Slytherin Forever! Book One: Blood Ties

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Chapter Ten: I Fall To Pieces.

* * * * *

But I know

I may end up falling too

But I know

You were just like me

With someone disappointed in you

- Numb, Linkin Park.

* * * * *

Summer came slowly but nobody really enjoyed the flowers that were in full bloom or the periwinkle blue lake this time. To everybody's utter horror both Hagrid and Dumbledore had been sacked a couple of weeks ago and now an attack was expected every day.

"I never thought that father would sack Dumbledore," Draco was saying one afternoon in the Slytherin common room. "McGonagall won't last long, she does not know as much magic as Dumbledore."

"It doesn't matter now, does it?" Blaise asked. "I want to bet that if another attack takes place we are all sent home again."

"I hope not," Ginny sighed. "Mum and Dad will love to see me again, but my brothers won't. Besides, what happened to our fighting spirit?"

"You mean take on the Heir ourselves?" Zeynep asked in surprise. "I'd rather take the OWLs."

"And so you will," Verice sighed. "The exams have not been cancelled, you know."

"What?"

Natalya shot upright and looked at the older girl in horror whereas Dev groaned and looked at the pages she was supposed to learn for History of Magic. Verice shrugged, tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and replied:

"I overheard McGonagall talking to Snape today. We are still getting our exams and the fifth and seventh years will have to learn for their OWLs and NEWTs."

"I don't believe this," Zeynep muttered. "How am I supposed to focus when somebody's Petrifying my fellow students?"

"I don't know," Ginny sighed. "I really don't."

* * * * *

Ministry For Magic, London.

The ones who had once been members or supporters of Slytherin House and now solely belonged to The Zeppo congregated in one of the larger chambers of the Ministry. They scattered across the room and waited in silence. There was no word to be heard, not even so much as a whisper, when Colin Damaro entered the room.

"Welcome, my friends," he said as he closed the door behind him. "It is nice to see that we, even after all this time, are nearly complete. Severus Snape was unable to make it here, just like Willem Van Der Woord and Jenna McKinnon."

"Why are we all summoned here?" a witch called Greta Biedermann asked. "What is going on?"

"Albus Dumbledore has been sacked," Colin replied with a sigh. "With him gone there is no hope left for the students at Hogwarts."

There were whispers all around the place this time but a small group kept silent. Colin glanced at them for a moment and then motioned for one of them, Melanie Smith, to come forward.

"As some of you may know, I have been released from St Mungo's only days ago," she started. "I got in there because of premonitions predicting the rise of You-Know-Who. I saw another important thing, namely a second Heir to Slytherin."

"That can't be!" Narcissa Malfoy gasped. "You-Know-Who never had any children."

"So did we at first," Shanna answered. "But he had a girlfriend, Laura Seideira, who was pregnant at the time she died. It might very well be so that You-Know-Who found a way to keep his child alive."

"If this is indeed so there might be hope left," Heidi Grünberg said with a frown. "Then why are we here?"

"We are here because we think that the second Heir is under You-Know-Who's control," Gudrun sighed. "The question is: what are we going to do about it?"

* * * * *

Hogwarts.

There were only a couple of days left before the exams and everyone was getting extremely nervous. Even the usually so calm Ravenclaws were trying to do several things at a time, and the school had nearly forgotten about the Heir of Slytherin.

Professor McGonagall made the school very happy when she announced that the Petrified students would be revived soon, giving Ginny a particular feeling of triumph. She did not like the feeling of lost control, like she had felt last time, and she would tell Tom about the revival of the students. There was simply no point in attacking people when they would be revived within minutes afterwards!

"You might be right," Tom's voice whispered in her mind as she told him. "That is why I want you to become something I need for my plans."

"What are you going to do?" Ginny asked silently. "Let me attack somebody again?"

"No, not this time," Tom said impatiently. "For months my new target has been Harry Potter. His best friend is your brother and they will come to rescue you."

"From what?"

"Me."

Ginny gasped as she felt her legs move but did not want them to. She moved right up to the floor where the first attack had taken place and she began to write something on the wall. When she had finished she took a step back and read aloud what it said:

"Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."

Before she even had time to think about what that meant her legs carried her away from the place. She walked towards a bathroom - wondering what on earth was going on - and stood in front of the sinks, waiting.

"I ask permission to enter the Chamber of Secrets," a voice that was not entirely her own hissed. "I am the last Heir of Salazar Slytherin, the Greatest Founder of them all. I shall not be denied!"

