Healing Rain

Shadows churned around the halls as Ginny traveled the recognizable path to the girls' restroom. She tried to keep herself from thinking about what had happened when she had traveled down this hallway at this time of night five years ago. Though she had known what she was doing, she hadn't cared. Lives of muggle-borns had been irrelevant to her; all she had wanted was to find Tom. He had guaranteed that if she did what he asked of her, she would be able to see him.

Ginny tried and failed to suppress a shudder. Her eyes traveled to the same restroom that she had visited during her initial year at Hogwarts. She took a deep breath, noticing that the air around her seemed to drop into a chill.

She opened the door and treaded in, removing the invisibility cloak and placing it on the ground near the door, making a mental note to remember it on the way back to the Gryffindor common room. In the first stall, Moaning Myrtle was wailing as usual, but Ginny paid no mind.

"Okay, Tom," she whispered, looking at the small snake imprinted on the handle of the sink. "I'm here. Now what do I say?"

Leave that to me, Ginny. Just let me take control.

Ginny hesitated. Letting Tom take control would mean that he would be able to operate through her, and she wasn't very sure, considering the past events, if that would be the sensible decision.

Don't be a fool, Ginny. How will you get down to the Chamber? You aren't a Parselmouth. Just surrender for a moment, and then you will be acting of your own free will once again.

She bit her lip crossly. He didn't sound the least bit concerned that she might not go through with the whole plan. He was sure, once again, that she would give him whatever he wanted of her, though this was not what made her angry.

It was the fact that he was right that made her angry.

Ginny sighed and sat down against the wall, letting down all guards, listening to the sobbing in the first stall as she began to feel a light fog inside of her mind, building and spreading throughout her body.

God, that girl is annoying, Tom's voice complained heartlessly. She's ruining my concentration. I'm rather delighted that I've killed her already.

Ginny knew that was his way of warning her not to put forth too much energy, as he was having a hard time focusing. However, she was in no mood for his twisted humor.

"Shut up," she hissed to him, "and hurry."

Suddenly Ginny's eyes glazed over. She didn't feel as if she were the youngest and highly beloved sister to the Weasley boys and cherished daughter to her parents. Now she felt a feeling of emptiness, as if she had never felt the feeling of doting parents or teasing but loving brothers. She felt lonely; even angry.

She knew that he had control of her.

Tom's energy pressed Ginny to her feet and towards the appropriate sink. She felt herself lower her shoulders slightly to better see the small, gleaming snake on the tarnished handle.

"Open," Tom spoke for her. It did not, however, come out as English. Her ears could still hear the odd language --which sounded as ancient and as mystical as the Hogwarts castle appeared-- spoken in short, raspy hisses and murmurs.

Just then, as the sink moved to uncover the darkened tunnel, which lowered itself into the entrance of the chamber, Ginny felt the haze from her head and eyes lift. There was no more seclusion or resentment. Tom had kept his word.

Ginny traveled down the tunnel at soaring speeds, and landed on the floor roughly.

"Well," she snapped, holding her shoulder, which she had fallen on, "what a wonderful 'welcome back' from this place. It has to be an omen."

She walked forward in the stony corridor, the occasional sound of dripping water sending tense chills up her spine and neck, making her breathing go unsteady each time. Only a few patches of light shimmered from torches that she had never remembered seeing. Although most of the Chamber was out of her memories' reach, parts of it seemed much different.

She knew that she was certainly in a different place than she had been the first time when she came to a place where two paths separated from the main walkway.

Go left, she heard Tom instruct.

Ginny shook her head; her eyes traveling down the darkened path. She could feel something down there that wasn't very alluring at all.

You're making things far too complex, Weasley, Tom snapped at her, losing a bit of patience. Now go left or you can leave, and not acquire what you had come for.

Her feet slowly began to move down the left path. She didn't know what exactly she had come for, but something in Tom's ghostly voice told her that it would be a shame for her to not receive it.

Ginny walked for nearly fifteen minutes before she came upon a large room. The ceiling and walls seemed to be made of obsidian, and the floor was tinted like the aquatic green of the ocean on a serene day. In front of her lay a small, green-black sphere.

