordred. Anyway you're old enough to sort this out on your own." Ginny cut in before they could continue.

"Old enough? We're like one or two weeks old at most, it's hard to count actually." said Guinevere.

"Well, you're all very mature for your age, obviously you take after me. Where is Mordred, though? I can't sense his presence near you."

"He's probably off brooding somewhere. Questioning the meaning of existence or something. He does that a lot." said Merlin.

"Oh, that's all right then."

Hermione was reading the Daily Prophet while nibbling on a piece of toast when Ginny sat down next to her. "Anything interesting in the Prophet?"

"Oh, you know, the usual: rumours of rising tensions among the Goblins, someone reported a missing house elf-"

"A missing house elf is hardly usual, in fact I think this is the first time I hear -"

"-Oh and then there's you, on the front page!" exclaimed Hermione shoving the newspaper in Ginny's face.

"Really? What did I do?" then she saw the picture of the serpentine, lion-headed, glowing silver-white shape on the front page. "Oh right, that. Bit strange that someone casting a Patronus made the front page, though I guess a dementor attack on school grounds is rather scandalous."

"It's not about the bloody dementors! It's about your Patronus, read the damn headline!" said Hermione in an almost hysterical tone, "why does everything you do have to be bloody impossible!?"

"Me'lin, He'mione lan'uage!" mumbled Ron trough a mouth full of baked beans.

Impossible Patronus cast by third year Hogwarts student!

"What's so incredible about my Patronus being a magical creature? It's not that rare, Dumbledor has a phoenix Patronus, right?"

"Phoenixes exist, Luck Dragons do not!"

"You sure? Luna once told me her dad met one."

"What's a Luck Dragon?" asked Harry

"You've never read The Never Ending Story? Nevermind, a luck dragon is a creature with a long serpentine body and the head and paws of a lion. They show up in muggle and magical storybooks but they're nor real!" insisted Hermione.

"Well who says Patronusses, Patroni -What's the plural of Patronus?- Anyway, who says they have to take the shape of real creatures?"

"I looked it up last night in the library, and that's what the news article is about. They say either it's the first known case of a Patronus taking the shape of a non-existing creature or you proved the existence of luck dragons!"

Or I'm the first mage whose Patronus is actually two Patroni merged into one. Ginny held back a smile at the thought of the grotesque shapes her Patronus might have taken if the lion and snake hadn't merged in such a nice way.

"And how do you know so little about Patroni, Ginny? You're always reading books about advanced magic, I assumed that's how you learned the spell."

"I always skip the useless introduction part and go straight to the practical spellwork. No way I could know as much magic as I do if I read everything."

"You can't just- I mean what about the recommended safety precautions and and-"

Hermione deflated as Ginny simply shrugged and started eating her breakfast.

"Hermione, I really don't think you should talk to Ginny this early in the day, it always puts you in a bad mood. Come to think of it, you probably shouldn't talk to her later in the day either." Ron said in an uncharacteristic thoughtful tone.

"But she's the one who started!" Hermione snapped, then she sighed heavily and left the breakfast table, mumbling something about everyone being "completely insane in this whole bloody castle". Which Ginny thought was a fair point.

And though she would never admit it, perhaps Hermione also had a point about reading safety instructions. That might be how you avoided dividing your mind into too many pieces, almost dying from magical exhaustion and accidentally creating new sentient life that would definitely not come to bite you in the ass at some later point in the story.

"What's gotten into her?" Ron said, back to his clueless self.

"Wrackspurts." said a dreamy voice that made Ginny almost jump out of her seat.

How had Luna snuck up on them like that? It didn't matter. Time was up. OG's terrifying friend had cornered her at last!

"Wrack-what?"Harry asked confused.

"Wrackspurts. They've been following Hermione around a lot lately. They're quite restless this year. I think they're scared of you, Ginny, and you've been all over the place these days. You never know where you might stumble on bits and pieces of Ginny. So we can't blame the poor things."

While Ron, Harry and a few other bysitters looked at Luna like she had just said some of her usual nonsense, Ginny knew better. At once, she severed the telepathic bonds with her snakes and put up the best occlumancy shield she could, vowing to never use telepathic magic again in Luna's eldritch presence.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I never new you where modest, Ginny." said Luna, sounding genuinely apologetic, while Ron chocked on his pumpkin juice at the word 'modest'.

"Perhaps that's another change. You've changed a lot, you know?" Luna continued, "I think I like you better now." She finished with a smile.

Realising she had been silent since Luna's arrival, Ginny swallowed hard, and spoke with a dry throat "Hey Luna. It's been a while, hasn't it? Ho-How have you been?"

"Oh, I'm quite all right, thank you. Though, I suppose, I would be happier if my only friend wasn't avoiding me." she said without a hint of sarcasm.

"Eh-I -euh- I'm sorry?" Ginny managed eloquently.

"Don't worry, I'll catch up with her later this week. Goodbye for now." Luna said, before walking away while humming softly.

Ginny shuddered, fearing that even if she became a crayfish animagus and went to spend the whole week down in the Black Lake with the merfolk, Luna would indeed catch up with her this week.

"Ginny! Can I ask you something?" Harry called from behind her.

She stopped walking and turner around,"You just did, but I imagine you have a second question."

He looked around as if to wait for passers by to be out of earshot. It struck her that he often seemed slightly uncomfortable around her, always keeping at a safe distance, rubbing his forehead like some kind of nervous tic. She hadn't paid attention before but now it was obvious, he stood closer than usual and, sure enough, his hand went to his forehead and he frowned slightly.

