Slytherin Forever! Book One: Blood Ties

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Chapter Eleven: Prophecy Girl.

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Too many broken promises in her fragile life

Too many secret thoughts she tried to hide that night

...

She tried to reach to the stars all her life

But her mind fell apart every time

- Queen Misery, For My Pain.

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Ginny was dreaming but her dream world was pitch-black, so that she could not see anything, and the only things she could hear were voices. There were quite a lot of voices, all different but all telling the same story...

"I don't want to join the Vayaen, father! Not now, not ever!"

"And with the blood of the father we shall seal the entrance to the Chamber so that only his Heirs shall be able to open it."

"Father would not tell on you, no, but he would tell on Jored and me. We are his illegitimate children, remember?"

"You have got a healthy daughter."

"I shall call you Desdemona Slytherin, Desde for short. May my blood live on in you."

Other voices joined the already present ones, and Ginny found herself anticipating their words more than once. It was a different story this time but a very familiar one all the same...

"Told you we would be here together. We will have a great time in Slytherin... mark my words!"

"I love you, Laura."

"Do not come to my house. The Aurors are looking for me."

"I vow to you, Laura, that I shall never forget you. The Prewetts, the Clearwaters and the Potters shall regret this day for the rest of their lives. For with your death I have been given the will and the strength to become the man I was destined to become, and the wizarding world shall mourn for the deaths of the members of those families as well as it will mourn for you."

"We commit their bodies to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. May they rest in peace for eternity."

"What power does the necklace hold?"

"The fate of the Slytherin blood is in your hands, Lily. Don't mess things up."

"Her name shall be Virginia Aurélie Weasley."

Then the voices were silent and Ginny found herself lying down on a bed. The ceiling was white, but as she looked at it that changed. There were images, lots of images, to go with the words.

She saw a girl face a blond man; they had to be family because they looked terribly alike, with a mixture of fear and fury visible in her eyes.

Then she saw hundreds of hooded figures, clad in white, applauding a bald man with a long beard.

The images flashed in her mind as she saw two dark-haired men standing in a very familiar chamber together with a black-haired girl Ginny did not know and the girl who had faced the blond man seconds before.

She saw a baby being held up by the black-haired girl, who was smiling. The other girl held the baby moments later with a grin on her face as she put her hand on the baby's forehead.

She saw the Slytherin table, packed with people, during the Sorting.

A raven-haired boy held a redheaded girl in his arms. She put her head on his shoulder while sighing contentedly. He put his head on her head and smiled.

The redheaded girl was looking panicky while she packed her suitcase as the raven-haired boy watched her movements with a frown.

The boy was holding the girl in his arms, moments before his eyes turned as red as blood and Ginny screamed soundlessly.

A vicar stood beside a grave together with some people, all of whom were crying.

A redheaded woman looked at a hooded figure in surprise as she held a necklace in her hands. Then Ginny screamed again for a snake-like man was now looking at the woman with a menacing smile.

And then Ginny's mother, her own mother, appeared. She was holding a baby and wearing the exact necklace she had seen in the woman's hands.

Suddenly everything turned to black again and Ginny was alone. She soon got company from voices and she recognized one of them with a start. There, amidst familiar voices, was her voice...

"My sister, my very own sister is fraternizing with the enemy! Don't even think about coming back to the Burrow this summer. You are no longer a member of my family, Virginia. Not anymore."

"I, the Heir of the Greatest Founder of them all, ask permission to open the Chamber and unleash the horror within. I am a child of Salazar Slytherin. I shall not be denied!"

"Come to me, servant of Salazar and the Vayaen! Come to me and kill the impure one who will cross my path tonight."

"Filthy blood... let me rip, let me tear, let me kill..."

We are Slytherins, united we stand. Forgive us for we have done things wrong in the past. Lead us not into temptation, but help us defeat this evil even if it is a member of our own House. We will not stand aside this time. We just want to say, even if we never talk to you all again, that we tried. If our best will not be good enough we will take comfort in knowing that we did something. Slytherin Forever!"

"Slytherins are connected to evil. Most members of our House are pure blooded maniacs with a love for everything dark and spooky."

"I think that we have been on the wrong side so much in the past that people hold on to their prejudices about us."

"What was that? Who took control?"

"Another attack has taken place."

"I will only be gone when nobody remembers me."

"Your death will restore life in me."

Another voice joined in the masses but it was calling out for her. The other voices started to converse loudly but soon stopped so that Ginny just managed to catch the last part of the sentence the new voice said to her.

"...Please don't be dead..."

It was as if she had been asleep for all of this time and somebody had flung ice-cold water over her to wake her up. 'Don't be dead'... But she was dead, she knew this deep inside, and she could not understand why the voice was still talking to her as if she was alive...

