Destroying Myself

Chapter Three

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When Harry calls for Malfoy, I hear a grumble from across the room, and the sound of someone trudging over.

He's another boy around my age - blonde hair, gray eyes - who looks rich yet worn out. He stands next to Harry, but he's staring at me.

"This is Riddle?" he asks, his tone cold. "He doesn't look anything like him."

"It is him," Harry says in a low voice.

"Well, Potter, what do you want?" Malfoy asks, turning away from me.

"I need you to go to The Burrow," Harry says.

"I'm not allowed to leave your house!" Malfoy snaps. "Thanks to you and your bloody rules."

"I said you weren't allowed to go to the Leaky Cauldron, since people are still looking for you; as long as you're on our side we don't want you to be shipped off to Azkaban!" Harry glowers.

Why would this boy be shipped off to Azkaban? What had he done?

"You don't care what happens to me! You just want to keep an eye on me," Malfoy hisses.

"Good point," Harry says. "I still don't trust you or Snape, but if McGonagall says you're cool, then I'll trust her, for now."

"Well, aren't I lucky?" Malfoy rolls his eyes. "I get to be Potter's service boy."

"Yes. Now go. Get the family, but make sure that someone stays there with Ginny," Harry says, glancing at me wearily. "She can't come, okay, Malfoy?"

"Whatever," Malfoy mutters, and takes off out of my sight.

"Why can't Ginny come?" I ask, wondering who Ginny is.

"Because of you," he says, solemnly. "Because of what you did to her."

He leaves me before I can ask what this means, and I'm left by myself, stuck on my side, my right hip beginning to ache.

I'm lying here, for one hour...no, two hours. And no one has come by to say anything else to me; but they're all still talking at once.

Maybe this was a bad idea, throwing myself into the future - then again, I didn't exactly plan for this to happen. I hear footsteps approach, but they get diverted and fade away.

I sigh, and bellow out, "Hello? Harry? Anyone? I'm still tied up here, you know."

There is no answer, though everyone hushes for a moment as I speak; but then their voices continue, even louder then before.

I give up. I guess I'm just stuck here, defenseless, hopeless, and confused.

There is a knock at the door, short and fast, quite spunky actually. I hear the door open and a moment of silence.

Then, "Malfoy, you idiot! I told you to leave her behind!"

"Did you, Potter?" Malfoy sneers. "Because I could have sworn you said to make sure I brought her."

"Harry," a girl's voice says. "What is going on?"

"Ginny, stay out of the-"

Before he can finish, she's already seen whatever she's supposed to stay out of - I'm assuming it's me - and she comes into view, the look on her face one of horror, shock, indignation... and a hint of something else; insecurity?

She seems to have trouble keeping her balance, and leans against the wall, hitting it with a loud thump. Harry rushes over to her, whispering that things are going to be all right. That I cannot hurt her now.

Ginny is still staring at me, horrified; the look is bone chilling.

While everyone is taking this moment to help Ginny, I look at her more intently. She's gorgeous; flaming red hair, piercing, captivating eyes that right now look full of pain, and a series of freckles across her nose and cheeks. She's stunning, even looking so afraid.

What had I done to make her react like this to the mere the sight of me?

"He's from the past," Harry tells her. "He doesn't have a clue what he's done. It's going to be alright, Ginny."

Here's Harry talking to Ginny on behalf of me, when I've never wanted so much to assure someone that I'm not dangerous - actually, now I think about it, I've never wanted to assure someone I'm not dangerous.

Here's a moment of revelation - I think I like her. I don't know her, but for some reason this doesn't deter me; I just want her to stop looking at me with that expression.

"Ginny," I start to say.

"Don't you dare speak to her!" Harry hisses fiercely.

I stop, and try to tell her how I feel with my eyes, but that's not working because she's now buried herself into Harry's shoulder.

"Come on," Harry says, leading her away. "Malfoy, bring him into my room."

Malfoy grumbles, but comes over to me, and I see, out of the corner of my eye, three other red-heads, all staring at me.

Malfoy casts the Mobilicorpus on me, and I begin to float, as if on an invisible stretcher. All I can see is the ceiling as he takes me into a room, and lays me down on what is, presumably, Harry's bed.