The sinks moved back to reveal a large, gaping hole. Ginny looked down and gave an involuntary shudder because it was so far down... But her legs began to move again and she was soon going down something that felt like a huge slide. She landed on millions of little bones and skulls.

"Have I been here before?" she asked out loud. "Why do I know this place?"

Ginny began to walk down a dark tunnel and stopped in front of a solid wall on which two giant serpents were carved. She hissed something, and marvelled at the sight of the serpents parting as the wall cracked open. She walked through the entrance, nearly jumping a foot into the air as the wall closed behind her again, and looked in awe at the scenery in front of her.

She was standing in a very long chamber with towering stone pillars. There were snakes carved onto those pillars, pillars that seemed to reach ultimate darkness as she looked up. An odd, greenish gloom filled the place that was distorted only by the shadows of the huge pillars. She began to move forward, although she did not want to, with the black diary tucked safely away in her pocket. She gasped as she stood near the final pair of pillars. Here was a statue, reaching right up to the ceiling, of a tall wizard with a beard that almost reached down to his feet. She had never seen him before but she knew who it was in the back of her mind.

"Salazar Slytherin," she whispered softly. "The Founder of my House."

She put a hand in her pocket and drew the diary out of it. She tossed it onto the floor and grabbed her wand, which she pointed at it immediately.

"I would not do that if I were you," a voice said behind her. "You trusted me once, little one, you can trust me for a second time as well."

She turned around and faced a black-haired boy, not older than sixteen, who she recognized instantly. His mouth curled into a thin-lipped smile as he looked upon her. He had a distinct aura of danger around him and he seemed to glow.

"Tom?" Ginny asked faintly. "How did you get here?"

"You put too much of yourself into the diary," he sighed. "You have given me a chance to live, my princess, and I thank you for that."

"What do you mean?"

"It is quite simple," he replied. "You do not feel that well now, do you? When you die, I live."

"You have got to be kidding me!" Ginny exclaimed, but Tom shook his head. "Have you been taking my life force away from me?"

"Yes," was the answer. "And with every breath you take I grow stronger."

"You little..."

Ginny did not finish the sentence but slapped Tom across his face instead. He looked surprised, she noted with satisfaction, so she made a move as if she would want to strike him again. This time, however, he had anticipated it and grabbed Ginny's fist that was aiming for his face.

"The Weasley temper is getting the best of you again," he sighed. "You have not realized that fighting will only make me stronger, have you?"

"I don't care," Ginny told him. "At least I've had the satisfaction of hitting you before I die."

"And, how did it feel?"

He pulled her towards him and twisted her hands onto her back. Her eyes were a mixture of hatred and fear as she looked at him, face slightly turned up because he was much taller than she was. He replied with a cruel smirk and said:

"I think that they have discovered your message by now. Your family will be here shortly, I think, but this time around they do not have a person to blame your death on. Your friends shall be informed by the Head of your House, and they shall know that their plan to defeat me was nothing more than a simple problem I had to encounter."

"I will only be gone when nobody remembers me," Ginny replied softly. "As long as somebody thinks about me I live on. How many people remember you as the boy who is standing right in front of me?"

He pushed her away from him with great force and she fell onto the cold floor. Rubbing her back, she sat upright and continued:

"Nobody remembers you as Tom Marvolo Riddle. The persons who did remember are dead and buried, some have even died at your hands. You are Lord Voldemort now and you are feared by almost everyone in the wizarding world. You can say whatever you want but I don't think that Tom Riddle and Lord Voldemort are the same. Now tell me: how many people will remember you when you're gone?"

"I won't be gone," he replied. "Your words have no meaning because I will live on in this body and not in the body of my future self. You are feeling weaker already; I can see it in your eyes. Your death will restore life in me."

"And what kind of life would that be?" she snarled. "A good-for-nothing life. You won't scare anyone, you won't have any followers, and when you die people will forget about you in a week or so. Is killing me really worth facing all of that?"

She got to her feet and pointed her wand at him. She saw the uncertainty in his eyes as she walked towards him and took the standard dueling pose on.

"Averiate!"

The spell hit Tom, blasting him off his feet. He muttered something - probably a spell that would take the effect away - and got up. Her eyes were blazing with fury now and she felt hatred burn deep inside of her, the kind of hatred that she had not experienced before.

"Erad, spargh!" she cried out. "Arrogh!"

