Ginny Weasley and the Heir of Slytherin

"Just what is your problem?" Ginny demanded of Colin as he passed out the pictures he had taken after the game of Harry lying in the mud with his arm broken. It was now late at night in the Gryffindor common room and Harry wasn't back from the hospital wing.

"What d'you mean?" asked Colin brightly.

"Do you think Harry likes you photographing him like that?" continued Ginny. "You know, you're exactly the type of person Harry doesn't need in his life. He doesn't want someone who worships the ground he walks on -- he just wants to be treated like a normal person."

"But he's not a normal person!" insisted Colin. "He's Harry Potter. And I follow him around all the time and he never seems annoyed."

"I find that hard to believe," said Ginny.

"Well, not all the time," Colin admitted. "I don't follow him into the bathroom anymore. He got a little annoyed the six times I did that."

"I meant I find it hard to believe he isn't annoyed by that!" she snapped. "He -- he doesn't want that kind of attention. He just wants to be loved." Ginny couldn't believe she had just said that out loud! Her face once again decided it was time to signal her embarrassment to everyone in the room.

"Just give her a signed photo, Colin," Ron said lazily. "She's just mad she hasn't got one yet."

"You shut up!" hollered Ginny. "I don't want some picture of Harry. I want Har--" Ginny stopped dead before she could finish that sentence. By now pretty much everyone knew about her interest in Harry, but she had never come so close to stating it aloud.

"Tell us... more," said Fred, leaning forward expectantly. Ginny felt so angry. Here she was -- their little sister feeling terribly exposed in front of a room full of people and their response was to make a mockery of her most private feelings!

Then there was a flash of light and Ginny realized in a moment of absolute horror that Colin had just taken a picture of her like this!

"Wow, you look really mad!" he said cheerfully.

"I hate you!" Ginny yelled at Colin. "Get away from me! I -- I never want to see you again in my life!" The Muggle-born boy looked a little taken aback, but didn't move.

Tears filled Ginny's eyes and she couldn't stop them from falling. The next instance she was running up to her dormitory feeling utterly humiliated and angry at the entire world. No one understood how she felt -- no one! Then she remembered there was one person she could talk to. She upped her pace as she dashed upstairs to tell Tom Riddle about what had happened.

* * *

It was very, very cold. Ginny didn't know where she was, but she was shivering like mad, wanting nothing but to escape the intense cold enveloping her. There were goose bumps on her arms and legs, which were both completely exposed to the cold air. Ginny didn't wonder how she had gotten there as the experience had a rather dreamlike quality. Then she noticed that her eyes were closed and opened them.

Ginny saw that she was standing alone in a dark Hogwarts corridor in the dead of night wearing only her nightdress -- no wonder she was freezing. Panic instantly consumed her. She had lost her memory again and this time it had put her in real trouble! During the day, this corridor might have been perfectly recognizable and friendly to her, but now it was dark and imposing. The tall suits of armor lined against the walls and the high doorways were mostly hidden in the shadows and darkness so the only thing Ginny could see were large dark shapes. She felt so small.

This couldn't be real -- it just couldn't -- it was too much! She wanted to pinch herself, but the cold seemed to have glued her arms to her chest. And she was so cold she probably wouldn't have even felt it if she were pinched. As she continued shivering, Ginny wildly thought that she might die here. But that was crazy -- there was no way she would get that cold. She just needed to get out of there, but she couldn't move. She longed desperately to be back in her cozy bed, which she continued to half-think she might wake up to find herself in at any moment.

But that seemed like wishful thinking. Ginny didn't know which way led to her dormitory, but she decided she had to move. Mustering all her strength, she forced herself to take a step forward. It was only after she did this that she felt the cold stone floor on her bare feet. She suddenly became very aware that her loose nightdress was the only thing covering her body and it provided absolutely no protection against the cold. Trying not to think about this, she forced herself to take another step.

It turned out the first few steps were the hardest. Soon she was walking down the corridor and feeling confident that she would somehow get herself out of this living nightmare. She just hoped she was going in the right direction and that she wasn't too far from Gryffindor Tower. However, those hopes were dashed when she reached the door at the end of the corridor and pushed it open with her foot as her arms still didn't want to unclench themselves from her. It led down into the entrance hall -- she was not heading in the right direction and she was nowhere near Gryffindor Tower.