"Now don't move," Malfoy says sarcastically, and chuckles at his own joke.

"Yeah," I say. "Really hilarious."

He shuts the door, leaving me all alone again. At least my hip doesn't hurt anymore.

I open my eyes; everything is blurry. I must have fallen asleep somehow; well, I guess forty-eight hours with no sleep, followed by traveling through time, and getting knocked out, gets to you after a while.

I'm sitting up. Someone must have repositioned me in my sleep, as I know I didn't move myself. My hands and legs are still tied up, and there's still a body bind on me.

Harry, Malfoy and a redheaded boy are staring at me.

"Tom," Harry says to me. His voice is stern, unwavering, commanding.

"Yeah?" I yawn.

"Do you know how to get back to your time?" Harry asks.

I shake my head, "No."

If I knew, I would have left a while ago.

"Told you," Malfoy hisses. "What are you going to do with him then? If you're not allowed to kill him?"

My heart skips a beat as I try to register what he just said; I'm fairly certain I must have heard him wrong.

"We send him back to his time." Harry glowers. "We don't want him here."

Well, I don't want to be here, but that's not really going to solve anything.

"Too right, mate," the redhead says, glaring at me.

"You could kill him," Malfoy says, glancing at me.

Nope, I heard right, he said that they were considering killing me. Well, I believe I'm going to have a major problem with that - not that I seem to have much say in anything at the minute.

"I'm not going to kill him," Harry hisses. "McGonagall said that with him in this time period, the balance is already off; if we kill him, we don't know what the repercussions could be!"

"Whatever," Malfoy says, shrugging. "Do what you want, Potter. It's your funeral."

"Excuse me," I speak up. "But what exactly is going on? What do you mean, kill me?"

"He's mental," Ron says aloud, staring at me.

"He doesn't know what he's done," Harry says.

"Why don't you explain it to me?" I ask. "Please?"

Being polite always works to get me my way with these kind of people.

Malfoy lets out a cough and laughs.

Well, it works on people like Headmaster Dippet, like Brandy, like Harry; but not on people like Malfoy.

Harry looks at Malfoy. "What harm is it going to do?"

"Whatever, Potter," Malfoy says. "You can tell him whatever you want. If it were me though, I'd just send him home."

Malfoy leaves the room.

The redhead frowns as the door shuts.

"I hate that jerk," he says.

Harry nods, but he's taking Malfoy's words to heart. I wish he wouldn't, but that's how it is.

"We're going to send you home," Harry says to me.

"By all means, go ahead," I say.

"Harry, how are we going to do that?" the redhead asks. "We don't know how to travel through time."

"No," Harry says, eyeing me. "But I'm sure he can help us figure it out."

I nod. "I'll do whatever it takes. Can you take this spell off of me?"

Harry hesitates. Seriously, I'm wondering how much longer it's going to take for me to get him to trust me.

"I'll stay in here if you want," I say. "You can lock the door."

I just want to be able to move again.

Harry eyes his friend. "Ron?"

"I dunno mate," Ron says, looking at me suspiciously. "I don't see what harm he can do if he really doesn't know what's going on...But then again..."

"He's dangerous," Harry says, finishing Ron's sentence.

"I'm not," I say.

Well, I definitely am, but I'll behave if they're trying to send me home.

"I'll talk to Lupin about it," Harry says. "Ron, could you go and get Hermione for me?"

Ron frowns and looks away. "Well...erm..."

"Are you two fighting again?" Harry asks, rolling his eyes.

"Yes." Ron sighs.

"What did you forget to do this time?" Harry asks.

"Erm...our six month anniversary," Ron grumbles.

Girls - people in general, but girls especially - only want to control you. Pointless dates, nagging; these things only serve to blur your perception of life.

"Nice going, Ron," Harry says sympathetically.

"You know I'm no good at remembering dates," Ron says.

"Well, take her flowers and make up," Harry says. "This is important."

"Alright, I'll try," Ron says. "This boyfriend business is just so difficult!"

Harry turns to me. "I'll talk to Lupin about untying you, but don't get your hopes up."

I grumble under my breath when they shut the door. I hate this; I hate them for being so bleeding suspicious, and I hate myself for getting into this situation in the first place.