It needs your blood, Tom told her, that's what will bring me back to you, and you to me. Just a drop of blood on the sphere and we will be back with each other.

Ginny stepped over to the sphere and stared at it momentarily. It seemed so beautiful, almost priceless.

She dug her fingernail into her right index finger and allowed a drop of blood to descend onto the sphere.

The sphere began to glow midnight blue, then golden. It filled the whole room with light, blinding Ginny completely for a moment. The sound of something much like the beating of wings filled her ears and head, as the air around her began to drip with heat.

She fell onto the ground, weak from the light and sound, and began to whimper. She covered her eyes and prayed that she had not just made an irreparable mistake.

At last the sounds died and the light, which shone through to her eyes even when they had been closed, dimmed and eventually faded. Ginny heard a horrible banging noise, and had a minute before she realized it was her heart.

"Ginny," a voice above her said, "open your eyes."

A sickening dread filled her already panicked heart as she lowered her hands and looked up.

Standing over her was the one boy who she had never thought she would see again. Raven black hair fell into eyes the color of darkened, polished malachite; the face that they belonged to was perfect-- a picture of unaltered beauty and elegance. On his lips was a very unreadable smile.

Tom held a hand out to her, offering his assistance. She took it and gasped as he pulled her up sharply so that she was staring straight into those malachite eyes. The smile on his lips broadened.

"Hello, Ginny," he said softly, with an indescribable coldness. "It's been a long time. Look around you. Do you know where we are?"

Ginny looked to her right. The room that she had been in before was gone, and in its place, a cold, stony chamber much like a dungeon.

"No," she whispered, looking back at him.

Tom didn't let go of her wrist, which he held close to his chest so as to give her little movement of the arm.

"We're in between time; yours and mine. We are far away from each other's present, you in the past and I in the future."

"What do you want from me?"

Now Tom stared into her eyes with a new expression. It seemed as if he were trying to search her mind for some piece of treasure. "I need you in order to cross to your time. I need your life; your blood."

"You used me," she breathed, feeling a sensation of heartbreak, which was so very painfully familiar. "You used me again, but for what?"

Tom shrugged. "Reasonably simple explanation, really, Ginny. If I go back with your blood, it will be much harder for Potter to kill me, and I will kill him. You and I share a very special connection; did you know that? Our connection, of course, lies with Harry. The Weasley family dates back as one of the most prominent pureblooded families, and for excellent reason. They shared a special kinship to the Gryffindor family. Protectors, you might say. Harry's blood will stop him from killing me, Ginny."

Ginny glared at Tom. "But then it works the other way," she said angrily, trying to struggle, "If Harry can't kill somebody with my blood, then somebody with my blood can't kill Harry. And you'll have my blood."

Tom sneered and spoke to her in Parseltongue again. "Do you know what I said, Ginny? I said 'Our blood overcomes all unworthy binds'. It's an old saying that Slytherin taught his family. My blood purifies any ties that your blood may create. A Slytherin descendant does not care about other families aside from his own. Most certainly not that of a Gryffindor's."

Tom reached into his cloak and pulled out a small dagger. "In a moment, I will spill your blood and perform a Absorption Spell to combine it with my blood. I should be taken back to your time, and I will set up my attack from within Hogwarts."

"You don't care, do you?" she whispered. "You'll kill anybody and not care."

"Pity you didn't come to that conclusion before you came down here," he hissed. He pulled her only a little closer and let the hand with the dagger run through her hair. Then he leaned in and kissed her lips. Ginny felt her knees buckle, but she stayed upright, due to Tom's sharp grip on her arm.

"Goodbye, my dear, naive Ginny," he muttered softly into her ear.

Before she could say anything, she felt a searing pain as he shoved the dagger into her chest. She gasped and sputtered as Tom laughed.

Then, as she fell to the floor, the last thing Ginny saw was Tom's face. His eyes glittered as he watched her taking her last, painful breaths.

And then the world around her faded to black.