It was hopeless -- all the progress she had just made was for nothing and her dormitory was so many floors above her. There was no way she could reach it in this state. If there were a way for her to give up, she would have taken it. But there wasn't. The way she saw it, she could either stand there freezing to death or she could freeze to death while making the slow journey up to her nice warm bed. It would take her so long -- what if the sun came up before she could get there and everyone saw her like this when they were coming down to breakfast? -- but that just meant she should get started sooner rather than later. With a heavy heart, she prepared to turn around.

But at that moment she heard what sounded like a door opening on the ground floor. She didn't want to get her hopes up too much, but it sounded like there just might be a person down there. Ginny knew if she were found out of bed after curfew, she would get in big trouble -- the previous year, Harry, Hermione and a boy named Neville Longbottom had lost Gryffindor a hundred and fifty points for that and gotten detention in the Forbidden Forrest to boot -- but she was so desperate to get out of this that she wouldn't have even cared if it was Filch who found her.

Walking was so difficult that instead of trying to manage the stairs leading down into the entrance hall she threw herself down them. She rolled over the hard marble steps and hit the floor at the bottom -- hard. Her body must have been coated in bruises by the time she came to a stop -- definitely not one of her better ideas.

After making sure her nightgown was still in place, Ginny rested her head on the hard flagstone floor and wondered gloomily if she might be paralyzed now. Partly to make sure that she wasn't, she forced herself to sit up. Then she awkwardly got to her feet. It wasn't easy -- her head was swimming and she had to force herself to stay balanced at first. She headed in the direction from which she heard the sound of the door even though she was now thinking that she had probably imagined it anyway.

This led her into a dark corridor filled with more doors than she cared to count. Just as she started to think desperately about how hopeless her situation was, she heard quiet, friendly voices whispering to each other. She couldn't believe it -- she was actually right! There actually was someone down here and more than one someone by the sound of it. She followed the voices up to one of the doors and slowly pushed it open to find her uptight, proper brother Percy standing in the middle of an empty classroom with a girl prefect.

Ginny stared, almost completely forgetting her own situation. Percy, who had removed his glasses, was holding the other prefect very close and she was clinging onto him as though afraid she would shrivel up if she let go. Ginny somehow instantly knew this was a love scene even though they weren't doing any obvious "boy-girl stuff". Even if it did involve her brother, Ginny couldn't help feeling awed to see such a scene for real. She had read romantic books and seen a few older students kissing in the hallways, but this was different and somehow more real.

That was when Percy and his girlfriend closed their eyes, came together and started to kiss. Feeling mischievous, Ginny chose this moment to make her presence known by loudly clearing her throat. Percy's reaction to this was instantaneous -- he leaped away from his girlfriend as though she had something contagious, stumbling backwards so fast he just about fell over. He fumbled with his glasses as he turned to look at Ginny.

"G-G-Ginny?" he asked in surprise. "What -- what the bloody hell are you doing out of bed!" Ginny simply stood there in shock -- she had never heard Percy use that kind of language before. Of course, she had never considered the possibility that he might have a girlfriend either, so her perception of him was changing pretty rapidly anyway.

"Who's that little girl?" said Percy's girlfriend sympathetically. "She looks so cold."

"She's just my sister, Penny," Percy explained. "She's in her first year here. Wait, Ginny, is that only your nightdress you're wearing? Ginny, what are you thinking? Have you lost all your senses?"

"I -- I guess I was sleepwalking... sort of," said Ginny awkwardly as Penny the Prefect came forward to wrap her cloak around Ginny.

Ginny didn't think this was really a lie. After all, if it weren't for her previous memory lapses, it would have looked like she was sleepwalking from her point of view. And she didn't even really know what was happening to her anyway, so how could she lie about it?

"I'm not sure I believe you," said Percy, apparently noticing the guilty look on her face. "I'll leave it to the teachers to decide what really happened."

"No, p-please!" Ginny said immediately. "Don't tell anyone!"

"And why shouldn't I if you've got nothing to hide?" he asked superiorly.

"Because then I won't tell Fred and George you have a girlfriend!" Ginny shot back. Percy's ears turned red.

"Ginny, I forbid you to tell them about that!" he declared.

"Oh, that's going to stop me," Ginny replied sarcastically.

"So help me, Ginny, if you breath a word of this to them I'll take a hundred points from Gryffindor!" Percy said furiously.

"I'm sure that will impress Professor McGonagall," said Ginny. "She always loves to see her prefects abuse their power. It'll certainly improve your odds of becoming Head Boy next year."