An eerie silence greeted her as she opened her eyes that she had closed minutes before. A mirror stood in front of her. Not knowing why, she got up and walked towards it. She let out an involuntary gasp as she looked at her reflection.

Her eyes were as red as blood, with very small slits for pupils. Her face was stark white and her vivid red hair was looking tangled and messy. Her black school robes that still bore the Slytherin Crest were filthy, not to mention her shoes! She touched the cold surface of the mirror with a shaking hand and watched her reflection do the same thing.

"This is your destiny," a voice murmured. "You still have to grow a bit before you can take your real job on but I thought that it would be wise to show you this already."

Ginny turned around and saw the girl from her memory, the girl who had faced the blond man. The girl's grey eyes looked back at Ginny reassuringly. Her blonde hair was tied back and it fell right down to her waist, with slightly curled ends.

"Who are you?" Ginny asked softly. "What did you mean?"

"I am Taigan Slytherin," the girl answered. "I wanted you to know a tiny piece of your destiny so I showed you through a mirror."

"Is this my destiny?" Ginny asked in surprise, gesturing at her reflection. "Why are my eyes so red then?"

"Eyes can tell a person everything," Taigan said. "An ultimate sign of power is to be able to hide emotions completely. Every Heir of Slytherin would get bloodred eyes when they did not want to show their weaknesses."

"But I am not an Heir of Slytherin," Ginny said with a frown. "I am just a House member, nothing more."

"Do you think it was coincidence that the Hat put you there?" Taigan asked Ginny. "It put you there because it saw that you were related to me and my father. It put you there because you, unlike the family who raised you, showed signs of potential. The strength and power to overcome the one who went astray lives inside of you, Ginny, now all that lacks is the will to do so."

"I don't understand."

"You will understand it when the time is right," was the reply. "Someday you shall know everything. Do me a favour and remember me then. I have nothing to offer you at the moment but wise words, but when you are ready I shall stand beside you and wield the power given to me through blood."

"I will remember you."

Taigan smiled as bend down slightly and gave Ginny a peck on the cheek. They shook hands, Slytherin and Weasley, there beside a mirror in a dark room.

"The one who went astray shall rise again when you turn thirteen," Taigan whispered. "In time you shall face him but the outcome has yet to be decided. The will to overcome shall be given to you by a dragon who will stand beside you no matter what. Remember me and you shall be victorious."

She disappeared and so did the mirror, leaving Ginny to stand there all by herself. Suddenly a piercing scream split through the silence and Ginny saw a hint of light in front of her. She ran towards it and with every step she took the light grew brighter and bigger until she found herself lying face down on a cold floor.

"What happened?" she asked to nobody in particular as she sat upright. "Where am I?"

There were footsteps and suddenly her head was lifted upwards by none other than Harry Potter. She drew a great, shuddering gasp as memories began to flood back to her and she started to cry.

"Harry, it was me," she began. "I-I swear I didn't mean t-to. It was R-Riddle, he made me do it, he t-took me over! W-Where's Riddle anyway?"

"It's okay!" Harry said to her. "Riddle's finished. Come on, let's get out of this hellhole!"

He helped her to her feet and it was only then that she noticed a giant serpent lying on the floor, supposedly dead. She also saw the diary in Harry's hands and a sword that she recognized vaguely before she was swept out of the Chamber.

"I think I'm going to be expelled," she said softly. "And... what will Mum and Dad say?"

Harry did not reply but led her through a dark tunnel; he apparently knew where he was going. The sound of shifting rocks reached Ginny's ears and Harry sped up as he called:

"Ron! Ginny's okay, I've got her!"

She heard her brother give a strangled cheer as they turned the next bend and came face to face with him. Ginny looked at her brother, wide-eyed, before she said:

"I thought that you did not want to have anything to do with me anymore. Ron, oh Ron, I'm so sorry!"

"Let's not talk about that again, shall we?" he asked her as he pulled her through the hole he had created in the pile of stones. "I have been acting like a complete moron."

Only then he noticed the sword in Harry's hands and just as he started to say something a bird swooped through the gap behind Ginny. Ron gaped at both things for a moment before he asked:

"Where did that bird come from? How come you've got a sword?"

"The bird's from Dumbledore and I'll tell you everything else later on," Harry said shortly. "Where's Lockhart?"

"Back there. He's in a bad way," Ron replied. "Come and see."

Led by the bird they walked back to the mouth of the pipe. And there was Lockhart, humming to himself. Ginny was just about to ask what was wrong with him when Ron said:

"His memory's gone because the Memory Charm backfired and hit him instead of us. He's a danger to himself now that he doesn't know who he is, where he is, and who we are so I told him to come and wait here."

"Hello," Lockhart said while looking up at them all. "It's an odd sort of place, isn't it? Do you live here?"

Ginny snorted with laughter as Harry and Ron began to examine the pipe, looking for a way up. Harry suddenly turned to Ginny and Lockhart and said:

"We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Lockhart, hold Ginny's other hand."

