The Yearbook

**Ginny walked into the tunnel, following her friend's backs. The wall was damp, and gritty with sand and age.

The light at the bottom grew brighter. It grew until it enclosed all of them, and Ginny realised she was alone. In front of her stood him. She backed up one step, two - the thunnel had disappeared. She was alone in the pit, alone with the one who wanted to kill her.

There was a feeling of danger in the air, one that dated back to when he had been alive. Slowly, the awareness stole over her that she was going to die. She was firing containment spells, but it had no effect. He waved, and her wand disappeared. Ginny screamed.**

"Wake up, Ginny!"

Ginny's eyes snapped open. Hermione stood over her, a worried explression on her face. "Ginny!" she said again; Ginny realised Hermione had her by the shoulders. "Are you ok? What's wrong?"

"NO!" Ginny pulled away from Hermione. "Stay back or he'll get you too!" I'll never be safe, she thought hysterically. He'll follow me to the ends of the Earth.

"Ginny, what are you talking about?" Ignoring her warning, Hermione moved forward and took hold of Ginny's arms. Ginny was pale in the morning light, like a wax figure. Her red hair was touched with gold from the sun that had just cleared the skyline.

"Ginny - are you allright? You had a nightmare. It's ok, see? You're safe now." Hermione intoned the nonsense meant to soothe, the little sayings that weren't quite as pathetic as "I understand" but close to. But it worked. Ginny's breath slowed, and she focused her eyes on Hermione's face.

"Hermione," Ginny said softly. Then, stronger, "I'm sorry. I don't know - something happened. But it was just a dream, wasn't it? I really am here?"

"Of course," Hermione said with false cheerfulness, giving her a hug. She looked so pale, she thought. So scarede. And Hermione had never heard her speak like that before. "Come on. I'll make you some breakfast if you get up now. If we hurry, we might be able to see Ron before he leaves. I havent' done that in about eight months."

"I woke you up too early?" Ginny asked, worried. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Hermione said, firm. "I should learn to get up earlier. Come on, we'll go down now."

Hermione kept a firm grip on Ginny's arm the whole way to the kitchen. When they got there, they found Ron, bleary eyed with a cup of coffee, and Harry stumbling in from his room on the ground floor. Bill, she could see, was sitting on the couch obvisouly trying to convince himself to get up. "Good morning everyone!" she said cheerfully. She let go of Ginny's arm and went over the cupboard, returning with two mugs. She went over to the coffepot, filling them both and adding sugar to hers. She hated to admit it, but she needed the caffeine. She was rarely up before nine, these days, and here it was half past seven.

"Morning," Ron replied, not looking up from his paperwork. "Wait," he said, looking up. "Hermione - you're out of bed? What happened?"

"I can get up early if I want to," Hermione replied indignantly. Harry and Ron both snorted. "Well, I could," she muttered, taking a sip of her drink.

"I had a nightmare," Ginny said softly. "I woke her up." She took the cup Hermione passed her, adding two spoonfuls of sugar and going to the refridgerator for milk.

"I thought I heard someone screaming," Harry said, from where he was sitting on the bench. "Are you ok, Giny?"

"I'm fine," Ginny said, dropping her eyes. If only you knew, she thought in a burst of frustration.

It was dark. Ginny adjusted her hard hat, and pulled out her wand. "Lumos," she said, and a tiny light blossomed forth. Behind her, her friends were doing the same.

"This is it," Deanna said. "We're in. We've found the tomb. You're going to be famous, Ginny."

"We'll be famous," Ginny corrected, waving her arm around. Sam and Reah stood by the wall, and Thom was behind Deanna. Carter carried some equipment, Alec and Nila both had packs slung over one shoulder and cameras on their necks. This was her team, the people she'd worked with for over a year.

"Are we going in or not?" Carter asked, turning to Ginny when she made no move. "What are we waiting for?"

"Nothing." Why was she so nervous? Ginny wondered. Maybe it was because ther moght be nothing there. People had been searching for Aled-dum's tomb for years, and now that she was this close, she felt a paralysing fear.

Carter went in first, followed by Thom, then Reah. Sam waved to no-one inparticular, and linked arms with Nila. Alec followed, then Deanna. Ginny squared her shoulders and walked in after them.

It was quiet in the tomb. There was a steady drip of water somewhere not far off, but Ginny hardly noticed it. She paused just long enough to shine the light beam from her wand all around, and stiffened when she saw legs hanging through the roof.

"Muggles," Deanna said, seeing what Ginny was staring at. "This one obviously got stuck halfway through."

Ginny nodded. It was no different to the tombs she'd visited with her family, years ago. Eyes firmly forward, she kept walking, staring past her team. They came to a sealed door, the wood petrified by standing there so long. A door seal in the shape of a falcon watched them, it's blank eyes almost accusing. Alec dug in his pack and handed Ginny a crowbar.

"This is it, Boss," he said quietly. "Go on; make it happen."