"Professor McGonagall is a Hogwarts teacher," Percy responded. "She understands that when a prefect tells a younger student to do something, they must do it or risk losing house points. Even if she is intent on Gryffindor winning the house cup for a second year and it's a matter of a little sister tattling on her brother, the importance of the prefect system --" He stopped in mid-sentence and for a few moments Ginny was left to hang in suspense, wondering if she had won.

"Ginny, do you realize what you're trying to do here?" he asked eventually. "It's called blackmail and it's wrong."

"I know what it's called," said Ginny.

"All right, fine!" Percy said angrily. "Just tell me why you're out here and I won't mention it to the teachers or Mum." Ginny had her doubts that he was telling the truth, but it was the best she could have hoped for and she considered what she should say.

"I told you, I was sleepwalking," she said eventually.

Percy looked at her. He didn't believe her -- she knew it! But she couldn't tell Percy that she had mysteriously lost her memory four times and hadn't mentioned it to anyone. He would yell at her and then go straight to the teachers, who would probably conclude that she had opened the Chamber of Secrets. Besides, Percy was just about the last person she wanted to know anyway.

"We've got to get her up to your common room," said Penny, breaking the silence.

"In a moment, Penny," said Percy. "Ginny, do I have your word that you won't tell anyway about me and Penny?"

"Yes," said Ginny dully.

"You'd better mean that," he said loudly, "or I'll tell Professor McGonagall about this. You don't want to go roaming around the corridors at night theses days -- it's very suspicious."

"Suspicious?" Surely he wasn't suggesting that she could be the Heir of Slytherin! How could someone who thought she was so "too young" think that or even think that anyone else would think that? Maybe it would make sense for him to think that if he knew about Halloween, but he didn't know about that... did he? Why was Ginny even thinking this? It made no sense at all.

"C'mon, Percy, just get her up to your common room -- I'll be waiting for you down here," said Penny flirtatiously, moving towards Percy.

"Penny, please, not in front of Ginny!" he protested. "She's at a very impressionable age."

"You know, I'm right here!" said Ginny, who really hated it when people talked about her like that, especially right in front of her as though they thought she was "too young" to understand.

Soon afterwards, Percy began carrying Ginny up to Gryffindor Tower. She had had no idea Percy was strong enough to carry her -- it was clearly difficult for him, but she was amazed that it was even possible. By the time he reached the Fat Lady's portrait, Ginny was lolling out of consciousness. She wouldn't have been surprised if she had fallen asleep at some point during the journey.

As he sat Ginny down in front of the common room fire, she started to think that maybe she was too hard on Percy. Sure, he was pompous and annoying, but he was still her brother and he loved her. And how could Ginny of all people not sympathize with him for wanting to keep his relationship with Penny a secret from the twins? How often had Ginny desperately wished she could have kept them from finding out about her feelings for Harry?

Apparently, she wasn't the only one feeling a little guilty. Percy was looking down at her, appearing rather contrite.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," he said eventually.

"I'm sorry, too," said Ginny. She wasn't sure what exactly she felt sorry for, but she certainly felt sorry. "But our agreement still stands, right?" she added quickly.

"Yeah," he said, "I'm sure you were just sleepwalking because you were so worked about about the Chamber. It was wrong for me to get mad at you. I just didn't want anyone to know about Penny."

"How long have you been with her?" asked Ginny curiously. Percy looked he was about to tell her that it was none of her business, but he was apparently in a generous enough mood to let this slide.

"We met last year," he said shortly. "We've been meeting in secret around the castle for awhile now."

"She's the reason you spent so much time locked up in your room last summer, isn't it?" said Ginny, practically realizing this as she said it.

"Yes," he admitted, "I was writing letters to her."

"Are you going to marry her?" asked Ginny eagerly. No one in her family had been married during her lifetime and she thought it would be fun to see it happen.

"I don't know," he said. "Maybe someday."

"I think you should marry her," said Ginny. While she obviously didn't know Penny that well, she seemed nice and Ginny really liked the idea of seeing the people in her life find love.

Percy was about to respond when there a knock on the Fat Lady's portrait. Looking nonplussed, he climbed into the portrait hole and out of Ginny's sight to see what it was. A moment later, he was leading Penny into the circular common room.

"Penny, what are you doing up here?" her asked in surprise. "I thought we were going to meet again downstairs -- I was just about to send Ginny to bed."

"You can forget about that," Penny replied. "There's been another attack and this time it's a student."

"Who is it?" asked Ginny, her heart suddenly racing.

