Lost Persephone

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Chapter 2:

"Meetings"

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As soon as she entered the chamber, a cold feeling of despair fell over Ginny as her stomach clenched in preparation for whom she was about to meet. She shut her eyes the moment she walked through the heavy oak door and jumped as she heard it shut with a click behind her, making her feel as if she was a prisoner waiting for the death sentence to be placed upon her. A pair of hands seized her roughly on the shoulders as she was hauled over to one of the large black leather armchairs before the empty hearth.

"You must wait here now," came Lucius's slippery voice. "Master will be with you shortly." He beckoned his companions to follow him and they all walked out the door. Ginny heard it lock with a soft click.

Positive she was alone for a moment; she buried her head in her hands and felt the tears that she had held back in the hallway break like a dam from her dark eyes. Her shoulders shook with the effort to keep her sobs soundless and it took a few minutes until she was calm enough to take in her situation. Wiping at the tear marks that ran down her pale face, she gazed and took in her surroundings, looking in every and any corner for an escape route.

There were no windows she noticed, just elegant 18^th century scarlet and green wallpapered walls. Making a dash to the door was no good; one, because it was locked and she would need her wand to open it (Heaven only knew where her wand had gone) and two, there was no doubt it her mind that someone was on guard outside just in case she should break the lock. Although she knew this, she fervently wished she had paid more attention to Fred and George who seemed to have the knack at finding any loose spaces in their floor boards {They mostly used that to hide away their joke stuff when Mrs. Weasley came around to cleaning their room.}

The thought of her family, away and safe? - she could only hope- at Hogwarts brought tears back to sparkle in her eyes. She gave a sniffle and pushed those thoughts away at once, knowing that if she did not concentrate on the task at hand, she would probably be dead by first morning's light.

An empty stone hearth was in front of her, intricate carvings showing its beauty and its wealth. There was another armchair across from her, identical down to the same wooden legs as the one Ginny now sat in. She peered around the chair at the opposite side of the room. Two large cabinets plus a smaller one, each black and carved in patterns like the hearth, was all that adorned the room. Upon the top of the smaller cabinet were glasses and a bottle of brandy and there right next to a couple of scones was a sharp shiny object and Ginny felt her heart leap.

A knife!

She hurriedly got out of her seat and made a mad dash across the room. Stopping in front of the cabinet she reached out her hand and grasped the handle of the knife, lifting it above her head, watching as the blade gleamed in the torchlight.

Just as she slipped the knife into the pockets of her now ragged robes, a click came to her ears followed by the familiar creak of a door and she turned sharply. Her mouth opened wide, ready to scream but no sound came out as Ginny stared at the figure before her- a figure with scarlet eyes and a smirk that had taunted her nightmares for the past five years.

"Hello, Virginia."

*******

Harry focused hard on the cracked wall before him. The harder he concentrated, the easier it was for him to forget. His wand tip glowed red as he passed it over the splits in the wall, repairing them to their normal state of smooth stone. Soft humming came to his ears and he turned his head to his left, peering down about 10 feet at Hermione who countered his own actions on her own piece of wall.

Feeling his stare, Hermione turned down to look back at him. She gave him a tiny smile before continuing her work, only stopping when voices carried into their hallway.

"Don't think you know what you're saying, Sirius. There is nothing more we can do right now," the voice of Remus Lupin sounded weary. "Severus has been up all night contacting other Death Eaters, trying to find out where she could be. We have to wait for him to get some information."

"The stupid git doesn't care about this mess," Harry heard the voice of his godfather say and he sounded both angry and irritated. "One less Gryffindor for him to handle the next year."

"Sirius! What a thing to say!" Lupin said and there was a bite of warning in his voice that Harry and Hermione had never heard before. "You're acting exactly like you did all those years ago back at school! It's time to except what time has brought us and let fate play its course! We will find her!" They heard one pair of footsteps, presumably Lupin's, walk in the opposite direction of their hallway.

"I hope your right," Sirius murmured softly but it echoed down the hallway and to their ears none the less. Sirius walked after Lupin and Harry felt himself looking at the floor, fighting the feeling of guilt and anger towards himself and Voldemort well up inside his heart.

A hand rested on his shoulder and he heard Hermione whisper, "It will be alright," in his ear as he grasped her hand on his shoulder tightly, afraid that she too would disappear.

*****

'Dear Diary...' Ginny wrote inside the leather bound book then paused to suck on her quill. She had no idea what to write when it happened. Her writing sunk into the page and she let out a squeal as other writing, not by her hand, appeared in its place.

'A diary! Dear me~ this could turn out quite awful! This is a journal! Calling this a diary makes this all seem so terribly feminine.'

Ginny stared at the words on the page, all of them rushing through her brain and replaying them over and over again. She numbly felt herself dip the tip of her quill in her inkpot and come down onto the page.

'Who are you?' she wrote and waited for the reply.

'I believe the question, my dear girl {I'm assuming you're a girl since no man would call it a diary} is who are you? This is my journal after all.'

'Ginny Weasley,' she wrote back and her hand shook slightly, making her script a bit illegible.

'It is a pleasure, Miss Weasley,' it wrote back. 'My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come across my journal?'

