Crimson Ink

Everyone was quite shocked when Ginny Weasley vanished. She had many friends, few enemies, and no one could think up a reason that might possibly explain her disappearance.

That is, until Ron brought up the subject of the little black book that his sister had kept during her first year at Hogwarts.

Which was where the spirit of Tom Marvolo Riddle had resided.

That notion, however, was quickly dismissed, since the book had disappeared even sooner than she had, years and years sooner. Nobody really knew what happened to it exactly, but it was said that Harry Potter had destroyed it while he was down in the Chamber of Secrets, saving Ginny from the monster that was Voldemort.

Who said it, no one knew, since Ron had been staying with an unconscious Lockheart at the time, and Ginny herself was also lying on the cold stone floor, dead to the happenings of the world around her. Harry of course, was much too busy fighting Riddle.

When Harry was asked how exactly he had gotten rid of Riddle, he couldn’t say, his memory from the time was drowsy. But the few who knew assumed that he had killed Riddle, since after all, he was the Boy Who Lived and had also defeated the Dark Lord the previous year.

No one thought further of it.

The ones affected had gone on with their lives after that, since Ginny didn’t seem to be a bit touched by that incident. She was closely watched the summer after, but she was happy and carefree, the dark rings of the year before gone from under her eyes.

So it was rather astonishing when Ginny was whisked away one day, out of the blue. Her room was just the way it had always been, no signs at all of a struggle. No clues left at all, anywhere.

There was suggestion that perhaps the reason there hadn’t been a struggle was because Ginny had wanted to go with her captor, whoever that might be.

But Molly Weasley refused to believe that, no matter how many times the inspectors brought up the logic of it. Ginny had been taught much too well, especially after the incident of her first year. She would never go off with a stranger.

Or would she?

Months passed, and there was still no sign of Ginny. In the end, even the Weasleys began to give up hope. They finally let the professionals search through her room, for any more clues that might had been left behind.

They didn’t find anything that would help the investigation, but they did find a very thick stack of parchments, buried at the bottom of her trunk. Upon closer examination, they discovered that the parchments appeared to be letters, addressed to her brother Charlie.

It did seem rather strange to them that Ginny had written all these letters - because there was quite a thick stack - and had never sent them to her brother, but such things were personal, and they weren’t allowed to search through them unless the person they belonged to allowed it.

The person they belonged to was Ginny, who was missing, but they were addressed to Charlie Weasley, so they handed them over to him, who took them with a quizzical look on his face.

"From your sister," they informed him. "Found it at the bottom of her trunk. Don’t see why she didn’t send them before. Seem to be from quite a while back. The first one’s all the way from the summer of 1992."

Charlie paled slightly at that, since the year 1992 was a memorable one for all of them. "Er, thanks," he said, trying to control his voice, which was threatening to tremble and ruin everything. "I’ll look through them."

"Will you be letting us search for more clues?" they asked. "We can only do it if you permit. Ministry regulations."

"Possibly," replied Charlie. "I will have to read through them first. There may be some things that she wouldn’t want the world knowing, you know, that teenage girl sort of stuff."

They nodded. "We understand. If you need us, you’ll know where to find us."

Charlie ignored their comments and began to read.