And with that last word dying down on her lips she fell forward and her wand flew out of her hand. Tom waited for a moment before he took a chance and walked towards her. He turned her around and saw that her face had turned as white as marble. She mumbled something as he scooped her up in his arms and positioned her, face down, between the feet of the giant statue. He picked her wand up and placed it next to her, instead of taking it, and knew that all he had to do now was wait...

* * * * *

Professor Severus Snape made his way towards the Slytherin common room with a heavy heart. He sighed before he spoke the password and stepped inside. The room was quiet within mere seconds. He noticed that all of the Slytherins were present - all but one, he corrected - and that they were waiting for him to say something.

"Another attack has taken place," he began. "This attack, however, is not like anything that we have witnessed before. A message has been written on the wall once more. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever'. I regret to announce that the girl taken into the Chamber is somebody from our number: Virginia Weasley."

Silence greeted his words. Ginny's classmates and friends were looking at each other in disbelief and it took a while for somebody to speak up. Finally, Blaise Zabini said something that all of them agreed on.

"She must have found something out about the Heir of Slytherin. I mean, she was a pureblood and she belonged with us. There is no other explanation possible."

"You might be right," her brother Zeynep said as he rubbed his eyes frantically. "The Heir would not normally attack somebody from his own House."

"Speaking of the Heir, we have found something out," several Slytherins said at once. "We know who the Heir is."

"You-Know-Who is the Heir," Natalya Cruz said so that everyone could hear it. "But we don't know how he has been attacking everyone because he has not been sighted for years."

"He is still alive, yes," Snape said to the crowd as he seated himself. "It could very well be so that he has found a way to get into the school without anyone noticing. Five points to Slytherin because of your research and quick thinking."

"How did you know about our research?" Draco Malfoy asked in surprise. "We have not told anyone about that, have we?"

"You still have to learn something about stealth," Snape chuckled. "Madame Pince told me about the amazing amount of History books being borrowed from the library and in particular the Restricted Section by the Slytherins. After that incident at the Dueling Club it was simply a matter of putting two and two together."

"And you just let us continue?" Blaise asked. "Even after you had found out that we were borrowing books from the Restricted Section?"

"You had permission," Snape shrugged. "There was simply nothing I could do to prevent you from finding things out. In fact, you helped The Zeppo immensely."

"How did we do that?" Natalya asked. "We haven't been in touch with them at all!"

"I started to read every book you had borrowed," Snape replied. "I am a member of The Zeppo myself and I could report everything back to Gudrun Halonen and Colin Damaro immediately."

"What are we going to do now?" Pansy Parkinson asked suddenly. "Are they going to close the school down?"

"I'm afraid so," was the reply. "Ginny's parents will be here shortly. Professor Dumbledore has returned and he will talk to them. There are also some members of The Zeppo here right now."

"Who?"

"Gudrun Halonen, Melanie Smith, Catherine Fisher, Shanna Malfoy, and Rakkaus Malfoy."

"My aunt and cousin?" Draco asked in surprise. "I never knew that they were a part of The Zeppo."

"Rakkaus is not a member," Snape replied. "Your aunt just wanted to bring him with her so we let her be. I believe that she wants to see you tomorrow, Mr Malfoy."

* * * * *

"I never expected it to be Ginny Weasley," Catherine said. "Arthur and Molly do not have any Slytherin blood in them, do they?"

"I don't think so," Mel replied. "And yet all proof points at their daughter."

The members of The Zeppo had congregated in Snape's office after they had arrived at the school. They had listened to Snape's tale in awe as he told them about the last attack, but now they were beginning to think about the possibilities of Ginny being the second Heiress to Slytherin. All thoughts had been negative so far and they were starting to get frustrated.

"On the other hand: no Weasley has ever given birth to a daughter," Shanna said. "Ginny was the first girl to be born into that family, and that is more than just strange."

"So you think that she could very well be the Heiress," Gudrun said to her. "I have to admit that you have pointed something important out to us."

"It could be the key to everything," Rakkaus said suddenly. "What if Ginny is indeed related to Tom Riddle and Laura Seideira? She might have grown up with the Weasleys but that does not mean anything. Tom might have found a spell to keep his child alive and somehow that spell might have ended up being triggered by Molly Weasley."

"If she survives this she is the Heiress," Mel stated. "No matter how impossible it sounds, if she gets out of the Chamber alive she has proved it."

"If she gets out there is only one question left to be answered," Shanna sighed. "Do we tell her about the things we found out?"