"Uh yes, sorry. I was wondering, do you think you could teach me?"

"Depends, teach you what?" she answered, brow raised in suspicion.

"The Patronus charm."

"Oh, that? Sure, why not. The way you where acting I thought you were about to ask me to teach you Dark Arts." she chucked.

"You know Dark Arts?" Now it was Harry's turn to look at her suspiciously.

"That entirely depends on your definition of the term, but let's not get off topic." Ginny dismissed. "No time like right now to get started on your lesson."

"I didn't really expected to start right away, we'll be late for Po-"

"Nonsense, this is more important and it will be quick." She pointed her wand down the hall and cast, "Accio Advanced Defensive Magic third edition."

They waited in silence for an uncomfortably long time.

Harry rubbed his forehead again and took a step back. "Where are you summoning it from?"

"No idea." she shrugged.

Shouts around the corner heralded the arrival of a flying book and a moment later, the thick leatherbound tome came zooming towards them.

Ginny caught it in her outstretch hand and turned towards Harry again, "Chapter 15 is all about the Patronus charm with some good practical tips. Come back to me if you're stuck, but not before you've actually practised for a few hours." She handed the book to Harry and started walking away, "Toodles!"

"Thanks…Euh Ginny, you're going the wrong way."

"Why?" she asked, turning around.

"Aren't you going to Potions?"

"Nope, I've already build up a good stock of all the potions I want so I don't see the point of going anymore." Instead she intended to go for a quick hunt in the forbidden forest and bring some prey for Bessie down in the Chamber of Secrets. "Oh, when you're done with the book, you should probably return it to its owner."

"What? Wait, whose book is this?"

"How should I know? Look for someone complaining about their missing textbook." she shrugged and walked away.

Ginny left Moaning Mirtle's bathroom with a smile on her face. Once again she had bested Tom Riddle.

Bessie had told Tom that the Chamber used to be filled with powerful magical items, countless scrolls and tomes with records of forgotten rituals and histories, maps leading to buried Hyborian Age ruins, preserved specimens of extinct magical plants and creatures, and a very fine collection of robes for all occasions. Since the beginning of her new life, Ginny had shared Tom's outrage at the fact that previous Heirs had been looting the Chamber for centuries until at last nothing remained except the Basilisk herself.

There was something Bessie had never revealed to Tom however: at some point she had decided that she'd had enough whit the thefts and started hiding things in her nest, where even the Heirs of Slytherin could not get their filthy warm blooded paws. The process had been slow and arduous. A single drop of her venom could burn trough even the best magical protections so grabbing anything with her mouth had been out of the question. She could only nudge the items or try to balance them on her head to bring them to safety.

Today, after Bessie had eaten her dinner and they had been chatting about what it was like to make eye contact with someone without killing or paralysing them, Bessie had sniffed in Ginny's direction and declared: "You sssmell like Massstersss sssecond offssprings firsst offsspring. He wass alwaysss nice and not a filthy thief. I trusst you. If you break that trussst I will eat you." She had then led Ginny to her nest to show off her treasures.

The Basilisk's private chambers where quite a sight themselves: three large natural caverns with beautiful structures of stalactites and stalagmites, strange luminous fungi growing out of the walls and ceiling, patches of ground covered by some king of purple moss and even a lake in the third cavern.

On a flat patch of ground along a wall of the first cavern were two wooden chests filled with gold. There had to be several hundreds of thousands of Galleons worth, but unless she wanted to deal with a very angry snake, she could forget about using a single knut.

A third chest had remained locked even after Ginny had cast no less than eleven different unlocking charms and spend a good fifteen minutes trying passwords in parseltongue. Bessie has refused categorically to bite off the lock and threatened to bite off Ginny's head instead if she damaged the chest or even the lock that once belonged to her darling Salazar.

Next to the chests lay a random assortment of frankly quite disappointing objects: an unremarkable stone drinking cup, a hammer of absurd proportions -impossible to lift by hand or with magic, a wooden box containing what looked like a disassembled cylindrical muggle device and a magical crustal of unknown power, a small bronze-green statue of a creature with dragon wings and a head in the shape of a squid and most mundane of all: a partially charred tree branch. Ginny supposed it could be a rare essence used as a potion ingredient, but it might just as well have been a branch Salazar used to play fetch with his dog. Bessie didn't know and all that seemed to matter to her was that it had once belonged to her long dead master.

Casting detection charms gave inconclusive results on most of the objects and a mere glance at the bronze statuette was enough to conclude that she'd rather use legilimancy on Luna Lovegood than cast any spell on that thing.

The last to pieces of Salazar's saved treasure (or at least the last pieces Bessie was willing to reveal to Ginny) were kept in the second cave, in a cavity in one of the walls. Bessie had judged it to be the driest place in the caves,

A set of very fine silver and green silk robes and a bundle of parchment scrolls. With building excitement Ginny had cast a series of detection spells to check if the scrolls were safe to touch. Once she had assured herself that they where neither booby trapped nor about to crumble to dust at the slightest touch, she unrolled one of the scrolls.

Filled with impatience, she cast a translation spell on the Latin text. She frowned as she recognised the large ugly handwriting. She had seen it before somewhere, but before she could remember where, her spell took effect and the English translation of the text appeared in glowing letters.
As Ginny read she felt a wicked grin split her face. Oh yes, this more than made up for the disappointment of the useless other artefact.