Forever Falling

Ginny landed on her feet, hard. It had been ages since the shock of hitting the stone floor of the Chamber had travelled through her body, and it stung. Wincing, she looked around, and saw that, yet again, she was right where she expected to be.

"Tom?" she called cautiously. Her words echoed in the empty chamber, and a figure stepped out of the shadows, his dark hair messy.

"Hello, Ginny," the figure replied calmly. "It's been awhile...and you do look quite different."

Ginny blushed. In the years since the last time she had seen Tom, she had definitely grown. She was now Tom's age, sixteen, and she looked the part quite well. She had also cut her hair, making her reddish curls more pronounced as they hung gently around her shoulders. In her first year, her hair was long and always tied back, to try and hide the infamous Weasley red. Now, she was proud to have that shade of hair colouring.

"Hello, Tom," Ginny said softly. "I've missed you." Tom nodded.

"And I've definitely missed you, Ginny. You were so bright and cheerful, willing to pour out your thoughts...when you weren't worried, of course."

Ginny scowled. "Let's not talk about that right now." Tom, though, had other ideas.

"Oh no, my dear, let's talk about it. It was a large part of your life, was it not? Harry Potter actually paid attention to you, and you were so heartbroken before he did."

Ginny paled slightly. "No, Tom. I don't want to talk about it. And if you want to, send me back, and we'll talk through the diary."

Tom raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? And how do I know you won't go running to someone afterwards?"

"You have my promise." Ginny stated firmly. She was not going to stay here!

Tom chuckled. "You know what I think of promises...but, m'dear, if that's what you want...." He snapped his long fingers together, and Ginny felt herself falling again, but she didn't struggle.

With a loud thump in her head, Ginny landed back in the History of Magic classroom. Ginny cautiously glanced around, half expecting everyone to be staring at her, even though she knew no one would be. With another quick glance around the classroom, Ginny slipped her normal diary back out of her bag, dipped her quill in ink, and began to write again.

September 2^nd, 1997 - 10:23 AM

I saw Tom again. I'm not sure why, but I felt a weird mix of terror and relief. I can understand the fear, because when you think about it, Tom is evil. Really evil. But why did I feel relieved? I've enjoyed my life without Tom - I have great friends, and I'm doing wonderfully in school. But still, why did I want to see Tom? He's not real; he's just an image.

Ginny Weasley

Rapidly, Ginny packed her diary away. The last thing she needed was someone to start reading over her shoulder - she'd be sent to Dumbledore so fast, her head would spin.

She picked up her quill, and began doodling on some spare pieces of parchment. When she looked up at Binns, he was still lecturing, but he was beaming at her.

'Why is her smiling at me?' Ginny thought nervously. 'Of course! It looks like I'm taking notes, which means I'm paying attention to him.' She smiled weakly back at the professor, before looking back down at her paper, which was covered in spirals and squiggles.

~*~

Not a moment too soon, the bell rang, signalling that Ginny had Potions at the moment with the Ravenclaw sixth years. 'They're better than Slytherin,' she mused, walking quickly toward the dungeons. The last thing she needed was for Snape to give her detention on the first day of classes.

"Knut for your thoughts?" Someone fell into step beside Ginny, startling her. It was Matt Spinnett, Alicia's younger brother.

"Oh, not that interesting, I'm afraid." Ginny replied apologetically. Matt smiled.

"Nothing could be interesting on the way to Potions," he responded lightly. "Well, here we are."

Ginny opened the heavy classroom door, and walked inside. It was as dark as ever, and quite damp, despite the fact that it was the beginning of September, and still fairly warm outside. She walked over to her normal seat, which was between Christel and Dani, two of her Gryffindor roommates. No one was there yet, so Ginny was free to stretch her back, which had become cramped from sitting in History of Magic. She was about to speak to Matt, when the door flew open.

"And really, it doesn't matter how interesting the book is, it's how informative it is. Information is an extremely valuable key, you know..." the speaker continued on, but Ginny tuned her out.

The person talking was Anshita Lee, a sixth year Ravenclaw. She was very stuck up about being smart, and the way she lectured made her worse than Hermione. Of course, it was Ginny's luck that she shared three classes with Anshita - Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, and Arithmancy.

"Hey Gin," came a voice, not as intruding, but closer. It was Dani, who had just arrived. "Could you take your bag off my chair?"

Ginny blushed. "Sorry, Dani. I was lost in thought."

Dani grinned. "More like trying to regain your thoughts, after she walked in." Ginny needed no explanation of who 'she' was. "Christel's sick, by the way, so she won't be in class today."

"Really?" Ginny began. "Wh--"

Ginny was cut off my Professor Snape stalking into the room. "Turn to section six of your texts," he barked. He was obviously in a bad mood.