Swimming in a Pool of Endless Depth

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Blurring and stirring the truth and the lies

So I don't know what's real and what's not

Always confusing the thoughts in my head.

So I can't trust myself anymore.

I'm dying again.

~ Going Under by Evanescence

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Drowning in a Pool of Endless Depth

Remembering You

Ginny threw her suitcase onto one of the two arm chairs in her room and jumped onto the bed of the cabin. Her very own cabin; she smiled at the thought. She could easily escape her brothers and parents on a boat this large. And, she added, Malfoy.

It seemed like she could never get away from him.

She was woken from her reverie as Fred pushed the door open. She cursed; she would have to remember to lock the door.

He looked in at her as she lay prostrated out on the bed. Her long hands hung over the bed and her feet pointed in different directions. Loud screeching sounds and haywire guitar strings were streaming from the bedside radio.

"Tisk tisk," he said, shaking his head in what could be described as utter shame. "Naughty, naughty words, little grasshopper - we have raised you well." He bowed, speaking with an exaggerated Japanese accent.

"What do you want?" she asked from her spot on the bed, looking at the ceiling.

"Mum says we have to get ready."

"Ready for what?"

"What is that bloody music, Gin, Ode to Banshee?" Fred asked, "It's making my ears bleed!" Ginny rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Fred. It's only Broken Wand's new hit that's been topping the charts for weeks!"

"I'm impressed," he replied dully. "What's it called?"

"Bloody Murder."

"Go figure," he said, shaking his head. His eyes traveled over Ginny's room. The walls were white with a pretty seashell bordering along the ceiling. The sparse furniture was contemporary and stylish, with intricate designs and soft coloring. The room had only one large bed to sleep on, but it also held two easy chairs, two lamps, and a television. In another room was the bathroom and separate vanity, and in the back was a sliding door that led directly out to the game area of the ship.

"You're lucky," Fred remarked, sitting on a plush white chair. "Our room's theme is 'Under the Sea.' It's complete with seashells and waterbeds, though that was a mistake. Ron had a gigantic row when we told him that he had to sleep in the tub because it was the only space that wasn't taken up by luggage. Ginny giggled. "You're not serious, are you?" she asked, staring up at the ceiling. Fred only shrugged.

"What does mum want me to get ready for?" she asked, rolling off the bed and onto the carpeted floor. She landed with a thump. Fred raised his eyebrows in amusement. "I'm ok," she said, standing up and brushing the imaginary dust off her tank, "No need to be worried."

"So glad. Listen, in the closet is a white blouse and a short tannish material skirt looking thing. You're supposed to wear that."

"It's called beige," she remarked dryly.

"That too."

She walked over to the wooden closet doors and pulled them back while Fred played with the light switch.

"Why am I supposed to wear this?" she asked as the lights went off, then on, then off at very fast speeds. She rubbed her eyes.

"Dinner," he replied. Ginny looked at her older brother and noticed that his hair wasn't mused like it always was, and that he wore a white polo that didn't have any wrinkles and a pair of pressed khaki pants. "Are they making us all wear the same things?" she asked, pulling out a blouse."

"Regretfully, though it should be interesting between George and I. Imagine, forty years from now, our children will look at this ground breaking event and we'll be able to tell them that they called us the wrong names the entire time." Ginny burst out laughing as she threw the blouse, still on its hanger, onto her bed. Fred looked at her oddly, then reached over and grabbed his little sister's Seventeen magazine that she had picked up in a muggle gift shop before they boarded the cruise. It lay on the table next to him, an Avril Lavigne special edition, and began flipping through it.

She reached in and grabbed the skirt off the closet bar, also flinging it onto her bed.

"Don't wear black bras under white shirts," Fred said wisely. Ginny looked up at him. "What did you just say?"