"Don't tell her," Percy said importantly. "She's already disturbed enough."

"I want to know!" yelled Ginny angrily, no longer thinking she was too hard on Percy. He was being so unfair! She absolutely needed to know that crucial bit of information and he was denying her it because he thought her precious little mind was too delicate to handle it. Maybe it would upset her a little, but she was sure she could handle it just fine.

"Well, she'll find out eventually -- he's in her year -- and wouldn't she be more disturbed if she were left in suspense?" Penny asked reasonably.

"Well, all right," said Percy reluctantly, "just get it over with."

"It's -- it's this boy named Colin Creevey," Penny explained gently. "Do you know him?"

Ginny nodded, making very sure to not look disturbed or upset by this. She didn't even let the fact sink into her brain for fear that it would disconcert her and make her appear "too young".

"Professor McGonagall found him near the hospital wing," Penny continued. "I ran into her when she was heading to Professor Dumbledore for help. She told me to go straight to my dormitory and I honestly think she has the right idea. I'm Muggle-born myself and I can't help but thinking that it could've been me who got Petrified tonight."

Ginny desperately tried to take in these disturbing facts without really thinking about them, or at least not until she was safely out of Percy's sight. But she couldn't help but realize that the corridor she had regained her memory in was near the hospital wing. And it seemed a bit far-fetched that two separate attacks would both just happen to coincide with her losing her memory. Even if she wasn't doing it, there was no denying that she was connected to it somehow.

"I think that's quite enough," said Percy. "Look how upset Ginny is -- she's literally shaking!" Ginny hadn't noticed it until Percy said it, but she was indeed shaking.

Awhile later, Penny left for Ravenclaw Tower, taking her cloak back from Ginny, who was much warmer now. Maybe he was upset that he didn't get to spend any more time with Penny, but whatever the reason Percy decided this was the time to confront Ginny about her recent odd behavior. By now she was feeling much less charitable towards him than before.

"Ginny, I'm really worried about you and so is Mum," Percy told her. "You've been looking pale for almost a month and you haven't been yourself at all. You spend all your time in bed and you hardly speak to anyone. And now you're sleepwalking. You need to tell someone what's the matter."

"I'm fine," said Ginny. "I think I'll go to bed now."

When she reached her dormitory, Ginny almost absent-mindedly pulled off her nightgown, but then she remembered that she was already dressed for bed. It was only once she was safely snuggled beneath her blanket that she let herself really think about what had happened. Earlier that very night, Colin had been cheerfully passing out photos down in the common room, but now he was lying in the hospital wing like a corpse and would remain there for months until the Mandrake Restorative Draught could be brewed. And the last thing Ginny had told Colin was that she hated him and never wanted to see him again! She felt so guilty for saying that now.

And that wasn't even the worst of it. The worst of it was that, at the very least, she was losing her memory and ending up places. She had no idea how it was happening, but the night's events seemed to suggest it could happen at any time. How would she ever be able to bathe again knowing that she could suddenly find herself standing in a corridor somewhere naked, perhaps even still covered in soap? She had really only managed to escape being out after curfew without getting an armload of detentions by pure luck. There was no doubt that these memory lapses could get her in serious trouble even without attacks happening at the same time.

Feeling more scared than ever, Ginny snuggled deeper into her bed. She needed help -- she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do. But who could she go to and how would she be able to explain why she didn't mention all this after Halloween? Her father worked at the Ministry and she knew what Tom had said about them searching for a scapegoat was very likely true. If she told someone, it would have to be someone who wouldn't immediately report her -- someone who cared about her -- someone who wouldn't judge her -- someone who was her friend.

Ginny was surprised to realize that she did not have any friends. It was amazing this little fact hadn't even really occurred to her before. Of course, it wasn't like she was a social outcast or anything. She was on good terms with most of her peers -- she just wasn't particularly close to anyone. How could that have happened? Part of the reason she had wanted to go to Hogwarts so much was to make some friends of her own. Now she had been there for over two months and she hadn't even tried! Why?

The answer was obvious and inevitable. Tom Riddle had filled that void in her life.

Tom Riddle was someone she had already told about this and she realized that he was, in fact, the only person she could think of -- if he really counted as a "person" -- who actually fit all her criteria. Maybe she didn't know what to do, but he was pretty smart. He would know what the right thing to do was. She could ask him about it in the morning.

And thus, Ginny snuggled up under her blanket, hoping to fall asleep despite feeling so anxious and restless...