When Lockhart did not respond Ron said something like 'he means you' to him, and Ginny extended her hand to her Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. They had only just grabbed hold of each other when they started to move upwards through the pipe. They landed on the wet floor of a bathroom, just as Ginny began to enjoy the flight, and they heard the sink that hid the pipe slide back into place.

"Where do we go now?" Ron asked. "Do we have to bring the bird back or something?"

Harry pointed as the bird took flight again. They strode after him, along corridors, and they found themselves outside Professor McGonagall's office. Harry knocked and pushed the door open. For a moment there was silence, and then there was a scream.

"Ginny!"

Mrs Weasley leapt to her feet, followed by Mr Weasley, and Ginny soon found herself locked in their tight embrace. When her parents finally let her go Ginny had the chance to look past them to the rest of the room. There were Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape looking mildly surprised. There were five other people present, but Ginny did not recognize them. She put her head on her mother's shoulder, tears coursing silently down her cheeks, as Harry started to tell the others everything.

"What interests me most," Dumbledore said after Harry had finished, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny when my sources - he gestured at the five other people - tell me that he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

"What's that?" Ginny's father asked. "You-Know-Who? Enchant Ginny?"

"It was the diary," Ginny finally said. "Tom created it when he was sixteen. I've been writing in it and he has been writing back all year! He possessed me and I tried to get rid of him, but I wasn't strong enough! I just found it in one of my schoolbooks and thought that somebody had left it there and forgot about it."

"Miss Weasley should go up to the Hospital Wing," Dumbledore interrupted. "Bed rest and perhaps some hot chocolate will cheer her up. There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny. Older and wiser wizards than you have been hoodwinked by Voldemort."

Her parents followed Ginny out, still looking deeply shaken. When Ginny entered the Hospital Wing Madame Pomfrey came rushing towards her and put her in bed. Hustling and bustling around Ginny as her parents explained everything, Madame Pomfrey suddenly said:

"I expect that this possession is the key to your tiredness and problems with sleeping. Should you ever find it necessary to take some potions again, Professor Snape and I will always be here for you to go to."

Ginny fell asleep gratefully, vaguely recognizing Ron's voice talking to her parents, not knowing about the conversations that had started upstairs...

"And so you met Tom Riddle," Dumbledore said to Harry. "Was he interested in you?"

"Riddle said I'm like him," Harry replied. "Strange likenesses, he said. But I'm in Gryffindor!"

"You are not like him," Shanna interrupted smoothly. "You happen to have many qualities Slytherin praised in his students, but the Hat placed you in the House of his archenemy: Godric Gryffindor."

"Only because I asked it not to," Harry replied. "I did not want to be in Slytherin..."

"And that makes you very different from Riddle," Gudrun said. "If you want some proof, than I would advise you to take a closer look at that magnificent sword you brought with you."

Rakkaus picked the sword up and turned it over so that Harry could read the name engraved just below the hilt: Godric Gryffindor. Harry smiled for a moment as Rakkaus placed the sword back on the desk and said:

"I don't know how you managed to hold that thing for all this time. I am two years older than you and I find it hard to hold."

"You are a true Slytherin," Gudrun said to him. "Only Gryffindors can manage to hold the sword for a longer period of time."

Laughter broke out in the room as Rakkaus looked, for once, dumbfounded. Harry started to ask who they all were, but Mel was quicker.

"I am Melanie Smith," she said to him. "These are my friends: Catherine Fisher, Gudrun Halonen, Shanna Malfoy, and Rakkaus Malfoy."

They all nodded at Harry, one by one, as Mel introduced them. Suddenly the door flew open and Lucius Malfoy himself strode into the room...

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Ginny had never been to a feast like this one. Everyone was in their pajamas and the celebration lasted all night. When she entered the Great Hall there was a sudden hush at the Slytherin Table. Finally, Draco and Zeynep got up and walked towards her to pull her into a great hug.

She found herself surrounded by Slytherins the minute the two boys let her go, demanding to hear the tale about the Chamber of Secrets from her. She seated herself and began to tell them almost everything about it, leaving out the parts that had happened after she had fainted.

"Erad, spargh!" she suddenly heard in her mind. "Arrogh!"

The train of thoughts that followed those words was interrupted by McGonagall announcing that all exams had been canceled, which caused cheers from everyone. The joy was increased as Dumbledore announced that Lockhart would not be able to make it back next school year. Quite a few teachers joined in this time, so that Draco noticed something and whispered:

"Who is the woman sitting next to Snape?"

Ginny looked over to the High Table, where a blonde woman was whispering something in Snape's ear. She shrugged and muttered something under her breath, something that sounded remarkably like 'none of your business'. She knew who that woman was, and she could only hope that this time around Snape would not push her away...

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