"Don't wear black bras under white shirts," he repeated, then flipped the page. "Hey Gin, what are condoms? Oh, hold on... what! Ginny, I never...!" he trailed off alarmed. The magazine was held out in front of him as his eyes scanned the page.

"Fred, am I supposed to wear a pre-specified pair shoes with this outfit?" she asked.

"Uh huh," he replied, vaguely, eyes intent on the magazine article. She shook her head and grabbed a pair of strappy high heels that were on the floor of the closet. The shoes were the same color as the skirt, a white beige. She shut the doors. Walking over to her bed, she dropped off her shoes. She grabbed the magazine out Fred's hands and pointed at the door.

"Out!" she ordered, "Let me listen to my banshees in peace."

He glared at her and sulked to the door, but Ginny couldn't miss the smile that was in his face. "Listen, Ginny, can I borrow the..." he trailed off, pointing at the magazine that she held in her hand.

"Yes, you may!" she said, flinging it at his face and slamming the door, laughing.

She even remembered to lock it.

~~~~~

"Here Ginny, drink this." Tom handed her a steaming goblet. She looked at him, then at the goblet, then back at him, wrinkling her nose from the putrid smell. She took it with trembling hands.

Tom and Ginny were in a dark room. Ginny could here water dripping slowly off the ceiling and landing on the stone ground with a plop and splatter. It was cold in the room, but Tom wore the same uniform that he had when he was sixteen. Ginny shivered from the chilly air and from the cold in her second-hand uniform, nervously playing with a loose strand of thread. She was trying to think of where she was, but everything in the past seemed so hazy and Ginny couldn't remember.

"

Do you want me to drink it?" she asked in a small voice. He nodded and shrugged

"Go ahead; it won't

kill you."

She closed her eyes trustingly and raised the warm goblet, taking a hesitant sip. As the liquid poured down her throat, knives pierced her neck and arrows split through her back. Her limbs were tearing apart and her head was threatening to split into two halves.

"Veritasium!" Tom yelled with Ginny's wand, pointing it at her throat. Two hooks grasped themselves around her and she jerked forward in a violent spasm.

"Ginny, open your eyes," Tom demanded with an unnerving calmness. She opened them like he had told her too, her pretty face contorted with unseen pain. "What I gave you was a powerful truth elixir that I made. I was meaning to test it out when I went to school here, but I became a little preoccupied with all the Chamber openings. And you, Ginny," he said, taking her chin into a cold hand. "Will make the perfect guinea pig." He gestured to a gold basin in front of him. "This, dear Ginny, is a legendary Dark article called 'The Bowl of Truth. I'm sure you've heard of it from your father. No? Then I'll just have to tell you. It was used during the uprising of the Dark Lord. Paralleled with the Truth Elixir, it not only detects when someone is lying, it creates the image of the truth."

He let go and she jerked forward again. Tom began questioning. "What is your name?"

"Virginia Cecile Weasley," Ginny spoke from inside the shower, steam filling up the small room. She ducked under the hot running water as the memory continued to run through her mind's eye.

Ginny's voice surprised even her, an unearthly high pitched sound that echoed off the walls. An invisible hand wrapped itself around her throat, crushing and deadly.

"Interesting middle name, Cecile is. Tell me, Virginia Weasley, what does it mean?"

"Gray eyes," she said and looked down at her feet, pink from the heat. Ginny's voice croaked and cracked. The Bowl of Truth bubbled and stirred beneath her. A picture of familiar piercing gray eyes manifested in the middle of it. Ginny was telling the truth.

Tom barely glanced at it.

"What is Harry Potter's middle name?" he asked her. Her mind drew a blank.

"I don't know," she said as the hand tightened its grip around her neck. A picture of an older Harry with brown eyes and no scar appeared in the middle of the bowl.

"Harry's middle name is Harry?" she said, rinsing off the soap bubbles from her body.

"No, you stupid little girl. That's James Potter." The hand gave her no lax and Tom continued questioning Ginny. "Harry James Potter."

