Dear reader,

Thank you for considering reading my fic !

Here are a few things to note:

This is my first fanfiction, my first attempt at writing any fiction and the first time I have put so many words in a sequence in any context and therefore I mostly have no idea what I'm doing.

This is a 'crack-treated-seriously' kinda fic, but I expect the tone to vary depending on my whims.

Romance is not a main focus of this story and at this stage I have no idea what pairings will show up or what role they will play if any.

This is not a single-point-of-departure fic, as such I won't try to stick close to canon or remain canon compliant, but I don't quite know how far I'll diverge either.

Lastly, I am not a native English speaker and I don't always know how to make the characters sound/think British, so feel free to Britpick in reviews.

If all of that is all right with you, please enjoy !

Oh and reviews, comments, follows and favs make me happy ;)

Something had gone terribly wrong. Or rather, some things had gone terribly wrong. Actually, so many things had gone terribly wrong, it was hard to decide where to start. But since we have too start somewhere: Tom Riddle's hands were supposed to be larger and he shouldn't have long red hair, but those were merely cosmetic issues and could be dealt with if necessary. A more serious problem was that Tom Riddle's soul or consciousness or whatever wasn't… well… there, at least not in the way it used to be. All that was only one side of what had gone terribly wrong. The other side went something like this: Ginny Weasley was supposed to make friends and learn lots of new spells during her first year at Hogwarts not spend most of her time in conversation with an old diary and send a giant serpent after muggleborns. Ginny would have been devastated by the absolute catastrophe that had been her introduction at Hogwarts, but just like Tom, she wasn't really there. It was as if they were both gone and instead someone new now inhabited Ginny Weasley's body. And in this new mind, that looked through her eyes at her small hands holding a flaming lock of red hair, a simple question was asked. Who the fuck am I ?

There was one way in which the answer was obvious: to the world it would have to be Ginevra Weasley. Tom Riddle was supposed to be dead, after all and it seemed likely that some people would take issue with the fact that Ginny Weasley's body was now home to a different spirit, they might even try to restore the Original Ginny (OG for short) even though the new spirit was quiet certain she was gone for good. For pragmatic reasons it decided to refer to itself as Ginny Weasley as well, it would be simpler that way.

The more accurate answer to the question was: I am the result of a failed resurrection attempt by a soul contained in a botched horcrucs combined with the mind of a eleven year old witch. Which was a rather strange thing to be, so far as Ginny could gather from the combined memories of her two halves. There were about a million other questions welling up in Ginny's mind, like How had Tom Riddle thought that performing an obscure ritual, based on a few passages copied from the restricted section and the instructions of a millennium old snake who had seen it performed once or twice and swore she remembered most of it, might go anything but terribly wrong ?. There were, however, more pressing matters to attend to before addressing such questions, if she didn't want things to keep going terribly wrong.

Most pressing of all was the issue of giant bloody writing that read "Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever" in the hallway and her absence from the castle. If she was reported missing and suddenly reappeared people might start asking awkward questions. So she needed to get back to the castle as soon as possible. Then, if people weren't panicking and frantically trying to find out who had been taken, scourgiffy the gory graffiti of the wall before anyone found them. If the scarlet self-kidnapping note had been found however, … euh… kidnap someone else in a fake chamber of secret maybe ? No. That was a terrible plan. Much better to guarantee that no one read the sanguine scribbling and that Ginny's absence was never noticed. That might be complicated however, since she didn't know how long ago the Riddle possessed OG had painted it red and then entered the chamber. The whole merging of minds process had been weird and kind of timeless, she might have been down here for an hour or maybe more. Suddenly, an idea formed in her mind that neither OG nor Tom could have had on their own. She paid enough attention to her family and knew her brothers well enough to notice some oddities and Tom had the knowledge and sharpness to connect the dots: Percy Weasley was somehow in possession of a time turner ! She could exit the chamber disilusioned, find Percy, 'borrow' (He would never knowingly let her use it and probably throw a hissy fit just because she knew about it.) his time turner, go back in time however many hours she needed, do a bit of cleaning, return the time turner before she even took it and, best off all, Ginny Weasley would never have been out of sight for a prolonged period of time ! Well that was one problem easily dealt with!

The next challenge was resolving the whole 'Someone opened the Chamber Of Secrets and something is lurking in the castle halls petrifying students, cats and ghosts' issue. She doubted people would accept that the attacks had stopped and simply forget the whole affair. No, someone needed to take the fall and preferably not good old Bessie the Basilisk, she was far too useful and deserved better. But that could wait for the moment. First she needed to pull off her little time heist.

At this moment Ginny felt something quiet odd. The feeling emerged from the OG part of her mind. She felt something akin to what an amateur quidditsh player might feel when handling a professional racing broom for the firs time. Tom Riddles mind was fast, sharp and full of useful spells and knowledge and the new and improved Ginny Weasley had full access to it ! Along with this realisation came a growing feeling that, though she was the product of a freak accident , her life was going to be interesting. Sure it was terribly sad that the OG wouldn't get to live her, likely very ordinary, life and from Tom's perspective it was a tragedy that his resurrection had failed (though for everyone else it was probably for the best), but on the whole she felt like a fine addition to the world. She was a first year witch armed with the mind and magic of a sixteen year old, (very twisted,) once-in-a-generation prodigy and stabilized by emotionally healthy mind of a young witch. Everyone would underestimate her for years. No one would see her coming and when they did I would be too late. Who was going to stop her ? No one, that's who ! Ginny Weasley, magical prodigy, Golden Lion of Gryffindor, Morgan le Fey reborn, slayer of dark lords, monsters and hearts ! Oh yes, hers would be an interesting life, all-right. She felt a wicked grin split her face at the thought. I'm gonna take this itsi bitsi world by storm !