'It was mixed in with my school books,' Ginny's hand was much steadier now as the shock that her diary talked back began to sink in.

'Then it must be fate that we meet, Miss Weasley,' Tom wrote back. 'Ginny, short for Virginia, I presume?'

'Yes,' Ginny's eyebrows furrowed but she could not help but grin at the diary before her. This was turning out to be better than she imagined.

'Such a beautiful name. You must be beautiful as well then, just like your name,' Tom wrote and Ginny felt herself blush at his compliment. 'I believe I shall call you Virginia then, if it is alright will you?'

'Of course,' Ginny wrote and a feeling of excitement filled her heart. She did not remember feeling this happy in a long time.

'Well, Virginia, I believe this will be a most wondrous friendship.'

***

"Hello, Virginia."

Ginny couldn't think straight. Her mind was numb. Tom Riddle stood before her- the person that had made all these years of her life living hell; the man that had haunted her nightmares almost every night since her first year; the man who had reached a place so deep in her that it had changed her: for better or for worse she could not tell. The longer she stared into those scarlet eyes, the more the pain in her heart hurt yet she couldn't break eye contact- something was holding her eyes to his like a magnet. After a few minutes the corners of his mouth began to curl and the fog in Ginny's mind began to clear. She remembered where she was and who was standing in front of her. Unconsciously, she gripped the knife handle in her pocket, a movement that did not go unnoticed by Lord Voldemort.

"Perhaps you should put that down," he said softly and to Ginny's horror, she felt herself drag the knife out of her pocket and held it in front of herself.

No, Ginny thought as she stared at the knife in front of her. I won't give in.

No matter how hard she concentrated on not obeying Voldemort's orders, it did not seem to work. It felt as though something was prying her fingers off the knife handle and as her fingers released it, it fell to the floor with a clatter before disappearing through the wood floor.

Voldemort, apparently pleased with her obedience, glided smoothly to an armchair and sat, eyes never leaving her face. His eyes shone with dangerous amusement and he seemed delighted by her fear. "Please, sit down," he said and as he spoke, the hearth in front of the armchairs sprung to life, bright fire warming the room almost immediately.

For the second time, Ginny felt her mind and body clash. She felt too weak now to resist his charms. The Numbing Spell the woman had placed on her was beginning to disappear and a tightening feeling was slowly spreading to her ribs. She felt her legs comply to his wishes and her fear stepped up a notch as she finally settled herself in the armchair across from him, only about 5 feet in between them.

"It has been a while, Virginia," Voldemort said and his eyes were alive. He watched her intently as he leaned back against his armchair. "Five years in fact, is it not?"

"Yes," Ginny said in a raspy voice. The pain was starting to affect her breathing again. She fought to keep her calm and not to show any weakness: what Harry would have done.

"Do you know why you are here, Virginia?" Voldemort asked quietly, oblivious to her pain. An image of Harry floated to her mind and to her surprise, Voldemort gave a nasty chuckle.

"Ah, yes, the famous Harry Potter," he said, reading into her thoughts. "Not everything surrounds around that boy, you know." His lips curled into a nasty smirk. "Except for you and me."

"What are you talking about?" Ginny shot out as venomously as she could through her pain. Her fear had begun to disappear as their conversation grew on. The pain she was feeling overcame her fear by one hundred and ten percent. Whatever he did to her, whatever he said, she would not let him break her.

"There is the Prophecy that wraps my fate with that of Potter's," Voldemort said simply though there was a bite of distaste as he spoke Harry's surname. "And you, you are very close to him, aren't you?" He smiled now so wide that his teeth were showing. "Though not as close as you would like."

"I... don't... know what... you're talking... about," Ginny said through sharp breath intakes. Her chest felt about to burst inside and out. Voldemort continued to remain oblivious.

"That is not why you are here. Perhaps in time you shall discover why I craved for your presence here before me now. I happen to know you better than anyone, Virginia," he said in a very soft whisper that Ginny could barely catch. "I alone know your deepest feelings and secrets," Ginny's heart clenched at his words. "Don't I, Virginia?" He peered down at his own hands then back to her, eyes glinting with something Ginny could not discern. "Appearances can be changed. I no longer resemble my sixteen year old self but I still remain the same Tom Marvolo Riddle you sold your soul to all those years ago."

They continued to stare at one another for a long time. Ginny, through her pain only caught a few words, but enough to know what had been said. Tom Riddle was back and she felt her head spin again, though not because of her ribs, but because of the pain inside her heart.

He was back.

There came a knock at the door and Voldemort smirked widely as he saw the anguish and recognition sweep behind Ginny's eyes. "Come in," he called lazily, eyes still watching Ginny's face. Lucius Malfoy stepped into the room.

He bowed low and said in his icy tone, "Your healer for the girl has arrived, My Lord."

"Good. Send him in," said Voldemort and as he stood, Ginny felt complied to do the same, breath hitching at her effort to stand on her feet. She stared as a hooded figure walked into the room and into the torchlight. He bowed low to Voldemort than stood tall, slowly dropping his hood. Ginny let out a small gasp.

It was Professor Snape.