Ginny nodded, and they gathered around her in a semi-circle, holding up their wands - Alec with Ginny's as well - so that she culd see. Nila managed to hold a camera as well. Ginny put the crowbar to the door-seal.

And all the lights went out.

Ginny hadn't had time on her hands in she didn't know how long. From the time she turned eleven, she'd followed routines that hadn't had a lot of time to be idle. Now she could do whatever she wished.

She could go shopping anywhere she wanted. She could go to the Ministry in London and see Ron and her father, or go to Dervish and Banges and see Harry. She could help Hermione with her research. She could read, or just sit. There were so many options, and so much time.

She spent most of it in the library. She was amazed at the amount of books that had piled up over the years, and spent a few hours just looking at them. She smiled at Harry's old copy of Flying with the Cannons and chuckled over Hermione's copy of Hogwarts: A History. She rolled her eyes when she came accross the complete Transfiguration Trilogy that they had used in school. In fact, that shelf seemed deicated to Hogwarts memories. A Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi jostled for space with A History of Magic and The Standard book of Spells series. Ginny's face fell as she came accross Hermione's yearbook.

She remembered Parvati's yearbook. It had just ben a game, they said. She sat down and tried to remember all the predictions. She knew Harry was supposed to play Quidditch for England, and it looked like that had come true. Ron getting eaten by a spider - well, it didn't look like it had happened yet. She doubted it would.

But her prediction - it had come true in ways she couldn't imagine. She had gone to Egypt - and she had made a mistake. No - she'd let loose something that really shouldn't have ever lived in the first place.

Snapping the book shut, she scanned the rest of the shelves, searching for books on Egyptian lore. No-one could record better than Egyptian wizards, but there were only so many copies so she get hold of without Bill's help, and she didn't want him knowing.

Thankfully, the books were arranged according to subject. The shelf she had just been looking through was labelled Hogwarts in a neat hand that didn't belong to Harry, Ron or Hermione. Which meant it must have been Christina.

Ginny shoved down her irritation at the girl she'd dubbed "Miss High-and-Mighty." There was something about Christina that Ginny didn't trust, and she planned to keep her distance from her. After all, a little voice in her mind said, it could just be that you have a secret and don't want it doscovered....

"don't be stupid," Ginny said aloud. Her voice broke the spellof silence that had given rise to her thoughts. Shaking her head a little, she found a set of sheleves marked History and Mythology.

"Celts... Druids... Ancient Greece... Ancient Rome... The First Wizard History... Ancient Egypt!" Ginny stoped triumphantly. There were five bookd there, three of whom identified themselves as "Egyptian History and Lore", and the other two were Obscure Egypt and it's Evils (Ginny shivered) and The Ways Long Forgotten - Ancient Egypt.

Ginny settled down in a chair and started reading the History and Lore trilogy. The first volume was mainly about the religions of the Ancient Egyptian wizards, and how their gods filtered through to Muggles. A few of the stories sounded like real people, not Gods, but there wasn't anyone fitting Ginny's description.

Angrily she tossed it aside and picked up the second. Before she opened it, she pulled a photograph from her pocket and just sat there, staring.

She was in the middle, Thom and Reah arm in arm on the left side, and Carter with an arm about both Ginny and Deanna. Alec, Nila and Sam, the taller ones, leant through the gaps between the others' heads.

All eight of them were laughing and playfully shoving each other. As Giny watched, Thom went sailing off to one side of the photo, reappearing and shoulder barging Sam.

Tears plopped gently down onto the picture, and Ginny brushed them away. She'd been lucky - she who had opened the tomb! Why had she been spared?

She looked at Reah, so small and delicate with her black hair and violet eyes. She knew that Thom had given up his work and moved back to the apartment in Cairo that he and Reah had shared. She knew that he didn't blame Ginny for what had happened, but he still greived.

Reah hadn't come out of the tomb. After they'd all run from the awful face of the - thing - that hunted them, Ginny had taken a frntic head count. She'd tried three times with the same result: Reah was missing.

Thom had tried to go back for her, and both Carter and Alec had needed to hold him down. Deanna had collapsed, Sam's arms about her. Nila had just stared in shock. And Ginny had collapsed.

She still lived with the guilt of it. For days afterwards, all she could think was I got out. How is it fair that I get out of my mistake and Reah dies?

Even now she thought it. Her team had been kind. They weren't just her employees, they were friends, and had rallied around Ginny. But Ginny still felt guilty as all Hell for letting her team into that tomb.

Dashing away more tears, Ginny opened the book. She'd read every book n the library if she had to, and when she was finished, she would be able to vanquish the monster that had taken her friend.

Aled-dum, whatever he was, would be sorry he'd messed with Virginia Weasley. She'd make sure of it. She vowed it on Reah Starwalker's honour.

It was a promise she would keep to the death. Thus vowing to herself, she picked up the book again and begin reading.