The Other Castellan

Parseltongue

Chapter 23: Parseltongue

Lucas honestly felt sorry for Ginny. She had been tricked by Luna into coming to the Hospital Wing, then forced to be examined by Madam Pomfrey. Lucas was sure that Ginny had bruises from where Luna grabbed her. He would've felt guilty if not for the fact that it was necessary. The book could've been cursed, and Ginny had carried it with her for a few months.

Lucas sighed and looked at Ginny. "How are you feeling?"

"Horrible," she admitted. "Look, Draco, I..."

"You what?" Lucas prompted gently.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "Really sorry." Her eyes welled up with tears. "B-but I didn't want to! I s-swear, I didn't w-want to. H-he forced me!"

Lucas stared at her with confusion. "Wait, wait, wait." He held up his hands. "Back up. Can you explain? You're not really making any sense. Is this from the book?"

Ginny nodded, tears streaming down her face. "I th-thought that someone f-forgot it. T-then, I started writing in it. And T-tom, he... he m-made me do those things. It w-wasn't me, I swear! I-It was all him!"

"Tom," Lucas repeated. "Who's Tom?"

"H-he's the owner of the diary," Ginny explained, calming down. Talking it out had seemed to help her. "He seemed so nice, but..."

"He was manipulating you," Lucas finished. He grabbed the diary and flipped through it. It was blank, but the first page had the words, T. M. Riddle. It was faint, no doubt faded from age, but still discernable. "T. M. Riddle." It seemed vaguely familiar, but Lucas couldn't put his finger on why.

Ginny nodded. "He said his name was Tom. H-he made me attack Mrs. Norris on Halloween and Colin." She looked at the bed beside her, where Colin lay there, gripping his camera.

"I could probably find something on him," Lucas mused. "Poke around, see if I can find anything on him. Um, speaking of finding stuff on him, what house do you think he's in? He might've been a student here or something."

"He was very charming," Ginny said. "And manipulative, but you already knew that. A Slytherin, maybe? But... I mean, he could also be a Ravenclaw."

Lucas sighed. "So, I have to check students in two different houses. Great. Super fun. I should probably ask Luna for help. She's in Ravenclaw, after all. It might be a bit shifty if I ask for a list of Ravenclaw students." Not that asking for a list of Slytherin students was shifty at all. Nope. Not at all.

Ginny nodded. "Tell me who he is when you've got his identity, okay?"

"I will," Lucas promised. He turned to leave the Hospital Wing, as he had already been discharged, but Madam Pomfrey came out of her office.

"Oh, no, you don't!" she exclaimed. "You are not leaving until I give you a full check-up!"

Lucas groaned. Yep. He was screwed. Absolutely screwed. How was he going to get out of this one?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Turns out, he doesn't, because check-ups are tests used to see the history of injuries acquired throughout your life and to check your health; to see if any other problems were missed. Lucas wondered if the Mortals had their own version of one. They never did anything like that at Camp Half-Blood, and they couldn't exactly walk into a clinic to get one. That would raise all sorts of questions. Besides, the thought of having a check-up never occured to him. If he did, it would be when he was still living in a house, but that was unlikely. For as long as he could remember, his mom was insane.