Fear was slowly taking over her. Tom knew that she had lied about how Harry had found the book, and this was her punishment for sure. He said that the elixir wouldn't kill her, but it was certainly doing a very good job of cutting off her air supply. A way to die, but certainly not Ginny's first choice.

"Tell me, Ginny, where were you when the first attack happened."

"I wrote the words you wanted me to in the blood of the rooster from Hagrid's hut and watched the spiders scurry out the window," she said, rinsing the cruise shampoo from her hair. She looked down at a hunched figure sitting in a pool of water. Spiders reflected off the water's glassy surface, scurrying away from the basilisk. Above her, writing in bright red shone as the blood dripped, Ginny's own handiwork.

She wasn't getting much air, she knew that she would pass out. She just didn't know when.

"I told you to follow the spiders. Who did you meet?" Tom asked, walking around her. He smiled sickly.

"Argon, the father and elder of all the spiders at Hogwarts." Ginny said, opening a bottle of conditioner. The Bowl stirred and a picture of a gigantic spider shone, his multiple eyes milk white. Ginny shivered and the two hooks pulled her forward.

"You did? What did he tell you?"

"He told me that it was not Hagrid, that it was someone else who was setting the terror of the Chamber onto Hogwarts. It was an unnamable fear, and that it was the spider's worse enemy." The pearl conditioner fell in a glob in her hand. Argon's picture was replaced with millions of small spiders scurrying out of the castle. Tom nodded, unfazed, though he had been the one to capture Hagrid.

"What else happened there, Ginny?"

"Argon tried to kill me," she said simply, with a childish tone of voice, lathering the shampoo into her red hair. "He tried to send his children after me and they tried to eat me. Alive." She cringed from the remembered horror.

"Really? Now, Ginny, you have my absolute attention," Tom said, twirling her wand like a baton. "I'm interested; you obviously escaped. Tell me, Ginny, how did you do it?"

"I pointed my wand at them and yelled something loudly. Something came out and surrounded me. The thing leapt forward and attacked the approaching spiders. They stopped and stared at me, then backed away, all of them. I don't remember what I said..." Ginny trailed off as the hand clutched her throat harder. "I only remember that it had a long body and it was green and it hissed at them and they ran away. It was a snake..." She gasped for air. Tom smiled at her and her stomach felt like it was going to hurl. "Very good," he said, congratulating her, "I bet you didn't even know that you were a parseltongue, Ginny.

"You've lasted longer than I expected, but you're running out of air. Touching, Ginny, you're not as weak as I first thought you were. You must have some inner strength somewhere that I can tap into..." he trailed off. "But not now. You'll faint soon, and remember none of this. So tell me Ginny, who does your heart love?"

"Harry Pot..." Ginny's eyes rolled into the back of her head as the hand clenched itself once more. It dropped her, but Ginny was out before her head hit the stone ground. Tom looked at her, her crumpled figure laying in a black heap on the ground, then at the bowl, its water bubbling and moving.

The face of Draco Malfoy glared back up at him with angry gray eyes.

"Interesting," Tom said, walking over her. He stepped on her hair. "Very interesting."

~*~

She woke up in the hospital wing, a few blurry figures standing over her. The skylights were black and most of the lights were off, the beds filled with petrified students. The moonlight reflected off of his silver hair. 'It must be very late,' she thought.

"Madam Pomfrey, she's awake," a voice whispered. Ginny tried to talk, but instead. a groggy-sounding noise sounded from her throat. The figure above her smirked. "I wouldn't recommend talking yet, Weasley," he advised.

He sounded so familiar...

"Oh good dear, you're up." Madam Pomfrey bustled over to her with a sterling tray that held a glass of water in a clear glass and a plate of crackers. "It's a good thing that Mr. Malfoy here found you in the middle of the hall and brought you here..." But Ginny never heard the rest of what she was saying.

She had fainted again.